He retreated continuously with a look of terror on his face, then, as if remembering something, he shouted with all his might:
"Erik! Erik! Where is the mage of the guard? Save me! Save me!"
He retreated while placing his hope on the guard.
The guards had many gold-tier mages, all battle-hardened, and Owen's current state was somewhat weak.
As long as they acted in time, he would definitely survive today! As a favored genius, he didn't want to die!
However, despite his continuous shouting, none of the mages of the guard responded to him!
"Where are the guards? A bunch of useless trash! Get out here now!"
Seeing Owen already close to him, Alfonso became even more terrified and panicked, his words filled with raging fury.
"The guards? Didn't you send the guards to assassinate me? As a mage of Kyrik, you dared to encircle and kill me in broad daylight in the imperial capital. You have quite the guts. If you really want to see the guards, I will mercifully fulfill your wish!"
Owen shook his head, looking at Alfonso, whose ugly demeanor was fully exposed in the face of a life-and-death crisis.
The murderous intent in his eyes grew even stronger and more red.
Under Owen's murderous gaze, Alfonso trembled, shaking his head repeatedly:
"Impossible, Erik and the others are gold-tier mages. With your strength, it's impossible to kill them!"
When Owen arrived at the stage earlier, Alfonso had seen clearly that Owen didn't have much combat fluctuation on him.
Although he had been delayed for some time coming here, it was simply a pipe dream to think that Owen could kill all of Erik and the others in such a short time!
After all, according to their investigation, Owen only had a pair of Wolf Guards with him, among which the strongest was Benedict, a gold-tier mage, who couldn't possibly be a match for Erik and his men.
Owen smiled faintly, pulling out Erik's storage ring from his chest, "You are considered a hero of a generation, so let me let you die knowing the truth!"
Alfonso looked at the storage ring in Owen's hand. It bore Erik's signature and had a unique design.
He recognized it immediately—this was undoubtedly Erik's storage ring!
Erik was quite greedy, and considering the importance of this mission, he wouldn't have handed over his storage ring to anyone else, let alone to Owen!
Erik and his team might indeed have met with misfortune!
Alfonso's heart was filled with despair. His last hope was ruthlessly crushed by Owen.
At that moment, Owen raised his sword and swiftly beheaded him. Alfonso had just prepared to beg for mercy, but his voice was forever silenced in his throat.
Boom!
With the successive slaying of the Fire Dragon King and Alfonso, Owen's level increased again.
He advanced from silver-tier level 9 to gold-tier level 1, and his experience bar was very close to gold-tier level 2.
Although it seemed like just a single-tier breakthrough, this tier was a chasm that most mages couldn't cross.
Only by becoming a gold-tier mage could one be considered to have respectable status and strength.
At this level, they were essentially entering the middle to upper echelons of the empire!
With the completion of his advancement, Owen felt a comfortable tingling sensation throughout his body, as if he had taken a refreshing nap.
His body became stronger, his spirit more vigorous, and he resonated more strongly with the surrounding mana.
At the same time, as Alfonso was a relatively important prodigy, Owen gained 1000 fate points!
Owen smiled slightly, feeling quite rewarded.
Meanwhile, the many mages observing the battle were already stunned.
Alfonso was a top prodigy from Kyrik Gowato Sanctuary.
Owen, as a prodigy of the Azure Kingdom, had killed him. Kyrik would not take this lightly!
"Mr. Owen is too bold, daring to kill Alfonso. Kyrik has long coveted our Azure Kingdom, and this might provoke another war!"
"Alfonso was too arrogant and actively provoked us. He deserved to die! If we clash with Kyrik, so be it. It's their fault in the first place!"
"Hmph, Kyrik has many mages and spellbeasts, far more than we can compare with. If a real war breaks out, how will we withstand it?"
At this time, many mages of the Azure Kingdom were panicking, thinking a war might be imminent.
Some wealthy merchants and mages were already considering plans to leave as soon as possible.
Kyrik is immensely powerful, and the Azure Kingdom is likely not their match!
Originally silently observing this Magic Competition from the palace, King Aldric and several high-ranking ministers hurried to the scene.
Seeing the beheaded Alfonso and the Fire Dragon King, most of them felt heavy-hearted, though some ministers were elated, feeling a sense of vindication.
Upon King Aldric's arrival, he immediately looked anxiously at Edward.
Edward, seeing King Aldric's concern, spoke slowly, "Your Majesty, there's no need to be so worried. Alfonso initiated this life-and-death duel. Once agreed upon, it's sacred. Losing means death, and there's nothing to complain about."
"Moreover, Owen previously killed Kyrik's commander Bada. While we don't know how Mr. Owen accomplished this, according to the universally accepted laws of the continent, Commander Bada intruded upon Azure Kingdom territory without cause. Mr. Owen, being from the Azure Kingdom, was within his rights to act against him."
Hearing this, King Aldric and his ministers all breathed a sigh of relief.
They were aware of these laws and regulations, but hearing it from the mouth of Academy City gave it more authority.
At the very least, in terms of public opinion, Kyrik's actions against the Azure Kingdom would be unjustified.
At that moment, under the gaze of the crowd, Owen began to search Alfonso's belongings, especially his storage ring!
Alfonso was a renowned prodigy, and he undoubtedly had many valuable items on him!
Sure enough, after Owen carefully sensed Alfonso's storage ring, he discovered, besides high-quality weapons and 10 million gold coins, there was also a small brooding chamber specifically for hatching spellbeasts!
This discovery excited Owen.
It's known that living creatures can't be stored in a storage ring, but a small brooding chamber can!
It creates a space within the ring where living creatures can be stored.
Many powerful individuals place brooding chambers in their rings to ensure the safe hatching of their spellbeasts.
A brooding chamber is priceless and can even sell for 20 million gold coins! This is equivalent to half a year's income for House Ravenwood.
Clearly, the church spared no expense in cultivating Alfonso.
After looting Alfonso, Owen's gaze turned to the Fire Dragon King. Its massive corpse, now deflated like a punctured ball, lay sprawled on the wrecked stage.
Owen's fingers made a grasping motion, and from the chest of the corpse, he extracted a fist-sized crimson core.
As a platinum-tier fire attribute spellbeast, the Fire Dragon King's beast core was invaluable and could be used to help incubate the snake egg!
A snake egg hatched with a fire dragon core would yield a spellbeast far superior to those hatched normally!
However, Owen didn't rush to start the incubation process. After all, the snake egg was one of his greatest secrets and a powerful weapon for the future!
Placing the fire dragon core into his storage ring, Owen thought for a moment before crushing an echo stone he retrieved from within.
This was the echo stone Leslie had given him, indicating the start of their operation when crushed!
Afterward, Owen calmed himself and slowly took out an emergency letter, sealed with Kyrik's grand seal, from Alfonso's storage ring.
"Your Majesty, this was found in Alfonso's storage ring. Please take a look."
Owen courteously used mana to float the letter over to King Aldric.
King Aldric glanced at the contents of the letter, and a surge of anger suddenly appeared on his stern and dignified face!
Though the anger quickly subsided, King Aldric was now the focus of everyone's attention, and all the ministers closely watched his every move.
Seeing the king's anger, their gazes swiftly locked onto the letter.
"Such outrageous bullying!"