Ajax made sure to walk tall and show no weakness as he made his way out of the arena. From an outside perspective the fight would have looked totally dominated by him but Ajax was actively using his Light and Life mana to patch up the massive bruises that were extending on his arm and torso.

Unlike the initial fire mage elf this storm wielder clearly knew what she was doing using the initially released mana to empower her follow up attacks. Despite Ajax draining some of their power and the enchantments taking a bite out of their damage Ajax was sure he would be sporting these bruises for a few hours if he wasn’t heading to a healer right now.

In the healing ward I could see my opponent getting patched up. Her arm was still bent at an unnatural angle but there was nothing the healer could do as they first had to remove the small crust of magma that had formed on her arm and ribs.

“What is he doing here?” an outraged elf came shouting from behind me, closely followed by the elven princess and their champion Aranor. “Come here to gloat?”

Ajax wasn’t sure what to do in this situation, his initial instinct was to defuse the situation even if it meant apologizing but he didn’t need advanced social skills to know that showing any kind of weakness in front of the enraged elf would only escalate the situation.

“All contestants have to come here after the match.” Ajax replied slowly in a neutral tone.

“You better watch yourself you little …” The outraged elf began but he never got to finish his sentence.

“Or what?” The king’s eldest son had just shown up from the opposite end of the tunnels, not only that but he wasn’t alone as both the leader of the first squad and Shadow were with him as they all stepped into the infirmary. The smug grin still on his face. “What will you do?”

Ajax couldn’t help but notice that both the leader of the first squad and Aranor took on the same defeated and resigned expression, clearly it wasn’t the first time either of them had to deal with the walking political disaster that was the prince.

“Let's stop this pissing contest early.” Shadow took the middle ground before things could get any traction.

“You’re no fun Shadow.” the prince complained with faux disappointment.

While all this was going on the healer had finished healing Elara. “You’re done. I made sure there were no issues but like with all newly restored joints take it easy on that elbow for the next day or two.” Elara simply nodded at the healer as she got up off the table and the healer focused on Ajax. “Anything wrong with you?”

Ajax didn’t want to mention anything but the leader of the first squad beat him to it. “You can go ahead and show it, Ajax, both Aranor and Shadow got a good look at you taking those impacts, even if the rest haven’t caught on they can just tell them.”

While Shadow, the prince and Aranor were not surprised at the two massive bruises Ajax sported. Elara, her father and the princess were shocked to see them, before the elf could brag in any way about Ajax’s wounds however the healer nipped that in the bud. “Large but almost superficial bruising, whatever runes you are using must have spread the damage well over the area, I can heal these fully in a minute.”

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While she had been present since the start princess Arianwyn didn’t say a word in the entire discussion, she had been pleasantly surprised to see that the human prodigy wasn’t the unwavering frontline anti-mage she had thought of him after she watched the match.

“Let’s go darling, no need to stay here any longer.” Elara’s father tried to lead her towards the door but to the surprise of the elves she didn’t take a step as she focused on Ajax as he was getting healed.

“How much did you see?” Elara asked Ajax. The question confused most of the people in the room but it redoubled the grin on the prince’s face. “No it doesn’t matter, I am out of the tournament, can you keep whatever you saw to yourself?”

Unlike anything else about the duel only Elara and Ajax were actually aware of [Inspector’s Eye] being used at the start of the match. Even then Elara was barely informed by her Uncommon [Privacy Veil] that an inspection skill tore right through her privacy and got a good look at her information, she didn’t even know just how much he had gotten.

“Ajax you naughty boy, did you sneak a peek at the noble elf?” The prince was right back to his usual shenanigans but from the looks of it the leader of the first was considering joining the enraged elf in pummeling the upstart royal.

“We’ll keep any of your status private enough.” The leader of the first squad quickly joined the conversation hoping to stop it from escalating but it was already too late.

“An inspection skill?!” The duke would usually have a much better handle on his emotions but the fight had opened the panel and the prince was pushing all the right buttons. “We’ll best make sure things are even on that front.”

While the duke had a fairly level Epic inspection skill it was also one that was focused on items instead of people, this meant that he ran face first into [Enigma]. With the recent bottleneck the skill had broken through [Enigma] was stronger than ever so the duke barely managed to get Ajax’s name, age and level before his skill was rebuffed along with a spike of pain.

“What?!” the duke muttered as he massaged the bridge of his nose.

“I apologize for the rude behavior, we’d be happy to discuss recompense for this overstep after the tournament when tempers cool.” Aranor took control of the situation as he grabbed the duke and all but marched him out of the room. “Have you lost it? Every spy worth a damn already knows the kid has [Enigma].”

Ajax was sure the Aranor had meant for them to hear that and it gave him a much better impression of the stoic champion. It was moments later that his own healing was done and he joined the prince as they headed towards the king’s balcony to enjoy the final tournament set to take place today.

“How was it?” the prince asked him, a lot of the provocation in his voice gone but not all of it.

“Easier than I expected in terms of strategy.” Ajax answered as he analyzed the fight. “A lot harder when it came to the hits I took.”

Ajax had been surprised just how much [Mana Syphon] and [Inspector’s Eye] had thrown the elf off her battle plan, tactically he had been expecting the fight to go on longer than this and he was almost sure he’d be forced to reveal more. In terms of pure power he was now sure he couldn’t let the princess get a clean hit on him. Even with [Mana Syphon] as long as one of those ice lances was empowered by her domain it would be more than enough to pierce into him.

Ajax spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying the main tournament. Despite it being the least impactful one for him overall it was definitely the most interesting to watch. All of the participants were at a much higher level than him in terms of combat, not only that but their proficiency with their skills actually matched those of Shadow and the rest of the champions from the first tournament. More than that however without the massive stats and support skills Ajax got a much better look at how those skills had been developed.

For most people this tournament still had people moving as a blur, the only difference was that it was a blur they could at least keep track of. More than that however the power level of the fighters was close enough that they would regularly deadlock. Each of the fights took at least fifteen minutes to conclude from start to finish and it had been a masterpiece of strategy and skill between each fighter.

“Ajax, would you be joining us for dinner?” the crown prince asked once they arrived back at the embassy.

“Fighting in the tournament is draining, brother, you should just let him go to sleep.” the king’s oldest son just became Ajax’s favorite person as he quickly pushed both him and Lexi towards his bedroom before quickly closing the hallway door behind them. The young couple didn’t need more encouragement than that to turn in for the night.