The Duel
The arena buzzed with murmurs. The sound of the spectators whispering among themselves filled the air. And on the stage where all their eyes converged, I stood. Face to face with that bastard, Jerim Haluter.
How things had come to this? It was because I hadn’t dodged his provocation. The best-case scenario he’d probably been aiming for was for me to lose my mind to his taunts and charge at him. By causing an incident like that, he’d give the Academy—which was already sharpening its knives against me—an excuse to finally expel me. That must have been his goal.
But no matter how angry I was at his crossing-the-line remarks, I wasn’t stupid enough to do something like that. So instead, I challenged him to a duel. And he gladly accepted. Of course, just because both sides agreed to a duel didn’t mean we could start brawling right there on the spot. We only set the time and place, then showed up at the designated dueling ground later. But for some reason, the stands were packed.
Considering both my and Jerim’s reputations, it wasn’t strange that quite a few people would be interested. But this number was definitely abnormal. There was only one person who would pull something like this. It seemed Jerim had done a proper job of advertising the match. Maybe he planned to beat me senseless in front of all these people and humiliate me while he was at it.
It was hard to guess his exact intentions, but one thing was certain.
‘So this was his backup plan.’
The odds were high that holding a public duel like this had also been one of the possibilities he’d considered. That was why he’d accepted my challenge so willingly and blown the whole thing up into such a spectacle.
“Quite the crowd, huh?”
Jerim looked around at the faces filling the spectator seats and grinned.
“With this many guests showing up, it’d be boring if we just had some half-assed duel, don’t you think?”
He spoke in a voice loud enough to echo across the entire arena. I stared at him quietly, wondering what he was up to.
“So here’s a suggestion.”
He finally got to the point.
“Since we both seem to have some bad blood between us, how about we change the rules of this duel?”
His eyes gleamed.
“We won’t end the duel until one side gives up.”
The crowd stirred. It was a natural reaction. Saying the duel wouldn’t end until one side surrendered meant no outside interference to stop it, which naturally implied things would get much more intense.
“Of course, we shouldn’t actually kill each other,” he added quickly, then looked at me. “What do you say? Any serious injuries will heal with the priests’ treatment anyway, so it doesn’t matter, right? Or… are you scared?”
The smile on his face grew even wider. On top of the provocation, he seemed to think the situation had escalated too far for me to refuse. Well, he wasn’t exactly wrong. If it had been the original Kyle, he probably would’ve accepted no matter what. Kyle was the type with no real skill but an oversized ego.
Of course, that was Kyle. I was different. I didn’t care about the stares around me or anything else. Even if I refused his offer here and got called a coward, I was confident it wouldn’t bother me one bit.
But.
“Sure. Let’s do it.”
I accepted his proposal without hesitation. I had never intended to refuse. If I had, I wouldn’t have challenged him to a duel in the first place. In fact, his suggestion was more than welcome.
“Heh. Glad we’re on the same page.”
A satisfied sneer spread across his face. He probably thought everything was going exactly as he wanted. But it wouldn’t be long before he regretted making that offer.
Originally, if possible, I’d wanted to beat him into a bloody pulp. But since this was officially a duel, that wasn’t an option. For him to offer such terms first was an absolute gift.
Anyway, with both sides in agreement, the rules were changed.
“Then, are you ready?”
We faced each other once again.
“Ready.”
“Me too.”
At the professor’s confirmation, Jerim and I answered.
“Then, begin.”
The duel started.
“Should I give you the first move as a courtesy?”
Jerim shrugged. Every inch of his expression radiated leisure.
Seeing that, I said, “The first move is something the stronger one gives up, right? So you should attack first.”
“……”
Jerim’s brow twitched. It seemed I’d struck a nerve.
“…Hah. This bastard’s got quite the tongue on him.”
He quickly smoothed out his face and laughed, but the savage glint in his eyes showed he was clearly irritated.
“Why don’t you attack first? Otherwise you might not even get a proper chance to strike.”
He said it thinking he’d throw my words back at me, but—
“As if.”
I didn’t even pretend to listen.
“…Fine. If you’re that determined, I guess I have no choice.”
He nodded. He was trying to look composed, but it was obvious his insides were boiling with rage.
Tsk. And he calls himself a warrior?
Boom!
Jerim stomped the ground. Just a single step, yet it rang out like a heavy earthquake. His figure blurred. The next instant, he was charging toward me at terrifying speed.
It wasn’t for nothing that he was considered one of the top second-years. His specs were monstrous. He wasn’t the type to rely on flashy techniques, yet he ranked at the top of his year purely because his raw physical abilities were off the charts.
He proved it with a single leap. He was so fast that even with my current dynamic vision, I could barely follow his movements. Of course, this wasn’t a matter of my skill—it was simply because this body’s specs were lacking. You could call it an unavoidable limitation due to inferior hardware.
Still…
‘That doesn’t mean I can’t respond.’
It just meant it was hard to see and react. It didn’t mean I couldn’t react at all. If reacting after seeing the move was too slow, I simply had to predict it. And with this much of a gap in ability, predicting his movements wasn’t difficult.
I took a single step to the right.
Whoosh!
Jerim’s fist swept through the exact spot where I had been standing moments before.
“……!”
