'Hahaha, what a fucking idiot!'
'What did you expect? The moment we realized their flaw, he was done for. If it wasn't us it would be someone else.'
'But to not even realize he was the one who could decide the bet, yet didn't think for a second.'
What Lucas was thinking about was the fact that the students of the Martial class never used magic. Not during the tests, not during the duels, even when they were losing. Not a single one even tried to use magic. Lucas kept his eyes on them from the very beginning and found a single flaw. Besides that it wasn't the challenger who decided the bet, it was the person who was challenged. Obviously they could come to an agreement, but Orpheus didn't think it through.
'They gave up their pathways to rebuild their body. It did increase their strength and defense a ton, but removed their ability to use magic.'
Lucas's body was entirely made of pathways and gateways, but the Martial students removed their pathways. If they gathered energy it would have to go through their body, strengthening it in a certain way. But there was no way to expel it except from being manually drained.
Lucas figured their teacher wasn't build like them, but was merely experimenting on them to see what was possible. He knew mages liked to experiment. Their teacher was probably very proud of his achievement, but accidentally created a bunch of weaklings. Since they couldn't use magic, magic vision was also something they lost.
It was easy to take advantage of such a flaw. Lucas didn't know a lot about poison, he never even used it. All he did was use Life Drain on the places he touched. There was never any real threat to Orpheus's life, the energy provided for the spell quickly wore off and could only damage his tissue a little bit. What it mostly did was drain energy, making Orpheus tired and confused.
Only by pressuring Orpheus into thinking he would be dead and close off any escape could he make the man surrender. He was trapped in Lucas's scheme the moment he accepted the duel. Lucas made sure to pick someone who was very extroverted and impulsive, making him easier to manipulate.
Say, for example, Orpheus waited a minute like Lucas said he would see there was nothing to be afraid of or if he took into account the amount of times Lucas touched him he would realize that his death only got advanced by a few minutes which didn't make any sense.
The moment Orpheus started to think, Lucas would be done for. Luckily, Lucas made sure that would never happen. Orpheus was an ant on Lucas's hand, there was nothing the man could've done to escape his defeat.
The audience could immediately see that Lucas wasn't telling the whole truth. Poison was a strange art that not many practiced, it was definitely not something that would be shown in school. But while the audience could get a grasp on what Lucas did, Orpheus was blind.
'Now that we made it this far, it's time for the next step of our plan.', looking at the scoreboard he could see he reached the place he was aiming for.
Matheo - 1 - 6703
Asta - 2 - 6340
Conrad - 3 - 6098
Eliot - 4 - 5963
Lucas's points skyrocketed him all the way to third place. But he wasn't celebrating anything. The reason he didn't waste a lot of energy on his previous fight was for because the next would require his all. He could've bombarded Orpheus with dozens of spells to knock him out or to push him off the stage, but he simply didn't have that choice.
Lucas won, but he stayed on the courtyard, normally every winner or loser would leave immediately to hide in shame or to recover. But Lucas patiently waited.
"I CHALLENGE CONRAD!", a yell loud enough to stop anyone else from trying to initiate the next duel.
Eliot jumped on the stage, his red hair gave off the feeling that he was surrounded by fire. Lucas could see the visceral anger on his face, Lucas was glad that Eliot didn't see his smile behind the mask.
"I don't understand why you're so obsessed with me. First during the tests you screamed my name each time I surpassed you, now this?"
"Don't try to weasel your way out of this! I've visited teacher Vires and the Order of Light not too long ago, and he told me everything. The only reason they imprisoned him was because you framed him!"
"On what basis are you making those claims? As far as I know I wasn't even at school during the entire trail. Hell, I didn't even know there was a trail until I came back."
"That's bullshit! Everything was a mere play for you! You always hide in the dark, letting others do your dirty work. Even now, when we're supposed to fight against each other you try to find dirty tricks and play mind games to win! You're nothing but scum that should've never entered this school!"
"I didn't even do anything, yet you're so delusional that you think I'm some bad actor? Since when are tactics seen as dirty tricks? If you think that's the case why don't you tell that to the high ranking Mages that protect the country!"
Lucas knew that besides the hunting and adventurer guild there were others watching on. One of them had to be the military. And it seems he was right on the mark because he could feel a subtle pressure push down on the courtyard. It wasn't harmful, but it was a clear warning.
