Chapter 521

Word spread through Lessis like wildfire. The challenge had been seen by lots of kids who all ran home to share the news. This in turn meant that the arena was being swarmed even before Ajax got to it. 

Ajax and Tom both took a short detour to the mayor’s office to ensure that the rest of the convoy knew where the Empire nobles would be staying as well as Tom and Ajax welcoming the Imperial royal family.

“This is so awkward.” Jake muttered as he stood in one corner of the office with Jari and Nashara while petting Fluffy.

With the duel hanging over everyone’s heads it was hard for the empire nobles to break the ice considering that most of them were young and while Ajax had managed to behave civilly he hadn’t gotten his anger under control and this reflected in his Aura.

“Best we continue this after the duel.” Sandor said with a sigh after an awkward thirty minutes. Both Helmeth and Cal hadn’t even stopped at the office and headed straight for the arena recognising they wouldn’t be welcome. 

“Why is Helmeth even here?” Tom asked as they all headed out of the office with Ajax in the lead as they moved towards the arena. “It’s not like he is in any position to challenge any of the elves.” 

Tom suspected that this outcome was one House Septimus was going for and maybe even the Empire. Hoping to provoke Ajax and win when they are the challenged party. 

“He’s here to support his brother.” Denise said as she let out a heavy sigh. “I know how it sounds but it's the way they were raised. Duke Septimus didn’t want his House to crumble due to instability, something at odds with him creating a harem and fathering multiple potential heirs. All of his kids were raised to support one another or be disowned.”

Tom was forced to respect how effective the Duke had been. That respect however didn’t extend to anything other than the family’s loyalty to each other and he wanted to see Ajax teach the racist noble a lesson he would never forget.

“How are you? Do you feel okay?” When the group arrived at the arena Lexi didn’t hesitate or look towards anyone else as she headed straight for Jake giving him a warm hug. “Of course you’re not, why don’t you come sit with me while your uncle teaches the mean man some manners.” 

Lexi spared the empire nobles a half hearted greeting before turning to Ajax and giving him a deep kiss. There was no need for the two of them to exchange words as they perfectly understood each other, and they were both in agreement that Ajax should teach the man a lesson.

Ajax didn’t head towards the stands and headed straight into the tunnels that led to the arena sands yet he was still very much surprised to see the stands were full to the brim. Besides the nobles from Sylvanthal and Gryndor that were seated in a half filled VIP stand with room for the Empire nobles to watch there wasn’t a single open seat in the arena. Lessis had turned up in force to support their noble.

“I’m going to enjoy this.” Helmeth taunted Ajax from across the sands, purposefully unleashing his Aura as much as he could in an effort to intimidate the commoners in the crowd.

“Get your bond out of here or I’ll kill it.” Ajax words wiped the smirk off of Helmeth’s mouth as his Skills told him of the truth behind the warning. “I heard you care about your family, today you will find out how much I care about mine.” 

Lexi, Jake, Jari and Nashara were quickly swarmed by Ajax’s and Lexi’s friends as soon as they got into the VIP stands. “You weren’t hurt were you?” Tom was moved by just how much such important people cared about his son. He knew that the only reason they cared so much was because he was related to Ajax, a small part of him resented the reason. All of his growth, learning social Skills and integrating into the capital’s noble strata yet all of House Heathbound’s most influential allies came from Ajax’s connections.

“Is this really a good idea?” Leandra’s question drew a lot of eyes. “He’ll be on the back foot from the start.” 

Unlike Elara and Arianwyn who were very good friends with not just Ajax but everyone they went delving with, Leandra was simply friendly with House Hearthbound as a whole.

Fealin was very much in agreement with Leandra’s analysis of the situation. He knew how strong Helmeth was, as someone who almost maintained an average of one and a quarter level a year to the age of one hundred he was a very powerful mage. 

There wasn’t any time to answer Leandra’s question as the entire arena roared as Lancel signaled the start of the fight before backing off as both he and Aranor took position on opposite sides of the arena and were prepared to contain any attacks that might injure the audience.

Leandra’s bad feeling and Fealin prediction quickly proved true. Unlike the tournament in the Republic both Ajax and Helmeth were forced into the same format that had been used the day before. More than that they were using the same defensive enchantments that Arianwyn, Elara and Fealing were using since they didn’t have stronger ones. This put Ajax in a much bigger disadvantage as he simply couldn’t just tank weakened attacks as while they wouldn’t actually hurt him were they to connect, they would be enough to break the defensive enchantments.

Helmeth showed his prowess as a Shadow mage from the start of the fight. He didn;t bother with any big attacks to start off with. He wanted to first get a measure for Ajax’s strength while also breaking down two defensive shields before hoping to land a heavy blow that would hurt Ajax even after breaking the final shield.

Much as he hated it Ajax was forced to react to Helmeth rather than lead the fight. Most of all Ajax had to accept that he had slightly underestimated the mage on his first analysis. It was clear that Helmeth had spent all of his stats in Mental stats and Vitality, while this left him rather physically vulnerable it did mean that even his shorter spells were not something Ajax could just dismantle with [Mana Syphon] even as he used the Skill from the start. 

