“You’re back, Damian.”

A thunderous voice shook the dark arena.

I looked up and saw a pair of golden eyes glaring at me with extreme killing intent. It was the eyes that had never looked at me—or any of my siblings for that matter—in a gentle light.

It was that man who was my father.

Looking around I saw multiple people from the branches and vassals of our family. They were sitting and watching us from their high seats.

We were currently in an arena built with the funds of our clan. Since the Minerva family possessed enormous wealth, the arena itself was gigantic. Even bigger than some coliseums of the kingdom.

“Little one. You look well.”

A familiar voice called out to me. It was Granny Barbara. The one who I was truly loved by. She was a 60 year old woman with grey hair and sharp golden eyes. Her hair was tied into a ponytail at the back of her head. She was wearing a black robe. Her main weapons for combat were two swords. I didn’t know if it was true or not but she told me that she once battled against Rosetta and it ended in a draw. That sounded ridiculous to me, though.

“I have returned, everyone.”

I went down on one knee and looked up at my father. Even though he was glaring at me, I didn’t avoid his gaze. I had to show that I wasn’t the weakling from the past.

“This is my friend, Clyde.”

Clyde bowed. That man turned his eyes towards his side.

“Aubrey. Zelda.”

“”Yes, father.””

Two shadows appeared from his side. There were many people on the top seats of the arena. Many people that I knew.

Especially Laurielle. Her eyes sparkled when she saw me and then she smiled.

But I couldn’t smile back. Instead of taking her from this cursed organization of assassins, I chose to settle my revenge first.

-When I win.

I mouthed the words I wanted to tell her.

-I will save you.

She nodded her head multiple times. That shameless bastard husband of hers pulled her close to him with a smirk on his face. He was basically telling me that I wouldn’t win.

‘Duncan, you bastard.’

“As this is a life for a life contract for that outsider, I give you permission to use your full power, Zelda.”

Zelda’s face made a twisted smile.

“As you command, lord.”

She jumped from the arena seats.

The sheer weight of her leg strength caused the entire area to shake.

Clyde remained unmoving in the corner of my eye. All I could see on his face was boiling rage. His green eyes changed and were glowing in different colours like blue, red and yellow. I could feel mana gathering around his right arm.

‘He’s remembering that day to not let that anger die down, huh...’

“Well, well.” Zelda circled around Clyde. “How did you manage to recover? Was it the elves? It’s like I’m looking at a completely different person.”

She snickered.

“This won’t take long, father.”

Zexel nodded. He turned his attention to Aubrey.

“Aubrey. As this a grudge between brothers, I will let you choose what option would be best to fight Damian.”

“Yes, father.”

Aubrey also jumped down and approached me. He had a poker look on his face.

I swallowed hard.

‘The monster of my past.’

“All of these people from our household will bare witness to the traditional battles about to take place.” Zexel pointed at Clyde. “Should this boy lose against Zelda then I will take his life myself. If Zelda loses then it’s the same with her.”

It was cold words uttered by a father to his daughter. Where else could you find such a heartless person?

Zelda laughed as if finding it funny.

“First battle will be Zelda against Clyde Astley. Damian and Aubrey will battle afterwards.”

The lights went on signalling the start of the fight.

“Don’t hold back.” I said to Clyde when I walked past him.

My gaze remained fixed on my brother as we walked to the benches.

“I won’t.”

Clyde muttered.

◇

Zelda stretched a bit when the signal to start the match went off. She was extremely nonchalant for someone battling on a rule as serious as life-for-a-life.

‘Was she that confident?’

Clyde thought as he watched the bitch stretch.

She bent down with her back facing him.

“Like what you see?”

She shook her butt. Clyde saw black panties when her skirt fluttered. Despite being such a bitch, she was indeed sexy. Her face was a nine and her butt was round and firm. Since she was tanned, it only heightened the sexiness of her long legs. Since she does leg exercises regularly, her legs were toned and meaty.

Despite being such a beautiful woman, her personality was the complete opposite. She was violent, arrogant and extremely prideful. No one in the clan wanted to tie down the knot with her. Not to mention, having a child with her.

