Chapter 343

The whole situation turned into a powder keg soaked in kerosene. Aranor’s magic and rage washed over the entire arena as his mana churned while Shadow and the captain of the first both stood protectively over the bubble Ajax was encased in. None of them moved or spoke but the arena was garbled by noise anyway.

The air was filled with shouts of joy and dismay from the spectators who had started cheering as soon as the match ended and didn’t notice the reaction of the powerhouses. All of this was contrasted to the despair that filled the voices who saw this as the start of a new war.

“Calm down Aranor.” the king’s oldest son said as he stood only a few dozen steps away from the elven royal family box. “This isn’t the way any of us wants this to go.” 

“You would say th-” Aranor started to retort only to be cut off. 

“Stand down, Aranor.” the elven king commanded.

“But…” Aranor turned to protest yet the sight that greeted him when he turned to look at his king took away his words. 

The young king had an expressionless face, a result of all his social skill, that did little to help however as despite addressing the situation his eyes never once left his daughter and the splitters of the ruined armrest started to fall to the ground one after another as his hands slowly loosened their deathgrip. 

The following final was supposed to start soon after this one had ended yet it was understandably delayed. While the elven princess had been quickly evacuated to the healer chambers she was swiftly followed by Ajax, Shadow, as well as most of the present leadership of all three countries.

“She’s going to be fine.” The head healer was more nervous than she had ever been in her life up to that point as she addressed the two royal families as well as three councilors.

“What caused the initial problems when healing her?” the elven king asked calmly. “Was it a curse?” 

“No, Your Majesty.” the healer answered with a quiver in her voice. “It was her own enchantments that interfered with the healing spells we were trying to apply. She will need rest, the injuries were substantial.” 

“I - I’ll be fine.” the princess struggled to as she slowly started to rise off the bed, only for a spike of pain from her ribs to force her back down. 

“Stop moving.” the healer wailed in a mixture of command and fear. “You had two broken ribs as well as two shattered ribs that went on to shred your lungs and even damage your heart a little. There is a limit to how much we can heal at one time.” 

As she had attempted to stand the princess had dislodged the blanket covering her slightly as she showed a massive bruise that covered her entire left side from hip to armpit. Despite the ugly wound however the mood in the hallway improved considerably as the princesses outlook was no longer in question. 

“Get to his back-” the head healer began to direct everyone as Ajax had been left wholly untreated as everyone was hands on with helping the princess survive.

“Start with my legs.” Ajax gasped out through the labored breaths and pain.

“I’m not sure if you can’t feel it because of a skill or because of the battlelust but that avalanche that slammed you into the wall of the arena would have paralyzed you had it not been for your armor, your legs can wait.” the healer regained more of her composure as she had experienced this situation more often than she wanted, everyone thought they knew better than the healers. 

“My own healing can slowly deal with that, I can’t do anything to stop the frostbite.” Ajax growled, the last fumes of his mana using the Life aspect to fix his back.

Both Aranor and king Sylvian felt much better seeing just how hurt Ajax was as the healers slowly chipped away at the ice that still encased his legs. They knew it shouldn’t make them feel any better, revenge wasn’t worth it, but they just couldn’t help it.

It barely took the healers a minute to unfreeze Ajax’s legs and while they were still a little frostbitten in parts the healing could now start. A large gasp went out from a few of combatants that had gathered in the hallway as Ajax’s leather chest piece was removed. If they thought the princess was sporting a big bruise Ajax’s entire back was a solid shade of purple that deepened in certain parts.

“Now that we know that both of them will be fine, how about we continue this discussion elsewhere and let the two of them rest?” one of the councilors suggested.

With no further objections everyone made a slow retreat after a few well wishes given out to the two competitors, much to the relief of the healers.

The group had barely made two turns down the corridors when Shadow silently grabbed the king’s oldest son by the shoulder right as he was about to take the corner and pushed him back against the wall. 

“Was that Life mana I felt from Ajax?” The cat beastkin hissed as quietly as he could hoping not to draw the attention of everyone else yet too impatient to wait for a more opportune moment. “He has a Legendary affinity?” 

The prince didn’t so much as twitch at the mention of Life mana, a credit to his composure. “I’m not sure what you expect me to-” his answer was one that all members of the royal family had rehearsed to the point no Epic or below skill could read anything into it. 

“Right, why did I even ask, I know my sense.” Shadow shook his head and didn’t even let the prince finish the script. “Let me phrase that differently, I know he has Life mana. Did he get that in the dungeon when he was playing with the seeds?” 

“I’m not sure wh-” the prince started once again. 

“You can either confirm it for me and I will keep it to myself, or I will have to ask people if such a thing is possible.” Shadow said. “The people who even have a chance at giving me a somewhat reliable answer will also be smart enough to put together why I am asking that question.” 

“Tsk!” The prince clicked his tongue in annoyance. That was the problem with scholars, you went to them to get an answer to a theory and all of a sudden they were hip deep into your businesses looking at why you would ask a question like that. “Yes.” 

“He must be the first person to gain that skill without being a ritual caster.” Shadow murmured to himself. “Just how widespread is his talent?”

With that Shadow and the prince both got moving again as they followed and entered the meeting room where both of them moved to blend into the background. Neither of the them had the right skill sets to be at the forefront of this meeting and even the prince knew better than to play around after how close to disaster this had gotten.

“Can we now let this be?” the crown prince asked king Sylvian. 

With everything calming down king Gryndor gladly took a step back and gave his son an opportunity to build a rapport with the elven king, after all they will most likely be dealing with each other shortly.

“You both have my apologies for the way I reacted.” king Sylvian said as he inclined his head slightly towards both the crown prince and the councilmen. “Now that I know my daughter will be fine I do agree it wasn’t the best reaction.”

“That said, my reaction was still appropriate.” the king continued. “The tournament is held as a peaceful resolution. That attack falls outside those bounds.”

“The under fifty tournament does not hold the same safety minded restrictions as the true tournament.” the crown prince responded. “We’ve always had the young treat the fight as a true battle where we simply intervened. In terms of damage caused, the princesses' avalanche spell and her frost nova were much more powerful.”  

“It is not a question of power.” Aranor joined the discussion. “It is a question of intent. There was no interference with either of those spells because Ajax was deemed to be able to take them. Which of you made the judgment that the princess could take that final strike?”

In an effort to keep abilities hidden, each nation had their own representative that could initiate the protective spheres, they were meant to judge how destructive their own representatives' attacks were and intervene if it was the case. 

“What even was that last attack?” Aranor asked the question everyone in the room was thinking. 

At that same moment the same exact question was being asked in the now almost empty healing ward. “What was that?” the princess asked once she and Ajax were alone. “You tried to use it with an arrow first… I still don’t know what happened.” 

As Ajax sat in silence not knowing if or how he should answer the question the princess couldn’t bring herself to look away from him. She couldn’t help but be amazed at how his body was slowly fixing itself, any remnant of racial superiority she had towards the other races faded away at that moment.