Duel

Five people at the peak of the apprentice realm, he didn't even know how this was possible. The other four who were with him were wizards, but it was not possible to get any more information, as they were entirely covered in clothes and wore black masks.

His team's morale simply plummeted. It was too big a leap for them to cover with their ranks.

"But don't be discouraged, I want a duel with you", Alexandre smiled. "The winner gets everything and the loser gets nothing, what do you think?" Another surprising proposal was made in this tournament.

Everyone watching stopped watching the other fights and focused on this one. On one side, the Monster of the North and, on the other, the son of the ruling family of that state. Everyone had seen Alexander's fight against the beast.

It was a massacre. The boy alone cut the animal into pieces using a modified sword, instead of just a sharp tip, his weapon had four sides of the blade sharpened.

"Kayden... I will trust your choice", Astolfo was the first to speak and then received the support of the other three. It wasn't like they had many options anyway.

None of them were cowards, but they knew this was an unwinnable fight. So, if they had even the slightest chance to proceed to the next step, they would grab it with full force.

"I accept your proposal," Kayden was ready to use his final trump card. This was a fight that would gain him a lot of experience. "Transcendence", Kayden used the final phase of his technique.

He had already accepted that this would be his last fight in the tournament, but it would be worth it. In less than a second, his entire aura changed. Practically all the high-level mages who had their spiritual sense in the fight got a shock.

Kayden looked like he was about to collapse from too much mana. His breath exuded a ridiculous degree of mana in gaseous form. But that wasn't the most ridiculous thing. And yes, he looked like a small black hole swallowing the surrounding mana.

"I'm coming," Kayden warned before picking up momentum and far surpassing the speed of a normal ninth rank. His first blow was parried by Alexandre at the limit of what was tolerable.

The match almost ended there.

"He's at the eighth rank!?" His delay in defending was because of the speed with which Kayden reached him. It was just bizarre. But Alexandre was not someone normal either.

A mere average ninth rank would never be able to match him. Over the next few seconds, an exchange of insanely fast blows were exchanged between the two. Each strike cut through the air at a terrifying speed.

Kayden looked like a snake with quick, connected strikes. Every time he finished an attack, another one would land almost instantly. On the other hand, Alexander looked like a lion with strong blows.

It was clear that the techniques used by the two were different. While Kayden had subtlety, Alexandre had strength.

"I can barely follow their movements with my eyes," Astolfo muttered and began to wonder when Kayden opened such a big gap between them.

None of them were using any spells. Almost like an unspoken mutual agreement between the two. His fight had barely lasted 5 seconds and he was already the center of attention throughout the event.

Since when were wizard apprentices so fast? Kayden and Alexandre went into a kind of hyperfocus, neither of them had any thoughts in their minds, it was simply a big void.

Only his strikes mattered. There was no hesitation whatsoever between his movements. The exchange of blows was looking like a dance. Kayden struck on the side and Alexandre dodged with a feint and then followed with a frontal blow.

Kayden just countered with the flat part of his blade and tried to attack the boy's opening, but his opponent was not new and fixed his opening, forcing another attack against Kayden.

'Is he crazy?????' Kayden continued his attack towards Alexandre's neck, the boy saw that he was going to receive a blow to the shoulder and, in these conditions, his experience spoke louder than his self-protection instincts.

Alexandre took a step back at the last moment, avoiding a fatal blow, but still received a cut across his chest from one end to the other. Even though it was medium in size, it was still the first blood spilled in the duel.

Alexandre began to take this seriously as a life-and-death battle and, without caring about the consequences, began using his family's technique. A strong red aura covered his rapier.

Her weapon no longer made noise as it cut through the air, it was almost as if she was ignoring air resistance. This greatly increased his speed and, consequently, the strength of his blows.

Every save from Kayden caused his fingers to shake, but that didn't diminish his aggressive style. If his opponent was stronger, he just had to stop him from attacking.

His sword technique was perfect for this. After a few more blows, Alexandre managed to make a deep cut on Kayden's rib, in exchange for having one of his legs pierced by the katana.

The fight quickly escalated into a melee of exchanged blows. Within seconds, they were both dripping blood from every part of their bodies. Alexander had never fought such an exciting battle before in his life.

All of his opponents were either too weak for him or were afraid of his family. This was one of the only times in his life that he had been injured in battle and it was turning out to be the best fight he had ever had.

"I give up," Kayden took two steps back and quickly shouted at the judge. His time limit was up. His withdrawal was so unexpected that even Alexander froze in his movement, not knowing what to do.

The judge took him to heaven in moments and, along with him, all the other members of the two teams too.

"I reached the limit of my technique, it was a great battle", Kayden smiled at Alexandre.

"Indeed, we will fight again when we are stronger," Alexander replied.

Kayden couldn't hear the rest of the sentence as his body collapsed from exhaustion. Fortunately, he was being held by the judge. If not, your fainting could have cost you much more than a good night's sleep. 

Author's Note: The next chapter begins the real story: