“I think the last time we talked to each other was during the Initiation Ceremony, right?” Nicole asked as she looked at the silver-haired beauty that challenged her to a duel. “So before we start, I just want to ask you one thing. Are you serious about this?”
Alice didn’t answer right away. Instead, she took out her wand and pointed it at the person whom she considered to be her greatest rival.
“You will know how serious I am when we start our battle,” Alice replied.
“Wow.” Nicole smirked as she summoned a Magical Rapier. “Scary~”
The two teenage girls stared at each other, while waiting for the referee that will officiate their match.
Duels were not allowed to happen unless there was someone among the staff of the Academy that would oversee these battles. Anyone who broke this rule would receive punishment, and will be penalized through gold and merit points.
“It’s good to see that you two are eager to battle,” a middle-aged man with gray hair appeared at the center of the arena with his arms behind his back. “I will be the referee of this match, are both of you ready?”
Ethan, who was not familiar with the middle-aged Professor, asked Chloe who was seated on his right side.
“Who’s that?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe replied. “I don’t know a lot of Professors here in the academy. I’m just a First Year like you.”
Just as Ethan was about to ask Luna, who was seated on his left side, the Head Prefect of Dud Manor, Henry tapped him from behind.
“That’s Professor Barret,” Henry stated. “He is one of the resident Magistratus of the Academy, and teaches Defense Against the Arcane Arts. He was a very powerful Wizard, and my dad said that he used to be the Top Magistratus when he was still on active duty.”
Magistratus was the title given to powerful Wizards, who helped the Magical Bureau enforce the laws of the Magical World on its denizens.
It could be said that they were the best combat Wizards and Witches that could fight multiple enemies at once.
This title was not given lightly, and only those who truly possessed the strength to back up this title would be awarded its honors.
After knowing who the middle-aged professor was, the young man once again focused his attention on the two teenage girls in the arena, who were ready to start their duel.
“If I deem that there is no point in continuing this match, I will step in to end it,” Professor Barret declared. “Even though the magical wards have been activated, which will ensure that none of you will die in this duel, do your best to avoid purposely killing your opponent. This is a duel, not a deathmatch. I want to see the behavior that is expected from the students of Brynhildr Academy.”
Alice and Nicole both nodded their heads, acknowledging Professor Barret’s words.
The Ex-Magistratus nodded back and raised his hand.
“Let the match, Begin!”
The moment Professor Barret announced the start of the battle, Alice immediately swung her wand, creating countless icicles around her.
“Glacies Imbrem!” Alice chanted and the dozens of icicles around her all shot towards Nicole, who was standing with a confident smile on her face.
“Ignis Murus,” Nicole sneered and a wall of fire appeared in front of her, evaporating the icicles that Alice had sent in her direction.
The pink-haired beauty’s wand was actually the handle of her Rapier, magnifying its abilities considerably.
The Asta Family was a family of Magical Knights. Because of this, all of their equipment were tailor made to allow them to fight to their fullest.
‘They both have good control,’ Professor Barret thought as he watched the battle from the side. ‘Both of them are trying to make their opponents show more of their fighting styles before they start to fight seriously.’
Alice pulled back the arm that was holding her wand before stomping her left foot on the ground.
“Glacies Clavi,” Alice stated.
Immediately after the silver-haired beauty cast her spell, Nicole jumped backwards, and used a Levitation spell to float upwards.
At that exact moment, two-meter icicle Spikes jutted out of the ground where the pink-haired beauty had been standing mere seconds before.
If Nicole had been a bit slower, she might have been impaled by Alice’s precision strikes that made even Professor Barret nod his head in appreciation.
“Ignis Indicibus!”
This time, Nicole’s decided to counterattack to stop Alice’s momentum.
Dozens of golf-sized fireballs shot out of the tip of her rapier, making it look like a machine gun unleashing a barrage of flaming bullets at her target.
When they were going through the Initiation Ceremony, Nicole had already considered Alice a threat.
