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Chapter 2 – 11 (part 2)
Settlement
“Well then, Guild Leader. Let"s get started. Now that I have to get rid of all these pests, I want to get it over with quickly.”
I said a.s.sertively, but lightly. The faces of Regil"s men all turned red.
Our voices just now had reached the audience, as the Guild Leader had been using a magic item similar to a megaphone.
Hearing our conversation, the spectators on my side started to laugh quite loudly.
“Alright. Now, the duel between the adventurer Tenma and semi-Baron Regil will commence…… Begin the duel!”
The Guild Leader somewhat resignedly (the situation had become complicated) gave us the signal.
“DIE! You d.a.m.n bra–GUHWEa”
The man that rushed forward had been blown away from behind and rolled around 10 meters before coming to a stop.
“What just happened!?”
I looked at the screaming Regil with a glance to the side, then focused magic in my right hand. One by one, the men were blown away.
“Put up a magic barrier!”
The A rank adventurer yelled out.
“Oi, oi. You"re putting up a barrier now, after 4 people were hit? You"ve gotta be a phony A rank.” I said.
The term phony ~ rank was used among adventurers to disparage the people whose actual abilities didn"t match up with their rank. It was mainly used toward those who earned points by becoming close to others stronger than themselves, or people who pa.s.sed the test via connections etc. (as adventurers often subst.i.tuted as examiners) so it wasn"t exactly rare to hear it.
“Don"t get c.o.c.ky, kid! Oi! Everyone who can use magic, concentrate your fire on him!”
After he gave the command, 20 people, the A rank included, started firing off spells at me.
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(These guys are idiots. What are they trying to do using fire and water magic at the same time?)
In this world, there are certain elements of magic just make terrible combinations when used at the same time. The most obvious offenders would probably be fire and water, and then fire and wood. However, not many other than elves can use wood elemental magic (and many elves themselves are bad with fire magic) so the usual example is fire and water. There are other affinities that are bad, but compared to the above, less so.
Meanwhile, magic was still being lobbed at me. While I thought it was a bit of a waste, I brought out my trump card.
“Come forth giant protector, Guardian Gigant!”
Smoke filled the area, hiding us.
“What a fool! Don"t act surprised, stand tall. All of you! You"ve worked hard today!”
Regil was convinced of his victory,
“Hey, referee! Hurry up and declare my victory!”
When Regil shouted something to the Guild Leader, I decided to let my trump card make their proper debut. Using up just a little bit of it"s power, it groaned with a terrible sound and rose up, blowing the smoke away.
“Who won, though?”
The spectators gasped when they saw my figure emerge unharmed from the smoke. But even more surprising were the two large arms that seemed to be protecting me, and a wave of murmurs swept over the venue.
Despite the name, the Guardian Gigant was only arms, but very large ones. Just one of the arms stretched more than 3 meters tall.
These arms stretched diagonally, from 2 meters back behind my shoulders, and seemingly grew into the sky. They had defended against the magic barrage as if I had been hidden.
I had created them using the metal and magic core from the Zombie Dragon. They were similar to golems, but were unable to move without my magic power.
Since my number of arms seemed to increase to 4, I had a hard time controlling them in the beginning. Even now I can"t say that I have perfect control, but I knew roughly how to move, defend and attack, so there shouldn"t be any problems.
They specialized in high defense and were resistant to magic, as well as having the flexibility to swap out parts.
They were shaped like a sealed arm from a certain card game. Overall you could think of them as being close to the spirit energy from a certain strange adventure.
“A m-monster!”
One of the B cla.s.s adventurers shouted in fear, but Regil yelled back,
“It"s nothing but a bluff! Everyone, attack!”
Despite urging them on, none of the adventurers moved.
“To whoever takes that brat down, I promise to give 10 times the reward!” He told them.
“10 times…… seriously?” After whispering in disbelief, all of the surviving adventurers scrambled to be the first to attack.
“I"ll beat you to death!”
“No, I"m gonna get him!”
“Prepare yourself, kid!”
They rushed in, but with a vrumm (think lightsaber noise) and a swing of my right hand, one man was. .h.i.t directly, yet those behind him got caught up in the blow as well and flew into the air. Most of the men left started to run away. With their backs facing me, I gathered a ma.s.s of magical energy, then started shooting.
When the barrage was over, the ones left were Regil and beside him, the lone A rank and about 5 men from the B rank group.
“Well, looks like it"s almost over.”
I approached them while rolling my shoulders. While I did so, the arms behind me moved as well, cutting through the air with a brumm, vrumm noise.
“Wh-what are you doing! Hurry up and finish off that kid!”
The 5 men didn"t move. However, as I closed the distance, one of the B ranks seemed to be unable to contain his fear.
“S-s.h.i.+t!”
he sputtered and drew his sword. Gigant fended the sword off with its left hand, and with a sharp clang the sword broke. The stunned man was promptly flicked in the forehead by Gigant.
