Chapter 99: ’A Fight’

Chapter 99: 'A Fight'

Harold watched the two of them arguing and let out a long sigh.

"We will go to the sparring stage. But I will only give you a maximum of fifteen minutes to settle this. Let's hurry along now."

Without even checking if everyone was here, Harold had led everyone over to another room on this floor. It appeared to be a large auditorium, with lines of seats all over the place. There was also a giant platform in the center.

Although empty, there were hairline cracks and traces of bloodstains that spoke of how fierce battles here had once been. I arbitrarily took a seat while Sam and Nathan went on opposite sides of the stage.

Harold held out his hand towards Sam.

"First hand over your part of the bet."

Sam looked somewhat surprised.

"What? Why? I'm not going to lose anyway!"

Harold sighed with one hand on his forehead.

"And what happens if you use it and lose the battle? Then you won't be able to uphold your part of the bet."

Sam's eyelid twitched. It seemed that he had planned to actually use that iridescent spell stone to win the match.

"...Fine."

Unfortunately, he ended up needing to hand it over before he could use it.

Raisa had sat next to me and poked my side to get my attention.

"Hey, does Sam stand a chance of winning?"

I rubbed my chin for a few moments.

"Realistically, no. But there is a theoretical way for him to win."

Arianne, who was also sitting next to me spoke up.

"Eh? But isn't his magic and strength both lower than Natan's?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"That's why you have to find a way to win without using those things. It would be the same thing I would do if I had to win a fight against him no matter what. But I don't see that happening in this lifetime at least."

Arianne scratched her cheek.

"So what would you do?"

With a smirk, I put a finger up to my lips.

"It's a secret."

The two of them stood there without any sort of weapon. Nathan simply put his finger up.

"I will give you one chance to surrender."

After he said that, a five-meter-wide fireball immediately formed above him. Sam kept a smile on his face, but it was rather strained. He seemed to be sweating somewhat.

"Surrender? Why would I do that?"

Although he appeared to be shaking in his boots, I could see the mana in his body moving, meaning he wasn't planning on going down easily. Though, how much that resistance would do was questionable.

Nathan raised an eyebrow.

"Suit yourself."

He threw the fireball at him. Harold looked a tad bit nervous, but was ready to interfere at any time.

Although that giant fireball was incredibly intimidating, one of its main weaknesses was that it moved really slowly. That was the disadvantage that came from being one of the most basic spells out there.

Sam immediately sprinted diagonally to the left the moment he saw the fireball descend toward him. He was able to get out of the center radius, but was still going to get caught in the explosion.

Though, right before the fireball touched the ground, a rather large wall of water appeared on his right side. The explosion rushed over to him, vaporizing the water, and went further to singe his clothes.

However, he was still more or less fine.

Though he looked a bit disoriented, Sam did not stop running, this time going straight for Nathan. While this was supposed to be a battle of spells, it didn't necessarily have to be settled that way, considering that mages often would run out of mana, and it would be quite awkward to call that a draw.

Still, the platform was quite long, meaning that running would take a little while. I guess that's why Sam decided to wait until Nathan first casted his own spell.

It appeared that Sam already knew he was no match in terms of spell casting and wanted to bet everything on hand-to-hand combat. Honestly, it wasn't even that bad of a plan.

But...

Nathan stood still the entire time without flinching. From the way Sam was confidently smiling, it appeared he thought that was because Nathan was afraid. Yet, in just a second, that smile turned into a deep frown.

Sam had a confused expression on his face.

He hadn't even realized that Nathan had suddenly shot forward, and shot an uppercut towards his stomach. Taking advantage of his short stature, Nathan was able to easily hit under the rib cage and squish all of the organs together. More than a hit, it was more like lifting something up.

It was a hard thing to pull off, but a brutal one if done properly.

Sam immediately collapsed to the ground onto his knees. His head fell downwards, but before it could finish that, Nathan's knee shot up and slammed into it.

He shot backward and landed on his back, sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

It only took a few minutes for that battle, and most of it was just the two of the charging up their spells. Harold rubbed his forehead with frustration.

"Alright, come get your reward, Natan. I will take Sam to the infirmary and we can then start our lesson."

Arianne was a bit shocked.

"T-That happened so fast."

I scratched the side of my head.

"He does have a lot of experience in fist fights, so that's natural I guess."

Raisa let out a hum and put a finger on her bottom lip.

