An empty clearing outside the town.
This spot would neither endanger the town's innocent residents nor restrict the combatants from fighting freely.
The only person accompanying Regulus was Beatrice, who was currently being held in his arms. The other girls had all enthusiastically gone into the town to shop and relax.
Regulus was a little depressed about this, but it also felt natural. After all, they didn't even need to watch; they already knew what the final outcome of this "duel" would be.
'What's the point of playing around now?' Regulus sighed internally.
If there were an audience of his wives, he would have been highly interested in playing along with Wilhelm for a bit, making the arrogant brat pay for his insolence with a flashy display. But the problem was, even Carol, who was genuinely angry with Wilhelm earlier, didn't bother to come, choosing instead to accompany Theresia and the others on their shopping trip.
"Alright, let's start quickly," Regulus urged impatiently, waving his free hand.
"Where's your weapon?" Wilhelm demanded, his brown eyes narrowing. "Or are you a magician?"
"I don't need a weapon."
"Are you looking down on me?"
"I'm just stating the facts, just like you did earlier," Regulus smiled placidly.
"..."
Wilhelm frowned deeply. He knew this white-haired man was directly quoting what he had said when they first met. It was incredibly annoying. But what annoyed the young Sword Demon the most was that this man didn't seem to take him seriously at all, treating him like a complete afterthought rather than a lethal opponent.
"Are you going to use the little girl in your arms as a shield?" Wilhelm warned, his voice sharp and icy. "I can tell you right now, no matter who my opponent is—even if it's a woman, a child, or an old man—I will never show mercy."
At the same time, Wilhelm drew his sword. The cold steel glinted in the sunlight.
"Hmph~ A greenhorn who can't even hold a sword steady, in fact," Beatrice scoffed from Regulus's arms, her tone laced with absolute disdain. "Regulus, finish it quickly. Then let's go back to town and see what's there, I suppose."
"Understood," Regulus chuckled. Beatrice clearly disliked Wilhelm too, her emotions showing obvious displeasure through their contract link. "You see, my Betty is already impatient. No need to stand around posturing. Let's start quickly."
"As you wish!"
Wilhelm adopted an aggressive attacking stance. He wasn't a calm person to begin with. Being looked down upon by Regulus was infuriating enough, but now being mocked by a seemingly helpless, petite girl pushed him over the edge.
With a sudden burst of terrifying acceleration, Wilhelm rushed to Regulus's front at top speed. His slash deliberately angled to avoid Beatrice, and the attack method he chose was specifically using the blunt side of his heavy blade.
Even if it was the blunt side, with his monstrous strength, it would still shatter bones and cause immense pain. He just wanted to control the damage so he didn't accidentally kill the arrogant noble.
CLANG!
A deafening sound of impact echoed across the clearing.
Not only was the heavy sword attack instantly and effortlessly deflected by an invisible wall of force, but Wilhelm also saw Beatrice, who was still resting comfortably in Regulus's arms, lazily raise one of her small hands.
Several jagged, purple crystals materialized in the air around her.
Although Wilhelm had never seen this specific spell before, and the purple crystals looked quite beautiful, his instincts as a warrior who roamed bloody battlefields screamed at him. A massive sense of lethal danger made his heart tighten.
He immediately aborted his follow-up attack and forcefully kicked off the ground to retreat.
The exact moment he retreated, the purple crystals shot down from the sky like bolts of lightning.
They didn't hit him—or more precisely, they were deliberately aimed not to hit him.
Looking at the ground where the spell struck, Wilhelm's eyes widened in horror. The dirt, the flowers, and the plants in a wide radius had all been instantly transformed into brittle, sparkling purple crystal.
Yin Magic. The seemingly harmless little girl in this man's arms was an insanely powerful mage!
"You don't need to look at us like that," Regulus said calmly, looking at the sweating, frowning Wilhelm. "I never agreed to a one-on-one battle with you."
"Hey, hey, hey!" Bordeaux, who was standing a safe distance away as the witness, couldn't help but yell out in panic. "That magic just now... if it hit, someone would definitely die!"
