Though all this was orchestrated by both Daimon and Aurora, agreeing so easily will just blow up their cover, so naturally Aurora played her part as the "outraged host", she turned to see Abaris with a serious expression on her face as she said.
"What is the meaning of this?", Aurora's voice was calm but the spectators gulped down seeing the light mana leaking out of her body, she looked like a ready to explode volcano, add to that the fact that Thea was also exuding some of her mana pressure, as she demanded an explanation of the Shaman.
Abaris was now trapped between the wall and the sword, originally, he wanted to take a relaxed approach, just asking the champion to exchange some pointers with his personal disciples, that way it would be up to Daimon to accept or not and Aurora will look bad if she interfered, it would be as if she said she didn't trust in the strength of the champion.
But now that not only he screwed the presentation of Thea, and also Skyfire's son shouting that he wanted to challenge Daimon, his plan went to hell, at this point he could only bite the bullet.
"Little Flame and little Haze, wanted to see the champion with their own eyes, unfortunately we took more time because little Haze was in seclusion training so…".
Without letting Abaris finish, Thea interrupted him.
"So, I'm being put in second place due to some juniors, I didn't know the people from Black Fortress sect were so full of themselves".
The atmosphere tensed up even more, between offending Thea and offending Aurora, Abaris could only grit his teeth and lower himself to solve his own mess.
"Of course not, if my disciples have offended the Black Empress, then I'll apologize in their stead, the members of the young generation are supposed to be hot blooded so we can't blame them for some little quarrels, don't you agree?", he said, trying to get the support of the public.
Unfortunately for him, Aurora wasn't willing to let him off the hook so easily.
"They can be excused, but why are you interrupting my awarding ceremony, I think I remember having mentioned that I will kick you out of my Light Palace's territory if you caused troubles?".
The spectators, including the patriarchs of the sects, which were all present, some on the honored seats prepared by Aurora, and some in the still unstable black bridge created by Abaris, felt their minds going blank.
They just heard Aurora declare that she was going to kick out the Shaman if he caused troubles, in other words she was willing to go to such extent for Daimon's sake!
Naturally it was more for Jasmine's sake, but in this case both things aligned.
Abaris gritted his teeth, he was being scolded in public, his face just took a hard blow and if that wasn't enough, Thea added.
"To think the day will come, when a mere peak Mortal mage will dare to try and bully the youngest general in the history of my army, right in front of me, if you want to fight, then how about you take one of my attacks, I'm two major realms above you, so it's the same as you trying to fight Gabriel".
Thea's sharp eyes pierced Skyfire's son, which made him take a step back in fear, what a joke if he were to receive an attack from someone like the Black Empress, there will be nothing left of him.
"Ahem, that isn't proper, little Flame is still a member of the young generation, though is true that he is a few years older than that little fellow… so how about this, little Flame will get his realm suppressed to the low rank of the middle Mortal level, and we will leave them exchange one movement, as to not cause friction between our two Seas, what do you say, you aren't afraid right little friend, after all you can boost your own realm to the middle stage of the middle Mortal level according to the data of your victory over the crowned Mermen prince?", asked Abaris to Daimon, in his mind if Daimon let himself be provoked, he will accept and then Aurora and Thea can't complain.
On the surface the challenge seemed fair, an Arch rank has a deeper accumulation, but with a minor realm of advantage, then the strength of the two should be similar, as to who will be stronger, that will depend on their battle prowess, which for others translated as to who is more talented.
And as Abaris expected, the silver haired masked youth, couldn't accept being insulted and recklessly hastened to answer, or so he thought when he saw Daimon turning to see him, just to feel blood pressure increasing due to Daimon's next words.
"What do I say you ask… I say why should I accept to fight every nobody that challenges me, what do I win with that, I have already won the prize, while he has nothing, what kind of idiot will accept such a wacky duel?".
Skyfire's son trembled out of anger, the word "Nobody" hit a sore spot, unlike Purplehaze, his talent manifested just when he reached the peak of the Arch rank which was like a week ago, when he was a member of the youngest generation like Purplehaze, he wasn't worth mentioning at all.
Naturally it was Aurora who informed of this to Daimon, the idea was to force Abaris's hand, or more accurately his pocket, because why should Daimon settle for the rewards of Aurora, when he can also rob Abaris on the way, that was his target all along, those two guys were nothing for him, he was fighting the Shaman directly from the very beginning.
Daimon's words were rather ambiguous when he said he has won the prize, it could be interpreted as the fact that he already won the tournament… or it could mean that he already has won the heart of the princess of the Light Palace, naturally Daimon referred to the first.
