World Sphere - 58 - Duel

Chapter 58: Duel

As we stood across from the opposing academy, two men wearing the crests of the mage academy entered. They dictated the rules, which were quite similar to the qualifiers. The biggest difference was that intentionally killing someone would result in a ten-year sentence as an indentured servant. Guess I wasn’t going to kill Leon today. Although the mage hadn’t mentioned unintentionally killing…

We had an hour to warm up as the stands filled. It was mostly family members, and locals to see the free exhibition match. I saw a few faces I recognized from our little town. But there was also a disconcerting trio: Loriel flanked by Bylura and Isla. Her large Wolfsguard bodyguard was standing behind her, and many of the seats were empty around them.

I just hoped Loriel didn’t cheer loudly for me. I was already regretting letting the young woman cast her shadow over me. I didn’t see any Bricio’s in the stands—at least none that I recognized. My mother arrived with Freya, and I waved to them. Father was on a skyship doing a route.

I stretched with the twins, Mia and Gareth, in a corner. Gareth spoke with eagerness, “So what is the plan, Stormy? Should we give them a false sense of hope before crushing them?” He followed this with his best evil laugh, which sounded ridiculous.

Fera, who was fighting 11th, asked, “Storme, do you really think we can win? You and Gareth can win, but us? I mean, most of those,” she indicated the other academy students on the far side, “have had trainers since they were able to walk.”

Why was everyone deferring to me? “Yes. Your staff skills are remarkable, Ferra. Just hold your strength ability in reserve. If you need to use it, do it on a parry and then use the opening to get a head strike.” This was the tactic that had worked on Gareth for her. Her strength of the ox allowed her to temporarily double her strength. It was a relatively weak tier 1 ability. A better tier 1 strength ability was the lion’s might. This gave a passive increase in strength of about a third.

Mia questioned the rankings, “So how are you ranked third in our academy Storme?”

I laughed, “A favor from Callem. He used my duel with Pascal when I used Gareth’s broadsword to rank Pascal ahead of me. Being 3rd allows me to match against Leon. He was the one who stabbed me in the alley.” The twins looked at me sharply, their eyes narrowing. They had heard about the incident but didn’t realize the attacker was known.

Mia looked over at Leon, “He really tried to kill you? I guess it makes sense that he got away with it. Half his extended family are guards in Solaris.” Mia being from the city, was familiar with most of the other kids her age.

“Callem has been working to see his family feel some pain for what he did. A bunch of his cousins were called to serve in the lowlands. One of the dungeon towns, I think. His father was also assigned to a small town on Aquafall Island,” I noted smugly.

Mera interjected. “Deepwell? The water island with the massive lake. But there are only a few fishing villages and farms.”

“Exactly!” I said, grinning. “Callem still has some friends. Wynna told me he tried to bring charges against Leon and his older brother, who was there. Unfortunately, the matter was buried with no witnesses and the truth seekers unwilling to pursue his inquest.”

Gareth was annoyed at the conversation. I think he would have preferred to have been the one fighting Leon. “So should I draw it out, Storme, or just drop him?” Gareth said testily.

“Your call, Gareth,” I said, and he rolled his eyes at me.

The pairings started with the top pair and worked down to thirty-three. There was a point system that we were informed of. The higher the ranking, the more points you get for a win. The points were necessary, because apparently, there was a prize. Forty-nine gold in funding for the winning academy. Not a lot for the city academy, but a substantial hall for our academy.

The first match began. Gareth danced and sparred with his opponent for a solid twenty minutes before disarming him by breaking his wrist. The boy possessed a healing ability, but it was very slow, and Gareth’s sword was instantly at his neck, prompting the mage proctors to intervene and end the match. I glanced at the stands to see Loriel clapping madly at Gareth’s victory, which unsettled me.

Pascal’s match was entertaining as it was a match of equals. Pascal had his teeth shattered when his opponent smashed his sword hilt into his face. Pascal fought on, ignoring the injury. Pascal won when he cut deep into his opponent’s calf muscle, effectively ending his ability to use that leg.

