For several seconds, Hector remained silent.
His eyes stayed on the tiny fragment of Sea Dragon scale lying between his feet. Compared to the scales still covering his arms, the fragment was insignificant, yet the sight of it made his expression grow darker with every passing moment.
Moreover, the cheers surrounding the arena only made it worse.
Hector slowly clenched his damaged fist.
Again...
Ever since entering Kizen, Knox Aznable had repeatedly stood in his way (Knox: ???). Hector had never considered himself inferior, and with the pride of the Moore family behind him, the idea of admitting that another first-year was simply beyond him was something he refused to accept.
Yet only moments ago, Hector himself had demanded a direct contest of strength.
And he had lost. He had lost!
"...Don't think you've won." Hector's low voice slipped through his clenched teeth.
Across from him, Knox simply watched without answering. The violet patterns running across his gauntlets continued to pulse faintly, while his relaxed posture only irritated Hector further.
Then, suddenly, Hector opened his subspace.
Whoosh!
At first, several dark Sea Dragon scales emerged from within, just like the ones he had used earlier. However, they didn't stop coming.
More and more scales poured out.
"Huh?"
Cindy leaned forward from the spectators' seats as the scales began circling Hector.
"There's...a lot more this time."
"He's finally getting serious."
Simon stared intently at the arena. He had already seen enough of Hector's abilities to understand what the increasing number of Sea Dragon scales meant.
Beside him, Meilyn narrowed her eyes.
"So those scales on his arms weren't his full transformation?"
"No." This time, the answer came from Hong Feng.
The professor had been enjoying the duel from the beginning, but her expression had become noticeably more serious. As someone specializing in Magical Combat, she understood better than most how dramatically a physical enhancement could change the flow of a close-range battle.
"Those scales aren't simply armor. The more completely Hector Moore covers himself with them, the closer his body gets to the characteristics of the Sea Dragon."
The dark scales circling Hector suddenly moved.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
Starting from his arms, they attached themselves one after another.
The partial covering that had previously stopped around Hector's forearms now spread upward, crawling over his shoulders before continuing across his chest and back. More scales covered his legs and neck, gradually hiding his skin beneath overlapping layers of dark draconic armor.
Hector's already large frame seemed to become even more imposing as the transformation continued.
His fingers changed next.
The scales around them thickened and extended, turning his hands into something much closer to a dragon's claws than human fists. Sharp tips formed at the ends of his fingers, while the scales surrounding his joints shifted naturally enough that they didn't restrict his movement.
The transformation finally spread toward his face.
Dark scales crept across the sides of Hector's cheeks and around his forehead, leaving enough of his features visible to recognize him while making his appearance increasingly inhuman.
A low pressure began spreading from his body. The atmosphere in the arena changed with it.
Several students who had been loudly cheering moments earlier instinctively lowered their voices.
"So that's..." Cami swallowed.
"Dragon Form." Hong Feng's eyes gleamed again.
Up in the VIP section, Hector's father silently watched his son's transformation. Unlike the students who were seeing it for the first time, there was no surprise on his face, only the composed scrutiny of the current head of the Moore family.
"He's finally decided to use it."
One of the nobles nearby glanced toward him. "The Moore family's Dragon Magic?"
Hector's father gave a small nod.
"Although what Hector can display at his current age is still incomplete, that form allows him to draw considerably more power from the Sea Dragon scales than simply covering individual parts of his body."
His gaze returned to Knox. "However..." He didn't finish the sentence.
The first half of the duel had already taught him not to judge Knox Aznable by ordinary standards.
Back in the arena, Hector slowly raised his head.
His appearance had changed considerably, but his eyes were still unmistakably his own. If anything, the anger and pride burning within them had only become stronger.
"Knox Aznable."
Hector opened and closed one of his newly formed claws.
Scrape!
The sharp tips dragged against each other.
"You seemed pretty pleased with yourself earlier."
Knox blinked. "Did I?"
That casual response immediately made a vein bulge on Hector's forehead.
"Keep acting like that while you still can!"
