Greek Dueling, Part 1.

Waking up at 3am, I get ready quickly. I dress in a new set of blue and black robes, which will be appropriate for a dueling pit, if a bit fancier than normal. Something I could wear around and no one will ask questions - in the Wizarding World at least.

I grab my pre-packed suitcase, and then take the Floo to the Ministry to get my portkey. In the pre-dawn Ministry, I run into three people, one Unspeakable, who gives me a wide berth, a security officer, and Flitwick, who agrees to come and watch me, and help me plan for the adult tournament while I do the U-17 affair.

The U-17 Debriefing is short and to the point. Markus Marniel, ranked 4th right now in U-17 is probably the best after Alessa, but he doesn’t really care to try in losers brackets, opting to test things and get better that way. The other person I don’t know who is a bit of a rising star right now is named Nalia, which rings a bell, for some reason.

Didn’t she duel Alessa last year, and do pretty well for a newcomer? It was something like that.

The rest of the bracket is still very good for U-17. Germany and Japan both have two people in the top-ten, and all of those are really skilled duelists. If I hadn’t destabilized the system, it would likely end up that they would be the top and bottom of the top 10, where everyone else would be in the middle of them.

Impressive, even if seven of the ten are male, which I hope would change in coming years. Fleur and I have shown girls can do it too. It's not easy, but it can be done!

Shortly, we’re in a villa in western Greece. An all magical Village, off the coast of Greece. I can see the Mainland, but to them this will appear either as open ocean, or as a pile of debris or something else which wouldn’t be very pleasant to sail into. Or it might just have been put in a pocket of space, folding the island into almost a separate dimension, like the fidelius charm, with the secret being attuned to all magical peoples instead of a single soul.

Either way, we have a nice Island view of the mainland, and Mount Olympus in the distance.

We’re going to be holding the tournaments halfway up, in the Old Temples, as is traditional here. They were hidden by magic due to the obvious magic which is inside of them. Everburning torches, literally sparkling wine, thunderclouds inside, floating orbs of water containing beautiful creatures, and so forth. What is in the temples, according to what I’ve read about them, changes. When it’s not an open season like right now, they’re pretty empty, except for the Pilgrims who come to worship, on their way to the top, where the abodes of the gods reside. Again, those are hidden from mortals, though most normal wizards don’t really know about them - or think they exist - so are excluded too.

Only people who believe they exist can see them. A catch 22, but it’s godly magic. I don’t care if it makes sense.

No one, with the exception of those selected by the priesthood, will be allowed past the tournament grounds, as those are made for competition in the name of the gods. The Greeks are not so jealous to keep us from worshiping our own gods in combat within their temples. Something about how they enjoy positive relationships with as many as they can have them with.

Except for the Egyptians, I’m guessing, based on the fact they hate me and the Greeks love me.

But there was no warning about that, so I’m not sure.

It is 10:00am in Greece time when I am called, along with the other duelists, to the opening ceremony.

It’s very normal. We are teleported into the main chamber where the first five duels will happen. The rest will be five to a temple and twenty at a time outside.

There are something like 200, maybe as many as three hundred duels to be fought today.

Apparently double-knockout means both get fixed up and they go again.

The temples themselves are outstanding though.

From the top down - the roof of each temple is different. The tiling on the roof is different, I should say. Different patterns, colors and styles of tile, even. For example, Zeus has dark gray, white and yellow tiles on his roof, and the roof looks like a mural of a heady storm, which even ominously lets out a rumble every once in a while. The main body of the temple is a beautiful - if traditional - greek style. The pillars have enlaid carvings of the various legends the gods star in, which lightly move and flow, and if you listen hard close enough, you can hear them going through the legend, too. It’s incredibly magical, all of it.

Then the opening ceremony, where we are introduced, and given our first round of matches.

I win mine by binding my enemy in a fist of stone and summoning their wand. The poor thirteen year old didn’t really have a chance to draw.

