Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 109: Evershade [11] Ball Slayer vs Liora Stromvale 3
The air in the training ground had begun to change, not just metaphorically, but physically. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Liora’s anger was no longer a controllable spark, but had turned into a freezing storm engulfing her entire body and surroundings.
With her bloody face and disheveled hair, she resembled a banshee sworn to vengeance more than a knight.
Her hands gripped the hilt of her sword until her knuckles turned white.
Ice-blue energy overflowing from her mana core wrapped around the steel like a serpent, beginning to absorb the heat around it.
The ground beneath her feet froze with a crackling sound. The moisture hanging in the air suddenly crystallized, turning into diamond dust falling to the ground.
As she breathed in and out, the vapor escaping her mouth formed a dull gray fog cloud in the air.
"Ice Flower Sword Art," she whispered, her voice mingling with the howl of the wind. "Second Thorn: Frozen Graveyard."
Cassian recognized this stance. In the lore of the game "Child of the Dawn," it was one of Liora’s signature moves.
This art not only delivered a physical cut; by suddenly dropping the ambient temperature, it stiffened the opponent’s muscles, slowed their reflexes, and offered an inevitable death.
Anything the sword touched was doomed to freeze from the inside out.
However, neither fear nor a defense reflex appeared on Cassian’s face.
His face was like a stagnant lake in the middle of a storm; serene, expressionless, and frighteningly calm.
The woman opposite him was the genius sword master of the Imperial Academy and was emitting a serious killing intent towards him.
But Cassian held his katana loosely, almost as if he were going to drop it, as if Liora were giving him a simple greeting rather than a deadly attack.
The biggest mistake Liora made was her pride. She was still suppressing herself to the Fourth Star level.
She wanted to defeat her opponent "without tricks, under equal conditions", but what she didn’t understand was that Cassian’s "trick" was his very existence.
The spectators in the training ground watched this scene with astonishment and continued to shower Liora with tighter cheers.
However, the concern of those who knew Cassian was different.
Eric had involuntarily reached for his sword. Cold sweat was running down his forehead. His fear was not for Cassian; he had seen what Cassian could do.
Eric’s fear was for Liora. "If Cassian doesn’t hold back... Evershade’s daughter won’t leave this field alive," he thought with horror.
Cordelia, on the other hand, was standing on her tiptoes on the sidelines, her eyes shining with admiration as she watched Cassian.
For her, this wasn’t a threat, but a show where Cassian would display his power. "Tear her apart, Cassian," she shouted, with an innocent but wild smile on her lips.
Marquis Aldren had come to the edge of the platform, leaning his hands on a fence beside him. That bad feeling inside him was making him nauseous.
On one side his daughter, on the other the mysterious, dangerous ally who saved his son. Cassian’s motionless stance... This wasn’t surrender. This was the silence of a predator becoming completely motionless just before pouncing on its prey’s neck.
"Should I intervene?" the Marquis wondered internally. "Or should I let this duel go to the end?"
If he didn’t intervene, one or both of them could be disastrously injured. The Marquis remained undecided.
At that moment, Liora made her decision and lunged forward.
The ground froze beneath her feet with every step she took, white frost spreading across the entire training ground like a plague. The moisture in the air turned into ice crystals, wrapping around Cassian like a cage.
When she swung her Orion sword, time seemed to slow down. As the cold steel of the sword cut through the air, the atmosphere along its path instantly froze, leaving behind a comet trail consisting of dense white fog and sharp ice particles hanging in the air. This freezing arc descended towards Cassian’s chest like an inevitable end.
Just at that moment... Pitch black darkness flashed in Cassian’s pupils.
"Chaos Flames."
A layer of lightless flame, blacker than coal, spread over his pitch-black katana.
At that moment, the attention of everyone in the training ground broke away from Liora’s ice and locked onto this anomaly on Cassian’s sword.
No one in the world possessed such an ability. This was neither elemental magic nor black magic. This was pure destruction.
Cassian swung his katana upwards in a reverse arc to meet the oncoming ice storm. The black flames erupting from the blade did not burn the air; they seemed to tear the fabric of reality, opening a dark rift resembling the vacuum of space behind it.
Millimeters before the two swords touched, a massive mana explosion occurred between them.
