"There's no shame in giving up."

  Aileen's words were like sandpaper to Erina. She coughed and launched an orb high up, several motions readying another cloud of light for assault.

  "Your mana efficiency is phenomenal," said Aileen. "Most mages your age would've hospitalized themselves trying to do half of what you've done." With a smile, she added, "And creative too. You adapt your spells on the fly and incorporate portions to suit your needs… but you're also holding yourself back from reaching your full potential."

  Erina opened fire. Aileen closed the distance in moments as the lasers cracked the ice in her wake. Green katana and icy longsword formed in their grips at the same time, and the clash rang out.

  Erina backed up constantly, trying to find even a quarter second's worth of breathing room as she blocked and dodged. She realized something about Aileen's style; it was uncanny, the strokes of an experienced master delivered in a means that wasn't her own body movement. The sword was the one moving, wielded not by the hand but by magic; the holder's grip merely followed behind it.

  Aileen closed the gap with a sudden burst of offense. The blade fell in a crushing helmsplitter, Erina staggering away as she blocked it. One more strike and Erina's katana shattered, sending the girl herself to the floor. The tip of the frost blade stopped inches away from her, and Erina froze up. The High Magus had her at swordpoint.

  "Hedging your bets," said Aileen. "Minimizing the risks and playing the odds—none of how you fight is wrong, but none of it is right either. Not for the path you want to walk."

  Erina's chest rose and fell as she panted for breath. The sunny drizzling sky was changing color, shifting from striking pink to the natural morning blue. The holes and cracks in the arena closed themselves up. Akira watched everything unfold from above in distant, stony silence.

  "That mind of yours," said Aileen, "is your greatest strength and your most glaring weakness, Erina-san. You can't commit your heart to your cause like that—and nothing you do will have any meaning without it." Her gaze turned cold. Her voice froze over. "Someone like you isn't fit to travel our road. Why don't you give up and go home, girl?"

  For the first time, anger showed through on Erina's face.

  A fresh katana batted Aileen's sword away as Erina rolled aside to her feet, a flurry of lasers from the lingering cloud further repelling her. Erina's feet struck across the ice, her hands exchanging sword for spear.

  Shallow water surged. Aileen darted away from the branching light, weaving through lasers and slipping away into cover behind the large trees again.

  The sound of churning water and cracking ice foretold the shark's attack. Erina replenished the cloud and then turned. Her feet tried to backpedal without input. Erina forced her legs to stand firm, a yell escaping her as she met the beast's lunge with a spear directly into its jaws.

  Akira perked up. Taunting Erina like that—it must have been on purpose.

  The shark shattered, large chunks of ice bowling Erina over as their momentum flung them into her. An array of spell circles formed around her as she tumbled onto her feet, rapidly spinning and rotating around her.

  Akira tilted her head as she felt an invisible eye turn its focus on her. That was a long-range scan spell.

  There, behind the tree at her four o' clock! This time, Erina's railgun blast forced the real Aileen out of hiding as the tree came crashing down. Aileen made to escape again, but Erina clenched her hand even as an intense pulse of pain shot through her head. Erina staggered as the bolt split, rebounding from one tree to the next to tear down all of her cover. The coliseum filled with the cacophony of demolition, thick frozen trunks snapping and branches shattering every which way.

  Shards of ice crunched under Erina's shoes as she ran forward. One Menger sponge flung ahead of her became an airborne minefield, gradually floating down as a burst of lasers blocked Aileen's escape and forced her to meet Erina's katana with her own sword again.

  "Oh?" The fleeting coldness was gone. Aileen's expression was one of fascination as she parried and disengaged. This time, Erina was the aggressor. Aileen found herself sliding back and forth, managing the swordfight while minding the mines floating down around her. "What happened to being scared?"

  Erina didn't fully understand it herself. She stumbled as her blade missed its mark and Aileen deflected her away. A burst of lasers from her distant cloud gave Aileen just enough pause for Erina to return to the attack. The two of them swept across the arena as their blades met again and again.

  She was scared. She didn't like being hurt. She didn't like fighting.

  So why was her body still moving? Why was she still waging this battle?

  The icy sword struck a blow down on Erina's head. She shook it off and threw herself back into the offensive. Snowflakes formed in Aileen's wake as she dashed back. Water splashed as Erina ran through the shallows around Aileen and engaged her again, a flurry of green lasers shooting out her icicles before they could fly. The floating cubes parted for their owner, offering Erina no resistance while barricading Aileen in with her.

  Aileen had to focus a little more. Something had changed about the way Erina handled her sword. They were the clumsy swings of a novice, telegraphed and overextending. At the same time, a select few were masterful—techniques and maneuvers with immaculate footwork and crisp precision the likes of which Aileen would expect from a master of kenjutsu.

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  A motion of Erina's off hand to regenerate the clouds, another to densen the minefield. Aileen's shallow whirlpool jumped, icy stalagmites prematurely detonating parts of the field to offer herself more space. Spell circles formed and faded under Erina's feet every few attacks, the katana striking clumsily and beautifully on and off.

  "Memory?" muttered Aileen. "Time. No, more like…" She sought another word and came up short. She used one spell herself for countless applications. What could be Erina's core Affinity that enabled her repertoire? Aileen was all the more fascinated.

  A large dragon's curve curled up into the sky, Aileen narrowly dodging away. She leaned back as Erina struck out right after, the katana's tip swinging just shy of her face.

  One touch would mean defeat.

  "Not bad," mused Aileen. "Time to get a little more serious."

  She sidestepped Erina's next swing, circling around to swap places as the air crackled. Her off-hand cane struck the floor and a powerful explosion set off all of Erina's mines early, the shockwaves rushing over them from every direction.

