Chương 73: Duel of Intimidation

It appeared they had made the stage of the duels, at least the one that was supposed to start it all off, much grander than it had been during Ryland's time. He certainly appreciated the grandiosity of the changes. An enormous, open-air balcony had been prepared for the purposes of the duels. This one was even larger than the hall that had hosted the seminar. The canopy of golden-leaved trees peeked at them from either side, with a few support columns decorated with tiles rising high on either side.

This wasn't the only battlefield for the duels, of course. There were too many students located at far too many different spots all over the academy for this to be the only sanctioned site. Ryland's current location was for special occasions. Such as starting off the semester's duelling. Which he was apparently supposed to be doing. It hadn't quite been his idea to be the absolute first, but he wasn't about to be shown any mercy. The students of Arcoryx Academy were raring to have a go at him.

He had to applaud their ambition, especially in the face of everything that had happened. Admittedly, he had tried to be as discreet as an Incarnation overflowing with magic was capable of being back during the last Incursion of Living Mana. And even then, he'd gotten caught up in that huge meeting with the Headmaster, the High Warden, the Oracle, and all the others. As far as he was aware, the students didn't quite know he was supposed to be an Incarnation.

He wasn't sure they'd have been this eager to duel him if they had. But he had been hearing a lot about the rumours and whatnot supposedly circulating about him. Apparently, said rumours weren't enough to deter students against taking him on in mock magical battles, so here he was, standing in the middle of the enormous balcony, facing off against a vaguely familiar grad student. He wasn't quite sure where he had seen the fellow.

The badge of the Excursion Club should probably have given him some indication, but honestly, Ryland was still blanking.

"You've got this in the bag, sir," Viren said with quiet ferocity. Acrypha shook her head a little.

"We don't need to reassure him. This is sir we're talking about."

"I'm on Viren's side in the matter," Alendra said.

"Kick his hindquarters to the curb, Ryland." Ryland wasn't quite sure when he had received a small pep-talk team. Nevertheless, he appreciated their camaraderie. Especially since his opponent had a whole posse of his own too. It was just a mite unfortunate that none of them thought to mention his opponent's identity. Not that it mattered much. The duelling official would introduce them for everyone's benefit soon.

In the last few moments before the fight, Ryland took note of just how many people had gathered to spectate the battle. Were all of them here for him specifically? Both sides of the enormous balcony were lined with academy students, both of the graduate and undergraduate variety. He was sure he spotted a few Academs and High Academs among the mix as well. There was even… Alaric?

He had jutted himself through the throngs of people, who had all pushed away to give him a wide and respectful amount of space, from which the Headmaster was looking on with no small amount of concern. Ryland gave him a wink. That just made Alaric look even more worried. Poor old fellow. A few others were joining the Headmaster, but there wasn't much time to take them in. The official was stepping forward.

"Good luck." Alendra paused.

"Who am I kidding, you're not going to need good luck. I should say that to the other side."

"We'll be cheering you on anyway, sir," Viren said with a little thump of his chest as Acrypha dragged him away. Tallow poked his head out with an admonishing meow. Within moments, it was just Ryland and his opponent in the centre of the battlefield. The official was spewing a somewhat long-winded speech about the importance of the duels and their rich history at Arcoryx Academy. Ryland was mostly busy trying to figure out who he was fighting against. Thankfully, the official decided to elucidate him about it.

"Our current duellists are two members of Arcoryx Academy's graduate student body," he said, indicating Ryland and the Excursionist.

"On the right is sub-Academ Marionys Ryland, apprenticed to High Academ Hertitius Heldon. On the left is Vult Kleador, apprenticed to High Academ Liguen Soto. Today, these combatants…" Ryland tuned out the rest of the official's spiel for now as he focused on his opponent. Kleador. Right, now he was starting to remember. Proudly though he might still be wearing his Excursion Club badge, Ryland knew that Alaric had ousted Kleador from whatever leadership position he used to enjoy at the club.

He had been deemed unfit to lead after Viren had gotten left behind during an Excursion under his purview. And the way Kleador was frowning at Ryland, with the faintly malicious gleam in his eyes, confessed that he hadn't forgotten his dismissal from his post. If anything, he likely blamed Ryland for it. He was now out for revenge. Against Ryland. Ah, things were falling into place now. It was surprising on some level that he was Soto's student. He couldn't quite figure out that High Academ either.

