The drake ogre was dead.
Arthur killed an intermediate stage grandmaster level beast without any artifacts, just pure physical strength.
Everyone was shocked, they were too stunned to even clap, even the summoner Jenson was the same. Until he received a backlash for the death of his contracted beast, that is.
He coughed up a bit of blood and dropped to his knees. Arthur just stared at him and spoke.
"Admit defeat, or I'd beat you up till you do."
His voice was cold and emotionless, surprising everyone there, they had always seen Arthur laughing or smiling, even when he spoke in a cold tone, and it was mostly him just playing around in the end.
However this time, they could all tell, he meant what he said, he was ready to beat Jenson up if he did not admit defeat.
The teacher, who obviously did not want that, declared the match as over.
"Stop! Prince Arthur wins!"
"Teacher, can I take a leave? I think I sprained my arm."
"Huh? You can just wait for it to he-"
"Teacher. Can. I. Take. A . Leave. Please?"
Arthur interrupted the teacher with the same cold and emotionless voice, he gave the teacher a look that said he wasn't asking to take a leave.
He was merely informing him of what he was going to do next.
"I'd take him over, his healing is a little slow, besides I wanted to get something in the infirmary too."
Layla spoke up, she had noticed something wrong with Arthur, so she went ahead to grab him by his other arm and take him out of the class, without even waiting for the teacher to give a reply.
The others just watched in shock, when they walked out of the class, they turned their eyes back to the centre of the hall and then it dawned on them once again.
Arthur had just killed an intermediate-stage grandmaster beast with his bare hands.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, Arthur and Layla were obviously not going to the infirmary, but instead to Arthur's room. They used a teleportation gate that was usually reserved for emergencies.
Arthur just showed his badge with the crest of the royal family and they let him through. When they got to his room, the moment Layla closed the door and was about to ask what was wrong, Arthur screamed.
"H-huh?! W-what happened?"
She ran towards him in a panic however when she got close she realized something, or rather she sensed it.
Arthur had always had energy in his body, he had magic, aura, divinity-something devils were normally incompatible with and a fourth energy that even Diablo and Hades were not sure of yet.
However, his energy never flowed.
Every being had something like an energy circuit, pathways in their bodies where energy flowed naturally, just like blood flowed in veins.
Arthur's energy flow however had been slow since birth, slow enough that it couldn't be considered as even moving in the first place.
After his ten-year birthday, when he gained his wings, it stopped completely. It had not flowed at all since that day.
However, whenever Arthur used his wings recently, he noticed the flow temporarily resume, it was still slow as always at first.
But the more he used his wings, he realized something, it was getting faster and faster. The wings of devils could act as energy conductors, he believed this was why his still energy was being stimulated.
He came to a decision;
To stop using his wings.
Everyone already knew he could not use his energy, so it was better to keep it that way, at least until he gained Lucifer's legacy from Varona.
When he strengthened himself with it, he would let his energy flow continue and he believed he would eventually gain the ability to use his energies like normal.
Since then, it had been almost two months, he had not used his wings not even once, however, today he used them.
It was not a conscious action, he had trained with Creusery and the latter sometimes used explosive attacks, he always jumped up and used his wings to fly out of the explosion's range.
So when faced with a similar situation he reflexively used his wings and flew up, it was at that moment he realized he had continued his stagnant energy flow.
That was why he clicked his tongue when that happened, the sound from his fists when he hit the scythe was a result of the energy strengthening on his arm.
Just by possessing huge amounts of energy, one's body would be strengthened naturally. Arthur's energy was as much as what was needed to harden one's fist like iron.
Luckily, not many cared for the sound at the time as they were still mesmerized by the fact that he was taking on an intermediate-stage grandmaster beast with his fists alone.
However he could not control it at all, the flow was also as slow as always. These are some of the reasons Arthur decided not to use his wings and risk releasing an uncontrollable amount of energy that would have an adverse effect.
Right now he was currently writhing in pain due to the sudden spikes in energy flow speed. It was irregular, and was causing him pain.
Then suddenly. It stopped.
It was a defensive action taken by his body, as the amount of energy that threatened to spill out was more than what Arthur's body could handle.
The moment it was released, his body would burst, so it forcefully stopped his energy flow.
"Haaa~"
"A-Arthur, you?"
"Layla. Not a word about this."
"Not a word?! You are clearly in pain, when did this start, and that amount of energy...even most Epi-"
"Layla.!"
Arthur's shout brought Layla out of her reverie, he noticed she was genuinely worried for him, and that was all the more reason he had to prevent her from telling anyone, especially his mother.
"You owe me a favour, right? Then not a word of this to anyone, I'd tell them myself when the time comes."
He then stood up and tapped her on the shoulder, smiling as he spoke.
"So, I wanna take a bath, and I'm gonna have to take off my clothes, are you just gonna stand there and watch or...?"
As he trailed off, Layla finally realized what he was hinting at and her face flushed immediately, she turned and ran out of his room, not before leaving a few words.
"Pervert! Exhibitionist!"
Arthur just laughed heartily at her innocent reaction and pulled off his shirt, looking at the crack on his arm, he realized he really cut it close this time.
'The damned artifact canceller disabled the energy-sealing artifact I was wearing. Tsk.'
The reason Arthur's magic blooming did not occur, was more simple than anyone thought. His energies were too strong for his body to hold, so it chose to seal them till his body could take it.
Even if the energy strengthened his body, the strengthening did not catch up to the rate of its destruction.
'Especially that fourth unknown one, it's similar to that thing dad has around him, yet it feels like a negative version of it.'
He shook his head and decided to think about it later when he was done taking a bath, after all;
"I'm smelly as f*ck."
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur's duel with Jenson, gathered a lot of eyes. The training building was used by the other first-year classes so when they were passing by, it caught their attention.
The ones who remained there after Layla's spar with the teacher also added to the crowd, seeing the prince reputed to have no energy, taking on an intermediate stage grandmaster realm beast, that was probably strengthened using the various techniques the Hollis summoners used to strengthen their contracted beasts.
And he killed it, he dodged all its attacks, caught its blade with his fist and killed it.
As for the sound of metal clanging, they all presumed he was wearing some sort of metal gauntlet like Jenson was.
The ones who were closer were not even sure of what he was wearing on his hands, their attention had been focused on the fight as a whole, not just his hands.
It was just a sound in the end so not many paid close attention to it.
A few students who were not having classes and were on their phones took a few videos and posted them on the school's online forum, they spread around the school in the blink of an eye.
Those who were planning to challenge Arthur next month in an attempt to take his Rank from him, began having second thoughts.
◇ ◇ ◇
As for the person involved, he went on about his days like always, he played around with his friends, annoyed teachers as always and barely listened in class.
Yet somehow, he kept on topping the entire first year. The academy had two general exams each year and Arthur topped both with a margin of almost 10 points each time.
He did not have any plans to get good grades after the entrance exams but he did so to spite the teachers who wanted to see him fail.
Naturally, Layla came in second as always, in third was a girl from a count house whose territory was not far from the Eryrth Dukedom.
She and Layla had been friends before Layla even knew Arthur, they also studied together too. And Arthur took it upon himself to be the distraction they lacked.
It always ended up with Layla pulling out a gun and chasing him away though.
And that's how Arthur passed his first school year without a hitch, well, there were a few but they weren't anything serious.