429 Chapter 429: Knights of the Round

\"…you've got to be kidding me…\"

We were currently down 3-1, with Craig, Theodore and Sheila all eliminated. Only Bu Fan was able to win his match, and just barely too. He was resting on a bench in the technical area, huffing. Just to pull a victory against the guy known as Lancelot, he had busted out all of spells that belonged to his dual innate elements.

And even then, he had only just scraped a victory, and at a great cost too. He was too exhausted to continue onto the next match.

By the way, that very same Lancelot was the person who also knocked out Craig, Theodore and Sheila. The guy was on his way to an all-kill like me, but fortunately Bu Fan stopped him dead in his tracks. I also suspected that Bu Fan won because Lancelot had exhausted quite a bit of his mana when dealing with the other three.

\"Richard, can I count on you for the last match?\"

Harrison was gnawing on his lip. I knew he wanted to participte himself, but he was aware that it was a risky gamble. If he ended up eliminated from the individual matches, there wouldn't be anyone to lead the team match. Technically, I could, but…like I said, I wasn't much of a leader. I wasn't someone you could rely on to lead a team match.

I was more of a solo player…a lone wolf, of sorts. I could work in a team if I had to, of course, but leading a team was another matter altogether. I just didn't have the tactical acumen or strategic brilliance that Harrison possessed.

Pushing my glasses up my nose, I took a deep breath and nodded.

\"Leave it to me.\"

Exhaling, I then strode up the stage. At the other end of the ring, I could see the Pendragon team discussing fervently. After all, they had only lost one member so far, and had nine to choose from, unlike us.

However, the moment he saw me climb up the stage, Charles Lacroix smiled and held up his hand. He made the decision immediately and walked up the ring himself. None of his teammates protested or argued, and they just watched him enter without any comment.

I see. They must have discussed this beforehand. Charles must have told his teammates that he would be my opponent. And they quite clearly respected his decision, even if several of them didn't agree with it. Gawain, for one, seemed itching to jump into stage as well. Fortunately, he was able to restrain himself.

\"Richard. We meet again.\" Charles greeted me with a friendly grin. \"It's been a while. How have you been?\"

\"All right. What about you?\"

\"Good. Quite a few things happened since we last met…was it at Spiritual Road? No…it was at Troy City, wasn't it? But yeah, all in all, things have been progressing smoothly for the most part. Well, mostly.\"

He then clapped his gauntlets together in anticipation and beamed.

\"You know, I've always wanted to spar with for a while now. I'm so glad I finally got the chance.\"

\"Eh? Me?\" I was astounded by his admission. \"But I'm…\"

Not nobody. I trailed off, realizing what I was about to say. I couldn't exactly claim that I was a nobody, or I would be offending everybody I had defeated along my path to the semifinals. So instead I opted for something less…stupid.

\"…I'm not someone you're very familiar with.\" That sounded lame, but at least it was better than nothing.

\"Perhaps not, but we've fought together…twice, in fact. And your performance two days ago was very impressive.\" Bloody hell, Charles was gushing like a fanboy now, reminiscent of Harvey, except that he was a handsome blond with blue eyes and clad entirely in armor. \"The only person to score an all-kill in this tournament…against Saint Teresa Academy, no less. I did hear that you achieved the same against Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy in a friendly match. Not bad…not bad at all!\"

\"You overestimate me,\" I said humbly.

\"Nah. You are too modest.\"

While we were exchanging pleasantries below, the commentator wrapped up his introductions and gave the signal.

\"Match start! Will Richard Huang pull off a miracle again? Will Jing Tian Academy be able to claw their way back to the fight? Will this be the beginning of a comeback? Or will Pendragon Academy establish their superiority? Will the King of Knights, Charles Lacroix, defend his title and maintain his unbeaten streak?\"

Charles reached out and gestured with a hand. \"After you.\"

\"No, after you.\"

Everyone was starting to get irritated by what they deemed to be our excessive politeness. Both Charles and I ignored them, and continued beckoning to each other with our bare hands. Or in Charles's case, a gauntleted hand.

\"Oi! Hurry up and fight already!\"

\"Stop this Chinese gentleman bullshit! You think this is a kungfu film, is it?\"

Evidently none of them saw my attempt to imitate Ip Man and unleash my Wing Chun on my enemies. Hell, I had an entire chapter where I fought against ten black belts…

\"You…\"

\"No, you…\"

\"No, you…\"

\"OI! STOP THAT! JUST FIGHT ALREADY!\"

\"DON'T WASTE OUR TIME!\"

\"BLOODY HELL! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO!?\"

Charles and I exchanged smiles, and we decided to troll the raging spectators further by remaining where we were and repeating the same lines ad nauseum. The audience grew increasingly frustrated and began hurling objects at us. Obviously the fruits, vegetables, bottles and trash never hit us. They bounced off the boundary field or disintegrated harmlessly upon impact.

\"Referee! Do something! They are wasting time!\"

\"What kind of match is this?! Why aren't they fighting!?\"

The referee in charge of the match turned to stare at them. Since he doubled as the commentator, he was able to boom his voice across the coliseum through the use of his microphone.

\"What are you talking about? The match has already started. The two of them have already been fighting.\"

\"Huh!? What are you talking about?!\"

\"Don't fuck with us!\"

\"Stop the filler bullshit and get straight to the story! Fight scene! I want to see fight scene!\"

The referee covered his face in exasperation.

