Chapter 124 Competition 2

The stunt that Whitney pulled made many students anxious to immediately try their luck fighting someone above them. Lucas had an idea, but didn't know how to implement it, if he played his card right, he could achieve first place without any problem. The only problem was that if he did achieve first place, he would be the target for most of the top scoring students like Eliot or Matheo, someone he only heard of.

'When you reach first place, you can only observe, there's no way to rack up any points unless winning against the challengers.'

'Meaning we'll have to constantly win to stay at the top, shit.'

'Indeed, we need to create a stockpile of points that we can waste away.'

'Hmm. According to the rules, we would have to give up 10% of our points, so the amount that we would need is going to be annoying.'

Lucas pondered over how he could take advantage of the system while the duels kept going. Most students were jittery over the possibility of being the next Whitney. The challenges kept going and there was one trend that Lucas noticed. The disparity between the ones with a lot of points and the ones without was getting bigger.

There was no efficient way to gather a ton of points in one go, only by betting all your points could you gain a lot in one go. It didn't take long before he himself was targeted.

"Haha, our next contestant has already applied, Will, please come to the stage! Who are you challenging to a contest?"

"Conrad.", Lucas was surprised since he wasn't that well known, but understood it was bound to happen eventually, he was somewhere in the middle, so not a strong or weak target. Lucas made his way to the center of the courtyard.

"Well, well, would you look at this, our first contestant who's wearing a mask, might I ask why? Artifacts aren't allowed, you know?", Lucas was wearing a simple white mask that hid most of his features, only leaving slits for his eyes and mouth. The mask had a smile, making the holes for the eyes like an upside down half moon. Still, it didn't hinder his sight.

"Don't worry, this is purely decorative, I bought it from the stalls in front of the school.", if there was one way to distract them from his mask it was the school's possible profits.

"Ah I see, yes indeed. We have plenty of beautiful masks and other decorations for sale, all of them are of very high quality. Now then, Conrad, what are you going to fight over and how much are you willing to bet?"

Lucas saw a few contests of Will and knew somewhat what he was good at. Will was somewhat of an assassin, or it seemed to be like that.

"I'll take a challenge of withstanding pressure from a higher Rank, and I'm willing to bet all my points.", not many wanted to bet all their points because the moment they lost they would be out of the game. You couldn't bet with 0 points for that would be unfair.

"Wow, another bold one has entered a contest, still, you can only receive the amount of points that Will has. A test of withstanding pressure, how interesting? Are you ready for it? For I, your lovely host, will be overseeing this test!"

The more experienced crowd wasn't exactly that excited, but the students got swept up in his acting. The man stepped up to the stage himself around twenty steps away from Lucas and Will.

"Now then, Will and Conrad, I will start releasing my normal pressure, it is up to you to get as close as possible to me. Good luck!"

The invisible pressure started to build up, making the air heavy. Will seemed to last quite well, while Lucas didn't flinch in the slightest. He was used to being under an active forced pressure from Elam, so he knew he would be fine for the first few steps. Will tried to take the upper hand by immediately moving up a total of 5 steps.

Lucas could see him shake a bit, his hands felt clammy. Lucas leisurely walked forward to stand next to Will. He looked at him through his mask.

"You're the one challenging me, but it doesn't look like you have a chance of winning. Why not just surrender and spare yourself the pain and humiliation?"

"I won't lose against you!", Will took a few more steps, he only needed 11 more to reach the host. Lucas took his time following Will. This time he shook a lot more and Lucas could tell he lost his ability to speak.

"Just give up, I can tell you can't speak anymore. Moving forward a single step will only hurt your insides, stop this farce and save yourself the trouble of healing.", but his words fell on deaf ears.

Will believed that he and Lucas had around the same progression in their cores so the difference in ability shouldn't be so significant. Still, Will could only look up at Lucas standing straight. Hunched over from the pressure he knew he couldn't take another step, he was stuck in place.

From the lack of response and his inability to speak Lucas knew it was up to him to end it since he couldn't surrender anymore. Taking a single step forward, Lucas could also feel the pressure building up on him. His headaches became more prominent, so he wanted a quick ending.

"Try to take another step Will, or give up."

Will wanted to move forward, but everything in his body rejected the idea. Since he wasn't responding or moving the public knew he was simply frozen in place. Losing here meant he would be out of the game, he had to move forward.

