Nearly every school has some release for the students, something beyond school work that they can get involved in or cheer on the participants. In most schools, this release comes in the form of sports teams such as football or basketball, but in the Academy, we had sorcerers duels.

A sorcerers duel is a throwback to the days when sorcerers would settle their differences in magical combat, fighting until one surrendered or only one remained standing. It was an ancient tradition that could be brutal and deadly, with rules that most sorcerers held as nearly sacred, though the modern version was far less dangerous than in times past. The modern sorcerers duel was not a life and death battle but was considered to be more like a boxing match, a safe way to release aggression with the competitors using the magical equivalent of gloves and safety pads.

I stood in the school gymnasium which had a large dueling circle permanently etched into the floor. There were two other such circles around campus, but this one was indoors, and on an island with that rained frequently, that made it the best choice. A crowd of several dozen students had already gathered to watch the duel and I saw a few teachers present as well.

Classes had ended for the day which meant that this was the usual time for duels such as the one I was about to fight with Teressa. I felt extremely nervous as I looked around at the crowd and the dueling circle. I’d never fought a duel before and my only consolation was that neither had Teressa.

My friends gathered close to me, giving me what encouragement they could. Sylvie and Eve were both excited while Todd looked just a little nervous. Neither of us had spoken about the kiss from yesterday, but I knew it was on his mind as much as mine. He’d been looking at me even more than before.

“You’ll do fine,” Gayle told me.

“Kick her ass,” Sylvie said with a grin while Eve nodded agreement.

Then I felt someone touch my shoulder. I quickly turned around and was surprised to see Kimberly standing there. She had an awkward look on her face that made her look uncomfortable.

“I…,” Kimberly started. “I just wanted to say good luck.”

“Thanks,” I responded cautiously.

Kimberly hesitated a moment before adding, “And I’m sorry. I’m a crappy friend.”

“It’s okay,” I told her. “I didn’t mean to freak you out.” Then I took a breath and asked, “Can we talk about it at dinner?”

Kimberly hesitated again before she smiled and nodded. “I’d like that.”

“I’d like to talk to you after this is over too,” Todd said, giving me a nervous smile of his own. Then before I realized it, he quickly leaned forward and caught me with a surprise kiss. “Good luck,” he told me as he blushed brightly. “And may the force be with you.”

“I…,” I started, not sure what to say or do.

“Come on,” Sylvie exclaimed with a laugh, slapping me on my back. “You have a duel to go win.”

“Remember what I told you and you’ll do fine,” Gayle said.

I nodded at that and made my way to the circle. I glanced to Amylia who stood near the front as a spectator. As a teacher, she had to remain neutral and couldn’t appear to favor either side, but she’d told me in private that she’d be cheering for me. Mrs. Khuto stood there as well, though she was the designated referee for the match.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one who’d brought friends. Teressa stood a short distance away, glaring at me with a smirk. Kaellie stood beside her as well as a few of her other friends and supporters. I wasn’t really sure how much of the crowd was on her side, how much was on mine, or how many of them were here just to watch a good fight.

Mrs. Khuto held two silver bracelets in hand and was carefully looking them over. When someone asked what she was doing, she calmly answered, “I am verifying that all safety measures are intact. School policy requires this before all duels to ensure there are no…accidents.” When she was finished, she gave one bracelet to me and one to Teressa, making sure that we each put ours on.

“These talismans and circle will ensure that neither of you are injured by magic during this contest,” Mrs. Khuto stated simply, looking to me and then Teressa. Her voice was loud enough so that most of the audience could hear as she added. “The circle will not allow any magic to pass through, preventing outside interference and protecting the audience from accidental harm.”

I nodded at that, having expected all of this. Gayle had explained the rules and traditions in great detail. Still, Mrs. Khuto was required to go over all of them as a reminder, and to inform those in the audience that they would be safe.

“You may win the match in three ways,” Mrs. Khuto continued the explanation. “If you force your opponent out of the circle, they automatically lose. You may force your opponent to submit. And if one of you is rendered incapacitated and unable to continue, I will declare the winner.”

I turned my attention to Teressa, glaring at her and looking forward to finally having a chance to cut loose. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to hurt her any more than she could hurt me. A spell that might otherwise be lethal would only be a distraction. There were types of duels where you’d be assigned points for how much damage a spell might do, and the duel would only end when one of the two reached the point limit that had been agreed upon. However, this was not that kind of a duel so it didn’t matter if a spell would normally cause harm or not.

I quickly glanced down at myself, taking one last opportunity to make sure I was ready. Of course, it was too late to do anything about it now even if I wasn’t. I had three small pouches on my belt which contained tokens, and I was in my enhanced form. In this form, I had extra size and strength, felt more confident, and best of all…I pissed Teressa off more. I was ready.

