Very quickly, much to Bryson’s surprise, an area for both Kristel and this Clarissa girl to duel was made. The two fighters stood in the middle of the area staring each other down, while Bryson and Frans glared at one another.

“Are you sure that you don’t want to wager anything?” Frans said with a sly grin on his face.

“Your disappointment is more than enough of a reward for me.” Bryson said dismissively. In response Frans immediately scowled.

“Oh, I won’t be the one that gets humiliated.” Frans said staring at him with hate-fueled eyes.

“Let’s see if your girlfriend can back up that claim.” Bryson mocked.

“Grrr.”

“Kristel, are you ready?” Bryson asked focusing his attention between the two fighters.

“Yes.” She said with a nod.

“What about you, Clarissa?” Bryson asked the other girl.

“I am ready. Shall I begin Lord Frans?” The girl said giving a curt nod before glancing over to Frans.

“Considering that they are both our respective warriors it would only be appropriate if they fought correspondingly as a warrior does for their wizard.” Frans said as he glared at Bryson.

“What do you mean by that?”

Frans gave Clarissa a nod of affirmation, “Get her Clare.”

“Clare? You have a nickname for her?” Bryson said loudly just as the two girls drew their weapons and moved forward.

“Shut up!” Frans shouted as their respective fighters crossed blades.

Clarissa fought with a round shield and one-handed battle axe in contrast to Kristel’s two-handed longsword. Watching the fight Bryson noticed the difference this duel had compared to others that Kristel had in the past.

When going against Nico, it was an absolute one-sided controlled fight. Nico Reese dictated everything whenever they sparred. When Kristel was to attack, defend, move forward or backwards, everything. For Nico there was never a risk of injury for either of them for he could control what happened. Those spars were simply made for learning. It actually shocked Bryson to see just how capable Nico was when he tried.

Against Lottie it was a different story. Kristel was a year and a bit older, bigger, stronger. But she was less experienced and admittedly less creative. Though they usually fought on flat ground in open space with daylight which played to Kristel’s method of fighting, Lottie was still unbelievably quick, and her sleight-of-hand ability made it difficult for Kristel to track her attacks.

For Lottie, Kristel had to chase and at the same time avoid any traps that had been set by that cunning girl. She needed to overwhelm that speed with her power in order to obtain victory during their spars.

Sable was a different beast entirely in comparison to her other two sparring partners. She was stronger than Lottie and fought in a much more smash-mouth style. She was more akin to what Kristel experienced with Nico but lacked much of Nico’s experience-derived skills. Which meant that Sable couldn’t just control the tempo like Nico, allowing Kristel a chance to capitalize. Still being more experienced than Kristel, Sable was still able to predict and move the fight how she wanted, albeit disjointedly.

Kristel’s spars against Florence to put it simply, were horrifying. Florence was the only girl that Kristel fought that was her senior by a year. That single year felt almost like an insurmountable mountain for Kristel to climb. Florence stood out amongst the trio of girls as the most dangerous, not just because of the age advantage.

Sable while being taught by the best people that her father the Duke of Wrabuth could offer, was just that. She was taught and trained. Her fights were all practices. Lottie grew up less privileged much like Kristel herself and may have been in a few scraps as a kid prior to her professional training, none of which was worth very much experience. Lottie had a handful of tiny scrapes where dumb luck was the main factor for her first few years and controlled training in her most recent years.

But not Florence. Florence from a very young age fought and killed various monsters and beasts by herself. By the time she worked for the Coldwaters those training her in combat only needed to polish off some of her bad habits and she was as good if not better than anyone near her age or even a year or two her senior. The way she fought and acted, that cold hard expressionless stare as she crushed you underneath her boot brought chills to Kristel.

This Clarissa girl however was none of those mentioned above. She was roughly the same size as Kristel, the same age as her and picked up the blade about the same time as she did. She had natural talent sure, but she was not an experienced veteran compared to Kristel and she did not fight with an overreliance on her strength or speed. Clarissa despite using different weaponry fought in a similar style to Kristel. And Kristel knew how to beat Kristel, her many losses provided her with more than enough experience in that regard.

