Lord Cyre observed the battle attentively.
He already knew quite a bit about the combatants involved.
In his eyes, the girl named Nina had no chance of victory unless she was hiding some incredible trump card.
Surrender seemed to be her only viable option.
Mage challengers from outside Winterrealm were not unfamiliar to him.
Every year, plenty of outsiders participated in the trial.
As such, he had a decent understanding of mages.
Mages, in some ways, were somewhat similar to fatecasters.
When facing bloodline warriors of the same level, they had no advantage to speak of.
The best option was simply to surrender.
Yet, the confident demeanor of the girl and the mysterious guest accompanying her piqued Cyre’s curiosity.
How could a mage possibly defeat a bloodline warrior of equal rank?
Out of the corner of his eye, Cyre glanced at Ronan, sitting beside him.
He noticed that Ronan, too, was fixated on the unfolding fight.
The battle commenced.
As Cyre initially anticipated, the constraints of the arena made it impossible for a mage to exploit their strengths.
The boy had already closed the gap, appearing beside the girl in an instant.
He was enormous in stature, and his fist was hurtling toward the girl.
Some of the audience members in the front row even turned away, unable to bear watching what they assumed was an imminent defeat.
The disparity between the two was simply too vast.
How could the girl ever hope to stand against the boy?
They were on entirely different levels—completely incomparable!
As soon as the referee announced the start of the match, the boy instantly charged at the girl.
Perhaps she hadn’t even had time to prepare her first spell.
How could she possibly fight back?
It seemed utterly hopeless.
Even the referee kept a close watch on the fight.
The moment the girl surrendered or was on the verge of losing consciousness, he would be ready to intervene and call the match.
After all, she was just a young girl.
Participating in the trial at her age was overly ambitious.
But then, under the watchful eyes of all, the boy’s attack missed!
Even Lord Cyre was astonished by what unfolded next.
Just as the fist of the giant-bear-bloodline warrior was about to connect, the girl vanished!
The boy’s strike hit nothing but air.
Even he seemed bewildered.
With the power of the giant bear bloodline, bloodline warriors possessed exceptional speed and defense.
The boy’s confidence stemmed from his ability to unleash explosive speed, overwhelming any mage before they could cast a single spell.
Yet now, before his very eyes, the girl had disappeared.
Not run away—she had vanished outright!
Why… how could this happen?
The boy looked up at the referee, puzzled.
Since the girl had disappeared, didn’t that mean he should be declared the winner?
He gestured toward the referee, signaling for a decision.
But the referee shook his head.
The match was still ongoing.
How could it not be over? The girl had clearly vanished!
At that moment, gasps erupted from the audience.
Not just one person—several were exclaiming in surprise.
The boy’s beast instincts flared, alerting him to danger from above.
He instinctively looked up, and there she was—the girl who had vanished moments before, holding a massive spiked mace.
The wolf-like teeth on the mace gleamed ominously under the light.
To the boy, it felt as if a wolf was pouncing toward him.
Even the bloodline within him quivered in fear.
Nina’s spiked mace struck the boy’s head, but he had already passed out before the blow landed.
The referee stepped onto the arena, examined the fallen boy, and declared,
“Trial number 835 is the winner! Advancing to the next round!”
“Ronan,” Cyre said excitedly, “you must introduce me to that mysterious guest of yours from Dragonscale Bank after the trial ends!”
Despite watching the entire battle, Cyre felt as though he had gleaned nothing substantial.
The fight had been surprisingly straightforward:
The boy attacked, Nina dodged, Nina counterattacked, and won.
Simple.
Deceptively simple.
Yet Cyre couldn’t ignore two peculiarities:
Nina’s sudden disappearance and the bizarre spiked mace she wielded.
The wolf-like teeth on the mace weren’t metallic but appeared to be genuine teeth from a wolf spell beast. Explore more stories at
Moreover, the boy had fainted before Nina’s attack even landed, suggesting that the mace was far from ordinary.
Could it be that the original owner of those wolf teeth had been a formidable creature?
Bloodline warriors had one notable weakness: bloodline suppression.
It was almost impossible to defeat a stronger opponent unless the foe was a specific type of spell beast.
Nina’s spiked mace was no ordinary weapon.
And that disappearing act—was it spatial magic?
To master such magic…
Cyre’s mind raced. Nina, and by extension her mysterious guardian, were connections he absolutely needed to establish.
Ronan responded to Cyre with a noncommittal hum, his eyes fixed on Nina.
As the manager of Dragonscale Bank, Ronan had seen much of the world outside Winterrealm.
With his experience, he immediately recognized the source of Nina’s mace.
It had to be the wolf king of the northern mountains, beyond Westwind Pass.
Recently, there had been reports of wolf packs scattering in disarray, with the wolf king rumored to be missing or dead.
That wolf king had ruled the northern mountains for years, its strength undisputed.
Given Nina’s performance and the recent influx of wolf spell beast materials sold to Dragonscale Bank, Ronan had no doubt:
The teeth on Nina’s mace came from the wolf king.
That was why the weapon looked so unusual—all the teeth on it were from the same wolf king.
As for Nina’s sudden disappearance, Ronan immediately recognized it as spatial magic.
What kind of prodigy could master such magic at her age?
Still, considering the lifeheart fruit in his storage crystal, perhaps it wasn’t too surprising.
Nina withdrew her spiked mace and left the arena, smiling to herself.
This thing was incredibly effective!
All she had to do was brandish the mace, and her opponent was halfway to defeat from sheer intimidation.
“Well done, Little White. You’ll get a reward when we get back!” she whispered.
Hidden within her hat, her snow eagle puffed up with pride.
“Don’t worry, Miss Nina. The championship is as good as yours! Though, later rounds will require actual combat.”
The snow eagle had suggested this strategy to Nina.
It had only taken a minor release of its aura to discover a critical weakness in bloodline warriors.
Leveraging this knowledge, they had crafted a plan: a one-size-fits-all strategy to deal with lower-level opponents while keeping Nina’s true abilities under wraps.
To that end, Nina had scouted for powerful spell beasts in the vicinity, ultimately targeting the northern mountains’ wolf packs.
With the snow eagle’s help and her own magic, killing the wolf king had been straightforward.
The spiked mace was crafted from its teeth, and nothing went to waste—what wasn’t needed was sold.
As for the wolf king’s mana core, Nina had gifted it away.
After the first day’s battles, Sarra returned to her quarters and retrieved a gift Nina had given her earlier.
She hadn’t expected much—a small girl’s gift was likely something trivial or girlish.
But when Sarra opened the box, a chill filled the room!