He preferred to make others believe his limit was just a bit above the crowned prince using the second step of Bloodlust, which would be the early stage of the Arch rank, but unlike him, he maintained his rationality and that was the "reason" of his victory over Terry, is the story he fabricated for the spectators to believe.
Since he didn't know if the bastard behind the pirates and the Skelefiends was watching the tournament, Core Synchrony is his trump card and its full power should naturally be only revealed to two type of people, first those he trusted enough like the girls and his friends, second those who couldn't talk about it, in other words the dead.
But he had no need to be in a tight spot even without Core Synchrony, that's why he picked all his team across the maze after all.
"Well, since you are team fighting, I don't have to feel bad of bombarding you in a 12v5 battle, right", said Daimon with a smirk.
"Uwah, that smile means something bad is about to happen to someone", mumbled Femi, which made the other girls giggle.
Daimon cleared his throat; his bad habit was showing again.
"Ahem, I'm counting on you, ladies, screw him over", shouted Daimon as he jumped to action, and started clashing with the turtle Avatar physically, with each clash sparks and pieces of armor were blown away due to Disaster's fierceness, he could have cut a piece of battle aura with Disaster in each cut, but that would reveal its simple but monstrous ability to devour all kinds of energy, so he refrained from doing so and instead resorted to the primal way of fighting among two "beasts", which is a pure physical battle.
Daimon could tell this was also what Narasha and Disaster wanted anyway, since little by little the weight of the sword had started to increase, meaning more of the antinite covering the sword was being devoured by the sword, so that even if Narasha was reducing the weight actively, it still increased due to it.
While Daimon and the turtle Avatar were causing a disaster wherever they appeared, clashing and created currents of wind and deafening thunder shockwaves, Aisha and the girls started at each other and then dispersed to fulfill their respective roles.
"Fuck, why don't you get squashed and die!", shouted Walford from within the turtle Avatar, not only Daimon was enduring the physical strength of five lord knights alone, he wasn't being pushed backwards at all.
In fact, Walford could notice that they were losing, because with each clash, the pieces of armor he deployed to block that ominous black sword, started to crack and show signs of being completely destroyed.
'Shit what the hell is wrong with that sword, is it really a Half Stellar treasure, all these armors were created by one of the best two Magic Blacksmiths of Neptune, fuuuck!', it's not a lie to say that the Minister went all in, the best equipment, the best resources, the best stage, everything was prepared for the raise of his Arcarius family… and they were being stopped by a single person that popped out of nowhere.
Daimon suddenly dodged one of the attacks of the turtle instead of blocking it, which led Walford to believe he has reached his limit.
"Go to hell!", his four subordinates got the message and immediately used their strongest wide area martial arts, the turtle lit up in ice blue light and then with it as the center, a blue shockwave of battle aura was released.
"Ice Shell Shock!", even Walford participated this time, meaning they were using the full strength of the Avatar to deal with Daimon.
Speaking of Daimon, he was smiling right now, his body exploded in white flames and around 50% of his battle aura reserve and all the remaining mana he had were put into his next attack.
"White Universe, Comet Sword".
This time he didn't need to enter Core Synchrony nor gain a certain amount of acceleration, and just directly slashed Disaster at the incoming shockwave, ten diameter white ray was shot from the tip of Disaster.
"Crack!".
"Blegh!".
The shockwave of battle aura and the shell of the turtle Avatar were both pierced by Daimon's attack, and that wasn't all, Walford vomited blood when he saw that black sword which somehow rode in the white ray of light, entering the Avatar and accurately destroying his treasured personal weapon, before it pierced through the other side of the Avatar, essentially cutting a hole through it.
His four subordinates also suffered some backslash, but they could still continue, Daimon on the other hand exhaled, with a slightly tired expression on his face.
'So now that is a skill, I don't need to do the preparations, but if I'm not in Core Synchrony not only it becomes weaker, but I'm practically drained of all my mana reserves and a half of my battle aura, I guess it's tit for tat', he thought.
Daimon raised his head and saw Walford's triumphant smile and he looked as him as if he was looking at an idiot, without paying him any attention Daimon turned around and started slowly walking towards the throne.
It was then when Walford realized that all those girls weren't sitting on the throne and his pupils narrowed feeling the danger coming his way, unfortunately it was too late for him.
The pretty figures of three girls suddenly appeared above the turtle which was floating on the sky precisely to avoid sneak attacks from the other team members of Daimon's team.
"Feather Massacre, Phoenix Flutter".
"Ice Blade Rain, Pierce".
"Nightmare Demon Arrow, Midnight, go to hell~".
Following the three different but equally mellow voices, a huge wave of fire a large pilar of ice and a ray of black light hit the shell of the turtle at the same time, though it didn't break it, it was sent flying downwards.
"Booom!", the turtle Avatar was smacked against the ground, making Walford's subordinates to vomit blood.
"What are you waiting, move you fools!", shouted Walford, but before his subordinates could react, he saw dark green vines coming from the ground and wrapping around the four legs and also the shell of the turtle.
Tessa who was aiming her staff at the turtle, chanted.
"Guardian Vines".