Hector spread his arms slightly, displaying the dark scales covering most of his body.
"What you fought before wasn't even close to my full strength! These scales aren't some cheap armor you can break just because you got lucky once!"
Knox's eyes traveled over Hector from head to toe.
Then he nodded thoughtfully.
"I see."
Hector's lips curled upward.
However, Knox's next words immediately wiped the smile from his face.
"So the winged lizard evolved."
"...You!"
Up in the VIP section, Hector's father's eyebrow twitched for the second time that day, while somehow a few of the nobles seated nearby suddenly became extremely interested in looking elsewhere.
Knox chuckled before raising both of his gauntleted hands.
"But..."
His expression gradually changed. The playful smile remained, yet the stance he had maintained throughout the first phase of the battle slowly loosened.
"Since you've changed the way you're fighting..."
Violet flames suddenly ignited around his gauntlets, rapidly spreading across their surface.
Fwoosh!
As the flames continued to burn around his hands, Knox briefly looked down at them before raising his gaze toward Hector once more. A small smile appeared on his face.
"...I'll change mine too."
Those quiet words immediately caught Hong Feng's attention. "Hm?"
Violet flames that had previously flickered around the edges of Knox's gauntlets suddenly surged upward, sweeping along his arms before spreading around his body.
The flames rapidly expanded until a brilliant violet light surrounded Knox. Within that radiance, several dark shapes gradually appeared around him, and as their silhouettes became clearer, the spectators finally realized what they were looking at.
They weren't weapons, nor were they some kind of strange magical artifacts. There were pieces of armor.
There were shoulder guards, armored plates, and several smaller sections, all suspended at different heights around Knox. Some slowly rotated in place while others drifted through the violet light, their arrangement making it clear that each piece belonged to a different part of his body.
Their appearance was just as striking as the way they had manifested.
The larger plates carried a deep indigo-violet hue, dark enough to give them weight while remaining distinctly purple beneath the arena lights. Richer shades of violet covered several smaller sections, while black appeared only around their inner structures and beneath the overlapping portions.
What drew the most attention, however, were the translucent sections embedded within several of those pieces.
A faint violet glow could be seen beneath their crystalline surfaces, gradually becoming brighter toward the center until the color approached a vivid pinkish-purple. It looked as though condensed energy had been sealed inside them, quietly circulating beneath the surface.
For several moments, the armor simply floated around Knox.
Then one of the shoulder pieces moved.
Clack!
It flew toward him and locked itself onto his shoulder. The matching piece immediately followed from the opposite side, and almost at the same time, the other pieces suspended within the violet light began moving as well.
Clack! Clack!
Several swept toward Knox from different directions. Armor settled around his shoulders first, followed by separate sections attaching along his arms, waist, and legs, each piece finding its respective position without forming a continuous shell around his body.
Moreover, there were clear spaces between them.
Knox's original clothing remained visible beneath and between the armor, while the individual plates reinforced only specific portions of his body. Combined with their streamlined shapes, the arrangement resembled the equipment of a lightly armored knight rather than a warrior enclosed inside a heavy suit of plate armor.
Then, another piece flew toward his arm.
Clack!
It connected near the gauntlet already covering Knox's forearm, fitting naturally alongside it. The violet patterns running across the gauntlet extended into the newly attached piece, illuminating several lines along its surface before reaching the translucent section embedded within it.
The same thing happened as more pieces found their places.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
With each connection, another section responded. Faint violet light traveled through the armor, gradually revealing that the pieces floating independently moments ago were linked by the same energy flowing through Knox's gauntlets.
One attached near his waist, while another swept downward and locked itself along his leg. The remaining pieces followed shortly afterward, rotating through the violet light before moving toward their respective positions.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
Soon, only one remained.
The final piece hovered within the violet flames for a brief moment before suddenly shooting toward Knox. It crossed the short distance in an instant and aligned itself perfectly with the rest of the armor.
Clack!
With a sharp metallic sound, the final piece locked firmly into place, completing the armor covering Knox's body. For a brief moment, the violet flames surrounding him seemed to settle along with it.
