What is he?

"You… underestimating me?" Pointing to himself, Donovan muttered, his mind swirling with questions.

He wanted to laugh at Ren's statement, but the cold tone in Ren's voice made him pause, freezing him in place. For the first time, he felt this way, and instinctively he knew it was fear. That was the only explanation for why words wouldn't come out of his throat.

Eventually, he managed to overcome the fear, but not without feeling embarrassed about it. He could not forgive himself for being intimidated by a lowborn. His pride had taken a significant hit.

"How dare you look at me this way! Take this, you bastard!"

After regaining his composure, Donovan chanted, and a multitude of swords materialized out of thin air, rotating around him with their tips pointed outward. The tips of the swords glowed with a dangerous sheen, a clear testament to their sharpness.

With a focused intent, the swords launched towards Ren under Donovan's control, their numbers reaching a dozen or so. No matter how fast Ren was, there was no way he could outrun the speeding swords with coordinated movement. 

Being able to conjure and precisely control a multitude of swords spoke volumes about Donovan's talent. If the swords hit their mark, Ren would be in a world of pain.

A sly grin spread across Donovan's face as he envisioned the outcome of the duel. With his powerful blades that could shred even the toughest material and an impenetrable defense that could withstand even third-circle mage spells, the outcome was already determined before the fight had even begun.

However, reality soon proved to be different from what he had envisioned. 

Instead of finding Ren covered in a pool of blood, impaled from all sides by his swords, Donovan heard a booming sound, and Ren suddenly vanished from his sight completely. The area where his swords were directed was now occupied by blades embedded inside, but Ren's figure was nowhere to be seen.

Donovan was taken aback by Ren's disappearing act. "Wasn't this supposed to be an easy victory?" he couldn't help but think. However, his thoughts were interrupted by a series of consecutive deafening booming sounds in the arena.

Following the booming sounds with his eyes, he scanned the arena for Ren's figure but was met with a blinding light that completely obscured his vision. For a brief period of time, his sight was completely gone. 

Being deprived of his sight made Donovan panic. 

Despite being encased in black rhino armor from head to toe, the momentary blindness and lack of information about Ren's whereabouts were terrifying for him.

In a state of panic, he directed his swords around haphazardly. If it weren't for the barrier erected by the faculty, his blades would have endangered the audience surrounding the arena.

Donovan wandered around the arena like a lost housefly until his eyesight returned several seconds later. The moment he could see, a blurry figure emerged from his peripheral vision. Instinctively, he dodged the punch aimed at his face and managed to dodge the blow from Ren at the nick of time, but in the process, the horn attached to his helmet was snapped off by Ren's ridiculous powerful punch.

Ren grunted in frustration as his punch narrowly missed Donovan's face by mere inches. His heart sank as his surprise attack failed to land a blow on Donovan. Instantly, he pulled back from Donovan to avoid the counterattack that was coming, swiftly evading the oncoming blades with agile maneuvering. 

If he got caught in Donovan's storm of blades even once, it would mean his defeat.

With mana swirling from his palms, Ren detonated the mini fireballs he had conjured prematurely and used it as a change of direction and speed boost to dodge Donovan's blades around the arena. Moving around the arena rapidly, he seemed akin to a phantom of death.

The crowd gasped as they witnessed Ren expertly charging in and maneuvering through the hail of blades conjured up by Donovan. 

Under Donovan's control, the swords attacked Ren relentlessly, leaving him no openings to escape. Yet, every time it seemed like Ren was finished, he would expertly evade the blades with his twists and turns and attempt to close the distance between him and Donovan.

They did not know how he managed to pull it off, but the unexpected sight of Ren chasing Donovan while Donovan fled was not what they had anticipated.

"Alice, what's going on? Why does it look like Donovan is losing?" Rena turned to her best friend, her concern evident in her expression. 

She couldn't comprehend how a noble could be losing to the weakest in the cohort. The duel wasn't supposed to be like this. In her mind, Donovan was supposed to show his gallant figure as he effortlessly defeated Ren like a hero.

When Rena noticed Alice's lack of response, she attempted to shake her friend's arm to regain her attention. However, seeing Alice thoroughly focused on the duel, she ultimately gave up and turned her attention back to the duel.

Alice heard her friend call her, but she didn't bother answering, considering it a waste of time. Her attention was entirely on the duel, as if she were lost in her own world.

Her drowsy eyes had transformed into a focused gaze fixed on the arena, where she scrutinized every move Ren made. Excitement surged through her, causing her entire body to tremble heavily with anticipation at each of Ren's moves.

"Who is he? What is he? How is he?" She wanted to know everything about the young man on the arena who had caught her attention. 

The talent of the young man had thoroughly impressed her. She did not expect to encounter such a genius in the backwater region of the empire. Compared to the prodigies in the capital, she deemed that the young man didn't pale in comparison to them.

"Ah. I really want to fight him… But at this point, he still has much room for growth. Maybe I can help him grow." Alice sighed as she licked her index finger in a manner that was both seductive and innocent. Although the thought of Ren being a first-circle mage disappointed her, she could not help but feel thrilled about his future potential at the same time.