And I’m only trying half as hard as I could. I suppose being over 200 points better in skill, stats and with many perks, not many people here - below the top level kids - will stand much of a chance, and even then…

It seems unlikely.

My explorations of Greece were very interesting. While I crushed duel after duel, I spent my free time exploring Greece. There were dozens of ancient magical sites and many magical sales sites. Some were obvious scams. “Xénos”, or “Outsider” alley, for instance, was basically just a tourist trap. They had nothing of interest, other than overpriced food, basic texts rewritten in Greek claiming to be original copies of the works, or similar. Drys - Oak - alley was much more my speed. It was an alley on the very ancient magics of the land - and had people with real, fairly priced, original magical books. Or copies of them.

Wandlore in particular - or perhaps I should say woodcraft, infused with essences of extremely magical things to act as a magical aid - were here. I got a whole set, from novice all the way up to a few tomes on advanced master level work.

I also got a pile of books on Alchemy, Enchantments, Wards and the Monsters which are -only- in Greece. There are a ton of them. Greek Myths didn’t lie about anything, except perhaps how dangerous a number of the creatures were.

The Nemean Lion was, for example, also immune to basically all forms of toxin, and usually dies from either exhaustion or overheating, since its pelt is impervious and the body heat it generates by burning insane amounts of energy in extended fights fries it.

There are a few claims of single wizards killing one, but the record is held by a team of seven, of which three died, two lost limbs and one was driven mad.

One full on survivor.

The Leanan Hydra, too, was more dangerous. If it decided to, it could make itself invisible - which it has only had to do once. It also needs each of its heads killed in a different way. Each dawn it resets back to its original form - some sort of blessing or curse to make the guardian immortal.

Oh, and it has way more heads than it did in any myth from many failed Apple-thieves.

The list goes on, but I make sure to buy all of the books I’ve never heard of before, including bartering with a few spartans for their war magic at the cost of some Persian secrets, which I had in the family library from when we absorbed a clan which had come with Rome to England.

Extinct in the Male Line, we got all their stuff. I considered the secrets worth the trade - considering how jealously the Spartan community of Wizards and Witches guard their magic - and any magic they steal.

I don’t plan to go to war with them, either. That tends to go… poorly for people who try. Partially, this is why Egypt never tried to conquer Greece after Rome fell. Even though the political landscape is pretty similar to what it was going on 500 years ago, with a lot of countries considering war to grow their territory and power, very few really consider Greece.

Magical Sparta was never Conquered.

After getting all of a new library - a Greek Wing for the Family library will be nice - I find that I’m in the Semi-Finals. Markus Marinel has been beating the snot out of a number of people. His stats are each over 200, and his Agi, Int and Wis are all closing in on 300. Very impressive, for someone who I’d never seen before this.

I decided to go from half my true skill to three-quarters for him. I was planning to save as much for Alessa, but she’s only very slightly better than him - four points higher in agility, ten or so in dexterity and actually a couple points down in int and wis. Her dueling skill is marginally better than his, so I think that makes up for it.

After the duel, however, I realize what happens when I actually cut loose a bit. Even three-fourths of my full strength - only using level eight elemental magic - rendered him unconscious. I was told he’ll wake up in a few weeks, because his brain was extremely bludgeoned from getting tossed off the stage, then overheated by the secondary wave of fire, which bounced him off the barrier and slammed him into the ground. Broken skull, severe concussion and minor brain damage. Thankfully magical healing can fix all of that, in a week and change. Then there’s the magical burns, which add enough damage that they have to slowly work through it.

At least I didn’t use a level nine spell. Those can’t be magically healed fully. Cursed fire leaves nasty scarring. If I’d done this out of malice instead of excitement, then he’d have likely been scarred too. They take the fact he’ll make a full recovery very well, though, and I am in no way penalized.

So, I spend the evening with Alessa, training with her.

She surrenders to me formally first thing in the morning. This leaves me as first, her as second and Markus, unable to defend his third place, loses it to the person I stomped with half my power before him in the bracket.