"Don't try to shift the conversation, you know I can't prove anything since you left no proof behind. You always make others do your work, so that it would never lead back to you. I mean look at you now, why are you even wearing a mask besides hiding your identity?"
Lucas could tell that Eliot had grown. He thought that Eliot would be impulsive and arrogant, but he could tell that Eliot was mentally prepared. He was used to manipulating people, but what would happen when those people are extremely wary of you, would they take your words into consideration?
"So you don't actually have any proof at all? You're simply blaming me for other's shortcomings?"
"No, I'm aware that Vires isn't perfect, but he was the best teacher this school had. He never did anything wrong and always helped others out, but suddenly he's targeted for conspiring with the Demonic Cult? It didn't make any sense, only after investigating did a single name come out, yours!"
"So you're not only not acknowledging the work done by the Order, but you're also saying that, without any basis, I'm somehow the person behind all this? I don't remember ordering people around like they're my servants. If you didn't know, I don't have the backing of someone born with a silver spoon in their mouth. You might be capable of setting things in scene, but why would any person listen to what someone like me had to say?"
Lucas was one of the very few commoners that participated in the duels, in fact, he was the only one that even reached the top 50. The difference between commoners and nobles was simply too much. Not many noticed it before because it didn't really matter that much. Now that everyone realized who this person was, their opinion shrunk, but for a few it grew. Some mages in the crowd started out as commoners, so they knew what it was living in fear for those above.
Giving away that he was a normal person without any status made him very vulnerable to all the noble parties. They could do what they wanted with the people below them, so if one of those was starting to rebel or gain power, what would any smart noble do? Cut the weeds by the roots.
"I'm a commoner; if I fight against nobles and win, what do you think happens? They start a manhunt and try to silence me in every way possible! The only reason I wear a mask to protect myself from your kind! Please, we can all see where your anger comes from, you're just jealous of a commoner that's getting a better score than you."
While Lucas was exaggerating a bit, he did make a good point that many in the audience could understand. Many of them were mages who lived for quite some time, they knew about the struggles a commoner would face. Some nobles didn't like the fact that someone below them was stronger than them, so they needed to be taken care off.
The commoners that were watching were glad that someone of their status made it this far, to even bring the issue to light once more and show what could be achieved without any backing.
"Conrad, don't try to make this a struggle of a weak underdog against the big bad nobles. We both know you're strong and smart enough to escape those so-called "manhunts". You're running away again. Just accept my challenge and let me prove to the world that you were the one behind Vires's framing!"
"You're still going on about that? I'm telling you I don't have anything to do with that. Defeating me won't make your delusions become reality, but if you're that eager I guess we shouldn't postpone it any longer. Let's fight with all our points on the table."
His nonchalance made the host and the crowd excited again. Another bet with everything on the line, meaning that the loser was out of the game. All the nobles and commoners started to cheer on their respective sides. If Lucas won it would once again show that commoners have a place in the world, that status isn't everything. If Eliot won, the nobles would be satisfied to know that someone below them was meant to be there and couldn't nor shouldn't climb up.
"Deal, when I'm done with you, everyone will know what kind of fraud you really are! You can pick whatever you want, I'll beat you to a pulp."
Lucas was certain that Eliot wasn't kidding, he was the second-strongest student in the school. Only Matheo was officially stronger, but Lucas didn't know too much about the guy. From the few matches he saw of Matheo he didn't gather all that much info. He was respectful and kind, never taunted his strength but didn't hold back. His first impression was that Matheo was perfect, but that only made him more suspicious.
But those were worries for later, now he needed to win against Eliot who was fuming. Lucas could tell that he had reached a higher level than his own core. Thus taking the pressure test was out of the question. He did have a chance at purely physical strength and blow up his own arm once more, but knew that Eliot would have prepared something.
Eliot was calmer than expected, he must've come prepared and if there was anything he would have to prepare for was the test of physical strength. Lucas didn't want to take that risk, so he went with the only test where he was confident enough.
"Then let's have an actual duel, anything goes."
"Deal."
The two of them stood on each side staring daggers at each other. Lucas was nervous for once because he wasn't 100% sure that he would win. There was a chance that he would lose and forget about his rewards, but if he won he would've secured his victory in the School's contest.