Soon after another teenager stepped onto the stage, and replied to the challenger in an arrogant tone.

“I, Roland Dawmond, shall accept this challenge! Today I’ll show the world who’s worthy of Miss Sophia’s hand!”

Thus, Maximilian called out to a twenty years old young man.

“Older Brother Willis, I humbly request you to be an arbiter for this match!”

“Sure. I’ll now say out loud the rules. Any technique is allowed, the winner is decided either by the opponent’s surrender or opponent’s fall out of the stage. Injuring is alright, but crippling or killing are strictly prohibited. If any of you tries to seriously harm the other or I judge the fight is becoming too dangerous, I’ll immediately interrupt the fight! That said, you both can start when my dagger touches the ground.”

Willis proceeded to step onto the stage and brought out his dagger, ready to let it drop. But as he was about to drop it, Maximilian stopped him.

“Older brother, please wait a moment. I want to have a nice chat with my dear younger brother.”

Once Willis gave a small nod of approval, Maximilian shifted his attention to Roland.

“Hey little brother, you sure have some guts to come and snatch my girl! Today this older brother will teach you what respect towards the older means!”

“Older brother Maximilian, don’t say it like that. I and Sophia both like each other. In fact, it was she who asked father to get engaged with me instead!”

“Lies! She was clearly smitten about me! We won’t go anywhere with just words, so let’s solve this problem as real men do! We’ll let our fists talk instead!”

“For once, I completely agree with you, older brother!”

Having heard what they said, Vince couldn’t help but shake his head.

‘What a bunch of idiots. Both of them probably interpreted this girl being courteous as her being in love with them. And worse, the first one challenged to a duel his crush’ fiancee without even asking her beforehand, while the other just bet his future wife in a duel. If I were Miss Sophia I’d run away as far as I can from both of them.’

‘Anyways, this is a perfect chance to evaluate the combat standards of my family.’

Once the two teenagers on the stage were ready, both of them nodded and gave the arbiter a signal.

“Since both of you are ready, let’s start!”

Willis once again picked up his dagger from its scabbard, ready to drop it. After a few seconds, he let the dagger drop. As soon as the sound of the dagger hitting the floor resounded, the two siblings rushed at each other.

Maximilian started moving the Mana inside his body, concentrating it on his palm. Vince could already tell what he was going for by sensing those little changes.

‘He’s accumulating Mana on the palm of the right hand, even though he’s attacking with a left hook. The left hook lacks any real power. He wants Roland to block his left hook with both arms to make him leave an opening. Once he sees the chance, he’s going to proceed by striking with a right palm attack. It’s not a bad combination, but it’s too risky. He clearly lacks combat experience, and he’s merely relying on what he was taught.’

As Maximilian wanted though, Roland fell directly into his trap, expecting a Mana empowered attack to come from the left, he used both arms to defend. Once Maximilian confirmed that fact, he proceeded to attack with his right palm. The palm hit directly onto his brother’s chest.

Unexpectedly, that strike dealt almost no damage and merely forced Roland to take three steps back.

“Not bad older brother, I see you worked hard. Too bad in front of absolute power such schemes are useless. You might have already realised, but I recently turned my Mana core into an Orange Core, while you still have a Light Red Core. And I don’t think you’re going to be able to fight against me with a Small Realm of disadvantage.”

Indeed Maximilian had noticed this fact and now wore a stern expression. Even though he was almost a year older than Roland, he was still left behind in Cultivation. And even a one so-called Small Realm difference, is not something to scoff at.

The difference between a Stage and a Small Realm is nothing alike. One Stage meant there was only a difference in Cultivation level, while a Small Realm referred to a difference in quality. In short, a Small Realm difference happens when two cultivator have vastly different achievements within the same realm.

For reference, in the Awakening Realm, a Small Realm difference refers to the colour of the Mana Core. An example are the two brothers. A Stage difference does not necessarily mean a difference in Mana Core colour as well.

This gap was not something easy to bridge. The increase in strength is exponential. That means someone one Stage higher on average can fight against six or seven fighters of one Stage lower. Someone two Stages higher usually can fight between thirty-six and forty-nine cultivators two Stages lower.

A Small Realm difference is usually considered to be roughly the same as a two Stage difference, while a two Small Realms difference to be equivalent to a four Stages difference.

