Chapter 227: Duel Against A Noble 1

"What the?! What did you do?!" The arrogant noble shouts, and welcomes my charge with his gem-decorated sword drawn. He has very good reflexes."How did the slave attack?!"

I don't care to educate a soon to be dead man. Instead, I focus on the duel. I know it will not be an easy one. I can't afford to play around. <Leave him to me. He's my training partner.

Only step in if my life is in danger.> I instruct the two ladies who are about to be done with their parts.

"Quinlan, you can do it! [Protective Shield]!" Although confused, Aurora seems to have snapped out of her delirium rapidly and tried her best to protect me. How cute.

I grab onto the hilt of my saber and begin an exchange of rapid slashes, parries, deflects with my enemy. I grimace from the extreme effort and focus I have to put into the fight. This man is definitely a superior swordsman to me. I bet he has the Swordsman class, the sword path of the Warrior basic class.

He pushes me back with his sword and delivers a kick to my stomach, sending me a short distance, but I manage to land on my feet.

"Do you people even know who you are trying to kill?! I'm the second son of Alaric! The Winterwood count!"

"Huh? Aren't you supposed to be the governor of some other city?" Ayame chirped curiously. Indeed, according to Marjorie's intel, the second son should rule some city elsewhere.

"I'm here to talk about inheritance with my family! My father is dying!"

"Oh. Well, I guess you won't be doing any of that. You do have our sincere condolences, though." I chime in.

"Fuckers…" He spat, then got ready for the showdown by equipping a low posture with a blade raised above his head, aimed straight at me as if he wanted to stab me with an overhead thrust.

"My beautiful needy lover, this is my duel, so please don't shield me. I wanna grow as a combatant, and to do that I need to gather battle experience." I instructed Aurora.

"Oh… Okay! You have to win!"

"[Flame Cloak] [Water Shield]" I conjure two different elemental protective measures around my form. Water Shield is, as the name implies, a shield made of water. It dampens sword attacks and deflects projectiles to a degree.

Flame Cloak is more of an offensive tool, as it constantly emits fiery heat waves that slowly burns those that are near me. It could be a fun idea to be some unkillable tank with this spell, just sticking to my enemies and killing them by becoming a sauna that they can't run from.

Thankfully I can see clearly through both aura-style spells. Also, the Flame Cloak grants me strong resistance against burning while it's active, so I don't suffer damage from it.

"I ate some mushrooms or what?! A slave attacks despite clearly being commanded not to, and now I'm dueling a saber wielding Wizard that has no wand or staff?! Someone wake me up already from this sick joke!" Luke shouts, clearly becoming more insane by the second. The fact that I'm cooking him alive slowly in his pretty little golden armor probably isn't helping with lifting his mood either.

At least I think his name is Luke. I might remember Marjorie's information wrong. It's been a few days, and this guy was totally irrelevant back then.

"[Rock Spike]" I summon as swiftly as I can, but he reacts in time, dashing at me before I could impale him on my construct. I really need to unlock silent casting somehow.

"[Gust]" I conjure a wind that halts his advance and disorients him momentarily. Using this small window I cast "[Fireball], [Aqua Bullet]". Before the words even completely leave my mouth, I follow my spells as I lunge at him with my saber, ready to shed blood.

His full-body golden armor probably would defend easily against my strikes, but, just like me, he had unequipped his helmet to rest more comfortably, thus the both of us have a clear weak point the other can attack.

Luke quickly regains his bearing from the gust of wind, only to be faced by three separate attacks. He manages to duck under the Fireball, gets hit in the chest with the Aqua Bolt, and raises his arm to his head to receive my saber's slash.

He grunts painfully as my [Power Strike] empowered blade reaches its target, but, as expected, his armor holds. Only a slight damage is visible on it.

Fuck. I just lost a few silver coins minimum.

This guy is really sturdy. I will have to change tactics, as in a drawn out fight I'm the obvious underdog, especially since my mana reserves have been lacking before the fight even began. Searᴄh the Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

My only real advantage is my versatility. I have to create a clever set of moves that lets me finish him off.

Luke jumps at me, seething like a mad dog. He is double gripping his longsword and hacks away at me like I'm some celebratory pinata. It takes all my focus to not get any of my limbs chopped off, and he had already dispelled my Water Shield. It probably saved my life just now.

"[Quake Stomp]" I begin my assault now that he has momentarily halted finally. The ground emits minor tremors, then violent shakes, until it seems like the ground under him is about to erupt as if it were an active volcano. "[Bubble Snare]" I continue, as I conjure a giant bubble that rapidly approaches the man desperately trying to regain his balance.

The spell envelops him, and lifts him up from the ground.

Luke begins choking in my spell prison. It looks so damn cool. He is desperately flailing around, trying to swim out of the water. But, of course, while his method is definitely possible if one is strong enough, swimming out of my snare isn't as easy as swimming out of an unassuming body of water. The spell does its best to retain my captured prey in it.