Noah tossed his bag and gourd to the side, then pulled the grimoire off his back and set it down beside them. He and Todd headed over to the center of the makeshift ring they’d made inside the arena and stood several paces from each other.

“What are the rules?” Todd asked. “Am I just going all out?”

“I would certainly assume so. Should I be worried about that?” Noah asked. Todd had positioned himself at the edges of his domain, likely determining its range by trying to call on his magic until he felt the suppression fade. “If you are, please try to avoid catching anyone else in the crossfire.”

“Nah. I can control myself,” Todd said. He paused for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah. I can.”

“That definitely wasn’t convincing,” Noah said. “What exactly are the imbuements that you’ve got on there?”

“Nothing too crazy. I wanted to keep things pretty light considering I really haven’t used them much yet. Don’t know if it’ll all go up in flames.” Todd thumbed a small red vial hanging from his belt. “Got this just in case, though.”

“I thought you said this wasn’t dangerous,” Isabel said from the sidelines with a frown. “Are you sure everything is ready to test?”

“I’ve done extensive practice,” Todd said. “Alexandra helped.”

“I’m not sure help is the word I’d use. All we did was talk,” Alexandra said, raising her hands before herself. “And then we sparred a bit. He didn’t use any of the new imbuements.”

“Well, I can’t start using them on other students. Even if you’re a whole Rank up on me, Teacherman would have my head.”

“Correct,” Noah said.

“See?” Todd shrugged, then turned back to Noah. “I’m more than capable of handling my own work at this stage. Don’t worry.”

“I trust you. Come at me when you’re ready and let’s see what you’ve been working on. Just be ready to stop at the drop of a hat if something goes wrong.”

Todd held his hands up. The metal bands on his wrist glistened as he struck them together and ribbons of orange light ignited within the metal, racing throughout it in a myriad of minuscule patterns.

A dull hum rose up from the bands and Todd nodded to himself. He clicked his heels together and a grin flickered across Noah’s face as a second set of hums filled the air.

Far from home, Dorothy?

Noah suspected that his brilliant joke would likely be lost on everyone around him. He opted to keep it to himself. In the time it had taken him to compliment his own brilliance, Todd had formed stone armor around his arms and legs.

The rippling lines that had covered his bands expanded to trace over the stone. Molten lines glistened with power and he hopped from foot to foot before giving Noah a nod.

“Okay. That was the scary part. Everything is synchronized and running properly. You ready?”

“I generally am.”

Todd didn’t wait for a second confirmation. The stone armor at his feet exploded and he bounded forward. Flames rippled on the ground where he’d been standing as he crossed the distance between himself and Noah in an instant.

Noah twisted out of the side, narrowly avoiding a stone-clad fist as it whistled past his face. He dipped out of the way as Todd twisted into a spinning kick that passed narrowly over his head.

Noah slammed his hand into the ground and drew on Natural Disaster, ripping a wall of stone up to cover himself an instant before the stone encasing Todd’s leg exploded with a loud crack.

He jumped back as Todd’s other fist drove into his wall. Flames roared up as the stone crumbled from the force of his blow and he sprinted through them, stone already rushing to reform around his limbs. He stood at the outside of Noah’s domain until they’d gathered, then charged in again.

Clever. The Imbuements are all running internally, so he can use them while in my domain. He has to form the armor outside my domain, though. But… I could have sworn the actual explosions he generated required intentional activation. How is he using them inside my domain?

Noah slipped out of the way of Todd’s attacks as they ramped in speed. They weren’t quite as fast as some of his other students, but he had a unique advantage in that he didn’t actually need to hit anything. He just had to get close.

Water swirled around him and formed into a shield, catching Todd’s fist as it detonated. Fire and shrapnel bubbled through the water and it dissipated in a thick cloud of steam. Noah shifted to the side as Todd launched himself through the vapors.

He’s certainly got aggression. Let’s see how he handles things when I start fighting back.

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Noah drove his foot into the ground and abruptly stopped backpedaling. He sent a wave of energy out through Natural Disaster right as Todd’s foot hit the ground before him. The tremor made the boy stumble and Noah lunged forward, driving his palm for Todd’s chest.

Todd clapped his hands together. A brilliant wall of fire erupted from his palms and blocked off any path of attack. Noah skipped back to avoid getting toasted, his eyebrows lifting as the flames curled away.

He’s got quite a bit of energy. I recall him having difficulty using this for too long. Doesn’t it require like three or four different imbuements running at all times? Interesting.

Noah called on Natural Disaster and ripped a wave of jutting stones up from the ground in Todd’s direction. They ripped through the last of the flames to reveal that there was nothing behind them. Noah’s eyes flicked up.

Todd was in the air. He’d used the fire as a curtain to launch himself upward. He held his hands out behind him and detonated explosions in both of his palms at the same time, launching himself toward Noah like a human missile.

