Orion eyed his opponent with barely concealed wariness. He knew he wouldn’t come out on top, and that this duel was more about testing his new spells and tactics than winning, but now that they were about to fight, he couldn’t suppress the rising competitiveness.

  The only other witch he often fought was his mother, and she mostly did it to teach him about magical combat rather than actually trying to win, especially since the power gap was just too big for him to last long if she didn’t hold back massively.

  Still, that didn’t mean he was without resources, and so, as he took his place on the far end of the dueling platform, he directed his Intent through the Computing Crystal hanging from a simple steel chain around his neck, hidden beneath his pressed shirt.

  I can’t hold back, especially since this is meant to be a high-stress simulation. I’ll have chances to use these spells in more relaxed situations, but I provoked her for a reason.

  “Ready? This is your last chance to get out of this, kid!” Pauline shouted from the other side, an almost feral grin spreading across her face.

  Clearly, there was a reason she was chosen to be his guard. To think she’d be this aggressive… At the very least, I can put on a good show.

  “Whenever you want!” He shot back, earning a concerningly high-pitched giggle.

  Not one to ignore a clear advantage when it was handed to him, Orion snapped his fingers, casting [Haunted Night].

  The sunlight shining through the windows suddenly vanished, plunging the dueling room into darkness, and foreboding echoes reverberated everywhere. The abrupt shift in atmosphere clearly caught his opponent off guard, giving him a chance to plant a little seed for later with another flex of his will.

  Before the first “poltergeist” could attack her, Pauline finally moved. A flash of silver light briefly lit the room, and Orion threw himself to the ground, barely avoiding the spell. He felt the floor shake when it hit, leaving only a faint mark thanks to the defensive runes carved into it.

  “That won’t do!” Pauline called as spheres of silver light began to circle around her, gathering in large numbers and threatening painful consequences.

  The telekinetic power of [Haunted Night] finally activated, and Pauline stumbled back with a shout, clutching her stomach in shock at being hit even though he was still getting up from the floor.

  Orion grinned. Not as easy as you thought, is it?

  That was once again confirmed as more blows started raining down, forcing her to abandon her attack and summon a [Light Shield] to prevent being overwhelmed.

  That’s right, this is how this spell is supposed to go. Not everyone can be as monstrously talented as Jordan and recognize the attack pattern in a few seconds.

  Even more importantly, since the magic Pauline was using was entirely Light-based, it was starting to fray at the edges due to the spell's negation effect.

  It wasn’t enough to fully disrupt them, as a tier-two witch had cast them at the upper end of the curve, but since she was only paying attention to her shield, the spheres of silver light quickly lost power and dissipated back into the Mana Field.

  Am I actually going to win this? I knew [Haunted Night] would be effective against a witch of the Sanctum, considering it is designed to counter them, but I didn’t expect this level of success after the relatively bad results over the Radiant Vigil’s squires.

  Pauline seemed to share his thoughts, because she decided to raise the stakes. With a shout of frustration, her [Light Shield] burst in a wave of power that forced Orion to create a barrier of his own, lest he be slammed against the far wall. He felt [Haunted Night] reach its limits and fall apart, as an overwhelming flood of mana spilled around them.

  “Enough playing,” Pauline growled, clearly annoyed at losing momentum so quickly, and shaped the mana she had summoned into a spellform before clapping her hands to activate the magic. “May the reflections of the Moon appear to the unbelievers!”

  As Orion was hiding behind his [Light Shield], he couldn’t get a clear look at the magic. Still, he recognized enough of the initial sequence to anticipate an alchemical spell of some kind, so he quickly adjusted some components of his defenses, draining power from the shield to summon [Light Exoskeleton]. It was the right move, as glimmers of light appeared inside his barrier before suddenly exploding.

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  Orion staggered back, still standing only because he had guessed Pauline’s moves correctly, but he didn’t hesitate to jump away when he saw another flicker of light.

  Explosions followed him all around the platform as he ducked, dodged, and weaved through them, taking hits he couldn’t avoid and trying to line up another shot, but constantly getting disrupted.

  “You can’t win by dodging forever!” Pauline called, sounding much more relaxed now that control of the fight had returned to her. “My Attunement is much higher than yours. I will outlast you!”

  That’s true. It’s a good thing I’m not waiting for you to get tired.

  It was just about time for his slowed magic to awaken, but first, he had to position Pauline properly for maximum impact.

  Even as more pinpricks of light appeared around him and exploded, chipping away at his [Light Exoskeleton]’s integrity, Orion didn’t let that distract him, more than willing to sacrifice his physical protection for a few seconds to work uninterrupted.

  “[Penetrate] [Infinite Laser]!” he called, putting on a dramatic display even as another explosion shattered the remains of his defensive spell.

  Pauline clearly wasn’t giving her all, but she was serious enough not to let him attack without responding, and the floor rippled around her before rising up to form a wall between them.

