“You look… ah, a lot younger than he is,” Damien hedged.

Kat scrunched her nose. “I’m a little young, but I’m still older than you. Not everyone on the frontlines is withered, you know. And that doesn’t answer my question.”

“He’s fine, I suppose,” Damien said, choosing his words carefully. “He really doesn’t talk much about what happened on the frontlines.”

“No, I imagine not,” Kat said, her grin fading for a few moments. “He really is at Blackmist, then?”

“I mean, yes? I didn’t realize it was a secret.”

“It isn’t, but he’s started rumors of being at other schools and locations too,” Kat said. “He’s a very difficult man to track down.”

“I can believe that. How long ago did he train you?”

“That would be telling my age. Nope, not happening,” Kat said with a laugh. “Did he volunteer you to come here?”

“No,” Damien replied. “It was my own choice. I had some personal business to deal with at Mountain Hall, but that’s taken care of. Now, I’m just trying to learn what I can. If Delph was your teacher, is there anything you can show me that he couldn’t?”

“If he taught you everything he knew? Probably not,” Kat admitted. “But I think we both know that he didn’t. He probably gave you some vague directions and then made you run laps until you passed out.”

“Pretty much.”

“Then I can teach you. It means you’ll have to work with me, though. How long are you here?”

“A few months at most. Probably less.”

“And you’re a Year Two? Can you do a Full Manifestation?”

“Yes, but it’s… a bit of a special case. I don’t use it in combat,” Damien said. “My companion occasionally just likes roaming around on his own.”

“We’ll rectify that,” Kat said. “You need both Manifestations working properly. You already seemed to know a few of the students in my class. How would you honestly rank yourselves against them?”

“I’m considerably more powerful than Venus, even without my Manifestation,” Damien said, rubbing the back of his head. “And I’m stronger than Quinlan too, although I think she might pose more of a fight. It depends what abilities I used.”

“You were holding back when we sparred, then?”

“Considerably. You were too, though.”

“It would be ludicrous for a professor to go all out against a student,” Kat said, rolling her eyes. She caught the look on Damien’s face and paused. “You don’t think so. You genuinely think you can take me?”

“I can honestly say that I think I’ve taken worse,” Damien replied. “But, if you’re anything like Delph, I’d probably have to use some of the abilities I’d prefer to keep hidden.”

“But you think you could beat me.”

“Probably.”

“Well, you’re either considerably stronger than I thought or incredibly egotistical,” Kat said. “Why don’t we find out? This will help me figure out where you stand.”

Damien considered her offer for a few moments. It would mean revealing more than he wanted to, but there was only so long he could keep his powers secret anyway. If Kat could actually help him get stronger, it was a worthwhile trade.

“I’m okay with that,” Damien said after a few more seconds of deliberation. “We’ll need to be somewhere private, though. I’m not going to reveal my abilities to everyone. There’s still a certain degree of anonymity that I want to keep.”

“Like you’ve got much of that left. From what I hear, you’ve already got quite the reputation,” Kat said with a smirk. “But that’s fine. Let’s go. We’ll do it now, so I can figure something out for tomorrow’s lesson if you really are as good as you imply.”

She grabbed Damien’s hand and was off again, blurring across the streets of Mountain Hall so fast that they were little more to a blur as they passed.

A minute later, they skidded to a stop on a large plateau atop a smaller mountain peak overlooking the college. Wind howled around them, but runes along the edge of the short peak kept it from getting inside.

“This place is pretty secluded,” Kat said as Damien shook himself off, blinking to get some feeling back in his eyes. “Nobody should see us here.”

“Works for me,” Damien said. “Same rules?”

“Nope. You can’t use your companion. We’ve seen your Battle Manifestation, and I’ve already accounted for that. I want to see the other abilities you have, so focus on only using those. In fact, don’t use any of the magic you used in our previous fight.”

“That makes things pretty disadvantageous for me,” Damien observed, pacing around the arena to get a feel for it. It wasn’t too large, but there was still more than enough room to maneuver and run around. Covering the entire thing with a single large spell would have been very difficult. “You’re very fast, and without Warp Step, you’ll likely catch me immediately.”

