Back at the battlefield, Garak's grinning expression disappeared from his barracuda face as he felt the lack of resistance on his hand, given that he clearly stabbed his enemy's flesh directly, not to mention that his attack shouldn't have been an instant kill since he didn't use any spell or mana and yet there was no pained scream, blood splashing or anything.
Your journey continues on empire
Garak immediately looked at his hand which had pierced Haylee's chest only to realize that there was no wound on the enemy, in fact his fist didn't even touch her, from afar it would be really hard to discern without using mana sense, but at such a short distance, Garak noticed that there were a few millimeters of distance between his fist and Haylee's body and the "flesh" that surrounded it had the same green color as that substance she was using to fight.
"What the hell...", Garak whose brain couldn't understand what was going on, saw Haylee casually retreating while at the same time the "wound" in her chest disappeared; to reveal that not even her dress was damaged by the enemy's attack.
High in the sky, Daimon inwardly nodded to himself as he thought.
'So that's why all those really pricey magic items gave off a much simpler reaction...'.
As the granddaughter of a half Emperor expert, Haylee is quite literally a princess, even if Zane didn't create nor join a faction until recently, his pockets are as deep as any other half Emperor level figure, what's more since he doesn't have to spend in subordinates and the like, all his resources are channeled into Haylee.
The result is that Haylee is usually covered from head to toe in magic items of the highest quality available, but earlier something Daimon noticed is that while her outfit seemed quite the same as always, the magic reaction he got from them was way weaker.
Of course, out of respect Daimon normally didn't use the infinity eyes on his teammates unless it was strictly necessary, but his normal senses are sharp enough to notice some things.
As to why he didn't mention it to the others, specially to Michael, was because Haylee put the effort to replicate even the accessories, she wore to make everything look pretty much the same as normal, so he thought there was an important reason for it.
'I guess it was important in a sense', concluded Daimon as he saw Haylee smiling in Michael's general position, knowing she had managed to surprise her boyfriend with her newly acquired abilities.
Back at Haylee, the green haired girl's smile faded a second after she stopped looking in Michael's direction to then charge frontwards against Garak, who finally reacted by slashing his claws at her.
A drippling sound followed by the scene of Haylee's left arm slightly separating from her body, to then return to normal without Haylee showing even the slightest reaction as she continued with her attack, confirmed Garak's fears, his enemy was immune to physical damage!
You might ask what's the problem with that if Garak is not a knight but a mage and the reason as to why he chose the mage path is because he had confidence in his physique, like most magic beasts, well more accurately he can't become a knight given that he chose to not aim to obtain a permanent human form and magic beasts that do so can't awaken a life spark for some unknown reason, but the reason as to why he made such a choice was his confidence in his physical body.
The point is that, if done properly, a magic beast descendant that chooses the mage path, have the potential to become monstrous existences, since they have innately stronger bodies than humans, and becoming mages can complement that aspect, they are the closest things to the "Magic Knights" mentioned randomly by Eve some time ago.
A perfect example of the previous is Thea, the Empress who is a magic beast descendant and choose the mage path, since she already has an above average physique, of course talent on par with Thea's one is required to get such a result.
And most cases, will end up like Garak with a dependence to physical brawl with a few tricks powered by mana, despite the fact that they are mages and for a good reason, magic beasts have it harder when it comes to delicate processes like manipulating mana with the precision needed for high ranked spells, hence why they thrive to develop their bloodlines to inherit the innate abilities codified in their lineages.
"Don't mess with me, you aren't even directly related to the leader of your team!", Garak's eyes became bloodshot as he saw Haylee summon a wave of that green substance to surround him, as if she was afraid of him running away, of course he was angered.
The horned tattoo on his forehead shined brighter than before and his body shrank once again, a whole meter just like before, reaching two meters of height, his figure was much more humane than before, however the scales on his body also turned completely black and his previously beastly claws become more sinister, turning black inked along the tips of his fingers.
Despite the clear increase in mana that Haylee perceived from the enemy, from her point of view the enemy looked "frailer" than before, since it was obvious he was using a power that wasn't his, not like she was interested since her objective was the same, win and... show off a bit.
"Green Prison", with two simple words, the green substance that was created by Haylee, surged like a tsunami, aiming to engulf Garak whose body exploded in mana.
"That won't work again!", Garak's slightly distorted voice carried a strong shockwave caused by him adding mana to it, the impact forced Haylee's attack back a couple of meters, what followed was Garak punching frontwards and releasing a large amount of mana along with his fist.
"Booom!", the clash between Garak and Haylee's mana caused a loud explosion, all the left side of the green tsunami was scattered but the shockwave from Garak's attack was also reduced to a nearly harmless breeze that barely made Haylee's hair wave.
Garak couldn't help but grin knowing that his decision was the right one, even if he was using mana like water out of a broken bucket, he could now rely on what he was confident, in other words his physical body to fight with the green haired girl who previously didn't even bother to block his punches at short distance.
"Again!", with a reaffirmed confidence and a loud battle cry, Garak charged at Haylee who answered in kind by making the rest of the green substance gather and surge to intercept Garak midway, their manas continuously clashed sending thunder-like exploding sounds all over the battlefield.