"I did hear that being a commoner means that you do that kind of thing a lot."

Arianne looked at her strangely.

"It does?"

I cleared my throat awkwardly.

"Well, he is from the slums."

Though, just barely on the edge of it, so he basically wasn't. But that was an unnecessary detail.

Soon enough, we were all back in class. Everything was basically normal, except for the fact that one person was now missing. Harold had covered basically all of the single-core spells by now. He gave us a basic overview of them this time and told us that there would be a test tomorrow.

Normally, hearing those words I would start to freak out and all that. However, the lesson so far was actually pretty easy. I say so far because I knew school was always supposed to start off easy before getting more difficult.

As such, I wasn't too worried about the test.

Math class came, and by now we were finally starting to learn multiplication and division, though it was still fairly basic. As for English, I'm sure the lessons probably got harder, but I realistically couldn't see any difference considering I was already fluent.

Though, gym class had also become a little different.

Rae raised her hand high into the air once everyone was here.

"Alright! You have already learned the fundamentals of fighting with another person. This time, as your first test will be all of you fighting against me at the same time."

I scratched the side of my head.

"So basically we win if we defeat you?" n/)O).v-)E((l)-B(-I--n

Rae then shook her head.

"For the first couple of tests, it will be easier than that. You just have to last for fifteen minutes this time. As long as one person is still standing by the end, then all of you have passed this test."

Nathan looked at her strangely.

"Why does it sound like you're supposed to be some bully in a martial art story?"

Rae laughed when she heard that.

"You could see it that way, that's for sure. Now everybody take your weapons. I will begin by standing in the center. All of you can take whatever position you want and have forty minutes to plan. If you're ready earlier, then you can just start a bit sooner."

To be honest, I kinda forgot about this part of the story.

Originally, Rae would beat up pretty much everyone easily. The only way to win in the game was to raise trust among everyone and become a leader that everybody would follow after.

But since Nathan and I were here, I think there was still a chance against her. As for Sam, he was still in the infirmary, but he probably wouldn't do much anyway.

I called out to everyone.

"Since the main goal is just to remain standing for fifteen minutes, I'm pretty sure it would be best to spread out and make sure to delay her for as long as possible. It's not necessary to actually beat her in the first place. As long as everyone stalls for a minute, that will be more than enough"

Realistically speaking, not every person would be able to stall for a full minute, but if the average was that amount, then it would be a win. On paper, that should be feasible.

Nobody seemed to be against my decision, so they all spread out. Though, there was one person standing next to her, Charlotte. She held both wooden greatswords with a determined expression.

As for Rae herself, she held onto a wooden sword shaped like a katana. I'm not sure why the teacher decided to use that weapon. From what I've heard, katanas were quite noteworthy since the Japanese had only low-quality metals to work with, but with their forging technique were still able to make useable swords. Namely, katanas.

However, they were realistically weaker compared to other weapons.

Well, maybe she was going easy on us.

Rae was holding onto an iridescent crystal. She spoke up.

"When I throw this thing up, the timer starts. When fifteen minutes are about to be up, it will start falling. If it hits the ground while someone is still standing, that's your win."

After saying that, she tossed up the crystal. Charlotte immediately did her usual technique and began wildly swinging her greatswords around. The game itself didn't describe these scenes in great detail, but I figured that Charlotte should be able to hold her off for a decent while.

The practicality of swinging those greatswords like that may be questionable, but there's practically no gap to take advantage of.

...Or at least, that's what I thought.

Rae suddenly bolted forward, bending her body to the side and weaving in between both greatswords. She slammed her fist into Charlotte's chest, causing her to shoot backward and end up letting go of both greatswords.

She didn't even use her katana.

Seeing this, everyone in the class tensed up, seeing how brutal Rae was. It definitely wasn't a casual test. She didn't even spend a second waiting and rushed over to someone else. While everyone tried to distance themselves, Rae was still a degree faster. It took only a few seconds to reach her next target, some noble.

After giving a paltry swing, the noble was immediately knocked unconscious by an elbow to the head.

This continued for quite a while. Raisa tried to hold her own but was only partway through a swing before falling down. Arianne was too nervous and wasn't even able to get in a hit before getting knocked out.

The teacher had no mercy whatsoever.

And then, she made her way over to the last two people standing. Nathan and me.

Oh yeah, about one minute had passed at this point.