Shield Hero With Barrier Magic

(Hiro's POV)

They altered the gardens to make space for our duel. Torches were set along the perimeter, and everyone who'd been enjoying the feast came out to watch the heroes fight.

They sent me to a place with armors and weapons. I carefully inspected the armors just to find that they are rigged and will be down with a single strike. So, no armors and no weapons. Fighting only with the Shield.

And on the other side, his whole body is covered with armor and there is also a chainmail on the inside. The best thing to hit is his face. Hahaha... How convenient.

Alright then, in this fight, I am not going to use enhancement and barrier magic. I will win without them. Everyone is sure that Motoyasu would win. They are even making bets. I am sure that the girls already bet our money on me.

I removed my coat and went to the place of the duel. Eclair, Raphtalia, Rino, Ren, and Itsuki are watching from the audience.

Ren: "No Armor?"

I waved at my family and they waved back at me and cheered for me.

Eclair: "Show them what my husband is made of, Hiro!"

Rino: "Make that buffoon pay, Hiro-sama!"

Raphtalia: "Beat the shit out of him, Daddy!"

Bitch: "Best of Luck, Motoyasu-sama!"

She grinned at me too. it looks like she is confident in her cheating skills. Alright, everything is set.

I am at level 40 while Motoyasu is at 43, I guess. There isn't much difference in our levels. So, I am sure that he will feel my hits and that is enough for me to win.

And there was an announcement.

"The duel will take place in the presence of King Melromarc and High Priest Bicas T. Balmus and thus, it is legitimate and official."

Motoyasu readied his spear.

Motoyasu: "Hiro, be a man and admit defeat."

I changed my shield into Cap's shield.

Motoyasu: "Wait, what is that shield?"

Hiro: "You don't recognize this? Ah, I forgot that you are from another world. Oh, you poor guy. You will understand about this in this duel."

I readied the shield.

Hiro: "Let's start."

And the duel began with my announcement. Motoyasu came running and struck three times, all of which are blocked by my shield. I didn't even move from my place. He is giving too many openings.

Motoyasu: "I guess you aren't a shield for nothing."

Hiro: "Umm... Are you trying to hit me or my shield?"

Motoyasu: "You bastard! Take this! Chaos Spear!"

The spear split many spears and they all flew at me. Alright, this is my cue. I ran towards him dodging and blocking every one of those spears and by the time the skill disappeared, I was in front of him. He is now on cooldown period. Alright, the game starts. I started punching him continuously mostly on his face and blocking the hand with which he is holding the spear. And gave a strong uppercut on the face with the shield which made him fall down. He won't go down with just that though.

The whole arena became silent as they couldn't comprehend what just happened. And my family shouted.

Eclair/Raphtalia/Rino: "That's my Hiro/Daddy/Hiro-sama!"

Motoyasu: "What just happened?"

I started smiling.

Hiro: "Motoyasu, do you know the disadvantages of a spear?"

Motoyasu: "Huh?"

Hiro: "A spear is not good for close-quarter combat, especially not for 1 on 1. As the attacking place is only at the tip, once your enemy can evade that, you are as good as defeated. And once you use a skill, you have a cooldown period. And I can attack at that time as much as I want. Of course, my attack is low but it's not zero. It will definitely hurt you if I hit you multiple times. And unfortunately for you, I am really good at close quarters. You should have understood that from the attack just now. So, you already lost. Give up, Motoyasu."

Motoyasu: "Bastard! T... That was because I wasn't ready! I never lose!"

Hiro: "Come on then..."

I took a fighting stance and put the Cap's shield in front.

Hiro: "I can do this all day."

Motoyasu's spear started glowing. It looks like he is using another skill.

Motoyasu: "Lightning Spear!"

He gathered lightning and shot it at me. There is a flaw in this attack. The lightning goes only in a single direction. So, this is even easy than evading chaos spear. I just have to evade its line of attack and I did just that. And I closed our distance once again and gave him another good beating. Left jab, right hook, left uppercut, crossover. All the boxing moves are already used on Motoyasu. And he fell down again.

Hiro: "Did you think I am some statue to stay in a single direction? If you don't want to be embarrassed more, hurry up and admit defeat."

Motoyasu: "Never!"

I looked at the crowd. No one except my family is smiling. Bitch and Trash are glaring at me. Bicas has a neutral expression. The crowd is in panic. I can hear others saying "Is the shield hero going to win?" "No, it can't be!" "My money!". Damn, I love those expressions.

