Chapter 3: A Friendly Match

  Duels were commonplace in Rentan Academy. There were at least two or three a day from students of all years testing themselves and each other. While not everyone at the academy was focused on combat, enough at least dabbled in fighting that there were always enough challengers to go around. No wizard-to-be wanted to be defenseless, and many learned at least a combat cantrip.

  With classes over for the day, they went to one of three places suitable for testing dangerous magic: the Pit. The Pit was a first floor building with raised, auditorium seating for students and teachers to observe spars and duels by the student body. The arena at the bottom was magically reinforced and meant to be repaired easily, in case of collateral damage. By the time Ambrose and Jessica arrived, a match between fourth years was just concluding.

  A surprisingly short earth wizard named Argus raised his hand, radiating a burnt orange glow. His opponent Leo was a nightmare mage and one of the most dangerous students in the school. He was heavyset, with a gleam to his eyes that put off most of the other students. Ambrose didn’t often look up to people, but he respected the man’s strength.

  “Oh gee, whatever are you going to do to me?” Leo deadpanned. A second later, the orange glow flared. The nightmare mage sidestepped the spire of stone erupting from where he stood just a second before. “You’d be dangerous if you had an imagination.”

  Argus snarled and made a motion with his hand, but Leo beat him to it. He snapped a finger, and black circle appeared behind his opponent. The summoned creature’s shape appeared in shadow, sprouting from the ground without the earth mage’s notice.

  Before it could finish forming, the earth underneath Leo’s feet rumbled and cracked. He fought to keep his footing but failed. Argus bared his teeth in fierce triumph, but then the [Tentacled Dreamslug] finished forming and enveloped him in its dark, spiky tendrils.

  Jessica winced and looked away, but Ambrose watched as Argus screamed, until it was cut off abruptly and the creature disappeared. Dozens of small, circular patches of missing skin bled freely, and Argus crumpled from the potent fear effect.

  “Alright, alright, the winner is the guy with the scarier monster,” Professor Teague said, shaking her head. “Someone take him to the infirmary, and make sure he drinks an anti-dreaming potion before he goes to sleep tonight. I don’t want his impending screams to keep the rest of you awake.”

  A couple of second years rushed forward to catch Argus and support him on their shoulders. They had to practically carry him out, and Ambrose took note of the faraway, haunted look on his face. Many summoned creatures did more than just hurt you, and nightmare mages operated on long-lasting fear.

  “By this time I graduate, it’s going to be me winning big like that,” Ambrose said to Jessica.

  She shook her head. “Going to sic your imp on us and chew everyone’s ankles off?”

  The more people brought it up, the more his new signature creature annoyed him. The imp would no doubt become a fearsome demon in time, but for now it was another tool that would be effective, but unimpressive. At least, that was what they expected.

  It was time to remind Jessica that he wasn’t to be underestimated.

  “Hey, we’re next,” Ambrose called out.

  Professor Teague was in the process of smoothing out the cracked floor with a spell when she looked up over her spectacles at him. Then her eyes slid over to this friend. “Ahh, of course, Miss Vanderborn. We’ll bump the next match up a few minutes for you.”

  Jessica squirmed under the weight of a dozen other students’ stares. She hated how often the staff bent over backwards for her, even when she didn’t ask for it. If Ambrose was on the outside due to his affinity and temperament, she was due to her family connections.

  “T-thank you,” she said. “We’ll make it a fast one, to not keep everyone waiting too long.” She hopped down into the arena.

  Ambrose rolled his eyes. “Oh, it’ll definitely be fast, all right. Gotta teach you a lesson with my new Signature Creature.”

  Teague shrugged. “Remember to keep it clean and safe. It’s to submission or incapacitation.” She dusted her hands off and returned to her seat.

  Ambrose hopped in after her, ignoring the snickers and whispers around him. The bandages were annoying, but didn’t impede his vision or mobility. Even if they made him look goofy, being underestimated was always an advantage. He stopped ten paces away from Jessica and bowed his head in respect.

  She did the same, and crouched into a fighter’s stance. She may have been half his size, but he knew exactly how dangerous she could be and wouldn’t doubt her either. Their eyes met, and hers turned wicked.

