"Watch my Sword Strike. Hero Strike!"
A crescent Sword Wave came toward Alex. Alex looked at this Sword Wave and it was basically similar to Rieze's Sword Wave, only a bit stronger. But Alex looked at John weirdly, he never knew John had this kind of hobby.
"I never thought you have this kind of hobby. What do people call you back on the earth... cuni? no... chuuni?... whatever."
Alex pulled out his sword, then he muttered in a low voice, "The Fourth Slash should be enough, right?"
"Fourth Slash!" Alex used his Sanguin Sword Art up to the Fourth Slash. A beautiful crescent Sword Wave came from Alex's sword.
The two Sword Waves contacted each other. Sadly, John's Sword Wave was immediately engulfed by Alex's Sword Wave. After Alex's Sword Wave destroyed John's Sword Wave, it continued to move toward John and he panicked right away, "Wha!"
A shadow appeared between the Sword Wave and John.
Alex's eyes immediately brightened.
"Sword Strike!"
Another Sword Strike clashed with Alex's Sword Wave. The two Sword Waves were destroying each other.
The shadow turned out to be the princess. She used her Sword Strike to defend Alex's Sword Wave. After clashing with John's Sword Wave, Alex's Sword Wave was already weakened. Therefore, even if her Sword Wave was weaker than John's, she somehow managed to block Alex's Sword Wave.
Contrary to her, Alex was a bit astonished. Although he was sure that Rieze's Sword Wave was weaker than John's, Alex felt there was something behind it. He felt her foundation was really good. Not because of her level, but because of her swordsmanship. But then he shook his head and focused back on this opportunity.
"Boost Step!"
Alex used his boost step and instantly arrived beside the princess.
"Wha!" Rieze was shocked by Alex's speed, she couldn't react fast enough to this. Soon, she started losing her consciousness and she passed out.
After Alex arrived beside Rieze, he used his hand to chop behind her neck to knock her out. He wanted to punch her stomach, but it would not be categorized as 'going easy' on her. So he chopped her neck to knock her out.
Alex grabbed her and used another Boost Step to arrive at the edge of the arena and put her down outside the arena. Then he used another Boost Step and arrived back at his previous position.
***
Back to the two old men outside the arena.
"Look, he already went easy on her. Make sure to control your rage. I am not scared of you, I just don't want any unnecessary casualty," dean Marco sarcastically said.
"Hmph," Brandon immediately went to Rieze and picked her up, and arrived in front of dean Marco again with Rieze in his hands. He put her down gently. "I won't. As long as you don't kill them. If you kill them, even if I don't want to, there will be a war for sure."
The dean laughed, "Haha! There's no need for you to worry about that. My Alex is not like your kingdom's hero at all."
"Aren't you guys worried that I will tell His Majesty about his power?"
"Sure, do as you like. Do you think we are afraid of you even if you make an alliance with the Holy Kingdom?" The dean snorted.
***
"Now, there are only you guys left," Alex looked at John's panicked face, Sandra's hateful face, and Ayaka's fearful face.
"You... don't push your luck!" John madly charged toward Alex. He swung his sword to his head and wanted to chop him to pieces.
Alex easily held John's attack. Their swords clashed with each other for a hundred rounds. Alex was always on the defensive stance, so John became arrogant.
"Haha... after all your boasting, you can only defend yourself against me?" John laughed like a mad man.
Brandon who was at the audience seat looked at the hero with a pitiful look, "Too young, naive, and pathetic."
John looked like a powerful man but couldn't use his power properly. On the other hand, Alex looked calm like a deep black pitch sea wanting to swallow the object on it. When John was training, he always killed monsters with the girls but Brandon personally knew that the monster they killed was already weakened because of his knight. If not, they couldn't really beat those monsters.
Unfortunately, John never noticed any of that. Instead, he always flaunted his prowess and status.
Brandon secretly thought that if the hero was swapped based on his observation, Alex was the one who fit to be a hero. He looked up to the sky and muttered with a sad tone "Are the Heaven playing with our Zircodina?"
In the process of summoning, he wasn't present to see it. He received a report that the kingdom managed to summon a hero with an extraordinary status when he was level 1.
He also received a report about a trash with a status weaker than a child got dragged along and got summoned along with the hero and banished from the castle. When he received the report, he pitied Alex even though he didn't know him. After all, that was their fault in the first place. He was surprised to know Alex, a supposedly weak ant, but now became a soaring dragon. Alex had everything from status, power, to experience. Brandon could only sigh.
Meanwhile, John was attacking Alex while flaunting his power. Sandra and Ayaka also recovered and looked down at Alex once again. They thought Alex had become powerful, which scared them a bit. However, seeing John continuously attack him, they felt relieved, especially Sandra, "I'm choosing the right person, right?" She thought to herself.
"Haha... this is my power! Something that a trash like you will never understand. Because I am the hero!" John shouted.
Alex smirked, he jumped off to distance himself from John. He looked at John with pity. All the images of his best friend back in middle school were shattered.
