And in that moment, something changed in the prince’s face.

The blind confidence with which he had looked down on everyone had shattered along with the skin of his arms.

"Who the hell is this woman..." Jack said, swallowing.

Then, the wounds Ely had opened on his arms began to heal rapidly.

The seared flesh regenerated before their eyes, the skin rebuilt itself, and within seconds his forearms were intact again, as if the point-blank attack had never happened.

Ely watched the process with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Well, looks like you did have a trick or two up your sleeve after all," she said, resting the sword on her shoulder. "Regeneration... no wonder you think you’re invincible."

Jack flexed his now-healed hands and flashed a satisfied smile.

"And you hit too hard for a woman," he replied, cracking his neck. "I’m starting to think I underestimated you a little..."

"Now you realize," Ely said. "A little late, but it’s something."

She didn’t waste any more time and immediately launched herself at him again, but this time Jack was ready.

When Ely’s sword descended, the prince was no longer there to receive it.

He moved to one side with a speed he hadn’t shown before, dodging the blade by just a few centimeters, and immediately countered with a blow aimed at the knight’s side.

Ely turned the sword and blocked the hit with the flat of the blade.

"Seems that blow sorted your head out, didn’t it?"

"Don’t get distracted!"

Jack chained a second blow, then a third, moving with brutal ferocity and power.

Each hit cut through the air with enough force to split stone, and each one aimed at a different vital point, the neck, the chest, the legs.

Ely blocked every blow without much trouble, and while she was pushed back a couple of steps she was never in any real danger.

"You hit hard, I’ll admit it," she said between blocks. "But you’re quite predictable."

"Shut up bitch!"

The exchange of attacks grew faster and faster.

Claws against steel, sparks flying with each clash, the two moved throughout the entire hall throwing attacks and counterattacks.

Jack fought like the beast he was, all instinct and savage strength, while Ely responded with the cold, refined technique of a vastly experienced warrior.

But then, in a moment of carelessness, Jack found an opening.

Instead of attacking Ely directly, he swiped at her sword blade at the exact point and angle.

The blow was so violent it knocked the weapon out of the knight’s hands, sending it flying through the air until it embedded itself in a column, far out of her reach.

"HA!" Jack roared with a triumphant smile. "Got you now, sweetheart! Let’s see how brave you are without your little toy!"

He launched himself at Ely with both claws, certain that without her sword the woman was finished.

However, she didn’t retreat. Instead, she stepped forward, slipped inside Jack’s attack, and hit him back with a direct punch to the jaw that snapped his head sideways.

Jack lost his balance and staggered back, dazed.

"I don’t need my sword to deal with garbage like you," Ely said, closing both hands and adopting a hand-to-hand combat stance, fists raised.

"What—?!"

Jack didn’t even finish the sentence before Ely launched herself at him again.

What followed was a proper beating.

Ely moved with a fluidity and precision Jack simply couldn’t keep up with.

She dodged every one of his attacks and responded with devastating blows to the ribs, the stomach, the face.

The prince launched attack after attack without landing so much as a single hit, while every one of her strikes landed exactly where it hurt most.

"Damn it! Stand still!" Jack roared, throwing a hook.

Ely ducked under the blow, slipped to his side, and drove her fist into his ribs.

"Alice taught me these moves, you know?" she said, dodging another attack and answering with an elbow to his face. "She always insisted a warrior must never depend on her weapon alone."

"Ugh!" he grunted, feeling his nose break.

"At the time I thought having to train without my sword was a nuisance..." She blocked a blow with her forearm and countered. "But it turns out that stubborn woman was always right."

Jack kept retreating, growing more frustrated and desperate, unable to land a single blow against her.

The regeneration was the only thing keeping him on his feet, closing bruises and wounds almost as fast as Ely inflicted them.

But that didn’t change the fact that he was being completely humiliated.

"DAMN IT!" Jack screamed, launching himself in one last desperate attack, putting everything into a single downward punch.

However, Ely dodged it with a small sidestep.

