The floating visual screens hovering above the grand arena flickered to life, projecting live, crystal-clear feeds from the deep, dark sectors of the high-rank dungeon. The massive stadium was entirely dead silent. Thousands of spectators—foreign delegates, high-ranking priests, and seasoned war veterans from across the continent—sat with their eyes glued to the shifting magical displays.
What they expected to see was a standard, grueling struggle for survival. What they witnessed instead was an absolute, flawless slaughter of monsters.
Down in the rocky depths, the Crimson Vanguard moved like a perfectly calibrated machine, but it was the two figures at the absolute front who completely shattered everyone's expectations.
*BOOM!*
A massive, intermediate-rank Cave Behemoth, armored in thick, rocky scales, charged down the narrow cavern corridor. Without taking a single step backward, Cassian raised his left hand flatly. His silver-crimson eyes flashed with a cold, predatory light.
"Adjusting thermal density," Cassian deadpanned, his voice entirely calm despite the roaring beast three paces away.
Instantly, a massive wall of pure, crackling ice erupted from the damp stone floor, completely freezing the behemoth's front legs solid. Before the monster could even let out a confused growl, Cassian's right hand ignited with a dense, spinning vortex of bright wind magic. He didn't even use a staff or chant a single incantation. With a simple, casual flick of his wrist, the compressed wind expanded into a spinning blade, slicing clean through the monster's frozen body and shred it to pieces whilst remaining on the same spot.
Up in the stadium stands, a loud, collective gasp echoed through the crowd.
"Multi-elemental casting... without a catalyst?" a high-ranking elder from the Western Marches murmured, his hands visibly trembling against the balcony railing. "He didn't just switch attributes—he deployed them simultaneously. That shouldn't be biologically possible for a human core!"
Cassian didn't care about exposing much of his magic, instead he was entirely in his element, deliberately showing off his multi-elemental attributes to put every single faction that had doubted his strength to absolute shame. He wanted his feats to be undeniable.
"Felix, harvest the core. Five seconds maximum," Cassian ordered, his eyes already scanning the dark ceiling as a swarm of high-rank Venomous Gargoyles descended upon them.
"On it, Commander!" Felix yelled, swiftly driving his lightning bolt into the dead behemoth's chest to pop out the glowing stone. "Silas, shield left!"
Before the gargoyles could dive-bomb the underclassmen, Sir Lucien Arden stepped forward. The Knight Commander moved like a flash of pure silver light, his massive holy shield expanding into a glowing, translucent barrier that completely deflected the falling monsters.
"Clear them out, My Prince," Lucien rumbled, his deep voice carrying a cocky, effortless tone as he held the line. "I'll ensure your blind spots remain entirely empty."
"I do not possess blind spots, Sir Arden," Cassian replied flatly.
He raised both hands toward the ceiling. A dense, crackling orb of lightning formed over his left palm, while a roaring torrent of fire spiraled around his right arm. Merging the two opposing elemental trajectories together, Cassian unleashed a massive, devastating storm of plasma that completely incinerated the entire swarm of gargoyles in a single, terrifying second. The raw heat of the blast melted the cavern walls, leaving nothing but ash falling to the floor.
Through the floating screens, the spectators watched Cassian annihilate the highest-tier monsters of the dungeon effortlessly. His adept magic was completely beyond their understanding. It wasn't just raw power; it was the chilling, overpowered perfection with which he calculated his attack angles, switching from fire to ice, and wind to lightning without a single drop in his mana pressure.
"He isn't just fighting," an imperial advisor whispered in awe from the royal box. "He is rewriting the metrics of magic right before our eyes."
By the time the trial's final horn echoed through the rifts, the Crimson Vanguard, led single-handedly by Cassian and Lucien, had spectacularly cleared their entire assigned dungeon sector to the point of absolute emptiness. Not a single monster remained standing.
When the teleportation gates finally flashed, returning the exhausted teams back to the center of the main stadium, the grand announcer stepped forward to calculate the official point metrics based on the collected monster cores and civilian rescue tokens.
"The results of the Second Extraction Trial are officially tallied!" the announcer's voice boomed through the magical amplifiers. "In first place, with an exceptional total of four hundred and eighty high-rank cores... the Verdent Elven Academy of the Silver Leaves!"
A polite wave of applause rippled through the stands. It was a logical outcome. The elves were globally known to be the absolute best when it comes to long-range tracking and traditional monster hunting; their natural agility allowed them to bypass structural traps and harvest cores with extreme speed.
"And in second place... the Edrath Imperial Academy!"
Technically, the Edrath had lost the top spot by a narrow margin of points. But as Cassian stood at the front of his squad, his face entirely expressionless and deadpan, it never felt like a loss for a single person in the stadium. The surrounding crowds weren't even looking at the victorious elves. Every single pair of eyes was completely locked onto the Crown Prince.
The elves had won the points, but the Edrath had completely conquered the narrative. The sheer, terrifying display of Cassian's multi-elemental prowess was permanently imprinted on everyone's minds.
"You did exceptionally well out there, Your Highness," Lucien noted quietly, stepping up to stand a half-step behind Cassian's shoulder as the crowd continued to murmur in awe.
"Those arrogant foreign lords look like they've just swallowed whole stones. They won't be questioning your seat on the throne anytime soon."
"The demonstration was calculated, Sir Arden," Cassian replied, his voice low and steady as he kept his arms crossed. "They needed to understand that any military action against our borders would result in total structural annihilation. This is only a small fraction of our strength they're about to be more surprised in the long run. The ranking of this specific trial is entirely irrelevant to the grand calculation and it doesn't matter to me since there's not much gain as rewards."
Lucien smirked giving him a proud knowing glance as they slowly led the Vanguard out of the arena.
From the edge of the arena floor, Sora stood beside the rest of the Vanguard, a faint, proud smile touched his lips.
It didn't matter what the official scoreboard said by the end of the tournament. One thing was absolutely certain—the memory of Cassian Valemont's terrifying, effortless battle would still linger on the tips of their mouths for generations to come.
But as for him...he was only a liability.
*****