"Jonathan Hopkins… I've never heard of the Hopkins family" Edward replied. To an heir of a powerful kingdom, the Hopkins family was indeed not worthy to be on his radar.
"Then you shall learn about the might of the Hopkins family today." Bruce raised up his fist and got into a battle stance. He didn't want to use Light Piercer against Edward as that would be too easy.
"Take out your weapon, I won't fight an unarmed opponent" Edward put a way his bow, a divine king weapon, and unsheathed his sword.
"Oh, I thought you were a bow user" Bruce was genuinely surprised when Edward opted for the sword. Bruce had noticed that the arrow that was shot at him had great precision and power. It's difficult to imagine a 10-year-old mastering another weapon.
"I prefer the sword over the bow. I'll wait for you to pull out your weapon of choice" Edward felt extreme danger from Bruce. It was the first time in his life that someone at his age range could make him feel like this. He was extremely excited to be able to go all out.
"As you wish your highness" Against all expectations, Bruce pulled out a weapon that Edward had never expected, a frying pan.
"Are you serious?" Edward looked coldly at Bruce. He thought that Bruce treated him as a joke and determined to win the fight with a frying pan to humiliate him.
"This is the only thing in my storage ring that I'm comfortable using. Trust me, many people have been defeated under this frying pan" Bruce gestured Edward to come at him and the battle began.
Edward charged straight at Bruce and slashed toward Bruce aiming for his neck. Bruce immediately blocked the sword with his frying pan.
CLANK
Edward was shocked that Bruce's frying pan was able to block his attack. The frying pan didn't look like a divine artifact and yet it was able to block his divine king artifact. Edward looked closely at the frying pan and noticed that something was coating it.
The answer to Edward's question was earth aura. Characteristic of the earth element is hardness. A proficient earth elemental user can coat their weapons to significantly increase its durability. Bruce coated the entire frying pan with strong condensed earth aura that even a divine king artifact wouldn't be able to break it easily. However, the outcome would be different if the opponent was at a higher cultivation stage.
"See, I told you that it's not a joke weapon." Bruce proceeded to smack Edward in the face with the frying pan. When Edward touched his cheek and felt a burn on his face. He finally got serious and used his special technique, the darkness element.
Edward touched the grass beneath his feet and burned everything with his flames. The flame quickly spread to the surrounding area and caused the entire place to be under fire. When the fire started to burn even more, the flames turned into dark flames and charged directly at Bruce. The dark flames devoured everything in its way.
Bruce jumped up to dodge the dark flames only to find Edward behind him ready to strike.
"Not bad your highness"
Bruce blocked the strike from Edward but got kicked by him. He landed on the ground and recovered quickly. Just as Edward was about to send the dark flames to his location again, something unbelievable happened. Bruce raised up his hands and stopped the dark flames coming to him. He then waved his hands and caused all the dark flames to instead converge to Edward.
"What, you have darkness element as well?"
Edward was extremely shocked to see his own technique reversed back to him. Darkness element is extremely rare in the world. Though not as rare as lightning element, darkness was the next rarest element on the list. Controlling the darkness element is extremely difficult that it took Edward 4 years to master.
Ed could not believe someone at his age also mastered the element to such an extent that he could steal the dark flames under his control.
'People been calling me a monster all my life, but this guy is the real monster'
Edward could not overwhelm his opponent with his aura which made him realize that his opponent was at least at the same cultivation stage that he was. This only caused his fiery spirit to burn even brighter as he jumped at Bruce.
"Come on, let's fight to the death!" Edward now had a crazy expression as he lunged through the dark flames to get to Bruce.
"I have to admit, you're the first person that I've met to love fighting this much" Bruce saw Edward's crazed eyes and knew what kind of person he is. Someone who is born to fight. Someone who has the spirit of the God of War.
"Unfortunately, I don't have time to fight with you all day. I have other people to rob" Bruce coated the frying pan with all his elemental energies and smashed the frying pan into Edward's sword.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The explosion attracted everyone in the forest. When everyone came to the explosion site, they found the most shocking thing ever, Prince Edward was laying on the ground unconscious. No one dared to come near him to do anything because his background was just too powerful.
The priestess of the Church of Light came by and saw the state of Prince Edward. She frowned underneath the veil and came near him.
The priestess summoned light energy and channeled them into Edward to heal him. Light energy is known as energy of life. Only those who are born from the pure lineage of the church of light could obtain the power to use this energy. The priestess continuously channeled light energy into Edward until his expression became rosy once again. After one hour, he finally woke up.
Edward opened his eyes and saw a young girl wearing a veil touching his chest.
"Who are you?" Edward asked.
"The one who saved your exam results" The priestess replied.
"You must be the priestess of the Church of Light. Why did you help me?" Edward got up to his feet and started to inspect his body.
"I have my reasons. Let's just say you owe me a debt from now on" The priestess stopped channeling light energy and stepped away from Edward.
"Is that so?" Edward frowned when he heard the priestess' reasoning. He didn't know much about the Church of Light, but he knew that it is a powerful entity that is comparable to the Kingdom Alliance.
"I want to ask you something, who did you fight?" The priestess was curious about Edward's opponent. It's well known that Edward is the strongest person in the young generation. It's impossible for another person in the same generation to defeat him.
"It's the bandit" Edward gritted his teeth as he recalled the battle.
"Did someone sneak into the exam to kill you?" The priestess thought that the bandit was an adult, not an exam candidate.
"No, the bandit is a candidate in the exam. He's about the same age as me and you!" Edward felt even more angry at himself for losing that battle. All he could remember was getting smacked by that stupid frying pan before he got knocked out.
"I thought no one in the young generation can defeat you" The priestess replied.
"Well, you're wrong. I got defeated by someone in our generation. I no longer hold the strongest title" Edward checked his body and found that his storage ring has been stolen. Also, all of his points have been wiped out by Bruce.
'This guy is really a fucking bandit!' Edward cursed internally.
The priestess spent some time contemplating the information she had just received from Edward and asked one more question.
"I don't suppose you have his name" The priestess looked at Edward waiting for a response.
"As a matter of fact, I do."
"His name is Jonathan Hopkins!"