The crowd began to cheer for Klein, roaring his name, and the whole atmosphere in the arena turned. Delkin's confidence vanished, and he found it hard to sit comfortably again.
Back on the sand, Rendell did not want to accept what he had felt, and he concluded that it was nothing more than a coincidence, since he was several levels ahead in both stamina and strength. On top of that, he knew Klein had no aura at all, so he decided to draw on his knowledge of imperial swordsmanship, whose strength lay in its unrestrained use of mana. It was a skill that heightened a man's breathing, his muscles and even the flow of his blood, pushing every sense to its limit. With aura overflowing in and around his body, Rendell dashed towards Klein with the intention of taking him down before he could react.
Klein still managed to dodge it, and he began following Rendell's paths, observing his technique and his mana capacity. His eyes turned purple as he studied every one of Rendell's sword paths.
Moments later, Rendell grew truly angry that he had not been able to cut Klein even once. He unleashed a massive aura imbued into his sword and tried to smash Klein into oblivion. The blade landed and delivered a massive blow to the ground, but when the smoke cleared, he realized that Klein had vanished. Rendell began to worry, because that could only have happened if Klein had been able to read his sword path in such a short span of time.
Suddenly Klein appeared behind him, his sword perfectly aimed, because Rendell was completely wide open. Using the meteor sword technique, Klein delivered a powerful cut that sliced through Rendell's back. Everyone watching, including Delane, recognized the technique, and the sight of Klein using it shocked them to their bones. Rendell screamed out in pain while wondering how Klein could do this without mana. Lyra, who was fully focused on the fight, turned red as a tomato as she watched in complete disbelief.
Before the fight, Heinkel had confessed his regrets to Dunkel in his office. He regretted that he could do nothing about the situation, because if he intervened, the family's honour would only suffer further. Even so, he was worried, because Klein's opponent was a seasoned warrior against whom he stood no chance at all. Dunkel had asked him why he had allowed the duel to stand when he knew Klein had no chance.
Heinkel said that Klein had stood up for his late mother, and that he hated himself for not being able to save the boy when he was branded as Archmond and locked away in the monastery. Because of that, Heinkel did not believe he had any right to stop him now, and he scolded himself for being so incompetent. Dunkel urged the man not to worry, because Klein never picked a fight he knew he could not win.
Now, seeing his son fight first-hand, the Duke was left in complete shock, because Dunkel had been right about him.
As for the Rheinlands, they had minimized their mana consumption to the barest possible level in order to survive the freezing snowfields where they lived. The imperial swordsmanship that Rendell used could be compared to predation, overwhelming an opponent by pouring in mana all at once. The Rheinland technique was based on moderation. They targeted the opponent's gaps with minimal mana, producing impressive swordsmanship at maximum efficiency for the smallest possible cost. That was exactly why Klein could use the family's technique without having any mana at all.
Even though the power was lacking, Klein assured Rendell that it was more than enough to take down trash like him.
Klein's words only made Rendell angrier, and he let his aura go berserk. So much of it overflowed from his body that everyone in the arena was left shivering. Delkin sighed in relief, because Rendell had just used his ultimate technique, a mana explosion that instantly sealed an opponent's movements. With his mana running rogue in the shape of a lion, Rendell lunged at Klein with the aim of cutting him down.
Delane feared for his brother's safety as the giant rushed at him. He screamed at Klein to watch out, but Klein did not move at all. Just as Rendell's sword was about to hit him, Klein raised his own blade to block the attack, and because he had requested that particular sword, it shattered. Rendell saw it and laughed at him, and then suddenly saw Klein leaping towards him with a smile on his face.
Klein smiled at him and told him that the weapon to finish him off was finally complete. Like a great eagle in the sky, Klein's technique overshadowed Rendell's lion. Before Rendell realized it, Klein's short sword sliced clean through his right arm, cutting it off while the hand was still holding onto his sword. The arm flew off with blood trailing behind it, and the moment it landed on the ground, Heinkel stopped the fight.
He declared the duel over, and the spectators were left with their jaws on the ground. Even though the family's swordsmanship could be used with minimal mana, Dunkel was still impressed that Klein had executed everything with such precision and to such perfection. Beyond that, Dunkel realized that Klein had intentionally lured Rendell into breaking his sword just to land a strike at close range. Whether they wanted to believe it or not, Dunkel knew that nobody could dispute it. It was a total victory for Klein.
Rendell grabbed at his arm in pain as the blood gushed out, and he screamed in agony. He crashed to the ground like a child, rolling around as though he had been stung by a bee. Medical staff rushed into the arena to cast healing magic on the bleeding stump, and Klein asked them whether the severed hand could be reattached. The healers told him that it was impossible, and that they would have to make him a prosthetic arm later. Klein was disappointed to hear it, because even after two hundred years, healing magic still had not grown.
Just then Klein's father walked up to him and asked how he was able to stand there unfazed after seeing a severed arm. That was when it dawned on Klein that he was supposed to act frightened, since he was no longer Archmond. He was wondering whether he should pretend to be scared when Delkin walked into the arena to voice his discontent.
Delkin claimed that it was impossible for Rendell to have lost to Klein, and he talked about the enormous sum he had paid the man. Heinkel turned to him and said that, following their agreement, he had to admit his fault and fulfil the winner's demands. Delkin refused, saying that he had lost his son and his personal knight.
He was still ranting when he suddenly felt the sensation of his own head flying off his shoulders. He heard an ominous voice inside his head, and he crashed to the ground in fear. Klein whispered in his ear, commanding him to confess his sins to Heinkel and beg for forgiveness on his knees. Klein ordered him to bow and beg for mercy, and told him that after this he would be crushed by the weight of his sins forever.
All Delkin could see and hear was Archmond's overwhelming aura crippling him, and he quickly burst into tears. He bowed his head, admitting that he had been wrong, and confessed that he had tried to kill Klein.
Klein had been able to force this out of him by using the voice of the dead, a technique originally meant to summon the souls of the deceased. In a living person's body, that voice induced incomparable terror. Delkin kept begging for forgiveness while confessing every wrong he had done, because he was losing his mind under what Klein had done to him.
The other branch families watched in total disbelief as their leader collapsed as though he were nothing at all.
With Delkin confessing his sins, Klein decided to use the moment as an opportunity. He wanted to announce his presence and set the family in order. Klein called for everyone's attention, and let them know that he was the son of Grand Duchess Claire Rodalces and the second son of the strongest knight, Heinkel Rheinland. He announced his name to everyone present in the arena, so that they could all get familiar with the changes that were about to take place in the family.