“Hmph! Feel despair!”
With Daphne’s sharp declaration, her entire set of ornate Golden Armor erupted with a light more dazzling than a star.
The light was so intense that the entire Duel Arena was instantly swallowed by a sea of white light.
Everyone instinctively closed their eyes or raised their hands to shield them.
Complaints immediately rose from the stands.
“Damn it! How low can you get!”
“My eyes! I’m going blind!”
Laxana jumped up in a rage and cursed, “Daphne, you bitch! Using such underhanded tricks because you can’t win! Do you think this is a sneak attack on the Battlefield?! Why hasn’t my mother banned this garbage at the Academy!”
Wendy had originally been watching with a spectator’s mindset.
To him, dressing oneself up in such flashy gold — as if afraid the enemy wouldn’t see you — seemed like the most foolish way to make oneself a target on a real Battlefield.
But at that moment, he realized.
‘This isn’t a target; it’s a tactic.’
Using intense light to instantly blind an opponent creates an opening, allowing one to gain an absolute advantage.
In a duel between experts, those few seconds were enough to decide life and death.
“Astreia!”
Wendy’s heart suddenly leaped into his throat.
Within the light, Daphne’s figure turned into a blurred golden line.
Accompanied by the sonic boom of tearing through the air, she threw a punch toward Astreia’s face.
This punch concentrated all her Power and the Magic amplification of her entire armor set.
She was confident that even the skull of a Dragon would be crushed to powder under this strike.
However, the moment that fist, encased in a golden gauntlet, was about to touch the tip of Astreia’s nose —
Astreia moved.
She did not dodge.
She simply raised her right hand calmly to meet the blinding light and the world-destroying punch.
Bang!
A dull, heavy thud echoed.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, nor was there Magic splattering everywhere.
All the Power was steadily caught by that seemingly slender and fair palm.
Daphne’s fist stopped in Astreia’s palm, unable to advance even a fraction of an inch further.
The light dissipated.
Everyone could finally see the scene in the center of the arena.
Astreia remained standing in her original spot, her feet having not moved an inch.
However, the ground behind her was beginning to fracture.
Starting from her heels, spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly in all directions for more than ten meters, causing a section of the Duel Arena floor to cave in.
Daphne’s expression froze instantly.
“Unharmed… You… You actually caught this punch head-on?!”
She looked at her fist in disbelief, then at the woman before her.
‘How is this possible?!’
‘This is Power that could kill a Dragon with a single strike!’
‘How could she use one hand to —’
Astreia did not answer her question.
She only looked at her as if she were a corpse.
Then, the Princess Royal moved.
She lifted her right leg and kicked toward Daphne’s knee joint.
Seeing this, a cold sneer appeared on Daphne’s face.
‘Naive!’
‘The defense of this armor couldn’t be broken even by a siege ram, and you’re trying to kick it with a bare leg?’
However — in the next second.
Crack!
A crisp, bone-chilling sound of fracturing rang out.
“Arghhhhh —!”
Daphne let out a shrill scream that didn’t sound human.
Under the horrified gazes of everyone, her right leg, which was tightly encased in the Golden Armor, snapped.
Astreia’s kick had not only landed but had bent her knee backward at a bizarre angle.
The kneecap, along with the outer layer of armor, had been kicked to pieces!
“H-How is this possible…”
Intense pain and incomprehensible fear surged into Daphne’s heart simultaneously.
‘The armor… Why would…’
At that moment, Daphne instinctively tried to retreat, but her broken leg refused to listen.
Before she could even say another word, Astreia had already moved.
Her left hand released the opponent’s fist and shot out like lightning.
Her five fingers formed a claw and clamped down hard on Daphne’s face.
Then, she clenched her right fist and delivered a fierce uppercut, slamming it squarely into Daphne’s chin!
The force of the punch lifted Daphne off her feet, sending her soaring into the sky.
Before she even reached the peak of her flight, Astreia stepped forward, leaped high, and pursued her into the air.
Her fists were like two heavy hammers in a storm, repeatedly striking Daphne’s chest.
Thump! Thump!
The first punch caused the armor on Daphne’s chest to cave in deeply.
The second punch —
A mouthful of blood, mixed with bits of internal organs, sprayed out from the gaps in her visor.
But it wasn’t over yet!
The moment Daphne’s body flew backward like a broken kite, Astreia grabbed her left ankle and yanked her back from the air by force!
Whoosh —
Using her right foot as a pivot, Astreia completed a perfect 360-degree rotation.
Daphne, caught in her grip, was swung like a tattered sandbag by the immense centrifugal force, turning into a Golden Afterimage.
Finally, at the peak of the rotation’s momentum, Astreia exerted her strength —
She didn’t let go; she slammed her down while simultaneously lunging!
Her right arm muscles bulged as she borrowed the momentum of the spin to deliver a whip-punch.
With the force of a thunderbolt, she struck Daphne’s jaw from the side!
Crack!
Another scalp-numbing sound of bone breaking echoed.
Daphne’s head was snapped to the side by the punch, her neck nearly breaking.
Her entire body spun several times in the air before finally crashing heavily into the ground over ten meters away like a piece of scrap metal — motionless.
The entire Duel Arena became so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.
In the stands, everyone’s mouths hung open as they stared blankly at the tall figure in the center of the arena, their minds going blank.
If hearing about her “defeating 190,000 Orcs alone” was just a distant and blurry concept, then right now, they had witnessed firsthand what a total crush looked like — what Violence Aesthetics meant.
After a brief, dead silence, bursts of gasps erupted from the stands.
“What… What the hell did I just see? Was that a Combo?”
“She’s literally playing with her like a ball!”
“Chills! That was too brutal… I could feel the pain of that kick from all the way over here!”
“Daphne’s jaw… will she ever be able to eat again? She’ll probably be stuck on a liquid diet!”
“Now I finally understand why Knight Arya knelt and begged for mercy… This isn’t a duel; this is an absolute massacre!”
“No wonder Prince Wendy was so confident earlier. I’d be confident too! With such a powerhouse by your side, never mind a Princess who’s a Provisional Guardian Knight — even a Cardinal would have to think twice!”
“So violent… I think I mocked Princess Astreia’s figure before. Is it too late to apologize?”
“Bookie! Where the hell is the bookie! Pay up! I’ve hit the jackpot! Tonight, I’m going to the most expensive place outside the Academy! I’m ordering ten male models!”