King's Rule: Creating the Strongest Kingdom With My Broken Talent-Chapter 38: Second Round Begins, First Battle

Vesh waved his hand as he channeled a significant amount of A-rank R.M.E and constructed a 200-meter radius colosseum in the sky, without audience seats.

"Let our subjects fight in this venue." Vesh turned his head back to King Aurora.

"Looks good." King Aurora nodded at the colosseum before looking at Vesh. "Then shall we send our first combatants?"

Vesh’s voice spread toward the platform in a clear voice for everyone to hear. "Dan, you’re up for the first fight."

"Sending your strongest first, eh?" King Aurora chuckled.

He didn’t do the same.

"Hugo, fight this battle."

He sent the weakest of the five Stem-rank fighters, his own son.

"As you wish, lord father." Hugo stood up as his weapon appeared in his hand. A fancy, sleek, light-brown polished wooden staff with firm and sharp golden belt patterns on both ends, and crimson wavy lines along the middle of the staff.

Despite being the weakest, this staff wielded by Prince Hugo was the strongest melee weapon that Aurora Kingdom had acquired.

Not crafted, but acquired through a bloody war in a dimensional ruin that temporarily descended three years ago.

It was called Bloody Sun.

Vesh raised his eyebrows. ’That’s an S-rank weapon. Same as my armors and my Slime Sword.’

Meaning, it was a weapon that would be able to channel S-rank energy and unleash greater power than when used with A-rank energy of Stem-rank powerhouses.

Vesh’s Wind Sword was too weak, which was why he created the S-rank Slime Sword consisting of all eight elements.

"Let’s add one more thing for fun." King Aurora spoke as Dan also arrived in the colosseum, standing a hundred meters away from Prince Hugo.

The visuals in all holograms were split from the middle, one showing and broadcasting the conversation of Vesh and King Aurora, while the other showed Dan and Prince Hugo staring at each other, while also paying attention to the conversation.

"How about we add a reward to each fight of our subjects?" King Aurora smiled. "If your subject wins, I shall give a reward. If my subject wins, you shall give a reward. Naturally, we can give whatever we are capable of giving."

Vesh blinked. ’Still wanting to play mind games. This guy is a proper fox.’

But he grinned behind the helmet as his white eyes glimmered briefly. "Sure. That sounds perfect. Let’s see which kingdom has a bigger vessel when it comes to treasury and magnanimity."

Competition of gifts? Bring it on.

Hearing Vesh word everything so frankly, and with such confidence, King Aurora couldn’t help but ruefully smile as he suddenly got the feeling that he had hit the axe on his own foot.

But he was curious about the true capabilities of this unknown Ananta kingdom.

A large holographic countdown from ten appeared above the colosseum.

10.

11. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Let’s go. I’ll start by showing you the Ananta Governing Tower, which will be your new palace once Aurora Kingdom becomes the Aurora Branch of Ananta Kingdom."

"Could you stop annoying me with that statement constantly?" King Aurora rolled his eyes.

"I’ll try." Vesh chuckled. "But if you are sensible, reasonable, and rational, you would join me rather than becoming my enemy."

King Aurora sighed as the duo descended. "Rationality backfires. Views become as narrow as needles. The ego often wins over logic. People do things that result in destroying themselves despite knowing that already. That’s the burden and curse of being sentient, unlike beasts who live with instincts."

"Can’t deny that." Vesh nodded. "That’s why this Kingdom doesn’t focus on superficial goals like saving everyone in the world and making it a paradise."

"But the Ananta Kingdom intends to become exactly like a paradise. A paradise where even if the gods wish to enter, they must behave according to our rules."

King Aurora laughed. "Your king has quite an ambition. When can I meet him?"

"That depends on how we end our meeting."

Both of them landed quietly on the Ananta Tower’s front ground before heading toward the entrance of the tower, a 20-meter-tall and wide door that remained open, but a barrier acted as the real door that blocked and scanned people before letting them in.

One could not enter without the Ananta ID wristband.

While the two of them entered inside, the fight above started in a far more rampant manner than the previous one.

BOOOM!

Prince Hugo’s staff landed on Yeolodan’s head at a perfect point while bursting with a heavy and wide streamlined impact that sent him down like a bullet.

A big crater formed as Yeolodan was embedded into the ground five meters deep.

Vesh made sure to make the ground a bit weaker to let the impacts scatter and escape through destruction.

Shooting back up, Yeolodan’s six arms cracked their knuckles as he looked up at Prince Hugo.

"Not bad! The pushback and impact of that staff are quite impressive!"

Prince Hugo snorted as golden lightning flickered around his body.

He had S-rank Lightning and S-rank Earth mastery talents, on top of having another S-rank talent called Pressure Burst.

Pressure Burst basically allowed him to increase his physical output upon contact, depending on the pressure he built, which could be built in a variety of ways, depending on how he wanted to hit his target.

Aside from these three, he had an A-rank Staff Mastery talent as well.

Unfortunately for Prince Hugo, his opponent was more monstrous and talented than he was, while also having better gear.

"Let’s fight to our heart’s content! Bwahahaha!" Yeolodan vanished from his position as a trail of blaze suddenly flickered across the sky before expanding like wildfire, spreading hundreds of meters all around.

