“Begin!” As soon as the word leaves Vitor’s mouth the fighters swing into motion.

Valka, true to herself, rushes straight at August who just raises his sword and waits for his opponent. We haven’t exactly discussed who chose what for their second Class or how our main one and Skills have advanced. It’s only proper, after all, no opponent will ever share the tricks up their sleeves as well as their weaknesses before a clash.

Only second-rate villains do that.

Just as Valka throws a feint punch that even I as a Mage can easily recognize August finally moves. He ducks below the fist with speed far outclassing anything I’ve seen from him before and thrusts his sword to pierce through his opponent’s heart.

Valka raises her knee and brings down her elbow, catching the blade and trying to grapple the irritatingly agile fighter. She catches on frighteningly fast to what August is all about. The boy wisely abandons his sword without hesitation and draws a knife to slice up the arm reaching for him.

How naive.

The edge of the knife doesn’t even draw blood. To say August looks baffled would be an understatement but he adapts surprisingly fast, just like everything else he does. He switches targets for the shoulder, then thigh and stomach, piercing only cloth and leather. Valka growls and swings, only hitting thin air but still following the little prick relentlessly.

“Winning by making me naked doesn’t count!” She hisses and kicks in a wide arc with such power that its impact is visible on the dueling ring’s barrier.

August vaults over the leg with the agility of a cat before using it as a springboard and reclaiming his sword. To his credit, the twerp remains composed despite all his failed attempts and unfortunate twists until now. Although that last comment did make him flustered a little.

Now that they’ve both gotten a slight gist of what they’re up against a moment of lull sets in. August’s face is clearly troubled while Val on the other hand… she’s literally made to fight this type of opponent. And she's loving it.

To no one’s surprise, it’s her who shatters the momentary ceasefire, as she punches the stone floor of our little arena as hard as she can. The first strike, making even the ground tremble, cracks the slabs and the second one breaks the plain gray stone into bits large and small. Her knuckles are bleeding but she just acquired ranged weapons.

Rocks. Befitting a brute of her caliber.

She grabs a handful of them and hurls them at August like a scattershot. There’s nowhere to dodge, nowhere to hide except… down. My old rival merges with his own shadow, leaving only a small puddle of darkness much like the panther I fought about a year ago. The only difference is he pops back out right away, with frightening momentum, clearly on the offensive.

A cutesy Skill but I’ve seen it already, an improved version at that. Still, it might be just the tool to cause a lot of headaches against certain opponents and make the slippery swordsman even harder to hit.

This time he’s the one to sprint at Valka with the sword in his hand turning awfully bright. Light magic coats the blade and turns the simple weapon into a pseudo sword of light. Val is too slow to dodge and can only raise her arm to block the incoming attack. The concentrated light finally cuts through her skin but fails to achieve more as her healing is able to keep up with the negligible damage.

Now, a normal person would recoil and retreat… Val however is not normal.

With the blade still lodged in her arm she reaches after August and grabs his hand in a crushing grip, pulling him close before sending him right back with a gentle headbutt. The arch prick hits the ground with a grunt and just as his eyes are about to clear up Val slams her fist right past his face to deliver the message.

“It’s over, winner Valka.” Victor comments as it is officially done even though the outcome is clear.

It wasn’t close, not even remotely. In the same way August is a bad matchup for me, Valka is the kind of enemy the jerk would never want to meet face-to-face on a battlefield. I still won about half our duels but that’s mostly because I’m not a conventional Mage. And I’m just that good.

“Who’s next?” Valka stands tall on the platform while August walks down, still rubbing his forehead.

Frankly, she held back quite a bit. I haven’t seen any Power Bursts or Skills used from her second Class. Maybe she’s hiding it in case the next fights prove to be tougher. Although that’s doubtful.

“I’ll pass.” Victor throws in the towel even before entering the ring.

“Don’t like your odds?” I ask mockingly.

“That’s one way to put it.” He shrugs. “I like choosing my battles, and walking into a losing one is just not my style.”

“I don’t have any strong enough friends with me right now but after classes, I’d love to.” Kayla on the other hand seems quite enthusiastic. “I have just the friends in mind…” And there it is that rare malicious glint in her eyes. Three hours is more than enough to gather beasts Val might be helpless against.

The brute, somewhat disappointed, leaves the dueling ring behind raising her head only slightly to glance at me. “Another round?” She asks, wiggling her eyebrows.

Weird way to ask… I do consider my chances of winning the duel for a moment, the benefits it would mean for the Skills, and the little demonstration of how awesome I am for the others.

“Maybe later.” I shake my head.