As they exchanged strikes, Kristel waited and bided her time. She allowed Clarissa to experience her strength as well as her speed. She baited her into thinking that Clarissa learned all that she needed to know about Kristel in order to press the attack.

Kristel was ready to lay her trap when a torrent of flame washed over her. She deftly leapt backwards to avoid getting burnt but lost her opportunity. She quickly scanned around to identify the source and found Frans Snowfield with one arm raised and wisps of flame disappearing from his palm.

“Frans, what do you think you're doing?” Bryson asked in a low growl.

“I said we let them fight as our respective warriors. A mage should support their warrior now should they not?” Frans said with a shrug and smug smile, “Unless you don’t think you can work cohesively with that girl.”

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Bryson simply glared at Frans, looking as if he would murder him on the spot as Clarissa used this momentary distraction to prepare to lunge forward. Only to find her foot falling into a sinkhole that suddenly appeared causing her to tumble onto the grass.

“No problem for me.” Bryson said with a shrug as he snapped his fingers. Clarissa who was just about to get up found the ground she was standing on was now a sheet of ice and she stumbled back onto the ground. Kristel leapt into the air and came flying down aiming to strike with her blade.

“Tch.” Frans said clicking his tongue as he waved his hand and a gust of wind helped Clarissa roll away faster from the strike.

As Kristel landed and smashed the ice she got up and looked over to Clarissa who quickly collected herself. Okay. This is different. But I believe in Lord Bryson. She thought as she charged forward.

“Clare! Move so your back is facing the sun!” Frans commanded.

“Don’t let it happen!” Bryson shouted as well as he tried to figure out what Frans was planning.

Kristel and Clarissa now fought in circles as they tried to cut each other off. The battle was now at a knife’s edge as they jockeyed for position. Frans was not going to let this battle be settled without his say in it.

Moving his fingers around he began to recite a spell internally. A massive magic circle formed over his head, it was several time his own size. More smaller circles appeared within the circle, more sigils, more runes, more circles. The power of the spell grew and grew, Frans readied to level Kristel.

Only he found the magic he was accumulating dwindling. Looking up at his magic circle in confusion he saw that many of the complex arcane writings he was creating began to disappear. Looking over to Bryson he saw him wave at him condescendingly.

“Are you seriously counterspelling me?” Frans screamed.

“Not my fault you make it so easy. Looks like you have to be more creative.” Bryson said with a grin, “Besides, Kristel’s job is to beat the girl. My job is to make you inconsequential. Well as inconsequential as you already are.”

Frans clenched his fist angrily, half tempted to cast a spell straight at Bryson. But something like that in front of other noble children would reflect poorly on him. If he wanted to win he would have to do so through Clarissa.

Clearly prepping one big spell wasn’t very viable if Bryson were to counterspell it. Frans then changed tactics. Dispersing the magic circle, he snapped his fingers twice. Clarissa’s axe was now lit on fire with a green flame. Her wooden shield now turned a deep shade of purple.

“Damn it.” Bryson cursed as he saw the weapons be enchanted. I can’t actually physically hit him now can I? Bryson thought in frustration. A simple counterspell wouldn’t work, Bryson recognized that the enchanted items were being fed a continuous flow of mana, the only way to mitigate it was to pour as much mana into his counterspell as Frans was and battles of attrition are stupid.

“What’s the matter Bryson? Never got to learn much from the conjuration side of magic now have you?” Frans taunted as he enchanted the rest of Clarissa’s armour.

Bryson could only stare helplessly as Kristel was now forced into the retreat. He hated the fact that Frans was right. Advanced enchantments, unlike the basic enchantments he had casted in the past like the mana absorption spell for Lila’s bracelet, were not his forte.

“Too bad.” Frans said trying to put the icing on the cake and with a few hand gestures and incants Clarissa started to move faster.

