Veena of the House Salakin tried to still her beating heart. She had had no idea how much Luka had been holding back with her before she saw the fight with Ranok.

Ranok was a monstrous prodigy. The Belator House had cultivated him as an asset on the mainland. He was likely a mediocre talent as far as the main branch of House Belator was concerned, but for this competition Ranok had been a tiger against a bunch of kittens. Begrudgingly Veena had to admit, she had been one of the kittens.

But there had been a true monster among them hidden in the guise of a toddler, not even three summers old.

Had Luka been this strong since the beginning? No, surely not. Veena had dueled the boy before the jungle expedition, and it hadn’t felt like this. He was completely different now, with power basically oozing from him. She had Danger Sense and it was basically blaring at her to forfeit immediately. 

The little scamp had drained the extremely valuable mana vein with his crazy abilities, and had become something entirely unfit for the scope of this competition. How was that even possible in the first place? You would need an Alchemist or an Artificer to process the raw mana from a mana vein.

There were just too many mysteries about Luka. Was he really from the backwater islands? How was it possible for him to be this strong? He belonged on the main continent.

Veena looked at the strange little sorcerer standing in a relaxed pose on the other side of the arena. His black hair was a mess and he wore a blue poncho and a satchel at his belt. His blue eyes were bright and enthusiastic. And they had a look of worldly confidence that looked uncanny on a toddler. But other than that, he looked completely ordinary.

Veena felt many things when she looked at him. Gratitude, curiosity and wonder. But also fear. She would have to face him in a battle. Sure they had sparred, but this was public. She hoped Luka wouldn’t humiliate her too badly.

Stop it. You can’t think like this. Just fight fiercely and don’t hesitate.

She had asked for this. Father would have accepted Luka’s forfeiture. He would have put the garland on her head and told everyone how proud he was. But she would have known it to be a farce. She looked at her calloused hands

I trained so hard for this.

Then she drew her sword and saluted towards the Salakin seats. Father was watching her. He gave her a small nod.

At least he wasn’t looking worried anymore. He had spent months looking worried, even when he tried to hide it from her. Veena had watched him grow weary and gray, hunched over that big desk of his. She felt something loosen in her shoulders and she smiled wistfully.

It would be nice to fight without worrying.

“Hmph!” she said and looked down at Luka with what she hoped was an imperious gaze. “Are you ready to face me?”

She just hoped he couldn’t see through her bravado. For all she knew the boy could sense her hammering heart.

Stop it. He is not some god.

Probably… She had heard of him being called Little God. It was mostly that genius boy Danek when he thought he was being clever. She knew the prodigious little merchant had paid people in taverns to spread the name. 

Luka gave her an easy smile. “Give me your best.”

That relaxed, easy smile always pissed Veena off. She suppressed a growl. She didn’t know what it was, but something about Luka just made her annoyed sometimes. She was used to her pride being accepted. People gave space when Veena walked by. They stopped talking when she spoke. She kind of liked that.

But the little sorcerer didn’t give her any of that. She hated to admit it, but maybe she felt a little small in front of Luka.

Veena steeled herself and gave Luka a tight smile.

“Watch me.”

*

I liked that look on Veena’s face. It was fierce and earnest. I could tell she was a little afraid I was going to make a fool out of her.

I was going to push her to her limits. I wasn’t going to levitate Veena helplessly in front of the whole archipelago, and I definitely wasn’t going to shoot a hole through her with a Water Spear.. But I wasn’t going to pretend either. She wanted a real fight, so I gave her one.

She came at me fast using her Sword Charge. 

I had already prepared my barrier, but I knew better than to just stand there and let her hit it. Veena knew how I fought and how I moved. I could tell from the way she dashed in and out, that she expected my kinetic magic counter attacks.

She really was a talented warrior.

Her first swing came at my shoulder. I knew this move, so I used Barrier Pulse. But to my surprise, she pulled the sword back before it connected and immediately stepped around me, she watched the pulse pass and sliced hard at the barrier, draining its mana.

Well, well. That was new. 

The next strike hit the other side of my barrier before I had turned properly. It held, but the force made my barrier flicker.

Veena grinned. “You always do that.”

I returned her smile. “Nice to see you not always repeating the same mistakes.”

“Hmph!” 

Her sword came down twice, the first strike heavy and the second much faster. I reinforced the barrier and used Kinetic Push on myself to get some distance.

Veena followed immediately, but she didn’t run straight at me like Ranok had. She moved to the side, making me turn to keep her in front of me.

Her style was fast, agile and acrobatic. She kept using feints and stayed low while she sliced-and-diced my barrier. Ranok had tried to break it with single hard swings, but she was going for the death by a thousand cuts approach.

Her Sword-Dancing was really fun to watch. Unfortunately, I was also the one she was trying to hit.

I sent a small kinetic spell at her knee through my cultivation. She leaned into the force pushing her leg back, and she fell into a wild pirouette. Then she slashed at the lower part of my barrier thrice in quick succession.

