“That was a good fight,” Loretta said, giving Damien a small nod as they got off the stage. “I didn’t expect you to run straight at me. What if I’d hit you in the heart or the head?”

“You didn’t,” Damien said, scratching the back of his head. “And I figured that Darcy would stop the fight if you were going to kill me. If I used any more magic, I don’t think I would have had a great chance at making it in the next round.”

Loretta rolled her eyes. “You were thinking about the next fight while you were on the stage for another one? That makes me feel a bit inadequate. Even if I’d won this fight, I was out of Ether. I wouldn’t have been able to fight in the next one if it was anytime soon.”

“It was still a good showing,” Volon said, greeting them with a nod as they arrived beside him. “Probably the closest fight so far. Makes me feel a bit less awful about my performance. I think I might have just been outclassed this time around.”

Blake grunted, but some of the cockiness had left his demeanor. Darcy called two more students onto the stage, but Damien didn’t pay attention to the fight. He sat down and let out a slow breath, focusing on keeping himself calm and recovering what energy he could before the next fight.

It felt like only a few minutes had passed when Damien heard the judge call out his name along with Blake’s. With a small grimace, Damien opened his eyes and stood up. Blake didn’t look at him as the two headed up the stairs and onto the stage.

“This is the last fight before the quarterfinals,” Darcy announced as they took their spots on the stage. “Good job on getting this far, both of you.”

Damien and Blake didn’t respond. Their eyes were focused on each other, neither wanting to be slow on the uptake to channel their Ether once the fight started. Darcy smirked and raised a hand.

“Begin!” he ordered.

The air around Blake’s hands started to crackle. Damien’s nape tingled and he let the gravity sphere he’d been forming fizzle, dropping to the ground and enlarging a thick wall of sand.

The wall shuddered as a rather loud bang ripped through the air, blowing the wall to bits and releasing the Ether in the spell, causing it to collapse to its normal size.

Smoke rose up in the air from where whatever spell Blake had cast impacted the wall. Judging by the sparking yellow energy forming in the boy’s hands, Damien suspected it was probably lightning.

He didn’t give Blake time to get another spell off. Damien lobbed a gravity sphere in the boy’s direction. This time, Blake was the one forced to drop his spell. He dove to the side as the spell detonated, getting yanked backwards several feet but avoiding the impact.

Blake hit the ground in a roll. He thrust a hand towards Damien before he rose. A small bolt of yellow energy shot out from it, clipping Damien in the foot right as the boy was throwing his second gravity sphere.

Damien let out a pained gasp and his hand wavered, sending the sphere awry from its course. Instead of hitting Blake in the chest, it hit the ground slightly behind him, catching one of his arms in the blast and breaking it with a snap.

Blake’s face went pale and he cried out in pain. Damien shifted his weight to take the pressure off his injured foot and sent another spell hurtling in his opponents direction.

The other boy threw himself forward and rolled to his feet, his face pallid. Energy crackled to life in his good hand while the other hung limply at his side. The sphere detonated behind him, forcing him to stumble.

The lightning bolt went wide, slamming into the invisible rune walls of the platform harmlessly. Damien tossed another sphere at him, but his eyes went wide when he realized that the energy sparking at Blake’s hand still hadn’t evaporated.

A second blast of energy ripped out of the boy’s hand. With no time to dodge, Damien crossed his hands in front of himself. Pain tore through his body as the bolt sent him skidding back several feet. His injured leg nearly gave out under him, but he remained standing through sheer force of will.

Damien cried out in pain and his arms dropped limply to his sides, small trails of smoke rising up from them. They felt fried, broken, and bruised at the same time.

“You were better than I expected,” Blake said between ragged gasps. He raised his good hand, energy starting to collect around it slowly.

Damien desperately tried to raise one of his arms, but all he got for his efforts was a stabbing pain so fierce that he nearly passed out. Time seemed to slow down as he saw the magic gather at Blake’s fingertips.

A drop of sweat trickled down Damien’s brow. He grabbed the Ether within himself using his mental energy, channeling it downwards through his injured leg.

The droplet reached the bridge of his nose. It trailed further downwards, beading up on the tip of his nose before finally falling.

A gravity sphere formed at the top of Damien’s foot. He kicked it towards Blake, using his momentum to fall onto his back. A bolt of lightning screamed over him, passing so close to his nose as he fell that he smelled the ozone.

Time snapped back to normal. Damien’s back hit the sandy ground. His spell detonated as the lightning bolt hit the invisible wall of the platform, and dozens of loud snaps filled the air. Blake’s cry of pain accompanied them.

Damien tried to roll over, but the pain ravaging his body wouldn’t even let him budge. He squeezed his eyes shut, unable to even turn his head to see what had happened to Blake through his haze of agony.

After what felt like hours but was truly only a few moments, sweet relief washed over Damien. He drew in a sharp breath as Darcy’s face swam into vision above him.

“Who won?” Damien asked.

“You did,” Darcy said. “Your last attack caught Blake in the side.”