Azu narrowed his gaze as he made a criss-cross slash in front of him using his glowing dark purple swords.
*Kchak!*
*Crack!*
*Klang!*
"AARGH!"
Draven's howl, filled with pain, echoed in the arena as his frozen spear was sliced into three pieces with precise cuts from Azu's swords.
But the reason he howled was not that his weapon was broken but because Azu didn't stop at simply cutting his weapon into pieces. Within the next moment, Azu struck both his glowing dark purple swords together, creating a mini yet powerful burst of shockwaves that blasted Draven towards the other side of the arena as he howled in pain.
*BOOM!*
Unlike the first time when Draven crashed onto the iron wall under the platform where the Frost King was sitting, this time, Draven crashed into the platform right where his father was sitting with even more force.
Lauden had to quickly jump out of the way as he used his odic force to cushion his son's impact, but when he caught him, he was shocked to see the state his precious son was in.
In fact, not only him but the others also took a peek to see what the exile did to the strongest person among their younger generation.
Eli had a blinking expression when she saw that Draven's arms were fractured and twisted in a weird shape due to the sheer impact of Azu's explosive attack while his handsome face wasn't looking pretty anymore. His mouth was gushing with blood, and two or more teeth were missing while his eyes were uncontrollably closing and opening as if in shock.
Draven was indeed in shock since his odic force had been forcibly disrupted, causing shock to his internal organs and every drop of blood in his body.
Lauden clenched his jaw in rage as he diagnosed what had happened to his son. But more than that, his face was burning with shame and humiliation since his son represented his face as well. A slap to his son's face was a slap to his face as well. And this happened before so many important people, including even the Frost King.
He quickly handed over his son to his men to let them heal him and turned towards Azu as odic force began to gather in his hand, "You little bastard. You almost killed my son! You can't be allowed to live!"
"Hold it, Commander Lauden! Did I give you permission to act?" The Frost King spoke in a stern voice, forcing Lauden to reluctantly stifle the odic force he was gathering to kill this half-blood dog.
Eli was already gripping her blade to quickly act if necessary. She knew she couldn't depend on anyone here to protect Azu except for her father since she knew he would never break a promise.
Still, it didn't reduce her nervousness due to the fact that almost everyone here wanted Azu gone.
However, her breath was stolen to see how Azu easily destroyed Draven with just a single move despite his background. She did try to teach him some moves and train him how to use his bloodline abilities, but she never expected him to be already good at it.
She felt like pinching him for keeping her worried like this instead of telling her that he could already take care of himself. However, other than this fact, she felt happy and very relieved to see that the boy she used to always protect and look out for was now strong enough to look after himself.
She still would shudder whenever she thought about the day he got poisoned by wolfsbane and almost died.
"Your Majesty, look at what that son of traitors did to my son! He used forbidden arts to get the upper hand, and this is even more of a reason that abominations like him shouldn't be left unchecked in our kingdom," Lauden said with a dark expression while holding in his urge to destroy Azu right here and now.
Elder Tobias added with a serious expression, "Commander Lauden is right, Your Majesty. What we just witnessed can put our kingdom in danger. There is a very good reason people frown upon those practicing Void Arts. It not only destroys oneself but is also a bane to odic force. We would never know when this boy would become a heretic and destroy us all once he gets more power through forbidden means."
Elder Orien added as he rubbed his fingers together, "I am afraid Elder Tobias is right. This boy must be carrying a lot of resentment and rage inside his blood, thinking that we wronged his family. Letting him grow any more would be a threat to us all."
"He is also extremely arrogant, proud, and defiant, just like his mother. We already learned the hard way after simply exiling his mother. Look at the abomination she created. So imagine what he would do in the future," Elder Doru the 3rd said vehemently, feeling bothered by the existence of such a monster.
Eli almost cracked the armrest of her seat in annoyance, finding it very hard to control herself from lashing out at these idiotic elders who were basically suggesting to kill Azu right now despite the fact that he won the challenge and proved his strength.
She was indeed about to say something out of worry when a blind royal elder among the 5 spoke calmly, "My fellow elders, please calm down before overlooking some important things. Did you all forget that we were the ones who agreed to this challenge and even ordered this boy to prove his worth to everyone here so that his request may be fulfilled? So wouldn't anyone naturally use everything in their power to win such a challenge? We even held a rematch because he used our sacred bloodline, and still, he never complained. He also won again, and if we were to ignore his victory, wouldn't it make us appear as people who aren't just? Won't our own people lose faith in us?" Everyone was taken by surprise when this blind elder named Viru the 1st, the oldest among them, spoke up.