The pink-haired beauty had very strong senses. These senses of her allowed her to tell who were the most powerful Wizards and Witches in her surroundings.
If Alice had not been with Ethan and Chloe in the Initiation Ceremony, Nicole would have definitely attacked them, eliminating them then and there.
Her goal had been to be the only First Year to clear the special trial that had become a tradition of Brynhildr Academy.
The only reason why she didn’t do that was because Alice was with them. Although the silver-haired beauty had an indifferent look, which made her like an Ice Queen, her strong magic power was the real deal.
Alice stood her ground, as she faced the barrage of Fire Bullets headed in her direction.
A moment later, a two-meter thick Ice Wall rose in front of her, shielding her from the Fire Bullet Barrage.
White smoke started to envelop the surroundings as the Ice Wall withstood the attack.
The silver-haired beauty was defending, and using her magic to cast a white icy mist in the surroundings, blocking everyone’s vision.
She had no intention of showing her trump cards where everyone could see, so she planned to create an environment that would allow her to fight to her fullest potential.
What she didn’t know was that Nicole could have blown away the white mists that she was using to cover the battlefield.
However, since the pink-haired lady also didn’t want to show anyone her true strength, she allowed Alice to do what she wanted, while preparing an attack that would take her opponent completely by surprise.
'I hope that this will be fun,' Nicole mused. 'Let's see what you can do, Alice.'
Ethan and the others, who were looking at the arena, frowned when the white mist had become thick enough, preventing anyone from seeing what was happening inside.
The Dueling Arena had this invisible shield that prevented any stray magic from hitting the spectators. This same shield was preventing the white mist from leaving the arena, blocking everyone’s vision.
Nicole stood on the right side of the Arena with her rapier pointed on the ground, her left hand was on her waist as she waited for Alice to finish the smokescreen that she was making.
Five minutes later, the silver-haired beauty’s cold voice reached her ears, making the pink-haired beauty smile.
“Now we fight for real,” Alice declared.
The mist was so thick that it was impossible to see anything beyond a meter, but that didn’t pose a problem to Nicole, who had been trained by her family to face many dangerous situations.
“I asked you this earlier, and I’ll ask you again,” Nicole stated. “Are you serious about this? Do you really want to become the representative for the exhibition match of the First Year?”
This time, Alice replied, making her intentions known.
“Yes.”
“Very well. May the person whose will is stronger win.”
Nicole then took a fighting stance, with the blade of the rapier mere inches away from her eyes as she cast a spell that would allow her to pinpoint Alice’s location within the dense white mist.
“Calor visionis.”
The pink-haired beauty’s eyes glowed faintly as she activated her heat vision spell. As someone who wielded the powers of Fire and Water, Nicole could use these two elements to her advantage.
Within the white mists, she saw a person giving off heat from their body.
However, she didn’t attack this person.
Due to the height, and size of the body, Nicole assumed that this person was none other than the referee to their battle, Professor Barrett.
She then turned around, scanning her surroundings, looking for any traces of Alice. But, to her surprise, she didn’t see any other heat signals in the surroundings, allowing her to pinpoint her opponent’s location.
Suddenly, Nicole’s sixth sense gave her a warning, but it was too late.
A two-meter tall Ice Ball suddenly materialized in front of her, sending her flying backwards.
The pink-haired beauty managed to regain her balance mid-air, and landed while skidding across the ground.
If not for the fact that she had been able to summon her round shield subconsciously, she might have received a serious injury from the sneak attack that came out of nowhere.
‘My left arm still feels numb,’ Nicole thought as she raised the round shield in front of her in a defensive stance. ‘This girl is really dangerous. I might have no choice but to use that…’
At that moment, a faint sound reached Nicole’s ears.
The first thing she did was to crouch on the ground, and used the shield to cover her body, just in time to block countless icicles that rained down on her from within the white mists.
While the spectators outside the arena weren’t able to see anything, they could hear tinkling sounds, like the sound of coins being shaken on a glass cup.
