As soon as the duel began, all the magicians in Group 3 created shields in front of the knights.
‘A shield??’
It looked like knights holding opaque shields.
Simultaneously, Antonio cast a spell on the knights.
“Strengthen.”
A humming sound.
The spell “Strengthen” increases physical abilities.
“Heh, there’s no need to fight you or the others.”
Step by step, the knights holding shields like they were real shields walked toward the members of Group 5.
Antonio’s plan was to push the Group 5 members out of the duel arena.
With the Strengthen spell, the knights were much stronger than usual.
“Hmph, breaking those shields will be enough!”
“Exactly!”
Srrr.
“No, come back!”
Eugene called out urgently to his two Group 5 members with a shocked face.
Why were these fools acting on their own without following the plan?
“Don’t worry, leader. We just need to break those shields.”
“We also need to show our skills.”
Dustin Agel, a Group 5 member and a 1st-circle magician, cast a Dispel spell at the shield.
Simultaneously, Elber Loon, also a 1st-circle magician, attacked the shield with a flame spell.
Boom.
“Don’t waste your time.”
Antonio, standing behind the knights, sneered at Dustin and Elber.
‘Keep hitting the shield all you want.’
Even if the shield, held like a shield by the knights, got damaged and cracked, the magicians behind would keep repairing it.
Moreover, the shield, created by the combined effort of the magicians, couldn’t be dispelled by a 1st-circle magician.
Ssh!
Thud.
Thud.
“Ack!”
“Urgh…?”
The knights, using the shield as a cover, drew their swords and stabbed Dustin and Elber in the thighs.
“?!”
Eugene frowned, seeing swords protruding from the shield.
Normally, an ordinary shield couldn’t attack from the inside out.
In simple terms, if you used a shield, you could block surrounding attacks but couldn’t attack yourself.
Thus, to attack, you’d have to dissolve the shield first. But Antonio’s shield allowed swords to pass through.
“Could it be a Transform Shield?”
“Now you realize?”
Antonio gave a wicked smile at Eugene’s question.
“…My mistake.”
Eugene sighed.
A Transform Shield allows attacks while maintaining the shield, unlike a regular shield.
So, why was Eugene surprised?
Because Transform Shield is a 2nd-circle spell.
‘Antonio has already reached the 2nd circle…’
When they both entered the academy, Antonio was also a 1st-circle magician like him.
But now, Antonio was a 2nd-circle magician.
‘It’s my mistake for not realizing that.’
“Isn’t the top open anyway?”
The magician Rohen moved his wand.
“Fire Arrow.”
Hummm!
Sssh!
As Rohen cast his spell, fire arrows rained down above the Group 3 members.
Since the shields were held like real shields, they only blocked the front and not the top.
“Did you think I’d fall for that?”
Clang.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Antonio created a huge shield above the Group 3 members’ heads.
Being a 2nd-circle magician, Antonio’s shield easily blocked Rohen’s 1st-circle fire arrows.
“What do we do, leader…?”
Step step.
Rohen looked at the approaching knights with a troubled expression.
At this rate, they’d be pushed out of the duel arena by the strengthened knights.
—
Indeed, Group 5, where Eugene is the leader, had more magicians than knights, so they couldn’t compete against the knights in terms of strength.
“Hm… Isn’t it just a matter of taking out those magicians in the back?”
“Haha, how would you do that? Can you even break through the shield? Even if you try to destroy the shield, it keeps getting repaired because of us.”
Antonio laughed arrogantly at Eugene’s words.
It was true. The magicians in the back were continuously maintaining the shield, so if they could just deal with the magicians, the shield would disappear, leaving the knights defenseless.
However, that was only possible if the attacks could pass through the shield, but since the shield was constantly being repaired, there was no solution.
Heh.
Shivers.
At that moment, seeing Eugene suddenly smile, a chill ran down Antonio’s spine.
Swoosh.
Whoosh!
Boom!
Whoosh!
Boom!
Eugene punched from his spot, releasing energy several times, but it was repeatedly blocked by the solid shield.
“Hah… of course, haha!”
Antonio forced a laugh.
He was worried that the shield might break with one of Eugene’s punches, but it only caused cracks without breaking.
‘Phew… the shield was almost destroyed… Just brute strength… By the way, what’s flying from that fist?’
“It gets repaired right away, huh?”
“You think I was lying?”
“It’s fine.”
Swoosh.
Eugene smiled at Antonio’s words and took the same stance as before.
“You’ve seen it doesn’t work, yet you’re wasting your strength again. I guess half-breeds lack brains.”
Whoosh!
“Pointless…”
Boom!
“Argh!”
Antonio, who was laughing at Eugene’s actions, suddenly screamed as he was hit by something.
Crunch.
“What… what is this?!”
Antonio, holding his bleeding nose, looked bewildered.
There was nothing in front of him, and even the knights’ shield was intact, so what had hit him?
“Hm… the energy scatters a lot.”
Eugene clicked his tongue.
The one who had just hit Antonio’s face was Eugene.
“Then I’ll have to put in a bit more energy.”
Whoosh!
Boom!
