Chapter 102 - Proper Duels (Patreon)

Arien stood on the Arena sands, staring at his opponent with a grin he couldn't quite suppress.

Across from him waited Hugo Rutson, a tall, broad-shouldered sixth-year with brown hair and a patronizing smile. Hugo occupied the Ninth Division, though rumor had it he'd briefly reached the Seventh the previous year. He wasn't among the elite of his class and supposedly wasn't exceptional at Mana Manipulation, but he knew how to fight. More importantly, his only Aspect was Stone, and he likely already reached its Second Specialization.

The trumpet sounded.

Arien immediately launched a Fireball and raised an Earthen Wall against the Stone Sphere already flying toward him. As expected, the wall burst apart, forcing him to catch the weakened attack on his Half-Shield.

Alright. That had some weight behind it.

His own Fireball shattered against Hugo's Stone Wall. Stone really was useful in a fight, offering both powerful attacks and sturdy defenses.

Now this should be fun.

A Flaming Whip formed above him while he fired three Fire Arrows along different trajectories. Before Hugo could respond, Arien added a pair of Earthen Walls to his defenses. All of it took only a few seconds, but his mana reserves were dropping fast.

Arien's grin widened as he stopped holding back. For the first time in a long while, he was fully committed to a fight. Even during his sparring sessions with Will, he hadn't pushed himself this hard.

He loved it.

This time, Hugo used a Stone Spear. It pierced both walls, but Arien barely felt the impact on his Half-Shield.

Meanwhile, his own arrows, traveling along different trajectories, forced Hugo to create two separate Stone Walls. Even then, one arrow slipped past and only shattered against a hastily erected Mana Shield.

After several more exchanges, Hugo's patronizing smile disappeared from his face, replaced by a skewed look of concentration.

Arien, meanwhile, was having the time of his life as he kept trying different combinations of spells, watching how Hugo reacted to each one. The previous evening, after learning his challenge had been accepted, he'd spent hours imagining possible exchanges.

Now he could test them for real.

He began alternating between Fireballs and Earth Spears of varying strength, defending himself with Earth Walls or Half-Shields depending on Hugo's response. At one point, Arien deliberately sent several weak Flame Arrows his way, just enough to force Hugo to hide behind Stone Walls, then immediately followed with Fireballs packed with as much mana as they could hold before becoming unstable.

Hugo refused to give in, but panic was beginning to creep into his responses.

Several minutes later, Arien decided he'd learned enough. He had already tested most of the situations he'd wanted to examine, and Hugo was beginning to show signs of running low on mana. Arien didn't want to win simply by outlasting him.

More importantly, he'd noticed a weakness.

Stone spells hit hard, but compared with most magic Hugo used, they were slow. Arien couldn't tell whether that came from Hugo himself or from the Aspect, but he could work with it.

Arien fired four more Fire Arrows, spells Hugo clearly disliked dealing with, and advanced several steps.

Hugo answered with two Stone Spears. One went wide in his haste, while Arien stopped the other with a reinforced Earthen Wall. The impact was noticeably weaker than before.

Arien advanced again and sent out the Flaming Whip.

Check.

Hugo raised another Stone Wall.

Exactly what Arien wanted.

He adjusted the whip's trajectory at the last moment, striking a weaker section near the wall's edge and tearing away a chunk of stone. The whip itself missed Hugo by nearly two feet, but it had opened the gap Arien needed.

Three Fire Arrows followed through the opening.

And checkmate.

Hugo managed to raise a Mana Shield, but the first arrow shattered it. The second triggered his protective amulet and brought up the golden dome, while the third broke harmlessly against it.

Apparently, Hugo had even less mana remaining than what Arien had assumed.

A moment later, the assistant raised the flag and declared Arien the winner. Arien let the remaining mana dissipate from his hands. He walked over to Hugo, who was still gasping for breath, and offered him a hand.

Once he'd caught his breath, Hugo straightened to his full height, nearly two heads taller than Arien. He studied the offered hand for a moment before finally taking it.

“Good fight,” he admitted. “Terryson. Are you one of us?”

“I am,” Arien confirmed. “And I'm going all the way to the top. Tomorrow I'm challenging Neile.”

Hugo laughed and shook his head. “In that case, good luck.”

Reyna watched as Arien stepped into the Arena.

Only yesterday he'd defeated Hugo Rutson, and now he'd challenged Neile Veyrath, younger sister of Magnus from the Second Division. Neile lacked her brother's talent, but she was still among the twenty strongest mages in the sixth year, which had been enough to draw a respectable crowd. Students chattered among the stands, placing bets on the fight.

