It was a slaughter. The princess was covered in blood as she speedily dispatched wave after wave of spirits of all sorts. The only commonality was that the next would be stronger.Lara had received some sort of mini boost from Darius. It acted like a second heart, giving Lara more power and heightened senses, but there was a problem, it also brought out her bloodlust.

The young lady giggled with joy as she killed her way through the hordes. Darius was impressed, not just by her skill with the sword but also her spirit arts. She seemed to have near infinite spirit essence as she cast attack spells all around her as if she was a machine.

Her multitasking in casting movement and reflexes was superb. Every single action had a purpose. If she needed an extra arm she would grow one. If she needed a fire spell to stop the advances of the horde to her left or right a spell would be cast.

It started to look like each body part had a brain of its own. For example, she summoned a fireball for wood spirits, and electric bolt for water spirits, a water ball for fire spirits and an earth ball for an electric spirit. These attacks were launched from both hands and feet as she jumped into the air, temporarily throwing away her swords by flinging them up. Spells cast then sent, afterwards she would land gracefully, catch her falling swords and proceed to bisect an enemy in one smooth motion.

With every kill she made she felt a satisfaction that she had never felt. It was extremely addictive and hard to not give into. If she gave into this bloodlust she would lose control and go crazy. She fought to have control while fighting beasts around her. The crowd was impressed.

Darius had stolen the show most of the time but she reminded everyone that she was no mere ornament. She was a prodigious spiritknight with her own talents! The amount of spells one knew was called a vocabulary. Suffice to say her vocabulary of spells wowed the crowd. Kylian was the best spell caster in the crowd, but not even he could seamlessly intergrate magic and martial arts like this.

The emperor shed tears of joy as he saw his daughter cannibalise the spirits below. Never had he been so proud of her. The Farlene Family currently had no powerhouses, but she was the hope. A family can only be the royal family if they have the martial prowess to back it up.

The Orion and Laporte families all had at least 2 powerhouses. The scales of each family were the only things preventing them from vying for the throne. Such was the way of the land!

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If the Farlene Family could produce at least one powerhouse then their seat would be stable for a while. James and Peter wore grim faces while Lionel sighed in boredom. If he was fighting he was confident that not a drop of the enemy's blood would touch him. But then again he is a prince! Why should he fight in such a gruesome fight? That's why he needs strong vassals! It was ones power and vassals that determined one's throne application. Lionel naturally had many hidden vassals. He just hoped he wouldn't have to activate them. But the key to all of this was relaxing on the door cautiously observing his environment.

This was a tricky situation, how does one gain the lolaty and friendship of a person you screwed over in the worst way possible?

Lionel knew that his siblings would be thinking the same thing, hence Lionel was actually at a disadvantage when it came to recruiting Darius. But he was also more familiar with Darius. One could never know how Lionel could manipulating the hammer wielding peasent.

So far it seemed Lana was leading the race for Darius' allegiance but there was a fifth option none of them considered, Darius omen is only loyal to himself!

As Darius observed Lara these thoughts also passed his mind. Especially after what he had seen last night, he knew he was someone in demand. Lionel was looking for a smuch but ended revealing treasure. Darius was currently considering his options.

Last Nights proceedings were fresh on his mind and made him think

…

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Darius smashed the unfinished dantian like it was an ex lover. He smashed it with all his might and it felt good!

To describe the sensation of smiting, it would like a feeling that is the complete opposite curse burn he gets if he starts late on his quota.

It was like a cool, refreshing feeling that relaxes his body and placed his mind into a zone of perfect thought. His thoughts flowed faster, his memory during that moment would be incredible, he was confident that he could hear a fly buzzing a hundred meters away despite the noises he made with his hammer. Only during this state would completely lose his fear and cowardice. Lifting a large burden off his weary shoulders.

This was no different to taking addictive drugs! But alas not everything lasts forever…

Bang!

This was the last hit, Darius could feel it. It was done! But something happened. The Dantian turned into cloud with lightning all over it. The cloud flew into Darius' body.

The boy knelt as his body was electrocuted continuously.

'Curse you old man!'

Darius wanted to curse the old man with impotence, but realized that that was stupid. As he scrolled for curses in his head the old man watched on.

"Storm Attribute! Superb affinity young man!"

Darius silently convulsed but his eyes did not stray far from the old man.

"Young man buck up! This is nothing compared to the pain you will endure when we start training, not to mention you will thank me for this, so stop being a pussy!"

Darius was fuming in pain alas there was nothing he could do. The old man was right, this pain startled him but he could easily endure it, but pain is still pain, especially if its protracted.

The pain finally alleviated and Darius groggily got up.

"You freak! Stay away from me!" shouted the old man with disgust!

"That's my fucking line!" shouted a furious Darius.