Alessa’s rival. Who almost beats her, but loses in the end.

The girl is raw chaos and speed, hardly any skill. She’s basically what I would call a ‘stat stick’. Her stats are all very high - 300 or so - but she has a load of drawbacks. She also has almost no skill with magic. She’s just using her insane base stats to flatten people.

Too bad Alessa is used to dueling someone who is strictly superior to her in every way.

So, I’m admitted into the Adult tournament, with much excitement on my name. I’d won the U-17 tournament almost without seemingly trying. Considering that was accurate, I didn’t correct people. They begin comparing me to the other top-dogs at the tournament, and I am impressed to know I recognize some of the names.

Michael Graves is the reigning world champion. I am due to fight him after three other people I do not recognize. If I somehow beat him, then Jean Elemore, the champion who retired to allow Graves to become the champion, in favor of raising her son for a couple years, is after that. Then the Brazilian powerhouse, and main rival of Michael after that - David Santos. Tsvetan Stefanson is after that, and he’s the runner up from last year. That’s the finals. The Grand-Finals will be, of course, whoever wins the losers bracket. There are even a few Asian and African duelists here who only show up every couple of years, but each have taken a title, and all are ranked in the top 9.

I’m seed 16.

If I lose, I’m going to have to fight almost all of them. Siu Hyun, the Korean master who took the title 8 years ago, Aris Dinis, who never outright won, but got runner up in more years than the rest of the competitors. King without a Crown. Then David, and Somerset Carina, who beat both Santos and Graves at an Winter dueling event for charity, and is now making her first appearance for the world-cup.

She is 3rd seed. Expected to either win or come in second, really. Then Tsvetan, again. If I somehow am not dead by that point.

Either route is insanely hard.

Notably, when I see a few of them - I realize my Dueling skill is higher than theirs.

By the end of the opening ceremony, I realize my base stats are equal to the best in the room, and my dueling skill is the highest.

As long as I don’t run into someone who is much better at a specialty than I am in my generalist approach, well, I’ll do decently, I think. I could win, though I suspect that Graves, if no one else, will prove a hurdle for me. His dueling skill is below my own, sure, and my base stats are, after everything, three points higher than his, but he is also a Defense master, like myself, along with a charms master and a very well known War-Wizard.

Meaning he fights in major battles to the highest bidder. He specializes in the chaotic land disputes of South America, which is where he met and began his rivalry with Santos.

I sigh quietly. U-17 had given me hardly anything, no titles or skill levels. It wasn’t a challenge to win.

Hopefully the Adult tourney will be worth more than 25,000 xp, a pile of free press conferences which should keep me covered for a few months, and similar.

At least my book - the one about my past life except telling it like historical fiction on earth with a much more heroic me in the spotlight - well. At least that’s getting publicity? I’m hoping to put in enough real magic to make it clear that what the book discusses is - or was - real, but that the story has been ‘diluted and spiced up’ enough to cover what was really used.

I’m excited to see how it is received. I have a few novels written out already, and plan to revise them over the school year, to help me relax between busy moments.

Of course, the books are stored in my Inventory when I’m not using them…

The first three bouts, are boring, to put it simply. I am happy that I’m able to spend time with Alessa Bella - who won her first, lost her second and then repeated the pattern. I also spend some time with Adrian, who apparently came to Greece partly to watch in person, and partly to buy out some ancient books his father has been looking to collect for awhile, and has finally tracked them down.

“Time in the sun never hurts either.” He’d said with a smile. I rolled my eyes, as he was wearing a full body cloak. While it was a light shade of silver, which hurt my eyes to look at frankly, he was certainly getting no sun.

Michael Graves, though, was my next opponent. Frankly, his style of combat is direct. He likes to blow people out of the ring as fast as possible. Usually through some immobilization charm set or elemental binding.

So I’ll need to respond in kind - elemental spells. Of course, it’s going to look like a bit of a mess to anyone watching.

