Now that that the attention seeking fire crane girl has gotten what she wanted, Daimon could change his focus to the next participant, which was none other than one of the girls which he rescued at the early stages of this adventure, when Neptune wasn't even in the scope, Lapis.
Back then, Scarlet, Amber, Ruby, Lapis and Jade, the five girls which were captured and tortured by the idiots from the tribes, whom by the way had vanished out of the picture after leaving the first layer of the magic ruin, meaning that they didn't end up in Neptune.
Well, the ones near the entrance to Neptune were sacrificed by Adam and Marcus to open the portal, but there were other members of the tribes at the first layer, according to that one time he got in contact with that girl from the Snow Leopard race, Gina who was with Aleah.
And since others who didn't arrive at Neptune, like that vampire who died at Agrak's casino, have appeared, then it wouldn't be strange to think that they were transported to another place, specially considering that Neptune was connected to other planets like Kerrol or Draim.
Anyway, back then, those five were not only in a really bad state, but they couldn't even get stronger, well in terms of mana, because mentally Daimon had to admit that their fighting spirit was praise worthy, even in that bad state they hadn't given up and he was sure they wouldn't have conceded to the wishes of their captors.
Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that they are the royals of their race and now those same "powerless" girls had undergone a really big chance.
A steam explosion expanded from the current battlefield which Daimon was observing, as a water stream clashed against a wall of fire, such was the result of Lapis chasing after her enemy, both were assigned bishop roles, meaning that their spells were granted an increase in range and a deeper mana reserve.
"We are both bishops, why the hell are you chasing after me!", shouted the enemy mage, a guy with fire affinity, while he inwardly thought.
'Damn it, her casting time is shorter than mine, I need to put up some distance and then I will burn this bitch down'.
Unfortunately for that guy, Lapis didn't stop launching simple spells after him, while moving inside that water stream, in terms of mobility she outpowered her enemy, so while her spells had a lower offensive capacity when compared to fire ones, she was slowly but surely wearing her enemy down.
"Aghhhh!", the enemy finally decided to make his move, fire has practically no defense properties, so he took Lapis's spell head on and was thrown backwards quite a few dozens of meters, but while he felt blood coming out of his mouth due to the impact, he was grinning, all the mana he had secretly gathered was released at once.
"You feel for it, Inferno Barrage!", the body of the fire mage exploded in orange mana and multiple fire balls were shot from his hand.
"Booom!", continuous fire explosions covered the area where Lapis was standing, steam raised as a sign that fire and water mana were clashing, but soon the fire had accumulated enough to be the only visible thing.
This continued until the fire mage could no longer extend the duration of his spell, he even had blood sliding from the corner of his mouth as a sign that he overexerted himself in that last attack.
"Tsk, damn matchmaking...aghhhh!", the fire mage who just spat the blood in his mouth, was hit by something stopping his complains midway, he saw the origin of his pain and found a bloody hole on his right arm.
'No way, even if water can indeed have a high offensive power when used properly, it would be a cutting wound, due to its liquid state, also water attacks aren't this fast!', he inwardly screamed, only to hear a "whistling" sound coming towards him.
The fire mage immediately jumped away only for a heavy impact to land on his right leg, making him fall and roll on the ground for quite a few meters.
"What the hell is going on!", the fire mage looked at his leg which now had a whipping mark, a sign that he was hit with the spell "Water whip", but that didn't make sense, the sound he heard clearly belonged to a sharp and solid object.
His doubts however only increased when he saw Lapis come out completely unscathed, after receiving an all-out barrage of attacks earlier, sure they weren't heavy impact spells but the amount compensated for that, in fact the fire mage could only shoot out that many attacks without worrying because of the increase in mana reserves granted to bishops, otherwise that move would have costed him a fourth part of his normal mana reserves.
Now while the fire mage was having a small mental break down, Daimon who saw what happened within that steam screen that combined with the continuous fire explosions, blocked the sight of the fire mage, wasn't that much better.
'What's up with the energy she is using, it feels similar to nether but quite different at the same time, also... did she just change the spell she was using midway just like that and more importantly without having ice affinity?', he thought to himself.
As if Lapis could feel Daimon's doubts, which was probably the case, since all of them are in a contract with him, meaning they share a master-subordinate connection, she pointed at her neck where a second later a blue symbol lit up.
"Harmony gliph", with those words the glow of the symbol diminished, allowing others to see what it looked like, it was a female figure in a cross-legged position, meditating, that extra glow from earlier reappeared but on her sky-blue hair.
While the previous phenomenon was eye catching, that wasn't what caught Daimon's interest the most, but the drastic change which the energy within her body had gone through, originally while different whatever energy they were training in, still looked like mana for Daimon's infinity eyes.
Now on the other hand, it looked like a mix of two colors, similar to nether, which for example for the women of the Black Night clan, the ones who survived at least, was black with a tinge of pink, for Lapis was white and sky blue.
In this new state, Lapis casually pointed at the fire mage and a stream of water flew out of her hand and lashed towards the enemy, it was the spell water whip again.
