Chapter 011

A Losing Victory

To say that Alevier was nervous when he woke up the next day was an understatement. He could not sleep thinking of the upcoming duel and the pain he will have to bear. The previous day, Jarkiso had contacted him and given him a magical breastplate that reduces the incoming pain. But hell, knowing that he will have to be beaten up was still not comfortable, he wasn’t a pain-loving deviant! Moreover, Lueirby had still not decided on the stakes of the duel. According to the rules, the challenger had to decide on the stakes and the person challenged could decide whether to accept it or not. Alas! He did not have the luxury to deny the challenge because of the previous duel’s wager which compelled him. It was so stupid of him, he should have accepted the duel with low stakes in the first place.

“Are you alright?” asked Jaysaun as he put on his sweater. They had just woken up inside their room in the Rubrum Dormitory. This room was like their previous one, except it was much grander in every way. And if Jaysaun was speaking the truth then it was no less than a noble's bedroom.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Alevier shrugged his shoulders. “What about you?”

“I am all better now,” replied Jaysaun. “I am sorry for losing that battle if only I had not overused my spiritual force, I would have won.”

Alevier wore his sweater and said, “It is alright Jaysaun, you helped out and gave me a day for preparations.”

Not to mention he also helped in making his situation much worse. But that was Alevier fault in the end - he should have listened to him and asked to hook him up with a nice girl or something. Anyway, it was no use crying over spilt milk or spent favours, he had to focus on the most efficient way of losing without being beaten up. Should he forfeit immediately? No, that would only make Lueirby angrier at him.

Well, he will have to face whatever comes at him then.

The duo descended the marble staircase and headed towards the dining room. They entered the dining room and were met with the sight of several teens sitting at the table and enjoying the breakfast. Their fellow dorm members greeted them and invited them to sit on the table.

“You two are late like always!” chided Kriso, the dorm manager as he walked out of the kitchen. Albeit this forty-year-old skinny man was trying to scold them, he could not help but show that smile of his. Being transferred to a new dormitory was enough for any dorm manager to be happy, not to mention, this was the famous Rubrum Dormitory - the facilities, here, were quite luxurious.

“Ah, sorry Mister Kakol,” responded Jaysaun as he sat on the table, greedily eyeing the food. “Alevier held me up.”

“Nonsense, I know Alevier, he won’t do such a thing in the slightest,” grunted Kriso. Alevier snickered at this while Jaysaun sighed in defeat. “It was definitely you who overslept and poor Alevier had to wake you up!”

“Ah, fine. Whatever suits you,” Jaysaun shook his head and turned his attention back to the steak. “Pass me the salt, Hukle.”

“This boy...” Kriso rolled his eyes.

* * *

After having breakfast, Jaysaun and Alevier went to attend their classes as usual. They had General Spellcrafting as their first period. They entered the classroom as the gazes of all students turned towards Alevier; some were looking at him with eyes of indifference or some pity, others with looks expressing their glee. Hell, it had only been three damn days since the school started and things were already shaping up like this? Alevier wondered what would happen by the end of this year.

As usual, Kirbecka entered the classroom five minutes after the bell rang. They studied some more of an old magical theory which gave an explanation of the relationship between spiritual force and mana capacity. Nothing special in Alevier’s eyes, if he had to say, this theory was wrong at certain points, but they will study the newer magical theories soon which would be more accurate according to modern research. So there was no need to raise questions right now.

Sometimes Alevier thought that to have too much curiosity was a punishment - it was torturously difficult for him to find novel things.

The bell rang again and the first period was over. Alevier had Machine Making and Tinkering as his next lesson while Jaysaun had a class of Study of Magical Creatures and Monster Hunting. As one could judge, Jaysaun had solely taken this subject because of the latter part - he wouldn’t give a damn about Magical Creatures in Alevier’s opinion.

Alevier headed toward the workshops for his next lesson.

Maybe it was because he was becoming more nervous as the clock ticked by, he ended up messing the gear system his professor asked him to make. He was chided for it and his confidence dropped down another notch as anxiety snickered in his mind. He sometimes wondered if he would confess his love to anxiety, will it leave him too? He sighed, he really should have not done it that day...

Anyway, the duel was to begin after the second period when both the combatants were free. He had the urge to run away but, the laws of the ‘official’ duel prevented him. He could only curse his luck.

Alevier jumped in his seat as the bell rang destroying his hour-long efforts. He clicked his tongue and quickly cleaned up the mess, then he rushed to the arena lest there be any consequences of being late to a duel.

* * *

“The conditions for this duel: the loser will become the winner’s servant for a month,” said Lueirby as an evil grin spread across her face. “I shall stake my freedom as you shall stake yours.”

