That afternoon, Derek opted to stay at his mother’s place to practice and grow used to his new status. In the courtyard near his grandfather’s smithy, he worked on his weapons forms and improving the new techniques he had learned. He had learned from a brief conversation with Marcus a few days ago that being able to cast spells independent of the ones used with his weapons was called Dual Casting.
It worked on the same principle as casting a shield spell while similarly casting a spell into your weapon in a fight, but it took more concentration as the effects of the spell needed to be targeted to where the user wants without the crutch of using physical movements. From what Derek heard, this was a technique mages learned too, Still Spell. It was usually a technique reserved for veteran mages with years of practice.
In a way the Weapon Channeling technique was something like a stepping stone or a good but lesser replacement for it as it allowed the offensive spells to be cast through the weapon, but Still Spell allowed the spell to be cast without the movement of the weapon. It just took far more concentration as the weapon was somewhat of a crutch for the user. But Derek saw the benefit of learning Still Spell and Dual Casting as they could allow him to vastly improve his offensive capacity while fighting.
The more he practiced them, the more he realized their difficulty. He had heard from his mother that the Still Spell technique was intended for people who had worked with level seven spells for a few years. Usually, these would be tier four mages. Dual Casting was generally suggested learning for a fifth tier mage.
After training for a while he sat and contemplated for a while. As he sat there, he heard a voice from the veranda near the house, “Derek, these techniques you are practicing have a very high requirement for comprehension. Furthermore, you are expending mana too rapidly. I know you have an area of effect spell that can boost your mind and improve your mana regeneration, why don’t you try casting that and practicing the techniques. Once you are more used to them, you will find it easier to do without the enhancement.”
He smiled and nodded in the direction the voice had come from. He couldn’t quite see her through the lattice but he could Sense that the visitor that had spoken to him was his grandmother Madeleine. She was sitting with his mother and paternal grandmother in the shade. They had been playing cards and watching him for a while now.
After a moment of relaxing, Derek cast Sanctuary at eighth level. The area in the vicinity seemed to brighten, and a light rain of holy mana started to fall around him as the spell gathered the ambient mana of the area into its affected area. Derek immediately felt the effects of the enhancement on himself, all of his basic attributes had been improved, including his mind.
He once again began practicing the techniques, finding the magical formulas required to operate them much easier to grasp than before. Similarly, the light mana rain not only provided him with mana to spare while practicing the techniques, but it also helped ease his fatigue from practicing and healed the minor injuries he suffered as he did so. When the spell finally ended half an hour later, Derek felt that he had made great strides with both of the techniques and had even worked to improve his use of them with the Weapon Channeling technique. He found in the end that as long as the dual spell he selected was of fourth level or lower, he could Weapon Channel, Dual Cast, and cast a defensive spell at the same time without slowing any of those skills.
After some time spent recovering and contemplating his gains, Derek once more stood up and attempted to use the techniques without the benefit of the enhancement. It took another couple of hours, but as the afternoon started to trend towards dusk he finally felt like he had the knack for it. Even without enhancement he could still use the techniques reliably now as long as the spells cast were not overly complicated.
As he finished his training, Ovid came back from the Colosseum. Smiling at the older man, Derek asked what was on his mind, “Master, what were the results?”
Ovid smiled back at him, “The fight that just completed right now was the final. It was between Marcus and Xavier. While Xavier was able to last against Marcus for quite a while, Marcus still came out on top. Due to that, Marcus is the Champion of this tournament, while Xavier is second place and you are third. The rewards will be held tomorrow afternoon. Getting third place as a first year student is still very good so you ought to get a nice reward for it. Come on, let’s head inside for dinner. I am rather hungry.”
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The next day, Derek made his way down to the Colosseum once again. The building was just as packed as it had been the previous days and this time, all of the students who participated were allowed up to the ground floor to be presented with awards. First were the tenth through second place students from each grade year. They were all given weapons appropriate to them and their tier.
