After Darian's words, without a moment's delay, a tall and imposing figure leapt into the martial stage.

Darian looked at him. It was a green-skinned man, over two meters tall, with a terrifyingly strong build. Two white tusks jutted out of his mouth, and his eyes were sharp. He was an Orc — a humanoid species that had evolved completely toward the physical side to survive and fight for territory against powerful beasts.

"You defeated the second and third princes of my planet. Naturally, that means you face me now," he roared, his voice booming with pride. "I am Brakar, the number one Prince!"

He stared down at the small human with a look of utter disdain, then added coldly, "I originally didn't want to bother with you, since you're not even worthy of being my opponent. But I've had enough of your arrogance. Do you really think you're somebody now? Too bad — to me, you're just another joke!"

Darian gave a faint smile, saying nothing.

At that moment, the inscriptions around the martial stage closed again.

Brakar roared, and the power of his ring flared to the limit. Suddenly, his body seemed to be covered in a shining armor that reflected light like a diamond.

*Crack*

The ground beneath his feet split apart, and the air around him vibrated. That was pure, raw power!

The people of Vadise swallowed hard. That was the *Diamond Suppressor* blessing. Every prince and princess there knew Brakar's name well — he was terrifyingly strong. Before the banquet, everyone had been sure they couldn't match him, even if they had an extra ring.

His physique was absurdly powerful, and once he activated his blessing, even the strongest member of the royal family with eight rings couldn't compare to him physically.

Of course, that was because his blessing was a Tank-type. However, it had one major flaw: duration. Once activated, there was no turning back — it burned through the user's ring power completely until it ran dry. The duration depended on the density and amount of energy one had.

For normal six-ring users, it lasted a minute or two. But Brakar was a monster — he could sustain that state for almost fifteen minutes with ease. While the blessing was active, he was practically invincible in most fights.

In a normal battle against someone like him, you'd just run until his power burned out. But inside a sealed martial stage, there was no way to escape. The blessing granted both offensive and defensive might, capable of devastating the entire area with his blows. Its offensive power wasn't very focused, but in this kind of fight, that actually worked in his favor.

"Come, human! Let's see your arrogance now!"

Brakar roared as he charged ferociously toward Darian, the ground trembling under his steps.

Contrary to what anyone expected, his movements were extremely fast. He appeared before Darian in an instant and punched like a meteor.

Darian only frowned slightly. His silhouette flickered, and he sidestepped lightly.

Everyone watched, entranced. That attack carried crushing power and incredible speed — and yet, Darian did not seem to be using that same "magic technique" again; he just... dodged casually, as if he already knew exactly where the blows were coming from.

Brakar grew furious. Since Darian wasn't retreating but merely dodging lightly, he kept up the pressure relentlessly.

That reaction speed from Darian was far beyond anyone's expectations. Before long, jaws began to drop as they realized something was off...

...reaction speed? No — it felt like he was seeing the future, moving before the Orc even attacked.

However, after more than thirty blows, Darian stopped moving.

Suddenly, his right fist flared with power and shot forward, straight toward Brakar's punch.

"What?! Is he insane?! He's gonna take on the First Prince head-on?!"

Seeing that, everyone in the palace thought Darian was done for.

But... just before the punches collided, a seven-colored gleam flashed in Darian's eyes.

*BOOM!*

Their fists slammed together, the sound echoing like a muffled explosion — two dense metal hammers clashing, shaking the air itself.

*CRACK!!!*

A sharp crack of breaking bones rang out clearly; everyone heard it and wasn't surprised — until a bloodcurdling scream followed...

...but that scream left everyone stunned. The one screaming wasn't Darian — it was Brakar!

The diamond armor around his hand exploded! All four of his fingers, except the thumb, were shattered on impact, and even his wrist was violently forced backward.

However, Darian's punch didn't stop there; after the impact, it kept going, carrying a wild force that slammed straight into Brakar's chest.

*BANG!*

The entire diamond armor shattered instantly, as if it were thin, fragile glass. Brakar felt like his chest had just been crushed by a massive boulder.

His whole body was thrown back like a leaf caught in a violent gust of wind, until his back slammed into the protective barrier. After bouncing off it, he hit the ground in a twisted posture, eyes wide open, unable to get up for a long while.

The palace went completely silent in an instant. Everyone there stood frozen, mouths open, unable to believe what they were seeing...

But the silence didn't last long — soon, the princes and princesses of Vadise erupted in cheers.

