Chapter 164: First Sovereign Game

"The Sovereign Arena is enclosed within a Tier-9 Spatial Preservation and Casualty-Prevention Array," the Overseer explained. "Under these arrays, no participant can suffer permanent death or crippling injury. The moment any combatant receives impact force or magical damage sufficient to be classified as fatal, the spatial array will instantly trigger, projecting them out of the active combat zone and into the automated medical recovery pods."

The Overseer looked into my eyes. "In short, you may execute full-power combat maneuvers without hesitation or restraint. The winning condition for a Sovereign Game is straightforward: successfully eliminate or incapacitate the opposing team’s Sovereign. Once the Sovereign is removed from the field, the match instantly concludes."

I nodded, adjusting my collar slightly. "Understood. Simple enough."

"Very well," the Overseer said, stepping back onto his floating platform and ascending into the air above the battlefield.

He raised his right hand into the sky, the stadium lights dimming as a massive ten-second holographic countdown timer materialized over the center of the arena.

[10... 9... 8...]

Across the field, Lysander raised his golden rapier, his six elven followers drawing their weapons and channeling their mana into a unified defensive vanguard formation around him.

[3... 2... 1.]

The moment the holographic countdown hit zero, glowing card icons flashed over the heads of Lysander and his six retainers.

Floating above each of them was a sharp, obsidian crest, the Spade. Since Lysander had only awakened a single suit in his Sovereign Deck so far, his entire squad fell under the Spade category. Instantly, a heavy metallic aura surged around the seven elves, boosting their raw physical movement, combat reflexes, and martial coordination.

I glanced back at Val. Above her head, a single, brilliant jet-black card icon materialized, shining far brighter than any of the ones on the opposing side, the Queen of Spades. The black crest hovered for a fraction of a second before descending into her chest.

The moment it merged with her body, Val’s dark Soulshade aura exploded outward in a silent, dense wave. Her presence expanded dramatically, her base speed and physical attributes multiplying under the card’s amplification.

I looked at her, offering a shameless smirk and a quick wink. "All yours, Queen."

Val’s dark eyes flickered with a a quiet, intense spark. She gave me a single, crisp nod. "Understood."

I took two steps backward, crossed my arms over my chest, and leaned casually against empty air. I had zero intention of moving an inch for this entire fight. My job was done the second I stepped onto the platform; now it was time to watch my bodyguard put on a show.

Across the arena, Lysander noticed my relaxed posture and scoffed, his face twisting in irritation. "Arrogant fool! You think a single cardholder can stand against a full vanguard?! Charge!"

Lysander lunged forward, drawing his golden rapier, while his six retainers moved in flawless high-speed formation.

The middle-aged veteran guard took the point position, pulling a massive two-handed battleaxe from his back. His body flared with a heavy brown earth-type mana as he slammed his boots into the stone floor, cracking the arena tiles and launching himself straight at Val like a meteor. Positioned right behind him were two quick-footed elven flankers wielding twin enchanted daggers, while three long-range martial users spread out to flank her from the sides.

Val didn’t wait for them to close the gap. She charged straight into the center of their incoming formation.

SWOOSH!

Her movement was so fast it blurred the air. She didn’t draw a weapon immediately, she simply stepped straight into the veteran guard’s path.

The middle-aged guard roared, bringing his massive battleaxe down in a devastating vertical arc aimed straight at her head. The heavy blade cut through the air with enough force to shatter reinforced armor.

Val didn’t dodge. She simply raised her left hand, her palm coated in a dense layer of black Soulshade energy.

The veteran guard’s jaw dropped. His massive two-handed battleaxe, swung with full physical force and heavy earth mana, was caught completely dead in its tracks by Val’s bare, shadowy fingers. She hadn’t shifted an inch backward.

"What?!" the guard gasped, his eyes wide with disbelief.

Before he could pull his weapon back, the two fast-footed flankers materialized at Val’s sides, their twin daggers flashing like lightning as they aimed for her neck and ribs.

Val didn’t even turn her head. Her body instantly turned translucent, shifting into a dark, ethereal shadow mist.

THWIP!

The four glowing daggers passed straight through her body, cutting nothing but empty air. The two flankers stumbled forward from their own momentum, caught completely off guard.