“Don’t like your odds?” It’s Victor’s turn to ask with a shit-eating grin.

He’s right, I don’t. I could win maybe three out of seven times and the fight would be beneficial no doubt but… I would probably lose and that just doesn’t sit well with me. Valka’s second Class is a little more straightforward and advanced than mine. Just a little more patience…

“I was gracious enough and let her win the last time, even if just barely. With that said we’re fairly even and if not for my second Class I wouldn’t even hesitate.” I’m reluctant and selfish but I’m able still admit it. “If anything the gap only widened since then.”

Unlike the mocking remarks I expect to hear, only a round of surprised looks are thrown my way. Even Kayla remains silent nodding to herself instead of her usual gushing.

“What?” I look around.

Vitor puts a hand on my shoulder and nods. “You did grow up in your own way.”

My eyes turn dangerous and a cold smile creeps onto my face. “Val, I think you should get changed before the lesson. I’ll take care of things here.”

***

Needless to say, I butchered my opponent.

Victor stood up to me first and tried his usual cat-and-mouse game where he used to win as both the hunter and the prey. We chose the wider courtyard as a whole for the duel since we needed cover and range to fight properly and so the shootout began. I played around a bit before getting irritated by how well he could duck from cover to cover and guess the trajectory of my shots.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

That stupid Blessing of his is still far too overpowered.

And so I grabbed some water and earth and simply walked towards him using the two elements as shield and whip, turning all his attacks obsolete. The sneaky bastard probably expected this, BUT I expected him to expect me to choose the frontal approach.

Lightning Mines, as he calls them, littered the place when I activated Mana Vision and a rain of ice arrows descended as I came close enough. Those bombs somewhat resembled the inscribed rocks the dwarf made, only these were uniform and held together by a Skill. Raising a shield of earth and water I hunkered down to make sure I didn’t lose to a joke of an attack like that when the realization hit me.

That was Victor. Not some stupid beast, not the simple Valka, and not some younger brand new cadet but the most devious kid I’ve known who would never waste mana or time on pointless attacks like a bunch of ice arrows.

I retreated right away and was just in time to catch him flanking me from the side with another row of lighting-infused icy arrows pulled back on his bow and a fiendish grin that quickly disappeared when we came face to face.

The water whip, still in my hand, descended right across his shoulder, breaking the bow and slapping him straight to the ground showing no mercy. He surrendered right away with a nasty bruise as a reminder that I wasn’t so easy to trick anymore.

To my joy, August still decided to take the stage even after I handed Victor his ass. I’m down by a third on mana but it would look like a joke if I started complaining when he’s clearly weaker.

The battlefield stays the same since we destroyed enough of the courtyard already for it to matter little. If my memory doesn’t deceive me I’m in the lead on our little years-long competition and I’m certain August also keeps track of it. I hope the proud bastard will try his best to last at least a little longer than Victor.

“Begin!” And we swing into action.

Thankfully I am already familiar with his new trick, even though it isn’t really new, and have a bunch of my own still up in my sleeves. I abandon the idea of large, devastating spells right away and instead conjure a simple bottom-shelf arcane armor onto myself. Something rudimentary without any supporting Skills. I also send small, mostly irritating attacks at the approaching August.

The armor won't do much against that light sword but will stop his weaker ranged attacks that got me a year ago. With Maintained Magic, the armor stabilizes so I can focus on winning this round.

The simple earth bolts and icicles I launch all miss because, as much as I hate to acknowledge it, August is just as good at dodging as he is fast. He approaches fast so I recreate the water tentacle I used against the crabs, a wonder of water and electricity, and start slapping. I turn into a deadly maelstrom as August looks for an angle of approach but I keep him on his toes.

“How boring.” He spits and then the sword in his grip glows again with the power of light magic once again. He slices straight through the water, somehow severing my connection with my mana and closing the distance to my throat rapidly.

His advance goes largely uninterrupted as my magical limbs got severed one after another but that’s simply because I allow it. Unlike Val, I’m actually curious about August’s abilities as it is the true purpose of these friendly duels so prolonging the fight is in my interest.

But I don’t plan on losing either.

Once my opponent is too close for comfort I simply tap my feet and the ground erupts with earthen spikes. Everywhere, all around me, and large enough to skewer even an adult. August cuts a few and dodges a handful but I keep the numbers overwhelming, pushing him just a little more.

Then out of nowhere, his feet get covered by the same radiance as his weapon and he disappears from my line of sight. Mana Perception activates, providing me with only a pair of thin lines of light zipping past me. But that and the shiver running down my spine are enough for me to discharge a large amount of mana in the form of electricity, blasting my surroundings not one second too early.

