"Okay Gust, are you ready?" Spire asked, facing the newly fixed field.

A small boy standing between the red poles nodded, making Spire ask his opponent, "Freeze?"

Another nod, this time from the Lean boy between blue poles, caused him to start his countdown, "Start on one. Three!"

Both boys became tense, although only Freeze broke a sweat initially.

"Two, one," he exclaimed, chopping the air as he initiated the duel.

Spontaneous chanting came from both of them, each closing their eyes in focus. Wind soon whistled from red side built up in volume. In mere minutes both the of his own poles started rocking, causing minor alarm from the audience. All eyes seemed to be on his actions, almost no one noticed the thick fog now surrounding Freeze.

"Isn't Gust going too far? He could easily topple everything on the other side at this point." a viewer pointed out, slightly concerned. Other voices built up around it, some creating hype for the finishing move, others wondering if he could actually control this.

When the red poles were almost knocked down by his own wind, Gust finally opened his eyes, quickly becoming shocked at what he saw. Freeze had placed an icy column in front of one of his poles, pointing it so the wind would get redirected, and now fabricated numerous icy spears out of the fog surrounding him. Gust aimed his attack at the other pole and almost threw his opponent off his feet as he knocked it over.

As the ice spears around him numbered ten, Freeze released them at one of the red Poles. Most missed, either not going far enough, or just slightly off target. But the two that did hit caused the pole to fall down away from him, evening the game. His protection still standing, Freeze looked confident as he built up his spears once again.

Gust reacted by starting his chant again, this time it sounded different, though. This time, the wind built up from around Gust again, creating a similar ball of wind as the first time.

Freeze didn't lose focus because he considered his own position safe. Five ice spears were on the field by the time the Gust's wind started rocking his own pole, so Gust released his attack. It hit the ice tower at the point, causing the attack to miss. The ice column did its job perfectly, but Freeze soon realized another problem.

The air, redirected from his column, hit him directly, causing him to fly backward, soon letting gravity throw him to the floor. With his chant and focus suddenly broke, his spears fell to the ground and the fog that covered his side completely dispersed.

"STOP!" Spire yelled, causing everyone nearby to freeze.

Medical staff rushed to Freeze's position, as everyone else tried to make out the situation. Theories and questions about the winner spreading through the crowd, until the noise reached Spire's ears.

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

"The winner is Gust. Freeze's play, although smart, backfired and effectively attacked himself by doing it. Well, that's what the rulebook says about it, so I'm forced to agree," he said, slightly unsure of himself.

As outcries erupted from the stunned audience picked up momentum, Spire interrupted to change the topic swiftly, "Anyway! Let's have the field sorted out for the next match, Root versus Silence."

-

The staff cleaned the pitch, Silence now standing on the red side as her opponent stood on the blue.

"Silence, since you're new, have any queries to ask, or will you go all in?" Spire asked.

Silence nodded, shouting back, "Does muting your opponent count as an attack, or is it just a hex?"

In response, Spire started sporadically flipping pages in his book. After settling on one page, he soon answered, "It's a hex, so it's allowed. Anymore, or is that it?"

Nodding her head, Spire asked another question, "Okay. Are both of you ready?"

Both Silence and Root both nodded, so Spire started his countdown, "On one. Three."

Both competitors looked relaxed, clearly both confident.

"Two. One." Spire said, initiating this battle with a similar gesture.

Root quickly started chanting. The lack of Silence's chant confused the crowd, and with Root's chant quickly becoming a mime, the crowd's confusion grew. Root starting to panic as her voice suddenly stopped. A couple soon sighed, showing contempt as they finally put together why her nickname was 'Silence'.

Silence herself was currently ignoring everyone, focusing on one of the blue poles. With nothing happening to her own poles, due to Root's inability to use magic, she took her time on whatever she was doing.

A while later, Silence started to clap. But even as the clapping became more and more intense, no sound came from it, and pole didn't budge.

She closed her eyes, and suddenly the top of the pole started to move back. But even when her clapping looked genuinely painful, the pole never rocked enough to topple.

Sighing, Silence closed her eyes again. Completely at a loss, everyone, even Root, all became entranced on her actions. A splattering of conversations now questioned whether she could win, or if it would be a forced draw.

As the conversation intensified, Silence's eyes opened again. She put her hands around her mouth and mimed a scream.

The reaction in the pole was instantaneous, as it started to roll across three fields at a ridiculous speed.

Silence closed her eyes again and repeated it on the other pole, throwing this one even further away.

"And the winner is Silence, by quite the one-sided victory!" Spire announced, seeming genuinely astonished at Silence's power.

Root crumbled to the floor in disbelief, her face fully blushed. Silence casually walked to the bench, giving Root's voice back as she accepted her obvious victory.

The audience was very split, some questioning the legality of Silence's actions as others sighed, asking the disbelievers about why she asked about muting if she wasn't going to use it.

Spire referenced his book again, and with a sigh, announced the official call, "Sorry, but according to the official rules, Silence's method is completely legal. Muting is considered as a hex, which can be used indefinitely during the duel, and using sound waves to knock over the pillars is completely legal too. So the victor is definitely Silence."

With a long time spent brooding, Root eventually accepted her defeat. Raising her head as she went to the bench. The audience was really displeased with this result. No harsh words faced Silence, but the overwhelming pity for Root made itself known.

The burden eventually crumbled Spire. So he started to speak in his own defense, "Since we've had two pretty unfavorable matches, how about we show off Gust's and Root's potential with a match between the two. We all have to admit Silence's dominance, but this is only an exhibition and this seems fairer to these two contestants who couldn't show their true skill off."

The crowd seemed pleased at this news, so quietened down. The cleaners fixed the field, and the next match quickly began.