"Superior stage...since when was this and why didn't I know?"
"I'm more surprised at the fact that we could not see through it..."
Creusery chuckled and rose his hand. The ring Arthur threw to the ground flew towards him as he replied to Cattleya and Inglis respectively.
"It was supposed to be a surprise so I didn't tell you. As for how you didn't see through it, it's naturally because of my concealment ring."
He held up the ring in his hands as he spoke. He then went on to explain how his attempt at making Arthur gain a near-death experience by pitting him against an inferior-stage grandmaster realm monster, resulted in the eight-year-old breaking through to the superior stage of the master realm.
On a side note, the young prince still lost the Fight and Creusery had to step in to end the monster. After all, a newly advanced superior stage was no match for an inferior stage grandmaster who had been in that realm for years.
Naturally, Cattleya was livid upon hearing this and would have ended up making Creusery gain his own near-death experience if not for Inglis who restrained her timely.
◇ ◇ ◇
While Cattleya was trying to murder her own brother for putting her son in a dangerous situation, the son in question was laughing at Layla's surprise.
"I was born in the intermediate stage, that was eight years ago. Don't you think I should have improved by now, even you are now at the intermediate stage."
He remarked on Layla's increase in strength. Originally born in the inferior stage of the master realm, she had absorbed energy cores from master realm beasts over the years, improving her strength by a stage.
She could have attempted to improve even further but she stopped due to her low absorption efficiency. She decided to wait for her magic blooming and continue afterwards. For now, she focused on honing her skills and techniques.
Naturally, if she could do that, then so could Arthur.
"I used to absorb cores from when I could finally manipulate my energy to the level of my mum's ridiculous standards, however, I have been losing my ability to manipulate my energy recently.
Hopefully, this would be resolved at the time of my magic blooming, advancing in realm without the help of the convenient energy cores is tiring."
His words were said casually but the weight of them was far from casual. Conrad frowned as he heard this.
'At eight, he should be getting better at manipulating his energy as his magic blooming is getting closer. Something is wrong somewhere...'
He looked towards the royals seated at his lift but they showed no surprise, as they were already aware of this. Deciding to think about it later, he turned his focus to the duel.
"Just because you're a stage higher doesn't mean you can't lose."
"That's what I like to hear."
**BANG!!
The moment Arthur replied, a shining bullet that seemed to consist of condensed dark light was fired. It left a sparkly trail as it drew near Arthur.
It was faster than the light arrows produced by most bow artifact users that Arthur had faced.
"?!"
Arthur took a huge leap to the side to avoid it. However, that was a wrong move as the second bullet fired by Layla was already well on its way as though she had been aiming for Arthur's landing spot from the start.
"--?!"
Arthur felt he had made a blunder, he did not have much experience fighting gun users as he usually just blasted them with long-range magic from afar. This was why he was being over cautious, had he evaded it with minimal actions, such a blunder would not have taken place.
'But, it's not a mistake just yet.'
**CRANKK!!
Although Arthur refused to use magic in this fight, this did not mean that weapons were out of the question. ON his right wrist was a bracelet, an artifact that absorbed the wielder's magic power and created a weapon out of it.
Even if it looked simple, it was quite difficult to use, even more so with his declining energy manipulation abilities. As such, he was stuck with the default setting, sword Creation.
He had used this artifact for so long so he could now deploy it almost instantaneously and use it to repel Layla's bullet on the spur of the moment.
**KA-PYUNG!!
The ice sword he created with the artifact created a clear resonating sound as it repelled the bullet that aimed for Arthur's feet.
"How's this?!"
Layla fired three more bullets as she spoke. Normally, some magi tech guns had the shortcoming of needing a few moments to reload the bullets into the cartridge, however, Layla's guns had no such shortcomings.
Arthur repelled all three bullets. By closely observing her gaze, the muzzle's angle, and her finger movements, he could estimate the bullet's trajectory.
The young prince was beginning to appreciate the harsh training Creusery made him go through.
The repelled bullets were sent flying in the direction of the spectators but a barrier that was erected between them prevented it from getting close.
Arthur paid this no mind as he kicked off the ground and dashed towards Layla. Her fighting style relied on controlling the distance between her and her opponent by gunning them down and leaving little gabs to be taken advantage of.
While she could fare well in close combat, she preferred to fight this way. Arthur also decided to play by her game and take victory too instead of using a long-range attack himself.
**BANG! BANG!! BANG!!!
Whilst evading the gunfire by a paper-thin margin, Arthur stepped forward and warded off bullets that would likely hit him with the sword. . Evasion, stepping in, and warding off, he made instantaneous decisions for each action as he drew nearer.
"I'm not stopping either, you know!"
Right. What was most troubling with fighting Layla was that she herself was keen and agile with extraordinary physical prowess, unlike other ranged fighters who had more of agility than physical strength.
'Which is why it's fun. It's worth the challenge!'
"I'll show you I can reach you!"
The gap between Arthur and Layla was gradually closing up as Arthur repelled her onslaught of bullets. However, she still had her composure. This means she had some sort of ace up her sleeve.
The question was; when would she use it?
◇ ◇ ◇
Layla on the other hand, was admiring Arthur in her heart. Having met the young prince multiple times, she knew how carefree he was and how he always seemed to take everything as a joke.
Seeing his strength now, made here realize that there were indeed thing she took seriously. After all, it would be impossible for him to ward off her bullets like so if he was not training seriously.
His perceivability was dead accurate due to the sharp senses he inherited from his mother's bloodline. His movement was exceptionally keen and agile while his gestures were fluid and graceful.
Layla had begun to question if he was actually an eight-year-old like her.
