- Michael -

“Stop!”

Julia stepped out from the crowd, interrupting the commentator. The crowd of students all went silent and looked in our direction.

Oh fuuck, look what you’ve done Julia! We have a crowd of rowdy teens staring at us now! I gathered my wits and stepped out behind Julia. Now that she’s spoken out, staying dormant isn’t an option unless I want to receive the iron fist to the gut later.

Julia addressed the entire crowd. “Unregistered duels are not permitted in these facilities, especially with this many people in close proximity to the danger zone.”

“And who are you to stop us?” A certain boy yelled. I looked over to see who it was and found a boy standing at the far left of the circle, with one of his arms hooked around a girl beside him.

“He’s one of those people I see. A generic asshole jockey.” I muttered bitterly. “Wait no, that came out wrong.”

“What was that!” He roared furiously.

Shit!

I quickly shut my mouth but it was too late, the damage had already been done. He pulled away from his personal armrest and stomped into the circle.

“Say that again! I dare you!” He threatened.

Hey, hey, it was just a slip of the tongue!

“Please calm down.” Julia advised. “If you get out of hand, we are authorized to use due force to restrain you.”

The boy’s face contorted in anger at Julia’s domineering gaze. “And who are you bitch!”

Julia elegantly swept her violet hair behind her back and crossed her arms. “I’m Julia Lockhart of the Student Council.”

Ten out of ten on that introduction. Yes, that was very cool. The crowd must’ve agreed with me because talking broke out among the students.

“Julia Lockhart? The one from Class A?”

“I heard she is the leading participant in the monthly skill checks.”

“She was chosen for the Student Council in the first week!”

The students were completely thrown off after learning Julia’s identity. Unlike me who opted to lay low, Julia shamelessly dominated the scoring charts, achieving the highest gradings and awards in both the experimental and technical departments. Though many hadn’t met her in person, there wasn’t a first year that hadn't heard her name.

The boy looked around at the chatting audience in confusion and looked back at Julia, gnashing his teeth. After learning her position, It seems he wasn’t confident in beating her but his pride won’t let him back down.

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He lunged at Julia without a word, pulling back his hand as he curled it into a fist. Shifted Essence permeated his skin and formed a magic circle across his wrist.

That’s a vector boosted attack!

“Juli-“

I looked over at Julia to warn her, but to my surprise she was completely focused, as a dense stream of Essence accumulated around her arm. Much like the boy, she was scripting a magic circle using her shifted Essence.

She’s not going to have enough time! She’s not a type one mage, counterattacking in such a scenario is absurd!

I made up my mind and was about to push Julia out of the way of the attack, when I stopped myself in my tracks.

The boy’s attack was going to make contact in less that two seconds but within just a second, three consecutive magic circles instantaneously formed on Julia’s arm and compounded. As they activated, Julia's eyes shot open and she jumped aside, avoiding his punch by a hair, and she latched a black object on the boy’s wrist.

“You little-“ He went to attack her again, but suddenly fell awkwardly to the ground. The thing on his wrist was a large black cuff that looked to be heavy enough to weigh him down entirely.

“Stupid little tricks!” The boy formed a magic circle on his arm and attempted to break the cuff.

“It’s no use.” Julia asserted. “That cuff is made from pure black iron. A mage of your caliber can’t break it.”

“Black Iron?!” He continued blasting its surface with vectors, failing to create even a scratch. He started desperately pulling at the cuff, having completely given up on using magic. “Get this thing off me!”

Damn, am I glad I’m on her side. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving side of her magic if it can leave a man like that.

Julia cast her focus away from the struggling boy and turned back to the crowd. “Like I was saying, unofficial duels such as these are not allowed. Normally, you would all receive severe punishments for this act, but if you all leave now I’ll omit a few details in my report.”

The students all looked at each other nervously, no one wanting to take the initiative after the spectacle that just happened. Various groups began whispering amongst themselves.

“Let’s just go.”

“Yeah, it’s not worth it.”

One by one, they left in small groups toward the entrance, and eventually none remained in the room besides us and…

“Hey, you gonna let me out!”

Oh boy…

“Not just yet. You need to be punished for your actions.” Julia declared.

“I didn’t even do anything yet!”

“Haa? Are you going to act like you weren’t about to punch me?”

The boy fidgeted nervously and turned as red as a tomato. “You-you don’t have any proof!”

How was this wimp posturing with a girl just a second ago?

Julia stared at him with what looked like a mix of disbelief and just straight up disappointment. She face-palmed and looked over in my direction, catching me off guard. “You deal with this guy. He seems like your type.”

“You sure like to run your mouth.” I responded. I strolled over to the guy on the ground and crouched down. “Wassup dude.”

At this point, he had calmed down considerably compared to before. Maybe the fact that a crowd was around us gassed him up more than normal. Such are the effects of mob mentality.

He shuffled closer to me and pointed at the cuff on his wrist. “Hey, can you take this off?”

I looked curiously at him while he stared back in awkward silence.

“Sure I can.” I replied. I curled my fingers around the black iron cuff. “On one condition.”

He looked at me with a quizzical expression. “What is it?”

I thought for a minute about what I could have him do for me. I’m a bit bored from doing accounting work all afternoon so maybe something interesting would be nice. I glanced at Julia out of the corner of my eye and smiled mischievously.

“Let’s play a little game.”