I want to end this as fast as I can but I am really waiting for Bitch's attack. So, Motoyasu kept persisting but he couldn't land a single attack on me. He was going to go down at any moment. Just at that moment, I sensed something coming at me from my back. I immediately changed the shield to the rope shield.

Hiro: "Air Strike Shield!"

A shield appeared at my back, I used it as support to thrust forward and I changed my shield back to Cap's shield and went behind Motoyasu to give one final strike to him on his head with the shield from his back. His face hit the shield in air and he finally lost consciousness.

I crouched down to look at his face. I will be honest, I made a mess of his face. And with that, I won. I didn't even use the summon skill of Cap's shield. In the public view, Motoyasu lost to the shield fair and square and the Bitch couldn't stop it even by foul play and shield hero is basically without armor.

Hiro: "I win."

I declare to the audience who is in a panic. I look at the Bitch and Trash who were glaring at me. And Bicas is smiling sarcastically.

Trash: "The winner is the Shield Hero."

Hiro: "Ah, I hope you won't forget about the bet. You owe me 45 gold.."

Trash: "Tch!"

I look at Bitch.

Hiro: "Please take your Motoyasu to the medic. His face is a mess."

She clicked her tongue too. I hear clapping. I looked at Ren and Itsuki who came down from the audience.

Ren: "Well played, Hiro. We didn't know you are this skilled at fighting."

Hiro: "Thanks..."

Itsuki: "Myne-san, I would like to ask you about your illegal interference in the duel."

Bitch: "Whatever do you mean?"

Hiro: "Illegal interference?"

I acted like I didn't understand.

Ren: "Your final move, fortunately, saved you or you would have lost this duel."

Itsuki: "She used magic on you."

Bitch: "You must have imagined it. The audience didn't see a thing about this air magic you speak of."

Hiro: "Wait, he never said it was 'Air' magic."

Bitch: "Ah! I mean..."

Immediately, Trash came down.

Trash: "What is going on, heroes?"

Ren: "You tell us. Your daughter tried to cheat."

Trash: "You must be imagining heroes. The audience..."

Itsuki: "Your daughter said that it was air magic when we didn't say anything. And you told them to keep quiet. One look at the nobles and they would know."

Ren: "I can't believe Royalty would debase the sacred duel."

Trash averted his eyes.

Bitch: "I did it because the Shield Hero isn't fair. Motoyasu-sama is just losing unfairly."

Ren: "Wait, first, he challenges Hiro to a duel over his family knowing that Hiro has low attack power. Next, Hiro has to fight with normal clothes while Motoyasu has an armor all over the body except the face. Third, Motoyasu can use a number of offensive skills while Hiro can only defend."

Itsuki: "It was Hiro who was on the unfair side. King, I think you should punish your daughter."

Hehehe... Let's bring another person in this.

Hiro: "Head Priest Bicas!"

I look at him and his eyes are literally pleading me not to involve him. Hehehe... I can't not involve you, Bicas.

Hiro: "It is proved just now that this person tried to make me lose! She should be punished, shouldn't she ?!"

Bicas: "If the crime is proved, then God's will allows us to punish those who did it. So, I ask his highness to punish his daughter fairly for interfering with the duel or compensate Shield Hero for the injustice attempted on him."

Trash glared at Bicas. Oh, come on, Trash. Bicas has to keep his image after all.

Trash: "Alright, I will."

Hiro: "You already owe me 45 gold. How much more are you going to give? Ah, I know, I am very kind. So, I will accept a total of 60 gold."

Trash: "You!"

For the first time, I released killing intent on him.

Hiro: "If your daughter succeeded, I would have lost my family and I would have to pay 10 gold extra. That's a lot less compared to that, don't you think?"

Trash couldn't say a word. He just snorted and went with Bitch towards Motoyasu.

Ren: "You can be really serious when you want, huh."

Hiro: "Yep."

Raphtalia: "Daddy! You are so cool!"

Hiro: "Raphtalia!"

I hear Raphtalia from behind. I turn back to see Raphtalia running towards me while Rino and Eclair are walking behind her. Once she came, I lifted and started rotating her. In the midway, I felt the weight gradually increase. I stopped rotating her to see a m.a.t.u.r.e Raphtalia.

Raphtalia: "Let's marry, Daddy!"