“Okay, let’s review what we didn’t know and what we know now,” he said quietly to himself.

Before, he had no idea that Vesuvius had a club tail, no idea he could breathe fire, and no idea what spells Tyris favoured.

Now, he had information about all three.

‘Tyris had used four spells in that round. Haste is a third-tier spell and I bet those lava tentacles are third or above since they have so much power behind them. Her ice spell was powerful enough to cool lava real fast: that’s not exactly something you’d expect from a third or second level ice spell.’

He’d seen Malcolm use plenty of ice spells, but none had the power to rapidly cool something as hot as lava.

‘That means she’d used a lot of mana,’ he thought. ‘Mana regeneration techniques aside…did she do that for the three rounds in every bout? Hmmm, she’s in our division for the Grand Battle, which means at maximum, she’s able to cast fourth tier spells. So, since she’s not Baelin, she can’t be throwing around three or four third and higher-tier spells every round without her mana dropping.’

He glanced over at Tyris as she smiled, petting the side of Vesuvius’ mouth, and watching Claygon while whispering to the tortoise.

No doubt she was strategizing too.

‘Since we made it this far, she probably had us marked as competition and couldn’t afford to hold back in the first round. But, now that she’s won that first round, she can afford to be more cautious in the second, and just maintain that nice, big lead of hers for the win. So now, what?’

His eyes travelled over Vesuvius’s massive body, stopping at his tail.

‘Okay, so I know the tail’s quick. I know he’s got that long neck…so the side’s probably the best direction to approach him from, but she'll probably expect that. ...maybe the best thing to do is try to tire him out.’

He cracked his knuckles…even though he wasn’t actually the one doing the fighting.

Or doing anything else physical.

‘Maybe I should look into getting a familiar one day,’ he thought.

Then again, he wouldn’t have much use for one outside of literally this situation, and he didn’t really plan on entering the Duel by Proxy every year.

…or maybe he would. They were pretty fun.

Now where was he?

Oh yeah, the fight.

‘Let’s outlast them, Claygon,’ he thought.

The only problem was that each round was timed so he couldn’t just take as long as he needed to exhaust the creature.

They’d have to make Vesuvius exert himself…a lot.

And he just might have a way to do it.

He thought back to the fight with the dune worm and how the monster had tired itself out against Claygon.

Smiling he had his golem crack his knuckles.

…except they made no sound.

Because his fingers didn’t have joints to pop.

Alex shook his head at himself.

Ding!

The bell sounded, signalling round two.

This time Vesuvius charged forward toward the centre of the arena, while Claygon gave ground, letting him take the centre.

Both the tortoise’s tail and neck extended, covering a vast area of the arena with their reach, and the tortoise began spewing lava and fire breath at Claygon.

Alex took a quick look at Tyris.

She wasn’t speaking any incantations; he’d need to keep an eye on her.

He had Claygon run to the tortoise’s side—the massive golem was pretty fast when he got up to speed—but Vesuvius worked to turn and face the construct. His long neck pivoted to spew flame at the golem.

The fire crackled just behind Claygon.

Whoosh.

Then the tail appeared.

With a few short steps, the tortoise changed direction and swung his massive, club-tail directly at Claygon’s torso.

Alex mentally told Claygon to spread his arms.

As the tail came swinging in-

Bang!

It connected, but Claygon quickly wrapped his four arms around the tip of the bony club. He was yanked from his feet with force and Vesuvius roared, swinging his tail back and forth, trying to shake the unwanted passenger.

But the golem’s strength was immense, his grip solid over four limbs, and he did not tire. No matter how hard Vesuvius shook his tail, Claygon wouldn’t let go.

He shifted his grip and began climbing up the tail toward the back of the monster’s shell. One of his hands released Vesuvius’ tail and he raised that elbow and-

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Began to drop elbow blow after elbow blow into the tortoise's iron-hard hide. Vesuvius roared with agitation and tried to swing around.

Tyris shouted one incantation, then another.

A small rock and a roaring ball of flame materialised behind Vesuvius’ shell, fusing into a boiling, hissing ball of lava.

Alex watched Vesuvius’ movements carefully.

The frantic movements of his tail were stopping Tyris from aiming the lava blast properly. So for her to fire it, Vesuvius would have to-

‘There!’ Alex thought.

Vesuvius’ tail paused, just long enough for Claygon to be a good target for the blast.

That’s when Claygon let go.

He dropped to the ground, ducked low to let the roiling ball of lava blast over his head, then rushed toward the tortoise’s back end. Vesuvius tried turning as Tyris shouted another spell, but Claygon got to his rearbefore she could finish.

The golem bent and placed all four hands under the tortoise before planting his feet and centering his balance.

Unconsciously, Alex raised his arms in tandem with Claygon as the golem squatted down with his legs and pushed upward with his arms.

The crowd went quiet.

A grunt of surprise escaped from Vesuvius.

Claygon began lifting the tortoise as the crowd broke into cheers of shock and delight when Vesuvius’ back feet rose off the ground.

Tyris cried out as Claygon lifted her familiar higher and higher.

“Yes!” Alex shouted.

Vesuvius struggled—kicking his legs and swinging his tail—but didn’t have the leverage to dislodge Claygon.

Tyris began to shout an incantation.

“Now!” Alex roared as loud as he could.

It was the first time he’d given Claygon a verbal command during the match; it caught her off guard.

Her spellcasting paused for a stunned breath while Claygon began to rock from side to side, building up momentum. He shifted to the side, more to the tortoise’s left.

Off of his centre of balance.

The golem squatted low, while bending both pairs of arms for a shoulder press.

Tyris tried to finish her spell.

Claygon pushed up at full power.

