Chapter 178: Chapter 178

Damien walked off the stage and gold light enveloped him, returning him to the viewing box. Sylph cocked her head as he hopped the railing.

“What happened, Damien?” She asked. “Unless that was your trick, I don’t think you can move that quickly. Did Drew really use Time magic?”

“I’ll fill you in later,” Damien replied. “But it involves the thing we were training against over the summer.”

Sylph’s eyes narrowed. “Seriously? How’d you beat that?”

“He was like a weaker version of the person you’re thinking of,” Damien said. “Now isn’t the time. I don’t think there’s an imminent threat. Drew has to want something, and it’s probably in the second half of the tournament.”

“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,” Nolan said, clapping Damien on the shoulder, “but good job. That was a hard fought win. A small part of me almost wishes you lost, because I am absolutely dreading meeting Delph once school starts again.”

“Two Blackmist students are fighting for first place,” Viv said, crossing her arms. “I don’t think any college has ever done this. In fact, Blackmist hasn’t even made it to the quarterfinals in recent years. How is it that there were three of you that were at the level of the best students in the tournament?”

“Probably something in the water,” Damien replied.

Viv scrunched her nose. “I suppose I can’t expect you to say anything more than that. Thank you for taking care of Drew, though. We might not have won, but he’ll be furious at only reaching third place.”

“You’re welcome, I guess. I would have done it either way,” Damien said with a small grin. “Sylph has something I really want to see, so I couldn’t afford to lose.”

Viv’s gaze flicked to Sylph and she raised an eyebrow. “Ah. I see.”

“It was a good fight,” Mark said, nearly making Damien jump. Sometime during the fight, Mark had returned to the room. He was seated against the far wall, a short distance away from Elania, and chewing on a large chicken drumstick. “Even if most of it wasn’t visible. You’ll have to fight me when the tournament is over. I want to see how I match up against you.”

“Is fighting all you think about?” Elania asked.

“Yes,” Mark said. He tilted his head. “And getting stronger. It’s an addictive cycle. Is there anything else worth thinking about?”

Elania rolled her eyes and didn’t grace him with a response.

“I see Mark is finally taking your advice,” Damien told Nolan. The announcer started speaking again, hyping the crowd up for the final match, but Damien tuned him out.

“Took him long enough,” Nolan replied irritably. “He’s in a surprisingly good mood. I would have been furious if I’d gotten a draw and been blocked from competing in the next round.”

“He made it pretty far, though,” Damien pointed out. “And I don’t think Mark ever cared about winning. He just wanted to push himself further by fighting strong opponents. What about you, though? Don’t you have to impress your father with your performance or something?”

Nolan chuckled. “If my own performance was the only thing that counted, then I would be in trouble. Luckily, he’s in a splendid mood after learning that Reena and I had made a connection with Princess Yui. Aside from that, I think he just wants me to stay in your good graces.”

“Is telling me that straight up wise?” Damien asked. “I mean, don’t you usually pretend that you don’t have any ulterior motives to get closer to people?”

“I already told you what my goals were last year,” Nolan replied. His brows lowered. “Although they might have changed since then. I’ve been thinking that Reena should – ah, never mind. This isn’t your problem to worry about. Don’t worry about me, I won’t be trying to drag you into any politics intentionally. Just have fun fighting against Sylph. I’m really eager to see which of you wins.”

“As am I,” Sylph said. “It doesn’t look like they’re changing the stage this time, so I think they’re just letting Damien rest before the next match.”

“I’m going to make you show me your companion,” Damien said with a grin. “You’ve been dangling it in front of me for too long.”

“We’ll see if you can make me bring it out,” Sylph replied with a playful grin. “If you struggled that much with someone like Drew, you might lose in the first few seconds. Half of your magic won’t even work against me.”

“Don’t make me teleport around until you run out of Ether,” Damien threatened, returning the expression.

Almost half an hour ticked by as everyone relaxed. Damien's Ether was mostly recovered by ten minutes, but he supposed the tournament organizers were playing safe. He was starting to get bored when two red lights appeared on their dashboard.

“Alright, folks,” the announcer called. “It’s time for the final round of the first half of the tournament. In an unprecedented event, both remaining competitors are from Blackmist college! It’s been years since Blackmist won an intramural, and now they’re going to take both first and second place. The only question remaining is who will take home the prize. I’m sure you all know them by now, but please welcome Damien and Sylph to the stage one last time!”

“Don’t hold back,” Sylph warned him. “I’m going all out right from the start – aside from my companion, of course. You’ve got to earn that. Aside from the stuff we need to keep hidden, I expect you to do the same.”

