Chapter 13: Duel
"Hi, I'm Nessa. You're kidding right?"
Stephanie wished she were. She even wished she knew what she was doing. Earlier that day she had woken up with an insurmountable zeal to live by her mothers' last words.
But during breakfast, her spirit crumbled. Stephanie could hear silent whispers all around her, about the magic prodigy. About the girl who could already cast magic in one day. Not about her—about Nessa.
No one remembered that Stephanie had even successfully cast magic before Nessa. No one remembered that she held a hundred points. No one even remembered her name.
Stephanie couldn't help but be mad at herself. No matter what happened, she had to be number one. And the only way to prove that to the world was to show the world she was better than who they thought was number one.
"I know who you are," Stephanie replied Nessa, trying to sound condescending, "and I'm not joking about the challenge."
"Do you want to go right now?" A frown on Nessa's face. Her lips pressed in a hard line. She wanted to believe Stephanie was messing with her.
"No," Stephanie said, seemingly serious. "Pick a time and place."
Nessa sighed. "I'm sorry," she rose from her seat. "But I'm not in the mood to embarrass one of us today."
Stephanie choked on air. It took her moments to be able to form words. She had viewed what Nessa had said as an insult, and she wasn't planning to let it go.
"On the other hand," Stephanie avoided Nessa's eyes. "I'm more than interested in embarrassing you."
"I didn't say..."
"But that's what you meant. It doesn't matter, you could refuse the challenge, but then I'd be forced to challenge the only other person you care about."
Nessa frowned.
Stephanie had noticed how Nessa had been protective towards a boy she could only assume was her brother. If she was right, then it meant Nessa would most likely go on with the challenge.
For minutes Nessa didn't say a word. A million things burning through her mind. This was the second time, someone was going after Luka. Nessa didn't know what Stephanie's intentions were, but she knew that they didn't matter.
She had threatened Luka, meaning that others would. If humans understood anything, it was power.
Nessa smiled and spoke. "Fine. The Great Hall, after lunch. See you then."
Nessa packed her books, and returned them to the shelves, before leaving the library. And all Stephanie could do was stare.
Nessa had picked a time and place that would allow the largest audience possible. Stephanie wasn't sure if Nessahad done that on purpose. But if she had, it meant she was confident about winning.
Stephanie clenched her fist as she thought to herself. 'But so am I'
__________
The duel was only an hour away, but Nessa felt at ease. She wasn't over confident, but she didn't see what good fidgeting would do at that moment.
She crossed the Cafeteria doors, and from a distance she could see Luka and Amaya sitting at their usual table. Nessa covered the distance in seconds.
"What is going on?" she asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
"Nothing much," Luka said almost immediately, then smiled. "But I can't say the same for you."
Nessa arched a brow. "What do you mean?"
Luka's smile seemed to broaden. "You are dueling Stephanie. Maya here just told me,"
"Maya?"
"She prefers I call her that."
Nessa closed her eyes and collected her wits. The news had spread faster than she had expected. Which was good. She needed as much people watching as possible.
"So is it true," Amaya asked in a feeble voice.
Nessa narrowed her eyes at her. "Yes it is. She challenged me."
"Wow," Luka said. "This is going to be so cool. I mean, here I was thinking my stay at the academy was going to be boring."
Nessa sighed. She wished her brother wouldn't be so happy that she was about to get in a fight.
"But I'm surprised though," Luka said.
"Why?"
"I've never seen you break a rule if you could avoid it." Luka shook his head and said nothing more. He seemed to have alot going on in his head.
If only he knew why Nessa had really accepted that challenge.
Nessa had thought it through. She had seen the look on Stephanie's face. If she had rejected her challenge, Stephanie would have found a way to get back at her, and force her hand until she eventually gave in.
Nessa believed ending the problem early was her best bet. It would also help her display some power, and save her and Luka the trouble from other students. It was obvious there were no rules in the Academy and only power would save them.
Moments later, Nessa had finished eating, and she walked straight to the Great Hall. She was surprised when she found a crowd already waiting her arrival.
She had expected a lot of people to show, but this was something else. At least seventy percent of the students had come to watch two girls kill themselves.
As Nessa walked, the crowd parted, leaving a path to walk through to the center of the arena. Stephanie was already there and her face betrayed no emotions.
"You're late," Stephanie called out.
"By a second." Nessa replied.
She was about to say more when she caught sight of a face that resembled the last person she wanted to see. But when she looked, there was no one there.
