CHAPTER 120
I CHOOSE YOU (2)
"Let's see if this princess is only bark or if she can bite.“ Hans thought and declared, "Our star rookie wants to challenge Alynna of Sentinels,'' surprising everyone, even Vanir himself. He was an elf, and picking a fight with the royalty was basically mutiny. He started praying for someone to stop this crazy bastard, and his prayers were answered as Delimira responded to Hans’s taunt, “Do you have an itch that you can’t scratch, Hans?”
“Naah, I’ve got a friend named Deli to scratch those," Hans responded with an annoying smile but soon turned serious, "Sentinel, don’t but in, this is the right of our newbie," Hans responded, showing his shameless smile and continued, "She is free to bury her head into the ground like a certain bird we all know, I'm not forcing her, am I?" And looking at her furious face, he asked, shifting her gaze to all the Sentinels, "So is your House going to refuse the challenge? That would put a bad record though ---”
“Just what do you want, Hans?” Delimira asked, almost clenching her fists, and Hans answered in a way that even got her surprised, “GIVE.HER.TO.ME,” he declared, pointing at Alynna and added, “No matter how much I searched, there is no one here who could handle a candle against her potential."
"He has lost it, isn't he? You moron, do you forget she is the daughter of the one who killed your father. there is so much bad blood between your families, and you want her as your mentee." She didn't speak those words, but Hans could read them on her face, "I don’t care whether she is the queen's daughter, winters. Just hand her over.” he stated.
"He is not kidding! He really wants her!" Deli was observing him thoroughly, trying to grasp his intentions, steps, body language, and words, all agreed with her initial conclusion, “You are serious, aren’t you?” Hans didn’t need to put the reply into his words, and Deli understood all without hearing. "Just how much of a headache this will create." She gritted thinking about the outcome, and responded, “I can't,” she firmly denied.
“You can’t bloom her talent, Deli?”
“So you mean to say you surpass Concordia’s professors in teaching,” She said with a smirk, digging a trap for Hans in the web of words. “Damn it Deli.” But Hans was not one to give this easily. “No, but it would be faster with my ways.”
“You mean slaving her away.”
“Let's avoid the derogatory terms, shall we?”
“Do you think I'll let you her in your shenanigans, Hans?”
“You know me Deli, If I can’t have it. I’ll break it.”
“You know me too, Hans. What's mine will always remain mine.”
The tension between the two second-years almost turned the air in the grand hall cold, and breaking the tense atmosphere, Martha asked, “Ahem…So is Sentinel going to accept the challenge, or not? I’m running out of my medicines, here.”
“NO” both Delimira and Aredhel responded in unison leaving Hans furious, "Who cares if she is the queen's daughter, sins are not inherited. I don't have any bones to pick with her, So why won't she just give in." He was thinking while Delimira added, pointing at Vanir through her eyes, “And I don’t think our star rookie wanna trample over a little girl who doesn’t know how to fight, right?”
Vanir almost agreed, but Hans's glare stopped him from acknowledging it. He could clearly read them, they were saying if he nodded once, his life would turn a tragic turn. Meanwhile, Allynna whispered to Delimira, “Chris asked me to fight with everything he got, and I learned how to fight sister, Father taught me —” “No, this is no simple fight, Ally,” Delimira interrupted, “It is never simple when he is drooling with his eyes. He genuinely wants you as the mentee, even knowing who your mother is…”
“What does my mother have in this?” Allynna asked, giving another headache to Delimira. So she just plainly replied to distract her, “All he wants is a slave in the name of a mentee.” It worked as she intended, and before Hans could add something more unruly, Walter came to his rescue, “A prophet does not trample over the week, we should let chicks grow and then thoroughly crush them later.” He then turned to Vanir, “Youngest, choose someone else yourself. There has to be someone whom you want to beat up badly.”
“Can I, even if he is a noble —”
“Oye, Junior” Hans was really angry. Not getting what he wanted was enraging him. He was not into mentoring and stuff, all he wanted was a junior whom he could order around, but he did not know why he was thinking he should get the elven princess no matter what. And, when Vanir kept looking at him with questioning eyes, he added in an angered voice, “You better kill the person you name or else you’ll have to watch your back even on a bright day."
“He is not joking,” Walter whispered to Vanir, “You better be at your best, among your all seniors, Hans has the most frightening personality and even far frightening background. So we have a little control over him.” That got Vanir more terrified, even HouseMaster was warning him, "This is bad, what should I do? It took my all just to reach here, I do not want to return home just because I pissed off some senior." He whispered back to Walter, “Do I really have to kill someone?”
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“No, that's not possible” Walter refuted, pointing at various locations, he continued, “You can’t see but many of the professors are evaluating you first-years and changing Hans’s mood is relatively easy, just do something extraordinary, even if you lose, he won’t say anything if something interesting happens. He is a kid, and right now he is throwing tantrums. It's just that his tantrums have a very big scale.”
“You are not helping, sir?” Vanir commented, helpless.
