The platform was silent. Mark’s jaw clenched, but he slowly lowered his sword.

“Sylph wins,” Teg announced, his words disbelieving.

Whisp glanced from Sylph to Damien. A flicker of a grin crossed the stern woman’s face. Without a word, she launched into the sky and vanished through the clouds.

“You’re a smug little bastard, aren’t you? The two of you weren’t even competing in the same tournament as we were.” Urvo said to Damien.

“They never gave us any rules,” Damien replied, trying and failing to hide his grin. “Maybe they won’t keep us in the dark next time.”

Teg looked like a blood vessel was about to burst on his face. The judge let out an explosive sigh and stormed over to the two students, healing them while muttering under his breath.

“Congratulations on first place,” Teg told Sylph. He turned to the other students. “The results of the ranking battles will be released to your teachers shortly. They’ll direct you to the location where you can pick up your rewards.”

The platform rumbled. Damien wobbled as the ground shook beneath his feet. The platform slowly lowered towards the ground.

“None of your teachers will be holding any class today, so feel free to do whatever you’d like with your time,” Teg continued, his voice flat. “You’ve all done well getting here.”

The platform accelerated its descent. The ground rose up quickly towards them, but as soon as they got close, it started to slow. When they touched the ground, Damien barely even felt the impact. He combed his hair back with his hands, the dull headache muted by his victory.

“Go on,” Teg snapped, waving his hand irritably. “Get out of here. There’s a portal right outside the arena.”

Sylph and Mark walked over, joining Damien and Urvo. Mark pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow.

“Why do I feel like I was fighting both of you in that last fight?” Mark asked.

“There weren’t any rules about outside help,” Damien said.

“Evidently,” Mark muttered. “That won’t work on me next time, though.”

He inclined his head, clearly annoyed, and strode out of the arena. The other three watched him go.

“Delph’s students are insane,” Urvo declared. “I’ll be watching for you guys in the next tournament.”

He left as well. Damien and Sylph exchanged a glance.

“Lunch?” Sylph suggested. Damien nodded empathetically.

They left the arena and headed to the mess hall. The campus was more crowded than Damien had ever seen it, so it took them several minutes of waiting in line until they were able to order.

Once Sylph had ordered and put the bill on Delph’s tab, the two students found a spot at one of the tables towards the end of the room. They sat down and Damien let out a exhausted sigh.

“I thought they were going to call me on stalling our fight,” he said. “We’re lucky Dean Whisp didn’t seem to mind too much.”

“I don’t think I would have had a chance of winning without that,” Sylph admitted. “I barely won, even with your heat runes. And I get the feeling that Mark was still holding back.”

“Well, all that matters is you did win,” Damien said. “There was no way I had a chance of taking Mark out, even if I managed to beat you, which I don’t think would have happened. We should definitely be able to go on some of the higher level missions now.”

Their runes lit up. Damien pressed the glowing light, summoning the plate of slop before him. He bit back a gag and lifted it, holding his nose shut as he tipped the food into his mouth and swallowed without chewing.

He shuddered, his lips pulling back in a grimace, and set the disturbingly clean plate back on the table.

Sylph took two of the sticks of dumplings from her plate and set them on Damien’s. He gave her an appreciative nod.

“Thanks,” Damien said, taking a bite out of a dumpling.

“I think I’m the one that owes you the thanks,” Sylph replied.

Damien finished chewing and shrugged. “Placing high will help both of us. We’ve both got reasons to get a lot of points, the least of which is so I can afford to eat something other than their free slop.”

“I was wondering about that, actually,” Sylph said. “There are a lot of students at this school, but even after a big event like the ranking battles, the mess hall is just barely full. There’s no way everyone could fit in here. That means that most people are eating somewhere else.”

“We could ask Delph,” Damien suggested. “He’s sure to be happy that you won, so maybe he’ll tell us.”

“We can ask tomorrow,” Sylph said. “And I hope they get our winnings to us quickly. Our room needs a door already.”

Damien nodded in agreement. He took another bite out of a dumpling. A hand clapped his shoulder and he nearly leapt into the air. He spun to see Sean standing behind him, a grin on his face.

“Look at you two,” Sean said. “First place and a Semifinalist. I’ve never seen Teg so annoyed before. It really looked like the two of you completely played the system. They’re going to have to release a whole slew of new rules prohibiting students from helping eachother now.”

“Hello, Sean,” Damien said, nodding to the older boy. “You saw the fights?”

“Hard not to,” Sean replied. “Everyone else was done like… half an hour before the Year Ones. You should have seen my face when I realized it was you two sitting in the arena, refusing to fight. I wish I’d thought of doing something like that. I got knocked out in the quarterfinals after running out of Ether.”

“Hopefully the school isn’t too annoyed,” Damien said, rubbing the back of his head. “It’s just that they didn’t give us rules, so we figured anything went.”

Sean let out a burst of laughter. “Oh, you did great. Antagonizing Teg is one of life’s greatest pleasures. He’s the teacher for several of the advanced combat classes in your second year, so driving him up the wall is a rite of passage.”