SON OF THE HERO KING

Taking a deep breath, Sol stood up from his seat and began to fix his armor.

"So, it seems that you really hid my advancement level. I thought I was pretty weak, to be honest."

He began to twirl his shoulder in an attempt to relax himself. The atmosphere surrounding him was slowly changing. He didn't care about the cheer he was receiving before even showing himself.

Seeing this, Lilith smiled before nodding,

"Well, strength or weakness are nothing more than relative ways of seeing things. The standard I hold you is way higher than anything else."

"...I see." Sighing, he began to walk toward the large window of the lounge and asked, "So, how will it go?"

"The way you want it to go. You are the crown prince. You decide the rules as you see fit."

"I see. Then, I won't hold back

Either way, I am determined to win."

"Ohoh! Is this hubris? Did your newly obtained power make your head swell in arrogance?"

"Arrogance?" Sol tilted his head in confusion before smiling, "No, never. I have people like you or the witches as examples. The simple fact is that I have no other choice than to win. After all, I made a promise to someone."

Saying so, he opened the window, the cool wind rushing in made his already calm mind cool even further.

Looking down, he calculated the height and began to calculate.

'45m.'

Sol liked to think of himself as someone with a steadfast and calm personality. He was rather calm and easy-going most of the time. He was also someone rather modest and far from prideful.

But, he had discovered a hidden side of him lately.

He liked to fight–and he was good at it.

Smiling, his pupils turned into a slit as he jumped down without any hesitation.

"It's time for me to go all out."

BOOM!!

----

[A few moments ago.]

"Ladies!! And gentlemen!! Now, it's time to welcome our gladiators."

Saying so, he pointed toward the one of the doors on the side which was slowly opening.

From it, four individuals came out. They varied in size and appearance, but each of them was clearly a level above the previous fighters on the scenes.

Two of them were human males. One was holding a human-sized rectangular shield while the second one had an arc on his back. The third one was a tall tanned woman with white rabbit ears on either side of her head wearing a short skirt and short black leggings with many daggers tied to her right thigh. The last one was a short stocky man who was wearing leather armor and was holding a hammer.

"You know them all!!! They are the best! They are the greatest!! They aaaaaarrrreeeeee–The stars of this colosseum!!! Welcome them with your cheers!!"

Wooooo!!!!

The chorus of cheers was deafening. This was how popular they were. The two human males were brothers and ex-slaves who managed to buy back their freedom. They were textbook examples of success from suffering and were the idols of many citizens and slaves.

The woman was a warrior from the rabbitmen clan. She wished to prove the strength of their races. Since they were considered as one of the weakest. As such became a gladiator.

The last one was a blacksmith who used the match as a way to test the gear he created. He was rather popular in the colosseum since his weapons were way cheaper than they should have been.

Each of those four people was strong warriors who fought many battles to reach the place they stood at.

"Now!! We will ask our dear prince to make his– *BOOM!!!!* *Cough* *Cough*"

The referee was suddenly interrupted by a large explosion followed by debris and dust. His view field, as well as the screen, were obstructed by the dust, hiding the cause of such an explosion. But soon, it was cleared.

Once the dust was swept off, the audience was shown a scene they would most likely never forget.

A young golden-haired man standing in the middle of a large crater was observing them. Even though from their position they were the ones looking down at him, they couldn't help but feel incredibly small in front of the aura he was emanating.

"I am Sol Dragona Luxuria."

Seemingly not caring about their shock, the young man began speaking in an unhurried way. His voice, filled with mana, reaching the ears of all the spectators.

"To be honest. When I thought about this day in the past. I was filled with apprehensions and doubts. Would I succeed? Would I do better than my father? Such silly questions filled my mind. But now that I am here in front of all of you, I remark that I am rather calm."

Giving a mocking laugh, he raised his head high, "This is officially the first time I show myself in front of all of you. I know many of you express doubts about me and my abilities. Many of you are worried and don't have much hope. Well, today, right here, right now, allow me to dispel at least some of your worries."

