Ch.32Chapter 32: Entrance Exam (9)

Elias enters the arena first, accompanied by the cheers of nobles and royalty in the waiting room.

The audience erupts when the Imperial Princess appears.

[The flower of the Halkin Empire! Imperial Princess Elias von Halkin has entered the arena first!]

“Wooooaaah!!! Princess!!!”

As Valt prepares to enter, he hears voices from behind.

“Good luck, Valt.”

“Hey! Don’t lose until you face me!”

It’s Robin and Solfin.

“Hmm.”

Valt slowly moves his massive frame forward.

[Following her! The son of Kwan, the Champion of the South, Valt Gerungtu enters the arena!]

When Valt appears, Lisa, Lati, and Arias begin to shout.

“Valt! Valt! Valt! Fighting!!”

Valt doesn’t understand why Lisa is cheering for him instead of her own country’s princess.

Still, the encouragement gives him strength.

Except for Lisa and her friends, everyone else is on the princess’s side.

Even the announcer is somewhat biased.

“Princess! Blow away that barbarian in one shot!!”

“Will the princess be alright!? Her opponent is so huge!”

“Come on, you know better than anyone that size doesn’t equal strength, so why worry?”

Despite the enormous size difference, most people believed the Imperial Princess, who had received elite training from the Imperial Palace since childhood, couldn’t possibly lose.

From the main tournament onward, there are no out-of-bounds.

The arena has been magically expanded to the size of 50 regular arenas combined, making it incredibly vast.

Victory can only be achieved through incapacitation or surrender.

The combatants’ images are projected like holograms in the air so that even those unfamiliar with aura or magic can easily watch the fight despite the distance.

[The main tournament! The first match that marks its beginning! The match between Imperial Princess Elias von Halkin and Valt Gerungtu will now commence!]

Elias casually waves to the audience, greeting them.

Each time she waves, the crowd’s cheers grow louder.

Valt scans the audience and spots the Emperor and what appear to be high-ranking nobles in the central VIP seats.

A short distance away sit various powerful figures, including Liman, suggesting they are Academy professors.

To think the Academy alone has so many skilled individuals.

Once again, Valt realizes the Empire’s true strength.

Fighting the Empire now would be certain defeat.

No, even the thought of fighting them is absurd.

There were rumors that the Emperor left other races alone not out of fear but because of his generosity.

Indeed, those words ring true.

The thought of what would happen to all non-human races on the continent if the Emperor became a human supremacist tyrant sends a chill down Valt’s spine.

‘We must become stronger. The Gerungtu must learn.’

Whether he likes it or not, Valt is a barbarian.

Naturally, he was developing affection for his own race.

“Both contestants, prepare.”

Even the referee is someone with skills similar to Liman’s.

Such power is necessary to referee matches between main tournament participants.

Shing—

Elias draws her rapier and points it at Valt, taking a fencing stance.

As she does, she gathers her aura.

Valt feels oddly pleased to see the familiar motion, similar to a fencing position.

In her stance, Elias addresses Valt.

“I hear you’re strong for a 1st Circle mage. Or some say you’re hiding your true circle. As I said earlier, don’t hold back. I’ll be going all out too.”

“Sure, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Elias knows well that her father, the Emperor, doesn’t casually tell people to go easy on her.

The Emperor must have judged that she might not be able to defeat this barbarian.

Elias hadn’t personally witnessed Valt’s examination.

However, she too had heard strange rumors about the barbarian.

Rumors that his physical abilities approached 4th Floor level and that despite being a 1st Circle mage, he had shattered a golem.

It seemed unbelievable, but now facing him, she could feel Valt’s intimidating presence was no joke.

It wasn’t the kind of pressure a 1st Circle mage could exert.

‘Between the rumors and this feeling, there’s definitely something more! I need to end this quickly.’

This time, Valt didn’t stand with his arms crossed waiting.

His opponent was a late 5th Floor powerhouse, stronger than Victor or Robin.

With her swordsmanship, she could potentially unleash 6th Floor level destructive power.

“Indu Fumnis.”

Valt casts an enhancement spell and draws forth his magical power.

Seeing this, Elias’s eyes widen.

“I knew it! This amount of mana! At least 5th Circle! You’re quite sneaky for your size!”

Yet she still only senses 1st Circle from Valt.

‘Is he using Hide Mana Force? No, if he were using that, I shouldn’t sense even 1st Circle. What is this?’

Since his level would be revealed through the examination anyway, there was no reason to use complicated magic like Hide Mana Force to conceal his abilities.

Something was strange, but the fact remained that Valt possessed enormous magical power.

Elias decides not to dwell on it.

“Begin the match!”

With the referee’s announcement, he quickly retreats, and Elias, who had been in her stance, moves at high speed toward Valt.

“Elias Style Second Decisive Technique! Con Energia Pesante (With heavy energy)!”

