After Lian’s name was announced, the noise in the stadium became noticeably quieter.
Tens of thousands of people were sitting on the stone and metal seats around the arena, but at that moment, almost every gaze was focused on only one person.
Lian Vorhelm, the exiled son of the family, the hero of the Border City, and the biggest question mark in this competition.
Everyone was waiting to see who he would choose, but it quickly became clear that there was no choice.
Because only one person was left, a young man with dark hair and gray eyes who was standing on the contestants’ platform and calmly watching the arena.
Darius Blackthorn, the second son of the Blackthorn Family, one of the six great families of the world.
Unlike many of the young people present, who had spent most of their lives in academies and training centers, Darius had spent a large part of his youth on real battlefields.
He was eighteen years old, Level nineteen, and had a reputation earned through blood and battle.
Among the younger generation, his name had been mentioned many times alongside operations to clear corrupted areas and hunt high-level monsters.
He even had his own title, the White Lion, a title he earned after one of his famous operations, an operation where he almost wiped out an entire monster pack by himself.
Before the competition began, many believed that if the strongest foreign guest in this tournament had to be named, that person would be Darius.
But until now, he had not fought even a single battle.
Because the members of the Vorhelm Family, knowingly or unknowingly, had arranged the tournament in a way that left him untouched until the end of the first round.
Lian’s gaze stopped on the elders’ platform for a moment, several of them immediately looked away.
That was enough, he understood everything.
First, the weak participants had been eliminated, then the troublesome ones had been removed, and now the only opponent left was Darius Blackthorn.
If Lian wanted to enter the second round, he had to get past this obstacle, he laughed to himself.
"So much effort for this?" But this made him look at the current leadership of the family with complete contempt.
These idiots let the family become the laughingstock of everyone just because Celestia wanted to eliminate him? He had never seen such a level of weakness and helplessness.
If the Vorhelm Family kept going like this, they might soon lose the title of one of the strongest families, and after another century, no one might even remember their name.
The whispers of the crowd became louder again.
"He’s unlucky."
"This is where it ends."
"Darius has much more experience."
"Talent is important, but real battle experience is something else."
"The Border City is one thing, facing Darius is another."
"Besides, Darius has very high talent too, did you forget? He has a four-star class."
Almost no one was talking about Lian winning.
The only question was how long he would last.
One minute?
Three minutes?
Maybe five minutes?
It was not that they thought he was weak, they just did not think it was possible to close the gap between the two.
At the Pendragon Family’s platform, Aurelia Pendragon calmly looked at the arena, the same smile was still on her face.
Beside her, Seris was sitting on her seat and staring at the arena.
"How long do you think it will take?" Aurelia asked without taking her eyes off the arena.
Seris did not answer.
"I mean, how long will Lian last?" Aurelia asked again.
A few seconds of silence passed, then Seris said in a completely normal voice.
"I don’t know."
"What?" Aurelia raised an eyebrow.
"I don’t know, because Lian will win easily."
For the first time since the ceremony had started, the smile on Aurelia’s face slightly shook, she was truly surprised.
"Are you sure? The experience gap is huge, there is also a level gap, that boy has fought for years, his family is one of the six great families like ours, and they are almost always fighting monsters on the Fallen Continent."
"If this fight lasts more than one minute, I will be surprised." Seris only shrugged, her opinion was firm.
Aurelia stared at her for a few seconds, then looked back at the arena, this was the first time she had doubted her own judgment.
At the center of the arena, Darius calmly walked in, with every step he took, the mana pressure around him became stronger.
The air around him seemed heavier, unlike Lucas, there was no pride or carelessness on his face.
He was serious, completely serious, because he knew who was standing in front of him.
Even if he did not believe Lian was stronger than him, he knew that he should never underestimate him.
As a soldier, he had learned since childhood to never underestimate his enemies.
On the opposite side, Lian calmly walked into the arena.
He did not release any mana pressure, he did not put on any show, he did not even look at the crowd, he simply walked into the arena.
That was all.
The two looked at each other, but neither of them said anything.
They had nothing to say, both of them were the type of people who preferred silence.
The referee stood between them.
A few seconds of silence passed, then he lowered his hand.
"Begin!"
Almost at the same moment, the ground under Darius exploded.
A wave of mana spread around him, his speed increased explosively, the crowd could only see a shadow.
He charged straight at Lian.
Without a word, without a warning, without testing him, he released all of his power from the very beginning.
Only one thought appeared in the minds of most of the spectators.
The battle had begun.
But in reality... the battle ended at that very moment.
Lian only took one step forward.
No complicated technique was activated, no legendary skill, no mana explosion, only one simple movement.
One punch, a direct, simple, and merciless punch.
The moment they collided.
BOOM!
A deafening sound shook the entire arena, the shockwave spread through the whole stadium like a storm.
The air split apart, the ground under Lian cracked, and Darius... disappeared.
Or at least, that was how it looked to many of the spectators.
His body was thrown backward like a cannonball.
Ten meters.
Twenty meters.
Thirty meters.
And in the end, he crashed into the protective wall of the arena with terrifying force.
Silence... complete silence filled the entire place... tens of thousands of people could only stare, no one understood what had happened.
Everyone was in shock, shocked because they did not understand what had just happened.
A few seconds passed, and the referee walked toward Darius.
He checked his pulse, fortunately, he was still alive.
The referee stayed silent for a moment, then turned around and loudly announced.
"The winner... Lian Vorhelm."
The silence continued, then suddenly the entire stadium exploded with noise.
"What?!"
"It’s over?"
"Darius couldn’t even defend himself!"
"I didn’t even see his movement!"
"What was that?!"
Several generals had stood up, some politicians looked at the arena in disbelief, the elders of the different families were no longer calm.
Even the expressions of some of them had turned pale.
At the Vorhelm Family’s platform, Damian laughed loudly, a laugh that was completely different from the shocked atmosphere around him.
He knew something like this could happen, but even he had not expected it to be this one-sided.
On the other side, for the first time, Celestia truly lost control of her expression.
Only for a moment, but that one moment was enough.
Her face completely twisted.
’Damn it!’
If she could, she would tear Darius apart with her own hands right now.
Why was that trash so useless?
Beside her, Diana could not hide her smile, her eyes were shining.
At the Pendragon platform, Aurelia was still silent, then after a few seconds she turned her head toward Seris.
A few seconds later, she turned her head toward Seris.
"You already knew."
"Yeah." Seris nodded.
"And how did you know?"
"A warrior’s instinct."
Aurelia stayed silent.
For the first time during this entire ceremony, she was truly surprised.
Darius was not weak.
He was definitely weaker than Seris, but he was not weak.
He was not someone who could be defeated this easily.
In fact, this was beyond easy, Lian had practically one-shotted him.
Aurelia could not believe that such a genius had been abandoned by the Vorhelm Family.
"Maybe we should make him a member of our own family?" She looked at Seris.
These two are the same age, right? They would definitely make a great couple!
But then she shook her head.
She doubted that this girl was interested in anything other than fighting.
In the arena, Lian did not even look at Darius.
But he also did not turn around and simply leave.
Instead, with a smile full of mockery, he looked at Celestia and the other young members of the Vorhelm Family.
"Thank you for defeating all the strong opponents, so I could face such a weak opponent this easily and advance to the next round." He said calmly.