As he said so, a large golden-colored mana pressure began to emanate from him, making the atmosphere heavier by the second.

"The tradition wants for me to fight those four, one after another. But, I have decided something else."

Raising his hand and pointing toward them, he gave a bright smile filled with battle intent.

"Let's go for a simple brawl. The four of you against me alone. Are you ready?"

"Y-your Highness!? Are you serious!?"

The referee seemed stumped for words and didn't know what to do. He looked around before finally looking high in the sky, waiting for a word to oppose this mad idea.

Three of the four gladiators on the other had hard times hiding their anger. Never had they felt so insulted in their careers. If Sol wasn't the prince, they would have already hurled abuse at him. The only one relatively calm was the dwarf. He was looking at Sol's armor in admiration and kept talking to himself.

Finally, receiving no words of denial. The man decided that it wasn't his place to intervene and began leaving the ring. He was no slouch in terms of fighting but he wasn't a veteran either.

Still, he was a professional and once he was out, he immediately began igniting the mood.

"Incredible!!! Unbelievable!!! MAGNIFICENT!!! In a bold display of power and charisma, our crown prince decided to do something never done since the creation of our beautiful kingdom!! What will the result be!!? No matter what, it promises to be something we will never forget!!!!"

The silence in the stand was replaced by wild screams. This was indeed something never seen and people were curious about the power of this new prince. Despite that, few people had any hope in him winning. Gladiator fights weren't only one vs one. Sometimes team events or fights against monsters happened. The four of them were regular members of the same team and as such, their coordination, while not flawless, was nothing to scoff at.

----

"So, guys, what do we do?"

The sole girl of the group asked as she began to clench her fists.

"Ha. Lass, we shouldn't underestimate him. He can already do Cladding. Since he has the guts to defy the four of us then he must have something to rely on."

The dwarf guffawed as his empty hand stroked his beard.

The other two nodded in acquiescence. None of them were newbies. They might have been angered by the previous disregard, but they wouldn't rush will belittling their enemies or thinking they were arrogant.

"Still, ganging up on a young lad leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Let's do a little probing first. The lass will go first to face him. Meanwhile, we will take our position. If things turn south then we will act. Any objections?"

The silence was an answer.

"Have you finished your planning?"

The rabbit woman clicked her tongue before a deep red mana began to surround her body.

Reinforcement, then Cladding. This was the second step of mana control for mana users. The first step allowed one to boost their overall physical abilities while the second one protected the exterior of their bodies like an armor.

"Here we go!!"

The ring they were on was as large as a large field. The initial distance between the five of them was just a few meters. As such, she managed to reach him in the blink of an eye. At least–from a normal person's perspective.

Boom!

Countering her fist with his own, the two entered in a brief stalemate before separating.

The rabbitwoman was a little surprised while Sol had a thoughtful expression.

'As I thought. I could feel no intent in her fist.'

Sighing, he discarded those thoughts. Even though there was no intent, her fist was still heavy.

"Not bad! your highness. Then, should we accelerate a little!"

A mad grin suddenly formed on her face as she rushed again at him in an incredible burst of speed.

Sol calmly avoided some of them while retaliating from time to time. From what he knew, the rabbitmen were just a D rank race. Meaning they didn't even have horns. Still, they were quite powerful and their greatest strengths was their speed and the power of their feet.

Just as he blocked a heavy hit from her and took a step back, Sol immediately felt his back tingling. Moving his body in a rather unnatural way, he let himself fall and avoided an arrow that went past his previous position.

<<3rd step: Manifestation.>>

Molding mana and forming a construct out of it.

Sol, back on the ground, immediately crossed his arms in front of him when the sun was blocked by a black shadow above him swinging his hammer without hesitation.

Boom!!

The shock this time made the ground tremble as a deep crater formed from the aftershock.

"I wonder if it was too much."