Noticing the distance, John then arrogantly charged at Alex again. But suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and he was blown away to the edge of the arena and passed out. Alex was surprised by his reaction. He thought John as a hero had a big endurance that a simple punch like that shouldn't have blown him away. He was about to make John a punching bag for a while as he wanted to vent out his frustration on him.
"Gah!"
It took a while for Sandra and Ayaka to realize what happened. Alex kicked John's in the stomach and sent him away to the edge of the arena. Seeing John was in pain, crouched while holding his stomach, they immediately rushed to his side to help him.
"You two better start now. If you don't, it will only look like I bully him," Alex mocked them.
"You!" Sandra looked at Alex with hatred.
"Fireball!"
"Gust!"
A swirling wind enveloped by fire was charging toward Alex.
Alex only sighed, he raised his palm as if he wanted to stop someone from coming to him.
'Boom!'
"Do we make it?" Sandra focused her eyes on the smoke enveloping Alex.
But, as the smoke cleared up, she felt fear slowly crept up. Alex was standing still as nothing happened. Alex himself never feared Sandra's fire because he had a Pure Fire Element. No fire could hurt him. As for Ayaka's wind, it would not be able to hurt his rank 5 body.
Alex started to walk toward them. Sandra and Ayaka tried to use as much magic as they could cast but to no avail. Alex was still unfazed by their magic. Alex finally stopped his step right in front of them. Sandra and Ayaka looked at him, fear in their eyes.
Alex first looked at Ayaka. He never had any problem with her. The only thing she did was mocking him and she was also one of John's admirers. She never did something inherently bad to him, like betraying him or other worse things. But somehow she was still pissing him off.
"Y-you! Don't come..." Ayaka was scared by his strength.
Alex's fist suddenly landed on her stomach.
"Gah!" She vomited blood and was blown away by the punch Alex delivered. She crashed into the wall which knocked her out cold.
That single punch broke a few of her ribs. That would force her to stay still for a few months. Alex already calculated everything. When he traveled to this kingdom, it took him four months just to arrive there from the closest forest to Zircodina's capital city.
The injuries she suffered would likely take her a few months to heal completely. So, when she arrived at Zircodina capital city, her injuries would be healed already, even if she went back to her kingdom immediately.
"Aiya!" The dean shook his head looking at him. But he secretly gave thumbs up to Alex. He then turned to Brandon and smirked. "You won't blame him for that, right?"
"Hmph, even though she is a sage, her attitude was like a slut and she likes to look down on people. She deserves it," Brandon snorted. "This brat was sly. That kind of injury will be healed up in a few months. Even if we rush our journey back, it will still take 3 months to arrive and those injuries would already be healed. There will be no proof to the king about what he did to her."
"Hehe..."
***
Back to Alex who was already on his way toward Sandra, his ex-girlfriend.
"Noo...!" Sandra looked at Alex fearfully, after she saw what Alex did to Ayaka, she could imagine what would happen to her.
"Do-don't hurt me..." Sandra started to tear up. "I-I was your ex-girlfriend, right? Considering our past relationship, please don't-don't hit me."
Alex looked at his ex-girlfriend's pitiful state. Full of tears and snot, she looked really ugly. Alex looked at her without any emotion.
"Alex… please," she begged.
Alex looked at her coldly, as he said, "How could I fall in love with someone like you back then?"
Sandra's eyes brightened, he still remembered their relationship back then, when she was still his girlfriend? That meant she still had a chance to persuade him. "Right? You still love me and care about me?"
Alex smirked a little, as he asked coldly, "You really think so?"
"I... I...!" She was scared by Alex's gaze. If their relationship was not good, then the last thing she could think of was to flaunt about her job. "You...! You do know I am an archmage right? Are you sure you can escape unscathed if you hit me? I'm a very important archmage of the Zircodina Kingdom. Do you think..."
"Shut up!" Alex shouted
"Ugh...!"
"Goodbye," as he said that, Alex made a round kick to Sandra's face. Alex was really ruthless, if he did that, Sandra's face might be disfigured. Alex didn't have any intention to disfigure her for the rest of her life, so he controlled the strength of his kick. It might bruise her face a few months. He never had any feud from generations with her after all. Because of her betrayal, he started to mature up.
Sandra rolled again and again on the ground as she passed out by Alex's kick.
Alex looked at her knocked-out body, he sighed. One burden started to lift off of his head. Alex then turned to John.
He stopped in front of John and the arena suddenly fell silent that even the rustling wind could be heard easily. Everybody gulped. They wondered what Alex would do to the hero.
'Will he kill the hero?'
'Will he spare the hero's life?'
'Will he dare to do anything to the hero as he did to the other girls?'
Various thoughts were passed around in this situation. Alex raised his sword and swung it toward John.
"Kya--!" Screamed was echoed in the arena, mostly from the girls, while the boys gulped.
Alicia used her hands to cover her up but still peeked between her fingers.
The dean put his hand on his face and shook his head. Although he secretly put a big thumb up to him.
Brandon only frowned.