Lux could hardly stay still as he shifted his weight back and forth, eager to get their match started. On the other hand, Max stood as still as a statue. The contrast was apparent, the energetic versus the calm.

There was a growing crowd surrounding the pitch with a mixture of Elders, presumed Elders, and then everyone else. Ensuring a fair fight, Elder Aris was making sure everything was up to standard while Elder Edric waited patiently on the other side of the pitch.

“Did you manage to carve any bones?” Elder Aris asked. His manner was unpleasant. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. “You can still cancel your application.”

Max looked at the carved bones in the palm of his hand. “I’ve got three good ones. I left the incomplete ones with Cy.” Lux struggled to hold back his laughter, but it emerged as a twisted smile. “If you think it’ll be unfair then I can leave two more behind and fight with just one.” The smile dropped in a childish fury from the simple taunt.

Elder Aris did not seem impressed. “That’s it? Don’t take this lightly. If you need more time, then we can give it to you. But, it will be noted in your application.”

Max was confused. At what point did he make it look like he needed more time? “I’m good. We can start.”

“If you insist. Lux, you’re over there. Max, stay where you are. When I lower my arm, the match begins.” A vague way to start an assessment considering how detailed and precise everything had been so far.

The moment Elder Aris began to retreat to his refereeing position, Lux sneered. “Good luck.”

“You too.”

Max looked over his shoulder to see two genuinely concerned faces among a sea of curious eyes. Cy finally pulled his hood down, so he wouldn’t miss a second. Out of everyone around them, Darius and Cy had the least reason to be concerned. They saw what happened with the leviathan on BB’s ship.

When Lux had reached his spot, Elder Aris raised his arm in a dramatic fashion. The difference between the energetic and the calm was apparent again. Lux kept his eyes focused on Elder Aris’s arm, ready to go the moment he was allowed. Max kept his gaze on his target.

He couldn’t see when Elder Aris lowered his arm, but he didn’t need to. There were four options for Lux to take: move closer, use a long-range attack, do both, or do nothing. Seemed like he tried to go with the third option.

In a second, Max watched a wall of flames hurtling in his direction while Lux tried to run forwards to close the distance.

It was sloppy.

The width was smaller than the length of the pitch. The height wasn’t too impressive either, but the most disappointing part was the thinness. Even if Max did allow it to hit, at most it would just leave minor burns.

Before the flames could hit, Max dropped two of the three bones and kicked it deep into the coarse grass of the field. The magic bones were better than everyone gave credit to. The moment the bones made contact, the ground split into intricate little shapes covering the entire field and a weak light emanated from the soil.

To most, it was just strange to watch the artistic display before becoming concerned as they watched Lux’s attack vanish.

To Cy, it was an unwelcome surprise as he saw a similar pattern to the one drawn for him on the road back to Bessie’s farm. They were neutralising runes. He was sure of it. Panic was setting in as he reached for his magic pocket before rationalisation took over. Magic was still flowing outside of the pitch. After all, the filter around the village was still working.

“What the fuck?” Lux stopped in his tracks when his wall vanished.

Max merely shrugged before holding up his remaining magic bone in his left hand for Lux to see before clenching his hand.

The taunt was effective as Lux desperately tried to use spell after spell only to find none would realise. “What did you do?” Lux asked but wasn’t meant with an answer. He tried another spell. It was like watching a kid trying to copy superhero moves in front of the TV.

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Frustrated, Lux gave up and ran towards him. His movements were careless, unprofessional, and open to all sorts of attacks. Max didn’t have to look at Elder Aris to know he was ashamed of his pupil’s flustered movements. This was the prodigy of Tsujuma? What a shame.

Lux tried to put his fist through the unmoving Max only to find it went through with no resistance as the illusion shattered. Perplexed, Lux found himself alone on the pitch. Max took the opportunity to grab Lux’s extended arm as he slammed his hip and leg into Lux’s body causing him to flip over.

It was just in time as Max saw Lux’s bewildered eyes settle on him while he faced up towards the sky. The two magic bones had just run out of juice. Max casually dropped the last magic bone on Lux, making him unable to move any of his limbs.

