“You should refuse the duel,” Evan said. He quickened his steps to catch up to Alec before falling behind again.

They were currently passing the corridor leading to the preparation room. The lack of soft surfaces made their footsteps echo, giving the space a liminal feel.

“I can fight,” Alec said. He had a reason to believe that he could at least put up a fight, after all.

“How? I just taught you a single spell, and you are going to use that to win?” Evan asked with confusion.

“One? I should remind you that, I can actually also use magic missiles. Somewhat...” Alec said. His voice trailed off toward the end of the sentence, making Evan even more suspicious of his capabilities.

Finally, Alec stopped and reached his hand out to the preparation room’s door. However, he turned around and patted Evan’s shoulder before entering.

“Look. Trust me. Just go back to your seat and enjoy the show. I’m not some battle junkie that enjoys getting beaten up,” he said. When Alec slapped Evan’s back, he stumbled forward and barely managed to stay up. “If I didn’t have a chance of winning, I wouldn’t go out there.”

Evan sighed and turned around without talking further. Once Alec had decided on something, he would get it. He knew this fact, so there was no need to try further.

“Hey... Please don’t... Please don’t lose your memories again,” Evan said. Alec nodded with a gentle smile and entered the room before closing the door behind him.

“Okay...” he muttered to himself before putting his hand inside the inner pocket of his jacket. From there, he took out three vials, each filled with different colored liquids. ‘Hopefully, my preparations from yesterday will be enough.’

Uncorking the vials, Alec put them all in his mouth and gulped them down.

The effects were immediate. His mind cleared up, and his nostrils flared briefly before returning to their normal shape. He felt his heart quicken for a second before going back to normal. It pumped his muscles with energy. His joints popped loudly and became more relaxed, easier to move.

‘One dose of focus potion, one dose of body enhancement potion, and one dose of stamina regeneration potion. Each one is of very low quality, so they should go unnoticed. The mana regeneration potion from this morning is still going, and my pool is almost full,’ Alec analyzed his situation. Obviously, he couldn’t just beat Iris with orthodox ways. He had to utilize some... Questionable methods to do so. And that questionable method was to dope himself out of his mind with potions.

He had researched the academy library for alchemy, and found out that his potions were completely unknown. There were some potions with similar effects, but they all had weird side-effects. It was also impossible to know that he was using them as long as he didn’t do something too out of the norm.

Wearing the combat suit distributed by the academy, which was a skin-tight suit that allowed for comfortable movement, Alec left the room and started heading toward one of the amphitheater’s stage gates.

As he approached the gate, the cheers, shouts, and noises of explosions from the ongoing duel entered his ears.

The first duel, where Zac fought against Edward, resulted in the overwhelming victory of Edward Spellson. This was to be expected, As Edward himself was a really strong mage. Still, Zac’s efforts were congratulated by most of the student body as he left the stage.

The second duel was between Phoenix and a guy named Douglas Burton, who seemed to be obsessed with magic missiles. He knew at least thirty different variants of the spell and could use them at a moment’s notice.

However, before seeing the end of the duel, Alec had left to get ready. Which had brought him here.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

‘They still seem to be going,’ he thought to himself. There were a few seats to sit while waiting, right behind the gate, attached to the walls.

After another ten minutes, The explosions stopped and the winner was announced as Douglas. However, once Douglas appeared on the side Alec was waiting, he was far from untouched. Some parts of his battle suit had been burnt. His face was covered in soot. Making it hard to see his expression.

“Damn... These newbies are really something,” he said. “If it was me at the start of the previous year, I would’ve definitely lost.”

Seeing the guy mumbling to himself, Alec didn’t know how to answer, so instead, he chose to keep his mouth shut and let the other person carry the conversation.

