I can't say I wasn't nervous but, can you blame me? I've never used magic a day in my life up until now. Although, I actually felt a little confident in myself. Sure, I might be going up against the class prodigy, and he may be way more experienced at this than me, and yeah, he is the lord's son and all. Okay, I may have just hindered all that confidence I just had thinking about all this. No, remember everything you've just learned, Soren. You got this. As I kept battling with my self-esteem, I made my way to the school and into the classroom. Alright, this is it, after school, he'll probably call me out for the duel. Which means, I can still try to pay attention in class and learn a few more things. At least, I thought that would be the case.
The door flung open and in came Alexis all proud and arrogant as usual.
"I hope you've prepared, I'm not about to take it easy on you!"
As he proclaimed his statement like an arch-rival, Mr. Semko came strolling on in.
"We will go through our normal procedures first, then we will head down to the dueling grounds. Take a seat, Alexis."
"Yes, sir."
Wait a minute. Dueling grounds? Are you telling me this is a normal procedure? What kind of school is this!? Right. I forgot, this is a magic academy. It's probably commonplace for mages to test their abilities on one another. After we took attendance and went through the pledge, and yes I got it right this time, Mr. Semko brought the class over to the dueling grounds. The dueling grounds was a big arena surrounded by bleachers. I didn't think this whole dueling business would be so popular with the school. The place was Jam packed with students from other classes. Well, I guess it is to be expected, I am going up against Sir Popular over here. As we entered, Mr. Semko brought all my other classmates to the bleachers as Alexis and I stepped onto the field and took our places at opposite ends. In the middle of the bleachers, there was a balcony where the Headmaster sat, and beside him was some person I've never seen before. As I settled myself, Headmaster Yo came on over a microphone.
"Welcome students, today we are gathered to witness the duel between Soren Wilhelm and Alexis Von Kretschmann."
Yes, Soren Wilhelm is my full name. I know, it sounds like it came straight from an Elder Scrolls game but, at least it's better than Von Ketchup, right?
"Along with me here, we have an honorable guest who has come to watch as well. Sir Luther Von Kretschmann, Lord of Saint Haven."
Von Ketchup senior is here? As if I wasn't nervous enough. If he's here, then that means Alexis isn't going to hold back. There's no doubt that this is going to be tough but, I'm too far in. There's no turning back now.
"I expect this to be a fair fight between the two of you. So, without further ado, shall we commence the duel?"
The crowd began to roar. Of course, they were only chanting Alexis' name but, I guess that comes with the territory.
"Go Soren! Kick his butt!"
What!? I have a fan!? I quickly turned around and to my surprise, there, in the front row, was Kora. As I smiled at her and waved, Headmaster Yo initiated the fight.
"Begin!"
Wait, I'm not ready, I didn't get to give myself the whole "psych myself up monologue" yet. As I turned back to face Alexis, a stream of light came flying at me. I was just able to narrowly throw myself to the side, hitting the ground. Quickly picking myself up, I faced Alexis.
"What the hell!? You nearly took my head off!"
"I told you, I won't be going easy on you!"
I took a few steps back.
"Listen here Von Ketchup, don't make me get serious!"
wait. did I just call him Von Ketchup out loud?
"Von Ketchup!? I'm gonna have to kill you for that!"
He began to build up mana in his hands before shouting a spell.
"Dual spell! Lightning waterfall!"
A huge blast of water came hurling out of his hands, surrounded by flashes of lightning. That's it, I'm dead. I put my hands out and braced myself for death. To my surprise, as I reached my hands out a barrier of light formed, deflecting the blast but breaking in the process, cutting my face and arms and sending me back a few feet.
"I'm surprised you were able to block that."
Yeah, me too. Hold on, when he used a spell, he said a name before casting it. All I did was picture something blocking his spell and it worked. Well, for the most part. So, I guess using the names of spells is based off of the type of spell and how powerful it is. As the smoke cleared, the Headmaster began to narrate.
"What an amazing block by Soren. I thought he was done for sure with that dual spell."
Thanks for the vote of confidence, sir. But, I too thought it was over for me. Perhaps I actually have a chance. What am I saying? I-
A huge water stream came barreling into me and I was slammed against the wall of the stadium, causing me to cough up blood. I slowly picked myself up of the ground, staggering before finding my balance. I should've known, Alexis wasn't going to wait for me to finish my inner monologue before attacking again.
"I'm disappointed, I thought you would have put up a bit of a better fight than this. What a shame."
"Don't worry, Von Ketchup, I'm just getting started."
"Stop calling me that!"
That's right. I'm not going to give in now. I said I wasn't going to half-ass this world and I meant it. It's time to get serious. As he kept launching his spells at me, I kept putting up light barriers, each one stronger than the last, until I was able to hold it up without it breaking each time.
Alright. It seems I'm getting the hang of this but, I can't just keep using the same defensive spell over and over again. I need to end this. As I defended, I tried thinking of what to do, while Alexis kept shouting insults.
"Come on, you swine! Is that all you know how to do!? Quit being a coward!"
I'd say something back but, I agreed with him. right now, I'm just hiding away. However, it's crucial that I wait for the right moment. Back when I was studying, It was one thing to know the spell, however, it takes a lot more than that to actually use it. And since I've never used magic before, It took me all night to just learn one spell. Although, I anticipated this so, I picked the strongest one I could find. A summoning spell. This spell summons a creature of one's attribute. The type of creature and it's strength is based on the spirit of the caster and how much mana they control. Assuming what the Headmaster said about me having an abnormal amount of mana is true, then this should end up being a powerful spell.
I waited until Alexis took a moment to recover some mana, then I realeased my barrier and began to build up as much mana as I could. I used light in my left hand and dark in my right. I was going to use a dual summoning spell and put everything I had into it.
"So, you weren't lying about having an affinity for two attributes, however, your efforts are futile!"
"We'll see about that! Now! Summon!"
As I shouted, two gigantic beams flew out of my hands resembling a black dragon and a white dragon, throwing me backwards. Alexis moved quick to put up a powerful barrier before the dragons came crashing into him. The whole battle field was covered in smoke. Once again, Headmaster Yo started to narrate.
"What an incredible duel spell! Who would have expected this! That was absolutely amazing! Are you kids seeing this!"
It seems he really gets into these duels. As the smoke began to dissipate, Alexis was left on the ground, unconscious. He must have hit the wall hard first, as there was a huge crater in it. Did I really cause this? I slowly picked myself back up as the Headmaster spoke.
"And there we have it. The winner of this duel is none other than, Soren Wilhelm!"
The crowd was silent. I looked up at the balcony as Alexis' father stood up and left without muttering a word. I feel kind of bad for Alexis, after seeing how disappointed his father looked but, I was too shocked with the result to think more into it. No one expected this, not even me. I looked down at my hands. Am I really this powerful?