Chapter 4: Chester VS Maxwell

Once Chester arrived in the arena he stood across Maxwell, who had a smug look on his face as if the battle was already decided said,

"Hmph, who let this country bumpkin believe that he could stand against me. I was trained by Sword Master Kensei himself."

"Pfft, so what if you were. You think that means you can even hold a candle to Master Kensei's strength?"

"You'll regret saying that, you piece of trash. We'll see how well you can swing that giant waste of a weapon."

Chester just grit his teeth because the weapon he had, belonged to his late grandfather and he gave it to him the day he started training. It was a Runic Weapon that his grandfather had commissioned from a great blacksmith he met couple kingdoms over. The blacksmith was on his way to the kingdom of Swarsten and was attacked by bandits. Chester's grandfather fought off the bandits and saved his life. To repay him, the blacksmith who introduced himself as Stöll, promised to make him a weapon fit for a King. Chester's grandfather recognized the name Stöll as the official blacksmith of Swarsten Kingdom and new he had a great opportunity in front of him.

When Chester's grandfather asked him to make a weapon for his grandson to use, Stöll knew that he made a good choice because even after knowing that he was the Swarsten Kingdom's blacksmith, he didn't even ask for a weapon for himself.

Stöll made a weapon inscribed with Runes which gave it very interesting properties. One of which was a Disguise Rune that uses the Dark element to change how the weapon looks to someone who does not have the complementary Rune Stone bracelet that allows the holder of the bracelet to see the true form of the weapon. This made the weapon look shoddy and common.

Chester's grandfather only told Chester about the Disguise Rune and the Flame Enchantment Rune which allows the weapon to be coated in flames without any harm to the holder. His grandfather told him he had to find out the other Runes himself. There was a total of five Runic Inscriptions on the weapon and Chester has discovered only one other Rune than the ones he was told.

The Rune that Chester discovered waa the Rune of Swiftness. This Rune allowed for the weapon to be wielded with the speed of a basic longsword despite it's enormous size.

It was because it was a gift from his grandfather that Chester was angry that Max called it a waste.

He grit his teeth, looked at Maxwell and said "We'll see who's weapon is the waste when you're lying on the ground after the beating I'll give you."

Maxwell just scoffed and removed his sword from his sheath and got in a readied stance. He was holding the sword with two hands and positioned it in the space next to his head and turned his body so he was behind the blade.

Chester responded by taking the warhammer off his shoulder, putting one hand near the bottom and one near the top of the warhammer and placed it in front of him.

Mr Leo then looked to the two students and said "Are you two ready?"

After getting confirmation from both of them he then said "Very well, the match begins now"

Maxwell shot off his feet towards Chester and slashed horizontally as if trying to cut him in half. Chester sensed the subtle killing intent in that strike and decided to make sure that he beats him senseless so he can't fight back.

He smirked at Maxwell and activated the Flame Enchantment Rune.

Maxwell as well as the audience stared incredulously at the warhammer now fully encased in fire.

"What is that?!?! That's cheating?!?!"

Maxwell looked towards Mr Leo for him to do something and all he said was "The rules state that you are allowed to use your own weapon, there is no rule against it being a Runic Weapon."

"Hmmph, Fine. If that's how you want to play it, I'll oblige you."

Maxwell then took a Rune Stone from his pocket and put into the empty pommel of his sword. The sword glowed with a golden shine which was reminiscent of a Rune of Strength. This Rune doesn't increase the strength of the weapon itself but actually has the ability to increase the strength of each strike to a limit of 100 strikes as long as it isn't interrupted.

This was not good for Chester. His warhammer is slow and strong so being able to parry a longsword is difficult. and he wasn't ready to show his trump card in the Rune of Swiftness quite yet.

Maxwell rushed to Chester and swung his sword in a downward arc. Chester had to block by letting it hit the handle of his warhammer. He tried to move the hammer away after the strike but failed to move in time and had to block a strike at his side from Maxwell. Chester could feel the increase in strength and he slid to the side about 3 steps. Chester was glad to at least be away from Max and gained more distances from him.

