Chapter 720: The King’s Crown (III)
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The man was flabbergasted. He actually couldn’t believe the audacity of this guy.
There is no way he’s actually pretending still after all that. He summoned a heavenly tribulation to strike him down. There’s absolutely nobody that could sleep through that.
Furthermore, he’s out here acting dumb, searching for his cave when he knows damn well what happened to it.
The man was already pissed before, but now? He’s furious. At the height of his emotions, he lashed out and summoned a thick pillar of lightning to strike down on Dawnbringer. This one didn’t come with dark clouds and thunder; it appeared out of the blue.
However, Dawnbringer responded to this in a very casual manner.
Clang!
A sword suddenly appeared in his hand. As the lightning struck it, he swung the sword backwards, redirecting the lightning strike to whatever’s behind him.
He then frowned, showing a displeased expression, and asked, "What’s the big idea? You know, it’s rude to attack someone out of nowhere!"
"Shut up! Shut the fuck up and die, you filthy commoner!!"
Ftoom!
Accompanying his thunderous roar were hisses of lightning and screams of thunder. The man’s composure has been thoroughly emptied. He held nothing but pure murderous intent in his heart, one that wished nothing but pure pain and agony for Dawnbringer.
"Whoa! Easy there, buddy. You’re going to blow off your top with how angry you are. Breathe, will you?"
"Silence!"
Ftoom!
The man’s fury reached the skies. He unhesitatingly unloaded his fury by striking at Dawnbringer repeatedly.
At this point, it’s not about the crown anymore. It’s about dignity and status. This commoner must be put in his place, or else he’d have no face to show to his peers ever again.
Yet despite his efforts, everything was in vain. Everything he threw failed to inflict even a single ounce of pain on his target. Dawnbringer just parried everything: every lightning strike, every thunder, physical, mental, or spiritual...nothing touched him.
And he did it all with great ease, as if he were gently parenting a spoiled child.
"Damn it! Why won’t you die!?" The man angrily screamed, but his attacks never stopped.
"Oh, that’s because I’m better than you," Cedric casually responded. "But no, seriously, do you know what happened to my cave?"
And judging by the way the man’s face twisted upon hearing that, it’s clear that he did not like what he said.
"Fuck you! You’re nothing more than just a filthy commoner who got lucky! You don’t get to stand there and tell me that you’re better than me! I am one of the chosen ones, and you, you are nothing!"
"Oh, really?"
The tone of amusement was rich in Cedric’s words.
"Well then, Chosen One, why can’t you kill me? Hm?"
"Damn you!!!"
The man screamed for all his worth, and the world responded to his anger. The skies darkened again, shrouded with thick dark clouds that promised nothing but pain and suffering.
He summoned the Heavenly Tribulation again to strike down on Cedric. This time, it’s more powerful and wrathful. Thunder and lightning struck down on Cedric for a bit, but none of it did any real harm to him. If anything, it just made his ears ring a little due to how loud the thunder was.
Then, deciding that he’s had enough of this, Cedric raised his sword. He held it with both hands and cleaved the sky in half.
Under the dumbstruck gaze of the enemy, the wrathful heavenly tribulation he gathered ’died,’ sliced in half by Dawnbringer’s sword. The act happened slowly enough to notice but too fast to counter.
That cleave contained something the man didn’t understand. He knew this because the act of cleaving heavenly tribulation like that shouldn’t have been possible.
Well, maybe it is, but it shouldn’t have been that easy. At the very least, it should’ve cost Dawnbringer an arm and a leg to do so.
Yet, the impossible stood tall before him. Uninjured and completely unbothered, as if he didn’t do the impossible just now.
And to add salt to the injury, it was him who experienced a backlash, not Dawnbringer. His organs churned, and his origin energy flowed chaotically because of what happened.
This caused something in him to break. Whether it’s his delusions, self-esteem, or something else entirely, nobody knows. But it did freeze him in place and in disbelief at what just happened.
"No...no, this is...this is impossible! This can’t be real!"
The man was losing it. His superiority was fact-checked and was proven to be false...in front of Dawnbringer, at least. And for some reason, that’s enough to completely turn his world upside down, so much so that he doesn’t know what to do anymore.
"So? Care to tell me what happened to my cave?"
And maybe because Dawnbringer broke his mentality or something, but the man actually replied properly this time.
"I...I destroyed it."
"You did?"
"Yeah, yeah, I did."
"Well, that’s not good. I was sleeping in there, you know. It seems that I need to teach you a lesson."
Cedric raised his sword and pointed its tip to the man. Then, out of nowhere, the man collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings were severed.
The man was still conscious; he’s not in pain either. But he couldn’t move a single muscle. He could think and breathe, but he could not move or speak, not even a twitch of his fingers.
It was a complete paralysis. Painless yet absolutely terrifying.
The shock finally caught up to him, causing him to hyperventilate at this reality. But it’s too late for him to do anything about it. He’s already paralyzed, completely. The enemy had free rein on what to do to him, and he wouldn’t be able to stop it.
This isn’t just about losing his mobility. It’s about being so utterly and helplessly weak that he’s at the mercy of someone else’s whims.
And for someone who used to think of himself as one of the Chosen Ones, this was beyond humiliating. It was demoralizing. It’s worse than killing him.
The worst part is that the one who did this to him was the same person he insulted. The one that he called a filthy commoner who got lucky. The same person he looked down upon. One that he never took seriously.
As it turned out, it’s Dawnbringer who’s not taking him seriously, not the other way around.
The man didn’t even know what happened. How Dawnbringer paralyzed him by simply pointing his sword at him was completely beyond him. He didn’t see a clue or a sign that warned him about this. He just dropped to the ground like this; the deed was done before he knew it.
Before his eyes, a countdown appeared, starting from 60 seconds.
It warned him that if he couldn’t regain his mobility by the end of the countdown, he would be eliminated from this round.
A strong sense of unwillingness bloomed within him, forcing him to do his best to regain some of his mobility.
He didn’t want to be eliminated right away. He could accept not being the first in the rankings but absolutely not being the first of the seeded participants to be eliminated, worse, at the hands of a commoner.
If he allowed this to happen, he’d never live it down. The people around him will always remind him of this moment, and he won’t be able to face them ever again.
That’s why he desperately fought for a chance. He swore and cursed inwardly while trying every method in the book to regain some semblance of mobility.
He couldn’t care less about Dawnbringer anymore. His mind has been cleared enough to know that he kicked an iron plate barefooted this time. He swore that once he regained his mobility, he’d run away as far as he could from Dawnbringer. Whether he’s branded as a coward after that doesn’t matter anymore.
With how easily Dawnbringer subdued him, it’s clear that he could’ve done so much worse, and he’d probably deserve it with how nasty he treated him. The fact that he had done nothing so far was a sign of his magnanimity, or pure confidence that, if he could do it once, he could do it again.
He never stood a chance.
That’s why if he could move again, he’d run away. He truly doesn’t care anymore.
Alas, even now, he’s still deluding himself with his wishful fantasies.
The paralysis was too strong and too effective. So much so that even after exhausting every trick he knew of, it’s still there. He’s still paralyzed and completely unable to move.
He could only watch in despair as the countdown drained faster than he could think.
It was only after the countdown was over that he felt something. No, he’s still paralyzed, but some unknown force enveloped him, transporting him out of the battlefield.
He flew above Dawnbringer, who regarded him with complete indifference, and he heard him say,
"Next time, try not to disturb some people’s peaceful slumber. They tend to wake up grumpy if you do."
There’s so much to unpack in his words, but all he could do was to analyze them after he faced the punishment of being the first of the seeded participants to be eliminated.