Teressa and I both stepped into the dueling circle and then Mrs. Khuto announced that the duel was officially started. We each grabbed our tokens but hesitated, waiting to see what the other would do. I had a rock in each hand, ready with two different spells depending on what she did. She seemed to be using a similar strategy.

“Come on,” one of the boys in the crowd yelled. “Someone attack…”

Then Teressa and I both decided to attack at the same time, with her calling out, “Invoke,” while I simultaneously exclaimed, “Engage.”

A ball of fire burst out of Teressa’s knotted beadwork token and came right at me. I might have frozen in terror if Gayle hadn’t warned me that this kind of attack was common in a duel. She’d told me that a lot of duelists loved throwing the most powerful and destructive spells at you, even though they wouldn’t do any harm. According to Gayle, this usually caused inexperienced duelists to freak out or worry about being injured. I braced myself and remained where I was, feeling the warmth pass me by though it didn’t actually seem to touch me.

At the same time, Teressa gasped in pain as her bra became painfully tight and then snapped open. Her shirt tore open as her breasts expanded to stripper sized dimensions. She frantically scrambled to cover her now naked breasts while I grinned evilly.

“Payback is a bitch,” I exclaimed. I hated wasting that spell on Teressa, but I figured that this would keep her distracted and off balance…in more ways than one.

“This isn’t fair,” Teressa cried out while half the crowd laughed and the other half just stared in stunned silence.

“This tactic is within the rules,” Mrs. Khuto said, watching us both with a calm expression. “However, I believe transformation magics are beyond Erin’s level so I must question if she cast the spell herself.”

“She did,” Master Tonkas said as he came up and joined Mrs. Khuto. “I watched her cast the spell myself.”

“Very good then,” Mrs. Khuto said with a nod. “Continue.”

“You bitch,” Teressa yelled at me, trying to cover her breasts while holding up her other token.

I just smirked. “You seemed to think it was pretty funny when you had Monica do that to me.”

Teressa snarled and activated her other token. A blast of something green came flying at me and this time I jumped out of the way. It hit the boundary of the circle and stopped as abruptly as if it had hit an invisible wall. Green slime dripped all over the floor where it had hit.

“Gross,” I muttered, then exclaimed, “Engage…”

A column of fire exploded from the ground right in front of Teressa, causing her to gasp and jump back. My goal was to try pushing her back to the edge of the circle and somehow force her across. I followed this up with another spell, the whirlwind spell that started hitting both of us with a heavy wind. I’d been expecting it though and braced myself.

Teressa lost her balance like I’d intended, but instead of falling backwards and staggering towards the circle, she fell forward instead and hit the ground chest first. I silently cursed the fact that my own spell had made her so top heavy that she’d fallen the opposite direction of what I’d wanted.

As soon as Teressa hit the ground, she reached into her own pouches for more tokens, activating two of them one after the other. There was an explosion in the air and I was knocked to the ground as well. And as I tried getting up, purple tendrils of light began to appear from the ground and wrap around me.

“Oh frak,” I muttered frantically grabbing for my own tokens. “Is this the best you’ve got smeg head?”

I activated one of my tokens and it released a burst of pressure that pushed away from my body in all directions at once. The tendrils vanished under the pressure and I quickly got back to my feet. I used another one of my tokens and a sent a blast of water at Teressa, knocking her back off her feet again.

I grinned, knowing that I had her now. Teressa was slowly getting back to her feet but was unbalanced. All I had to do was hit her and shove her outside the circle. It was going to feel good winning with my own hands.

Before I’d even finished the thought, I started running at Teressa. She activated a token and suddenly the ground started shaking. A moment later, she fell back to her knees while I staggered and stepped into a splatter of green slime. My foot slit out from beneath me and I went flying, hitting the ground hard.

Suddenly, the sound of a whistle filled the air and Mrs. Khuto called out, “The duel is over. Teressa wins.”

“WHAT?” I exclaimed in confusion, sitting up and suddenly realizing that when I hit the ground, my foot had gone outside the circle.

“Take that you monster bitch,” Teressa yelled at me with a gleeful laugh, trying to cover her breasts.

Kaellie rushed into the circle and gave Teressa her jacket so she could try covering her breasts. I just sat there, stunned that I’d been about to win and had lost in the blink of an eye.

“What happened?” I asked in confusion.

“You got cocky,” Gayle said as she came over and helped me to my feet. “You got overconfident and weren’t paying enough attention.” She put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a sympathetic look. “It happens. You just have to learn from it and do better next time.”

“Damn, you almost had that bitch,” Sylvie told me. “You’ll get her next time.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking in the direction Teressa had left in. I was pretty sure that with Teressa, there was definitely going to be a next time. And next time, I wasn’t going to lose.