Chapter 21 — Ria vs. Orlisi

The dueling hall wasn’t lacking for energy, and Ria sucked it in from the air and the stone floor aggressively to the limits of what she could control and a bit beyond.

Through her extended awareness, she observed Ranger test out his new strength and durability against a set of training puppets that Researcher Shadwich was enthusiastically controlling. Ranger’s excitement was rising with each training puppet he destroyed, starting with wood and fired clay ones. The stone and metal ones gave him more trouble, but witnessing his claws dig deep furrows in the sturdy materials was a pleasant surprise.

After several pained squeaks from Iselyn, Welkin spoke up, “Ria, you’re up.”

To Ria’s surprise, Iselyn was the one standing, and Zell was passed out amid a forest of shimmering mushrooms that were rapidly fading into drifting spores and disappearing. Had Iselyn really defeated a second-year? Zell’s claws seemed dangerous, but her friend’s robe didn’t have any tears or bloodstains.

“Thanks for buying me time,” Ria told Iselyn and gave her a thumbs up.

Iselyn gave her an incredulous stare. “Why the hells would I suffer just to buy you time? It’s your own fault if you didn’t come prepared.” Malleron made a mocking gesture from where he was sitting proudly atop Iselyn’s shoulder.

“Carrying two first-years on the team is a risk. Ria, after your performance against Phaelys, you’ll need to prove to us why you should get one of those slots,” Welkin advised. “Don’t hold anything back.”

“I-” Ria bit back the words she wanted to shout about it being Hulle’s fault. Making excuses wouldn’t convince anyone, and the way Hulle was smirking at her made her response to Welkin's words seem like a test of some kind—maybe a test of character or her ability to keep secrets. “I’ll do my best.”

Hadn’t Hulle told them that he made her throw the duel?

Not that it mattered. Whether they were testing her or had lowered their expectations, the solution was the same. And she’d been itching to find her limits. Not being at full-strength was a little disappointing, but probably fair since Orlisi was helping maintain the barrier for Iselyn and Zell’s fight.

“Katria, you’re up for barrier duty,” Welkin assigned as Orlisi and Tallien managed to rouse a groggy Zell.

“Righty.” Katria mock saluted and skipped over to the anchor circle that Orlisi had vacated, her red twin-tails waving behind her with each carefree hop.

“Disappointing showing, Zell,” Ulren challenged the second-year, who was unsteadily stumbling back to the sidelines.

“Yeah. Illusions and toxins are my biggest weaknesses, but it’s still embarrassing,” Zell agreed and glanced over at Iselyn. “That familiar was surprisingly strong. He’ll be really useful in shoring up our weak back ranks.”

“Let’s go, Ria! It’s our turn!” Orlisi called over from where she’d already taken her spot in the dueling oval.

“Coming!” Ria donned her enchanted cloak and hurried to take the position opposite, and with an eager “Woof! Woof!”, Ranger loped to her side, jumping about in high-spirits.

“Oooh, your doggie’s gonna join in, huh,” Orlisi encouraged with a big grin as she stretched and flexed in preparation. “That should make it more fair and more fun!”

Ria was annoyed at the elf’s assumption of superiority but was also eager to see what Ranger could do, how their coordination when fighting barbarians and monsters would compare to fighting someone preparing for the Grand Games.

“Ranger’s aura is still unstable, so be careful not to overdo the familiar empowering,” Shadwich warned. “Up to about half of the extent that the bond can support should be okay.”

“Thanks, Researcher Shadwich,” Ria acknowledged. “I’ll be careful.”

“Ready?” Orlisi asked as the barrier around the dueling area was re-established, and odd barriers surrounded the elf, Ria, and Ranger.

“What are the rules?” Ria asked.

“To the pain,” Orlisi answered. “We fight until one side yields or falls unconscious. This dueling arrangement is the same as what is used in the tournament portion of the Games. The abjuration magic will stop the attacks from causing damage as long as we don’t exceed the spell’s protection. An illusion component of the spell will inflict pain similar to what the attack would have caused—but reduced to about one-third. Even with the insignia’s safeguards, mortal strikes are disqualifying, targeting the head should be avoided.”

“Insignia’s safeguards?” Ria asked, raising an eyebrow.

Orlisi nodded. “The insignia’s enchantment will engage a temporary stasis effect should any of us receive a mortal wound while inside the academy grounds. It’s not always enough to save the student, so it’s still important to avoid mortal strikes.”

Ria’s eyes widened in surprise. She had no idea the insignias had such a function.

“You girls gonna chat all day or fight?” Ulren mocked.

“You heard him.” Orlisi laughed. “Just give it you’re all. I’m tougher than I look.”

Ria took a deep breath and made her enchanted training daggers appear. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Welkin gave her a count to five before calling out, “Begin!”

Ria started out with body-strengthening and narrowly avoided a fist to the chest as she dodged. Not only had the elf girl almost instantly closed the distance, but violent gusts of wind from the strike’s passage pushed Ria back. Ria’s attempted counter sailed over Orlisi’s head as the girl spun into a low leg sweep which flowed into another punch that felt as if an unstoppable force of nature, a wind-swept raging waterfall.

Not to be overmatched, Ria jumped the sweep and pushed out a matching blast of disrupting shadow magic through her dagger and met the punch. At the same time, she empowered Ranger, and Ranger jumped at the elf girl with a speed that would have been impossible for him just a day prior.

