45 The Summoner

"Layla, you should not have done that, you should have used two illusions on the ground and one in the air.

Then use your defensive artifact to take the brunt of the hit, that way he was less likely to believe that the real one was in the air.

Also, this was my dad's suggestion but you should develop a method to switch with your illusions with your real body, do it at the last moment too."

Arthur walked up to Layla as he spoke, he then grabbed her bayonet and tweaked it a little, giving it back to her, and he continued speaking.

"Also, did you forget this thing had rapid fire? He was rapidly firing the fireballs so why didn't you rapidly fire your bullets too?"

"Bullets aren't infinite Arthur."

"Yeah but you got thousands of them in your space ring, the reequip artifact on your hands is also there to help you reload almost instantly too."

Layla pondered on Arthur's words for a moment then nodded, he smiled at her and suggested they redo the spar but-

"Nahh, I'm tired, another day."

-Layla denied it and decided to have the spar another day, he shrugged his shoulders at her words. She then asked him something she noticed earlier.

"Arthur, you're talking like you knew I was in the air from the start..."

"Of course I did, you just learnt that magic recently right, I wonder how the others couldn't see through it when you're still not proficient at it."

His words evoked a few displeased voices to rise from the students but he turned and said to them.

"What? It's not like any of you were able to see through it."

"Yeah but that doesn't mean you should disparage us with your words."

A voice spoke up; it was a blonde-haired blue-eyed young devil. Jenson Hollis, a descendant of the Hollis family of summoners and the one who came in third in the entrance exams.

Arthur just looked at him for a moment before saying.

"Shut up, third rank."

"You!-."

He was about to shout at Arthur but then the teacher interrupted him and suggested something none of them expected.

"Why don't you two settle your grievances with a spar?"

"Um, I don't exactly have any grievances with the third-rank kid."

Arthur denied the spar suggestion instantly; he saw no reason to waste his strength on something as wasteful as that.

"You seem to forget prince but I have full authority in this class, if I say it's a spar, then it's a spar."

Arthur glared at the teacher but he still insisted on the spar.

"Is there a reason you are against it?"

"Yeah. It's this thing called 'a waste of time'. Why on Kreiz should I fight someone who couldn't beat his examiner during the entrance exams?

If anything Layla is more worth fighting, she could beat her examiner, she just didn't. Even if she's tired she'd still put up more of a fight than that third rank."

"You bastard!"

The moment Jenson shouted that in rage, Arthur disappeared from his spot and appeared in front of him. None of the students, not even Layla could catch his movements.

The next moment a shattering sound rang out, and they all turned to see a shattered barrier with Arthur's fist sticking out of it right in front of Jenson's face.

That was when they realized, that Arthur almost punched the living daylights out of Jenson if not for the defensive artifact he had on him that created a protective barrier around him.

Even still, the barrier was shattered in one hit. Arthur was about to punch him again before he suddenly found himself in the middle of the training hall, almost ten meters away from Jenson.

He looked at the culprit, the teacher who teleported them instantly.

"You now have a reason to fight him now don't you?"

"Teacher, please don't."

Layla spoke up instantly, there was fear evident in her voice, this shocked the teacher as Layla was not one to display her negative emotions so openly.

Layla was scared because of what happened the last time someone called Arthur a 'bastard', the sight of Arthur pummeling someone to death with his bare fists was not something she wanted to see again.

The teacher realized that Arthur's reaction now was also not normal and he may possibly injure Jenson more than normal if he were to fight him now.

He slammed his staff on the floor, activating an artifact-cancelling magic, this was to prevent Arthur from using his strength-enhancing artifacts and his favourite ice sword artifact.

Arthur, realizing the teacher had used an artifact canceller laughed and said;

"You did that to stop me from using my sword? I'm actually weaker with it, bare-handed combat is more my style."

"Bullshit. Are you seriously saying that now?"

"What Layla? It's the truth."

"Yeah right, says the guy who reflected my bullets back to me."

Arthur laughed again at Layla's words, but Layla was only getting more scared, she did not know if he was still angry, Arthur was the kind to smile when he was pissed after all.

Still, she had to get his mind off the fact that Jenson just slurred him, otherwise he might really kill him. This would cause problems between the Duke of Hollis and the Royal family.

"That was a fluke you know?"

"Yeah right...A fluke every time we duelled for over 3 years."

She replied jokingly, then walked up to him and whispered in his ear.

"I know you're pissed but you have to calm down, don't go overboard, at least not in school."

Arthur's smile disappeared, and he stared at her coldly. Layla suppressed her fear and continued speaking; she had to make sure Arthur didn't go too far in the duel.

"If you don't go overboard I'd grant you a favour, for free, as far as it is in my ability to do so."

"A favour you say?"

"Yes..."

"Fine, I'd settle for a few punches to the face."

