Chapter 14: The duel and?

Part 1

"Let's start, shall we?"

*********

Konrad was already ready and standing arrogantly in front of Harlow.

If in between Harlow and Konrad, there was no arena of 300m2 then, Harlow would've already beaten a crap out of Konrad, turning him into red sour weed [It's a polish way of saying, turning someone into bloody plump]

It was annoying, Konrad was good-looking and was good at studies, at least that's what he heard meanwhile practise.

Compared to Harlow past's body, he would've been called a star, Harlow wasn't handsome nor pretty in his previous life and was giving thug vibes, unlike Konrad.

Harlow also had multiple mental illnesses and scars, because of the war and his mental state was always, at the same level as when he entered the army.

He wasn't good at studies, at least in his first life, he was only good at commanding people, overall war manoeuvres and everything that involved physical activity.

Harlow's nerves were already on the verge of exploding, and Konrad decided to add more oil into the already running wildfire [Polish way of saying, 'escalating the problem'], he said those words:

"You don't need to think about your pride here, don't be sad if you lose! Remember, I want to have a good spar with someone!" - Konrad smiled as he said that, it wasn't wrong to say that the smile was arrogant.

Harlow smiled, if he was a character out of the manga, then his veins would explode.

Harlow wanted to swear right now, however, as a Magician swordsman, he was not able to, it was a minus for him.

For a while it was like this, of course, for Harlow, there were still a lot of people cheering, however, most of them were anti-fans of Konrad.

Harlow was waiting, annoyed by Konrad's words, and the fact of his arrogant smile.

After some time, the judge was visible, [I feel like there could be a better word than judge, however, I have no idea what it may be in English] it was visible, that the judge was in hurry, to come to the scene, however, after few seconds, the situation was quite the opposite, he looked like a new man. After that, saying those words;

"Do both parties, Harlow Shallfear and Konrad Pfender, agree to rule of Duel? ------"

It was a long, yet so short speech, no one ever listened to it, and just said yes, but rules are rules, it has to be said.

Both Harlow and Konrad nodded, in agreement that they agree to the rules, reading them before that.

Now, both of them were in the positions, ready for the fight.

The magician, that was standing next to the judge, fired a fireball spell into the midair and waited for it to explode for the match to start.

*Boom*

The sound of the explosion was louder than Harlow anticipated, it was louder than the last one he heard.

However, it was not time for thinking about things like this, the match began, and Harlow should quickly make an offensive move since it was not too late.

Meanwhile, Harlow was lost in thoughts, for those few seconds, because of the fireball, Konrad used those few seconds to prepare his attacks against Harlow.

Fireballs appeared in the sky, and it was not a small amount, at least 25.

Harlow was surprised, at how, a human could make spells, normally it took away much more, well, at least the instructors etc. took much more time.

He had mana manipulation, which meant, that he could form every spell-based just on the feeling, runes etc.

Humans had to do chants, runes and other things, even, if they wanted to cast small spells like a torch, it was impossible for them, to cast spells without them.

Harlow wasn't beating around the bush, he quickly ran over to his enemy, however, it was not enough.

Konrad wasn't nervous or anything, instead, on his face, there was a smile as if he planned everything.

Harlow stopped. His gut feeling told him about the danger in front of him, and it was right.

A few icicles were in front of him, they were as big as some blocks, honestly, Harlow was surprised.

'This... This fight will be exciting!'

His battle-idiotic ideas were yet again activated, last time, he couldn't be excited by battle, but right now, it was a fight that could've been decent.

How wrong he was, the fight could not be a decent one, instead, it was not in his favour.

After some seconds, another icicle from behind appeared out of nowhere, and if Harlow would've be second late, then he would have probably lost his arm.

It came to him, that fighting his enemy at even medium-range distance, was dangerous, unless, he too used magic.

'If that's it, then I will use magic too!'

In an instant, a stalactite-shaped metal could have been seen, and not one, but around 13.

'This bastard can use magic like that too?!'

Konrad wasn't prepared for this, until now, he thought, that magical swordsman will be only good at CQC and CQ magic, yet, his enemy right in front of him, pulled out, something better than his icicles.

In instant, all of them were fired against Konrad.

*Crack*

The stalactite-shaped metal was blocked by a huge wall of ice, it was made in instant.

'If it was not for my shorten chants, then what would be left from me?!'

Even though Harlow used a basic 3 level spell called 'Metal Stalactite', the firepower of the spell was already on 5th level spell. It was caused by Harlow's amount of mana, which was inhuman.

...

Everyone's face was bland, it was a level of fight, that most couldn't even match. People like teachers, instructors and even administrators watching the battle were smiling, it was not only exciting but would've made a big change in the school's status.

However, the white tower's administrator wasn't there.

Well, that was for the later part.

Konrad was ranked #49 in the whole school, if Harlow was to defeat him, then, Harlow's victory would have been more popular than the one against Ruprecht.

...

Konrad's mind came back to his own body and quickly started to analyze the situation.

His wall of ice, the Barrier of Blizzard was broken, by a simple spell, that he learned around 2-3 years ago, which meant that it was around 3rd level, and it was simple level.

'It can't be!'

'It's impossible!'

'This is against the rules of the world!'

These were his first thoughts, however, as a magician, his second thoughts looked like that;

'This is interesting!'

'I want to learn more magic!'

'I want to know how he did it!'

However, he couldn't say anything of this during a battle, it would've been way too dangerous since he would just spend his time for nothing.

Suddenly, Konrad made a move, that Harlow has not seen anywhere.

He clapped both hands, as if he were a character out of Fullmetal Alchemist, and said few words.

Harlow couldn't hear them, or rather, understand them.

Harlow used this time to get closer to Konrad, however, his movement got blocked easily, suddenly, in front of him, a huge wall made out of stone appeared.

It had to be a battle-alchemy, it was the only thing that explained this weird phenomenon.

Normally magic would've made this wall out of nowhere, but the wall was made out of stone under the arena.

Now, both Harlow and Konrad were smiling like madmen, they were enjoying the battle.

*******

Part 2

"How're the preparations?" Suddenly, a deep voice said.

"They are near half being ready, Sir." One man responded.

Both of them didn't look human. To be exact, both of them were demons.

One man had 3 horns and a kind of halo above his head. He was a 2m meter buff.

He was the oldest and the strongest demon kind - Ohta Yuu.

He was of Titan Race and was the highest being among any other being in the world.

Titans were known for destruction, once they turned into their Titan Form, normally the smallest titan was 20m, meanwhile, Ohta could even reach 1km if he wanted.

The second man was... Heinz Von Ulme. The Administrator of the White Tower, and... the right hand of Ohta.

"How did the infiltration into the human's community go?" Ohta asked Heinz, he was deeply worried, if whenever it went wrong or right.

"It went right, no one saw through my illusion, sir. And it looks like there is one Vampire among the students, with a very big potential... We could recruit him into our army." He responded, with a cold voice.

'The preparations went better than planned, and there is one potential recruit... It's amazing, with this, I can toy with them.'

Ohta didn't want to destroy humanity, nor destroy their advanced civilization with a single invasion, instead, he wanted to toy with them. It was just fun for him, plus they gave him some profit.

Still, a 'possible' recruit didn't mean anything from his power, so he asked;

"If you may compare the vampire to one of our soldiers, whom may he be in terms of power?"

"He will easily outrun me, Sir."

It was quite shocking, hearing this from a man that was quite arrogant about his strength.

If the 'possible' recruit could outrun easily Heinz, then that meant, that his potential was about 2/4 the same as Otha's, and he would've gained from this, however, there was also this chains of thoughts, that the vampire simply betray later him or just simply refuse to be subordinate.

"Well, we will see that."

*******

Part 3

"Huff...Huff...Huff"

'He's a good one!'

These were the thoughts, of both Konrad and Harlow.

The battle was already 45 minutes long, and no blows were dealt, not even one.

That being the case, Konrad was almost out of mana, which meant that Harlow had the upper case.

Konrad knew that exactly, however, his pride didn't allow him to surrender unless death would await him.

Harlow learned two things about his enemy during the battle:

First - He specialized in the Water Magic element, and to be exact, in Ice spells.

Second - His enemy could use Battle Alchemy, pretty fluently.

He was dangerous.

...

*Cling*

An icicle nearly hit Harlow, if not for the sword he had.

The distance between Harlow and Konrad, was right now, way shorter than at the start.

Harlow was smart enough, to see that Konrad's mana was slowly going away, and that meant, that he could play more aggressively.

Harlow put around his body, a Magical Barrier, and ran over to his enemy.

Even though A magical barrier, was not enough to protect him from all kinds of spells, it would've bought him some time.

'F-fast!'

Konrad's spells weren't able to hit Harlow, even one of them couldn't, just because of how fast Harlow was.

Add to that, small mana, which meant slower spells, and then Konrad was only able to focus on defensive right now.

However, Konrad pulled out something, that Harlow wasn't prepared for.

The Ice Sword, 5th level spell.

Harlow right now, specialized in CQC was quite surprised, that his enemy, even though specialized in Long-range combat, was not taking him on his chest.

*Cling*

Konrad, to everyone's surprise, somehow blocked Harlow's attack, even though, not having a high strength stat.

'Is this just a coincidence?'

*Clang*

'It was just a coincidence.'

The next second, Konrad's Ice sword was sent flying into the sky, and Harlow's sword was next to his neck.

"I surrender!" Konrad shouted.

...

Harlow was announced a victor in the duel and has been promoted up to #49 place in the rankings, taking Konrad's place.

Harlow was feeling great after this match, it was exciting for him to match, which lasted around 45 minutes.

Right now, Harlow was headed to the resting room. He was expecting a lot of reporters from newspapers etc., and it was true, if the doors wouldn't have been from one of the hardest steel, then they would've collapse quite easily.

For a while, Harlow just lay down on a bench, clearly analyzing the fight, however, his thoughts were interrupted.

It was Konrad, and he said those words;

"Hey, listen..."