Bab 8: The Duel (Part 2)
Location: Western Academy
Time: A few moments before the duel.
The bell for lunch break had already rung, and the teacher had left the class. Students were either going for the cafeteria or having their lunch in class.
Sophie and I packed our books, getting ready to head out. That was when a petite girl came dashing into the class.
Gwen planted her phone on the desk, showing me a particular post on Geogram. It read;
SILPHIE VERMOLI VS ANNA SPINESWOOD
TODAY @ MIDDLE COURT YARD
**They already advertised the dual?** Probably hoping to gather more attention, I thought. Why did they need that much attention? Was it to humiliate me? What would they even gain by that? **Angels are so confusing.**
"What’s the meaning of this, Anna?" Gwen blamed, banging her hand on the desk, sounding quite mad at me. Not like I didn’t leave a reason for her.
"It is what it is, Gwen."
"Did you not come here to-" Gwen stopped midway, probably realizing she was about to spill the beans.
She took a deep breath to calm herself down.
“Woah woah!” Lilly put her hands on Gwen’s shoulders from behind her.
“Okay, here’s the plan. Anna, I’ll take her on!”
Okay now Gwen sounded like an annoying little kid.
“Pfft-“
“W-why are you laughing?!”
“Nothing nothing…” I couldn’t hold it in.
Sophie and Lisa joined with me, holding their own ones by smirking. Trying to calm myself down I grabbed my phone from my bag and looked at the time. **It’s almost time. Almost time to teach a rude little girl, a teeny, tiny lesson.**
I stood up, making my way out of the seat.
“You really doing this, Anna?” Lilly stopped me, for the last time.
“Of course. I said I’ll do it.”
“You do realize you’re going against an Alpha, and Silvia Virmoli’s younger sister of all people. You didn’t forget what I told you earlier, did you?”
While class was going earlier, Sophie filled me some details about Silphie’s sister. Silvia Virmorli. Regarded to be one of the most influential upperclassmen in the academy, she was known for never being defeated in a duel. The only student to ever had defeated her was President Gabriel. But it didn’t end there. After defeating a particular opponent in a duel, she was known to make them her slave. I had noticed a collar around some of the students that followed Silphie. Seemed like Silvia Virmoli’s little sister was following her footsteps.
**Why’s this even allowed in the first place? On the other hand the Principal herself is a weirdo too…**
That said, I was, according to Sophie, in potential danger of being Silphie’s next slave.
Sophie really looked agitated ever since the duel was announced. Well it was only natural that she was. Silphie was a pretty tough opponent. **Well that’s what they say.** I’d never seen her in action, so I was pretty much a blind girl walking into a forest. Yet I was confident in my powers. But given this state, she might actually turn out to be a tough opponent for me. I had to win.
“I’ll be alright, Sophie”, I assured. Her eyes widened as a fade blush crept onto her cheeks as I held her hand to comfort her.
I heard Gwen curse. She didn’t seem to like how she wasn’t getting my attention. **Pfft is she jealous, how cute…**
“M’lady, you seem to be pretty excited.”
That obviously came from Daniel.
**Did he notice…** It’d been some time since I last fought a worthy opponent. So, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited at all.
“Wait! Who’re you?”, said Lilly pointing at Layla and Daniel.
“Oh hello! We’re classmates. Ha ha ha”, replied Daniel.
“Yo”, replied Layla.
“What a weird guy…”, muttered Lilly as we walked out the classroom.
<< >>
The sky had become gloomy, draining the warmth the surroundings had. Anna and her companions arrived to Middle Courtyard. Many students from other classes too had gathered there. They stood around the area where the duel was to be held. It was evident that they were eager to see an elf in action as they’ve not seen one before.
Anna’s friends that accompanied her were deeply worried. Even though Gwen who met Anna only two month’s earlier, and fully knowing what Anna was capable of, she too was anxious given the current circumstances. Whether Anna would be able to face Silphie Virmorli one on one or not was only up for fate to decide.
Gwen glanced at Anna's face, who didn't seem to be bothered by any of this. Her expression instead had a hint of excitement to it. Gwen grew even more anxious, expecting that Anna may over do it. It wasn’t something to be surprised of in Gwen’s perspective. Anna literately overdid her entrance exam, practically granting herself that blank badge. Gwen could only sigh.
Silphie who was standing in the middle of the circle of students, grinned as she took note of her opponent. Everyone made way to let Anna into the battleground. Gwen noticed wide grins in most of the students faces, along with Silphie’s. She could hear them say;
“The damn elf’s going to learn a lesson today.”
“Waaa so exited to see that bitch getting beaten up!”
“Heh, should be no match for Silphie. Eat it elf!”
