Briar’s opponent was a rather nervous-looking young man with blonde hair and round spectacles: the very image of a magician’s apprentice… or a computer intern from the 1980s. Briar still observed him with an apparent leisure that showed nothing of her thoughts. No matter how wimpy he looked, he was a magician. And, for him to become one of the last sixteen contestants, he was either lucky, or skilled.

Although Briar knew his previous attack patterns, she did not allow herself to be complacent. Even in this duel’s case, Briar would rather err on the side of believing the kid[1] was skilled rather than lucky. At least, she wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled out a spell he hadn’t used in the previous rounds.

Generally, the more innocent a person looked, the more suspicious they were: especially if they were over seven years of age. Kids had this mischievous urge to try being ‘clever’ by squirrelling away trump cards for a rainy day. At least, Briar had always found it so.

Blackmail, history, key information, techniques, skills, sayings, witty expressions: kids loved to save these trump cards for times when it would benefit them the most-especially if it benefits them in the form of good food.

Briar learned that lesson at the orphanage she used to visit in her first life. Therefore, to see a rather gullible looking rookie up on the stage, while most would be celebrating their good luck, Briar felt compelled to pay more attention and be extra cautious of any sneaky tricks.

Yukikage thrashed her tail in annoyance at the fact that Briar didn’t take her along. Yesterday, she had even won a delicious fish from Briar for doing well in the game. But today, it seemed like Briar didn’t want to play with her again.

Is it perhaps that Briar doesn’t have any fish left? She licked her lips and wondered as she watched the two magicians stare at each other, waiting for the start of the match to be announced.

Oddly enough, the announcer hadn’t appeared for this round, which was rather strange. People in the audience were beginning to murmur, wondering what was going on. But, then a figure emerged onto the announcer’s platform. It wasn’t the announcer.

“Ahem! Greetings! Unfortunately, due to an unexpected circumstance, the announcer was found passed out at the bottom of the hallway stairs. While physically, he’s fine aside from a mild concussion, he is still unconscious from the fall. Therefore, as a proxy, I’ll be the announcer for the rest of the contest. My apologies to those who are fans of him.” The man said, using a magic voice amplifier instead of an amplification spell.

“It’s Council-mage Syrel!” Someone exclaimed as they recognized him. There were quite a few in the audience that clapped in applause once they recognized him.

“Thank you, but I’m afraid now’s not the time for applause.” Syrel said. “For now, we should commence with the duel!” He said in a more formal tone, as he waved his staff to begin the duel. The audience cheered even louder as the duel was finally begun.

Briar observed the opponent as she silently set up an air barrier in front of her, compressing the air to an almost solid state, in preparation.

Her opponent immediately gathered his mana and called out several spells. But when he thrust his staff forward, nothing came out. The whole arena was silent. Had the spells failed to activate? What kind of a finalist is this? Then laughter erupted as the audience found the situation humorous.

But Briar didn’t think so. Watching her opponent carefully, she noticed that he was not upset or embarrassed at all. In fact, he stood up straight, with a calm expression on his face as if he were waiting for something.

Briar’s green eyes glowed slightly as she slyly used her mana vision.

Oh Carp!

Her eyes grew wide and she hurriedly leaped away from her original spot. While she was still in midair, a large explosion took place behind her. Her air shield took the brunt of the blow, but Briar was still knocked back quite a few steps before she landed on her feet.

Note to self: Melding Fireballs and Lightning spells creates Thunder-fire bombs!

Briar quickly noticed. But, by the time she had finished dodging, the apprentice was already spouting off more spells. Briar got ready to dodge again, but once more, there was a long awkward pause in between the spell being cast, and the magic activation. But, this time, no one felt like laughing at that short period. Everyone could already see that the silence was dangerous.

Wanna play dirty, huh?

Briar raised an eyebrow as her green eyes focused on the balls of mana shooting out towards her. Briar pretended to use a buffer spell called ‘Swift foot’ as she broke out her [Thunder Cat Lightning Steps].

Unlike the skills which Master Thales had taught her, Briar’s [Thunder Cat Lightning Steps] did not use martial spirit. Instead of a skill, it would rather be something closer to a technique. That is why, when evading the cluster of invisible spells shooting towards her in the air, Briar had no qualms in using it. Dodging just around the spells, she nimbly sprinted toward her opponent.

He grinned and Briar’s eyebrow twitched as she immediately threw up a barrier behind her. The spells which where headed towards her location had detonated in midair behind her, causing her to lose her balance.

He can flippin’ control the detonation time!? What kind of freak is this? Briar felt an anticipatory shiver run down her spine. This one had certainly been keeping his trump cards hidden away. Just the thought that the activation times of the spells could be changed and controlled in such a way! Briar decided to play-er…observe this one a bit more in order to figure out just how he was changing the activation timing.

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Council-mage Syrel watched the battle silently. Unlike the announcer, he didn’t offer any commentary on the duel. Indeed, he didn’t need to. Everyone was too busy watching this unexpectedly interesting duel.

But, when Briar broke out with her [Thunder Cat Lightning Steps], his eyebrows went up.

