The blunt question coming out of Elenora's mouth made Arvin divert his gaze from the arena. He looked at Elenora for a moment, then gave a faint smile that radiated extraordinary sincerity.
"Of course I am very happy!" Arvin answered firmly, his hands not stopping from stroking Kylen's shoulder. "Being able to look at their cute faces and smiles every day in my life makes my life feel much more alive and colorful. They are everything to me."
He is truly a sincere man. Elenora thought in amazement hearing the answer without hesitation.
However, that admiration was quickly replaced by the memory of yesterday afternoon's incident. Elenora immediately reached out her hand and pinched Arvin's cheek with annoyance, feeling very irritated because of that incident.
"Ouch! What are you doing, Elenora?" Arvin winced slightly surprised.
"This is your punishment! Don't you dare faint again like yesterday afternoon!" complained Elenora in annoyance, releasing her pinch but her eyes glaring sharply. "You made me wait, then came back being carried unconscious! You must explain everything to me after this!"
Hearing the scolding from the princess, Arvin could only smile in resignation while rubbing his slightly reddened cheek.
"Okay, okay, I understand my mistake." Arvin said soothingly. "I promise, I will explain everything to you after this tournament is completely over."
From the direction of the arena, the ongoing battle turned out to have ended. The female host exclaimed again, announcing the match results.
"The battle is over! The winner is Delvian Mossard!" exclaimed the host.
Loud applause was heard echoing again in the spectator stands welcoming the victory.
"And now, get ready for the match between Alvein against Elenora Arqevio Aluxien Galdius!" continued the host announcing with a growingly loud voice. "Please for both participants to immediately enter the match arena!"
Hearing her name called, Elenora immediately stood up from her seat. On the other side of the stands, Alvein who had been sitting calmly with the others also stood up. The two of them now stepped down toward the arena.
....
In the middle of the arena, Alvein and Elenora stood facing each other at a distance of about ten meters. The morning sunlight reflected off the arena surface, highlighting the two participants who were about to fight.
Their gazes were locked on each other, very serious. The air around them felt heavy with the anticipation of the battle.
"Are you ready, Alvein Vedegra?" asked Elenora breaking the silence between them. Her voice sounded clear and full of confidence.
"I am ready!" answered Alvein casually yet his posture remained alert. "Prepare yourself well and never let your guard down so you don't lose in an instant."
Hearing the confident-sounding warning, a faint smile graced the princess's lips.
"Of course!" answered Elenora without hesitation, flicking her golden hair slightly. "And I hope you don't hold back when fighting me!"
The silver-haired youth nodded slowly, then returned her smile.
On the podium, the female host had already raised her right hand into the air, signaling to all the spectators that the match would start soon.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen!" exclaimed the host enthusiastically, her voice booming across the stadium once again. "The fourth battle in this one-on-one round... BEGINS!!"
A moment after the host lowered her hand and officiated the start of the match, a very strong mana fluctuation immediately radiated from Elenora's body.
The woman raised her right hand up.
Instantly, dozens of swords made purely of the light element appeared hovering in the air right above her.
Zing! Zing! Zing! Zing!
With a single thrust of her hand, those swords immediately shot out cleaving the air towards Alvein with incredible speed.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of clashing metal echoed loudly in the middle of the arena. Alvein stood in his place with a pair of long swords also made of the light element that had appeared and were gripped tightly in both his hands, parrying all those light swords with such precision that they shattered into pieces.
"Wow!" praised Elenora in amazement, her eyes widening slightly seeing the perfect defense. "You can withstand and break all my opening attacks that easily?!"
"Unleash all your strength!" replied Alvein undaunted, his eyes staring straight across the distance at the golden-haired woman. "The physical and magic training given directly by my husband is far crazier and more brutal than the attack you just delivered!"
That statement made Elenora slightly taken aback. She truly never expected that Arvin, the man who always looked calm and protected his family, actually trained all his spouses with extreme combat training methods.
"Alright then, I will give it my all!" exclaimed Elenora, feeling increasingly challenged.