Prince Hugo frowned at the sudden chaos above him and retreated while observing.

People watching live looked at the wildfire in the sky, which quickly started to shrink.

"W-what?!"

"So big?!"

People gasped as they saw a gigantic figure as the wildfire was seemingly absorbed into this giant, who was over a hundred meters tall.

"What the hell?" Prince Hugo’s eyes shook.

[Librarian Mirina: That’s bad. It’s clear that the giant is Root-rank, but he will overpower Prince Hugo because of the armor. It’s an insane technology to allow anyone to wield A-rank energy and empower their attacks with it.]

[Duke Artilon: Not just magic attacks, but also the physical body. The armor is boosting all aspects of his life. It’s not worn over the body, but connected to the body on a fundamental level. I can’t wrap my head around that.]

[Commander White Beard: Indeed. But let’s see what happens. The staff can break the armor, but he has to be patient and find an opening.]

[Scarlet: Given Hugo’s style, that ain’t happening. But I sure would love an armor like that. Even Seed-rank can kill Root-rank by overpowering them since Root-rank can only wield B-rank energy, while the armor gives access to A-rank energy and boosts physical parameters. It’s like cheating.]

Powerful wind burst out as Yeolodan laughed loudly like constant thunder.

This was Yeolodan’s S-rank talent, Heartblaze Tattoos.

The effect was that the more flames he absorbed, the larger he became. Not just in size, but also in power, as his physical parameters increased by 5% per 10 meters of growth.

And the terrifying thing was his SS-rank Fire Mastery talent.

An S-rank elemental talent meant becoming the living manifestation of the element, able to turn one’s body into elemental form.

An SS-rank elemental talent, upon reaching 50✧ potential, allowed one to manipulate the fundamental laws governing that element.

This is where elemental talents jumped significantly in power, becoming utterly terrifying.

Because one does not just control the element, but manipulates the principles behind it.

But this also tested creativity and one’s ability as a powerhouse, because two people with the same SS-rank elemental talent could have a vast difference in how they shaped and used their element’s principles to create sophisticated techniques to boost their combat power.

What Yeolodan did in the sky was ignite the atmosphere’s air and other energies to instantly create a large amount of flames for him to absorb, becoming 118 meters tall and boosting his physical parameters by 59%.

The tattoos on his body glimmered through the semi-transparent suit that had also expanded alongside Yeolodan’s body, since Vesh had designed all suits to be flexible and increase in size to accommodate the user by consuming reserved A-rank R.M.E batteries inside.

Prince Hugo decided to strike from afar as five brightly glowing earth crystals with lightning coursing through them lined up, which he hit with the staff as they shot at Yeolodan like bullets.

Pressure Burst empowered the crystals significantly.

But Yeolodan, despite being a 118-meter-tall giant, vanished from his position with a faint burst of smoke as if flames were extinguished.

Alas, Yeolodan appeared upside down above Prince Hugo, his giant palms bursting with vortexes of flames, about to crush Prince Hugo between them with lightning-fast speed.

’Damn it.’ Prince Hugo’s body flickered as he vanished with a thunderclap and appeared next to Yeolodan’s giant head, his staff glowing as its patterns lit up.

’Humph, let’s see how you defend against this.’

[Scarlet: A pity. He rushed it.]

Dan’s eyes glinted as his other two arms on standby were ready for instant action. ’This armor is boosting all of my body and mind. Usually, I am not this fast.’

A palm arrived with a blazing vortex that burned all resistance of the atmosphere as it struck Prince Hugo before his staff could hit Yeolodan.

BOOOM!

[Commander: He had no chance. The combat sense of that giant is like a calm leaf avoiding all obstacles in a storm. The giant also let him hit once deliberately just to get a feel of Hugo’s power.]

Prince Hugo felt intense heat for a fraction of a second, followed by an impact that rattled his brain and a shock that sent his consciousness drifting into darkness as he slammed into the colosseum ground, making a crater five times wider than the one created when Yeolodan crashed down.

Almost all of his bones were broken.

Commander White Beard arrived there in a blink, pulled the prince out, fed him a pill, and sent him down inside a barrier.

"Haha, are you next?" Yeolodan grinned.

"Well, we can change the rules and make it such that the winner can stay and fight until they lose." Commander White Beard caressed his beard as he looked at an Abyss Eye in the sky as if asking King Aurora about it.

King Aurora turned to Vesh as the camera focused on him on all screens. "I don’t mind that."

"I also don’t." Vesh chuckled as they entered the project management section of the tower.

Up above, Yeolodan grinned.

"Do you want to rest a bit?" Commander White Beard’s outfit changed to a pristine white exoskeleton suit, as if made from an exotic beast’s bones.

"Nope." Yeolodan shook his head as he looked at the suit’s UI.

[A-rank Battery remaining: 43%]

’The wildfire took a lot of energy, but this should be fine, I suppose.’

"Let’s start then." Commander White Beard cracked his neck as large gauntlets formed around his hands.

"Oh, an unarmed martial artist?" Dan’s eyes brightened. He also felt a whiff of danger from this old man, unlike the previous one.

Dan grinned. "Make me have some fun."

"Depends on how long you last." The commander replied calmly with a faint smile and sharpened eyes.