"What did you give him?"

Cerolus had just gone back to our table and sat down, taking his silverware in his hands again. I looked around the table, most of the food on it quite unappetizing now that I've got used to eating what was served in our castle. 'Is it because the food lacks mana? Cerolus mentioned something about it a few times.'

I took some meat from my plate and slowly chewed on it, trying to find the differences between then and now. 'The taste is the same, it just doesn't feel fulfilling enough. Is this how everything is going to go in the future? If it doesn't have mana, might as well not eat it?'

"It's a secret. Not a well-known one at home, but I guess it would be a novelty to a Human." Cerolus shrugged then proceeded to wolf down his food. He always ate so much, it was a wonder he wasn't twice his size.

My brother had returned to his table, his face shifting between red and white. 'Surely Cerolus wouldn't harm him, right?'

The dinner was getting livelier by the minute until Lady Ophelia (I stuck to calling her Lady in my mind, although the terms 'Elf' and 'Dwarf' seemed like a close second rather than only her name) stood up and walked to the centre of the tables, allowing everyone to see her. She clutched at her staff while her white dress stood just above the ground. Whenever it would get dragged on the ground by her walking, the dress would simply remain spotless. 'Was it a magical dress as well?'

"I'd considered some requests that were made this morning, and thought I'd liven up the party by performing some magic. I'm not sure what exactly you had in mind, but I thought I'd do some simple light spells."

She stabbed the staff into the ground, the etchings on it lighting up lazily from bottom to top until all the markings were giving off a slight glow. She then dug her heels in and made some sort of a pose. It looked somewhere between a battle stance and a prayer, her legs slightly apart while her palms were joined together.

Cerolus stopped eating and focused on the scene in front of us. I could spot the red flares in his eyes twirling around the blackness, constantly shifting in their small dance.

The Elf started chanting. I couldn't understand a word of what was spoken, and the necklace I was wearing started glowing slowly. I just supposed it was trying to decipher the language uttered, but found no way of doing so. It didn't seem to hurt in the slightest, but I took it off. I already understood Cerolus well enough when he spoke anyway. I wouldn't need it until we get home.

I glanced back towards the Elf, regaining my lost thread of thoughts. Her chanting seemed to go on for a while, but besides the soft glow of the staff next to her, nothing was actually happening.

Just as I was starting to get bored, rays of light shot up from the staff, illuminating the evening sky. Twirls of various colours danced around, the hues of yellow, green and white shining against the dark blue of the early night. The lines of light went onwards towards the sky, before reaching what seemed to be their limit. They coalesced into small glaring balls hovering quite a bit above us.

The balls then erupted rays of bright light followed by some crackling reminiscent of thunderstorms. I watched as the displays slowly dimmed itself down to nothingness.

The crowd sat in their chairs with open mouths, before a small clap echoed throughout. Soon, an applause had started to spread, and shortly after everyone seemed to be standing up and giving a standing ovation to the show.

The Elf turned to our table, simply glancing over me, then looked straight into Cerolus' eyes, giving off a resounding glare as she did so. 'Was this an invitation, a challenge, or simply bragging?'

Cerolus simply clapped his hands a few times and returned to his meal, as if nothing had happened. I could've started laughing at that point.

Ophelia rushed over to the table, putting a single fist on it. "Not impressed? Think you can do better maybe, 'big guy'?

Cerolus simply shrugged what seemed to look like an insult off. "A good show, if I may say. Highly inefficient, too long of a preparation, the chant seemed redundant, and, most importantly, it seemed like just a show. If it had any practical uses, I'd probably consider it a good effort."

The Elf seemed furious at his offhand remarks. "Well, why don't I show you something practical then, Demon? I did learn how to fight after all. Perhaps you'd be more impressed by that?"

"Is that a challenge to a duel, Lady Ophelia?" Cerolus' face seemed to brighten up as he spoke, his face suddenly gaining a smirk, his red glares in his eyes gaining in intensity.

"What do you think we were going to do, dance?" 

"No, the two of us dancing would turn into me swinging you around the place." Cerolus stood up and walked to the centre of the table. "Then again, I think the duel won't end in a different manner as well."

The Elf joined him on the impromptu duelling ground, just mere feet from all the tables. "I do apologise for this, Prince Renald. If we may?"

My brother only nodded, and I had just noticed that the crowd actually seemed eager to watch this unfold. I could even hear some betting going around the tables.

The Elf took on a slightly different stance, the staff held firmly in her hands. The markings on her skin shimmered, and her white, braided hair swung behind her back. She looked intimidating despite her small size and lack of actual armour. Cerolus on the other hand... started taking his clothes off.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The Elf's face took on various expressions, but surprise and curiosity seemed to be most prevalent. "What are you doing? I said a duel, not a..."

"What, you duel in clothing? That's ridiculous. These clothes are too good to lose because of you." Cerolus lost his coat and shirt, leaving his in his pants. I looked around the crowd, a slight annoyance swelling inside my head at seeing other women among them.

His clothes deposited on the nearby table, Cerolus flexed his body for a bit before assuming some sort of a battle stance, wildly different from what I was thought. Then again, he had hooves and double my number of knees.

He beckoned the Elf towards him with his hand. "Well then, show me what you know."

'And I wondered what could possibly go wrong.'

----------------------------------------

'This Demon is a fool.'

