"Let the duel begin!"
Immediately after the Instructor said those words, Justin clasped his hand and started chanting the spell. He completely removed his focus from Harry and was only concerned about the spell he was chanting.
Harry was slightly stunned by Justin's actions. 'Not focusing on your opponent? How stupid.' He said inwardly.
Justin was trying to unleash his strongest spell, he wanted to prove to Harry that the difference between an Elementalist and a normal person was as wide as the gap between the sky and the ground.
Unfortunately, due to his pitiful mana core foundation, he needed to cast the spell with utmost concentration.
'I can't waste time on this… I need to end this fast!' Harry thought as he rushed forward. Although he could fare against tier-one spells easily, he still didn't plan on letting Justin complete his spell.
Though his speed could be a lot faster if he activated accelerate, he felt like he didn't need to. His agility stat was a lot higher than it was before and covering a few feet in seconds wasn't too hard for the current him.
Besides, his opponent wasn't even focusing on him which simply made everything easier.
In a few seconds, he closed in on Justin, he clenched his fists and threw out a punch towards Justin's chest.
Justin wasn't able to react to Harry's punch, for him, one second he was trying to cast a spell, then the other he felt a strong force hit him on his chest.
Due to the force of the punch, his back arched out as blood spurted out of his lips. His legs turned wobbly and he took a few steps backwards before finally losing consciousness.
The jaws of everyone watching the duel immediately dropped to the ground. No one expected this kind of result. Not only did Harry defeat Justin but he also did it within seconds!
Meanwhile, Harry stood in the middle of the stage with an aloof look on his face. Back when he attacked Justin, he tried his best to hold back his strength as much as possible.
Since the strength of stage one Elementalists was more or less like that of a normal person, if Harry had attacked without holding back, his full strength could have killed Justin or at least resulted in critical injuries. That kind of situation would definitely ruin his plan of 'not drawing too much attention'.
The instructor was also shocked, his mouth was wide open as he stared at the unconscious figure of Justin.
"Harry wins the duel!" He finally announced after regaining his composure. The instructor hurriedly rushed towards Justin who was still passed out on the ground, he raised his head and placed a blue pill in his mouth.
Almost immediately, Justin's face started to regain colour as he slowly regained consciousness.
"Ugh…" A grunt left his lips as he slowly sat up. His gaze immediately turned fierce the moment it met that of Harry.
He hurriedly got up as he shouted, "Y-you… you cheated! I didn't cast my—"
He wasn't able to complete his sentence before the pressure of the instructor bore down upon him. His body froze as cold sweat dripped from his back, he felt as if an invisible hand was slowly crushing his heart.
"Harry didn't cheat! This was won fair and square!" The instructor shouted. He slowly turned around and faced the other students surrounding the stage, he was still releasing some of his pressure so those around the stage were also frozen in fear.
They all stared at the instructor while gulping harshly. Some of them agreed with Justin that Harry 'cheated', however they couldn't even voice out their opinion due to the pressure that weighed down upon them.
However, since the instructor was facing the other students, he wasn't able to notice Harry who appeared to be completely unfazed by his pressure.
"In a real-life battle… all that matters is the result! No one would wait for you to complete your spell!" He shouted, he understood why Justin felt Harry cheated.
Stage one Elementalists couldn't be compared to stage two or three Elementalists who were quite fast in casting spells. They needed to properly channel the elemental mana in their body before finally casting the spell, this process could take some time(sometimes minutes depending on the spell.)
However, Harry didn't even let Justin complete his spell, he attacked immediately after the duel started. Without their spells, stage one elementalists were rendered useless as they were no better than a normal person.
"This should be a lesson to you all!" The instructor said as he turned towards Harry. His impression of Harry in his heart subconsciously increased. 'Too bad… his foundation is shattered.' He mumbled inwardly.
As an instructor, he had experienced and partaken in real-life-and-death battles. Some students in the academy felt it was unfair to attack Elementalists while they are casting spells or before they cast their spells, to them, it was a dishonourable and underhanded method.
However, they would later realize how naive their thoughts were. Mana beasts wouldn't wait for any Elementalist to complete a spell, they would simply attack. All that mattered were the results… not the methods.
"Remember our bet," Harry said as he faced Justin.
Justin had a dejected look on his face as he stared at Harry. He turned his gaze towards the professor hoping for anything that would save him from this situation, however, he only got a stern look that screamed 'you can't go back on your words'.
He gritted his teeth as he reluctantly walked towards Harry.
"You'll pay for this…" He muttered as he stared at Harry. He brought out a small silver ball and handed it over to Harry.
Harry couldn't hold back the grin that spread across his face as he stared at the silver ball. He checked the contents and nodded after seeing it was complete.
He got down from the stage and walked towards the small crowd of students around. He walked towards the ones at the left and casually stretched the silver ball to a boy at the front.
"Pay up." He said without bothering to hide the smug grin that spread across his face.
The student gritted his teeth as he reluctantly transferred the money to the storage device.
Harry nodded his head slightly and started moving from one student to another, repeating the same actions.
Although none of the students was happy about the current turn of events, they could only swallow their words as they transferred money to the storage device.
Back then, when Harry agreed to take on Justin's challenge, the wager stated that if Harry prevailed, Justin would give him fifty thousand credits. And if it was the other way around, Justin demanded that Harry did whatever he wanted till the end of the academy year.
However, that wasn't all. Justin wanted to prove that he had more supporters and influence and also to humiliate Harry even more. So he convinced some students to place twenty thousand credits on him winning.
Most of them made the bet because they wanted to please Justin. Since Justin's father was a popular beast core dealer, they would surely benefit if they were able to become friends with him.
Besides, Justin promised to compensate them after winning, however, what none of them expected was that Harry would actually win the duel.
That amount of money was the yearly allowance for some of them, and losing it in this manner was painful. Unfortunately, they had no choice, they only had themselves to blame for their stupid decision to take part in the bet.
After finally collecting money from everyone, Harry nodded his head slightly as he counted the total amount.
Just as he was about to turn around, his gaze caught that of a black-haired student standing at the far edge of the hall. Harry didn't know why but something about that black-haired student made him feel wary.
****
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