The man was tied to a few too many events surrounding Ryland at this point.

"Duellists!" the official called.

"You may now begin!" Ryland nodded at his opponent. Kleador didn't return it. His posture was tense, his magic slowly rising. Hmm. Time to put his plan to the test. From the very outset of the duels, Ryland had never intended to actually duel Kleador. Or any of the graduate students for that matter. For the same reason that he had never intended to fight Flitchard at the Entrance Trials, he had no intention of actually taking on Kleador either.

"Wipe that look of unconcern off your face!" Kleador shouted as he stepped forward.

"You've grown very arrogant ever since you've arrived at Arcoryx Academy. It's time you learned a little bit of humility." His manasoul flared as his spell came alive." [Winter's Flooded Grasp]!" A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation." [Eternal Bastion]," Ryland incanted. The icy spell crashed against Ryland's barrier, leaving no mark at all.

The sheer quantity of ice that Kleador kept throwing out was certainly impressive for a mage who wasn't beyond Gold-ranked. That said, it was like fanning a mountain.

Ryland would have used something like [Absolute Null] to silence all the magic, but he didn't want to go overboard just then. At the level of strength his spell was, he didn't want to dampen his opponent's magic so much that he was incapable of it going forward. The "absolute" part of the spell was true in terms of time as well. Which was why he resorted to a simple Glyph to end the battle. Ryland slowly thrust his hand forward. The whole battlefield hushed as his magic started channelling through his manasoul.

He blinked. Hmm, they all really were paying their full attention, clearly intent on seeing just what sort of magic he would use in this situation. Perhaps intent on seeing if he was going to wipe out Kleador the same way he had done to the Living Mana Incursion. Too bad Ryland was going to disappoint them a bit. A Glyph burned over Ryland's palm. It was limned with the same glinting pearlescence as nearly all his magic, but the main shade of the Glyph was a red so deep it was almost black.

The Glyph sent out a pulse of power so integrally intense, the world itself appeared to freeze. Ryland had cast a Glyph of Dread.

"Do I really need to come, ma'am?" Sint asked. She was being dragged to the duels by High Academ Tyra. Yes, as a graduate student, it was technically her duty to start things with her cohort. But she had painstakingly attained an official exemption from her mentor—a letter that certified that Sint would be far too busy with extremely important research work to participate in silly little duels. And yet, it was that very mentor now hauling her towards the stage set for the duels.

"You do," High Academ Tyra said in a voice that brooked no argument.

"As your mentor, it is as much my duty to teach you as it is to guide your research. In my capacity and experience as High Academ, I've determined that there is a great deal you can learn at the duels, so you're coming along."

"Then why did you bother signing the letter, ma'am?"

"Well… I was unaware of current circumstances when I signed it." Sint frowned at her mentor's bushy head.

"What current circumstances?"

"Far too many things for me to summarize concisely. Just understand that there's someone very familiar taking centre stage and we are far from the most important guests in attendance. You trust your mentor, don't you?" Sint very well couldn't say no, even if a large part of her was temporarily giving such thoughts a decent amount of consideration.

"Of course, ma'am." Smart of the High Academ to silence Sint's questioning with that one little counter-enquiry. She couldn't go around looking like she was sceptical of the judgement of her own mentor, now could she? They arrived before long. There was a far bigger crowd than Sint was expecting. This was just duelling. What were all these people so fussed about? Thankfully, because she was with a High Academ, she soon found herself at the very forefront of the gathering.

And that was when she saw, to her unabashed unsurprise, the subject of everyone's attention. Ryland. Well, now things were starting to make a dreadful amount of sense. All the excitement, all the hushed murmurs, the way everyone was staring at the centre of the sparring field like an army of cats eyeing a bird. It almost sickened Sint. What in the Realms was behind all their fascination with Ryland? She sighed. Admittedly, she had seen more of him and his ridiculousness than most. More than High Academ Tyra too.

