Zagan and Annabelle reached the magic practicing room.
"Do you wanna have a duel?", Zagan asked Annabelle.
"h-huh?! a duel?! b-but... aren't you stronger than me? I don't see how that will help you...", Annabelle was skeptical.
"We're both 4th circles, even though I may have better spells than you, you can still outsmart me.", Zagan explained.
"It will help us both get better at real-life combat experience.", Zagan added.
"o-okay... if you say so...", Annabelle finally agreed.
They both set some ground rules: 1st) If someone runs out of Mana first, they loose. 2nd) No mind-type magic will be used.
After agreeing to it, both Zagan and Annabelle walked away from each other and stood 40ft away from each other.
'I'm not gonna use caster's blessing here. It wouldn't even be a fair match if I did.', Leon thought.
'And obviously, not the demilich too...'
"Lets start!", Zagan shouted.
As soon as he said that, he immediately chanted, "Cinder Barrage.", and 5 orange-colored magic circles appeared above Zagan's head and started to fire blazing arrows at super speed towards Annabelle.
She didn't stand still and chanted, "Aqua Wall.", and a blue-colored magic circle appeared beneath her feet and quickly erected a wall made of water.
The blazing arrows hit the wall of water and dissipated after vaporizing some of the water in the wall.
"Scorching field.", Zagan chanted, and suddenly a large magic circle appeared beneath Annabelle and she instantly knew that she was in danger.
"Airwalk!", she quickly chanted and jumped from the ground, created a magic circle beneath her feet in the air and jumped from it again to land on another magic circle she created a little higher in the air. (Kind of like a double jump ability.)
The magic circle on the ground suddenly caught fire and it quickly erupted into a massive field of pure blazing fire.
"Wind cannon.", Zagan chanted again, an invisible cannonball of wind shot out from a light green magic circle which appeared on Zagan's hands.
Feeling the air and mana around her move, she immediately chanted, "Wind Barrier!".
The invisible cannonball of wind and barrier of wind collided and made a deafening sound.
"Dark press.", Zagan chanted again.
This time, a purple magic circle appeared on the ground below Annabelle, and she couldn't react in time. She fell from the magic circle, plummeting into the ground.
She tried to immediately get up, but she couldn't. She felt her weight had increased several folds.
Dark press was a gravity spell that made the gravity around a place significantly higher.
"Give up. You're finished.", Zagan said, as he looked down at Annabelle struggling to get up.
"I-I forfeit..." Annabelle said with a shaky voice.
Annabelle was feeling bitter. She didn't even stand a chance. 'Did he arrange this duel to humiliate me? does he really hate me that much?', she felt like she was going to cry.
'Haha... and I pitied this guy... I can't believe I actually liked this jerk...', the tears were threatening to fall from her eyes.
"You're not hurt, are you?", suddenly Zagan spoke up. He extended his hand to Annabelle, seemingly expecting her to take the hand and pull herself up.
"H-huh?", Annabelle couldn't understand.
"You're crying. Are you hurt? If so, tell me. I'll take you to the infirmary.", Zagan said. His expression was still stoic, but Annabelle could feel that Zagan was slightly worried about her.
"oh... um... no, I'm not hurt... That air explosion must've hit my eyes, haha...", Annabelle lied. She couldn't possibly tell him the truth.
"oh. Then take this. It has an pain-killing potion mixed in it. It might help.", Zagan said as he took out a white handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to Annabelle.
"Ah... thanks...", Annabelle showed gratitude and took the handkerchief.
She rubbed her eyes with it, wiping her tears.
As she was going to give it back to Zagan, he said, "Keep it.".
"But-"
"Keep it. Don't make me repeat myself.", Zagan insisted.
"O-okay.", Annabelle took the handkerchief and put it in her side pocket.
"Do you want to know what mistakes you made during the match?", Zagan asked.
"yeah...?", Annabelle was confused.
"Okay then. Firstly, you made the biggest mistake of using that defensive spell to defend against my first attack. That left you vulnerable while casting and maintaining the spell, so I used the Scorching Field spell, to lift you up in the air, where your mobility and stability would be the lowest. After that, comes your 2nd mistake. You defended against that wind cannon with a barrier. That disoriented you, but not me, as I was far away from it. That gave me the opportunity to use Dark press and bring you down.", Zagan explained while using hand signs.
"You're not physically strong, but nimble. Use that to your advantage. Why did you block the spells using your magic, and wasted Mana where you could've just used a much more mana-efficient agility spell to simply dodge the attack and counter-attack me?", Zagan asekd.
"The reason was that you were scared. You got bewildered by my magic's effectiveness. You forgot one crucial thing, Annabelle. Its the fact that, no matter how strong the attack is, it becomes useless if it doesn't hit the target.", Zagan answered his own question while looking straight at Annabelle.
"Did you catch all that?", Zagan asked Annabelle who was looking like she was in a daze.
"H-huh?! oh... yeah... I got it...", Annabelle answered.
'He's right... If I didn't do those mistakes, maybe I would've stood a chance against him...', Annabelle thought.
"Hey, Annabelle... can I ask you something?", Zagan asked.
"Hm? y-yeah? what is it?"
"Do you hate me?"
The question came out of nowhere. Annabelle's mind went black for a moment and suddenly she got nervous.
"N-NO! Absolutely not! You're my fiancé! I could-"
"Tell me the truth. Do you hate me, or not?"
Annabelle stopped, and gulped down her own saliva.
"n-no... I don't hate you... but... sometimes... I get scared... of you...", Annabelle fumbled out.
"You get scared? haha...", Zagan chuckled.
'w-what?! he smiled! he actually smiled!!!! HOLY SHIT! HE ACTUALLY SMILED?!', Annabelle was completely shocked. She had never seen Zagan smile before.
"Annabelle, can you come to the imperial palace every week? I want to have duels like this with you more... its fun...", Zagan asked Annabelle with a calm and collected tone.
Annabelle's heart started to beat violently.
'wh-what is this? he... seems lonely... is he asking me to be with him so that he can be less lonely?', Annabelle thought.
"Yes, sure. I learnt a lot from you, after all. I'll come here every week to duel with you!", Annabelle smiled and agreed. This time, she didn't stutter.
"Thank you, Annabelle.", Zagan thanked Annabelle with a warm smile.
------------------------Zagan's POV--------------------------------
'Hook, line and sinker!', Leon exclaimed after seeing Annabelle's expression.
'Such good acting! Oscar-worthy! This is amazing!', Leon kept smiling inwardly.
The whole duel and everything after that was all planned. He had made this plan with the goal of bringing Annabelle closer to him, and get more dependent on him. He would give Annabelle advice about magic and she would in-turn get more and more attached to him.
It was perfect!
'Now that I have gotten hold of such an important piece, I will never let it go!', Leon exclaimed.
'haha! I'll use you till you're unusable!!!!!'