  “Hey look, your girlfriend came to watch me kick your ass,” she said.

  Like an idiot, Ambrose looked over her shoulder. Raeva apparently had the same idea as them, because she stood in the audience with her uniform sleeves rolled up, arms crossed over her chest.

  Before Ambrose could react, Jessica had closed the distance and swept his legs out from under him.

  Just as he was about to hit the ground, the world Paused. His friend wore a shit-eating grin, but then it was time to choose his spells for the round.

  Round 1

  Cantrip: [Vampiric Kiss], Spell: [Shred Mind], Spell: [Thought Tap], Creature: [Festering Wretch]

  That was good. He could cast all four spells. That meant he had options that would help with this particular matchup. At a mental command, the world sped up and he landed hard on the ground. The crowd cheered.

  The impact jostled his skull, but he quickly rolled to the side to avoid Jessica’s heel, dropping down where his chest had been. He made it to his feet in time to throw his arms up and block her punch.

  Many wizards relied on their magic and their summons to do the work for them. Ambrose himself was guilty of that at times, but one didn’t make it to third year without learning how to defend yourself. Her fist slammed into his forearms, but while Jessica was fast, she wasn’t physically strong.

  Ambrose cast his cantrip, siphoning away her life and healing the minor damage she’d inflicted. Jessica hissed in pain, then cast a spell of her own.

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  Unlike his cantrip, her spell took a couple of seconds to form. He decided to gamble and cast one of his own. Shadow energy flared as tattoos emerged from his right arm, spidery letters of an otherworldly language he didn’t understand.

  Jessica laughed, and the spell circle became a misty image of her, becoming more solid by the second. Before he could lose track of the real one, he swiped out with his spell.

  [Shred Mind: Common. Lash out at their spirit with all your contempt.

  Spell Effect: Discard two cards from the target wizard’s deck. 2 Mana]

  Mind affinity wizards had large hands, but that meant they had access to most of their deck on any given turn. Two cards wouldn’t phase a primal wizard for example, but he knew from experience it was enough to throw away Jessica’s next round of spells and force an immediate shuffle, leaving her with one fewer card to work with.

  Both Jessicas paused. “You’re seriously going to play dirty?” they said, voices overlapping. “I thought this was a friendly match!”

  Ambrose held up his tattoo-covered hand as his next spell charged up. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you.” A phantasmal image of Jessica appeared in his hand. He savagely closed his fist on it.

  [Thought Tap: Disrupt the spells of your enemies to fuel your own.

  Spell Effect: A random card in the target wizard’s discard deactivates, and one of yours reawakens. 1 mana]

  She jerked as Ambrose brought her one step closer to a coma, or at the very least a spiritual migraine.

  The audience booed Ambrose, raising his spirits considerably. The audience made this far more worth it. He and Jessica knew each other so well, that this was familiar, comfortable. She would fight her hardest while he wore her down for a strong finish. She was good, but not surprising.

  Jessica let out a shout of genuine anger and the two of them charged him. One went high with a haymaker while her twin went to sweep his leg again. His instincts told him to protect his legs.

  His instincts lied to him, and she surprised him.

  She might not have been the strongest wizard by a longshot, but she drove her bony knuckles directly into his chest. Ambrose doubled over as she ripped the wind from his lungs and made his heart lurch violently.

  “Get his ass!” Raeva screamed from the stands.

  Jessica and her double disappeared in a flash of white light, then back into existence on opposite ends of him, fists raised.

  “Okay,” Ambrose wheezed, “I deserved that.”

  “You really did,” Jessica agreed.

  The copy of her in front of him feinted an attack, but he fought his instinct to back off by launching himself at and through the illusory copy. It exploded into cool mist, and he kept going, as Jessica attacked from behind.

  Ambrose may have been hurting, but his excellent footwork made up for his mediocre brawling skills and he danced out of the way. Blood trickled from his nose into his smug smile. The Countdown finished before he could cast his last spell, in three, two, one.

  He reveled in the frustration on her face as her shuffle took away another card for the next round of the fight. She likely had her entire deck in her hand, and it would shrink every twenty to thirty seconds. It was a numbers game at this point, and a question of how willing she’d be to push herself to the brink.

