A fireball shot from her hand at Tony. He wasn’t in the ring. Eva didn’t care.
He grunted and stumbled as it hit him in the side.
“You want to learn? Fine. First lesson, fights don’t end because you don’t want to fight.”
Another two fireballs launched towards the student. The first one managed to strike him in the chest. He actually put up a shield for the second.
“Second lesson, just because your opponent looks frail or helpless, doesn’t mean she is.”
He launched an ice spike after another fireball hit his shield.
Eva didn’t bother dodging. It was a good two inches from her shoulder.
“Third lesson, you learn nothing by standing around and half-assing it.”
In truth, Eva had small apprehensions about fighting. In a real fight, she would increase the amount of blood in the air. Here, she didn’t want to make it too thick and give herself away. It would be easy for a shard of ice to slip through to her without her noticing.
But in class, that didn’t matter. She wore armored clothes the same as everyone else.
In order to see, Eva relied on watching his wand hand and watching when he cast spells. If she lost track of a projectile, she’d put up a shield.
At least, that was her plan. She hadn’t needed to do anything of the sort against Tony Burnside. None of his attacks intended to hurt her. Even the few times she’d intentionally tried to test her shield, he just stopped his attacks.
So Eva tossed fireball after fireball at him. Even a few came from her off-hand. Her new finger ring foci adorned the index finger of her glove as a distraction. Students might have a hard time learning the nuances of alternate foci, but which hand she used didn’t matter to Eva’s unique casting.
Her fireballs splashed against his shield. They were too weak to get through. That didn’t deter her.
Tony Burnside launched token ice spikes any time she let up. For the most part, she ignored them. Most weren’t even properly aimed at her.
“Stop trying to miss me and hit me,” Eva roared.
One almost hit her chest. She only noticed too late. Rather than fail to put up a shield, she batted it away with the back of her hand. They were blunted and weren’t traveling fast enough to do any serious damage. Her claws could take the beating.
“Eva,” a voice called out.
She’d just barely caught one of his icicles that went wide and was about to throw it back at him. Eva paused and turned to the voice.
Franklin Kines ran up to the two students. “What are you doing? You’ve got him out of the ring. You’re out of the ring.”
“He won’t fight me,” Eva said, pointing her wand at Tony.
He pulled up a shield the moment she did.
“You’re out of the ring. You’re not supposed to fight out of the ring.”
“He won’t fight me in the ring.” She held up the ice spike. “These just go flying past me. I haven’t had to use a shield or even dodge.” She crushed the spike in her hand, the two pieces falling to the ground amidst a shower of crushed ice.
“Eva,” Kines said softly, “surely you can understand him not wanting to hurt a younger student.”
“No.” Eva pulled off her helmet and threw it to the side. She tapped her padded vest. “We have these to keep us from getting hurt.”
“Maybe we should shuffle groups,” Franklin Kines said. He clapped his hands to get the attention of everyone who wasn’t already staring at the scene–which was almost no one. “Everyone find a new partner, one who uses a different element, if possible.”
He turned on one of the groups. “Shalise,” he said, “would you please be Eva’s partner?
“This exercise is for getting used to shield spells,” he said a little louder, Eva was pretty sure it was directed to her, “not for fighting.”
Juliana gave Eva a light smile as she walked straight to Tony Burnside.
Eva nodded and picked up her helmet on her way to Shalise.
“You’re not going to fireball me into a corner, are you?”
Eva quirked an eyebrow at Shalise. She’d be able to see it through the clear visor. “Are you going to fight me like I’m a little blind girl who needs to be coddled?”
“No.”
Eva exaggerated out a sigh as she walked into the ring. The floor of the small dueling arena was made of earth, mostly for earth mages. The carved in rings helped a lot with Eva’s sight. She wouldn’t be able to tell painted on rings. “Then I suppose I won’t fireball you into a corner.”
That elicited a smile and a soft giggle from the girl. “It was a little scary, watching you,” she said quietly.
“He wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” Eva dismissed. “Even if his shield failed–a feat against my weak fireballs–we’ve got all this armor.”
“It was more of your face.”
“My face?”
“You looked very angry.”
Did she? Eva didn’t know. She could see her own blood as well as she could see others, but she never paid attention to it. “Maybe if he’d just man up and fight me properly, I wouldn’t have got so mad.”
“I don’t know how much of a fight I’m going to put up.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t get mad at you.”
Shalise flicked her wand.
Eva readied a shield.
Nothing pinged against it. She couldn’t see anything with the flecks of blood around the arena.
“Um…”
Shalise slumped over. “That was my best attack. A puff of air. I don’t think air magic is very suited for combat.”
“Zoe Baxter uses lightning. Have you tried?”
Once again, Shalise flicked her wand.
Unlike before, there was a small crackle in the air. A very small crackle. Without eyes, Eva couldn’t tell if anything left Shalise’s wand. If it even came from Shalise’s wand.
It might have been another student standing near Shalise that Eva heard.
“A spark,” Shalise said, apparently seeing the confusion on Eva’s face. “Irene and Max might have had the right idea. Maybe I’ll try back next year after I practice magic more.”
“What about the shield Professor Kines taught us?”
Shalise casted a spell. Something appeared in front of her, Eva could tell by how some of her blood hit a barrier.
Eva tried casting a small fireball at it. Her shield shattered on impact, though the fireball didn’t make it through. At least that was something.
It didn’t seem that Shalise considered that a victory. “That is that,” she said dejectedly.
“We’re here to practice, right? So let’s practice.” Eva readied her wand again, not that she needed it. “Bring up your shield and when you do, imagine the biggest, strongest wall you can.” She was just repeating Franklin Kines’ words from the start of the lesson. Her blood shields didn’t need any sort of thought behind them.
Shalise did so. Eva tossed another small fireball at her.
The shield shattered again.
They spent ten minutes practicing against Shalise’s shield. One of the fireballs actually splashed against the shield instead of shattering it. Shalise got so excited she lost concentration and the next fireball hit her square in the chest.
It was just a small impact; Eva couldn’t amp up the power much at all. Still they continued.
A loud crash drew the entire room’s attention.
Tony Burnside was lying on his back. His wand rolled a few feet away. He struggled against something.
Eva sent some flecks of blood over to find he was almost entirely encased in earth. The only part that wasn’t was his head.
Juliana stood over him. She had a sword pointed at his neck.
“Juliana Rivas, what are you doing?” Franklin Kines ran over to their ring.
“I want this man removed from class,” she said firmly. “If he isn’t going to take it seriously, it is only going to hurt anyone who has the misfortune of partnering against him.”
“This is not a sparring session,” Professor Kines said. “You’re supposed to practice shields.”