The next morning, the final day arrived – the ultimate challenge of the Golden Knights Tournament. Iliana spoke, "It seems that Orus and Kai haven’t returned yet. Damn it, now we have to handle the guarding and organizing ourselves. Garok, could you please monitor and intervene in case of any emergencies?"


    "Of course, no problem," Garok replied.


    "Great. I’ll take care of the matters inside the tournament arena, and you’ll handle anything outside the tournament in case of an emergency."


    "Alright then."


    A few minutes later, Seraphina arrived. "Listen, I’ve reached some conclusions from the lab," she said.


    Iliana asked, "What did you find?"


    Seraphina answered, pulling out a small vial containing a strange substance. "This material, I extracted it from the blood of that creature, and it''s also present in the blood of all the fallen soldiers. I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but I’ve subjected it to a series of tests and magical reactions, and I’ve gathered some results."


    The knights nodded for her to continue explaining.


    "This substance is a type of blood toxin. It travels through the blood and reaches the body’s magical energy pathways, altering the magic and changing the nature of the creature into those monsters we saw."


    Iliana asked, "But how could this happen? Where did these things come from, anyway?"


    Seraphina answered, "This substance isn’t natural. It was intentionally created in some kind of lab or facility. Look, I’ll show you something else."


    Seraphina opened the vial, and the liquid began to turn into gas. "Try not to inhale this. I’m not sure if it only affects the blood or if it also works through respiration. It’ll need more testing."


    Garok spoke, "So, you’re saying that this substance was created somewhere and then made its way into the kingdom through a monster, which then carried it to the soldiers?"


    Seraphina replied, "The monster we saw is the final stage of the toxin’s effect. If we had taken longer to defeat the infected soldiers, they would have turned into the same kind of monster."


    Iliana said, "So, the infection started from someone who was exposed to that substance."


    "Exactly," Seraphina confirmed. "Now we need to find a way to track the source of this substance."


    Iliana interrupted, "Sorry, but it seems that the final match is about to begin. Let’s handle the tournament first, and then we’ll deal with the other matters."


    "Alright then, let’s head to the arena," Seraphina said.


    The two knights headed towards the arena for the final match, while Garok stayed behind to monitor the situation. If any other monsters emerged, he was the only knight available at the moment.


    In the arena, the competitors, Michael and Knight V, along with his team, arrived. The audience was packed, excited for the long-awaited battle, which would begin in just a few minutes.


    Iliana announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have now reached the final round of the Golden Knights Tournament. May the best performer win. Now, let’s welcome the competitors to the ring."


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    Michael entered, followed by Knight V and his companions, with loud applause from the excited crowd. There, Knight V saw Michael and spoke, "I will end this with you now, once and for all."


    Iliana announced the start of the match.


    Immediately at the beginning of the fight, Knight V spoke, "You two, get out of the ring."


    Knight V’s companions responded, "Understood, sir," and they left without argument, much to everyone’s surprise. Knight V had sensed that the fight would be extremely brutal and felt Michael was ready to kill without hesitation, just as he had with the two who fought with Wolf.


    Michael spoke, "What are you doing?"


    Knight V answered, "This way is better. I can move now without obstacles. Just like you, you prefer to fight alone, right?"


    He then drew his axe and launched an attack, striking the ground heavily. Michael dodged and pulled out his sword, engaging in a weapon clash. Knight V’s weapon was covered with seismic magical energy, so every time it clashed with Michael’s sword, Michael felt the shock’s force as if his bones might shatter and collapse. Michael vanished and delivered a behind-the-back explosive attack, but the explosion did little to harm Knight V.


    At least Michael now knew that assassination tactics were the way to go in this battle, as a direct confrontation would be futile against Knight V. The raw strength advantage would be overwhelming for Knight V.


    "Michael, before I kill you here, answer me this question," Knight V said.


    "Hmm?" Michael replied.


    "Do you know the butcher Morgan?" Knight V continued.


    Michael answered, "Why are you asking me about a criminal? If you want to talk, just say whatever you want clearly."


    Knight V responded, "Alright then. Are you working with the butcher Morgan? What do you know about his business and trade?"


    Michael replied, "I’ve never worked with him, and I don’t care about his trade. But if it helps you, as far as I know, he’s involved in organ trade and some other things."


    Knight V said, "So tell me, what were you doing in that cave? Targeting those blue-boned elves, they are the main targets for Morgan’s trade."


    Michael answered, "It was a separate job, a special request from a regular customer. Now that I’ve answered you..."


    Michael vanished and appeared behind Knight V, trying to strike his neck with a dagger infused with magical energy. However, it did no damage, and he couldn’t break through Knight V’s armor.


    "Useless," Michael thought, trying to remember how he had managed to damage Knight V in the Hallucination Cave. He wondered why the explosion there had caused injuries, but now it had no effect.


    Suddenly, the ground began shaking, and Knight V rushed forward, landing a punch on Michael’s chest with incredible speed, followed by a punch to his face that knocked him to the ground. The shaking stopped, and Knight V lifted Michael by his neck, speaking as he applied pressure.


    "Are you lying or not? You really don’t work with Morgan?"


    "I’ve already told you, I don’t know anything," Michael gasped.


    Then, fiery slash attacks appeared and hit Knight V, but they did nothing. Immediately after, Michael broke free from Knight V’s grip and attempted to launch a fiery strike with his sword, but Knight V dodged and parried the successive attacks after drawing his axe.


    After exchanging a few blows, Michael tried to surprise him with another fiery slash, but again, it had no effect. He was then struck directly by Knight V’s axe, knocking him to the ground and injuring his chest.


    Michael quickly got up, clutching his wound, and pressed on it.


    Knight V approached, preparing to finish him off. "If you’re insisting you don’t know anything, then we’ll end it here and now."


    He raised his axe high, but then a huge explosion from within Knight V pushed him several meters back, leaving blood and small cracks in his armor. It seemed that Michael had found the solution.


    "The cooldown period for nullifying magical attacks... six seconds. After that, your armor becomes vulnerable, doesn’t it?" Michael said.


    Knight V responded, "Hmm, good observation, but not a big deal. As I said, I’ll finish you off quickly if you have nothing else to say."


    Meanwhile, Kai was heading to the Merchant Village in search of answers, already close to the village. Orus, on the other hand, was heading to the night market and estimated he’d arrive in a few hours after sunset, which was a good time, as the market would already be in full swing.


    In one of the alleys in the Golden Kingdom, Garok had already encountered another creature similar to the one Iliana and Seraphina had found. However, Garok stopped it and dealt with it before it became a problem. What was strange was that he hadn’t expected another creature to appear so soon.


    "Sir, what should we do with the corpse?" one of the guards asked.


    "Send it to Seraphina’s lab," Garok answered, then spoke to one of the guards, "Intensify the search for these creatures. It seems the kingdom is facing a bigger problem than we thought."