Brin would have skipped toward the dueling grounds if he were the kid he looked like instead of the calm and collected adult he knew himself to be. But he couldn’t completely hide his excitent or deny that there might have been a spring in his step.
Tonin handed him the shield, and it reacted to his magic as easily as ever. He fluidly molded it into a fluid and tucked it underneath his sleeve, lining his coat up his arm and covering half his chest. It took a bit of concentration to keep shaping the glass to allow him to walk normally, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t manage. In fact, there was no reason why he couldn’t summon more.
As he walked he began to summon more glass underneath his clothes--circular bands to support his back, thighs, shins, and his other arm. He didn't actually think it would make very good armor against a full-on strike, but hopefully using it to brace his limbs would lessen the strain on his Vitality-depleted body. Holding it all in place was a chore, so he split off a small piece of his mind and gave it the job of handling it all.
Main: I’ve given you a pretty small split. Can you handle it?
Body: I’ve got enough. Leave movent and healing to .
Bia, Rafael, and Sallvador walked with him, and while Bia and possibly Sallvador could see what he was doing, neither said anything.
“So what do you know about Vitor?” Bia asked Brin.
“Not much at all, if I’m being honest. What do you know about Vitor?” Brin asked.
“Oh, no you don’t. If you were smart you would’ve run around all day trying to get information on his build. I’m not going to help you cram at the last second,” said Bia.
“His family is a key ally of Cobol, and his Class is [Thirsty Blade]. I should expect water magic,” said Brin.
“Hm, maybe so,” said Bia.
Brin already knew that wasn’t the case, but he wanted to see if Bia would give sothing away.
“With a na like [Blade], you’d expect a [Warrior] base Class. But in the garden, he didn’t seem that strong at all. And his family isn’t rich; they wouldn’t sponsor soone for the Tower unless he was really interested in magic. I bet he’s a pure [Water Mage], who can make blades of ice,” said Brin.
“That sounds reasonable,” said Bia.
Saying untrue things and hoping the other party would correct you was a tried and true way to get information out of nerds, but it wasn’t working at all on Bia. Brin sighed. “You’re no fun.”
Bia laughed. “So what do you really know?”
“I can’t tell you that. It’s got to be give and take. It can’t just be giving all the ti,” said Brin.
“If you say so.”
As he walked, the Pollisian girl who was the daughter of the new teacher approached him, forcing him to either stop or be rude and brush past her. To [Wyrdic Inspect], she identified as Alnesh, a level 40 [Na Carver], and he sensed that she had a good deal of authority over Stone and Life magic.
“You’re on the way to duel him, aren’t you, Brin isu Yambul? That dog of the house of Ellvas. I hope you will win, and that you will give him a thrashing."
The Tower's official language was Common Frenarian, though those who grew up speaking High Frenarian still talked the way they were used ot. It looked like Alnesh was one of those who switched it up depending on who she was talking to.
“Oh, dear. Did he bother you too?” asked Bia.
“Not I, but Rogana was troubled by him, and surely many others,” said Alnesh.
“I’ll win,” Brin promised.
“See that you do. And while you’re at it, I hope you will find occasion to teach a lesson to Guoncal,” said Alnesh.
“What’s he done?” asked Bia.
“He has an unseemly air about him,” said Alnesh.
“I’m just focused on Vitor right now,” said Brin.
Alnesh wasn’t the only to wish Brin well on the way to the duel. Most of the people who cheered him on were from the Fire track, so they were likely falling on political lines, but Brin appreciated the support just the sa.
Tonin led him to the location, which would be in a dueling ring outside the Tower. He hadn’t explored the grounds very much yet, but he knew there were several outbuildings, including housing for the servants, and a dormitory for students who didn’t live with their families in the city.
The ring itself was in a nice garden patio, with stone benches and raised planters surrounding a raised platform. There would be no arguing about if soone stepped out of bounds, because instead of a painted circle on the ground, the edge was marked by a five foot drop.
Perhaps a hundred mages surrounded the platform, and since it was raised, they’d all have a reasonable view of the fight.
“I don’t know if I expected sothing so public,” said Brin.
“I apologize, my lord. I didn’t have ti to scout the location beforehand. I… well, this is my second day at the Tower,” said Tonin. “Would you like to approach the other party and–”
“No, no, this is fine. I pretend to be modest to keep up appearances, but I’m really not at all,” said Brin.