Likely hit by my defensive blast, August flies past me with such speed I barely notice, bouncing once then twice off the ground before grinding to a halt. Only now do I clearly see the incandescent halos around his boots, pulsing with power, eager for speed.

“Cute trick, care to show me more?” I send a few more bolts of lightning after him. I say that but he scared me for a moment, his speed is ridiculous.

As if welcoming my challenge a similar shield of light materializes on August’s left arm, eating my bolts but not looking too solid. “You’re not the only one who worked hard!” He raises his weapons and that pesky beam of light lands on my shoulder.

The armor holds as the power is negligible and I’m forced to protect my head with my arms but Mana Perception never loses sight of my target. I know I’m pushing it a little, still holding back despite things getting heated but August is no Valka, he won’t get back up if I truly strike him.

Not to mention I’m curious to see more.

He’s once more moving faster than my eyes can track so I also reveal some of my cards. Predicting his pathing with Premonition I create air bursts out of nowhere, relying on Ethereal Stage to catch him off guard. He comes to a rough halt, because as it turns out the shiny boots only provide him with speed and not so much maneuverability.

“I can do this all day.” I taunt, even though my mana is down to about half. I’d love to whip out the plasma and assert dominance but I sincerely doubt August would survive that because he sure as hell wouldn’t surrender.

“Get off your high horse.” He scoffs and rolls his shoulders. “We both know tha-” Then with a sudden burst of light, he closes the distance almost instantly.

A clever surprise attack but scouring the streets has taught me to know better. Flames surround him the moment his sword is about to behind its journey toward my throat, forcing him to retreat to his shadow again. And basically traps himself when teeth of stone close around the tiny puddle.

To my joy at the last second, a whip of pure darkness escapes, striking at my side but unable to pierce my armor. As I step back the shadow thickens and August emerges from the tip of the whip, weapon poised to strike.

From this distance and without even a second to do my shenanigans, I’m firmly on the back foot. But not exactly in danger.

Rhythmic Strides coupled with Premonition allow me to dance out of danger’s way, every step forcing August to either push through danger or retreat as the elements spring to action under my feet. Distance also plays into my hand and one misstep here is all it takes to decide the winner.

The blade scrapes my armor and sails past my face, as August pushes harder so I do a little scorched earth retreat. In the most literal sense. He maneuvers around the flames I leave behind with a flash of light once more only to come face to face with my finger and electricity crackling at its tip.

Retreating to the shadows is once again his only choice to remain unscathed. And I decide we’ve had enough fun for now.

I simply send a hastily condensed ball of fire I prepared in advance right into the puddle of darkness letting it explode on impact and expressing August only to get caught by my water. His legs freeze and I reach out my arm just in front of me right in time for August to reappear and get flicked in the forehead.

“It’s over... Eli won as expected.” Victor chuckles, massaging his forehead with a cheering Kayla at his side. “That was… incredible.”

“You two were so COOL!” Kayla bounces. “The whoosh and the bam, and the swing and the speed and the flashy… everything.”

I let my armor finally dissipate and nod toward August. “You hid your Skills against Val. Knew you stood no chance against her?”

“l went easy on her. I wanted to see what you brought back.” He mutters with a weirdly satisfied frown.

“But did your best trying to win against me, huh?” I scoff. “So dark for you and Victor went for water for your second Class. What about you Kayla?”

Vines grow from under her feet and emerge from her sleeves, wrapping around Victor tightly and slightly lifting him from the ground. “So I can always grow something to eat and carry nature around with me.” Kayla smiles proudly.

Just wonderful… Why do I feel like she’ll be the most troublesome?

***

We ‘play’ around for hours, showing off Skills, telling even more stories, and guessing who else might be on the new squad about to be sent to the Academy. Other than Val and me obviously.

I also interrogate them about the ins and outs of life in Sereban as well as their experience in the Academy. Well…It’s mixed. Everything is luxurious, marvelous, and quite vexatious. Competence does play a huge part however wealth and social standing have the final say be it social interactions or treatment. They do feel out of place there and I can totally understand.

“I hope you had your fun children.” Martha steps below the archway to the courtyard with Valka right behind her. “Elyssia, come with me! And stop destroying the courtyard or else I’ll make you restore everything down to the tiniest patch of grass, all of you!”

Since I’m curious about what she was to say I walk over passing an exhausted-looking Val on the way. “Did you win?” The lecture clearly did a number on her.

“Of course I did.” I answer. It was my duty to uphold our prestige in her absence.

“Then, it’s your time to suffer. Studying is the worst…” She shakes her head as escapes the old witch of Karon Fort.