Kothar watched as Rudy faced off against the cocky Fire Mage he had been matched to fight against. It had been a month since Kothar had first cast the Storm Field spell, and he and his fellow students had only recently emerged from their intensive training.
Rickard, the Fire Mage, made the first move, slinging a fireball directly towards Rudy, before taking the opportunity to cast a Fire Aura spell. The Fire Aura would increase the speed of his Fireballs as well as his damage, synergizing well with the destructive nature of Fire mages.
The fireball hurtled past Rudy's ginger curls, but he threw up a small squad shield of earth in the nick of time, the Fireball curving inwards to strike him. Unfortunately, Rudy had gotten quite unlucky, the order of the duels and the opponents to be fought were to be selected at random, as those who fought earlier would be at a disadvantage. Since they would reveal their skills and allow the other students time to strategize against them.
However Rudy was fortunate in that he had been matched against a Fire Mage, since the inherent defensiveness of Earth Mages made a duel against a Fire Mage quite advantageous for him.
From the constant barrage of Fireballs he received, it seemed as though Rudy was unable to capitalize on this advantage, he was constantly on the back foot, forced to constantly throw up small Earthen Shields in an attempt to defend himself.
Of course, he was in no real danger, as the professors would intervene and extinguish any real threat or heal any dangerous wounds, but having a professor intervene would automatically lose a student the duel.
Rudy created an extremely tall Earthen Shield, giving him a chance to prepare a counterattack, since had been on the back foot during the fight so far. A small groan spread through the audience, as he squandered his chance and cast the Earthen Armor spell, further strengthening his defense.
Rudy had blundered. While he was shielded from Rickard's attacks, he had also obscured his own vision of Rickard, preventing him from being able to prepare a suitable counter to whatever he might do. If he had counterattacked, it wouldn't have mattered, but his decision to cast Earthen Armor meant he had disadvantaged himself.
Kothar, Janus, Luis and Fred all watched in dismay as Rickard took the opportunity to prepare a massive Fire Lance spell, and as Rudy's massive Earthen Shield crumbled, Rickard launched his Fire Lance, expertly tracking Rudy through the dust that remained.
Rudy, confident that his Earthen Armor would take any attack, began to cast his own attack. Rudy's face fell as he saw the rapidly approaching glow, and the extreme heat brushed his exposed face.
Rudy backtracked, the shards of Earth falling from his hands as he cast Earthen Shield after Earthen shield, unfortunately the Fire Lance barreled through each one, and sped directly towards Rudy's chest.
In a last ditch effort, Rudy manipulated all of his Earthen Armor towards his chest, ready to receive the attack, but the Armor melted away in the face of the burning lance.
"Halt!" Two professors swept onto the battlefield, one easily dissipating Rickard's Fire Lance, the other enclosing Rudy in a bubble of cool water.
Dripping wet, Rudy began to walk off from the dueling grounds with a forlorn look on his face.
"Hey! Good fight." Rickard tapped him on the shoulder, hand outstretched for Rudy to shake.
"Good fight." Rudy assented, taking Rickard's hand and shaking it.
The group of boys comforted Rudy as he made his way back to them in the stands, now dried off by one of the Professors, he settled in to watch the coming battles.
"Janus vs Fred!" The announcer's voice rang out through the temporary stadium, erected by a different set of professors each year.
[Oof, that's going to be a rough one]
[Come on Silane, it was bound to happen, they all expected it somewhat.]
"No hard feelings?" Fred and Janus had turned to face each other, Janus spoke first.
"No hard feelings." Fred nodded in agreement, and they both turned and marched to either side of the arena.
"Begin!" The announcer's voice rang out again.
Fred kicked off the battle, sending a Magma Ball spinning at Janus, while backing up and making space for himself.
Janus responded quickly by casting Windshield, a defensive variant of the Wind Aura spell; he was obviously well prepared for the duels.
Realizing Janus would have a speed advantage, Fred immediately responded by casting Magma Field, preventing him from drawing near and giving him ample time to respond to any attacks.
"You'll have to do a lot better than that Janus, come on!" Fred taunted Janus with a friendly tone.
"Alright! How about this!" Janus yelled at Fred as he slung a massive Wind Slash through the air, it hurtled toward Fred, making a loud screeching sound as it tore through the air.
"Already upping your game!" Fred's eyes widened, and he cast Magma Shell, covering himself entirely in a circular egg shaped shield of magma.
The Wind Slash harmlessly dug into the magma, the magma flowing around it and taking away it's momentum, Janus looked on stupefied as his powerful attack was so easily rendered ineffective.
"I heard that winning battles was never a problem for Fred, the only reason he hasn't advanced and has been stuck with the Novices so long is that he hasn't advanced to Beginner Mage. His battle sense is supposed to be extraordinary." Luis piped up, as most of the new students stared, stupefied by Fred's skill.
Janus continued to hurl Wind Slashes and flurries of Wind Blades at Fred, who only grinned and let his Magma Shell take on the attacks.
"You know, I wouldn't have believed you before, but seeing this has me convinced." Rudy chimed in, as they all watched the painful sight of one of their friends fighting against another with all the effectiveness of a toddler against a grown man.
"Alright Janus, you get one more attack before I get serious!." Fred yelled out as he neatly dodged an unguided Wind Blade.
"Us being friends doesn't mean you can belittle me Fred!" Janus yelled out furious. He thrust out both his arms, forms a massive spinning circular blade of wind; it was one of the more difficult Beginner spells, since the mage would have to continuously guide the mana to spin the blade as well as guide the blade forward.
"Wind Disk, that just might do the job Janus!." Fred continued to taunt him, as Janus sent the Wind Disk hurtling forward.