“I can’t see anything,” Chloe complained. “This mist is in the way.”
“Yes,” Ethan agreed.
He really wanted to see the two Witches fighting each other because it might give him an insight on how to defeat them, if they were to face him in the exhibition match.
Although he knew that his chances were slim, he still believed that if an opportunity presented itself, he would be able to snatch a win from them.
“Right now, Alice is forcing Nicole to fight defensively,” Luna, who was seated beside Ethan, commented.
“You can see them?” Ethan asked the angelic beauty beside him, which made the latter shake her head.
“I can vaguely sense the flow of magic in the arena,” Luna replied as she pointed at a location within the mist. “Someone is using offensive spells in that direction.”
Luna then pointed to the far right corner of the arena before continuing her explanation.
“The spells are hitting something in that direction, which is creating the tinkling sounds that we are hearing,” Luna explained. “Since the magic being used is Ice Magic, I am assuming that it is Alice who has the upper hand right now. But…”
“But what?” Ethan inquired.
“Nicole seems to be casting some magic, and I can feel it getting stronger with each passing second,” Luna answered with uncertainty. “If I have to make a guess, it is a spell that deals magical damage to a large area, or it can also be a...”
Luna wasn’t able to finish her words because a loud screech reverberated inside the arena. Although the white mist was blocking their view, they were able to see something red, and fast, moving within the mist.
Not long after, sounds of explosions, and hissing sounds spread in the surroundings as Alice found herself facing a four-meter-long Fire Snake that Nicole had summoned to hunt her down.
“Found you.” Nicole smirked as she pointed her rapier in the direction where her Fire Snake was currently at.
“Magna Fragor!”
A Great Fireball that was as big as a wrecking ball shot out from the tip of her Rapier, and flew straight towards her target.
Nicole planned to finish the battle as soon as possible because she didn’t want her opponent to know anything more about her trump cards.
However, just as she fired the Great Fireball, she felt something cold pressing against the back of her neck, making her body stiffen.
“I win,” Alice said in an icy tone.
Nicole, who thought that she had pinpointed her opponent’s location was caught completely by surprise, unable to react to the silver-haired beauty’s declaration.
“H-How?” Nicole asked in disbelief. “I didn’t even sense you coming at me from behind.”
“Do You really think I will answer that question?” Alice replied with the same icy tone.
The white mist slowly dispersed in the surroundings, allowing the spectators to see what was happening in the arena.
Soon, loud cheers erupted the moment they saw Alice pressing an icy dagger against the back of Nicole’s neck,
“““Alice!”””
“““Alice!”””
“““Alice!”””
The First Years of the Eques Manor started shouting Alice’s name, making it resound in the surroundings. Clearly, they were very happy with this result because they found Nicole to be too arrogant as of late.
“Winner, Alice Quinn!” Professor Barret declared, confirming Alice was the victor of the match.
As soon as her victory was announced, the silver-haired beauty dispersed the Ice Dagger in her hand and walked away without even turning back.
Nicole, who had been left in the arena, watched Alice’s back until she disappeared in the distance.
If one were to look closely, the corner of her lips was raised ever so slightly, hiding a smile from the crowd.
“I didn’t know that the Asta Family trained their daughters to become actresses,” Professor Barret said as he appeared beside the pink-haired beauty, having used a magic similar to teleportation magic. “When the Headmaster told me that there were many interesting First Years this year, I didn’t believe him at first. But seeing the two of you fight, I guess he was telling the truth.”
Professor Barret gave Nicole a curt nod before disappearing from the arena. His job was finished, so he had no intention of staying any longer.
As Nicole started to leave the arena, she glanced in Ethan’s direction and gave the blue-haired boy a wink.
Ethan was surprised because he could vaguely sense that Nicole was in a good mood. Also, he noticed that the pink-haired beauty didn’t have the expression or stance of someone who had just lost an important duel in her life.
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