...way more bite than you can handle

After some time, the announcer finished the introduction, and all the participants entered the stage with the side of the Church taking significantly longer to take their place than their opponents.

With the two knights on the stage and their supporting groups backing them up, the Saintess Elita and Melinda Fenrioette took their seats of honor.

As the preparation time was announced, the Saintess was the first to cast the buffing spell on the Holy Knight. After her, all forty-seven members of the Choir of the Deacons of Blessing cast their spells, which the Saintess's magic enabled to stack, finally finishing it all with yet another blessing from the holy maiden.

The blessed Holy Knight raised his massive tower shield with his sword at the ready, appearing more like an impregnable fortress than a man in the eyes of the audience.

By the end of it the Holy Knight was gleaming with white glow of such intensity that it appeared as if he was standing in the pillar of light.

And then, Melinda, who seemed to be politely waiting for her turn, lifted her arm and pointed her index finger at the back of the Royal Guard almost dismissively.

"My Lesser Blessing."

"!"

The gold-haired girl cast a seemingly insignificant spell, but the visual effect stunned the amphitheater audience and the Saintess herself.

*UMPH*

The golden light, appearing to descend from the heavens, fell on the Royal Guard, spreading a faint golden shockwave as it hit him, leaving whisks of gold energy emanating from him like an electric current.

The Royal guard didn't raise his shield, and neither did he take out his sword.

The start of the duel wasn't announced for a few long moments as if the person chosen as the judge expected more spells to come, but Melinda lowered her hand and leaned back into her seat, keenly observing the stage.

Was that really enough?

Did she believe in the power of the knight representing the Royal Guard that much?

Or… Was it all that she was capable of…?

"BEGIN!"

Amidst the confusion in the audience and the Church representatives' side, the judge called out!

*BOOOM* *WHAM*

The Royal guard kicked off the ground, breaking his side of the stage and sending the debris straight into Melinda's spot. However, none of it actually reached the gold-haired girl. While Lucas Vendro'in stepped in front of her, Gabriel Kava'lir, with a golden gleam in his gray eyes, stepped in front of both of them and, with a punch, created a shockwave that stopped all projectiles from passing through.

But that amazing feat wasn't noticed by even a single soul in the audience. Everyone watched in stunned silence as, at the same time as the shockwave-sending punch was thrown, the Royal Guard reached the heavily armored enchanted Holy Knight in a single lunge, pressed his hand against his opponent's tower shield, overpowered him completely, utterly, and undeniably, and then smashed him down with it.

*SQUELCH*

As the Holy Knight crushed between his own shield and the stage had his upper half burst into a splatter of blood, the stage itself broke apart from the exerted power.

But the damages didn't stop at that.

With the stage getting smashed into pieces, the ground beneath it followed. The earth underneath the feet of the Choir of the Deacons of Blessing literally split apart, raising and falling like a wave of a stormy ocean. With the Saintess Elita jumping away and pitifully falling to the side on top of her men, the part of the amphitheater behind them crumbled down together with all the empty seats.

…all of which happened within the first seconds of the duel…

"!!!"

The next moment, absolute chaos and panic erupted, and Melinda left her spot and trotted over to the broken stage.

"..."

Her expression was tense, and her naturally sharp eyes were full of worry.

The commotion got worse, people were screaming, half a dozen fully-armored members of the Holy Knights attempted to barge onto the stage but were stopped by the two youngsters guarding the gold-haired girl.

Someone shouted something about the murder.

Another voice howled in sorrow at the loss of the life of a father.

One of the Holy Knights seemingly snuck past them, only to get grabbed by Lucas Vendro'in, get his shoulder pad crushed by a bare hand, and then get tossed back into his comrades, knocking them over.

Melinda wasn't paying any attention to any of them, fully focused on the shield surrounded by blood.

Because no one seemed to notice that the duel continued.

If she was in the mood for jokes, she might have found the legs sticking from underneath the tower shield embedded into the stage funny.

But she wasn't, and she didn't.

Instead, with her expression changing into the one about to burst into tears, she grabbed the corner of the tower shield as if it was a light blanket and pulled it up in that ease, revealing a gruesome sight of vile gore pulsating and convulsing in a nauseating manner amidst the crumpled metal.

Cries of desecrating a corpse joined all the others.

"Blessed Heal."

Melinda pointed her index finger at the minced meat that once was a member of the Holy Knights and chanted a spell.

*UMPH*

"!?!?"

The burst of brilliant golden light engulfed the whole stage and spread a shockwave of warm golden breeze through the audience, stunning them into silence.

…and once the brightness faded, leaving the world as it once was…

"...huh…?"

And the flattened pile of gore and stringy intestines sat back up upright, letting out a baffled voice as a man chosen as a Holy Knights' representative once more.

Although without armor.

"...wh-what…?"

The dark-gray-haired man with his torso exposed gasped, glancing back at the stage that got crushed alongside him.

What he saw was all the crumpled pieces of metal, leather, and cloth from his formed his armor.

"I wasn't doubting the effectiveness of those, but even so, I'm glad everything went well. Here, take another one. They are one-time-use, after all."

"...wh-what…?"

Seeing the man start moving around more, albeit still extremely confused, Melinda breathed out in relief while swapping the charm that had lost its shine from the knight's scabbard to a new one and stood back up.

"Luke, Gabi. Stop being rude, and let's get back to our seats."

The gold-haired girl then called out to the two youngsters and trotted back to her spot.

The silence within the arena was so absolute that the sounds of her footsteps seemed as loud as explosions.

The two youngsters didn't hesitate even for a second and showed their back to the Holy Knights, who were dead set on fighting them to the death mere moments earlier.

"...oh, come on…!"

One of said knights, the one who was attempting to crawl past the youths, ended up grabbing onto Gabriel's ankle, making the boy let out an annoyed grumble before shaking off the man as if he was something unsightly that got stuck to his shoe.

Only one person in the entire arena was as lost and confused as the representative of the Holy Knights, who was surrounded by his disheveled and roughed-up comrades who wanted to check up on him.

That person being the Saintess, Elita.

Even while being helped up by her Choir, Elita could not take her eyes away from Melinda anymore.

Basically, everything became clear.

Melinda's demands, the Church's disdain towards her, everything.

Even the actual origin of the magic phenomenon that turned all mana-less liquids into healing potions.

It was no miracle at all.

At least, it wasn't a miracle caused by the goddess Perseverance…

"?"

Noticing Elita's gaze, Melinda tilted her head curiously as if interested in how the Saintess would react.

"~?"

"!!!"

With Elita simply staring wide-eyed at her, Melinda ended up smiling brightly at the Saintess, causing her to turn completely red and lower her head.

The only reason Elita didn't drop down where she stood was because two Deacons were already supporting her.

"???"

And it definitely wasn't the reaction that Melinda intended to cause…

"Shall we go on with the duel? It is supposed to be a showcase, so how about we time our attacks in a way they would clash against one another to see which one is stronger?"

"?!?!"

Shocking everyone, the representative of the Royal Guard continuing emanating the golden whisks clenched his fist and proposed with gusto.

"If your buffs and enchantments ran out already, I can wait for the Saintess and the Choir of Deacons of Blessing to reapply them. If you don't wish to continue, once someone else takes your place, please pass them the protective charm Her Grace gave you. It protects the wielder from a deadly attack one time."

The Royal Knight declared before glancing at the destruction he caused.

"Of course, my offer only stands as long as you deem continuing the duel as necessary,.."

He added politely after looking back at the Holy Knights gathered at the crumbling side of the stage.