“Tch… he let his guard down. If he had just blocked that surprise attack, he would have gained control of the duel flow, and he would have won. Very commoner like to use surprise attacks; gotta leave it to them, being cowards and all. But that foolish teacher sure taught his students the ways of cowardice, it seems that my initial plan was the correct one. Those guys are nothing but pests ruining everything about this country”(Rowan Borin)

 

Those were the analysis of the former knight and the current teacher of the Knighthood Class. He truly believed that David was able to win because of his cowardly methods(Surprise attack). He couldn’t perceive nor notice David moving at the start of the duel, and so he came to the conclusion that David used some means to surprise attack Greed. If he was asked, “What kind of means did David use to surprise attack Greed even though they both were facing each other in the open?” He would tilt his head in confusion and say “I came to that conclusion, so it must be true, no?”.

 

“Oh no….. he went and mass-produced monsters that think and fight just like him”(??)

 

“…And your sister is one of the said monsters though. But…Fufufu I see, this is going to be interesting indeed”(???)

 

The two people hiding in the corridor expressed their opinions as they watched David fight and win his duel. The reason the two travelled in secret and came all the way to Akud was just to watch this duel that Leona informed them about some time ago, and seeing David fight sent a chill down the man’s back reminding him of the way certain someone fought. All the while the woman kept giggling in delight from just looking at a certain girl standing right next to the certain someone the man next to her talked about.

 

“Now, we are going to proceed to the next duel! This time it’s between Soma and Rowan Borin. Both of you take your positions!”(Leona)

 

Soma moved right away and stood in the spot David stood at the start of his duel, on the other hand, Rowan Borin walked to the spot Greed stood at, but he wasn’t alone. Along with him, every single student of the Knighthood Class moved along with him, and they all took their positions in front, next, and behind him. Those who had large tower shields and long spears were the ones who stood in the front and the distance between them and Soma was less than five metres, three metres almost. Mages with long staffs stood on the same line Rowan Borin stood at with two guys with greatswords in hand to his right and left, and behind them stood mages with small wands, and they took the rule of support mages. The number of the students of the Knighthood class was 45 and all of them were here intending to fight side by side with their teacher to get this kingdom rid of the harmful pest known as Soma.

 

“…Rowan Borin, what’s the meaning of this? This is a duel you know”(Leona)

 

“Sure it’s. Those guys are my weapons that’s all, and besides, I believe there was no rule about having to fight alone, moreover this is not a duel anymore. This is nothing but a divine mission bestowed upon me to rid the lands of this pest. Ah… but you are welcome to see it as a duel, I don’t care”(Rowan Borin)

 

“Headmaster, it’s alright. Let him do whatever he wants, and he is right. What he is doing is not against the rules as the duel had no such things in the first place”(Soma)

 

“Hmph! Ignorant fool, act composed all you want, but your true colors will be exposed for all to see!”(Rowan Borin)

 

“Yeah yeah, say that after you actually do it”(Soma)

 

“…Both sides, you have to state what you wish for once you win the duel”(Leona)

 

“I wish for that filthy commoner’s, David was his name? I wish for his win in the previous duel to be retaken, I wish for the result of that duel to be Greed Mono’s win”(Rowan Borin)

 

“For me, I wish from you to spread all the cowardly actions of this idiot to the whole world and for him to be executed here on the spot”(Soma)

 

“Okay then, both sides ready?............ fight!”(Leona)

 

The first to move was the students holding large tower shields and long spears in their hands. Their first move was raising their shields up covering themselves and everyone behind them with them. Right after that the mages used their staffs and chanted Fire Magic and fired it at Soma who stood there looking at them doing nothing. The fired fireballs all landed on their mark-Soma- covering his whole body with flames obstructing his vision. Seeing that, those on the front opened small gaps between their shields and stabbed at Soma with their long spears, once they felt that their spears made contact with Soma they pulled them back, closed the gaps.

 

“That was perfect coordination good at taking down monsters that knew nothing but charge ahead or people overly confident with their skills, and the strong point of this formation of yours is the support mages at the back. The support mages’ job is to weaken the Magic fired by the enemy using their own Magic. But that’s all it is, this formation would crumble with a single attack from a monster far superior in strength compared to the shield bearers by blasting them to the day after tomorrow. Or by anyone fast enough to encircle you before you are able to attack, or by someone skilled enough to block all of your attacks, and that’s assuming you are fighting a single entity”(Soma)

 

Not only Rowan Borin and his students but most of the staff present there were surprised as well hearing Soma talking as if nothing happened after all that Fire Magic and spears. The flames went away and unharmed Soma appeared standing there with a bored expression on his face.

