The Sky Arena battle zone in the imperial city was located within Macnadix City, the capital of the Manasvir Empire. This arena was supposedly the legendary ruins of the Gods, but Bella was not sure how credible those legends were. However, there was one thing for sure, the Sky Arena definitely lived up to its name. Its unique point was that it was suspended in the air, which meant that it appeared to be much more imposing than the other arenas on the ground.
The Sky Arena was extremely huge. From what she could see, Bella estimated that more than ten Dragon Knights and their steeds could comfortably engage in a melee here without feeling too crowded. It was such a waste to fight in a 2v2 battle in such a big arena. As Bella looked around at her surroundings, a bold idea popped into her head. In fact, it was incredibly insane.
When Bella suddenly called a timeout, the crowd froze in confusion. Could it be that the Dragon Mage, the Grand Duchess Baize, was going to make a cowardly move and surrender? It was understandable, though. As Dragon Knights were prohibited from using their Dragon Steeds during this stage of the competition, the Dragon Mages were affected by those rules as well. For a Dragon Mage, their main source of battle power was summoning their Giant Dragons. Since they were not allowed to summon any dragons, it would not come as a surprise if the Dragon Mage’s powers drastically dropped to the level of a junior level Mage.
The fake Emperor Manas the Eighteenth, and a large group of guests and the magical host, were seated within an observatory in the arena. Bella did not know if that thing were a relic of the Gods. If it were, then that God really knew how to enjoy himself as he could create something like that. However, the sight of that floating observatory irked Bella so much that she was sorely tempted to knock it down, together with the guests inside.
“What’s wrong, Grand Duchess Baize? Is there a problem?”
The fake Emperor Manas asked hypocritically. Although it sounded sincere, Bella had already seen its true appearance before. No matter how well that thing tried to act, it was still a monster. Nothing could change that fact. If Bella’s deductions were correct, its plan was to deplete Bella’s partner, Princess Kriss’ energy reserves. As those male Saviors had crashed unexpectedly, Kriss had unintentionally become its biggest obstacle.
Emperor Manas the Eighteenth was planning to come up with some strange excuse to continue the competition. However, he did not expect that Bella wouldn’t intend to back down at all. The fact that Bella chose to accept the challenge was not something that Manas the Eighteenth had planned for at all. This also stunned the guests who were watching the battle into momentary silence.
“Your Majesty, I wish to fight ten… No, my team wishes to fight ten in a single battle. Please allow the remaining four teams to enter the arena as well. If Princess Kriss and I can take care of them all at once, then consider it as five wins in a row. As we don’t have much time left, by the time we go through all the groups one by one, the slots for the next round would have filled up already.”
“Ten at once?! Grand Duchess Baize… you shouldn’t make jokes like this. Are you… are you serious?”
“Of course, I’m serious. Kriss is not objecting either. Also, I believe that the audience would like to see something exciting too!”
Bella had no intention of backing down. Furthermore, Kriss did not have any objections to Bella’s suggestion at all. Although a 2v10 battle was a little challenging, as long as the Knights on the other side were not Dark Warriors like Bella’s little sister Kriss or any of their close friends, Kriss was confident that she could win the fight.
Bella’s opponents, the “Dusk Knight” Daphne and “Third Chapter of Taboo” Effie, were shocked for a moment. They knew that the Grand Duchess Baize and Bella were the same. However, they never thought that Bella would be insane enough to request to fight all her opponents at once. After a moment of silence, the audience started an uproar. No competitor in the history of this competition had ever attempted to take on a 2v10 battle before! No matter what the outcome was in the end, this battle would allow Bella to go down in history.
The fake Emperor Manas the Eighteenth’s face was filled with uncertainty. It was obvious that it could not figure out what Bella was planning to do. After seeking an opinion from the mastermind and reaching an agreement, the fake Emperor Manas the Eighteenth harrumphed and regained composure, returning to its previous calm expression.
“Grand Duchess Baize, your courage is highly commendable. I have discussed this matter with the competition officials. We have decided to make a special accommodation and bend the rules for you this time.”