Other might have trouble discerning whether it's just a current of water with mana imbued into it, but Daimon could immediately tell thanks to the Infinity Eyes, also he was positively surprised to see Lapis using "Chant less magic".
'It's not exactly a high ranked spell, but still for someone that has been able to use magic since a few days or a week at most, even if she only learned how to use water whip without chanting, that is more than enough to consider her talented', he thought.
Chant less casting isn't a simple thing, there is a reason as to why most people shout the name of the spells, or martial arts, well in knight's cases since they have a heavier physical presence, a shout from their reinforced bodies carries a strong presence that intimidates the enemy, so it works as both a help to cast the martial art and an attack of its own.
But for mages, whose bodies aren't especially strong, without relying on mana, unless they amplify their voice to disorient the enemy, shouting the name of their spell is counterproductive, giving the enemy a chance to prepare for the incoming attack, of course monstruous reflexes are needed to actually take advantage of said thing, but that's beside the point.
What's important is that Lapis was perfectly taking advantage of basic spells such as water whip, which can be confused as the basic water manipulation of a water affinity mage, to attack her enemy thanks to chant less casting, of course a proper spell had way more power than simple water manipulation and Lapis counted with that.
While the fire mage didn't completely lower his guard, he didn't use a spell against Lapis's attack, a grave mistake which he realized when the water whip was only a few meters away from him.
"Dream on bitch, I'm not getting hit by that again!", yelled the fire mage as he swung his weapon, a sword which was clad in flames, against the incoming spell, since it was too late for him to cast a spell, he went with the next best option to parry a spell, a magic treasure imbued with mana.
"Tsssss!", the moment the flaming sword made contact with the water whip, the latter was evaporated, making the fire mage grin, as he prepared to retake the lead and bombard Lapis with a strong spell, or at least that was his plan which died the instant the water which was evaporated and now floated as seemingly harmless steam, behind the fire mage, was suddenly replaced by an ice lance which nailed the fire mage's right foot to the ground.
"Aghhhh!", the cold pain made the fire mage scream, he immediately slashed his towards the ice lance, melting it into a puddle of water mixed with his blood.
"Another dual affinity monster, but when did she cast that ice lance and how did she make it pass my mana sense", said the fire mage as he jumped away to put some distance between himself and Lapis.
Or at least that was the idea, until he was stopped midair by a water chain that came out of the ground and smacked him against the ground.
"Damn it, what is going on!", screamed the fire mage, his body exploded in flames getting rid of the water chain, this time he didn't move since he noticed that Lapis wasn't chasing after him.
"For a knight piece, your attack power is quite disappointing, it seems like your life spark is flawed, which is a shame, you can never break through the battle aura created thanks to my Solid Rock life spark, without an offense-oriented life spark unless your realm his higher than mine", said the knight whose affinity was earth.
Or more accurately his affinity was rock, similar to Calvin with the difference that this rook guy was a knight instead of a mage.
"Humph, those are some bold words for someone whose defense is crumbling away by the punches of a recently ascended Knight Lord who not only isn't using a martial art but also has a battle aura that doesn't increase physical strength", said Scarlet, making the rook grit his teeth.
"Crack!", his defensive martial art indeed crumbled apart the next second, revealing the many melted parts on the inside of the rock shell, while Scarlet dispelled the red battle aura which covered her though pretty looking, dangerous hands.
Unlike Lapis, she apparently didn't have the time to even learn an attack type martial art, but only knew a movement type one, which was a smart thing to do from Daimon's perspective.
After all what's the use of a high attack power, if you can't land a hit on your enemy, and so far, it was working for Scarlet, even if the rook guy shielded himself, she could blast through his defense with her bare fists covered in battle aura.
But her surprisingly high innate physical strength wasn't Daimon's focus anymore, but the words "battle aura that doesn't increase physical strength", since so far, the only knight he knows is subject to such a condition, is him.
While different types of life sparks and battle auras exist, creating a vast and diverse catalogue of knights with unique strengths, they all share one thing, be it at a smaller or larger quantity, a knight's physical strength increases whenever he uses battle aura.
It might be on the smaller side, due to their life spark either not focusing on offense, like the rook guy in front of Scarlet, whose focus was defense, hence why he wasn't really returning any attacks to Scarlet, since he lacked in terms of attack power.
Or due to a poorly created life spark, however the rule of always increasing physical strength, stands in both cases and then we have Daimon, whose battle aura has a zero percentage of physical boosting, but is special in many other aspects, like the fact that it's the core of his Demon Light.
'Life sparks are universally accepted to be divided into, attack, defense, support and elemental types, I originally thought mine was an elemental type until I saw Aura's one, which refuted that theory, now it seems I found another life spark with an unknown type", he thought.
As their category imply, each type of life spark grants certain properties to one's battle aura, attack types focus on physical strength, defense on the property of the same name, support is more diverse, it could be speed, flexibility, healing or something like that, as for elemental, it enhances the element imbued in one's battle aura to cause changes.