Pascal’s face was a mess, with missing teeth and blood all over his leather vest as he smiled at us. I congratulated him as he headed to the healers to get new teeth grown. My match was next, and Leon and his fellows no longer looked cocky.

My face was impassive as I entered the ring with my staff spinning in one hand. Leon was now wielding a spiked mace. The wrist strap on the weapon made me slightly wary. It was too worn and thick to be for just making sure he didn’t drop his weapon.

My anger was simmering and I couldn’t resist needling him, “Have you had trouble yanking yourself off since I almost took off your arm?” I had been wielding a saber in that match and now had a staff.

Leon’s face hardened in in anger, “I am going to smash your balls up and into your mouth to shut you up.”

I cracked a grin, looking forward to this. When the fight started, his trick became evident. The strap-on mace was magical and allowed him to change the mace’s direction instantly. I got caught in the rapid back-swing and barely intervened with my staff. However, the fingers on my right hand were crushed. Leon sneered, but when I didn’t cry out in pain or retreat, he looked baffled.

It was much harder to manipulate the staff, but I had trained physically and mentally to work through the pain. My mend flesh spell worked on my hand as I felt out the damage. I definitely had some broken fingers—and my pinky was missing. Oh, it was stuck to his spiked mace.

My mind was chillingly focused. That was an extraordinary enchantment on the mace. Changing directions like that instantly requires some type of inertia change. I would have to ask Aldon about the enchantments required.

My mind returned to Leon, who had also recovered from me not falling down, whimpering, and asking for mercy. Now that I knew he could instantly change directions with his swing, I knew it would be a short match in my favor. Some blood trickled from his nose. I was confused as I had not hit him in the face—yet.

Then I figured it out. It was the backlash from his enchantment, as the recoil from the mace’s direction change needed to go somewhere. I knew this from studying skyship enchantments. Skyships had a magical inertia sink. Sharp changes in direction were absorbed into the runic sink, protecting the crew. A ship’s runic sink was large and could not be carried easily.

Leon was paying the price for his artifact’s function. I grinned widely, knowing he couldn’t use his trick again without risking serious injury. I spun into my attack and unleashed a flurry of blows that broke his jaw, kneecap, sternum, and clavicle in seconds.

I shattered his jaw so he could not voice his surrender. My next series would have targeted his wrist and ribs, but he dropped his mace and fled. Well, stumbled, fell, and crawled away. How was this fair? I bent down to the mace and freed my pinky from a spike as I was declared the winner. I went over to the healing mages and had my finger reattached.

While I was being healed, I watched Mia in the 4th bout. She easily handled her large opponent. I walked over to Gareth, and he complimented me on my stoicism. “That was amazing, Stormy! Did you hear the crowd when the realized you were taking back your finger from the mace?”

“I might have,” I said, not able to hold back a smile. Not just from the crowd adoration but also being able to vent on Liam again.

“I would have been tricked by the mace changing direction so fast too,” Gareth said conciliatory. I just grunted. I wasn’t done with Leon yet. My anger would always boil to the surface whenever I saw him.

The matches proceeded, and the twins both won. In fact, we only had two losses to the other academy. Our 16th and 21st members both lost through some tricky on the part of their opponents. When my second match came around, I was paired with a tiny girl who was shaking in fear at facing me. She remembered what I had done to Leon.

She was 5’3” with dark hair and light brown eyes. She had a shield and a short sword. Rather than defeat her, I slowly engaged her and gave her a 20-minute lesson on defense and attack. At first, she was confused, but eventually understood I would not be beating her senseless with my staff. After 20 minutes, I told the official that I conceded the match to her.

This made her stare at me with a mix of perplexity and curiosity. We had already won the matchup and secured the reward, so there was no reason to prolong this. Her body also showed signs of bruising and injury that I didn’t inflict, so I felt some pity for her.

When I was back at Gareth’s side, he whispered, “That was awesome. She is cute and will surely reward you for that if you visit her in the city!” I looked at my friend’s eager and happy face and looked in amazement at his one-track mind.