Walford cursed, he tried to use his own martial art to cut the vines, but though he succeeded, the vines grew again out of his own ice and battle aura, thanks to the property Tessa mentioned of the sacred tree from which those vines originate to use any kind of energy as nourishment to grow, not only that he also saw two huge hands made out of amber bricks holding the avatar by its stomach.
"Millennial Stone Bastion", Chris who was standing next to Tessa casted her spell in a smaller proportion, since she didn't have enough mana to call forth the whole fortress, but helping Tessa immobilize the turtle Avatar was still within her possibilities.
"Ah, I don't care anymore, I'll take you all out even if I have to lose", shouted Walford, then he used the authority as the only one in the turtle avatar to drain the battle aura of his subordinates for the ultimate attack that the Avatar could use.
A huge amount of battle aura gathered on the snout of the turtle Avatar which then slightly opened, the nearby air turned into cold mist just by that.
"Ice Breath…", the grandeur of the attack which would resemble that of a magic beast of legends a dragon, was interrupted by two things, first a cheeky girl's voice and then the sound of metals colliding.
"Bye bye~", Yvonne let go of Cassy who she was holding by her hand, and then waved at her hand at the turtle with disdain.
Cassy who was floating with the help of Yvonne, was thrown downwards, her sheathed sword which was covered in green jade-like wood, shone in wood mana.
"Demon Subduing Wood Sword, Mountain Seal", Cassy hit the snout of the turtle from above, and the sound of metals colliding echoed through the area.
Walford felt the strong impact forcing the snout of the avatar to close, and he snorted.
"Humph, this isn't enough to destroy my Arcarius's legacy martial art… blegh!", his sentence was interrupted by blood surging out of his mouth.
"Gaia Smithing, Fortress Buster!", Femi hit the ground with her hammer and a pilar of earth with a black tip, raised at the same time as Cassy's hit landed on the turtle, ironically Cassy was the hammer and Femi was the nail, the impact from above plus the strength of the earth pilar reinforced with orichalcum which was taken from the black horned tiara, Femi wears on her head, nailed the turtle Avatar to the ground, through its mouth, fully immobilizing it.
'And now for the finishing touch', thought Daimon who was observing the surprisingly well-coordinated attack of the girls, while leisurely sitting on the throne.
He just needed to destroy Walford's sword for his mission, so why not leave the girls have some fun too, besides for someone like Walford who hated being looked upon down the most, being ignored by the one for whom the Minister prepared all this, was the biggest humiliation.
And he was right, outside of the maze at the judge's skybox, the Minister saw all his efforts gone to waste and not only his aura was leaking, he crushed the part of the table he had in front of him, unfortunately there is nothing he could do, since there was a pair of eagle-like gazes fixated on his back, ready to strike him down if he dared to try and make a move.
At the champion's skybox, the atmosphere was more festive, Thea who was hugging a bottle of liqueur was laughing as she enjoyed the show displayed in the mirror plate.
"Hahaha, this new general of mine is quite something~", she said.
Marlene who was sitting next to Thea nodded, as she mumbled.
"Well, considering he is the first one who not only didn't lend me some luck but even almost made me be struck by lightning in a sunny day, he for sure makes others suffer but he doesn't suffer any loss himself…".
…
Back at the throne room, Walford was at the verge of a mental breakdown, his subordinates were out of battle aura to spare, since he drained them to use Ice Breath, just for it to be interrupted, with the current amount they had, they were barely maintaining the Avatar.
It was then when a sensation of fatality fell upon him, the last group who hasn't participated in the coordinated attack was ready to pass down judgement on him.
First of all, he was forced to slightly close his eyes due to a dazzling white light shining a few meters ahead, which made his body tremble thinking it was Daimon who has recovered and was coming at him once again, but then he noticed the feeling was different, while Daimon's white light brought dread with hit, this one was gentle and warm, unfortunately it wasn't aimed at him.
"Silver Citadel"
"Silver Spear Area!".
Jasmine whose pupils had pretty white halos in them, rolled her staff and then raised it to cast two buffs at the same time, which took even Aurora by surprise, in exchange for the extremely strong buffing spells they had, they could only single target buff, at least at the beginning, she only learned to do it after reaching the peak Mortal realm, but now Jasmine had achieved it at such a young age, she was smiling from the bottom of her heart.
Walford on the other hand was as far as happy as one can be right now, because he knew what those spells did, there were phantom images of silver spears behind Aisha, Mellie and lastly there was both a silver fortress and a silver spear behind Daphne, whose expression was lively once again.
It was natural since, Silver Citadel recovered half of her mana and 30% of her stamina, so that she could use Storm Stream again.
So, with Jasmine behind them, buffing the three extreme offense type mages of the team, the little hopes of Walford of a miracle saving his ass, vanished, the only thing he could do was redirect all the pieces of armor to protect the neck of the turtle where he was positioned.
Mellie who gathered as much mana as she could on her fiddle, positioned the bow on the strings and played a single note, which was accompanied by her melodious voice saying.
"Disruption Resonance", surprisingly the fiddle actually didn't let out any sound, instead of that and exclusively for Daimon's infinity eyes, he saw a line of vibrating mana being created by Mellie's bow and fiddle, which was then shot at the turtle avatar.