Far from them, high into the sky, two people were interested in the change which Garak went through, the first one was of course Sheilla.
"Booom!", the sudden abrupt increase of mana coming from Garak's attack, forced Haylee backwards, the green flood lost almost all the its ground, to the point that Haylee could see the red mist aiming to engulf her a few centimeters away from it.
"Hey, this is getting a bit dangerous, does she have something up her sleeve?", asked Calvin to Loren, who was in a bit of dilemma right now, no one expected Garak to be able to draw out this kind of power, still knowing how hard was for Haylee to obtain her new power, she refused to think she'll lose, unless the opponent was genuinely way out of her league.
"She will win", limited to say Loren with a firm voice, to which Michael nodded, that being said he did gaze in Daimon's direction for a second, as if to ask him to lookout for Haylee just in case.
Speaking of Daimon, he also had to admit that Garak had surpassed his expectations, or more accurately Marcus had done it.
'It is still basically burning one's lifespan for a temporary increase in strength, but it is done in quite an effective way and this must be the low effort version of that technique', he thought, this was for sure related to whatever power up that Marcus had gotten, given that all the lifespan which Garak was losing, wasn't stored in that tattoo but being sent somewhere else.
The crazy girl who was actually paying attention to Haylee's fight, saw the "hope" filled expression on Sheilla's face and she of course decided to mess with her it for funsies.
"Hey, how about we make a bet, the one wins our fight gets to keep that guy's corpse, what do you think, this way you'll have an actual chance to obtain it~", she said.
The mocking and carefree voice of the crazy girl, made the enemy queen's blood pressure sky-rocket, for starters she was affirming that Haylee was going to win, then she was sure in the case that Garak died, Daimon was going to snatch his corpse away without she being able to do anything about it.
But what she hated the most was the clearly sarcastic intention by the end of her sentence, which meant that in Sarah's eyes she had already lost against her.
"What don't tell me you actually believed for a second that your subordinate was going to win?", jokingly added Sarah to which Sheilla finally couldn't hold her anger back.
"Fine then, I'll collect that guy's corpse as a side bonus after ripping your head off!", yelled the enemy queen.
"It's a deal then~", with Sarah's confirmation, the symbol of their piece appeared on the back of their hands, for Sarah it was a black crown while for Sheilla it was a dark pink one, as a sign that the two queens had made an official bet with the challenge's rules as their witness.
"Oh, I didn't know you could do that", said Daimon to the crazy girl, who giggled in response to then rub her face against Daimon's arm.
"If the king wishes so, I will gladly show you all the "tricks" of a queen~", she said, to which Daimon bitterly smiled, not knowing how to even answer that, in any case what was important is that Sarah never doubted of Haylee's victory and as crazy as Sarah might be, she wasn't dumb in the slightest, in fact had it not been for the fact that she hardly took anything seriously, her judgment would be among the most reliable ones from the girls he knew.
Unaware to Daimon, the crazy girl's eyes shone for a second as she passed a single word message to a certain green haired girl.
'Now'.
Back at the battlefield, Garak who was at the final stretch, seeing the red mist finally making contact with Haylee's body, suddenly had a bad premonition, which was confirmed the next second when Haylee snapped her fingers.
"Release", Garak's pupils contracted like needles, the green substance which had already been pushed back until it was a few centimeters away from Haylee, suddenly gained a huge impulse.
"Gaaah!", Garak felt as if his body was hit by a hammer, the pressure coming from the opponent's attack doubled... then tripled a second later and by the moment he realized what was going on, his mana alongside the red mist spell he was using as a last resort, were suffocated by the green sea which then devoured him as well.
"Why is my mana helping you!", was the last thing he managed to say before he was dragged and drowned into the green sea that expanded until it reached the border of the battlefield.
"Crack!", the strength of the green sea was such that Haylee's spell actually produced a crack into the barrier that limited the battlefield, it's important to mention that the battlefields were prepared for Lord level battles, in other words that last attack from Haylee grazed what an Arch rank could do and that is a lot to say considering she is a star ranked mage as of current.
Feeling the surprise coming from Michael's direction Haylee chuckled and with an elegant turn the green sea receded, and shrank until it became a single drop of that green substance that was then integrated into her dress.
A dull sound then drew the attention of the ones observing the fight, with a "thud", the mummified corpse of Garak fell to the ground and in case there was any doubt, the winner announcement came a second later.
[A knight has been removed from the game, congratulations to the Black Queen]
And with that, a bishop not only defeated a knight piece in a head on battle, but she did so without suffering even a single wound, what's more, while maybe others couldn't tell, Daimon could see that Haylee had... her mana reserves nearly full.
In other words, she used a mere twenty percent of her mana reserves at most, to deal with an enemy a whole realm above her.
'Well, she is not the granddaughter of a Half Emperor for nothing... I guess I'll have Michael ask her about the dynamic of her variant element, later', thought Daimon as he saw Haylee being transported out of the battlefield, marking the end of her battle and the start of the next and last round.