Hardy strong?
The teachers that were teaching the beast classes were meant to be quite skilled using beast weapons themselves. Otherwise they would have never been selected to teach those classes in the first place. The students were excited after just witnessing a spectacular match to see real beast weapons being used by the two teachers. Which was why the response was so great for this change of events.
"Wait, isn't the beast weapons teacher for the Cursed House, teacher Hardy? Isn't he the one that just made that speech at the opening ceremony. If he fights, will we even have a chance of winning?"
"Maybe he doesn't have a good ability, but that's why he teaches the beast weapons class?"
"I heard that he was meant to have Emperor tier beast equipment, one of my classmates told me."
"Emperor tier, that has to be a lie."
"We'll soon find out, right?"