Shattering the Plot

It was a new day, and the people of White Flower City all put down their work and gathered at a fence within the White Flower City.

Today is the final Knight's Duel; the victor will become the new lord of the entire White Flower Territory.

The two previous Knight's Duel had been a spectacular sight for the people, who had never seen these Knight Master fight so fiercely before.

So even though they all knew they couldn't decide who the lord was, or what policies the lord would have, they still came hoping for one last chance to watch the spectacle.

The platform was already packed with people. Unlike the previous two duels, apart from Count Ian and the mage Maeve who remained calm, the other nobles present had varying expressions.

Almost all the nobles were clearly divided into two factions: one supporting Finley and the other supporting Ryan, the victor from the other group.

Strangely, despite Finley's apparent superiority over Ryan on paper, Ryan had far more supporters among the nobility than Finley.

This is because Finley was not favored by these nobles from the beginning, and even if these nobles were to take sides, they would choose the side with the greater chance of winning.

Unfortunately, almost none of the knights favored by the nobles achieved final victory; the chaotic battle ultimately depended too much on luck.

Even Ryan initially gained recognition from these nobles because he secured sponsorships from their homes. It wasn't so much that the nobles supported Ryan, but rather that other knights also supported him.

Unlike Finley, who decided to stay home before the duel for fear of something going wrong, Ryan was constantly trying to win over these nobles.

From the moment he won, he kept contacting these nobles, hoping to gain their support, and the nobles favored Ryan more than Finley.

Aside from a few nobles who believed Finley's side was stronger and wouldn't make any mistakes, almost all the other nobles sided with Ryan Finley.

Therefore, these nobles also provided Ryan with a lot of help, hoping that Ryan could defeat Finley.

For example, right now, even though it didn't rain yesterday, the Duel Arena is all muddy, and it takes a bit of effort for a normal person to get off.

This environment is unsuitable for mounted combat, as the muddy ground will get tangled in the horses' hooves, and the slippery surface may even cause them to lose their balance and fall.

These were some of the nobles' little tricks; they deliberately sent people to smear mud on the field overnight and then poured water on it before the duel began.

Finley and Fran's previous performances in horse racing had somewhat frightened them, so after consulting with Ryan, they deliberately chose this method to force their opponents to abandon their horses.

Count Ian also noticed something wrong with the area below, and after inquiring, he received this reply.

"I'm sorry, Count Ian, the date of the duel you mentioned was set by Duke Theodore and cannot be changed. A knight who is absent is considered to have lost."

"We noticed this a while ago, but in accordance with your rules, the arena cannot be altered when preparing for the duel, so we didn't have time to clean it up."

"Rest assured, after the duel, we will definitely arrest that scoundrel who dared to do this and let him experience our torture."

Count Ian glanced at him, then looked away without saying anything.

On the field, Ryan looked at Finley, who was preparing in front of him, and Fran behind him. They were both standing on the ground, ready to engage in a skirmish with them.

He gave Fran a strange smile, and before Fran could figure out what was going on, she felt the sparse sunlight disappear and the whole sky darken.

She looked up and saw that the sky, which had been mostly cloudless, was suddenly enveloped in dark clouds.

Maeve, standing on the high platform, recognized what was causing this: it was a large-scale Rain Prayer sold by the Alliance, which would cause heavy rain to fall from the sky after being used.

Because these rains are all formed from the condensation of Water Element and do not affect normal rainfall, they are widely praised.

Judging from the density of the dark clouds, Maeve estimated that she had used at least three Rain Prayer Scrolls.

As for why these nobles went to such lengths, that goes without saying.

Clearly, these nobles had taken to heart what Count Ian had said, and knew that Fran's Sunflame Arts required the sun to be fully effective.

Therefore, they deliberately used these Rain Prayer scrolls before the duel in order to disable Fran's Arts.

After all, this kind of Arts, which even special metals couldn't withstand, was really too frightening. Even Cliff wouldn't run away if he saw it.

As for Knight Eric, he is still receiving treatment after taking that blow and is reportedly still in bed, unable to get up.

Ryan could imagine that after the battle began, Finley would risk injury to allow Fran to stab Ryan.

No matter what kind of armor Ryan was wearing, he would be severely injured by that hit. What would be the point of him fighting then?

A person's energy is limited. As long as Fran's Arts is disabled, he doesn't believe Fran can come up with anything that can turn the tide of the battle.

He faced Finley across from him, licked his lips, and tried to see the look of panic on Finley's face caused by this sudden event.

To his disappointment, both Fran and Finley maintained their usual calm and composed expressions.

As for Stefan, who was still trembling, he was not a threat, although he didn't quite understand why Stefan was holding up a strangely shaped long iron pipe today.

The sound of stones hitting the ground quickly followed, signaling the official start of the battle.

To Battlefield's surprise, the first to attack was not the two knights facing off, but the unusual long tube in Stefan's hand.

With a few muffled thuds, the two henchmen standing behind Ryan groaned and fell to the ground, their weapons dropping to the floor.

Before Ryan could react, another thing happened that horrified Ryan.

He saw an incredible, intense red light emanating from Fran's longsword, which shone even brighter in the dim light.

"This can't be!" he muttered to himself, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Previously, Fran might have actually been affected by this weather, since the sun was nowhere to be seen, which somewhat weakened the power of the Sunflame.

However, her Sunflame Arts had all reached the Master level of proficiency after the last battle, allowing her to briefly leave the sun's blessing, but their power would still decrease over time.

Her red light directly shattered the psychological defenses of the nobles on the high platform, and many of them fainted on the spot.