‘He’s even dumber than I thought. He challenged Roland without even knowing the depth of his strength. Did he even ever study history? The main reason why the Continent isn’t united under only one banner is that all of the major powers don’t know the depth of each others’ strength.

The strongest Cultivators practically all live in secluded Cultivation. And since nobody knows if the other achieved a breakthrough, nobody dares to wage war. The gaps in Cultivation levels aren’t easily bridged, yet this guy challenged his brother on a mere assumption. If he had earned ten respect points from thanks to that well-executed feint, he just now lost one million.’

Maximilian, having realised his mistake, was on the verge of tears. But he didn’t surrender. He started to prepare for another attack instead. This time he prepared to execute a way more complicated technique, one where he has to concentrate his Mana on his fingers’ tips. The higher you wanted the Mana concentration to be, the harder it was to achieve it.

‘He’s using all of his remaining Mana in this attack. Seeing the faint concentration of Mana in his left leg, he probably wants to throw a high kick to the face, so that his opponent will reflexively try to block it. If the opponent is very inexperienced, he might even close his eyes instinctively. Considering this is an all-in, his only chance is to disrupt the flux of Mana from the opponent’s Mana Core.’

By attacking the Mana Core with a high Mana Concentration attack, it’s possible to disrupt it, as foreign Mana will invade it. The host will thus have to clear his own Core before attempting to use any Mana again.

Such an attack is by no means fatal if executed by someone of lower Cultivation Base. The damage it causes usually amounts to an inability to use Mana for short amounts of time. If executed perfectly, it might even wholly seal the opponent’s Cultivation for a few minutes. That would allow the attacker to gain valuable time.

‘But considering his mastery over the technique, it will be incredible to cause a thirty seconds long disruption. Even if he gives his all within those thirty seconds, I doubt he can actually defeat his opponent. That attack is meant to be used in group combat, not in duels, as someone can disrupt the enemy’s Mana flow, while his teammates can use it to their advantage afterwards. He should have gone for a killing move in this situation, as the arbiter would stop you, but you would still be deemed the winner.

This whole strategy relies on his confidence of beating someone with disrupted mana flow in a Mana-less fight. But, the opponent will have higher defences than you, because, even though he loses control over his Mana, it’s not consumed. Since the Mana will still be there, allowing the muscles to operate better, the disruption will merely stop him from using techniques. The outcome might have been different in the Flowing Realm, as casting spells is vital, but it’s not a desirable outcome in this Realm. The match is pretty much already over. Roland should win easily.’

Maximilian once again succeeded in his plan, but as Vince had predicted, Maximilian couldn’t break through Roland’s defences at all.

“Heh, older brother Max, still using petty tricks even though it didn’t work the first time? As I’ve already said, in front of absolute power, all petty schemes are useless!”

“I know that, but I won’t give up that easily! I’m sure my latent potential is going to awaken during this fight!”

“Latent potential? Don’t make me laugh. Are you perhaps the main character of one of those stories Old Mo always used to tell us? Wake up, you’re no Arthur Brooks, and you’ll never be one!”

‘Damn, all of them know that story as well. That Old Mo looks to really like that particular story…’

Maximilian stopped wasting breath, and instead focused on his desperate last-ditch effort. When he estimated to only have 10 seconds left before his opponent’s recovery, his eyes showed a glint of determination.

Five seconds, four, three, two, one…

As Roland started to show a joyful expression, he suddenly realised there wasn’t any floor below his right foot. Roland fell out of the arena, leaving everyone dumbfounded. It was clear that Roland was the absolute winner when it came to strength, yet he had just lost.

“You piece of… How dare you win with these petty tricks? Come and face me like a real man!”

“The rules were clearly stated. No need to jump into a fight I’m bound to lose!”

As Maximilian smugly said so, Roland started making progressively different expressions. First one of anger, then of embarrassment, and at last one of frustration.

‘I completely overestimated this Roland. I thought he would be smart enough to move around in circles, yet he just moved backwards. He managed to fall from a thirty meters wide arena in a duel. What a moron. He might be forty nine times stronger than Maximilian, but he has at most one-hundredth of his intelligence. And considering the other isn’t even that sharp, it’s even more depressing.’

But, as everyone thought Maximilian had just won his dreams’ girl’s hand, a young veiled lady stepped on the stage, and both siblings made astounded expressions.

“Miss Sophia!”