“I assume you’ve already called Aeson? Or have you invited one of the teachers to spectate us this time?” Ilyrana asks.  

Saria doesn’t reply immediately. Instead, she thrust her hand to the side and roughly pull out a protesting guy from the center of the crowd.  

Before noticing anything else about him, the first thing that draws my attention is the gleaming golden badge attached to his chest— with the “3” engraved on it. And coincidently enough (or not), this is the third person I’ve seen with a golden badge in this academy.  

“Hey! No need to manhandle me like this! I already agreed to do it!” The guy shouts with an annoyed look on his face.   

“Yeah, like you haven’t tried to sneak out and run away three times already. This was your fourth attempt,” Saria says with her eyebrows raised.  

“W-What? I wasn’t trying to sneak out! Not at all! I was just… just trying to get a closer look at our guests,” he says, wearing a fake offended look.  

“Sure. Look at them all you want after the duel. Though remember, I will have my eyes on you until then,” Saria says in a slightly stern tone.  

“Anyway, there you go, Ilyrana. Aeson will be witnessing our duel. Can we start now?”    

“Of course.”  

There’s a rush of movement again as everyone, including our group, gathers around the biggest dueling platform that is in the middle of the training grounds. Wasting no time, Ilyrana and Saria climb up the platform, facing each other with a considerable distance in-between.   

Then, as if copying each other, they both become silent, closing their eyes and taking in deep breaths. The crowd isn’t being too loud, either— their anticipation keeping their eyes glued to the platform as they talk to each other in muffled voices.  

“What is going on?” I wonder after two solid minutes of silence and inaction.   

Unless Ilyrana and Saria are dueling using some sort of mental magic that is clearly ineffective, I have no clue why they haven’t started throwing out spells yet.  

“Oh, they’re just reading the magical contract before signing it. I think they should be done any moment now.”  

Suddenly, I feel someone’s arm resting on my shoulder. Turning my head with a jerk, I see the guy whom Saria pulled out of the crowd before, Aeson, leaning on me with a friendly smile on his attractive Elven face.  

“Aeson Daeron,” he introduces himself, raising his other hand for a handshake.  

“Jacob.” I grab his hand while returning the smile.  

“Oh! Correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t you the one who defeated Ilyrana!? Or is there another Jacob along with you guys?” He asks, suddenly getting excited.  

“Yup, that’s me…” I reply, though not very enthusiastically.  

“Yes! I cannot believe I found you on the first try! I was going to talk to those guys next,” he tells me, pointing at Leo and Ryan.  

“You were looking for me? Why?” I ask, frowning a bit.  

“Duh. Are you really asking this!? You literally defeated our undefeatable (or should I say, ex-undefeatable?) princess! Your name is on everyone’s tongue! Of course, I was looking for you!” He says, patting my back as if praising me.  

Oh, fuck…   

I should’ve seen this coming; I am famous here. I just hope these Elves don’t start randomly challenging me for duels. You know, just to prove that they are better than Ilyrana…  

…  

Shit, he’s not…!  

“You’re not going to challenge me for a duel, are you?” I ask uneasily.  

“What? No, I won’t. It’s forbidden to challenge guests to a duel. And why would I do that anyway?” Aeson says with a questioning look.  

Phew…   

“Never mind. Anyway, what were you saying about a magical contract?” I ask curiously.  

“Oh, just that those two are reading it right now. It’s kinda important to do that, you know,” he tells me with a shrug.  

Hmm… Actually, I think I remember reading about magical contracts on the internet. They are done entirely mentally, so it explains why Ilyrana and Saria are standing there with their eyes closed. But considering their absolutely binding and irreversible nature, they are only used for pretty serious stuff, and even then, very rarely.  

“A magical contract before the duel? This doesn’t seem like a normal duel to me…” I say, frowning.  

“Meh. It’s more or less normal to them. And the contract contains just the usual stuff, you know— like, no using deadly magic or causing an untreatable injury, any form of external help being forbidden, no attacking once the opponent surrenders, etcetera,” he tells me.  

Well, there’s nothing unusual—  

“Oh, and also, if Ilyrana somehow loses, she must immediately surrender her ranking at the academy and her position as the princess to Saria,” he adds casually.  

…  

[…]  

“… you’re joking, right!?” I ask incredulously.  

But before Aeson could confirm or deny this, things on the platform finally starts to move— both Ilyrana and Saria are now looking in our direction, their intimidating eyes set upon Aeson.  

*Cough*  

“I-I need to see this through. But I will come and meet you tomorrow, Jacob. I have a welcome gift for you. You’ll love it,” Aeson tells me with a wink before hurrying to the platform. Standing there at the edge, he starts speaking in a monotonic tone.  