Finally the ten champions were brought forward from the person that finished in tenth place all the way to the first place champion, Marcus Riley. They were each given something unique for them. Derek, who had gotten third place had been given some rare materials for crafting his next armor set.
Joining his family after the awards ceremony, Derek didn’t waste any time. He turned to Blake, “Now that my prior commitments are completed, we can have that duel you requested at any time. I do hope you will not back out now.”
He made no effort to hide his words, instead making them loud enough to be heard through the noisy crowd. The people in the vicinity all quieted down and it even caught the attention of the other competitors. Xavier and Marcus who had been quietly talking just before stopped and turned to watch as well as a few of the War Priests and other ranking dignitaries in the area. Seeing the attention Derek’s words had brought, Blake was embarrassed. Worse, after watching the last few days of fighting, he was unsure he could win, but now his honor had been called out. He determined to beat the young man across from him using any means he could.
Glaring at Derek, he finally spoke, “Of course, we can have our duel now. Let me return to get my equipment and we can fight then.”
One of the nearby War Priests laughed, “Excellent, we were robbed of an opportunity to see this young man fight a few days ago but now we get another chance. If this is to be an official duel, I will officiate it just to be sure. It wouldn’t be right if underhanded methods were used once again.”
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Smiling, Derek nodded to the other man. “Then why don’t we have the duel in the training grounds. We can head over while the young master goes and gets his equipment.”
Hearing this, Blake left to get his gear, while many others headed back to the Academy’s training grounds to watch. Those that heard about this had mostly been in the VIP seats at the Colosseum so the crowd was not too large but were all influential people and their followers.
As they were riding back to the Academy in his mother’s carriage, Alicia’s mom, Therese, had a rather concerned look on her face. Finally, she chose to speak up, “Derek, I know Blake has offended you greatly and that his people almost killed you, but the alliance with his family is the only way my people can be guaranteed peace in the next few years. Can you do me this favor and not harm him.”
Derek looked at her and sighed, “Your highness, the man is rampant. He has attempted to rape my mother’s maids. He has had me assaulted in the Colosseum. He is no good for anyone. Are you sure that alliance with his family is really beneficial for your people?”
Hearing this, she sighed softly, “Telis’s neighbors are many. Some have allied to pressure us. If the pressure wasn’t so strong, we would never have agreed to this alliance. But as it is, for the survival of our kingdom we must go through with it. Please, do me this favor.”
Derek thought for a moment, “I promise I won’t go too far, but for his behavior since he got here, if I do not make him lose at least some skin he will believe that he can do whatever he wants no matter where he goes. I will teach him a lesson, but I won’t hurt him so much that the damage is permanent. Who knows? Perhaps the young animal will learn how to behave like a man afterwards. I doubt it though.”
After a few minutes they arrived at the Training grounds. Derek equipped his weapons and armor. After a while, he saw Blake enter the fighting platform from the other side. Behind him were his surviving soldiers, also equipped to fight. Their matching armor made them look intimidating, but the effect was lost as a larger force of Windreach guards equipped for battle took up positions around them. There was no subtlety to the move at all. The formation of the guards was even set to demonstrate to all that the soldiers of Elnon were considered enemy combatants.
The crowd began to whisper amongst themselves. Blake seemed to pale in that moment before blurting out, “What is the meaning of this?”
Derek realised that the man had yet to learn that they knew he was behind the attack in the Colosseum, he was probably the last interested party to find out. Shaking his head, Derek smiled grimly at the man in front of him, “Did you think you could behave however you like in this city? Did you think your previous actions went unnoticed? These men behind you haven’t done anything stupid yet and have no reason to be concerned about reprisal. But sometimes people make stupid decisions in heated moments. Perhaps if we take precautions beforehand, stupid decisions can be prevented.”
Seeing Blake pale still further, Derek smiled, “If you are ready, we can begin any time.”
