Chapter 113: Who Do You Think You Are, Acting All Familiar? (3)
Chapter 113: Who Do You Think You Are, Acting All Familiar? (3)
Jeyton wore a look of utter bewilderment.
So, what this guy was saying right now was…
“Do you really not remember who I am?”
“No clue. Who are you?”
He was dead serious.
It wasn't a provocation or a mockery; he genuinely looked like he had no idea.
“This bastard… After humiliating me like that in public, he doesn't even know who I am?”
“How should I know? There’s more than one or two guys like you.”
Well, that was actually true.
Hadn't his entire life been spent picking fights regardless of time, place, or opponent?
Yeah. Thinking back on it, it made sense that he wouldn't remember.
Jeyton ground his teeth.
“Fine. So you don’t remember? How very impressive of you.”
“Ahem!”
“That wasn’t a compliment!”
“Oh? Really?”
Jeyton thought to himself: Regardless of my grudge, I don’t want to talk to this guy for another second.
He felt that fighting and ending this quickly would be better for his noble mental health.
“Referee, let’s begin.”
“Ahem… Yes. Understood.”
The referee looked at both contestants once and then shouted loudly.
“Begin!”
The moment the word left his mouth, Jeyton drew his sword and charged forward with blinding speed.
“Die!”
A vivid aura coalesced around his longsword.
A powerful strike delivered with disciplined form.
The other national representatives were momentarily struck with admiration at the display of skill, which required at least a 5-Star level to achieve.
They had heard rumors that the Prince of the Magellan Kingdom was a genius who received the full support of his nation, but they hadn't expected him to be this good.
Was he not a prodigious talent worthy of carrying the weight of a kingdom's expectations?
The problem was…
“What are you yapping about? You little shit.”
His opponent was who he was.
Baaaaang!
“Gwaaargh!”
Jeyton, who had been charging in sharply, was sent flying backward by a kick that slammed squarely into his torso.
After flying about four or five meters, he tumbled across the ground and collapsed.
“A young brat like you, acting all disrespectful and telling me to die? You want to go first? Huh?”
Patrick was fuming, while Jeyton lay sprawled out in the distance.
The audience at Arcana watched the scene with their jaws hanging open.
* * *
Garcia Reinardo stood up abruptly.
He glared at the arena, mentally replaying the scene that had just unfolded before his eyes.
Prince Jeyton’s sword as he charged had been sharp.
Both his discipline and technique were perfect, so Garcia had assumed the match would be decided right then and there.
However, before the sword could even touch him, that representative from the Atronia Kingdom had nonchalantly stepped inside the sword’s reach and kicked his opponent away.
To be the one being attacked and yet land a hit first?
For that to be possible…
“It means there is a clear disparity in their skills.”
At Garcia’s words, the other Imperial representatives listening nearby spoke up.
“Is he really that good?”
“To our eyes, Prince Jeyton’s skill seemed quite substantial. He’s even better than that?”
“Could it be… luck? It looked like the Prince charged in while he was too agitated.”
Looking at the junior who called it luck, Garcia narrowed his eyes and said, “Do you think you could replicate that counterattack with just luck?”
“Um…”
“Prince Jeyton is strong. Publicly, he’s said to be 5-Star, but looking at him now, he seems to be at the 6-Star level.”
“Is that true?”
“No way… At that age?”
To his juniors who were trying to deny reality, Garcia said, “My grandfather told me once. The royal family of the Magellan Kingdom possesses a secret technique that can explosively increase one's aura in a short period.”
“Ah…”
“So that’s why…”
“Even so, it’s incredible. To already be in the 6-Star Realm at that age.”
Seeing his juniors in awe, Garcia nodded and said, “It is incredible. Truly incredible. But…”
Garcia pointed at Patrick, who was scowling on the stage.
“That man, who easily suppressed the incredible Prince Jeyton, is a monster.”
“……”
“……”
At Garcia’s words, the Imperial representatives looked at Patrick with newfound eyes.
* * *
“Cough… Hack…”
Prince Jeyton, who had been sent flying by a single kick, spat out blood as he pushed himself up.
Right now, the wound to his pride was far more severe than the pain in his body.
“How… How dare you… Cough, hack…”
“Whoa. Hey, you okay? You don’t look so good.”
“Shut… Shut up.”
“You want some chicken?”
Looking at Patrick, who was holding out his hand while making a pun on 'shut up,' Jeyton felt several blood vessels in his head snap.
He couldn't lose to a guy like this.
The countless efforts he had made while aiming for the throne of the Magellan Kingdom could not be broken by such a rude, vulgar piece of trash.
“The… The match isn’t… Cough. It isn’t over yet.”
“You’re coughing up blood, though?”
“Be quiet!”
Jeyton let out a roar and drew out every ounce of strength remaining in his body.
A black aura surged from him, faintly enveloping his form.
Slowly, his body, which looked like it was on the verge of death, began to recover.
“Huh? What’s that? That’s… actually pretty cool.”
“The royalty of the Magellan Kingdom are those who have inherited the blood and blessing of the Black Dragon. When that power is activated, a wound of this level is nothing.”
“Oh, really? I see.”
The founding myth of the Magellan Kingdom.
The story of a Black Dragon who fell in love with a human girl was famous.
It was a common founding myth that ended with the Black Dragon accepting the girl as his true companion and bestowing a blessing upon the descendants born between them.
