All eyes were on the two young men who were about to fight. One was a publicly recognized genius mage, while the other was a barely recognizable nobody. To most people, this fight was a joke and had all but one possible outcome. Before the fight began, Ducart walked to the peripheral of the terret and placed a green ruby in the center of one of the many runes that were littered all around the terret. In that instant, a green light in the form of energy encircled the rune formation, which formed a defensive barrier to fend off any resulting damages of the fight from the spectators. Although this defensive measure was in place, it did not stop sound from passing through the runes. The spectators could hear what the people fighting were saying, and vice versa.

“Get ready, I am about to attack,” Mailey said as he clasped his hands and immediately started his incantations. Willard stared at Mailey as he began his incantations. Three flames of varying colors and size appeared in front of Mailey. The first was orange, the second was blue, and the third was green.

“Who is this fool that gives a mage time to finish his incantations?” one of the spectating nobles asked as the crowd burst out in conversation.

“To think there is such a stupid warrior.”

“Now his only advantage is gone.”

Willard stood still waiting as Mailey recited his incantations. Sebastian nodded self-deprecatingly as he watched Willard stand in place. ‘This is my fault, I shouldn’t have let him fight in Hector’s place. Now he would most likely get hospitalized by the end of this fight.’ Sebastian said to himself somewhat apologetically.

“Are you finished with your incantations?” Willard asked as he noticed Mailey had stopped uttering those strange words.

Mailey laughed in response to Willard’s question and said, “ You dare give me, a mage, time to finish my incantations. You are overestimating yourself.”

As he finished responding, the orange flame rapidly increased in size from a fist full to the size of two human heads. The blue flame was flying in a circular motion around Mailey, while the green flame flew directly into his body. The orange flame flew straight towards Willard. Its trajectory was followed closely by a trail of orange flames that slowly burnt out. The orange flame seemingly made contact with Willard and immediately exploded fort.

Everyone within the hall gasped as they watched a figure burn non-stop. What made them more surprised was the fact that this burning figure did not even utter a sound. It was like he died instantly without the opportunity to even cry. At a far off table within the hall sat a curly brown haired beautiful woman who was busy stuffing her face with food. As the explosion rang, she stared intently at the flame. After a couple of seconds, she turned and continued where she left off.

“Interesting, interesting” were the only words she said before she continued stuffing her face.

At the elevated portion of the hall, a man dressed in a Marquis warrior’s attire quickly rose up and stared at the terret. “How can that be?” The man strangely asked. This man was a popular figure within Marquis city, he was the second in command of the entire Marquis guarding force. He was an exalted figure within the city, a warrior who was powerful enough to be counted among the best within the kingdom. If Willard were to see this person, he would have recognized him as the man that gave him a sense of danger when he saw him riding a mount in the city.

After noticing the reaction of the people around him, the man quickly sat down and continued staring at the terret.

“Is that it?” Asyut who sat at some corner couldn’t help but exclaim loudly.

“That was boring. I thought there would be a struggle or two.”

The crowd hearing that all started conversing with each other. Some nodded in disappointment, while others felt sorrow for the poor fellow that had just lost his life.

To Sebastian’s corner, both Sebastian and hector had a gloomy face. If Willard had indeed died from just that exchange, that would have been a double stabbing to them. First, it would have a been a big insult, and secondly they would have lost a potentially good ally.

Ade’s reaction was that of complete anger. ‘How is that someone I had such high expectation of, would have died so easily without even attacking his enemy once? Was I being played a fool?’ She silently thought to herself as she watched.

As the flame gradually started dying down, everyone’s eyes were glued to the stage. They wanted to see what remained of the corpse or if at all there was anything. To everyone, including Mailey, complete surprise Willard was still standing there alive and breathing. Not even a scratch had appeared on his body, it was as if he was never attacked. Although this entire scene seemed to have played over some time, but in reality, it took less than two minutes.

Before Mailey had the time to even process what he had just seen, Willard utilized his martial movement skill to quickly get in close proximity with Mailey. The improved martial movement technique was more exquisite in appearance than it had ever been displayed in the past. Willard’s movement was fluid with zero to no resistance from the earth beneath his feet. As Willard appeared before Mailey, he had used earth elemental energy to harden his fist and punched straight at Mailey’s chest. Willard’s counter attack was just too sudden and surprising to Mailey. Before Mailey had the chance to react, Willard had already appeared right in front of him in a punching motion. As Willard’s fist was about to make contact with Mailey, a green pulsating glow of energy appeared in a protective manner around Mailey. The green pulsating energy was able to negate a good portion of the attacking force, but it still wasn’t enough to stop it in its entirety. The remaining force of the punch forced Mailey to tumble a couple of steps backward.

The entire hall was left in a state of complete awe. The entire place was silent except for the sound of the curly brown haired woman’s chewing. No one could afford to stop staring at the terret and see where that annoying chewing sound was coming from.

“Are my eyes deceiving me?” One of the young nobles said to finally break the long silence. Following that was a huge uproar in comments. Every single person that had been watching were in a state of complete stupor. Who was it that Willard was fighting? It was Mailey, a notable young genius, who was famed across the entire kingdom and not just marquis city. And who was Willard? A nobody, even within Marquis city. How was it possible for Willard to have escaped Mailey’s first attack, and on top of that, how was his counter attack so fast and powerful enough to push Mailey to stumble a couple of steps back. If they had not witnessed this fight themselves, they would have slapped whoever retold this story to them.

‘What exquisite martial movement technique’ The second in command of the Marquis guarding force thought inwardly.

“What in heaven’s name just happened?” Asyut couldn’t help but ask nervously.

“How is this possible? Who is that fellow that Sebastian hired?” To be able to push Mailey back was no small fit. This had immediately catapulted Willard’s fame from a relative nobody to a potential young talent.

Lyon who was seated at a remote corner had a hugely arched smile. He could care less who won or lost, all he wanted was to watch a good fight. And if one of them died in the process, that would make things even more entertaining to him.

“Who are you? And what academy do come from?” Mailey couldn’t help but ask as he got back up.

1. N/a