“I won’t use my body enhancement. I’ll be using ranged magic, so you should have more freedom to get your own abilities off without me constantly hounding you.”

“Then that works,” Damien said. “Ready?”

Yellow energy lit along Kat’s body, racing down her arms and gathering at her shoulders. It hissed and popped as arcs leapt off her, sizzling against the ground. “Ready. You may begin.”

Damien started by binding several Devour spells in place around him. Kat seemed content to let him prepare, and he wasn’t about to waste the opportunity. It only took a few seconds to ready four of the disks. It was a mild strain to keep them all bound, but he’d been doing it so much now that it was almost second nature.

“Are you just going to sit there forever?” Kat asked.

“You’re welcome to make the first move,” Damien replied, casting another Devour spell near the middle of the arena and binding it.

Kat took Damien up on his offer. A bolt of lightning erupted from her palm. It screamed toward Damien, who released one of his spells. A black disk bloomed between them and the attack vanished inside it.

He released the Devour he’d set in the center of the arena. It snapped to life, and Kat’s spell launched out from within it. She snapped her fingers and a gold bubble formed around her. The lightning struck her defenses with a loud crack and vanished without leaving a mark.

“You’re at a disadvantage if this goes on too long,” Henry said in Damien’s mind. “We don’t want to use much Void magic, if you plan to use it at all. You’re best off impressing or defeating her quickly.”

Damien had to agree. He’d already used most of his offensive spells in their first fight, which made it a lot more difficult to actually defeat Kat now if he stuck to their agreement. But difficult didn’t mean impossible.

“Kneel,” Damien commanded. Kat’s eyes only had an instant to widen before she slammed face first into the ground, the gravity around her magnifying a hundredfold. She hit the floor of the arena with such force that her protective bubble shattered and cracks raced out along the rock.

“Implode.”

Gold light covered Kat moments before the air around her cracked, splitting in two as if reality itself had been punctured. A black dot formed above her, collapsing in on itself without a sound. Kat’s form flickered as she disappeared, reforming on the other end of the arena. The dot bulged out with an earsplitting crash, sending a pulse wave of dark energy out and obliterating a quarter of the arena.

“Seven planes, what was that?” Kat asked, gold energy rising off her like smoke.

“A new spell,” Damien replied, trying not to look smug. That was the first time he’d tried that particular command, but it had done exactly what he’d wanted.

“Shatter.”

Black lines raced out from Damien’s chest. He staggered as Ether poured through him. The lines raced out, reaching for Kat. Then, with a series of loud crashes, they shattered. Kat threw herself out of the way as the air split along the lines with rending screeches.

One of them caught her glowing arm, tearing her armor apart. She flickered again, managing to avoid the attack and reforming on the other side of the arena. There was no more smile on her face. She was taking this seriously.

Lightning raced out, covering over half of the arena as it formed into an enormous wave and crashed down on Damien. Damien cast Devour at an angle, ducking behind the shield as the magic slammed around him.

The smell of ozone filled the air, and he instinctively hardened his mage armor. It wasn’t a moment too soon. Kat appeared behind him and drove a fist into his back, sending a pulse of energy into his system.

Damien’s limbs stiffened and he fell. He dropped into a roll, regaining control of himself. Kat gave him no room to gather his magic and pressed on, unleashing a flurry of blows. Only Damien’s extensive training with Sylph and Delph let him keep up with the professor as he backpedaled, deflecting as much as he could.

If he could use Warp Step, this wouldn’t have been much of an issue. Instead, it was like the fight he’d had against Sylph in the tournament, when she took his powers away. She’d won that one handily.

Unfortunately for Kat, Damien had been planning for what would happen if he’d been placed in the same situation again. He braced himself, intentionally dropping his guard for an instant to reach out.

Gray merged over color as his vision shifted. His palm hit cold wood and his fingers wrapped around the shaft of his staff. Kat’s fist caught him across the face, but the pain didn’t even register.