“Are you sure you wanna go out there? That girl is probably a handful too. And I’ve heard that you have lost your memory,” Douglas said while approaching him. “Nobody is going to make fun of you if you surrender.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Alec said with a smile. Somehow, so many people, related or unrelated to him, caring about him made Alec feel fuzzy inside. Contrary to his expectations, these students in the academy somehow seemed like, normal, gentle humans. “I still want to try my chances though.”

Nodding, Douglas placed his hand on the wall and slowly left through the corridor, leaving Alec all alone.

“And for the last duel!” An announcement was made. Hearing the voice, Alec knew it was his time to come out to the stage. Although his heart skipped a beat at the mention of his name, he quickly gathered himself.

‘Fortunately, I beat my stage fright after going to that many award ceremonies,’ he thought to himself before pushing open the door.

Immediately, a gust of hot air hit him square in the face, carrying with it a small amount of dust. Squinting his eyes and blocking them with his arm, Alec waited for the gust to calm down. When he lowered his arms, he saw the amphitheater in its entirety. It felt very different to be on the stage, rather than in the viewer seats.

Walking up to the duel stage erected by one of the professors, Alec took in the view as well as he could. Thousands of people, ranging from students to professors were sizing him up and down. He couldn’t catch a hint of contempt in their gazes. What he felt was mostly curiosity, which caused him to relax a little bit more.

Across the arena, approximately twenty-five meters away from him stood Iris. She was as aloof as before. Although the magic circle seemed to be rotating slightly faster than before, Alec didn’t know if this was because he was seeing her from a closer distance.

As the announcement describing the duelists continued, Iris opened her mouth to speak, seemingly utilizing voice-enhancing magic to send her voice to Alec.

“Why did you accept the duel? I didn’t know you had lost your memories. If I did, I wouldn’t have asked for this,” she said. Her voice was soft like a pile of leaves, almost enchantingly so. Her mystical aura seemed to be enhanced by that voice of her.

Not knowing how to send back a message with magic, Alec decided to talk about a random topic to get her attention. He hoped that Iris would understand. And he wasn’t disappointed. She frowned briefly for a moment before casting a magic circle and sending it over to Alec.

“-And the most important thing about an Astar- Oh,” Alec noticed the magic circle and stopped himself before transitioning back to their main topic. “I wanted to try it. And I think I have the ability to fight,” Alec answered while joining his hands behind his back. “What I wonder is, why did you ask me for a duel?”

“It’s simple,” Iris answered. “I watched your final exam from a distance. We were brought here on a school tour then, where I saw your fight against that guy with red hair. I was mesmerized by your ability to overcome your...”

“Yeah. I see where you are coming from,” Alec stopped her from speaking further, as she didn’t even seem to know how to word her thoughts without being offensive. “It’s starting, good luck.”

“Good luck,” Iris answered before terminating both spells.

Just as their conversation ended, the referee was also finishing his speech.

“As always, pull your punches so you don’t kill your opponent in one shot, but everything else is allowed! We can heal you even if you injure each other. The winning condition is to either knock your opponent out or to kick them off the arena,” he said. Then, he started counting down from three.

His heart syncing its beat to the countdown, Alec’s body lowered as his left foot was pulled back like an arrow being nocked into a bow.

His posture confused most people, including Iris, as their brows furrowed.

Wasn’t Alec supposed to be an artillery telekinetic mage? Why was he taking a position like he was readying himself to dash?

Just as the countdown was about to end, Alec took out a piece of paper from his pocket. On it was written a magic circle of the 1st grade. It was slightly more complicated than a magic missile, but not so much that it was a hurdle to memorize.

Utilizing the boost given by the focus potion, Alec committed the magic circle to his memory before putting the paper back into his pocket.

As soon as he did so, the countdown finally reached zero and the duel started.

Pouring intent and mana into his back, Alec quickly rotated a golden-colored magic circle behind his back.

On the other side, the magic circle embedded into Iris’ forehead started spinning rapidly, ramping up in brightness with every moment that passed.

At the exact same moment, both Alec’s and Iris’ spells exited the realization stage.

“Here I come!”