This destructive meeting covered the huge arena with the aura of two opposite colors for a moment. While matter at the point of contact screamed a high-pitched scream oscillating between existence and non-existence, the shockwave spreading in waves tore the air apart.
The training ground shook. The dust and steam cloud rising from the ground hid the point of collision. Soldiers staggered backward with the spreading shockwave.
Silence returned as the dust cloud settled.
When the smoke cleared, the scene that emerged froze everyone’s blood.
Marquis Aldren stood right in the middle of Cassian and Liora.
He had come between them like a wall. His body was covered with those enormous, crackling blue lightning bolts of the Eighth Star level. Electric currents traveled over his skin like armor.
The Marquis had spread both arms to the sides, catching both swords in the air with his bare hands.
With his left hand, he had grasped Liora’s ice-covered sword. With his right hand, he held Cassian’s katana burning with those ominous black flames.
All eyes widened with the shock of this scene. Marquis Aldren had stopped two deadly attacks simultaneously.
The Marquis raised his head. His eyes flashed lightning with anger. His voice thundered like thunder.
"ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF YOU!"
Liora flinched at this sudden and frightening intervention from her father.
That desire to kill within her suddenly extinguished in the face of her father’s authority.
She was out of breath. The weight of what she had done, trying to kill a guest, her brother’s savior, settled on her shoulders.
With trembling hands, she pulled her sword from her father’s hand and slowly sheathed it. She bowed her head, filled with shame and an anger that still hadn’t subsided.
Cassian, on the other hand, was unresponsive.
He extinguished the chaos flames on his katana.
He pulled the sword gently but firmly from the Marquis’s hand. There was neither fear nor surprise on his face.
He was as relaxed as if he had known from the very beginning that the Marquis would intervene.
He placed his sword into its sheath with that characteristic "click" sound.
After giving the Marquis a short, ambiguous look, he turned his back. Hands in his pockets, as if nothing had happened, he began to walk towards Eric and Cordelia waiting on the side.
The soldiers in the training ground made way for him with an expression mixed with fear and respect. No one was laughing at him calling him "Ball Hunter" anymore. Those black flames they had just seen were etched into their minds.
As Liora left her father’s side with her head down and quickly moved away from the field, Marquis Aldren remained where he was. His lightning had dissipated.
He slowly looked at his hands.
His left hand, the hand that stopped Liora’s deadly "Second Thorn" attack... Was almost undamaged.
There was only a slight, superficial ice burn and a small scratch on his palm. Considering the difference between his own level and his daughter’s, this was an expected situation.
But then he looked at his right hand.
The hand that stopped Cassian’s attack.
The Marquis’s pupils trembled.
The inside of his palm was split with a deep cut. But what was truly terrifying wasn’t the cut. The flesh around the wound had blackened as if charred and wasn’t healing. The Marquis’s enormous regeneration ability, his body resistance at the Eighth Star level... all had stopped at that wound.
Black flames... Had eaten not only his skin but also his mana in that area.
The Marquis clenched his hand and tried to hide his wound. His heart was beating with a fear he hadn’t felt in a long time.
The boy opposite him appeared to be only at the Second Star level on paper. His daughter had suppressed herself to the Fourth Star.
But that boy... that Second Star level boy had managed to pierce through the "Lightning Armor" of Marquis Aldren, one of the strongest warriors of the Empire, and leave a permanent wound on him.
If the Marquis hadn’t intervened... Liora would be dead right now. Her sword would have shattered like glass against Cassian’s black flame, and that cut would have split his daughter in two.
The Marquis looked at the back of Cassian walking away. His shoulders were straight, his steps relaxed.
"Those flames..." whispered the Marquis to himself. "That power... What on earth is he truly?"
His mind, his logic couldn’t grasp this situation. It was against the rules of magic he knew, against the balance of power. There was only one thing he knew now: This man was not just his son’s savior.
He was a walking disaster for the whole world, regardless of friend or foe. And Marquis Aldren thanked the gods that; this disaster was on their side for now.
_ _ _
Hi everyone,
I’ve started working on a new novel.
Its theme and story structure are completely different from my current one.
If you’re into academy settings, a yandere twist, a strange main character, and a single female lead, you might enjoy this one.
[F-Rank Beast: The Heroine’s Useless Partner]
