Magic Life in the Empire

After the judge announced the beginning of the duel, Cyril started running towards Bonzo, paying attention to his every move.

Just before he reached him, right in front of Bonzo appeared a green cloud of gas, forcing Cyril to stop.

"Be careful of touching that; while this poison is not lethal, being paralyzed for a few hours is not pleasant, trust me." His nonchalant voice came from behind the cloud, and with it, a bolt of black liquid.

Cyril nimbly dodged the spell to the side and went around the cloud to find Bonzo.

Again, right before he reached him, Cyril was greeted with another gas cloud.

Tsk… Cyril was regretting not learning some kind of wind spell.

"These clouds will not stay here forever." While saying this, he cast the fireball spell towards the direction of Bonzo's voice earlier.

The bolt passed through the cloud with no issue, but it only hit the magic border on the edge of the arena.

"You have to try harder than that!" He mocked with some excitement, "And you are right! They won't!"

Just before Bonzo finished that sentence, a sudden gust of wind moved the cloud in front of Cyril towards him.

With his quick reactions, Cyril was able to dash outside the poison's reach to the side.

After making sure that he was in no danger, Cyril rushed to confront Bonzo through the now empty spot, only to be greeted with another cloud.

"You must be running out of mana soon; what then?" Cyril was paying attention to the first cloud; it's slowly starting to dissipate.

"You better worry about yourself, you fool!" Just before Bonzo said this, Cyril felt something behind him and urgently dodged to the side.

He wasn't able to fully evade it, and he got pricked through the barrier on his left arm by a needle. He hid something in that cloud earlier! His hand was becoming numb.

"How is that! Aren't I a genius! I got the inspiration from our books, literally! They can be manipulated with mana, so why not make a weapon with the same principle? Of course even a book would be hard to maneuver in a fight, let alone a proper weapon, but a small needle is different!" He was almost laughing.

"Another issue is that even a bumbling buffoon of a mage is capable of sensing such an obvious magic item, so I made a plan to mask the mana signature with another one from a spell, and it worked! Do you feel the poison going through your body!?"

All of the clouds on the field disappeared, and Bonzo, drained from all the spells, finally revealed himself and started walking towards the now kneeling Cyril.

"Even the antidote spell won't help; you won't be able to crack my poison in time, if ever!" He retrieved the flying needle and stopped a few meters away from his opponent.

"Do you know how hard it was to do all this? I had to practice—" Before he finished this sentence, Cyril exploded in a dash, spear at the ready.

Reaching Bonzo in a moment, Cyril unleashed a flurry of thrusts, putting as much strength as possible in each, sending his screaming opponent to the other side of the arena and breaking the barrier in the process.

Hearing the judges announce the outcome of the duel and the buzz of the spectating students, Bonzo raised his body with difficulty and asked through gritted teeth, "Why can you move!?"

"Your poison was not as strong as you thought." After saying that, Cyril left, leaving Bonzo in confusion.

Earlier, his left arm indeed started to get numb, but that was all that happened; he could still move it without any issues.

Being careful and extra mindful of his surroundings, Cyril simply pretended to be poisoned until Bonzo came closer.

If it wasn't for my body being special, I would've succumbed to the paralysis... This doesn't feel like a victory. On the way Cyril had mixed feelings. "Don't think that; it is a part of your strength." Rhamn walked beside him.

"Like you said, if it works, then it's valid. Besides, Bonzo relied more on the element of surprise; if you fought again, there is no way for you to lose." Rhamn looked genuinely happy and satisfied with the win.

"He called himself 'Poison Hand,' but didn't even fight with his hands; he is truly a clown." Talking with her did help him feel better about his win.

Reaching his seat, Cyril found that Rose and Edmund still didn't go for another challenge.

"Don't look at us like a disappointed father; we need more rest." Edmund did look a bit tired. "We can't recover so quickly."

"What about Myra? Who is she fighting?" Cyril was curious what opponent she chose.

"Some unlucky guy, who happened to cross eyes with her, Myra doesn't really care for fighting strong opponents like you, nor do they try to fight her." Rose was slightly pale, a sign of low mana. "They are over there."

By the time he found her, Myra had already finished her fight and was now searching for her next opponent.

That's right, there is no time to waste; this is a competition. And Cyril decided to do the same.

"Alright, good luck to you; I'll go first." He didn't waste too much energy in the earlier fight, so he could begin another one with no problem.

Unfortunately for Cyril, Cedric was currently fighting with another student, so he found a random person with enough points for a challenge.

Like this, Cyril fought with two more students; each ended quickly with no suspense.

His previous matches garnered a lot of attention, and now anyone with enough points tried to stay as far away from him as possible.

Now my score is 7; it's getting hard to find people to challenge. "We can take a break and wait until more people gain points."

Thinking it wasn't a bad idea, he wanted to return to his seat when he heard a commotion nearby.

Taking a look, he noticed a crowd of people observing one of the arenas.

it appeared Leo finally challenged Cedric to a duel. "Took him long enough."