The group stared down at the Dean with no small amount of surprise as he began to introduce the fighters with a flair that matched any of the dedicated casters. Maybe dramatic substance was an important quality for reaching higher tiers?
Alex shook off the thought, knowing that the joke would go unappreciated with how focused his friends were. In a decade at the Academy, they’d only seen one of the Dean’s clones twice each year. At the beginning of the year and the end. Now, he was commentating on a relatively common duel. What was he here for?
“Welcome! Welcome everyone, whether you’re watching here in person or at one of the several projections set up across the city. Those watching from afar can thank Councilman Stemke. He has graciously agreed to assist me in broadcasting this announcement, as well as what comes next.” Some applause followed this, with Alex joining halfheartedly.
“For those of you who don’t know me by appearance,” There was a chuckle in the student section at the idea of someone not knowing the Dean, “I am Dean Carvalho, the acting head of New Chicago Academy and an Imprinted illusionist who clones himself to get work done.” His body split into three at this, and Alex furrowed his brow in surprise. The clones looked real, but his mundane senses could hardly be relied upon. He wished the sounds of the lower levels weren’t blocked off so he could hear the tiered reactions.
They would know the results quicker due to watching at a higher speed, so there were magical barriers in place to prevent any spoilers. Now, he couldn’t hear the commotion from down below to get a hint at whether or not the Dean had somehow removed one of the limitations of his cloning Ability.
The Dean to the left spoke up next, “While I am sure that you are all quite excited for the duel to come, and I am happy to confirm that we do have quite a treat for you today, I have a few words to share with the people of New Chicago before we move on to the festivities.”
The rightmost clone took over, “Chester and Dale Lemmings have joined the rest of us Imprinted in making significant progress these past few months. Chester has successfully formed a new Aperture, reaching level ninety! He also has a new Ability that will prove quite useful in this upcoming duel, although I wouldn’t dare to spoil its effects for his opponent. Across from him, Dale Lemmings is close to forming an Aperture and might be well on his way to level ninety-four if we had waited just a few more days before this contest. I’m happy to say that he has managed to significantly improve one of his own aces, and I’m sure you’ll be delighted when you see it.”
The Dean in the middle spoke now, whether he was a clone or the original was opaque to Alex, “I’m sure that the series of breakthroughs over the past months has been both exciting and confusing for all of you. For years we have remained stagnant, struggling for the slightest bit of increased power. Now, our progress has begun again.”
The entire Arena was silent, at least on the top two floors, as everyone waited on the edge of their seats for the Dean’s reveal. Students stared at their friends, most not daring to interrupt. Others were magically silenced by caretakers who didn’t want to miss a word. Alex was almost certain he knew what was coming, and there was no way Anthony was the only one to figure it out, but he was starting to understand why the Dean had come here personally.
The leftmost Dean grinned at the crowd, obviously drawing out the tension in the crowd for effect, “Today, we can officially confirm that there is a horde building in the North. The Defense Forces have begun to fortify the wall, and I expect that this horde will be significantly less harsh than the ones before…”
The crowd’s hush turned into a slight murmur. It had been seven years since the last horde, but only the youngest students didn’t remember the food and mana shortage it had brought.
The Dean gave the crowd a few seconds to adjust to the news but didn’t let them fall into conversation. Plenty had already known about the horde anyway, so the reaction wasn’t particularly outsized even among the students. Soon, he continued, “Because David Alvarez has returned to the city! Even now, he holds the line in the old city, prepared to defend us from the horde’s most dangerous threats.”
The murmured whispers turned into shouts of excitement and discussion. David was more myth than man among the students, none of them had been alive the last time he was in the city. “I am sure that many of you have questions, or wonder why David isn’t here to tell you about his return in person. His absence is for good reason. As we speak, he is working diligently at a new Mythic feat. When the achievement upgrades, as we are confident that it will, Earth will reenter the ranks of the competitor planets!”
Now, everyone lost their minds. Half the students were shouting questions, wondering what a competitor planet was, while the other half either tried to explain or shouted their approval. The furor refused to die down for minutes, as excitement overruled confusion for many of the clueless kids.
What exactly being a competitor planet meant wasn’t completely clear to Alex. He knew that Earth had become the first competitor in their cluster on the first day of the Arrival, thanks to David’s Unique Achievement. And he knew that they weren’t competitors anymore.
The status brought both rewards and peril for the first two centuries. Thanks to humans on Earth achieving two Mythic Achievements in the first 100 years, they’d been competitors for the second century as well. Alex knew that there had been more trials with greater variance, but what that meant beyond higher difficulty and grander rewards was beyond him.
Earth had lost competitor status at the end of the Arrival’s second century. Their failure to gain a Mythic achievement during the second century meant they were no longer competitors for the third. Regaining competitor status would require a Unique - Planetary achievement, and was one of Alex’s dreams. The news that David Alvarez might do it himself, again, was incredible. Those achievements only grew more difficult as you tiered up.
