"What do you mean?" Otto was caught off guard by this comment, "Lars is my second, he'll substitute in only if you can defeat me."
"I see…" Alphonse pretended to think for a moment, "Nah, have him come up too. I have some business to attend to tonight so I'd like to get this over with fast."
"Wha- Such disrespect! That goes against the very rules of our duel!" Otto declared in a rage.
"We never set such rules, isn't that why you two brought swords and armor?" Alphonse laughed light-heartedly, "It's fine, just have your brother join, we can just add that into the rules anyways. But my second won't be joining."
"Are you saying that you'll be dueling the two of us alone?" Lars asked in surprise.
"Yep!"
The twins looked at each other for a moment before stepping aside to discuss this.
"Hey, what do we do?" Lars whispered.
"I think he's a little too arrogant. We were planning to do this if things got worse anyway. Let's just get this over with." Otto was still furious about Alphonse's lackadaisical attitude and his taunts.
"Alright. Let's go with the Mother-Son formation, " Lars suggested, "I'll take the front, you cast spells from the back."
The Mother-Son formation, named after the ferocity of a Mother Lion shows while defending its son, was one of the formations taught in their swordsmanship training. It was meant for two-on-two to two-on-six battles that scouting infantry would use while scouting as a pair if they encountered any trouble.
One person would act as the 'Mother Lion' in this case and aggressively take on multiple opponents with their Arming Sword and Shield. However, that was simply a facade. The mother lion was only acting aggressively to get the opponents to back off.
Once an opening was created, the scouts would be able to escape. However, if they were not able to escape, they would then have the person acting as the mother act as a shield while the one acting as the son would be the spear.
Essentially, the one in front would aggressively defend against incoming strikes, while the one in the back would seek out opportunities to land opportune strikes after the one in the front would knock aside their opponent's weapons.
For Alphonse, he would recognize this strategy as something from his old world. Back when he was young, he would play a variety of computer games, which included MMORPGs. In this case, the Mother-Son formation of the Silver Lion Royal Knights would seem similar to the strategy of a Tanker-DPS formation.
"As you wished, I'll be joining," Lars declared as he stepped back onto the stage with his brother.
"Good to hear!" Alphonse replied jubilantly while conjuring a coin using a mana core he had prepared, "Well then, let's start this duel as soon as this coin hits the floor."
The twins stared at him dumbfoundedly for a moment. After all, who would waste a mana core on creating a simple small metal disc? He truly was a peasant, why else would he not use an actual coin?
Realizing that this particular gesture did not garner the intended effect, Alphonse shrugged before flicking the coin high in the air.
The coin flew almost twice Alphonse's heights before starting to fall.
As soon as the coin reached its apex, the twins scrambled to get into formation. Lars went to the front while Otto sheathed his sword and pulled out a mana core.
Unlike his brother, Otto was compatible with Fire magic in addition to Earth and Water Magic. He had prepared a Fireball magic spell ahead of time. Otto had tested the Fireball spell and confirmed that it would work. Although the Fireball was quite small compared to a regular mage's, it would do the job here, as all he needed to do was hit the peasant once before the duel would end.
As the coin dipped below the tops of their head level, Lars braced himself. With this formation, he wouldn't be charging forwards, but instead, they would advance together as a pair. Alphonse wouldn't have a chance to land the same type of physical attack that he had used earlier today.
The coin dipped below their eyes. Alphonse pulled out four mana cores. He had prepared the metal rod as a melee weapon, the Lightning Bolt spell to counter their Waterball, the Water Barrier in case they used any Fire-based or Earth-based spells, and a final spell that would increase his mobility, Sylph's Blessing, which was a wind element enchantment spell that he had read about while browsing his textbook earlier today.
The coin fell below their waist. Alphonse postured himself to charge forwards while the twins tensed up, clearly not knowing what to expect.
*Clink!*
Alphonse dashed forwards while activating his mana core for the metal rod, instantly creating a rapier-length rod made from hardened high-carbon steel.
Although the twins weren't expecting this, they readied their guard.
Otto started casting Fireball as Lars braced to engage Alphonse.