Or maybe not. There had been that meeting between all the Academs and Ryland recently that Sint's mentor was being cagey about for some reason. Was that part of why High Academ Tyra had dragged Sint here with such determination? Had she learned something about Ryland that she needed Sint to see too? Why did she have to be so cryptic about it, then? Why couldn't she— The duel official finished his spiel and hastily stepped away to give the combatants room to fight. Which they did. For less than a minute.

Sint didn't even recognize Ryland's opponent, even after he blathered something about arrogance and whatnot. Was that idiot even in his right mind? Who else was supposed to be arrogant except for the man possessing the kind of power that the greatest among them only dreamed of? Who else would be arrogant save for the man who had single-handedly wiped out a Primordial-ranked Living Mana Incursion? She wasn't even sure what Kleador was exactly playing at.

Not everyone was convinced that Ryland was the reason behind the Incursion's sudden defeat and disappearance, but still. Why wasn't that idiot surrendering after seeing how his ice magic was leaving no mark? And then Ryland countered. With just one Glyph. Sint blinked at its rather bloody colour. What was that thing? She couldn't quite make out its shape, but she was starting to feel the magic.

Then the sensation suddenly intensified as the Glyph manifested in truth, its blood-red shape outlined in Ryland's habitual opalescence that indicated the high Tier of his magic. At first, everything appeared to freeze. Time itself seemed to slow to a crawl. Sint's lungs would no longer pull in breaths, her heart refused to beat, her every hair and muscle petrified in place. She wasn't the only one. Every single other person had frozen solid.

The air itself was still, in contrast to the light breeze that the open-air nature of the balcony had been inviting in. The distant chirping of birds, the rustle of the canopy's branches and leaves, the gentle murmurs of everyone present, all of it had gone completely silent. An instant later, time unfroze. At the same moment, Ryland's Glyph seemed to take over everything. Its ruddy light spread everywhere, shading everything in heavy scarlet.

The light needled through Sint's clothes and skin, dug into her muscles and tendons, fried her very nerves and occluded everything in her mind except for one, primal instinct. Fear. She was on the floor in seconds, her breaths still not working properly, her whole body wracked with terrible tremors. All the while, she was forcing her body to not start scurrying away. She was in danger. She was going to die. But that couldn't be right. She wasn't fighting. She wasn't in the duels.

But she was still facing complete and utter annihilation and if she didn't do something about it soon, then— The pressure on her soul lessened. Sint's neck felt like it was creaking as she slowly looked up and around. She swallowed. Almost the entirety of the gathering had fallen in some fashion. Some were on their knees, others cowering and bent over entirely, still others flat on their back and completely frozen. It appeared most of the High Academs and a few others had remained mostly unaffected.

Tyra herself was still standing. However, Ryland's opponent was also flat on his back and entirely catatonic.

"Are you alright, Sint?" her mentor asked, helping her back onto her feet. High Academ Tyra's voice was shaky.

"I-I will be." Sint wobbled on her feet. She swallowed.

"That was…"

"An evolved version of the Glyph of Intimidation. I've never seen one that strong." Tyra looked around.

"Everyone appears to be affected…" Sint had already noted the same, so she found herself staring at Ryland instead. He was standing right where he had been, surrounded by the last of his opponent's melting ice, smiling softly.

"I believe that concludes the duel, yes?" he said. The official hesitantly stepped forward, quickly checking Kleador's vitals to make sure he wasn't in any immediate danger. When the official stood back up, he clearly found it very difficult to meet Ryland's eyes. No doubt, a lingering effect of the Glyph he had now removed.

"Our winner of the duel," he said haltingly, having lost nearly all his verve from earlier.

"Marionys Ryland. Are there any further challenges?" There were a few polite claps here and there but that was about it. The vast majority of attendees were still recovering from the sudden shock of fear. Which had probably been that bastard's intention all along. No one would dare approach him for a duel, not after what he had just shown. They were too busy recovering from their shocked state to even think of duelling. Sint was immediately proven wrong when clanking footsteps approached.

"My name is Fin Solverfel," said the foreign-looking Mage Knight. Sint frowned. Was that a full-blooded elvhenan? Where had he even come from?

"And I believe that these students didn't really get a proper, educational duel. As such, allow me to challenge this Marionys Ryland and show everyone what a real duel looks like. Does that sound good?"