"I do admit that the heat radiated by your battle aura is incredibly high, unfortunately you chose to be a knight instead of a mage, otherwise you could have blasted me away like that fire bird girl in your team did to my companion", said the rook guy with disdain.
It wasn't a lie though, considering the high temperature produced by Scarlet's fire affinity, she could have been in a smooth path to become a really strong mage, but she became a knight instead.
"Oh, really?", Scarlet's red hair started glowing, similar to what happened with Lapis, but this time the glow was red, also the words that came out of her mouth were different.
"Determination glyph", unlike Lapis, the emblem on Scarlet's body wasn't visible, however there was a fierce red glow that could be seen even through the chest plate protecting her upper body, coming from the left side of her chest.
"Lapis showed a bit too much, so this battle will have to be a short one", with those words, Scarlet cladded her arms with battle aura and charged towards the rook guy.
"Didn't I just tell you that you can't... aghhh!", confident in his defense, the enemy activated his defensive martial art, which covered his body in a rock layer, reinforced with battle aura, but this time let alone stop a bunch of Scarlet's attack before crumbling apart, the thing couldn't even withstand a single punch.
Scarlet proudly smiled as she saw her fist passing through the rook's defense and blasting a hole through his shoulder, since the enemy managed to react at the last second, preventing his lungs from being destroyed on the spot.
The rook whose survival instincts had kicked in at the last second, discarded his defense to stall Scarlet and immediately used the long-distance teleport granted to his piece, to disappear on the spot.
Naturally Scarlet didn't stay there and gave chase using both her movement martial art and the flash type movement ability of the knight pieces.
The rook guy who was in a panic-stricken state right now, over almost dying due to a simple and pretty much unrefined casual punch from a girl whom he considered a talentless knight that chose the wrong path, immediately ran away, while he scanned his own body.
'How did she do that, after she used that strange ability, her presence did get stronger, but there was no other effect, her physical strength didn't increase nor did she use any martial art at all, so how did she utterly destroy my defense!', he thought as he touched his shoulder just to immediately retrieve his hand feeling the remaining heat burning his fingers.
"I get it... it's a damn curse of some sort, she must have casted it when she used that ability, to weaken my defense, hey bishop, use cleanse on me!", shouted the rook guy, referring to the last remaining bishop from the enemy side, the one who will be fighting with Julio, when he catches up with him, since he has been putting distance between each other from the very beginning.
Daimon raised an eyebrow, so far no one had interfered in the fights of each other, in part because the respective pairs of opponents where quite far from each other at this point, also it was an unspoken rule, so the moment that rook guy decided to go against that, Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask as he prepared to cancel whatever help that bishop could give the rook.
Only for him to see Scarlet smiling at him from afar, making Daimon sigh, he moved from his previous position after Lapi's battle, not too much but enough so that Scarlet couldn't tell his current position based on the direction in which Lapis gazed at the end of her battle.
'These girls surely have it easy to spot me nowadays', thought Daimon, it's not like he was actively hiding, but there was a really big distance between them, not to mention that he was floating high into the sky, since that was the stage of Reyne's own battle and yet both Lapis and Scarlet could find him with ease.
Anyway, since she didn't want him to interfere, he complied and held his hand, the bishop actually doubted whether to help or not, because if he stopped to cast a spell, he would lose a big portion of the distance he had managed to put between himself and Julio.
"Hurry up damn it, once I kill this woman, I'll help you deal with that guy!", shouted the rook guy, clearly throwing away the mutual agreement of no interference between battles.
The bishop looked backwards and saw Julio who was clearly a battle-oriented knight, while he was a support-oriented mage and knew that alone in a 1v1 fight, Julio will destroy him so he took his decision.
"Clear Purify!", the bishop raised his hand and a blue stream of water was shot from it, thanks to his bishop role, his spells got a much larger effective range, making it possible for him to easily reach the rook guy in a matter of seconds.
The rook was splashed the next moment and with a sizzling sound, as he expected he stopped feeling that burning sensation on his shoulder, not only that but the wound on his flesh started healing at a visible rate.
With reaffirmed confidence in his defense, the rook guy turned around and faced Scarlet once again, of course he changed the martial art he was using, battle aura exploded out of his body as he used his trump card.
"Immovable Mountain!", the projection of a rock mountain was condensed with battle aura around the rook as he tackled Scarlet, he even secretly used the attack-nullifying ability of a rook just in case.
Only for him to lose his mind when he saw Scarlet casually extending just her index finger which was covered in battle aura, to meet his tackle, head on.
"Crack!", not only the image of Scarlet's arm being thorn apart due to the impact, didn't appear, but that thin elegant finger of Scarlet pierced through the mountain projection and the momentum, brought the rook in front of Scarlet, just in time for her to pierce his chest just with the tip of her finger.
"Booom!", the result however was that the whole upper part of the rook's body was blown away into smithereens, the nearby ground melted into lava and the remaining part of the corpse turned into charcoal, before turning into black dust.
The trumpet sealed the destiny of the rook, the guy was as dead as possible without understanding how.
[A rook has been eliminated from the game, congratulations to the Red Queen]