  Round 2

  Cantrip: [Vampiric Kiss], Spell: [Assassin’s Strike], Creature: [Night Terror], Spell: [Sleight of Blood]

  No imp, but excitement made his Signature Creature a distant concern. He blinked, and instantly began casting his biggest, strongest creature. His mana drained to nothing, and his Countdown timer stopped. Ambrose had a feeling he knew what was coming, but he had to try.

  [Night Terror: Rare. A creature from the darkest reaches of the dream realm, capable of feeding on enemies’ decks.

  Special: Incorporeal. This creature is unaffected by physical sources of damage, and ignores physical defenses.

  Special: When this creature strikes a wizard, it deals no damage but instead forces the defender to discard two cards from their deck.

  Strength: D. Defense: C. Speed: B. Magic: A. 3 Mana, 2 ongoing]

  The summoning circle wasn’t especially big, but it crackled with dark electricity and red smoke. An impossibly long, spidery hand emerged from the center.

  Jessica shook her head and slashed the air with her hand.

  [Dismiss Summon: Uncommon. Channel a disruptive burst of mana into a minor summoning spell.

  Spell Effect: Cancel summon in progress of any creature with a cost of 3 or fewer. 1 mana]

  “I’m not letting that thing hit me again,” she said, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. She was breathing at least as hard as Ambrose, though she had the benefit of not getting punched in the lungs. “It’s my turn, you jerkass.”

  She clapped her hands together and the center of the pit between them erupted with blue-green light. The arena floor turned to water, and four tentacles flowed into existence. They pulled out a massive ball of swirling, chaotic water with the bulbous head of an octopus.

  [Whirlpool Cephalopod: A primal water elemental, capable of washing away any who oppose it. 2 mana, 2 ongoing]

  “Jessica! Jessica! Jessica!” The students screamed, and even Professor Teague whistled sharply in excitement. They might not have been fourth years yet, but they still put on a good show.

  Ambrose took a few steps back. The creature was powerful, and would no doubt take him apart if he let it. He had no intention of letting it touch him. Sure, he was out of mana, but that didn’t stop shadow wizards.

  He raised his hand, the jet black tattoos burned with a purple light.

  [Sleight of Blood: Rare. Use your life essence to fuel your next spell. Power, at any cost.

  Spell Effect: Use your own vitality to fuel a spell, gaining up to 5 mana at the expense of your own health.]

  The water elemental finished entering the Pit at the same time Ambrose’s quick gambit finished casting, and he immediately started his next spell and hoped it wouldn’t knock him unconscious.

  [Assassin’s Strike: Uncommon. Reach out with malevolent intent and strike down a creature. The stronger the creature, the more mana must be sacrificed.

  Spell Effect: Kill target summoned creature with a mana cost equal to or greater than the mana paid into this spell.

  Special: Cannot be used on Shadow Affinity creatures. X mana]

  Up to his elbow, his left arm withered, looking like it belonged to a sun-dried corpse. A wave of weakness and dizziness passed over him, but then the air above his hand flickered with black specks, coalescing into a massive ebon sword.

  “Get him!” Jessica screamed, and the cephalopod undulated forward, waving its tentacles menacingly.

  Ambrose tried to circle around it, but it was far more dextrous than him. He jumped back and dodged the first few violent slams against the warded floor, but the fourth one winged him and sent him sprawling. The summon rushed after him, splashing water with each step.

  He hit the ground and rolled and put the black sword between them. Water flowed around it, and the monster paused before bursting harmlessly into water, drenching him. His body was battered and black spots danced in his vision, but he’d survived a few seconds against something that could have easily broken him in two.

  Jessica strode forward, fists raised. They were both out of mana, but she was still fresh enough to fight. “You’re looking rough, Amby-Lamb. You want to surrender? I can last at least one more round.”

  Ambrose spat water out. “I haven’t gotten a chance to try my Signature Creature yet. Why do you think I haven’t finished it yet?”

  “What?” Jessica flushed with anger.

  “He’s been toying with you this entire time. This match is over.”

  They turned to see Headmaster Vanderborn at the lip of the Pit, staring inscrutably at them.