'Shit.'

Damien siphoned what mana he could out onto his hands and brought them together, utilizing raw mana to protect his body. Air would have been better, but time hadn't been on his side.

His hands met and he ducked down, a wedge of his mana forming in front of his hands and lower body just in time. The flames collided with his wedge and split off around it, dulling slightly as they contacted his mana. Looking on with his mana sense, Damien watched as the fire crawled around the exterior of his body, searching for purchase, only to eventually rocket past him into the rest of the arena.

Looking up and wincing from his neck skin crinkling, Damien tried to focus his mind. He shoved off where he'd crouched, manipulating the ground to lift under his left foot as he pushed to his right, out of the way of a presumed follow-up attack.

A wave of heat passed behind as the roar of flames drowned out all sound around him for a moment, no doubt impacting where he'd just been. Keeping himself from looking back as his body continued to the ground, Damien threw out a fist toward where he saw her shadow standing some twenty feet away. Gravity finished dragging him down at the same time his pillar struck true and with a roll, he once again crouched while seeing her slide back a few measly feet.

While she focused on regaining balance, he rapidly assessed himself. The entirety of her first attack had been deflected, but he had still suffered through the radiant heat that made its way through the mana, cooking his arms and neck while leaving behind a few small blisters. They only stung though, so he made the decision not to waste his mana healing them. He'd already burnt too much healing his earlier injuries and deflecting this attack.

He was just glad he'd closed his eyes.

Not giving the Dresmyr the opportunity to act unimpeded, Damien lifted a thick wall of earth five feet high and condensed it to stone, killing line of sight between the two of them while laying claim to the ground and air around his immediate body. His mana sense continued outward, passing hers and covering her body, showing she'd put distance between the two by standing near the far end of the arena.

'Planning to barrage me huh?' he wondered as he watched her arms prepare more fire while some she'd already thrown crashed against his wall.

Focusing on the physical world, he watched the flames lick the sides of the stone wall before him and took two steps up to it, throwing his right arm backward. He waited until another salvo struck before loosening a circular section of stone and bringing his right fist into it, launching a ball toward her while sealing it with more rock from the ground.

Flames licked past his impromptu barricade again, the heat radiating off them causing a sweat to begin on his brow. He smiled as he felt his stone finally crashed into her, stopping the barrage of fire.

Stepping forward, he brought his arms outward and right foot into the wall, sending it in its entirety flying toward his opponent. Following through, he stepped down and crashed his fists together in front of himself, sending his own swaths of fire outward as they mimicked his actions and pincered the girl on her sides.

He grinned as she was forced to meet his barricade head-on, retreat and escape cut off. Running forward to avoid the flames that were set to pincer her into the wall, she sent mana out into the ground between her and the barricade. It was thicker than usual earth so she couldn't split it but instead, she rolled to the ground and crouched, slanting a section of it above her.

Damien acted fast as he stood upright while maintaining control of the wall. When it collided and began tumbling over her burrow, he moved an arm rapidly downward, sending a spike directly through her exposed calf. Manipulating so finely, so quickly, and so far away was taxing, but worth it and he mentally cheered as it connected.

The Dresmyr didn't cry out in pain, which was a bit odd, especially considering he'd tried to send bits of the spike throughout her leg to immobilize it. Like trying to move your hand deep into sand, the earth almost refused to advance unless he found loose pockets.

She burst up, out of her small burrow and immediately snapped the spike off at the base. After that, it wasn't long before he felt his control of it disappear entirely and an eery glare met his eyes from across the arena. That, mixed with how silent she'd been through him digging into her leg and the four bouts of fire she was preparing, left him on edge.

Unwilling to fall behind, he began to make his own, creating two swaths of flame larger than her four. He could match hers number wise if he really wanted, but it was hard to move them around as finely as he liked as he was unused to moving something akin to four arms at once, leaving her with an advantage in a head-on conflict.

Though, it seemed he had an advantage in brains, as she was running directly at him without care to how he'd react. He shot both his pillars of fire at the same time she shot her four, obscuring his vision of her but still maintaining a mental picture of where she was.

Moving toward her as well, he kicked a large chunk of earth to follow the flames to her. With more time to react to her attack this time, he slammed his hands together to create a gust of wind in front of him, changing the trajectory of her flames.

Unfortunately, the wind only saved him from a bit of convection that had leaked through the mana wall last time and not from the radiant heat. More blisters began to cover his skin as he felt his projectiles converge on her, expecting a direct hit. Right before they landed, she vanished from both of his forms of vision, and the mana continued onward to crash into the Arena wall.