"Crack!", upon contact a ten-meter hole exploded on the shell of the turtle, because Mellie disrupted the harmony of the battle aura Avatar, besides Walford who was now surrounded by a ton of pieces of armor, the four subordinates paled and crouched as if they were feeling a horrible pain in their stomachs, or more accurately in their mana cores where their life sparks as Knights were positioned.
And it was for a good reason, though weaker due to her lower realm and lower comprehension about her affinity, that spell was created as Mellie's alternative for Annete's Shattering Resonance which made a middle stage Stellar ranked vomit blood on the spot, even if the Avatar took most of the hit, a few of those guy's mana circuits probably broke.
But the attack hadn't ended yet, purple and silver light as well as blue and light green light, flooded the room.
Aisha who was using Lightning Empress pointed her pretty index finger towards the turtle Avatar and the lightning gathered on the tip of her nail, before her lips slightly opened.
"Thunder Arrow", a concentrated line of silver light was shot from her hand, followed by a wider but less concentrated ray of blue light.
"…", unfortunately, Daphne couldn't talk, but everyone knew the name of what was considered the strongest long-range spell of the Clear Water kingdom, the Storm Stream of the Valas family and its variations.
"Booom!", the two laser-like attacks pierced through the hole left on the shell of the turtle by Mellie's attack and then exploded inside of it, creating a large explosion of mana, that blinded anyone who tried to look at the mirror plates.
When everything returned to normal, they saw the result and were speechless, the once magnificent looking construction of battle aura in the form of a fortress-like ice turtle was gone, instead of it there was a crater on the floor of the throne room, were for a second time in the history of the tournament, the damage was enough for the gears and formations that lingered inside the maze to be seen.
The four subordinates of Walford were gone, naturally they weren't dead but were transported out of the maze by the life-saving array, but they were beaten like dogs, as their haggard appearances which were in display for the public outside to be seen, suggested.
Walford on the other hand, wasn't on a life-endangering situation because he hid in a tortoise shell of all the pieces of amor that were at his disposition, but he was still hit by the explosion shockwave of Daphne's Storm Stream and the super high temperature resulting from the liberation of all the lightning contained in Aisha's Thunder Arrow.
To resume his current state, he looked like a boiled shrimp, his skin was slightly reddish and the only reason as to why he wasn't burned alive which would have eliminated him due to the array, is because at the last moment he drained more battle aura from his subordinates to create a layer of ice around him.
Still, that was evaporated by Aisha's lightning's heat, and this skin tone was the result, just imagine a person with pale skin who stays at the beach without any sunscreen, that was the color of Walford's current skin.
The girls saw his miserable appearance and he ignored him as they returned to the throne, for a well-earned rest, they all had their own battles earlier, but still wanted to participate in the final one, so besides Daphne who received a little help from Jasmine's Silver Citadel, they used almost all their remaining mana.
Yvonne who was still in her cheeky mood, wanted to jump into Daimon's arms, but she was stopped by Leslie and Liliana who forced her to sit down at his left, while Aisha took the right side.
'Losing in rock, paper, scissors with the cheeky Yvi, is such a headache', they thought as they forcefully kept Yvonne who was looking at Daimon with coquettish eyes, sitting down on the throne, naturally the previous only lasted a few seconds before Yvonne returned to normal, and feeling the interrogative gazes of all the other girls, she blushed and felt the urge to find a hole to hide.
Leaving that aside, the current scene of Daimon's team sitting on the throne simply resting and chatting with each other, while Walford was bleeding and panting on the floor, made the spectators shiver, especially because they saw Daimon directly glaring at the array which acted as a surveillance camera, which shouldn't be possible as they are hidden pretty well.
It was as if he was saying, "This is the result of going against me", the Minister noticed the glare was specially aimed at him and hi clenched his fists so hard, his skin paled, for some reason his stupid grandson wasn't leaving, but instead was being a disgrace in front of everyone.
How could he know, that the cheeky Yvonne put him under an illusion before the situation returned to normal, previously when the image reflected on the mirror plate was just a blank screen due to the last attack of the girls.
"Enough!", the Minister finally couldn't hold it, he smashed his fists on the table turning it into pieces of broken wood as he finished the fourth round.
Daimon who was watching everything with his infinity eyes smirked, he then noticed the walls of the maze started moving and separating, but he didn't move and the girls followed his lead.
So that when everything ended, they were in an open space on top of a platform still sitting on the throne.
The Judges descended from their skybox, it was easy to see that the result wasn't to the liking of some of them, but what could they do about it, so while gritting his teeth the Minister tried to show an amicable expression as he said.
"The winner of the three-art tournament is…Gabriel".
"Ohhhhh!", cheers, claps and roars filled the whole place, maybe the high ranked nobles were unhappy, but the neo nobles, the people from the Elemental Sea, as well as those clans who are subordinated to the queen or the army that follows Vincent, exploded in happiness.
This is a tournament that will be written in the history books of the kingdom, since it was a turning point for Neptune, but that is a story for another day.