"Alright challengers, one more minute to see who can get the furthest. Right now our mystery student Conrad is taking the lead with a single step taking at least half of my pressure, what a performance!"

A minute passed without anything changing, Will had to give up all of his points, making Lucas's score skyrocket. He was now somewhere in the mid-twenties, but still had a long road ahead of him. Sadly after looking into it as much as he could there was no decent way to take advantage of the system. He thought if he challenged the top ranking students they wouldn't be able to challenge him later, but that doesn't work since everyone can challenge each person once. So being challenged doesn't count as challenging, so there was no preemptive way to remove his competition.

He couldn't take advantage of the top scoring student's weakest field since if he challenged them they would choose the contest. Truly, these duels only existed to make the students that excelled in a certain field rise and make the strong stronger. Lucas believed himself to be among the strong, but he didn't have raw strength. His strength lied more in the manipulation of the environment and tactics or dirty tricks.

The duels continued on, and the scoreboard looked a little like this:

Matheo - 1 - 6703

Asta - 2 - 6340

Eliot - 3 - 5963

...

Conrad - 28 - 3049

Lucas's position dropped a little due to the other students gathering more points. Each time Lucas was challenged he chose the pressure test since he knew he was the best in that field. But the students caught on to what he was doing, so he didn't get challenged a lot more.

Lucas knew that even if he doubled his score he would still be third in total. Then he would have to fight against the two best students while being immediately challenged by Eliot. Things didn't look that great for him. If he tried to fight against Eliot in a pressure test he didn't know for certain if he could win. Eliot wasn't a newly made Rank 1, no, he was well on his way to Rank 2.

During the duels Lucas was actually developing a new spell. While paying attention to the students' duels he found a lot of strong spells he didn't have a strong defense against. He had to prepare for the inevitable.

Either way, he would have to start stealing points from the other students if he wanted to reach the top spot.

'I don't like this one bit.'

'It's fine, don't worry about it. I'm not the one that should be telling us this, but I think we stand a pretty good chance.'

'I guess you're right. Alright, let's pick the easiest one.'

Lucas sent a signal through his pin, letting the host know there was a new challenger. He activated it right after a duel was finished to be the first one.

"Hoho, would you look at this! Our masked man has decided to step up, it seems he was tired of being challenged by the lower ranking students that he wanted to have his own little contest. Tell me, who are you going up against?"

"I challenge Orpheus and bet all my points.", once again, betting all his points was extremely risky. If Lucas failed now, he would be out of the race.

"I'll take you up on that!", Orpheus jumped from his seat onto the stage. He looked like a small mountain with his build, he was one of the Martial class that made it up quite high.

"And what are you going to do Orpheus?"

"Simple, these duels exist to show our power to the world. Let's fight!"

"And there you have it ladies and gentlemen, another real fight is about to happen. Will our masked Conrad or our muscle maniac win?!", the host said while a few beautiful ladies went around gathering bets. Orpheus didn't like being called a muscle maniac, but the attention and applause made him ignore it.

'I knew he was stupid enough to do this.'

Lucas didn't choose the weakest above him, he chose someone he could predict. Orpheus had been showing off his strength and lust for battle the entire time. If he got challenged it would be out of his character to propose something other than a fight.

"Now then contestants, please step to the edge of the courtyard and prepare yourself."

Taking his sweet time, he started to prepare a few defenses. He wasn't as physically strong as Orpheus nor did he have his steel-like defense. What Lucas did have was a plan.

"I'll count down from 3 then the battle starts. The conditions for victory are the same as always. Knock your opponent unconscious, make them surrender or push them off the platform to win. Now, are you ready? Three! Two! ONE! FIGHT!"

Orpheus launched himself forward, with his strength his speed was remarkable, but to Lucas he just looked like another fake Fire Wolf except a bit slower and less aggressive. The victory conditions were actually really easy to take advantage off.

With Orpheus speed he could probably throw him off the platform entirely. Sadly, Lucas wasn't versed on throwing or grappling techniques. Although that was an interesting topic, he didn't have the time to research it. No, he kept it simple.

Lucas moved back a few steps before bracing himself for the impact. After seeing a few matches with Orpheus, Lucas knew that he had the ability to immediately stop his own speed. When it came to any kind of physical ability, Orpheus was superior, only when it came to magic did Lucas stand a chance.

