Twenty minutes or so later I found myself walking back into the training hall. I groaned as I stepped out of the training dungeon halls doorway into the gentle roar of an eager crowd. Able to sense or see most of the room I could tell dozens of people were eagerly talking about the war between the dancer and the lightning god Harkan.

  I had to push my way through a few groups of watchers until I made my way to the empty, or near empty, center of the hall. The sand pit that had been partially glassed over the day before, but there was no more glass. All that was left was soft sand. That, and a few people talking amongst themselves.

  Thankfully, the aches caused by my spell combination had faded during the rest of my training with Rhosha. That wasn’t to say my body didn’t ache, but it was a natural amount and not the overhot muscle torn feeling I had immediately after the spells wore off. I had noticed the pain fading while meditating.

  Once I pushed through the crowd I caught sight of Harkan surrounded by my party and Adriens. He turned the moment I stepped into the sand circle and the others started to back off. Eva was holding Sky in her arms who watched on with her tongue dangling from her mouth.

  “Want help big Brother?” Sky asked in my head as she tilted her own.

  “I’ll be fine. Thank you. I’ll fight with you guys again soon.” I pushed the thought to both of the foxes, noticing Elric had Luka.

  “Tay. Fight big!” she said to me lazily while getting some scratches.

  “There you are Lios! I was beginning to think you ran away with your tail between your legs!” Harkan laughed as he walked over to greet me. He clasped my forearm and I clasped his.

  “You wish, that would give you a real chance of winning!” I heard a few whoops from the crowd as some of the chattering stopped, people realized I was there and were starting to pay attention.

  “So, what are the terms of this duel?” Harkan asked with a bit of amusement. As he did so, Perry Winkle stepped into the circle to hear the terms as well.

  “Hmm. I have two options for you, I’ll let you pick which one you want.” I started to casually walk around the sand circle, stretching as I did so. While pulling my left arm across my body to stretch my shoulder I said, “Number one. We fight with full skills but to do so you have to allow me to cast two spells prior to the battle. If we do this our fight will last a total of eight minutes. Option two is no skills or spells, and will likely last until one of us is bored.”

  “Oh? You think a spell is going to put you on the same level as me? Color me intrigued. I like the first option.” Harkan grinned like a shark, a hungry one. He turned to Perry and nodded at the older dwarf. “We will probably want the full barrier. Is the saintess on standby? Lios may be biting off more than he can chew.”

  “Aye, she is. Lios are you sure about this? Harkan is one of the strongest at this hall. I understand you're more powerful than your-”

  “Thank you guild master, I’m sure. My instructor told me the chances I could keep up with him completely were about seventy percent. I should be relatively fine.” By this point the crowd had gone quiet. Easily a hundred and fifty adventurers were present. I saw a few familiar faces, namely Garth the barkeep, Ethan who to my annoyance had both of his limbs repaired, likely by the saintess, and the two parties I had been part of. Helen was among them as well, and so was Tilda who I had expected to stay by the door.

  As I turned about and looked at everyone present I caught the eyes of Rose who was shuffling a bit. As Perry started to exit the circle I approached her place at the edge. “Be ready to craft a song about the dancer and the lightning god, regardless of who wins, these eight minutes will surely be memorable!” I laughed carelessly. Some of the people around heard and started chuckling at my hubris.

  “Lios, you’ve been fighting a lot lately. Do try not to get hurt.” Rose said softly, pink blossoms on her cheek.

  “No need to worry for me Rose. It’s just a spar, Harkan knows better than to bring me any real harm. Besides, now that the fair bard is concerned with my wellbeing I know better than to sustain an injury.”

  Before she could respond Harkan called out to me. “Lios, quit flirting and come fight me!”

  “Alas, I must get going. Cheer for me.” I started to turn away but Rose grabbed onto my hand and pulled me close to her. She tugged me into a hug, seeming to hesitate before doing so.

  “For good luck. Kick his ass.” She whispered as I tuned out any whistles or teasing from the people around me.

