Chapter 175 : Chapter 175

Chapter 175. Crushing the Scheme

It was another new day, and on this day, the people of Whiteflower City all put down the work in their hands and made their way to the fenced arena within the city.

Today was the final knight duel.

The victor would become the new lord of all Whiteflower Territory.

And after the spectacle of the previous two knight duels, these commoners had been thoroughly satisfied. They had never before seen those noble knights fight so desperately.

So although they all knew they had no power to decide who would become lord, nor any say in what policies that lord would adopt, they still came anyway, treating it as perhaps the last chance in their lives to watch such excitement.

At this moment, the high platform was already full.

Unlike the previous two duels, aside from Earl Ian and the mage Maeve, who both remained calm, the other nobles present all wore different expressions.

Almost all of them had clearly split into two factions. One faction supported Finley, while the other supported Ryan, the victor from the other group.

Strangely enough, although Finley was stronger than Ryan on paper, Ryan’s noble supporters far outnumbered Finley’s.

That was because Finley had not been favored by those nobles from the very beginning. Even when choosing sides, they naturally wanted to stand with the side they thought had the better chance of winning.

The unfortunate part was that almost none of the knights favored by those nobles had won in the end. In the end, a chaotic melee depended too much on luck.

Even Ryan had only come to the attention of some nobles because he had gone around to their households and solicited sponsorship. It was not as though they had truly supported Ryan alone. They had supported several other knights as well.

Unlike Finley, who had chosen to stay shut up inside his home before the duel for fear that something might happen, Ryan had spent all his time currying favor with those nobles.

From the moment he won, he had constantly been contacting them, eager to gain their support. Compared to Finley, the nobles also viewed Ryan more favorably.

Aside from a small number of nobles who believed Finley’s side was stronger and that nothing would go wrong, almost all the others had thrown their weight behind Ryan.

Because of that, those nobles had given Ryan quite a lot of help, all in the hope that he would defeat Finley.

For example, although it had not rained yesterday, the duel grounds were now a complete muddy mess. Even an ordinary person would have to put some effort into pulling their feet free after stepping into it.

This kind of terrain was ill-suited for mounted combat. The mud would cling to the horses’ hooves, and the slick ground could even make them lose their footing and fall.

These were some of the nobles’ little tricks.

They had deliberately sent people under cover of night to smear sludge all over the arena, then poured water over it before the duel began.

Finley and Fran’s mounted combat in the earlier rounds had frightened them a little, so after consulting Ryan, they had specifically chosen this method to force their opponents to abandon their horses.

Earl Ian had also noticed that something was wrong with the arena below. After asking about it, he received this reply:

“My apologies, Earl Ian. The date of the duel was set by Duke Theodore and cannot be changed. Any knight absent from the duel will be treated as defeated.”

“We noticed these issues long ago, but in accordance with your rules, the arena could not be altered while preparations for the duel were underway, so we did not have time to clear it.”

“Please rest assured. After the duel ends, we will definitely arrest the little thief who dared to do such a thing and make him enjoy our torture.”

Earl Ian glanced at the speaker, then shifted his gaze away and said nothing.

On the arena floor, Ryan looked at Finley, who was making his preparations, and at Fran behind him. Both of them were standing on the ground, clearly ready to fight this battle on foot.

Ryan gave Fran a strange smile.

Before Fran could figure out what was going on, she suddenly felt the sparse sunlight disappear, and the entire sky darkened.

She looked up and saw that the sky, which had held only a few clouds a moment ago, had suddenly been swallowed by dark storm clouds.

Up on the high platform, Maeve recognized what had caused this.

It was a large-scale Rain Prayer Spell sold by the Alliance. Once used, it would bring heavy rain pouring down from the sky.

Because the rain was entirely formed by condensed water elements and would not interfere with normal rainfall, it was widely praised.

And now, judging by the density of those storm clouds, Maeve estimated that at least three Rain Prayer Spell scrolls had been used.

As for why these nobles had gone to such lengths, there was naturally no need to say it aloud.

Clearly, they had all taken Earl Ian’s earlier words to heart and learned that Fran’s Sunflame technique relied on sunlight in order to display its full power.

So they had deliberately used those Rain Prayer Spell scrolls before the duel began, all to cripple that technique of hers.

After all, a technique so frightening that even special metals could not block it was simply too terrifying. Knight Cliff had fled the moment he saw it.

And after taking that one strike, Knight Eric was still undergoing treatment. Rumor had it that he was still lying in bed, unable to rise.

Ryan could already imagine what would happen once the battle began.

Finley would risk taking injuries himself just to create an opening for Fran to bring one slash down on Ryan.

At that point, no matter what kind of armor Ryan wore, he would be heavily wounded by that blow. If that happened, how could he possibly keep fighting?

A person’s energy was limited. As long as Fran’s technique was crippled, he refused to believe she could pull out anything else capable of turning the tide.

Facing Finley across from him, Ryan licked his lips, wanting to see panic on the other man’s face after this sudden turn of events.

But to his disappointment, neither Fran nor Finley showed the slightest change in expression. Both remained as calm as ever.

As for Stefan, who was still trembling, he was not worth fearing. Ryan simply could not understand why Stefan was holding a strangely shaped long iron tube today.

The sound of a stone dropping soon rang out, signaling that the battle had officially begun.

What no one on the battlefield had expected was that the first attack would not come from the two knights facing each other, but from the peculiar long tube in Stefan’s hands.

A few muffled thumps rang out, and the two retainers standing behind Ryan gave pained grunts and collapsed, their weapons falling to the ground.

Before Ryan could react, something else happened that made his face pale with shock.

He saw a blazing red light erupt from Fran’s longsword, shining even more brilliantly beneath the darkened sky.

“That’s impossible...” he muttered, unable to believe what he was seeing.

If this had happened before, Fran really might have been affected by the weather. With the sun hidden from sight, the power of her Sunflame would indeed have been weakened somewhat.

But after the last battle, the proficiency of her Sunflame techniques had already risen to the mastery level.

They could now briefly function even without direct support from the sun, though their power would still diminish if used for too long.

And the moment that red light appeared, it directly shattered the nobles’ psychological defenses on the high platform.

Quite a few of them fainted on the spot.