Charisma 100: My Academy Life As A Heartbreaking Commoner-Chapter 232: The Duel 5
{Three days ago}
The Sky Piercer’s meditation platform was particularly cold tonight. She sat cross-legged across from Rosanna, her practice sword resting on her knees, every muscle in her body sore from the evening’s session.
"Tell me," Rosanna said, reclining in a way that made her robe shift dangerously, "what do you think determines the winner of a fight between two mages?"
"Power?"
"Common answer. Wrong answer."
"Speed?"
"Closer, but no."
Aegis thought about it for a second.
"Technique?"
"All of those things matter," Rosanna said, waving a hand, "but they’re not the deciding factor. A fight between mages is, in truth, a battle of information." She leaned forward, her purple eyes locking onto Aegis’s. "If you know what the other person can do, you can plan against it. You can anticipate their moves, prepare counters, set traps. The mage with more information wins. Almost always."
"Okay," Aegis said slowly. "So I need to figure out what Darius can do."
"You already know what Darius can do. You’ve fought him before."
"Right. So, uh, that’s good."
"For you, yes. But the problem is that he also knows what you can do." Rosanna held up a finger. "Aether Step. Aether Pulse. Aether Whip. Aether Burst. Aether Veil. Aether Bolt. You’ve used all of these in public. He’s had plenty of time to study each and every one of them."
Aegis frowned.
"So we’re even on information."
"Which means the fight comes down to power, speed, and technique." Rosanna tilted her head. "And in a pure contest of those three things, who do you think wins? You, with less than a year of combat training? Or Darius, who’s been swinging a sword since he could walk?"
"When you put it like that, it sounds pretty bad."
"It is pretty bad."
"Thanks."
"You’re welcome." Rosanna smiled. "But there’s a solution. A rather elegant one, actually."
Aegis waited.
"If the problem is that he knows everything you can do," Rosanna said, standing up and extending a hand toward Aegis, "then you simply need to show him something he hasn’t seen before."
Aegis took her hand and Rosanna pulled her to her feet.
"A new spell?"
"A new spell." Rosanna’s smile widened. "Something I’ve been meaning to teach you for a while now, actually. I just hadn’t found the right occasion." She walked to the center of the platform and turned back to face Aegis. "Come. Stand here."
Aegis did as she was told.
"This technique is something I developed during the Unification Wars," Rosanna said, rolling her shoulders. "I used it exactly once, in my thirty-eighth duel. The man I was fighting had studied every spell in my arsenal and had a counter for all of them."
"What happened?"
Rosanna grinned.
"He lost."
---
{Present}
Aegis and Darius stood a short distance away from each other, both looking frozen.
They were, naturally, waiting for the other to make the next move. It was becoming clear they both had little left in the tank.
Five seconds passed. Ten. Fifteen.
Neither of them moved.
The crowd had gone quiet, sensing that whatever happened next would be the last exchange. Even the wind had died down, as if Rosevale itself was holding its breath.
Darius moved first.
He dropped to one knee and drove his sword into the sand, point-first, and for a split second Aegis thought he was yielding. Then his free hand slammed flat against the ground and the arena floor shook.
Not a tremor. Not a vibration. The sand beneath Aegis’s feet lurched sideways like the ground had decided it didn’t want her standing on it anymore. Her balance went out from under her and she staggered, one foot sliding forward, the other scrambling for purchase on shifting earth.
[A ground spell? Since when does he know earth magic!?]
It didn’t matter. Her footing was gone and Darius was already ripping his sword out of the sand, already turning toward her, already winding up for what would probably be the finishing blow.
Aegis cast Aether Step.
Five meters. Behind him.
She rematerialized at his back, sword raised, and she could see the muscles in his shoulders tense because he’d been expecting exactly this. His body was already rotating, blade coming around in a vicious horizontal arc aimed right at where her neck would be.
He’d predicted the Aether Step. He’d baited it with the ground spell. He’d planned this entire sequence, from the stab to the shake to the turn, and if Aegis had done what she always did, just Aether Stepped and slashed, his sword would have taken her head off.
But Aegis didn’t do what she always did.
She poured everything she had left into her blade.
Every last drop of aether in her body flooded down her arms, through her hands, and into the steel. The sword lit up, blazing with white-blue energy so bright that Darius’s eyes widened, and for just a moment, his swing hesitated.
This was the spell Rosanna had taught her.
Aether Weapon - (Advanced) (Wraps the user’s weapon in aether. Strength of the weapon depends on how much mana is poured into it. 1hr CD)
Naturally, Aegis poured all her remaining mana into it.
MP: 0/250
Their blades met.
Darius’s sword shattered.
The steel broke apart like glass, fragments scattering across the sand in every direction, and suddenly Darius was standing there with nothing but a hilt in his hand and Aegis’s glowing blade an inch from his throat.
The arena went dead silent.
Thousands of people, nobles and commoners and foreign dignitaries and everyone in between, and not a single one of them made a sound. The only thing Aegis could hear was her own breathing, ragged and heavy, and Darius’s, just as ragged, just as heavy.
They stared at each other.
Darius looked down at the broken hilt in his hand, then back up at Aegis. His jaw tightened.
Aegis held the blade steady. Her arms were shaking, her mana was completely drained, and she was pretty sure she was about to collapse the moment the adrenaline wore off.
But not yet.
"I win."
The crowd roared.