Taking an interest in how this world responded to things running out of innate magic, Max returned to his original starting spot and began digging up the ground. The others must have thought he looked mad. The only time he looked up was to see Elders Aris, Charaka, and Edric enter the pitch. Was it a sign that the match was over? It had to be. Lux wasn’t going to be able to move for a few hours.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Cy hissed beside him, causing Max to jump. He had been too focused on the others.

Max dug up the shards of the bones before holding them out for Cy to see. “Checking what happens when I use something too powerful for the vessel.”

“Well, I could have told you they exploded!”

“But you didn’t,” Max frowned. “Why’d you let me paint runes on Navy if you thought he could explode if it were too powerful?”

“Okay, okay, explode is a bad description. Crumble is more accurate.”

“Doesn’t change the question. Why did you watch as Navy took the risk?”

“Well, he seemed comfortable with being a martyr. I gave him plenty of chances to ask for help or to quit!”

“He might’ve had an easier time with the idea of crumbling compared to drowning? He was cool with the plan until I changed the runes. It was obvious he was terrified of drowning.”

“Alright! I get it. I fucked up, my bad.” Cy gave some hand signals to Elder Edric, who had been carefully watching their childish argument. Max wasn’t too sure what it had meant, but soon he found himself being dragged off the pitch by Cy. “What kind of runes were that?” he whispered.

“Why? Did I manage to change a fixed fate again?” Max was pleased to see Darius also looking slightly baffled by what he had just witnessed.

“No.” Disappointing. “And nobody knows what they just saw. They’re probably going to ask for a rematch, so let me know what you did. Maybe Dad can talk them out of it.”

Darius won’t be able to. Now, Max was subtly beginning to pull the strings behind the scenes.

Cy didn’t get to see the runes before Max used them so there was no harm in telling him. There was no risk of him learning the symbols. “I only used three bones.”

“Good for you. But what do they do?”

“The first one distorted the filter you have in place.”

Cy suddenly stopped walking. “What?”

“You said it yourself. There’s this lovely filter in place to create an autumnal effect. I just made it a bit stronger around the area of the pitch for everyone aside from me.” Max pointed at the markings on the ground. “The magic bone spread and repeated the pattern on the area I wanted to influence. Lux and everyone else watching shouldn’t have been able see or hear anything aside from Lux and what was preprogrammed in the filter once the magic bone was activated.”

“Lux’s spells were actually successful?”

“Yep. It was a good chance to see what he could do. He’s very reliant on fire magic, isn’t he? But it was far too thin and restrained. I didn’t need to do anything about that fire wall in the end since he cancelled it in a panic when he couldn’t see it anymore.” It was the one part of the match he had approved of.

“So, it wasn’t a magic neutralisation spell?”

“Nah, that would have ruined this beautiful view.”

“And he couldn’t see you?”

“I was surprised. He didn’t even sense me. It made it super easy to flip him. Maybe I should thank Bessie for working me into the ground with the berry girls. I think I gained a bit of muscle from when I first woke up.”

Cy caught on to what he really saw. “The other magic bone was a mimic of yourself?”

“That’s right.”

“But the mimic moved? It responded to Lux’s question. Runes alone can do that?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t have time to carve all that out. The mimic had a condition that if I clenched my left hand, it would start or stop copying my movements.” Max noticed Darius making gestures to them. “We should get going. Seems like Darius wants to talk to us.”

“Wait! What about the last magic bone?”

Max glanced over to see Elder Aris examine the remaining bone carefully as a puzzled Elder Charaka attempted to get Lux back on his feet. Seeing the doctor who failed him only an hour ago struggle in vain was satisfying. Watching his work, it was obvious Elder Charaka was going to be able to help Lux avoid any serious side effects. If he had been around, then even the mayor would have had a chance for a full comeback.

Elder Aris began dropping the bone on his own hand to recreate the effect. The pupil really did take after his teacher. Good thing Max applied a safety measure to that rune causing it to only work once in a day. Otherwise, it would be even harder to get Elder Aris to like him when he’s paralysed on the floor.

The only one who wasn’t beside themselves with what happened was Edric. Quietly smirking to himself, he had finally caught on to who Max was.