They looked at the swirling dust in worry. It was one thing to fight but it wasn't like they wished to badly hurt the prince.

"Attention!"

The dust was swept aside as someone rushed towards the rabbitwoman. The moment he was about to hit her, the shield warrior put himself between the two and took the hit.

Crack!

He could only widen his eyes when his prized shield showed signs of breaking from just one hit. Focusing on the source of this attack, he was even more surprised when he saw that aside from a little bit of dust, the prince wasn't harmed in the slightest.

The rabbitwoman behind him, seeing this, took out one of her daggers and muttered something before she slowly vanished.

It was the unique magic of her race. A magic mainly used to escape danger, but she changed it and used it offensively.

Once the stalemate between the shield warrior and Sol ended, Sol, contrary to their expectations, didn't continue fighting. He simply sighed a little as he began to speak.

"An Assassin, a Tank, an Archer, and a Damage dealer. This is really a standard party. Well, If you had a healer that would be even better. Still, I must admit that I am really impressed."

Despite his calm words, none of them lessened their guards.

"I can see that I still have many things to learn. In any other situation, I would have taken my time and learned more from you. Sadly. I can't really do so today. Which is why I am going to end things fast."

All of them frowned at the same time. Even though the prince was clearly strong, from what they have seen he wasn't so strong that they couldn't deal with him together. What gave him such confidence?

"First one."

He immediately swung his fist on the right so fast it left after images. While it seemed at first that it hit nothing, slowly, a woman appeared before kneeling, her breath haggard and her eyes unfocused.

'How!?'

"It was rather ingenious of you to turn an escaping trick into something for offense. Sadly. You have too many flaws. After all, you are only invisible. Another one is your inability to strengthen your body when you are invisible."

The girl couldn't speak as she slowly slumped. Her eyes closed.

"Well, well, well, now we are only between gentlemen. The next one will be–You!"

'Shit!'

Not having taken enough distance after their previous clash. He could do nothing aside from putting his shield in front of him to block the attack.

Boom!! *Crack*

This time, the hit was so heavy that he felt as if his arms were going to break. Then, just as he was about to be finished.

"Not on my watch lad."

The dwarf intervened with a mighty swing of his hammer. He could already envision what would happen. The prince would escape from the left and his brother would welcome him with a mana charged arrow. In such a situation this should be enough to wound him.

But, contrary to their expectations, the prince didn't even try to avoid the hit. As if it didn't matter to him. He simply swung his fist down one last time and completely blasted the shield before punching the shield warrior heavily on the face.

His last vision was a large smile full of battle lust.

The dwarf on the other hand was horrified. He hadn't held back anything this time. He had clearly given a full blow with his hammer and succeeded in hitting the head of his target. But all that amounted to was–nothing. Not even a bruise.

"Oh! Those scales are tougher than I thought. I was pretty sure that I would at least be wounded."

'Scales?'

Hearing the prince murmur, he focused on the head of the prince and was surprised to see a part of the head of the prince covered by scales.

It was then that he remembered important information that most people tended to forget.

'His highness was a hybrid dragon. Ugh!!'

This discovery was rewarded by a heavy kick in the stomach. A kick so powerful his Cladding couldn't protect him and he was momentarily suspended in the air, the air completely escaped out of his lungs.

"Then this is a payback."

His time in the air didn't last long as he was caught by the leg and swung like a hammer against the ground.

"Gah!!"

The shock was so great that he felt as if his brain was dancing in his skull. All his senses were disturbed and even thinking was a luxury.

"Heh~ seems like dwarves really have a powerful constitution. Then,"

Raising him again Sol immediately put the dwarf in front of him and blocked an arrow that was coming at him. Then, with a mighty swing, he threw the gladiator at his companion. The resulting collision, immediately taking them out of the limit of the ring.

Now the only one still standing on the ring, Sol simply raised his fist in a sign of victory.

"Well, seem like I won."

The stunned silence of the crowd was music to his ears .