356 The duel that ended before the first hit

Melissa frowned, yet she kept chanting, “Let the warmth rage and let the rage accumulate. O enraged blazing spirits, allow me to deliver judgment in thy stead.”

*Sigh* Vincent shook his head and said, “Overheat!” Two gauntlets formed, a pair of eyes shone brightly, and four trails of steam rose in the air.

The new appearance surprised about half of the invited guests. Those who didn’t know about Overheat questioned what the strange, never-before-seen skill could do.

They saw a green substance covering Vincent’s arms as if it was alive in a matter of seconds. The steam rising from his gauntlets and mouth perplexed them, and his eyes shone, causing his gaze to be intimidating.

However, it wasn’t the case for those who saw Vincent use his skill before. They smiled and waited for the duel to end in a few moves. They thought of this duel as unexpected side entertainment instead of a wedding disaster.

Vincent waved at the little kids, and they waved back with a smile. Sofy slyly asked the children to clap and cheer. It caused Melissa to become more irritated.

Darwin quickly inspected Vincent, and he frowned immediately. ‘He’s can kill my daughter with a slap...’ His legs trembled as this thought rushed to his mind. Cold sweat appeared on his forehead with every gasping breath.

Darwin was already imagining his daughter’s death if Vincent made a mistake and placed all his strength in one strike.

“The winner is Vincent Lionheart!” Darwin abruptly announced. He threw in the towel for his daughter’s safety.

.....

The sudden announcement of her defeat shocked Melissa the most, but she was almost done chanting her spell. The shock of the abrupt defeat caused Melissa to utter the final two words of the chant.

“Fire Ball.”

A ball made out of fire shot like fast like an arrow toward Vincent, but with Kazumi’s early warning and the increased perception granted from Overheat, Vincent raised his hand in time and caught the tennis ball-sized fire ball as if a parent playing catch with their child.

Vincent caught the fire ball, and his arm slightly bent while catching what Melissa thought was an ultra-powerful beginner spell that all CQC fighters away from the caster fear the most. However, Vincent barely moved an inch while catching her Fire Ball.

The display of power caused the opening of many eyes and mouths in surprise or shock. Catching a low-level spell such as a Fire Ball with mysterious pair of gauntlets caught most of the people off guard.

The flame remained lit, burning in his hand, but Vincent used Overflow to absorb the mana, and the flame started to dwindle.

historical

Vincent’s affinity to heat increased in Overheat form, caused by the boiling mutated blood coursing through his veins. The dwindling ball of fire offered no resistance to absorption, allowing his hand to close and extinguish the flame instantly.

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[The Host refined and assimilated 1 mana. Mana stat is now 22.]

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The mansion’s residents, including Vincent’s wives, cheered, smiled, and clapped. On the other hand, the straight face Maid Xu smiled after watching Lilith look happy.

“Impossible...” Melissa couldn’t believe her eyes. She thought the sip of wine she took before accompanying Clair to the restroom made her experience a vivid nightmare.

Vincent stopped using Overheat. “Thanks for the present, kindhearted Lady Melissa Griffinheart. ” Vincent sarcastically said as everyone approached to congratulate him for the swift victory.

Shortly, Melissa was led back to her seat by her mother after becoming depressed. She was completely and utterly humiliated.

Melissa, the daughter of two strong mages, lost before the first shot left her wand. Adding insult to injury, the moment her spell landed a hit, the fire ball was extinguished as if it was a ball of burning paper. She felt like this was all a bad joke.

Soon, everyone went to take a seat and started to eat. They had something more to talk about now.

Later, the newlyweds cut the cake, shared a couple of slices with everyone, including the slaves the Graymoon family brought.

Leah, Clara, Beth, Olive, Lian, and Tula, stuffed their faces with cake so much they had a stomach ache from overeating sweets. But it didn’t deter them from wanting to eat more.

Soon, the wedding after party ended. It was time to call it a day as it was almost midnight.

As the guests left one after the other. They congratulated the newlyweds and mentioned Vincent’s duel and Lilith’s surprising awakening.

When the first family left, Vincent noticed soldiers come out of hiding and leave one after another. It appeared they were secretly protecting the wedding from the shadows.