Then, in the very next instant, they erupted.
WHOOSH!
Almost immediately, a powerful heatwave exploded outward from Knox.
The timing was so sudden that several spectators flinched.
Dust surrounding Knox was blasted away in a widening circle, while the air around him warped heavily from the heat. The wave swept across the arena and slammed into Hector head-on, sending his hair and clothes whipping backward as the dark scales covering his body rattled against one another.
The wave of heat continued spreading without losing momentum, racing across the ground until it finally reached the very edge of the battlefield.
Wuuung!
The moment it collided with the protective barrier, the transparent surface briefly became visible as the heatwave spread across it, creating layers of distortion that rolled upward like air above a blazing furnace. The barrier held the heat back completely, but the sight alone was enough to show the spectators just how intense it had been.
The last remnants of violet flame around Knox gradually faded as the disturbed dust settled, finally giving everyone a clear look at his new appearance.
His white hair and face remained completely uncovered, while the familiar gauntlets still covered his hands and forearms. Now, however, several additional pieces of armor accompanied them, distributed across his shoulders, arms, waist, and legs without completely covering his body.
From the back of his waist, a pair of elongated armor pieces extended downward like folded mechanical wings, swaying slightly behind him with every movement.
Deep indigo-violet dominated the larger plates, accompanied by richer shades of purple across the smaller sections. Black remained visible only beneath some of the overlapping pieces, while the translucent components embedded throughout the armor glowed with a much brighter violet.
Under the arena lights, those crystalline sections almost appeared pinkish-purple at their brightest points.
For a moment, Cindy could only stare at Knox's new appearance in stunned silence. However, as she took in the armor from head to toe, the surprise on her face quickly turned into excitement.
Her eyes immediately lit up. "Wow! What is that?! So cool! So handsome!"
She immediately leaned farther over the railing to get a better look, only for Claudia to catch the back of her uniform and pull her away from the edge.
"Cindy, careful."
"Ah! Sorry!"
Cindy obediently sat back down, although her eyes remained glued to Knox. Beside her, Rick was staring just as intently at the scattered pieces of armor, especially at the way they had connected with the gauntlets Knox had been using since the beginning of the duel.
"So those gauntlets weren't the whole thing."
Hearing that, Simon slowly nodded as he looked over Knox's newly completed armor.
"Looks like it. Or rather, it seems those gauntlets were just one piece of the whole set."
The same excitement quickly spread throughout the surrounding seats. Students whispered among themselves, while several recruiters who had briefly stopped writing during the transformation hurriedly returned their quills to paper.
Hong Feng, however, was looking somewhere else. After taking in Knox's new equipment, her attention shifted toward the way he was standing.
It was different from before.
During the first part of the duel, Knox had fought Hector using an unfamiliar martial art. His movements had been smooth and controlled, repeatedly receiving Hector's attacks before redirecting their force or turning them into opportunities for a counterattack.
The posture he took now didn't resemble that approach.
There was no need for Hong Feng to say anything yet. A different posture didn't necessarily mean a completely different martial art, and Knox hadn't even thrown his first attack after putting on the armor.
Still, the possibility was enough to hold her attention.
Down in the arena, Hector slowly straightened after enduring the heatwave.
The dark scales covering his body had endured it, but they hadn't come out completely unaffected. Their surfaces were visibly heated, with several sections carrying a faint reddish glow before gradually returning to their original color.
Tssssss—
Thin trails of steam rose from between the scales.
Hector looked down at them, silently watching the steam curl away from his body. His expression gradually hardened as he realized what was happening.
A second later, his eyes snapped toward Knox.
"You...!!"
The anger in Hector's voice was unmistakable. His claws curled tightly as his entire body tensed, the hardened scales grinding against one another with a faint, unpleasant sound.
Yet despite the killing intent practically radiating from Hector, Knox showed no sign of being intimidated. Standing calmly across from him, he merely watched Hector's growing anger with the same relaxed smile on his face.
Once Hector seemed ready to continue, Knox casually raised his gauntlets.
"Round two. Ready?"