Genius Seventh Prince 160 Combo Attack

He seemed to have done research on the names and qualities of his opponents, but did not match the names to faces. Unable to do anything about it, he figured pointing would suffice.

"I choose him as my opponent." His voice echoed as he pointed his finger towards the scrawny man that Snow chose earlier.

Not expecting the challenge, the thin man's face looked unhappy. However, he was unable to reject the challenge, therefore he could only begrudgingly hop on stage.

"You will regret choosing me." Glaring coldly at Greyson, he licked his lips.

Prince Braiden's expression was also uncomfortable. Greyson did not know, but Snow really had a way of choosing opponents. Actually, this man was the second strongest on the team of 10, Keaton Mendenhall. But this man had a fatal flaw: he always went for the kill. No matter if it was a training spar or a contest, he treated it as a life-or-death match and made sure that his opponent would not see the next light of day. How could Greyson have chosen him? Did he not do any research? There are so many other more appropriate opponents who he could definitely defeat. Prince Braiden wanted to pull at his hair. Greyson was a definite plus to their team if he was added, he couldn't lose here! Before announcing the start of the match, he tried eyeing Keaton to indicate that he should take one for the team then challenge someone else to get his position back. As expected, though, Keaton just scoffed and completely ignored him. Unable to do anything more, Braiden helplessly announced the start of the match. However, once could tell from his constantly tapping foot and clenched fists that he was not calm at all.

Obviously, there was nothing wrong with Greyson's sight, so he could see Prince Braiden's signaling. Although he could tell that this probably meant his opponent was tough, he did not plan on backing down so easily. He strongly believed that he could at least fight evenly with all of the representatives. a.n.a.lyzing the situation, Greyson could guess that his opponent was probably Lord Keaton Mendenhall. No one else would have warranted such a nervous response from the prince. Thinking back to what he read, Greyson knew that his opponent had a rare element characteristic. These traits were more like anomalies and such talents were more rare than dual-element magicians. The partner beast that Keaton awakened had an extra ability to do with poison. Therefore, Keaton's water element contained acidic properties to it. He could not use healing spells due to this, but his offensive power was boosted instead. Without any extra spells, his water could dissolve metals and hard materials, even chew through people's bodies if they make contact. His weapon was apparently a metal whip. There was a rumor that this added characteristic to his element affected his personality as well, however, there was no proof backing up such claims. 

Keaton disdained to make the first move and just stood there watching Greyson without taking out his weapon. Not attacking right away, Greyson also stood still contemplating for a moment. He tried to think of which element would be best against such an opponent. Unlike his opponent, Greyson would not underestimate his opponent and quickly gripped onto Genesis. The sword switched to a gold color as did his eyes. Normally, he would disguise himself, but even small magic like that took a sliver of concentration to keep up. He wanted to completely focus on the match, so he no longer kept up the disguise. No matter which scenarios he ran through, the light element was the best fit for this situation. This element was highly versatile in offense and defense and contained strong purifying capabilities that could fight against the poison.

Clearly disgusted, Keaton grimaced while feeling the light radiating off of his opponent's body. As if triggered by this hated element, he finally pulled out his whip. 

"I hate light magicians the most." He snarled.

"That has nothing to do with me." Greyson just shrugged.

"Hehehe, it seems fresh blood has walked straight into my arms." The raspiness of his voice caused his laugh to be even more grating to one's ears.

Not responding to his taunt, Greyson equipped himself with a light element armor around his body. His whole body shown with a s.h.i.+ny gold color almost blinding everyone else. Keaton also chanted a spell as black water flowed out from his hand and surrounding the whip. 

Greyson attacked first as he thrust his sword forward. A large beam of light extended from the tip that extended the blade of the sword a couple feet. Light Sword was a basic spell, but its effects were great for catching opponents off balance. Keaton just smirked as his foot slid on the black water and quickly dodged away. Getting behind Greyson, he also attacked with his whip viciously. Twisting his body and using that torque to swing his sword behind him, Greyson caused the whip to repulse backwards. Not expecting such great physical strength from Greyson's thin body, Keaton almost lost grip on the handle of his whip. Arm aching from the slight overextension backwards, he narrowed his eyes to slits as his expression turned a bit more serious. 

"You've got brute strength, too. How repulsive. I hate muscle morons the most." He sneered.

"Might as well say you just hate everyone at this point. Clearly, you just have inferiority complex issues." Greyson just rolled his eyes.

Both did not speak again and only continued to attack each other. Greyson did feel that the upper hand was slipping from his fingers as his shallow fighting experience was starting to show. Keaton seemed to be able to dodge his attacks in a fairly relaxed manner. The only reason that they were still tied was because the light element armor was neutralizing the poison. However, if one looked closely, they could see tiny black cuts in the light element aura covering Greyson's body. The poison was not completely gone but just held back. Biting his lip, Greyson knew that this situation could not continue in this way or he would lose. Unfortunately, the light element was probably his weakest element as he only knew the more basic and widely known spells. This was because the Church of Light tended to monopolize the light element spells for their own believers. Unless one joined, it was extremely difficult to become a powerful light magician.

Managing to come up with a short plan, Greyson continued closing in on Keaton's body and allowed the whip to make contact more and more. Ignoring the rotting of the light armor, he calculated the distance before his lips curved up. The moment his foot hit the floor, he instead used the wind element and exploded with speed. In just a second, he was right in front of Keaton with his right arm slas.h.i.+ng down with Genesis. Eyes widening in shock, Keaton tried to dodge. He actually managed to react in time because Greyson ended up exposing himself due to the half-smile from before. Not finished, Greyson followed up by holding up his left hand right in front of Keaton's eyes.