  A wave of water crashed into Erina, pushing her away. The currents surged back, carrying Aileen with them and crossing the coliseum at tremendous speed.

  Erina made to chase, but the air crackled. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and before she knew it, the sky split open and everything went white.

  Akira had to wince as a lightning bolt crashed down on Erina with a deafening clap. The arena shook. Bits of ice vibrated in place.

  The girl hit the floor hard, at the center of the black mark blasted into the coliseum grounds. Arcs of electricity cracked around her, residual lightning sparking as Aileen's backdash slowed to a stop.

  "Oh dear," she said. "Was that too much…?"

  "Erina!" shouted Akira. "You good down there?!"

  The girl in question moaned. It took over a dozen tries before her muscles even began to listen to her again. Her legs gave out under her way on the first attempt at standing, and they wouldn't stop shaking even after she was up.

  "You fought well," said Aileen, "but there's no need to burden yourself past your limit. You've already battled magnificently. Against me, few have ever managed to—"

  Erina wasn't listening.

  Electricity still crackling around her, shoes crunched on the ice as she dug her heels in. She motioned, hand swirling in a great arc up and around in a circle before her, green energy trailing her fingers, and suddenly, something clicked. The gears in her head, left unshaken for so long, rattled loose in the thick of battle and churned to life. Things came into sharp clarity.

  Truth. Understanding.

  From the day she first woke up, she had been buried under so many other things she never had a chance to think about what she herself wanted.

  What was it that compelled her to explore the depths of the laboratory?

  Why did she want to push the boundaries of her knowledge?

  Why did she want to learn who she was?

  What did Erina really want to do with her life?

  The question answered itself. That was justification unto itself.

  Maybe, just maybe, there were things worth fighting for.

  "Shit," breathed Akira. Even from all the way over here, there was no mistaking the change in the light in those green eyes. "Damn, Aileen… you got her waking up."

  Three spell circles as tall as their caster formed before Erina. Her blade scraped as it returned to its sheath, and she flung herself into the accelerator.

  Aileen wasn't ready. One moment, Erina was on the other side of the arena. The next, she was right on top of her, green eyes burning with intensity. Light flared as the sword exploded from its sheath, flying out at blistering speed.

  Erina drew on the memories of her battles and carried the techniques she witnessed from the past into the present. A vast emerald arc slashed out, forming a shining crescent moon whose original scarlet master beheaded oni and dragon alike.

  Aileen had no time but to—!

  The katana shattered on impact, unable to withstand the force of its own blow.

  All the air in her lungs was blown out as Erina crashed headlong into rock-solid ice, deflecting off its surface. She went tumbling across the rough floor way past her target, the world a blurry spinning mess until she came to a hard stop against the far wall.

  Erina raised her head weakly. A tall bulky figure cast from crystalline ice stood in the distance, light gleaming off its features in myriad colors. Its lower half seemed partially melded with the floor. An indistinct deep blue shape moved behind it.

  Erina's muscles were sore. Her bones ached. Her head pounded. Even so, she blindly reached around until she found the cold wall and used it to climb up onto her two feet yet again. Blinking the last bright spots out of her eyes, she focused her vision and found that figure she saw was gone. Aileen stood unblemished in the middle of the coliseum.

  Erina got one step out before her legs gave way under her. She tripped and kept moving anyway, all but screaming at her body to get over itself and work. Green wisps of light formed at her fingertips.

  "I give." Aileen let her cane stand and raised her hands in surrender.

  Erina drew back slightly. That caused a wave of dizziness that nearly sent her down again. "Wh… what?"

  "I concede." Aileen offered a smile. "You found your one strike. It's your victory, Erina-san."

  The whirlpool dispersed and returned to lifeless ordinary water. The rain stopped.

  Akira hopped down as the walls faded, sublimating to steam and dispersing into the air. She went to Erina's side to help keep her upright. The ground rumbled, the entire platform lowering and melting to gently deposit them in the yard.

  "I've met many young mages in my time," said Aileen. "Some sought me as a teacher. Many sought to prove their worth. Who wouldn't want a notch in their belt as the one to defeat the Crystalline? But they all lacked something." She tapped her chin in thought. "How should I put it…? Like exercise, perhaps. Anyone can become the peak of physical fitness, but how many people really have the time to pursue it? Even among those with the potential and the resources, few ever do it. Do you know why?"

  Erina caught her breath. She gently pulled away from Akira. "Why is that?"

  "Conviction," said Aileen. "Strength of resolve. That is what separates the common mage from the ones whose legacies declare them heroes."

  Akira shifted her weight to one leg. That sounded familiar. She'd seen plenty of rejects and half-baked dropouts from the world of mages. Youkai who amounted to little more than playground bullies. People satisfied with enough power to push around a regular human. The rank and file of any family was filled with those sorts.

  "Yeah, we get it," she said aloud. "You're a living legend. I can barely hear you over the sound of you tooting your own horn."

  Aileen paused. The last of the water drained and evaporated away. The sun cleared the horizon, filling the sky with bright morning blue.

  "You seem like a gentle young lady, Erina-san." Aileen made it a point to ignore Akira. "I apologize for my roughness before. I wanted to see for myself whether you were ready for the journey ahead of you."

  "I don't like fighting," she said faintly. All her tiredness from before they got here caught up to her. "Accidents happen. I don't want to kill. I don't want to be killed."

  "You have a kind heart," said Aileen. "Don't let your reservations hold you back. You showed me a glimpse of something remarkable today. Everything you've experienced… that spark in your heart that brought out the passion I saw in your eyes. That is what I wanted to see—the drive that will push you ever onward. Don't forget that moment, Erina-san. Hold on tight to that feeling, and don't let go." She smiled warmly. "Now then. Shall we talk over one more cup of tea before you're on your way?"