They had rarely seen Ivan use his shield, the number of times he had taken it out during the past weeks could be counted on one hand! To them, he was much better with his sword and could easily win this match, so why wasn’t he taking out the sword?!
Lena and the rest of the group were left speechless as they watched the shield floating in front of Ivan.
After his attack was blocked, the senior jumped back and looked at what had stopped his hammer.
There, floating in the air in front of Ivan was a sturdy-looking brown shield.
"His shield could actually stop the hammer, it must be very sturdy."
"Obviously, he’s a paladin so he had a strong defence. However, he’s still only at Level 1, his shield would probably collapse after a few hits."
"It can’t be helped. Although he can hold on for now, without the ability to fight back, he’ll lose sooner or later."
The students who were watching the fight chatted amongst themselves.
On the platform. The senior looked at the shield in front of Ivan and his eyes twitched.
"So what if you can take one hit? Let’s see how long that shield of yours can last!" He said before charging at Ivan again and swinging his war hammer.
Bang!
Without moving a single step, Ivan controlled the shield and blocked the hit again.
The senior didn’t stop. Gripping his hammer, he swung at Ivan several times in one breath.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of the hammer and shield colliding was deafening, the impact almost shaking the ground.
The surrounding students watched in silence as the senior moved skillfully around Ivan while swinging his hammer from different angles.
Meanwhile, Ivan remained standing in the same spot, not taking as much as a step. The shield moved with his thoughts, perfectly blocking every hit.
After a while, the senior moved back. He noticed that something was wrong.
He had attacked Ivan more than ten times within the last few seconds. Even though he didn’t land any clean hits, he should have destroyed the shield of a Level 1 warrior rank paladin with those fierce hits.
How come Ivan’s shield was still intact? And Ivan hadn’t moved since the start of the fight, making it look like he was the only one putting effort.
"You!!! You’re cheating!" The senior suddenly spat out upon realising something.
"Huh? Ivan is cheating, how?"
"I don’t know, I didn’t see him do anything"
"Exactly, Ivan has been standing there all this time so how did he cheat?"
Ignoring the voices in the arena, the senior glared at Ivan’s shield. He now knew why he couldn’t break Ivan’s defence, it was because of that shield!
"How am I cheating?" Ivan asked in a calm tone but a small frown had formed on his face, this senior was starting to annoy him.
"Your shield, it’s not from your paladin ability! That’s a grade 2 shield and you are clearly a Level 1 warrior. Fight me with your own strength instead of relying on your family’s wealth!" The senior said loudly.
Upon hearing this, the arena exploded into another round of discussion.
"Now that he mentioned it, I was actually suspicious how his shield hadn’t shattered yet, so it was a grade 2 shield."
"It’s really good to come from a powerful background, that shield must cost a few hundred gold coins."
"My family can’t even make fifty gold coins after working for a year, there’s no way I could afford that."
"His family must have given it to him since his ability is still weak, it’s not his fault."
Some of the students criticised Ivan while others supported him.
Beside the platform, the members of Ivan’s squad were barely holding themselves back from jumping onto the platform and beating up the senior.
Hearing the voices around them, the senior grinned and pointed his warhammer at Ivan.
"That shield isn’t your own strength, you’re just relying on your background to oppress others. Keep it away and fight me fairly!" He voiced out.
Ivan’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the other party. He was initially planning not to embarrass him too much because he already figured out that these seniors were following someone else’s instructions but now, he didn’t really care anymore.
"Background is a part of strength, blame yourself for not being fortunate enough to have one to rely on.
Only an idiot would choose to suffer when there’s an easier way to do it.
Also, you’re the senior who’s challenging a junior student. You don’t get to talk to me about fairness or oppression." Ivan said in an icy tone and a sword appeared in his right hand which he pointed at the senior, the shield was still floating beside him.
After hearing Ivan’s words, many of the students started to agree with him. Even those who were from ordinary families, they wouldn’t allow themselves to suffer if they were from noble families and could get whatever they wanted.
"Tch, you punk!" The senior cursed under his breath when he realised that he couldn’t use the voices of the surrounding students to pressure Ivan into keeping that shield away.
He was a Level 1 warrior like Ivan, there was no way he could destroy that shield even if he attacked it for the entire day.
’Were Paladins always this difficult to deal with?’ the senior thought before charging at Ivan.
He arrived in front of Ivan and performed a sideways swing with his hammer.
"Ha!!" The senior shouted, putting a lot of strength in that swing as if he was trying to send Ivan flying out of the arena.
This time, Ivan didn’t stand still and used his shield to block as usual.
His body leaned forward before almost turning into a blur as he moved around the senior like a phantom.
Swoosh!!!
The hammer generated a strong gust of wind after missing its target and caused the senior to stumble forward.
The eyes of the senior and many students widened.
So fast!
Bang!
Before the senior could stabilise himself, the pommel of Ivan’s sword landed on his back.
"Gahhh!!" A pained scream escaped the senior’s lungs as a wave of pain swept through his senses while his body was sent flying across the platform.
Thud!!
His body crashed into the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a stop.
"Ouch, ouch! Ouch!" The senior hissed repeatedly as he tried to get up, the pain in his back was unbearable.
But just before he could get up, a foot covered his view.
’Hmm? Why does it look familiar, and why is it getting closer?’
Bang!
Ivan’s foot crashed into the senior’s face, kicking the other party halfway across the platform.
"Ugh!" The senior made a weak sound as he almost lost consciousness. A trail of blood gushed out of his nose but he didn’t even notice.
Thud!
Bam!
"Uuuhh!"
Bang!
"Ahhh!"
The following event was of Ivan kicking the senior around the platform and the other party was simply unable to resist.
This left the surrounding students speechless as they watched the senior take a beating.
Just like that?
The fight literally ended right after Ivan seemed to have gotten serious.
Somewhere in the spectators’ stand, Aiden and Kelvin looked at the sight on the platform with expressionless faces.
After a while, they stood up and left the arena.
There was nothing else to see.
Seconds later.
"Please stop, he can’t take it anymore!" Jane cried out as she rushed onto the platform, Karina followed behind her.
Ivan’s foot, which was about to land on the senior froze just a few centimetres away from the other party’s body which was currently lying weakly on the ground.
The senior hadn’t passed out yet, so Ivan made sure not to hit him too hard to knock him out. However, his current state wasn’t very good.
His face was badly bruised and swollen, bloodstains and broken teeth could be found on the floor, and tears were flowing down his swollen eyes.
Karina and Jane stopped next to their squad leader and looked at Ivan with pleading eyes, begging him to stop.
"He can’t fight anymore, you won already so please stop!" Karina begged.
Ivan stared at them in silence, his leg still raised slightly. The arena was silent as they all waited for what would happen next.
After a few moments of silence, Ivan dropped his leg. Without saying a word, he turned around and walked away.
Meanwhile, Karina and Jane dropped beside their squad leader.
"Can you stand?" Jane asked in concern, but the senior didn’t reply.
He couldn’t.
The two girls gently grabbed an arm and helped him before supporting him off the platform.
While that was happening, Ivan walked to one side of the platform and fixed his gaze on the student whom the senior had handed the mana cores earlier.
The student shuddered under Ivan’s gaze, he rushed over and handed the mana cores to Ivan before returning to his seat.
After he collected the mana cores, Ivan came down from the platform and joined Lena and the others.
"Let’s go,"