However, Alphonse started casting a spell too!
Normally, a Knight would use a shield to block an incoming spell, but they weren't equipped with one today.
"Fireball!"
"Lightning Bolt!"
The Lightning Bolt struck Lars dead on, but to Alphonse's surprise, it only knocked him back slightly.
Fortunately, Otto's fireball was smaller and slower than expected, which gave time for Alphonse to dodge.
'Hmm… I guess their armor has a way to block spells?' Alphonse wondered as he continued to charge at Lars.
Surprised that his spell missed, Otto immediately began casting more Fireballs to assist his brother.
Alphonse, on the other hand, paid little attention to the incoming spells. He easily dodged the incoming Fireballs that were traveling slower than a dodgeball thrown by a middle schooler.
Upon reaching melee range of Lars, Alphonse elected to not immediately dodge the next Fireball! Instead, he cast his Water Barrier and only sidestepped the incoming explosion after the Water Barrier was cast.
*BOOM*
Suddenly, there was a steam explosion, which obstructed the view of Lars and Otto!
*CLANG!*
Lars managed to narrowly block the incoming slash from Alphonse. However, Alphonse made use of his experience in fencing to immediately disengage his blade from Lars's sword and instead circled his rod under Lars's wrist.
This was an offensive riposte. Instead of attacking after blocking, he would be attacking immediately after being blocked by targeting the opponent's wrist or forearm.
This strike, although not as powerful as the initial slash due to the lack of momentum, was enough to knock Lars's blade aside.
Now that Lars was already without a guard, Alphonse simply leaned in and thrust forwards.
As soon as he struck Lars's flailing forearm, Lars immediately dropped his sword. The initial impact of hardened steel striking their normal steel swords, the upwards strike on his wrist that made him raise his arm in pain, and this final strike on his forearm proved to be too much for Lars to handle.
"Fireball!" Otto shouted. He was getting desperate. In a matter of seconds, his brother had been disarmed.
But instead of dodging, Alphonse dashed within breathing range of Lars before casting Lighting Bolt yet again. The fireball flew past him and struck the ground, but the Lightning Bolt struck Lars yet again.
This time, Alphonse could see it. There was an amulet underneath their armor that glowed as the spell struck him. It seemed to absorb the spell.
'So that's what it was…' Alphonse realized, 'It looks like I'll have to rethink my strategy. If I can't use magic to win, I'll just have to knock them out!'
As Lars scrambled to pick up his sword, Alphonse ran past him to target Otto.
Otto, unprepared for this, struggled to draw his sword.
Alphonse took advantage of this and threw a regular roundhouse kick to his chin.
Unfortunately, for Otto, at that moment, he had looked down to try and figure out why his sword wasn't cooperating, which lead to a clean strike to his jaw from Alphonse's kick.
In an instant, his world blacked out.
Alphonse immediately turned around to deal with Lars, who had just manage to reach his sword.
Not wanting to let Lars get up and rearm himself for free, Alphonse immediately cast Lightning Bolt and Sylph's blessing.
Once again, the amulet absorbed the spell, only allowing Lars to be knocked back slightly. However, that amount was just enough to make him stumble forwards and miss his sword with his hands.
Alphonse closed the distance in the blink of an eye, hitting Lars with another Lightning Bolt again before launching Lars into the air with an extremely strong push kick that was enhanced with Sylph's Blessing.
Lars tumbled back about five meters before coming to a stop.
Alphonse picked up Lars's sword before casting another Lighting Bolt, striking Lars yet again.
Yet again, the amulet absorbed the spell. Lars struggled to push himself off the ground.
As soon as he climbed to his feet, he was met with a sword at his neck.
Caught completely off guard, Lars fell backward and struggled to crawl away.
*CRACK*
This time, when another Lightning Bolt hit him, he suffered an even greater knockback as the amulet exploded into pieces.
This time, Alphonse approached the cowering Lars slowly.
"S-Stay away!" Lars shouted in desperation, a small puddle had appeared beneath him.
Alphonse stopped about a meter away from Lars and pointed the arming sword at him.
"Let's call it my win."