All fifty thousand pounds of vulcanchelone let out a roar of shock as his left side flew in the air. Claygon kept pushing as he upended the tortoise until finally-

Booooom!

-the entire arena quaked as the golem flipped the enormous monster onto its right side. Lava poured from the shell.

The crowd’s roar was deafening as Alex let Claygon back away.

‘Knockdown one,’ he thought.

Tyris finished her spell. Two spiked force blasts—like Shaleleath’s—shot out from under Vesuvius, knocking Claygon backward.

Alex’s next command was: ‘charge the fire gems’.

The monster’s tail pressed against the stone, angled for leverage. His left legs were sticking up in the air, swinging back and forth to build momentum. With that motion and a push of his powerful tail, Vesuvius righted himself.

Alex wasted no time, sending Claygon charging forward to flip him again, but Tyris cast another Haste spell on Vesuvius. Now at double speed, the tortoise whirled toward Claygon and his head snapped out to grab him again.

Claygon blasted him full in the face with the fire-gems, blinding him for a moment; Alex used that moment. His golem grabbed the monster by the neck as its beak shot forward. Claygon wrapped all four arms around its neck.

He cocked a fist back and delivered a massive blow like a thunderclap. The force was enough to send Vesuvius’ head whipping to the side, stunning him.

Tyris finished another spell, a blast of ice hit the ground catching Claygon by surprise. He slipped, but grabbed Vesuvius’ neck and shell and swung his body away from the ice, then planted his feet again.

Vesuvius’ master was chanting a spell again, but the massive tortoise was still stunned from the blow, and Claygon used that to get beneath his shell again and begin lifting hard.

With another roar and earth shattering crash, Vesuvius hit the ground a second time.

“Knockdown two,” Alex muttered.

He had Claygon back off as Tyris fired two more lava spells, but the golem raised his arms, deflecting them as Alex directed him through the Cleansing Movements.

While Vesuvius was righting himself, Alex began planning another knockdown when-

Ding!

-the bell ended round two.

Alex turned and looked at the score cards.

“Please be 10-6 in my favour,” he said.

10-7.

10-7.

10-7.

“Dammit,” he swore beneath his breath.

Still three points behind her.

He’d need more than to just fight better in the next round; catching up would mean either a knockdown, a pin—which would be impossible, Claygon just didn’t have the sheer mass or leverage to keep Vesuvius from getting back up—or more than one knockdown.

He eyed Vesuvius as the tortoise returned to Tyris’ side. The massive monster’s breathing was definitely laboured now. Moving all that bulk, then having to right yourself after being flipped twice probably wasn’t easy, not to mention he'd had several fights before Claygon.

This last round might’ve been tricky, though.

He’d caught Tyris and Vesuvius off guard because they probably didn’t expect Claygon would be able to move, let alone lift the beast.

But now, they knew that he could.

“We might need a different strategy, big guy,” Alex said quietly to Claygon. “What about my proposal from before? Any thoughts on suddenly and conveniently evolving during the match for no reason that makes any sense at all and then showing everyone how much stronger you’ve become by beating your opponent like he was a feather?”

Claygon, of course, didn’t respond.

“Yeah, I didn't think so.”

He looked back at Tyris, his eyes narrowing. She’d used more spells during that round than she probably wanted to, and he and Claygon had closed the gap.

What would she do now?

He thought about likely spells that she might use now that there was only one round left. This last round was either do or die.

“If I were her, what would I do?” he muttered.

Then a thought occurred to him. A horrifying thought.

“There’s no way she doesn’t know that spell,” he muttered. “And it doesn’t care how big a living creature is, it just works on them.” He shook his head. “Okay, buddy, let’s get ready. Once more into the fray.”

The golem turned and clacked his fists together at the same time Alex did.

Vesuvius turned back toward them.

‘They’d start defensive. They were ahead in points. But once he narrowed that score…’

Ding!

The bell rang, signalling round three.

This time, Vesuvius stomped toward Claygon, breathing a massive storm of fire while spraying lava from his shell. Alex had Claygon charge directly into the flame and lava storm.

The sheer force of Vesuvius' assault slowed him, but he dug his heels in and pushed forward. Alex had already begun to power up the fire-gems as Claygon moved forward.

The glow and hum coming from them was hidden by the flame surrounding Claygon.

Lava gushed from the beast’s shell, spraying the golem, slowing him even further as it doused him in lava.

Tyris’ eyes narrowed from across the arena, but she still hadn’t started casting yet.

Then three beams of light tore through the flames, blasting the ground beside Vesuvius’ head. He jerked his head up, elongating his neck to keep his eyes from the blinding beams.

That halted the fire breath from hitting Claygon, but the breath was weakening. ‘You can’t keep exhaling forever,’ Alex thought.

He had Claygon scoop up two handfuls of molten rock with his lower hands.

Vesuvius finally ran out of breath and inhaled.

Claygon whipped the handfuls of lava at the monster.

One missed, but the other landed straight in its open mouth as it inhaled. The tortoise aspirated the lava, his eyes flew wide, then he went into shuddering bouts of coughing. Claygon charged, tackling his massive right front leg from under him.

With a roar, Vesuvius tipped forward and Claygon used that momentum to keep lifting him until-

Crash!

-he flipped onto his side.

‘Knockdown,’ Alex thought. ‘We’re even. One more point from each judge.’

Tyris began spellcasting.

First, she blasted Claygon with another blast of force to push him back, then she started casting another spell.

And Alex fought a smile as he recognized it.

The crowd gasped when the massive beast began to rise from the earth. Flight magic.

But that was the spell Alex had anticipated.

‘Go!’ he mentally roared.

Claygon rushed forward and jumped up, grabbing onto Vesuvius’ shell.

The crowd roared as both the titanic monster and massive golem rose into the air together.