But Skyflame and Purplehaze associated it to the second meaning, which is what Daimon wanted, those two turned to see Abaris and they both bowed towards him.
"Master please, allow us beat that arrogant bastard!", heatedly said Skyflame.
"He isn't putting our Elemental Sea in his eyes at all, even Terry didn't dare to act like this in front of me", added Purplehaze.
Abaris sympathized with his disciples and more than that, he hated the guts of the brat that didn't show an ounce of respect towards him, and was so casually standing next to his granddaughter.
"In that case, let's do it like this, if you win you can pick one thing from my treasury, just like you are going to get something from the Light Palace's one, do you agree?", said Abaris to Daimon.
Daimon nodded but just when Abaris thought things were over, he heard the voice that will bring him nightmares in the nearby future saying.
"That will cover the Black Fortress's part, now what will the Purple Haze and Sky Flare sects give me when their representatives lose?".
Abaris nearly declared war on the spot, but he managed to swallow his anger and look at Skyfire and Purplecloud who were standing behind him, making them stood out by themselves.
"We support Lord Shaman, my Sky Flare sect will also offer a pick from the treasury".
"My Purple Haze sect is the same".
Abaris proudly smiled and then turned to see Daimon to say his own conditions.
"There you have it, but be aware that if you lose you will never be allowed to show yourself in the Elemental Sea ever again, nor approach either the Light Palace or my Black Fortress's members", he said.
Abaris calculated that this will be the best way to separate his granddaughter from this disrespectful brat, since Aurora can't leave the Light Palace for too long.
'I can't kill you right now, but they will never see or hear of you again after this', thought the Shaman, unfortunately he couldn't make this a life and death duel or Aurora will definitely step in, not to mention the Black Empress, but he can always deal with a mere junior later, for now what mattered was to take him as far as possible from Jasmine.
Daimon shrugged as he nodded.
"Sure, let's hurry up and finish this, those two can team up against me if they want to", casually said Daimon, making Skyflame and Purplehaze grit their teeth, while Abaris, Skyfire and Purplecloud just limited to smile.
They were so focused in Daimon's act, that they didn't notice the fact that Thea and Aurora didn't even try to convince him of rejecting the challenge, still the Shaman wanted Jasmine to watch the arrogant silver haired brat being crushed so he shook his head as he said.
"It will be a 1v1 fight, we'll limit it to a single exchange no weapons or equipment will be allowed, the one who is in better conditions after that will be the winner, Aurora you take care of suppressing little Flame's realm so that there aren't any accusations when this brat loses", conceitedly said Abaris as he snapped his fingers to create a throne with darkness mana, to seat, the stage in which the awarding ceremony was taking place a moment ago will be the platform used for the duel.
Aurora didn't pay mind to Abaris's provocations she pointed at Skyflame with her index finger and a line of white light was shot from her finger, Skyflame put on a pained expression as his realm plummeted all the way to the early stage of the Lord rank.
Naturally they gave him a few minutes to get used to it, in the meantime Aurora and the others left the stage to open up space for the duel, Daimon on the other hand took off the white suit and just kept his pants and the shirt he wore below, he handed his clothes and ring to Aisha and then waited for Skyflame to go up the stage.
Skyflame did the same and ended up only wearing pants and a red shirt before he jumped onto the stage, Aurora who was acting as the referee stood up from her seat and then said.
"I'll remind you just in case but killing is forbidden, whoever tries to break the rules will be stopped and dealt with by me, now get ready".
Skyflame thought Aurora was saying it because of him, but she was in fact reminding Daimon to not kill his opponent, just in case.
Skyflame on the other hand laughed and then took his position, preparing himself to cast his spell the moment the fight starts.
Aurora raised her hand and then shot a ray of white light, giving the greenlight for the duel to start.
As expected, the moment the duel started, bright red flames exploded around Skyflame, his fire mana covered the whole platform, engulfing Daimon on the process, though he has yet to cast his attack, the heat produced by his mana was already dangerous for a Lord ranked.
Skyflame saw Daimon being engulfed by his fire mana but not showing any reaction and he snorted, he already knew Daimon had fire affinity thanks to his father telling him everything he discovered about Daimon, he still didn't underestimate his enemy and surrounded himself with a wall of fire.
'As a fellow fire affinity user, I'll give you a chance, kneel down and apologize, swear to never approach Jasmine again and I'll let you go with minor burns… blegh!!!'.
Skyflame send a message to Daimon's ears by making mana vibrate, he is an Archmage after all, but as if a mountain had clashed against him, he suddenly vomited blood, the wall of fire was violently dispersed and then his chest dented inwards as he flew out of the stage, without even knowing what happened.
