100 The Duel Begins

***** Rudeus' POV *****

"I challenge you to a duel!"

My conversation with Badi was rudely interrupted by a man who walked out from among the crowd and challenged me out of nowhere. More importantly... is that... Eris standing behind him!? Oh, and Ghislaine too!

"Eris! Ghislaine! It's great to see the two of you! You seem to be doing well!"

I completely ignored my would-be challenger and walked past him to greet my friends.

"Did you not hear me?", the man said in a low tone.

Despite greeting the two of them, Eris and Ghislaine simply stared past me at the man who had challenged me. Eris looked quite excited while Ghislaine seemed to show a hint of fear on her face.

"Eh?", I said as I looked back at my challenger in annoyance. "No thanks."

Gal had a vein throbbing on his head that looked as though it would burst.

"You're going to have to wait your turn haha!", Badigadi laughed. "I was here first!"

"You already had your duel and lost to that little girl!", Gal chastised.

Suddenly his eyes opened up as if he realized something and he seemed to calm down.

"That's right, I had heard something about that", Gal said with a smile. He pointed behind his shoulder with his thumb towards Sylphy as he continued: "I've gotta beat that kid over there before I earn the right to challenge you."

As he said this, he drew his blade while continuing to stare directly at me. It was a single edge curved sword with a sparkling golden blade and a bow shaped hilt. I've never seen that sword before, but I could tell that it was something special, probably one of Julian's legendary blades.

Truth be told I knew immediately when I had first seen this man that he was no ordinary swordsman. I could see with my magic power eye that his battle aura was extremely refined. This, in addition to the respect he seemed to command from Ghislaine, and even Eris to some measure, told me exactly who this was.

I knew he was trying to goad me into a fight, but still, the fact that he would threaten Sylphy like that made my blood boil. The happy smile that I had while I greeted Eris and Ghislaine morphed into a scowl as my lips tightened and I glared at the Sword God.

"Fine. If you're going to be that insistent, I guess I have no choice but to teach you a lesson."

For a moment the rowdy crowd of students surrounding us went eerily silent before they erupted in a furor.

"You don't know who you're dealing with, old man!"

"Hahaha! What an idiot!"

"Not even Silent Sylphiette can beat the boss!"

The Sword God didn't seem to mind the jeers. In fact, he seemed to revel in it. The small smile on his face only grew wider as he pointed his blade my way.

But before the action could start, Vice Principal Jenius ran out from the crowd between the Sword God and I with his hands outstretched.

"No! I can't let you two fight!"

"Step aside old man, this doesn't involve you", the Sword God commanded.

"It DOES involve me! I can't let two of the Seven Great Powers fight on campus grounds! All these students would be in grave danger!"

Suddenly the crowd quieted down as several students began to murmur about what the Vice Principal just said. The 'Seven Great Powers' came up during several history classes offered at the academy. Many of the students here have at least heard of the title but for most, these were more like a fairy tale or mythological concepts rather than real people.

"Mister Sword God... sir", Jenius pleaded as his trembling voice betrayed him. "If you wish to challenge the Magic God, please do so somewhere else."

At this revelation, the quiet murmurs of the crowd were replaced with audible gasps. The term 'Sword God' was one that everyone knew. He was the strongest swordsman in the entire world. This man's dazzling sword and intimidating aura seemed to back up Jenius' claim.

Seeing the amazed faces of all the students here, Eris' face beamed with pride. Sylphy, meanwhile, felt increasingly uneasy.

'Rudeus is going to fight the Sword God!?'

Sylphy had confidence in Rudeus. In fact, she held the same belief as Eris that Rudeus was simply unbeatable. Still... against someone like the Sword God. Traces of doubt began to creep into her mind as the thought of Rudeus being cut down filled her with horror.

"Jenius is right", I announced much to the Vice Principal's relief. "I'll accept your duel, but not here."

"Where do you have in mind?", Gal questioned.

