“Don’t drop the spell so quickly,” Henry instructed Damien. “It uses a lot of Ether to cast and isn’t very fast. Its main use is the fact that you can block multiple of your opponent’s spells with just a single one of your own.”

Damien nodded imperceptibly, already tracing a rune through the air with his finger. Reena drew on her magic, summoning another small tornado before her.

“What’s the new spell, Damien?” Reena asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Damien replied. The circle of darkness expanded outwards, absorbing Reena’s attack completely. She stomped her foot when the circle didn’t fade.

“How is that fair?” Reena complained. “You can’t just block all of my magic like that!”

“Yes, I can,” Damien replied. Henry chuckled within his mind, and a small grin crossed the boy’s face as well.

Reena let out a huff. The wind gathered around her and she launched into the air, sending several blades of air hurtling towards Damien. He shifted his hand, moving the large disk in front of their path. The magic vanished within it.

“This is stupid,” Reena pouted, floating back down to the ground. Trickles of sweat had started to spring up on her forehead. “Your spell is too strong. Is that even something at our level?”

“It really is quite impressive,” Nolan said, walking up beside them. Sylph stood beside him, nodding thoughtfully. Neither of them looked particularly sweaty, but the disappointed expression on Nolan’s face made it clear who had won their fight.

“Is that what you’ve been practicing recently?” Sylph asked Damien.

“Yeah. It won’t do me much good against you, though.”

Damien started to lower the spell but something flashed in the corner of his eyes from somewhere behind Nolan and Sylph. Without thinking, he blurred forward, slipping between the two of them and raising the shield.

A powerful force slammed into Damien, pushing him back a step before it vanished within the Devour spell. He lowered it, his brow tightening in anger. Two boys jogged towards them. They looked slightly older than the other students Damien had interacted with. Both had short hair and pale skin. The one on the left had a slightly crooked nose and the other had a sheepish grin on his face.

“Damn,” the boy on the left said. “Good reaction speed. I’m real sorry about Jayce. Somehow, he still hasn’t learned how to control his magic.”

“Well, he should,” Damien said, glowering at them. “Someone could have seriously gotten hurt. How can you hurl a spell across half an arena and not even call out a warning?”

“Sorry. And sheesh,” Jayce said, crossing his arms defensively. “Accidents happen. Calm down.”

“I can kill him,” Henry offered. “In and out tonight. One minute. Nobody will ever know.”

No killing all our problems.

Sylph, who’d summoned a dark blade, allowed it to flicker out. Her expression was unreadable.

“If you can’t control your powers, you shouldn’t be training in a public place,” Nolan said. “You’re a threat to the people around you. There aren’t any healers here right now. What would have happened if we got hit by that?”

“You woulda been fine,” Jayce said, waving his hand dismissively. “There are enchantments in the arena that let a healer know if someone gets injured. That spell wouldn’t have killed you unless you were super weak anyways. Blown up a few limbs maybe, but those regrow.”

“I’d like to blow off a few of your limbs,” Reena growled. “You’re a menace.”

The boy standing beside Jayce glanced from the group to his sparring partner. He threw up his hands and stalked several paces away from them to lean against the wall. Jayce pulled his lips back and took a step towards them.

“You want to spar?” he asked.

“Loser leaves the arena,” Reena replied. Damien grimaced and rubbed his forehead. The situation was clearly well beyond salvaging, and he got the feeling that Reena wouldn’t leave peacefully.

Any chance she wins?

“Absolutely none,” Henry replied. “She’s not nearly as good as Nolan judging by her fight with you. This boy isn’t anything special, but he’s had more training than most of you. His magical energy seems to be somewhat high as well, and his strength isn’t insignificant. The more Ether a spell has, the harder it is to block it with Devour. If you struggled to block his attack, the girl has no chance.”

Fantastic. In that case, any chance she does well enough to force a tie or at least doesn’t get slaughtered?

“Define slaughtered.”

Right.

Sylph glanced curiously at Damien. He grimaced and shook his head. His gaze flicked to Jayce. Sylph wiggled her hand in the air, indicating she wasn’t certain if she could take him easily. Her powers put her far ahead of the other Year One students, but something told Damien that Jayce wasn’t Year One. He sighed.

