Chapter 296: Don, two Dragons, and Sears

"Interesting...this Don is either a stupid one or a powerful one" At the outskirts of the capital, three people stood under a large tree. In front of the floated an orb and inside the orb, they could see what's happening inside the castle.

The three people were none other than Princess Audrey, Philea, and Ashby.

"Your Royal Highness, I think he's first, no one in their right mind would challenge a teacher of Cold Moon Palace"

"Let's see how this is going to play out" Princess Audrey became more and more curious about Everlight and it's King. She was searching for Spectre to assemble a group of powerful prodigies to form an Elite unit in Archeron and her search for Spectre pretty much hit a dead end but now she believed that she had found a replacement for him.

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Meanwhile, in the castle, the throne hall became hotter by the aura released by Sears. Prince Rodrigo knew that the shit had hit the fan and it's too late to stop Sears.

"You hear that Rosaline, this is what happens when you get your ass kicked by some nobodies" Sears's hatred for Everlight came from the events that happened during the Gathering of the Kings. He hated that his favorite student and her friends lost their faces by Don and his people. Besides, he had no love for low-rank kingdoms as he thought of them as lesser people.

Then he turned his cold gaze from Rosaline to Don who seemed calm despite the citation but inside, he was controlling his urge to kill Sears. If he was alone like he was in the Divine Continent, Sears would have lost his life to Don's sword. Yet, he was not alone anymore as he had thousands of people depend on him, therefore, he couldn't make any rash decisions, like going to war with Cold Moon Palace with his current strength.

However, he already prepared for the worst and formed a plan in his mind. He wanted to use Sears's ego to his advantage.

"It's hilarious that you think I need the Cold Moon Palace behind me to destroy you and your pathetic kingdom" 

"Why don't you prove us wrong then? You versus our King, if you win, we do anything you say but..." Reghys understood what's Don doing and quickly intervened to turn this into a duel.

"Hahahaha" However, Sears burst into laughter when he heard Reghys but soon, his laughter became a terrifying force of Life Energy that made everyone in the hall experience an immense amount of pressure. Lord Clemo had already dropped to his knees and Rodrigo's nose started to bleed. The two black-armored guards who were guarding the throne hall seemed like they had lost their consciousness.

"I normally would respond to a barking dog but today, I'll make an exception" Don was glad he accepted the duel challenge because duel may seem cringy but it was a great way to solve problems like this without war and spilling too much blood. Of course in the divine continent, the family of the one who had lost the duel may still pursue the winner considering his or her family background. Because of this, many young masters were often chased by powerful families and if they didn't die, the young masters or misses had the tendency to return and demolish an entire family or sect in a day.

The Evil twins had never missed a fight between a young master and a sect or family as they would watch the fight with snacks and when the fight was over, Don and Knight would collect all the space rings of the fallen and clean the treasury.

"Then let's go outside" Reghys knew the intensity of the clash between two Heavenly level cultivators, so she didn't want the castle and the surrounding to become collateral damage.

Boom!

Sears didn't answer Reghys but a huge arrow made of scorching hot fire shot towards the wall beside him. The arrow blasted the walls and put a hole as Sears walked outside after giving a cold stare at Don. 

Don stood up and popped his neck before following Sears outside.

"Arrora, clear the capital" Arrora nodded to Reghys's order. Even though she worried about Don, she didn't show her worries outside because she didn't want to be a burden to him in anyways. If he chose to do something, she would support him and encourage him rather than making him worry by putting on a sad face.

Reghys however had no worries because she was there when his body infused with the Life shard. His power level could be compared to a Peak Heavenly level cultivator.

"You people have no idea of what's coming to you" Rosaline snickered when Arrora and Reghys stepped down from the throne stage.

"You'll see" Reghys calmly answered and went outside.

"Lord Clemo, let's go outside" Rodrigo helped Clemo stand up and handed him a silk handkerchief to wipe away the sweat.

"Thank...you" Lord Clemo did not refuse the gesture but quickly grabbed the handkerchief and wiped all his sweat. His hands and legs trembled as he walked towards the outside following Rodrigo.

As this was happening, no one noticed a golden dragonling flew away from the throne hall ceiling.

