As we made our way through a descending staircase in the ancient stone dwelling, I noticed the inside was far nicer than the outside. On the outside, the whole building looked like it was only a few steps from being declared a ruin.

At the bottom of the stairs, the floor opened up to a massive chamber with a dueling ring raised on a platform in the center. Surrounding the ring were rows of seats extending from the floor to the ceiling. I bet the arena could fill at least twenty thousand people.

Thankfully, the building wasn't that packed, not as many people were interested in watching underage wizards compete. Had this been a pro league competition, the place would have been filled to the rafters. It would have been nerve-racking to compete in front of that many people.

"Alex," a familiar voice called out.

Turning, I saw Anna making her way over. Her blond hair had been carefully weaved to prevent it from flopping around. Seeing her rush over made me panic a little on the inside. I was still processing the information my Dad told me and I didn't know what to do, so I decided to follow in the footsteps of so many guys before me. Which was to ignore the issue and hope the problem went away on its own.

She had on emerald green robes with just a hint of silver weaved into the fabric. I assumed the group she was with were her fellow Dragon Fangs. It looked like they had about seventeen members altogether.

While we were catching up, Anna took Athena into her arms and started spoiling her. Ruining our reunion was a familiar sneer, "Well, it looks our new members will have an easy year if you're the best the other clubs could come up with."

Turning towards the voice with a scowl on my face, I shot my best look of disdain towards the speaker.

"Michael," I drawled. "That's rich coming from you."

Seeing the group he was with all had a flower weaved into their robes, I realized he was with the Hidden Lotus. Knowing that the best way to deal with Michael was keeping him off-balance, so I went on the offensive, "Do your friends know that you couldn't take down a mere first-year student when you were in your third?"

Anna laughed, and Michael's face started to turn red. "You," he sputtered.

Before he could say anything else, I decided to twist the knife in a little deeper, "Careful. You don't want your friends to think you're unstable." Tilting my head to the side, I continued in a concerned mock whisper, "Do your teammates know that you spent the summer in the mental ward at St. Mungo's?"

Considering the look Micheal shot me, If looks could kill, I would be dead twice over. I saw his hand twitch towards his pocket, and I grinned inwardly. One of the rules in the booklet that I read explicitly warned that any spell casting outside the ring would end with their perpetrator being disqualified.

But, before he could do anything, one of the older members of the Hidden Lotus put his hand on Michael's shoulder in warning. "Enough," he warned, "Don't do anything to embarrass us."

My eyes danced in delight as Michael's face turned almost purple in rage as they dragged him away.

"Alex," Zack called out.

Turning, I saw Zack motioning for me to join him and Jean near a booth. As soon as I wandered over, Jean pointed towards the table, "You need to sign up for the tournament."

Looking at the table, I noticed there were six different sheets to sign, Grabbing a quill, I reached out and signed my name.

Jean raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are you sure you want to do that? You wouldn't be the first young wizard to bite off more than you can chew. It's better to compete in the younger division and make it to the international competition than compete in an older one and lose."

Nodding firmly, "I'm sure."

Jean glanced at Zack, who shrugged, "Alright, for your sake, I hope you do well. There will be other members of the Silver Spears watching, and they won't be impressed if you lose in a higher division, it will only make them question your judgment."

As Jean wandered off, I started second-guessing my decision. Maybe it would be better to compete against the lowest division.

Trying to comfort me, Zack explained, "Don't worry about him, Jean is just looking out for your best interest."

Zack, having tried to build my confidence, apparently felt that he needed to balance the scales because he teased, "Although, just so you're aware, it's been a decade since we've had a member not make it to the international competition."

"Thanks," I sarcastically replied, "No pressure then."

Leaving with a smile on his face, Zack wandered off to bother Addison.

Coming up to the booth was Adam, as he signed, he paused for a moment when he saw my name. "Someone's feeling confident," he mused with a stern expression on his face. "I hope you don't expect me to go easy on you because we're in the same club."

The competitive spirit in me burned at Adam's dismissive tone. The worst part was he wasn't even trying to be offensive. He genuinely didn't believe I had a chance in beating him."