“Ahem… I, Aeson Daeron, holder of the third golden badge, confirm that the magical contract has been signed correctly. I will now witness the duel between Ilyrana Grimzephyr, the first golden badge holder, and Saria Venvaris, the second golden badge holder, and be as impartial as I can be. You may start now.”  

Aeson backs away, signaling the start of the duel. And not even a second later, Saria attacks.   

Raising her hand with a quick motion, she makes a dozen ice spikes erupt from the ground and launch them towards Ilyrana. Not stopping there, she also raises two giant rock hands from the ground and makes them grab Ilyrana’s slender legs to keep her in place. Finally, she even materializes a small electrical ball that instantly starts ejecting multiple bolts of highly destructive lightning from a different direction.  

Holy shit! She’s going all out!  

Everyone looks bewildered at Saria’s rapid firing of the spells. Looking at her, it’s clear that she intends to finish the duel before Ilyrana even gets the chance to strike back. And well, she successfully executed the plan— or so it seemed a second ago.  

As the ice spikes get closer to Ilyrana, she reacts by nimbly moving her hand in front and creating a thick semi-transparent barrier— possibly the more powerful version of the one she used against my chaos ball— to block them.   

Not even waiting to see if it holds against the spikes, she moves her attention to the lightning bolts next, conjuring another barrier to ward them off. But to my surprise, while the spikes get easily taken care of, the barrier couldn’t hold its own against the violent power of the lightning bolts— getting shattered in a second.  

Damn, Ilyrana is done for…  

[No, she isn’t! Look!]  

The large rock hands, which were restraining Ilyrana’s legs just moments ago, are now shielding her against the lightning as her allies. During the second her barrier lasted, she somehow overpowered Saria’s spell and took control over them. And as it turns out, they’re great against electric attacks.  

So, I guess it’s Ilyrana’s turn now— what!?  

I look at Saria in surprise. She doesn’t look dejected that her attacks didn’t work. In fact, there’s even a slight smile on her face. The next moment, as if to show the reason behind the smile, her entire body starts glowing faintly and she launches herself towards Ilyrana— her right arm pulled back to deliver a punch.  

Wait, so everything before this was just to keep Ilyrana distracted!? Wow…  

Ilyrana also notices what Saria is doing, and for the first time since the start of the duel, her calm face breaks, and a serious look appears.   

She immediately jumps back a few feet and loudly claps her hands together. Instantly, a flash of light erupts around her, so bright that everyone gets momentarily blinded. For a wild and crazy second, I thought she just exploded herself. But the lack of sound and the sheer stupidity of it instantly contradicts that.  

A few seconds later, I slowly open my eyes. Although my vision is still spotty, I can make out the scene on the platform. And…  

Oh, my fucking god…  

Saria is laying curled up on the ground with a pained face, grabbing her right hand that has been bent at an odd angle. Standing next to her is Ilyrana, holding the largest silver shield I’ve ever seen (it’s even bigger than her). Her breathing seems to be a bit ragged, but otherwise, she looks completely fine.  

“Your hand is broken. Surrender,” Ilyrana says, her shield disappearing into thin air.  

“Not today,” Saria snarls back.  

The next moment, she rolls back and jumps to her feet— distancing herself from Ilyrana. I can tell that she’s in pain, but her expressions are defiant and unyielding.  

“Very well, then. I will show you the difference between us.”   

Ilyrana snaps her fingers, and a single ice spike gets launched towards Saria. As she tries to defend against it with her unhurt hand, an enormous rock hand emerges from behind her— so big that it easily grabs hold of her entire body (not just her legs) and restrain her completely.  

And then, under Saria’s hateful and struggling gaze, Ilyrana leisurely walks close to her.  

“Now for the final thing.”  

Ilyrana raises her hand and it starts glowing immediately. Although it’s not covering her entire body, I can tell her that this is the same spell Saria used earlier. Also, it appears to be much more powerful compared to Saria’s.   

Looking Saria straight into the eyes, Ilyrana slowly moves her glowing hand forward and touches the rock hand. Yes, forget punching, she doesn’t even touch Saria directly. And the result…  

*BOOM*  

With an ear-splitting explosion, the stone hand gets blown apart. And not only that, Saria gets launched back as well— so powerfully that I cannot even see her before she collides with the barrier behind.  

And then, vomiting blood, she crumpled down to the ground before fainting.  

…  

…  

“O-Oh, yes. I need to…. Ahem… I declare Ilyrana Grimzephyr as the winner of this duel.” Aeson announces. “And can someone take Saria to the healers, please?” He adds urgently.