Training Preparations

If you asked Jace what happened in class that day, he wouldn't have been able to tell you a single thing. His mind was completely preoccupied with planning for his training duel.

How skilled was Harper going to be? What elements did she have? Was she a speed caster like Lyra? A ranged caster like him? Or even a dual-type caster like Aurora?

There were so many different possibilities.

"JACE!"

Ethan's yell snapped him out of his stupor.

"Huh? What's up?" Jace replied, finally turning to face the others.

"You're asking that like you haven't been walking around with a creepy grin like a weird zombie all morning." Ethan crossed his arms.

"I don't think you've heard a single thing Severian said today," Lyra added.

Before Selene tagged herself in. "Or anything anyone else has said, for that matter."

"It took Ethan yelling straight into your ear to snap you out of it," Orion piled on.

The whole team had collectively decided that Jace deserved a little harassment, considering how completely checked out he had been.

"Alright, alright, gods damn, my bad," Jace said, putting his hands up in surrender.

"I'm just a little excited, okay?" He dropped his hands and shrugged. "Can you really blame me, all things considered?"

"Yes. Yes, I absolutely can," Ethan said flatly. "We all like a good battle, but no one is as battle-hungry as you."

"To be fair," Astra chimed in, scribbling something in her notebook, "I looked over at Harper a couple of times, and she was just as zoned out as you were." She smirked. "So at least she's on your level of crazy."

"Excellent," Jace's grin returned.

"See, this is why we call you a battle nut," Lyra scoffed.

"Just to be clear, I don't deny that," Jace said, grabbing his stuff. He had actually never unpacked from when he first arrived.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to grab something to eat before my duel." He slung his bag over his shoulder. "Which training building are we meeting at?"

"Building Three," Aurora responded, gathering her own things, clearly intending to go with him. "Even though we can turn the training rooms private, we still picked the least-used training building."

"Alright, Building Three," he nodded. Seeing her packing up, he waited. "Anyone else coming?"

"Me and Elias," Astra said, bouncing up as she quickly gathered her things.

Lucian also started packing up. "Watching how you all fight is helpful for me."

"Let's be real, I'm assuming everyone's looking forward to watching this," Ethan laughed, already ready to leave. "Looks like our new friends are getting ready to head out too."

Everyone glanced over at Team Hannah, who were also packing up.

"Team Christian too," Selene pointed toward the third team in their little alliance.

"Even though they aren't participating, we're letting them watch?" Lyra asked.

"Hannah figured it would be a good way to get them to agree," Aurora answered. She and Hannah had discussed it for a while before settling on this arrangement.

"That makes sense. I'm assuming there are a lot of students and spectators who would pay almost anything to watch a duel between the top ten," Felix pointed out. He had actually done the math to see if it would be worth considering. And while it would have been extremely profitable, keeping the secrecy was more important.

"Alright, let's head out," Aurora said, seeing that everyone had finished prepping. "Even though we'll still attract attention just by traveling in our full teams, we agreed to take different routes to the training buildings. Again, just trying to keep as much secrecy as possible."

The whole group nodded and began heading out.

Aurora's assumption was instantly proven correct. A few Rank 1 students trailed after them. Jace figured some were genuinely interested, but if he had to guess, at least one was reporting back to the nobles.

Not that there was much they could do about it. They had already taken as many precautions as possible.

Since there was nothing he could do about it, Jace chose to ignore it.

Instead, Jace just listened to the three troublemakers on his team arguing about their usual nonsense. It felt like Ethan, Orion, and Astra were really going all out today. They were currently debating the best flavor of milkshake, seemingly playing it up to distract from anything else.

It felt like forever before they finally reached Building Three. They immediately headed up to the restaurant inside to grab some food.

There was a reason the academy only scheduled classes in the morning and provided restaurants in all the training buildings. The academy expected students to find their own way to train during the afternoon and evening, and if they didn't? They'd just fall behind.

Luckily, the food was delicious, and Jace loved training, so there were no issues for him.

He figured that his duel would be a proper workout, so he decided on a lighter lunch and planned for a heavier dinner to compensate.

As the others continued their discussion about nothing, Aurora leaned forward to talk to Jace. "What do you plan on working on?"

Jace considered for a second before answering. "I think I rely too much on my fast reactions for defense, so for our first duel, I might take a defensive stance and work on that."

His instincts and inhuman reaction time had always been enough prior to the academy, but he had a feeling that if he wanted to beat Kael, he'd need more than that.

Aurora nodded. "As long as you actually have a plan."

"I always have a plan," he said with a slight chuckle. "They just rarely work the way I intend."

They finished their meals and headed up to one of the big training rooms, using their Rank 1 rights to reserve one of the largest training rooms for the afternoon.

Jace went straight in, stretching and warming up. Harper wasn't far behind, arriving just after he started, beginning her own warm up.

Jace sized her up from across the training ground, taking in his opponent properly for the first time. He'd seen her in passing, watched her fight in the contest, but this was different. Now, she stood across from him, ready to go all out.

She wasn't particularly tall, but her stance made up for it. She was light on her feet, balanced, like she could explode into movement at any second. Her uniform, pure black matching his own, clung tight enough to reveal the lean, wiry strength beneath. She didn't look like a powerhouse, but that was deceptive. Jace had seen the aftermath of her fights. She hit hard.

Her eyes, a sharp, calculating green, locked onto him with the kind of focus he recognized in himself: battle hunger, excitement, the thrill of a real challenge. Strands of dark brown hair, just a little too long to stay neat, framed her face, shifting slightly from the fans in the arena. She rolled one shoulder, fingers twitching as if barely restraining herself from launching into the fight.

Yeah. She was a lot like him. This was going to be fun.