33 Chapter 33: The Duel (2)

After Diane Reinhart's words, the enthusiasm that filled the arena made the hearts of the students, instructors and professors beat with excitement.

They hadn't seen anything this exciting in a long time. Duels happened all the time, but few were worth seeing.

The only thing that could move the hearts of these people who lived for power was a good fight.

Before the duel started, there was a ten-minute break to repair the damaged area in the arena. After the arena was repaired, the two students took their places.

The two young men standing opposite each other in the arena had already caused quite a stir. On the one hand, Cale Rayne, whose name they didn't even know until yesterday, and on the other, Damien Heart, known as the genius of geniuses among the children of elite families.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Hope asked, looking at Cale.

Hope, Amaris, Dante and Felix, like the others, had come to watch Cale's duel with Matt. But what they hadn't expected was that he would also duel Damien.

Cale was strong. His skill was also unique, but also Damien was strong. He was a swordsman and a user of the light element. His ability was considered unique until Cale appeared.

"Are you going to stop him?" asked Amaris.

When Hope's eyes met hers, Amaris looked at her calmly.

"No, it's not my place to stop him now that Cale has agreed. What about you?"

"Me? Why should I?" Amaris said, a wry smile forming on her face.

"Aren't you worried about him?"

"Hey, don't you see this weird anticipation in the air?"

Hope didn't deny it when she was startled by his words. Even now her heart was beating with one thought, 'I want to see how strong Cale gets...' filling her head.

"It's the same for me."

Amaris replied with a grin and looked in the direction of Cale and Damien.

***

The instructor stepped back and signaled that they could begin.

But then...

Hush!

Without a moment's delay, Damien Heart's sword passed through the spot where Cale's head had been.

Damien Heart's eyes widened.

'Did I miss?'

His attack was meant to take Cale down in one fell swoop and help Damien salvage his pride, which had been damaged by now.

Damien wasn't sure if he had ever felt so inept and useless before. He always thought of himself as the best. People praised his talent and his skill with the sword.

But ever since he came to this academy, he felt inadequate. Dante came first. When he came first in the school rankings and surpassed him, he started to doubt himself.

No matter how hard he tried, he and Dante were always neck and neck. They both had narrow victories over each other. But Cale was different.

People who used to speak his name were now talking about Cale. Some called him a fraud, but the vast majority of people now supported him.

When Diane Reinhart asked him to duel Cale, the only reason he agreed was to beat him and prove his strength to everyone. So he could mend his broken pride.

But now it was all in vain.

Cale pulled his head away, avoiding the attack and putting distance between them. His reaction was extremely quick.

'No, the Union did not overestimate his powers. He is really strong!'

The corner of Damien's lips curled upwards.

'It will all end when I defeat you!'

Cale, on the other hand, stood still after moving a little away from Damien. 'He's really fast,' he thought.

He could sense that Damien was not exaggerated for nothing by the aura emanating from him against his skin. His face looked calm, but his heart was beating with excitement. His lips curled slightly.

'Is he smiling?'

Damien exhaled heavily. Those closest to the arena felt it as the mana and aura emanating from him began to heavily overwhelm the surrounding air.

A thin smile formed on Cale's face as he felt excited for the first time since he came to this world.

Damien saw that Cale showed no signs of fear despite the energy he was emitting, and the anger that lay deep within him began to seep out.

At that moment his blue eyes flashed dangerously. He closed the distance between them in an instant. When he swung his sword, there was an explosion.

As a cloud of dust settled around, the instructor lifted it from the arena with a single wave of his hand. Everyone was shocked by what they saw.

Cale stopped the sword Damien swung at him by taking it between the index and middle finger of his right hand.

Damien's eyes flickered as he did so, while Cale's face was as calm as ever.

'How can this be?'

Cold sweat broke out on Damien's forehead. Cale reached his other hand to his chest. Before his hand even touched his chest, he was pushed back with great force and fell on his back meters away with his sword.

When he sat up again, groaning slightly, he clenched the hilt of his sword. His face filled with rage as he lunged again.

Cale continued to dodge his fast and flashy attacks with ease. Some students in the arena thought Cale was scared, but others could see that Cale was playing Damien.

Damien's supporters fidgeted uncomfortably. Others expressed their admiration.

"These are violent attacks."

"It's hard to follow this movement with my naked eyes."

"Cale is holding up well."

"It's remarkable how easily he dodges Damien's attacks."

'No, Cale is not holding on to anything right now.'

A thin smile formed on Felix's face. The others thought that only Cale was being directed by Damien's attack stream, but in reality it was the other way around.

Felix swallowed his saliva, feeling quite bewildered.

'In fact, he leads Damien in such a way that Damien has no choice but to attack him!'