“Teach her her place Silphiiii!”
Who do they think they're bad mouthing? With all those toxic comments, despite Anna not caring, Gwen’s rage was sky rocketing. She was about to spring onto someone and beat them when Anna gave a firm pat on her shoulder.
“If something goes wrong. Plan B”, Anna whispered into Gwen’s ear.
She knew exactly what ‘Plan B’ meant.
“Mhmm”, was all she replied.
Anna gave her a smile and proceeded further into the circle.
She now stood in front of her opponent. Anna looked at the badge on Silphie’s blazer that read ‘Alpha’.
“The elf’s finally here!” Silphie shouted as if to address everyone else.
“What took you so long? Don’t tell me you were”, she leaned in closer to Anna “Scared! Ah ha ha ha!” Whilst Silphie laughed hysterically and mocked, Anna stood calmly observing her with an arm on her hip.
“I’m sorry if I kept you waiting”, Anna bowed a little. “So then, shall we get to business?”
“Of course! Oh I’m so excited to get a new pet.” Silphie grinned with joy.
“I see… So before we begin, the deal is if I loose I’ll be your pet- slave… right?”
“Seems like someone’s done some homework about me already, huh? Well yes, you’re correct.”
“Alright. Thank you.” Anna bowed again.
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you.”, Silphie added as she slightly smacked her lips.
“Okay, gross”, Gwen said to herself. Meanwhile she noticed a certain person, who she despised for his very existence with utmost hatred, looking down at the scene behind a window with his arms crossed. Gabriel had come to spectate the duel.
“So, I get to pick a choice too right?” Anna questioned, paying no attention to what Sophie said.
“Yes, please state your condition. Not like it would work out…”.
Gwen wondered why Silphie was so confident in herself. It wasn’t like Anna having the highest entrance scores out of all first years was a secret. Perhaps they assumed that Anna’s score was nothing but a fluke.
“Be my friend”, Anna replied.
“Huh? HAHAHAHA!” Silphie laughed hysterically, yet again. “Is that it? Sorry, but I don’t plan to make any friends.”
“That was what I was thinking when I entered this academy. But thoughts can change. Anything and anyone can change, even just a bit”, Anna calmly said. “Besides, it won’t be bad to know a few strangers right?”
“Tch, whatever. I just know our rivalry won’t change. I don’t plan on and will never plan on, to be friends with a lowly half blood.”
“Who knows? Fate works in mysterious ways”, Anna said, now smiling.
“Yeah? Well you have to beat me first anyway- which is highly unlikely to be the outcome.” Anna only kept smiling. “Okay then. If that’s what you want then it shall be.”
“Pact!” Uttered Silphie placing her hand forward.
A glowing circle that almost looked like a big ice flake appeared in front the two students. It was a Mana pattern, one which was used for sealing pacts; A special spell which works as the guarantor of an agreement.
“Place your palm on this to confirm the pact.”
Anna put her palm on the side facing her and Silphie did the same.
Silphie continued to elaborate the rules.
“Party A: Silphie Virmorli
Condition: Slave
Party B: Anna Spineswood
Condition: Friend
Requirement: Defeat or acceptance of defeat”
The Mana pattern glowed brighter as both parties clenched their hands into fists.
“Pact, sealed.”
The Mana of Pact burst into thin air, confirming their dual as legitimate. It was time.
“Don’t worry. This’ll end soon”, said Silphie in a rather pitying voice as she uttered a spell that made a purple book appear in her hand. It acted as the catalyst to amplify her Mana.
“I hope so too.”Anna smiled. Then she stopped. Her mood changed, like a room being engulfed of darkness after the bulb hanging in the middle was switched off. Everyone could feel the tension rising in the air.
“One last question Silphie.”
“Tch, enough talk! Show me what you’ve got!” Silphie demanded as a ball of electric concentration formed in her hand, it’s purple colour bathing everyone and everything around it.
"What makes you so confident that you'll be able to defeat me?"
Anna pierced directly into Silphie’s eyes. She felt a little intimidated by Anna and began to hesitate to making the first move. Gwen already predicted how the duel would end, and patiently watched. Still there was this one thing that bothered her. It kept messing with her mind.
Silphie backed up a little.
"Cut the act! If you aren’t going to attack first, then I will!” The ball of electricity in her hand rapidly expanded.
“START CRYING!” Raising the now football sized orb on her hand, Silphie threw it towards Anna with all her might.
To everyone's surprise Anna didn't move an inch, let alone flinch. She still held the same piercing glance at Silphie and didn’t even form any defense stance.
"Hey you! Move awa-" whoever it was couldn’t finish their sentence, as the ball zapping with high voltage currents came thrashing onto Anna.
