"Can't you just wait a bit, man?" I yelled at him, but my voice was swallowed by the roar of the flames.
And, apparently, he couldn't.
I saw the three massive spheres hurtling toward me, but they were so blindingly bright that it felt like someone had shoved a pair of high-beams directly into my retinas.
My eyes seared with pain, and I instinctively jerked my head away, but it was too late—the afterimage burned into my vision, and for a terrifying second, everything went pitch black.
I was blind. In the middle of an arena. With a serial killer brother throwing magical napalm at me.
This is it.
I'm going to die in a trashy novel before I even get to the first plot twist.
I braced for the impact, waiting for the sensation of my skin turning to charcoal.
But the explosion didn't come.
Instead, I heard a strange, heavy whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sound. It was the sound of the fireballs cutting through the air, but something was off.
From the sound it looked like they weren't rushing toward me with the same terrifying, meteoric speed as the first attack. They were... sluggish?
Wait.
Don't tell me is he playing with me?
I looked at the sword. The mirror-polished steel was reflecting the blue light of the flames so brightly.
In every "bad" novel I'd ever read, the protagonist didn't win by being stronger; they won by exploiting the antagonist's arrogance.
Aries wasn't just attacking me; he was showing off. He was keeping the fireballs in the air, controlling them with his own mana, probably to savor the moment I finally gave up.
My eyes darted to Aries's hands. He was focused entirely on the fire, his fingers twitching to guide the trajectory.
He maybe looking at me but it seemed his entire focus was on the fireballs in the air.
"Hey, Aries!"
Hearing my voice he paused for a moment and a look of genuine confusion appeared on his face. "What? Want to beg now?"
"No,"
I tightened my grip on the hilt.
"I just wanted to see if you could hit a moving target while you're blinded."
I didn't run away this time. I ran at him.
"Are you insane?!" Aries screamed and his face twisted in rage.
He flicked his wrist, and the three fireballs roared toward me at full speed.
I didn't dodge. At the last possible second, I tilted the flat of my sword upward, angling the mirror-polished surface directly at Aries's eyes.
The midday sun, combined with the blinding sapphire glare of his own magic, hit the blade and bounced back.
A concentrated beam of pure, white-hot light struck Aries square in the face.
"MY EYES!"
His hands moved to his face to protect his eyes and the fireballs that were rushing just a moment ago stopped instantly in the air.
The connection between Aries and the balls had snapped. The three fireballs that were inches from my head didn't explode—they flickered and dissipated into harmless sparks alongside the remaining ones over his.
I didn't stop. My heart was thumping so hard I thought it would shatter my ribs. I had no idea how to use a sword, but I knew how to swing a heavy object.
"Don't tell me..." The Vampire Queen stood up in the gallery.
I was ten feet away. Five feet.
Aries was still stumbling, blinking back his tears. "I'll kill you! I'll burn this whole arena to—"
I didn't give him the chance. I swung the heavy steel blade with everything I had—not with the edge, but with the flat of the sword, aiming right for that arrogant jaw.
CRACK.
That was a gamble.
The sound of the impact was sickeningly satisfying. It wasn't the clean shlick of a blade, but the heavy, bone-jarring thud of a metal slab meeting a stubborn chin.
Aries didn't fly backward. He didn't skid across the marble or perform some dramatic, mid-air spin like a protagonist in a high-budget flick.
Instead, he just... stopped.
The impact of the flat of my blade against his jaw was heavy, vibrating up my arms and into my teeth.
It felt like hitting a brick wall with a sledgehammer. For a split second, time seemed to stutter.
My breath was caught in my throat, my muscles screaming from the exertion of that desperate, all-or-nothing swing.
Then, the light in his eyes simply went out.
His pupils rolled back, leaving only the whites of his eyes visible beneath his eyelids.
His jaw, once set in a sneer of pure arrogance, was now stuck at an unnatural angle to the left.
Thump.
His body hit the floor with a dull, heavy sound and silence fell over the arena.
Absolute, suffocating silence.
Clanck!
Suddenly, my grip on the hilt weakend and the sword hit the ground. I looked at my hand and noticed it trembling softly.
Then, I slowly turned my head toward the shaded galleries.
The "Strongest Human" mother had stopped eating, her fork suspended halfway to her mouth.
My sisters had stopped whispering and Elena was leaning so far over the railing I thought she might fall. But it was the King's face that drew my gaze.
He wasn't angry. He didn't even look shocked. He was staring at the unconscious form of his "genius" son, then back at me.
It was as if he was wondering how a "pervert" could just one-shot the "prodigy" using a mirror and a heavy piece of metal.
"He... he did it?" One of my sisters—I think it was Elena—whispered from the gallery laced with genuine shock.
I didn't look at her.
Because, it had happened.
The most awaited system screen or should I say the author's pegion was finally here when it is not needed anymore?
— The Author is... impressed?
— You have successfully deviated from the 'Worst Novel' script.
— Warning: The 'Aries' character will not forget this. The 'Aragon' family will not forget this.