Chapter 42: 21.1

Chapter 21-1: Fury of the Baguette (1)

The True Light Church was an extremely powerful entity, and even many of the noble families were sucking up the church in fear of being accused of the completely arbitrary crime of blasphemy. As a result, even a priest of the True Light Church would be treated with more respect than some minor nobles.

"That's probably it," Onean replied. In her eyes, the True Light Church was nothing more than a tumor that was going to spell trouble sooner or later.

"Your Highness, did you investigate the baguette because he's going to be my opponent for the next round?" Erwin asked as he turned to Onean with a smile. "I didn't think that you were so concerned for me, Your Highness."

Onean couldn't help but burst into laughter upon hearing mention of the word "baguette", and she replied, "You really are self-centered, aren't you? I didn't investigate him, I just asked around to see if anyone knew anything about him."

"Is that right?" Erwin asked with a skeptical expression.

Onean ignored his playful skepticism as she put on a serious expression. "All jokes about his appearance aside, it's clear that he's quite a petty and malicious individual, so you really should be careful during your match against him."

"So you really are concerned about me, after all," Erwin concluded with a self-assured nod.

Onean rolled her eyes in a resigned manner. "I'm just worried that I'll have to waste more magic ingredients on you if you end up half-dead again! It took my teacher and me a lot of hard work to gather those ingredients."

"Ah, I see, I completely understand, Your Highness," Erwin replied with a smug expression.

Onean was struck by the urge to strangle Erwin at the sight of his infuriating expression, but she refrained from doing so as that would be completely unbefitting of her status as the princess.

...

As Erwin stepped onto the competition platform again, all of the spectators immediately erupted into cheers and applause for this young man who had brought them one breathtaking surprise after another. This was also why Erwin was only planning to participate in one edition of the Pillow Sword Tournament. He wanted to finish on a high and leave behind a perfect legacy. Perhaps next time, he wouldn't have the courage to risk his life for these matches, and that would disappoint the spectators who had come to expect more out of him.

He swept his gaze around the tournament venue, but Lana was still nowhere to be found.

Lana's avoiding me, while Onean's match is the next one, so she's still most likely in the contestants' passageway. It's a little lonely without my two loyal cheerleaders around, he thought to himself with a glum expression.

As for Brad, he was completely unfazed by the thunderous cheers directed toward his opponent, and his eyes had been fixed firmly on Erwin this entire time.

At the same time, he was completely empty-handed and didn't seem to be carrying any weapons or staves, so Erwin had no idea whether he was a magician or a martial artist.

As soon as the match began, Brad whipped his sleeves through the air, and a pair of short swords that were no more than a foot in length slid into his hands. He then charged directly toward Erwin, enhancing his own speed with advanced agility techniques as he did so.

Erwin recalled that Onean's opponent for the first round had also used this type of short, bladed weapon. As such, he was able to deduce that his opponent was most likely a martial artist who also specialized in assassination.

In the face of an opponent like this, Erwin's best choice would be to release a domain-type spell, something like the ice and snow domain that Onean had unleashed during her first-round match to slow down her opponent. However, Erwin had been focused almost entirely on studying ancient advanced spells, so he was still very much a novice when it came to domain-type spells. All of a sudden, it made sense to him why Professor Hawk was always denouncing him for being lazy.

Thus, he could only unleash a dozen ice spears toward Brad in a row, then used his signature space split technique to open up some distance between himself and his opponent. However, those simple ice spears were easily dealt with by a few slashes from Brad's short swords.

Having opened up some distance between the two, Erwin's plan was to observe his opponent from afar, but much to his surprise, his opponent's short swords were already close to striking his face.

"What the hell?!" Erwin exclaimed with an alarmed expression. Only then did he discover that a pair of silver chains that were each around three to five meters in length were attached to the tail-end of the two short swords. Prior to this, the chains had been concealed up Brad's sleeve, so Erwin had failed to spot them.

As it turned out, Brad had already hurled his short swords through the air while dealing with Erwin's ice spears. However, what was most astonishing to Erwin was that Brad was able to predict the placement of his space split technique.

Erwin raised his left hand to conjure up a mirror of ice, which was struck by Brad's pair of short swords and instantly shattered, but as a result, the momentum of Brad's weapons was also significantly blunted.

With a sharp tug on the two chains attached to the pair of short swords, Brad was instantly able to regain control of his weapons before sending them whistling toward Erwin's face again with unbridled killing intent.

It looks like he's holding a massive grudge toward me for making fun of his appearance, but why is he constantly going for my face? It's not like I'm a pretty boy like Jeff or something, Erwin thought to himself with tightly furrowed brows.

All of a sudden, the two flying swords struck the outer wall of Erwin's light shield, and they were instantly stopped cold in their tracks.

"Go, Erwin!" The cheering from the spectators became even more deafening at the sight of Erwin's signature ability.