“Just do your best out there,” Walter responded, pushing him forward, “now name your opponent.” And taking a heavy breath, Vanir stepped a little further, he was the single circle mage, and that was his limit of talent as he couldn’t blossom due to a lack of resources and guidance. He looked at Martha and called, “I challenge Virion Zinven.”
Martha sighed, “Another Sentinel, Haa..” looking at Aredhel, she nodded, “Let's get this over with, Virion Zinven, step forward.”
A tall elf, filled with noble and aristocratic vibes, stepped forward, his eyes looking down on Vanir. They knew each other and shared a bad past. So, feeling Vanir’s fiery gaze on him, he mocked, “Would you look at that? A commoner is looking into my eyes. Guess the past beatings were not enough to teach you?”
“Stop chit-chatting,” Martha interrupted, explaining that this was the sacred duel for the title of Fresher king and the privileges that the title carried. The name in the wall of fame was so enticing that Vanir wanted to punch Virion’s face straight away, but Martha had asked them to introduce themselves. So heaving, he said first as a challenger, “Vanir Dorfeil, a first circle mage of magma and lightning attrib —” interrupting him, Virion also started, “Virion of Zinven Family, a grade 16 dark attribute. Ready to teach this peasant a lesson.”
Martha didn’t like the Prophets very much not to mention Hans, but what she hated was the people like Virion, nobles who wanted to establish authority over commoners even when Concordia was adamant about equality. So she unconsciously leaned on Vanir’s side and prayed for his victory. But as the seniors behind the curtain glanced at Vanir with their experienced eyes, they realised Vanir's potential was not something he could rely on, he had half of the size of mana compared to any normal first circle.
However, many didn’t know that Vanir might be lacking the mana pool, but he had talents in spell crafting. From a young age, he could feel mana and understand the spells way better than others. He was tweaking and adjusting them, optimising to fit his minuscule mana pool. The Zinven family, being the territory lords of Vanir’s homeland, was suppressing the commoner’s talent with brute force but since he was in Concordia, he was ready to show off what he was capable of, "It's time I get what I deserved. If I can just have my name on the Wall of Fame, it will be enough to prove my innocence..." He got enraged, thinking of what these nobles did to his family, he put his first spell into use
VulcanoLectulo
The mana from him, shrouded the whole platform, turning it into a floor of lava. Some of the spots remained untouched but traversing through them was a stressful task for anyone of his opponent's calibre. For a first circle, it was an impressive display of a spell and was enough to earn him some brownie points from the professors observing in secret. But Hans was most surprised, “It's not deep but not shallow, he left some spots untouched like he calculated everything and designed the most tricky path to reach him. But it cost him half of his mana..."
"Now, you understand?" Walter said hearing Hans's inference, "He is the top scorer for a reason."
Hans turned back to Vanir, "Yes, these eyes of mine, can't show me this kind of thing." His interest was lighted again, and he muttered," Now, what will you do, youngest?” Unlike last year when two second-circles entered, this year's admission was pretty normal, many didn’t reach the first circle and the highest grade knight was Virion himself. And this taken-for-granted accomplishment was going up his head. He was trained in manoeuvering skills by the famous teachers of the territory so, it was not impossible for him to traverse that tricky path like Vanir was thinking. Jumping and frolicking, he stepped on the unaffected floor and started closing into Vanir. And since VulcanoLectulo has also limited Vanir’s movements, he appeared as a sitting duck. if Virion reached him first, it was over for him so he cast his second spell.
CorronaShield
It was the generic defensive spell of lightning discipline in which several rings made of lightning surrounded the wielder to defend against physical attacks. But when he cast the defensive spell, it boosted Virion's morale even more. He taunted Vanir, “Running out of Juice, peasant,” and charged at him full speed. He was taught the weaknesses of this spell, and conducting his aura of darkness, he painted his sword in pitch black. And with the ecstasy of an almost-won battle, he started shredding the CorronaShield and reached near the left side of Vanir. “Die peasant.” putting his all he delivered an upward slash, or at least he’d have if Vanir’s eyes were not telling him something else. As the sword was reaching Vanir’s neck, he spoke, “You fell for it.”
SwirlingJump
A sudden explosion just below Vanir's feet hurled him into the air, while swirling lava on the floor returned to Vanir's location like a whirlpool, causing Virion many burns as many embers of liquid fire fell on him, but this all was not. As Vanir descended on Viroin from mid-air. He took out his trump card,
Lightning bomb
A surefire spell, made from spherical concentrated lightning, ready to devastate the ugly burned body of Virion descended upon him. As the lightning bomb was about to make contact, Viroin started to see everything in slow motion. He knew that this spell was going to send him to hospital for at least a week. Virion was scared, and seeing his face full of fear almost healed all the emotional wounds of Vanir. He was gonna enact his revenge but suddenly a vine slithered the platform, avoiding the hot places and coiled around Vanir’s hands. Shifting the intended area of damage from Virion’s head to his almost nether region.
The bomb barely missed his mark, and Hans shouted from the Prophet’s corner, “Vanir Dorfiel of house prophets gives up this match.”
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