Chapter 104 The Winner

"What?!?"

James's mind blanked as he felt his connection with the earth sever.

Arvell kicked off the ground, appearing right before James like a flash.

"Now, you shouldn't be able to heal your armour."

Arvell grabbed his sword that was still in mid-air and swung it down hard on James's sword arm.

"Gah!"

James's grip on his sword loosened as his hand recoiled in pain.

Without giving him any time to recover, Arvell pulled away James's sword, equipping himself with both of their swords at once.

Using both hands, Arvell unleashed a barrage of attacks on James's body.

His hands were so fast they were a blur as his hands furiously slashed at James's body.

Noticing it carefully, Arvell was able to prove his theory.

James couldn't heal while in mid-air!

He could beat him, but Arvell only had a few seconds, so he needed to make it count.

Now that James's body was no longer regenerating its Armour, Arvell could release a barrage of attacks and shred through James's Armour.

Not giving up, James swung a punch at Arvell's face.

A punch that Arvell effortlessly moved his head to dodge.

*Crack*

James's Armour made a cracking noise as several zig-zag-shaped crack lines began to form on his Armour.

'Just a bit more!'

Arvell began to focus his attacks on the cracked regions in desperate hope of breaking through James's earthen shell.

*CRACK CRACK CRACK*

James's Armour began to peel away, revealing his soft flesh underneath.

James began to mutter quickly under his breath, but Arvell was already on top of him.

Not letting his precious few seconds pass him by, Arvell plunged both of his swords into two holes that had opened near James's gut area.

He made one last desperate attack since they were about to crash straight onto the ground again.

After that, he wouldn't have another chance to pull something like this off again.

It was time to either do or die!

With both of Arvell's swords hitting James's exposed flesh, James grimaced in pain.

"AHHHH!"

Arvell gripped his hands around both swords' hilts and kicked off James's body, increasing its fall speed substantially.

*BANG*

James's body crashed hard onto the ground, causing a cloud of dust to rise into the air.

Arvell to suppress his elated smile, but he ultimately failed as his lips curved upwards from satisfaction.

'I defeated him!'

...At least that's what Arvell would have done if he hadn't thoroughly grasped James's abilities.

But Arvell knew the truth.

"PTHOOEY!"

A spitting sound reverberated throughout the arena.

Slowly rising from the ground, James's body peaked through the cloud of smoke.

A small trail of blood flowed down his cheek as he looked at Arvell with a confident smile.

"By far, amongst your age group, you're one of the strongest people I met. You'd give some of the third years a run for their money. All of this before you even joined the academy. I can't wait to see just how far you grow!"

Earth from the ground snaked up James's body, healing his Armour within only a few moments.

Arvell narrowed his eyes at sight before him.

'His mana capacity is nothing to scoff at either.'

The only thing Arvell had to show for his progress in their account was a small splotch of blood that James had spat out after having his insides reel from Arvell's attack.

In the end, despite his best efforts, he couldn't defeat James.

At least that's what Arvell thought.

Unexpectedly, James threw his hands in the air as if to surrender.

"It's my loss."

Arvell tilted his head and scrutinized James with his eyes.

"What are you doing? I failed to be you before you hit the ground; how can it be your loss."

James shook his head.

"I may not have been defeated, but I broke the one limitation I put on myself before I started this fight. I promised to fight you in a close-quarters style fight and avoid using any ranged earth magic.

Right before you hit me, in a panic, I quickly used the ranged spell 'Earth spike' to raise the ground and let me reinforce parts of my Armour before you hit me."

Thinking back, Arvell remembered James muttering something under his breath as he plunged both swords through James's Armour.

Since they were blunted and accidentally stabbing James wasn't an issue, Arvell used all of his strength to plunge those swords into his gut.

Arvell noted hitting something hard on his last attack, but he assumed he'd hit James's ribs.

Undoing his Earthern Armour spell, James walked up to Arvell and offered his hand for a handshake.

"That was a great fight."

