Way of the Knights

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No matter how one rationalizes the stakes of the bet, it was obvious that it didn't benefit Raven in the slightest.

If he won, Zelor only have to leave the Genius Class. Sure it might stain his reputation and all but it won't do any real damage to him nor his family. But if were Raven was to lose, he would become his slave, and this is something that most people would not want to see.

'Are you really sure about this? Do you have any confidence in winning at all?' Mark sent him a voice transmission full of worries.

'Don't worry, just watch.' Raven sent back, his tone was full with overwhelming confidence and since he said it like this, there's nothing that Mark could do nothing other than to follow his words.

Not moving too far away from their spot, Raven and Zelor had a brief staredown.

Victor already came closer and took the position to oversee this battle. Zelor was rather smug, seeing Raven badly exhausted and still had the gall to provoke him, made him thought that he was such an idiot, to think that this guy was supposed to be the son of Hawk, how saddening.

"Are the both of you ready?" Victor asked, Raven and Zelor nodded at the same time. As Victor saw this, he nodded as well and raised his hand while yelling: "Begin!"

On the contrary, both fighters didn't even moved an inch from where they stood. Raven impassively looked at Zelor while the latter started taking things out of his spatial ring. Suddenly, a shiny and bulky armor appeared on his body. His axe were also replaced by another axe, only this one had a better quality than what he used earlier.

Seeing him armed to the teeth made the audience's expressions grim. This guy was stacked, he is certainly loved by his family. The armor that he wears was definitely on the high end, they thought that even if a Veteran Warrior won't leave a dent on his armor. There's also no need to mention the shining golden axe that he held right now.

Comparing appearance of both fighters right now, it was a bit of a depressing sight. Even those who were previously confidence at Raven earlier, were now having second thoughts about his chances.

If there's one person who still had an absolute confidence in him, it would be Luna.

She saw him performed one miracle after another, he did way too much that she became rather used to it. She had no doubts in her mind that Raven will win, it's just in the matter of how.

After arming himself with so much stuff, Zelor felt even more confident about his chances. He looked at Raven with disdain and said: "You still have time to back out, I'll allow it. You just have to beg me for it. I can tell you the words if you want to."

Zelor thought that he could faze Raven's confidence with his equipment and attitude, but he didn't even see his expression change in the slightest.

"All bark, no bite. Still as pathetic as ever."

Infuriated by his blatant disdain of him, Zelor ran towards Raven while holding his axe over his head. With a mighty slash of his axe, its edge failed to even touch Raven's clothes in the slightest as he gracefully evaded during the last second possible.

Nevertheless, Zelor wasn't fazed by this. With even more fervor, he wanted to prove to everyone that everyone should bow down to his prowess and take him as a Lord, royalty or not. He hacked and hacked, shattering the ground beneath Raven. Needless to say, each of his strikes did nothing to injure Raven.

Zelor's strikes became incredibly labored, as time passed he was finding it hard to even lift his axe. With anger rising up to his chest, he recklessly poured his energies onto the edge of his axe and sent a wave towards Raven. Instead of dodging it, Raven did the impossible and met it with his naked hand.

*Dong!*

"Impossible!" Was the only response he could manage to utter. That strike contained a hundred percent of his power yet it was stopped with a hand. How could he accept this?

"Nope. Not impossible." Raven sneered as he replied. "Just plain old me."

With this being said, Raven charged forth and punched Zelor's stomach through his armor. The raw power behind his strike made the metal curved in despite it's toughness. His fist connected on Zelor's stomach, the pain was transmitted and Zelor's whole body buckled and fell onto the ground with a loud thud. The pain was too much that it made Zelor drop his axe, he clutched his stomach and spat gastric acids while going into a fit of coughing.

"Energy Nullifying Steel, a precious and very expensive metal. When forged into an armor, it weakens any incoming energy attacks by a good amount. Unfortunately, the forger is trash, the properties of the metal was preserved but in the cost of it's toughness. It looks impressive, but it's nothing more than that."

Raven's voice was loud enough to be heard all over the whole training field. The exposition about Zelor's armor reached the ears of the audience and made them shocked beyond words. Who knew that he could tell what metal was used in Zelor's armor.

Raven ignored the crowd and moved towards Zelor's axe. He picked it up and inspected it a bit.

"Tri-colored Ore, good conductor of energy. Only, the one that's used in this axe is not a Tri-colored Ore, but rather a Dual-colored Ore, a far inferior version of the former."

"These equipments should've caused you at least hundreds of thousand Gold Cards, and judging by you're attitude, that's just your lunch money, yet it's also the reason why it's so easy to scam you. You have all of this money on your hands yet you can't even hire an appraiser."

The mockery contained in Raven's voice was thick. Although he wasn't sure if Zelor could even hear half of what he said just now. As if that wasn't enough, Raven clenched his fists hard and crumpled the axe like paper. The eyes of the audience nearly popped off their sockets as they saw him do this. What's his hand made of? Iron?

After crumpling the axe, he crouched down and picked up Zelor by his hair. He lifted his head on the same level as his and asked: "Is this the source of your pride and confidence earlier? How disappointing."

Raven's words made Zelor spat blood in anger, but no matter how unwilling he was, he was powerless to do anything to wipe away this miserable appearance of his.

He tried punching Raven, but his attack was caught by him. Raven's fist that could bend steel, clenched hard and broke all of the bones on Zelor's right hand.

Zelor screamed in agony, Raven's hand clamped down like a pair of steel cuffs. The process wasn't bloody at all but they knew just how agonizing this feeling is. Next thing that Raven did was to slam Zelor's face onto the concrete ground, this process broke Zelor's nose for sure.

He slammed his face at least three times before raising him up and asking: "More?"

"Fuck you!"

"More it is."

Raven slammed his knee on Zelor's stomach while letting go of his head. Zelor's body flew towards a rubble, sliding down slowly as he coughed blood and felt like he's fainting.

Zelor couldn't even think properly, he opened his eyes and saw the cold look on Raven's face as he slowly walked down towards his direction.

Zelor's heart was gripped by deep existential fear. Raven looked nothing more than a demon in his eyes, he felt that if he didn't do something right now, then he would truly die in Raven's hands.

"N-No..."

Raven heard Zelor speak, he heard him properly but he feigned it.

"N-No! P-Please..."

"Hmm? What is it? You want more beating?"

Seeing Raven acting like he can't hear him made Zelor incredibly depressed and angry, but these emotions were easily repressed by the fear he had in his heart.

"N-no! Please! No more! I-I admit defeat!"

Zelor screamed out of desperation, he didn't want to die. He wanted to live and enjoy his life to the fullest. So long as he lived, nothing else matters. So long as he lived, he would be able to extract revenge eventually, he would be able to recover his lost reputation, he would be able to nurse himself back to health, he only had to bow his head once and that's it. Snot, tears and blood was shown in his face as he begged for his life.

This is the first time that the Genius Class saw Zelor this miserable. And to think that he experienced this under the hands of none other than a freshman, was something very unbelievable to them.

"Pack your things and leave, you may never show your face in the Genius Class ever again."

Raven's overbearing declaration became the mark that the battle already ended. He turned his back against Zelor and looked at Victor.

"Winner of this battle, Raven! Game end! The 'it' wins!"