"What the?! What did you do?!" The arrogant noble shouts, and wees my charge with his gem-decorated sword drawn. He has very good reflexes.


    "How did the ve attack?!"


    I don''t care to educate a soon to be dead man. Instead, I focus on the duel. I know it will not be an easy one. I can''t afford to y around. <Leave him to me. He''s my training partner.


    Only step in if my life is in danger.> I instruct the twodies who are about to be done with their parts.


    "Quin, you can do it! [Protective Shield]!" Although confused, Aurora seems to have snapped out of her delirium rapidly and tried her best to protect me. How cute.


    I grab onto the hilt of my saber and begin an exchange of rapid shes, parries, deflects with my enemy. I grimace from the extreme effort and focus I have to put into the fight. This man is definitely a superior swordsman to me. I bet he has the Swordsman ss, the sword path of the Warrior basic ss.


    He pushes me back with his sword and delivers a kick to my stomach, sending me a short distance, but I manage tond on my feet.


    "Do you people even know who you are trying to kill?! I''m the second son of ric! The Winterwood count!"


    "Huh? Aren''t you supposed to be the governor of some other city?" Ayame chirped curiously. Indeed, ording to Marjorie''s intel, the second son should rule some city elsewhere.


    "I''m here to talk about inheritance with my family! My father is dying!"


    "Oh. Well, I guess you won''t be doing any of that. You do have our sincere condolences, though." I chime in.


    "Fuckers…" He spat, then got ready for the showdown by equipping a low posture with a de raised above his head, aimed straight at me as if he wanted to stab me with an overhead thrust.


    "My beautiful needy lover, this is my duel, so please don''t shield me. I wanna grow as abatant, and to do that I need to gather battle experience." I instructed Aurora.


    "Oh… Okay! You have to win!"


    "[me Cloak] [Water Shield]" I conjure two different elemental protective measures around my form. Water Shield is, as the name implies, a shield made of water. It dampens sword attacks and deflects projectiles to a degree.


    me Cloak is more of an offensive tool, as it constantly emits fiery heat waves that slowly burns those that are near me. It could be a fun idea to be some unkible tank with this spell, just sticking to my enemies and killing them by bing a sauna that they can''t run from.


    Thankfully I can see clearly through both aura-style spells. Also, the me Cloak grants me strong resistance against burning while it''s active, so I don''t suffer damage from it.


    "I ate some mushrooms or what?! A ve attacks despite clearly beingmanded not to, and now I''m dueling a saber wielding Wizard that has no wand or staff?! Someone wake me up already from this sick joke!" Luke shouts, clearly bing more insane by the second. The fact that I''m cooking him alive slowly in his pretty little golden armor probably isn''t helping with lifting his mood either.


    At least I think his name is Luke. I might remember Marjorie''s information wrong. It''s been a few days, and this guy was totally irrelevant back then.


    "[Rock Spike]" I summon as swiftly as I can, but he reacts in time, dashing at me before I could impale him on my construct. I really need to unlock silent casting somehow.


    "[Gust]" I conjure a wind that halts his advance and disorients him momentarily. Using this small window I cast "[Fireball], [Aqua Bullet]". Before the words evenpletely leave my mouth, I follow my spells as I lunge at him with my saber, ready to shed blood.


    His full-body golden armor probably would defend easily against my strikes, but, just like me, he had unequipped his helmet to rest morefortably, thus the both of us have a clear weak point the other can attack.


    Luke quickly regains his bearing from the gust of wind, only to be faced by three separate attacks. He manages to duck under the Fireball, gets hit in the chest with the Aqua Bolt, and raises his arm to his head to receive my saber''s sh.


    He grunts painfully as my [Power Strike] empowered de reaches its target, but, as expected, his armor holds. Only a slight damage is visible on it.


    Fuck. I just lost a few silver coins minimum.


    This guy is really sturdy. I will have to change tactics, as in a drawn out fight I''m the obvious underdog, especially since my mana reserves have beencking before the fight even began.


    My only real advantage is my versatility. I have to create a clever set of moves that lets me finish him off.


    Luke jumps at me, seething like a mad dog. He is double gripping his longsword and hacks away at me like I''m some celebratory pinata. It takes all my focus to not get any of my limbs chopped off, and he had already dispelled my Water Shield. It probably saved my life just now.


    "[Quake Stomp]" I begin my assault now that he has momentarily halted finally. The ground emits minor tremors, then violent shakes, until it seems like the ground under him is about to erupt as if it were an active volcano. "[Bubble Snare]" I continue, as I conjure a giant bubble that rapidly approaches the man desperately trying to regain his bnce.


    The spell envelops him, and lifts him up from the ground.


    Luke begins choking in my spell prison. It looks so damn cool. He is desperately iling around, trying to swim out of the water. But, of course, while his method is definitely possible if one is strong enough, swimming out of my snare isn''t as easy as swimming out of an unassuming body of water. The spell does its best to retain my captured prey in it.