When those fail he’ll move on to removing all terrain and try to out-duel me in a straight curse-for-curse style. My Agility and Dexterity are higher than his, though my luck, strength and wisdom are all a bit lower. My intelligence is about the same. I’ll be faster, as a result.

Realizing he does not win a battle of raw skill and speed, he will move on to the last card - which is usually ‘detonate the field’ for him.

So, for the last three days I’ve been drilling a new Shadow Magic spell, known as the Shadow Aegis. It can block anything, technically. Though it does so by using your shadow - so soul magic will still affect you if you use this - IE the Crucio, Imperio, Avada Kedavra, etc.

But it blocks everything else, as you cannot destroy a shadow, not truly. Inside of your body where there is no light, there is always shadow - technically. It’s like a soul. You can’t really destroy your soul, 100% of the way, because if you do, then you’re dead anyways, and your soul is united in the next life.

I can now summon the Aegis in under a second, but I can only hold it for a moment. A brief flash of power, then I lose my grip and am vulnerable.

It will block one spell or one damaging attack. The shockwave when he goes for a double knockout, knowing he will get to go again, with way more information. Denying that will be my key past him, and hopefully to the Grand Finals, with the slight intimidation factor beating him will bring.

I spend hours going over every detail of his duels - how he played them, what he’s shown in the years past, how to beat him at his own game…

Then I step into the temple we’re fighting in - Athena’s - and bow. Raise our wands and --

Elemental fist, countered with a lightning lance. Water sphere? Punched by a stone fist. Lightning Lance? Wind scythe, flame storm, water wall.

Back and forth we toss spells. It takes about two minutes before he decides to remove all elements but just our skill. A red wave - a mass area reductor curse - removes most of the earth, water and other factors for 30 feet, leaving us on a crater, standing on a floating platform.

Then he opens up with a basic chain, and I open the counters to it, while filling in with disarming and stunning spells between parries and counters, which has him slow down, giving me more time to push the advantage and so forth. In under thirty seconds he is fully defensive, and I see him snap.

He does not immediately blow up the field, though.

He waves his hand and begins wandlessly casting to pressure me while he uses his wand to dissemble my attack!

I begin dancing through the curses while I cast, and envelop my left hand in a heavily powered shield charm, to begin slapping his curses out of the way of my dancing.

Seeing that I, too, have wandless ability, his eyes go wide, and he flicks a spell down, along with his own - aimed at my feet - a few feet ahead of me. As it goes in motion, I prepare, then as it explodes out, I bring up my Aegis in the debris wave.

Nothing hurts me for a split second, then, my Aegis breaks and I am tossed back in the tail-wind of the shockwave. I twist, using my Gymnastic skill to stay on my feet at the end, and send a wide barrage of stunners at his side of the platform.

I am surprised when I hear a form hit the ground - I’d thought he’d be knocked out by his spell! Maybe he had devised a backup so that doesn’t happen anymore.

I conjure a cold wind, and disperse the dust and dirt flying in the air, and everyone can see, from the many walls lined with spectators just over 100 feet from the center platform where we duel, my relatively unharmed form standing over that of Michael Graves.

The World Champion has fallen.

The roar from the crowd is enormous.

Now that people know what I can do - I can’t really hide behind the excuse of not being very good. Making them underestimate me worked until now. I had to actually try, though, to beat Graves, and frankly, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The press conference, though, is hell.

“Miss Hawthorne!” A Brazilian reporter shouts from the back of the crowd - speaking in a unique dialect of Spanish which seems to combine some Portuguese in, along with English slang. Trying to find a language I don’t speak, since I have not used a translator for any of the questions. The reporters hungrily took the challenge, unstated though it may have been. “How confident are you that you will win your next duel?!” He hollers, and I shrug, noncommittal.

