The entire event lasted only a few minutes. By the end of it, everyone had chosen their weapon and was waiting patiently.
Otto didn't really care about what the other Sleepers picked, with the solo expectation of Caster.
To his surprise, Caster had also chosen a jian–much similar to his.
Otto had to rummage through his memories to recall that Caster, in fact, used that type of weapon. It was embarrassing. For someone with a supposedly perfect memory, forgetting something like that seemed almost like an insult.
The reason he didn't like it was that people would have one more thing to compare them on and say that Caster was better than him. He could already imagine that stupid Sleeper smug face…
"Now that this is finished," Rock said, snapping Otto out of his thoughts, "I will announce which group each one of you–"
"Wait a minute, Instructor Rock." A voice suddenly rose from somewhere among the Sleepers.
Otto's mood instantly soared.
"What is it, Ruth?" Rock asked.
Speaking of the devil, the one who had challenged him earlier stepped forward. The other Sleepers parted to make way.
"Sir, I would like to request a demonstration match," Ruth said. "Just like yesterday, if possible."
Rock scratched his beard, smiling with mild curiosity.
"And what kind of demonstration do you propose?"
Otto already knew the answer.
"A duel, sir." Ruth turned and pointed straight at him. "I challenge Otto for a duel."
All eyes turned toward Otto.
His irritated expression spoke louder than words ever could. His cold, piercing gaze swept across the crowd, and several Sleepers instinctively averted their eyes, unsettled by the unnatural glint in his eyes.
Otto sighed. He knew he couldn't keep avoiding this idiot forever. The boy, Ruth, would keep bothering him until he got his duel.
'Who cares if I lose anyway? I don't even like this stupid title…' He suddenly had an idea. 'Thinking now, if I lose to this nobody, that fucking counselor will be in trouble for misplacing me!'
A wicked smile slowly spread across his face, causing even more Sleepers to turn away uneasily.
"You know what…Ruth, right?" Otto said. "I accept your stupid challenge. Let's just get this over with already."
He stepped forward into the center ring.
Seeing that smile, Ruth's confidence wavered for just a moment, but backing out now wasn't an option. He readied his spear. Instructor Rock studied them both for a moment and then nodded.
"Very well. You may fight. I'll be here to ensure neither of you is seriously injured."
He stepped back.
Ruth took that as the signal to start and immediately took full advantage of it.
He lunged forward, spear thrusting straight toward Otto's chest with sharp intent. The tip cut through the air and missed.
Otto didn't even think. A String failed to attach to him, and his body reacted on its own.
He leaned back at an odd angle, almost tripping over his own feet, as the spearhead passed a hair's breadth from his uniform. Ruth didn't stop. He twisted the shaft and followed up with a wide horizontal sweep, aiming at Otto's legs.
Otto hopped back clumsily, boots scraping against the floor. The spear sliced empty air again.
"What the—" Ruth muttered. He pressed harder.
Thrust. Sweep. Feint. Each attack was fast, clean, and properly trained. And each one missed.
Otto stumbled, ducked, leaned, twisted and all of that with his Jian at his side–slowing him down. His movements were ugly, inefficient, sometimes outright ridiculous. At one point, he fell flat on his face, only to roll aside just as the spear stabbed down where his head had been.
To the average spectator, it may have looked unreal, almost like he was just playing.
But to Otto, this fight was tougher than the one against Nephis, for one simple reason: He wanted to win
At some point during the battle, Otto changed his mind. He no longer wanted to lose on purpose. Whether it was pride or simply the feeling that losing to this extra would be ridiculous, he couldn't say. But the thought alone irritated him.
Even so, there was very little he could do.
He could use Sorcery and unsheathe his jian, but that would be stupid. His exhausted body would only allow him to maintain Sorcery for a few seconds at best and, judging by Ruth's skill, those few seconds wouldn't be enough. The boy could probably hold his own against him, who didn't have any experience in combat. Even with Sorcery.
So Otto needed something else. He needed to magically learn how to fight.
Obviously, you couldn't just learn swordsmanship out of thin air…or could he?
Suddenly, memories of Weave flooded his mind. He lost focus, and with that came another attack, grazing his cheek and leaving a superficial cut. He would have bled, if not for his tenacious blood that refused to leave his body for something so trivial.
In less than a second, the wound vanished. Child's play for Silk. However, the memories didn't stop floating.
Otto couldn't learn how to use a sword. But he could imitate someone who already knew how.
Back at the Temple of the Nightmare Spell, Otto recalled the fight between Anna and the Mad Prince. On that occasion, his mundane senses had been unable to keep up with most of the confrontation. Even now, were he there again, he likely wouldn't be able to see anything.
But that seemed to matter to his Flaw.
Ruth's attacks kept coming faster, closer. More cuts appeared across Otto's body, each one almost instantly sealing itself into a pale scar.
'I'm going to win! Watch me, Caster. I'm the one who proved you're the true Second Strongest!' Ruth thought, victory already forming in his mind.
But then…something changed. For a brief moment, the world seemed to freeze. Something was wrong. Why was his instinct suddenly telling him to run!?
Ruth noticed that Otto's eyes had changed. Before they had been a beautiful gold–almost hypnotizing–but now they turned dark orange. From them, Ruth could feel an intense and cold killing intention mixed with profound madness.
It was the eyes of a killer, one that saw him only as a prey.
Otto murmured a few unintelligible words. They sounded unnatural—like something a human being should never utter–and in a blink of an eye, Otto was upon him.
Taken by surprise, Ruth desperately tried to attack in the best way he could.
However, Otto simply rotated his body, dodging the attack. Radiant blood leaked from both his nose and mouth. With his left hand, he unsheathed his Jian.
The strike wasn't perfect. Although his posture was the same as His, it was missing the technique, the millions of repetitions.
However, that was enough.
Ruth saw death for a second, in the next one, he saw Instructor Rock's back as he stepped forward and intercepted Otto's blade between his fingers.