Chapter 101: Supreme Commander ThorneThe people in the crowd cheered as the supreme commander, and I got on the platform.

    One of the event organizers offered me a sword for the duel, but I declined, saying that I already had my weapon, pulling out my bo from my void pocket.

    The worker stood perplexed for a moment, asking me if I was really going to use a wooden staff to fight the supreme commander, who apparently had a greatsword.

    "It’ll be fine," I replied with a smile as the man exited the arena.

    When another worker brought Thorne his greatsword, I realized it looked pretty heavy, making me wonder if the old man could even swing that thing.

    "Never thought I’d have to teach a kid a lesson in front of so many people." the supreme commander said with a sneer.

    However, his words bored me, making me yawn before the fight had even started. It wasn’t my intention to annoy him at that time, but he looked quite offended after seeing me falling asleep at the arena.

    "Let the fight commence!" yelled the host.

    Not even a second after the battle started, the supreme commander muttered a chant that I couldn’t hear and boosted his speed, launching towards me with his sword held high for an overhead attack.

    Nonetheless, even though he was fast, I could still see him clearly, allowing me to avoid his offense without much effort.

    An attack came from the left, so I just took one step to the right.

    He followed up by slicing to the right, so I simply stepped back.

    He moved forward, trying to stab me, so I deflected him to the side with my bo and kicked his ribs, making him roll on the ground for a few meters before he quickly stood back up.

    Seeing that Thorne was chanting something again, the thought of rushing and kicking him out of the arena before he could cast anything crossed my mind.

    I mean, I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I was sure he was chanting one of those long-ass prayers that they said before casting a spell.

    However, I remembered that I wanted to give the guests a spectacle since this was supposed to be a festival of some sort, so I decided to allow the supreme commander to cast his magic.

    During that brief period of time, I used sound magic to listen to the knights talking amongst themselves as they watched the fight.

    "Is this the kid that the guys from the 7th were talking about?" a random knight said.

    "Yeah, the same kid that defeated Commander Garret..." another replied.

    "Oi, is that really true, though?"

    At that moment, their conversation was interrupted by Commander Valentina of the 7th, who was feeling better after drinking my healing potions.

    "I was there. I saw it with my own eyes," she commented carefreely.

    "Must have been a good fight!" another knight said.

    "No... It wasn’t." Valentina continued. "Garret never had a slight chance against Ichiro..."

    ’Heh, you are right, Valentina. And just like Garret, this guy doesn’t really have a chance against me...’ I thought after eavesdropping on the knights’ conversation.

    Seeing that the supreme commander was done chanting his spell, his greatsword suddenly caught on fire and got surrounded by flames.

    With an arrogant sneer and a drop of sweat coming down his head, he asked me if I was scared now.

    "Huh? Scared of what? You took all that time just to light your sword on fire?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm and confusion.

    ’I mean, did he really expect me to be afraid of that?’ I pondered.

    Angrily, Thorne launched at me again and waved his sword frantically in all directions, sending fire waves all around the arena that burned the sides of the platform. However, none of his attacks even grazed my clothes.

    ’Well, at least it looks pretty flashy...’ I thought, mindlessly avoiding his attacks.

    Jumping away from his onslaught, I placed my hand on the platform and used earth magic to create an earth wall that blocked the fire waves.

    Then, I kicked the wall while still using magic and made it slide straight to the supreme commander, who tried avoiding it but wasn’t fast enough.

    Honestly, I could have kept pushing the wall until Thorne was out of bounds, but then again, not flashy enough.

    After getting hit by the wall and landing on his rear, I made the wall crumble and decided to show him what real fire magic looked like.

    I held my bo in a horizontal position, and the tips lit up with vibrant blue flames—a combination of air magic to create gas and fire magic to ignite it.

    Although, I did exaggerate the amount of MP I poured into it to make the glow brighter, astonishing the crowd.

    ’Alright, good. Now it’s a show!’ I thought.

    The supreme commander didn’t seem too fazed about my magic and ran towards me to close the gap between us.

    Nevertheless, I used my bo to counter all his attacks, and after leaving an opening, I slammed his chest plate and smashed it into pieces as he was sent flying back, barely managing to stay on the platform.

    As Thorne slowly stood back up, I was done playing around and decided to end the match once and for all.

    Gently floating above the ground and looking down at the supreme commander, I raised my hands and summoned dozens of lightning that began destroying the sides of the arena that were out of bounds.

    I wasn’t trying to hit my opponent. I was just showing him the difference in power between us. It had never been a duel for me. Instead, it was a way for me to embarrass the man.

    After the bolts of lightning desecrated the sides of the arena, the spectators stayed silent along with the royal family while Thorne looked up at me with a terrified expression.

    The only people that seemed to be carefreely smiling were my companions, Melina, the maids, and Reinar. But they already knew the extent of my magic, so it was normal for them not to be impressed anymore.

    Slowly descending back into the arena, I stared at the supreme commander sitting on the ground.

    "Do you surrender?" I asked with a cold expression, trying to intimidate him.

    To my surprise, he accepted my proposal and lowered his head, saying that he, indeed, surrendered.

    He must have thought that I was going to kill him or something, but all I was going to do was push him out of the arena to make him lose if he declined.

    Nonetheless, it worked out, and after the host declared me the winner of the match, the arena went crazy with cheers.

    I floated back up to the king’s booth, where he congratulated me on my victory.

    "It’s nothing, but I guess you are going to need a new supreme commander," I told the king.

    "It seems that way." the king replied before laughing out loud.

    "Why? Do you want the position?" he continued.

    "Huh? No... That sounds like a lot of work." I replied, making the king laugh again.

    "Fine. Any recommendations, then?" he asked.

    Seeing that this was my best chance at changing the knight culture in the kingdom, I told the king that Commander Thomas of the 4th would make a great Supreme Commander.

    He hadn’t participated in the tournament, but it wasn’t because he was weak. In fact, he was the strongest of the 4th, with Harvey coming in second.

    The reason why he didn’t participate was that I told him not to and asked him to put the rookies instead to showcase the power of the order, and it worked.

    "And who would take care of the 4th?" the king asked.

    "Isn’t it obvious, King Leon? Of course, Harvey should become the commander." I replied with a smile.

    The king heartily laughed again, saying that Harvey was the winner of the tournament, and as the strongest knight currently in the kingdom, he couldn’t see a reason to keep him at the sub-commander level.

    Completing the paperwork would take a few weeks, but my work wasn’t completely done.

    Now that the other knights had seen what my training routine could do, they all asked for the same regime. If this had happened months before, I would have declined.

    However, now that the 4th had broken their curse as the weakest knights, I thought it would be acceptable for all of the knights’ orders in the kingdom to be just as powerful. sea??h thё novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    The best thing is that I wouldn’t need to train them myself.

    When I first started with the 4th, I did hands-on training with them for a few weeks until they got the hang of the routine and were able to follow it without me around.

    It was pretty much the same with the 7th and the 2nd, who already followed my training regime. Of course, they hadn’t been doing it as long as the guys at End Town, but they were still stronger than the rest.