“I get dibs on the first fight,” Damien said, stepping in front of Reena. He didn’t particularly care if she lost the fight, but he didn’t want to leave the arena right after getting here. On top of that, Damien got the feeling that Jayce wasn’t about to play nice. “I’m the one who took his spell after all.”

“The order doesn’t matter. I can take all of you ducklings,” Jayce said, smirking. “You need a wake up call. There are real monsters out there. Just because you’ve got magic doesn’t make you tough shit. Learn to accept an apology and move on.”

“I hope you’re right about the healer showing up if someone gets hurt,” Damien said, bringing his net of mental energy forth. He drew Ether into himself and channeled it down towards his hands before he’d even stopped speaking.

The other three students backed up to join the other boy at the wall, leaving Jayce and Damien alone in their corner of the arena.

“You ready, kid?” Jayce asked. “I’ll try not to break anything too important. I’d feel bad making your girlfriends watch you get squished.”

Damien just nodded, too concentrated to respond to the boy.

“Remember, Devour won’t work against anything close range,” Henry warned. “Find out what kind of magic he uses, then react from that. This child annoys me. Crush him.”

Jayce made the first move. Fire bloomed around his hand, forming into a sphere in the air above his palm. Damien started tracing the rune for the Devour spell. The other boy smirked and hurled the fireball at Damien.

Damien finished casting Devour and the disk sprang out before him. The fireball slammed into it, hissing and crackling for a moment before it vanished. Damien started to lower the spell, but a mental shout from Henry warned him just before Jayce’s fist slammed into his stomach.

He dropped the spell and hardened his mage armor. Jayce’s fist hit his stomach with a dull thud. The bigger boy hopped back, cursing and shaking his hand. Damien started to summon a gravity sphere, but a tongue of flame curled down the boy’s hand.

Damien dove to the side as the spell howled past him and slammed into the ground where he’d been standing, turning a portion of the sand into glass.

“Are you trying to kill him?” Nolan asked, angry. “What if that spell had hit his head?”

“It didn’t," Jayce replied. Two fireballs formed in his hands and he tossed them at Damien. At the same time, Damien channeled the Ether through his feet, enlarging the sand beneath him. A pillar erupted from the ground and tossed him into the air.

He casts so fast. There’s no way I can compete with his speed.

“More experience,” Henry reminded Damien. “His hand is hurt, though. Try to dodge his next attacks while forming Gravity Spheres. Make them count.”

Damien landed on the ground and started to channel the Ether down his arms. Jayce spun, his mouth twisting into a snarl as he thrust his hands forward. There was a crackle as a tiny spark formed between his palms.

A beam of flame exploded forth, searing past Damien’s head. He nearly lost his concentration but held on by a single strand. Two dark spheres formed in his hands.

“Destructive magic? Really?” Jayce asked, choking back a laugh.

Damien tossed one of them towards Jayce. The boy stepped out of the way, allowing it to hit the ground behind him. The spell detonated, yanking Jayce backwards. Damien tossed his second sphere at the same time.

Jayce managed to twist midair, landing on his feet and diving to the side to avoid the detonation from Damien’s second gravity sphere. While Jayce was struggling to avoid getting hit by the spell, Damien reformed the spheres in his hands.

“Gravity magic? Really?” Jayce panted. “Little brat. You need to learn your place.”

Damien tossed a sphere at Jayce. The larger boy dove out of the way, straight into the path of the other sphere. His eyes widened as the magic hit his arm. The spell detonated with a series of sharp cracks that Damien was starting to grow accustomed to.

Jayce’s expression contorted in pain. He rolled to his feet, one arm hanging limply at his side.

“That’s it. You think you’re hot shit, do you? Let me show you what a real mage can do.”

Flames erupted around Jayce, twisting around his body and forming a set of armor. A sword of fire sputtered to life in his uninjured hand. At the same time, Jayce’s injured arm twisted and snapped back into place.

“You complain about space magic, but you can heal?” Damien asked, pressing his lips together.

Jayce wordlessly smirked. He shifted his stance and leapt forward. Damien’s eyes widened as Jayce crossed the distance between them in an instant. He was easily twice as fast as he’d been a moment ago.

The boy drove a flame covered fist into Damien’s stomach. He managed to harden his mage armor an instant before the strike connected, but the force picked Damien off his feet and sent him tumbling across the sand.

