THE WRIST OF FORCE

THE WRIST OF FORCE

At the sight of Hendro being thrown out of the stage, Xavier quickly surrendered, and the Maple School of Templar Magic lost the duel with us.

"Antenne School of Magic wins"

"Huh that was too quick, I want my money back"

"The cheater cheats again"

"The girl is quite cute though"

Obviously, the spectators weren't too satisfied with the result of the battle, but we were.

I knew Eirot was really happy because I could feel her happiness too for winning the battle.

Eirot ran toward me and jumped on me as she heard the result announced. It was a great win that culminated from our long training sessions and hard work.

-----

As the headmasters of both schools were to award a trophy to both Eirot and me, suddenly someone from the Maple School rushed up the stage and shouted at me.

"I challenge Orion of Antenne School to a duel", an older boy challenged me.

"Who are you?" I asked the boy.

"I'm Henricks, Hendro's brother and I would avenge my brother's defeat today", he told me.

"It's not proper. The school duel is over", headmaster Biggs said and protested although the headmaster of the Maple school remained silent.

Maple School lost badly in this match but there was still a chance for Maple School to redeem its dignity if another from their school defeated me. 

So, it was possible the sudden challenge was a ploy.

"This is improper Honebess. You can't challenge again after your school lost the match", headmaster Biggs said to the headmaster of the Maple School.

However, before the two headmasters engaged in a fierce war of the gab, I spoke.

"I would accept your challenge provided you have a good enough wager", I told Henricks.

Henricks was stunned by my request. 

Although he wanted to fight with me, he brought no wager to request a fight with me.

As he stood there not knowing how to proceed, suddenly, Headmaster Honebess from the Maple School of Templar magic came forward and showed me an artifice, the Wrist of Force.

The Wrist of Force was a bracelet much like Eirot's Blue Sapphire Bracelet, but this wasn't a conjuration artifact.

"The Wrist of Force is a rare magic artifact that would combine a templar's Momentum magic into his or her physical attack", Hornbess told us, and the item was one of the treasures of the school.

Any artifact that could enhance physical attacks with the power of a templar realm was truly a rare treasure. There were few such artifacts even in the vaults of the Noten House and I really needed such artifacts.

"Done, I'll accept the duel, the Wrist of Force belongs to me", I told headmaster Hornbess who was taken aback a little by my confidence.

Before the headmaster could change his mind, the teachers quickly came to check Henrick's magic and declared.

"Henricks Venus Tier 6"

"Wow that's more than thirteen levels higher than the bastard prince"

"It's not possible for him to beat that"

"See how he cheat with this guy around"

"Serve the cheater right"

The public opinion of me was really bad. I was after all the King of bad polls.

"I will slap them if they spell such crap about me", Eirot said to me about the loud comments among the crowd who came to watch our fight as the air around her heated up.

Whenever Eirot became angry, there seemed to be invisible forces around her that fired up to reflect her anger.

"Their words mean nothing to me as long as I have your support", I said to her.

But I couldn't be bothered with them, I was only interested in locating Hugo from among the crowd of spectators.

"Over here, what do you want me to do?", Hugo waved at me and asked.

"All in", I shouted at Hugo, and he understood.

-----

"Duel Begins"

Henricks, like his brother Hendro was a Power-based templar, so despite his higher level he would fare not much better than his brother against me. 

Henricks wasn't a fool in my opinion after witnessing how easy his brother was defeated, so he wouldn't challenge me without powerful trump cards in his hand.

Unlike how I fought his brother I did not run to the ledge this time to wait for him to fall over. Instead, I stood there waiting for his attack.

"I'm going to break your head", Henrick told me as he charged with his fist clenched toward me.

"Earthquake Strike Punch"

Henrick's powerful shattering punch was activated by his magic gauntlet, but he didn't hit me. 

"Ring of Growth"

Instead, his punch hit a wall of vines that I created between us. Henrick's punch was powerful and fierce, and he easily broke through my magical vines, but I wasn't behind the vines when he breached it because I leaped a few feet away. 

The purpose of the vines block was to gauge the power of his attack and indeed he was really powerful and if I was hit by him, I would be in serious trouble.

Although I was much faster than him and there was no way he could reach me close enough to hit, I was still cautious because Henrick's enormous power probably wasn't the trump card that I feared. 

So, I dodged around Henricks in the middle of the arena waiting for him to use his hidden move.

"Come on hit him"

"Yeah, we didn't come to watch a dance"

"Yes, the bastard is a coward come and accept the punch"

"Damn I have no wife I should sell my mother to bet on him losing"

The spectators screamed at our lackluster performance but that was fine with me because this was a real fight and not a show to please the audience. 

"I hope you are a bastard", I told the guy who was about to sell his mother to bet against me and gave him a wink.

Henricks was feeling the heat from the spectators' chanting because he must win this battle. The reputation of his school and his future there depended on him winning, so he finally made the move.