Chapter 61 Duels (Part 1)

The courtyard was an open space in the center of the academy. Due to how large a space it occupied, it was the only place for the duels to take place safely.

There are no seats for spectators, and so all the trainees that wanted to watch the duels had to watch from the windows of all the rooms throughout the academy. The only other option was to stand on the edges of the courtyard, but the rankers prohibited this for safety reasons.

Due to this arrangement, Leo had already split off from the group as they went to search for somewhere to watch the duels from. Cain had also gone off to prepare for his duel, which would be taking place after this one.

Leo was currently standing in the middle of the courtyard. To his left was Leonard, current rank 4, and to Leo's right was the person challenging him, a short female trainee from class 2.

The duels are meant to take place in ascending order, going from rank 5 to rank 1. However, Leonard had asked to go first and nobody really cared about the order, so the others accepted.

" You win the fight when your opponent gives up, is knocked unconscious, or when one of you is unable to continue due to injury. If one of your attacks is garunteed to kill your opponent, then you will automatically win the duel and I will step in to stop the attack to best of my abilities." Leo stated from the center of the 2 who would be fighting. He spoke loud enough so that everyone could hear.

Leo looked at Leonard and the girl, each of them nodded in agreement to the rules. "Alright then. Begin!" Leo shouted and stepped back from the center.

The girl lifted her hand and an orange glowing arrow appeared just in front of her. She pushed her hand forwards and the arrow shot out with speed towards Leonard.

Leonard's skin turned into steel as he brought his arms up in an X format. The arrow hit his arms and stuck to his metallic skin, pushing Leonard sliding backwards a few centimeters.

The girl lifted both of her hands and 2 more arrows appeared, shooting forwards once again.

Leonard started running forwards with his arms still up, taking the arrows on directly and allowing them to strike his body.

As the arrows hit, they would sit against his body for a few seconds before disappearing. Small dents could be seen on the steal around Leonard's body.

The arrows didn't do much except slow down his advance. To Leonard, it felt as though he was running into a wall of water each time he was hit by an arrow.

Leonard closed the gap between him and his opponent, lifting up his arm and throwing it forward in an attempt to punch her.

The girl raised her hands up and a wall of energy appeared between her and Leonard. When his fist struck the wall, cracks appeared all over it.

Leonard pulled back and threw out another punch at the wall. The wall shattered like glass as his fist went through it. Leonard looked up at where the girl was standing before the wall had gone up.

To his surprise, she was standing there with 6 arrows floating around her. Leonards eyes went wide as he saw all the arrows shoot towards him.

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He didn't have time to defend himself and thus took the hit directly in the chest. Normally this might have been considered a killing blow, but Leo could tell that Leonard wouldn't be seriously injured because his ability granted him a good defence, so he didn't intervene.

The arrows hit Leonard and his body was flung backwards by orange energy, landing on his back around 5 meters away.

Leonard could feel a burning sensation on his chest and looked down to see what damage had been done.

The steel around his body had disappeared when he hit the ground. Looking at his chest, Leonard could see 6 holes, each about a centimeter deep, spread over his chest.

Blood was dripping from the wounds and his uniform was turning red in the front. "You're stronger than I thought. I'll stop holding back now." Leonard said as he stood up.

He covered himself in steel again and charged forwards, but this time the steel looked darker . Seeing how well her arrows were working so far, the girl created another 4 and shot them at Leonard.

He didn't raise his arms this time and simply charged through them. Everyone thought Leonard may have just given up on defence and decided to go all out on an attack.

But when the arrows hit his body, there was a clanking sound and the arrows shattered, doing seemingly nothing to him.

This surprised everyone. Earlier the arrows were sticking to his body for a moment, slightly getting through his steel defence. This time however, the arrows seemed like toys compared to earlier.

'Did he use more AP this time?' Leo thought.

AP. A term created by ability users. It refers to the energy an ability consumes when the ability is used. AP stands for, Ability Power.

The more AP you use, the stronger your ability will become in that usage. Such as if the girl in this duel were to use 10% of her AP for an arrow vs 30%. One arrow would be stronger than the other, but her energy would run out faster.

The amount of AP an ability user has determines their overall power level. The more AP you have, the stronger your ability is.

Leonard charged through all the arrows that were shot at him, each one shattering against his body. When he arrived in front of the girl, she placed up a wall of energy again.

Leonard swung his arm forward and the wall exploded into shards of energy after just one hit. He grabbed the girl by her neck and lifted her into the air.

The girl tried to use another arrow at point blank range, firing it into Leonard's chest. But it shattered like the others, doing nothing.

The girl lifted her arms in surrender, showing that she had lost.

"Winner, Leonard." Leo announced begrudgingly while gesturing towards Leonard. 'I hate this. I feel like some kind of circus performer right now.' He complained inwardly.

'It's no where near as bad as that. You're overreacting.' Dreifus commented.

Leonard placed the girl down and the class 4 users that were able to heal people came running over to heal any wounds the 2 sustained. This group of course included Rene.

After the 2 that had just fought were healed and both left the courtyard. The next 2 fighters appeared and took their places opposite each other.

Leo repeated the rules of the duel so that all could hear. Leo looked to his left at the ranker who would be defending his title today, Heath. He nodded, showing his agreement.

Leo looked toward his right, at the challenger. The one who would be fighting Heath, was Cain. He nodded as well.

"Begin!"