Meanwhile, Maxwell was putting out the flames on his tunic and glared at Chester.

"You commoner trash, is all you know how to do, run away and let the magic of your weapon do all the work!!!"

"What about you? I thought that a Noble such as yourself wouldn't need to use a Rune Stone to beat me. I guess you can't beat me without any help."

"Arrrrgh, I'll show you!!!"

Maxwell ran at Chester and did a three slash combo which Chester wasn't expecting. By the third slash, Chester got launched to the other side of the arena and almost fell out of bounds.

He stopped himself by activating the Rune of Swiftness and slammed the head of the warhammer into the ground as he slid and then spun around the handle until he was in front of the weapon which he quickly spun in front of himself in the ready position finally coming to a halt. This surprised everyone as he did it so fast even with swinging the heavy warhammer.

Maxwell just scoffed at him but was fuming in his mind because he almost sent him out the arena.

"I don't know how you did that move just now, but it doesn't matter, I will show you the might of someone from a noble bloodline."

Maxwell then used a sword skill attached to the sword itself and got in his original pose and pushed his sword in front of himself as he dashed forward, leaving behind an afterimage as he stabbed towards Chester.

What Chester did next shocked all the people present including the academy representatives, as the skill he showed with his weapon at such a young age is worthy of praise.

Chester started to swing his warhammer at speeds enough to see a circle of flame as he had also activated the Flame Enchantment Rune. As Maxwell had reached him, Chester swung the flaming head of the warhammer right at the point of the sword that was aiming at his neck, obvious killing intent being released from Maxwell.

Maxwell was launched clear off the the arena onto the floor below. He had the air knocked out from his lungs, not just from the blow from Chester, but from the backlash of his attack not impacting Chester.

When Maxwell finally got his breath back he looked up at Mr. Leo and screamed at him.

"This is an outrage, a noble such as myself couldn't be beaten by that insect. HE MUST HAVE CHEATED I DEMAND A REMATCH!!!!"

Just as Maxwell was going to continue his rageful tyraid, the vice principal of the School Of Air Zephyrine, landed on the arena and looked directly at Maxwell.

"I have two things to say. Number one, a lot can be said about a person by how they react when they win, but even more can be shown when you see how they react when they lose."

Maxwell grit his teeth in frustration, as this was a clear insult to his character, but didnt say anything as even his father would not help him if he offended one of the representatives of the major Magic Schools so he just held his tongue.

"Number two, there was clear killing intent released in your final attack against the challenger which showed intent to do more than injure which is against the rules. and your reaction to losing speaks volumes of the kind of person you are. These two reasons together are enough to deny you entry into any of our schools and you are disqualified from this competition."

Maxwell was stunned into silence that he forgot to even breath. Zephyrine looked towards Mr. Leo.

"Is that alright with you as the Association's representative?"

Mr. Leo merely nodded and Maxwell was escorted from the Association grounds, lest he make a scene.

Zephyrine then flew back to the viewers box that all the school representatives were staying at, and allowed Mr. Leo to continue.

Mr leo nodded and then gestured to Chester to leave the arena to continue the test when they heard a loud boisterous voice from the viewers box.

"HAHAHAHA THAT'S JUST THE PERSON FOR MY SCHOOL!!!"

The voice was obviously Tor Neroli from Terra Federation. All the sudden the earth on the arena split open and a pillar shot out from it carrying Tor with it. He landed on the arena floor as the earth repaired itself. He looked towards Chester with a wide smile.

"Young man, how would you like to join my school?"

Chester was still in shock at the turn of events but composed himself quickly then got down on one knee and bowed to Tor.

"I GREET MASTER TOR!!!"

"HAHAHA THAT'S THE SPIRIT, I LOOK FORWARD TO THE GREAT THINGS YOULL DO FOR MY SCHOOL!!"

Mr. Leo nodded at that then turned to the crowd.

"With that out of the way, let's continue the test.