He scanned the crowd, looking for Vitor, but also wondering if anyone else he knew would show up. Sancha was there, standing with Anabet, Gyromia, and Ares. In fact, most of his intake class was here, along with dozens of older students. Eventually, he found Hogg, standing off alone a bit away from the crowd. He nodded when he saw Brin looking this way.
“Ah, there’s Vitor. I should speak with his man,” said Tonin.
The crowd parted, and Brin saw that Vitor was already there, waiting. He’d stripped down to his undershirt, and already carried a blade, a normal unenchanted rapier from what Brin could tell.
Tonin t Vitor’s servant in the now open space between them. The conversation was hushed and short; they’d likely already decided everything and this part was just a formality.
“He’ll want to inspect your weapon,” said Tonin.
Brin morphed the shield glass into a spear, making it look like he was summoning it on the spot. It had more mass than a regular spear would, but didn’t look too bad.
He handed it over to Tonin, then removed his overcoat and started folding up his sleeves to his elbows. He wouldn’t take off his shirt completely; he wanted to keep using it to hide glass, but he did have so pretty cool scars on his forearms to show off.
When Tonin returned, he handed Vitor’s sword over for Brin to look over and said, “He agrees that your summoned spear is acceptable. Next, I should inform you that any attempt at reconciliation will likely see this duel called off. Any at all. Not even an apology would be necessary, any kind of acknowledgent would be enough.”
The sword [Inspected] as masterwork quality, but didn’t have any kind of enchantnts or magic. Brin’s morphic shield was probably an unfair advantage, but Vitor hadn’t objected to it. Brin passed the sword back. “I kind of want to do the duel. Does Vitor want to call it off?” asked Brin.
“No, my lord,” said Tonin.
“Well, I do,” said Bia, using a stage voice to make sure everyone heard.
“What’s this?” asked Vitor.
“I won’t be the object of this dispute, and I certainly don’t agree to be the trophy. All this duel will do is draw attention to an event that I found extrely embarrassing, and hoped would be forgotten. I expected better from you. Both of you,” said Bia.
“Tonin. Ask Vitor’s party if he’d be willing to forget the initial argunt completely and agree that this should be a simple test of skill between rival houses,” said Brin.
Vitor nodded quickly. “Hari, tell Brin’s party that we can agree to that, with the adjustnt that I do not recognize Brin as hailing from a noble house. This will be a simple test of skill.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to for the genuine story.
“Tonin, tell Vitor’s party that I will concede to his adjustnt, but make no concession on the matter of noble houses,” said Brin.
“Hari, tell Brin’s party that we can accept these terms.”
Tonin and Hari glanced at each other. “Did you get all that?”
“Yep.”
Tonin turned back to Brin. “My lord, they’ve agreed to our terms.”
Vitor asked Bia. “Does this satisfy, my lady?”
Bia folded her arms. “Why ask ? Apparently, I’m not a part of this.”
That was good enough for Brin. He hopped up onto the raised platform. With a lingering regretful glance at Bia, Vitor did the sa. Or he tried. Since he wasn’t paying attention, he fumbled his first attempt to hop up onto the platform and landed awkwardly on his side. His next attempt he jumped up until his stomach was on top with his legs hanging down, and then sort of swung side to side until he got a leg up and climbed the rest of the way. The crowd snickered while Vitor’s allies frowned in extre embarrassnt.
Brin took a position that felt natural and twirled his spear while waiting for Vitor to take his spot on the other side. As soon as he was up on the platform, Vitor assud the role of a proud and serious warrior again. They squared off, watching each other for movent like two gunslingers at high noon, before he rembered that he was supposed to have Tonin figure out this part as well. “To death or surrender?”
“To first blood!” Lumina shouted, and the students parted to reveal her approach. She quickly marched to the front of the crowd. “First blood, or until I call a finish to the match. Death or permanent injury are completely out of the question, young man. I won’t have you killing Cobol’s pet prodigy in the first week of school.”
“Yes, mother,” said Brin.
“Yes, Your Radiance,” said Vitor.
“Then start,” said Lumina.
The call to begin was unexpectedly sudden, but neither Brin nor Vitor were caught off guard. The second the words were out of her mouth, the air suddenly grew dry, dry enough to steal the liquid out of Brin’s mouth and eyes. He clamped them both shut, but his tongue already felt like a dry, numb stone and he wouldn’t be using his natural vision in this fight.