The Dean let the crowd talk for a minute, but then he pushed on, “Now, I apologize for stealing our duelists’ thunder. Many of you may struggle to focus on their battle, due to how much more interesting my announcement was. Still, I hope you’ll be a good crowd.”
Dale sneered a bit at this, the juggernaut remained unmoved. Well, as far as Alex could see, “I joke, of course.” The Dean continued, “With my announcements done, it is time for what you have all been waiting for. Begin!”
The Dean’s clones vanished, and Dale soared further into the air as soon as the call went out. The time dilation took effect as soon as the Dean vanished, so instead of looking like he teleported 300 feet into the air Dale shot off like a rocket. Even with the time dilation, which was notated in a corner of the projection, he was hard to keep track of. The dilation went from ten times slower to thirteen times and things got easier.
Chester braced himself, both arms coming up in a warding gesture to defend himself from the blow everyone knew was coming. His armor wouldn’t be broken by an opener, but why risk it?
Dale slashed his sword in a looping X pattern. Moving so quickly that Alex might’ve missed it if he didn’t know what to expect. An X made out of wind made visible by the Dean crashed down at Chester. The wind glowed on its way down, with the commentary giving a quick description of the Wind Blade Ability.
Chester’s braced arms caught his husband’s strike, he didn’t even stagger at the blow that would’ve torn Alex into small pieces. Of course, Dale didn’t win through individual strikes. The first Wind Blade was followed up by more, and Dale was flitting across the sky to send down bursts of wind carrying the power of his sword from different angles.
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“Dale has taken to the sky, using the advantage of his mana to the fullest. As most of you know, his domain allows him to fly indefinitely. Even those wind blades take less mana than he naturally regenerates in the time it takes to make them.” The commentary began, “He uses his speed to constantly reposition, but will it be enough to crack Chester’s armor?”
The juggernaut couldn’t match the swordsman's speed, but he didn’t need to. His metal arms began to glow slightly, the illusion showing that he had activated an Ability. The commentary confirmed that it would allow him to withstand harsher attacks without damaging the armor, and he started to show off a bit, catching the wind slashes with his hands.
This went on for a little bit, but seeing that he wasn’t making any progress, Dale changed tactics. Already, things were different from previous fights, as Chester’s armor was withstanding the ranged attacks much more easily. In the last few duels, Dale had actively avoided this move as it would make for a boring fight if he just bombarded his husband until the duel was over. That wasn’t an issue with the level gap decreased.
A maelstrom of Wind Blades built up around him as he slashed his sword 100 times in hardly a second. The time dilation was forced to increase as the commentary continued, “Dale has always appreciated this move, it reminds him of a show he used to watch before the Arrival. The winds magnify each other, following his will as they push each other on and grow in velocity… and he’s unleashed the storm!”
The Blade Storm descended from the sky so quickly that Alex wondered if the time dilation would increase again already. Blade Storm was supposedly the strongest attack that any Imprinted besides Mrs. Stirling could use casually. In previous duels, this had been one of Dale’s finishing moves. Now, it was just another opener. Were a few breakthroughs this big of a deal?
Chester returned to his initial bracing posture. Whether or not the frenzied gusts concerned him couldn’t be discerned, but it seemed like he remained confident in his ability to withstand the attack as he made no move to avoid it. The entire suit of armor glowed more intensely than it had before. Wind clashed with metal, and Jess’s comments from the previous day were borne out as not a mark was left on the juggernaut’s armor.
Alex was surprised by that, in previous fights that attack would’ve left a noticeable mark. Either the benefits of a single Aperture had been enough for Chester to shrug it off, or this was the effect of the improved Enhancement Anthony had mentioned.
This meant that Dale would have to get in close. The distance between him and the ground allowed the wind blades to be slowed by the air outside of his Domain. More importantly, Chester could fully utilize his own Domain to assist in his defenses.
By getting up close, Dale would sacrifice his ability to remain untouched, but he could interfere with Chester’s Domain. By using his own Domain, he could mitigate his husband’s defenses to a much greater degree.
The time dilation relaxed slightly as one of them spoke. “Afraid of the mud, my little leaf?” Chester’s voice came out of the armor in a taunt, and Dale’s frown turned into a harsh smile. Alex had seen that expression before, Dale was going to make him eat those words.
He did not seem to like the nickname.
The time dilation increased sharply, and the duo hardly seemed to be moving as they stared at each other in contemplation for a split second that dragged itself out.
Dale suddenly dove, and even with the projection slowing him down by thirty times he was a blur. In real-time, the beginning of the dive and the completion of the attack had probably been nigh instantaneous. In the dilation, Alex and his friends could watch as three different runes appeared on Dale’s body and glowed before vanishing. He was unaffected by the forces that should’ve fought back against his descent’s speed.