Damn, she had hidden some moves from me!

I wanted to learn to time Barrier Pulse correctly, so I could use it like a parry and throw attackers off balance. Against Ranok, I had often used far more power than necessary because I didn’t want to get cut in half. With Veena, I could afford to be more precise.

That didn’t mean it was easy.

She kept changing the timing of her attacks. Sometimes she would let a strike bounce off my barrier and use the motion to turn into another one. Other times she would stop short and make me waste a pulse.

The third time she did that, I gave her an annoyed look.

She let a self-indulgent grin spread on her face. “Hmph! Pay attention.”

I laughed and fired a small Water Bullet at her. Veena twisted aside. And leapt up to dodge it. I particularly liked the times she used one of her Class Abilities to leap over me and spin wildly to strike my barrier half a dozen times. 

Then she landed and cut at my legs. Her sword struck hard enough to make the barrier flicker, and I had to feed more mana into it and jump back to create space.

The crowd cheered. I could hear her name being called. That made me happy. She deserved some cheering after all the work she had put into this.

Then she was on me again, and thrust at my neck with her short sword at full force. She really must have trusted my barrier to hold, because she was absolutely not holding back.

Fortunately, her trust wasn’t misplaced. But I did use a Barrier Pulse, just to make sure I wasn’t decapitated, because that would be very inconvenient.

The pulse struck her sword just as it touched my barrier. Her arms went wide as she stumbled backwards. I pushed at her ankle, but she turned the stumble into a quick sideways step and brought her sword back between us.

I grinned, and Veena attacked me more ferociously.

We moved across the arena like that. She tried to catch me with her Class Abilities, and I tried to make her commit to a swing before using a pulse. Once, she got close enough that I had to blast myself backwards to avoid a particularly nasty combination of her chaining her Abilities. I landed on my ass, which made her laugh.

The audience liked that too.

I got up and brushed sand off my clothes. “Okay. That was pretty good.”

She looked like she wanted to argue that, but she was breathing too hard to waste the air. She raised her sword again. I could see she was winded now. We had a few short exchanges, but I saw that the last attack had sapped her.

This was the extent of her abilities. I found myself impressed. But I wanted her to finish strong and leave a good impression. She was absolutely the type to struggle long after all the strength left her legs. But that would be ugly, so I decided to finish the fight.

I caught her next blow with a perfectly timed Barrier Pulse. It wrested the sword from her hand, and she stumbled backwards, waving her hands wildly to not fall. To her credit, she found her balance.

But the fight was already over.

I finished the Water Jet I had been preparing, and struck her squarely in the middle. Veena dug her heels into the sand, resisting for a moment before the spell lifted her off her feet and carried her out of bounds.

She landed in a wet heap.

The proctor raised his hand.

“Victory to Luka, son of Jonaka, from the island of Asaid!”

The crowd cheered, and I let the spell dissipate.

Veena sat up and pushed wet hair out of her face. She looked at the line in the sand, then at me. I walked over to her.

“You almost had me with that last one.”

“No, I didn’t,” she muttered under her breath.

I smiled and offered my hand.. “I was impressed.”

She considered that while catching her breath. Then she took the hand I offered and stood.

For a moment, I thought she was going to complain. Instead, she straightened her back and bowed to me. She blushed fiercely while doing that; it probably wasn’t easy for her.

“Thank you for the match.”

I bowed back. “It was a good fight.”

We shook hands, and the cheering grew louder. Veena looked towards the stands where her father was applauding.

She smiled and leaned closer to me. “I’m going to figure out how to get through that stupid barrier.”

I grinned. “I look forward to it.”

I was proclaimed victor and received a garland from the governor. It was a little too big, but mother helped arrange it over my shoulders while father stood beside us looking proud enough to burst.

The governor gave a speech about the Silver Sea Tournament, the strength of the islands and the bright future ahead of us. People clapped whenever he paused, so I assumed it was a good speech.

There was a trophy too. A polished silver goblet mounted on dark wood. I gave the trophy to my father, and his face lit up.

“This will go well with the Moon Festival trophy,” he said. “I will need a case for these at this rate!”

The governor was still talking. Veena stood on his other side, wearing a fresh cloak over her wet clothes. When he finally finished, he put a hand on her shoulder and spoke to her quietly.

Whatever he said made her look down with a pleased expression.

Then there was more cheering, and the festivities began. There was dance and drink and food, and all kinds of shows with acrobatics and beast taming, likely very impressive with the use of specialized skills. Naturally, I wanted to see them.

The governor wanted us to come to his estate, but mother looked at the stalls being opened around the amphitheater and said we had earned a little celebration first. Father agreed immediately.

The governor looked at Veena, who had already started following us, and laughed.

“Tomorrow, then. We have much to discuss, but I suppose it can wait until morning.”

That suited me just fine. It was time to enjoy some well earned good time with my family.