“The condition of this duel does not violate the rules thus, it is accepted. Alevier Tuwymir and Lueirby Edeye shall stake their freedom in this duel,” announced Jarkiso as excited murmurs erupted amongst the small audience.

“Accepted,” Alevier gritted his teeth as he signed a small contract stating the clauses of this duel.

Damn. According to the rules, in an official duel, one could stake services and goods which were owned or could be performed by either participant. So yeah, forcing one to be someone’s servant was legal even if it was a euphemism for slavery. Moreover, she did not define what kind of a servant he will have to be - this kind of open-ended deal was not good. And one month of being a servant did not suit Alevier’s taste.

He wondered if fate wanted to turn him into a submissive masochist.

Jarkiso gave him a look that said, ‘it is all up to you now,’ before he put away the contract and asked the two combatants to take their positions.

Alevier stood on his spot, his heart throbbing in his chest as more adrenaline poured into his blood. Honestly, he was no tactical genius or had enough combat experience - all his battle knowledge came from the fictions he had read thus formulating a plan where he suddenly unlocks an awesome power after being knocked down was too much to gamble on. But did he have to win?

He prayed that his new leather breastplate would reduce the pain.

“Are you two ready?” asked Jarkiso as the silencing enchantments and sound blocking wards activated: the audience fell quiet.

Lueirby let out a firm, ”Yes.”

To Alevier’s dismay, she had her staff back and her powerful armour had been repaired. One good thing was that her healing spell would not be so potent now, but could he force her to use it?

“...Y-yes,” fumbled Alevier.

“The duel can now commence,” said Jarkiso as he stepped back. “This is a knockout duel. The conditions to win are to make your opponent incapable of fighting back by rendering them unconscious or make them forfeit. Combatants, prepare for the magician's bow.”

Alevier could almost hear his heartbeat as he slowly walked forward and bowed. While Lueirby was radiating glee and confidence. Heck, he was not prepared for this. He turned around and walked back to where he was standing.

He looked at Lueirby in the eye, maybe she was wondering how long will he last. Thirty seconds? Forty seconds? Give or take a few.

“Begin!”

Alevier jolted backwards intending to use the same tactic as Jaysaun. He fired a mana missile at her and ran with all his might. His grimoire was really helpful, it condensed mana and made it easier to be moulded thus, increasing his casting speed. It floated beside him as he cast a mana shield in front of him and continued to run - he did not dare look back.

After running for a moment he turned back and saw that Lueirby had not moved an inch, his mana missile, although strong, had probably missed its mark and his mana shields - three of which he had cast by now - were dumbly hovering in the air. Lame.

Alevier fired off three mana missiles, one of which completely missed the target while the other two were dodged by simple sidestepping.

“What a fool are you making of yourself, perdant,” Lueirby rolled her eyes. “This was a mistake, I think you will simply exhaust yourself and faint without me doing anything.”

Alevier was not actually bothered by this since he was more focused on losing quickly. So he fired two more mana missiles. Lueirby decided to smash them as warm up, but as she slammed her staff into one, she realized that these mana missiles were surprisingly powerful. As a result of her underestimating their strength, she had to clumsily but quickly step away in order to avoid getting blown away.

“You...” Lueirby, although surprised, could not help but feel humiliated at this. She probably thought that he had intentionally put more mana in those missiles and failed to realize that Alevier’s spells were naturally that strong. But it was not her fault, even the audience was surprised for a moment.

Lueirby fired an ember bullet at Alevier, who erected a generic mana shield which clashed with the oncoming spell and effectively defended against it, suffering no more than a few cracks.

Alevier could not help but give her a stupid grin which wonderfully infuriated her. Crap.

Lueirby dashed towards him occasionally firing ember bullets at him, he defended against them by casually erecting shields. Realizing that she could not break through his defence head-on, she began circling him firing ember bullets at odd angles by jumping and haphazardly changing her pace. Her accuracy was deadly, Alevier thought for a second if he should turtle himself in his shields, but then he gave up on that idea - he would run out of mana and spiritual force while Lueirby could dispel those shields or simply break through them, it only took three ember bullets to break one shield. Not to mention spells like her heat wave could bypass the shields by swallowing them up.

He had to think of a plan before Lueirby can come close and spectacularly make a punching bag out of him. He wasn’t a physical fighter! He wasn’t even a fighter, to begin with! Why can’t he live his life peacefully making potions and tools, and selling them for cheap so everyone can remain happy?