“Also, Grand Duchess Baize, as we do not have enough slots left, if you and Princess Kriss were to lose this round, the cooling-off time would not be sufficient for you to win the next four rounds. Do you have any issues with that?”
“Doesn’t matter. I will go along with your rules.”
Bella willingly cooperated with the other party and gave an impassioned speech, declaring that victory would be hers. When she saw the next four teams of competitors, Bella relaxed her nerves. Those four teams appeared to be rather strong. If it were anyone else, there was a definite possibility that it would be impossible to win. However, Bella felt extremely lucky that none of them were the male Saviors or her dorm mates. Now, she was confident that she could win this.
The second team was the “Thunder Knight” Aurora and the “First Chapter of the Sky” Princess Eveny. Aurora’s steed was a Thunder Unicorn. Before Bella had met Thunder Dragon Queen Geleman, Aurora was a challenging opponent. Even the smallest shock would cause her to go completely numb. Now, Bella was not afraid of lightning anymore, so Aurora was no longer such a threat.
The third team consisted of the “Golden Knight” Princess Irene and the “Gifted Holy Maiden” Hayley. Princess Irene was the oldest sister of Princess Felia, who was Bella’s surrogate. Her steed was a regular pure white Unicorn. When she caught sight of Bella, a hint of surprise flashed past her face. However, Irene quickly caught herself and carefully concealed her emotions.
The fourth team had one of Bella’s relatives as well. It consisted of the “Retribution Knight” Princess Luce and the “Blessed Holy Maiden” Susan. Luce was Princess Felia’s second sister. Just like Irene, her steed was a pure white Unicorn. She had a close relationship with Bella as there was a possibility that she might let her off easily with Princess Irene.
However, the fifth and last team was the toughest one to beat. This team was made up of the “Guardian Knight” Mathilde and the “Divine Second Chapter” President Lucia. Mathilde was a Holy Knight as her steed was a Radiant Golden Lion. Her teammate, President Lucia, had healing abilities that were on par with the four Holy Maidens of the Radiant Church.
Now that both sides had been presented, Bella and Princess Kriss, a “Mage” and a swordsman respectively, now had to go up against five Holy Knights, two Mages, two Priests as well as an opponent with a Priest-Mage combo. The discrepancy in combat power was a little much. However, they were not infallible.
Firstly, Princess Irene and Princess Luce were Princess Felia’s older sisters, this meant that they would not go all out. Most importantly, none of the other girls had any knowledge that those two Knights were on Bella’s side. Before the battle even began, there were already two “traitors” in their midst.
Another crucial point was that Bella had “pushed” every single girl on the opposing side before. This meant that from the beginning, none of them could remain calm when facing Bella. They had already lost their morale before the fight even began. Once they had confirmed that their opponent was Bella, the girls on the other side were all blushing as none of them dared to make eye contact with her.
When they saw the evil smirk on Bella’s face, they were immediately reminded of the humiliating experience of how they had been pinned underneath her and got taken advantage of. Although Bella had basically forced herself on them, none of them had felt disgusted. In fact, some of them had even enjoyed the sensations. Due to this, none of those girls would give their all in this battle. They were afraid that if Bella were to sneak a “night attack” on them, their performance in this battle would be used as a benchmark for Bella to decide how far she would go.
The moment the battle began, the Knights were the ones to take the lead and charge forward. The five beautiful Holy Knights seemed to move together at the same time. However, as they charged towards the Swordsman Kriss, Princess Irene and Princess Luce purposely slowed their steeds and soon fell behind the other three.
The Holy Maiden Susan and Holy Maiden Hayley, who were at the back, immediately activated their blessing magic. Other than the “Dusk Knight” Daphne whose nature was incompatible with a holy-type blessing, the other four Holy Knights were supported by their magic. President Lucia and the other two Mages remained on high alert. They were carefully warding against any weird moves that Bella might use.