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Arrora's unit and the black-armored men were faster than everyone expected. They quickly pushed all the crowd away from the stage built in the middle of the capital when Sears appeared on it. The people were confused and had no idea what's happening. Just a few seconds ago, they were celebrating and were in a festive mood but now the scene turned into chaos by the sudden intervention of Arrora's unit and the black-armored soldiers. The back armored soldiers were no better than the crowd as they also had no idea why they were ordered to secure the area around the stage by Arrora.

From a distance, Audrey saw Don land on the stage casually out of nowhere in front of Sears. 

"Brat, enjoy this moment because, after today, you won't be a cultivator"

Sears said lightly. In his mind, he was going to cripple Don's cultivation and enslave his lieutenants as a punishment.

"Your Royal Highness, who do you think will win? We know King Don is also a Heavenly level mage but can he beat Mage Sears?"

"I know many people think that cultivation level is everything but it's not true, the outcome of a battle depends on various things like the spells, their battle awareness, Energy Armaments they possess, and much more. Until both of them reveal their hands, we can't be sure who would win "

"I couldn't have said it better, your Royal Highness" Ashby agreed with Audrey.

On the other side, Lord Clemo's face darkened. Sears was not someone from the rank four kingdom they could mess with, he was one of the teachers of the Cold Moon Palace, a person who held a status equal to a King of a rank 3 kingdom.

Although he knew Don was a Heavenly level cultivator, he had never seen him fight another Heavenly mage as a fight between two Heavenly level mages was a rare thing.

"Bad timing but I also wanted to see how strong I am now" Don thought. His current combat strength was not the same as when he had just broken through to the Sun realm. He could feel his battle energy became more potent and powerful after taking the Life shard. He could also sense some variations in his battle energy and these variations made him extremely powerful without him knowing the origin of the changes. With his current combat strength, it was really difficult to find a match amongst all Heavenly Level warriors. Sears appeared just in time for Don to test his true combat strength.

Rosaline and the twins felt astonished. With an expression of disbelief, they looked at Don who had a confident look. Rosaline thought to herself that this man was really courageous, he didn't even fear Sears at all.

"Teacher" the more Rosaline looked at Don's calm face, the more she had a bad feeling about this as she called out for Sears.

"Tell your Cold Moon Palace people to stand aside" Don emphasized the words 'Cold Moon Palace people' to strike Sears's ego.

"Humph, you still have the nerve to talk but don't worry, I don't need the Cold Moon Palace or anyone helps to crush an ant-like you, This is between you and me alone"

Sears unleashed his energy and pushed Rosaline away. He then extended his hand as a stream of lava shot towards Don.

Hmph!

Don snorted. 

Bam!

The stream of lava clashed with something as everyone standing closer to the stage saw a black circular shield stopping the lava from going forward towards Don.

This clash had caused ground-shaking energy ripples to appear. The massive heat produced by Sears's spell caused the snowbanks around them to evaporate.

Because of the backlash of his spell hitting the shield, Sears was forced three steps back on the stage. When he looked at Don, he found that he was still in the same spot. Obviously, Don had won a hand in the first round and the outcome had really surprised Sears.

"Brat, fancy shields won't keep you safe from me again!"

The glow in Sears's eyes became crueler. Intense killing intent filled his body. It was the determination to destroy Don. 

"That shield...hmm" Audrey couldn't help but feel like she saw this shield somewhere but after looking at the black shield for a couple of seconds, she dismissed that thought.

As for Don, such an outcome didn't surprise him much. He knew the Shield has a sentient mind of its own and would protect him from any harm without him even taking it out.

If Don wanted he could use one of the needles he brought from the Ancient dungeon to instantly kill Sears but if he did that, the consequences would be devastating.

With a sky-piercing killing intent, Sears shouted out loudly, "Great Fist of Holy Flame!"

Bam…

Followed by Sears's loud shout, he punched out countless rays of light that caused even the air to tremble. These rays of light soon merged into a huge golden fist more than 30 meters tall. It carried a devastating grandeur as it quickly pierced through the skies towards Don with great speed.

The people trembled at the sight of the fist and they were fortunate to have Reghys covering the stage with her Life Energy or the people and the surroundings would have been turned into crisps.

The Black Shield was too small in size to protect him from the huge fist made of flames approaching at him. Yet, Don was still calm because Sears didn't know one important thing about Don, he could control the element itself with battle energy.