"Follow me", I said as I turned and walked back towards the crowd. Students made way and opened a path for the two of us as they didn't want to get too close.

I noticed that it wasn't only Gal following me, but Sylphy and Ghislaine as well as two other high level swordsmen that were with them.

"I'm coming too!", Sylphy said as she ran up beside Eris.

I wanted to tell her to stay back for her own safety, but I could tell by the look in her eye that she wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer. Additionally, for some reason I didn't think that the Sword God posed any real threat to Sylphy. The way Eris and Ghislaine acted towards him made me feel like he wasn't actually a bad person.

Jenius and the other professors struggled to keep the curious students from following our group as I guided them back towards the research building.

"I suppose introductions are in order", the Sword God announced as we walked. "My name is Gal Farion, better known as the Sword God", he said with a proud smile.

"This here is my daughter Nina", he said while motioning towards the blue haired swordswoman. "She is a Sword King."

"And this is my brother Timothy", he said referring to the other swordsman that walked beside him. "He is a Sword Emperor."

"I believe you know Eris and Ghislaine."

I nodded in agreement. "I'm Rudeus Greyrat."

"Just Rudeus? What about your title?", Gal questioned.

"You mean my title as one of the Seven Great Powers? I don't usually bother. It makes it hard to get close to others when they only know me as the 'Magic God'. Besides, most strangers wouldn't even believe me if I told them anyway."

"You're not at all like I was expecting", Gal mused.

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Where are you taking us?", Gal asked after a couple more minutes of walking.

"I have a designated room in the research building. It's that big one over there on the right."

"We're going to fight in a cramped up room? You're not trying to lead me into a trap are you?"

"Hmph!", Eris snorted. "Rudeus wouldn't do something like that."

Ghislaine nodded her head in agreement with Eris' assessment.

Gal seemed to accept Eris' response as a matter of fact and continued following in silence. It made me feel a little proud that Eris had earned the Sword God's trust to such a degree.

"Rudeus, welcome back. My you've brought quite a few friends with you today", the elderly receptionist greeted us. "Please make sure you guys don't cause too much of a commotion. Remember that you're not the only one doing research here."

"Yes ma'am. Sorry again about last night."

The receptionist smiled warmly and waved us along.

"Last night?", Sylphy asked.

"Yeah...", I said as I rubbed the side of my head sheepishly.

"Cliff, Zanoba, and I might've been a bit too rowdy last night on our way in here after we finished celebrating last night."

"You went out drinking again? You know you're too young for that. Zenith would be mad if she found out."

Sylphy made a point to mention Zenith in particular. Probably because she knows that Paul would only be mad that we didn't invite him.

While there is no such thing as a legal drinking age in this world, it's generally frowned upon for children (those under the age of 15) to get drunk. Cliff and Zanoba were both (biologically) older than me so it wasn't a problem for them.

"Haha, don't worry. It's not like I make a habit of it."

"Yeah, I know", Sylphy answered as she hugged my arm.

'Is it just me or does Eris look a little jealous?' I could see Eris glaring at the two of us out of the corner of my eye.

Gal, meanwhile, seemed to be getting more and more frustrated.

"You don't seem to be taking my challenge very seriously"

"People have been challenging me nonstop lately. Frankly I'm just tired of it."

The vein on his forehead began to bulge one again. Maybe I should stop antagonizing him.

"Wait here for a moment", I asked as we approached the door to my room.

I reached up and supplied mana at specific points and amounts to unlock the magic barrier I had placed on the door. I wasn't worried about anyone here 'seeing' me enter my combination. The only one here who had a chance to understand what I was doing was Sylphy and I didn't mind her knowing how to get in here.

After unlocking the door I entered the room by myself and closed the door behind me. Zanoba and Cliff had already left to attend today's classes. I picked up the rug from the floor exposing the large magic circle in the center of the room and draped the rug over the magic armor to keep it hidden.

After preparing the room I opened the door for those waiting outside.

"Come on in."