The heat dissipated from around him as he stood, confusedly looking around where she should have been. No matter how he searched, he couldn't find her.

'This feels wrong,' he worried.

He'd never been in a situation where he couldn't find someone he was fighting with since coming to this world, and it was destroying his sense of ease.

Some jeers and taunts began to rain down on him from the stands as he focused on his surroundings, seconds ticking by. Finally, the slightest of ruffles from the sound of the ground's surface breaking apart entered his ear from behind, and Damien began turning fast.

A moment later, his mana sense registered an earthen spike heading for his spine.

Realizing he couldn't dodge in time, Damien increased the load on his body, torquing it hard while lowering his shoulder and throwing himself off balance. As an ingrained response from training with Alexa, some extra mana also went to the location it would land to help mitigate the damage, but it was torn through immediately.

The spike entered his arm like a huge nail ripping through wood, snapping his humerus while sending him tumbling backward from the impact. When he stopped rolling, he swung his left arm in a large arc towards where he'd been and watched as a wave of fire shot out, breaking apart where the girl supposedly stood.

The attack seemed to break whatever concentration she needed to keep to maintain control of whatever magic she was using and she re-appeared in a defensive stance, her four arms covering most of her body and coated with more earth.

"Fuck!" he yelled out, panting while kneeling on the ground, clutching his arm. "Are you trying to kill me?!"

"Wouldn't that be nice," came the growling response as she heaved back, appearing on her last legs.

Damien prayed in his mind she wasn't faking it. Something like that... a technique like that... If she could use it multiple times, this fight was as good as lost. She'd caught him completely off guard, unable to react or consider a counter in time to avoid her attack.

Looking around the arena briefly, Damien kept her in his peripheral while trying to come up with a plan and control his breathing. If she did that again, a wide fire attack might not be enough. He chastised himself for relying way too much on his mana sense, not expecting someone to be able to disappear like that, but he wouldn't be calling it quits on this duel anytime soon. He could heal through this injury in a matter of minutes. It would cost him quite a bit of what he had left in him to do it so fast, but it was doable.

Stopping the bleeding, he began to reconnect the bone and tendons second. The superficial things could be handled later; as long as he could move it for now, that would be good enough.

Glaring across the way, his opponent was making no move to attack. Whether that was a feint or not, it wouldn't be good to just let her prepare if time was what she needed.

'Alright let's go,' Damien yelled at himself, forcing his body into action.

Cradling his healing arm, he began kicking large chunks of rock from the ground in her direction, aiming for the leg he'd stabbed through earlier. She reacted how he'd hoped, grimacing and dodging, clearly favoring her right side. She was having a much harder time than he'd assumed she was at first and began putting more and more pressure on her, throwing a few bouts of fire and water into the mix with his good arm.

She began moving forward slowly, step by step. Whether getting close was good or bad, it gave her less time to dodge so Damien allowed the advance. The woman moved like water, seemlessly gliding around each of his attacks while doing her best to avoid using mana to deflect, block, or move quicker. Unfortunately, when she got within fifteen feet, she couldn't keep it up. A boulder almost caught her in the shoulder as the price, forcing the woman to deflect it with her forearms and stumble again as she placed weight on her bad leg for balance.

'Finally,' Damien thought, inwardly sighing.

Capitalizing immediately, he shot a blunted pillar directly out of the ground behind her, aimed for her knee. She'd continued advancing, well past the boundary of the area that was controlled by him, and she'd shown the weak moment he'd been waiting for. She'd lost to herself.

Or so Damien had hoped, but the grin she sported at the last second caused a cold sweat to grip his body. A moment before the pillar struck, she pushed off her bad leg as if it hadn't been injured at all, diving for him while disappearing entirely again.

'Guess we'll see if it works,' he thought, hastily creating water and fire in both his hands before bringing them together and dousing the area in hot, thick steam.

He grimaced as his right arm cried out in defiance, cracking as his hands collided and sent a jolt into the bone, but a working heal was all he'd needed.

Not taking a moment to spare, Damien crouched down and brought a thick circular wall of earth upward around him, cutting him off from the outside world. Once protected, he concentrated on the steam he'd made in his mana sense and waited for the slightest disturbance in it.

He didn't have to wait long. Within seconds he felt motion from his left, the girl apparently having circled around him to catch him off guard. He felt as his mana was displaced with steam part slightly as she took one step, then felt it move again as she took another. Knowing where she stood, he cocked both of his fists back and slammed them into his mini fortress, biting down hard at the pain it caused his right arm while launching two boulders no larger than his hand at where both of her feet should be.