There was no point even trying to block an attack like that. Noah launched himself out of the way and hit the ground in a roll. Another small explosion rang out as the boy’s feet slammed into the ground, sending up another curl of flame around him.

Noah spun as he rose, extending his senses to the fire that Todd had just generated and ripping it from the air to send back at him. Todd had already used all four of his explosions and had yet to regenerate the armor for them yet. It was the younger man’s turn to fling himself to the side to avoid the attack.

His dive took him outside of the domain and stone formed back around his arms and legs. Noah could have pressed forward to stop it from happening, but he was still trying to figure out just what it was that Todd had modified about his imbuements.

His fighting style was roughly the same. Sure, it was effective against a domain, but as far as he could tell, nothing Todd was doing was actually something that he couldn’t have done before.

Todd dashed at Noah again. Drawing more moisture from the air, Noah used a shield of water to catch the boy’s next strike. They slipped into a dance of blows. Nothing Todd did could quite actually land on Noah beyond, but he’d still yet to figure out exactly what it was that Todd had figured out in regard to his pattern.

It’s got to have something to do with how he’s been fighting for this long. Did he find a way to optimize his imbuements? That would be powerful, but I don’t feel like it would be that dangerous either.

Todd was making it sound like he’d figured out something really significant that could be a threat if it went wrong. Maybe it’s just really difficult to optimize imbuements this well. He really is using a lot more magical energy than he used to be able to.

Noah dodged another series of strikes and Todd disengaged to reform his armor once more. They’d been fighting for a few minutes now. Even though Todd hadn’t made any progress in getting closer to hitting Noah, there was a satisfied expression on his face. He was pleased with how the test was going.

Which means I’ve missed something entirely. He was never satisfied with mediocrity.

“Alright,” Noah said, lowering his hands with a shake of his head. “That’s enough of this for now. I could kick up the heat and start pressing you harder, but there’s no point until I figure out what the hell it is that you’re doing. Why are you so smug and how do you have so much more energy than you used to?”

Todd let his own hands fall and grinned. “You noticed?”

“It’s hard not to when you could only hold up a fight for a minute at most before. You don’t even look winded or low on energy. Did you find a way to make the imbuements run a lot more efficiently?”

“No,” Todd said. “Actually, if anything, they’re even less efficient than before.”

Noah squinted at him. “If that’s the case, then how were you fighting that long?”

The stone sloughed off Todd’s body and he clinked his bracelets together again. The glowing lines shut off with a dull hum and he repeated the same motion for the on his legs. “Because I figured out something far more important than efficiency. Sustainability.”

Everyone sent blank stares at him. Todd sighed.

“I found a way to renew energy in an imbuement, and not from killing things.”

Noah’s eyes widened. “Wait. Like… indefinitely? An infinite imbuement? Is that even possible?”

“No, not indefinitely. And definitely not infinite,” Todd said with a laugh. He held a wrist up and jangled the bracelet on it. “It’s two things. The first works because of the kind of imbuement it is. Explosions generate a lot of energy, right? And most of that is wasted.”

“Sure,” Noah said. “So you basically put in a way to absorb some of the energy that gets wasted?”

“Yeah, that’s one part of it. I can recycle a good portion of the wasted magic and that goes a pretty far way. That bit was easy, though. The hard one was finding a way to linking energy generation to nonmagical sources.”

“Todd, are you trying to say that you made an imbuement that generates power from something mundane?” Moxie asked slowly. “Because that…”

“Isn’t possible?” Todd arched an eyebrow and grinned. “Well, it is. Energy is energy. That’s what I realized. Different types of energy, sure. But there’s a way to convert between. So I take all the energy that comes from my movements as well as the physical force of the explosion and channel a portion of that back into the imbuements on the bands and poof – it renews itself. The conversion rate isn’t perfect but I really can’t complain. I think I can push it a bit farther with some time too.”

“Shit,” Noah said, shaking his head in disbelief. “That is impressive. Can it work for other applications?”

“Eventually, probably. It’s really difficult,” Todd said, rubbing the back of his head. “It took me all this time just to figure out how to convert the energy for this one specific application. It’ll probably be faster for other stuff, but I don’t know if it’ll work for anyone other than me. Not yet, at least.”

“And you used patterns to do it?”

“Yep. I can explain later, but we probably shouldn’t do it in any degree of a public setting. This isn’t something I want getting out.” Todd’s features darkened. “I know what happens to people with powerful secrets if anyone finds out about them.”

“Nobody here will be saying anything,” Noah said, not even bothering to give the other student a sharp look – he trusted all of them. Nobody here would be screwing each other over. “I know I can’t help you as much as I can the others, but great job. You’ve pulled off some really impressive work.”

“Thanks,” Todd said with a grin. “Think we’ll hold up against the advanced track students tonight?”

Noah grinned in response. “I look forward to finding out.”