Sofia summoned the skull choir, with only eight skulls in the sphere formation, marking the corners of a cube around her. These were a new addition to the choir thanks to Shaily’s contribution, fanged boar skulls with the special ability [Intercept].
The Marquess used some kind of magic with no obvious effect before charging forward crossing the gap in an instant. His momentum and sword were stopped by Pareth’s. They exchanged a few blows, judging each other’s capabilities in a deadlock.
About equal strength. Pareth is slightly faster.
A piercing angel’s bolt started forming around Sofia’s staff. She stood unmoving as Pareth and the mithril-covered knight traded sonorous blows, trying her best to maintain a disinterested expression all the while she managed four skills at once, two of them still waiting to resolve.
The Marquess’ sword swung back after another head-on clash, he withdrew, taking a step back, and suddenly his body split apart. Two perfectly identical copies appeared at his sides as he lunged at Pareth again. The copies tried to reach Sofia.
Let the left one through.
Sofia knew Pareth couldn’t hold back the three swordsman at once, so she would take care of one. She could tell the true Marquess was still the middle one, but he had actually split his mana into three equal parts to create these two clones; she had to assume that they were just as strong as he was.
Seeing the opening, the left clone rushed toward Sofia, his mithril sword raised high.
[Heat Death] didn’t respond when she tried to negate the incoming blow.
Not actually a magical attack? Hmm. Bolt isn’t ready. Boars.
Sofia was within reach of the clone’s sword. The overhead strike came with devastating force.
The audience held their breath as the sword fell.
The skull choir’s boar heads regrouped and formed a wall. The sword collided with the choir’s [Intercept], stopping it clean in its tracks and deflecting all the energy to the sides, blowing aways the sand of the arena grounds. This is when myriad gravestones appeared out of the ground, and dozens of bony hands clawed at the clone.
A volley of magical bursts from the real Marquess shot past Pareth in an arc. Sofia dispelled it without even looking at it, the red magical particles of the attacks dispersing like they hit an impenetrable wall just before reaching her. The left clone’s sword swept at the graveyard skeletons hampering him, killing a few with each attack, but it still wasn’t free when Sofia swung her staff at it.
Seeing the blue lightning come, the clone self-destructed; its mana ran awry and following it came a bright flash of light and the start of a shockwave. There were gasps and exclamations in the public, things did not look good for the new teacher.
Sofia paid twelve thousand mana, and the explosion stopped, even its thunderous bang abruptly cut as the air stilled. Sounds of shock and incomprehension came from the spectating students.
Mana : 391 059 / 417 100
Still plenty.
The complete failure of his explosive skill seemed to destabilize the real Marquess, and while Pareth parried a strike from the leftover clone, he managed to kick the Marquess in the chest, sending him flying a few meters back. Coordinating with Pareth, another group of graveyard skeletons burst out of the ground, grabbing the armored legs of the second clone.
Sofia finally released her piercing bolt, blowing the head of the clone clean off. The bolt traveled all the way through the arena, crashing against an invisible barrier protecting the teachers’ seats.
That’s two thirds of your mana gone. Sofia though, observing the Marquess getting back up and readying another skill while his headless clone crashed to the ground. Pareth was already charging.
The Marquess disappeared. Sofia felt his mana reappearing right behind her. The Marquess’ sword struck in a wide arc, tearing right through Sofia’s back. Huge amounts of blood splattered everywhere before Pareth could even teleport back.
In the audience, some gasped, some covered their eyes, and some people cheered, celebrating the Marquess’ apparent victory. But the cheers were short-lived.
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Sofia’s health hadn’t changed.
[Health : 119 850 / 119 850]
Her torso and wings lit up, thousands of runes activating to give her a burst of strength and speed. She let go of her staff, and through the cloud of blood, her armored arm reached back, grabbing the sword-wielding arm of the Marquess.
The blood had come from [Summon Blood]. Since the Marquess’ Mithril sword rejected magic, his melee attacks were purely physical. Using the phasing from the graveyard skeletons holding her ankles, hidden under her wide robe, Sofia had let it harmlessly go through her.