If Felix was correct in his thinking, he thought that Cale would have to match his opponent's speed. This was only possible if his own skill level was several times higher than his opponent's.

Cale was at level D+ and Damien was at level D. There was very little difference between them, which made Felix think that Cale's level was higher.

'How is this possible?'

But this seemingly impossible event was happening right in front of his eyes.

Damien knew better than anyone that Cale had been drawn to his speed and was directing the attacks. This development hurt his pride even more.

'How dare he do this to me?'

His anger grew when his meticulously aimed attack was blocked and avoided by Cale at the last moment. A murderous intent began to fill his eyes.

'I will kill him!'

The changing atmosphere began to affect the students sitting in the turbines. While most of the students present felt the bloodlust emanating from Damien to the fullest, some of the professors felt that this duel had to be stopped.

"Sir, shouldn't we stop the duel?"

Roy, Diane's assistant, asked coldly as he stood behind her. Diane smiled slightly as she was used to his demeanor. Roy, an SS level hunter, was her valued assistant who had been by her side since her days at the academy.

"Do you think I should stop it?"

Diane laughed at his words when he said, "If there's a problem, you'll be affected too."

She understood what Roy meant. He, like Diane, already knew the winner of this duel. Any harm to Kane Heart's precious son would be a big problem.

Still, she waited.

"The rules of the duel are clear and simple, Roy," she said with a smile in her voice. "To step in and stop it when both sides have agreed to it would only make things worse. If Kane finds out his son lost without a fight, he'll give me a headache for the blow to his pride," she sighed.

"They're two young men with hot blood. Let them fight and let that duel decide whether they will be friends or enemies."

Roy sighed as he realized her intentions, but he would not go against Diane. As someone who had vowed to stand by her every decision no matter what, he would stand by her decisions this time.

"How does that asshole dodge all of Damien's attacks?"

Sylvie looked at Cale, who was easily dodging Damien's attacks in the arena with a dark expression on his face.

"Damien can't seem to escape from this fight that Cale is leading," Veronica said, and Veronica was no more than her.

Even Elliot, who always had a smile on his face, was serious. Unlike everyone else, Elliot had a good memory and remembered Cale from the level E dungeon explosion.

He recognized him, even if his image in the video was not clear at the time. He watched with a blackened face as the man he had once scorned and mocked fended off his attacks as if he were mocking the strongest among them.

Amy's heart raced as she watched Cale, her eyes flickering. Eyes like these that looked as if they wanted to tear Cale apart right there. Her brother, whom she had once tried so hard to overtake, was back in front of her.

Amy thought she had left Cale behind. She had proven that her talent was better than Cale's and had risen to a good position.

She was the heir to the Donovan family. Her future was bright and she didn't have to worry about Cale. Months ago, when Cale had disappeared again, she had believed she would never see him again.

Cale had reappeared in her life as if to taunt her and threaten her with his power. After yesterday's news, she hadn't had a chance to talk to her mother either. So she didn't know how her mother felt.

Cale had to get out of their lives. They had to find a way to destroy him before he became a bigger problem for them.

***

Damien's outstretched sword left a small cut on Cale's cheek and he stood panting, having reached his limit.

Cale cleaned the blood from the cut with the tip of his fingers. Cale did not heal the wound with chaos energy.

Cale was relaxed as everyone watched in shock at Damien's attack with the intent to kill. Normally in a match like this, this would never have been accepted.

In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere changed. Damien was the first to feel it. He saw the gray eyes staring coldly at him as the cold air made his hair stand on end. A cold sweat ran down his back as goosebumps rose.

He had never felt like this before.

'This, what is this...?'

Damien glared at Cale as he tried to regain his composure.

"Stop making fun of me and fight properly!"

Cale smiled slightly at his outburst.

"How can you fight properly without even a weapon!"

Cale chuckled at his words. Chaos energy began to surge around his hand that was by his side.

"You seem to have misunderstood something."

The chaos energy continued to surge and began to grow in Cale's palm. The attention of everyone sitting in the turbine was focused on the energy in Cale's hand.

As the chaos energy grew, it began to take a physical form. After a while, everyone held their breath as an eye-catching black sword formed in Cale's hand.

"What the hell is this?"

"Is that an aura sword?"

"Can he do such a thing?"

"No matter how skilled he is, he's only a first year student!"

Noisy conversations spread. Damien watched, wide-eyed, as he swung his shiny black sword sideways.

"The reason I don't use a weapon is not because I can't," he smiled. "I don't need it. But I'll do you a favor and fight you with a sword. Oh, by the way, this is my first time with a sword, so be nice to me."

Damien gripped his sword tightly with a mocking expression on his face. When the two of them disappeared and their swords met in the center of the arena with a loud clash, everyone thought that the real duel had just begun.