She tied up her hair while humming. It was like she didn’t take the fight seriously.

The entire arena was silent.

Clyde activated his spirit arts. Spirits gathered around his right arm. His eyes turned a deep blue glow. After the training with Skyrith, he was able to gather spirits without making any mages aware. From another mage’s perspective, he was pouring mana into his right arm when it was actually spirits.

Even with the lightshow, Zelda still didn’t see Clyde as a threat.

‘I guess I’ll just give him a kick for my first attack. Test the waters a bit.’

Her leg muscles bulged. Veins as thick as worms gathered around her legs as she sent aura into them for her first attack.

It was a split second that Clyde saw Zelda disappear. A rumble only happened a second later.

He blankly stared at where she was moments ago. Only dust was left where she stood before.

‘Got you!’

Zelda instantly appeared behind Clyde.

“...!!!”

Before she could attack—

‘What is this...?’

She felt a heavy pressure on her body when she saw the back of Clyde’s head. It seemed like she would be struck down the moment she tried to attack him. Maybe it was her illusion but she seemed to see two eyes gazing at her. The strange thing was that it wasn’t Clyde’s eyes.

Her entire body was telling her to stop. It was the instincts of someone who had killed others before. Even if she was strong, she had her fair share of fighting stronger opponents in the past.

‘Shit! Move!’

She hit her leg with her fist and approached Clyde again.

‘I’m sure it was nothing.’

“[Death Spiralling Kick]!”

Her entire leg was engulfed in wind as she spun around to land a roundhouse kick.

Zelda was positive her kick would land. The surroundings turned heavy when the pressure from her body was released.

‘Huh?’

But then she staggered when she felt a vibration inside her body. Her attack weakened which allowed Clyde to catch her leg effortlessly.

“『EMP』.”

The hand holding her leg was surrounded by a white glow. The entire arena was covered up by a magic circle.

“Huh? My mana…”

“I can’t feel my aura anymore. What’s going on!?”

The vassals nearby were baffled when they felt their mana disappear for some odd reason. It all happened when that vibration shook the arena in that split second.

Even Zexel was looking at his hands in surprise.

Damian smirked when he saw the disbelief on Zelda’s face.

She relied too much on her aura.

EMP stood for Electro Mana Pulse. It was a technique Clyde learned from the book Solphia gave him. It uses a type of controlled shockwave to shock a person’s core and render their abilities to use mana or aura useless. Of course, this doesn’t work on everyone.

Only on those who rely too much on their supernatural power.

Zexel and Indra who were watching the battle looked towards the boy in interest. They also felt the pulse but it was only like a weak ripple inside their bodies. Clyde couldn’t hope to use it on them at its current level.

Clyde shoved Zelda away. She staggered and looked at her hands in disbelief.

“Huh? Huh?”

Zelda tried to bring out her power again.

‘A psychopath obsessed with killing yet she doesn’t even know how to control her aura properly.’

Damian thought as he looked at his sister.

In order for someone to become strong even without their aura, they must regulate a certain amount of that aura inside their body every time they train.

This was what Indra taught Damian and Aubrey and the reason the latter was so much stronger than most of the clan members. He was able to become equal to a master rank warrior using this effective training method.

Indra stroked his beard and chuckled.

‘The boy was able to tell that Zelda doesn’t use her immense aura wisely. Does he have some sort of power that made it visible to him?’

At his level, Indra could potentially target a person’s aura points and destroy them using his finger alone.

What Indra didn’t know was that Clyde could use Spirit Sense to see all the holes where a person’s aura poured out of.

The EMP doesn’t just work for mages. It works against warriors too.

‘That’s an elven magic spell. Where did he learn it?’

Indra continued watching in interest at what the boy’s next move would be.

“It’s useless. I temporarily disabled your ability to channel your aura.”

Clyde shook his hand from left to right.

No matter what she did, her aura wouldn’t come out. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel it. It was more like something was blocking her aura from coming out.

Clyde chuckled with a crazed look in his eyes.

“How does it feel to lose something you used all your life?”

He took a sword out of his spatial storage and cladded it in mana. Clyde unbuttoned his robe and his sweater afterwards and took them off. The clothes would get in his way since he wasn’t accustomed to fighting in close combat yet.