  Orion grinned as his laser pierced through the stone like butter, eliciting a cry of surprise from the witch on the other side.

  The stone wall receded, revealing a fragmented shield of gold around Pauline, who stared at her wrist in surprise. A small bracelet shimmered with inner mana, clearly the cause of the shield, and the only thing that prevented her from taking a serious wound.

  I see you understand the stakes now, he thought as he noticed her demeanor change. This duel had suddenly shifted from being a chance for her to blow off some steam against an arrogant brat to a serious endeavor that required her full strength, or she might actually be defeated.

  Of course, that was the moment [Slow] finally came to an end, flooding the room with the full power of the greatest pure [Torchlight] Orion could muster.

  Having known the exact moment it would come, Orion had done his best to protect his vision by hiding his face and summoning [Light Exoskeleton] again to cover his eyes.

  Pauline didn’t have that advantage, so she took the full force to her face. She was knocked to the ground, screaming in pain and anger, and Orion only briefly lamented his inability to cast more complex spells than basic cantrips through [Slow] before jumping into action.

  Now that he’d genuinely gone on the offensive, Pauline wouldn’t allow the fight to drag out much longer, so he needed to seize this last opportunity.

  “[Maximize Magic], [Wind Push],” he shouted before his vision was even fully restored, thrusting his hand toward the spot where he heard Pauline fall.

  Wind howled, shaking the room with its sheer force. Since it was a sealed chamber, and the runic protections were far beyond what he could overcome, it couldn’t escape, allowing Orion to extract every ounce of benefit from the spell.

  Blinking as [Light Exoskeleton] receded just enough for him to see, he noticed that Pauline had been slammed against the far wall and was currently trying to pick herself up, even as the shield her bracelet conjured flickered and fell apart.

  Maybe his approach was a little harsh, but it was the only way he could win, and he’d use all his skills here since no one else was looking.

  Before she could begin casting, Orion used his remaining strength to activate his final card.

  “[Noether Lock]!” he called, feeling his strength quickly fade and his head throb. Casting so many complex spells back-to-back was only possible thanks to the CC, but even it couldn’t fully offset the cost of drawing that much mana from the local Field.

  In essence, his Attunement was too low to keep up at this level for long, which was why he was betting everything on his last spell.

  [Noether Lock] took shape just as Pauline staggered up and her mana began flooding the room, paralyzing her in place.

  For a moment, the unsettling feeling of her anger lingered in the air before fading away, as she couldn’t interact with the power she’d summoned.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” Orion muttered, feeling his legs weaken from the relief of it being over, before something happened.

  A silver light shimmered under Pauline’s feet, acting as a restorative spell of some kind, so powerful that he couldn’t understand all its parts in the heat of the moment. It surged to life, breaking [Noether Lock] and freeing the witch.

  “Uh oh.”

  Orion barely had time to realize Pauline had used her own version of [Slow] for that when a barrage of silver spellfire rained down on him, sending him flying, smashing against the far wall, and fading into unconsciousness.

  “I still think it should be my victory. You were clearly incapacitated for at least three seconds! That’s a win in any wrestling match I’ve seen!” Orion gesticulated wildly as they passed through the embassy’s gardens. He was still feeling tender, even after Pauline had healed him of the bruises and cuts he’d gathered during their duel, but he was very happy with the results he’d gotten.

  It wasn’t the absolute best case scenario, but he proved to himself that his path was the right one and that his previous victories weren’t just flukes caused by his opponents' inexperience.

  Pauline snorted harshly, though he could see a smirk tugging at her lips. “I don’t think I want to know where you’ve sneaked off to have been at a wrestling match. And even if that were the case, this was a magical duel, which means the outcome depends on one of the casters’ inability to use magic. Clearly, I was able to.”

  Orion clicked his tongue but conceded the point. He’d been so confident that [Slow] would be his trump card, but it turned out it wasn’t quite as special as he thought.

  It was, like most metaspells, considered a fundamental ability of the Arcane Collegium, but just as the Lunar Sanctum didn’t have a complete monopoly on healing magic, the Collegium couldn’t claim exclusive rights to metamagic.

  It was understood that such abilities became more common as one ranked up, but a healer from the Sanctum would always be regarded as superior to a random white mage.

  Orion had broken the record by figuring it out on his own without any instruction while at tier one. But after challenging someone at the upper end of tier two, he really should have anticipated that she’d have a few tricks like that up her sleeve.

  “When did you even cast it?” He asked, essentially admitting his loss.

  Pauline let the smirk spread across her face, “Curious little thing, aren't you? I did it when you almost hit me with the laser. I didn't expect it to be that powerful, and I figured if you could do that, I might need a stronger spell on hand just in case I got overwhelmed."

  Huffing in annoyance at her sneaky tactics and how it happened right under his nose, Orion marched ahead on his own, ignoring her laughter.

  At least I took home something. The System must have really liked my performance, huh?