As he thought this, Arthur slipped past her right hand and arrived in front of her eyes. He came around Layla's side to make sure the muzzle of her gun would have a hard time aiming at him.
He only needed one more step and Layla would be within reach of his sword. That was when Layla suddenly grinned evilly.
The contrast between her beautiful face and her evil grin made stunned Arthur for a second. It was either that or the fact that her green paralyzing magic eyes flashed for a moment when she struck out her empty left hand.
In her grasp, another gun made its appearance.
'Shit!'
**BANG!!
"Kugh!"
In the nick of time, Arthur roused his magic power to resist the paralysis effect and managed to twist his body to avoid a direct hit, but the bullet grazed his shoulder.
A part of his clothes was blown away and the shockwave of the bullet pushed him back.
"An Opening!"
"Not yet!"
Even if he was shoved back, he gritted his teeth to bear the pain and attempted to reposition himself and regain his posture.
He somehow managed to repel the bullets that mercilessly pursued him with his ice sword whilst he retreated, but by the time his stance was fixed, the distance between him and Layla was wider than before he went for the offense.
"Now our roles have switched! Can you still get closer?"
There was not enough room to slip amidst the barrage of bullets. Layla's guns would not run out of ammunition quickly and, while she might not hit him, Arthur did not have the leeway to get close to her.
Just evading and warding them off took his everything. If this continued on, would Layla eventually run out of energy? Or would Arthur to be the one to exhaust himself first…?
With their roles switched, Arthur was the only one moving around while Layla's feet were locked in place.
If so, Arthur deliberately put one foot back and readied himself in a side stance. He grasped the hilt of his ice sword with both hands then set it horizontal to his waist. It was all to maximize the velocity and the maneuverability of his sword.
**BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!!
Layla's rapid triple shots came flying at close intervals to hit Arthur's narrow stance. Arthur's eyes then flashed blue as they glittered like a bird of prey.
Although it was for a short moment, he could feel everything in the area around him slow.
"I see it!"
His ice sword flashed!
**PLANK! PLANK!! PLANK!!!
Three dry noises resounded, and the sight that came right after that shocked Layla out of her mind. Her light bullets were rebounded and went straight towards herself. Even the spectators were slightly surprised. Creuserey on the other hand laughed while saying,
"He finally learnt it."
As for Layla,
"EEEeeeehh!?!"
Layla was so astonished that she could not help but shout. Ever since she began training with her household's knights, even if she had seen time and time again her bullets getting warded off by a sword, this was the first time she had her own bullets sent straight back to her.
Layla's feet were unmoving as she had become the one on the offense, so Arthur had aimed to hit her squarely by rebounding her projectiles.
Truly a frightening skill to behold. This was no longer a matter of physical power, how could an eight year old like her possess such frightening skill. Was this what they called a 'genius'?
Layla countered the incoming bullets by shooting bullets into them. She managed to repel two of the three, but;
'The last one will hit me!'
She was left with no choice but to leap away. In that slight moment, her rapid shooting had to stop. She didn't have any intention to take her eyes off Arthur, even so——
'He's gone!'
The moment that thought came up, Layla's field of vision caught beautiful, silvery threads fluttering nearby. It was the sight of Arthur's hair. That meant one thing, he was already up close.
'He sneaked into my reach!'
"!"
**DOON!!
Riding the momentum, Arthur activated body-strengthening magic as he slammed into Layla with his shoulder.
"UWAaahh!?!"
Layla's light body was blown quite far away by the force of the impact. She flew towards the barrier in the spectators' direction.
However, defying Arthur's expectation from the pinging sound of the collision, Layla was actually not repelled by the barrier and landed quite softly.
The barrier was probably set up this way to prevent injuries.
**CCRRACK!!
The cracking sound signifying that her sacrificial artifact had been broken resounded across the training room. Hearing this, Arthur laughed as he walked over to her to help her stand up.
"You're quite good."
"Thank you for the praise, your highness."
"Don't be so stiff, just call me Arthur."
"But your hi-"
"Arthur."
"Yo-"
"Arthur."
Seeing that Arthur was not going to let this matter pass, she finally agreed to call him by his name, to which he smiled in response. She was mesmerized by his bright smile and couldn't help staring.
'He's pretty, prettier than some girls. If he grew his hair out it'd be-!'
Upon realizing her thoughts were going in a strange direction, she blushed and shook his hand off lightly, taking distance from him.
Arthur just tilted his head in confusion before saying,
"Uncle Bel, give her the guns."
"My name is Belphegor, not Bel, Prince Arthur."
Belphegor remarked as usual as he presented the magic guns, which hadn't been unpacked to Layla.
"Your-! Arthur? Why? I lost, didn't I?"
"I never really needed them in the first place. I just wanted to add it to my collection, it'd be of better use in your hands."
Layla smiled brightly and thanked Arthur before running to her dad while squealing happily. Seeing this, Grand Duke Conrad Eryrth patted her head before bowing lightly to Arthur.
"Thank you, your highness."
"It's nothing much, just a whim of mine."
Arthur replied before turning around to Creusery who was walking towards him and continued.
"I won, no training for a month. Plus I learnt that technique, so no training for two months!"
He made a guts pose and then turned back to Layla before speaking.
"You'd accompany me quite a lot in the next two months. Brace yourself, I enjoy wandering around a lot."
After saying this, he ran to the changing room to change out of his torn shirt.
The others who were left in the room all looked at Layla with sympathetic eyes. As for Layla, she was confused,
"Huh? What's wrong? Why's everyone looking at me funny? Even you too dad?"
Belphegor walked up to her and patted her shoulders as he spoke with a sad voice.
"I'll try to restrain him but, my condolences."
"Huh? Can someone please explain what's going on?!"