Although he didn’t have a lot of body fat, he had some muscle on his bones. His arms and abs were toned. His body was forged from his physical training.

Zelda's eyes went down.

She saw the place she inflicted damage on Clyde when she destroyed his core. It was a large cut in the middle of his upper body.

Clyde noticed her looking at it. He ran his fingers over the dry and hard skin. He didn’t want to ask Erica to heal it. Not yet, to be precise.

He thought that he would’ve lost his anger if the reminder of that day was disposed of.

He swung his sword to get a feel of it. It was the sword Arielle sent him. It was a fairly good sword with a black blade.

At that moment, Zelda felt the same pressure as when she attempted to strike Clyde from behind.

His blue eyes sent a shiver up her spine.

‘What’s this… Why is my body quivering?’

She took out her daggers while clenching her jaws.

‘He said it’ll only last for a while. I can hold out until then using my physical power alone.’

She got into a stance but anyone could see the cold sweat dripping down her forehead.

Her opponent was an experienced third year mage from the Royal Academy. Not only that, but he was even able to fight against Aubrey.

-Watch out for that boy who was with Damian. He’s no ordinary kid. If not for my speed and aura then I’d have been cooked by his spells already.

Those were Aubrey’s words to his sister before they entered the arena.

‘What did he mean?’

Sure, Clyde’s mana pool was large but what else was there to fear other than that?

‘I’m still stronger than him and I have far more experience in fighting. Surely this kid can’t pose a threat to me.’

Clyde saw a wide smirk on Zelda’s face.

“You think you’ve won just because you know some fancy magic?!”

Zelda ran towards Clyde with her two daggers that were covered in poison.

He dodged her two strikes with perfect precision. It was speed unfitting for a mage. He could dodge just by sidestepping to avoid her strikes.

‘What the hell? Why is a mage able to dodge my attacks?’

Still confused over the development, she continued pouring down her attacks on Clyde. No matter what she did she couldn’t hit him.

“AAAAH!!!”

Clank…!

Her dagger grazed Clyde’s sword.

‘Huh?’

She noticed the dense mana on his blade. Her dagger’s edge was melted a bit after it touched the sword.

She gained distance between the two of them.

‘This little bastard can infuse mana into a magic sword?’

Mages weren’t originally capable of doing this. As their specialty lays in magic, only magic swordsmen are able to cover their weapons in their own aura.

The entire crowd was amazed by the boy’s abilities.

He could’ve used some flashy spell to end the battle but he chose to fight with a sword.

‘Is it redemption?’

Zexel contemplated by what he saw.

Maybe the boy wanted to let Zelda know her place.

“What a cocky little brat.”

He was indeed amazing but his opponent was someone from the Minerva household.

Even without her aura, Zelda was still a terrifying opponent.

!!!

Using her leg strength, she burst forward and threw a scroll at Clyde.

BOOM…!

An intermediate rank fireball headed for Clyde and exploded. Since he was using spirit mana, he couldn’t use Mana Bending to destroy the spell. He could only use an element with opposing properties to stop the fireball.

‘What the hell? How can she move so fast?’

With his spirit mana strengthening his body, he should be at an advantage and yet she recovered so quickly.

A woman’s slender leg approached Clyde’s face after he used a water ball to stop the fireball.

RUMBLE…!

CRACK…!

He managed to block Zelda’s kick to his side but he couldn’t quite stay on his feet.

Clyde rolled and crashed onto the ground.

He used a wind magic spell to stop his momentum just before he hit the arena.

‘This woman…’

When he saw Zelda’s eyes, he knew it right then. She was no pushover.

Zelda seemed to have forced her aura to pour out of her core.

But the price for that was tremendous. All the orifices in her face was leaking blood. Since the pulse of the magic Clyde cast earlier closed her pores, mana was unable to exit her body. Yet she broke the spell’s effects on her own.

‘Crazy…’

Clyde’s released his raw mana into the air. It covered the entire arena. The sheer volume of his mana astounded the spectators. The crowd made noise as they saw the two of them engage in battle.