Hearing the technique’s name, it seems a special sword style was created just for Elias.

As Emperor, it would be possible to gather sword instructors to create a unique style.

Contrary to expectations that a thin sword would be light and fast, extremely heavy golden aura threads form a large cone shape and pour down on Valt.

‘This is my strongest attack. He won’t be able to block it. I’ll end this in one blow!’

It’s a technique difficult to use from the start in a normal duel.

It requires gathering a lot of aura in a stationary position, which takes time.

Indeed, it lives up to its name as a decisive technique.

Elias’s attack approaches 6th Floor level power.

She had been gathering aura from the beginning in preparation for this single strike.

Valt’s heart races at the power, which is stronger than he expected.

“Good!”

As soon as Elias moves, Valt stomps on the arena floor, breaking it.

Then he extends his thick forearm, preparing to receive Elias’s decisive technique head-on.

“Whirl Stone Shield.”

The stone fragments from the broken floor rise into the air and begin rapidly spinning around Valt’s forearm.

The magic Valt is creating now is, of course, with the help of his gnome.

However, since the gnome is still a lowest-grade elemental and cannot simultaneously create and manipulate stones, Valt creates the stones himself and asks the gnome to spin them.

This too is imbued with elemental power making it similarly solid, and with Indu Fumnis and his own mana helping to spin the stones, a quite decent defensive magic is created.

The physical force of rotation is converted back into magical power, creating a barrier far stronger than a regular Stone Shield.

But to Elias, it looks utterly crude.

‘You think you can block my decisive technique with something like that? Your arm will pay the price!’

“Haaah!!”

BOOM!!

Elias’s battle cry accompanies the collision between her decisive technique and Valt’s defensive magic.

KRRRUNG!

The clash of powerful aura and mana creates a shockwave that even people far away can feel.

Drip-

Plop-

Blood flows from Valt’s arm and falls to the ground.

“Hmm, powerful indeed.”

Despite bleeding, Valt’s tone remains calm, while Elias looks utterly shocked.

“N-No way!!??”

Elias’s rapier did pierce through the defensive magic, but it only inflicted a slight wound on Valt’s forearm.

‘I-I need to pull back quickly!’

But Valt wouldn’t let Elias have her way so easily.

“Hup!”

He flexes his forearm muscles strongly, causing them to clamp down on Elias’s slightly embedded sword, gripping it firmly.

“It-It won’t come out!!”

Having missed the timing to withdraw her sword, Elias’s slender waist is seized by Valt’s enormous hand.

Grab-!

“Nngh!!”

The desperate Elias lets go of her sword and uses both hands to try to break free from Valt’s grip, but his firmly fixed hand doesn’t budge an inch.

“What kind of strength is this!!”

Elias is dumbfounded that she can’t break free even using her aura.

Yet strangely, she feels no pain.

As she struggles, Elias’s eyes meet Valt’s.

Grin-

Shudder!

Elias gets goosebumps at Valt’s smile.

Showing his snow-white teeth in a grin, Valt says:

“Caught you. Let me give you an interesting experience.”

“W-What?”

Valt throws the struggling Elias straight up toward the ceiling.

‘Control the strength, control it. It would be troublesome if she dies.’

Whoooosh!!

“Kyaaaah!!”

The arena’s barrier is higher than expected.

At least 50 meters high.

Having successfully controlled his strength, Valt sends Elias flying through the air without hitting the barrier.

The spectators in the arena look on in shock.

“Th-That that that that!!!”

“Kyaah! Princess!!”

Seeing this, the Emperor puts his hand to his forehead and says bitterly:

“He’s holding back quite a bit…”

The Emperor himself had experienced this technique when sparring with Kwan.

Being a 9th Floor powerhouse, the Emperor wasn’t greatly harmed even when thrown kilometers into the sky, but this brute-force throw is quite difficult to block without taking damage.

From the beginning, one should never let a Gerungtu warrior grab them.

“Kyaaaaa!!”

As Elias begins to fall, Valt prepares his attack.

Elias notices Valt’s arm terrifyingly swelling with magical power.

‘W-What technique is that? A-Arm!? What is that monstrous arm!?’

“Just so you know, this is the technique that shattered a golem.”

Upon hearing Valt’s words, goosebumps cover Elias’s entire body, and every sense in her body sounds an alarm.

If she gets hit by that, she’ll die.

The distance between her and Valt is now just 20 meters.

Feeling the fear of death, Elias desperately shouts:

“I surrender!! I surrendeeer!!”

The moment he hears this, Valt releases all his magical power and slowly extends his arms forward to prepare to catch Elias.

Valt’s strategy to force a surrender has worked.

Expecting an impact due to the height, Elias gathers her aura to brace herself.

But the moment Elias falls into Valt’s arms in a princess carry—

Pong-

A strange sound is heard, and Elias feels no impact at all.

“Huh? What?”