  I nodded, wordlessly, not sure what to say, as I turned and stepped back into the circle. The barrier roared to life and the crowd began to roar with anticipation. Wordlessly I drew both swords, the saber in my right and the longsword in my left, a bit more unwieldy. I nodded at Harkan and began to dance. While it wasn’t necessary I performed a few flourishes with my weapons, hoping that any watching future competitors would come to believe that I needed my swords to move as well for the dance.

  I performed both dances. Once I finished the first, Conflagration, I held it with a small portion of my concentration and began the second, Cyclonic Augment. As I did so, as I was nearing the end of the dance, I caught a glimpse of Harkan pulling a spear that crackled with lightning from seemingly nowhere. I wondered briefly if it was a skill or spell, or some sort of advanced storage device that I was unfamiliar with.

  No matter. In a matter of thirty seconds or so I had completed both dances. Doing them out of combat as well as my overall familiarity of them allowed me to have the runes written quicker than I expected. With a lopsided smile I focused on Harkan and tilted my head. “Ready senior adventurer Harkan?” My voice held a teasing tone as I called out, some of the chatter around us dying down briefly to hear the exchange.

  “Yes young swordsman, your senior is ready to teach you a lesson!” He caught on to my teasing tone and pointed his spear at me, the azure blade crackling with energy. The shaft, now that I stopped long enough to look, was made from what looked like black marble. There was a blue and black cloth hanging from both the tip and the butt of the weapon. Like me the older adventurer wore no armor at the moment, making it a fairly fair fight in terms of equipment.

  Without response I poured my mana into both of the spell circles, casting the spells simultaneously. I let out an audible groan as the energy flooded my pathways and enhanced my body. My muscles seemed to expand and contract quickly as they were strengthened, my balance immediately improved not that it had been questionable in the first place. On top of the senses gained through [Portent], my hearing vastly improved to the point the clanger of the onlookers was nearly painful. My eyesight changed slightly as well, allowing me to vaguely see heat signatures within my vision. The last major change was that I could more clearly feel disruptions in the air around me.

  With a grin I pointed my Cyclonic saber at Harkan, heat billowing away from my body. “Come at me then Senior!”

  With a cackle he wasted no time, lunging at me in a flash. My eyes on their own couldn’t keep up, but they were hardly my best asset in sensing incoming attacks. First, I caught onto the movements through [Portent], but also my [Intuition] acted as a sort of spidey sense, letting me know an attack was aimed straight at my head. I raised the longsword and knocked the incoming weapon out of the way. I felt the crackle of electricity as the tip of the weapon passed my head, trimming a few loose hairs.

  Grinning, I retaliated. Feeling where his body was I lashed out with the saber, the tip of it gliding through his tunic but not cutting him. I followed him as he leapt backward, following the instructions Master Rhosha had given me while teaching me the Twin Fanged Coatl techniques. I caught sight of Harkans manic grin just before his spear lashed out at me again, forcing me to sidestep and knock his weapon away.

  At my feet a few runes began to appear. I was under no delusions that I could compete with Harkan only using my two enhancements, but they did allow me to keep up to a decent degree. It didn’t seem like he knew anything was going on as we exchanged a few blows, clashing over and over. Then, just as my next spell clicked into place, faster than normal due to my faster speed and higher dexterity, he lunged at me.

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  Dodging back I avoided the tip of his spear narrowly but that wasn’t enough. With both of my feet still off the ground, only by mere inches, and without time to react I noticed lightning mana forming at the end of his spear. It was in this split second that my next spell readied itself, that my mana clicked into place. With a bit of a surprised yelp, just as the lightning mana at the end of his spear began to coalesce into a skill or spell, I activated my spell. A wall of fire erupted just in front of me, my hope had been to get him to run into it face first and singe some eyebrows or char his perfectly manicured blonde hair.

  Instead I heard a crash just as I landed back on my feet panting. Lightning magic crackled against my flame wall, a straight line of fire separating myself from the high level adventurer. The flames sputtered but did not break or dissipate even as I took a small hit to my mana pool.

  “Shit! I didn’t expect you to block it so thoroughly. Might have to use a stronger skill!” I heard Harkan call from beyond the wall.