The [Thirsty] part of Vitor’s Class didn’t an he had Water magic. It was the opposite. Vitor was a counter to [Water Mages]. His Class was built around magical dryness.
Brin was blind, and he hadn’t wanted to cheat by summoning light beforehand. Having so backup material was one thing, but active ongoing spells were clearly against the rules. Even so, it barely took an instant to have his Lightmind summon so Invisible Eyes in place of his natural ones.
He noticed sothing crawling up his nose, too, so he plugged it with glass, and his ears. Sancta Solia. He was going to have to hold his breath for the rest of this fight.
He regained his vision just in ti to see Vitor bearing down on him. He charged his glass with Mana, hoping the pieces bracing his body would be enough, and deflected Vitor’s sword with his spear, along with the full power of his magic and his body’s strength. It was just barely enough.
Vitor was no longer clumsy; he fought like Govannon. Confident, slippery, and creative. Brin parried a furious battery of blows, then countered with a swipe and a stab that forced Vitor to back up and gave Brin so space.
He kept the spearpoint between him and Vitor, trying to use the range of the weapon to his advantage, but already the spear was holding his arm up rather than the other way around. Just that small exchange had strained his body past its breaking point.
Body: Six fractures. Internal bracing required. This will hurt.
He suppressed a wince as he felt his glass pierce his skin, moving inside to hold his bones in place. The good news was that his [Battle Fury] counter was up. He was at 30%, since the self-inflicted punctures wouldn’t count. Luckily, they didn’t count towards Lumina’s “first blood” either. That would’ve been an awkward way to end a fight.
[Battle Fury] or no, he didn’t want to do that again. The second Vitor got in close again, it would be over. He racked his brain trying to think of a solution. His Mana was practically full; there had to be a way to win this.
He noticed that a trail of dust was following in Vitor’s wake. Every footstep was t with a splash of sand, as if they were fighting in a windy desert. Vitor had sand magic, and he was summoning more each second. He was ramping up.
Brin split off another couple minds.
Main: Give an excuse for how I’m seeing with no eyes.
Brin 2: Summoning dust.
Main: Clones. Keep him off .
Brin 3: Summoning Mirror n
Brin 2 summoned a cloud of his own, glass dust to fill the area and give him plausibility. He felt his own glass sand conflict in the Wyrd with Vitor’s, and Vitor’s won out, taking control of it and adding it to his own power. He could still sense it, though, and that gave Brin an instant line into Vitor’s movents and intentions.
His Mirror n appeared at the sa ti, four of them, as well as a thin sheet of glass to disguise Brin as he switched places with one of them. Vitor broke it down after only a single second, but it gave Brin ti to jump and switch places with a clone. Even that was too much movent, too quickly.
Body: Pulled a muscle.
A Mirror Man leapt at Vitor, and he abandoned his charge to change directions and smash it down. He heard shrieks of alarm when Vitor’s blade cut straight through the Mirror Man’s glass body, then gasps of amazent when they saw that it was made of glass. Brin’s other mind was already summoning a replacent.
He summoned a dozen glass bullets and launched them at Vitor, just to see what would happen. The sand in the air hardened just in ti, in the exact place to catch every single one of Brin’s bullets. There was no way Vitor was that talented; he definitely had an anti-projectile Skill. Those were fairly common with lee Classes, but he didn’t know the na of any that were offered to [Mages].
Vitor’s sand clumped up in the air, forming stone daggers, and then he launched a volley of his own. Brin pulled the special glass bullets he’d made last week and assigned each of them to a directed thread, with orders to intercept the projectiles. His bullets caught every single one, not because he had a Skill for that, but because he really was that good.
Brin summoned a javelin next, but barely watched the way Vitor deflected it–he was just using that to prepare his next trick. He created ten glass needles, and Vitor was already watching them and preparing to intercept, but they weren't projectiles at all. They were guides, for chains.
He assigned ten directed threads to create chains, using the thod he’d worked out the night before. The chains grew devilishly quickly, each of them flying towards Vitor from all directions.
Vitor leapt and twisted in the air, narrowly avoiding each of them. He used his sword to hook one of the growing lines and change direction in midair, sending him straight towards another of Brin’s Mirror n, shattering it.
In a stunning display of Skill, Vitor hardened the sand in the air just in ti to give himself footholds, and he climbed freely through the air to avoid the quick and twisting chains.