Their shouts echoed shamelessly, while the people of Runedell stood completely stunned. Even Morion and Painita looked genuinely shaken. They, who had lived through countless hardships and trials over their long lives, found it hard to believe their own eyes.

That Orc was well-known throughout the universe. With his blessing active, he had a thousand Fiendgod strength points — and he made sure everyone knew it, even showing recordings of his measurement. So, considering Darian's much lower power before, this outcome was even harder to believe.

Darian exhaled softly. During his training inside that Array, he had pushed his body to the limit. Even though he'd hit a bottleneck, if he measured his strength again, it would probably be more than double now. He just hadn't had the time to do it yet before coming straight to this banquet.

It had taken only one attack, and it was over.

He slowly lowered his arms, took a few steps forward, and looked down at Brakar, who raised his face filled with shock, humiliation, and disbelief.

"Yeah, I admit I'm a bit proud and arrogant. But that's only because I've got the strength to back it up... anyway, are all the princes and princesses of Runedell really at this level?"

"You..." Brakar gritted his teeth and struggled to stand.

His right hand trembled in pain, and his face had gone deathly pale. He knew perfectly well that even from that single clash, he'd suffered serious internal injuries.

"Wanna take a pill and try again? I don't mind," Darian said calmly.

The Orc immediately spat blood from rage. Taking a pill now would be like slapping himself in the face.

He stood up and roared, eyes blood-red: "You arrogant bastard! I was just careless, I held back!"

Darian laughed inwardly. To him, this was nothing but playing around with spoiled kids. All those princes and princesses from both planets were young — under thirty — people who'd spent their whole lives training and fighting without really living or maturing, so mentally they were still childish.

Darian just hit them, mocked them, and then watched as they roared back nonsense, humiliating themselves even more. It was honestly pathetic. He wouldn't normally bother with this, but... he was putting on a show for the people of Vadise.

He hadn't dodged or used movement techniques because he wanted to make it entertaining for those dragon-blooded beasts.

The Matriarch clearly wanted to use him for this purpose... and she probably had her own plan to counter the princes and princesses of Runedell. But now, she definitely wouldn't need to — Darian had gone far beyond her expectations and handled everything himself.

By the time Brakar finished talking, he had already reactivated his blessing to cover his body again. He still had ring power left, and the blessing wouldn't end until it was completely spent.

However, anyone could see that this time its power was barely a third of what it was before; the serious damage was obvious.

"Enough!" the elf Konill barked coldly. "Prince Brakar, you've already lost."

"That's right, hurry up and admit it!" Tetoya shouted mockingly.

"No! Fight, fight! I'm sure you can humiliate yourself even more!" another one jeered.

Brakar snapped back in fury, "Elder, this prince hasn't lost! I was just careless and underestimated my opponent—"

"Shut up!"

Konill's face turned from red to purple with anger. Those princes and princesses were truly childish to an absurd degree. Was it really worth forcing them to train and fight day and night?

After shouting, the elf glanced at Niall beside him. Niall's expression shifted quickly, a dark smile spreading across his face.

Brakar's expression twisted with rage and shame. He glared at Darian with eyes full of hatred, then lowered his head and backed away. The inscription opened, and he left the stage, walking slowly.

Darian snorted softly and turned, his proud gaze sweeping across the seats of Runedell's princes and princesses.

"That makes three. So... who's next?"

He spoke slowly, like an arrogant king, exuding a calm yet overwhelming aura — and those words made all fifteen remaining princes and princesses tremble from head to toe.

From the people of Vadise came excited screams from the princesses and mocking laughter from the princes.

Morion and Painita just smiled faintly, not stopping their young ones from shouting. They watched that lone figure standing tall in the martial stage, wondering if he could still surprise them further... could it really be possible?

Everyone's feelings toward Darian — ally or enemy — had become intense beyond measure.

His victory over Niall could be explained as him relying on that strange movement technique that the elf simply couldn't counter.

Then, his win against Gneissa... was like watching a vastly stronger person face someone hopelessly weaker — nothing the weaker side did had any effect, and the opponent even turned their own attacks back on them. Even if no one wanted to believe it, the truth had unfolded right before their eyes.

And his win against Brakar was the simplest of all — everyone clearly saw it was a straightforward, brute-force clash, no tricks involved. A complete victory, no question about it!

Darian's show had worked perfectly. Those beasts who worshiped raw power went into a complete frenzy after that display of strength.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.