Teft nodded. “More preparation would have been wise, yes. How could you have handled it better with the resources you had on hand?”
“Hm. I’m honestly not sure. Maybe I could have used the ring to keep my distance more, but once she showed that she could hit just as hard as I could in ranged combat, I don’t know.”
Teft folded his hands. “I don’t know is the wisest thing I believe I’ve heard you say, Master Cadence. Miss Callahan, can you think of any ways he could have improved?”
“Hm. I knew about his ring of jumping before the match, but I didn’t know how much force he could charge up in his hands like that. If I had that kind of skill, I would have gone for a ring out. Maybe ran to the edge and then just blasted my opponent at an angle. Or maybe he could have used the ring itself and just launched me out? Don’t know.”
That was a really good strategy, and one I hadn’t seriously considered. I was so focused on exploiting the mechanics of the match that I hadn’t even bothered with something so…conventional.
I needed to improve on that for the future.
“Good. Master Cadence, you may have had the most complicated victory that I’ve seen this year. That is not a compliment, but it does speak to a degree of strategic ability, and an improvement over your last performance. While I heard some of the students speculating that you would be penalized for cheating, I do not intend to punish you. I do have to ask, however — if you are going to fight dishonorably, why not do something that guaranteed your victory?”
He shook his head. “You had full access to the arena before the match. You could have added a new function to the tiles that depleted the shield of anyone who wasn’t wearing your boots, for example.”
I shrugged at that. “Or I could have just set up a single square that gave me an insurmountable advantage, or that would have turned off my opponent’s shields instantly. Or I could have changed the voice activation for the arena to respond to my voice, as well as yours.
“I considered all that, and I determined that it would have defeated part of the point of the test. While preparations for a duel are expected, a real duel would not allow me such an obvious and instantaneous route for victory. I was hoping to find a way to make the match easier, while remaining fair.”
Teft pointed a hand toward the arena. “No match in that arena, or any other, will ever be fair. If your goal is to be fair, you are already sacrificing performance. You won by a hair today, but you will not win every fight in your life while holding back.” He paused. “In the next semester, I expect for you to show me that you have learned this lesson.”
“…So, I pass then?”
“You both pass. Master Cadence, you, won against a superior opponent through preparation, in spite of your mistakes. You receive a grade of B+. Miss Callahan, you lost the match, but your raw fighting ability remains easily the best in the class. Master Cadence, what could she have done better?”
I thought about that for a moment. “That blade-hand technique she used to cut the tiles. She almost definitely could have broken my barrier faster with that, rather than just punching me.”
Marissa winced. “I’d probably have cut you, too, though. I can’t control it that well yet.”
Teft made a gesture of acknowledgement. “A valid concern, given how dangerous that style of technique can be. The solution is to practice your control to the extent that you do not need to have such concerns the next time you have such a match. But that would not have been my advice for this particular match. Instead, I would have advised you to keep your distance, rather than charging in.”
Marissa and I both raised eyebrows at that, and she responded. “But you told him that he was bad for letting me get in close.”
“Indeed. However, what you should have realized was that once he was disarmed, he was practically useless at a distance. Once he was the one who wanted to get into melee range, you could have harried him at a distance with ease. His shield would not have lasted forever.”
We both nodded at that. He was right — my transference mana control wasn’t good enough to hit her at a long distance, and I could only do it a few times. Even now, my hand’s mana hadn’t fully recharged, and we’d been resting for a while.
“In spite of that, your performance was more than adequate. I award you a grade of ‘B’ for this test, and you will retain the highest overall grade in the class as a whole. Unless, of course, one of the later duelists proves superior.”
Marissa breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks. Can we go watch the other matches?”
“Indeed. In fact, I believe one you’ll be quite interested in is just about to start.”
“Ooh!” Marissa grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. “C’mon, let’s go!”
I accepted her grasp with less than the usual amount of awkwardness. I think a round of punching each other had braced me for a degree of physical contact.
And, more importantly, I was just relieved that Teft hadn’t told Marissa that the hand mirror I’d used in the fight wasn’t magical in the slightest.
Maybe I’d fooled him, too.
Marissa cheered out loud when Rupert Kent lost to Desmond Vyers, and I was glad to see her excited. I had a hard time focusing on most of the matches, though, because my mind was elsewhere.
I was worried about Sera.
Both Sera and Patrick looked incredibly nervous. I suspected Patrick would be fine even if he lost, but Sera was already having a difficult few weeks. I wasn’t sure how much she’d recovered the use of her attunement, but I doubted it could be much.
I offered to let her borrow the mana regeneration bracer, but she declined my offer.
“I don’t want any unfair advantages. I have to do this myself.” She was still only capable of speaking at a whisper, and even that seemed like a struggle for her, but at least she could talk.
I shrugged at that. “I’ve made items for both you and Patrick. You’re injured, he’s not. I don’t think it’s unreasonable.”
“Don’t worry. I have a plan.” She gave me a weak smile.
“You always do.”
I was curious exactly what that plan was. Had she prepared for the arena itself, like I had, or was she working on some other style of strategy?
The wait was frustrating for me, and I could tell it was agonizing for Patrick and Sera. It was nearly an hour later when they finally entered the arena and took their positions.
“Bow to your opponent.”
They bowed.
“Begin!”
Both combatants moved.
Patrick thrust out a hand, firing a blast of lightning.
Guess he’s not going to hold back.
Sera stepped to the side, both avoiding the blast and putting herself on a purple square.
Unfortunately for her, the tile configuration had changed since my match.
Ice began to spread up her legs.
Patrick caught her with the next blast of lightning, cracking her barrier. She winced, ducked, and waved her right hand.
The ice shattered.
Sera had her power back. Or, a fraction of it, at least.
Neither Patrick or I knew how much of it she’d regained — which, I suspected, was part of the point.
Sera jumped forward over a blue square and onto a green one. A soft glow enveloped her, and her damaged barrier began to recharge.
Had she already discerned this particular tile pattern, just from one square? It was possible — there were only six combinations. Even so, I was impressed.