 

“Nonsense!! One more time! Keep attacking him till he drops down! He must have used some kind of cowardly trick! There is no mistaking it!!”(Rowan Borin)

 

Following their teacher’s orders, the Shield bearers raised their shields and the mages behind them fired their Fire Magic again at Soma, Soma lightly raised his left hand at the oncoming fireballs, and Mana in the form of dim light came out from it engulfing all the fireballs. Seeing it as their chance, the shield bearers stabbed at Soma with their spears. Seeing that, Soma simply used his sword held in his right hand to parry every last one of their spears just fast enough for them to perceive what he did, and before they could react to that, the fireballs fired by the mages started dropping towards the shield bearers. The support mages were able to react in time to fire Water Magic at the fireballs weakening them and then firing more Water Magic at the shields to cool them down after they blocked the weakened fireballs.

 

“…Keh…. Again! Keep attacking him!”(Rowan Borin)

 

The students attacked again, but the result was the same. And after the fourth try, Soma stopped using his left hand and did everything with just his right hand all the while holding the sword with it. The students even tried to close the gap between the timings of their attacks to make it impossible for Soma to reflect their magic at them and parry the spears using just his right hand, but they failed. Soma was moving at a speed they could perceive, and yet they couldn’t keep up with him. Feeling pressured by all of that, the shield bearers were forcefully pushed back by the weakened fireballs that kept falling on them, since even if they were able to block them with their shields the force behind them was still there. Feeling frustrated, Rowan Borin ordered the students to use Magic other than Fire Magic, but the result was the same.

 

They kept going at it as if there was no tomorrow and this resulted in them getting tired little by little, not only physically but mentally as well. At some point, Soma got too bored and pulled out his book and started reading it with a relaxed face, and that irked Rowan Borin and his students to no end, and they became even more active with their attacks, but that didn’t last. Exhaustion caught up to them, and they started dropping down out of breath one by one and before long Rowan Borin and the two holding greatswords were the only ones standing from their side as they did nothing since the start of the duel. And Rowan Borin was there glaring at Soma with a face red as a tomato.

 

“Man that was boring, please tell me you have something more exciting to show me”(Soma)

 

“You bastaaarrrd!!”(Rowan Borin)

 

Rowan Borin’s eyes were visibly rolled back in his head indicating how angry he was, and the two at his sides were the same. The two holding greatswords had more balls than their teacher, and so they both attacked soma in a fit of rage, one of them targeted Soma’s upper body and the other one targeted the lower body. Soma sheathed his sword and started catching the greatswords coming at him with his bare hands by the blade and pushing them back. The two kept going with their attacks with movements that indicated their rage, and on the inside fear was covering their hearts more and more no matter how much they tried to cover that with rage. The two students didn’t last long swinging those greatswords around, and they fell down exhausted.

 

“Man, you guys are boring as well. Can’t you put more of a fight?”(Soma)

 

“You let your guard down, Foooolll!!”(Rowan Borin)

 

“Says who, divine idiot”(Soma)

 

Taking advantage of the situation, Rowan Borin circled around Soma and attacked him by swinging down his sword at Soma’s neck in great delight. Soma lightly raised his right hand over his shoulder and caught Rowan Borin’s sword without even looking back.

 

“…What?”(Rowan Borin)

 

Soma turned back and punched Rowan Borin in the face, sending him flying and right as he landed on the ground, Soma approached him and pulled him up by his neck.

 

“How dare you!! How dare you attack me!! Don’t you know how am I?!”(Rowan Borin)

 

“A cowardly idiot acting as if he is a messenger of god or something?”(Soma)

 

“Of course I was sent by the heavens!! That’s what a Glorious Noble is!! The coward and idiot is you!! Let go of me this moment and present your head to me without any resistance least you incur the wrath of heaven!!”(Rowan Borin)

 

“Really now? Then let’s see how much should I hurt till I incur the wrath of your so-called heaven”(Soma)

 

Soma started punching Rowan Borin in the face with power just enough to almost kill him repeatedly while casting Healing Magic on him after every punch. Unexpectedly, Rowan Borin kept screaming and yelling threateningly at Soma for almost 30 minutes believing that he would be saved by heaven since he is a Glorious Noble before he gave up and started begging for his life marking Soma’s expected victory.