Chapter 9: Declaration of the duel

"Admit it, Leonard."

Karl tries one last time to summon his circle. This time he gave his hardest. No matter how much his body rejected but Karl kept the mana flowing.

His hands shook violently. Suddenly Karl felt a numb sensation over his body and a purple circle appears on Karl's palm. He slowly stands up and looks at Mikaela in the eye.

"I don't know what are you talking about but I will never admit something which I never did."

"YOU!" Veins appears on Mikaela's head. She holds her hand up and forms a spear.

Then, She attacks Karl straight on with a piercing spear. Karl's hands also glows purple and a rock appears in his hand.

For a few seconds time moves slower. Mikaela pushes the spear forward with all of her strength. Karl doesn't move from his position and lets the spear come closer.

'Wait. Is he?' The male teacher who defeated two students earlier reads the situation.

The spear is inches away from hitting Karl's body. Karl finally moves. But he does not try to block or dodge the spear. Instead he touches the spear's head with his left palm and changing the path of the spear.

Mikaela wides her in shock but quickly prepares for a counter attack. But doesn't let her.

Karl steps closer to Mikaela, still pushing the spear away. He lifts his right hand revealing the rock.

'Too naïve.' Mikaela thinks.

Mikaela's eyes glow golden. Karl straight smashes the rock into her head. Blood spills. But it wasn't Mikaela's.

A golden circle is seen little above Mikaela's head.

'A shield? Fuck.' Mikaela quickly kicks Karl on the already wounded area. Karl backs a little bit and grabs his stomach.

"I am surprised, Leonard Avaritia. You got me off guard."

Karl looks at her and gives her a painful grin. "Unfortunately, injustice does not go unresolved in Black Pegasus academy." She lifts her spear.

'This one will definitely hurt.' Mikaela strikes at Karl's head without mercy.

CLANG!

Sound of two metals colliding is heard by everyone. A boy with pale skin and white hair is now standing between Mikaela and Karl.

Karl looks up and sees 'IAN.'

"What are you doing here, heir of Phirsecots?"

"Hands off princess of light." Ian declares.

"This does not concern you."

"It does. Now get lost."

"He is the culprit. He used the name of Lumineux for his vicious crimes. As a member of Lumineux Knighthood I can't stand that." Ian glances back at Karl. Karl quickly looks away dodging his gaze.

Ian's throat goes dry and pulse raises out of the roof after seeing Karl's response. "Do you have any evidence for this?"

"Yes, the warden confirmed it."

"Did she saw him?"

"No. But the timings match."

"You can't prove anything with this and created a huge inconvenience for everyone." Mikaela and Ian both look around to see almost half of the school is present.

"I didn't know the Lumineux's infamous princess is such a harecop."

Mikaela grips the spear tightly. "Looks like the Phirsecots forgot that this school is managed by the Lumineux knighthood. You are not qualified to challenge my authority."

Ian points at Mikaela "And you don't have the authority to challenge the federation law. Not without proper evidence. You don't have any right to attack him."

"Then challenge him to the duel." Someone from the crowd yells.

Ian clicks his tongue and proceeds to speak. "We will wait-"

DING! A notification rings on Karl's watch.

"Leonard! I hereby challenge you for a duel under guidance of the academy." Mikaela declares. Ian desperately looks at Karl. He wants to say something but can't.

A teacher comes forward from the crowd. "A duel is issued by student Mikaela Lumineux to student Leonard Avaritia. Please state the winning the stakes."

"He will admit that he attacked a girl in her own dormitory using my name." The teacher looks at Karl.

Karl thinks for second and says "She needs to take all of her accusations back and apologize to me."

"Who would apolo-"

"Does both challenge agree to the stakes?" The teacher says in a threating voice.

"Y-yes." Mikaela fumbles.

"Yes." Karl also agrees.

"Does anybody present here have any objection to this?" There is silence for few seconds.

"This duel is not fair." Someone yells from the crowd.

Karl looks at the source of the voice and sees Andressa standing there.

'She looks incredibly scared.' Karl notices. Andressa's legs are shaking visibly and her breathing is uneven.

Despite this she continues, "Leonard is one year behind than Mikaela. So-so, she will an advantage in number of spell and battle experience." The teacher nods.

Then, another confident voice comes from the crowd. "But their ages are the same. Both of them are 17."

