Haru stood, hands at his sides, looking at what was decidedly a slap's mark. It seems there was still red in it. That Montmorency girl sure had an arm. Murmurs and whispers ran around, the bets were heavily stacked in Guiche's favor, and Louise was still frantic. Siesta had failed to convince him to budge.
It was a matter of manly pride, it seemed, which he denied vigorously. Kirche had hit the nail right on the head. Then again, she'd placed a generous bet on his name...
"I am amazed that you didn't cut and run!" Guiche began, great pomp and class exuding from his every orifice. HAH, as if!
"Wait!" Louise yelled, breaking through the crowd, much to their annoyance. They wanted the beating to start already. Although the majority of the females were hoping his face was avoided. "Guiche, stop this absurdity! Duels are forbidden!" Well, at least she wasn't trying to stop him this time... Clearly, Louise had figured out that she wouldn't get him to stop.
"Only amongst Nobles!" Guiche corrected. "He is a commoner. There is no problem."
"That's just because this has never happened before. No commoner has ever been this stupid." Louise commented, absent mindedly.
"Ah, Louise, could it be that this commoner has touched your innocent your maidenhood?" Haru blinked. That was a horrible choice of words. Evidently, Guiche was TERRIBLE when he hadn't rehearsed his lines. Seriously, that made him cringe!
"As if!" she yelled, blushing pink. "Just stop it! How could I just stand by and watch my familiar get beaten around?" The familiar is the responsibility of the master, and Louise was goddamned responsible. The rule of steel was to be upheld at all times!
"Even if you say that, that will not make up for what your familiar has done!" Guiche said, raising his wand and covering his mouth in yet another overly dramatic gesture. "Let the duel begin!"
Nobody bothered to point out that the fact that the situation had come to that was Guiche's fault anyway. It'd need someone to side with the commoner, and there were very few bets to his name.
A single petal fell from his rose wand, shining brightly as it touched the ground.
From it rose a Valkyrie of bronze. Haru tilted his head. So, they fought like Eastern mages, then?
"My runic name is Guiche The Bronze, therefore, this Bronze Valkyrie shall be your opponent!"
Haru frowned. This time for realsies, at the fact that Louise was still trying to break the duel. "Master, don't worry about me. I will be okay." He said, plastering on a winning smile. Still grumbling, the pinkette relented on her tugging of Guiche's cloak. That construct had a pathetically low amount of magic put into it. He was being condescending, clearly underestimating Haru.
The thing rushed at him, though instead of using the spear in its right hand, it went for a very poorly executed left hand straight. The thing was fast, but nowhere near fast enough to surprise him. Yet, it nearly blurred as it moved. It went for his face, and the sound of flesh and bone meeting metal shocked everyone. It was a sickening crunch that silenced the murmur... except it was just the sound of Haru cracking his neck.
The Magister's head snapped to the side, but the rest of his body remained perfectly still. "Well... that was underwhelming." Haru commented, placing a hand on the still Valkyrie's chest. "Iaculatio Fulgoris." He'd had to put FAR less magic than usual in the spell. Normally, there were no less than ten spears of lightning to work with. However, Haru's control of his own power was amazing, and getting one single spear of lightning was easy, despite his vast power.
Everyone blinked. Then rubbed their eyes. Then blinked again. The Valkyrie had been sent flying away, a spear that was cracking with lightning shooting past it, as the pieces that had once formed the construct scattered into the ground. Everyone was too shocked by that to even comment.
Thankfully, the thing's pieces didn't reach the edges of the circle, before they started to disintegrate.
Again on the tower, a discussion regarding a legend was going on. It was, however, boring. Colbert may or may not have complained about a lack of funding for his research.
Kirche smiled when she noticed her favorite bespectacled girl was ignoring her book to stare at the fight for a change. That, and he was most decidedly impressive, if nothing else. Apparently, he had brains and brawn, all rolled into one rather nice package. She could only consider how lucky the Zero was to have summoned something like him.
There was a thought shared amongst the gathered people.
So he wasn't a commoner after all...
Trying to save face in his panic, Guiche scrambled to summon several more valkyries, as half a dozen petals fell from his wand to the ground. "If you apologize now, I'll let you go!" not even he bought his bravado. He was terrified.
