The crowd was stunned by the course of events. Nobody moved as small streaks of smoke rose from the prince. Mash was confused as well, a question flashing through his mind. Did the man have nothing for defense? That didn’t last long as several people moved all at once. In an instant Mash saw several people land beside the prince, several healers instantly started to heal the fallen prince though his attention was elsewhere. Five knights and guard of some kind had drawn their blades toward Mash, the closest of which seemed eager to strike. All of them were entirely covered in armor, but Mash could see the blade shake with anticipation. They didn’t move since Mash didn’t stay idle when they arrived. Wood had already formed an armor around him growing over his clothing rather than through it. Mash was certain the knights would be around or over level one hundred, but with his dragon form, he figured he could keep up.

A moment later Mash felt a chill spread through the room, his brother appearing beside him blade already drawn. Jill was behind him, and she gave Mash a concerned look. Frost had begun creeping around the entire room. The knights had thicker layers of ice growing on them too though they didn’t react to it. The knight who was eager with anticipation stepped forward a little.

“What do you think you’re doing? Your brother-.”

The knight's voice indicated that it was a man, and its self-righteousness made Mash want to laugh. This scene was so similar to before, but as the knight’s words got caught off, Mash realized that there was a difference.

“Did nothing wrong, the prince will be fine. And I am trying to stop five rash people from running to their deaths.”

His brother’s response filled Mash with confidence, and he looked at the knights without the slightest bit of hesitation. Honestly, even if they were a rank above him, Mash figured that his dragon form would give him enough power to kill them. His brother had wanted him to demonstrate his dragon form, and Mash had excitedly shown him his new power. His brother wasn’t one to lie either, so he figured that he would’ve been able to beat the knights in truth. It seemed like there were a lot of advantages to eating dragon flesh, and he grinned at the thought.

The grin was poorly timed, and the knights clearly grew more agitated. However, another person arrived, and their presence drastically changed the situation. Niviss had leaped into the arena floating down with some magical power. Even before touching the ground, she yelled towards the knights.

“Stand your ground! This was a fair duel, nothing more!”

Her words echoed slightly, but some of the knights lowered their blades. The two most zealous still gripped their blade firmly. However, they flinched when another voice joined the fray.

“What do you think you're doing? Embarrassing me and the crown out of misguided fervor. You have acted beyond yourselves.”

It was the prince who had risen to his feet and stormed towards them. His voice boomed shaking the room with each word, the heat of his anger seeming to combat the chill from his brother. He was furious, but it was not directed at Mash. The knights who had drawn their blades lowered them now and somehow seemed sheepish despite wearing a full set of plate armor. The shrinking forms of the knights squirmed under the gaze of the prince.

“Well, that was certainly more exciting than I was expecting for my first fight. Lightning huh, didn’t have any information on that in my notes. Something with the rank up?”

The prince sounded surprisingly amiable, even though Mash had fried him a few seconds ago. Mash felt a great deal of relief when the prince revealed himself to not be hostile, though Mash figured there were several reasons for that. Two obvious ones stood on the grounds currently. His brother was already over level one hundred and clearly still on the rise. Not to mention Mash’s incredible pace and power, as his brother seemed fully confident in his ability to deal with five knights two of which were over level one hundred.

Mash could see why the prince would want to stay on their good side but decided to take his attitude at face value for now. There was no reason to believe otherwise, and Mash was growing tired of reacting with suspicion and anger. It wasn’t all gone, but he would make the effort. The commotion had been delaying the tournament, and he was glad to leave the arena. He didn’t have to walk as some of the teleporters who came with the prince took them all into a private room.

Honestly, he had expected that the discussion wasn’t over but was relieved to see that this was where his friends were.

It was a room placed within the wall and it sat over the stands. A glass wall let him see the arena easily, and he was unsurprised to see the referee trying to start the next fight. Mash moved his eyes back to the prince and noticed for the first time that his clothing was undamaged. That was impressive, and he wished he knew what enchantments it had. Clothing that wouldn’t be destroyed by his lightning would be incredibly useful. Though seeing it did make Mash want to ask another question.

“Did you not have any protective items?”

Mash felt the knights grow tense, and only when Red coughed and added a “my lord” did Mash remember about propriety. With all that had happened, he completely forgot about speaking properly. He didn’t correct himself, or rather, he didn’t get the opportunity to.

“It's fine. I do have a few protective items but hadn’t bothered activating any of them. Honestly, I expected to beat you long before any of your attacks even reached me. It seems like I underestimated you. Though, I feel disheartened to hear that my sister did not inform me of your developments. It seems like she-.”

The prince didn’t get to finish as Niviss jabbed him with an elbow. She glared at him before responding.