He sighed and chanted a spell, a fist-sized ball of glowing snow condensed beside him - it was one of his favourite spells: the Snowball spell! He will it with his spiritual force and it shot forwards curving a little towards Lueirby. She grunted and dodged the spell but, that was when the magic happened! The spell exploded into a flurry of cold and small ice shards. Lueirby’s leg was affected by the spell and a thin layer of frost crept up her shin probably giving her some frostbites - he forgot his spells were more powerful than before.

She cursed under her breath and a fire lit up in her hands, she gently swept it across her leg twice, effectively countering the spell’s damage. Then she looked at Alevier with a scowl, he had definitely pissed her off now. She stomped her staff and invoked a heat wave spell which stretched out towards Alevier. As expected of the spell, it bypassed the shields by giving them a fiery embrace and expanded further to complete its quest to give Alevier a toasty hug.

Alevier fired multiple dispelling spells or de-spells, but neither of them was effective against the wave of fire. That was the basic problem with de-spells, there was a very wide variety of them and each one of them was only effective against a certain kind of spell. And none of the generic de-pells seemed to stand against this ambitious heat wave spell.

He swore as he made a wide wall of shields, a third of his mana was gone now, but due to the slow use, his spiritual force was alright at the moment.

The wave of flames collided with the wall of force, unable to burn its way through or bypass it from the sides, the wave decided to climb the wall. Cool, he is going to be roasted alive today. To his dismay, Lueirby was not standing idly, wondering what a beautiful day it was, but she was casting ember bullets to break his shield.

Alevier’s brain ran at high speed. He thought of Jaysaun and what he would do, then suddenly his voice rang in his head, “Alevier, you need to chill!”

Oh yeah, he was good with cool spells, Alevier chided himself internally as he fired off some more snowballs. The balls of glowing snow were effective in lowering the power of flames and keeping them down. Cool. However, the fire spells were going to break his shield and looking at the cracks that spiderwebbed across it, he would be bathing in flames very soon.

But, Alevier had a superb sight, meaning he was not blind and could see that ice had formed on the shield and was strengthening it and filling its cracks. Using vast amounts of brain power and common sense, Alevier finally formed a plan! He shot snowballs as fast as he could at the wall like a madman. Although he had burned through half of his mana reserves, he succeeded in creating a wall of frost, force and ice. As a bonus, the icy magic had depleted the power of the flames and extinguished them.

Ah, what a marvel that beautiful ice wall was until Lueirby fabulously jumped over it like an acrobat and lunged towards Alevier, slamming her staff in his flank and sending him skidding across the floor. Although it sounded painful, it was not. The enchanted armour was wonderful at reducing the pain along with the damage. He suspected that without it he would have cracked a few ribs, but he had only suffered a push right now. Lucky.

Alevier tried to act as if he had fainted but a small smile left his lips. The good news was that he immediately suppressed it. The bad news was that Lueirby had seen it for the small moment it had shown itself. Suspecting something, she approached him slowly, then out of the blue she kicked him lifting his body a few feet and making it fall back with a thud. But all Alevier felt was a small kick, nothing serious.

“Oh, get up you shameless prick, I know you are acting!” snapped Lueirby. Alevier lost his composure for a moment before resuming his act. Damn, why wasn't Jarkiso not announcing the duel over? If he were to forfeit now, Lueirby would definitely bite him again for annoying her by having absolutely no honour, so that wasn't an option.

Since he was showing no signs of getting up, Lueirby approached him an examined him for a while before realising what was wrong. With an evil grin, she started stripping him of his armour. Crap. Alevier quickly mobilised his arms and legs, frantically trying to get away from her but she was just too damn strong. She held him by his neck and slammed him in the ground, then she stepped on his butt and pushed it down, effectively pinning him.

“How shameless of you to use this!” she snickered as she undid the straps and tore away his armour. Alevier cursed and tried to cast a spell but, she grabbed his arm and twisted it. With a painful crunch, she broke his arm. He screamed in pain as tears welled up in his eyes.

She lifted him by his neck and began hard-slapping him. Powerful blows landed on his cheeks. The force and the pain were enough to keep him from fainting and being hit at his jaw, he was unable to form any words. Only groans of pain, saliva and blood left his mouth.

“You. Dare. Stand. Against. Me?” said Lueirby while pausing in between every word to land a slap on Alevier's face. If being unable to stop the perdant's attack wasn't humiliating enough, being damaged by his spell certainly was. With an injured ego, she chose to vent out all her frustration at him.

With a punch on his nose, she threw him aside like a rag doll.

Alevier was miraculously still conscious as he lied on the ground - broken. His purple face felt numb and his bloody nose was crooked now. His cheek's veins had burst at some point and his skin was bleeding. He probably had a cracked rib along with a broken arm, his head was dizzy with pain. Even with healing spells, it would take weeks for him to recover.