He didn’t say anything, but the surprise was clear on his face. Whether he hadn’t expected me to dodge or was shocked that I’d reacted at all, it didn’t matter. Either way, he wasn’t the kind of opponent who’d be neutralized by dodging a single attack.
Having missed, Jerim immediately swung his left arm. He didn’t even try to correct his slightly off-balance stance from the missed punch. Instead, he drove his left elbow forward from that exact position.
The motion itself wasn’t large. It was just a movement of his left arm and upper body. But the destructive power it generated was anything but small.
Whoosh!
Even the sound was ominous. It was hard to believe it came from a human body cutting through the air. If it connected, I’d be sent flying, and the struck area would have its bones shattered. If it connected, that is.
Naturally, I had no intention of taking the hit head-on. From the moment Jerim began moving his left arm, I had already predicted the trajectory and lowered my stance. Not only did that perfectly evade the elbow’s path, but because I had predicted his movement two steps ahead, it created an opening even he couldn’t react to.
Having committed both arms to the attack, Jerim’s abdomen was completely defenseless. Now all I had to do was drive a powerful strike into it and it would be over.
Just as I had predicted. The difference in level was simply too great for this to even qualify as a proper duel.
As I prepared to attack his exposed midsection, I glanced briefly at the spectator seats. Because so many had shown up, I spotted a few familiar faces. And among them, for some reason, was Julia.
Had she come because I was fighting a duel? Or had she simply come to kill time with some entertainment? Julia, seated among the crowd, wore her usual expressionless face. There was no tension or anxiety visible on it. I couldn’t tell whether she trusted me or simply didn’t care what happened to me. Naturally, I hoped it was the former, but I didn’t think the odds were high. After all, we hadn’t known each other long, and there was no reason for her to feel that much goodwill toward me.
Anyway, as I was thinking such trivial thoughts and preparing to move—
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
‘Wait, this…’
Could this be an opportunity?
‘If I use a technique here that Julia would recognize…’
Eight years ago, I had taught Julia everything I knew. Every technique the original Gunter had used, and even the ones I had developed myself. If I used one of them now?
‘She’ll definitely recognize it.’
Julia would surely recognize it. Of course, recognizing it wouldn’t immediately resolve the current situation. Even if I used Gunter’s techniques, she wouldn’t instantly conclude that I was Gunter. But I could plant the seed of doubt. Julia would begin to suspect my connection to Gunter and try to uncover my true identity. That would be enough. Once the seed of doubt took root, even if I said nothing, Julia would eventually reach the conclusion that I was Gunter.
Yes. This was an opportunity. A chance to bypass the restriction and reveal my identity to her.
Having reached that thought, I changed the flow of my mana and the movement of my body. Using motions so familiar they were practically engraved into my bones. To let Julia know that I was Gunter.
But then—
“Ah.”
Suddenly, my body froze mid-motion. It was a symptom I had experienced before. The restriction with an unknown cause. The same symptoms as when I had tried to reveal my identity to Julia before. Of course, the duration was short. It was brief enough to be called an instant, a mere moment.
However.
Even that short time was fatal in this moment.
I saw Jerim, who had already recovered his stance, throwing a punch at me. I wanted to react, but my rigidly frozen body wouldn’t move. Soon, his mana-infused fist slammed into me.
‘…Damn it.’
With a curse, I was sent flying backward.
Thud!
Julia shot up from her seat.
“That hit clean, didn’t it?”
“It’s over.”
“He didn’t even look like he was holding back… Did that guy just die?”
The voices of the spectators around her reached her ears.
“Guess he really couldn’t beat Jerim after all. Well, they weren’t even in the same league to begin with.”
“But didn’t he beat Victor? And overwhelmingly, too.”
“He must’ve pulled some trick. Or maybe Victor wasn’t feeling well.”
“You think so?”
“Either way, serves him right. I was sick of seeing him shamelessly sticking around the Academy like that.”
“Who wasn’t?”
Most of the reactions were as if they had expected this outcome, and some even took the chance to badmouth Kyle. As if such a result was only natural.
But Julia was different. She had come here after hearing that Kyle was having a duel, and she hadn’t felt the slightest tension. Because she had been certain of Kyle’s victory.
And indeed, the flow of the duel had gone exactly as she predicted. Although the opponent’s physical abilities had clearly been superior, Kyle had handled it without difficulty. He had dodged every attack and even found a massive opening. If he had simply followed through with the strike, the duel would have ended in his victory.
But then, an anomaly occurred. Kyle’s movements suddenly stopped as if someone had pulled the plug. And because of that, he ended up taking a fatal blow.
‘…This is dangerous.’
Even from Julia’s perspective, it looked perilous. He had taken the hit completely defenseless. The two of them already had a massive gap in physical ability. To take a direct hit without even managing a proper defense—it couldn’t possibly be anything but critical. It might go beyond serious injury and even threaten his life.
The only problem was that it was hard to check on Kyle’s exact condition. The cloud of dust kicked up by his crash landing obscured everything. Still, that much wasn’t enough to fool Julia’s senses. She was detecting his condition without being affected by the thick dust at all.
The issue was that his condition looked dangerous at first glance. The vitality she sensed was faint. Exactly like someone who had suffered severe injuries. He was losing life force in real time. Should she intervene right now?
No, there was no time to hesitate.
Just as Julia made up her mind and prepared to move—
“……!”
From within the cloud of dust, a presence stirred.