‘Damn it!! Too fast! It’s way too fast!’
Arya’s mind went blank.
She only saw a few blurry afterimages flash across the field before Daphne was already defeated.
She hadn’t even had the time to rush from the stands to the edge of the arena.
Looking at the bloodstains covering the ground and the Princess being ravaged like a rag doll by Astreia, Arya’s heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a massive, invisible hand, trembling uncontrollably.
Before their departure, the Cardinal of the Macary Kingdom had personally summoned her.
With an unprecedented gravity in his expression, he told her that no matter what, she must ensure Eldest Princess Daphne completed her studies and successfully inherited the throne; otherwise, the Macary Kingdom would be finished.
At the time, she had found it strange.
The Second Princess was talented in both scholarly and martial arts and had an excellent reputation; it would have been perfectly fine for her to take the throne instead.
But the Cardinal had only shaken his head and said heavily, “There are some things I cannot confirm for you. However, the worst-case scenario has already occurred. Arya, you must complete your mission at any cost!”
As the Chief Guard who had served by the Cardinal’s side for years, Arya had never seen such a powerful figure look so troubled.
She had immediately sworn an oath upon her life and her honor as a knight.
Yet, she never could have imagined that Princess Daphne wouldn’t fall to an enemy assassin or perish at the hands of terrifying bandits.
Instead, here at the Central Academy, she had reached the end of her road because she had courted trouble herself.
She had even considered striking Daphne unconscious before the duel began to forcibly take her away.
Unfortunately, that ancestral royal armor, Monarch’s Praise, was simply too powerful.
Its defensive capabilities were staggering, and Arya had no way to break through its protection.
She could only watch helplessly as Daphne was completely crushed by Astreia within a few short breaths.
At that moment, Arya’s body went limp, and she fell to her knees, feeling as if the entire world were crumbling before her eyes.
When Daphne was revived by the armor’s self-healing abilities, Arya was momentarily overjoyed, thinking there was finally a turning point — that Her Highness would finally learn her lesson and agree to make peace.
But everything that followed — Daphne’s despicable sneak attack and Astreia’s even more brutal and merciless counterattack — turned those hopes to ash.
“Stop!!”
Her last shred of hope had utterly vanished.
Seeing Astreia’s hand, held together like a blade, about to completely crush Daphne’s spine, Arya could no longer care about the regulations or the grace expected of a knight.
She channeled all her power as a Guardian Knight, along with all her regret and despair, into her right leg.
It transformed into a resolute bolt of white light as she lunged toward the vital point at the center of Astreia’s back!
She wasn’t trying to wound her enemy; she was merely hoping to force a retreat, making the other girl dodge to save herself and thus abandon the killing blow on Daphne.
However, at the very moment Wendy shouted his warning, Astreia’s movements proved faster than the attack!
She didn’t even turn around fully; she simply slid to the side, letting Arya’s full-power flying kick graze past her.
Simultaneously, the hand that had been destined to crush Daphne’s spine changed direction mid-air.
With incredible speed, it reached upward and precisely seized Arya’s overextended right ankle!
“What?!” Arya’s face turned pale with shock.
Before she could react, an irresistible and immense force surged from her ankle.
Astreia gripped Arya with one hand, her arm muscles bulging.
She actually treated the armored knight like a human sledgehammer, performing an incredibly violent one-handed spin on the spot!
Crash!
Dust and blood sprayed into the air.
Using Arya as a weapon, Astreia slammed her squarely into Daphne, who had just been struggling to crawl back up.
The muffled thuds of shattering bones mixed with the screeching of twisting metal armor, making the scalps of everyone in the stands tingle with dread.
“I didn’t originally intend to be so thorough, but since you are both so insolent, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”
Astreia casually tossed the unconscious, heavily injured Arya aside.
She looked down at Daphne, who was twitching on the ground and spitting out bloody foam, and made a cold declaration.
“St—Stop! Student Astreia! The duel is already over!”
The referee instructor finally snapped out of it.
He scrambled forward, desperate to prevent the situation from worsening further.
But Astreia ignored him completely, walking straight toward the mangled Daphne.
The instructor tried to step in her way, but the terrifying killing intent radiating from her caused his legs to go weak with horror.
He froze in place, not daring to take another step.
‘She’s going to kill her!’
This was the only thought in everyone’s minds.
Astreia walked up to Daphne and raised her foot.
Then, she stomped down hard!
Crack!
Daphne’s left arm, along with the golden gauntlet covering it, was instantly pulverized.
Shards of bone mixed with broken metal fragments flew in all directions.
A faint whimper escaped Daphne’s throat.
Expressionless, Astreia raised her other foot.
Crack!
Her right arm.
Crack!
Her right leg.
Crack!
Her left leg.
In the deathly silence of the arena, the crisp sounds of breaking bones rang out one after another.
They were like the most terrifying drumbeats, pounding against the hearts of everyone present.
Right before everyone’s eyes, she used kick after kick to trample Daphne’s four limbs, along with that legendary armor said to be capable of killing a dragon with one punch, into a pulp of mud and gore.
Only after completing this did she finally stop.
But no one believed it was over.
Sure enough, Astreia leaned down slightly.
She extended two fingers, pinched the deformed and deeply dented breastplate of Daphne’s magnificent armor, and suddenly jerked upward!
Rrip!
A piercing screech of tearing metal echoed.
This golden armor, engraved with 365 Amplification Arrays and passed down through the royal family of the Macary Kingdom, was snapped in two and ripped open by just two of her fingers!
Golden shards mixed with flesh and blood sprayed everywhere.
Then, she raised her fist.
Astreia casually tossed the torn half of the armor onto the ground and threw a punch like a bolt of lightning —
Bang!
The first punch landed squarely on Daphne’s chest.
The remaining armor completely exploded, turning into countless golden fragments that scattered in every direction!
Bang!
With the second punch, Daphne’s chest completely caved in.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Astreia’s fists were so fast they created afterimages.
Each punch carried the momentum to destroy everything, striking every part of Daphne’s body in succession.
At first, muffled thuds could be heard.
Eventually, the sound became wet and blurred, as if someone were pounding a pile of boneless, ruined meat.
It wasn’t until the referee instructor could no longer bear the horrific sight and rushed to the edge of the field to vomit that Astreia finally ceased her movements.
Looking back at Daphne on the ground… no, Astreia slowly withdrew her fist, which was covered in red and white matter, and stood up straight.
Daphne was no longer there.
All that remained was a pile of unidentifiable mangled flesh, broken bones, and countless shimmering golden shards of magical armor, all mixed together and covering the blood-soaked earth.
The wind blew.
A deathly silence hung over the duel arena.
From the highest point of the stands, Wendy watched everything in silence.
‘Now… it seems things have really spiraled out of control.’