The Divine Wolf... or?

Ark didn't just leave Cristoph there and then called it a day, he healed him before he left. He didn't just leave the stage, but he left the arena as well, that was his last fight for the day, and Ark couldn't be bothered to stay around for even a second longer than necessary. The crowd followed him with their gazes as he promptly left after demolishing Cristoph.

Some of the other participants were happy that they didn't run into this monster during any of their fights.

After Ark left the massive arena, he managed to spot Thufrat and Alenia waiting for him outside of the main entrance, and he instantly joined up with them. Thufrat couldn't help but smile when he saw his friend. "You sure didn't show them any mercy out there now did you?"

Ark and Alenia laughed a little. In retrospect, Ark probably did the people he fought a favor. Most of them were young, arrogant, and thought that they were on top of the world, but after Ark's display of strength today, most of them would probably wake up from their delusions.

If they were arrogant and looked down on their opponents in the middle of battle, they would probably end up losing their lives.

Feeling a little parched, Ark decided that they could go for a drink, to which Thufrat and Alenia readily agreed. They needed to celebrate this victory somehow, right? They entered a nearby tavern and ordered some drinks, but to Thufrat's and Alenia's surprise, Ark only ordered some lemonade. Even though it was in the middle of the day, a drink or two wouldn't hurt anyone right?

What they didn't know was that Ark was barely of legal drinking age, and he had never really liked the taste of alcohol, he had tried some blends like vodka and red bull which he enjoyed, but that was just because he liked red bull in particular.

In the damp room of the tavern, they sat and drank and laughed the time away, until nearly an hour passed. Even though they felt reluctant to leave, they decided to leave in consideration for Ark's time in his human form, and they went back to the inn again.

Since he didn't want to disturb them, Ark just said that he wanted to be alone, and then shut himself in his room, refining his body a little more wouldn't hurt.

Like so, the next day quickly dawned. Ark was both excited and a little nervous when he woke up, today would be a big day! If the mission was successful, then Ark would've done a meritious deed and would be rewarded accordingly, and if things went south, then he could only hope that lady luck was on his side.

The battle would be held at noon today as well, and Ark just wasted time until there was half an hour left again.

This time, Ark switched up his clothes a little and chose one of the other outfits he had bought. The outfit was fairly simple, a pair of black trousers with a golden-embroidered red tunic. Coupled with the mask he had to wear, his image was one of elegance. He didn't go together with Thufrat and Alenia today since they wouldn't be watching the finals.

He had already assured them that he would win today no matter what and that he would go through with the mission directly after the finals.

As the pedestrians outside the arena saw him walking, they all cleared a path for him, a large part of the population watched the games yesterday, and who didn't know of Silver Gaze's cruel attacks? He entered the arena when noon was just about to pass, and he walked up to the stage. Evellia was already on the stage, sitting by herself and waiting for his arrival.

Seeing him arrive, she stood up and sized him up with her eyes.

Unlike the day before, princess Annette wasn't present today, instead, a young man stood at the side of the arena, holding the familiar piece of white fabric in his hand. The young man had deep purple eyes, just like his sister. This was the third prince of Estridsen, Oscar Estridsen!

Ark didn't know who Oscar was, but upon seeing his striking appearance, he was easily able to see the resemblance between him and Annette.

"Are both of you ready?" His melodious voice rang out. Evellia and Ark collectively nodded and got ready to fight.

With a slight smile, Oscar threw the piece of fabric into the air, letting it slowly fall onto the stage. Since he didn't know how long it would take to save the hero from imprisonment, Ark decided to end this battle as fast as he could, without using everything he had in his sleeves.

He had already used his fire the day before, and since that was the case, he was going to use it once more to win this duel.

Evellia didn't dare underestimate him, and upon seeing the fabric hitting the floor, she instantly unleashed a barrage of arrows. Ark didn't let her have her way, and when the arrows were just about to hit his body, white flames erupted from within his body, instantly covering him with a protective layer of magic.

After successfully repelling the arrows, Ark didn't hold anything back and let the white flames erupt in their full glory. With the only thing stopping their expansion being Ark's large mana pool, the entire stage was soon bathed in white flames.

The crowd braced themselves for the heat upon seeing these flames erupting out of nowhere, but to their surprise, the flames didn't seem to radiate any heat at all. In actuality, the heat was condensed entirely in the flames themselves, without any of it radiating into the atmosphere. Now how was that possible?

It was only possible because Ark had combined his fire with the water element, which forced the heat to stay.

Evellia was a little flustered because of the sudden flames, but since she had defeated a fire magician before, she could do it again! Accumulating immense power, she released an arrow that contained an immense amount of both strength as well as almost half the mana she had.

Instead of the arrow zooming through the fire and history repeating itself, the arrow instantly disintegrated into nothingness as soon as it entered the sea of flames. Ark had gone all-out with this attack, and instead of playing around like he did the day before, he decided to just end it all in one attack today.

Seeing the flames approach her slowly, Evellia went down on her knees. "I surrender!" She declared at the top of her lungs, prompting Ark to retract his flames. Even though she wanted to fight back and try to win, she knew that the damage from that fire was unavoidable, and she would probably be taken out of the fight regardless if she tried to brave it.

"Congratulations Silver Gaze!

"I love you!"

"You're so cool!"

"You're my idol!"

Young and old alike couldn't help but admire the young man, he was the strongest youth in the entire kingdom! how could they not revere him? The young women could only dream about the face behind that mask of his as he walked down the stage slowly. Even Ark was slightly flustered upon seeing the crowds reaction.

he never really considered this to be an actual tournament, he had only seen it as a stepping stone for his mission.

Oscar glanced at him with a curious gaze as he walked out of the stage. This young man would become an excellent puppet in the future!