His heart leapt in his chest as a dull crack sounded out and a cry of alarm was released, feeling as the rocks crushed whatever they had contacted. She re-appeared on his radar just a few feet away, trying to lift herself up with mangled looking ankles. Taking no time and offering no sympathy, Damien blasted the rest of his surroundings apart, a layer of rock hitting her in the chest and shoulders, sprawling her out onto her back.

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"YIELD," he demanded, creating a wall of water behind him as his veins began to strain.

He advanced on her recovering figure while waving his left arm upward to ward off the fire sent in his direction with another gust of wind.

"FUCK Y-"

He slammed the water onto her chest as she tried to lean upward, robbing her of her breath and once again sprawling her out on her back. He lifted the earth around her four arms and two legs, stopping her from moving while rotating the water back around and above his head.

She jerked her head upward and he felt as a created piece of earth shot at him from behind, sidestepping it easily and creating a stone brace to trap her head. While a Mage could manipulate mana without movements, it was extremely hard to do so at this age, requiring years of practice. He banked on her not having that.

It paid off as she lay there, glaring at him while he stood above her, glaring back.

"Yield," he demanded.

When she didn't respond, he looked over to Mr. Terrell, but the teacher just shrugged at him.

"Yield or I'll break your wrists next," he threatened, turning back toward her.

"I don't give a f-"

He didn't let her finish the statement. With a jerk of his head, the stone holding onto her wrists wreched sideways and two loud snaps rang out, tendons and bones crushing under the earth.

The girl's face morphed into one of pain while Damien flinched. The tactile feedback through his mana of crushing her wrists was... disconcerting, to say the least. He only wanted the woman to yield, not knowing how to win otherwise. Maybe this strong-armed attempt would get through to her.

"Just give up, you've clearly lost!" he yelled, waving his arm toward her mangled, trapped position.

"Kill me if you want you sadistic little bitch! I'm not going to- arggghhhh!" she yelled out as he tightened the grip of his earth on her multiple limbs.

Killing her was definitely not an option but he wasn't exactly sure how to win the duel. He hadn't been paying attention earlier, too excited about his first duel to learn the rules.

"Come on! How do I make her give up!" he yelled out, turning to the stands where Mr. Terrell sat grinning down on them like a madman while the other students looked on with rapt attention.

"Good luck with that one," he called to Damien. "Better chances of getting a Dragon to let you ride it. Just knock her out."

Damien nodded back in thanks as he thought about how best to do that. Approaching her slowly, he commanded more stone to crawl up onto her body, weighing her entire being down and encasing her fully from neck to toe. She just waited, hatefully staring at him.

He sighed and took a knee, cocked his fist back, and said an apology in his mind as his fist rocketed downward. Her head jolted to the left slightly and she righted it almost instantly, staring back up at him.

"You hit like a bitch."

He hit her again, slightly harder, and she spat blood onto his neck, eyes keeping the same fire they'd had before he'd thrown the punches. He hit her a third time but nothing changed again. He sighed.

'This feels so damn wrong.'

He stood up and backed away from her.

"Fine, you win. I'm not going to sit here and keep decking you until you finally lose consciousness," he called out, backing away.

"The hell I win! Finish what you started!" she screamed up at him.

"Yield then!" he yelled back. "Or you can be known as the girl that I took pity on, giving her my spot."

The statement came out of Damien's mouth as a taunt, but he didn't understand how effective it would be as he took an uneasy step back. The amount of anger that clouded her eyes was more feral than he'd seen in anyone since coming to this planet, even more than the Hellial he'd killed so long ago.

"What, heart can't stand to hit a frail girl? This is how the duel ends when someone refuses to yield. It is their own stupidity that forces this on you. Are you really willing to lose every duel from this moment onward simply because your opponents refuse to yield? You realize this will be passed on by word of mouth," Mr. Terrell called out, interrupting Damien's thoughts.

"You expect me to kneel above her and keep hitting her in the face because she's batshit crazy?! I'm not some sadistic asshole that can just do t-"

"Sure, that's one way to knock someone out. A bit barbaric if you ask me. Why not just choke her?" Mr. Terrell interrupted, speaking impassively as if THAT were less barbaric.

"Yeah, because kneeling above her and choking her out is sane," Damien called back.

"Well, do it however you like, but the duel isn't over until she accepts defeat or is no longer mentally present. You are just knocking her unconscious, not taking a life. And are you saying you wouldn't kill someone who was after your life?" Mr. Terrell asked.

