Theodore rushed towards the Prince of North Nation, Rizer De Zenahill, with his fist pulled back. Lightning began to emit from the punch he was seeming to aim at the prince, who was his opponent. He had a smile on his face as all of his concentration was directed at his enemy.

Rizer looked at the incoming attack and waited until the last second before tilting his head to the side, allowing the fist that Theodore unleashed to fly by without harming anyone. In response to the missed attack from his enemy, the prince had this to say.

“You missed,” he said with a smirk.

On the contrary to looking displeased, Theodore’s smile widened as he heard his opponent’s words while flying by before replying with his own statement.

“You weren’t my target.”

“What?”

The prince was surprised and turned around to watch his opponent continue to rush forward, aiming for the two women stationed at the rear. It finally dawned on Rizer that Theodore’s aim was not him but his female groupmates.

“You—!” Rizer yelled but his opponent had already reached his target.

“Sorry about this,” apologised Theodore to the two girls, who looked at him with fright, “but this will hurt.”

Gathering his powers, he pulled both of his hands back as lightning began to surround his hands. Then he bent down and pressed them down to the ground while shouting the attack name out loud.

“Thunder Wave!”

In an instant, a violent lightning wave burst from his hands and rushed towards the two women. They shrieked with fright and closed their eyes tightly while gracing themselves for the inevitable attack to strike. However, nothing happened and opening their eyes, they saw a large bulky body standing in front of them in a stance to block the attack.

The tall and largely built man was Regi Rockwell, the first prince of West Nation. Just before the attack could injure the two women, he got there first and crossed his arms in front of his chest while shouting a defence spell out loud.

“Rock Solid!”

His entire body momentarily shone and appeared to as though become a solid rock. The lightning wave struck him but nothing seemed to happen, leaving not a single scratch on his tough rock like body.

“You alright?” Regi asked the girls standing behind him in a stunned silence.

“A-Ah,” they stuttered together while blinking rapidly at him in surprise. “Y-Yes. We’re fine. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied and turned back to face Theodore, who was eying him in amazement.

“Wow…! Talk about hitting a solid rock!” Theodore remarked.

“It’s my speciality,” replied Regi calmly, “but I feel sorry for you.”

“What for?”

“Because your lightning element spells won’t work on a rock elemental user like me.”

“Oh…!” Theodore said, understanding the context and smiling. “You’ve got a point, but my prince, all challenges have a wave of being solved. That’s what makes the adventure so exciting.”

“Is that so?” Regi asked, looking impressed. “In that case, don’t hold back and show me what you got.”

“Absolutely!” Theodore exclaimed, and the two took fighting stances facing one another.

A few meters away, Rizer looked on at his ally and opponent about to commence their battle before letting out a snort.

“What a big deal…?”

“It’s a big deal,” said a voice from somewhere nearby.

“What?!” Rizer exclaimed, and began glancing around before he heard the same voice say, “Eyes up,” which made him look up.

Hovering in the air above him was the said pupil of the Magic Titan, Lustre Grand. His lower body from midriff was surrounded by whirling wind that helped to keep him airborne as he spoke to his opponent.

“You should really have your eyes on me since I’m your opponent!”

With that, he used the wand his hand to wave it in the air and direct it at the prince while saying the spell name out loud.

“Wind Smash.”

At his command, the wind began to blow wildly around him before a powerful gust of wind gathered together and rocketed towards its target. As the attack came, Rizer simply formed his right hand into a fist and gathered a tremendous amount of energy before unleashed it at the attack when it arrived.

The impact of the punch hitting the powerful wind caused a wild reaction to occur, causing the wind to burst and flow in all directions. Lustre got buffeted by the rebounding wind while Rizer held his ground and looked up at his opponent with one eye closed.

Squinting with one eye closed, he managed to see where his opponent was floating in the air. To reach him, Rizer kicked off the ground and rocketed towards him at high speed. Lustre was alarmed when his foe reached the sky and came to a stop just within his reach.

As soon as he reached him, Rizer pulled his fist back and unleashed a powerful punch aiming for his opponent’s face. Lustre instantly aimed his wand at him and shouted, “Block,” which caused a magic circle to appear in front of the wand.

The prince punched the materialised magic barrier, causing a powerful force of wind to get released on impact. The barrier struggled to block the attack before it got smashed to pieces as the attack came to an end, sending Lustre flying back.

Rizer immediately aimed his hand at him and shouted, “Ice Rockets,” that caused a magic circle to form and start firing balls of ice like a rocket towards the pupil of the Magic Titan.

As the attacks flew towards him, Lustre recovered and tapped his forehead while muttering, “Fly.”

Instantly, his body was surrounded by a soft glow before he flew in an upward angle to avoid the attacks. Rizer saw his enemy dodge the attacks and merely shifted his hand to make the magic circle change the direction of the firing to aim at his opponent.