I explained my rationale. “Gareth, I just humiliated Leon more by letting her win. Besides, she had bruises on her ribs and arms. My guess is she gets beaten up daily in training. I just don’t understand how someone so small is in the Solaris elite first-year academy.”

Mia was close by and answered my question. “She is the illegitimate daughter of Hiram, the cloth merchant. We played together when I was younger. Mikaela is her name if you are interested. Hiram’s main business is in Aegis city, and he employs Mikaela in his estate in Solaris, away from his wife and legitimate children.” I shrugged, not planning to pursue anything.

I was about to offer to take my friends to a restaurant when Bylura appeared from the stands. “Storme, Loriel wishes to dine with you to discuss your joint business ventures.” My temper started to flare, but I managed to restrain it before showing any anger. There was no joint business venture; I was paying for everything to renovate and furnish the warehouse conversion.

“Sorry, everyone. It looks like I need to clear something up.” I handed Gareth a gold coin before recalling that he had his own winnings from winning the pre-academy tournament. He accepted it anyway and gathered the three girls to search for a restaurant to celebrate. When I told Callem where I was going, he just stared intently at Bylura, who flinched slightly under his gaze, but Callem eventually nodded. Bylura and Callem had spent a lot of time together observing us at the academy, so I guess they had an understanding.

I followed Bylura to the main road and continued until we reached the upper side of Solaris. The noble district here was not as large or impressive as the ones in Aegis City. I took in my surroundings, having never visited this part of the city before. Bylura stopped and led me into what I assumed was an alehouse.

It smelled slightly perfumed and had large booths that could seat eight people. Bylura led me upstairs and into a small room with a large window overlooking a plaza. Loriel and Isla were seated at a table with her drawings spread out. I sat at the table, and a waitress brought me multiple pitchers of various drinks and a cup. I selected a weak-smelling wine.

Loriel appraised me before speaking, “Isla has shown me her renderings of your building.”

I stopped her there, making eye contact with both of them in turn. “That is a breach of my trust. I pay Isla, not you. If she is going to run off at your beck and call, I think I will be replacing her.” Isla looked horrified and quickly looked to Loriel for support.

Loriel’s hand trembled just slightly when she reached for her drink. Was that in anger or regret of overstepping? She sipped and ordered her thoughts, “I apologize for overstepping. Isla was just showing me my apartment. Since I had to furnish it myself, I wanted to see the dimensions.”

She sipped again, then spoke, “Congratulations on your victory today.” She eyed my pinky finger. “You have remarkable skill with your staff.” I remained quiet, and her eye twitched in what I assumed was annoyance. “I wanted to make a business proposal to you.”

Her tact had switched to caution, as she had misread me. I replied without hesitation. “I am not interested.”

Her displeasure flared, and she curtly said, “You will at least have the courtesy of hearing it before declining it.” She growled, losing her lofty demeanor. Bylura and Isla winced at the faceoff.

I maintained a neutral expression, leaned back in my chair, and signaled that she could proceed. It might not have been the best approach for one of the more powerful individuals in Skyholme, but I wanted to convey control, and if I could dissuade her from trying to interfere with me again, all the better.

“So, I have renters lined up for your apartments, 20 gold per month. That is much higher than you could find on your own. In return, I want a 25% stake in your building,” she said bluntly.

I did the math, and with 15 rooms currently unassigned, that amounted to 300 gold a month. I had talked with Wynna, and she thought that renting the apartments for three or four gold a month was reasonable. Loriel offer was too good to refuse. Of course, I had no intention of profiting from the rooms. They were to house my delve team and eventually a crew for my skyship.

“I am sorry, Loriel, but I am still uninterested,” I said clearly after pretending to consider her offer. “I have other plans for the rooms.”

Loriel sat straighter. “Your funds are not bottomless, Storme. How will you finance your skyship?” 

Everything clicked into place. Loriel thought she was helping me generate funds for the skyship. At least the high room rates made sense now. If she looked at the building plans, it was not difficult to figure out that the hangar and large doors were intended for a skyship.

I tempered my reply, “I will figure things out in time. I am in no rush. I have done you favors, and you have done me some. Our scales are balanced, and I wish to remain out of your debt and orbit.” Bylura’s eyes widened, and Isla looked at Loriel worriedly. She probably thought I was about to fire her since I didn’t accept her offer.