Damien sighed while shaking his head and resolved to never accept another duel from this crazed bitch again. He moved back toward her and lifted her chest up with the ground until her head was set just below his when he kneeled. He wrapped his good arm around her neck and began to apply pressure like he'd been taught ages ago-

"Goddammit!" Damien cursed out, falling back onto his rear when she slammed the back of her head into his face. "Hold fucking still," he grunted, feeling as a cool liquid dripped down from his nose.

He willed the ground to coil up around the back of her neck and head, stabilizing it and preventing movement. A few seconds of struggling later, he had a good hold and she was out. At least restricting blood flow to the brain was just as effective as on Earth.

"It's about time you ended this charade. I was beginning to get bored," Mr. Terrell called down.

"You could have ended it earlier!" Damien shouted, standing up and releasing the hold his magic had of the girl.

"I could have, you're right. A while ago, in fact. The moment you decided to use a ground spike to injure her leg," the man responded, surprising Damien. "I only didn't because I expected her to respond in kind, which she did in a big way. Whereas your attack wasn't lethal, hers very well could have been if you just left yourself unguarded. The match concludes as is; you are victorious."

Damien sighed and nodded while stepping away from the stone sculpture before him, slowly lowering her body to the ground and causing the stone to break off. He was victorious in his first duel, but didn't feel like it at all. Exhausted, mentally more than physically, hurt, irritated...

"I guess I'll have to grab her," Mr. Terrell called out, standing up from his seat. "Ahhh. I wish you'd have taken longer. I'll have to actually teach you little shits more," he moaned.

Damien watched as the man moved down the steps of the Arena. He was very obviously taking the longest path he could while moving as slowly as he physically could without being dramatic about it. The rest of the class followed along at the same pace and after a full two minutes, he arrived beside the fallen Dresmyr and leaned over, grabbing her by the legs.

Damien squinted up at the man as he looked suspiciously close to just dragging her behind him the entire way. He didn't care much for the girl, but she obviously had some kind of mental trauma. Being rude to her unconscious body would be a little messed up.

After way taking way too long for a normal person to deliberate, Mr. Terrell sighed and created a platform out of the ground for her to float on alongside him as they moved back to the classroom. Damien moved alongside him and stayed quiet for a few minutes before he began asking questions.

"So what are the rules for duels here, anyway?"

"Read the orientation guide you were given," Mr. Terrell responded, not looking away from where he lazily walked.

"I wasn't given one though," Damien responded.

"Well go bug someone else about it."

"We have so much time before getting back to the class, though."

Almost instantly, the man picked up his pace.

Gianna came jogging up to the rescue.

"I'll explain them!" she offered.

Damien smiled at her and nodded. "Then can you start with the victory and defeat conditions?" he asked.

"Victory conditions are easy. Knock them out or make them surrender. In a Gentleman's duel, knocking the other person over is how you win."

"Defeat conditions are a bit trickier. Getting knocked out or surrendering is obvious but doing anything too dangerous is grounds for instant defeat as well, to the discretion of the match overseer. Using piercing magic, doing anything that could be truly fatal, leaving the arena, cutting off a limb... all are g-"

"Damaging someone in a way that could injure them permanently. For the god's sake, Miss Duflos, please keep your explanations brief," Mr. Terrell interrupted with a glare. "Now take your conversation away from me."

"Then, what about if you hit someone with something that could be fatal? Like a blunted spear to the chest? Why isn't that ruled as a victory?" Damien asked.

"Well, if i-"

"Practice for both parties. You let the fight continue, and they learn from their mistakes. Many fatal injuries take time to actually be fatal, it's not like a spear through the heart stops the man from moving immediately. He could very well send a spear through yours a few seconds later. Ultimately, it lets you get comfortable with actually aiming for vitals and dealing fatal blows while teaching you how to avoid them. The higher rate of potentially fatal hits there are in mock situations, the higher chance you properly avoid them in the future."

Though, there are some who take advantage of that rule and get used to taking them instead of avoiding them. These... fools end up dying sooner rather than later after graduating. Their talents are undeniable, but their methods cause their own deaths. They deserve it, as well," Mr. Terrell finished, starting out irritated but finishing in an informative tone.

Damien almost let himself smile, but no doubt the man would notice and immediately return to being an asshole. Instead, he prepped another question but never got the chance to ask it, the Dresmyr girl choosing that moment to wake up.

"What i- ahhh!" she cried out in a high pitched tone as she fell to the ground almost immediately after speaking.

Damien let himself laugh at that, the squeal being so out of character he couldn't help it.

