Those who were studying in Mazeroth since they were little knew about Diego’s latest change in behavior and expected trouble. Those who didn’t however curiously stared at the scene to see what was going to unfold.
Diego couldn’t believe a newbie was ignoring him completely. Great insult.
The rule of no duel between students prevented Diego from venting his anger on the alchemist. The giggles and chuckles reaching his ears fanned the flames of his anger.
Once again, Diego menacingly bore his teeth at Michael,
”I challenge you to a duel” Diego exclaimed pointing at Michael,
Still, Diego’s challenge was unable to draw Michael’s full attention. Being ignored in front of all the students as well as his crush did not go well with Diego. If it wasn’t for the rule, Diego would have already cast a spell and initiated the battle.
His eyes began to twitch along with his cheeks in overwhelming anger brewing inside. On the other hand, Michael resumed the training as several dummies materialized before him to fight.
”Go play with someone else” Michael talked to Diego as though he was talking to a child. Plus, he sounded slightly annoyed by Diego which made some giggle.
”Good, at least now I know your pathetic skills are limited to dummies, dummy” Diego snickered as he shot out a bullet of spit onto the ground.
He meant it as a sign of hostility yet Michael remained uncaring. Diego’s anger was soaring through the roof. While the tension between Michael and Diego was gradually rising, the combat professor Steinmeyer made an appearance. She gracefully descended from the sky,
”What’s going on here?” Asked Gaya with a frown looking back and forth at Michael and Diego.
When her piercing gaze landed on Diego, her frown darkened,
The students became stiff in front of her. Although Diego was on the verge of losing his mind, he was still not crazy enough not to give the respect a professor deserved.
”Professor Steinmeyer”
Even Gilrine took the position of standing at ease as though he was a soldier and she was his general.
”Professor, I want to challenge him for a duel,” Diego said with gritted teeth. Gaya could literally hear his teeth gnashing against each other.
She could have simply said yes as per the plan but she turned to look at the pile of dummies for a moment,
”I assume you did this,” She asked Michael pretending not to know,
Michael responded with a simple nod as she turned her gaze back to Diego,
”Let me be clear, you want to have a duel with an Alchemist?”
The students could hear the amusement in her voice,
”If he’s not a chicken” Diego growled. He had absolute confidence in his ability, he was after all a prodigy who has yet to lose a duel. With or without arch energy, he would win, at least he thought like that.
After hearing Diego, she almost burst into laughter. She trained Michael in Serpent maga, one of the deadliest combat styles in the world, and recently, she was having a hard time coping with him. She rarely landed a punch or kick on him. Yet, the clown-looking kid was asking Michael for a duel without having any idea of his skills. The funny thing was Diego had the chance to back off after witnessing what he did to the hardest difficulty dummies which could give a battle-hardened Core Strengthening stage warrior a run of their money.
”I will allow it under one condition”
Gaya gracefully walked toward Diego with her hands behind her back.
”No spells, no runic armaments”
Diego snicked sowing his confidence,
”It’s not fair,” Michael calmly spoke. The students quickly started to speculate and guessed he was trying to back off. Branding him as a coward and a showoff was easier to accept than the fact an alchemist was better than them in terms of combat skills.
”Don’t say you’re having cold feet” Diego revealed a menacing grin onto to be shocked by Michael once again,
”It’s not fair for you. You would have had a tiny chance of making me break a sweat”
His words contained arrogance, dominance and confidence. For most of the students he looked extremely arrogant but for Gilrine, something told him that he had the means to back his words. Of course in Gilrine’s entire life, he had never seen an Alchemist battle a Warrior student and win. Still, Gilrine believed that life was full of surprises.
”Clear the area”
Her voice sounded throughout the training ground like a thunder clap. For a few moments, the students stared at her with bewildered faces. None of them expected the duel would happen then and there.
It only took the students a couple of minutes to back away from where they were initially standing. Soon, the students formed a circle, and Gilrine, Michael, Gaya, and Diego remained in the circle.
In the excitement to see a sudden duel, the students failed to notice Elliot, Bethany, Deacon, and Erika joining them. They stood at last as they would rather not attract any attention to them. Besides, except Elliot, the others couldn’t believe in the Alchemist. Elliot looked into the eyes of Michael and saw a battle-hardened warrior. In the face of a challenge, his face showed no agitation or uneasiness. He was calm, collected, and focused which Diego lacked.