"You seem scared." Stephanie taunted.
"If I am," Nessa said smiling. "I assure you, it's not your doing."
Stephanie frowned albeit briefly. "What are the rules?"
"It's a safe zone, we fight until either one of us concedes, or," Nessa looked at the crowd. "We fight for five minutes. Let them decide who the winner is."
Stephanie nodded. "Fine," then she called out to the crowd. "I need a ref."
"What for?" Nessa asked. But before the words fully escaped her mouth someone had already volunteered. It was Tristan.
Tristan walked to the circle, with his stupid confidence, and motioned for them to come closer. Nessa tried to
understand why they needed a referee.
"Ok," Tristan said when they got close enough. "Currently, there are no rules, fight however you like."
"With weapons?" Stephanie asked.
"However you like." Tristan repeated and after he saw there were no more questions, he winked at Nessa (which she found disturbing) and ushered them to stand at opposite sides of the circle.
Running back into the crowd, he yelled. "Three, two, one, Fight."
Nessa took a stance and she unsheathed her sword. She stared at Stephanie as she spun a bronze staff and rammed it into the ground. For seconds they stared each other down, their five minutes counting down slowly.
Nessa tried to filter the crowd's shouts, and focus on Stephanie. Moments later, Nessa sidestepped, barely dodging an attack well aimed at her gut.
Without thinking how Stephanie had been so fast, she retaliated with a strike to Stephanie's right shoulder.
Stephanie rolled away in time, as the sword cut pieces of her hair.
Nessa didn't give Stephanie breathing space. She attacked immediately, as adrenaline seemed to surge through her. She had clearly underestimated Stephanie.
Despite the fact that Stephanie used a staff, she seemed to be on exactly on par with Nessa. But after a few exchanges, Nessa soon found out Stephanie had been hiding her true power.
In moments, her speed seemed to have doubled and her precision increased. Nessa had to constantly defend. She didn't even get the time or the opening to perform a counter attack.
As Nessa searched desperately for an opportunity, an opening, anything. Stephanie launched a very low attack at Nessa's knees. Nessa wasn't fast enough to deflect the attack.
She pivoted on her legs and used her hands to support her as she completed a black flip, dodging the staff by millimeters. The moment Nessa's hands left the floor, she felt the air been knocked out of her lungs.
Stephanie had seen the opening and rammed the staff straight at Nessa's chest.
'What the fuck,' Nessa thought. 'I thought I'm not supposed to feel pain.'
Nessa wouldn't have believed it if she couldn't feel the sensation like lava rising up her chest. She quickly jumped backwards well out of Stephanie's reach.
Surprisingly Stephanie didn't attack. She just stood, and watched Nessa, seemingly surprised at the fact that Nessa just felt pain.
Nessa used Stephanie's inaction to her advantage. She needed to up her attack, if she was going to have any
chance of winning the fight.
It took her five seconds to conjure an orb of pure darkness and launch it at Stephanie. Nessa didn't know what the orb was going to do, what she knew was that Stephanie had no way of dodging or blocking it. (It was a well-known fact that magical attacks could only be blocked with magic.)
Nessa stared at Stephanie's red cursor and remembered Professor Avery's words.
'The average cast time for someone with a red cursor is a minute.'
As the dark energy orb drew closer to Stephanie, faster than even Nessa could see, an orb of fire shot from
Stephanie's hand towards Nessa's orb. The two orbs met in the air.
For a split second nothing happened. Then all of a sudden, the two orbs started reacting like each one was trying to consume the other. The visible struggle barely lasted a second until the fire disappeared and then the darkness orb dropped to the ground and started consuming everything around it.
The orb wasn't larger than a baseball, but the destruction it caused was scary. Nessa could only stare in awe. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to stop the orb's destruction.
The students had already started retreating backwards, Stephanie too. Then suddenly a warm glow of white light surrounded the orb and then seconds later, neither the orb nor the light remained.
The silence that followed was unnerving, and it could have lasted hours until Nessa heard a familiar voice,
"This fight is over, the time is up." A brief pause. "I believe I don't need to ask the crowd who the winner was. That much was obvious." Another pause. "Come with me Nessa we have much to discuss."
Nessa didn't know when she had sat on the floor, but she found herself standing as she made to follow Professor Avery, with so many questions burning her mind.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Van_Tyse
Van_Tyse So who do u think won the duel?
Weekly Power Status
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