"I'm glad you've finally woken. Crawl for yourself and don't speak until the end of class," Mr. Terrell demanded. "The last thing I want to hear is some weakling demand a rematch. If you manage to make it back before class is over with your body healed, I may even act impressed."

Damien slowed a bit and turned to see the girl glaring at the instructors back, unmoving from where she lay on the ground as the class parted around her. Looking back forward, Damien caught back up with Gianna and Mr. Terrell, the atmosphere going dark immediately as they continued the trip back in silence.

Damien could have helped her with healing, but there was no way he'd offer. He wanted to ask more about rules instead but settled on consulting the handbook he'd have to borrow from Alexa from here on out.

At least he'd learned the important parts.

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"How are you doing, hun?" Kastra asked, laying in bed beside Alexa while running her hands through her hair.

Alexa sighed in content as a slight smile traced across her lips, bummed about being unable to attend her courses but enjoying the pampering she'd been receiving. The extreme pain had worn off mostly as the day had gone on, leaving her feeling weak and crippled. She hoped within a few days that would taper off and she could get back to class early, but that wasn't exactly guaranteed.

"I'm fine, 'mom'. You really do too much," Alexa responded, turned on her side and smirking at the Fae.

"I'm not your mom," she said with a questioning look. "Though you certainly do need the pampering that one would offer."

Alexa grinned wider at the response. Kastra was adorable, especially when she didn't try to be. She snuggled into the Fae's chest.

"Sure you aren't technically, but I would be hard-pressed to find someone who cares about me more than you," she said.

"Damien might, though I'd fight him on it," Kastra replied. "I'm sure Emily comes close too."

Alexa nodded to that while replying, "I'm sure they both do. What do you think all of that was earlier with him, anyway?" she asked a bit nervously.

The feelings he'd been giving off throughout the day were varied and a bit jarring to experience. Happy, sad, angry, really angry, flirtatious, nervous, excited... The list had no end.

"I'm not exactly sure. He has had quite the exciting day without us though. I almost think I feel... jealous?" Kastra said in a questioning tone.

"You? Jealous? Have you ever... do you know what that is?" Alexa asked, perplexed.

"I do, though I'm not sure if I've felt it yet. The repressed excited and slightly flirtatious feelings he was giving off earlier in the day make me wonder about if that's what jealousy feels like," she responded.

Alexa pulled her head away from Kastra's chest and cocked her head to the side slightly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, if he decides he wants a second wife I'm ok with that. I just feel like I'd be sad if he had less time for me because of it," she responded.

"That... that's not exactly how I thought he'd been feeling those feelings for. Perhaps he was just getting hit on," Alexa replied nervously, hurt slightly at her denying Alexa a place in their lives yet knowing she'd done it to herself.

"Maybe. I'll ask when he gets back," Kastra shrugged. "Why do you sound so concerned though about it though? I thought you were fine abandoning the life you wanted," she said in an indifferent tone.

Even if she didn't mean it that way, and perhaps she did, Kastra had a way of putting things so bluntly it hurt. Alexa sighed as her heart felt squeezed by pain and circumstance.

"I'm not fine abandoning it... I just... I don't know how to please everyone," she stated. "I've told you this..."

"Who says you even have to please anyone? Why not be selfish? You felt how it feels to lose him-"

"Both of you," Alexa interrupted.

"To lose us, then. Why would you be willing to go through that again without even seeing if it could work?" Kastra asked.

"It's not that... Why are you so ok with being tied to him until he dies, though? You even gave up your home with the Fae of the lake. How were you so comfortable with it?" Alexa asked back.

"They are grown adults and true family. They will live on without me there while supporting me in the decisions I make, as a family should. As for him, I find everything he does and is a part of beautiful. I've become a part of a family that I love, including you, and without that, I would have never really understood the beauty of choosing those you surround yourself with. You're so caught up and sure that it won't work, that you never stop to take a moment and consider how beautiful it would be if it did. I know where my place is in this world, Lexi. When are you going to realize yours?"

Alexa's lips tightened as her eyebrows creased inward. It sounded so easy from her perspective. The answer was obvious. What exactly was she doing, giving up the family that had shown her what a caring warmth actually meant, to appease one that really didn't seem to care for her too much beyond as a pawn to use. Vanessa had given them up, Kastra had given hers up in a way... living four hundred years with people she loved sounded infinitely better than a possible eternity with someone she'd be stuck with against her wishes.

She rubbed at her face and sighed, feeling the weight of her situation all too heavily. Her head bent back down into Kastra's chest as she responded, voice muffled and cracking slightly.

"I don't know yet."