The academy had indoor training halls set aside for students to practice on their own.
There were six of them in total inside the academy's amenities building, each one large enough to fit roughly four classrooms.
Today, however, one of those halls contained something far from ordinary.
Official witness to the duel, Beatrice de Dritania.
Duel challenger, Ex.
Challenged party, Griphoc Lu Dremore.
Normally, a duel like this would have had spectators.
This particular duel, however, had been placed under strict control, and no one else was allowed inside.
In other words, only three people stood within the vast training hall.
Griphoc and Ex faced each other from the center of the hall, leaving a considerable distance between them as they stared each other down.
Griphoc wore a deep scowl.
Ex, on the other hand, looked perfectly at ease.
Amid the murderous tension hanging between them, Griphoc was the first to speak.
“Looks like you've done quite a bit of preparation.”
Looking around, he saw roughly fifty stone pillars scattered throughout the training hall.
Each stood about two meters tall and was thick enough to make swinging a greatsword through the space a nuisance.
Griphoc immediately understood what Ex was trying to accomplish. He stared at the man in front of him and sneered.
“So this is your clever little answer to the difference in reach.”
“I'm fighting a 5-star martial artist. Of course I prepared something.”
“If this is all you've prepared, I'm going to be sorely disappointed.”
“Feel free to get your hopes up. This sort of thing happens to be my specialty.”
The shameless ease with which Ex answered only grated on Griphoc's nerves even more.
“I suppose there's no point trying to hold a conversation with lowborn trash.”
“People of noble birth sure do love hearing themselves talk.”
“You bastard…!”
“Today will actually be my first time.”
Ex drew the weapon he had brought with him.
Naturally, it was a sword.
But it wasn't one of the practice swords he'd been carrying around until now.
“I'll be using a real sword.”
It was Lung's sword, the precious blade he had received from his benefactor.
Ex had cared for it so meticulously that even from a distance, one could almost feel the cold sharpness of its edge.
Compared to the 1.8-meter greatsword in Griphoc's hands, its length looked unimpressive. But the presence carried by the blade itself was unmistakably different.
‘That won't be easy to cut through.’
Griphoc abandoned the idea of cleaving through Ex's weapon and body in a single strike.
The other man was a mage, after all.
Knocking the sword out of his hands would be easy enough.
Only after Ex gave Lung's sword a few light swings did Beatrice, who had been watching in silence, step forward.
“Challenger and challenged party, step forward.”
Ex and Griphoc each took one step.
Beatrice continued in a solemn voice.
“Do both of you swear to enter this duel with your honor and pride at stake?”
“I swear.”
“I swear.”
“Do both of you swear that, according to the result of this duel, you will without fail abide by the other party's stated condition?”
“I swear.”
“I swear.”
“As of this moment, I bear witness to the oaths sworn by both parties. Then I shall make the declaration.”
Beatrice stepped back and formally announced,
“I swear upon my honor that this duel shall be fair and sacred beneath the radiance of the Goddess Deuslute.”
At those words, both men raised their weapons.
“Begin the duel.”
Tap-!
They launched themselves at each other as though determined to kill.
Griphoc was the first to be caught off guard.
‘A mage is closing the distance?’
He'd heard that his opponent, despite being a mage, had been learning swordsmanship.
And that he was personally being trained by a six-star martial artist, no less.
“How arrogant…!”
Even so, Griphoc had never imagined Ex would actually try to cross swords with a 5-star martial artist.
It seemed this duel would end far more anticlimactically than he'd expected.
‘I'll split your skull open!’
The blade in Griphoc's hands gleamed with a razor-sharp light.
His descending greatsword came crashing straight toward Ex's head.
But something else shot toward the back of Griphoc's skull even faster.
‘What the…!’
Griphoc hurriedly twisted his head aside to dodge it, but doing so threw his stance off balance.
Judging that his attack had already fallen apart anyway, Griphoc turned his attention toward whatever had attacked him.
‘Control Blade?!’
It was a sword glowing with white light.
The problem was that the sword was floating in midair.
‘…An illusion?’
Griphoc made his judgment in an instant.