Andressa recognizes the voice 'Remi, why do you have to interfere.'

A boy with light orange spiked hair. His hand filled with accessories. A mean look with slanted eyes. Not to mention his above average height interferes.

"Federation strictly forbids the existence of weak generation. We cannot hinder this student's growth just because he couldn't advance a year due to poor talent."

'Poor Talent?' Karl gives a hostile gaze to Remi.

Remi continues "Anyhow this is a great opportunity for this student by fighting someone who is clearly a level above him." Remi taunts. Karl's hostile gaze intensifies.

Now everyone is waiting for teacher's decision.

"The duel is fair." Teacher declares. Ian's and Andressa's faces turn grim. While Karl is showing no reaction at all.

"Confirm the duel." The teacher glances at both Karl and Mikaela.

Mikaela clicks confirm on her watch. Karl looks at Ian's and Andressa's expression and hesitates.

'This may be my one of the worst decisions ever.' Karl clicks on confirm.

OHHHHHH! Every student present is screaming with excitement.

"Quiet." A faint glow is seen on teacher's body and everybody stops.

"The date and place of the duel will be informed later." Teacher clarifies.

"Now. Everybody back to the class." The teacher orders. Everybody quickly dissipates.

Karl stares at Mikaela. "Atleast you are not a coward, Leonared Avaritia." With this Mikaela turns around and leaves.

Ian comes closer to Karl and takes one of his hands. Karl somehow stands up. "You just picked a fight with a knight." Karl laughs at Ian's sentence. Andressa comes and takes his other hand, supporting him. "Do you even understand what you gotten yourself into?"

"Yeah. But don't worry I got plan."

Suddenly Karl's head starts to spin. His vision blacking out.

"LEO!" Both Andressa and Ian screams in union.

Karl feels tears coming out of his eyes and nose. He touches them. They are red in color. 'Finally kicked in.' Karl smiles as loses consciousness.

Karl is laying down in his room. The same music is played by the computer. Suddenly someone knocks at the door. Karl stands up and hesitantly opens the door.

There Jake is standing with a bloodied face missing teeth and creepy smile. Karl does not respond whatsoever. Jake pushes Karl on the ground and zaps him with the electric cable.

Karl grabs Jake's head with both of his hands inserts his thumbs into his eye pocket. "Do you really think I would be scared?"

Jake screams in pain. Karl pushes Jake away from himself. This time Karl grabs his monitor and smashes it into Jake's head. Jake fells down in just one hit.

"Even for an illusion, this is too unreal." Karl says in an unsatisfied voice. Just as he mentions it the world around Karl starts to crumble.

"I wish I could smash your face, Jake. Of course, in real life." Jake stands up. His head half open eyes empty with a overly bloodied face he screams.

"KARLLLLL."

'How soothing.'

A part of roof crumbles on Karl. Karl opens his eyes and sees a fan on the celling. He looks at his right side and sees the same handsome doctor with his mouth wide open. Karl slowly tires to get up.

"In my 40 years of experience I have never seen a patient wake up on his own while being in the effect mind cleansing."

Karl looks down on his stomach and sees that its all patched up with bandages. He then notices his right hand which is also bandaged.

"Okay. But what is that?" Karl asks without looking the doctor.

"Whenever a patient has be penetrated by any magic object. Foreign mana enters the body and traverses towards the brain. In the brain this mana gathers and creates a seperate vaccum. This can cause brain damage or hemorrhage. To avoid this, doctors personally inject their own mana into the patient's body and tries to push the vacuum of foreign outside. This is called as Brain cleansing. To perform this the patient is put under a mind spell where the patient sleeps indefinitely to minimize brain activity. Normally the patient doesn't wake up for days even after breaking spell. But you broke the spell on your own. Just as I finished the cleansing you woke up. Which is just amazing."

"Do people dream while being under the mind spell?"

"Yes, it is not uncommon to dream."

Karl looks at his watch and reads a notification. THE DUEL IS SCHEDULED ON 45/93/3242, AT THE BLACK MANE ARENA.

'Oh, I forgot that this world has 50 days in one month and 100 months in one year.' Karl notes the date.

"Listen, this is very serious." Karl notices the heaviness in doctor's voice.

"Leonard Avaritia. You are going to die in a month."

"What?"