The Marquess used some kind of strength boost, almost freeing his arm from Sofia’s grasp but Pareth was already there. Right out of his teleportation to Sofia, he grabbed both of the Marquess’ arms.
Sofia made sure the graveyard skeletons switched to grabbing him, and pivoting her torso only, she turned around.
The instant she faced the Marquess, a magic attack coming from the other side of the arena silently shot for her back like a deadly arrow. The skill the Marquess had used at the very beginning of the duel.
To dispel it cost Sofia less mana than she could track.
She smiled at the entrapped Marquess. He struggled, in vain, grunting from within his helmet, Pareth’s grip was too much.
“You lose,” Sofia sweetly whispered, letting his arm go to hide her mouth with her hand as she forced a haughty condescending laugh.
The marquess screamed, letting out a raging war-cry, and Sofia saw the entirety of his remaining mana spread out through his body. With a last burst of strength, he almost freed himself from Pareth’s grasp, but Sofia’s armored hand sprung forth.
The dragon scale claws pierced through the mithril armor right at the base of the Marquess’ neck. His scream was choked out. Sofia's hand reached his spine. She pulled her hand back with her gory prize of a few cervical vertebrae and broken shards of mithril armor. A bloody hole in his gorget, the Marquess went limp.
Much like when the Marquess had struck before, the crowd’s reaction was varied, shock, outcry, cheers, disgust, all mixed into a cacophony of loud reactions.
With her other hand, Sofia opened her challenger’s visor.
“Any more tricks?”
No answer came from the contorted face and bloodshot eyes of the Marquess. Not that he could speak even if he was dying to.
“That’s what I thought.”
Pareth let the Marquess go, his limp body falling loudly onto the bloody sand of the arena.
Everything stilled, and while nobody was able to move anymore, a warm green light enveloped the Marquess’ dying form.
The Saint of Strength’s voice cut through the silence, he appeared next to Sofia, Pareth and Ferdinand, “Student Ferdinand ProudWall’s Health has fallen below five percent, I hereby declare him the loser of this duel under Strength’s watch, and he will henceforth not be allowed to challenge Teacher Vakaria again. This marks the end of today’s session.”
Tartaros disappeared, leaving the pouch of token and the stack of gold ingots at Sofia’s feet, and everyone was able to move again.
“She never took a single step!”
“That was crazy!”
“The magic just disappeared!”
“She never lost health at all!”
“This teacher is insane!”
The students went wild. Quite a few people jumped down into the arena, including most of Sofia’s friends and the people who had been sitting around Erian and cheering for the Marquess all the way.
The first to reach them was an Exidian woman, she almost threw herself at the downed Marquess’ side, crying and forcing what looked like a health potion down his throat before he could even get a grip on what he had just gone through.
Is that his wife?
Sofia crouched to pick up the gold. “He’ll be fine, the Saint healed him.”
The woman sent Sofia a spiteful glare before turning back to the unconscious Marquess.
Sofia looked down at the bits of the man’s spine still in her hand. Can’t say I didn’t deserve this one, I guess. I’m not the one who started this shit, though. Man knew what he was getting himself into.
Pareth had dispelled his weapons, arms crossed, his empty eye sockets stared down at the Marquess and the lady, he looked proud of himself, satisfied.
“Nice show, too bad you bloodied your new robe,” Saria said as she walked up to Sofia.
Alith and Cinthia were right behind. “That was fast,” Alith stated, and Cinthia added that her viewers had liked the show.
“It wasn’t much, I didn’t use half my skills. Well, whatever.”
Eternam, Astelia and Zerei also came each with a small comment, and Sofia was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed, especially because she couldn’t cancel [Runeforged Overlord] which was quickly draining all of her mana. And as it was starting to get hard to understand what anyone was saying between her friends, the students, and the Marquess’ family which had come down with various opinions, Sofia’s focus turned to something else entirely.
[Quest complete, congratulations! Your reward will be delivered soon.]
[A new evolution choice was unlocked for the skill : Evasion]
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