She heaved a sigh of relief and walked back to the teacher, not before glaring at Jenson. She told the teacher to begin the spar-no, the duel.

"Begin!"

Arthur stood in his spot while Jenson moved back instantly. Seeing this, Arthur just laughed and said.

"Prepare all you want, summon all the pets you want, I'd still beat you up after."

"You!"

He almost called Arthur a 'b*stard' again but managed to hold his tongue, he then clicked his tongue and clapped his hands together; it was a gesture he used for his summoning.

The more proficient summoners in the House of Hollis could summon their pets or contracted beasts without having to make a move but he was obviously still inexperienced.

Being able to summon with just a gesture was already good enough. Jenson also did not want to use his contracted beasts immediately so he started with magic constructs.

Due to his affinity for lightning, he could produce and manipulate lightning beasts, opening his hands a small sphere of light floated from between his palms and immediately dropped to the ground.

Then, the moment it hit the ground, it turned into a lightning wolf-like beast, then began multiplying, from ten to twenty to thirty.

And those lightning beasts instantaneously encircled Arthur. It was rather blinding to stare at the sight of the lightning beasts.

**GRRRRrr!! GRAAAAH!!! GROOOO!!

In addition to lightning, he had affinities for fire and earth so he also added fire-based magic beasts to the mix.

'Their individual strengths aren't much, most are gold realms, with a few inferior masters in the mix.'

However in this case, it wasn't the individual quality of the lightning and fire beasts that mattered, but the quantity.

'First of all, I have to break through the encirclement.'

Arthur thought to himself as he smiled, his inner battle junkie manifesting itself, since Layla even went as far as to promise him a free favour if he did not disable Jenson like he originally planned, he deiced to at least try to enjoy the fight.

"Haah!"

Arthur plunged himself into the nearest one and tried to hit it with his fist. He envisioned that the lightning beast wouldn't have enough time to respond to his approach.

And that was what happened, however, the next thing that happened was out of his expectations.

"GYAAA!?"

Along with what sounded like a shriek, the monster's body released a dazzling light, seeing that light and sensing the magic power within it, Arthur thought to himself.

'Ah, it was a trap.'

Then there was an explosion. The weak strengths of the beasts were actually a trap by Jenson to lure Arthur in so he could be damaged by the explosions that occurred when he defeated them.

"I see, so the stronger you hit them, the bigger their explosion!"

Jenson showed a look of surprise as Arthur instantly deduced his ability, unknown to him Arthur had already read up on most of the known abilities that the Hollis family had.

'The royal family has documentation on all the known abilities of the ducal families after all.'

However, what shocked Jenson, alongside the rest of the spectators was that Arthur's body wasn't harmed by that explosion in the slightest.

Even the teacher was slightly surprised at this. Layla on the other hand just laughed and said;

"When I said Arthur deflected my bullets, I didn't mean with his sword alone you know? He used his hands too."

"His what now..?!"

"Haha~ Let's just say his physical body is a little too strong, probably to compliment his lack of energy."

Arthur laughed and made a beeline towards the nearest beast and lunged in. His speed was godly compared to just now. Riding the momentum, he bent his leg and delivered a full roundhouse kick.

"GYOOooooo!!"

The beast shrieked, indicating that it received quite a lot of damage.

"Wh — That idiot!!"

An explosion came afterwards, overpowering the unknown student's shout.

Arthur was completely caught in the explosion, however, he didn't even suffer a scratch from it. Not a twitch. Not even a wince.

Besides his clothes being burnt slightly, he was fine. Then again, their training uniforms were made out of magic-resistant fabric.

He was completely safe and sound.

"Eeh…!? Wh-, what hap——!?"

"Just what sort Of…!?"

The students and teacher watching were completely confused, having heard Layla's words earlier, they expected him to be strong but this was exceeding their expectations.

A lot of them still believed Arthur used strength-enhancing artifacts to beat the instructor during the exam, they all unconsciously considered Arthur as weaker than normal due to him being unable to use his energy.

Arthur just smiled and began punching the flame and lightning beasts with his hands, sometimes enduring the small explosions that came after, other times he moved out of the area faster than the beast could explode.

Long story short, Arthur was just being as absurd as usual.

"Next!"

Arthur, who didn't care for the spectators' thoughts, mowed down the flame and lightning beasts one after another with his bare hands.

The small explosions engulfed his body over and over again while scattering thunderous roars and cratering the ground. All the while, he remained fully intact, with nothing but a few scratches in sight on his body, the state of his clothes however was not anything to write home about.

As he was about to end one of the lightning beasts, his keen eyes observed something.

'It opened its mouth at the last moment?'

Within a few seconds, he arrived at a frightening conclusion and turned around quickly, like he expected, the other beasts had their mouths open.

Feeling the crazy amount of magic energy building up within them, Arthur couldn't help but voice his thoughts out loud.

"Fucking Hell!"