Damien watched in rapt attention several moments passed silently. Mark’s head turned on a swivel as he tried to spot where Sylph would come from.

He suddenly spun, raising his arms before him. A dark furrow carved through the air, slamming into his armor with a thud. Sand sprayed from the strike, pattering against Sylph’s camouflaged form and revealing her for an instant.

Mark threw a punch at the camouflaged Sylph. The sand fell to the ground and his hand passed through the air harmlessly. Another strike carved across Mark’s back, but it failed to break his armor.

“Are you teleporting?” Mark asked, impressed. “I thought that was supposed to be quite hard.”

Sylph’s response was a blade of darkness that scored across his arm. This time, it bit a bit deeper. Damien saw a flash of Mark’s ragged clothing beneath the sand before it shifted, covering the thin cut in his flesh.

“That’s one,” Mark said, sighing. He thrust his hand upwards. Sand launched into the sky around him, revealing Sylph several feet away form him.

He thrust his hand towards her. The sand condensed into little balls and shot towards Sylph. Her outline vanished once more and the balls passed through the air harmlessly. Another slash tore through Mark’s armor, revealing a flicker of his back. He spun, but Sylph had already vanished.

“Your magic is quite annoying,” Mark muttered. He raised his hand once more, filling the air around him with a whirling sandstorm. Damien grimaced as some of it battered against his face.

He scooted back several feet. Sylph’s outline flickered through the storm, appearing and disappearing. Whenever Mark spotted her, a barrage of sand would shoot in the girl’s direction. Unfortunately for him, the girl was significantly faster than his reaction time.

A final line slashed across his stomach. The sand fell to the ground and Mark let out a heavy sigh.

“Well, that was disappointing,” the boy sighed, allowing his armor to flow off him. Sylph appeared as well. She gave him a tight smile, but she was breathing heavily while Mark barely looked ruffled.

“Why didn’t you use your sword?” Damien asked, nodding at the blade sticking out of the sand.

“Can’t use that against other students,” Mark replied. “I don’t want to accidentally stab someone. There aren’t any healers here right now, and I’d get blood all over my clothes if I did.”

“That’s understandable,” Damien said. “And I guess you can’t really pull your punches with a sword either.”

Mark gave him a wry grin and started to sit down. “You get to fight Sylph next, then.”

“Do you think I could go against you instead?” Damien asked, spotting the well concealed flicker of worry that passed over Sylph’s face.

“Sure, if Sylph doesn’t mind,” Mark said, shrugging.

“Go for it,” Sylph said, giving Damien a small nod of appreciation that proved Damien’s thoughts correct. She was likely running low on Ether from all the not-exactly-teleporting she’d done inside Mark’s sandstorm.

Damien rose to his feet, biting back a groan. He made his way over to stand before Mark, then stretched his legs out once he arrived. A thought struck him and he grimaced.

“Ah… I don’t actually know any offensive spells right now,” Damien realized.

“Not one?” Mark asked, his eyebrows raising. “How do you plan to fight anything without a spell that does damage? Or did you not plan to be a combat mage?”

“No, I’m going to be a combat mage,” Damien said, scratching the back of his head. “And I suppose I’ll just have to figure something out. For now, I’ll just see what I can do.”

Mark gave Damien a bemused look but nodded. The sand rose up around him, forming the light plate armor that he’d worn while fighting Delph. The openings on it made the armor easier to penetrate, but Damien suspected it also gave him a lot more mobility.

“You can take the first move then,” Mark offered.

Damien drew on the Ether within himself. It leapt to his call, two motes spiraling together and launching down his arm. A gravity sphere formed in his hand and Damien lobbed it at Mark. He started making another one before the first had even hit the ground.

Mark dodged to the side, but it wasn’t even necessary. The sphere hit the ground a foot to his side. He raised an eyebrow, suppressing a laugh.

“You might want to work on your aim a lit–”

The sphere imploded, yanking the unsuspecting boy off his feet. He was so close to the center of the blast that he was thrown to the ground, his eyes going wide. Damien lobbed the second sphere behind his fallen opponent.

It went off right as Mark pushed himself back up, pulling him backwards and sending him tumbling to the ground once again. He barked out a rough word that Damien suspected was a curse as he hit the sand.

Damien started forming another gravity sphere, but Mark rolled to his feet and dashed towards him. He abandoned the spell, allowing the Ether to return to its resting position as Mark drove his fist into Damien’s stomach.

He hardened the mage armor. Mark’s fist hit the armor with a dull thud. He hopped back in surprise. The armor around his hand had cracked.

“What is that?” Mark asked, his eyes wide. “It didn’t look hard at all!”

“Mage armor,” Damien replied, taking advantage of the respite to start creating another gravity sphere. “I can harden it with Ether.”

“I want that,” Mark decided.

Damien chucked the sphere at him, but this time the boy was ready. He dove to the side, dropping into a roll and hopping back to his feet. When the spell went off, it only tugged him slightly to the side instead of knocking him over.

Mark dashed over to Damien, then put his hand above Damien’s head before he could move.

“Your armor doesn’t protect your head,” Mark said. “Killing blow, no?”