“Aaaargh!”
Thud.
One of the magicians repairing the shield was hit by something and was blown out of the training ground.
“N-no way…”
Seeing the magician fly away, Antonio’s face stiffened as he looked at Eugene.
“Ah, because of the shield, the energy couldn’t fly straight and got deflected.”
“What the hell did you do?!”
Antonio, realizing that this situation was because of Eugene, shouted at him.
How could he attack through the shield? He had never heard of such a thing.
“If you’re curious, you’ll have to learn by getting hit yourself.”
Swoosh.
‘Gyoksantau (隔山打牛).’
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Eugene punched several times from his spot.
What Eugene had done was mix the technique of internal energy (拳氣) with the Nei Jia Heavy Hand method (內家重手法).
It was a martial art that struck the exterior to damage the interior.
Simply put, it was a technique that allowed one to attack enemies behind obstacles by passing through them.
Boom, boom, boom.
“Argh!”
“Ugh.”
Thud thud thud.
Buzz.
As the magicians maintaining the shield for the knights were blown out of the training ground by Eugene’s attacks, the shields in front of the knights all disappeared.
“The shield is gone!”
—
Swoosh.
Buzz!
As the shield disappeared, the members of Group 5 didn’t miss the moment and immediately began attacking the members of Group 3 with swordsmanship and magic.
There were five knights walking forward, and Group 5, excluding Eugene, had nine members.
They had boldly walked forward, but once the shield vanished, they were left defenseless within the enemy formation.
Step, step.
“Eek!”
While the members of Group 5 were attacking the members of Group 3, Eugene slowly walked towards Antonio, who was at the end.
[Ice God Art (氷神) Technique One: Ice Flower (氷花).]
Crackle, crackle!
“Ugh… aaah!”
Antonio screamed as his lower body froze.
“D-Dispel!”
Step, step.
“What’s going on, why won’t this disappear?!”
Whack, whack.
Antonio desperately punched the ice encasing his lower body.
Why wasn’t the ice disappearing even though he cast Dispel?
Thud.
Eugene, who had approached right in front of Antonio, grabbed him by the collar.
“You… you’re just going to send me out of the training ground, right?”
Grin.
“No way.”
Eugene gave a chilling smile at Antonio’s words and raised his fist.
“I… I surrender…”
Wham!
“Ugh.”
Wham!
Before Antonio could utter his surrender, Eugene punched him, cutting off his words.
If the opposing leader declared surrender during the match, it would end the duel, so Eugene silenced him.
‘Of course, I also needed to beat him up a bit.’
Eugene diligently punched Antonio, whose lower body was bound by ice, with just enough strength.
He wanted to hit harder, but doing so might kill Antonio, and there was a high chance that Deiker, who was observing, would intervene, so Eugene had to use moderate strength.
***
After the duel.
“Well fought, both teams.”
In the main office, Deiker thanked Eugene and Sophia, who were standing in front of him, for their efforts.
After Eugene’s duel, the final duel of the female students was naturally won by Group 3, led by Sophia.
“The reason I called you both separately is to give you a reward.”
“A reward?”
Sophia tilted her head at the mention of a reward.
It seemed she hadn’t heard that there would be a reward for winning this duel.
“Yes. For winning this duel, I will give you a hint for the upcoming first exam.”
“!?!”
Eugene and Sophia’s eyes sparkled simultaneously. They had wondered what the reward would be, and it was more incredible than expected.
A hint about the upcoming exam? This was a significant advantage over the other groups.
“As I mentioned before, the first exam will be a monster subjugation. You will need to form a formation to subjugate the monsters.”
That part was already known. A party of ten would act like mercenaries to subjugate monsters in this exam.
It was a test to prepare academy students for forming parties with others or participating in wars once they graduated and entered the real world.
“I will tell you the monster that will appear in the exam.”
“Really?”
Sophia asked Deiker again with a surprised expression.
Knowing the monster in the exam would be a massive advantage.
After all, the formation of the subjugation party depends on the type of monster.
Since monsters have different attributes, using the same formation for all wouldn’t be very effective.
However, knowing which monster would appear in the exam allowed them to tailor their formation accordingly.
“This time, the monster will be Lizardmen.”
“!?!”
Sophia and Eugene furrowed their brows simultaneously.
Lizardmen?
“Lizardmen are Tier 5 monsters…”
Sophia looked at Deiker with a somewhat incredulous tone.
Currently, most of the students are still 1-star knights or 1-circle magicians. Of course, there were some 2-star knights and 2-circle magicians, but many students were not at that level. And those students still couldn’t handle 5-tier monsters.
“Even with all ten team members, they can barely manage a hundred goblins or one or two ogres.”
Yet, they’re up against Lizardmen…
Lizardmen have intelligence and move in groups, which makes their tier relatively high. It’s certain that the exam won’t just feature one or two Lizardmen. One or two Lizardmen would only be about a 1-2 tier challenge.
Moreover, the fact that they’re being told it’s Lizardmen…
It meant there would be at least dozens of them.
No wonder.
It seemed too easy that they were being told what monster would appear in the exam.
Cliche Novel 