By the time he landed on the ground his eyes had rolled backwards and he had fainted already, while blood kept coming out of his mouth.
"You talk too much", said Daimon.
A sepulchral silence fell on the whole area, while Skyflame was convinced that his mana gathering ratio and casting speed was fast enough to outmatch Daimon, which made him unable to notice the attack that took him out, the spectators did manage to see what was happening, specially those from the Seal Soul sect.
Daimon simply pointed at Syflame and a drop of black water condensed in front of his finger, which he then shot at Skyflame, the moment the drop of water landed on Skyflame's chest, it exploded and he was sent flying with his chest turned into a bloody mess.
And that wasn't all, the drop of black water actually reconstructed itself and left Skyflame's body to return to Daimon's side, the only difference was that it had shrank to the size of a rice grain.
"Your turn", said Daimon at Purplehaze who was still processing what happened, Skyfire also finally managed to react.
"Son!", he yelled as he flashed towards Skyflame, the sight of his older son, the pride of his family, fainted with a hole the size of a palm and a dent in the middle of his chest, made his eyes get bloodshot.
But before he could do something stupid, a bucket of cold water was poured on his head as he felt Thea's threatening gaze piercing him like a spear, the moment he tried to make a move, he will die without a complete corpse, because at this distance even the Shaman will not be able to fully protect him.
That didn't mean he was willing to let this go, he turned to see Daimon and then poisonously said.
"You cheated, that was clearly a water spell, and you already have three affinities, one of them being fire, there is no way you have water affinity!".
Daimon shrugged, his body let out a few waves of water mana, to a level that wouldn't be possible for anyone without water affinity before saying.
"You can blame the Minister, his three-colored water was quite useful for me".
Skyfire froze on the spot, he forgot that Daimon had access to the treasury of the Arcarius as his prize, that being said he was at deny over the fact that the brat in front of him could be so lucky as to awaken water affinity just by drinking a few liters of three-colored water, but the reality was in front of him, Daimon has water affinity and he can't do anything about it.
'Damn Arcarius family, just how much three-colored water did he get from them!', he inwardly shouted before saying.
"Even then, with the amount of water mana you used there is no way you could have ignored the wall of fire made by my son, his fire's temperature is way higher than anyone in his same realm, you didn't even use that boosting ability of yours, how can you win like that without cheating!".
Daimon smirked, condensing that small drop of water used around half of his mana reserves, which are already on par with a peak Lord ranked.
"That's easy to solve, it happened because his fire is trash, even if he were to use twice or thrice the quantity of flames he used, the result will be the same, while in the same major realm he is no match for me it's a matter of quality", he said.
"What did you…", Skyfire heard the condescending tone in Daimon's voice and he nearly lost it on the spot, but Abaris interrupted him by placing his hand on Skyfire's shoulder.
"That's enough, take little Flame to the infirmary of the Fortress".
Skyfire gritted his teeth but he nodded, as he was about to leave, he heard the voice he hasted the must speaking once again.
"Where are you going, regardless of what happens later, your Sky Flare sect lost, so you owe me something".
Skyfire's eyes were literally spitting fire, his body trembled due to anger, but with everyone seeing him, he managed to swallow his anger and then handed Aurora a red token with the word "Treasury" written on it.
"Now that is what I call hospitality, if I knew the sects of the Elemental Sea gave away Stellar ranked treasures as welcome gifts, I would have taken my generals to visit a long time ago, feel free to challenge Gabriel more~", playfully said Thea.
The people of the Sky Flare sect all felt insulted, Skyfire turned to see Thea but he didn't dare to show hostility towards her, so he could only leave in disgrace, his sect members left with him, since they had no face to stay here.
Daimon then looked at Purplehaze from above as he said.
"Are you coming or not, my time in this sea is limited and I have more important things to do".
Purplehaze snorted but as he was about to go up the stage, Abaris prevented him from doing so and instead said.
"Wait I want to change the second duel, to a proper fight, the same rules apply without the exception that there won't be a limit to the number of movements, the one who is thrown out of the stage, faints or surrenders loses, in exchange I'll give you two things from my treasury if you win, do you dare to accept?".
Daimon saw the smile on Purplehaze widening and he knew these two had something on mind, but he didn't care, whether it was a duel or a fight, the result will be the same.
"Sure", he was actually in a good mood since he will be getting more materials, he was going to use two high Stellar rank materials for Aura's weapon and Erin will naturally want the same or she'll be jealous of the wolf girl, so the more the better.
And with those words the second act of the day started.
