"Hm, two can play that game." Ethan didn’t waste any time in response. He summoned a knight clad in blazing armor, a long holy sword resting at his side, a presence radiating off him powerful enough to burn a hole through the minds of anyone standing close enough to observe, the light from the blade alone drawing every eye in the hall.
Arthur Pendragon.
"Hmph! You think you can defeat me with a mere tier 7? I’ll make you spit out that dragon!" Paul cursed at Ethan as the half serpent coiled behind him surged forward, flames sparking violently around her as the two of them moved into position.
Ethan moved as well, circulating tyrant force through his body up to its absolute maximum as he settled into the first stance of the Judgment style, his strength boosting by several folds almost instantaneously, the air around him distorting faintly with the sudden pressure.
When the strike finally landed, Paul felt his entire body go numb, an unnatural force invading his system in a way that left his limbs momentarily unresponsive, his own instincts screaming warnings his body couldn’t act on fast enough. He staggered backward several steps, barely managing to catch himself before he fell entirely.
After killing a number of the Blood Serpent God’s vessels back in Blackwater, Ethan had received two blessings directly from Zarth, the supreme king of the spirit world, a reward he hadn’t fully appreciated the weight of until this exact moment.
One of them was called Serpent Hunter.
It granted him a significant boost whenever facing any serpentine creature or their bonded summoner, sharpening his instincts and lethality in ways that felt almost effortless, as though something ancient in his blood recognized the enemy before his mind did.
Paul’s strongest summon happened to be exactly the kind of beast that should have been terrified at the mere sight of Ethan. And unfortunately for Paul, that same dangerous edge extended fully to the summoner controlling it.
Pulling himself upright, Paul frowned deeply and reached up to touch his shoulder, where a massive gash had opened without him fully registering the strike that caused it.
"You dare harm a noble? You peasant? You’ll die for this, guards!" Paul called out instinctively, his composure momentarily slipping as though he’d forgotten entirely where he was standing.
But seeing no one respond to his cry, his mind settled back into reality, and his gaze snapped toward his summon, currently locked in combat with Arthur, whose holy sword seemed to bend the very air around its edge with every swing.
"Don’t even think about summoning another beast. This must remain a strict one on one." The king’s voice rang out through the hall, as though he’d already read the next move Paul had been quietly considering, his tone carrying the same finality it had earlier when addressing Liana.
At this point, Paul still held a slim advantage in his own mind. Though the earlier strike had genuinely frightened him, he understood that Ethan hadn’t yet pushed himself to his true limit, and that gap in reserve still gave him something to calculate around.
He still carried his second class in reserve, and remained firmly at tier 6. If he could manage to summon even one additional beast, the entire balance of the fight might flip decisively in his favor.
Unfortunately, the king had already closed off that particular option.
"Doesn’t matter. You’ll still lose." Shaking his head, Paul cut into his own palm and let blood drip from the fresh wound, smearing it deliberately across the length of his dagger, the crimson trail catching the torchlight as it spread.
"Dragon Pagoda Armor." He spoke the activation clearly as runes began to glow steadily across his skin, tracing intricate patterns down both arms and climbing toward his shoulders.
The Dracontis family maintained several classes entirely native to their bloodline, and the Dragon Pagoda was one of them, passed down through generations of careful cultivation and jealously guarded from outsiders.
It formed a magical iron barrier directly over the skin, similar in nature to the actual dragon pagodas standing within the family’s ancestral estate, structures famously known throughout the kingdom for being nearly indestructible even under sustained siege.
"Hmm. Everything about you is essentially a walking target for me at this point." Ethan couldn’t help but mutter it under his breath as he stepped back several paces and smoothly exchanged positions with Arthur.
The Serpent Hunter blessing, combined with his Tyrant class, already had him fighting at a considerably elevated level, but the Dragon Pagoda Armor still presented a genuine barrier worth respecting.
However, Arthur’s Dragon Killer Excalibur skill was specifically designed to break through anything draconic in nature, and paired with Killer Zone’s lingering effect still resonating through the field, the outcome had already been decided before the swing even began.
Paul never saw it coming. As Excalibur came crashing down toward him, he raised his arm instinctively to block the strike, every rune along his skin flaring brighter in a desperate attempt to reinforce the barrier.
But in a single continuous motion, his carefully constructed defenses shattered beyond any hope of recognition, fragments of glowing rune-light scattering across the throne room floor like dying embers.
To the side, the king’s eyes glowed with quiet excitement, tracking every movement of the fight without blinking.
"So that’s what an SS ranked summon can do." He muttered it under his breath, almost to himself.
Honestly, watching this argument derail into open conflict had been partly steered by him from the start. He’d wanted to see how Ethan would perform against the odds stacked in front of him.
But seeing him shatter Dragon Pagoda Armor so decisively made the king finally understand just how genuinely powerful this young man was.
’He’s the best man for the job. That’s a fact.’
He thought it to himself, and a figure clothed in white with an arrogant expression flashed briefly through his mind, unbidden, lingering there a moment longer than he wanted to admit.
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