He rolled to his feet, but Jayce was on him again before he could recover. Another blow slammed into Damien’s side and tossed him like a ragdoll. He gritted his teeth against the pain and gathered his Ether midair, pushing it through his limbs and towards his feet.

At the same time, Damien split his consciousness and sent mental energy into his mage armor, hardening all of it at the same time. Not a moment later, Jayce pounded both of his fists into Damien’s back. The blow sent him straight into the ground with a violent thud and knocked all the air out of his lungs.

Damien lost his concentration as a spear of pain punched through his leg. Jayce ripped his sword free and gave Damien a smirk.

“How’s that feel?” Jayce asked.

The Ether gathered at Damien’s foot once again. A gravity sphere formed at his toes and Damien flicked it up a foot behind Jayce. The boy’s eyes widened and he dove to the side, but the spell detonated and yanked him back.

Damien leapt to his feet, avoiding putting pressure on his wounded leg as he desperately channeled his Ether. Jayce regained his footing and snarled, dashing towards Damien just as he managed to summon a sphere in his palm.

“You can’t use that if I’m right on top of you,” Jayce snarled, leaping towards him. The sphere in Damien’s hands shifted forms, straightening out and forming a razor sharp edge. He wasn’t fast enough to actually hit Jayce, but that didn’t matter when the boy was flying through the air towards him.

Damien raised his hand and Jayce slammed into it. A burning fist slammed into his stomach and he tumbled backwards. At the same time, Jayce let out a hiss of pain. Damien forced himself upright, fighting against his aching body.

A thick trickle of blood poured out of Jayce’s stomach. The blade of destructive energy had carved clean through the boy’s armor. However, the bleeding stemmed quickly. Within moments, the wound had completely closed.

“You’ll pay for that,” Jayce hissed. The sword in his hands flared, growing in width and length until it was twice the size it had been. A ring of fire erupted from Jayce’s other hand. It spread out in the blink of an eye, surrounding him and Damien. The flames towered them, concealing the fight from the rest of the Arena.

Damien struggled to his feet, gritting his teeth. Jayce let him stand up and smirked.

“I’ll make sure you remember this one,” Jayce said, dashing forward and rearing back to thrust the flaming blade into Damien’s stomach.

Henry surged forwards, preparing to burst forth from Damien’s body. Then a flash of yellow light tore through the searing fire. Damien blinked, nearly missing the beautiful scene of a glowing fist crunching into Jayce’s armored face.

The fire vanished with a pop. Jayce bounced across the ground like a rock skipped across a lake and slammed into the wall of the arena with a loud crash.

Sean stood where the other boy had been moments ago, flickers of yellow smoke curling up around his body. He stormed forward as Jayce staggered to his feet, his flaming armor forming back around him.

“What are you doing?” Jayce asked through a bloody nose. “We were having a sparring match! You can’t–”

A glowing fist thundered into Jayce’s nose, shattering it. Before the boy could fall, Sean grabbed him by the hair and held him upright, completely ignoring the fire tickling his skin.

“What am I doing?” Sean hissed. “What are you doing? Going all out against a Year One?”

He slammed his other fist into Jayce’s face, cutting the other boy’s response off with a crunch. “And to make matters even worse, you were struggling! A Year Two had to summon their companion against a Year One.”

“He was –”

Sean slammed Jayce’s face into the ground. He lifted the boy, then slammed him into the ground again. Then he drove his foot into Jayce’s face, knocking the other boy’s head back with a spray of blood and what might have been teeth.

“Disgusting,” Sean spat. He kicked Jayce one final time, then stalked back to Damien, his expression softening. “Are you okay?”

Damien nodded. “He didn’t get me too badly. Where’d you come from?”

“A healer gets summoned when someone is injured in the arena,” Sean said, grinning. He pointed his palm towards Damien and a beam of gentle light shot out. Damien’s body prickled and his wounds slowly started to heal. It wasn’t anywhere near as effective as the healers at the tournament, but the pain slowly reduced until it was almost gone.

The Grays and Sylph rushed forward with Jayce’s friend a short distance behind them.

“Seven planes, are you okay?” Nolan asked. “We tried to interfere when he summoned that big sword, but the fire was too hot. We couldn’t get through it.”