“I’d say I have a Seventy percent chance. I know Graves was the best duelist last year, but Jean beat a lot of people before, including him. She may be rusty, or Graves could have improved enough to beat her. If either are true, then I’ll win. Also, if she isn’t fast enough to keep up with the pace Graves and I were playing at, then I’ll win. I think I’ve correctly clocked her abilities, but you never know what your opponent may have as a trump card. She’s had years to learn new magic. I could lose. I just don’t think I will.” I respond fully, getting a nod from him, and he backs out.

After that I fielded the questions of a French, American and I’m impressed to answer the first British reporter since I’ve been doing dueling.

It’s not about dueling though.

“We’ve been seeing lots of reports about your plan to write novels on the side, and I was wondering how you could have the time to do that, along with the classes you’re planning to take the NEWT-Level classes for in school, and your dueling training and the Wizengamot?” She asks. I Observe her and get her name - Melanie Oswald.

“Frankly, I learned a lot of supplemental spells which were useful for getting more advanced spells. One of them was an animation charm, and another was a spell which tells the other spell how to act. If I give the second spell a third, which translates the book I have in my head into words, then have the second spell direct the first to write my book, well, that specific arithmetic string is rather difficult so I don’t recommend others try it without the help of Flitwick at Hogwarts to make sure it’s working - well, that will write my basic outline for my book. When it is done, I will edit it, and add details as needed. I suspect the first four - maybe five - volumes will be done with this when I get home. I set them to go while I was gone, and have set the spells with enough mana to go until September the first. My editing will take another month or two, depending on workload, and then I’ll be ready to start publishing. I’ve had these ideas for a very long time, after talking to ghosts and reading a lot of ancient history. It’s a fantastical take on how one witch could have done a number of the things we have no idea about the actual answers to who did it.” I respond with a smile. This gets a bit of attention, as that is the most complete and excited answer I’ve given.

The reporters catch the hint, and the rest of the event is lighter on the literal dueling I’ve done, and more on some fictional fights I’ve thought up for my book - the tactics, magic and so forth. This gives them some level of insight into strategies I’ve thought up, and magic I’ve researched, but it seems like I’m ‘leaking’ information, as opposed to my usual stony veneer.

I give them a high-level, which shows I have obvious skill and knowledge, but not enough to give away any major fight scenes.

I hope the heroine dying in the end, to hopefully have her children destroy the evil will be dramatic and well received. A true plot twist, but a wonderful one, I think. It’s real, after all.

If asked about the ultimate fate, I’ll tell them the truth - I don’t know, but I like to think the heroes won in the end. I just can’t be sure - each person will have to choose for themselves who won out in the end.

This is, of course, aside from the point. The Press is annoying, and I have to plan for my big match tomorrow. They didn’t think I was seriously a threat at the highest level - perhaps a top end duelist for those in the middle of the pack, but nowhere near the very top, like those others in the top 16 are.

Well, I suppose I proved them wrong, didn’t I?

Elegance, counters and indirect combat are the forms my next opponent uses. She counters the type of duelist I showed myself to be today, direct and confrontational. She prefers to draw fights out - owing to her above-average mana to hold her for longer, along with the use of less straining spells, well.

She has a good reason for having won so many years in a row.

I have more mana than her, though, and my base - real - style is very similar to her. This fight will come down to efficiency and skill.

For some reason, I think I’ll end up on the better end of every variable except applicable literal experience, which could be what does me in.

Plan? Stick to the basics. As long as I'm actually better than her in literal skill, then that should make me all but impossible for her to get through. Of course, if I sprinkle in just enough ‘flavor’ that there needs to be action to deal with it, but not enough to leave an opening for her to exploit.

I want to appear to have a variable style - which I do. Not as variable as I’m pretending, but still, with a higher raw skill than the others, I can fake it well enough.

I’m sure we’ll go in circles for a while. I’ll also have to set up counters to mana draining spells. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the type to set up a siphon, to drain the mana of people more quickly. Or a field which makes things harder to cast.

