Abandoned in the mountains, I was adopted by a lizard ~I mastered magic and surpassed my parents, but I didn't know they were legendary ancient dragons~ - Chapter 58

Chapter 58   Deciding on the Captain

That afternoon after school, I headed to the usual training ground, now designated for the internal captaincy match. To my surprise, a massive crowd had gathered inside.

It’s just an internal captaincy match! Why is everyone so eager to watch?

As I stood there bewildered, one of the teachers noticed me and walked briskly in my direction.

“Hadar-kun, I apologize for making you deal with Licht’s stubbornness today.”

From the way he said “our,” it seemed this teacher might be the upperclassman’s homeroom teacher. And Licht must be the name of that upperclassman.

“I’ll be officiating the match, but don’t worry, I won’t show any favoritism towards Licht. In fact, between you and me, I’m secretly hoping you’ll win. Licht has potential as a fighter, but his bad behavior and arrogance are problematic. I’m hoping that a good beating from you might knock some sense into him.”

The teacher, presumably Licht’s homeroom teacher, added.

Was that supposed to be extra motivation?

As I processed this unexpected form of encouragement, a loud voice from the center of the training ground called out to me.

“So, you’re the disrespectful first-year who thinks he can take my spot as captain, huh?”

Looking in the direction of the voice, I saw a boy with one hand in his pocket, frowning at me and flipping me off with his middle finger.

“If you’re scared, you can still back out. But if not, I’m gonna crush you. Now get over here!”

Wait a minute, this is just a match to decide the captain, right? Shouldn’t he be considering not to injure his opponent before the fight against the “prodigy”?

If this was trash talk to hype up the crowd, he was doing a good job. But considering his reputation for bad behavior, it was probably just genuine hostility.

As I moved towards the stage, a thought crossed my mind, and I turned to Licht’s homeroom teacher to ask.

“Um… is my opponent just Licht-kun? What about the other contestant?”

“The other contestant has no issue with the order, so he didn’t come today.”

So it’s just the one upperclassman causing trouble. Well, time to get started.

“Then… begin!”

As soon as I took my starting position, the teacher gave the signal.

At the signal, Licht made his move.

“Take this!”

He shouted and stomped hard on the ground with one foot. The ground seemed to swallow his foot.

What is he planning? Before I could think any further, I felt a bad feeling coming from below.

I looked down to see Licht’s foot emerging from the ground, aiming straight for a low blow.

Seriously?! I quickly bent my leg to block the attack.

Licht screamed in pain.

“Agh!”

It looked like my guard caused him to sprain his ankle. He pulled his foot out of the ground and started rubbing his injured ankle while balancing on one leg.

What the heck is going on? I was bewildered, but I could hear some reactions from the crowd.

“No way. He blocked the Dimension Low Blow on his first try?”

“And he said he’d ‘crush him’ with that? As if that would work on Hadar-kun…”

The reactions from the crowd were split. Curious, I looked around and noticed something interesting.

The surprise at my defense was coming from the zone where the upperclassmen were grouped. The disappointment in Licht was coming from where my classmates were gathered.

Could it be that my classmates were confident in my victory from the start? Where does that confidence come from?

So that move is called the “Dimension Low Blow,” huh? That’s an extravagant name. From now on, I’ll call it the “Sneaky Strike.”

While I was thinking about such trivial things, Licht seemed to be recovering from his sprain. Actually, his face was turning as red as possible, so maybe he wasn’t feeling less pain but was just running on adrenaline.

“Don’t mess with me! Die!”

Come on, telling someone to die, especially a future teammate in the tournament, is not okay. As I mentally scolded him, Licht charged at me headfirst at full speed.

It looked like he was aiming for my nose.

First a low blow, and now a headbutt? But honestly, this doesn’t seem all that threatening either.

The only thing enhancing his head is some basic body strengthening magic; he hasn’t turned it into some ultra-hard armor. Against this, I could probably just cover my nose with a thick barrier and break his head instead.

I deployed a physical barrier around my nose, perfectly shaped to fit. It wasn’t strong enough to crack his skull, just enough to cause a fracture.

The next moment, Licht’s forehead collided with my nose.

And then…

“Aaaaaaagh!”

Licht’s eyes rolled back, and he started foaming at the mouth, writhing in pain.

“Stop!”

Licht’s homeroom teacher called an end to the match.

“Wha… what just happened…?”

“That headbutt landed perfectly, didn’t it…?”

“Yeah, but it makes sense.”

“Trying to attack someone who’s as tough as orichalcum in a vital spot doesn’t work!”

Once again, the gallery’s reactions were split.

Well, leaving that aside…

“Licht… are you still going to insist on being the captain?”

“N… no…”

“Depending on your answer, we’ll decide whether to take you to the infirmary.”

“I… I’m sorry… I won’t insist anymore! I won’t insist!”

Licht’s homeroom teacher was pretty ruthless, threatening not to take him to the infirmary based on his answer.

Well, anyway, that’s the end of that. Even though he’s like this, we’ll need him to take care of the opponents before the “prodigy” on the day of the tournament.

I activated Perfect Heal.

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier…”

As soon as his injuries healed, Licht bowed deeply and apologized. He became surprisingly humble all of a sudden…

Oh, right.

“More importantly, make sure to take this vaccine before the martial arts tournament. …Teacher, please give this to the other competitor as well.”

I suddenly remembered that I had produced two extra vaccine doses for the competitors yesterday. I handed one to Licht and the other to his teacher.