357 Garden

The first four Duels were... normal. That was the best way to describe it. Certainly, those children were indeed rather capable for their age, but there was nobody special amongst them. They were average at best, even if it was extraordinary for their age.

Eiro let out a deep sigh and turned his head toward James, "That stuck-up kid, how does he compare to all these others?"

James thought about it for a moment before simply shrugging, "He's probably just barely capable of beating all those kids even if they came at him all at once, I guess."

"..." Eiro silently looked at that kid, before grumbling quietly to himself, "And a kid like that is matched up against my Arc..? Are they underestimating him or something..?" The Demon clicked his tongue, while James just smiled wrily.

"No, he just hasn't been sticking out too much. The techniques you taught him are all very straight-forward. They're 'kill techniques', and not 'show techniques'. Most people here are used to the latter, so the former seem weak to those that don't know the art all too well." James explained, so Eiro crossed his arms with a deep sigh, "That means that this fight won't be going on for too long, then."

Eiro looked at the two children preparing for the fight. Of course, as they were students, this duel couldn't be fought with real weapons, so instead they were blunt weapons. Both wore thin armor that would detect an attack, and if the person received enough damage, they would lose the duel. It was as simple as that.

The Demon figured that Arc should be able to finish this in... Well, just a hit or two, if he went all-out.

The two boys stood in front of each other before the referee let out a loud whistle, signaling the start of the fight.

That stuck-up boy immediately jumped at Arc, while Arc himself just kept standing there. And Eiro realized from his stance that he wasn't trying to finish this fight quickly, but rather... flashily. With large, open motions, the boy swung his greatsword at Arc, who swiftly slid to the side and reached the boy's back.

Quickly, Arc swung his blade down and hit the Armor, but no damage was registered despite the direct attack against it. The audience started laughing immediately, thinking that Arc may be fast but weak, but Eiro knew what he was trying to do. And he was glad that he was. This would be pretty funny, later.

For the most part, the fight was filled with the boy continuosly trying to swing his blade at Arc. Meanwhile, Arc would dodge and continuosly hit certain parts of the boy's joints.

But of course, Arc wasn't trying to damage the boy, rather, he was trying to damage the armor in specific ways. Of course, the fact that the audience was slowly realizing that something was wrong as well, and the boy was starting to become agitated at this situation, made it that Arc was able to reach the end-stage of his plan rather quickly.

He stood in front of the boy with a broad smug, ��Wow, I didn't think you'd be this weak." Arc laughed quietly, but the boy just ground his teeth and once more swung his sword at Arc, this time it was a horizontal slash, however. Arc caught the attack with his own blade, and easily so. 

He diverted it down into the ground and got the sword stuck there. And then, with ease... Arc kicked the center of the boy's chest.

The boy flew back about two or three meters as his grip on his blade loosened. But that wasn't all that loosened. The whole armor fell apart along the joints that Arc had been focusing on during the fight, and the boy was now completely defenseless. He really didn't look like a contestant anymore.

With a soft smile, Arc approached the boy and held the tip of his dull blade against the boy's throat, "I think this fight has been decided, hasn't it?"

And just like that, the referee called the duel to be over as well. Obviously, it was Arc's overwhelming win. With a broad smile on his face, he turned toward Eiro and waved at him, before joining the other students in the row they had formed again.

All eight students that were standing there were staring at Arc with confusion on their faces, unsure what actually just happenedd right there, but Arc himself just kept smiling, not caring for what was going on around him. That was very much like him. Although, Eiro hoped that he would be calmer when he had his conversation with him later on...

Anyway, at this point, it was going to be Eiro's turn now. He would need to show off his abilities as well, although he really didn't think about how he was going to do that just yet.

After a bit of thought, Eiro came up with a good idea to at least demonstrate his magic, although showing off his combat skills would be tough without an opponent.

Well, for now, after the announcer finished his speech and everyone else cleared the arena, Eiro stood in the center of the place.

And with a snap of his finger, Nelli appeared next to him again. But not only Nelli, but also Gondos and Sarius.

