The mosquito sentenced to death had already escaped punishment twice. She had wasted her time! What an insolent jerk! He used the technique of illusion... Otherwise, it had been impossible to avoid her technique. Even the adversaries a few stages higher than her development could never escape it.

The girl gave him an evil grin. She looked into the boy's black eyes wishing to incinerate him with her look.

Kyon crossed his arms with great coolness and composure. He seemed to have the situation under his complete control.

«Princess Kara Grand! Why did you raise your development at such a crucial moment without any warning? Were you trying to kill me real quick?» - He asked dryly shining with cold. His words implied his utter contempt for her shameless actions.

The audience held their breath and pricked up their ears.

Kara clenched and unclenched her fist, visually displeased. How dared he to bark in her direction? She had to answer but she wouldn’t address him. She’d rather talk to the audience. The wretched creature didn’t deserve her attention, even one look did him great honor.

«You faked your defeat thereby insulting my highness. For your misdeed, I decided to make the battle more complicated for you.»

Kyon could barely hold back his contemptuous smile. «I see... I agree with your spontaneous decision at the moment most inconvenient for me. I did deserve it. But tell me, please, if you’re going to raise your development again. What if all of a sudden I embarrass you again just like last time... You’ll have the same excuse.» - The boy said, his arms crossed.

The princess, contrary to the universal expectation of her righteous anger, (the insolent bastard was openly mocking her!) giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. What a curious weirdo... Does the cheeky boy really think she would lose with an advantage of six stages? Even two stages would have been enough for her to burn him to ashes! The battle would have dragged on so she wasn’t taking any chances. How could she know the treacherous jerk would use the illusion technique. Oh well, just wait and with another blow, the miserable creature would disappear from this world.

«What a stupid, presumptuous and arrogant boy you are! I should punish you for the impudent message hidden in your words but I don’t want to ruin the atmosphere for the audience. I could have avoided your attack but it’s inconvenient to move around in my high-heeled shoes. Do not worry. I will restrain myself and try not to damage your pretty face.» - The princess said.

Suddenly the smile disappeared from her face. Intuition shouted to her the boy was not a cornered victim but a real player! Cold and calculating. He had masterfully limited her chances to boost her future development.

A second later, the girl became angry at her intuition for stupidity. Why on earth should the brilliant princess, the strongest among the young generation of the kingdom, worry what the worthless loser of the base phase might be plotting. His words are nothing but idle talk, his plans are pathetic and good-for-nothing. One blow is enough to send the sucker to his forefathers. She had to quickly end the farce and get back to her favourite thing to do.

«Glad to hear this, Your Highness.» - Kyon said with hidden contempt and created a shield of adamantium in his hand. His element of cold was unable to compete with the snake, even if they were of equal development! It would be even less useful now. But the faithful adamantium, resistant to high temperatures, would do a great service taking the heat of any power, sheltering him like an umbrella from the rain.

Now, with a shield in his hands, Kyon should only beware of the residual heat. But his element of cold would easily extinguish the small percentage of fire and save him from burns.

Kara rolled her eyes. The most self-confident little ant in the world! She was anticipating the boy’s quick death... She decided to teach Juno a lesson and was not going to back down from her plans.

A new fire snake of a much larger size than the previous one flashed in her hands and rushed towards the enemy at high speed.

{Die!}

Suddenly, the boy sped up and dodged without an effort.

{How is that?!} - The girl was taken aback but continued to attack.

Kyon had realized that the snake was no friend of his and hid the shield behind his back, relying solely on his dexterity and speed.

The boy seemed to be avoiding the snake at the last moment. The residual heat got extinguished by his element of cold that appeared in the right part of his body in the nick of time.

Kara was speechless. She looked at the boy who was flashing between the snake with her sharp, penetrating gaze of the phoenix.

{I must have been deceived.} - The girl came to realize her intuition had been right.

Previously, when the sly boy hit her in the temple, his speed was deliberately less than maximum, so that she wouldn’t not raise her development too much. Then he made her give her word in front of the audience not to raise the stage of development cornering her like a rat.

The fact that she was playing by his rules had disheartened her. She was staggered beyond description that some boy had set the rules for her! It was ridiculously absurd! Her heart was beating faster from almost forgotten emotions. For the first time, she had been a victim, not a hunter. No one had ever got the better of her yet. It was unexpected... The party was generous with surprises! The boy had grown up in the eyes of the princess against her will.

{Why is he so fast?! Is this possible at his stage?!} - The girl was getting more and more embraced by the usual rage that appeared in any unclear situation. No one dares to mess up with Princess Kara Grand! She achieves her goals in the most sophisticated ways with a minimum amount of time. That bug was no obstacle for her!

She had a plan.

