Besides those three, there was another team who outstood among the participants, the one formed by the best the families subordinated to the Minister had to offer, compared to the Minister, in this event, Vincent was put in a strange spot.
Because, the crown prince is technically his grandnephew, as his mother is the daughter of a distant cousin of his, though they don't belong to the same branch, they are still from the same family.
Unfortunately, Vincent and that cousin never got along well to begin with, and the small interactions the old man had with Irma, weren't pleasant at all, not to mention when he took Annete and Mellie under his wing, their already bad relationship worsened.
It also didn't help that despite Irma marrying the king, Annete got a superior status as she became the queen, so eve if Terry had the Malleus last name, he had nothing to do with Vincent, that being said, Vincent who dedicated his whole life to defend the kingdom, also didn't get along with his family.
So even if he is namely the clan head, the one that has always been in charge of the most of the matters of the family, is his cousin, similar to Annete, the Trident Marshal earned everything he has through his own work instead of inheriting wealth from previous generations.
That's why he is never called Malleus clan head, but Trident Marshal, anyway, the fact that he is the leader of the Malleus family doesn't change, so he should have been able to enroll a team representing his family, just like the minister.
But since Terry can't take the last name "White" until he is crowned, he is the representative of the Malleus and the royals as well, Vincent didn't want to discuss such trivial stuff and he resigned his right to have a team of his own in these events to his cousin.
His support was with Mellie anyway, and this is where things got interesting, because the strategist of the Arcarius family's team, was none other than one of the twin princes of the Keran family, Bryan Keran, of course his brother was also in that team.
'Mm, so the Minister doesn't support Triten at all, only the White Ancestor, I guess it makes sense, since they probably have done some kind of deal', thought Daimon.
For others, the fact that the twin princes were in a team with the direct descendant of the Minister, was a way to show his support to the king, even Triten probably believed so, since most of his attention was directed to Terry, but those two were still his sons, so it's not like he didn't want them to get a decent position, not the champion, but maybe in the top five or the top three with some luck.
But Daimon couldn't be tricked so easily, according to Vincent, the Minister was sided with the White only because of their ancestor, so he sought glory for his family, while also on the surface giving face to the king.
'What a cunning old bastard', was Daimon's conclusion, the only one in the dark was the idiot king who wasn't aware that he was a mere front.
Back at the lakes, Daimon observed how did the team of the Minister's family faired.
"Young master Bryan, I'll leave it in your hands", said Walford as he walked to the front of the group, his body then let out a cold mist and some parts were covered in a thick layer of ice.
"Ice Shell Fortress", with a loud shout, Walford projected a wall of battle aura around the whole group and then nodded at the princes.
"Now, Ryan", with Bryan's instructions, they both pointed their hands forward, the rest of the members of their group stood behind them forming a line and holding onto each other's shoulders as they released their mana, which was then taken by the princes, who then pierced a couple of spears on the ice wall, making sure they were fully attached to it.
"Thrust!".
The public's attention was drawn at the scene projected on the mirror plate, the group of the Arcarius family whose landscape was an open sea, suddenly dashed frontwards at an insane speed.
Magic beast jumped out of the water to try and engulf them, but their heads were smashed when they clashed against the wall of ice battle aura projected by Walford, naturally such a dense defense is incredibly heavy.
Akin to their race, that ice turtle sacrificed mobility in exchange for defense, so they shouldn't have been able to move like that, but the princes made up for it.
'Just like in the lineage temple trial, those narwhals were quite annoying', thought Daimon.
The Keran family's race is called Shooting Narwhal, and their innate ability is using mana to create impulse, back then Daimon had to fend off against the horns of the narwhals using a metal boosting spell, and he was still pushed backwards.
Their piercing power was low, but the impulse behind their charges was quite something, so while they couldn't really wound Daimon whose body has been reinforced both in and out, due to his training while in Core Synchrony's state, the shockwave still send him backwards each time, they were one of the races he does remember having to deal with, among the countless sea magic beasts whose bodies weren't huge.
This time of course the Minister was the one to comment since it was his grandson's performance.
"My Arcarius family might be called the shield of the kingdom, but certainly our style lacks in the speed aspect, that's where the princes innate ability shines, since they can advance at an insane speed but without the capacity to change directions, so they can't avoid the obstacles, it's a perfect way to make up for it", said the Minister as he nodded.
Surprisingly, the Delphini Duke this time didn't fully agree with the Minister.
"Indeed a good way to advance through their maze, as it's an open sea zone, but what happens when young Walford's battle aura depletes, not to mention the not all the traps are laid horizontally, so they can't be taken head on all the time, for example…".
Carlos didn't finish speaking, when the water in front of Walford's team started moving, creating an spiral, it was trap that emulated a whirlpool.
