Letro certainly didn’t respond to that as he figured out that the black-haired boy was merely baiting him into compromising his position with a directed offensive spell that can be easily traced back to its point of origin like a water spear or the water sphere.

But that didn’t mean that he lacked the means of attack.

Without making any sound or revealing himself in any other way that anyone from the audience was able to recognize, Letro showed up more of the ingenuity of a seasoned soldier.

While he did use the water sphere spell, he did not do that close to him and definitely not used it as a projectile either…

”Blub…”

What ended up happening was sudden and shocking to many – a water sphere appeared around the head of the black-haired boy whose body was covered in a shadow despite him standing in the full sun, causing his next exhale to turn into pockets of air that ended up bubbling on the surface of the sphere…

And that’s it – Zoemi did not start panicking nor reacted in any other way – he just stood in place patiently waiting for Letro’s other move as if the water that was blocking his mouth and nose did not bother him in the slightest.

Far from it – he actually looked bored…

Still – Zoemi’s expression wasn’t a sight for the audience to see for too long as within moments the surface of the sphere frosted over as Letro used another spell that turned the liquid’s temperature down, fully intending to crush the boy’s head with the ice if he did not suffocate first.

”…!”

Only when the sphere’s surface was properly frozen did Zoemi make his move and…

…stretched…

*BOOOM*

And as he was done the next thing happened so fast that barely anyone besides the judges caught it – The boy kicked off the arena with such strength that the spot he was standing on turned into a crater as the boy launched himself at a seemingly random direction…

*SPLASH*

*WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM*

”!!!!!!”

He also pulled back his hand and punched down at the empty air – just for it to burst into a fountain of water as it turns out that he ended up not only finding the blue-haired man’s location that he ended up moving to, breaking the defensive water bubble – that could only break when the user’s mana was depleted completely or the mage turned it off himself, he also ended up hitting him square in the face and smashing him to the ground with such force that the entire arena caved in as if hit by a meteor to the point of judges and the group of mages teaming up to protect the audience with their joint water bubble ended up getting thrown around like a bunch of ragdolls.

To make things even scarier, the audience wasn’t completely safe either as their seats trembled and some of them cracked or straight-up broke apart – all from the single punch…!

To make the situation even more ridiculous, the water composing the already broken water bubble conjured by the group of water magicians hired by the Victureo family was falling down on everyone like a summer drizzle.

”…”

While the boy who was the main cause of all of that still had the frozen water sphere around his head, he slowly stood up, relaxing his fist dripping with blood, and turned to the disoriented judges. He just stood there and waited.

As they didn’t seem to be too cooperative – or rather literally had to come to terms with what just happened as the water magicians in the state of a borderline mana depletion next to them were crawling back up to their feet -Zoemi ended up raising his other hand and flicking his finger at the ice encasing his head…

*crack*

Breaking it just like that, revealing his drenched hair and face.

”Anyone wants to check whether I won or not?”

Zoemi asked, swiping his black hair back and smirking mockingly, basically quadrupling the devilish beauty, which coupled with standing in the middle of the crater he made himself in only one hit, with the blood of his opponent slowly dripping from his other hand complementing the picture of an absolute carnage that no one could look away from.

”Just so you know, he is not dead – the bet I made would not have much sense if he would have to honor it in the afterlife.”

The black-haired boy added glancing down and pointing at the twitching body of Letro Auequas with a completely crushed lower jaw and most of his face punched in, to the point of being barely recognizable as belonging to a human.

Honestly – those who didn’t know about the girl with the healing attribute being on duty in the sick bay would most definitely point out that leaving the blue-haired man alive would be an act of cruelty far worse than actually finishing him off.

”~!”

No one announced the end of the duel so Zoemi remained standing in place – although he did end up looking at the audience and once he spotted Miriette his evil smirk turned into an actual smile and he waved to her and waved back as her hair curled up showing her affection even better than a deep blush covering her face.

”…seriously – he is alive at the moment but if he chokes on the blood, teeth, or his own tongue because no one helped him this will not be on me. Also, I will not allow anyone to start healing him as long as the result will not be announced.”

Since Mireitte fidgetted and bashfully lowered her head, Zoemi turned away and stared meaningfully at the judges, who ended up catching the queue and hurried over to him…

”Lord Zoemi Benevi Banemor won the duel!”

…and announced the winner after a single glance…

”Thank you.”

Zoemi breathed out and nodded at them before turning around – after all, since the duel was over he could use other spells so he was fully intending on fixing up the damages to the entire arena just like he did after his first fight.

”FATHER!”

”…father…? Oh? Oh… Ugh…”

But as he was raising his hand as Letro was being carried over to the sickbay someone from the audience called out and rushed towards him, making the black-haired boy sigh and glare their way.