It was as if time had slowed down for enemy queen, she couldn't process the fact that not only the castling-based trick that she asked her Lord to prepare for her, was negated by the masked silver haired youth, but she didn't know how it happened.
Then the shock turned into anger, not by Purplehaze dying, but because he was the "champion" assigned to her by her beloved Lord and yet he was defeated by a lower ranked enemy, someone that according to her own measurements, should be at most the fourth of fifth ranked in terms of combat prowess within the enemy's team.
'Useless scum, oh well even trash has its uses...', Sheilla who was about bring Purplehaze's corpse out as soon as Yvonne was transported out of the battlefield, saw the corner of the night sparrow girl's suddenly turn upwards as an expression of unadulterated disdain bloomed on her pretty face.
"You had the audacity to place me in a lower priority when compared to her, unfortunately I can't be the one to deal with you, so this will have to suffice".
"You lowly mortal, don't you dare!", feeling a bad premonition, Sheilla shouted to then try and directly charge into Yvonne's battlefield, just for the barrier created by the rules of the challenge to stop her in cold.
"Nightmare Demon Arrow, Extinction", under Sheilla's angered gaze, the black arrow on Purplehaze's head, sank into his body which then turned inked black.
"Crack!", sounds akin to a mirror shattering in thousands of pieces echoed through the sky as Purplehaze's body crumbled into small black crystal-like shards from which a black-pink stream of energy escaped or at least tried to do so.
With a snap of Yvonne's fingers, the black-pink current of energy which was actually nether, first lost all color turning into a semi-transparent blur before it dispersed, as if it never existed to begin with.
[A rook has been removed from the game, congratulations to the Black Queen]
As if it the rules of the challenge actually waited for Yvonne to act, the announcement of her victory was given after she did, whatever she dealt with Purplehaze's boy and then she was transported out of the battlefield, not without gazing at Sarah before smiling at Daimon.
At the same time, the black crystal inside of Sheilla's pocket turned into dust, making her body shake due to anger.
Speaking of Daimon, he had to admit that he was surprised by Yvonne's display of improvement.
'So that technique was the reason as to why her mana reserved hit the bottom when she shot that arrow to Purplehaze, even after she recovered quite a bit by absorbing back that mana clone or... whatever that dark Yvi was', he thought.
After the fight ended, Yvonne still had around a third of the mana he had given to her, and half of her own, but then when she shot that arrow his mana was completely depleted while her own mana reached the bare minimum needed for her to not suffer backslash.
'It might look the other way around, but while Leslie's advance focused on explosive power, Yvonne's improvement focused on the mind, she chose to maximize the result by using less to achieve more, very darkness affinity wise', he amusingly added to himself.
Unlike others, Daimon could see how Yvonne completely suppressed Purplehaze, no matter how talented the Risha sisters might be, they are still star ranked mages, even with their wings, they can at most reach middle stage Lord rank battle prowess for a long-term battle, while being able to spike up to the peak stage once or twice when using their strongest spells, but that of course will need to be the end of the battle, because they wil run out of mana.
While Purplehaze was an inexperienced close combat fighter, he still had achieved strength on par with an early-stage Arch rank, he just sucked at using it due to inexperience, limiting himself to be on peak stage Lors rank unless he went all out, which is why Lance crushed him in a frontal clash, however it should have been enough to put Yvonne in a hard spot even if he wasn't at his prime due to his previous defeat and low nether reserves.
So why was he completely suppressed by Yvonne then, the answer lies in Yvonne's eyes, literally, the technique she used to dispel Purplehaze's punches, cancel his spells and knock him out cold to the point that he didn't even react when he was shot an arrow to the head at short distance, was one and the same.
'Instead of just seeing other people's "mana flow" she can now read, predict and manipulate it', he concluded.
That's right, the reason as to why it looked as if Yvonne was in complete control of the fight, was because she could see through each and every move that Purplehaze's mana did, when it circulated to his muscles for close combat or to his mana circuits for spells, she could discern it.
Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds, otherwise she wouldn't have had the need to fly, dodge and play with Purplehaze's mind by flaunting Daimon's mana at every given chance, though she might have done that even if there was no need to.
She had to analyze the opponent's mana flow and understand it, which is why she faced trouble when Sheilla took over Purplehaze's body, the flow changed, however it is still a nightmare-inflicting ability for those who fight in close combat like... knights.
Which reminded Daimon of the incoming headache he felt when he got to know that Sarah and her are rivals now, he couldn't refute the results though, Yvonne whose specialty was control and wide area battles, now integrated close combat against stronger but few in number opponents.
"What a competitive birdie, to think she would get so far in such a short period of time and also develop a technique to deal with knights in such a way, I guess I did "motivate" her quite a bit back then", mumbled the crazy girl which made Daimon sigh.
'I don't even want to ask...', he thought, to then be brought back to the real world by the crazy girl who held onto his arm while giving Daimon puppy eyes.
"You won't count blocking that portal as help to me, right, you did it for the birdie~", she cutely said, in a rare occasion the crazy girl seemed to be genuinely worried of receiving a negative answer from Daimon, instead of finding it thrilling.
Daimon felt a shiver running down his back, it was so weird for him to see the crazy girl acting in such a "normal" way, since he had gotten used to her usual chaotic self to a certain extent after their time in Kerrol.