Making sure none of the fire I was feeling inside made it into my tone, I joked, "I was just going to say the same thing to you. Don't worry, there is more than one way to make it to the international competition. I'm sure you'll be fine."

Adam rapidly blinked for a moment while he processed my statement, then he smiled, "Well then, I hope you don't get eliminated before I get the chance to see what you're made of."

As he walked away, I knew I would need to be on top of my game today, Adam took second place last year at the international competition, and I imagine that his skills have only improved since then.

Sometime later, I saw my parents wandering around the stands, each holding onto a twin so that the girls wouldn't wander off. Waving them down, I handed Athena to Sasha to hold onto during the tournament.

"When are you dueling?" Dad asked.

"In a little while, the first round of competition in the tournament is starting soon. But, I'm competing in the second division. It shouldn't take too long since only eight people are competing during the first round."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Dad raised an eyebrow, "You're competing in the second?"

After I nodded, he fell silent. I could tell he knew what that meant while Mum was oblivious. From the look in his eye, I knew not to say anything. Mum was already annoyed that I was dueling, no need to tell her I was dueling older students.

Not long after, Anna's parents, Taylor and Barbra Lancaster, came over and sat down next to my parents.

In a stern tone, Taylor remarked with cold brown eyes, "So, Alex, I'm assuming you're to blame for dragging my precious little girl into dueling."

For a moment, my mind blanked. Taylor's usual smile and kind eyes were nowhere to be found.

Then, the tension broke as he laughed, "Alex, I'm just messing with you. As if anyone could get Anna to do anything she didn't want to do in the first place."

Realizing Anna's Dad was just messing with me, a feeling of relief welled up within me. As they settled in, I wandered off to the set of chairs reserved for the Silver Spears. Soon, it was time for the competition to begin, and the first two duelers competing were from the Hidden Lotus and Relentless Wanders.

As much as I wish to say that the duel was impressive, I understood why the seats weren't filled to the rafters. Seeing two 2nd year students duel each other wasn't the most exciting thing to watch. I hope there are some better duelers out there. If not, Anna was going to smoke them. I definitely made the right call to jump to the next year. It would have been annoying to compete on this level.

The only exciting thing that happened in the match was seeing some of the spells miss and leave the ring. But, surrounding the ring were heavy-duty enchantments, which created a clear, strange, gelatin-like shield that trapped the spells until they faded away.

In the end, the boy from the Relentless Wanderers pulled out a victory. This made me smile, with Michael being in the Hidden Lotus. I was planning on rooting against them in every match.

While the judges recorded the points, the referee wanted to keep the matches moving because he called for the next two to come up to the ring.

This time, it was Anna's turn, her opponent was a dark-haired kid named David, he was also from the Hidden Lotus. I knew from the narrowing of her eyes that she was going to treat her opponent as a substitute for Michael.

I was expecting this duel to be a little more entertaining than the first one. Anna had undoubtedly put in the hours of practice to start on her path of a great dueler. More complex spells like the shield charm were still beyond her skill, but since none of the others would be able to use the spell, it wouldn't really matter.

What she had focused on learning was pure unadulterated speed in her duels. At first, she had tried to hide it during our practices, but once she knew she wasn't facing me in the competition, she started showing off her strategies during our practices. Needless to say, over the semester, she had improved by leaps and bounds.

In the end, Anna had come up with a name for her strategy. She called it, 'chain-spells.' But, I pointed out that a more descriptive term was chain-casting. But she had dug her heels in and wouldn't budge on the name. Personally, I think she was just a little embarrassed that she missed the obvious connection.

I was rather impressed with the amount of research that she put into her study. She studied and mapped out wand movements for all her spells and had chosen to group together spells where she could easily flow from one movement to the next. The result allowed her to cast more spells. She had put together three different chains of spells consisting of three to five spells depending on which chain she used, which was impressive for only having a few months of practice.

Although Anna's strategy was good, it wasn't without flaws. Her main problem was when someone broke her rhythm and counter-attacked. During our duels, whenever I countered and attacked, she had a hard time adjusting her rhythm, which led to an easier victory.