"And this one, Aria taught me," she said, swinging one leg back.

Before slamming a kick directly into his groin.

For an instant, the throne room fell into absolute silence.

Jack went completely still, his eyes totally wide and his face blank.

All color drained from his face at once and then he collapsed.

"...my... my balls..." was all he managed to articulate in a high, cracking thread of a voice before falling to his knees.

The prince writhed on the floor, clutching his groin with both hands.

"MY BALLS... YOU FUCKING BITCH! WHAT KIND OF WARRIOR ATTACKS THERE?! THAT’S NOT DONE! MY... my balls... you son of a bitch..."

Jack writhed on the floor, groaning and cursing between grunts of pure pain, every last shred of his dignity completely evaporated.

From across the hall, Mark watched the scene and couldn’t help wincing, instinctively bringing a hand to the same area.

"Oof," he muttered with a look of secondhand pain. "That definitely had to hurt... Poor bastard, I almost feel a little pity for him."

Ely, for her part, didn’t even flinch at the prince’s whimpering.

She walked to the column where her sword was still embedded, gripped it by the hilt, and yanked it out of the stone in one pull.

She spun it a couple of times in her hand to readjust her grip, then walked back unhurriedly to where Jack was still writhing on the floor.

Ely stood before him and, without a single word, drove her boot into his chest. The crunch that followed was reminiscent of a dry branch snapping.

Several of Jack’s ribs broke instantly, tearing a choked scream from him as the air was forced out of his lungs.

"That was for daring to attack my Master," Ely said coldly.

She rested the tip of her sword against the floor, beside the prince’s head, and leaned slightly over him, looking down at him without a trace of mercy.

"Very well, garbage," she said with satisfaction, seeing the prince completely defeated. "Do you have any last words you’d like to say?"

"...Go... go fuck yourself," Jack spat, his voice loaded with pain and rage. "Go to hell... bitch..."

And while he said it, he tried to regenerate once more.

He closed his eyes, concentrated what strength he had left, waiting to feel his broken ribs knit back together and the pain fade as it had before with his arms.

But his body simply no longer responded.

The regeneration, that ability he had trusted his whole life, that safety net that made him feel invincible, no longer worked.

He had used it too many times in too short a span, and now, at the exact moment he needed it most, it had reached its limit.

"No... come on, come on, work!" he said with growing desperation. "Damn it! Not now! Regenerate, for fuck’s sake!"

Ely watched him struggle uselessly against his own exhaustion, and let out a tired sigh.

"Frankly I expected much more from the beastman heir," she said, lowering her eyes to the prince writhing at her feet. "All that bluster, arrogance, and contempt... to end up like this?"

"..."

"What a disappointment... you’re not even worth a warmup."

Ely raised her sword above his head, gripping it with both hands, the blade pointing directly at Jack’s throat.

"Goodbye, and pray that in your next life you’re born with some decency," she said coldly, bringing the sword down.

But just before the blade completed its arc, a crash echoed through the entire throne room.

The enormous main door flew off, torn completely from its hinges, and flew directly at Ely like a projectile.

The knight reacted in a fraction of a second.

She spun around, abandoning the attack on Jack, and with a single clean slash of her sword split the heavy door in two just before it reached her.

And through the gap where the door had been, three figures entered the throne room.

The first was a tall man with bear ears and a face covered in scars.

Followed by one with large antler-like horns branching from his head.

The last had dark feathers among his hair and forearms, and a sharp gaze.

Jack, seeing them, raised his head with a look of relief.

"About time you useless idiots showed up!" he shouted with what little voice he had left, coughing between words. "Where the hell were you?! Look what this bitch did to me!"

The three brothers didn’t respond, limiting themselves to silently assessing the situation.

"What are you waiting for?!" Jack continued, pointing a trembling finger first at Ely and then, across the hall, at Mark. "Finish her! And that damn coward over there! I want them both dead! NOW!"

The three men exchanged a brief look among themselves and began advancing toward where Ely and Jack were.