Chapter 163 Fighting the Red Moon Academy
"You're my next opponent? That's not a very funny joke, Leo. You're already participating in the Magic Tournament, which is a complete waste of slots, by the way." Troy spoke with a nervous grin on his face.
"So what if I am participating in the Magic Tournament? I am also participating in the Knight Tournament." Leo calmly said.
"What?! Is that even possible?!" Troy immediately turned to look at Thalia, as did the audience.
Under the gaze of everyone there, Thalia nodded her head with a carefree smile, "Yup! Leo Magnus has set a precedent and will be participating in both tournaments. This has been approved by our organization."
The audience immediately went into an uproar, "Holy shit! This is truly unprecedented!"
"This changes everything! If Leo is participating in the Knight Tournament as well, they might not lose!"
"As much as I hate to admit this, he's definitely one of the strongest swordsmen in this city."
Now that the audience was aware of the truth, many of them regretted betting on the Red Moon Academy.
Most of them voted against the Four Witches Academy because they thought that Leo wasn't participating in the Knight Tournament, but that turned out to be false.
Of course, nobody can blame these people, as nobody has ever participated in both Knight and Magic Tournament at once.
After all, these tournaments were back-to-back, meaning that you won't get any time to rest in-between the matches if you participated in both.
After consuming the Mana Suppressing Pill, Leo pointed his sword at Troy and spoke, "What are you waiting for? Get your ass back here so I can finish this already."
Troy tightened his grasp on his sword and returned to the stage with a nervous expression on his face.
'There's no need to be nervous. I heard that he's got amnesia after going missing for three months. He's probably still injured.' Troy tried to convince himself that Leo wasn't as strong as before, boosting his own morale.
After all, if Leo was as strong as before, then he'd have no chance of winning.
Once the two of them were in position, Thalia started the match.
Whoosh!
Troy made the first movement and rushed at Leo.
As for Leo, he merely stood there with his sword placed in front of him.
"Ha!"
Troy released a loud shout as he slashed his sword that moved with extreme speed.
Clang!
However, Leo managed to block it with ease.
"Is that all?" Leo asked in a low voice, startling Troy, who immediately jumped back to gain some distance.
Leo remained in his spot, almost as though he was provoking Troy to approach him.
After waiting for a few moments without any results, Troy had ran out of patience and had no choice but to approach Leo instead, and he would unleash a flurry of slashes.
'This bastard! His fighting style has changed!' Troy cursed inwardly when Leo blocked all of his attacks with ease and with minimal movement.
This wasn't his first time fighting Leo, as they'd fought each other during the previous tournaments, and Leo would normally be the aggressive one.
However, this year, Leo was the complete opposite, and he was almost like a turtle that only focused on defense.
But Troy will soon realize that he was wrong, as the moment he made a mistake, Leo stepped forward and shoved his sword, striking Troy directly in the heart with the tip of his blade.
If it weren't for the protection magic in the stadium, Troy would have died on the spot right there and then, but because the protection exists, Leo's blade penetrated an inch into Troy's body before it was forced to stop.
However, the protection magic did not stop the impact from the strike, and Troy was sent flying off the stage.
In a little over a minute, Leo had defeated his opponent without moving from his spot.
The audience were in awe, but they were not surprised, as they have seen Leo's superb swordsmanship before.
"Next!" Leo said as his gaze focused on the last fighter from the Red Moon Academy.
The student entered the stage, and the fight started shortly after.
This time, Leo didn't play defensively and went full offense.
His opponent was quickly overwhelmed, and in less than a minute, Leo achieved his victory, gaining another point for the Four Witches Academy.
"Oh my! What an upset! Leo Magnus has managed to turn the tide and defeated two opponents by himself!" Thalia shouted in excitement.
Leo swallowed the antidote and walked off the stage.
"G-Good job, Leo." Cora said to him in a somewhat nervous voice.
Leo silently nodded in acknowledgement.
The Magic Tournament began shortly after.
"Are you going to send me this time?" Leo asked Eve.
"I want everyone to have a chance to stand on the stage," she said. "If I send you and you win all of the matches by yourself, the others might hate you even more. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of chances later. I promise."
Sometime later, both academies sent out their first fighter.
"John. You're up." Eve said.
John nodded with a calm face and approached the stage, his body oozing with confidence.
"John Cloven." John introduced himself with a respectful bow.
"Douglas Woods. Nice to meet you." His opponent returned the bow.
Once they were in position, Thalia started the match.
The mana around the stage immediately began to fluctuate as both fights began casting their spells.
"Wind Cutter!"
"Lightning Bolt!"
A sharp blade made of wind came from Douglas while a ball of lightning emerged from John's wand.
'Lightning magic affinity, huh? How unexpected.' Leo thought to himself after seeing John's magic affinity for the first time.
'Now that I think about it, I don't know Valery's magic affinity either.' He just realized this.
After releasing his first magic spell, John immediately went to cast his second one.
"Lightning Spear!" In less than a second, John summoned a lightning rod that was crackling with electricity.
His opponent reacted as quickly and summoned a wall of wind to protect himself, but the Lightning Spear penetrated the wind wall. However, Douglas' intention was only to delay the Lightning Spear for a split second so that he could dodge it.
Their match left the spectators on the edge of their seats. Compared to the previous matches, this one was incredibly fast-paced.