Louise broke out of her stupor. Sure, he'd defeated one, but there were six now. She'd question his magic later. And she'd interrogate him, Valliere-style. She better get the whip ready... "Stop it! Now! It's an order from your master!"
Haru just smiled, that infuriating smile. "I'm sorry, Master, but this is a fight between men, stopping it when it has just begun would be an insult." Rakan would've been proud! So would Albireo. Well, the smile HAD been copied from him.
As the Valkyries rushed forward, he took a step to be in front of Louise. He avoided the first one's spear, stole it from its hands and used it to whack the second into the ground. However, he hadn't intended to smash it into the ground like he had. It had been overkill. It was now buried in a crater. Odd that he lost control of his strength like that, but it'd been a while since he let himself go like this. Fighting non human opponents he could brutalize was always fun.
He quickly placed both hands on the spear's shaft and plunged it through the chest of the third, using it as a hammer to slam the fourth into the ground. It shouldn't be that easy. He wasn't even reinforcing himself. The only explanation could've been the fact that the valkyries were lighter, since they'd been summoned all at once. Probably to save on mana, Guiche had made them slightly weaker, planning to overwhelm him with numbers.
A sound strategy... except the power difference made strategy pointless by that point. Haru could win by simply smacking the valkyiries as they came.
Since the spear/Valkyrie Hammer combo in his hand was useless, he let go of it. The sudden feeling of power was gone. Maybe he'd unconsciously tapped into Magia Erebea. It was unlikely, but probable, and he hadn't used it in a while, so it was understandable that his instincts would take over in a combat situation.
This musing almost let the sixth Valkyrie and the recovering first (which curiously enough had a second spear in its hand) impale him, but he'd seen them coming easily, as he jumped above both spears, spinning around as he did, so that he faced down. Before they could direct their attention upwards, he pointed his palm straight down, in the exact middle of where the valkyries were standing. "Iaculatio Fulgoris!" This time, he restrained his magic considerably less before unleashing it.
Guiche stared as six spears descended from the sky surrounding the familiar. They cracked with lightning, and when they struck, they tore the already battered and damaged valkyries apart, three for each one. They wouldn't even be usable as scrap metal, and they had been impaled against the ground. Haru smacked himself for being a show off and for reacting with unnecessary force. He could've just kicked their heads off or something.
Then he touched the ground. "Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister!" Cheers aplenty followed. He then pointed a finger at Guiche, who was still staring slack jawed at his valkyries' destruction. "Flans Salvatio Pulverea."
The blond fop hurried to jump to the side, as a gust of wind passed by the spot where he'd been standing, lifting dirt and small pieces of the valkyries alike. He yelled out as Haru smiled at him again. He hadn't even broken a sweat. Guiche subsequently pointed his wand at Haru, apparently getting ready to cast an attack spell.
Haru replied with another palm point as Guiche tried to chant. "Fulguratio Albicans."
Only a few sparks shook Guiche, and messed up his hair a little. The ground right in front of him, however, exploded in lightning.
"I GIVE UP! I GIVE UP!" He yelled, frantically trying to scamper away from the lightning wielding opponent in front of him.
The majority of those who had bet on Guiche began yelling obscenities. The rest slumped. The women in the audience cheered. Kirche, blushing, felt herself up while her small companion muttered something about perversity and left her alone.
Louise was in too much shock. Siesta was torn between cheering for a noble and the fact that that same noble was probably one of the nicest people she'd ever met and had no compunctions about engaging in commoner work. That, and the fact that a noble was a familiar and seemingly completely okay with it. Seriously, Haru was weird. Very damn weird.
"You're no commoner! That was magic right then and there!"
"I can assure you that I am not a nobleman." Haru said, smiling brightly, though most of the crowd chose to ignore that declaration because magic was the birthright of nobility and thus if you could do magic then you were a noble. "Well, technically, anyway." he amended, though that one went unheard.
He did just then notice that Louise was staring at him with admiration mixed in with rage. "How! Now!"
That one would be a lengthy explanation...
"I can explain, Master..." Haru felt a big drop of sweat run down his forehead. Why did he have to get picked by the Master that most resembled Evangeline when she was angry?
Damn scary women, those were.