When we arrived we were shouted at for being too early. Once the rest of the class had arrived we had to undergo the task again.
"Since YOU decided that you didn't NEED to come to class for the last WEEK, you will move the dummies WITHOUT your new golem trainee!"
'This lady has a huge mouth. I'll shut her up this time.' Ingen thought, tired of Clara's constant harassment.
"Yes ma'am! Boel! You're out this time!" I barked his orders the same way Clara did to me.
"Go!" Clara shouted, triggering the task.
I ran to the spot where the dummies were going to be planted and dug places for them with my artificial arm, which I detached and formed into a floating shovel.
Meanwhile, Devin and Denny went to the other side and put the dummies into a compression sphere, reducing their volume, but not mass. Denny carried the sphere diligently to the other side where the holes had been dug.
"THIRTY SECONDS!" Clara shouted, snapping me back to reality.
With the last hole dug, it was simple to move all of the dummies into place with seconds to spare.
Clara pulled a knife out of her pocket and threw it at the dummy with force, when the dummy didn't budge, she took her knife out aggressively and said:
"Good work, you've earned the first spot in the duels."
"What?" My eyebrow twitched a little.
"So far you've demonstrated that you can be a grunt by failing so much that the other kids here managed to get stronger than you just from conditioning. So, now you will test your mettle against those you've strengthened."
"Now?" My face distorted into one of anger.
"Yes! NOW! Get over to the platform trainee!"
'How does this bitch still have a voice box?'
"Yes. Ma'am" A little of my anger seeped into my words as I walked over to the raised platform.
"Here are your charms, standard rules." Professor Unda was too prepared for the duel.
"JUSTIN! You're up! Get over to the platform!"
"Yes ma'am!" I could see the sly look in his eye as he saw what looked like prey.
I quickly pulled some wands from Boel's backpack and put them into a bandolier around my chest.
"I am prepared," I said after I put on my second charm.
"I am prepared," Justin mirrored my traditional dueling etiquette.
'That pisses me off for some reason.'
"Ready duelists?" Professor Unda held a sword in the air.
"Yes ma'am!" we said in unison, further infuriating me.
I pulled a wand off my bandolier as her sword fell, signaling the beginning. "Ignus, Fenm, Hun, Bure," I said aloud as I traced the runes on the wand. An arrow of fire started to orbit me, centered on the tip of the wand.
Justin was not idle, he drew runes in the air because he didn't bring a wand, for the sake of secrecy he didn't speak the runes aloud, but he drew Hydes, Rapse, Jenti, Tene. An opaque dome of water surrounded him.
I took off with my wings and flew at full speed at the barrier. As I got close, I heard a muffled "Vand" and as my foot met the barrier, it crumbled and I flew through a portal into a barrage of icicles.
"Checkmate."
The icicles broke my first barrier in moments and had Professor Unda not activated the protections, he would have broken my second. I was not without repose, however, and just before the protections activated, my arrow of fire struck Justin, and his charm was brought extremely close to being broken.
"Match over! Justin is disqualified for using Blood Glyphs in a duel."
"What?" I asked, I was not aware that Justin had used a Glyph
"It is NOT acceptable to break the rules of a SACRED practice such as a duel! DETENTION! MAGGOT! NOW!" Clara grabbed Justin by the ear and dragged him off.
"What now professor?" all traces of anger was gone, replaced by disbelief.
'He would have definitely won even without the Blood Glyph.' Spirit confirmed my suspicions.
'I agree, he could have easily just blasted me with Flow Manipulation. I would have stood no chance.'
'I also disagree with the rule in the first place, sure Blood Glyphs are powerful, but the consequences are damaging enough for it to not matter.' Spirit put on an "expert" voice.
'In your dreams, Blood Glyphs' entire point is that they are amazing in short fights where a decisive blow could end the whole thing and allow you to recover.'
'Agree to disagree. For now, you're about to be berated.'
"How are you going to ask me a question then go off on your own in your own world and talk to some spirit?! What's next is you go practice on those dummies you put up!"
"Yes ma'am!"
I practiced Flow Manipulation because that and physical weapons were my only form of ranged offense. After a long day of training, meditating, and getting scolded, it was time for Alchemy class.
I flew over the heads of my fellow students and thought to myself.
'They look like little bugs, funny how distance makes things so important look so small.'