“A skill?” He muttered, looking carefully for the telltale red aura of martial spirit. But, surprisingly, there was not even a hint of aura. Indeed, there wasn’t any mana behind it either.

“Not a skill…or a spell?” He muttered once again in surprise. For a magician to study something which was neither a skill nor a spell was something quite surprising. Only rarely now could you find magicians that also new a few martial skills, but those were usually just acquired for reasons of keeping up health in old age.

Looking closer, Briar was completely comfortable while using it, so she should be quite proficient in its use. Right now, she was accomplishing something somewhat foreign to the younger generation of magicians. The younger generations only concentrated upon striking their opponent with spells, and guarding against their opponent’s spells. Seldom did any of them think about dodging.

Spells took a lot of concentration to use, not to mention an uninterrupted segment of time to chant, unless they were polished to the ‘No Chant’ effect. Usually being the type to stay inside and read, most magicians weren’t the agile sort of person. Nor, indeed, were their bodies fit enough to take running about on a stage well for very long.

But this young magician was now pulling off such a ludicrous endeavor. Indeed, if one was able to accurately dodge the spells, they would be able to save their mana as well as wear out their opponent’s mana first. But one would need the stamina to last through the entire bombardment of their opponent, first.

Moreover, this young magician girl was somehow able to sense the spells’ locations even as they approached, dodging them with a kind of pinpoint accuracy. And she was matched against a magician lad whose spell timings were erratic.

And so, one had the ridiculous display of one person yelling out spells, while the other one dodged left and right in a kind of dance, with sleeves and skirts fluttering in the wind. And only after she had left the area did the spells explode out, making it seem as if with every leap, she produced a conflagration.

The man’s hazel eyes deepened in thought, as he rubbed his clean-shaved chin. Judging by how good that girl was, she could have easily beaten the lad. But, why hadn’t she?

“Ah!” His eyes lit up and he chuckled gleefully. Of course! She was trying to steal his technique for delayed-time spells. He sighed, and looked away from the battle. At this point, the winner was already determined. The only question was, when the duel would end.

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Briar watched carefully as her opponent yelled out another string of spells, watching as the mana once more formed into circular globes and invisibly thrust out towards her. He only said the spell name, but the amount of time it took in between the shout and the activation seemed quite familiar.

Briar focused on the spell she was most familiar with: [Fireball]. The time from the name to the activation seemed to be the same for each one. In fact, Briar was starting to have an idea as to why that space of time was there. She waited until he shouted ‘Fireball!’ again, then began chanting the spell formula under her breath, jumping just before the end of the chant.

A thunder-fire burst exploded right where she had been standing. With that, a light went on in Briar’s head.

So that’s what it was!

She finally she all pretense of dodging the incoming attacks, as her eyes glinted mischievously. She pointed imperiously at the youngster before her and cried out “Air Bullet!” Interestingly to note, this was one of the first times that Briar had actually spoken her spells out loud in a long time, being a monster that practiced all the basic spells to ‘No Chant’ a long time ago.

Her opponent quickly brought up a shoddy shield of earth to block the blow. But, when nothing happened, he paused, and stuck his face out to look. It was in that moment, that a blunt air bullet struck him right in the face, blowing him off balance, so that he flew off the stage.

Briar smiled. The little prick had tried to attain ‘No Chant’ by saying the chant inside his head-but this only caused an awkward pause in between the spell title, and the activation. He wasn’t truly at No Chant level.

The difference between his silent chant and No Chant was the difference between drawing a picture by hand to copy it, or swiftly creating a whole stack with a copy machine. Obviously, No Chant was faster, and more powerful-the pinnacle of practiced ease.

And now Briar had cheekily returned it all to him right on his nose, with his own technique, no less! The crowds exclaimed in both admiration and amusement at the sight. Briar had even mentally said her air bullet chant much slower than she usually did to max out the time until he couldn’t wait anymore.

He was more used to be the one giving out those time-bomb attacks, instead of being the one on the receiving end. This was the reason why he was defeated-because he didn’t expect someone else to be able to copy his technique so well. And so, for this battle, it wasn’t spell against spell, but technique against technique.

The crowds were now cheering as Briar looked up at Council-mage Syrel expectantly, waving at him. This jerked Syrel out of his musings to recall himself and where he was.

“Ah, ahem! Yes! The opponent is out of bounds, therefore, according to the rules, Briar has won!” Syrel announced, waving his staff with finality, and thus closing the duel.

Briar, feigning tiredness was about to leave the stage when she was held back by Syrel’s next words.

“And now, let us begin the second round! The first duel is…between ‘Tornado’ Faerwind’s apprentice, Lyra Harple, and Madam Rothema’s apprentice Briar Rose. It’s a showdown between two Magi apprentices!”

The crowds began to cheer excitedly as chanting for both names began. Briar looked towards Rothema’s viewing platform. Sorry, Kael. It looks like you’re on your own for the next round. Briar thought bitterly as she remained standing on the stage.

[1] Briar almost always thinks of those younger than her mental age as ‘kids’.