"Why are you dazing off, Old Man? Let's start the duel," Tang Shaoyang was stretching his shoulders and arms as if preparing before the battle.

Carlos snapped out of his thoughts and walked to the center of the platform. He refrained himself with great difficulty to interrogate Tang. He stopped when he arrived next to Deril.

Tang Shaoyang and Deril were now separated by one and a half meters with Carlos standing between them. From the back of his green tunic, the old man took out two oaths that had been signed by the two involved parties from the trial of the duel.

Old Man Carlos showed Deril's oath to Tang Shaoyang and showed Tang Shaoyang's oath to Deril. Tang Shaoyang gave a quick read before he nodded his head, and Deril did the same too.

"Good, I will act as referee. Killing is prohibited, the battle ends if one of you could no longer fight or if I have decided one of you is lost based on my judgment to avoid fatality!" Carlos spoke it out loudly, and no one protested it. The Guild Master, the retired Sky-Emerald, there was no one more appropriate than him to be the referee.

Deril nodded and Tang Shaoyang followed as it seemed the formality before the trial, "Alright, take five steps back. We will start the duel soon," Deril took exactly five steps back, and Tang Shaoyang took ten steps back.

"To solve the conflict between them, Deril and Tang have agreed to the Trial of the Duel. Here, I will be the judge, and I swear in my name I will judge everything with neutrality!" Carlos looked toward Tang and he glanced to the other side to see Deril, "The Trial of the duel starts!"

As soon as Carlos announced the start of the battle, Deril's figure blurred forward. He immediately activated the new skill he just learned, [Quick Dash]. It was one of the skills for the Heavy Warrior class to fill the movement weakness.

In the blink of an eye, Deril shortened the distance between him and Tang Shaoyang. As a warrior, as long as he could get closer to the mage and land a hit, his chance of winning was big. Deril was trying to achieve that with his new skill.

[Greater Slash]

When he arrived in front of Tang Shaoyang, he raised his blue greatsword and slashed it down toward Tang Shaoyang. Mana covered the blue greatswords as it descended toward Tang Shaoyang.

Carlos was prepared to make a move at the moment of danger. He thought Deril was about to win until a flash that left lightning as the trail passed Deril.

Baboom!

The blue greatsword hit the empty spot, the marble platform shattered under the great strike. [Quick Dash] was very quick, but it was nothing compared to Tang Shaoyang's speed.

Badoom! Badoom! Badoom!

Deril's heartbeat spiked up when his surprise attack failed. He immediately turned around to chase Tang Shaoyang.

Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

The buzz of the lightning entered his ears, he looked at the source of the noises. He saw the floor around him lit by lightning, forming a straight line from all four directions with him as the center. Deril felt this was something he had to avoid, he was about to activate [Quick Dash] but the lightning surged up to the sky caged him in it.

Deril froze while in the middle of casting his skill. Carlos shook his head as he got the winner of the duel already. Arina covered her eyes with the palm as she lowered her head.

The moment the lightning caged Deril, the fight was over. With the limited space and movement, Deril was doomed. The duel was over as fast as it started.

Casting [Lightning Cage] on himself before he cast [Lightning Flash], Tang Shaoyang managed to trap Deril. He was now standing ten meters away from the lightning cage, waiting for Deril to make his move.

Besides money, his purpose in this duel was to find out how strong the residents of this world were. But soon he realized that integrating with Zowen was a bad idea. The magus was too overpowered to push Deril to his limit.

'So this is the power of magic,' before the world turned into a game like this, his knowledge of magic was the magic show on the tv, not this kind of overwhelming power.

—Now you know that a magus is more powerful than a brute!

Zowen's voice contained pride, a pride of a magus.

'But there's still something off. Sure the magus is powerful, but I just don't like it,' he felt lacking in something by defeating the opponent with magic. There was no joy and contentment even if he won the battle.

—As you want to be an Emperor, you can't be picky with your power. You should use everything you have, especially if your people are at the stake.

Zaneos voiced out his thoughts. The demon swordsman was afraid that Tang Shaoyang would abandon such a powerful power just because the power did not fit with his fighting style.

'I know, but maybe it's because my opponent is not a mage. Maybe if he is a mage, I can feel the enjoyment of the fight,'

—Tch, brute is a brute!

Zowen remarked unhappily. But of course, Tang Shaoyang ignored her remark as he looked at Deril. The man was like a bird in the cage, holding his sword tightly while looking around at the lightning cage. The man must be trying to find the weakness of the lightning cage to break.

However, even if it had a weak spot, it was not something a warrior like him could find or even destroy the cage.

'Seems the fight is over, I can't test his limit. Let's end the fight now,' he raised his hand to the sky, right after that, a thunder descended toward the caged Deril.

[Thunder Wrath]

He cast the last skill to end the duel. To his surprise, Old Man Carlos made his move. His figure blurred as he rushed toward the lightning cage. He stopped in front of the lightning, his arms' muscle bulged out. The green energy covered his right arm, and he smashed the lightning cage.

With just one smash, the lightning cage crumbled. The old man caught Deril, and both immediately left the target spot.

Kaboom!

The thunder hit the empty spot, the marble platform was destroyed as a three meters deep pit formed on the platform. Carlos threw the shocked Deril away and confronted Tang, "Are you insane? Do you have to kill him like that?"

Tang Shaoyang furrowed his brows, "Don't exaggerate things, Guild Master Carlos. That spell will not kill him. Are you going to annul the trial by accusing me of attempting to kill my opponent?"

"You…" Carlos heaved a big breath, indeed, he was exaggerating the fact that the spell would not kill Deril, but Deril would suffer a heavy injury for sure.

"I am not!" Being accused like this surely gave him an unpleasant taste, but he understood why he was being accused, "Alright, the winner of the trial is–"

"The fight is not over yet. Die, you bastard!" While the two were having a conversation, Deril made his move. Using [Quick Dash], he turned around toward Tang Shaoyang's back with his greatsword.

[Splitting Strike]