The two approached, step by step, until they stood face to face in the center of the hall.

Jack stood half a head taller than Mark and twice as broad through the shoulders, looking down at him with confidence.

Mark simply watched him with indifference, like someone looking at an ant.

"Last chance to back down" Jack said, cracking his knuckles.

"I was about to say the same thing to you" Mark replied with a half smile.

While both held each other’s gaze, a voice resonated in Mark’s mind.

’Master, just give the order and I’ll cut this idiot’s head off immediately,’ Ely said through the mental link, in a slightly impatient tone. ’You don’t have to dirty your hands with garbage like this.’

’I know, but this time I’d like to go first,’ Mark replied without taking his eyes off Jack. ’This animal has been insulting Luna and me like we’re filth for a good while now... I want to teach him a lesson with my own hands before you step in.’

’...Understood,’ Ely replied, and although Mark couldn’t see her, he could almost feel the pout in her voice. ’But if things get complicated, I’m stepping in immediately... I’m not sitting here watching them lay a finger on you.’

’Deal.’

And at that very instant, Jack threw a punch straight at Mark’s face.

"TAKE THIS, YOU HAIRLESS APE!"

It was so fast that most normal warriors wouldn’t have even seen it coming.

The prince was completely certain a single blow would be enough to cave in the scrawny human’s skull.

But Mark had already anticipated it.

"Bone Wall!"

And from the floor, right between them, a bone wall erupted at full speed.

Jack’s fist slammed into it, but the wall didn’t stop. It kept rising from the floor with tremendous force, carrying the prince upward, until it slammed him full force into the ceiling with a loud crash.

Jack ended up embedded in the ceiling, with half his body sunk into the stone, and to Mark’s surprise he didn’t appear to be injured.

’Huh, I thought that would have done more damage,’ Mark thought, looking upward, mildly surprised. ’But it barely seems to have ruffled him... These beastmen really are tough.’

And indeed, although the blow had caught Jack completely off guard, the actual damage had been minimal.

The prince peeled himself off the ceiling, shaking rubble off himself, with an expression that was no longer mocking but bewildered.

"What the hell...?" he murmured.

But instead of falling, Jack launched himself from the ceiling directly at Mark, fist raised and moving even faster than before.

"Don’t get so full of yourself!"

"Shadow Step!"

In the exact instant before impact, Mark vanished.

Jack’s fist buried itself in the stone floor where Mark had been standing half a second earlier, opening a crater and kicking up a cloud of dust.

When the prince looked up, Mark was already several meters away, hands in his pockets and wearing an expression of boredom that was almost insulting.

"Looking for me?" Mark asked with a smile.

Jack pulled his fist out of the floor, breathing harder, a vein pulsing at his temple.

"Stop running, coward!" he growled with evident anger. "Stop hiding behind your stupid tricks and fight like a real man! Or do humans only know how to scurry away like rats?"

Mark simply laughed at the comment.

The prince clenched his teeth, and a shadow crossed his face.

"You know what?" he said, his voice growing increasingly loaded with rage. "If that’s how you want to play this... then I can play dirty too."

And instead of looking at his opponent, his eyes shifted to one side.

More specifically, toward his sister Luna.

Jack launched himself directly at her, claws out front and with brutal speed.

"Yuki!" Mark shouted. "Get them to safety, now!"

It didn’t need to be said twice.

In a fraction of a second, just before Jack’s claws reached Luna, both she and Emi simply vanished from where they had been standing.

Only to reappear several meters away, beside a column, with Yuki materializing briefly at their side before disappearing again.

Causing Jack’s claws to cut nothing but air.

"What the hell was that?!" he shouted, turning his head from side to side, unable to understand how his sister had vanished out of nowhere. "Where did that woman come from?! How many of you are hiding in here?!"

By this point Mark was no longer smiling at all.

"You know?" he said in a tone that had turned cold and cutting. "I fully intended to beat you myself and knock the arrogance out of you with my own hands."

He took a step toward Jack, and the atmosphere in the hall grew heavy.

"But you just tried to attack your own sister from behind just because you couldn’t handle me," he continued, growing more visibly angry. "That made it very clear to me what kind of garbage you are."

"Huh?"

"So you know what? I’m done wanting to dirty my hands on you."

Jack looked at him with fury, clearly not used to anyone other than his father speaking to him that way.

"What the hell are you—?"

"Ely," Mark said, raising his voice slightly. "He’s all yours... Finish him and don’t go easy on him."

