“Can you not get close to me?” Nicole asked in a teasing tone while covering her nose. “You stink.”
The corner of Ethan’s lips twitched because it was not only Nicole who was doing this. Even Chloe, and Luna, who were his staunchest allies were sitting several meters away from him with apologetic looks on their faces.
As Ethan’s supporters, they were happy because he won.
But as girls, they didn’t want to sit near him at this time because his clothes reeked of the smell of rotten eggs and cabbages.
The teenage boy understood that he wasn’t smelling his best at the moment, so he decided to sit somewhere far from the others to give them some peace of mind.
Finally, the second match was about to start.
When Noah stepped on the arena, his complexion wasn’t that good. Clearly, the foul smell in his surroundings was affecting his mood.
However, compared to his opponent from the Jaeger Manor, Noah’s condition was nothing.
Due to their enhanced senses, the people from Jaeger Manor would suffer three times more than the average person.
After seeing his opponent’s very pale complexion, Noah felt somewhat better as he endured the nauseating discomfort he was feeling.
“Are both of you ready?” Professor Barret asked as he stood outside of the arena.
The Referee had already cast a dome of purifying light over the arena, keeping the smell from reaching him, as well as the audience.
This spell drained his mana with each passing second, but for Professor Barret this was a whole lot better than smelling the abominable odor that was assaulting the two duelists in the arena.
Noah and his opponent nodded and Professor Barret gave the order to start.
As soon as the order was given, the Second Year from the Jaeger Manor summoned two Dire Bears to fight for him.
This should have been a very hard battle for Noah, with his chances of winning being very slim. But, something unexpected happened.
The moment the two Dire Bears were summoned, they didn’t immediately attack their target but instead, sniffed in their surroundings.
A moment later, the two Dire Bears cried out in alarm as they sneezed, wheezed, and coughed, seemingly finding it hard to breathe due to the suffocating stench that they were smelling for the first time in their lives.
Ethan’s spell, Magna Mephitis Imbre, was actually a stench spell that was similar to a skunk’s spray, whose effect was multiplied ten times.
A simple skunk spray was enough to make animals flee in fright, and something that was ten times more potent than that was enough to make even the ferocious Dire Bears suffer terribly.
Their Summoner wasn’t in the best condition either and, before long, he threw up on the stage, making Noah feel sorry for him.
It was at that moment when the other Professors realized the reason why Ethan purposely covered the entirety of the arena with the vile yellow liquid.
Even Professor Njal, who was one of the supervisors of the Jaeger Manor couldn’t help but cry out in shock once he connected the dots together.
“H-He definitely did this on purpose!” Professor Njal stammered after realizing Ethan’s nefarious plan. “He coated the entire arena with that spell in order to give the members of Dud Manor a tactical advantage against the fighters of Jaeger Manor.”
Naturally, the students of the Jaeger Manor also came to the same conclusion after seeing their Second Year puke his guts out.
“Unfair!”
“This match should be revoked!”
“We cannot accept this! The duel should be restarted and the arena cleaned from that filth!”
The entirety of the students of Jaeger Manor all stood up and protested, making their voices heard throughout the Grand Stadium.
Some of the students of Schwartz Manor and Eques Manor joined the protest. It was only the Terra Manor that kept their silence.
Their score with Jaeger Manor were tied, so this meant that they needed Jaeger Manor to lose a few matches, so that their rankings in the tournament would go down.
A round robin match scored the overall win of each team. The one with the highest number of wins, would be crowned as champion. In the case of having two teams with the same number of wins, and loses, they would fight each other one last time to determine the winner.
Because of this, the members of Terra Manor kept their silence and even secretly wished that Jaeger Manor would lose completely.
For Terra Manor, Jaeger Manor were the greatest threat in the tournament, and seeing them lose would benefit them a lot.
As the angry shouts of protests intensified, Professor Rinehart finally stood up and raised his hand, making everyone turn silent. 𝗈𝚟𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t
“This is a Magical Duel that has become the yearly tradition of Brynhildr Academy,” Professor Rinehart stated. “Its purpose is to prepare everyone for any unexpected circumstances when they are out doing their missions. Although I admit that the current situation places a great disadvantage on Jaeger Manor, the matches will continue.
“Why? The reason is simple. More often than not, you can’t choose the time and place that something unexpected happens. Bandits might attack you out of the blue when you are at your weakest. Would you tell the bandits to come back at a later date to conduct their raid because you are not in your peak condition?
“The answer, of course, is No. There will be situations when you will be at a very great disadvantage where you have to choose between winning, and survival. I believe that during your darkest moment, you will be able to go beyond your limits, and breakthrough to a better, and stronger version of you.
“But, since we are on the subject, from this day onwards, the spell Magna Mephitis Imbre, will be banned from the Clash of Manors, alongside several other spells that I will announce later this afternoon.
“The match will not be canceled and will continue. Although it pains me to say this, the candidates of Jaeger Manor should find ways to overcome this obstacle. Take this as a lesson and prepare for similar situations in the future. That is all.”
After Professor Rinehart made his declaration, the students unwillingly backed down and sat in their seats. They understood what their Headmaster was saying, and this was something that they couldn’t refute.
On the battlefield, their opponent would not wait for them to have favorable conditions before they attacked.
In fact, they would even try to put them at the greatest disadvantage possible to ensure their victory.
They understood this logic, but they still couldn’t forgive Ethan for using such a spell in a battle that was supposed to be fought fair and square.
Just like everyone expected, Noah won the second match.
His opponent was terribly weakened, so it didn’t take much effort to whip him out of the arena and end the battle with the victory of the Dud Manor.
George and Henry both had smiles on their faces because they didn’t find Ethan’s strategy foul or anything.
In fact, they even thought that he was a genius for thinking beyond his own match. Not only did he win his own match, he also laid out a perfect battlefield to give the members of the Dud Manor an opportunity to overcome their opponents.
It was a brilliant strategy that cost the handsome teenager the hate of the entirety of the Jaeger Manor.
“George, good luck,” Henry said as he patted his best friend’s shoulder. “Your opponent is not an amateur. I’m sure that he already made preparations to fight under that horrible condition.”
“You know, I feel like I’m the odd one in our team,” George said wryly. “All of my opponents are the best of the Third Years, who are also candidates to become the Head Prefects next year. It’s like I’m just going up there to be a punching bag for them.”
Henry chuckled after hearing his best friend’s complaints.
“So you say, but the Medics of Terra Manor are quite pretty this year.” Henry smirked. “When I went to visit you, one of the Medics was flirting with you, and you were flirting back. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you are losing just so you can be pampered by them.”
George grinned after hearing his best friend’s comment.
“What can I say? Aside from magic duels, I’m quite popular with the ladies,” George stated.
He was indeed quite popular with the ladies despite not being as handsome as Ethan, Noah, and Henry.
George’s looks were only a little bit above average, but his calm demeanor and charming smile were enough to make some of the Witches in the Academy smitten with him.
Several minutes later, George was carried out of the arena on a stretcher.
He had lost his match against the Third Year, who had temporarily removed his sense of smell, making it so he was unaffected by the stench in the arena.
The members of the Jaeger Manor came to life after this victory. Now, all that remained was for the two Head Prefects of each Manor, to battle it out and see who would emerge victorious in today’s battles.