Hearing this, Blake brought his staff in front of him. He was wearing a red battle robe with brown leather straps throughout. Using his Sensing ability, Derek noticed a ring of some sort on his hand that provided some enhancement to the young man’s elemental attributes. There also seemed to be some sort of violent upwelling of power coming from within the young man.
As if to confirm his suspicions, the War Priest frowned and turned to Derek, “It seems he has taken some kind of pill to improve his performance during the fight. Are you ok with continuing.”
Derek smiled back at the man, “In front of overwhelming power, petty tricks are meaningless. I will continue the duel. In fact, this will be better. If he loses even while doping, it will have a much larger effect on his confidence.”
It seemed that others in the crowd had noticed the strange situation as Derek was hearing small parts of conversation from around him. Derek didn’t care, it was his opponent’s reputation that would be harmed by this in the end. Smiling, he advanced to the starting point.
His opponent’s attributes after the medicine he took appeared to be on par with Marcus’s. Derek had faced that before. The biggest difference is that the power his current opponent was using was borrowed from the drugs he had taken, while Marcus’s had been his alone. Knowing that, he felt confidence as he stood in front of the other man.
A moment later, the War Priest called the beginning of the fight. Derek started by casting his two enhancement spells. The first was Righteous Blessing at level eight, once more improving his base attributes and his order and light attributes. This spell came out smoothly, much faster than half a year before. His constant practice and attribute improvements had paid dividends.
The next spell he cast, similar to the fight against Marcus, was Righteous Fury at ninth level. It overlapped and improved the enhancement from RIghteous Blessing, stacking on an additional enhancement to basic attributes, and adding enhancements to fire, order, and light attributes. The two spells’ shields overlapped, while the Wrath type spell added a powerful area of effect attack on the region around it.
The War Priest quickly cast a shield upon himself to protect him from the effect as flames started to rise from the ground and the platform below began to char from the heat. Blake had only just managed to cast his first spell. It was some form of flame based enhancement that lifted him into the air and created a burning shield around him. Seeing that his opponent had managed to cast two spells in the time that he had managed to cast one he felt a certain degree of pressure, especially when he started losing mana as his shield tried to defend against the flames from the wrath spell.
Derek smiled grimly as he saw his opponent’s look. He immediately began attacking. Balls of wind mana started to form around him as he began chain casting Wind Blades using the Dual Casting technique. Meanwhile his glaive slashed outwards as rapidly as he could swing it, sending Dispels towards his opponent. The Dispels quickly overwhelmed the offensive spells Blake had tried to cast and started to strike Blake’s shields along with the Wind Blades.
It didn’t take long before Blake’s shields started to collapse. Several Wind Blades managed to make it through the breaking shield and strike him, causing minor cuts to his extremities and greatly damaging his combat robe. Feeling that his enhancement was about to be destroyed by the Dispels he began to panic as a fall from this height would possibly injure him greatly. Finally, the pressure was too much for him and he shouted, “Ancestor, save me!”
Hearing this, Derek felt a sense of crisis as one of the men behind his opponent began to move. The man spoke in a thunderous voice, “Audacious!”
Noone in the area had been able to act yet when the man was already on the arena. He reached out and stabilized Blake’s spell with his own mana before slashing his hand forward, sending a torrent of pure fire mana shooting towards Derek. Derek’s sense of crisis increased tremendously as that attack came towards him, and he funneled his mana into strengthening his Aegis as much as he could.
In a bright flash of light, the fire mana clashed with the holy shield. After a moment both spells collapsed under the weight of a third force. Derek’s unraveled gently, while his attacker’s was broken up quite abruptly causing the man to stumble and cough out a mouthful of blood. A cold elderly voice was heard from within the compound, “Humph, old man, are you tired of living? Attacking one of my students within my Academy. Did you think there was noone in this city that knew you were here or could do anything if you took action?”