  I laughed and, feeling a bit cheesy, I began another dance. I was eager to try out my full repertoire of spells especially after practicing them the past couple of weeks in the training dungeon. I didn’t really count when I cast a fireball directly into Ethan’s stomach, he wasn’t much of a threat and that move had been a touch egregious.

  Still, within a few seconds just as Harkan broke through the fire wall I cast Phoenix Flower. Around me nine plumes of flame appeared in different colors. What could I say, I liked to show off. There were a few murmurs from the crowd about them but I paid them no mind as I launched one at Harkan to see how he would deal with it.

  With impossible speed he batted the first away, electricity arcing off of his body entirely. It seemed he had started to take this more seriously. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as his face was stretched into a manic grin. His normally perfect hair stood in all directions, the electricity forcing it to behave abnormally. The blue flames I had launched at him flew astray after meeting the flat of his spear, crashing against the barrier and exploding like a pretty firework.

  Knowing the flowers would only remain around me for a few more seconds at most I launched myself forward, finally igniting my own aura skill. The heat around me gained coloration and the sand beneath started to glow from it. White fire surrounded me and I burst into motion, leaning on the explosive combination of the wind and fire inside of me. As I neared him and lashed out with the saber a flower from the opposite side flew toward his side, flanking him.

  He twisted just out of its path at the same time that his left hand rose to knock my saber astray. With his spear, he slashed toward my legs, forcing me to parry with the longsword. Our weapons clashed and electricity numbed my arm, arcing up into my body through my weapon. Fortunately I had experience dealing with lightning, and sent a pulse of my own lightning mana into my body. It wasn't quite a counter, but the mana inside of me allowed me to continue to move and stimulate my muscles despite the numbness.

  I continued to try to put him on the backfoot but he never hesitated to block, parry, dodge any attacks that I flung his way. My flowers flew at him with each strike I sent his way but they didn’t phase him. They simply exploded against the barrier or the sand pit leaving unsteady footing for us to fight on, but neither of us seemed inhibited by it.

  Finally, though, I finished etching the runes for fireball and twisted the longsword into a reverse grip like I had done to Ethan. I enjoyed the technique I had used on him, and wanted to try the same trick against Harkan even though I knew he had seen it. I didn’t activate the spell right away though, instead leaping toward him after a bout of being forced on the defensive. With a wild expressi0n on each of us, both looking like wild animals if I had to guess, we met in the center of the sand pit and clashed.

  I jabbed the pommel of the longsword into his gut while simultaneously slashing at his leg. In response he thrust his spear toward my shoulder, holding nothing back. I was thankful to Adrien and Elric more so in that moment than I normally felt. Their training, my reaction speed, instincts, and ability to use [Portent] allowed me to perceive the incoming spear - a missile crackling with power- even if only barely. A searing heat spread from my shoulder as he still nicked me, lightning mana interrupting my nerves and causing the hand holding Igniums Fang to spasm. Even still, the enchantment I put on the handle prevented even my loosening grip to allow me to drop the weapon.

  We separated, my spell readied but being held back. As We both stepped back panting I noticed that while I had felt like he had dodged I had gotten a clean slice on his upper thigh, near his hip. We caught each other's eyes and with manic glee rushed forward once again. This time I allowed fire mana to form a small orb at the pommel of my sword. One with high enough perception would see the mana was riding up the blade of the sword before coming down and dripping and condensing into a single marble at the pommel, holding itself for a moment before I would launch it.

  He sidestepped as I neared him, his spear connecting with my saber in a horizontal slash as he avoided the pommel of my longsword, or more accurately the bead of fire at the end of it. I released it all the same, firing it behind the older adventurer, straight toward the ground. I pressed the attack, returning to a regular grip on the longsword and battering him with both swords, slipping between the different techniques Rhosha had taught me. I cycled between the defensive Crane, the advantageous Osprey, the Twin Fanged Coatl and even found room for Griffin techniques.

  In the few seconds it took for the fireball to ignite, to explode, Harkan and I exchanged a dozen or more blows. His spear kept me from getting close enough to properly damage him and my swords controlled the area immediately around me enough to prevent him from damaging me. Until the bead of fire began to expand rapidly. As soon as it began Harkan’s eyes widened as he realized where it had gone.

