Lena finally dropped the two girls after a while. Both of them sat on their ground, feeling dizzy and unable to tell what was going on temporarily.
Meanwhile, the senior with the war hammer knelt on the ground while looking at his hands, his fingers were trembling.
’’We...we lost? H-how is this possible?" He mumbled under his breath, unable to believe what had happened.
Everything had happened just too fast. Their plan was supposed to be perfect, they were supposed to deal with Ivan’s squad easily since they were a bunch of newbies.
But from the moment the ground under them collapsed, their squad fell into confusion and Ivan’s squad had acted quickly, not even giving them a moment to react.
It didn’t feel like they were fighting a group of first-year students at all!
"You lost,"
A calm voice sounded in the ears of the senior. He looked up and saw Ivan standing in front of him, behind Ivan were Lena, Juliet, Aaron, and Lucas.
"I...I..." the senior tried to speak but no words came out, he was still in disbelief.
Ivan looked at the other party, he couldn’t blame him for acting like this. After all, his own teammates were still shocked that they had actually beaten a squad of senior students so easily.
But Ivan knew that this fight was unfair to the senior students. Unlike those who had never been in life had death battles before, Ivan was different. He was used to the battlefield and knew how to utilise most things around him to his advantage.
This was why he had asked Aaron to collapse the ground under their opponents. Senior year students were only a year above first year students so their combat awareness obviously wasn’t that high yet, how could they possibly have reacted to such a sudden change?
Maybe they would have been able to think of something if Ivan’s squad had given them some time but they didn’t even get that chance and could only taste defeat.
It was a simple game of overwhelming young minds with new factors when they thought everything was set.
"The mana cores," Lena demanded strongly while stretching out her left hand. "We won so hand over the mana cores that you promised!"
The senior looked at Lena’s open palm and then at Ivan, a look of clarity appeared in his eyes at this moment; he had finally come back to his senses.
’No, I can’t just accept this. Senior Nolan would kill me if I lost the mana cores and still didn’t complete his task!’ the senior said inwardly, a look of desperation appearing on his face as he stood up.
"Lost? You guys cheated, the fight didn’t even start yet before you attacked us, how dare you say that you won!" He spat while glaring at Lena.
Lena’s expression froze for a moment before turning into a deadly glare.
"You! What kind of a senior are you? You won’t even admit defeat and call us cheaters?" Lena said angrily and stepped forward with mana rising from her body.
"Yes, I refuse to admit it. We didn’t get a chance to fight so it doesn’t count!" The senior said shamelessly.
Those words angered Lena even more and she looked like she was about to bring out her vines, Juliet had to stop her.
Meanwhile, the others were glaring at the senior because he was being unreasonable.
Ivan looked at the other party with narrowed eyes.
"So what do you suggest?" He asked.
A hopeful look appeared on the senior’s face when he heard Ivan’s question.
"A one versus one fight, whoever wins this time keeps the mana cores!" The senior declared.
’Hehe, good, accept it. You were carried by your teammates just now and I wasn’t able to reach you, let me see how you’ll escape this time.’ The boy assumed that Ivan and Lucas were too weak to do anything which was why only three of their teammates had wiped out their squad.
He was definitely going to avoid the three of them when picking an opponent for the one-versus-one fight.
"They lost but he still wants a 1v1? Isn’t this too shameless?"
"This senior must have very thick skin, I’ve never seen someone who doesn’t care about their reputation before."
"But I don’t blame him, the previous fight ended too quickly, I wouldn’t accept it easily either if I were him."
"Who do you think he’ll pick for the 1v1?"
"Of course it’ll be better Ivan or Lucas, the other three are monsters."
The students who were watching entered a heated discussion.
On the platform.
"That’s what you want? Alright, we accept. Whom do you want to fight?" Ivan asked with a small smile, he could hear the words of the surrounding students and couldn’t disagree with them.
Hearing Ivan’s question, everyone focused on the senior, waiting to hear his response.
Lena stopped trying to get away, Juliet, Lucas, and Aaron faced the senior as well.
The senior looked at all their faces as if deciding whom to pick when he had already made his decision a long time ago. His gaze lingered on Aaron and Lena for more seconds as if he was considering picking them before finally locking on Ivan.
"I would have loved to fight them since they attacked my teammates but since you’re their squad leader, I pick you!" He declared.
"Haha, spitting such nonsense when he’s obviously the weaker target."
"You just want to make an excuse for securing a win, don’t bullshit us!"
"Yeah, pick the Paladin in the squad so you can freely attack him without worrying that he’ll attack back."
The students in the arena all laughed when the senior finally made his choice.
Aiden and Kelvin who were about to leave came back to sit down, looks like they were going to see Ivan in action after all.
Meanwhile, the faces of Lucas, Juliet, Aaron, and Lena had frozen when the senior picked Ivan as his opponent.
They all looked at him with eyes of pity. After all, even the four of them regarded Ivan as a monster. The reason he didn’t take action in the previous squad clash was that it would be overkill.
They could only shake their heads and walk off the platform.
The senior "..."
’Why are you all looking at me like I picked a teacher as my opponent?!’
He screamed internally but shook it off in the end as he turned his attention to Ivan while gripping his war hammer. Now, he would be able to complete the task given to him by young master Nolan.
"Any rules?" Ivan asked.
"Same as before," the senior replied with an easy expression.
"Okay but I have a request," Ivan stated.
"What is it?"
"Hand the mana cores to another student so I can retrieve them from them when I win, you might refuse to hand them over after losing a second time," Ivan said casually and the students in the arena laughed.
They mocked Ivan because he really thought he could beat a senior in a 1vs1.
The face of Ivan’s opponent twitched and he said through gritted teeth.
"You really are confident. Very good, I’ll play with you."
He then proceeded to point at a random student in the spectators’ stand. The first-year student rushed to the platform and five mana cores were thrown towards him.
"Keep it well, I’ll kill you if one goes missing." The senior student said in a deep tone.
"Y-yes senior!" The boy answered fearfully.
Even though they were all laughing from the spectators’ stand, they didn’t dare to be arrogant in the face of a senior student.
After handing the mana cores to someone else, the senior turned to face Ivan.
"Now, let’s see if my hammer is heavier or your shield is sturdier!" He said and suddenly dashed toward Ivan.
Everyone "!!!"
Attacking so suddenly? They didn’t even know that the match had started yet!
However, Ivan’s squad members didn’t panic when they saw this, they were very relaxed.
’Idiot, rushing at Ivan like that; You’ve already lost.’ they thought.
Meanwhile, the senior arrived in front of Ivan and swung his war hammer down with full force.
"Take this!" He shouted as the hammer fell.
Ivan didn’t dodge the attack and just stood there, a small smile on the side of his lips.
This left the surrounding students baffled, Aiden and Kelvin watched with focused looks. If that attack landed, they couldn’t imagine what would happen to Ivan.
Seeing that Ivan was moving, a wide grin formed on the senior’s face as he thought he had finally got Ivan.
’He must have frozen due to fear, my hammer is scary up close after all.’
But before the hammer could touch Ivan, his right hand moved like a blur and the next moment.
Dong!!!
The loud noise of two metals colliding sounded as a strong force pushed the senior into the air and sent him jumping back.
"What?!" The senior exclaimed in shock, he didn’t understand what had happened.
Meanwhile, Lena and the others had their mouths open in shock.
’Why is Ivan suddenly using a shield instead of taking out his sword?!’