Bro, I'm not an Undead!

(A/N: Bonus Chapter).

Two minutes ago...

Skullius had just launched a punch backed with the entire 30,000 tonnes he could pack on the wall of the barrier, but other than making it quiver slightly, there had been no real damage to the barrier.

'I didn't see this one coming. The activation of this technique is incredible. This... Kurtish man wasn't lying. As soon as you face him, it's pretty much over,' Skullius thought.

The barrier looked the same inside as it outside, with only the large figures of the golden griffins missing from it.

Moments before this, he had heard Kurtish's taunting words.

Apparently if he begged, the man was willing to let him live.

'That's funny,' Skullius thought with a smile.

Begging, huh?

Scraping those useless, entitled demands, the rest of what he said was a big help though.

'So no one from outside can actually see or hear me, huh? That leaves me open to a lot of temptation. I could freely use everything in my arsenal to escape but that would mean exposing all my cards to this man. He would know them all, in which case I'd need to kill him. That's probably not a good idea though.'

The Hybrid Luman gave it some thought.

This wasn't a Genuine Incarnation.

This was a barrier that locked him in and shrunk as per its user's will.

As simple as it sounded, he didn't have a counter towards it except his raw strength... which was lacking.

To remedy the situation, he had to make a decision.

None of his non-class skills packed enough strength to break him out of this. Not on their own at least.

Unlike bandits who didn't have sophisticated and powerful techniques, true born heirs to Families like Kurtish were different.

'I don't have a choice. I have to use it. At the very least it's mainly a feature of my race than it is a feature of my class so I have a chance of getting away with it if it turns out that someone can see through the barrier,' Skullius thought in annoyance.

Merely risking that was not to his liking either.

The reason why Skullius was hesitant about using his [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light] powers was because he had this sinking feeling that someone out there might tie them to their origin.

It was a little far fetched when considered logically but he trusted this feeling of his.

Maybe the WILLS of Fulgardt were drawing him towards another conclusion.

All this said, using his Insurgent Magnus powers now, or rather a muddled up version of them while hidden from view was acceptable right now.

So Skullius went straight towards executing his plan.

A singular, expansive wing burst from behind his back with a shocking luminance!

[Wing of the Just].

Skullius felt a rush of strength bury him under a feeling of omnipotence. Shining glitters appeared over his skin, giving him a brilliant image fitting of the five fold increase to his power that was rendered immediately!

Without wasting time, Skullius cocked his fist and let his mana run wild, its entirety exploding out with an enormous level of output!

A total of roughly 14,500 was multiplied fivefold to give a total of 72,500 points of mana that raged with a level of quality and thickness above and beyond what Skullius normally had!

His stats were also quintupled and with that came something Skullius wanted to exploit!

Weight.

Quintupled quality of his weight manipulation with mana!

150,000 tonnes were freely clinging onto Skullius' fist right now as a result!

Above this, he used every skill that augmented his strength and speed before throwing a full power fist at the barrier!

The roar of the magical construct, its creak as if it was made of metal, brought a satisfied grin to Skullius' face.

'This isn't enough, huh?' he thought before adding something else.

The <CURSED HEART> caused a blackish-red energy to seep from Skullius and wrap around his fist.

His Hybrid Luman form assimilating a portion of the [Swindling Death Dance] abilities was still an anomaly that Skullius was yet to fully understand but he knew that the energy wrought from jt was fairly destructive, even without Demion's Dance!

All this power when put together as Skullius expertly landed another straight punch in the same place he had hitting all this time finally broke the barrier!

When this occurred Skullius immediately dispelled the [Wing of the Just] and exited the broken Royal Constriction Box to face Kurtish.

Gasps and bursts of shock as well as excitement rung from all corners of the stadium!

An unexpected development!

This wasn't going to be a one sided exchange after all!

"Would you look at that? He's competent after all, sister," Setkh who was seated in the crowd said with a glance towards his sister who didn't look to have been concerned in the first place.

"Of course he is," Stylla said.

Skullius wouldn't die here.

The old man from the tower had reassured her of that with the words he had given to her. Something would happen before anything akin to death met the Hybrid Luman.

Something she was warily guarding against.

Unfortunately for her, something else was now plaguing her mind. Something she was holding in her hand.

A delicate piece of paper.

Silrat on the side had been concerned for a bit but he relaxed after seeing Skullius emerge from the barrier but Yuyui seated to his right side only nodded with confidence.

"That's right!" she said with pride.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing!"

Within the circular tent, several contenders were looking at Skullius with a lot of intrigue without his knowledge.

The first was naturally Darwel who had taken her seat, recovering from the earlier shock.

'There's no mistaking it. This man... I must speak to him as soon as I can. What is the meaning of this?' Darwel thought with her eyes studying Skullius closely.

She was usually laid back as there nothing new to obsess about in Pelian but now...

She was so glad she didn't hurry back home.

She was so glad to demanded to join the Royale through Rearren.

This caught her interest.

The other two individuals who also looked to Skullius with interest were none other than Gabel... and Vali but for completely different reasons.

Vali tapped her fingers against her cheek.

'Hmmm. The quality of that mana. Tantalising. The Bryne Family found a gem...' she thought silently.

Back on the platform, Kurtish shrugged.

"It seems you're as furious as I am. Good. I'm rather upset with you ruining my image. No, that can't be right. It was my fault for using such a basic barrier to begin with," the middle aged man said with a flamboyant spin.

His armour, as impractical as it looked seemed to have functions above basic defence as it suddenly shone bright, releasing tendrils of verdant green energy that swirled around Kurtish who revelled in the light!

As this occurred, Skullius with the same annoyed look on his face blasted towards Kurtish incredible speed and gave a heavy punch to the man's head!

A shockwave pulsed around the two but...

"Be patient, will you? I'm recovering my lost mana here, " Kurtish said nonchalantly, not affected at all!

Skullius' fist was blocked by a beautiful barrier that looked like hundreds of thick, royal blue crystals were stitched together and layered over each other to form a curved shield that defended Kurtish from the front.

Once again, this was an automatic activation!

'No wonder this guy is so arrogant. His techniques activate on their own and if I'm to take what he just said seriously...' Skullius thought as he drew back.

Surely, Kurtish was recovering his lost mana.

Even if the Royal Constriction Box he used was a basic barrier form, according to him, it still look a large chunk of his mana to perform.

Skullius assumed that the automatic activation sapped a lot more mana than the barrier technique itself but the lost mana was recovered through the armour.

Talk about inefficient use of resources.

Kurtish didn't care!

He could recover what was lost and replenish tools with similar effects.

Soon, the showy man's mana was fully restored and he gave a wave to the audience again, to his fiancé who reciprocated with a sweet smile and another kiss.

"Now. Let me show you a sliver of my true strength," Kurtish said with an arrogant grin. "When my Family Technique is combined with my personal strength."

...!

Sunset orange coloured Perfect Aura started to flow from Kurtish's body, rising hurriedly to form a humanoid image!

It was a feminine figure with soft facial features.

When someone from the crowd so its face, she blushed!

As the Incarnation formed, another chunk of Kurtish's mana was devoured for the activation of something extraordinary!

Something that emerged before him with a complex, hard to articulate structure that spun, spun and spun again vigorously!

"Do you know what happens when two or more conflicting barrier formations are forcibly merged together?" Kurtish asked, his expression growing increasingly confident.

Skullius furrowed his brow.

'Yeah, this could be bad,' he thought as he pulled out Demion's Dance from his storage ring. 'There's no way to half heartedly fight this guy. It's either I kill him or he kills me.'

Therein lied the choice and the dilemma.

Could Skullius defeat this man?

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