Seeing as Erwin had conjured up his light shield, a hint of urgency crept into Brad's eyes, and with another tug of the silver chains, the pair of flying swords instantly flew back into his grasp, following which he charged directly toward Erwin to engage him in close-quarters combat.

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What all of the spectators expected to see was Brad unleashing a string of attacks upon the light shield, much like Erwin's spear-wielding opponent had done during the last round, but to everyone's astonishment, Erwin voluntarily withdrew his own light shield. 

As a result, the series of attacks that Brad had prepared struck nothing but empty air in the sudden absence of the light shield.

Taking advantage of Brad's moment of disorientation, Erwin unleashed a flurry of instant-release spells directly toward his chest, then departed gracefully from the scene using another space split technique.

Brad was momentarily rooted to the spot after being struck by that flurry of instant-release spells, and he could feel all types of negative status conditions spreading through his body.

However, this wasn't enough to stop him, and he swept his silver chains through the air again to send his flying swords hurtling directly toward Erwin.

How is he able to predict the placement of my space split techniques so accurately? Erwin was stunned by his opponent's foresight. On both of these occasions where he had used his space split technique, Brad's flying swords had reached him as soon as he reappeared.

Thus, Erwin could only conjure up his light shield again to ward off the attack.

This time, Brad had learned his lesson, and he wasn't in a hurry to approach Erwin. Instead, he swept the two silver chains through the air like a pair of whips to viciously lash out at the outer wall of the light shield over and over again.

Erwin could feel that his attacks were far weaker than those of his spear-wielding opponent from the last round. It was clear that someone like Brad, who specialized in assassination techniques, was rather lacking when it came to strength and power.

Thus, Brad was left in a very awkward situation. He knew that his attacks were nowhere near powerful enough to break through Erwin's light shield. If he were to allow Erwin to chant the incantations for the ancient advanced spells in the safety of his light shield, he would undoubtedly end up in the same situation as many of Erwin's opponents from his past matches.

With that in mind, he gritted his teeth and made a decision, charging forward to approach Erwin's light shield again. He didn't know how this spell of Erwin's worked, but what he did know was that it seemed to be extremely taxing for Erwin to use.

As Brad began attacking the light shield with his twin swords again, a faint smile appeared on Erwin's face as he adopted the same strategy as before, withdrawing his light shield before unleashing another barrage of instant-release spells.

This time, Brad was prepared and managed to ward off some of the spells with his twin swords, but he was still struck by a few of the spells. In addition to the spells that he had been struck by last time, the negative status conditions in his body were beginning to pile up.

All of a sudden, Erwin unleashed another space split technique. On this occasion, he arrived directly behind Brad to a chorus of gasps from the spectator stands. 

Immediately thereafter, he unleashed another barrage of instant-release spells toward Brad's defenseless back, and all types of glowing purple spells quickly exploded upon his back one after another.

This time, Brad was finally caught off guard, and he was sent flying through the air before sliding along the ground.

Erwin certainly wasn't going to give his opponent a chance to catch his breath. Before Brad had even gotten up from the ground, another string of instant-release spells had already been sent flying toward him. However, to Erwin's surprise, Brad was extremely resilient. He thrust a palm down onto the ground to send himself tumbling to the side, thereby allowing him to evade this flurry of instant-release spells. However, all of Erwin's spells had extremely potent tracing abilities, so they immediately changed direction to continue flying toward Brad.

For martial artists like Brad who specialized in assassination, speed was paramount, so his reflexes were far faster than these spells. By the time they arrived, he had already gotten up on one knee and crossed his arms to defend himself. Thus, Erwin's spells were successfully negated.

Of course, Erwin wasn't just going to stand by and watch. Instead, he conjured up his light shield again to defend himself in advance. His flexible usage of his light shield during this match infuriated Brad to no end, so much so that it looked as if fire were about to blast out of the two raisins that he had for eyes.

It was clear that Brad had been backed into a corner and was unable to do anything against Erwin's flexible strategy.

Thus, the rest of the match devolved into a completely one-sided drubbing where Erwin did whatever he pleased. He was always able to appear in places that Brad failed to predict with his space split techniques, and Brad was being thoroughly humiliated.

"Over here!"

As soon as Erwin appeared, Brad was struck by a burst of instant-release spells to the forehead.

"Over here!"

A burst of purple light exploded upon Brad's waist.

"Over here!"

Brad was sent flying by an explosion of magic power before he even had a chance to turn around and defend himself.

At this point, Brad was no longer able to predict the placement of Erwin's space split techniques, nor did he have any power to retaliate. As such, he was receiving a one-sided beating from Erwin's instant-release spells, and it was clear that he was holding on through sheer willpower alone. There were a few occasions where he couldn't even get up from the ground after being struck, and even the administrators standing around the competition platform couldn't bear to watch any longer, but so long as the contestant wished to persevere, there was nothing they could do.

The mockery on Erwin's face was further infuriating Brad, and he gritted his teeth and refused to admit defeat as he thought back to how Erwin had embarrassed him in front of Lana on that day.

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