‘I'd heard he was a mage playing at being a swordsman, but… no. That energy is clearly aura…’
“Distracted.”
“…!”
Ex twisted his body out of the path of the greatsword and thrust.
His blade shot straight toward Griphoc's head without the slightest tremor.
“Ghk…!”
Griphoc immediately pulled his sword back and retreated.
The point passed dangerously close to his face, but failed to leave a wound.
“So that's what they meant when they said you get distracted easily.”
With his carefully timed surprise attack having failed, Ex also widened the distance again. He needed to assess the situation first.
Not that he had any intention of giving Griphoc time to do the same.
“What's wrong? Creating distance against a mage isn't usually a good idea.”
“Shut up.”
Griphoc didn't have much information on Ex.
He simply hadn't been in a position to gather any.
‘The officers are too busy fighting among themselves, and I can't even get in contact with the members…’
All he knew about Ex was that the man was a mage who had taken up swordsmanship.
Nothing more, nothing less.
‘Daniel said he uses illusions that imitate aura…’
As Griphoc sank into thought, Ex gave him an easy smile.
“Being cautious is all well and good, but I don't plan on waiting for you.”
Ex immediately cast a spell, and a fireball formed beside him.
The sight gave Griphoc the confirmation he wanted.
‘So he is a mage after all.’
Fwoooosh-!!
The fireball shot forward with tremendous force.
It streaked through the gaps between the stone pillars, and Griphoc let out a mocking snort.
“These pillars might get in my way, but that doesn't mean you're the only one who can use them.”
He moved behind the nearest stone pillar and took cover.
The fireball's trajectory now led straight into the pillar.
It would strike the stone and explode uselessly.
Or so Griphoc thought.
“Ah, that's not a good idea.”
“…What?”
The instant Griphoc voiced his confusion, the fireball slammed into the stone pillar.
Kiiiiiiing-!!
A magic circle hidden within the pillar lit up and activated.
“An installed magic circle…!”
Crackle-crackle-crackle-!!
Condensed electrical currents burst out in every direction.
Like predators writhing through the air in search of prey, hundreds of streams of electricity slammed into Griphoc's body.
“Guuuuuuugh-!!”
An ordinary person would have been paralyzed on the spot after taking that much current head-on, but his opponent was a 5-star martial artist.
“…Is this supposed to be your trump card?”
“Well, no, not exactly…”
Watching Griphoc remain standing despite the barrage of electricity, Ex clicked his tongue.
‘Yeah, I knew it wouldn't be that easy.’
The installed magic and the stone pillars were Andras's handiwork.
The setup worked by using the mana from Ex's fireball as a medium to trigger the magic circle installed inside the pillar. As long as the necessary condition was fulfilled, it was a spell that practically anyone could activate.
This was the entire reason Ex had chosen a location that favored him from the beginning.
Naturally, Griphoc wasn't about to remain silent.
“Your Highness, this is no honorable duel! He planted traps throughout the dueling ground! You must invalidate this duel at once and punish that shameless bastard for…”
“Continue the duel.”
“Your Highness…!”
Of course the duel wasn't going to be invalidated.
Griphoc had only been testing his luck.
There weren't even any spectators here, so honor and appearances hardly mattered.
Ex smiled leisurely as he prepared another spell.
“I personally selected the location for this duel. You couldn't possibly have thought I'd come here without preparing anything.”
“You shameless bastard! Have you no pride?! You deliberately created a battlefield that gives you every advantage!”
“Every advantage to me? You're free to use magic too, Lord Griphoc.”
“What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that…!”
“Besides.”
Fireballs shot toward the stone pillars on either side of Griphoc.
Boom-!!!
Crackle-crackle-!!
With a burst of speed, Griphoc escaped the overlapping blast and electrical discharge.
As expected of a 5-star martial artist, he wasn't foolish enough to fall for the same attack twice.
Watching him evade, Ex calmly continued his explanation.
“You walked onto a mage's home ground without bringing a single anti-magic item. You're the one who underestimated me.”
That was the truth.
There were several things one absolutely had to avoid when fighting a mage.
And one of the most important was this.