As soon as they walked in, everyone's attention was drawn to the huge, luminescent magic circle covering almost all the open floor space in the center of the room.

"What is that", Nina asked in wonder.

"That seems like a trap if I've ever seen one", Timothy said suspiciously.

"This is a teleportation circle I've drawn. Give me a moment and I will configure it to take us to a remote location so that we can fight somewhere that we won't have to worry about collateral damage."

"A teleportation circle? You mean like the dungeon traps? Isn't that dangerous?", Ghislaine asked.

I answered her as I was kneeling down and making slight alterations to the circle to change out destination.

"Not when you know where you're going. It'll be fine."

Ghislaine seemed to accept my answer. Any hint of worry left her face.

"You can teleport? How far can you go?", the blue haired girl asked.

"Anywhere in the world", I answered nonchalantly.

"That's amazing..."

"See! Rudeus is amazingly amazing!", Eris said excitedly. "I told you, didn't I?"

"He's called the 'Magic God', after all. I suppose this much should be expected", Gal said as he stood behind me with his arms folded in front of him.

"All right, that should do it", I said as I stood up.

"When you're ready, step inside the circle. I'll activate it once we're all inside."

Immediately and without hesitation, Gal stepped inside the circle. Following right behind him, Nina and Timothy stood beside him. Sylphy, Eris, and Ghislaine walked next to me.

"Here goes", I announced as I activated the circle.

I felt the familiar sensation of waking up from a nap as we reappeared in a dry, dark, and dusty cave. The only sources of light in the cavern was the soft blue glow from the teleportation circle and a small amount of light that lit up a curved passageway leading outside.

"Woah!", Nina gasped.

"Where are we?", Timothy asked.

"A remote region in the Southern Mountain Range of the Demon Continent."

"The Demon Continent!? That's on the other side of the world!", Ghislaine exclaimed.

"Yep. This area is swarming with monsters. There shouldn't be anyone else nearby."

I guided everyone out of the cavern and we were greeted by the harsh sunlight of the Demon Continent. The passageway out of the cavern opened up out of the side of a mountain and led immediately to a steep decline. At the base of this mountain was a wide valley that stretched out for miles. It was about three hundred meters wide at our location before it started to incline into the adjacent mountain.

I reached out in front of me from the edge of the passageway and began to form stairs into the side of the mountain. I angled the stairs along the side of the mountain to make the steep decline more manageable.

"This should do just fine", Gal said as we reached the bottom of the valley. "Timothy, I'll leave you to judge our duel."

Timothy happily agreed to judge the match and stepped out in front of the others as Gal and I walked about ten meters apart to get a more or less standard dueling distance between us.

"I, Timothy Britts, shall act as witness to the duel between Sword God Gal Farion, sixth among the Seven Great Powers, and Magic God Rudeus Greyrat, seventh among the Seven Great Powers. Are both combatants ready to begin?"

"I am", Gal said confidently as he once again drew his golden, sparkling blade.

"I am", I responded in kind.

Timothy looked back at me after hearing my response, but what he saw caused him to jolt back in surprise. Seemingly out of nowhere, I was wearing an obsidian-black set of full body armor. It wasn't just him. Everyone here had their eyes wide open in shock as they witnessed the armor suddenly materialize around my body without warning.

I felt like it might be possible that I could beat the Sword God without my Magic Armor, but why take that risk? High level users of the Sword God Style are particularly dangerous in my book. All those fights against Eris in my former life drilled that into my being. They may be straightforward and predictable for the most part, but their incredible speed made them dangerous even if you know what's coming; not to mention that the man who stands before me is the fastest and most dangerous of all Sword God Style practitioners.

Despite momentarily being taken aback by the sudden appearance of my mysterious armor, the maniacal grin Gal sported when he first challenged me had returned. He crouched low to the ground and held his Sword to the side in a stance I was all too familiar with. He was prepared to launch a Longsword of Light.

"Both participants are ready. The battle will begin on my mark", Timothy proclaimed with a very official tone of voice.

"FIGHT!"