Oh, how he wanted to take revenge for all this, but he knew it would only get him in trouble, it was this mute patience of a dog that had aided him till here.

Realising that she had not won yet, Lueirby got really, really annoyed, if this kept going. She might end up killing him and that would not look good on her school record. And hell, how would people see her if they knew that her first kill was a complete loser.

She approached him with her arms folded and ordered, “Forfeit now!”

Alevier really wanted to but his lips were too numb to make proper words. In the end, only nonsensical gibberish left his mouth.

Looking at how pathetic he was, Lueirby spat on his face.

“You wretch, why do you even exist?” she said as she stepped over his face and rolled it about.

That spit really stung Alevier and while his ears were ringing, he could clearly hear her words.

“Doesn't it feel worthless living?” she muttered as he put some more pressure on his face.

Yeah, totally. But he has a dream which he must complete and a promise to fulfil.

“Why do you even try? Even after knowing everything you do is absolutely insignificant.”

Again, it is his ambitions that drive him. But hey, not everything he does is insignificant! He had sold those hemostasis potions for cheap in the slums the previous day after he was done having fun with his new friends. Maybe it was those smiles of the people who he helped that made him wake up every day…

“Your knowledge, which you brag about, is a waste. It doesn't matter because you are too useless to apply it.”

Hell no. It was not like that! He read every day just so he could apply that knowledge practically and make things work out. Is she trying to say all his hardworking was for nought? So those tears he cried every night did not matter? All that time he spent immersed in books, all those nights he spent writing until his fingers went sore, all those time he fell sick because of exhaustion, they all didn’t matter? In the future, he will show her that was not for nothing, he will become a great alchemist and inventor.

“You are a loser.”

He knows it! He had been told that every living moment of his life, so stop telling this to him again and again and again!

“An eyesore, a pain to everyone. You are trash.”

Stop. He gritted his teeth and listened to the insults, for some reason they were more difficult to bear than usual. He was angry at her, but he could suppress the urge to attack her. Perhaps it was because he had the power to fight back now...

“Hag-born, I wonder how pitiful the worthless man who had you as an offspring.”

Did she just call his father worthless?

An overwhelming feeling of rage boiled up inside him. A smiling face of a man flashed across her face and his father’s words echoed across his mind, “Live Alevier… Strive to be happy.”

“He must have been a failure and a scum like begets like. Well, yo-”

She stopped speaking because a hand suddenly grabbed her leg. A chilling force spread out on her calf as a stinging pain erupted shaking her very bones. She screamed and kicked him away. A layer of cold ice stuck to her skin, she could hardly feel her leg. She glanced at Alevier with anger and surprise.

Alevier slowly picked his body up, his arm was hanging down his shoulders, his body was bent and his legs shook. He slowly lifted his broken face, which revealed an expression of twisted anger, was crying. He spoke softly but his tone was of mad rage, “Ca-call me whatever-r y-you want. But dare t-to insult my father, I will kill you!”

His grimoire flew towards him and it's pages flipped automatically. Without any gestures or chant, he invoked the ice pike spell. There was a magical theory that stated that spiritual force is influenced one's emotions - in case of emotional stress, the spiritual force could go into hyperdrive and multiply by many folds, become more powerful or not be easily exhaustible. Thus, many people called it the ‘soul version of the body’. Maybe that was the reason Alevier could form five ice pikes in some seconds, without chants or gestures.

Lueirby widened her eyes and stepped back.

‘When did he become so strong? Was he hiding his powers all this time?’ she said to herself. A number of questions ran across her mind but she forcefully expelled them and chanted a spell.

The ice pikes remained still in mid-air forming an arc above Alevier. But this was not enough for him, he wanted to hurt her, she had crossed the line and he would not forgive her so easily. He actively channelled mana in all of the pikes and overloaded them. The ice pikes glowed as a buzzing sound emitted from them. Then he ordered one to fire just to see if they were strong enough. It flew fast and straight, heading towards Lueirby’s face, however, a thick block of translucent force sprang up in front of her blocking the pike’s path. But the pike sliced through it and shattered it like a piece of glass.

Lueirby’s face twisted in terror as she jumped sideways but the ice pike managed to hurt her shoulder. It wasn’t a deep wound but she was sure that this ice pike could impale her had she been in its way even with all those protective enchantments. But was actually scared her was that ice pike tore through her best defence like it was nothing and still had power to spare. Was Alevier out of his mind trying to kill her?