There was only one weakness that every member of the Martial class had.

Orpheus was about to run into Lucas, but the moment he arrived Lucas shot a fireball at him.

"Hah! You think a measly fireball is going to be enough?", he punched right through the flames, dispersing them in the environment. The moment he did though, he felt a hand touch his fist. He quickly pulled his arm back.

"Wow, you have fast reflexes. I could only give you a single dose.", since Lucas stood there with his hands behind his back and with a natural calm, Orpheus felt something was off.

"What do you mean 'dose'?"

"Oh, simple, it's poison. In about 5 minutes you will die."

"WHAT!?", Orpheus looked at his hand and noticed it did lose a bit of color, and he felt an annoying itch.

"Don't worry, I have the antidote with me, you simply need to surrender, and I'll give it to you.", with his calm demeanor, Orpheus felt like Lucas wasn't lying. The mask was obscuring Lucas's face, but he felt the calm smile from afar.

He thought that even if he did get poisoned, he would get help from the teachers if the fight was over. After all, they healed the students during the tests as well, so why wouldn't they help him now?

"Or I simply need to beat you within 5 minutes!", Orpheus went back on the offensive, punching wildly towards Lucas. While Lucas didn't have the strength to block or attack him, he was very proficient at dodging. During all his training at the mansion and even with his guest teacher, he was well versed on the art of evading attacks.

But Lucas didn't just dodge, each time he placed his hand on the arm or leg he dodged. He never fought back, he only backed up in a circle and focused on avoiding attacks.

"C'mon now, is this all the Martial class is worth? I was expecting more from you."

"Stop running away!"

"I'm not running away, you're just bad at fighting."

Boom

With a single downward kick, Orpheus broke the ground and created a small cloud of dust. Lucas had to jump away to avoid getting caught, but he was basically done.

"How about you stop this Orpheus. I've given you plenty more doses of poison, you'll be done for in a minute. I know you're thinking that you only need to hit me once to defeat me, but so what? I won't give you the antidote if you win."

"Hah! I don't need your antidote, I'll beat you and the teachers will heal me up!", Orpheus felt tired from the fight, but knew victory was right around the corner.

"Do you truly think the teachers are willing to heal you? Why didn't they help Whitney then? She destroyed her arm, was in a severe condition and could be challenged by anyone right after. Yet they simply watched. Don't you realize it yet? You're finished!"

"Huh, what? Wait, won't they help me?", Orpheus realized that if what Lucas was saying is true he would be screwed. If he won, he would be dead, if he gave up he would survive, but lose the competition.

"Hahaha, since when are you so depended on the teachers? Whitney was well below your position and never asked for any kind of help, but here you are crying out for some sympathy? Give up Orpheus, is your pride more important than your life? Are you willing to never see your precious friends again? Are you going to make your family lose a beloved son because they were too prideful? We're not here to play games Orpheus, think carefully about your next decision. Are you going to live or are you willing to die because of your ego?!", the smile on the mask felt a lot more evil than before. Orpheus felt like the smile got wider and wider, overwhelming him.

He was frozen stiff, Orpheus felt the pain in his body from where he got touched. The pain and anxiety started to mix in his mind. He couldn't find any flaw in Lucas's explanation and the realization that he might actually be dying soon kicked in. The audience that was watching him in silence, the pressure that was building up, the fear that his life was about to end. Everything started to pile up.

"I… surrender."

"And we have a winner ladies and gentlemen, did you guess the right winner? Or were you unlucky and did you lose, don't worry. There are still countless duels awaiting you!"

Lucas approached Orpheus and used his magic to heal his condition. He made sure to touch each spot that he poisoned during the match. "There you go, you'll feel a bit tired, but don't worry. You'll survive."

Orpheus was about to thank Lucas, but the words got stuck in his throat. He played dirty, and he even had to beg for his life. He felt terrible, but with the few remaining points he had, there was no way to make a comeback. Not only that, but he could only look down on the ground and a feeling of sadness washed over him. He was about to hit it big, but instead lost everything. The shame he felt was immense, but he was glad to still be alive.

Lucas made his way to his seat while holding in his laugh.

'Hahahaha, what a fucking idiot!'