“The arena isn’t helping Ajax at all.” Elara pointed out as shadows covered a good portion of the sands giving Helmeth plenty of range to keep Ajax at the same distance they had started the duel from, one that was larger than the duels yesterday to account for the higher speed stronger people were capable of.

Seeing he didn’t have a chance to get closer Ajax swapped strategies and pulled out his bow as he started to fire arrow after arrow each packing enough of a punch to at least break down one enchantment though some carried even more power.

“He learnt how to cast shadow dash.” Arianwyn wasn’t pleased as she watched Helmeth start flickering through the shadows that covered the arena to both keep his distance from Ajax while also avoiding any of his stronger arrows that the weak shadow shields he was making quickly couldn’t stop.

Shadow dash wasn’t as strong as Fluffy's ability to shadow jump as not only was the spell slower but it also required a travel path through the shadows from start to finish, it did however have a slightly longer range.

“It won’t be long now.” Helmeth gloated as Ajax was forced to pull out his shield and infuse it with Light Mana to help block one of the stronger shadow spikes.

“It’s the first time he’s on this side of the battle.” Arianwyn said with frustration as she watched Ajax struggling.

Much in the same way Ajax usually fought against the stronger monsters he had faced in the dungeon by capitalising on his battle experience using every advantage he had Helmeth was clearly an experienced duelist and he had Ajax on the ropes. Something made even more clear three minutes into their fight as Ajax finally made a mistake and had his first enchantment broken. 

“Not so mouthy now are you.” Cal gloated as he watched the fight while massaging the arm Ajax had broken earlier that day, despite having it healed he could still feel some phantom pain from the way Ajax had snapped the bone. “Teach you some respect for your betters.”

“Shut it.” Everyone was a little shocked to see who it was that stood up for Ajax. Emeris hadn’t taken his eyes off the fight since it started as he watched fascinated by what he saw. “Ajax is half your age and the only reason your older brother hasn’t been destroyed is because of how weak the enchantments are.”  

For Emeris this was the first time he was seeing just how powerful Ajax was. Those Shadow spells were faster than anything he could currently react to and strong enough to pierce through his regular shields yet Ajax was hamstrung by the fact that he couldn’t just ignore them and take the hit. Any ideas he might have once held about how elves were superior to humans or that nobles were a step above commoners died as he watched Ajax casting multiple spells as he fought someone over twice his level.

“You know we never did decide what the winner of the duel would get?” Helmeth taunted Ajax, though he didn’t show it; the man was actually very much scared of the young Duke. He realized just how strong Ajax was and how it was the duel format alone that had him on the back foot. “The winner will clearly be in the right regarding the ‘misunderstanding’ as His Highness put it. I believe it is fair for you to share the cement recipe to make amends when I win.” 

“In that case it only seems fair for you to admit you were wrong and send all of your family's slaves here when you lose.” Ajax did his best to make it seem like he was desperate while he was building up a plan. “Not to mention that any injuries suffered in this duel will be accepted as part of the ‘misunderstanding’ that was laid to rest.” 

“I can’t agree to all my family’s slaves but I can agree to any slaves that I have direct oversight over.” Helmeth answered, that still covered most of the slaves of House Septimus only excluding any personal slaves of other family members. “And I’ll accept your terms.” Helmeth grinned as he landed his second attack of the match smashing Ajax’s second enchantment.

Once he had the man’s acceptance Ajax was ready to put his plan into action. “I accept your terms.” Ajax boosted his voice, this wouldn’t be much of a show of force if he was on the back foot the entire fight before he really got started.

During the fight so far Ajax had spent one and a half thousand Mana and five hundred Stamina. That still left him with three and a half thousand Mana and three and a half thousand Stamina to put his plan into action. 

Ajax spared no expense as he started launching large spells each backed by two to three hundred mana in all directions aiming for the shadows at the edges of the arena. He trusted that Lancel and Aranor would be able to contain anything that might make it outside of the arena sands.

After his fifteenth attack Ajax had finally gotten what he had wanted as Helmeth was forced into the center of the arena where Ajax was waiting with the second part of his plan. 

“You think that’s enough to beat me?” Helmeth was angry that he had been forced on the defensive by such a brute force approach as well as scared by just how quickly Ajax could launch such large devastating spells. 

“No, but I wasn’t trying to beat you with those.” Ajax said and he watched with glee as his next words drained the color from his opponents face. “Just bring you in range.” 

Ajax didn’t hesitate even as he felt his mana channels burn and he unleashed five hundred Mana with [Telekinesis]. He still didn’t have any fine control with the spell but he didn’t need any fine control when he was aiming to crush his opponents limbs.

Helmeth’s enchantments activated and tried to resist the Legendary Skill but it was no use, the shields were simply too weak, all three of them shattered a moment before all of the mage’s limbs were crushed and bent at unnatural angles. An agonizing wail marking the end of the duel.