"JUST DIE!" Ein bellowed as he charged at me.  

Three seconds until he reached me.  A bar of white light glowed in his hands.  The glow shattered, revealing a large sword.  

Two seconds left.

I was unarmed, but this didn't seem to matter to him.  All he cared about was striking me down and making sure I never hurt his precious princess ever again.  His eyes were wild and his hair was disheveled.  All sanity had left him, leaving only a white-hot fury.  

One second remaining.  

He drew back his sword and swung it at me with all his might.  If we were back home I would have been in some very serious trouble, but I'd picked up a few tricks since arriving in Radia.

No matter how pissed off he was, he really should have known better than to draw his Soul Weapon against somebody of the Rejection domain.

Between one heartbeat and the next I focused my will.  With an audible "crack!" his Soul Weapon dissipated into nothingness.  He had been in the middle of swinging the heavy sword and its sudden disappearance left him very off-balance.  Taking advantage of the opening I punched Ein in the jaw.  He fell backwards and landed on the ground with a thud.  

Nothing happened for a few seconds. Then Ein started sobbing.

Poor guy.  Ein had had a crush on Princess Marieta for several years.  Then I came along and... well, it's complicated.  She wanted a relationship.  I wanted sex.  One of us got what we wanted.  She complained to Ein, and the poor guy's jealousy did the rest.

On the other hand, he did draw his Soul Weapon against an unarmed man, so fuck him.

Other students stood around us, watching the spectacle with stunned looks on their faces.  Somebody clapped slowly.  I turned.  It was the Archmagister Gardia.

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"Very good," he said sarcastically.  "Beating a jealous teenager up.  What's next: will you kick a small puppy?  Steal candy from a baby, perhaps?"

"Old man Gardia," I responded, adjusting my body language to be as insolent as I could manage.  "Fancy seeing you here.  What's the matter, run out of important papers to sign?  You should be careful; you almost managed to catch the trouble before it happened this time."

"I'm surprised at you," Gardia said.  "Young Master Ein here had the highest combat rating of the entire school.  I would have thought you'd be smarter about antagonizing him."

I laughed.  "And yet, he went down like a punk."

Gardia looked at Ein sobbing on the ground.  "Yes, it appears that he did.  And now I must do something I will greatly regret."

I scowled and took a fighting stance.  "Bring it on, old man.  I may not be able to take you down, but I'll be damned if I go down without a fight!"

Gardia chuckled.  "The upcoming Four Kings tournament is only open to the student with the highest combat rating in the entire school.  Up until today, that would have been Master Ein."

Gardia took a small white card out of his robes and flicked it to me.

"Congratulations," he said with a malicious smile.  "You've earned it."

With a brief whirlwind of dust and leaves the Archmagister disappeared.

"What?" I asked flatly.