"Be honoured!" Desser spoke towards the crowd but directed his comments to the legless knight. "This knight's life will finally serve a purpose. It'll strengthen me and your kingdom."
Desser then ordered Vince to untie the knight and give him a sword. Vince looked at Desser with worry and confusion, but he did as he was told.
"By my decree, Desser Mogar, prince of this kingdom, this traitor's family will be shown mercy if he manages to kill me. We will fight to the death. Let Brutreq determine the victor!"
No one spoke against the prince's suicidal decree because he invoked Brutreq's name, and Magi Cornelius stood witness. Everyone looked concerned for Desser's safety except Cornelius. That's because the priestly Magi had faith in Brutreq's justice.
The prince and the traitor faced each other on the ground, each awkwardly holding onto their sword like two crabs. If the knights hadn't seen the savage scene from Desser previously, they would have laughed at the strange scenario unfolding before them.
The knight had finally been able to speak because he was gagged this whole time: "Please, my prince! Have mercy!"
"Vince!" Desser glanced at him with annoyance. "Cut his tongue out."
Desser had two reasons to do this. First, because he knew he'd lose the resolve to kill the traitor if he felt bad. Second, he wanted the knight to rely on his survival skills and not his words.
If Desser needed to fight and use Magic in combat to become stronger, then what better test dummy than a legless knight that's at his level. Why kill innocent animals to practice when he had a guilty human as his best experimental subject!
The traitor began to panic and threw his sword at the prince before Vince could cut his tongue out. The knight thought he could get an easy kill by using a surprise attack.
Desser managed to move out of the way in time, but the sword still wounded his leg. He couldn't feel it, but the blood loss could affect his consciousness.
"No need for swords anyway," Desser said as he threw his sword to the side. Both opponents were now disarmed.
"I want to practice my Magic, not my swordsmanship!" The prince laughed, sending chills down the traitor's spine.
The traitor thought to himself, 'how could he be so calm? Was the prince always this insane? I've got two Circles. Surely, I have more Magic than a prince who almost failed to create a Circle during the Arch-Magi's Trials.'
As the traitor was lost in thought, Desser wasted no time. He began concentrating an Energy bullet made of condensed light. He shot it towards his opponent.
VOOM! The shot flew past the traitor shocking him out of his muse.
'Dammit! I guess my nerves got the best of me, and I missed.' Desser thought as he conjured more Magic.
The traitor immediately blasted a stream of water towards Desser. The water blast lacked power because the traitor shot it instinctively. It wasn't a strong blast because the traitor did not concentrate the stream of water; his lack of concentration was caused by the fear he felt from the powerful Energy bullet.
The traitor was already exhausted, and their Magic was slightly depleted. Before the Death Game began, he was running away from being caught and hiding his presence with Magic. Now, he felt the pain of losing his legs, and his face still throbbed at the beating he received.
The water blast was the worst choice of Magic that the traitor could've used. It takes more Magic to create water when there is none around, which means he was close to having no Magic left.
When the water blasted towards Desser's face, he freaked out more than he should have. The feeling of drowning resurfaced despite the weakness of the water Magic.
Instantly, Desser sent an Energy blast like those he used at the pond. His Targetted Amplification increased the shot's speed. No one saw it fly through the water and towards the traitor's arm.
The prince stopped panicking from the water blast as soon as he heard his opponent screamed. He saw that the knight's arm was cut off from the elbow. Only half it was still there while the rest was blown towards the crowd of knights.
For the first time during the fight, Desser looked at the faces of the knights watching the gladiator arena-like spectacle. Their faces all looked at Desser in awe and excitement. Some even were cheering for the prince.
Desser thought to himself, 'it seems that there will always be these kinda sickos regardless of the world.'
The traitor used his other hand to hold onto his half-blown-off arm. The pain instinctively made him grab his arm but also made him unable to shoot Magic towards Desser.
The prince shot another beam at the knight. The beam went flying past his head but not without first blowing a hole through his ear. The knight couldn't think properly anymore as pain enveloped his body.
Suddenly, a gust of wind cut Desser's cheek. He had no idea how his opponent could create Magic even though he had no use of his limbs.
Meanwhile, no one else seemed to have noticed that Desser's cheek was cut by Magic. The traitor's screams distracted everyone from the Wind Magic.
The traitor roared and said, "you fuckin' useless prince! We all know who the rightful king should be! Your lineage will end with you even if it's not by my han—"
He was interrupted by the prince's energy blast shot through his skull.