Kyon jumped away from the next snake attack and then his modernized eyes flashed. Several almost invisible blades of wind were approaching him, distorting the air a bit, capable of dissecting the flesh by inches.

Such blades cannot be seen without scanning the battlefield with pure energy. The level of Kyon’s development wouldn’t be enough to do that. At his level, scanning must be worse than the vision of an old blind dog. In theory, now he should be defenseless. But he was not!

The boy immediately pulled out the shield from behind.

~clang~ ~clang~

Two chirping sounds came from the adamant shield leaving no scratches there.

Kara's eyebrows crawled up her forehead. {How did he notice them?} - She continued to attack with the snake and hidden blades. In her understanding, no vision was able to detect the slight air distortions. And yet, he had blocked the attack!

The boy could see all the air distortions. He easily dodged at the last moment and if he took some blows on the shield it was merely for the sake of decency.

Kara was getting more and more furious, her eyes burned with a thirst for young blood. The girl was getting tired of all that nonsense. The performance had been dragging on for too long... The enemy had to have died in a couple of seconds but instead, he continued to fight! Moreover, she had never hit him! It was embarrassing for her highness, especially with such a huge advantage in development. However, she didn’t flinch.

The princess decided to apply an extremely powerful mass wind technique with the period of rollback lasting for an hour. The lucky boy was doomed. Nothing would save him.

Kyon frowned and moved away from the furious girl. {Bitch, you won’t catch up with me on your crutches heels.} He grinned to himself and decided to keep his distance. Any technique loses its power with each next step.

Two mighty whirlwinds gradually formed around the princess’s hands. The next instant they shot in the direction of the enemy, dense and dangerous. Inside them, thousands of blades could chop the adversary into a bloody mess. The name of the high-ranking technique is a tornado of blades. It’s impossible to perform at its full potential at the advanced phase. The boy will die anyway. (Kara naively supposed)

Kyon jumped to the side, avoiding the dangerous stream, the princess redirected her hands to his side. The whirlwind in a continuous flow followed the boy.

{Where is my carbon skin?! Ugh.} - Kyon spat and got down to jumping the rope. The whirlwinds were about half a meter thick, it is quite possible to dodge them jumping over and rolling under. The delay in Kara's hand movements and the whirlwinds it possible to predict where the tornado razors would go.

The guests were completely engrossed in the exciting battle. The quality of the power demonstrated by the princess was at the highest level. Everyone wanted to know what she was thinking of fighting the enemy who was more than half of the phase less developed! Shouldn’t she be ashamed? No one could tell by her calm face... One thing was clear, the boy was monstrously talented!

Kara gracefully waved her hands cornering her prey like a hungry predator. Then she brought them together fully aware that her opponent wouldn’t be able to dodge. {Die at last!}

Kyon had instantly pulled out the shield from behind, crouched and covered his whole body.

~chink~ ~chink~ ~chink~ …

Thousands of scratching vibrations chaotically flooded the arena. The audience held their ears not to hear the infuriating sound.

Kara had been expecting to see the green rock collapse but there was not a single scratch on it!

{Why is it so strong?} - The girl was yet again overcome by anger.

Kara quickly walked towards the boy intending to raise the final impact power over his shield with tornado blades to deprive the asshole of his defence and finish the job. If she interrupted the technique then she wouldn’t be able to create it again in the next hour. It was the main weakness of the technique in addition to its huge waste of energy.

Kyon grunted and galloped away from the girl, squatting, hiding behind the shield.

«Ha ha ha! Take a look at his movements! He manages to run in a sitting position with great speed!» - One of the impressed guests cried out.

«Wow! How is he doing it?!» … «TsyJi, the eccentric one, must have been his master! No other master can teach you how to move like that!» … «Look how effective he is! The body is hidden behind the shield while the guy runs as fast as lightning!» - The amazed young people watched the new way of movement. A squat walk was new to them.

Kara tried to catch up with the boy but her long heels got in her way. Damn them... One of her steps was equal to his three.

{Sly fox... When I catch you, I’ll strangle you!} - The girl was suffocating with anger even if her face was still composed and calm.

The tornadoes soon stopped.

Kyon got up to his full height, hid the shield behind his back and headed to the princess with a single intention to attack her.

His cold gaze full of darkness that despised her infuriated the girl more and more. She decided to take extreme measures. Even if the phoenix in her soul hadn’t awaken, and she was still week in the second phase it was enough to turn the shield and the life of the trickster to ashes. She meant a powerful technique with a long rollback.

As soon as the boy approached her, the princess's body shone with sunlight.

{Part five, the Phoenix Sphere!} - Kara touched her fists and instantly, a fire wall spread out from her in all directions in a thick sphere. Its brightness exceeded any flame she had previously released.