Ch 15: Duel and Humiliation

Leyla was really enjoying the look of despair on this man's face and she was very grateful to her son for giving her this opportunity.

But only this much was not enough. The baron had more humiliations to endure. Leyla was not a sadistic woman but enduring so much hardship with her son, she could not help herself but to enjoy the downfall of her source of hardship.

With that in mind, Leyla looked at the baron as if he was a worm and then started talking with the royal envoy. She told him that after seeing the baron and how he behaved, she was very disappointed in his ability and believed that he was unfit to rule the city.

Hearing them talking about his qualification as a noble, the baron was losing his mind. But then suddenly he remembered something written in the customs of this nation and started shouting again.

What he remembered was one of the founding customs of this nation. Accordion to the decree of the first king, if a noble felt like they were getting treated unfairly by their superior, then that noble was allowed to challenge their superior to a duel before the throne.

In a duel before the throne, both sides were not equals. The person who had made the challenge needed to put his everything in line but the person who was challenged would only have to fulfill one wish of the challenger.

So inherently this duel was unfair. But it was one of the rare legitimate ways how someone could defy their superior.

Immediately after remembering this, the baron challenged Leyla for a duel before the throne. Baron Lapis was not the strongest amongst the noble present here but he was confident that he was definitely stronger than this woman who was sickly for most of the time during the last decade.

In the Divine Awakening ceremony, the baron was too focused on Alexis to witness anything that Leyla did there. So he had no idea that in the last year, she had changed drastically.

The royal envoy was there and with his authority he was capable of making this duel official. This had always been a part of Alexis' plan and the royal envoy was told about this. So he almost immediately agreed to the duel.

Alexis was sure that in his desparation, the baron would remember this rule. Due to the his nature, Lapis was definitely going to underestimated his mother who was just a weak woman in the Baron's eyes. So Alexis was planning to take advantage of that.

...

This duel was going to happen in the practice ground of the baron's manor. All the nobles who had attended the party came to witness this. It was quite rare for duel before the throne to happen so all the entertainment lacking nobles were looking forward to it.

Both of the participants of the duel were given one hour to prepare. During that wait, all the nobles were busy speculating who was going to win this.

They were familiar with the Baron's powers. And even though it was nothing too impressive, the baron was not weak either.

Baron Lapis had two skills. One allowed him to cover his body parts in ice and another one gave him high talent to learn martial arts.

With that second talent the baron had an easy time learning martial arts and with the layer of ice covering his fists and feet, his punches and kicks were stronger than most.

Not only that but the baron also had a C + grade aura affinity, which was quite impressive and he also had mid grade affinities for both water and ice element, which matched his ability very perfectly. All in all, the Baron's strength was not low at all.

As for lady Leyla who was going to fight against him, the nobles had no idea about her powers. She was born as a commoner and was just one of the concubine of an insignificant baron. So no one had paid any attention to her.

But if she was married to a man like the baron, then their was a very high chance that she had a mediocre talent and potential. As if she actually had high talent, she would not need to marry a baron like this.

...

As the speculations were running rampart, soon it was time for the duel to begin. The baron was the first to appear on the training field while wearing his best gear.

He was wearing a light armour made using the hide of a rock boar. This armour was quite tough and would not be easily damaged. He was also wearing a necklace with a blue gem attached to it that boosted the power of the ice element.

From all the preparations he had made, it was obvious that even though baron Lapis was very confident in his victory, he was still taking this duel seriously. After he took his position as the challenger, finally it was Leyla's time to take to the field.

In complete opposite of baron Lapis, Leyla did not looked prepared for the duel at all. She was still wearing the evening gown from the party.

The only thing that indicated that she was in this practice ground to fight and not to dance was a sword that she was holding in her arms.

Among the nobles quite a few of them were familiar with many warriors and were powerful warriors themselves. They were quite impressed Leyla with just a single look.

The way she held the sword and was walking, it was clear that she was not an amateur with the sword and had experience in handling it. Now they were looking forward to the duel as it looked like this duel was not going to be as onesided as they had thought.

...

At the start of the duel both participants stood about ten meters away from each other. Then baron Loaps took a martial arts stance while Leyla took an one handed sword stance.

As soon as the signal for the start of the battle was given, baron Lapis made his move. He used a long distance elemental art and several water bullets appeared around him.

He then sent the bullets flying toward Leyla as a probing move. He was not expecting to win the battle easily with just a single move but this move was ideal in checking how strong this woman actually was.

As the bullets were not very fast, many nobles had expected Leyla to dodge them. Some had even expected her to cut them down with her sword. But what Leyla actually did was something that none of them had expected.

She completely disregarded the water bullets coming toward her and moved in to attack the baron with her sword. Her footwork was graceful but steady at the same time.

Soon it became clear why Leyla disregarded the water bullets. It turned out that without anyone except some of the experienced nobles noticing, she had created a barrier of wind around herself. Those water bullets were not strong enough to penetrate her barrier, so she was able to completely disregard that attack.

As she moved in to attack the baron, he became serious and created ice on his fists and legs. Then he also moved toward Leyla to fight her in close quarters combat.

Lapis was trained in a martial arts called "Rivers and Mountains Style". So he attacked Leyla with martial skills of that battle art. In response, Leyla used the swordplay style that her dear son had created just for her, the "Rising of Wind Dragon" style.

Most of the people were expecting a somewhat close battle but that did not happen at all. As soon as their styles clashed, the superiority of one was revealed.

In just six moves, Leyla not only managed to destroy the ice on the Baron's fists and legs. She almost severed his head with a well placed sword strike. That did not happen only because Leyla stopped at the correct time.

Even then the sharp wind wrapping around her sword managed to create a swallow cut on the Baron's neck. Feeling the pain there and blood gushing out from the wound, the baron finally understood that even in battle he was no match for this woman before him and his face turned deadly pale.

Many terrible things had been happening to him throughout the whole day. This fatal threat was the final nail in his coffin and the baron was unable to withstand the stress anymore. So he immediately fainted.

So the duel came to an end, with a valiant Leyla proudly standing upright against the baron who was fallen and pathetically lying on the ground.