Jack frowned, thrown off.

"Ely?" he repeated, looking around. "Who the hell are you talking to now, you lun—?"

The prince didn’t get to finish the sentence because from Mark’s own shadow, something emerged.

A figure rose from the floor as if the darkness itself were taking shape, forming into a woman with white hair and polished armor, a sword at her side.

Ely stepped out of her Master’s shadow with complete naturalness.

"As you command, Master," she said with a small bow.

Jack stared at her open-mouthed for a second, clearly thrown off by the way she had appeared.

But true to his nature, the surprise didn’t last long before turning back into mockery.

"Seriously?" he said, letting out a scoffing laugh. "You’re going to send your girlfriend to fight for you? Don’t you have the balls to do it yourself?"

Prince Jack looked Ely up and down with a dismissive sneer.

"And what exactly is she supposed to do, huh? Seduce me to death? Cry until I feel sorry for her? Please... don’t make me laugh any more than you already have."

Ely turned slowly toward him and looked at him steadily.

Her expression remained as neutral as ever, without the slightest trace of anger or hatred.

However, there was something far worse.

She watched him with absolute contempt, the same way one might look at a cockroach crawling across their plate of food.

"You know?" Ely said with calm coldness. "Of all the revolting things that have come out of your mouth since we arrived, that was, by far, the most pathetic..."

"..."

"A warrior who attacks his own blood from behind has no right whatsoever to talk about balls."

Her hand settled on the hilt of her sword.

"You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy cutting out that tongue of yours," Ely continued, taking a first step toward him.

"Those are very big words for a simple human."

But Ely simply ignored him.

"While it’s true that my Master ordered me to finish you off, he didn’t say how quickly... So we have plenty of time for you to learn to respect those who are stronger than you."

And with those words, the Knight of the Dawn advanced toward him.

Jack watched her approach, and instead of getting into a defensive stance, he tilted his head with a lascivious smile.

"Hmph... now that I look at you properly, I have to admit you’re quite pretty," he said, looking her over from head to toe without any attempt to hide it. "With that face and that body, you could have had a comfortable spot among my concubines."

"..."

Ely didn’t respond, it was almost as if Jack hadn’t just spoken at all.

And that indifference, far from alerting him, only fed his confidence.

Because for Jack, the conclusion was obvious.

To him, that woman was nothing more than a simple human.

A weak, defenseless piece of flesh with no claws, no fangs, nothing to go up against a beastman with.

And comparing herself to him, was little short of a joke.

"What’s the matter, sweetheart?" he continued, mocking her as she approached. "Cat got your tongue? Or have you already realized you came here to die for a man who didn’t even have the balls to fight himself? You’re still in time to get on your knees and beg."

"..."

"Maybe, if you do it right, I’ll even forgiv—"

And in an instant, she was gone. When Jack refocused his vision, she had already crossed the entire distance and was in front of him.

"Holy Slash!"

Ely’s sword ignited with a white light, and descended toward him fast.

Jack’s warrior instincts were the only thing that saved him.

Because, at the last instant, he crossed both arms in front of him, covering his head and torso, trusting the superhuman resilience of his body to absorb the blow.

"Ugh!"

The impact was like having a mountain fall on him.

The force of the attack dragged him several meters backward, his feet scraping the floor and gouging two deep furrows in it.

The sacred light exploded against his arms with a crash that echoed through the entire hall, and for a second Jack thought his limbs had been torn off.

When the light finally dissipated and he managed to stop his retreat, the prince looked down at his arms.

And what he saw chilled his blood.

Yes, he had managed to stop the attack, but his forearms had paid the price. Those limbs that just a moment ago could crush enemies and split rocks were now covered in deep wounds.

The skin split open, the flesh seared by that sacred light that seemed to have burned down to the bone.

His hands trembled uncontrollably, and a searing pain unlike anything he had ever felt before rose up his arms in waves.

"What...?" Jack gasped, his eyes wide. "This... this is impossible... A simple human did this to me?"

The prince raised his gaze toward Ely, who was already straightening up again, resting her sword on her shoulder.

"I warned you," she said calmly. "That was just a greeting."

Jack clenched his teeth, trying to close his hands into fists, but the pain that shot through them when he did was so intense he nearly buckled at the knees.

And in that moment, something changed in the prince’s face.

The blind confidence with which he had looked down on everyone had shattered along with the skin of his arms.

"Who the hell is this woman..." Jack said, swallowing.