Never carelessly enter a mage's prepared territory.
Once a mage had finished setting up for an incoming attack, they could defeat opponents several levels above themselves. History had proven that fact time and time again.
Under normal circumstances, Griphoc would have brought all manner of equipment designed to defend against magic.
But Griphoc himself had been the one who proposed limiting each fighter to a single usable item.
‘To think I'd make a mistake like this…!’
He finally realized that his excessive contempt for Ex had caused him to miscalculate.
But the realization had come too late.
“A duel isn't fought with words, is it?”
Ex fired another fireball and continued moving according to his plan.
If Griphoc tried to block with a stone pillar, the installed magic would activate.
If he tried to cut the fireball apart with his sword, it would explode immediately.
Whenever he attempted to close the distance, Ex deftly kept himself just far enough away.
There was no single decisive blow.
Ex's intention was obvious.
He was going to grind Griphoc down little by little.
‘Annoying.’
But none of the attacks were truly lethal.
‘It wounds my pride, but I don't have much choice.’
Wooooom-…
Griphoc drew out the internal energy lying dormant within him.
An Aura Blade formed around his greatsword, and aura surged across his entire body.
Ex immediately recognized what he was seeing.
‘Aura Armor. He's using it already? Guess I really pissed him off.’
Aura Armor was a defensive technique that wrapped the user's entire body in aura.
Ordinary swords and half-baked magic couldn't so much as scratch it.
This was precisely why mages had such a difficult time defeating martial artists.
‘But unlike Aura Blade, Aura Armor burns through energy fast.’
As if fully aware of that weakness himself, Griphoc immediately broke into an all-out sprint.
“I'll kill you in one strike-!!”
Fireballs exploded.
Electrical currents crashed into him.
But none of it could penetrate the Aura Armor.
Griphoc charged forward like a runaway tank, and only an instant was needed for him to erase the distance between himself and Ex.
“Fast…!”
Griphoc seized upon that instant of surprise and prepared another slash.
‘Straight down again!’
A horizontal slash would have been more reliable, but if the blade collided with one of the stone pillars, the attack would be wasted.
So he would bring the sword down vertically instead.
A 5-star martial artist's hands were fast.
Far faster than Ex's perception could keep up with.
The sword came crashing down.
The Aura Blade would cleave Ex cleanly in half from head to toe.
“Watch the back of your head.”
Whoooosh-!!
If not for the aura shooting straight toward Griphoc's head.
‘That aura from before…!’
Ex was clearly standing defenseless right in front of him.
And yet Griphoc's senses detected three separate aura attacks racing toward the back of his skull and both temples.
At their current speed, his own head would be struck before he could finish splitting Ex apart.
But.
‘Ignore them!’
They had to be illusions.
Anything that wasn't true aura had no chance of breaking through his aura defense.
A mere third-tier spell could never accomplish that.
‘If this was supposed to be your trump card, then you've lost!!’
Griphoc tightened his grip and put more strength into the descending blow.
“Wow. You're seriously not dodging that?”
Ex sneered.
And a moment later, Griphoc understood exactly why.
KABOOOM-!!!
An enormous impact slammed into his head.
The back of his skull and both temples were struck cleanly, without the slightest defense.
The attacks he had dismissed as magic punched straight through his aura protection.
‘H… how?’
He didn't know why.
But the result was undeniable.
Those three blades of aura weren't illusions.
Every single one of them was real.
‘A mage… using aura…? I need to clear my head first…’
His head had been struck.
The single most dangerous place to take a hit in the middle of combat.
And the fact that his consciousness had wavered, even for only a moment, meant one thing.
“I'm the type who never lets an opportunity go to waste.”
This time, Ex brought his own sword down.
There was unmistakable aura blazing along its blade.
Ex smiled with perfect composure as he spoke.
“I'll be taking that officer position, then.”
The instant Griphoc realized that allowing this attack to land would mean his defeat,
“…I refuse to accept this, you filthy vermin-!!!”
KABOOOM-!!
Griphoc's Aura Armor erupted violently.
“Ghk…!”
A tremendous shockwave exploded outward in every direction, hurling Ex away.