The chains were still following, though, and he could tell Vitor was straining to get ahead of them. He felt a shift in the sand magic, and retracted his spear into a shield again, raising it just in ti.
The sand in the air beca a storm, circling the small dueling ground at speeds that turned every grain of sand into a miniature razor. Brin quickly adjusted the shield to wrap all the way around his exposed skin, protecting it from the wind. The power of Vitor’s spell was intense, and he could feel it wearing away even the special glass of the morphic shield. He needed to end this fast.
Vitor took advantage of the surprise and slaughtered three of Brin’s Mirror n in quick succession, his sand blocking every bullet Brin sent at him without a thought. He chose a new target, and this ti, it was Brin’s real body.
Brin grabbed his chains. They’d been following Vitor this entire ti by growing towards him, but that wasn’t the only way Brin could use them. He raised them all at once, forming them into a net between him and Vitor.
Vitor swung, reinforcing his sword with sand magic and making it land like a cannon blast. He broke through the chain net, but the entire thing had already surrounded him. Brin grabbed him by the middle and slamd him hard against the ground.
Chains shattered as they landed, which was enough to give Vitor two or three shallow cuts on his arms and face.
He likely didn’t feel them, because his sand didn’t stop spinning until Lumina called “Halt!”
Brin tore the glass of his face and took a gasping breath, which instantly seared his lungs from the dryness. He pulled the water bottle from his storage ring and drank gasping breaths, not wanting to stop breathing or drinking, but unable to do both at the sa ti. He was sure he looked a ss, but he’d won.
You have defeated: Vitor Ellvas [45]
Experience reduced for non-lethal duel.
He’d won. By a technicality. Vitor was mostly fine, but Brin wasn’t sure he would be able to get down from this platform. He was at once elated and in complete agony. He loved this, the thrill of it, the sportsmanship, and it was even better when no one had to die for it.
He hated the aftermath, though. Even though he’d heal in days what it took most people months or years to fully recover from, the aftermath wasn’t fun.
He attempted to stay stoic while he shook Vitor’s hand. Vitor missed his hand the first ti, his curse already putting back into clumsy mode. He nodded and said, “I hope I’ll get a chance to try again.”
“I’d like that,” Brin said. He winced with every step to the edge of the platform, and then tried to act natural as he hopped down.
Body: Bruised. No new breaks.
That’s not what it felt like. People were applauding him and a few patted his back. They clearly expected him to run off and go celebrate with them, and he had no idea how he was going to get out of doing that, not unless he explained that he was barely standing and probably not for very much longer.
Bia caught his eye. “Oh, well. I’ve changed my mind. Co on then. Take your reward.” She sat and then patted her thighs.
In the war camp, he’d gotten used to the idea that sothing like a tenth of the people around started with [Rogue], but Bia might actually be the only one with [Rogue] senses here. So she might be the only person present who heard all his bones snap. Was she trying to help him out?
“Surely, thou canst not earnestly–” began Sancha, but Brin was already moving towards her. He laid down on the bench and laid his head in her lap.
Bia smirked smugly up at Sancha, and began to stroke Brin’s hair. Brin couldn’t quite translate the even look that Sancha gave in return, and he only caught it with his Invisible Eyes. If it was fury, it was a cold kind. Or possibly, it was another kind of calculation altogether.
The sudden awkward amount of PDA had the desired effect at turning away most of Brin’s celebrants. He noticed Hogg laugh in surprise and walk away chuckling.
“You owe for this,” whispered Bia.
The intimate scene didn’t stop Lumina, though. “What are you doing, young man? Get up! Did you forget that–?”
Bia waved at Lumina to step closer, and when Lumina leaned down, Bia whispered, “He’s broken six bones.”
Lumina stood up straight, unable to keep the surprise and sudden dismay off her face. “I suppose I’ll allow it this once. Though, you there, [Valet]. I’ll expect these two to keep a chaperone at all tis.”
Tonin bowed. “Yes, Your Radiance.”
She turned around, and then Brin felt the telltale sound of Silent Voice, which he hadn’t known Lumina could cast. “Foolish boy. It was well fought, I suppose, but I had much rather you lost than win by hurting yourself more than your enemy. Actually, I’d much rather you had lost, period. You realize that this completely negates the point of hiding your true level? If Cobol’s eyes weren’t fixed firmly upon you before, they surely are now. Stay here while I fetch a healer.”
User Comments
0 comments from readers