Teras was given a chance by the king of Hearts to prove himself by having a duel with him and Teras quickly accepted the deal
So to see the results everyone gathered in the private garden inside the castle and the king stood in the open garden facing Teras with a big smile on his face
"Why do you seem so happy kid? Do you think I will go easy on you?" The king asked as he too smiled
"Not really! I just haven't fought someone really strong who doesn't happen to be Enyo for a long long time!" Teras said as he stretched his limbs
"Really? Who was your last strong opponent?" The king asked
"A beast man I vaporized!" Teras said with a smile
"I see, then he wasn't strong! I mean strong strong not some nameless person!"
"Do you want me to tell you the truth?" Teras asked the king
"Obviously!"
"Can I Enyo?" Teras asked her
"Do as you wish!" Enyo said as she knew damn well what Teras was about to say
"I was the adventurer who fought the Joker and survived!"
As soon as Teras said that the king's expression changed, he seemed a bit more excited to fight
"Then why are we delaying the fight? Let's go!" The king said
Suddenly Teras used mana overcharging on his legs to launch himself at the king and then used a mana overcharge to punch the king but failed because the king dodged the attack
'What the hell is that?' The king thought
Teras with the momentum he had was launched behind the king and safely landed
"Damn it! This was supposed to be a surprise attack! I guess I can't win cheaply like that! I'm fighting the king of Hearts after all!" Teras said as he shook his legs and his hand
Teras still hasn't found a way to minimize the pain from the mana overcharge even after trying for years
Suddenly a bright string hit Teras on his cheek and then hit the ground making a dent in the ground
"Shocked? This is the power of the king's card!" The king asked
"Not so much! I expected it to be far worse!" Teras said with a smile
"Well, you haven't seen anything yet!" The king said as bright fangs came out of his fingers
This is the ability of the king's card, laser creation, a laser strong enough to penetrate diamonds and flexible enough to be used for many things other than combat
Teras activated his mana overflow and charged at the king, in response the king tried to attack him but missed by a little because Teras was purposely running as low as he could to create an advantage for him
'He is a giant so that means he has many blind spots! If I can attack him where he isn't able to see then I have a chance!' Teras thought as he ran around the king as fast as he could
'What the hell is going on? I can't see him unless I use mana vision! This kid really is pretty good, and wait... Is he trying to...'
Before the king could complete his thought Teras sliced him in the back
'I did it!' Teras happily thought as he landed from the jump he had to do in order to slash the king
"Impressive! You managed to catch me with my guard down! It won't happen again! So what do you say? Wanna try again to do what you did?" The king said with an inviting tone
"Sure! Watch me do it again!" Teras said as he charged at the king once again
But this time the king could easily keep up with his speed
BANG
Teras was punched in the face and launched toward the many trees the garden had
'Whops... Did I hit him too hard?' The king thought as he watched all the trees collapse
Suddenly a sphere of light came toward him at a fast rate and instinctively he cut it in two with his laser
BOOM
This sphere was a ranged explosion created by Teras
"So you use the 6th card? (Fire mastery)" The king asked as he shook off the smoke created by the explosion
"Nah! Just mana!" Teras said as he came out of the woods with damaged clothes
"Amazing! Let us continue!" The king said as he charged at Teras punching him on the side and breaking some of his ribs
'Huh? Blood? It's mine too! What happened?' The king thought as he saw blood coming out of his knuckles
"Do you think I'm that slow?" Teras asked as he was holding his dagger to the side of his body
The side the king attacked him
"It's been long since I have fought someone like you! Did you sacrifice your ribs just to scratch my knuckles? What kind of madman fights like that?" The king asked as he laughed
"Nobody but a crazy bastard like me can fight like that and win!" Teras said as he quickly got in front of the king's face
'This super speed again... This time I can't dodge...' The king thought as he prepared to counter
BANG
Teras's hand clashed with the king's creating a shockwave strong enough to shatter the windows of the castle near the garden
"They matched each other..." The princess said in shock
"Is that all friend? SHOW ME MORE!" The king yelled as he charged at Teras
BANG BANG BANG
A mana overcharge punch one after another Teras was fighting as hard as he could just to not get obliterated by one of the king's punches but it wasn't enough, after each punch the king came closer and closer to Teras but what happened next wasn't expected from anyone
The king closed the distance and kicked Teras all the way to the sky above every tree almost reaching the top floors of the castle
'Damn! He is too much for me...' Teras thought as he vomited blood
This was the aftermath of this strong kick from the king
"IT'S NOT OVER YET!" Teras screamed while he was in the air
He then used mana overload (explosion) with both of his hands in the sky, this way he flew at a high speed toward the king
'Now or never! I have to try it!' Teras thought as he put both of his hands together
…
SOME MONTHS AGO
"Can't you use this hyper mana charge thingy to your explosions? After all, you can use it on the mana-enhanced weapons so why not this?" Enyo asked confused
"Because I can't really pour more mana into the explosion inside my body because I will probably explode!" Teras explained
"There must be a way! How about your ranged form? It's not in your body so even if you used that then you wouldn't risk as much!" Enyo suggested
"Maybe it could work but it is still kind of hard! Because I will have to find a way to overcharge the explosion by bypassing the shield" Teras explained
…
Teras placed his hands together and created a rather big mana shield in the form of a ball, this ball was a bit bigger than a basketball then placed his hands on the shield, he then poured as much mana as he could and before reaching the king shrank the shield as much as possible