*ZZZBOOM!*
The sound vibrated through the air like a storm had arrived put of nowhere, forming clouds of dust around the impact radius. Onlookers were either too busy coughing or trying to recover their vision. Those who could see saw no sign of Anna. Few seconds passed as the dust gradually cleared and Anna was visible.
There she was, knelt down, blackened dirt and dust covering her whole body. Her hair hid her face as she kept looking down. Purple sparks danced around her. Everyone could see that she already looked utterly defeated.
"Annaaaaaaa!!!" shouted both Sophie and Lilly.
Silphie smirked. "Come on, stand up! Or did I get you just by one strike?"
Anna stayed as she was. She didn't answer not did she move. Some of the students thought that she couldn’t handle the powerful bolt and assumed that she might actually be dead.
"Ha ha ha! Looks so!” Silphie laughed victoriously. Then turned to the surprised crowd of students. “See fellas? She isn't strong at all."
"She's still on her legs, make her crawl! " someone shouted.
"Hey!" Lilly shouted back.
"Ho ho, great idea. I’m not satisfied much either.” Silphie looked sinisterly down at her defeated opponent.
“Let's teach this half blood her place.”
"Nooo! Anna getup damn it! What're you doing?!" Sophie cried.
The book in Silphie’s hand began to glow once again. Tiny sparks started appearing on her right hand again.
"Let's end this."
The ever motionless Anna brought her hands up to her face "Hmm… H… hah…"
Her voice started coming out as she muffled it with her palms.
"Haaa! Are you crying? Boo hoo, poor little sucib-"
"Pfft… Hahaha hahaha!” It was Anna who was laughing hysterically now, clutching her stomach with one hand.
“My my, you angels are so funny! I just can’t!”, Anna continued to laugh.
Gwen smug widely.
"What the-"
Everyone including Silphie were puzzled by what was happening. Did Silphie's electric strike short circuit her brain?
"The heck’s wrong with you?" demanded Silphie.
"Ah sorry sorry, I got a bit too excited." Anna slowly rose up to her feet, dusting off dirt from her uniform. She didn't have a slight scratch on her body except for her uniform which Silphie did not do justice. Anna didn't seem to care about the damages to her clothes though. She had to entertain herself.
Students stared at what was happening in utter amazement the whole time.
"That was nice. Too bad I couldn’t feel the electricity.” Anna kept adjusting her dress.
“Still, it was kind of refreshing. Oh this feeling! It's been ages since I last felt it… "
"Huh? You’re not making any sense here half-blood?” Then Silphie's eyes went wide.
“D-don’t tell me you deliberately wanted that strike to hit you…”
She was both surprised and scared.
“Of course”, Anna replied, tilting her head and putting her hands behind her.
“Is she… is she toying Silphie?” Lilly asked looking at Gwen.
“Highly likely”, replied Gwen confidently.
“Wait why do you look so relieved Gwen?” asked Sophie who was now holding Lilly’s hand.
“Because we didn’t need to use plan B.”
“Huh? What’s plan B?”
“That girl right there” Gwen said ignoring the earlier question, “is barely a match for Anna.”
"Ugh the nerve!” Silphie had become very angry, and very annoyed at the fact that Anna doesn’t seem to even be fazed by one of her most vicious attacks. And the fact that Anna was making Silphie look like a clown made it even worse. She quickly propelled another electric ball at Anna.
This time she dodged it just by slightly moving the upper part of her body.
“Sorry, that won’t be working on me again…”
Silphie was becoming completely blinded by wrath, and began projecting strike after strike at Anna. They all met the fate of the second strike. Anna leisurely hopped around every single one, all the whilst keeping her hands behind her like a little girl.
“Hey Silphie, is throwing electro granules the only thing you can do?” Anna asked casually. “I was expecting something more fun.”
“I-I-It can’t be!” Silphie was freaking out. She gritted her teeth, trying to make attacks land on Anna, albeit to no effect. She looked like a mad woman. “Argh, I’ve defeated dozens with these!”
“So it is all you can- woo! that was close -do?”, Anna kept speaking as she casually dodged a granule.
“Of course granules could be really powerful”, she continued. “But they are too low in the spectrum of magic to work on me.”
Silphie was exhausted. All her effort to put Anna down was anything but fruitful. She was forced to stop by her own fatigue.
“W- haah… what do… haah… you mean…”, Silphie asked as she heaved for oxygen.
“You know what that means dear Silphie…” Anna fiddled her lip with her point finger. “You. Are. Weak.” The out of character presence of Anna hit like a train wreck to everyone witnessing her, including Sophie and Lilly.