\"This is why I dislike amateurs,\" he muttered under his breath. Clearing his throat, he spoke up more audibly. \"Just because you don't want to read this part, doesn't mean this is a filler. It's still part of the plot. You readers or audience don't get to decide what's part of the story and what's not. That's the author's job. If you find it boring, that doesn't mean it's a filler. Anyway, this is an intense psychological battle, and I'm amazed that none of you are able to deect that. Obviously they aren't just being polite and dithering for no reason. They are already engaged in psychological warfare. They are trying to lure the other party to attack first, so as to trick their opponent into a trap. Furthermore, while they were stalling each other with what seems like pacifistic or polite gestures, they have been spending the entire time casting spells, skipping the basic spells and going up to advanced magic. If you short-sighted audience paid more attention to their mana emanations and other details instead of whining about fillers and demanding for a physical fight to occur immediately, you would have picked it up. This is why Pendragon Academy and Jing Tian Academy are in the semifinals and you fools are not.\"

At that, the whole coliseum fell silent. The spectators fortunately had the temerity to look ashamed of themselves. At least those not idiotic enough to impatiently stomp off while obnoxiously whining about how they were going to \"drop the story.\"

\"As expected of a professional Federation commentator. He already found us out.\"

Charles appeared sheepish, and he sighed as he drew his sword, which immediately glowed. Yup, the King of Knights had not been idle this entire time as we bantered back and forth verbally. He had been charging up a powerful spell and buff for his sword.

\"I hope you're finally ready as well,\" he told me. I nodded as I pushed my glasses up my nose and drew both of my swords. The chibi Green Dragon materialized above my shoulder and thousands of flower petals blossomed around me. I had also made use of the time well, casting layers upon layers of intermediate wood spells, and embedded a single advanced wood spell within them.

Charles charged at me, and I kicked off the ground and met him in the middle of the arena, flower petals swirling around us as our swords clashed. As I expected, Charles's skill with the sword was superb, and more than once I almost found myself eviscerated or cut apart. Already cuts littered my arms and shoulder as I picked up injuries here and there. In contrast, Charles was completely unscathed, and it wasn't just because of his gleaming silver and blue armor.

Pathetic as it might be to admit it, I failed to land a single clean hit on him. He was just that skilled, several times better than me when it came to swordsmanship.

Even my magic wasn't quite on par with his. I was directing as many flower petals as I could in his direction, but Charles deflected them away with his holy buffs. Golden light streamed from his holy sword as he wielded it flawlessly.

\"Holy Sword Wielder,\" I muttered as I deflected his deadly blade away with Bai Ri, and then countered with a thrust from Hei Yue. Despite my successful defense, I could feel blood trickling down my neck. Gritting my teeth, I directed a rain of razor leaves and sharp petals along with my black blade, but somehow Charles managed to deflect all of them.

\"Holy Lightning.\"

\"!!!\"

An explosion of golden light engulfed me and my petals, and I was forced to jump back. In front of me, black petals scattered, dispersing into tinier petals after absorbing the monumental blast of magic, but Charles cut them down with a single stroke of his holy sword.

\"Combining holy and lightning magic?\"

\"That is correct. I'm amazed that you know.\" Charles smiled grimly. \"The signature technique of the Lacroix clan is to combine holy and lightning magic.\"

\"Cool story, bro.\" despite my dry retort, my heart thumped. So this genius swordsman was also an innate dual elements mage like Bu Fan. Just when I thought this handsome Mary Sue character couldn't get any more Mary Sue-ish…

Good looks, wealthy family (one of the ten great families, even), prodigy at the sword, student council president in his school with top grades and the number one position, and now he even has innate dual elements.

I suddenly felt a very strong urge to bash the guy.

Switching stance, I dove to the side as I ducked his web of holy lightning, which incinerated my black petals easily, and then hurled a cloud of pink Sakura petals at him. Charles remained undaunted, facing the countless razor sharp pink petals with nothing but his sword and holy lightning, cleaving vast numbers of them apart with every stroke. Most others were seared away by his protective holy aura, which resembled webs of devastating electricity.

Not only was he defending against my technique, he was also slowly but surely advancing toward me. Step by agonizing step, stroke by cautious stroke, he continued hacking apart my petals and leaves while closing the distance between us.

\"Excalibur Thunderbolt!\"

A brilliant golden beam surged out of his holy sword and disintegrated the petals between him and me, forcing me to duck. As I rolled away, I caught sight of the massive scorched trail that his spell had left on the concrete.

I wasn't able to pay more attention to the destructive effects. Charles was already landing upon my position. Channeling more of Green Dragon's wood mana through my swords, I met him evenly, crossing my swords to parry his holy blade.

Boom!

The ground beneath us cracked, unable to withstand the intense auras of mana that our bodies were emanating. So powerful was our mana that they actually coalesced and solidified into very tangible forms.

\"Look!\"

The spectators watched, amazed, as a colossal tiger – made out of golden-white energy – reared up above and behind Charles. In contrast, a gigantic green dragon of verdant mana confronted it, its majestic figure uncoiling behind me.

The duel between the dragon and the tiger had begun. Two symbols of opposing power clashed above our locked bodies, snarling and roaring as they fought for supremacy, their fight representing the struggle between celestial forces in microcosm.