"I took the initiative, it won't count so stop it", he said.
"Hehe, thanks my king is the best~", the crazy girl returned to her usual self and even mockingly gazed at Sheilla while putting emphasis on the word "king",
Of course, there is no way Mellie shared that story specifically with the crazy girl, but she probably heard it and now used it to mess with Bryan.
"No problem, dead people are good keeping secrets~", jokingly said the crazy girl, to which Sheilla snorted from the side.
"As much as I hate to say it, but unless that tall woman is as strong as the spear user guy that idiot faced first, then she won't even stand a chance", she said.
"Heh, you should have chosen him to do your dirty job instead of that loser then", retorted Sarah, to which Sheilla gritted her teeth, making the crazy girl giggle.
"I see, so he rejected your Lord's "generosity", how embarrassing, a mere mortal didn't want the power he offered even if it was for free~".
Sarah's mocking words were like knives stabbing the rationality of the enemy queen, if she could she would strangle the crazy girl, unfortunately the barrier read her intentions and completely encased her, preventing her from even trying to do so.
"Don't waste time, if you want the core then do your job!", she yelled at Bryan, who frowned.
'I don't receive orders from you... in fact I won't receive them from anyone in the future', thought Bryan to himself.
"You know, just like the idiot of Purplehaze, I was easily defeated by that masked bastard and I'm pretty sure that bitch Mellie had spread her legs for him at this point, just like the woman that Purplehaze wanted, so I guess we were pretty much alike, but what made him a loser is that he couldn't get over it", he said.
The next second, his hair grew longer and changed to blue before it paled, resulting in a light blue tone, rather similar to the one which Terry attained after having his lineage reinforced by Arlion.
Unlike Terry however, his realm didn't increase, nor did he lose his rationality, he did get taller and gained some muscle, but his transformation was noticeable simpler, that being said and while his presence did get stronger, from Daimon's point of view that wasn't enough for him to fight at Lance's current level like what Sheilla mentioned.
Bryan surpassed his twin brother Ryan, who had gained wind affinity but couldn't use this special state, which was basically caused by the White family's lineage reaching a certain level.
'He is at most at the peak of the Lord realm and I don't see him being able to use Manifestation, so there must be something else going on', thought Daimon.
"I was going to only do it because of the deal, but now, I'm going to enjoy humiliating you in front of that bastard", with those words, Bryan unsheathed his sword and pointed it towards Amber.
"Pressure Thrust!", with those words, an invisible force gathered at the tip of Bryan's sword, to then be shot towards Amber who covered her body with a layer of dark brown battle aura.
"Booom!", the impact caused a loud explosion as well as sparks to fly from the point of clash, Amber was forced backwards, her feet left a deep trace of broken rock as a sign that she tried to use her weight to stop herself, but it didn't work, in fact she saw that small cracks had started to appear on the layer of battle aura that was protecting her from Bryan's attack.
"No matter how good is your defense, my mana will pierce through it, that's the property of the Shooting Narwhal race", he casually said.
Amber frowned, she covered her hand with battle aura and slapped the pressure stream, successfully getting rid of it, or more accurately redirecting it, since the thing dived into the ground, leaving a one-meter-wide circular hole on it as it exhausted the impulse behind of it.
The weakness of the Keran family's pressure spells was that they could only attack in a straight frontward line, of course this disadvantage could be dealt with, with speed and the twin princes happened to be born with wind affinity.
"Just so you know, I can pierce holes through mountains now, let's see how many thrusts can you take before turning into a bloody pile of meat", Bryan who had flashed, appeared behind of Amber and thrusted his sword frontwards.
"Booom!", this time however, Amber didn't let the pressure current land on her and instead punched it away with her aura covered right fist, just to see Bryan smiling as he turned into a blur that blinked around shooting pressure currents from multiple directions.
His triumphant smile froze on his face, when he saw Amber moving with at an incredibly high speed to then punch all his attacks away, sending them towards the ground.
'How the hell is an earth element knight moving so fast, she is a rook piece too, her boost should only affect her defense so what the hell is going', inwardly cursed Bryan, in that second where he was cursing to his insides, a brown cladded figure had appeared in front of him.
Feeling the imminent danger and having his sight blocked by the imposing tall figure of Amber, Bryan pointed his palms frontwards and channeled a large amount of mana as fast as he could.
"Pressure Break!", a large shockwave was released out of his palms and met with Amber's fist, causing a loud impact that shot debris in every direction, a pair of figures were shot in opposite directions.
Bryan landed a few meters away while Amber was forced nearly thirty meters, that being said she looked completely fine, while Bryan felt his palms numb a bit.
Seeing the calm and aloof expression on Amber's pretty face, made Bryan snort.
"Tsk, I guess directly dealing with defense focused knights with an incomplete lineage is still a pain in the ass", he said to then add.
"But you shouldn't lower your guard just because of that", as he finished his sentence, a white shark bite mark appeared on Amber's right upper hand.
"You are not the only ones who can play with curses, coincidentally turns out that the White family's rarer talent is not the strong body that Terry was so proud off, but the ability to use curses", he said as a pair of translucent shark heads covered emerged out of his palms.