Offhand casting complex secondary spells which don’t give visual indicators seems to be the kind of trick which separates the very best from those who are just below. Indirect combatants would most likely alter the conditions of the fight.

So I’ll need counters for that, and my own examples of it to sprinkle in, just in case she isn’t familiar with the versions of the spells I’ve been researching over the last few months. A lot of them can be hard to counter if you don’t know what, exactly, they do.

A plan in mind, I close out the press conference, and decide to go shopping.

I’ve yet to visit the isle of Circe, which is a sort of resort, with a lot of really specialized beautification magic, which when used on non-females, turns them into animals for some reason.

It turns out not many men go there. But it would be nice to have, even if the spells are very easy to reverse. Any dispeller undos them. Appearance matters a lot, in politics. Having many distinct and interesting looks for various situations will help to grow my power-base. Even if it’s only surface level, I’ve already done a lot of work to prove my power is more than skin-deep.

My next duel can be described best as long and tedious. I end up winning, but really, it’s a long back and forth of us exchanging spells which are extremely simple trying to wear the other down with subtle tactics, failing, and then trying a different one.

It’s not flashy, and it’s so fast most people probably couldn’t keep up with it, live. We cast about 2 spells per second, each. One with a wand, one without. Either a spell to attack or deflect (or deflect a deflected curse.) She eventually surrendered due to a lack of mana - having around 2% left, according to my Observe, while I still had 48%.

My greater control and precision is shining through, truly.

So I have another free day, well, night. The duel had taken over 40 minutes, and had, in reality, been the last duel of the day, 4:30pm, and so we finished with all of the press and such at around 6:00pm. The sun was setting, and I had no real time to go off and sight-see and collect magic. I only really had time to come up with a plan - with the aid of Flitwick - for my next duel.

David Santos is due to be another explosive duel, and frankly, I’m not very excited to see another of his type so soon after a duel of stamina. The amount of pivoting in strategy needed to properly handle the power-duelist compared to simply outlasting a skill-duelist is annoying.

In short, he likes to create large area hazards. Poison clouds, setting the arena wholly on fire, and of course, explosions.

Setting a mana draining trap like Jean had shown me in our duel would be a good technique against him, but I would also need to create a small bubble around myself to absorb ambient magic spreading detrimental passive effects - like he prefers.

This will take at least four seconds, and I may not have that time if he chooses to just open with explosions.

David is a problem not because he is the best duelist - of the top 15 he is actually the worst - but instead he is a problem because he has so much mana and has enough skill to channel it into directed mass area effects most people - no matter their skill - just can’t block a wall of exploding poison and rock. You’d have to block it with a shield, which requires more mana than most people can put into a shield and have it be a stable defense. There’s no need to practice overpowered shielding when most duelists will never just toss a wall of doom at you.

Sadly for him, I have practiced those shields and can stop him.

Sadly for me, I’ll probably run out of mana first if he just bombards me. The only way I don’t run out of mana first is if I have a mana siphon, and force him to block some of my own explosions. Which means doing his exploding strategy against him.

Which is exactly how he loses. Every time.

It’s actually funny how that works out. We’re in a ‘powerhouse meta’ right now. Before this it was a control and misdirection meta, and before that it was speed and precision.

I can obviously do all three of these - as all of the real ‘masters’ can, but the main issue is I can’t do them as well as the best at them.

David is certainly one of the best at blowing things up.

So, Flitwick and I resolved the best way to beat him into the ground would be to send a massive wave of high-tiered elemental magics at him, and when he counters with his own explosion, we’ll have a second to set up our spells - hopefully - and then recommence trying to blow each other up. He will probably use the time to make his poison and fire combo, but with my setup those should matter little. The mana siphons I know are general, and will absorb mana out of the fire and poison cloud at an accelerated rate - putting him on a much shorter timer. Along with the usual bombardment of spells he likes costing more than he is used to, well, I’ll hopefully, be able to outlast him.