She hopped the railing and floated down to the Arena. Damien followed after her. It deposited him on the far side. Cheers rose from the crowd, and Damien caught more than a few peeved expressions from the spectators wearing Kingsfront and Mountain Hall colors.

“I’ll stay out of this fight,” Henry said. “We were able to keep what I could do hidden from everyone other than Drew, so there’s no reason showing it off just for an ego boost.”

Agreed. And I want to fight this one on my own, anyways. You’re more than just an ordinary companion, so I feel like it would be a little unfair to use you.

“Damn right I am,” Henry preened. “About time you started treating me with some respect.

Don’t let your ego get any larger than it already is. You’ll inflate and float away.

Henry retreated into the depths of his mind with an annoyed grumble.

“Ready?” Sylph asked.

“I was about to ask the same,” Damien replied. “You’d better get ready to bring your companion out.”

“Competitors, you may begin channeling your Ether!”

Damien swapped his opener for the first time in the tournament, preparing to cast Enlarge through both of his feet onto the sand beneath him. Sylph liked getting up close and personal, and he wasn’t confident his reactions with the mage armor would be as fast as her sword.

“Go!”

Sylph vanished. Damien released the spell and a pillar burst out beneath his feet, launching him into the air. The pillar didn’t get to last long. Sylph appeared from her camouflage, a black gauntlet on her wrist.

Damien recognized the attack and teleported to the other side of the arena right before Sylph struck the pillar. It shattered and his magic faded. Sylph slipped back into her camouflage, fading from sight.

The air pressure to Damien’s left changed with a subtle pop. He instinctively raised a hand, hardening his mage armor just before a dark blade slammed into him. The weapon failed to pierce his defense, but the force was enough to send him staggering.

Sylph pressed the attack, two swords flashing like a blooming flower as she forced Damien back. Whenever he teleported, she camouflaged herself and followed after him.

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“When did you get this fast?” Damien called, teleporting into the air to give himself a small reprieve.

Syph threw a black dagger and he teleported back to the ground, narrowly avoiding getting impaled. She was upon him again in an instant.

She moved so fast, slipping from shadow to shadow like a wraith, that Damien realized that almost all of his normal magic would be worthless against her. The gravity spheres and lances were both far slower than Sylph.

Damien cast enlarge on a dozen grains of sand, dropping each spell as soon as he cast it to avoid fatiguing his mental energy. Pillars erupted around him in every direction, forcing Sylph to dodge backward.

The spell only bought him a second. Sylph vaulted onto a pillar and sprinted at him. Damien cursed and dismissed the spell. She didn’t miss a beat and hit the ground running.

Damien teleported to safety once more. Without being able to use Henry’s combat form or direct casting, he was at a serious disadvantage. He had to do something about Sylph’s incredible speed if he was going to even manage to land a hit on her.

Sylph didn’t have any plans of letting him plan. She emerged from camouflage a short distance from him, pressing the attack once more. Damien used his mage armor to block a hit, then channeled a gravity sphere into his foot.

He kicked it at Sylph, who predictably spun out of the way and managed to almost completely avoid it. Still, the spell bought him a moment. Damien drew a deep breath and reached out with his mental energy, casting gravity sphere six times and fixing it in place with his mental energy.

When Sylph shot at him again, Damien bided his time. He hardened his mage armor, protecting his face as she slashed at him. As soon as he felt the weapon touch him, Damien Warp Stepped and detonated every single gravity sphere.

He appeared on the other side of the arena as a loud crack tore through the air. A wave of air rushed past him as his spells combined into a large explosion, ripping huge chunks of sand and stone free of the arena.

There was no sign of Sylph. Damien didn’t let his guard down. The detonation had been too loud to hear if he’d actually managed to hit her. Several seconds ticked by. Damien felt a droplet of sweat run down the back of his neck.

His instincts screamed a warning. There wasn’t even enough time to Warp Step. Damien hardened every part of his mage armor moments before a dark blur slammed into him from the side, picking him off his feet and throwing him to one knee.

Before he could stand, the blur flashed by again and struck him in the shoulder. He spun, only to catch another blow to the chest. Damien was knocked flat. Sylph shot at him again, leaping onto his chest and pinning him to the ground. She thrust the sword down at his chest.

Damien gathered raw Ether in his hands and knocked Sylph’s sword to the side so that it hit the sand beside him harmlessly. He grabbed her arm and tried to throw her to the side, but Sylph redirected the motion and managed to spin him over so that his face was in the sand.

