The prince walked up to the stage along with his opponent, a man in a gray uniform.
He stood on one side of the stage and looked at his opponent. "You might want to consider giving up right now," he said. "It is all going to end the same way for you."
The man frowned at the taunt and harrumphed between his breaths, not giving much thought to the prince's words
The prince shrugged. "Well, I do admire a man that doesn't back down from certain defeats," he said as he pulled out a weapon from his storage artifact.
An axe with a Fire essence head and a glowing blue handle that seemed to drop cold mist from where it was held.
The prince's opponent frowned. 'Fire and Ice axe? It's possible to have those two working together?' he thought.
The battle began and the prince dashed forward. His speed was quite fast, but as another man with an Essence Soul, his opponent had to fight back.
Giant earthen arms appeared from around the man, each of which was thick and looked incredibly strong. The arms slammed toward the Prince, but the prince used his powers at the last second.
Large ice spikes grew from the ground and struck the arms that were coming for the prince. The prince ran through without worry while his opponent prepared his next attack.
A nearly 2-meter-thick rock slab appeared out of nowhere in front of him, stopping his pathway, or so it seemed. The prince slammed his fist into the slab as he created ice out of nowhere.
The sudden expansion of ice inside of the rock slab not only cracked it, it also moved it towards his opponent.
At the same time, another large ice crystal grew from the ground, pushing the prince above the stone slab.
His opponent was busy using his powers to stop the stone slab from getting close when he saw the prince appear above him.
Two limbs extended from the prince's body, both frost white as the grabbed the edge of the rock slab and pulled the prince forward.
The prince's body propelled itself toward his opponent who tried to stop him, but was ultimately too late.
The prince landed a clean punch on his face, sending the man flying to the edge of the stage where he only stopped when he hit the barrier that surrounded the stage.
"Phew!" the prince shook his fist a bit. "Are you okay, friend? I think I hit you a bit too hard."
The prince waited for an answer but got none. "Oh… did I knock him out?" the prince looked around.
The referee had arrived next to the young man and checked him. Realizing that the young man was out, he announced the prince as the victor.
The prince put the axe back into his storage artifact and left the stage. He went to his group and shrugged as they started congratulating him.
"I told you guys it would be easy for me, didn't I?" he asked.
The group nodded.
Ning nodded as well. He was starting to realize just how strong the prince was. He was definitely one of the few strong people amongst the entire 200 people that had taken part in this competition.
The next group member to fight was the prince's bodyguard, Hyandus. His was the 15th match, so he got ready to go as well.
Hyandus was strong, albeit not as strong as the strongest of the other schools. He did have a lot of Essences as most Low Essence Soul realm people did, but he had a Wind core, which needed a lot of Essence to have the same effect as other Essence cores, thus making his a little worse.
It was more of a complementary tool to how he fought. "It's my turn now," he said and left when he was called onto the stage.
The group watched as the guard left the hall and went over to the stage. From what they all could see, Hyandus's opponent seemed to be a strong person.
"Is he going to be alright?" Yorsha asked. "He is strong, right?"
"Don't worry about Hyan," the prince said. "He can take care of himself."
"He's the prince's guard, so he must be strong," Tenn said. "Right, your highness?"
"He isn't necessarily strong, depending on what you consider to be strong in the first place," the prince said.
"Huh?" the group turned to look at him.
"Keep watching. It'll make sense soon," the prince said.
Hyandus stood in front of his opponent and brought out a long spear from inside his storage artifact. The spear was entirely made out of wind from the tip to the shaft.
His opponent brought out two daggers and held them in her hand. One of the daggers was made up of Explosion Essence, and the other was made up of Earth Essence.
Once both of them were prepared, the fight began.
The girl made the first attack, creating multiple fire arrows in the air above her and sending it in Hyandus's direction.
Hyandus took a deep breath and swung his spear, which instantly caused a small gust of wind to throw away the fire arrows to the side.
"Ho!" the girl said surprised. "Take this then."
Multiple rocks flew in the air, all of which suddenly started burning as she used the power of her core to burn the things close to her. Then, she shot those burning rocks toward Hyandus.
Hyandus looked at the flying projectiles and knew that he couldn't use his Wind core to deflect them easily. It would cost too much energy to do so. Instead, he used a technique as the wind moved around him, making him lighter and faster at the same time.
Then, he disappeared.
Hyandus moved fast, far faster than anyone had in the competition until now. He moved around the arena, closing in on his opponent.
"Hahaha! See?" the prince said as he watched his guard move on the screen. "Little Hyan is fast. He's so fast that even I can't deal with him if he truly gets serious."