The woman focused her mana again, extending both her hands straight forward. Light magic with a high compression level formed once more.
The magic shot towards Alvein like a barrage of deadly laser beams at a speed much higher than before.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Despite being showered by laser attacks that came repeatedly without pause, Alvein's expression did not change. With agile footwork and incredibly precise sword spins, he parried, cleaved, and deflected all those light laser attacks very accurately. Not a single movement of his hand was wasted. Everything was calculated with absolute efficiency.
And amidst his focus on parrying Elenora's attacks, Alvein began to execute a very subtle counterattack. Every time his sword clashed with Elenora's magic, the resulting sparks of light did not immediately disappear. The sparks quickly condensed into sword magic from the light element that directly shot fast like an arrow back towards Elenora.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
A perfectly round light shield immediately appeared and completely blocked the attacks of those swords, after Elenora realized the extremely fast counterattack.
Amazing! praised Elenora in her heart, her eyes unblinking as she watched Alvein's light swords multiplying and striking her shield. Are all of Arvin's spouses really trained to possess such devastating adaptation and counterattack power?
Crack!
Elenora snapped out of her reverie. Small cracks began to spread across the surface of her light shield. The shield was starting to fail at holding back clash after clash from hundreds of Alvein's light swords that came relentlessly and ceaselessly from all directions.
Realizing her defense was about to shatter, Elenora had no other choice.
The woman canceled her attack magic and diverted her entire mana concentration into defense.
Light energy poured heavily from her body again, regenerating and strengthening the shield once more until it became a round shield that was much thicker, sturdier, and impenetrable.
If I keep defending and exchanging attacks openly like this, I will never be able to attack him because his parrying speed is too perfect! thought Elenora formulating a strategy. My only way is to take cover and wait until he runs out of mana to sustain this barrage of attacks.
The battle in the arena now turned into an endurance contest. The fight between the relentless rain of light sword attacks against the absolute protective shield was quite fierce, creating blinding flashes of light. Neither of them showed any signs of wanting to yield.
All the spectators, the host, and the panel of judges who witnessed the monotonous yet high-pressure battle felt amazed.
"Incredible!" exclaimed the host from her podium, trying to convey the situation to the stunned audience. "An extreme mana endurance battle is taking place between the two! Alvein Vedegra continues to press, while Princess Elenora holds a very solid defense. Who will reach their limit and run out of mana first in this battle?"
Behind the curtain of his light swords that kept striking Elenora's shield, Alvein smiled.
And at that very moment, a strange phenomenon occurred. All the light swords along with the mana energy that had filled the arena air suddenly vanished from the sight of Elenora and everyone in the stadium just like that.
The arena became dead silent. There was no longer the sound of clashing, no more flashes of swords, and no more attacks of any kind directed at the woman.
Assuming that her tactic succeeded in draining her opponent's mana, Elenora slowly canceled her protective shield magic so she could prepare to counterattack.
"It seems you have run out of—"
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Bam!
Before Elenora could even finish her sentence, a series of very heavy and invisible physical attacks slammed into her body from various directions simultaneously. Those invisible magical blows struck her stomach, shoulders, and back repeatedly without the slightest mercy.
Seeing his opponent's body already staggering and helpless to withstand the continuous attacks, Alvein immediately stop his assault.
Thud!
The woman fell face-first and instantly lost consciousness in the middle of the arena before she could even realize where the attacks came from.
The entire grandstand area fell dead silent once again. They all felt confused and shocked by the completely invisible attack.
As if wanting to answer the confusion of the many pairs of eyes watching him, Alvein canceled his camouflage magic.
Instantly, a spine-chilling sight was presented. Hundreds of light magic that had been condensed and shaped to resemble giant fists appeared in the air, floating and surrounding every corner of the arena.
"I told you from the very beginning, never let your guard down when facing me!" said Alvein casually, his voice echoing amidst the silence of the arena. "Although our elements are the same, I possess a unique mutation magic. I can erase the form of all my attack magic until it becomes invisible and completely undetectable!"