I stared at Trivet for a few moments, then said, "Instructor, do you think someone will try to assassinate the ambassador?"
"It's a possibility. He is very important after all," he replied.
That he is.
As much as I'd like to play the fool and go around in circles, I didn't have the time or patience for that.
So I decided to be upfront and bold with it.
"Instructor Trivet, are you a spy for the Jaded Empire?"
His heart rate spiked, then steadied as if nothing happened.
"A spy? Amon, do you hear yourself? I've lived here nearly my entire life. You also might not know, but the headmaster is a very thorough individual. I would've never been able to become an instructor if I was from the Jaded Empire."
That's true.
But that's also why I'm starting to become wary of the headmaster's true intentions.
Trivet just lied to me.
He was a spy.
And since the headmaster likely knew that too... why?
Why let him remain here?
"..."
It looks like there's much more going on behind the scenes than I thought.
Regardless, I reached into my dimensional ring and pulled out a bag.
Then, while glancing at Trivet, I dumped all the contents of the bag.
Small, golden, diamond-shaped sheets of Clorafite.
100 of them, to be exact.
I decided to just call them Clorafite weapons.
Before the weapon could fall to the ground, the one hundred pieces suddenly halted, then began connecting with each other.
Within less than a second, all one hundred pieces connected into a shield.
It was my second time using this weapon, but it really was amazing.
Because the shapes were perfect, I could form them into anything I wanted.
A weapon, a shield, armor, and any kind of other object.
But that was only one of the reasons I asked the dwarf to make this.
The other reason was much simpler.
I split all one hundred pieces into their individual shapes, and then hovered them in the air just slightly behind me.
If I were to infuse them with lightning, they would all descend like powerful missiles.
More precisely, one hundred rail guns going off at once.
As I stared down at Trivet, it seemed like he finally realized the gravity of the situation.
He stood up, and after dusting himself off, put a cigarette into his mouth.
"You mind if I have a smoke before we start?"
"..."
"Do you think this is a joke?"
As he was about to light his cigarette, I crushed it.
Frowning, he flicked away what was left and met my gaze.
"Amon, are you sure you want to do this here?"
Pointing below at the crowd of people, he shrugged.
"If I were you, I'd pretend I never saw anything. Regardless of who comes out alive, we'd both be in big trouble. If you were smart—"
Before he could even finish his words, I sent all one hundred of my weapons right at him.
I didn't infuse them with lightning at first, but even then, they were considerably fast.
Despite that, Trivet clicked his tongue, and with nimble steps, began evading my weapons.
Trivet's figure blurred as he ran up the side of the bell tower, and then eventually jumped on the very top.
Crack!
My weapons pierced through the stone and bricks like tofu.
The debris began to rain down on the people below, but before anyone could get crushed, I flicked my wrist.
As the debris halted, it quickly shot back up to the top of the bell tower.
The barrage of attacks came at Trivet from all sides, and no matter where he went, he wasn't safe.
But it seemed like he finally decided to take it seriously.
He leapt off the bell tower and reached into his pocket.
Pulling out yet another cigarette, he tossed it inside his mouth.
Just as my 100 weapons and several boulders were about to hit him, he lit the cigarette.
The moment he did, a massive smoke screen exploded outward, covering my whole vision.
I frowned slightly.
This was Trivet's Gift.
Smoke Manipulation.
I had crushed the cigarette earlier, and I also managed to crush the cigarettes he had inside his pocket.
But it seemed like he was reaching into his pocket for show, and instead, he pulled out the actual cigarettes from his dimensional ring.
So now that smoke surrounded me, I had to be a bit more careful.
The hairs on my neck stood on end.
My weapons formed a shield, and immediately flew behind me, blocking a powerful fist from blowing my head off.
CLANG
Then another,
CLANG!
I couldn't see his fists, but I could just vaguely feel them.
As it stood, he could teleport anywhere he wanted inside the smoke.
He could also attack very fast, and at any angle.
This was an opponent whose move set I hadn't memorized like the others.
It was a whole new experience for me.
Learning his attack patterns, what weaknesses he thought I had...
It was strangely thrilling.
The back and forth continued like this for the next couple of seconds as I was on the defensive.
Eventually though, I realized that he prioritized attacks from the back.
And so, just as he threw another attack, I unfurled my weapons, and instead of blocking his attack, made them envelop his entire arm.
CLANK
They gripped his whole arm firmly, but he hadn't stopped his earlier attack.
So with my weapons surrounding his fist, the attack reached me.
I pushed myself back with Telekinesis, only for Trivet to teleport behind me and try striking my neck.
But that was exactly what I had been waiting for.
In the span of a second, I did two things.
One, I spread out my weapons across his body and created a mask around his face.
He couldn't breathe anymore, and since that was the case, he couldn't teleport anymore.
I abruptly twisted my body around, and in one quick motion, kicked off his incoming fist.
Since it was no longer covered in my weapons, it didn't kill me.
But he did break my left leg.
I was sure he even somehow cracked my right leg too.
Then again, I didn't exactly need my legs to fight.
I could fly.
Now for the second thing I had done...
A pocket electric chair.
I sent a burst of lightning straight through my weapons covering his head.
Trivet began spazzing out, and the smoke screen began destabilizing.
But then again, he was stronger than me.
So even with my clear advantage, and even me using my second Gift, he was still able to resist my lightning.
And in the end, he somehow got a single waft of smoke through the mask and into his lungs.
He overexerted himself, turning his entire body to smoke, and vanishing from sight.
Although I was a little bit exhausted physically, I flicked my wrist and covered myself in my weapons.
For a moment, there was silence.
I could only hear the distant echoes of debris falling and hitting the ground.
My gaze remained firm, and eventually, I turned to the left.
In the smoke cover, I saw a slight disruption, and just then, Trivet's face emerged.
I did try to crush his head, but my Telekinesis wasn't strong enough.
Even so, his face was slightly scarred from my weapons, so at least it worked a little bit.
"Amon... Do you seriously believe this is the right choice to make?"
"..."
"You might think I went into this blind. I can assure you, I didn't."
I knew there would be repercussions regardless of how this fight turned out.
But during the course of the fight, I played my cards perfectly.
I showed my intent to save the civilians.
Then, I showcased a bit of lightning.
And I would only see the outcome of my plan after this fight was over.
So, as I stared at the much more powerful Trivet who seemed beaten and exhausted, I decided to end this with the next attack.