Chester’s armor rippled and a spear appeared in his hands, fully prepared to gore the dive bomber. Dale spun out of the way at the last second. When Dale dodged, the spear followed. The fully metallic haft smacked into Dale’s side even as the descending sword completed an attack on the juggernaut’s armor.
“With his spear out in the open, the layers of metal that make up Chester’s armor have lost some mass! Finally, Dale managed to leave a mark.”
It was more than a mark, in Alex’s opinion. Dale had managed to cut right through the armor, leaving a wound in Chester’s arm. It was more than a scratch, but no blood flowed out of the cut as Chester’s mana redirected the flow around the wound.
Dale flitted back to the sky in triumph. A smile appeared on his face, briefly, and then nearly immediately vanished as he began to slowly descend towards his opponent.
On his side, where the spear had struck him, was a small sheet of metal. Chester’s spear had left a gift, and now it was trying to reunite with the spear. Dale struggled to overcome the pull, but it was visibly difficult for him to manage as he stared down at the juggernaut. A curse slipped out of his lips, and then he was descending again, just as rapidly as before.
Alex felt a bit nervous as he watched the magnet activate and the descent. The narrator declared that this was Chester’s new Ability, but Alex knew that from the fact he’d never seen it before. It was exactly the kind of Ability a frontline fighter would want. “Taunt” abilities designed to draw an enemy’s aggression were a great idea, but rapidly lost their value as most Tier 2 monsters were intelligent enough to ignore the mental manipulation. If you had a strong enough spell to taunt a high-tier monster, you should just kill it instead. Focusing on mental magic to create a taunt was a banned practice in the city.
Jess had frequently lamented how hard it would be to keep monsters off their less survivable team members once they started tiering up. Becca, Anthony, and Muhammad would not be focusing on survivability and she would need to keep monsters off of them while they worked.
Chester had the same job and had designed an Ability without precedent in New Chicago. As he watched, Alex couldn’t help feeling slightly awed by the Ability. Chester had, in an instant, formed his spear out of his armor and then deposited a part of the metal on Dale’s side. It was a ridiculous level of speed and control for someone who was notoriously outmatched in speed.
The two approached a head-on clash, and this time Dale didn’t avoid his opponent’s spear. Instead, he accepted a brutal wound as the spear pierced his chest and went right through. Chester probably hadn’t expected this, and he didn’t move away from the descending sword fast enough. Dale’s sword landed hard on a metal-encased skull and Chester’s survivability was proven as the sword cut a foot deep. The casual duel wasn’t called at a blow that would’ve ended the life of anyone below Tier 3, and Dale jumped back.
The hole in the helmet closed, hardly delaying a second after the sword left. Dale hovered in the air, resisting the magnets that now held a wound nearly a foot around open, and pulled him back towards Chester.
The hole in his chest didn’t seem to be slowing the man down, and he started to create Wind Blades to herald his arrival as he allowed the magnet to bring him back in close. The duo clashed for a third time, but now it wasn’t on Dale’s terms.
Chester’s magnet demonstrated the ability to switch between attracting and repelling. Polarities reversed rapidly, making it difficult for Dale to make distance again and just as hard to close the distance and attack. Chester’s control of the Ability seemed perfect to Alex’s eyes. Had it really only been a few days since the Ability was inscribed?
Dale was countered, but he was no pushover. Every inch was contested, but his movements still seemed to propel him further than they should. Light steps on air maneuvered around spear strikes as he adjusted to the magnet fluidly every time the polarity switched. At first, Alex could hardly even notice when the polarity changed, since Dale hardly let it show. The tells that the commentary pointed out started to be noticeable to him as the fight extended.
Dale would lunge forward at every opening, expending his mana judiciously to overcome the magnet pushing against him and batter away at the armor. The strikes weren’t particularly powerful, but they weren’t anywhere near as useless as the wind blades earlier. Chester’s relatively lacking speed made counters difficult, and Dale had adapted to the magnets so quickly that he hadn’t taken another blow now that he knew even taps could make a difference.
Of course, he was blowing through mana quickly to buff his speed enough to dodge away. The wind was always at his back, but injecting it with the power to overcome the magnets in his body couldn’t come easily. Any strikes he took would worsen the plight, as more mass would increase the power of the magnetic pull. It could quickly snowball out of control, forcing mana to flow like water.
Chester had to be suffering the same problem, reversing the magnet so rapidly couldn’t be cheap. It was clear that the winner would be whichever one of them held onto their mana longer, as Dale’s sword blows didn’t seem likely to end the fight any time soon.
Suddenly, Dale seemed to make a mistake. He went for an ambitious blow, stabbing Chester through the chest and then leaping back. The counter was dodged too slowly, and Chester’s spear struck the side of his head at full force. Alex winced as he saw the blow coming, thinking that this would be it. Such solid contact would allow several ounces of metal to slough off the spear and onto the head of the man he wanted to win.
Instead, just as the spear connected and Dale should’ve been wounded, he vanished. In his place, twenty-one leaves fluttered in the wind.