Chapter 44: We'll Just Beat You With Money!
"Today, we will be seeing the consequences of offending a noble," announced Baron Caligula. "Our contester today would be this fellow trash from Class Red, whose name I do not know," he said pointing at Jay. "First student that would fight him would be Elliott Asquith, second son of Baron Asquith," he said, introducing Jay's first opponent. Looking at his opponent, Jay couldn't see anything special about him. He only had an aura of a soldier-grade beast, but fully equipped with magical relics.
"May the gods bless this fight, the battle will end when one side is rendered unable to battle, killing will be prohibited, " said Caligula, signaling the start of the fight. Deciding to take the first fight on his own, Jay entered the stage by himself. He stared at Elliott, observing his first move. Seeing that Jay was waiting for him to attack first, Elliott smirked. Aiming his palm at Jay, two huge fireballs flew towards Jay instantly. "How could he cast without chanting?" thought Jay, caught off guard. Quickly regaining his focus, he lifted his hand. "Earth Wall," casted Jay, lifting the dirt in front of him. The fireballs slammed into the dirt wall, exploding. Jay could feel the heat from the impact. "That is definitely lethal, these guys truly are immoral rats," Jay thought, deciding that two can play the game.
The crowd went wild right after the first exchange. Double silent casting? Only mages that have trained for decades could reach such fine control over mana! The Class Red, who was supposed to be the weakest one in the whole school, managed to counter the attack perfectly. This was much more exciting than they anticipated. They thought that they were going to see a student being bullied by nobles, but the kid was putting up a decent fight.
"How long can you defend for?" laughed Elliott, launching more fireballs. Malum, who was closely observing Elliott after he double casted, quickly established a mental link with Jay. "Something is off, the mana doesn't fluctuate when he casts. He isn't conjuring mana by himself, there must be some kind of relic that could cast fireballs," Malum said telepathically. "Earth Wall," Jay casted again, building another sturdy wall of dirt. "You turtle, how long are you going to hide in your shell?" mocked Elliott. "Until your fireball lauching relic runs out of mana," replied Jay. Realizing that he had been exposed, Elliott decided to go all in. At first, Jay thought that Elliott's hands were lighting up. But after a closer observation, he noticed that there were five rings on each of his finger, brimming with mana.
With the opponent's relics charging up with mana, Jay didn't think that he could interrupt the casting in time. "Can we defend that?" asked Jay, telepathically. "Depends on how much you would want to reveal," replied Malum. "I suppose I could just try Telekinesis," replied Jay, deciding to tank the hit. Elliott unleashed a barrage of spells all at once, Earth Spikes, Fireballs, Lightnings. Arthur stood up from his seat angrily. "Killing is prohibited, such a barrage of spells could kill even a Lieutenant-graded monster," he said, clenching his fists. Some people prayed for Jay to survive the attack, while others were waiting for bloodshed. A smokescreen appeared as the spells detonated, blocking the vision of the spectators. All they could see was the smug grin on Elliott's face, thinking that he had easily killed Jay. The audience unconsciously held their breaths, waiting for the dust to disperse.
Seeing the spells come at him, Jay controlled several invisible tendrils of mana. He tried to slightly deviate the trajectory of the fireball, and was shocked when he succeeded. Normally, spells that came from mages were hard to evade because spells had a small part of the mage's will that would lock on to it's target. But due to the fact that the fireball came from a relic, it didn't have the unique will spells casted by mages had. He pulled the fireball down with Telekinesis, slamming it onto the ground. Exploding, it caused a dust cloud, blocking everyone's vision.
Jay used the same trick on all the other spells, causing them to miss entirely. Deciding that it would be impossible for a Class Red to come out of this attack unscathed, he purposely tanked the lightning spell. As he was striked by the blue bolt of electricity, his muscles spasmed. The electricity coursing through his body temporarily paralyzed him. Fortunately for Jay, even if he lost all control over his muscles, he could still walk normally thanks to Malum. As the dust cloud cleared, a figure could still be seen standing right where he had been standing the whole time. His hair was all messy, probably due to electric current. His skin was slightly burnt, but overall he was still fine.
"Impossible!" exclaimed Elliott, not believing his own eyes. He had already emptied all the mana in his rings, how could a Class Red tank the hit? "Nice!" cheered Asher and Freddy. The crowd bursted out cheering. With disdain in his eyes, Jay rushed forwards with his katana unsheathed. As he slashed down at the shocked Elliott, a thin veil of blue mana appeared all around him. A loud clanging sound could be heard when Jay's katana slashed the barrier. The blade bounced off, dealing no damage to Elliott. "Cheater!" a student started to yell over and over again. As more and members of the audience joined the chant, the students from Class Gold had guilty expressions. "Silence! Relics and equipments were allowed in this fight, it's all allowed!" announced Baron Caligula.
Elliott, who was tired of being hit over and over again, pulled out his weapon. Which was a swords that had a burning blade. "More enchanted weapons, you really are loaded!" laughed Jay, dodging Elliott's pathetic attack. Jay stepped back, controlling the invisible tendrils of mana, he incapacitated Elliott. Conjuring a large fireball in his hands, Jay said, "Let's see how well that barrier deals with fireballs." Elliott tried to run off the stage, but he realized that his feet wad stuck to the ground. He screamed as the scorching ball of heat flew at him directly. Just before the fireball exploded, Baron Caligula jumped down for his podium, blocking the spell with a holy barrier.
"Killing is against the rules, one more attempt and you automatically lose the duel," he broadcast loudly for everyone to hear. The crowd protested, the fireball was clearly weaker than the barrage of spells Elliott launched at Jay! This clearly is favoritism at its peak. "If anyone of you thinks that my judgment is unfair, you are welcomed to request for a holy duel," said Baron
Caligula. "What's a holy duel?" asked Jay. "A impenetrable barrier would be set up that would only deactivate once one side is either dead or unconscious. You could do anything you want in the barrier, but you would have to take on every contestant at the same time," Baron Caligula explained, knowing that there is no way a sane person would fight two classes at once.
Jay smiled, thinking of fighting the two classes at once. Seeing that smile, Asher said, "Don't tell me he really is planning to request for a holy duel." As Jay opened his mouth, "I request for a holy duel!" were the words that came out, shocking the whole arena.