DUEL WITH MAPLE SCHOOL OF MAGIC
DUEL WITH MAPLE SCHOOL OF MAGIC
But templars with unique affinities weren't unheard of in the Ten-Kingdoms, the continent that our country was on.
"She must have a Demonic Affinity", I answered myself.
From some of the books in the library, I read about the characteristics of different templar Affinities. There was more than one kind of Affinity in templar magic, and Demonic Affinity was one of them.
A Templar who has the Demonic Affinity has triple the stars in a particular templar realm and in the case of the girl, it was her Momentum sky that was tripled in effectiveness.
"Speeding Demonic Punch"
The girl punched me again and again but no matter how she hit me I was harmless because her punches weren't particularly strong in the first place, so I was undefeatable.
However, the girl was so quick that it was difficult for me to land a punch on her. But frankly, I didn't have any intention to do so because somehow, something inside of me warned me against harming the girl.
As the Demon girl punched me again, I conjured magical vines that surrounded us in a dome, pulling us close together.
"Rings of Growth"
Inside a dome, her speed meant little as I made my move.
"I'm sorry pretty", I suddenly told the Demon girl.
The demon girl's body was pushed close to me as my vines wrapped us in a parcel. There was no opportunity for physical attack between us at this position as her body was pressed onto me and mine onto her.
"Pervert, let go of me", the demon girl screamed at me.
"This is the only way to stop your incredible speed", I replied to her.
But the girl didn't resist the pull of my magical vines as we were locked in a cocoon. She had some other plans as a sinister smile appeared on her lips.
Suddenly, something invisible slashed into my cocoon of vines which destroyed them and the girl was released from the cocoon.
The girl had help in this duel. The help came from some invisible guardians that almost always surrounded her. Guardians who left traces of sulfur and ash in their wake.
"I thought this was a duel between the two of us", I said to the girl.
The Demon girl realized her invisible helpers who helped her fight with me were discovered by me and doesn't want to reveal them to me if the fight continued.
She suddenly raised her hands to the judges of the duel and said, "I surrender".
The audience were shocked by the girl's surrender. Her attitude as a demon girl was known throughout school and it was unlikely, she would surrender without a serious fight.
But she must surrender now because I discovered her secret. The secret about her invisible friends.
"No, let this match be a draw", I told the judges.
I would not let the girl surrender to me when I haven't defeated her yet.
"I surrendered first", the Demon girl said to me.
"Since you can't hurt me and I can't hurt you, let's make this match a draw", I replied to the girl.
"What a draw?"
"But he's definitely stronger than the girl"
"He's doing it because she's pretty"
No matter what I did there would still be some negative comments from the spectators, but I don't care what they think. All I hoped was to make this little Demon girl happy because somehow strangely it would make me feel happy too.
Eirot looked at me strangely and from her looks she felt something too like I did. Somehow, I felt the anger that she felt over me mellowed as she took my hand to shake it as was customary after a friendly duel.
"Let's be friends, your secret is safe with me", I told Eirot who didn't reply to me but from her micro expressions, I could see that she was hiding a smile.
----
"Orion and Eirot both of you are the top-ranked students in our school and I need both of you to duel with the top-ranked students at the Maple School of Templar Magic", headmaster Biggs asked us.
Maple School of Templar Magic was another prominent magic school in Antenne Town and both Maple School and Antenne School were each other's nemesis who chased the rankings for the best school in the town.
It was a tradition that during the end of summer the highest-ranked students at each school would challenge each other to determine the school's rankings in the town.
"Ok, it's just a fight, no problem", I told Biggs.
"Me too", Eirot answered the headmaster.
"I'll have the teacher give you a report on your opponent's strengths and weaknesses", Biggs told us.
After the teacher left us after giving us a report, I was alone with Eirot.
Eirot didn't talk much to me because she was still unhappy that she couldn't defeat me, but I could feel that her animosity toward me decreased quite a bit after I let her win a draw.
"Eirot, we need to get some gears for the competition", I told her.
"Not necessary", Eirot told me.
"You'll need them to fight with the Maple school. You don't want to bring out your invisible friends in the fight, will you?", I told Eirot.
The mention of her invisible friends made Eirot cautious but at the same time she was appreciative of my gesture to her.
Without much thinking, I took her hands to go shopping. Surprisingly she didn't let go of my hands and she felt like she was holding someone in her family, and I knew it because somehow, I could feel her.
-----
There were many items on sale in the Noten House of Magecraft and Antiquities but all of them merely added the equivalent of +11 to +20 to Templar stars which were great if we were ungeared, but not really fantastic against many higher-tiered opponents.
Those items weren't what I was looking for.
"Do you have any conjuring items, especially growth-based ones?", I asked Hugo.
"Growth based conjuring items are difficult to find but I do have something that just arrived", he told us.
"Show us", I asked him.