"Flashlight!" He quickly murmured.

A bright light burst out from his palm and momentarily blinded Keaton. One had to say that Greyson got creative with his basic spells. Flashlight was usually known as the most useless light spell that could not be used for anything other than lighting up a dark room. Groaning in pain, Keaton could no longer prepare himself for the coming attack. Seizing the opening, Genesis deeply stabbed into Keaton's right chest. 

"Purify." 

This healing spell used on Keaton instead became a dreadful attack. Feeling like his body was on fire, Keaton grunted in pain as his eyes turned red in anger. 

"You motherf*cker!" He cursed uncontrollably. Behind him, the large shadow of a black snake appeared. Its red eyes glowed as Keaton chanted a spell under his breath. The combined spell of human and beast partner created a large tidal wave of the black water cras.h.i.+ng down on Greyson. 

Panicking for the first time, Greyson tried to use the wind element to run back to the other end, but the wave was too tall and he was not escaping its reach. Maybe he felt challenged by the opponent's beast, however, Zephyr came out on his own. Gripping onto Greyson, he quickly flapped his wings and shot up into the sky and escaped right as the wave started to crash down. The water slammed into the ground and caused the stage to disintegrate. Looking down at the damage, Greyson had to admit that he felt a short rush of death. 

"Thanks, buddy." He thanked as he stroked Zephyr's claws around him.

"Roar!" Responding with an aggressive roar, Zephyr seemed to indicate that he wanted to attack back.

"Okay, let's do this!"

Climbing onto Zephyr's back, Greyson channeled his mana into his partner as he began chanting one of the ancient dragon spells he learned. With a loud roar, Zephyr shot out blue fire from his mouth that shot down towards Keaton. Instead of burning everything, the fire instead was freezing. Someone could hear the shriek of pain from the snake as it disappeared back into Keaton. When the blue fire finally dispersed, the audience could see Keaton collapsed on the ground. His skin an unhealthy blue and purple as if he had frostbite all over his body.

"Get the healers!" A man in the audience quickly shouted out. His eyes gave a deadly glare towards the sky where Greyson was still hovering.

Recovering after he heard the shout, Prince Braiden quickly ordered the best healers to help Keaton. No matter his feelings towards the man, Keaton held a high position in the empire and he could not just ignore him.

Greyson, on the other hand, was breathing heavily and sweating. Actually, as long as he did not transform completely to a dragon, he could still communicate with Zephyr. He had tried an attack like this before and realized that the power was enormous. Maybe because his beast partner was also a dragon, but the ancient dragon spells combined well. Each time, though, both he and Zephyr would be completely drained so he never thought of using it in a battle yet. That would be the same as betting his life on one move. Zephyr was also exhausted as he slowly dropped to the ground before dissipating and returning to Greyson's body. Feet touching the ground, Greyson tried to hold his balance, but he still swayed a little. Someone caught his body before it fell. Looking over, he was face-to-face with the now-healed Eris.

"That was a pretty epic ending. You just love to steal all the attention, don't you? Can't you leave a little spotlight for the rest of us?" She teased.

"I wish it were that easy." Greyson huffed back.

At this point, the rest of the audience finally reacted and began clapping and discussing wildly. The people closest to the man in the audience who shouted earlier kept glancing between Greyson and this older gentleman. The more informed ones knew that this man was the current Duke Mendenhall, father to the current empress. Keaton is actually the fifth son but is the one the Duke cherished the most as his talent is the highest after the empress. Some people whispered about whether there would be any consequences as the Mendenhall family was no joke. Like father like son as they say; Duke Mendenhall was a narrow-minded snake who did not take provocation well.

Prince Braiden was also glancing between the two. From the looks of Keaton's injuries, he probably would not be able to heal in time to try to fight for his place in the 10 representatives this time. Which mean he would miss out on the compet.i.tion this time and he would not gain another chance. This was his only chance. No one in the empire had ever gotten more than one chance because normally it would only be the older and more experienced children who were chosen. Thus, they were all over 30 and would not get another opportunity. This type of enmity was not easy to forgive and forget. Rubbing his temples, Braiden knew he would have to talk to his uncle and Imperial Father later about this. Greyson was truly strong and could possibly get some decent results in the upcoming compet.i.tion. Snow Country truly needed talent like him, so they needed to protect him even at the cost of offending the Mendenhalls. Technically, they were his maternal family. However, his mother, the empress, did not favor him as he was one of the youngest and did not have the highest talent. Therefore, his maternal family also treated him badly. His relations.h.i.+p with them was already bad, so he was not worried about offending them. Plus, his mother was more broad-hearted than her family and could see the larger picture. Braiden believed she would be able to take a step back and restrain the Duke.

Not understanding the underpinnings of conflict arising, Greyson was taken over to the stands by Eris to sit. Originally, she was going to take him to the healers, but he told her that he was not hurt just drained. 

"Alright, as of right now, the standings are with Greyson and Princess Eris Whitstone joining the 10 representatives and Master Rouven Zeennak and Lord Keaton Mendenhall having their statuses removed. There will be an opening tomorrow for the two of them to challenge the other 8 representatives to redeem themselves and join the team once again. Tomorrow, these challenges will continue until the final 10 is decided. I announce that today's events close here." Prince Braiden stepped forward and calmed the chaos. 

Hearing his words, everyone began slowly clearing out from the stands. Only Greyson and the animals remained so that he could meditate without interruptions. Eris saw that he was fine and left with the crowd. Duke Mendenhall gave Greyson one last deep look, before following the healers that took his son.