“This is disappointing!” Rizer shouted as his opponent continued to dodge the attacks. “For the pupil of the Magic Titan to simply dodge the magic of a prince, I am disappointed.”

Lustre continued to dodge the flying ice rockets before forming a smile on his face before saying, “Fine.”

Dodging yet another attack, he pointed his wand at his enemy and shouted, “Wind Prison!”

In an instant, four magic circles appeared around the prince and formed into a prison made of wind.

Rizer raised an eyebrow in amusement at the sight and asked, “Is this it?”

“It looks simple, but it’s not,” stated Lustre with a smile.

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The prince snorted and gathered energy into his fist and punched the wind prison keeping him inside. The impact was powerful and released another powerful gust to flow in all directions, but the wind prison did not break.

“I see. I just need to punch it a little harder.”

With that said, the prince gathered an immense amount of energy into his fist and delivered an extremely powerful punch. This time, the wind prison cracked at the spot the impact had occurred.

Lustre was impressed that his wind prison had been dented from the inside.

“One more should do it,” the prince said confidently.

“Not a chance,” said his opponent calmly. He aimed his wand at him and said, “Water Lock.”

A magic circle formed above the prince and a heavy downpour of water began flowing out of it. Rizer was shocked and disgruntled as he was hit by the heavy flow of water and lost his balance. The flooding of water soon filled the water prison while Rizer desperately fought against it.

“Now to freeze,” said Lustre and waved his wand.

The prince realised what was about to happen, so he quickly swam towards the crack he made in the wind prison. However, the water filled prison instantly froze and stopped him just before he reached the cracked area. Everything turned into frozen ice that remained floating in the air with the support of the wind prison magic.

Lustre looked at the frozen prince in his wind prison and smiled.

“This is kind of easy,” he remarked when he suddenly became startled.

At that moment, he sensed an immense amount of energy surging from in front of him. He looked and sure enough, he saw the prince gathering a lot of energy from within him and forming around him like an energy armour.

The energy began to expand, causing the frozen sphere to begin cracking everywhere. Within seconds, the cracks spread everywhere as the energy expanded to immense size. It also destroyed the wind prison that was keeping the prince trapped inside.

The prince, freed from the prison, descended down to the ground and landed gently on his feet. Then he looked up to where Lustre was floating in the air with a displeased expression on his face.

“Disappointing,” he remarked. “All it took was an internal explosion of energy for me to break free. You completely disappoint me.”

“Ah, well,” began his opponent wryly. “Would you believe it if I said I was merely testing you?”

“Not a chance!”

“Exactly. That’s why, I needed to make sure you wouldn’t escape from this!”

With that, he waved his wand at his opponent, which instantly caused a large magic circle to appear beneath the prince. There was a moment of surprise from the prince as a water explosion occurred from the magic circle that shot high into the air before the whole water turned into solid ice.

A few seconds passed before an enormous energy suddenly was unleashed from the inside, causing the ice to break into pieces as the prince set himself free once more.

“Enough of these tricks!”

With a shout, Rizer kicked off the ground and flew straight towards Lustre.

All of a sudden, he saw a huge body flying to him from the side and forced himself downward to avoid the flying person. Landing on the ground once more, he turned towards where the person crashed with smoke rose from his impact. Then he turned the other way only to find that Theodore was flying towards him with his arm pulled back with his hand clenched into fists.

The prince momentarily widened his eyes and instantly reacted by pulled his arm back and unleashed a powerful punch of his own. The two punches made contact at the centre and it immediately resulted in a powerful release of wind that blew in all directions while a tremor occurred in the arena.

“You throw a good punch,” commented Theodore with a smile.

Rizer looked back at him and smiled as he replied, “You certainly know to sneak attack.”

“Sneak attack?” Theodore asked with a chuckle. “I came from the front like a man. It’s your fault you were slow.”

His words caused the Prince of the North Nation to look surprised before he let out a chuckle.

“My fault, is it? Well then, let’s fix that,” the prince spoke calmly, but his eyes became very hard and serious. With his muscles clenching tightly, he said, “Frozen Gauntlet.”

In an instant, his hands became frozen in ice and they began to spread onto his opponent. Theodore was shocked as the ice quickly spread from his point of touch and all the up his right arm.

Reacting with great frustration and power, he used his other hand to punch the centre part of the frozen link between his and his opponent’s arm. The punch successfully broke the ice connection between them and allowed Theodore to leap away to safety.

“How was my correction?” Rizer asked proudly with a smile forming on his face.

“Sheesh!” Exclaimed Theodore as he waved his frozen-in-ice arm as if hoping that would throw it off. “This is freaking cold. Oh! Cold!”

He winced when he tried touching the ice and felt that the chill was too much to touch with bare skin.

“I see that you like my correction. I’m glad to see that.”

“Huh? Where in the world did you get that impression?” Theodore asked curiously and pointed his arm at him. “I hope for your sake that nothing happens to my skin!”

