After five months of studying and sparring with the tower leader, Zane received a letter that he would be participating in the Continental Competition.
FWOOOSH!
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Zane was sent flying by joy’s attack and hit the wall.
"That’s enough for today. You have grown more than I expected," Joy said, wiping sweat from her face.
"Thank you for your guidance, thanks to you Tower leader , I now understand more about magic and also my battle experience and my battle understanding have increased ," Zane said, standing up and wiping blood from his mouth.
" It’s my duty after all so it’s fine and good that you have grown" Joy said while looking at Zane standing up.
"He has grown stronger than you, Vane," Lilith commented, sitting on the bench near the tower.
"I knew that he was going to surpass me sooner or later. Considering his royal bloodline and his own talent, what do you expect?" Vane said while standing up from the bench with his sword in his hand heading to the training ground that is in the underground of the tower.
’Zane’s growth has made Vane work harder than before in the last five months,’ Lilith thought as she watched Vane enter the tower.
"Zane, you are going to be participating in this year’s Continental Competition," Joy said while drying her face.
"I am not interested. You can let Vane enter after all, he is the tower monitor," Zane said while picking broken wooden swords up from the ground.
"If it were up to me or the Academy, we would have accepted your rejection, but—" Joy said and paused.
"But what? I don’t care who ordered it, I don’t want to," Zane said, standing up and placing the broken wooden swords into a basket.
"I know you don’t want to be in the spotlight, but this is a mission from the King himself, so you can’t just refuse it," she explained while tying her hair back.
"From the King?" Zane paused and looked at Joy.
"Here is the letter. He said you would know more of the details," she said, walking toward Zane and handing him the letter.
Zane read the letter quietly, walking toward the tower.
"I see... so that’s how it is," Zane said while tearing the letter into pieces, his expression growing serious.
"What did it say?" Joy asked, walking by his side.
"Nothing much. I will enter the competition. The King also said you should stay close to Lilith and not allow her to enter the competition or go to watch it ," Zane explained, looking at Lilith and waving at her sitting near the Tower.
"I see. So they have figured out that Lilith is here, and that she is the child of prophecy of the Sunfall Kingdom," Joy stated, looking at Lilith and looking down.
"I guess so. And other children of prophecy will be there too, and the enemy must have known about it," Zane explained while entering the tower.
Meanwhile, Sofia and her team were still wandering through the Ice Mountain, trying to find the Fifth Prince and his unit.
"My Princess, we have been looking around the mountain for months now. Are you sure the Fifth Prince is on this mountain?" Gloria asked while focusing to see if she could notice anything unusual in front.
"Yeah, the crystal is glowing faster now, which means they are closer now ," Sofia said, increasing her horse’s pace by putting the crystal in her storage bag .
FWOOOSH!
BOOOM!
"There is a battle ahead! Increase your speed!" Sofia shouted, her face became more serious and her eyes focused ahead.
They increased their pace so they could reach the battle before anyone got hate .
"Damn it, demons! How did you know I was after you?" the Fifth Prince asked, struggling to stand while wiping blood from his mouth, his hand bleeding, his golden armor was torn apart, the ground was destroyed showing that there was a huge battle that had taken place.
"Haaa... Haaa..." The demons started laughing, walking toward the Fifth Prince and his team, who were lying on the ground lifeless.
"Why ask a question you already know the answer to, huh Fifth Prince of the Drakoria Kingdom?" asked a humanoid demon with long white hair, long silver claws, dark pale skin, and red eyes.
"What do you mean by that?" the Fifth Prince asked, using a nearby tree to pull himself up, blood dripping from his hand.
"What’s the point of telling you when you are going to die here anyway?" the demon said, gathering a sphere of dark demonic energy in its palm.
FWOOSH!
"Goodbye, Fifth Prince of Drakoria Kingdom ," the demon said, with a wide smile on his face and wide open eyes .
"My princess the demons are about to kill the fifth prince"Gloria said while her eyes focused on the fighting scene.
"Gloria, attack it now !" Sofia shouted, pointing toward where the prince and the demons were standing about to attack the fifth prince.
"Yes, My Princess!" Gloria replied. Standing tall on top of her horse, she drew her bow and aimed into the air, even though they were still a kilometer away from the scene.
Gloria took a deep breath, recalling what Zane had taught her.
’Gloria, you have good eyes—you can see several kilometers away so it’s easier to kill someone far away. All you need to do is fuse your aura with your wind element and coat it onto your arrow. It will explode when it hits the target.’
’Coat aura and wind into my arrow... and release!’ she thought, shouting as she released the bowstring.
FWOOOSH!
"Mmm..... dodge , we are under attack!" one of the demons called out, he had black hair, wore a short mask covering only his nose and mouth, and was clad in black armor and black gloves.
BOOM!
The arrow exploded right where the white-haired demon had been standing, creating a shockwave that made the demons take a few steps away from the fifth prince .
"Who attacked? Where are they?" the white-haired demon asked, looking around in the trees nearby .
Gloria didn’t slow down. She continued firing arrow after arrow, each hitting where the demons were standing.
"BARRIER SWORD : WIND SLASH!"
FWOOOOSH!
Sofia’s attack cleaved through the trees to reach the demons, but the demons dodged with ease by jumping over the attack .
"Damn you royal brats! When did they catch up?" the white-haired demon snarled in frustration as he landed back on the ground drowning his black sword.
"Joshua, Maria, you know what to do, don’t show mercy!" Sofia called out while leaping into the air with her barrier made sword in her hand.
"Right!" Joshua and Maria replied, jumping from their horses and entering stealth mode with their daggers on their hands.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY BROTHER, YOU DAMN DEMONS!" Sofia shouted, falling from the sky with her sword on her hand, aiming directly at the white-haired demon’s head.
"UP THERE!" the demon warned, looking up into the sky and drawing his sword to block Sofia’s strike.
BOOOM!
They collided, creating a massive shockwave that shook the surrounding trees and some of the trees fell.
’Tch—damn it. That bastard didn’t send anyone to deal with Princess Sofia. Now I have to deal with two royal brats,’ the demon thought, grinding his teeth as he tried to force Sofia backward.
Sofia leaped back and stood firmly in front of the Fifth Prince, her gaze locked on the demons.
"Sister, what are you doing here?" the Fifth Prince asked, his eyes wide in shock blood dripping from his forehead.
"Well... well... looks like our plans have been discovered," the white-haired demon said, shaking his head and stretching his hand that he used to block Sofia’s attack.
"How about we end it here, what do you think Princess?" the demon suggested.
"What if we refuse?" Sofia challenged and her face became serious.
"Huh? We can just kill you all. After all, we outmatch you," the white-haired demon said while stepping back with a smile on his face.
"There are only five of you. We are not scared of you," Sofia said, pointing her sword straight at the demon.
"Five? Who told you there were only five? Ah, I see—you were told that by the survivors from Frostwatch City. Hahaha! Come out, guys!" The demon laughed and took two more steps back.
Two more demons emerged from stealth behind the trees, with wide smiles across their faces.
SLASH! SLASH!
Maria and Joshua cut off the two demons that had emerged behind the trees.
"I am still seeing only five of you"Sofia said while her gaze was still locked at the white hair demon.
"Huh what do you mean?"the white haired demon asked to look back and saw that the other two were killed and Joshua and Maria standing behind and entered into stealth again.
"So how about we finish this"Sofia said while walking towards them.
The Demon just looked at each other and then..
FWOOOOOOOSH!
A black circle-like portal opened behind them and they jumped in it.
"See you next time little princess"the white demon said while its face disappeared in the portal.