Astrid stood on the periphery of the circle that made up the dueling ground. Across from her stood Ruben, glaring hatefully at her. Coming up with a last-minute plan was difficult, and she was getting nervous. This boy had threatened her multiple times, and if she hadn’t seen how poorly he had performed in class, she wasn’t sure she would have participated in the duel to begin with.

She didn’t have the mana to pull off what she had seen in any of the other duels, so she would have to use the bit she had sparingly. Ruben could have anything between ten, as everyone was born with that amount, and a hundred, as that was the maximum amount until a magic skill was leveled up. She had no way of telling how much exactly, as he had never mentioned it. However, she had to assume he had vastly more than her. That meant dodging instead of blocking with the shield, which shouldn’t be a problem. Speed and stamina were her strong sides.

The large staff felt awkward as she performed the customary bow before the duel could begin. She was mentally prepared to be attacked while in this vulnerable position, but Ruben followed protocol and made a quick bow of his own. At least he had a bit of sense.

“On the count of three, you may begin,” the teacher called out, and Astrid lifted her staff into the starting position she had seen the other students make.

“One,”

Astrid took a deep breath, tuning out everything except her opponent and the countdown.

“Two,”

Astrid saw the bully begin to move the staff, even though it wasn’t allowed yet.

Cheater, she thought. For a moment, she had thought that he was going to follow the rules, but now it was clear that something as simple as that was way above his head. Maybe she could ask Sham to take him as a follower and set her free. He was a lot more qualified for the job. Then again, it would be a terrible idea to give a person who hated her the backing of an evil deity.

“three,”

Astrid stepped to the side as soon as the duel had officially started. At the same time, Ruben shouted, “Basic blast.” She was already well out of the trajectory of the attack but kept moving, following the periphery of the dueling ground, closing in on her opponent. He seemed unsettled by this and began to move on his own.

Astrid still wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but as long as Ruben was moving, he would have a harder time casting spells. That was a weakness she wanted to overcome herself, but now wasn’t the time to practice that.

After a minute or so, she stopped chasing Ruben around. She could have easily caught up with him, but what would that achieve? Magic was for ranged attacks, and hitting him would be against the rules. Instead, she moved to the center of the dueling ground, as the shorter distance between them was to her advantage. They would both have less time to react to each other’s attacks, but she was faster at dodging. At least she hoped she was.

The bully stopped and stared at her.

“What are you doing?” he sneered. “This is not how you duel.”

“There’s nothing in the rules preventing me from standing anywhere I like as long as I don’t leave the dueling ground.”

Ruben responded with a basic blast, which Astrid easily sidestepped. Again, she wondered how much mana he had. Maybe she could get him to spend all of it, so he would be helpless to defend against any of her attacks.

He sent another basic blast her way, and she stepped back into the middle.

“Is that the best you can do?” Astrid taunted. She hated how good it felt to get back at this guy, but seeing his face turn red with anger made it worth it.

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“I’m better than you,” he retorted.

“We’ll see.”

She stepped to the side again to dodge the mud blast that Ruben cast, proving that he could do more than the basic blast even if he hadn’t been practicing them this class.

She decided that the time had come to try casting some attacks of her own.

“Basic blast,” the energy ball, rushed through the air, colliding with Ruben’s hastily cast shield spell. She had expected it to collapse, as it had every time the teacher had tested it earlier, but it held. Either he had been improving in class or he had been holding back for some reason. The first option was most likely. Either way, she would need to throw him off balance if she wanted to land a hit.

Ruben dropped the shield, and Astrid began the movements needed to cast a basic blast. She watched as her opponent did the same. It instantly became clear that she wouldn’t be able to launch her spell in time. She might be faster than Ruben in general, but he had much more experience casting spells, which let him execute the movement in half the time it took for her to do it.

She gave up on casting her own spell and dodged the blast Ruben fired. She had thought that the mana she had put into her attempted attack would be lost, but she could feel that it was still in the staff waiting to be used. It would cut a large amount out of her casting time for her next spell. It was a relief, as wasting mana was something she couldn’t afford until she had a lot more of it.

Determined that she needed to create a better opening, she began moving towards Ruben again. Last time, it had unsettled him, and this time was no different. She had only taken two steps toward him when he began running, trying to maintain the distance between them. Astrid once again thought about how easy it would be to smack him in the face with her staff, but restrained herself.

Instead, she moved towards Ruben to cut him off, and while he tried to stop and change direction, she cast her spell with her already charged staff. This gave him no time to dodge or raise a shield.

The spell collided with the bully’s back, and he fell to the ground.

“Astrid wins this duel,” Birk announced.

Astrid bowed to her opponent, who was still sprawled on the ground. She was pretty sure he was faking to be more injured than he actually was since she had only used three mana for the attack.

The teacher went over to Ruben, and he slowly got to his feet.

“She almost killed me,” he said, pointing at Astrid. “She needs to be expelled.”

“I did not,” Astrid said angrily, but Birk held up a hand to stop her before she could say anymore.

“Show me your health stats,” Birk said to Ruben. He did so, but Astrid got a feeling it was somewhat reluctant.

“You’re fine,” Birk said. “You still have over half your health points left. It will heal up in an hour or so. Now let’s go over the duel. Let's start with you, Ruben. Nice work keeping up the shield after an attack, but don’t let the opponent chase you around like that and try to create better openings before casting spells.”

Ruben grumbled something Astrid couldn’t hear, but she was sure it wasn’t nice things he said.

Then Birk turned his attention towards her, and she began to feel nervous again. What would he say? Had she accidentally broken the rules somehow or been a terrible dueler? She had no idea how well she had performed, as she had never dueled before.

“Good work, Sigrid, using your speed to your advantage. However, your dodging pattern was repetitive, and it won’t take skilled opponents long to predict it and counter by aiming for where you are going.”

Astrid nodded, relieved that she had done alright, though it still felt weird when people called her by her sister’s name.

Birk called for the class to line up again before dismissing them for the day.

Astrid returned to the staff in the shed and was about to leave with the others when Birk called her back. She walked over to the teacher, not sure why he wanted to talk to her.

He pulled a book from his bag and handed it to her.

“You can read this in your own time if you want a better grasp of the theory behind combat magic.”

“Thank you,” Astrid said, taking the book from the teacher. The title on the cover read, Combat Magic for Beginners.

She put it in her own bag beside the other schoolbook she had gotten earlier.

According to her schedule, classes were done for the day, but just to be sure she wasn’t missing anything, she asked the teacher.

“The lessons are done for the day, but some students stay behind to study a bit more or watch the advanced classes practice.

"Okay,” Astrid said, and went back into the school building. She wasn’t planning on staying as she still had to earn money, although getting to spend more time with the other students would be nice as long as Ruben wasn’t there. She had had enough of his snide comments for one day. She also had a lot of catching up to do if she wanted to be as good as the other students, so she would have to study when she got back to her room at the inn. However, first she wanted to see if there were any new quests at the job hall.