  Beneath him, having been pushed back a couple of steps, the sand erupted. Not wanting to get caught in it I leapt back as sand sprayed everywhere, quickly turning into molten glass as it pelted the both of us. My perception skills all lit up with the mass of mana swirling around us, contained due to the barrier erected by Perry.

  I heard a curse coming from Harkan but that did little to prepare me for his next move. Vaguely I could still see his shape in [Portent] despite the deluge of fire mana blinding me. He lunged toward me faster than he had before, lightning arcing off of him. When he came close enough for me to see him I could see his clothes burning away and his eyes crackling with energy. I moved to dodge, not confident that I could block him as he neared.

  With a smirk he twisted mid leap, lashing out with a mana filled spear. More lightning mana than I had seen before erupted and streaked toward me, too fast for me to dodge and too strong for me to block with my blades. I let out a surprised yelp, a sound not unlike that Luka makes when Sky rough houses with him.

  With a quarter of a second to react I thought. I thought faster than I had any right to. What are my options? Flame wall? Not strong enough I don’t think. There’s too much mana in the lightning. Stony Strength? I haven’t practiced with it much... But if... this is insane... if it’s both I can win... If I can cast both...

  The thoughts flew through my mind, simple thoughts but they considered everything I needed to. The power of Harkans ability, his likely followup of leaping toward me and attacking me before I could manage a second defense if I managed to block his lightning. His ability to move nearly omnidirectionally regardless of his positioning making it difficult to predict where the next attack would come from.

  The fact he had fought head on this entire time was admirable, but something about the blue energy leaking from his azure eyes told me he would be switching up tactics now. I had no more time to think, though. The lightning was too close to me. I took a deep breath steeling myself, microseconds passing as my skull pounded but I focused all the same. With headache budding and time seemingly slowed I followed my instincts, my [Intuition] and I called upon all of the relevant skills.

  Mana began to pour out of both feet. Even more heat spread out from around me and something more expanded outward. Something far more sturdy. I briefly lamented not coming up with new spells for earth magic, as the magic would likely have been enough to save me on its own, but now was not the time to think about it. Instead I focused all that I could on simulcasting two larger spells with [COmpendium Actualization], something I had been unable to do until this very morning.

  Earth mana and fire mana intermingled as I had to concentrate on separating them into their own twenty five rune circles. My head threatened to overheat, but I managed to click both spells into existence just before the lightning bolt could split me in two. With a wild cackle I released both spells. A fire wall rose before me, cutting off the path of the bolt, and my body slowed dramatically as the second spell took effect, one I had not yet used in combat, well I hadn’t used it since working to make it with Kricket.

  One of its major effects was increasing my personal durability, that and my strength. A side effect of the earth mana was its overall resistance to lightning mana. As expected, my fire wall did not stop the bolt that headed toward me. It did weaken it and slow it down however. Just enough that when I dropped my saber and raised my right arm to block the lightning, it merely burned the surface of my skin and did not rend my arm.

  As the second was over I kicked my falling sword back up into my hand by the flat of it, catching it by the handle as I leapt backwards panting, my movements slowing. Both of the other spells dissipated, not interacting well with Stony Strength, and despite the enhancements it provided I could feel fatigue seeping into my body alongside some gnarly aches.

  “I yield!” I called out just in time as I could no longer keep up with Harkan’s attacks, his spear landing just at my neck.

  “What was that? Lios what the hell did you just do?” He asked as he straightened from his fierce stance to something more relaxed. Sweat was dripping down his face and burns covered his body, leaving him nearly naked save for a few choice spots. His muscular build glimmering with sweat and pulsing with exertion.

  “What do you mean Senior?” I panted and sheathed both weapons, collapsing into a kneel on the broiling sand. The hot material tore into my leg as I rested but I didn’t feel too much of it. Such was the joy of being hurt often, I supposed.

  Before he could respond the barrier fell around us. I looked up tiredly and dispelled Stony Strength as well, suddenly feeling more of the heat of the sand pit even as it started to cool. Standing, I looked around until I saw Eva, Leshal, and Rose heading toward us along with Perry, Helen and Adrien’s team.