"One"
"Two"
"Hmm, he does seem quite confident in beating me. Sigh, to even the weakest of the knights, a kid must appear as an easy opponent," Adrian thought as he tensed his muscles in preparation for the upcoming battle.
"Three!!"
After hearing the signal to start the match, Adrian surged toward his opponent with a burst of speed. He had already concentrated mana at the soles of his feet, propelling him forward at a pace far exceeding that of a typical 3-star knight. As his opponent drew near, Viren tightened his grip on his sword and raised it to parry Adrian's attack.
"Huh? How is he so swift? His speed clearly surpasses that of a 3-star knight, perhaps even exceeding my own. Maybe swiftness is his forte, and he's devoted himself to it.
His proficiency in other aspects of combat may be lacking due to his limited training time. Hehe, let me face your feeble attack head-on." Viren thought to himself.
Viren's assumptions proved to be quite off the mark, catching him by surprise. Adrian delivered a powerful strike by spinning his trident, generating a formidable rotational force that landed a blow on Viren's left side. Viren quickly brought his sword up to chest level, attempting to block Adrian's attack by positioning the sword towards his left.
After the clash of their weapons, Viren found himself sliding across the floor, taking three to four steps to regain his balance. His hands trembled from the impact of the collision.
"What is this? How can his aura be so potent? It shouldn't be this strong; he's just a kid, not an experienced knight. It seems I can't afford to hold back any longer. If I do, I'll surely lose.
Oh, right! He wields a trident, which shares the same vulnerabilities as a spear. If I get too close to him, he won't be able to attack effectively, forcing him to defend or to create some distance to go on the offensive.
Hehe, young one, I'll show you why most avoid using these long-range weapons in one-on-one duels."
Viren thought while getting ready to closeup the distance between the two of them. Viren rushed towards Adrian while drawing mana from his mana hole and enveloping his sword in aura. Meanwhile, Adrian stood at the same spot, he thought-
"This is really the weakest knight, even his plans are same as those weak knights I fought in my previous life. He is a bit better considering the level of a county, but that doesn't make any difference to me. Let's first show him the superiority of the weapon named trident."
After reaching his attacking range, Viren burst out the aura enveloping his sword while swinging it towards Adrian, to which Adrian reacted by slightly moving his right foot forward and thrusting the trident straight forward towards the sword.
"Huh! Shouldn't he defend against my attack? Is he really planning on clashing our auras to decide the Victor"
Viren thought as he attacked with full force. He was planning to go all out in this attack. He knew that this attack will decide the outcome of the match. Meanwhile Adrian also increased the amount of aura enveloping his trident and covered his whole body with aura.
It has not even been a minute since the match started and it looked like it was going to end now. The sword struck the upcoming trident. The sword went inside the tines and got stuck between them while an explosion occurred by the collision between both the auras.
When two aura collides with such a force and amount, then an explosion occurs, usually injuring both the users if both the auras are more or less equally powerful but the user with a stronger aura receives lesser damage than the weaker aura user.
If the aura completely overpowers the other aura, then only the weaker aura user is injured and suffers the impact of the force of the explosion.
The outcome of the collision was quite unexpected for the spectators, Viren who was expected to win easily was lying on the floor a meter apart from the point of collision and Adrian who was supposed to be inexperienced and overconfident was standing firm at the same point without any injuries.
"Huh! What am I witnessing? Viren lost to a kid who should be learning how to use aura at this age? And it seems like he didn't go all out yet. It was too easy as if he had faced many opponents of this level already. But that shouldn't even be possible considering his age. It seems like he is a league above those renowned geniuses."
Tauras was shocked by this unexpected and speedy victory of Adrian. He couldn't believe his eyes that the second most powerful aura knight lost to a kid that easily.
Viren was injured by the impact and was lying taking heavy breaths. He had already acknowledged his defeat but he couldn't understand just one thing
"How is his aura more powerful than mine. I have been training my aura from his age. Seeing as he isn't even injured a little bit, his aura should be even more powerful than our captain as when we fought, he also got small wound but against him I couldn't even reach him."
"Looks like I managed to get the desired result. Now they will consider me above average 3-star and take me to the mission."
Adrian was now also mistaken that Viren was their weakest 3-star knight. He had fought on the battlefield for a very long time so his standard of a 3-star knight was at the level of knights who fought on battlefield.
He had no idea that he was quite off from his plan of showing average skills and the captain considered him the greatest genius of this era.
"I announce that the winner of this spar is Sir Adrian!!"
Tauras entered the arena and walked to the side of Adrian and announced as he lifted Adrian's hand.
"Sir Adrian I would've never guessed that you were this skilled at this age. Even I am not confident in winning if fought against you"
Tauras complimented him with a big smile on his face and shaking his hand.
"Isn't he going too far with bootlicking! yes, he may consider me a genius but this is just too much. What is so great in defeating your weakest knight that you wouldn't be sure in defeating me"
Adrian snickered hearing Tauras's compliment as he thought he was just exaggerating to get him to join in the Nardino knights.
"*cough**cough* Sir Adrian, that was the toughest match I have ever fought. As I have lost, I would like to come clean. I underestimated you when I saw that you were just a kid and didn't even used sword. I would like to apologize as well as thank you for sparring with me.
I would like to learn from you more if you join the knight order."
Viren stood up from the arena floor and approached Adrian with a determined look in his eyes. After standing in front of Adrian he apologized by bowing to him and confessing to his mistakes. He really admired Adrian now thinking of him as even stronger than the captain.
"Looks like he isn't bad in manner and is also brave considering the fact that he confessed his mistake as it takes a lot of courage to apologize to someone you just lost. With that attitude he might become a lot stronger"
Adrian was quite surprised by seeing this weak knight standing up to his errors and confessing his mistakes. Many great fighters can't show the courage which he had shown.
"Ah Sir Adrain as you have passed the test let's get you joined. You should start getting more familiar with the knights who will be under you from now on."
Tauras told Adrian while dragging him outside of the Testing area. He had to fill up the details and get him officially recruited in the knight order.
"Huh! What do you mean by knights under me? I have only passed a simple test"
Adrian showed his confusion as he asked taurus what did he meant by his words.
"Oh, don't you know you won against the vice-captain of the Nardino knight with an overwhelming advantage. So, as per the rules set by Count Nadino himself, you will be the new vice-captain of the Nardino knights from this point on"
Tauras Explained as if it was an obvious thing which Adrian already should be knowing and it didn't require any explanation from him.
"Huh! What vice-captain? When did I fought him?"