"Excuse me… would you like to try out our apple pie?"
"Uhn?"
"It's only 2 gold sens, you won't get it anywhere in Fiona, so why not get it now".
The man spoke, he was standing behind a counter at the side of the road, set on the counter, where there were multiple sweets, cakes and other stuff.
It didn't take me much time to understand that it was also part of the business Raphael was running.
"Sure, I'll take one." I respond, digging inside my pockets to get 5 gold zens.
After the business exchange, I was offered 3 pies, a thank you and a nice smile.
Taking a look at the pie in my hand, the scent alone was enough for me to tell it was going to be delicious.
Nyummm!
I took a bite, my eyes immediately sparking from the sheer magic that had just touched my taste buds.
This is quite good, I don't know if I should be impressed or jealous… hell, I shouldn't even be paying for this.
I'll have a word with Jeane later, I'm sure she could hook me up with a couple of things, hehe, what's this guilt I'm feeling.
"Move!!!"
Some students pushed me from behind, running hastily as they yelled,
"The queen is battling with a student from Class B".
"For real? I gotta see … the queen is actually having a duel with someone?! Sweeeet".
They kept ranting as more and more students began to follow behind them.
Come to think of it, I think Ruxian was going to duel Ava, I mean, they left right away but I didn't think they'd actually do it.
Of course not, why would they suddenly duel over nothing? I should go find Ruxian though, or I'm going to have to deal with hours of nagging about how I didn't come to meet her to join the group.
With a sigh, I made my way towards the academy grounds. I assumed Ruxian would be around there talking to one of the professors about our group.
But when I got to the main grounds, all I saw was a huge commotion, students surrounding a single point, it seemed like they were invested in something.
I got curious.
So I went over to have a look, after being able to climb a tree, and sitting there with my snacks in my hand, I was finally able to tell why the students all gathered.
A duel.
Ava and Ruxian are actually dueling? No matter how much I try to wrap my head around it, I still don't know why they'd suddenly decide to fight one another.
"Well, this is a good time to see how strong they are… even a professor is here to supervise… What could possibly go wrong?".
•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×
"Lady Ava, Miss Ruxian, are you ready?" The professor asked, standing in the middle of the two female students.
"Sure."
"Okay."
They both responded, staring each other down.
"If things get too rough, I'll call off the match and the one standing is to be declared the winner… you may begin."
With that, the professor disappeared, leaving both females to prepare themselves for their duel.
"Before we get on with this… I'd like to know, why did you challenge me to a duel?" Ava asked with a calm expression on her face.
Ruxian, on the other hand, had a flushed expression on her face, despite how hard she was trying to hide it.
"Hmph! Aether isn't your play thing… I'll get it through that thick skull of yours by beating the living shit out of you!"
Ruxian transformed.
A bright light shining around her with water flowing all around her body, and then if settled, revealing her new form.
Her hair was more blue than before, her eyes were masked under a cloth, a veil was over her head and chains danced around her with water bubbles.
"I see how it is." Spoke Ava, a sigh leaving her mouth, "I should have guessed, you seem to have fallen for him too".
"Shut your mouth!" Ruxian yelled, charging forward with a powerful speed boost pushing behind her.
Ava, still carrying her stoic expression, snapped her fingers and immediately, different colors of swords rotated around her body.
'Uhn? A holy sword?' Ruxian muttered to herself, a bit surprised.
Carefully, Ava pulled out one of the swords, this particular one was white, with wind surrounding its blade.
"Go… Rex garron."
With those words, Ava slashed the sword in front of her, and a powerful gust of wind charged towards Ruxian, destroying the ground and everything in its path.
Luckily for Ruxian, she was able to dodge at the last second, her legs sliding against the ground while the full force of the wind blew beside her.
"Oh? You were able to dodge that?" Ava spoke, her finger resting on her soft pink lips.
"Tch! Just cause you got a holy sword, doesn't change this outcome!!!".
Stomping her leg on the ground, Ruxian pointed her finger at Ava, using her second hand to balance her wrist she spoke,
"Go to hell!"
The water bubbles around her formed into flour oval liquid energy, glowing an ominous shade of blow before the attack was launched.
From the oval magic orbs, shot water bullets that sped straight at Ava.
The first shot caught Ava by surprise, the blast scraped her cheeks, blood flowing out immediately, while the remaining shots seemed to land just a bit close to her.
The audience gasped, wondering how a class b student was able to scratch Ava.
But Ava didn't say a word, instead she reached for another sword, this one with hot flaming fire, enveloping its metal blade.
Boom!
Ava charged forward, the expression on her face completely dead, cold enough to send chills to anyone that looked directly into her eyes.
Ruxian didn't let off, she kept shooting her hydro bullet, this caused Ava to start dodging, sometimes using her fire sword to deflect the attack before it could damage.
But despite Ruxian's relentless assault, Ava was closing the distance, and Ruxian knew if that were to happen, it would turn into hand to hand combat, and she doesn't do well in that category.
Gritting her teeths, she dispelled her water bullets and formed the bullets into long blue looking vines that mixed with her chains.
These vines charged towards Ava like thousands of falling arrows, even Ava knew she couldn't dodge such an attack while running around the arena.
Taking a quick stop, Ava stabbed her flame sword on the ground and muttered,
"Come, Mohibito."
With those words, the ground around her began to heat up and lava shot out of the ground, charging towards the water vines falling to her poison.
Every eyes in the area widened at how these two women battled it out, their magic exceeding each other with every chant.