Reyna still couldn't understand why Arien refused to follow the easier path she'd prepared for him. He could earn the same points against opponents better suited to his magic and use them to buy the resources he needed.

Instead, if he lost today, he'd throw away three points he'd only just received at the end of the month.

Neile's Water and Lightning Aspects worked extremely well together, while Arien relied mostly on Earth and Fire. Life wasn't going to help him in an Arena duel.

Reyna had already tried explaining all of this to him.

Apparently, she'd wasted her time.

Now she was beginning to regret giving him exactly the information he'd asked for. A carefully edited list of weaker opponents might have been the wiser choice. She hadn't seen yesterday's duel, but from what she'd heard, Arien hadn't won easily. Perhaps losing today would finally make him more cautious.

Her own duel the previous day had gone much more smoothly, and next week she planned to challenge another student from a higher league, preferably one whose Aspects wouldn't counter hers.

The boy took his position and waited for the signal to begin, wearing a rather strange smile. His eyes stayed fixed on Neile with an intensity that made the smile look even stranger. She couldn't remember ever seeing him like this before. He looked a little… crazy.

The trumpet sounded, and both began casting immediately.

Arien moved faster than Reyna expected. An Earthen Wall rose in front of him while a Flaming Whip twisted into shape above his shoulder, followed almost immediately by three Fire Arrows aimed at Neile.

Neile answered with a Lightning Bolt that shattered the wall and forced Arien to catch the remaining force on his Half-Shield. Three spheres of water followed, each intercepting one of his Fire Arrows.

Reyna was impressed. Hitting moving spells with other moving spells required excellent control, and it cost Neile less mana than raising full Water Walls.

Arien only grinned wider.

He strengthened his next Earthen Walls enough to stop Neile's lightning bolts outright. Reyna knew the reinforced Earthen Walls were expensive, but they were still a better option than repeatedly taking Neile’s lightning on a non-aspected Shield.

More students gathered around the field, and the comments behind Reyna grew louder. Most of them seemed surprised that Neile still hadn’t managed to put away a student from the year below.

Arien kept firing arrows and raising walls, but Neile still controlled most of the fight. Even his Flaming Whip, which he unleashed unexpectedly at one point, dissolved inside a large bubble of water conjured by Neile.

Neile's attacks began coming faster.

She had the advantage, but after several minutes she still hadn't managed to break through the defenses of someone a year below her.

Then she cast two Lightning Bolts and raised a massive wall of water.

Reyna recognized the setup immediately.

Arien seemed to understand what was happening as well. After stopping the Lightning Bolts, he began hammering the Water Wall with Earth Spears.

The barrier buckled under the impacts, but not quickly enough.

Hidden behind it, Neile completed a longer incantation and thrust both hands forward. A geyser of water threaded with lightning tore across the field.

Arien raised three Earthen Walls in its path. The spell smashed through all of them and slammed into his Mana Shield.

Someone in the stands cheered, but Reyna grimaced. She had seen him raise the Shield in time, though stopping a spell like that would still be difficult.

When the torrent finally died, Arien was still there, kneeling on one knee and breathing heavily. His Mana Shield was gone, but his protective amulet had not activated.

He could keep fighting.

Reyna doubted he had much mana left, though Neile wasn't in good shape either. Her face had gone pale, and her hands were trembling. Reyna knew the feeling. Combining Aspects into a single spell drained far more than mana; after using her own dual-Aspect attack against Basil, she'd felt feverish for hours.

“I can't believe it. Where does he get so much mana from?” a girl nearby muttered. 

Reyna looked back at her colleague. Arien had already raised another Earthen Wall and sent three Earth Spears at Neile, forcing her to absorb them with her Half-Shield.

As Neile answered with a barrage of lightning, Reyna noticed that Arien wasn't retaliating.

He was working on a longer incantation.

What is he planning?

The first Lightning Bolt shattered against Arien's Earthen Wall. The second punched through and struck his Mana Shield, but he held the incantation together.

Then he released it. Two enormous Fireballs flew from his hands, each several times larger than the ones he normally used.

Neile hurriedly raised a Water Wall.

Just before impact, the Fireballs curved toward each other. 

They collided.

The explosion swallowed the Water Wall and tore through Neile's hastily raised Mana Shield. A moment later, her protective dome flashed into existence.

For a second, even the assistant failed to react. Then he raised his hand and pointed toward Arien.

The boy stood there grinning from ear to ear, looking almost as surprised by the result of his own spell as everyone else.

Looks like I'll have to revise his file again…