“I didn’t know about the lightning either. And I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”

She said the words coldly never dropping her glare. The knights seemed to grow relaxed finally and moved to obviously predesignated positions in the room. The rest of the group continued to talk for a bit, the prince having excused an informal speech. That was good since Mash had never really learned how to talk given his position.

They started watching the rest of the fights, fully aware that Mash had another fight today. He didn’t know who his opponent was going to be and watched the rest of the fighters. Mash felt confident that he could beat most of them, but there were a few that stood out to him. One was the hero from the arena, and Mash guessed that he would be fighting the person. There was little doubt in his mind that it would come to pass. The other significant fighter was a melee fighter of some kind. He had been fighting a stone mage and had ignored every single attack that was thrown at him. Mash wondered if his wooden creations would even be able to damage the man but honestly was more curious to try and fight him with his dragon form. Mash kind of hoped that his next fight would be against the man.

He wasn’t so lucky, and Mash found himself heading towards the arena again. He was fighting against another annoying mage, though not one as dangerous as sound. It was still a troublesome one though. It was a combination of summoning and illusion magic. Mash figured he could overpower the man easily but decided to try and use the Priscilla form for the fight. He guessed that the improved senses would help him deal with the illusions.

As he rose onto the arena, Mash didn’t bother paying any attention to announcements. The referee called for the start of the fight, and scales grew over Mash’s skin. The referee called him a true monster, but Mash only rolled his eyes as he tried to sort through the now hundred duplicates of the man. Not to mention the countless hordes of monsters. Mash realized a few things immediately. He couldn’t sort through the illusions with his eyes, but as one entered the range of draconic domain it collapsed from the pressure. It seemed like the illusions themselves wouldn’t be able to withstand the passive strength of his aura while he was in this state. Running through the illusions would be annoying and he realized that he didn’t really need to do that.

He could just clutter the battlefield with his imitations of Priscilla. Time to show off his ability for mass destruction it seemed, and imitations of Priscilla started growing from him and once they grew to be as tall as he was, he separated it and sent it to thrash about the battlefield. The real Priscilla was trying to determine where the real man was while taking control of the copies that he made. That was something he had figured out yesterday and was more than happy to let her micromanage the copies. It would be too mentally taxing for him otherwise.

A few real summoned monsters entered his domain and Mash reacted quickly. His speed of growing wood had improved drastically, and he shot a wooden spear through the creature. It sprouted from his hand and grew forward like a charging animal easily puncturing the creature. Another creature tried jumping on him from behind, it was meant to hit a blind spot, but another simply held his other hand towards it. It grew into a monstrous mouth biting half the creature in two. Neither of the creatures was particularly powerful, but the number of illusions and summons surprised Mash. The man’s mana seemed endless, or maybe illusions were just extremely efficient. The man was just imitating having unlimited mana though, while Mash really did.

There was a quickly growing army of wooden clones to combat the illusions in a battle that resembled a war. Several fireballs launched at mash and at some of the clones. Shaking his head slightly Mash easily dodged out of the way of the firebolt. The clones that lit on fire only became more dangerous due to the flames. Why did everyone assume that fire would beat wood?

The man wasn’t completely helpless though as another of the summoned creatures fired a bolt of lightning when Mash landed from his earlier dodge. It hit him, but it was so weak that his improved resistance in the Priscilla form let him nullify it. There was a little pain, but it felt like a glorified bee sting. He wasn’t done though, and Priscilla initiated the second part of his plan. Lightning surged from each of the clones on the battlefield bathing it in a burst of light. The attack wasn’t particularly powerful, but it would be good enough. It was true enough and he saw the real man get stunned by the blow.

It was enough and he leaped toward the man, finding himself moving faster than he expected. A wooden staff grew in his hand becoming thicker like a club as he grew close. Though the man yelled before the blow could land.

“I surrender! You god damn monster, just how much mana do you have?”

The illusions winked out of existence as he called for the fight to end. The referee reacted quickly and appeared in the middle of the arena, clearly positioning himself between the two of them. Was he worried that Mash would continue to attack? Rolling his eyes, mash dropped the weapon and returned to his human form. The scales fade back into the skin. The many copies of Priscilla stopped moving, but they didn’t dissolve. Instead, all his wood remained on the battlefield, and Mash felt a little bad as he headed off the arena. Jill appeared and grabbed Mash, taking him back to the room quickly.

Niviss was the first to talk when he arrived. Her eyes glowed with excitement and curiosity, as she looked at him.

“Since when could you make clones of Priscilla, and why did you leave them down there?”

Mash was confused at first but looking at the arena told him what she meant. The people sent to clean the arena were extremely careful around the clones, and Mash realized that they all thought the creations were real. His replicas were entirely covered in scales and had moved about like living beings, so of course, they thought it was a summoning of some kind. That also explained why the summoner had seemed so angry. As the pieces started falling into place, he rubbed his forehead while trying to figure out what to do.