Alevier soundlessly willed all the ice pikes to shoot towards her. They whizzed through the air leaving blueish afterimages, Lueirby could do nothing but make use of her agility to dodge the incoming spells - which did not fare well for her. Although she was not hit directly by any, she ended up getting her thighs wounded bloody and the armour near her abdomen torn into shreds. There was another wound on her right flank and left waist, and her defensive enchantments had shattered. Moreover, all the wounds were still having ice magic in them giving her some nasty frostbites.

She staggered forward and fell, she needed to heal herself but her staff had been knocked away and lay a few yards away from her. She had to get it before it was all over.

Alevier saw that she had not turned into a skewered kebab of a human, so he cast another spell despite being low on mana at the moment. However, he needed to get closer to her in order to aim it properly. He dragged his feet while clutching his chest, advancing towards a defenceless Lueirby. With a soft chant, a translucent disc of force appeared in his hand. Lueirby realized that it was too late for her, she could definitely not reach the staff in time even though it was a few feet from her now.

Had it not been for him stumbling, Lueirby would have been beheaded. The disc flew from his hand and shot towards Lueirby, she threw herself to the side barely avoiding the spell, however, the disc was able to slice apart her ponytail. She fell on the ground horrified and realized Alevier was no joke - he really wanted to kill her and deaths in duels were acceptable. She did not want to die and facing someone so terrifying she could only quiver in fear. She dragged her body back on her butt trying to put up some distance between her and Alevier.

Alevier did not stop his march, he fired a mana missile at her which only missed because his head was fuzzy. Lueirby yelped in fright as the mana missile smashed beside her, denting the ground. It was over for her. In the end, her fear won over her pride.

Alevier stopped right in front of her, his blood and tears dripped down his cheeks and fell on her bloodsoaked shoes. Not daring to look at his twisted visage, she cried out, “I-I give u-up, I f-forfeit!”

“The duel is over! Since Lueirby Edeye forfeited, Alevier Tuwymir wins,” announced Jarkiso. “According to the rules, Alevier can claim her prize/wager - Lueirby Edeye as her servant of one month...”

Alevier simply stared down at her, unaffected by Jarkiso’s announcement. He lifted his good arm and said, “Servant, eh?”

He stretched out his hand towards Lueirby and a flame burst into existence on his palm burning his own skin and flesh. He did not care about the pain or the cost of this unstructured magic - right now, all he wanted was to scar and mutilate that face of hers, so that foul mouth could never speak ill of his father again.

“Well, you are fired,” he whispered as she screamed and cried out trying to push herself away from the incoming doom. His hand was only an inch away from scorching her face when Alevier was suddenly pulled back.

“What?” he snapped in annoyance. He turned to see that Jarkiso had grabbed him by the collar and was the one to pull him away.

“You just said she is fired hence, she is not your servant anymore. Therefore you cannot do as you wish with her since she is but a student now. I, as a teacher, am only stopping you from harming your fellow classmate,” said Jarkiso expressionlessly.

Alevier yelled at this. The pain from him burning his hand finally started reaching him and he winced in pain yet he still struggled to reach out to Lueirby.

Jarkiso sighed and uttered a chant casting a spell, making Alevier suddenly drop unconscious.

“You seriously need some medical attention, the consequences of this duel are quite dire,” said Jarkiso as he called out the helpers to take the two combatants to the hospital. Guess they won’t be attending classes for a few days at least.

* * *

Jaysaun and Sinchiya got up from their seats, very few people had been permitted to watch this duel and all the audience were left aghast at the results. After all, most duels did not degenerate into a bloody deathmatch.

Jaysaun looked at Sinchiya and said, “Well, something is definitely wrong with him.”

“He does not seem to have evil intentions so it is all good, but that anger was unnatural. It almost seemed like it had been triggered by something,” replied Sinchiya as she blankly stared at the empty arena, there was quite some blood on the floor at the moment.

She turned toward him and said, “I guess your plan worked out.”

“Oh it always does,” chuckled Jaysaun. “I would have made him reveal his abilities to me one way or the other.”

“What now?” she asked.

Jaysaun said, “Of course we have to protect his identity now, let’s alter memories and spread rumours. He is our friend after all and I would be terribly unhappy if our enemies got ahold of him. Thus, we should protect him from danger and exposition. I had already planted some illusionary spells in the minds of everyone watching with us. The helpers don’t care or know about Al, the only person remains to convince is Jarkiso. But I guess he is helping Al out so it is all fine. We have achieved our objective of finding Al’s alignment and abilities. Oh, and let's not forget Lueirby, we will have to do something about her.”

“Why do all your plans work out so well?” she grumbled.

“There is a reason Prudentia chose me, so have faith in me... Fides,” he said with a wry smile.