Overall, She was a lot better on offense than defense. As long as she can keep up her offensive, I'm guessing that she will overwhelm her opponents today.

The referee put his wand to his throat, and a magically enhanced voice rang out, "Begin."

Both of them instantly drew their wands. I smiled when Anna got hers out a fraction of a second ahead of her opponent. It might not seem like it mattered too much, but against an offensive specialist like Anna, it was a crucial mistake.

Anna extended her arm, flicked her wand up, then back at her opponent and chanted, "Colloshoo." A barely noticeable shimmer shot out of her wand at a downward angle. She then flowed right into the next spell with a slight right twirl and shouted, "Flipendo." Unlike the previous jinx, the knockback jinx was much more apparent. A pulsing blue light shot across the ring.

Of course, her opponent wasn't just sitting still the whole time. While Anna got off a spell earlier than him, he was able to cast one just as she shot her second spell. I rolled my eyes when I heard David yell, "Expelliarmus."

Don't get me wrong. Taking away someone's wand from them is often a crippling move that will force them to retreat. But, as I watched the red jet of light shoot across the ring, I could help but be bored by it. Of all the interesting spells out there, David went with the most common spell of all, the one every first year is taught.

I smirked when I observed David's eyes widening in panic. Anna had followed up her second spell with the jelly-leg curse seconds after he finished his first. He didn't appear to be alarmed about the barely visible shimmer that was heading towards the ground near his feet. He had his eyes on the pulsing-blue light and the bright yellow spell moving towards him. I shook my head, that was a mistake.

There was a reason why Anna had explicitly chosen that subtle spell as the first in her chain-spell. Her following spells were there just to get your attention. The real trap was the barely visible spell that looked like it wasn't even going to hit you. More than once, I privately admitted that she was in the perfect house. She really was a cunning little snake, but unless she considered you an enemy, that wasn't a problem.

While Anna ducked under the red beam of light, David quickly realized that he needed to move from the small starting ring if he didn't want to be hit. Right as he tried to move out of the way, he yelped as he toppled over from losing his balance and crashed into the ground and sent his wand across the floor.

The spell he hadn't paid attention to was the Stickfast Hex. It was a hex that stuck the target's shoes to the ground, causing them to trip if they attempt to move.

Anna, having realized that David had fallen into her trap, quickly capitalized. Pointing her wand at him, she chanted, "Petrificus Totalus," the Body-Bind Curse.

David was in no position to dodge as his feet were still trapped and his wand out of reach. When the spell hit him, he froze in place on the ground.

I think the whole audience was a little stunned. The duel was over in less than ten seconds. While the more experienced duelers in the audience were impressed by Anna's decisive victory. They understood that she wouldn't find future duels as easy as her first because all the others she was competing with would be warier. Already, her future opponents were watching her. Some looked worried, others looked eager.

After the referee declared Anna the winner, one of the older students in the Hidden Lotus retrieved David's frozen body and muttered the counter-curse freeing him from the spells. While Anna wandered back down to her section, her eyes sought mine. She beamed when I gave her a smile and two thumbs up.

The next match were the losers from the first two matches. Everyone was allowed a second chance in a double-elimination tournament. But, they weren't given any respite to recover. David still looked a little woozy after being released from the Body-Bind Curse. But, I think from his intense second duel, he was trying to prove his first match was a fluke. He ended up winning his second chance and would have another shot at victory.

Most of the remaining matches went by pretty fast. Out of the eight competing in the second year division, there were one or two others that showed promise like Anna. To be fair to the others, it is their first year, and they only had a few months of practice, they will probably perform better during the following year.

As I predicted, Anna ended up winning her division. She didn't lose one duel. The only tough matches she had were against a girl with auburn hair named Hazel, who was in the Relentless Wanders and a brown-haired kid named Oscar, who was also in the Dragon Fangs. Those two ended up also being chosen to advance to the international competition. Behind Anna, they had the highest point totals.

I shot a teasing smirk towards Michael, who scowled when he saw that no one at the second-year level from his team would be at the international competition.

Although I wanted to go over and congratulate Anna for winning, there was no time. The competition was already getting set up for the third-year students. I cracked my neck in anticipation. Now, it was my turn.