With a smacking sound he was sent flying…… Did he die?
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“Don"t tell me only the weakest will take me on! Bring on the strongest one out of you!”
The A rank man responded to my challenge,
“Don"t get carried away!”
he said, but I responded,
“No, the strongest one here isn"t you. Behind you…… you, yeah you. The one hiding his face with the hood.”
I pointed in front of me, straight at the man in the hood furthest in the back.
“I"m a B rank. Why would you think that I"m the strongest?”
“You say that, but I"m a C rank myself. Strength and rank aren"t related at all, right?”
I said, and man removed his hood. His features were noticeably sharp, with short hair and a slim build.
“You were one of the guys who were following me yesterday, weren"t you.”
As I had identified him, he narrowed his eyes.
“You noticed? I was certain that you hadn"t caught on.”
“The other people tailing me did a poor job, and I suspected it was a trap. I paid a little more attention for the presence of others and realized it almost by accident.”
I worded it in such a way so he wouldn"t realize that I could use magic like Investigation.
“That"s quite the feat.”
He said with admiration.
“But you still won"t attack?”
I asked.
“I"m holding back. If I attacked you head on, no matter how hard you tried you"d be no match.” he said.
You"re so modest, I said and burst out laughing.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Don"t think you can ignore me!”
The A rank man burst out while grabbing the shoulder of the man with the hood.
“Silence.”
As he said so, the hooded man stuck him with a backhanded blow, knocking him unconscious and flying backwards.
“Y-You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, what are you doing! Are you betraying me?!”
Regil became fl.u.s.tered, but the hooded man shot him a sharp glare, and went off in the direction of the pa.s.senger seats behind him.
“Well, let"s start over then!”
The hooded man said, then beat down the three remaining B rank men. Because they were still taken aback by the hooded man"s betrayal, they went down quickly. The only one left was Regil alone.
I retracted Gigant"s arms and approached him while cracking my knuckles.
“I-I"m a n.o.ble, you know! Do you know what will happen if you lay a hand on me?!” He cried out.
“It"s fine. Because when this duel is over, you won"t be a n.o.ble anymore.”
He asked me ‘What do you mean by that!” I straightened my right arm and struck Regil directly in the head, sending him flying backwards and he rolled four or five meters before stopping. At that moment,
“That"s it! The winner is Tenma!”
The Guild Leader declared the victor. The audience burst into loud cheers. Like I was answering their call, I raised my right hand, and their cheers became even louder.
Just then,
“Very, very well done."
The duke came out, clapping his hands.
“Ahh, I wondered what would happen at certain points, but it really was a flawless victory!”
He told me while smiling. Then, the knight"s medical team who had been waiting in reserve came forward.
“Okay, let"s get started.”
they said, and Regil instructed all of them to start using healing magic. After that, turning to face the audience,
“From here onward, what Tenma here says will be decided as just. Offer us your meaningful opinion.” Said the Duke.
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On hearing this, the crowd grew quiet. However, there was still someone who couldn"t fully grasp the situation.
“I do not accept! Such a thing is invalid! Relying on things like that, the duel means nothing!”
It was Regil. He screamed out, totally blind to his own actions. The audience was stunned into silence.
Regil misread their silence too, believing that the audience was listening carefully to his words.
“For someone to use those kinds of tools in a duel, and then even sending people to spy on my side, is utterly unacceptable! Shame–“
“Quiet.”
Regil"s words were interrupted, by the Duke"s abrupt and powerful voice.
“The one who should be ashamed here is you! "Those tools" were in fact made by Tenma himself, and furthermore it was only by Tenma"s magic power that they could even more! Despite being a so called n.o.ble, and a provisional n.o.ble at that, you used dozens of underlings in the duel and then just hid behind them! You have disgraced the name of all n.o.bles. That"s a serious crime! Prepare yourself for the death penalty! Hey, take him away! He is now a n.o.ble no more!”
He announced to the knights nearby that were on standby. Regil shrieked ‘Duke-sama! Forgive me!" The knights grabbed him roughly by both arms, and dragged him toward the back of the venue.
“I am truly sorry. My subordinate brought such a disgrace to the duel…”
The Duke turned to me and bowed his head. The audience seemed even more surprised than I was.
“Please raise your head, Duke-sama. Regil may be guilty, but the Duke is not.”
Following the performance the Duke had put on, I made sure not to lump the Duke in with Regil, protecting him with words the audience could also hear.
“Hearing you say that is a relief.”
As he spoke, the Duke raised his head. He then congratulated me and shook hands with me.
I then said to the Duke quietly,
“Isn"t this overdoing the acting?”
I asked.
“Doing around this much, it should be simple for them to understand.”
He said with a chuckle. His smiling face resembled a child who had just successfully pulled off a prank.
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