But the time didn't seem to show any concern regarding it, instead of that, another of the members of the team, a girl with the same emblem as Walford, meaning it was part of the Arcarius family, pointed ahead and a ramp made out of ice formed on the water in front of them.
With the impulse that the princes were generating, they soared into the sky completely skipping the whirlpool much to the surprise of the spectators, Carlos looked at the Minister from the corner of his eyes just to see him grinning.
"Aren't knights and mages supposed to complement each other, the fact that we are considered the strongest defense of the kingdom doesn't mean we are rigid, it took some time but we have some decent mages among the young generation nowadays".
The public went crazy, not because of the simple yet practical way they avoided the trap, but because, up to this day, everyone in the Arcarius family has been a knight, they seemed to have no talent in mana controlling, but now the Minister was showing, that changed in this current generation.
'What is this old fox plotting, showing such an important hidden card like this', wondered Carlos, knowing the Minister, he would have saved this surprise for when something really important was disputed, to take opponents by surprise.
Though this year's events were indeed important as it was the first time guests from the Elemental Sea attended, that was merely a social event, not worth of showing this improvement.
Of course, the Delphini Duke had no way to know, that this time's events were far important than what he believed, because the winner will be able to get something from the precious treasury of the kingdom as their prize.
That's one of the few things Triten can claim as his merit, the fact that to access the treasure section of the royal treasury, the crown of both the king and the queen is needed, and only the current regents can wield them.
…
Soon the difference between the four favorites and the other teams became obvious as they reached half of their way out of the maze, but it was here where the victor will most likely be decided.
They all sped through the first half, and now they needed to take a rest to catch up their breath, while the other teams did their beast to reach the four favorites, the latter reviewed their current situations, to sum their losses.
The crowned prince managed to reach this spot and only lost one teammate, Corey had used more than half of his mana, but the rest of the team was fine, having around 70% of their reserves intact.
The young spear was different, his quick reactions and good instincts helped him leave behind any of his teammates, but in exchange they all had used around 40% of their mana reserves, that didn't mean they were tired, since their training sessions are hell compared to this.
In contrast Ezequiel's team lost three members on the way, but since his strategy consisted in using rounds of three to dispel the obstacles, their mana reserves were around 80%, though their morale did suffer a small dent, since Ezequiel didn't seem to care.
As for Walford, the princes and the captain had used around 40% of their reserves, since manipulating the mana of others to create impulse required a lot of energy, the same as maintaining the battle aura wall all the way here, in exchange the others had around 0'% of their reserves, as they didn't do much, besides giving mana to the princes, but the weight was shared between everyone.
So far there wasn't a clear winner yet, there was also a reason as to why there was a spot to rest right at the middle spot of the maze, the current platform was the result of two of them joining, and thus the circuit that each team had to go through consisted in two different landscapes.
For the prince he now had to face an underground space, with faint visibility and a lot of mechanical traps, like trap doors, hidden crossbows and things like that, the young spear had a large mountain area ahead of him, with steed slopes that made it difficult to advance straight ahead, the Blackfin Duke was met with a quicksand desert and lastly, Walford had a volcanic area which would make it hard for him to use his ice battle aura.
Seeing the changes, the spectators were surprised, because the other teams that were competing with the four favorites, got caught up as the landscapes changed and they were practically wiped out, unable to follow such an abrupt change.
The Minister took the change to explain what happened.
"The mazes register the answers used by the participants during the first half, to create a counter for the second half, while those who are competing against the ones that reach the middle spot can make it through if they are skilled enough, the difficulty does rise".
"This is a little surprise I prepared for this specific year's tournament, and you can expect more for the next rounds!", he said with an excited voice.
The response of the vast majority was positive, with the exception of those families, whose representatives were wiped right now, though they had no way to complain since their opponents were the four favorites anyway.
Daimon who was using his infinity eyes to see the insides of the platforms, suddenly noticed the gaze of a couple of people on his skybox, one was of course the Minister who seemed to be challenging him, which he expected so he wasn't surprised, the other was Vincent who sent him a message only he could hear, but the last one was surprisingly the Delphini Duke.
Daimon ignored them all, they couldn't see through the double-sided window anyway, and using mana sense was forbidden, so besides glaring at him, there was so much they could.
That being said he understood why the Minister was aiming at him, he slapped his face earlier when he brought Thea along, contrary to his petty plans to humiliate her, so it was normal.
But Annete's father has never met him before, so him showing hostility was uncalled.
'Well, we'll have a nice conversation once the tournament ends, so he'll have to wait until then, I'll have to ask the queen to set the stage, since we are dealing with a Stellar ranked though', thought Daimon.
'Maybe he is angry since you are taking his daughters away~', playfully said Evangeline, making Daimon chuckle.
'Nah, if he was a decent parent, then everything would have been easier, that secret room, and the book that was in his studio are the only hints I have left, we'll see what else is that guy hiding soon'.
