Chapter 215: You Cannot Win
BOOM!
The crowd had to shield their eyes as a blinding light enveloped the entire arena.
When it cleared up, it revealed the prince floating in the air and looking down at his opponent.
Adrian, on the other hand, calmly stood there, looking at him.
Lucian had managed to escape being restrained and immediately took to the skies.
’He shouldn’t be able to reach me here,’ was what he thought, but the next second,
"Are you sure about that?"
Adrian, whom he had been previously looking at, was now floating behind him with black wings on his back.
The prince was finally reminded that the butler could fly.
Creating space between them, Lucian launched a beam of light that would make it almost impossible for anyone to react to.
Almost.
Adrian calmly moved to the side, letting the beam pass harmlessly by him and hit the barrier, creating cracks in it.
"As I said," the butler began, looking at his opponent, "you won’t win."
Even Lucian had realized that much, but did that mean he was going to give up?
No way.
Protagonists were usually hard-wired to be stubborn, and he was no exception to this. The prince believed that he could put up a worthy fight.
With that thought, he created multiple light weapons before launching each at the same speed as the beam.
Adrian said nothing at this; instead, he just dodged the approaching weapons before extending his hand and quickly catching the one aimed at his head.
Without missing a beat, he launched the weapon back at the prince, who was forced to quickly dismiss it.
Unfortunately for him, the butler was already following up with another attack, forcing Lucian to quickly conjure a barrier in front of himself to bear the brunt of the blow.
The prince was launched towards the ground, and a dust cloud was kicked up as he landed.
The crowd immediately broke out in a wave of cheers.
Of course, most wanted the Lightbringer to win, but they also couldn’t deny that what the butler was doing was incredibly cool.
Especially the part where he caught the light weapon.
That was going to be talked about for a while...especially in the South.
The dust settled to reveal Lucian on one knee with his barrier still active, looking up at Adrian descending toward him with the black wings folded back.
He calmly landed and looked at the prince without a word. But that silence said a lot more than words actually would.
He waited for the prince to properly stand back up before asking again, "Are you convinced yet?"
"Not yet," Lucian said as his eyes started glowing again, and a translucent golden armor suddenly wrapped around him.
A sword made of similar translucent golden light formed in his hand, and then he took a sword stance.
Adrian had seen that stance quite a few times, in the manhwa.
It seems the prince was now truly serious, so he might as well humor him.
Adrian’s shadow extended outward across the arena floor, and six clones rose from it. The prince should be able to handle this much.
Or at least that’s what he thought.
Lucian looked at the six Adrians surrounding him and the real one standing among them, immediately understanding the butler’s thoughts.
It seems he truly hadn’t proved himself worthy just yet.
"Fine," he muttered under his breath as he lifted the sword a bit higher and lowered his stance.
The next second,
BOOM!
The prince suddenly disappeared, or that’s how it seemed to most of the spectators.
But the truth was that he had moved too fast for their eyes to track, and the next second, he was already upon the first clone.
With a swing of his sword, he quickly cut through it, causing it to dissolve before moving to the next.
All the crowd saw was a golden trail moving around the platform, and a moment after, the clones dissolved one at a time.
The speed was genuinely impressive.
Even Adrian acknowledged that much.
The prince had gotten considerably faster in just a few exchange between them.
Unfortunately, the butler could still track the Prince even though he could move as fast as light allowed.
Soon enough all six [Shadow Clones] were dealt with, and without pause, Lucian immediately headed for Adrian.
But his instinct suddenly screamed at him, causing him to immediately stop and quickly jump back.
He looked ahead only to find a face he hadn’t expected.
Marion, the help that the king in the dungeon had offered when Adrian and Renelle were venturing into the dark sea.
He was certain that the butler had dealt with him, so how was he here again?
Lucian then looked ahead of him and immediately spotted what had triggered his instincts.
Black strings.
He was certain that if he had moved a single step forward, he’d have lost his head....but that wasn’t what bothered the prince right now.
Instead, he looked at Adrian and asked, "how?"
"Relax, it’s just a clone," the butler explained with a smile on his face, already aware of why the prince was startled.
After all, according to Darius, the prince had been the one to fight the king in the dungeon, which made it easy to guess that he was already aware of the fact that Marion was corrupted.
"A clone," Lucian repeated, looking at the Marion clone still standing with its strings extended.
"Mm," Adrian nodded.
But it seemed that didn’t make it any better. Though, the prince quickly realized that the butler was saying the truth from the way it was blankly looking at him.
Besides, if this was the actual Marion, then this match would’ve been stopped already.
"Fine," he accepted it for now before taking a low stance again, his eyes still glowing, "either way, I’ll force you to take this fight seriously. "
But just before he had the chance to make his move, an explosion that shook the entire arena suddenly went off,
BOOM!