Jaux Ballad has always wanted to enter the realm of magic, but could not do so by regular means. In his desperation to become a magician he finds himself with more power, and more trouble, than he could ever have imagined.

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The arena placed on the roof for today's duel was filled with spiky plants and sand.

Suhara had never seen cactus in person. She had only heard about the tough and dangerous plants from merchant stories back in Welldrop. The special desert vegetation looked almost fluffy from a distance, like a green sheep that was just starting to grow back a coat of wool.

Roy Intone was already sitting in the sands. He wore a single bronze breastplate, while his limbs were covered with pads of hard leather. Nothing covered his face, so his night blue hair flowed freely in the breeze. His silver staff was stabbed into the sands, just within arms reach.

Suhara was relieved at the sight. She had spent most of the night yesterday imagining Roy coming with a full body of mystic steel armor. At some point the idea of a staff was replaced with a gigantic magic claymore sword. Compared to that intimidating interpretation, the bronze breastplate looked flimsy.

For a brief moment, Roy and Suhara made eye contact. Roy's head was subtly tilted back, he was looking down on Suhara.

This guy pissed her off.

Suhara broke the mutual stare as she was greeted by her friends. All her roommates were here, and even Helanna dropped by. The girls cheerfully wished Suhara luck. It was nice and uplifting, Suhara was glad to have friends like this.

For whatever odd reason, Tricks held a large bowl of what looked like bread cups filled with melted butter. The sight of it earned a look of curiosity from Suhara.

"Oh, you want a custard before your fight?" Tricks asked.

"Custard?"

"It's good. It's made with milk and eggs and other delicious stuff." Tricks claimed as she popped one of the pastries in her mouth.

"Uh, no, I'll be fine." Suhara responded, before heading towards the arena. "Maybe later, I guess."

Frey and Desyi called out some last minute reminders about duels, and warned Suhara about how difficult it was to move around in sand. Helanna hadn't been in a duel before, so she didn't offer any wisdom, but she did at least have an encouraging smile. Tricks just... snacked.

The combat instructor was sitting on the unnaturally tall chair for duel supervision. His face was planted inside the palm of one of his hands, and his left ankle was lifted up on top of his right knee. He looked hilariously casual for a teacher. Everyone could see that he was not a patient man. Once Suhara stepped into the battlefield, the instructor immediately brightened up and removed his cheek from his hand.

"Are you ready to begin, combatants?" The teacher's amplified voice asked.

Suhara and Roy both nodded. Suhara was holding her staff and wand in her personal fighting stance, while Roy stood up lazily and pulled his silver staff out from the ground.

"Kick her butt, prince!" Yelled one of the female students in the audience.

Roy had a fan club of some sort watching from behind him. It mostly consisted of girls, but there were a few other snobby looking boys there as well. As a penniless orphan, Suhara felt a strong and biased hatred for all of them.

"In that case, we are beginning the personal duel between Roy Intone and Suhara Ballad!" Announced the teacher.

A green forcefield formed around the circular desert arena. While observing the rising walls of the green cylinder, Suhara saw one of the dueling scopes pointed down at her.

After the cylindrical forcefield fully formed and shifted to invisibility, the combat instructor commanded the duel to commence.

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A stray bolt of lightning flew out from Roy's staff, nicking Suhara on her leg. The attack caught Suhara off guard, and she collapsed into the sand as her leg burned.

Through the pain, Suhara was able to activate her anklet's blessing. A shell of protection, which resembled thin and molten glass, coated over Suhara. The defensive blessing blocked Roy's second strike of lightning, and kept on persisting.

Suhara winced in pain from the first bolt, but stood up anyway. She didn't want the duel to end after only the first hit. Her leg hurt immensely, but the pain steadily faded after a few seconds. She didn't look over at the wound on her leg, but it had managed to heal remarkably fast. The regeneration of a vampire was powerful, even at only a fourth of its full strength.

Roy looked astonished when Suhara stood up again. He had expected for the lightning to win him the match right away. The blue haired boy also stared in surprise when the red burn faded from the girl's leg. Only advanced healing spells could repair an injury that quickly. He guessed that Suhara was some kind of a supporting magician, since she had protections and healing. The idea made him chuckle, since as far as he knew, he was a knight who was fighting a medic.

Suhara tried to take advantage of Roy's small moment of consideration. A great cloud of dust was kicked up into the air as she dashed forward with her augmented strength.

Moving on unstable sand proved to be as hard as Frey and Desyi hinted. The violet eyed girl tripped in the middle of her run, crashing into the dusty dunes.

A great portion of the audience laughed at her slip. Roy joined in with an obnoxious snicker.

Suhara muttered in annoyance as she pulled her long black hair out of the sand. This battlefield was incredibly inconvenient for melee combat. Having vampire strength wasn't much use when the soles of your feet couldn't properly grip the ground.

Flames shot out from Roy's silver staff, and a fireball flew right towards Suhara. The violet eyed girl was able to roll away from the strike, narrowly avoiding the hot blast. She didn't necessarily need to dodge, since the defensive blessing still cloaked her body. Suhara just felt that it would be best to save the protection for when it is needed.