Loriel gripped her cup tightly. She clearly had plans, and I was messing them up. Her jaw tightened. “Agreed. Neither of us owes the other a debt at this time. I will let you know the price when you need a favor from me. Bylura stay with me. We return to the capital.” Loriel rose and left with heavy, angry steps. Bylura chased after her. That just left Isla and me at the table.

“Can I walk you back to Hen’s Hollow?” I asked the stunned woman.

“Yes, yes, you can,” she rambled out. “You know, Loriel was only trying to do you a favor. A big favor.” I looked her in the eye as she gathered her things.

“It is not a favor if it is expected to be returned in the future at a much higher cost. I do not need Loriel,” I said, walking briskly toward the exit. I think I heard Isla say, ‘She needs you,’ in a whisper, but I couldn’t quite make out the words clearly with my footfalls.

On the return walk, we turned to business. “I am not fired?” She asked relieved.

“Not yet, but this is the last time you go behind my back to Loriel,” I said and she nodded emphatically.

She updated me on the construction, furniture, and all the little things she was keeping track of. We planned to visit the warehouse tomorrow, and I was excited to see the progress in person. She even had a meeting scheduled with the artist. I walked her all the way back to the inn in Hen’s Hollow.

Making sure no one saw me, I entered the woods. My aether pool was full, and I wanted to level up my lightning reflexes spell.

It was extremely late when I got back to my room. Gareth had decided to sleep elsewhere or was training since he only needed a few hours of sleep. I cleaned the room and fell onto my bed exhausted.

I had reached level seven and had two evolutions. It had taken 6 hours and a lot of chasing of small wild animals, but I had gotten excellent results. At level five, I increased my speed to 66.6%. At level seven, I took the controlled deceleration.

I had run into two trees in the night and had to heal my injuries. But also, I think this aspect of the spell might counteract the change of inertia enchantment that Liam had used on his weapon. I probably could use such an enchanted weapon with no backlash!

I couldn’t sleep as I was deducing all the options of being able to use such a weapon in combat. That coupled with my 66% enhanced speed—maybe, I could beat Callem. It was all dreams of fancy, and when morning arrived, Gareth was not back. I had to meet Isla at the skyship platform. I was slightly worried about my friend. Maybe it was time to get us communication stones.

I was cooking breakfast when Gareth entered, following his nose. Where did he come from? Was he back with Brianne? “Morning, Stormy! What are you making us for breakfast?” I had only gotten enough to make myself breakfast, so I indicated he needed to get the ingredients for himself.

When he returned laden down, I asked him. “I noticed you didn’t return last night. Where did you make your bed?” I asked softly. His eyes panicked just for a second before he answered.

Slowly, he said while watching for my reaction, “I slept in the twins’ room.” It was a little bit of a gut shot. I liked the twins. Mera had said she had a crush on me.

“I am sorry, brother, but after we had dinner in the city and got back here, we were talking in their room, and I just kind of fell asleep between them.” He looked guilty, as I knew he wouldn’t just fall asleep with his ability—he had chosen to stay the night.

My stomach knotted as I was definitely upset, but didn’t understand why. “Gareth, it is fine. They both respect you a lot and are good people. Just don’t hurt them.” What was I saying? Was I was giving my friend the blessing to pursue two women? I finished making the baked breakfast quiche and packed a bunch in my bag. I left to meet Isla at the Skyship pad a little early.

Isla was waiting for me. I was happy to have this distraction today. What did I care if Mera, Fera, and Gareth were getting intimate? I had turned away Mera a half-dozen times and other women as well. I also had my magic, which would be my true mistress to keep me warm at night.

The old skyship landed heavily on the platform, and we boarded. I sat inside the passenger cabin instead of watching the land pass below. Isla sat next to me with her overstuffed satchel. She could sense my mood because we didn’t talk the entire trip. As we approached Aegis City, I moved to the bow to see my building as we landed. The building was something substantial, had permanence, and I controlled it completely.