The result? A giant explosion that scared everyone in the capital that was near the castle and every bird in the area
After the explosion, Teras's hands were damaged and he was sent to the air again but with the help of his mana shields he was able to land safely
"TERAS WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING YOU, IDIOT! IF I WASN'T HERE THEN YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN EXECUTED!" Enyo screamed after she saved most of the castle after creating a big mana shield
"Splendid!" The king said as he clapped with his hands
"You tough bastard!" Teras said with a smile of despair after witnessing the king walk unfazed by this attack
"If you hadn't scream then you could have probably caused me more damage" The king said as he charged at Teras
"Gotcha!" Teras said as he jumped toward the king's face
The king was already delivering a strong hook from the top at Teras
But Teras had already put up his mana-charged sword at the top of his head and was about to stab the king in the face with his dagger, he was standing on top of a mana shield so he could easily stand on the same height as the king before he started to fall
The only thing the king felt at that moment was fear
Thankfully for him, he was able to dodge the stab and hit Teras in the face by redirecting his hook, barely managing to avoid his hand getting cut off by Teras's charged sword
Teras was barely able to stand after that attack, his nose was broken along with many other bones in his body but even after all that damage he was smiling
"Satisfied?" Teras asked with D E T E R M I N A T I O N in his voice
At that moment the king felt like he lost, a gold-ranked adventurer his wife and daughter underestimated embarrassed him in front of his family and friend
"Lola! Teras will be your mana tutor! Since he is your age make sure to get along and see him more like a friend than a teacher" The king said as he started walking away
"But dad he..."
"He what? Did you see the same thing I saw while fighting this kid? Because if you did then you would be pretty dumb not to accept him" The king said with anger in his voice
"Nice job Teras!" Enyo said as he ran up close to Teras
"Screw you!" Teras said as he high-fived Enyo
"Why didn't you use it?" Enyo asked
"It's useless against him! Do you think draining a bit of his mana would do anything?" Teras asked as he grabbed Enyo so he didn't fall
After some seconds into her arm, Teras fell unconscious
…
"Your fighting style will destroy you, dude"
---
"I know you don't mind but you can't keep telling *** to heal you! She will get tired of this at some point! You have to be a bit more responsible! What if there is one screw-up and you end up dying? Have you ever considered that?"
…
It was night, and the capital of the heart kingdom was filled with people and brightened up by lights, the most memorable and beautiful structure in this capital has to be the castle though, so many brains have come together to design it
Somewhere inside this beautiful castle, a princess was bragging her heart out
"I can't believe Dad forced me to have this guy stay in my room! How am I supposed to sleep?" The princess whined as she made strange gestures with her hands
"Don't worry! I will leave!" Teras said as he quickly got up, his shirt was missing
"Eeehhh! Y-You are awake... W-Wear a shirt!" The princess said as she threw a shirt at Teras
The shirt was probably provided by one of her maids
"Oh sorry if I startled you! I remember Enyo telling me girls like you have no male interaction so that explains why you are so embarrassed seeing me like this!" Teras said as he quickly put on the shirt
"T-T-That's not right! I'm not embarrassed! Just surprised, that's all!" The princess said as she looked away
"Anyway since I'm your teacher now might as well address you by name"
…
"Mind telling me your name please..." Teras said after the long awkward pause
"How dare you! You heard my father mentioning my name before!" The princess exclaimed madly
"You're right! What was it? Lilia? No wait... Lola! Yes, that's right!"
Lola was kind of surprised by the way Teras talked, she expected him to be a bit more formal
"Lola! A beautiful name unlike yours"
"Hey don't insult my name! Teras is amazing! Lola sounds like you are a spell or something!" Teras said with a smile
He then started noticing Lola's whole body from bottom to face and then remembered what Enyo told him earlier
…
"Now that the years passed you will probably start looking at girls differently! I'm only telling you that just so you can be cautious around the princess! Girls like that don't have many male interactions so just a small move from you might get you in trouble if you know what I mean! Anyway, the thing I'm trying to tell you is to be careful around her! Don't touch or flirt with her in any way! You don't want your head to end up in a pigpen or something right?"
…
'I'm not viewing girls differently in any way! I understood what Enyo meant but I'm not stupid enough to try anything on a princess! I can't imagine me being the king after I make her fall in love with me or something...' Teras thought as he stared at Lola
"W-What are you staring for? Did you fall for me on the first day of meeting me? Typical..." Lola said with a smug in her face
Teras didn't feel the need to respond, he simply stood up and exited her room
Two guards were standing outside the room
"Take me to my room" Teras said as he continued to walk
"Room? What room?" One of the guards asked
"Wait you mean I won't live in the castle?" Teras asked confused
"Of course not! This place is only meant for royalty and government officials! Not some kid like you" The other guard told Teras
"You heard them no? Now go out and find a cave to sleep, he, he, he!" Enyo said as she poked her head out of her private room
"I can't believe her..." Teras said as he stood outside the great castle that decorated the capital of the heart kingdom
It wasn't going to be hard to find a place to stay but Teras was still against doing that, he was too tired to search
'I guess it's going to be a long night' Teras thought as he started walking into the capital