It was just supposed to be a duel to teach the kid a lesson! Severe injuries were normal and Bordeaux could accept that, but if Wilhelm's life was in genuine danger of being instantly crystallized, the captain couldn't just stand by and watch anymore.
"Don't worry," Regulus reassured the burly captain without looking back. "I definitely won't let him die."
"Even if you say so, Your Excellency..."
"You don't need to show mercy to me!" Wilhelm gritted his teeth.
As Wilhelm spoke, he was already shifting his grip, preparing for a second assault.
Unlike before, his entire tactical assessment had changed. Before, he was wary of Regulus's hidden strength and didn't pay attention to Beatrice. But now, his main target of defense had become the Great Spirit. For Wilhelm, he had very little experience fighting elite magicians. His primary objective had to be neutralizing Beatrice's casting first.
However, as he charged forward again, blurring with speed, Regulus simply raised his free hand the moment Wilhelm got close.
Wilhelm's heart clenched. 'Is this man also a mage?!'
But as Wilhelm focused his sharp senses around him, he didn't detect any mana gathering or magic about to activate. It was only a simple, casual physical wave of Regulus's hand toward his face.
No matter how Wilhelm looked at it, there was no physical power or magical enhancement to speak of.
But for some reason, an overwhelming, suffocating sense of doom surged in his chest. His instincts screamed at him to dodge.
The moment Wilhelm twisted his body to evade the slap, a ring of purple Minya crystals suddenly materialized directly behind him, completely blocking his retreat.
He was trapped. Either he took Regulus's incoming slap, or he threw himself backward into Beatrice's lethal crystallization magic.
This choice didn't require any thought. Wilhelm instantly raised his thick, muscular arm, bracing his sword flat against his bracer, preparing to block the seemingly weak physical slap.
But the exact moment Regulus's palm made contact with the flat of the blade, Wilhelm knew he had been too naive.
This casual, upward slap was completely, utterly unstoppable. It felt like being hit by a speeding mountain.
After his braced arm was struck, the terrifying, absolute force drove his own arm and sword directly into the side of his head.
SMACK!
A deafening, meaty sound echoed across the plains. The slap successfully bypassed the block, the sheer kinetic energy transferring perfectly into his skull.
As the sound echoed, Wilhelm's consciousness instantly blanked out. His feet left the ground, and he was sent violently flying through the air.
As Wilhelm's consciousness drifted away into the dark, his body demonstrated what it truly meant to be 'slapped flying.' He spun countless times in the air like a discarded ragdoll, tracing a massive, perfect parabolic arc across the blue sky before beginning his descent.
"Betty, what do you think of my slap?" Regulus asked, casually lowering his hand.
"Not bad," Beatrice judged critically, watching the spinning Sword Demon. "About a ninety-point level, I suppose."
"Such a spectacular performance, and it can't even get a hundred points?" Regulus chuckled.
"Of course not. After all, he hasn't even landed yet, in fact. Once he lands, the final ten points will be decided based on the form of the crater. If the impact is perfect, I might give you a ninety-nine, I suppose."
As Regulus and Beatrice casually discussed their scoring system, Bordeaux, who was standing nearby, instantly snapped back to reality from his sheer shock.
He desperately wanted to scream and complain to them about their utter lack of common sense.
But he no longer had the luxury to complain. He immediately mobilized his mana and sprinted desperately toward the spot where Wilhelm was about to crash. He needed to check on his subordinate's condition before the kid shattered every bone in his body!
When Bordeaux finally reached the impact crater and checked on the boy, he found that Wilhelm had merely passed out from the blunt force trauma.
Bordeaux let out a massive sigh of relief.
Then came a wave of utter speechlessness.
Looking down, Bordeaux saw a literal, perfectly indented handprint permanently crushed into the indestructible steel of Wilhelm's sword blade. And the half of Wilhelm's face that had been struck by the flat of his own sword was already swelling at a visible, comical rate.
Bordeaux could already imagine what the arrogant kid would look like later when he woke up.
Especially after seeing his face swollen like a balloon and remembering he had been slapped completely unconscious with a single, casual wave of a hand. Bordeaux had a feeling the young Sword Demon was going to cause another massive scene out of pure humiliation.
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