He tried to gather the Ether to Warp Step, but something blocked him. Damien’s eyes widened, but he didn’t have time to think. He grabbed a paper from his pocket and whipped his arm around.

His hand struck something and he detonated the runes. A ball of fire erupted over Damien and the weight holding him down vanished. He tried using Warp Step again.

It went off without difficulty and he teleported a short distance away from Sylph, landing on his feet. A few strands of Ether hanging in the air caught his eye. They were infused with faint purple energy and were receding into Sylph’s body. From their position, it looked like they’d been connected to him. When he focused harder, faint ribbons of white energy whirling around Sylph faded into vision.

“You little liar,” Damien exclaimed. “You’re already using your companion! But what is that?”

Sylph stuck her tongue out and stepped back, fading into her camouflage.

“She’s getting help, so I’ll join as well,” Henry said, interrupting Damien’s thoughts. “Her companion is what’s letting her move so fast. She’s using Wind magic. However, the strands of Ether that she had on you – those are new. They feel like the Corruption… but not exactly. She’s done something to it.”

Sylph shot out of camouflage and dove at Damien. He kicked a gravity sphere into her path, but she redirected herself midair, avoiding the spell’s radius and darting straight back at him. Damien teleported to the other side of the arena before she could reach him.

I’m going to need you to suspend my mental energy fatigue. Without your combat form or direct casting, she’s going to crush me.

“Don’t hold it as long as last time. You can give yourself permanent damage by overdoing that.”

I won’t. This’ll be over in the next move – one way or another.

Henry gave him a grunt of affirmation. Damien drew Ether into himself and overloaded several gravity spheres, wrapping them with mental energy to keep them in place. He let enough of the spells show so that Sylph could see the dark orbs forming in the air around him.

He stood there for several moments, waiting. A dagger flew at him, but Henry gave him a warning and Damien ducked it. Sylph stepped out from her camouflage, her arms crossed.

“You recognize these, then?” Damien asked with a laugh. “They’re all overloaded. It doesn’t matter how fast you are. If you get near any of these, you’ll get hit.”

“You’ll hit yourself as well,” Sylph pointed out. “And you can’t teleport quickly enough to avoid the detonation. We’ll both get hit, and your Mage Armor can’t block that spell. Do you think you’re more durable than me?”

“Not particularly,” Damien admitted. “But this will buy me time to think.”

A strand of Ether that ran past Sylph and up to Damien twitched, but he wasn’t fast enough to dodge it. A purple pulse ran down it as it touched him, and the gravity spheres in his hands fizzled out.

The Wind magic surrounding Sylph faded as well and she dashed at him, moving at her normal speed. Unfortunately, that was still faster than Damien. She drove a palm into his stomach and he hardened his mage armor, only to catch a fist to the chin that sent him staggering back.

Sylph pressed her advantage, hitting him twice more before Damien got his feet under him. Further attempts to cast his magic failed, so he matched Sylph in physical combat. He dipped out of the way of a punch and drove a knee into her stomach.

She spun, striking him hard in the solar plexus with enough force for him to feel it through his mage armor. They moved in a brutal dance of limbs and strikes, all magic completely forgotten.

Punches started to land home more often as Damien’s reaction speed faltered and more of Sylph’s attacks made it through. He managed to land a few on her as well, but she was relentless. Her techniques were leagues better than Damien’s, and she was faster than him as well.

A surprise sweep took Damien’s legs out and he hit the ground hard. Sylph was upon him instantly. He drove an elbow into her stomach with enough force to make her grunt in pain, but she grabbed his arm and twisted it, sending a jolt of pain through his body.

He managed to hit her in the chin, but was rewarded with a powerful blow to his head that temporarily stunned him. His connection to the Ether returned right as something cold pressed against his neck.

“I win,” Sylph gasped, panting heavily. She held a blade below his chin. Blood trickled down from her nose and hit the sand beside Damien. Her hair had been knocked out of its bun and hung ragged, framing her face.

Damien let his head fall back onto the sand with a groan. Every single part of his body ached. “How did you stop me from using magic?”

“Later,” Sylph said through gasps for air. The announcer yelled something, but Damien’s head was ringing too much to hear what it was.

Sylph got off Damien with a groan, then extended a hand, helping him to his feet. Healers teleported to the arena, sending instant relief through Damien as they healed him. His wounds faded and the fog that he hadn’t even realized was there left his mind.

“There it is, everyone!” the announcer roared. “The winner of this year’s intramural tournament is Sylph from Blackmist!”

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