Arvell returned it with a smile.

"Likewise."

Miles stepped forward and blew his whistle.

"The winner of the match is Arvell Silvanus!"

Arvell redirected his attention towards the bleachers.

He was curious to see the reactions of the two ducal families when they saw his show of strength.

Since he already had a solid backer in the form of Wilfried, showing his worth as a capable fighter would make the Silvercolts willing to invest more resources into Arvell.

After all, as Arvell was their son's sworn brother, their son would also benefit in the end if he was stronger.

What Arvell saw when he turned his head caused him to become slack-jawed.

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His heart palpitated so hard that Arvell could hear his own heartbeat.

His grip loosened on his sword, causing it to fall to the ground.

*Plop*

'No way...'

***

A Few Moments Earlier

*Creak*

The bleacher doors opened as two young ladies surrounded by countless heavily armoured bodyguards entered the bleacher section.

One of the young lady's eyes glimmered with surprise as she saw Arvell jump back to dodge James's swing.

"Isn't that spell 'Earthen Armour'? It's one of the most iconic spells of the Verlice ducal house." The girl asked in a soft yet melodious voice.

The other girl nodded her head.

"It should be. That spell is far too iconic."

"Then that should be James Verlice in that armour, but who's the one fighting him?"

"I have no clue. But… I had never seen him before. Even with his back turned towards us, his silver hair was far too unusual. Since when did people have silver-coloured hair?" The second girl turned to the first girl, "right?"

However, the first girl didn't respond.

Instead, she absentmindedly stared blankly at Arvell's back as if in a trance.

Her friend walked up and shook her lightly.

"Are you okay? You spaced out a little there."

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

"I was saying that the boy's silver hair is quite rar-" The girl's eyes widened as she caught something in her peripheral vision.

"Duker Silvercolt! There's Duke Verlice too! We finally found them! I can't believe it took us 5 tries to find them!"

The first girl stared at her friend with a blank expression.

"That's only because you insisted that the door in front of you was the 'correct one.' You did the same thing every time!"

"Well, I was right, wasn't I? He's right here!"

"Going through every single door in succession doesn't count."

"But… If Duke Silvercolt is in the bleachers, that probably means he isn't fighting then."

"Duke Silvercolt isn't fighting? I was hoping to see how strong the war hero was with my own eyes. I'll just have to hope he chooses to fight afterwards."

The second girl shook her head.

"Even if you see him fight, it would never be at his full strength. But, remember, he's strong enough to even damage the Arena walls."

"I guess you're right; he's far too strong to fight out here. Anyways, let's go greet them."

"That seems only proper."

The two girls, followed by their entourage of heavily armoured bodyguards, approached Duke Silvercolt's group.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, the people sitting on the bleachers turned their heads away from Arvell and James's fight to see who was approaching them.

Seeing the face of the first girl, Wilfried's eyes widened in surprise.

"You are…"

*BANG*

Arvell's kick landing on James's back reverberated through the air, cutting off Wilfried's sentence.

Even the two girls turned to Arvell with surprise.

"How did he do that?" The first girl said in an excited tone.

For someone to land a hit on the son of a duke, they were probably a genius in their own right.

It didn't stop there, he even managed to even knock him into the air!

Just who was this mysterious silver-haired individual?

Wilfried smiled when he saw the excited look on the girls' faces.

"That boy is none other than my son's sworn brother."

The two girls looked at Wilfried with looks showing their blatant disbelief.

"Sworn brother? Of your son Zen?"

She turned her to Zen, who politely greeted her.

Wilfried nodded his head.

"That boy has done us a favour we can never repay. Since he was an Orphan, Zen decided to turn him into his sworn brother. So now he's practically a part of the family."

Lienna nodded with a smile, "Arvell is definitely fast enough to be considered a Silvercolt!"

The first girl froze as she turned to look at Lienna with a look filled with a mixture of shock and confusion.

"Did you just say… Arvell?"

Author's Note:

Every 100 golden tickets = +1 extra chapte