The Knights in front had already begun their fight with Princess Kriss. This made it difficult for the Mages to unleash any magical attacks in fear of hurting one of their own. Under normal circumstances, five fully equipped Holy Knights and their steeds would be more than enough to deal with a Swordsman and a Mage. In fact, it would not be difficult at all, as it was unlikely that they would need to step in at all.
Unfortunately, Bella and Kriss’ combat abilities could not be measured based on traditional standards. With the two “spies” in their midst, technically only three Holy Knights, the “Dusk Knight” Daphne, “Thunder Knight” Aurora, and “Guardian Knight” Mathilde, were fighting with Bella and Kriss. Princess Irene and Princess Luce had purposely slowed down and did not participate in the first round of battles.
Daphne had charged all the way to the front and sent a few “Dark Spikes” towards Kriss. However, she stepped nimbly out of the way and swiftly avoided Daphne’s attacks. Kriss brandished her sword in an attempt to retaliate, but Captain Mathilde, who was right beside her, used her Holy Shield to block Kriss’ attacks. This particular scene was filled with irony. Competitions like these were probably the only time a Radiant Knight would use a Holy Shield to come to a Dark Knight’s aid.
Bella, the Mage, did not follow the standard procedure and was not hiding in the back in preparation to provide assistance from afar. While the two Holy Knights were distracted with Kriss, Bella seized the opportunity to make her way towards their opponents’ base. In this day and age, a Mage who was not well versed in close combat would be ashamed to claim that they were a Mage. The “Thunder Knight” Aurora, clearly did not expect that Bella would immediately engage in close combat. As Bella was now impersonating a Mage, she was expected to follow the rules.
Since Bella had already come close, she would blow her cover if she did not attack. Aurora swung her spear and sent out a “lightning strike,” hoping to cause Bella to go completely numb. However, as Bella was in a contract with the Thunder Dragon Queen Geleman, she was naturally immune to lightning attacks now. So, Aurora’s attacks did not cause her any harm at all this time.
This moment stunned the entire crowd as they watched in awe as the lightning bolts from Aurora’s spear shot out towards Bella. Instead of being shocked, Bella merely reached out, grabbed hold of Aurora’s spear and tugged forcefully. As Aurora was caught off guard, she fell off her Thunder Unicorn steed. Using her momentum, Bella leaped and jumped onto the Thunder Unicorn. With skilled ease, she rode the steed and charged towards the area where the magical professions were supporting the team.
Such actions had broken so many rules. It was completely unheard of for a Mage to engage in close combat to throw a Holy Knight off their steed and steal their opponents’ warhorse. The crowd was shocked. They did not know when Mages could engage in close combat with such terrifying strength. Bella rode the Thunder Unicorn and charged towards Princess Irene and Princess Luce, the two Holy Knights who had just arrived.
No matter how much they wanted to give way to Bella, they were stuck in a quandary. At this point in time, they could not possibly jump off their own steeds and admit defeat! The most disgraceful thing a Knight could do was jump off their own steeds to admit defeat or run away from a fight. They had no choice but to urge their warhorses forward and face Bella head-on.
Both Princesses’ spears were pointed towards Bella. This was the Octavia Empire’s Royal Knight’s special move, the “Holy Strike.” The spears shot towards Bella as the attack caused large amounts of air currents to ripple with energy. It was an absolutely terrifying sight to behold.
Just when the audience thought that Bella would be struck down, something even more unexpected happened. All they could see that Bella leaped up into the air using a magical tool to make it appear as though she was using the Mage’s flying magic to fly. Irene and Luce’s attack simply hit nothing except for Bella’s shadow. At that same moment, the audience finally remembered that Bella was a Mage, not a Knight. This meant that she did not need to follow the rules where she could not leave her steed without being injured that Knights needed to abide by.
Realizing that they had been tricked, Luce and Irene hastily brought their steeds to a halt. They tried to turn their warhorses around to charge back at Bella. However, it was too late. There was no way Bella would allow her opponents to have an opportunity to retaliate. She gathered a ball of lightning in her hands, spun it around as she threw it towards the Holy Knights Princess Irene and Princess Luce, who still had their backs towards her.
