The fireball exploded at Rupert’s command, but Kyra had already vanished.
She was right back where she’d started, standing near the metallic rod on the white square.
I hadn’t heard the chime, but I understood what she’d done —
She had a jump bell in her bag.
And now, with Rupert’s fireball detonated harmlessly, she charged.
The lingering shadows around her must have augmented her physical abilities. She was too fast to be running — and then jumping, to clear a section without white tiles — based on muscle alone. I knew Shadows had access to enhancement mana as their secondary type, but I hadn’t seen it in action before.
As she ran, more shadows began to collect around her. Rupert tried to start to gather another fireball, but he was panting with exhaustion, and his forehead was dripping with sweat.
And Kyra was too fast.
Desmond conjured another wave of weapons, but Kyra avoided them entirely this time, dodging and weaving through the flurry of glowing blades.
Then she was nearly on top of Rupert, hurling a knife from her belt. It hit his barrier and made a crack just before she landed in front of him, widening that crack with a solid punch.
Rupert stumbled backward, landing on an orange square. The blast of energy that surged upward enveloped him, shattering the last of his barrier.
Then there were two left on the field.
Desmond gestured upward, and glowing wires rose from the square below Kyra, similar to the vines that had enveloped him earlier. She jumped over them, but Desmond gestured again, and a glowing shield appeared and flew forward, slamming into Kyra’s midsection.
The force knocked her back, forcing her to land on a yellow square.
A warm glow emanated upward, and as I watched, it began to slowly repair some of the damage to Kyra’s shield. She grinned, stretched, and made a “come hither” gesture to her opponent.
Desmond waved a hand again. “Finally, you’re visible and standing still.”
A glowing metal box appeared around Kyra’s entire square.
I blinked.
The box shook a moment later, no doubt due to Kyra’s attempts to break it from the inside. She couldn’t use the jump bell again so soon without recharging it.
Desmond shook his head, then made another gesture. Another box appeared around the first box.
Then another. And another.
Then he closed his fist — and the boxes began to collapse inward, as if crushed by an invisible hand.
I could hear the sounds of vibrations from inside the box for a few more seconds before Teft stood up.
“That’s enough.” He clapped his hands. The light from the squares vanished, as did the boxes.
Kyra was still there, breathless, huddled into a ball on the ground. It must have been the only place she could find the space to breathe.
“Master Desmond wins by incapacitation. You may both exit the arena and rest.”
And that, I considered, is why I should never fight a Shaper in a duel.
My own match was, unfortunately, only a few minutes later.
On the plus side, I’d figured out a few little things from that first one.
On the minus side, it was safe to assume that Sera had noticed the same things, and she was probably already a step ahead of me on formulating a strategy.
We made our way to the arena, clipped on the sigil monitors, and headed to our sides of the ring. We only had moments to prepare before the match started.
I saw Sera on the other side of the arena bending down and pointing at the tile beneath her, making a sweeping gesture with her hands, and Patrick nodding in assent, then whispered something I couldn’t hear.
Then Sera turned toward us, pointing her dueling cane at me and smirking as she made a mock salute. She couldn’t cast spells, but she could still use a dueling cane with deadly efficiency.
I turned to Marissa and leaned close to whisper to her. “I need you to cover me for a minute. I’m going to try to do something with the squares.”
“Can’t be makin’ promises, but I’ll do what I can. Not at my best right now. Ye sure we shouldn’t just charge?”
I nodded. “We’d win that fight if we could get close, but Sera will be ready for that. Not sure what they’re doing, but they’re up to something.”
“Bow to your opponents.”
We bowed.
“Begin!”
We had no more time to plan. I ducked down to look at the nearest tile, an orange one.
Marissa apparently took my instructions to mean “literally stand in the same square as me”, which didn’t give us a lot of space, but it did allow her to deflect the first couple of shots from Sera and Patrick’s opening barrage.
And barrage was definitely the right word for what they were doing. They were firing fast — and Marissa still too sick to move as quickly as usual. The distance was giving her time to batter blasts out of the air with her fists and the occasional kick, but she was struggling with it.
I had to help.
I looked at the tile, and by the goddess, it was complicated.
There were seven sets of runes on it. Not seven runes, seven sets.
At a glance, I could tell that five of them corresponded to different functions — presumably for white, red, orange, yellow, and green. They each had a different function rune, as well as mana storage and regeneration runes.
The sixth was the most important part - the ones that controlled which set of functions currently in use. I wasn’t able to identify all of these, but I guessed one of them tied the tile into some kind of central organization system, and at least one of them was a rune that responded to voice commands. Presumably Teft’s.
The eighth set involved a trigger rune for pressure, very similar to the one used for activating a return bell. It had another rune adjacent to it that I didn’t recognize, but that gave me something to work with.
I realized that not only was this whole situation absurdly complex, but that the floor of this arena was probably worth more than everything I owned by multiple orders of magnitude. Even if the enchantments were weak — and they almost certainly were — this was a crazy investment for just a couple tests.
Maybe they get some of the enchanting classes to build things like this as class projects? Wouldn’t take long if they’ve got hundreds of students…
A blast that just missed my head brought me back to focusing on my work.
Fight now, research later.
I turned on my attunement, observing the paths of mana flowing in the runes in front of me. As I suspected, only one of the five initial sections of runes was currently active. I couldn’t tell exactly what it did, but it had something to do with earth magic.
I grimaced, thinking about how much easier this would be if I could read all the runes.
Behind me, Marissa took a hit and staggered, nearly knocking me off my tile. She managed to steady herself quickly, though, and I braced my hands on the ground to prevent myself from falling.
I had to work fast.
I looked at the function tiles as a set.
First one is earth related.
Second one recharges shields.
Some kind of energy blast from this one. Maybe the one that was orange last time?
Not sure about this one. It uses enhancement mana, though, so it may be good.