“This one is on me. I should have taken into the account the possibility of the participants having some sort of past that once triggered by a certain phrase would throw them into a wild rage.”

Although the duel ended up in favor of the magicians, Devios sighed, shaking his head over the way it was won.

“Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Look, even if he is under mana depletion, he is taking it extremely well.

Metavicero waved her hand dismissively and reassured the blue-haired young man.

“That said, I should be next, right? I will make sure to not give you a headache.”

“You better be. If not you will be the one responsible for nursing me back to health.”

The white-as-snow young woman breathed out and straightened her back with a confident smile, to which Devios responded lightheartedly.

“Pfft, yeah, you wish.”

Metavicero snorted, seemingly unbothered.

While that happened, Noex returned to his group where he was greeted by a bouncy Terez who still kept his indifferent expression.

“Yay~! Thanks for protecting me!”

Terez cheered, putting his fist out.

“Shut up. I would have defeated her even if she wasn’t perving over you.”

Noex scoffed, looking to the side to hide his embarrassment but he bumped his fist against Terez’s anyway.

“Noex! Congratulations on winning! Are you okay though? You must have used a lot of mana, aren’t you feeling worse? Do you want to sit down or lay down?”

As the two moved a bit further back to where they had a bench provided, Reo who was occupying the spot perked up and asked with a worried voice.

“…I’m… I’m fine…”

Noex blushed, glancing at Reo’s lap as if it was a spot included in the offer, and stepped to the side, sitting a respectable distance away from the young woman.

“Te-he~ I see what’s going on~”

“Shut up!”

Terez teased his friend without his indifferent expression ever budging, making Noex blush even harder.

“The third duel will be between miss Metavicero and the youngest high-ranking disciple of the Unyielding Pride sect, mister Lionel Diorenn!”

From the slightly bothered voice of the teacher announcing the next matchup, it was easy to tell that things weren’t going exactly according to the overall plan – and honestly, that was like a soothing melody for Devios’s ears.

“I’m off.”

“Have fun.”

Metavicero moved first, even before her opponent, and entered the arena after nodding at Devios who nodded back encouragingly.

Once she was in the arena, she was the first emember of the magicians’ representation who made the watching martial artists start murmuring amongst each other.

Reo looked normal for their standards, the same with Noex. Brown hair and green eyes and brown hair and brown eyes weren’t uncommon in the slightest, but then there was Metavicero.

A person without a trace of color in her body.

If she stood in front of a freshly snow-covered field, she would disappear.

She literally looked out of place in the world brimming with different colors.

And there was the case of her favorite white one-piece dress and sandals that were almost as out of place as her color.

Then, her opponent showed up.

Despite having the title of the youngest high-ranking disciple of his sect, he was at least eighteen or nineteen, he was tall, muscular, and had this wildness in deep-brown eyes. His hair was so gold that he could be mistaken for a light magician given the proper distance.

“I am looking for a proper fight that would challenge my abilities, and you aren’t even taking it seriously.”

Lionel’s first words towards Metavicero were a complaint.

“What makes you think that?”

The white-as-snow young woman tilted her head and asked, raising her brow in confusion.

“The way you are dressed. It’s not proper attire for a fight. Unless you are a master in the law of Virgo and take pleasure in exposing yourself.”

The young man declared with a serious expression while taking a well-practiced stance in preparation for the official start of the duel.

“Sounds like you aren’t really strong, what a shame.”

Metavicero responded with a disappointed sigh and a light shrug.

“…what is that supposed to mean…?”

Lionel frowned and asked without breaking his focus.

“If you are bothered by an attire, you clearly haven’t practiced enough, not to mention underestimating your opponent like that… All of that is an easy way to an embarrassing defeat.”

Metavicero explained lightheartedly looking to the side as if the gold-haired marital artist was not a threat at all.

“Begin!”

“Law of Leo! Law of Capricorn! Law of Aries! Law of Taurus!”

The teacher called out and Lionel activated his laws without delay and launched himself at the white-as-snow young woman, stopping right in front of her with his hand raised for a devastating punch.

“And now I will show you how wrong you are in everything you just said!”

The young man abandoned the prime chance to strike to inform his opponent in a mocking voice.

“No. You will not.”

Metavicero declared with a grim expression, raising her hands and taking a battle stance on her own.

“SHOW HER WHY OUR SECT BEARS THE NAME OF UNYIELDING PRIDE, LIONELL!”

“Hmph~!”

The current contestant seemed to have vocal supporters this time around as voices from the audience raised to encourage him – to which he led confidently and attacked, throwing together an entire combo…

*THUMP*

Just to slam unconscious at Metavicero’s feet seconds later without landing a single hit.

“Wha…!?”

Even the teacher watching over the duels could not believe what he just witnessed.

“Wow. Geroizen would be ashamed to see the pathetic state of the so-called high-ranking disciples of his father’s homeland.”

Metavicero shook her head while shaking her hands as her knuckles became pink after landing repeated lighting-fast hits upon the law of Aries’augumented hits on Lionel.

“Teacher~? Can you announce the result? Or should I use magic to make it more obvious?”

The young woman looked towards the middle-aged martial artist and asked lightheartedly, but it seemed that the man had a problem with accepting the outcome this time.

It was because it looked like Metavicero had defeated a martial artist… with martial art and not magic, beating him at his own game.

There could hardly be a more humiliating way for that fight to end…𝑂𝑽𝐿xt.𝗰𝒐𝐌

…or was there…?

“I only ask for a fair trea…”

“…law of.. Aquarius…”

*WHOOOSH*

While Metavicero stepped away from the defeated opponent and addressed the teacher, Lionel did manage to regain at least a shred of consciousness and activated another star power that expanded from his body and hit against the talking young woman.