Roy was merciless, firing off fire and lightning at Suhara without pause. The black haired girl eventually managed to stand upright again when she found cover behind a large cactus. By then, all the rolling around had gotten sand into every opening of her robe. This duel was becoming increasingly frustrating for her.

Suhara loaded her staff with the motion eating enchantment, then jumped out from behind the cactus to point her wand at Roy. A black blob of tar-like magic burst from Suhara's demon root, flying towards Roy's feet. Suhara managed to aim the spell competently, catching the tip of Roy's toes in the motion curse trap.

Roy tried to step out from the black substance, but found himself rooted in place. It felt to him like his toes were frozen still.

This time, Suhara ran carefully. She made her way through the sand with caution, making sure not to lose her footing again.

Another fireball was shot from Roy's staff, but it smashed uselessly against Suhara's protective blessing. The transparent shell provided by the silver anklet faded after the fireball's strike, but by then Suhara had already reached the blue haired boy.

Suhara swung her staff with all her strength, while the motion eating curse added to the staff's speed. The attack collided with Roy's bronze breastplate, which caused a sound similar to a small gong.

The breastplate blocked all the damage. It wasn't even dented or scratched. Defensive concentration magic had definitely been applied to its enchantment.

Roy grinned, and held the tip of his own silver staff up to Suhara's chest. In response, the black haired girl reactivate the blessing of the anklet just a fraction of a second before the boy's attack. The blessing defense had been shattered right afterwards by an explosion of flames, which hurled Suhara all the way into the large cactus she hid behind earlier.

Tiny spikes burrowed into Suhara's back from the impact, which caused her to scream in pain. Another bolt of lightning followed soon after, striking Suhara right in her stomach.

The worried cries of Suhara's friends were dim against the cheers of Roy's fans.

Roy reveled in his apparent victory, arms raised in a bragging stance of triumph.

However, the teacher didn't call the match over. The boy wasn't paying attention, but Suhara's wounds were still healing at an accelerated pace. The sharps pins were pushed out of her skin, and the red scorch mark on her belly eased out of existence.

The violet eyed girl took aim at Roy, tipping the demon root wand upwards with a small and silent flick of her wrist.

Darkness poured out from the tip of the wand, crashing into Roy and consuming him. The magic flowed like ethereal ink, which invaded the structures of Roy's magic items.

Suhara pushed herself back up, while the magic darkness blinded Roy.

The Winter Sight was activated, allowing Suhara to reach the magical outline of Roy's body before the darkness completely flowed into the magic objects.

There was a big metallic clank as Suhara knocked the boy off his feet. The staff dented the bronze breastplate, and struck with enough force to send Roy flying into the arena's forcefield.

Roy rose back to his feet with a dizzying stagger. He wasn't totally sure why his armor's enchantment abruptly broke, but the darkness seemed to be the most likely cause.

Suhara dashed forward, attempting once more to close the distance to her prey. The blue haired boy raised his silver staff, and tried to fire off a bolt of lightning. A bit of darkness fled from his staff and evaporated into the air, but no lightning sprouted. He tried with fire, and again his spell failed.

The violet eyed girl reached Roy, then knocked the boy back into the forcefield with a swipe of the staff. Suhara cocked back her staff for another strike, but was flung back by an explosive burst from the boy's silver staff.

The darkness had finally been purged from Roy's weapon after all the continued spell casting attempts.

Suhara didn't think that the silver staff would still work, so she let her guard down. As a result, her own staff flew out from her hand when the explosion threw her back.

Just before the black haired girl could fire off another mass of curse magic from her wand, Roy shot a ball of frost at her. It struck her in the shoulder, freezing her wand arm.

Suhara's stolen vampire strength couldn't break rocks, but she was able to flex her arm with enough force to start cracking away the ice that bound her arm.

Unfortunately, Suhara neglected to put up any defenses while trying to break her arm free. A blast of fire discharged from the tip of Roy's silver staff, knocking the violet eyed girl to her feet.

A final lucky strike of lightning landed on Suhara's head, knocking her out cold.

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Suhara woke up under a rain of pink and yellow lights.

She lost.

Suhara groaned miserably at the realization. She lost her first duel, and against a snobby prick of a boy.

Frey appeared above her, offering a hand to help Suhara up.

Frey led her novi out of the sandy arena, all while the delighted cheers of the prince's fans filled up the background. Desyi had retrieved the fallen staff, so that Suhara didn't have to approach the sneering victor.

"Aw, it was so close." Helanna whined.

"You'll get him next time, no prob." Trick encouraged while she handed Suhara one of the last custard pastries.

This time, Suhara gratefully took the cake, and stuffed it into her mouth. She got a little sand from her robe on it, but she didn't care. The custard did taste pretty good, and it was a welcome distraction.

"Yeah, next time for sure..." Suhara muttered with a grim tone of determination.

The five girls then left the roof in their tight knit group, ignoring all the insults from Roy's fans.