The young man reluctantly took a summoning circle test, which he so obviously failed. He glared at Ning with anger in his eyes, but beyond that, he wasn't capable of doing anything.
He knew that he had fallen into a trap. He never expected the man in front of him to be so crafty.
"You win," he told Ning and walked away.
The others thought of challenging Ning, but when they realized that there were spots open in the elite list, they knew they could never duel against him.
Without anything to do there, the group dissipated, leaving Ning alone.
Ning watched in disbelief that the people that had come to fight him had left just like that. "Uhh… is no one going to fight me?" he asked, but there was no one left to answer.
In the end, he dejectedly entered the library and got on with his work, while hoping someone would come to challenge him.
In the time he spent inside the room, the outside school had changed. News spread around and soon enough everyone learned that Saphandra was not one to be messed with.
She broke the legs of the last two students that dueled her and the arms of another one that was in the audience.
The teachers themselves had to suspend all duels that included her as so many fights just weren't feasible if she continued to break the limbs of everyone that tried to fight her. There were no rules saying she couldn't do it anyway.
Also, the fact about Ning being a summoning circle elite had spread around so people knew who to avoid.
Ning gladly walked out of the library's room to the school grounds, hoping someone would challenge him, but they only looked at him once and walked away.
After this happening for a few times, he stopped one of the students and asked what was happening.
Only then did he find out that no one was interested in targeting him at all.
Ning got a little depressed and wondered if he should be the one to start challenging people.
Just then, a man appeared next to him and shouted, "You!"
The students around that location immediately turned to look at the blue-haired young man pointed at Ning.
Ning turned around with a weird look on his face and saw the young man. Surprisingly, he had 2 stars on his chest.
'A two-time elite?' Ning felt happy. Finally, someone had come to challenge him. He stood there and waited for the young man to speak up the words so he could accept them.
"You are the summoning circle elite, aren't you?" the young man asked.
"Yes," Ning said happily.
"Hah! Look at you being proud for being trash," the young man said.
"Wha?" Ning was confused.
"I challenge you to a proper duel between men. Not some elite duel you can hide behind. Do you accept it? Or are you going to prove yourself a coward amongst men?" the man asked.
'Why is he talking so much? Is he trying to rile me up?' Ning wondered. It wasn't really working, but that didn't matter since he was planning on accepting it anyway.
"No, I—"
"Stop!" the young man spoke. "Before you refuse it, know that refusing will be your open admission to being a coward. You will show to these people that you, as an elite, mean nothing because you will forever not amount to anything even if you do end up being successful in the Forbidden Island, you will still be a coward and a useless piece of shit."
"Honestly, I don't even know what's the point in making you an elite. What's the point in having classes for summoning circles? They do nothing," the young man shouted to the crowd, and Ning could see the people agreeing with them.
"You guys agree right? I don't understand why the summoning circle's course even exists. I hear that the old woman barely gets any students if even that much. I think she's just doing it to freely steal away the school's budget. That is a scum behavior."
"They should seriously just shut that useless course down, and maybe then students can focus on something more important," he said.
"Yeah, yeah!" the crowd started shouting around Ning, and a few even started calling him a coward.
The young man put on a smug smile as he watched Ning. "So, what will it be? Will you try and be a man, or remain a coward?" he asked.
Ning's cold eyes turned towards the young man and he asked, "What're those two stars for?"
"This?" the young man's face got proud. "For Beast and Beastless battles."
"So you got 2 stars and still weren't chosen to become part of the group that is going to the forbidden Island? That speaks volumes about you," Ning said.
The young man's ego was hurt and he put on an annoyed look. "Are you accepting or not? Speak fast," he shouted at Ning.
"You could have kept talking bad about me, and you would have succeeded in your task, but you went ahead and talked bad about an old woman who's trying her hardest to learn and teach you young fools about Summoning Circles."
"There is so much information about the summoning circle that still evades you, and you act like you know everything. You don't deserve her tutelage at all."
Ning shook his head and looked at the young man. "No, I will not accept your challenge."
The young man frowned. The tactic really hadn't worked in the end after all.
"Fucking coward," he told Ning and turned around to leave, and the crowd started dispersing as well, cursing the same back at Ning.
"Stop!" Ning ordered. "You don't get to leave just like that."
"What?" the young man turned around in confusion.
"I challenge you to a duel of elites. For both of your stars," Ning said, surprising everyone that stood there. "You can have my spot for the Forbidden Island if you win."