I tried my best to contain myself from saying anything that could be considered insulting, but this Demon's mere presence here is enough of an insult. He probably doesn't even know how to fight properly. 'Must be all for show.'

Then he even took his clothes off. Granted, his body seems... defined, but there is little use of physical strength in a duel with someone like me. I could probably end this with a single spell. 'Maybe I will.'

I twirled the staff in my hands, my mind reaching for every spell I had learned. Demons were weak against the light ones, although how he sat in that church was perplexing. It probably meant he was weaker now, which only bolstered my advantage.

I thought about starting with some pure arcane arts then, just to test the area. Even though it was one of the weaker spells, it was hard to defend against, and I won most of my spars with those.

I reached for the incantation for the Arcane Barrage. It would suffice. My staff pointed straight towards my opponent, I gathered what mana I could around me, enough for the spell to fire.

The magic language is an old form of Elvin, something that you couldn't converse in. But they could bend the magic toward our will, and so they did.

Finishing the simple five-second incantation while my opponent stood there looking at me like a simple moron, I cast the spell.

Several balls of light appeared near the tip of my staff, a small shower of arrows made entirely of mana surging out of them. Even though they were not quite big, the sheer number of them meant the spell was hard to avoid, and the body is weak to pure mana hitting it.

The Demon watched the mana darting towards him, seemingly confused at what happened. 'Does this idiot even know magic?'

Then he moved. His hands quickly moved in front of him while his body bent to avoid most of the incoming projectile. The part of the arrows that were to hit his palms simply bounced off harmlessly while his body only received one small cut from the largest brunt of the arrows. 'Maybe he does have some skill. He prepared a Ward beforehand.'

'Luckily, one Ward means you can't prepare another one for some time.'

I prepared the Light Bolt spell. It was a misnomer, really, being made of pure energy and only a small part of it was light magic, and it didn't look like a bolt but a ball, but it would follow the enemy targeted and gather strength as it flew. Since he was a Demon, it would surely be enough to get him to his knees.

The incantation was longer. Several words had to be strung in exact order for a ball of light to surround my staff and make its way towards his chest. I usually try to not aim for the face. Maybe I should've made an exception, his looks like it needed an improvement.

The Demon just stood and waved his hands around, possibly trying to forfeit, while the ball dashed at him. It was amusing to watch his face lose some of its redness at least.

I assumed the Light Bolt would strike him in the chest and push him on the ground. What I didn't prepare for was his arms gaining a dark tinge around them and cutting through it, only a small hapless ball striking the intended target. And the ball did nothing. Pure light magic. Demons were weak against it. No damage.

"Was that it?" He seemed to dust off something from his chest and looked at the cut on his side. "All that bragging for a small cut. Come on child, you can do better than that."

That was it, he went over the line. "Well show me what you can do then if you're so all-powerful."

"Sure." He flicked his hand at me, and a Fireball was launched in my direction. No preparation, no three-second incantations, nothing. A perfect Fireball, something that took a year of practice. And he only flicked his hand.

I dodged. I had to. There was no way I could've prepared a Fire Ward in that short amount of time.

I surged towards my right, the Fireball singeing the end of my dress as it missed and burned the ground behind I just had stood.

Spellcasting was an art. It required precision, preparation, finesse. It took several years to learn the complex incantations that harness the magic around us, a few more to learn the proper forms and stances to not get a backlash. Books were written and spread around the cities for only the most talented to learn.

And he made everything seem so easy.

The Demon looked at the charred ground, then at me. Another Fireball popped up from his hand and darted towards me. 

I used my staff to prepare a hastened Ward. One second incantation, using a lot more mana. 'Protect'

The Fireball collided against the shiny coating of light that hung in the air, dissipating with the resounding shatter of the Ward. I could still feel the heat of the spell as it warmed up the surrounding air.

The Demon stood, doing nothing, seemingly waiting for me to act. 'What could I do?'

I stood up, propping myself with the staff, then started one of the longest incantations I knew. Light Blast. A concentrated beam of light energy that should at least hurt.

It took a lot of mana, I even had to resort to using what I could of my own. It left me panting for air and sweating feverishly.

But I had done it. I made the perfect sequence for it. A small circle of light twirled in front of me, before releasing a ray of sunlight straight towards him.

He had to dodge it. There was no way to defend against something like that. It would properly harm him now.

He leapt to his left, the ray of light cutting through the air he once stood, hitting the right side of his stomach. He groaned and stayed on the ground after that.

'I did it!' I struck a pose as I watched the Demon on the ground. The part of his skin where the light hit him was blackened, some blood oozing from the deeper wound. "See what I can do now? Just surrender so we get this over with. Would be a shame if you'd get hurt more."

But the Demon decided to stand up at look at me. Then he smiled. And soon he started laughing.

The Demon laughed, his hand stuck to the wound I made. Then the hand started glowing, and the blood stopped seeping from the uncharred flesh.

'No way. Absolutely no way. This isn't right! He's a Demon! He shouldn't know light magic! He shouldn't be able to...'

"Excellent, you have some skill it seems. Care to continue?" The Demon simply stood there, laughing, as the wound on his side mostly subsided. I just watched him heal himself because that was everything I could do now.

"No? Well, then, it was nice." He walked towards me and shook my hand, then left to put his clothes on.

I simply stood there.

'How in the World did they not win that War?'