Speed and Strategy

Lyra and Vincent's duel went about as expected. Though they started off slow, once they picked up speed, their movements became blistering.

With two speed casters going all out, keeping track of their positions was nearly impossible. Typically, in a duel against a speed caster, a significant part of the strategy involved limiting their movement. However, since both of them were focused on improving their speed and target prediction, neither actively tried to slow the other down. Instead, they provided dynamic targets for each other to hit, all while maintaining their maximum pace and pushing the limits of both their speed and precision.

It was a completely different style of duel compared to Jace and Harper's. Rather than a pure battle, this was more of a structured training exercise.

Which was exactly why Aurora and Hannah had scheduled the matches this way. The goal was to demonstrate to everyone that all types of training were valuable, and that dueling outside one's usual sparring partners could lead to greater growth.

In the end, Vincent emerged victorious, managing to hit three more targets than Lyra.

The post-match discussion primarily revolved around techniques for maintaining accuracy at high speeds. Hitting a moving target while moving just as fast, if not faster, was no easy feat, and both duelists shared insights on their approach.

Eventually, the discussion began to wind down.

"Alright, has everyone brought up everything they wanted to?" Hannah asked, glancing around at the group.

Seeing no one respond, Hannah turned toward Aurora. "Alright, you ready?"

Aurora nodded. "Yeah, let's go." She headed into the arena.

This was one duel where no one doubted the outcome. The whole reason Hannah had requested this matchup was because she knew it was a terrible matchup for her.

Everyone assumed that, like Lyra and Vincent, Aurora and Hannah had already discussed what they wanted to focus on during the duel.

As the match began, Harper made her way over and sat beside Jace. "So, we're going to keep dueling, right? I refuse to take that defeat lying down."

Jace grinned. "As long as Aurora doesn't have a problem with it, I'll definitely keep dueling you."

"Nice." Harper smirked. "I was pretty mad when Hannah told me I wasn't allowed to participate in the dueling standings. But if it means I get to fight people like you all the time, I think I'm okay with it."

"I know what you mean," Jace said with a laugh. "I was standing right next to Aurora when we found out, and she instantly told me it was banned. I was furious."

"Do you know anything about Team Christian's primary dueler?" Harper asked. Since their team had always competed in the later rounds of both contests, they hadn't actually seen them duel before.

Jace shook his head. "Nah. I saw them during the second contest, but I'm not even sure if their primary dueler was actually participating in that round."

"Makes sense." Harper leaned back. "It's more fun going in blind anyway."

"Right?" Jace laughed. "My team kept trying to feed me information about you before our duel. I had to refuse like three times before they finally gave up."

"Only three?" Harper smirked. "I swear my team kept trying to sneak me intel on you until I told them that if they ruined our duel, they'd have to fight me until I was satisfied."

"Damn, I should've used that." Jace chuckled. "They already call me a battle nut—imagine if I actually dueled them like six times in a row. Or at least until I ran outta mana."

Harper suddenly narrowed her eyes. "Wait… just how much mana do you actually have? Are you some kind of unlimited power bank or something?"

Jace shrugged. "I mean, I can admit my mana capacity is a lot higher than average. Hard to put an exact number on it, especially since I still don't know what happened in our last duel, but if I had to guess, I'd say I had about sixty percent of my mana left after our fight."

Harper froze. "Sixty percent? How? I mean, I'm not exactly low on mana, but I'm definitely not at sixty."

Jace could only shrug again. "Just call me the battery man." He chuckled.

They continued their casual conversation, drifting from topic to topic while the duel played out in the background.

Eventually, the match ended—exactly as expected.

As Hannah and Aurora stepped out of the arena, Hannah let out a sigh, shaking her head. "Void must be the single most annoying magic to face."

"Sorry," Aurora said sheepishly. She wasn't entirely sure if she had given Hannah what she was hoping for.

"What? Don't be." Hannah waved her off. "It was the experience I wanted. That doesn't mean it didn't suck."

Aurora still felt a little awkward. She knew firsthand how frustrating it was to fight against Void magic, having struggled against it herself countless times while learning.

"As long as you calculate how Void magic is going to distort your spells, it's not too bad," Jace mused as they walked away from the arena.

Everyone turned to stare at him, as if he had just suggested something absurdly simple.

"That's our battle nut," Ethan muttered, shaking his head