"Argh…"
Good lord! My ribs hurt. It felt like most of my right side was broken and battered.
I could physically feel the sharp splinters of my broken ribs piercing my lungs. Yes, it was very painful.
I tried to get up, struggling with all I had in me to rise to my feet. Yet, my body refused my command to move.
In the end, I could only exhaustedly lay on my belly pressed against the cold, hard concrete ground, breathing heavily as jolts of organ-rendering pain continued to course through my body.
Before long, the voice of the announcer reached my ears, declaring Nero as the winner of the King's Tournament.
Thud—
Almost as soon as the announcement was made, I heard a low thud resounding from a few steps behind me.
I tried to get up and look back, but as I said, I couldn't even move an inch. I had an idea of what must've happened, of course.
Nero Dekrauf fell.
He managed to stand a few seconds more than me, enough time for him to obtain the victory.
"Graah!"
Another groan escaped my lips as I tried to move a little and rolled over to my back. I moved my hand and tried to examine the right side of my ribs.
My hand felt… warm?
I brought it back and looked at my palm only to see warm, crimson blood dripping down from it. Well, that's to be expected since I had a gaping wound there.
In the next moment, I heard the hurried sound of footsteps growing closer with each passing second.
Very soon, the medical team reached us and gave several high-quality healing potions to us— both me and Nero.
Several of them who were well-versed in healing magic also started chanting spells to heal us of our wounds.
After a few minutes, most of the pain-numbing and agonizing me was gone, so I sat back up and summoned several vials of high-quality mana recovery potions, and greedily drank them all.
I was frustrated by my loss. Somewhere deep inside my heart, I knew that I never stood a chance against Nero.
However, after coming this close in our duel, I thought maybe I could really defeat him. Even though I knew about his broken Gift, I still foolishly thought that.
Haaa! If only I was allowed to use Phoenix's Embrace, if only!
However, what's done is done. Time is of the essence right now. Even though I was not able to win, I did complete all the tasks I had made for this duel.
The vampires will attack any minute now but I wasn't too worried. I've set the stage already. If everything were to go according to my plan, I would successfully break that mentality of Nero.
"Gaah!" Letting out a satisfied sigh as I was done consuming the mana potion, I focused on my soul bond with Sera and summoned mythical silver flames.
The medics near me stepped back with a furtive and startled expression as the silver flames enveloped my body completely.
I could feel my shattered bones merging back in place and my mangled or torn muscles regenerating and healing quickly.
–"Ahh, do you want us to accompany you to the infirmary?" One of the medics asked with a worried expression.
I cast him a neutral glance and raised my hand with a shake of my head, "I'm fine. I don't require medical attention."
–"B-But…" the medic was about to retort in some way, but before he could, his other colleague pulled his arm to stop him.
–"Those were healing flames. That was a high-ranking self-healing magic. If he can use that, then he should be fine." Sparing me a reverend glance, his colleague said.
Well, they weren't wrong.
As long as I have mana and I could feel my soul bond with Sera, those mythical Silver Flames could be summoned to heal me of any wounds.
Of course, the more severe the wound I receive, the more mana I would have to spend to heal it.
In simple terms, bringing the Silver Flames to heal several life-threatening wounds would require me to spend an equally great amount of mana.
In other words, as long as I have mana, I could keep healing myself and continue to fight.
Actually, I lost against Nero because of two reasons:
First, I had long exhausted my reserves of mana before our final clash. After fueling the Silver Flames, I could only supply mere drops to my Lightning Claw spell.
So, I wasn't able to deal as much damage as I wanted to Nero while he hit me with a devastating water spell since he didn't need to use mana after activating his Gift.
His Gift allows him to summon Seven Heavenly Swords which in turn grants him complete control over their respective elements.
Damn that overpowered protagonist and his cheats.
Anyway, the second reason was that… I simply was just a step behind.
Yeah, during our final clash, for a split second, Nero was faster than me. Just a single step, damnit! I was slow by just a single step!
As I gritted my teeth, the thunderous cheers from the crowd brought me back from the depths of my thoughts.
I looked around and saw people standing in their seats, loudly applauding at our brilliant performance tonight.
I whipped my head around in search of the opponent I faced in the finals just a few minutes earlier.
My eyes darted across the ruined concrete field and stopped on a mana with swaying jet-black hair. Nero's eyes were as dark as ever, and when he felt my gaze, he turned them to me and returned my look.
Several medics were swarming all around him, casting healing spells on him and providing him with consumable mana potions.
Nero stared at me for a few moments and lingered before finally opening his mouth as if readying to speak something.
But right then, loud sounds of firecrackers boomed throughout the Arena.
Several trails of light shot up in the sky before exploding into a dazzling display of fiery sparks, lighting up and littering the night sky with a breathtaking view of a light show.
Nero was startled by the sudden interruption but quickly turned around me and tried to resume what he wanted to say earlier.
However, once again, before he could speak up this time, several people came rushing out from the entrance of the field and swarmed us— well, mostly Nero.
As for me, I saw a blue-haired elven young man darting across the field and pouncing at me.
He fell on me and entrapped me in a tight hug before shouting right in my ear, "Bro! Lucas! Bro! Are you okay?! Damn, that was so cool!"
"G-Get off me, you idiot! I'm still hurt!"
Well, actually I wasn't, but I was also not in any shape to carry a giant baby around especially when the vampires were about to come out of the cover of night.
Putting him down, I heaved a few times to catch my breath while Kent continued to babble.
"That was so cool! I didn't know you had already learned not one but three! Three high-level spells! Teach me!"
"How can I teach you?! All my high-level spells are of the fire aspect and you have… wait a second, what is your affinity?"
Kent frowned and cast me a worried glance, "Bruh, did you hit your head in the match? Just the other day I told you about how I should make it rain so the girls would have wet clothes clinging to their figures. That way, we could discern who is the hottest."
"..." I stared at Kent with a deadpan expression and then shook my head. I turned to look at Nero one more time and saw him surrounded by his own group.
Medics had healed his injuries… most of them, at least. Now they were asking him to visit the infirmary.
His friends patted him and congratulated him, only one of them— Anastasia— was concerned about his well-being and asked him to head to the infirmary first.
The laceration on his chest from my Lightning Claw spell was gone yet, unlike me, most of his wounds were yet to be treated properly.
"Lucas?"
Suddenly, Kent, who was babbling in the background until now, stopped and a new voice greeted my ears.
It was Amelia, and with her was… Trish?