“You’re… worried about your skin…in this situation?” Lustre asked as he descended to the ground next to his group-mate. “It can be healed with magic, but… can this ice be broken since he kept breaking the ice I make.”

“Your ice is weaker than mine, fool,” Rizer stated with a chuckle. “Ice Magic is my nation’s speciality, and mine is far superior to anyone else’s if only comparable to my dear sister.”

At his comment, his sister, Evangel De Zenahill, looked coldly at him before looking away. Her brother had turned and watched this action, which made him smile and turn back to his opponent.

“So, anyway, how do you plan to continue this fight with your arm frozen like that?” Rizer asked as Regi picked himself off the ground and walked over to him while facing them. “As for you, Regi, what’s wrong with you? Getting flung around by a mere adventurer from a wild continent?”

Regi coughed and replied, “You haven’t seen his lightning power, Rizer. Plus, he’s got this great strength that I just wouldn’t expect it from an adventurer.”

“Enough of your excuses,” snapped Rizer and looked back confidently at his opponent. He raised and asked in a carry voice, “Well? Can you break my ice magic? Can you?”

The question was loud enough to be heard by everyone in the arena watching this spectacle occur. It was an open declaration, demanding if a normal adventurer was capable of overcoming the powerful magic cast by the Prince of the North Nation, who was said to be a prodigy of the human race.

Rizer turned and looked towards the Princess of the East Nation, Floreta Rockford, with a smirk on his face. He as indirectly asking the princess whether the person she teamed up with has the capabilities to overcome the magic he had cast.

Floreta glared at him angrily while Stella looked worried, but the one who looked unperturbed was Edna Rosario, who was a fellow guild member of the adventurer guild that Theodore belonged to. This offput the prince slightly as it was the complete opposite to the expressions that he had seen in the two princesses.

“Prince Rizer,” said Theodore and made the prince turn to face him, “why don’t you stop beating around the bushes and ask directly?”

“Huh?” Rizer reacted as he was taken aback by the question.

Theodore sighed and said impatiently, “Translating what you were trying to say in normal terms, you were basically asking the princess whether the people she teamed up with were worth it? Am I right?”

Rizer blinked in surprise at the undaunted response of his opponent. Everyone in the spectator seats looked either aghast or alarmed from the way he openly revealed the prince’s real intentions. On the other hand, Floreta and Stella began to laugh as they found it hilarious.

Rizer remained silent as he looked around at everyone watching the scene unfold before looking back at Theodore. Then he took a deep breath and released a slow sigh before opening his mouth to speak. However, he was beaten to the speaking part when Theodore spoke first.

“I know you’re embarrassed and all, so I’ll save you the trouble of not embarrassing yourself any further,” he said to the prince, who widened his eyes in exclamation. “Don’t worry. I won’t speak as well, but I can’t just simply ignore your intention now, can I? If I do, the princess’s reputation will take a hit and that’s a big no, no. So! I’ll let my actions speak for me. Okay?”

With that, he smiled widely at them and said, “Thunder Release.”

In an instant, blue lightning began erupting from his body and surrounded him. It glowed brilliantly within the arena, surprising everyone there that watched it happen. The blue lightning began to focus on the arm frozen in ice and began to zap it with incredible power. The force behind the lightning was immense, causing it to shine brightly and dazzling everyone watching. Even the ground began to shake while everyone’s clothes to get buffeted by the wind.

Rizer watched as the cracks started appearing on the powerful ice and the cracks grew larger and larger until they exploded into pieces. The explosion released a large amount of energy and lightning that began zapping randomly in the arena. The spectators shrieked in fright as the wild lightning went straight for them, but a barrier blocked every single hit and protected the viewers.

Lustre waved his wand and made a barrier appear over himself, the other three female members of his group and the two female members of the opponent’s group. Regi thwarted the lightning by hitting it whenever it reached him. Rizer did not move a single muscle and stood his ground, staring fixedly at Theodore. Some lightning struck very close to where he stood, but he did not budge at all and simply stared at his opponent.

Soon, the wild lightning died down and disappeared, returning everything to normal except for the marks the attack left behind on the ground. Everyone watched in awe as they witnessed, first hand, an adventurer destroying the powerful ice magic cast by the Prince of the North Nation.

“Well, that was quite the show that I put on, didn’t I?” Theodore asked with a smile. “In any case, I think that’s enough of a warm up. Let’s move on to the main thing, shall we?”

For a few seconds, there was silence was the only element present within the arena. The Prince of the North Nation, Rizer, had many questions moving around in his mind, but there was one in particular that he felt he had to ask with the utmost importance.

“Who… are you…?” He finally asked the question that was bothering him the most beyond all the questions running through his mind.

“Who? Me?” His opponent asked back with a questioning look. When the prince smiled, the opponent smiled and declared, “Haven’t I introduced myself yet? My name’s Theodore. Theodore Conroy.”