Chapter 29 - 28: Duel.

28-1

(Franks POV)

We both stood on the training ground holding on to our greatsword.

From the moment I met this guy something annoyed me about him.

I am the young master of the horns family and from the moment I was born, I was shown respect and fear. Wherever I went everyone treated me treated special and with respect.

But this guy, Grey... his calmness is irritating.

I need respect from everyone for them to acknowledge me and I can't do that without people fearing me.

Everyone will stay loyal to me and respect me, if I am better than everyone, I need to show everyone their place.

I need everyone's respect, Or else….

I will be left alone again…..

I will make this commoner in front of me show me some respect and bow down to me, I need to show him his place.

I held my great sword with both of my hands and took a ready stance.

I slowly closed the distance between us and so was he, he carefully walked closer to me.

My eyes were fixed on his greatsword, I was carefully paying attention to his every little moment.

His stance was perfect. looking at his stance it was obvious, He was trained well.

I had a plan to end this duel quickly.

As there was still some distance between us.

I used my power to gather rock bullets around me and aimed them at Grey before shooting them towards him.

He raised his Greatsword to block those rock bullets,

Yes! All according to the plan!!.

I dashed behind my rock bullets to close the distance between us.

He swung his Greatsword and destroyed the rock bullets in just one swing, this was his mistake.

If he would have blocked those attack he would have a better chance to block my next attack.

Due to the heavy nature of the Greatsword, it needs a lot of strength and it's very difficult to perform a quick attack with Greatsword.

And due to inertia he won't be able to recover his defensive stance again, he was wide open.

I swung my sword aiming at him...…. That's it I win!!.

Huh? I felt his Greatsword clashing mine.

Did he recover from that swing in such a short time?

No, this is impossible!!

What kind of strength does this guy have?

After the clash of our sword, my sword was pushed back due to the pressure created by our sword clashing and so was Grey's sword.

I tried to regain my position, quickly.

Huh?

His sword wasn't pushed backward? What kind of strength does this guy have?

I was wide open and there was nothing I could do. He swung his sword forming a vertical slash, aiming at my shoulder.

I will lose.....

After taking this hit it will probably take months to recover.

I felt a wind pressure over my body but there was no attack followed. I opened my eyes to see his great sword right over my shoulder.

He didn't follow up with his attack...

"Why?" I asked.

"What why?" he asked back.

"Why didn't you finish me off?" I asked, I was confused he should have struck me down.

"Why would I do that? we are just sparring." He replied.

Huh? What do you mean by we are just sparring?

Is this guy mocking me?

He was walking away from the sparring ring.

I opened my mouth to stop him " Where are you going? Aren't you going to mock me? You have won, go ahead and mock me."

He turned around to face me and said:

"What's wrong with you….. Why would I mock you? I have no personal enmity against you. I have no reason to mock you."

He paused for a bit before saying "And besides why would I mock someone who works hard on his swordsmanship. I am not that kind of person."

"Huh?" I was confused.

How does he know that I work hard on my swordsmanship?

He understood my confusion,

He spoke up as he pointed his finger towards my hands " Those are the hands of a person who works hard. The scar in your hands shows how much hard work you put into your swordsmanship. That's something I respect"

The guy in front of me is after all annoying, he is weird and downright repulsive.

But then why? Why do I feel so happy when I heard the words from his mouth.

I was respected without trying to show them their place?

It's weird.... It's really weird.... But I feel happy.

But I lost…..

I worked hard every day for hours…..

Even after so much hard work, I lost so easily…

He defeated me like it was nothing….

Was my hard work nothing?

28-2

(Grey's POV)

After my duel with Frank, idiot A, and idiot B demonstrated their power, and now it's Lili's turn to demonstrate her power.

After my duel with Frank, he has been awfully quiet. He hasn't passed me any comments for quite a while.

Maybe he is depressed.

It was Lily's turn to demonstrate her power.

"Watch closely." Said Lily, as she picked up a Spear.

"I always watch you closely," I replied.

Her back was facing me so I could only see her neck, which turned beet red in an instant.

"i-idiot! by watch closely I meant to watch my attack closely." Lily stuttered in embarrassment.

She took a deep breath before regaining her position as she grabbed her spear tightly.

Lili aimed her Spear before throwing it toward the test dummies.

I expected it to stab right through the dummies, but the thing that happened wasn't what I expected.

The spear didn't hit the dummy...

No, more like it did hit the dummy but it did no damage to the dummy and phased right through it.

Everyone was confused,

Looking at our confused face, Lily opened her mouth to ease our confusion.

"This is my power, the power of the wind. I can change the state of anything from solid to air for few seconds." She continued " That way I was able to pass this spear right through the dummy."

"Of course this power has limitations As I can only phase things that are the size of this spear and just of few seconds." Said Lili.

This ability might be very useful in real battles.

For example in a sword fight, you can't parry her sword because her sword will pass right through your sword.

If used properly, she can be the ultimate counter to any defense.

"That's such a wonderful ability!!" Said Agata.

She stepped closer to Lili as she asked " Can you phase yourself?"

"No, but I think I will be able to do it in the future." Said Lili.

Lili pulled out her sword from the sheath "Oh by the way, my weapon class is Sword."

I am guessing that Lili has a seal marking on her body because this type of complicated magic is only possible through seal marking.

But it's kind of taboo to talk about your Seal marking openly. A person's weakness can be figured out just by knowing the nature of the seal marking.

So it's best for everyone to hide their seal marking and that may be the reason why she is hiding her seal marking.

Now I am curious about Agata's power but it would be rude for me to ask her to demonstrate her power.

"Can we take a look at your power? You wouldn't mind right?" Asked Lily.

Nice going Lily, she asked the question I was curious about.

"No, it's not a problem." Said Agata with a graceful smile.

Agata walked into the Training ground,

She raised her hand and swung it downwards like a vertical slash.

But there wasn't any follow up attack or nothing, nothing happened. But when I took a looked at the dummy it was split in half vertically.

Before anyone could say anything,

"Can you do it again?" I asked.

"Sure!" replied Agata, for some reason she was excited while answering my request.

She swiped her hand again and another dummy was split in half this time horizontally. But this time I was able to see her attack.

I used my Seal of Minerva's power to see her attack which wasn't visible on the first attack.

To be clear, her power is Air, and she was using air blades to cut dummies in half.

Due to the nature of the air, it wasn't visible to the naked eye.

Air type might be one frightening element, unlike other element its kind of tricky to counter.

Most people wouldn't even know her attack is coming towards them until it's too late.

"Air blades?" I said it like a question but it was actually a statement.

"Yes, Air blades. I have the power of Air and this attack I used is Air blades." Said Agata.

"So yes this is Air blades." She said it again.

Why is she saying same thing again.

Wait, is she bad at explaining things?

"I don't want to go against that power" said Idiot A.

"I can't help but imagine myself in the place of that dummy. No I really don't want to fight against her as a opponent." Said Idiot B.

No shit, even I wouldn't want to be that dummy.

"I don't understand how your power works," said Lily tilting her head in confusion.

"Ah... I just swipe my hand it creates wind bland." She didn't break her eye contact with Lily as she said that.

Yes, I was right, this girl is bad at explaining things.

"Are you a mage?" I asked.

To which she replied, "I have decided to just focus on being a mage."

We all were done demonstrating our power. we were told to spend time together for a while.

Then we were free to leave after a while.

Why would they go out of their way to ask us to spend time together?

I will find the answer to that eventually and it doesn't matter since I am getting a good amount of money.

Am I getting greedy?