It felt as if he'd been struck head-on by a massive boulder.
‘My whole body's numb…!’
If Ex had possessed Aura Armor, he might have been able to absorb some of the impact.
Unfortunately, Ex couldn't use Aura Armor.
One needed to be an experienced 4-star martial artist at minimum before even attempting the technique.
And even then, mastering Aura Armor required a considerable investment of time.
Ex's body flew through the air and only stopped when he slammed into one of the stone pillars.
The impact had been substantial.
Fresh blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
‘God, that hurts like hell…’
While Ex took a moment to check the condition of his body,
“If you intend to humiliate me with these pathetic tricks!!”
Griphoc roared in fury.
“Then don't expect any more mercy from me-!!”
“You've been trying to kill me from the beginning…”
Griphoc gripped his greatsword and focused every last bit of his internal energy into it.
The Aura Blade intensified.
Then it began to grow.
Longer.
And longer still.
It showed no sign of stopping.
“…Okay, that's actually pretty spectacular.”
The greatsword had grown to roughly five meters in length.
Griphoc looked like a man trying to wield an enormous steel girder.
“These damned things first…!”
Once he'd extended the Aura Blade far enough, he set his stance.
“I'LL GET RID OF EVERY LAST ONE-!!!”
Then he swung horizontally with everything he had.
The vicious arc of aura never reached Ex.
But Ex hadn't been the target.
Shhk-!
“The stone pillars…!”
Every stone pillar surrounding Griphoc was severed in a single stroke.
No matter how thick those pillars were, ordinary stone had no hope of withstanding the cutting power of an Aura Blade wielded in earnest.
Thud-! Thud, thud-! BOOM!
The severed upper sections of the pillars crashed inelegantly to the floor.
Watching them fall, Ex lamented as though genuinely saddened by the sight.
“Man, those were a pain to make… You know why?”
“I'll give you no more time to run your mouth!!”
Griphoc prepared to launch himself forward.
He had abandoned Aura Armor and poured everything into his sword instead.
His reach was more than sufficient now.
One leap.
That was all he needed to take Ex's head off.
The outcome was decided.
It was practically checkmate.
And yet Ex was still smiling.
‘Why is he smiling? Does he have another trick?’
The question flashed through Griphoc's mind.
He got his answer before he could leap.
Kiiiiiiiiing-!!
“What…!”
The severed pieces of the stone pillars lying around his feet all began radiating heat at once as light flooded through them.
The heat grew so intense that the fragments swelled in an instant, looking ready to explode at any moment.
It was unmistakably a magical reaction.
‘They weren't hit by fireballs…!? There shouldn't be any source of mana to act as a medium…’
Just before the stone pillars detonated, something caught his eye.
‘…Glass bottles?’
Long glass bottles had been embedded inside the severed pillars.
Why there were glass bottles hidden inside stone pillars was the least important question at the moment.
Because liquid was now spilling out from them.
‘Mana potions…! That's the mana source!!’
The realization came in an instant.
“Those are going to explode.”
The moment Ex said it, every stone pillar around Griphoc detonated at once.
KABOOOOOOOM-!!!!
There wasn't enough time in that brief instant to convert all the aura he had concentrated into his sword back into Aura Armor.
“Ghk, aaah…”
In the end, he had no choice but to take the full force of the explosion with his body.
The blast whipped up a storm of dust, swallowing Griphoc's battered and ragged figure whole.
Once the dust settled, Ex expected to see Griphoc lying unconscious on the ground.
“Phew…”
Ex let out a relieved sigh.
There was no way anyone could take that much damage and still be fine.
‘Still, I should make sure…’
He opened the Synopsis to confirm Griphoc's exact condition.
The Synopsis would tell him for certain.
There was plenty of distance between them, too.
There shouldn't be any sudden surprises.
Shnk-
There shouldn't have been.
Drip-
Ex tasted fresh blood spilling from his mouth and slowly looked down at his chest.
“…And I even made damn sure not to say anything like, ‘Did I get him?’”
A thin wound roughly two finger segments long had been punched into his chest.
Griphoc still hadn't fallen.
–TL Notes–
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