The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 54 – Duels (2)

Written by : eleven

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The examiners watching Nate take his stance before his opponent even arrived in the arena, were standing with their mouths agape.

Everyone else in the audience this time, also was surprised beyond belief.

They could not doubt the level of strength that Nate was so openly showing without constraint.

“He’s… 4-stars….!”

One of the examiners managed to utter the words aloud, but everyone in the entire arena had the same reaction as the examiner regardless of affiliation.

The biggest surprise was the strong divinity and holy power emanating from Nate.

“I…. cannot duel. I concede.”

The boy who had stubbornly insisted on dueling with Nate, receded as he gave up without even stepping into the arena.

Everybody knew how special Nate’s existence was.

They had to also rethink their opinions of him. This was especially so for the other children.

It was clear to everybody there that Nate was an Apostle of a God.

Apostles were treated with reverence and respect wherever they went, and the Gods rarely intervened with the mortal world.

Those selected by such transcendent beings, were held in utmost regard and could not be ever looked down upon.

Doing so, would essentially ensure their own deaths if they ever did.

The children in the audience were not too dumb to see the relationship this boy had with the other two commoners.

In that one moment, the entire perception of the three commoners : Nate, Roy and Elizabeth, were changed in an instant.

‘I can’t afford to be on their bad side!’

It was clear that there was no room for making mistakes as everybody had the same thought.

Roy sighed as this did solve their problem quite a bit. Whether Nate intended for this or not,Roy did not know, but he would surely ask him later about whether Nate wanted for this to happen.

The only problem was that rumors would surely spread at this rate, and people would end up treading more carefully around them.

“The results?”

“A-Ah…uh the winner is Nate Fielder!”

Tom was practically a walking joke at that point as he did not even know the extent of these student’s abilities.

It was clear that a duel would surely not be needed for Roy and Elias, but nonetheless, everybody had a sense of expectation now.

If Nate was second to go, who was the boy known as Roy?

What surprises did he have?

Subconsciously, as the kids changed their perspectives about Nate and the party, they didn’t even notice how they also changed their perspective of Elizabeth’s win as to something completely natural in their minds.

“Do you still want to duel?”

Roy turned to Elias and asked.

Elias, amongst the other children, had a different reaction entirely to Nate showing off his power.

He felt a tingling feeling inside of his chest in reaction to the divinity and holy powers within Nate.

‘I don’t think it would be smart of me to do this… But… I need to know!’

Elias’ curiosity had been truly piqued at this point.

His rationality was thrown out the window, as he didn’t care whether he was accepted or not into  the academy. At this point, he wanted nothing more than to talk to Nate about the feeling he felt in his chest, and to also see what kind of power Roy held.

“I… I do.”

Elias replied timidly at first, but regained a light in his eyes as he looked Roy directly in response.

Roy smirked as he saw this.

‘This kid is really different.’

“What’s your name?”

“Elias. Elias Ruthenberg.”

“Ruthenberg?”

Roy repeated the last name as he questioned whether he heard correctly.

“Yes…”

Roy was no fool as he had done lots of research in the past about famous and well-known magician families.

Ruthenberg was the name of a house of mages that was held in high prestige in the past. They were now nothing but a declining house, and as Roy couldn’t feel any mana from Elias’ body, he started to realize the boy’s situation.

“Ah.. never mind that. My name is Roy Stone. Let’s have a good duel.”

Roy bowed politely to Elias as he nodded in the direction of the arena where it was now empty.

The two of them headed towards the center of the arena.

Roy didn’t plan on outright overwhelming Elias by showing off his power unnecessarily like Nate had done earlier.

Instead, Roy quietly unsheathed Deletus from its scabbard and drew the saber out in front of him.

Tap. Tap. Tap.


The silent steps of Elias walking towards his spot in the arena; directly across from Roy, was all that could be heard in the deathly silent exam site.

Once Elias got into position, he drew out his sword.

It was a lightly balanced single-handle longsword with a rather dull edge.

Roy didn’t comment and just nodded towards Tom to signal he was ready.

“Start!”

Once Elias gave his nod as well, Tom lowered his hand and started the duel.

Bang!

Elias shot out from his position, lowering his body in a beeline towards Roy.

Roy stood completely still as he watched Elias quietly.

[Strengthen]

[Haste]

Roy silently double cast his enhancement spells.

The examiners silently nodded their heads in approval at the marvelous casting speed and silent chant Roy managed to display.

A Magic Swordsman had to be quick with his casting.

Because most swordsmen used ki, which was something that allowed them to enhance their bodies merely by circulating the energy into their bloodstream to enhance their muscles, Magic Swordsmen had to be quick with their casting speed to catch up to the average swordsman.

But Roy was much quicker than any few Magic Swordsmen these examiners had come across in recent years.

Clang!

A dull sound rang out as the first strike was thrown by Elias and Roy blocked the blow by redirecting the metal longsword slightly with his wrist.

Roy didn’t feel the need to do anything to finish this duel quickly. Rather, he wanted to see what Elias’ full capabilities were.

Sha-sha-sha-shing!

Sparks flew as the swords drew beautiful trajectories through the air.

“Did you create your own swordsmanship technique?”

Roy asked between blows as he maintained a calm and relaxed atmosphere.

Roy didn’t know much about other swordsmanship styles because he knew that he was not talented in that regard of learning several different techniques.

But his one sole technique was incredibly high-level, and he did know the Imperial swordsmanship techniques due to his master, Lucius.

“Ghhh…”

Elias grunted as he struggled to find a hole through Roy’s defences.

‘How does this guy move so little and yet so well?’

Elias’ thoughts raced through his mind.

Little did he know that Roy was a swordsman who had undergone a true awakening of sorts and was able to see flaws.

Not all first-rate swordsmen were able to see flaws, Let alone a second-rate like himself.

“Hm…”

Roy hummed in disappointment as Elias continued to struggle to Roy’s blade.

“Should we kick things up a notch? You’ll lose quickly if you don’t keep up.”

Roy muttered as Elias’ eyes narrowed at the remark.

Elias was doing all he could to keep up with Roy, yet Roy was saying he was just getting started.

[Firebolt]

Magic circles appeared behind Elias, mid-air, as they shone quickly and streaks of fire shot out like lightning from them.

Elias panicked, but quickly tucked and rolled as he kicked away from Roy to the side.

[Ice wall]

Roy continued to cast his spells as he quickly gave chase and blocked off Elias’ path of retreat.

Vwoosh!


Another magic circle, much larger than the simple 1-star spells Roy had just cast, appeared beneath the feet of Elias.

Bang!


Elias was unable to dodge as a wall of ice shot up from the ground and hammered him in the back.

Roy stopped and stood a meter away from him as he pointed his saber at Elias’ neck.

“Do you concede?”

Chapter 54 – Fin

Mass release chapter (4/10)

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