The force of Orlisi’s punch exploded outward as the shadow magic destabilized its energy, and Ria held her ground, stomping her foot down and expanding her Sensing Sphere in time to witness the girl spin again and use the force of air to send Ranger flying.

Tunneling the air to her will, Ria forced her way through, and a rapid exchange of parried strikes and dodges followed with Ria getting the slightly worse of it. Ranger even attempted a few more attacks, only to get redirected and sent flying each time.

Ria quickly came to a realization as the exchanges continued: Orlisi was using the same martial-arts style that she was! It was like fighting against Tina!

In her shock, Ria gave the elf girl an opening and barely blocked a gusting blow in a way that forced her back a distance.

“Hoooh! You know Elven martial arts!” Orlisi chirped out through a huge grin. “You have yet to fully incorporate your Seed, but I can still feel a hint of it in your attacks. Who’s your master?”

Elven martial arts? Was that why the style Tina taught was so different from what Burtan taught?

“Tina of Vorhsan’s Hills,” Ria answered, taking advantage of the break in combat to cycle her energy and even out her breathing.

“Crazy Tina!” Orlisi threw back her head and laughed uproariously. “I remember her! A Blademaster specializing in daggers and seeking the Path of Shadows. My grandfather taught her!”

Ria didn’t know what to think of Tina being known as ‘crazy’ even among the elves, but Ranger didn’t seem to care and was wiggling his butt as he sought purchase with his hind legs and launched himself into another attack.

Seizing the ambient energy around Tina, Ria also made her move and rushed forward. Other than the matter of their shared style, Ria had noticed a spell construct suspended behind Orlisi’s head that the girl was maintaining—a spell construct with divination glyphs.

She wasn’t the only one with a plan. Ranger feinted his leap, kicking to the side at the last second and lunging to chomp at Orlisi’s leg. The girl changed her leg’s direction mid-movement to avoid the predicted attack, and Ria took advantage of the distraction to aim at Orlisi’s head and redirect at the last second to pulse shadow magic through Orlisi’s divination construct.

Orlisi’s eyes widened and before Ria could follow up, two quick blows knocked the air out of her lungs and sent her and Ranger flying in opposite directions to slam into the protective barrier and fall to the ground. From the yelp Ranger let out, that must’ve hurt.

“Not bad, Ria.” Orlisi chuckled. “I didn’t expect that you would recognize my divination magic, much less target it. Of course, you’re using something that interferes with direct divinations, so I had to put the spell to a bit different use than usual. Still, I’ll give you credit for managing to keep up with me. I can’t help but think that there’s no way you would’ve been hit by that Vesali boy’s attack had you been taking that duel seriously.”

“Who knows. Maybe I was just distracted by the crowd,” Ria replied and couldn’t help grinning as she climbed back to her feet. The elf girl wasn’t as strong or as fast as Tina. And regardless of what she was saying, when the divination magic was disrupted, Orlisi had panicked. This fight was winnable.

“I think you’re still holding back on me. Maybe it’s time I got serious,” Orlisi taunted and began forming a spell. “It’s good to remember that most members of our Order are also generalists.”

Ria’s control over the ambient energy barely slowed the construction of Orlisi’s new spell—one that had much in common with the Create Water spell that Ria had been working on earlier in the day.

Water swirled up from the floor and formed four undulating tentacles around the elf girl. The speed of the casting was almost as fast as Phaelys had cast his spell. Were all second-year students that fast?!

Now wasn’t the time to be gawking!

Ria dove, a tentacle whipping the space where she’d just been. She rolled to her feet and leapt back as a second tentacle smacked against the floor with a sound water shouldn’t make!

Fire! Ria met the third tentacle with a wall of searing flame, evaporating it.

Ria brought on more fire. Pouring out her energy to engulf Orlisi in a roaring vortex of heat, strong enough that Ria felt it from where she was standing, directing the flow tighter and tighter against the defensive shell of water the elf girl had quickly formed.

Steam filled the inside of the dueling oval's protective barrier to the point where it was stifling and hard to breathe, and still Ria empowered the firestorm.

But she stood still for too long, and a tentacle Ria had thought long evaporated wrapped around her leg and-

“Wha-!”

-jerked her into the air.

Suddenly, dangling upside down, Ria lost control of her energy transformation, and a thin wall of water spread outward from Orlisi dousing the flames with a cooling woosh!

Ranger tried to take advantage of the water shell's returning to tentacles, darting forward, slashing a tentacle back to inert water as he dodged past-

And got caught from behind and hoisted up in the air just like Ria was.

“Impressive power for a first-year,” Orlisi approved, an evil grin splitting her face. “But, you’re still holding back on me and hiding your true affinity and your true power. Do that thing with your eyes. I’ll give you to the count of five.”

Thing with her eyes? What did that mean?

“One.”

No. It wasn’t important. She only had enough energy left for one last desperate attack.

“Two.”

If she could drink a potion… Potion, items…

“Three.”

Wait. Maybe there was still a way.

“Four.”

{Incoming, Ranger!}

“Fine,” Ria agreed in resignation as she warned Ranger and prepared to do something stupid.

A metal plate fell to the ground.

“You can’t be seri-”

“Activate #99.”

Falling, Ria used the last of her energy to attempt her absorption spell as the world turned to arcs of sizzling white lightning and pain.