In the broadcast booth, Hosk visibly struggled for words.

"That’s... I have to say, that was incredibly brutal. Regardless of the circumstances, she’s still a young girl, and the way he just—"

"I’m done," Vera cut in, voice tight. "Whatever goodwill I had for that boy after his performance earlier, it’s gone. That was excessive. Completely excessive."

The crowds reacted with similar unease, the earlier split now tilting harder against him, murmurs of discomfort spreading through every screen the broadcast reached.

...

With Sera left where she’d fallen, Leon turned and approached Talia.

She’d already gone still, wind no longer gathering at her fingertips, her stance loosening into something closer to surrender. She didn’t need to be told twice. Watching what had happened to Cedric, to Julian, to Sera, had been more than enough demonstration. If she hadn’t understood the gap between them before, she understood it completely now.

Leon stopped in front of her.

He tilted his head slightly, studying her for a moment.

"You," he said. "What’s your name."

"T-Talia," she answered, voice smaller than she meant it to be.

"Talia huh, interesting, I like you already." He said

"Now remember this Talia. No matter how strong you become. No matter how much influence you gather."

His eyes glowed faintly, sapphire catching what little light filtered through the broken canopy. "There will always be someone stronger than you."

"Remember that."

Then he was gone.

No buildup. No visible movement. One moment he was standing in front of her, the next the space where he’d been was simply empty, frost slowly settling over the grass where his feet had pressed into it.

He reappeared in front of Cedric.

Cedric tried to move his legs.

They wouldn’t respond.

He stared up at Leon, breathing shallow, every instinct in his body screaming the same single warning.

This was bad, he knew what predicament he was in more than anyone.

One more hit.

Just one more, and that would be it.

He was certain of it.

As Leon closed in for the final blow, the ground shook.

Trees at the far edge of the clearing splintered and collapsed outward as something massive forced its way through, a creature easily as tall as the surrounding canopy, its body a grotesque fusion of reptile and salamander, dark scales slick and glistening, fire pooling and dripping from its jaw like saliva that refused to cool.

The Cindermaw Drake.

Cedric’s crushed, swollen face managed a small, satisfied smile.

This was it. The strongest monster in the entire forest, a thing that should have been deep in hibernation for another two years yet. But Leon had caused enough noise, enough destruction, enough disturbance to the surrounding mana that it had woken early.

And now it would deal with him.

It had to.

The beast let out a roar that shook loose bark from every tree within a hundred meters. Every candidate still conscious and capable of movement scattered immediately, no hesitation, no second thoughts, pure animal instinct overriding whatever ambitions had brought them here in the first place.

The creature reared back, fire building in its throat.

Leon was already moving.

He leapt, covering the distance in a single motion, appearing directly above the beast’s head before it had finished its breath, and brought his fist down.

**BOOM**

The impact didn’t stop at the monster.

It didn’t stop at the ground either. The shockwave tore straight through both, the Cindermaw’s massive skull caving instantly, and the force kept going, ripping through the earth beneath it and into the mountain face rising behind the clearing. Half the mountainside simply ceased to exist, rock and stone crumbling away in a slow, thunderous collapse that sent dust rolling outward across the entire area.

Leon landed.

Dusted his hands off.

"I don’t have time for extras," he muttered, already turning back toward Cedric.

Cedric stared at him, something in his expression finally cracking entirely.

"You’ve got to be kidding me," he said, voice hoarse. "How much more do I have to suffer. I’m a prince, I can’t just get humiliated like this." He said, more to himself than anyone.

Leon kept walking toward him, unhurried.

Just as his fist drew back for what would have been the final blow, two figures dropped into the clearing from above, landing silently between Leon and Cedric, cloaks settling around them.

The prince’s shadows.

"Who are those?" Hosk’s voice cracked through the broadcast, confusion bleeding into alarm. "Those aren’t registered candidates—wait, are they attacking him?"

The two cloaked figures moved without hesitation, blades drawn, striking at Leon from both sides simultaneously, fast and coordinated in a way that screamed years of training together.

Leon dodged the first strike, twisted away from the second.

But something was different now.

He was tired.

He’d burned through more ki today than he probably should have, floating across half a forest, leveling B rank beasts without slowing, that point and chest crushing punch into the Cindermaw and a mountainside. Ki wasn’t mana. Mana exhaustion left you drained, sick, miserable. Ki ran deeper than that. It was tied to the actual thread of life sitting inside him, and burning through enough of it carried a different kind of risk entirely.

A dizziness was creeping in at the edges of his vision.

He needed to end this. Quickly.

But these two weren’t ordinary opponents. He recognized the pattern in how they moved, the silence, the precision, the complete absence of wasted motion.

Shadows.

His siblings each had one. Cain, Rosa, Lena and even Julian, all of them assigned a dedicated protector from early childhood. Leon had refused his. Told Arlott directly that he didn’t need one, that he could handle himself.

That decision was currently circling back around to bite him.

He weaved between their attacks, redirecting one blade with a flick of his wrist, slipping past the second by a margin thinner than it should have been given how sharp his reflexes usually were. He was still outmaneuvering them.

Barely.

In the stands, Arlott was already rising from his seat, jaw set.

Outside interference was explicitly against the rules of the Aurenfall. Always had been. No exceptions, royal blood or not.

He hadn’t taken two steps before the church’s voice rang out across the entire venue, calm, official, completely indifferent to what was currently unfolding in that clearing.

"The Aurenfall hunting festival has concluded."

A pulse of light swept the forest.

Every candidate vanished from their positions simultaneously, pulled back to the central platform in a wash of magic that left nothing behind but disturbed grass and dissipating mana.

Every candidate.

Except Leon.

The two cloaked figures remained as well, blades still raised, the clearing suddenly very empty around the three of them.

...

The massive screens across the continent went dark almost in unison.

Conversation exploded immediately, everywhere the broadcast had reached, every town square and tavern and living room erupting into the same scattered noise.

"Did you SEE that?!"

"I’ve never seen a Hunting Festival like this in my life." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"The Silford twins. Both of them. In the same generation."

"Forget the twins, did you see what Leon did to that Cindermaw Drake? With one punch?"

"And the prince. I almost feel bad for the kid."

"Almost."

"Wait, who were those two at the end? They weren’t candidates."

"No idea. Did the screen cut ?"

"It cut. Right when they attacked him."

"That’s not normal. Why would they cut the feed?"

"Something’s off. That whole ending felt wrong."

"Forget that, what generation is this? Three S ranks wasn’t enough, now we’ve got whatever Leon is too?"

"They called him a failure for seven years."

"Yeah. About that."

Across taverns and town squares and quiet living rooms throughout the continent, the conversation kept circling the same unresolved thread, equal parts awe at what they’d witnessed and unease at how it had been cut off.

Nobody had an answer for the two cloaked figures.

But everybody had a question.