”I hope you have better skills in combat than you have in fashion”
Hearing Gaya’s words, some students couldn’t hold back their laughter. They just burst into laughter, further fanning the anger flame of Diego.
She ascended to the sky to oversee the duel as a professor should. Gilrine also joined her in the air as Diego removed his sparkling jacket and threw it on the ground.
Standing on the opposite side, Michael did nothing. He didn’t even roll the sleeves up but waited for Diego to make his move.
”I don’t have all day” Michael calmly uttered these words finally making Diego dash at him. The closer Diego got, the more excited everyone became. Many students could be seen entering the training grounds in a rush to see the commotion but they never expected to see a duel between an Alchemist and a Warrior.
Immediately the newcomers deemed Michael as the loser when they saw his green robes. Even the Alchemists cursed at him for challenging a Warrior. Outside of the Akilan realm, the Alchemists enjoyed fame, wealth, and stardom. However, in Mazeroth, they were treated as low class. Part of the reason was that Alchemy students failed to come up with new potions and pills to wow everyone for a couple of hundred years while the other students invented new battle skills, runes and forged powerful weapons.
There was also the reason that compared to the other students, Alchemy house contained more subpar talents. They might be prodigies outside but here, they were considered subpar. Coupled with Professor Lane’s cold treatment and constant ridicule, the House of Alchemy had long lost its former glory.
When Diego was just arm’s reach from Michael, he threw his fist at Michael. Despite Diego’s look, his punch was extremely fast and contained enough force to dislocate the jaw bone. Just as the fist was a few inches away from his face, Michael easily evaded the punch. Diego was surprised by his speed yet he quickly threw a punch aiming at Michael’s guts.
This time was no different than the previous one as Michael comfortably and very easily evaded the punch by just taking a step sidewards. The veins were popping out of Diego’s pale skin. He was too mad. Michael however grinned inside, bathing himself in badass points. The constant sound of notifications ringing in his head was exhilarating for him.
Deacon, Bethany, and Erika who had witnessed Diego fight before were completely caught off guard by Michael’s reflection and speed. They had not battled Diego personally but they saw Elliot and Diego train together. In their training, Diego would almost fight head to head with Elliot. Their battle would go for hours before always ending up in a draw. The trio very well knew that Elliot was holding back in the duel so Diego would train harder and harder to win him,
Meanwhile, Diego’s movements evolved to be faster and faster to the point many students had a hard time believing they were fighting without using Arch energy. Each and every punch and kick Diego threw at him was precise, deadly, and elegant which revealed the fact that Diego was taught a powerful deadly close combat technique. If Diego fought someone else, he would have easily won. His bad luck, he met Michael who reached 98% mastery in Serpent Maga. The normal version of Serpent Maga was deadly enough to be ranked as one of the deadliest close combat techniques. After the changes made to the technique by Michael, it evolved into something far more deadlier than any technique in the world.
Because of that, no matter how fast or quickly Diego moved, Michael dodged without breaking a sweat. For Michael, it almost felt like watching a slow-motion movie. He could predict Diego’s moves before even he could make them.
The battle showered him with almost thirty thousand badass points within a few more minutes. Since the rain of badass points was showering him with points, he decided to drag the fight a few more minutes to maximize his earnings.
”Arghhhh” Diego growled as he felt more and more annoyed by the fact that he has yet to land a blow on him. Almost all the students stared at the fight with their mouths slightly opened. They were completely stunned by Michael.
Right at that moment, Edith and Victoria rushed into the training grounds to see the duel.
”You’re right, it is him” The moment Edith saw Michael, she was surprised.
She couldn’t believe Victoria was right to tell her that it was Ghost who was the Alchemist who pissed off a Warrior.
Victoria and Edith squeezed through the crowd to reach the front so they could get a better view of the battle.
”If this is the best you can do, maybe you’re in the wrong house” while evading Diego’s punches, Michael uttered these words. They were not loud but loud enough to reach the ears of every single student.
”Son of a bitch!” Diego raged after hearing those words. Bethany was watching the battle and the thought of him getting played by an Alchemist in front of her stabbed straight through his ego and pride. Unfortunately, he failed to comprehend that Michael was just getting started.