The duel began as Unda's sword fell. I had learned a lot from the last fight, and I decided to use a trick. "Moten, Vand!" I said while casting using only Flow Manipulation, I mirrored the runes but never applied any power to them. So while Ward checked behind him for a portal he was unaware that I couldn't cast, I sent two blunt lumps of metal I had inlaid my clothes with at him, knocking him off his feet and off his game.
'I've always had problems with runes, so why bother using them?' I thought, feeling smug.
I spoke in total gibberish as I realigned the metal in the platform to converge on Ward.
"Nue" Electric charge came from my fingertips as I touched the metal, marking the first time I used a rune the entire fight.
The electricity ran through the metal and as it struck Ward, something unexpected happened. The electricity bent around him as he recovered.
"Oh Great Father of Truth, please smite this deceiver and shock him to ash!" Ward was the first normal spirit core user I had fought.
A ball of lightning the size of my fist flew at me, fuelled by Flow Manipulation and guided by Intuitive Manipulation. I put up a network of thin metal wires to take away the ball lightning's charge, but Ward simply moved his hands and sent the ball around my makeshift cage.
"You're wide open," Ward said as I retreated from the slow-moving lightning ball.
'The runic combination was what? Nee, Jente uhhh RAPSE!' I remembered the combination for my personal spell, Positive pulse.
With my real hand, I started to draw the runes, I was under pressure and I couldn't draw them in time and I took part of the ball's force before I finished.
"Nee, Jente, Rapse!" The rest of the lightning was removed. "You'll pay for that!" I shouted, readying my favorite spell, which just so happened to be a Flow spell.
I spun my arms and forced the metal in the room to surround me, forming a crude caricature of Denny.
"LIVING GOLEM!" I shouted as it charged Ward.
He predictably sent a lightning shock at the golem, attempting to fry me on the inside, which would have worked had I not sent the "golem" a meter in front of me and trailed it instead of being inside.
The "golem" pulled its fist back and struck forward, meeting only air as Ward finished his blink spell.
Unfortunately for Ward, I was finally close to him.
All of the wood making up my skeleton armor condensed into a gauntlet and with one last mighty blow, I finished the duel.
"BOOM!" I shouted, "I finally won!"
"Ingen, you already won once." A voice came from behind me.
"I couldn't care less about a win by default! I won for REAL this time!" I thought for a second. "Wait, who are you?"
"Do you ever write back? I sent you a letter about college."
I turned around and recognized her from my mom's family portrait.
"Aunt Yandea!" I hugged her, I found out after her letter that she was the strange aunt I was fond of when I was little. "I was injured real bad when I got your letter, and I forgot to send one after."
"Who hurt you, little kemede?" (A kemede is a chipmunk-like creature with no eyes that can cast certain spells without a core)
"A bunch of core hunters captured me, it's ok now." I escaped the iron grip that had become of my hug and ordered Boel over.
"I'll be fine now, I have Boel and Denny."
"Hey! What am I? Your yuet?" (A yuet is a cat-like creature with six legs and no ears.)
"Sorry, Orin. Auntie, this is Orin, he's my yuet."
"Am not!"
"Are too!" I feigned immaturity
"You two are too much! You've got these old bones ready to duel again!" She laughed "By the way, I'm here not for you, but her." She pointed at Clara.
"You here to challenge me again old lady? While I'd usually refuse, I think kicking your ass could be good for the maggots." Clara had changed from intense to smug the second she saw Yandea.
"Finally, I thought you would chicken out, again." Aunt Yandea taunted, adding particular emphasis on "again"
'The history between these two feels like it's straight out of a novel.'
'Shh, I can't hear them over your thoughts!' If Spirit could eat, he'd have popcorn.
"Unda, you mind getting an extra charm, this duel is a little more intense than what the student's charm has to deal with."
"Sure, I'll read the rules when I get back." Unda disappeared and came back with six charms, three for each of the two. "The rules are standard except now you will not be disqualified for damaging the second charm. However, if the second charm is discharged completely, then you will be disqualified. Additionally, all forms of manipulation are allowed, except for Name Casting."
"Understood."
The rivals went to opposite ends of the platform and got into their casting stance.
"I am prepared." Clara said, and Yandea parroted
"Fighters ready?"
"Yes!"
"Begin!"
Yandea took off at full speed towards Clara, she used plants she had grown in an instant to propel herself as if she was surfing a wave.
Clara instead turtled up in a shield of ice, seemingly doing some sort of casting underneath.
"Ha! You think that will save you?!" Yandea produced a hammer from a crystal sphere similar to the one I'm using for my armor. She brought the hammer down on the barrier of ice, shattering it immediately.
Instead of ending the duel like she thought it would, Yandea was instead greeted by a shattered ice sculpture next to a hole in the ground. Only after Clara burst out of the hole and froze the ground under Yandea's feet did she put two and two together.
"I must be going senile, I thought you were incompetent!" Yandea said, trying to distract Clara long enough to cast a spell.
"I know, that's why you think I'll fall into your trap!" Clara surrounded herself in extremely cold air, making plants wither and draining Yandea's charm.
"You already have!" The cold-blooming poison plants at Clara's feet blossomed, releasing their noxious gases. the fight became a battle of attrition in an instant, the protective charms had been set to drain at any source of harm, poison, impacts, or cold all counted. They also took into account resistance, Clara was naturally acclimated to cold, whereas Yandea was completely immune to her poison.
Clara's charm emptied a split second before Yandea's, and the duel was over.
"Wooo! I still got it!"
"Nah, I coulda beat you if you hadn't called me out without my gear."
"You shoulda brought it then!"
"Well if I had known you were coming I would have!"
The two bickered the rest of the class, and the rest of the students loved it.