Hyandus zipped through the air, unseen to the eyes of many people as he arrived at different places around his opponent, his wind spear striking the girl from unforeseen positions.
He would strike her from the right shoulder, then stab her on the left side of her waist. The girl tried to use either of her daggers or her fire skills to create an attack that thwarted away Hyandus who loomed around her like an annoying fly that won't go away.
The armor that she wore underneath her clothes were starting to show signs of cracking as the attacks accurately landed on her from all side.
"Dammit!" she cried while her arms covered her head from the attacks. "Go away!"
A large column of fire erupted from around her that she pushed away from her.
Hyandus was forced to stop his attack and move far away from the fire momentarily. However, at the very next second, he came back in with his Wind Essence opening a path for him.
He went straight for the girl's chest and stabbed her with his spear. A clear cracking sound was heard in between all the other noises as pieces of the girl's fire armor fell out of her clothes, instantly turning into the fire as it did so.
The girl herself flew backward from the force she was stabbed at, skidding along the ground a few meters away.
Hyandus was ready to strike again, but he stopped when he saw that the girl's eyes had gone entirely white. She was knocked.
He spun his spear and slammed the butt of it onto the ground before taking a deep breath. He had won.
Once the announcement was made, Hyandus went back into the hall where he was greeted with cheers of surprise and awe.
"How are you so fast, brother?" Tenn asked him. "That was incredible."
"Was I?" the young man asked with an awkward little smile.
"You were truly incredible," Kaleb nodded.
"We you constantly using wind techniques to aid your movement?" Ning asked him.
Hyandus smiled and explained vaguely as to what he really did. He apparently used a technique that was similar in concept to what Ning's movement technique used, except he used it on everything, including his spear.
"Good work," the prince told him and let him rest finally.
After a few more matches, it was Tenn's turn. Tenn walked into the stage and returned after a quick loss.
"That was humiliating," he said as he returned to his group. "How did I lose so fast?"
"Your opponent was just too strong," Kaleb consoled a fellow loser like him. Finally, he didn't feel so bad about losing at all. He had someone else to share the pain with.
Tenn spoke about the unfairness of having to fight Essence Soul realm fighters for a bit but quickly shut up when he saw Ning and Yorsha who had had to fight similar battles and had won.
"Your battle should be quick, sis," the prince said. "You got lucky, haha!"
The princess looked at the board where the matchups were written. "I get to beat up weaklings, oh how lucky me," she said with an annoyed voice. "I want difficult battles too."
"You'll get one soon," the prince said. "For now, just go out and beat this person."
The princess sighed. The battle was up next and she was going to have to fight one of the only 3 Essence Manifestation realm fighters that had made it through without fighting any Essence Soul realm fighters.
She was truly going to be fighting weaklings.
She went out when her name was called and pulled out her light sword. During her previous fight, this was all she had needed to win, so she didn't bother using it much.
When the battle started, she threw out a few attacks, while dodging her opponent's attacks.
Her attacks were quick and to the point, slamming onto her opponent with quite a ferocity.
Ning watched her fight and started getting very curious. The princess had Moonlight Essence as her core, he had seen that. And he also knew that Moonlight Essence was the closest essence to Pure Essence.
So, why wasn't she so much stronger than normal people when his pure Essence usually brought him so many benefits?
Did it really matter that it was pure? Or was something else going on?
The princess fought for a few minutes, mostly going back-and-forth attacks against her opponent. In the end, her barrage of light attacks was too much for her opponent to handle and he gave up.
The princess returned to the hall without much happiness in her victory.
"Were you that bored that you had to play around with the poor young man?" the prince asked.
"What else can I do? You all are enjoying yourself quite a bit, while I'm forced to fight weaklings," she said. "I will enjoy my matches however I want."
The prince sighed and looked at the match that was just about to start. Then he looked at the red-haired Yorsha next to him. "Are you ready to fight and win?" he asked.
"Absolutely," Yorsha said without a second thought.
"Are you not nervous?" the prince asked. "You are going up against Low Essence Soul realm fighters, you know?"
"I've already beaten people with Essence Soul before," the girl said without missing a beat. She was confident that she was going to win against her opponent.
"Confidence is good, but I'm worried yours is teetering on the edge of overconfidence, young lady," the prince said. "You won your first match because your opponent wasn't ready for your Burning Sun technique. But this one will know that you're from the Redraven family, and will have made ample preparation."
"If you don't give this match the caution it deserves, you will lose."
Yorsha turned to look at the prince who was serious. She also saw the teacher on the side nodding along with the prince.
She was about to say something but stopped herself. Instead, she nodded and replied, "Thank you for the advice, I'll keep that in mind."