He knows how to enhance living beings? He knows the Quicken spell? Bryson thought trying his best to keep a calm expression. Being able to do spells like that at their age was impressive, as much as Bryson was loathed to admit. Still, it was complicated using magic on living things, so many more aspects a caster would need to account. Meaning beginner spells like Quicken have their drawbacks.

How do I make him break the spell. Wait. Bryson thought, remembering Frans order for Clarissa to get the sun to face her back. Obviously having the sun not shine directly into your eyes is a benefit. But Frans shouldn’t need to coach her in something like that. No, he had a plan, and Bryson figured it out.

Right now the sun was facing behind Clarissa, which while not great was acceptable as it was not facing the back of Frans. Perfect. Bryson thought.

“Kristel! Get enough distance to close your eyes!” Bryson shouted.

“Yes my Lord!” Kristel said capitalizing as Clarissa went overzealous on a swing, but instead of attacking she retreated backwards, eyes shut.

“What?” Frans exclaimed in confusion.

“Oh come now Snowfield. Don’t tell me you weren’t ready for the Flare!” Bryson said as he looked straight down and shut his eyes while spreading his arms and casted his spell.

“Gahh!” Frans and many others screamed out loud in pain as light engulfed everyone beaming directly from the sun.

It was as if someone had shone the brightest flashlight they could find directly into the retinas of everyone with their eyes open. Even Kristel and those facing away from the sun had colours swim across their vision from the brightness that hit them.

Frans, overwhelmed with the pain in his eyes immediately lost his concentration on his spells and the enchantment on Clarissa. More importantly than her weapons losing their extra boost in strength was the fact that she lost her Quicken spell. Thus came the consequences of doing so.

“Euugh.” Clarissa groaned out as her bones felt as though they were replaced with lead. Her movements were now sluggish and it felt as through she had been running all day, what’s more was that her vision still swam and she couldn’t see clearly.

Unfortunately for Kristel, so was hers. In fact the only one who could see clearly was the only person who properly prepared for this. Okay, needed to pull back a bit on that one. Bryson thought. I’ll keep that in mind next time.

“Forward Kristel, you have her, she can’t move now!” Bryson shouted.

Blinking a few times Kristel was able to clear her vision enough to see Clarissa and moved in for the kill. Clarissa made a feeble attempt to defend herself by raising her shield up, which did very little as Kristel’s boot smashed into it and caused her to topple over.

“Heurgh!” Clarissa cried out in pain as she rolled across the ground. Kristel simply trudged her way over to her and raised her longsword up.

“W-wait! I concede! You win!” Frans cried out, vision mostly back and looking scared.

“Huh?” Bryson audibly gasped looking at Frans in confusion as he ran over to Clarissa.

“You win Bryson. I concede. Kristel is the better fighter.” Frans said as he looked over Clarissa in concern.

“I…” Bryson said before going silent completely floored by the revelation. I was joking! Does he- no, but in front of others. Wouldn’t it hurt his reputation? Isn’t that one of the few things he values? He internally screamed.

As if on cue once he completed his thought, he began to hear murmurs and few laughs from the other kids. Frans while still preoccupied with making sure Clarissa was okay clenched his fist angrily hearing the noise.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Bryson thought in frustration, “Oh! Oh now you want to talk. Huh? You think you can laugh at me? You think it’s funny that my champion won?” Bryson barked out.

Immediately the crowd went silent as Bryson stared down every single one of them down. At the same time Frans was glaring at Bryson, “This isn’t over.”

“Whatever.” Bryson grumbled back, “Kristel we’re leaving.” He ordered as he marched away.

“Yes Lord Bryson!” She said hurriedly picking her stuff up and following behind him.

“Kristel.” Bryson said as he walked.

“Yes Lord Bryson?”

“You had one or two more weeks of training than her. You should’ve taken her more easily.” Bryson grunted.

“Yes Lord Bryson.” She replied with a hurried nod.

“But still. You won. I supposed you deserve praise for that.” Bryson said as he hurried his pace back to the car.

“Thank you, Lord Bryson!” Kristel said with the widest smile on her face.