“Huh? Weak?! I’ll show who’s weak! Try dodging this then!”
Silphie gathered more Mana into her hands, creating a granule many times bigger than her previous ones.
“HAAAAAAA!”
Then she hurled it at Anna.
“EAT THIS BITCH!”
To everyone’s amazement Anna didn’t dodge it. Instead she brought her palms together, jumped into the air and hit the ball as if delivering a volleyball serve. She in fact, hit it so hard that the sound of her palm colliding with the granule rang through everyone's ears like a bomb had just detonated. And the granule went flying in the opposite direction, right where it originated from. What Anna had done was so unexpected, Silphie had no time to react and dodge her own attack.
"Oh shi-"
*ZZZBOOOOM!*
The granule explodes on Silphie herself, sending her flying off of her feet. Another cloud of dust formed, this time not only blinding and gagging the onlookers but also temporarily making them deaf.
“I told you” Anna started walking towards Silphie. “Your attacks don’t work on me.”
The dust was clearing down again.
“Ay yo! Can y’all not with the dust? This ain’t kindergarten. Ugh my ears!” Someone shouted from the crowd.
“That’s a good one Silphie.” Fortunately she’d been sane enough to use a protection spell.
“So you can cast a shield too?”
“Heh, Why not?”
“Hate to break it to you, but can we wrap this up already. I’m hungry.”
“Hah. You’re not going anywhere till we end this once and for all”, Silphie said standing back up.
“Sigh. You just won’t give up, would you?” annoyed by Silphie’s arrogance and her own hunger, Anna stepped back. “In that case, I’ll show you what a real electro granule looks like.”
“You’re a Galvanizer too?”
Physical test classes had not begun yet. So most of the students didn’t know what element each other was accustomed to unless they showed or talked about them. In Anna’s case no one had asked, neither had she told. Not even her roommates knew, except for Gwen.
Anna uttered no spell, just held her hand forward. A small electro granule the size of a marble, formed on her palm. It was barely visible if it wasn’t already glowing bright.
“Oh Silphie”, Anna said as she casually tossed the granule up and down.
“You’re going to need more than one shield spell. Ah, you guys.” She looked at the audience. “Please back up and close your ears. You might get hurt.”
“The hell is that tiny marble?”, Silphie laughed. Many students laughed along. Although some had their ears covered.
“What’s she gonna do this time?” asked Lilly.
Gwen smirked.
“Come with me”, she said leading the two girls into the corridor and out the scene.
Gwen saw Daniel with his eyes fixed on Anna. He seemed excited.
“Alright then.” Anna tossed the granule for the last time. “Catch.”
Anna threw it right in front of Silphie, and not a split second passed.
*KABOOOOOOOOM!*
The granule exploded, far bigger than Silphie’s one. Students went flying across the courtyard, landing on trees and bushes. Some went as far as into the corridor. Fortunately Lilly, Sophie and Gwen were afar, so they were unharmed. Even Gabriel had to shied himself as every glass panel around were shattered from the shock wave. Even staff members and teachers that weren’t at the place before came rushing to see what it was. The impact of Anna’s granule had rocked the whole academy.
“I warned you…”, Anna said averting her eyes. She didn’t realize the extent of destruction she had caused.
“Th-that… was… terrifying”, exclaimed Daniel who had been behind Gwen all this time. She sighed.
Literally everyone was shocked.
A large pit had formed in the place where Silphie was standing. The dust settled once more as Anna walked closer before crouching down to look into the pit.
Their she saw an unconscious Silphie, lying in the middle of the hole. She seemed to be regaining herself slowly. But why wasn’t she dead? Considering the strength of Anna’s granule, Silphie should have been in pieces.
“Looks like Anna protected her”, Gwen concluded.
“Really? She looks perfectly normal though.”
“But why protect the opponent?” asked a half terrified Sophie.
“That's Anna being herself”, Gwen gave an almost motherly smile as she looked at Anna who was still crouching by the pit.
Anna’s problems only grew in numbers and in size from that day onward, constantly bothering Anna’s life at Western Academy. Unbeknownst to her, she was also becoming the cause of them.
* * *
Hello! Ruchi Tarin here;
Whew... now that was quite a long chapter huh? Well this ends the very first
arc of our story (Intro Arc). This arc dealt mostly about introducing key
characters, and world building. I had added a lot of Anna's inner thoughts
so that you could get a better understanding about her character.
Next up is Training Arc. This arc would be more focused on
how the power system works & well obviously training. We'll also be dealing
with the feelings of a certain character.
Well then, see you next time!
*New chapters would be uploaded every Sunday!
Facebook: @elftales | Twitter: @ruchi_tarin
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