Being Holy Knights, Irene and Luce had extremely quick reflexes. They instantly activated their Holy Knight’s protective barrier, the “Sacred Shield,” in an attempt to block Bella’s sneak attack. However, they did not expect Bella to act in an unorthodox manner. Rather than directing the attacks at the Holy Knights, the ball of lightning’s target was their steeds.
Irene and Luce’s Unicorn steeds were not strong in defense as Bella’s lightning attack easily struck their hind legs. The blessings earlier were mainly focused on the Holy Knights themselves, but their own steeds were not included. Now that they were once again outsmarted by their opponent, it instantly turned into a tragedy.
As their Unicorn steeds collapsed to the ground, the Holy Knights Irene and Luce were forced to jump off their warhorses. According to the Knight’s rules, when battling alongside their steeds, it would be considered a lost battle if the Knight couldn’t get back on their steed after being thrown off. Now that Irene and Luce’s steeds couldn’t continue the battle and Bella had snatched the “Thunder Knight” Aurora’s steed from right underneath her, this meant that she had defeated three Holy Knights with just her first move. The other two Holy Knights were still busy fighting Kriss and couldn’t support those of the magical professions behind them. With results like these, Bella would have bragging rights for at least a few months, maybe even up to a year.
Bella had found the loophole within the rules and was making full use of it. Although she was commandeering a steed, she had stolen it from someone else. Furthermore, as she was a Mage by profession, she was not limited by the rules if she were to fall off the steed. As the Sky Arena was extremely large, there was still a fair bit of distance between Bella and the other girls of the magical professions. At this moment, the girls at the back still had some time to use magical attacks to stall Bella’s advance.
At the back, the most threatening one was the “First Chapter of the Sky” Princess Eveny. As the first of the Eight Chapters, her magical attacks were extremely powerful. The next in line would be the “Divine Second Chapter” President Lucia and the “Third Chapter of Taboo” Princess Effie. The Holy Maidens Susan and Hayley belonged to the Ellen Faction, which was the most traditional of the Radiant Church’s three main factions. This meant that their Holy Maidens were more orthodox and were not well versed in powerful offensive magic. Instead, they were trained mostly in cleansing magic and exorcism magic and did not have much combat power. If it were the Holy Maidens Sophia and Daisy, they would be more of a threat.
Once they were sure that Bella had broken past the Holy Knights’ defenses and was advancing towards them, Princess Eveny and the others began to gather their magical attacks to stop her. However, before they unleashed their attacks, they hesitated for a moment. Bella was currently riding on the Thunder Unicorn, their ally, the “Thunder Knight” Aurora’s steed. Due to this, they did not dare to directly attack the steed. If they were to accidentally cause any damage, it would be difficult to explain things to Aurora after the battle.
Bella’s despicable battle tactics were basically just like holding an opponent hostage. The only difference was that the hostage was a steed, instead of a person. In the end, as Eveny hesitated, the “Third Chapter of Taboo” Princess Effie made the first move. She immediately activated the dark magic “Slow Earth” in an attempt to throw Bella off Thunder Unicorn by decreasing its speed.
As a Demon King, Bella was naturally immune to dark magical attacks. Furthermore, Princess Effie was a Dark Mage. If she had hit Bella directly, she would have been vaporized. Effie was trying to use Bella’s tactics against her by using the same methods to force her off her steed. Even if they could not win against her, at least the audience could see that they had been doing their best to fight.
Just as Effie hoped, under the effects of the slowing magic, the Thunder Unicorn seemed to be held back by invisible hands and eventually slowed down. After Princess Effie attacked, the other girls finally regained their senses and quickly attempted to unleash their own magical attacks. Once Bella hit the ground, they planned to force her off the Sky Arena with a relentless onslaught of magical attacks. Bella could finally be defeated this way.
However, Bella soared up once again and abandoned the steed that was trapped by magic. She then used the same flying magical tools and flew towards the girls in the back. The second round of the battle in this competition where Bella would go head-to-head with other Mages was about to commence.