The only difference was that in the case of the Magellan Kingdom, the story was actually true.
“I, who carry the blood of the Great Black Dragon, will not lose to a vulgar man like you! I absolutely cannot!”
Having recovered significantly, Jeyton pointed the sharp tip of his sword at Patrick and shouted.
His eyes were burning with obsession and fighting spirit. And Patrick…
“Hooo… So what you’re saying is…”
Patrick picked up his scabbard from the floor and slid his sword back into it.
Then, he pulled out some twine from who-knows-where and began to wrap it tightly around the scabbard and the hilt.
Once the sword was fully bound, he looked at Jeyton with a smirk.
“You’ve got a tough hide, huh?”
It seemed he had filtered out everything else and only heard that one part.
In that instant, goosebumps broke out all over Jeyton’s body.
The moment he met Patrick’s bright, smiling gaze, his intuition as a swordsman—no, his instinct as a living creature—screamed a warning.
—Run. Please, run away right now.—
If Jeyton had inherited the blood of the ancestral dragon more strongly, he would have followed that instinctive warning without hesitation.
However, humans, whose logic governs their actions, often ignore the warnings of instinct.
Sometimes, that leads to tragedy.
Just like right now.
“You! Son! Of! A! Biiiiitch!”
With twin swords—no, twin clubs—in his hands, Patrick soared like a hawk and pounced on Jeyton.
Seeing this, Jeyton concentrated all his aura into his sword.
‘Foolish bastard! You’ve made a mistake!’
To leap into the air with such a grand gesture?
Wasn't that a posture that left him completely exposed?
There was no way he could dodge an attack from there.
“Haaaaah!”
Jeyton swung his sword with lethal resolve.
The full-power aura of a 6-Star Knight emitted a brilliant radiance, and a massive, crescent-shaped wave of aura flew toward Patrick.
But then.
Patrick lowered his twin swords and swung them upward in an X-shaped cross.
The result…
Craaaaash!
“Gasp!”
Jeyton was horrified.
The aura he had fired with all his might had shattered into pieces like a glass window.
It wasn't pushed back by force or neutralized.
The very form of the aura had been broken.
This was a phenomenon he had never even imagined in his common sense.
And Patrick, who had reached the space above the stunned Jeyton, curled his lips into a grin.
Wearing a smile that looked like a devil's, Patrick said to Jeyton:
“It’s time for a lesson, you disrespectful little shit!”
And then, a precise strike landed right on the crown of Jeyton’s head.
Thwack!
“Guh-heck!”
He had been hit on the head, but the air was forcibly driven out of his mouth.
Just how powerful was the attack for such a thing to happen?
And that wasn't the end.
“This bastard has completely lost his mind. You’re dead today. You motherfucking piece of shit!”
Ah, it finally emerged.
The true nature of the Radiant Dragon Hero, who had been recognized as the public madman of the entire Martial World, was finally revealed.
Patrick’s attacks began to tenderize Jeyton’s entire body, thoroughly and precisely.
Thwack! Bam! Pow!
“You bastard. I… I, you hear me? The thirty-seventh thing I hate most in this world is someone who loses but insists they didn't! You bastard!”
“Urgh… Aaaargh!”
Jeyton didn't just take it.
He swung his sword in a desperate counterattack.
In truth, it wasn't so much a counterattack as it was a frantic struggle for survival because he felt like he would die if he didn't do something.
So, he just swung wildly without any regard for swordsmanship.
Even so, an attack imbued with the full aura of a 6-Star was powerful.
Boom! Crash! Bang!
The arena was demolished with every strike.
The audience, seeing this, thought that Jeyton still had plenty of strength left.
But no matter how powerful an attack was, what good was it if it didn't hit?
Patrick dodged Jeyton’s counterattacks with ease while busily swinging his twin swords.
“This bastard is fighting back? Huh? You should just stay still and take it, but you’re fighting back? Then you want to get hit even more?”
“Aaaargh!”
“A guy with no skill trying to act tough? Acting tough? That’s the twentieth thing I hate most!”
Thwack! Thud! Whack!
Now, the resistance was gradually fading.
There was only Patrick, one-sidedly swinging his clubs, and Jeyton, who was being slowly crushed.
The enhanced durability he received from the Black Dragon’s grace was not a blessing but a curse at this moment.
Because his hide was tougher, it only meant the number of times he had to be hit increased.
The audience’s mouths hung open as they watched this gruesome scene.
“That… That’s…”
“Heh… Heh… Haha…”
“This is… unbelievable.”
Words failed them.
Was this the kind of display one should see at Arcana, where the most promising talents of the continent gathered?
This scene, which looked more like a back-alley thug beating the life out of someone?
“I didn't like this bastard from the start.”
Thwack! Bam! Crack!
“So what if he’s a prince? Where does he get off acting all high and mighty! A young brat with no manners!”
Boom! Bang! Crash!
“People who act up relying on their background are the sixth thing I hate most. Yeah, you know it! Me! Huh! Meeeeee!”
Craaaaash! Bang! Thud!
Amidst the brutal, crushing assault, Prince Jeyton’s consciousness began to fade away.
As it did, he thought to himself:
‘Why does this guy have so many things he hates?’
As the saying goes, there are certain madmen in this world that you should never, ever provoke.
Unfortunately, this sheltered prince hadn't known that.