"Oh, I know who he is! He is the useless prince! Why does he come here?"
"I don't know either. He doesn't even reach the third grade of the Mortal Stage. Why would it be him
who goes up for the last round? Did the Holy Dragon Empire make a mistake?"
"Yeah, maybe you are right. How could he possibly compare with the phoenix spirit manipulators from
the Magic Phoenix Empire? They can probably defeat him in the blink of an eye! Holy moly! He is just
going to make this situation way uglier!"
"Look! He doesn't even bring his war beast! Does that mean he's trying to surrender right from the
start? Or maybe he doesn't even have a war beast of his own? That's just embarrassing!"
People began murmuring among themselves.
Even the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire was surprised to see Rocky coming up in the last round.
"Priest Dean, what happened? What's the reason behind this?" the emperor looked at Priest Dean and
asked him with worry.
"Your Majesty, I shall explain everything later," Priest Dean whispered. Because Felicia was present at
the area, Priest Dean didn't tell the emperor beforehand that Marcia requested for Rocky to join the
contest. As he expected, the emperor was caught by surprise the moment he saw that Rocky was
present.
The emperor could tell Priest Dean was caught in an awkward situation. To add to that, Felicia sat right
next to him so the emperor decided to put a stop to the topic and merely nodded at Priest Dean
instead.
"What is this piece of crap doing here? Does the whole Holy Dragon Empire run out of other spirit
manipulators?" Alston whispered furiously.
But when Lena saw Rocky, she immediately had stars in her eyes. Of course, she didn't know that
Rocky's presence in the contest was made possible by Marcia so she thought it was because Rocky
fought for himself. It made her feel really happy for Rocky.
"Oh! Is he the royal spirit manipulator who acquired the dragon spiritual power from the Holy Dragon
Bead? The players from the Holy Dragon Empire who came before don't seem to be the one who has
fused with the Holy Dragon Bead. Could he be the one? But he looks so weak. The other players look
way stronger than him," Erica questioned with a face full of doubt.
"Well..." The emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire was tongue-tied and embarrassed after hearing Erica.
"Sorry, Miss Erica! The one you just mentioned doesn't join the game because he has another
business he has to take care of," Priest Dean explained at once to save the emperor from further
embarrassment as he nodded at him to let him know he had his back.
The emperor also understood that if they found out about that the one who gained the dragon spiritual
power from the Holy Dragon Bead was only a spirit manipulator at the second grade of the Mortal
Stage, it would be regarded as a laughing matter that would soon get spread around the Magic
Phoenix Empire.
"Oh yeah? Then the game shouldn't be any interesting," Erica said arrogantly.
"Erica! Don't be so rude!" Felicia reminded.
"Never mind. She's right. The last player isn't any better than the ones from earlier," the emperor
confessed.
"It might be too early to tell. The last ones are usually the best ones. He maybe not as weak as he
seems," Felicia said. She felt something strange about the emperor's attitude. The Holy Dragon Empire
knew very well that the Magic Phoenix Empire was way stronger than them. Why would they let a weak
player go on the final round? It was rather unexpected. But the trace of spiritual power she felt from
Rocky was faint and weak. It somehow made her think that that the emperor wasn't lying.
'Then what could the Holy Dragon Empire be planning?' Felicia wondered to herself.
As the people kept murmuring among themselves, Rocky had reached the venue and calmly stood in
front of his opponent.
The phoenix spirit manipulator who just defeated Bear was a man. "Oh, man! Isn't there nobody else
from the Holy Dragon Empire? Now you pester me with a weak spirit manipulator who probably isn't
qualified to join this contest. Ha-ha! How could you be so silly? And you didn't even take your war beast
with you!? Are you planning to forfeit before the fight even starts?" the man talked arrogantly as he
made gestures with his hands.
"Forfeit? Ha-ha! You listen to me very carefully! If I lose to you today then you can just walk all over my
dead body," Rocky sneered at him.
"You!" The phoenix spirit manipulator glared at Rocky after he heard him.
"Oh, man! I can't stand you anymore! Can we just start the game already? If I had to see your face for
one more second, I would surely have nightmares tonight!" Rocky said with scorn.
His words ignited the fire of rage in his opponent's chest. The two-star war beast beside the phoenix
spirit manipulator let out a raspy roar. And in only a matter of seconds, it rushed right towards Rocky. It
moved at lightning speed as it flapped its claws fiercely.
Simultaneously, the phoenix spirit manipulator raised up his hands. The second he clapped his hands,
a streak of faint silvery aura fluttered in the breeze that was targeted at Rocky without him knowing.
Rocky didn't move a single inch. He stood still and stayed motionless.
Everyone around them was getting anxious and nervous for Rocky.
"Has he frozen in fear already? Why isn't he making any actions?"
"What a useless and timid asshole! It shouldn't be a big deal! It's only a little contest!"
"Ha-ha! If I were him, I would just kill myself to spare myself from all the embarrassment..."
The sarcastic voices echoed among the audiences.
"Basil!" Lena was getting nervous as well. She didn't understand why Rocky refused to make any
actions at all.
"Is he actually trying to kill himself? Is that how he wants to go?" Erica sneered. She thought that Rocky
had given up.
While everyone was puzzled by Rocky's frozen state, an unexpected change happened. The moment
Rocky summoned his dragon spiritual power, the Dragon Spirit Mark around his left arm began to
sparkle. What used to be a weak trace of his dragon spiritual power began to rise within a split second.
It seemed that his spiritual power had increased to the third grade of the Mortal Stage.
Nobody could believe what they saw with their very eyes.
Mia who was standing in the rest area was dumbstruck in amazement. "How could that even be
possible!? When did he reach the third grade of the Mortal Stage? And why haven't I noticed it at all?"
The young men behind Mia, including Bear and Flint, were caught off guard as well. None of them
knew how and when Rocky reached the third grade of the Mortal Stage.
Meanwhile, the emperor and the others nearly jumped out of their skin when they saw what was
happening, especially Priest Dean whose jaw almost fell to the ground.
But they still thought what Rocky did was all in vain. After all, his opponent almost reached the fifth
grade of the Mortal Stage and had defeated Bear with ease. There was no way he would have trouble
with Rocky.
Rocky knew well what the audiences were thinking. All of a sudden, the light around his left arm
dazzled brightly. His strength had now increased to the fourth grade of the Mortal Stage.
It all came out of the blue and none of the spectators expected any of it!
"Wow! That's truly surprising!" Erica marveled with her wide eyes. She knew that the way she initially
thought of Rocky had changed.
Who could have possibly known that the useless princess could reach the fourth grade in the blink of
an eye? Nobody had expected it to happen at all.
The daunting situation that the Magic Phoenix Empire predominated the game seemed to be
overturned soon.
That phoenix spirit manipulator was also stunned by Rocky. As he still froze in shock, Rocky flashed
away and succeeded in dodging the war beast and the spiritual martial arts attack. In a split second,
Rocky had disappeared from his vision.
"Hey!" Rocky patted his opponent's shoulder to show that he was already behind him.
But it was already too late before the phoenix spirit manipulator could react. Rocky raised a finger and
channeled his spiritual power to its tip as he pointed at his opponent's chest. As soon as his fingertip
touched the phoenix spirit manipulator's chest, the powerful spiritual power began to invade his body.
He was thrown away in an instant as he fell to the ground with a loud bang. He struggled to try and
stand up for a while but failed.
Rocky's surprise attack caught everyone off guard. Silence filled the air. Nobody could believe that
Rocky just won against the phoenix spirit manipulator. What they found much harder to believe was
that the useless prince just knocked down a formidable opponent with ease and in such fashion.
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