"Wh-What is this? Three spirits, summoned by the same man? How wonderful, it seems like we have a Summoning Specialist here!" The announcer exclaimed, but Eiro's laugh quickly echoed through the arena, "You might think so, but I'm not particularly a 'specialist'. This is just the start of what I can do, you see?"

Eiro laughed slightly and quickly proceeded to turn his head toward the three spirits. With quick nods, they confirmed that they were ready. And of course... Eiro chose to show of a particular ability of his.

This was the form that he wanted to become part of the Hero's party, on top of becoming an S-Rank Adventurer. Of course, Eiro had to show off some of his abilities. Because in the end, even if he did do that, it didn't matter. The kinds of people that would be a threat to him would be able to find out about these abilities somehow anyway.

Eiro grasped the cloak he was still wearing and quickly placed it into his treasury, revealing the white-golden armor that he was wearing. The Demon pressed his hand onto the center of his armor, and it slowly changed its color. It turned into a gray tone, like the color of rock, and took on a similar texture as well.

Swiftly, Eiro and Gondos got to work. The Demon supplied mana to the Golem, who then created rock that Eiro could manipulate with his hand with ease. And what he did was basically terraform this arena. A small hill, a hole here and there, some of the ground loosened up... That was basically it, though. So, Eiro was done with that pretty quickly. 

Then, it was Nelli's turn. With her water, he created a small pond and an artificial river running throughout the arena. Of course, this also happened in mere moments, fast enough for people to miss if they looked away for a moment.

Now, Eiro changed his armor away from its 'Water' mode and instead tuned it toward 'Nature'. All this didn't have a direct effect on his magic... But it looked more impressive.

Eiro pushed his hand into his bag and threw the contents into the air. A few moments later, grass grew all over the place, and even some flowers sprouted. This place was really turning into a garden now.

And then, the Demon let out a deep, long sigh as his armor took on a black color, even giving off black mist. Darkness spread out from him and soon enveloped the whole arena. The barrier had been deactivated according to the Demon's wishes, and the darkness quickly spread itself throughout the whole are. It was so dark that it seemed like night suddenly came, which was exactly what Eiro wanted.

Suddenly, from within that darkness, numerous tiny flames appeared. Like stars floating right in front of the faces of the audience.

Small crystals of ice that were lit up through flames created by Sarius, as part of the Spirit's precision training of course. And right in the center of the sky above the arena, a large orb of glowing ice floated like the moon. Eiro had combined ice with fire again, and created this phenomenon just like that.

And what the people now saw was Eiro with his white golden armor standing in the center of a beautiful garden, lit up by an artificial moon during the night that magically came to be during noon. Snow fell from the sky and reflected the light of the stars floating above the heads of the audience.

All of this didn't even take a minute to create. And it was just one man that made this possible. And now, Eiro's voice spread out through this whole scenery, "Now, even if I may be of common birth, I hope you are aware that I am capable enough to be a teacher at this Academy. If I can do something like this in a minute, what do you think I'll be able to teach to these children in six months?"

Eiro looked around himself with a broad smile on his face, and then snapped his fingers. The darkness disappeared instantly, and everyone was blinded momentarily, which was enough time for Eiro to make the rest of his magic disappear without a trace as well. Now, he was just standing there in the center of the arena that seemed to be the exact same as it was just a few minutes prior.

Of course, the only reason that this worked was because this whole 'Garden' was just a big magic circle that Eiro created. It didn't have much of an effect, really, it would just give Eiro back some of the magic that he used to cast all of this in the first place, but the magic circle consumed the whole spell and as such made it possible for everything to disappear all at once.

And with that, it seemed like there was not a single person left that was able to underestimate Eiro any longer. Even James was more than just shocked at what just happened, and his children sitting amongst the Audience were energetically cheering for the Demon.

Everything was working out just like Eiro had planned. He turned his head toward the viewing room, where all those Nobles were seated and staring down at Eiro in confusion, while Lognir and Solomon couldn't help but laugh because of their shocked expressions.

However, there was one thing that worried Eiro. Neither the expression, nor the heartbeat, nor anything at all had changed in the Queen since Eiro started this performance.