Damien dragged the staff into the Mortal Plane. Kat increased the intensity of her attack, striking him twice in the stomach and then unleashing a powerful bolt of lightning straight into his chest.

The spell launched him into the air. He flew, slamming into the ground and bouncing once. He flipped, landing on his feet and skidding the last few feet back. Broken runes spiraled at the edges of his vision.

Another bolt of lightning tore across the ground. Damien’s finger blurred through the air, tracing the runes to a familiar spell but making several key changes. A black maw opened up before him, snapping shut on the lightning and swallowing it whole.

The lantern on his staff lit a dim yellow. He raised it into the air and cast the second half of the spell, empowering it with Void magic. Black lightning erupted from the lantern, scoring across the ground and shearing straight through it on its path to hit Kat.

A gold barrier formed before her, but Damien’s spell ripped through it like paper. Kat blurred, but her attempt to block the magic had cost her precious time. It caught her on the foot, and arcs of dark energy instantly shot through her body.

She cursed and fell to one knee, her body trembling. Damien traced another rune circle in the air and fired it off. A black disk sheared a large portion of the arena away. It reformed above Kat, dumping the big section of stone directly on her head.

Kat set her jaw. Her eyes narrowed, and the glow around her turned molten. Even with the grayscale covering everything Damien saw, flickers of gold light made it through. Two gold wings erupted from her back, unfurling and launching her forward.

“No more Void, Damien,” Henry warned. “You’ve used a lot already. Moderation.”

Damien gritted his teeth and forced the Void back, bringing the world back into color and nearly blinding himself in the process. Kat wasn’t just shining. It was like the sun itself had descended on her.

“Kneel.” He squeezed his eyes shut to avoid being blinded, but was rewarded with the sound of Kat slamming into the ground once more. Damien pointed toward the direction of the noise. “Implode.”

An instant later, there was a loud crack and a pained curse. The gold light pulled back, letting Damien open his eyes once more. Kat had managed to dodge most of his attack again, but one of her arms hung askew at her side.

Even as he watched, it popped back into its proper position, the damage melting away in seconds.

“That’s quite enough,” Kat said, forcing the words out as if she hated to say them. “Damn, that was fun.”

Damien lowered his hands as a wave of exhaustion washed over him. Henry had been right to stop him. It was difficult to tell quite how much energy the Void drew while he was working with it, but the moment the fight was over, it all came crashing down at once.

He staggered, catching himself with the staff before dismissing it and flopping onto the stone with a grunt.

“I would have loved to keep going, but I would have had to start using some of my dangerous spells, and that would have brought more attention on us than we wanted,” Kat said, shaking her arm off. “Still, though. To push me that far… and without your companion, too. Was that your full power this time?”

“Most of it,” Damien replied. “I could have done more, but I’d prefer to walk myself home.”

Kat snorted. “Most of it. Well, you were right. Not a single student in my class would stand a chance against you if you used all of what you just showed me. How much of it are you trying to hide?”

“All of it,” Damien replied. “The only magic I want to use is what I showed when we sparred in the arena. I might use the verbal spells too, but only if I feel like I need to.”

“I see. I think I can work with that,” Kat said. She glanced around the rubble of the arena. “We should probably get out of here so nobody pins this on us. I don’t want to have to pay to reconstruct it. I’d really love to see what you can do when we both go all out, but that wouldn’t end well for either of us, so I’ll control myself. I’ll have something interesting for you when you come to class tomorrow. Expect my instructions at some point before then.”

“Works for me,” Damien said, sitting back up. Henry rose from the ground in his humanoid form and pulled him up to his feet. He then turned several eyes on Kat, drawing a surprised breath from the teacher before he sank back into Damien’s shadow.

“What in the Planes is your companion?” Kat asked, a flicker of unease passing over her face.

“Don’t react like that. He’s only looking for compliments,” Damien said wearily. “And don’t worry about it. I’ll see you in class tomorrow, professor.”

Kat nodded absentmindedly, still staring at Damien’s shadow. “Until then.”