Val solidified instantly between them. She reached out, grabbed both of their collars in a lightning-fast grip, and slammed their heads together with a brutal, sickening CRACK!

Both flankers stumbled backward, dazed and bleeding from their foreheads. But Val didn’t finish them off. She released her grip, letting them stumble back into their formation, a cold, calm expression on her face.

She was intentionally holding back her lethal strikes. She was playing with them.

[Fufufu~] Paige’s voice chimed in my head, practically purring with delight. [Look at her, Seth! She’s totally flexing on them! She could have ended this in three seconds, but she’s taking her sweet time to break their spirits.]

’Yeah, I noticed,’ I thought with a dry smirk. ’She’s making a statement.’

Lysander rushed in from the right flank, his golden rapier thrusting forward in a blinding flurry of light. "Stay focused! Surround her!"

The three long-range martial users fired a barrage of compressed wind blades and kinetic needles from the perimeter, trying to pin Val’s movements down while Lysander and the veteran guard pressed the attack from the front.

What followed was a masterclass in total combat dominance.

Val moved through their coordinated barrage like a ghost weaving through rain. She side-stepped Lysander’s rapier thrusts with effortless, millimeter-precise dodges, letting the sharp golden blade miss her clothes by microscopic margins. When the wind blades tore toward her back, she shifted into shadow mist for a fraction of a second, letting the projectiles pass through her and slam straight into Lysander’s glowing defense barriers.

The middle-aged guard swung his battleaxe in a wide, sweeping horizontal strike, attempting to clear the space around Lysander. Val simply ducked beneath the heavy axe, planted her hands on the guard’s broad shoulder, and flipped effortlessly over his head, landing cleanly behind his defense line.

No matter what combination they tried, no matter how tightly they aligned their attacks or utilized their Spade card enhancements, they couldn’t land a single physical blow on her.

Lysander was panting heavily, sweat pouring down his temples as he backed up a few paces, his rapier trembling slightly in his grip. His face was pale, his eyes wide with a mixture of rage and mounting panic.

"Why... why isn’t she going down?!" Lysander yelled, looking at his veteran guard. "She’s just one person?"

The middle-aged guard wiped sweat from his eyes, his expression dead serious. "Young master... her raw attributes are far higher than ours, and her shadow authority is completely canceling our martial flow. We cannot pierce her defense."

I stood fifty feet away with my arms crossed, watching the show with an amused smile.

To be fair to Lysander’s squad, their team coordination was actually pretty solid. They weren’t weak by any stretch of the imagination. Their Astral Souls were refined, their stances were disciplined, and the middle-aged guard clearly had decades of real combat experience under his belt. Against any ordinary student squad, they would have swept the floor in seconds.

Unlucky for them, they were fighting Valerie.

After three minutes of systematically dismantling every single offensive formation they threw at her, Val stopped moving. She stood in the middle of the arena, smoothing down the lapel of her dark suit jacket without a single trace of sweat on her face or a single wrinkle in her clothes.

Her violet eyes narrowed slightly, turning colder than ice.

"Playtime is concluded," Val stated quietly.

SWOOSH!

Dense, pitch-black mana erupted from her right hand, solidifying into her massive, wickedly curved shadow scythe. She vanished.

Before the two dazed flankers could even raise their daggers, Val materialized directly between them. Her shadow scythe swept in a single, blinding horizontal arc.

FLASH!

A bright, golden light instantly engulfed both flankers as the scythe blade cleaved through their chest barriers. The arena’s automatic casualty-prevention array registered fatal impact, instantly porting both of them out of the active battlefield and into the medical recovery zone outside.

[TWO COMBATANTS ELIMINATED]

The Overseer’s voice echoed across the stadium.

Before the remaining team members could react to the sudden loss, Val glided across the stone tiles like a wraith. She appeared behind the three long-range martial users on the perimeter.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

Three rapid, precise strikes of her scythe haft slammed straight into their spiritual pathways, shattering their mana barriers in a fraction of a second.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Three more golden light beams erupted, porting all three long-range users straight out of the arena.

[FIVE COMBATANTS ELIMINATED.]