Combat

(Some months later)

"Fire Barrage!" Liana's voice rang out like a bell. On her palm a glowing fiery magic circle appeared and began to rotate. It then split into 5 separate circles of a smaller size that each launched out a fireball.

The balls of fire barreled towards a girl with dark hair and eyes. The girl seeing the flaming balls cast a spell to protect herself.

She quickly did a chant before saying the command word.

"Water Shield!"

With the command word being spoken a blue circle that moved like a liquid appeared on the floor along with a circular shield of water in front of her. The five fire balls hit the barrier of water and were dispersed creating a bit of steam with a sizzle.

Liana saw that her spell was blocked but had prepared for the situation in case it happened she without using a chant cast a different version of the fire barrage spell.

"Fire Volley."

The magic circle that appeared in her palm was larger than the one she used for fire barrage it rotated and launched out a large ball of fire. It traveled at a brisk speed and then burst into multiple smaller balls that each homed in on Liana's sparring partner from different directions.

The girl cast another barrier but failed to defend from all the tiny fire balls. Three hit her but were intercepted and dispersed by the protective necklace the academy gave all their students allowing for safer spars.

"Winner, Miss Everlance." The combat Instructor called out Liana's surname, declaring her victory. The students applauded and the girl who lost sighed hanging her head and arms down.

Liana walked up to her and extended her hand. "Good try Mary."

The girl, Mary raised her head and grasped Liana's hand with her own and shook it. "Good job." With a smile she congratulated Liana.

Liana also smiled and then turned to me. She ran over to me and stopped right in front of me, eyes with expectation. I brought her into an embrace and congratulate her.

Letting her go she smiled brightly. Some people might have been jealous but I don't have the senses to be able to tell that. Still I am not senseless enough that I can't tell if it is really obvious like that one girl over in crowd. She is looking at Liana while grinding her teeth and wrinkling her nose.

She probably likes me but I have seen how she acts and she is... pardon my language, a bitch.

To bad for her she can't do anything about it to me or my dear fiancé. I'm the son of a high status noble family and Liana is the daughter of the king so the girl simply can't do anything. Plus, along with being a bitch, she just isn't my type.

"Altair your up against Raion."

The instructor called me up along with another person. Seeing who else was approaching the instructor I saw it was another boy. He was pretty good looking but other than that he didn't have many special features that made him stand out.

"Move to the designated starting location." The instructor directed us. We both moved to one of the two markers on the ground.

When we both reached a different marker, the boy looked at me with a determined gaze. "My name is Brian Altair," He introduced himself, "The Raion family is of quite the high standing, especially with you. You are engaged to the princess and by love at that."

"Then you know my name already but still I have to follow the rules of a duel. I am Arvin Raion."

"Well let's have a good duel then Arvin."

"Yes, lets."

Having to act like a noble is annoying but well I have to maintain the act. Actually, maintaining the act for so long has made it somewhat natural but I still find it uncomfortable.

Well back to the main topic I got prepared to begin the duel the teacher had begun the 30 second count that, once it reached zero, would signify the beginning of the duel.

Why was the count so long? It was to give enough time to prepare a spell and a strategy.

Liana has an extremely amazing talent at spell casting in that she can easily manipulate mana and the elements with just a command word. Well it only applied to spells below a certain complexity but she can still be considered a genius. I only had talent that was higher than average meaning that I could cast a few spells chantlessly and I couldn't manipulate the elements and mana as well as Liana but still better than the average person.

I planned a bit and stopped when the countdown got to five.

"Five..."

I took a deep breath and so did Brain. I planned to finish the duel as fast as possible.

"Four..."

Brain looked even more focused.

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One..."

And...

"Zero! Start!" The instructor called out.

"Earth Spike." Brian cast a spell. These duels were not to be fatal so the earth that was on the duel arena was loose so that spell like Earth Spike can't be fatal as the dirt would brake. However he didn't even cast the spell next to me but rather in front of him.

A brown magic circle appeared in front of him a couple meters away from him. The circle was where a large spike of earth appeared almost the same height as Brian. He cast it without a chant too. Could it be he is a talent? But people would probably have known about it and the spectators sure as hell don't look like they knew with their wide eyes.

I also cast a spell with a couple syllables before as I needed them to better draw the elements.

"Flame Toss."

Like Fire Volley and Fire Barrage, Flame Toss was a variation of the Fire Ball spell. When I cast it a magic circle appeared on my palm and from it a flame appeared. I made a plan in case of a barrier and that was this.

I chucked the fire ball over the Earth Spike in an attempt to hit Brian but he casted a barrier spell above him to protect himself. Damn I didn't have the information that he could cast without a chant. I need to come up with a plan to bypass this.

At that moment Brian casted another spell to follow up his Earth Spike.

"Gust."

A gust of wind flew into the Earth Spike and broke it apart this created a cloud of dust that flew towards me. I had to protect my eyes so I couldn't see for a bit and Brian used that to send an attack.

When I looked again I saw a ball of wind coming towards me. 'Breeze Ball' was the spell probably.

I had limited time but managed to still erect a barrier which disappeared the Breeze Ball.

"Well I hadn't planned for you to be able to cast that fast in succession." I said.

Brian has a grin on his face radiating confidence.

"I always try my best."

...

Liar if you always try your best there would have been some information.

I shook my head and began to concentrate.

Alright let's see though he can cast quickly his mana pool probably isn't a large as mine. My large mana pool was probably my biggest advantage.y mana pool was larger than my fathers and he is one of the strongest mages in the kingdom, so take that as you will.

I might be able to outlast him.

- - -

Ehhhh...

I lost.

Currently I was back at home and Liana was here as well. She sat in the seat across from me looking at me with concern.

"You lost pretty bad."

She's right about that. He didn't even hit me with an attack spell to win, instead making go out of the marked area.

He tripped me with an earth spell and then knocked me completely off balance with Gust. However I still learned something.

I had forgotten that I could influence a spell's effect with another, like how Brian used the Earth Spike made from loose dirt to make a cloud of dust come towards me. But still this is a good reminder.

"Yeah but I learned something at least."

Liana nodded. "I did too."

"You know Arvin, I have been reading up in the royal library of mages in the past and realized something."

"Oh? What?" I was intrigued.

"Most of them died as they ran out of mana. They were with weak physically or they couldn't protect themselves, so I believe we should both train in a close combat." Liana spoke of what she learned.

"Yeah about learning swordsmanship or martial arts before too," nodding I continued, "though we need a teacher and well most people who can use mana practice to be mages so a mana user who practiced martial arts is rare. Finding one that's a good teacher will be hard."

"Your right. Hmm... I'll ask my dad then." Liana came up with the idea to ask her father about it.

"Alright do that."

Hopefully her father knows someone.