However, if they stopped any assassins or not, Vincent wasn’t going to be told, even if he asked. It would ruin the memorable wedding day in his memories with thoughts of revenge.

After all the invited guest left, Teresa and Leonis had arranged for everyone living with their daughter, be it servants or familiars, to stay for the night.

Vincent entered a large room with three queen-sized beds and nothing else. The beds were probably moved quickly today. Six soon rested on the three beds beside each other.

“Good night.” All said to each other. They looked at the ceiling, as their eyes were closing shut by the second. One by one, they started falling asleep.

It was a mentally exhausting day for all of them, like any wedding. The excitement and the anxiety of an invited guest causing trouble after seeing Lupa, Iris, or Sakura was more exhausting than they thought.

Iris and Sakura closed their eyes and slept immediately as they were the most mentally exhausted from marrying in a human wedding and surrounded by many humans they didn’t know.

Ester was tense at the beginning of the marriage, but she gradually felt used to the situation. However, worrying about Lupa’s behavior tired her.

Similarly, Lilith tried her best to focus on looking at one person at a time. She would look at Vincent and talked with her mother from time to time to ease her anxiety.

Lastly, Lupa... well, she didn’t care much as she is a free-spirited woman. Her mind was filled with thoughts of food instead of greeting people and acting formally.

Vincent looked at the ceiling as his eyes started to close. He felt Plow moving to find a good position to sleep on his stomach and petted the little fox before sleeping.

*Day 77 – 25 August – Morning*

The warm sun was already up in the sky, warming the brand new day for the newlyweds. The tables were left in the garden, and everyone had a light breakfast after eating a lot of food yesterday.

Vincent was wearing six rings on his ten fingers. A ring with a small engraved butterfly represented Ester. A fang for Lupa. A spiral for Kazumi. A flower for Iris. A pair of wings for Lilith. A hammer for Sakura.

After enjoying breakfast, they were ready to leave and go home.

Teresa and Leonis hugged their daughter as if they were never seeing her again. Both parents wished their daughter a promising future and that they would visit very soon.

Leonis remained to talk with his daughter while Teresa approached the others. She hugged each new Lionheart girls and mentioned how she doesn’t hate them for marrying the same man as their daughter.

Teresa turned her head and looked at her daughter. “Please take care of my little angel in my stead. She likes all of you and treats you like sisters.” She warmly said with a smile.

The four of them nodded and mentioned how they would treat Lilith well. Teresa didn’t need to worry about her daughter.

Leonis knew it was time to let his daughter go and live a new married life with the man she chose as her partner in life.

“Vincent, I will visit this afternoon. We will go to the Graymoon Auction House, and I will buy you a gift. It will be a small payment for the tanning techniques you taught my wife.” Leonis offered. Visiting very soon appeared to mean today to Leonis, it seemed.

Even though Leonis can’t be told trade secret information, he knew his wife highly valued the tanning techniques Vincent gave his wife. As such, Leonis wanted to offer a small gift based on their financial situation. Their monthly revenue with their current business isn’t doing too well.

Vincent agreed. He shook Leonis’s hand and told him his daughter was in safe hands.

Later, three carriages left from the old Lionheart generation’s mansion to the new Lionheart generation’s mansion. Or, as they decided to call themselves for more clear distinction, the Golden Lionheart main family and the Emerald Lionheart branch family.

Sofy drove one of the carriages. The hired coachman sitting beside her was prepared to take over if a problem arose. He was surprised by how quickly Sofy mastered driving a carriage and leading two horses that weren’t familiar with her instructions.

Sofy was a natural in his eyes, yet the horses were breathing heavily for some reason, and their pace was quicker than usual.

The mansion’s gate entered Sofy’s sight. The old loyal soldiers opened the gate when noticing a carriage with the Lionheart insignia on it. She drove to the entrance area and parked the carriage.

The third carriage at the back stopped in front of the gate. Eliara and Fliara exited the carriage. They thanked the old soldiers for protecting the property and that they would take over.

The three coachmen thought they were needed to leave the carriage near the stable, but to their surprise, Vincent asked the three coachmen to unhook the horses and leave the carriage where it was.