How he made an area-of-effect reductor, I’ll never really know. It’d need to be a new spell, since it goes against the core theory of the Reductor to be a wave and not a beam-type spell. Which is frankly above his - or even my - level of Arithmetical knowledge.

David is a war-wizard. I know he never took - or has shown any use of - Arithmancy or spell creation. His focus is on being as brutally good and skilled with a wand and the extant tools that no one can stop him, which almost works against most people, but not everyone.

One idea I’m sure will work, if I can figure out how much magic I need to use - is doing a precise blast of magic about my size through his wall of magic, so there’s a hole in the blast he sends, which blocks it and hits him with a focused blast. The issue is, this could be lethal if I don’t use something really basic. Maybe an altered version of Pulso, which is more of a full-body blow than a single brick. Slamming him with an equivalent to a brick wall of raw force is likely to break a few bones - and fracture a number more - but it would do what I need.

Thankfully, I’m good enough with my family magic - and Arithmancy - to edit the spell’s size and delivery mechanism to get that done in the few hours I have between waking up and the duel.

Sadly it costs a frightful amount of mana - as it is made to block spells as it punches through to hit the person - so I can’t use it unless I’m sure he’s not ready, or when he begins to flag.

The option I’m going to use is the much slower but much less costly Everte Statum, which is basically the same, but it is of course, much slower than the railgun of a released Pulso, and it is also very easy to block, if you just shoot an overpowered Piercing hex at it.

That will not work against the advanced Pulso I’ve designed, which might buy me enough time to allow him to be bricked.

If not, I’ll just wear him out with the classic waiting strategy.

With this strategy - preparation and ideals in mind, I spend the remaining time focusing on solving as many situations as I can imagine David may use against me. I've studied all of his duels from the past year over the last couple weeks, and have a fairly good idea of his strategy, and the various ways he tries to implement it.

I breathe in deeply, and then exhale.

Ready.

I'm still ready when the duel countdown begins some hours later. I send my now very well known combination of wind and flame at him, and be countered with his own signature poisonous fireball. They take and clash for some five seconds before my blaze surprisingly envelops his, and I hear him bark in shock, before a large glowing shelf surfaces through the wall - where he had been standing, as a shield.

This just became a lot easier. I'm guessing he doesn't have the extra spell-power perks from getting extremely high numbers while under 17. He just does it through training, not raw talent.

More impressive, but less powerful than my talent and training.

I express the opinion by slamming him over and over with waves of fire, force and a few overpowered shield breakers between each salvo. He fires back, of course, but he doesn't realize in the first wave I'd blocked his poison - which is seeping around us - and I'm draining extra mana from him into myself with every spell he casts.

It only takes three minutes of blasting away before he crumples to the ground, unable to dodge the Pulso due to needing to keep the shield in front and unable to shield due to the fact he was hit with a wall of force and a shield breaker at the same time.

He still had around a fifth of his mana. He could have lasted another minute, if he weren't so sloppy.

After David came my next opponent. A less powerful, much more skilled duelist in Tsvetan.

I pull a David and blast him into submission. It takes under a minute. Meanwhile the lower bracket rages. Impressively, Somerset almost beats Michael, who has been ripping the lower bracket to shambles in under ten seconds on average. John Kraber - rank 8 - lasted a whole minute and three seconds. The longest other than myself and Somerset, who lasted one minute and thirteen seconds.

I beat him, of course.

When he put Tsvetan down in what must have been the shortest duel of the tournament - four seconds - I was set to face him in the grand finals. He'll have to beat me twice to win.

So I have two chances to wear him out. I won't win with surprise skill or tricks. I need to wear him out as much as I can. Bleed his mana and slowly eat the clock. If he wins round one, but enters round two completely winded, then I can win. If he doesn't win fast enough, I will win. If he tries to take me head on, I will win.

So he won't do me head on. He'll do direct transmutation of the arena, detonte it around me and send waves of destruction at me. He, I can tell from his demolition of David, is better at doing that than David is when incensed as he is - losing to a sixteen year old.