A single breath goes in and out. Yes, that’s how you remain calm in situations that are stressful. A state of zen is key to not pulling your hair out. Well, that and the paper slip in my pocket. So, for the sake of my hair, let this be a quick and easy win.

  “Charlatan, if you don’t stop, I’m going to throw you,” Penelope promises.

  “I’m not even doing anything to you right now, Penelope,” I say as I nervously munch on some cookies.

  “You’re moving your leg. It’s annoying and quite frankly distracting. Stop it,” she barks.

  Hopper rubs the sleep away from his eyes as he looks down at the empty arena. “If the two of you are done bickering. Would one of you tell me when Garus’s duel is supposed to start?”

  Penelope sighs. “It should be any minute now. They’re just setting up the arena. I swear to the Gods! If you don’t stop that incessant tapping, I’m going to stop it myself.”

  “Go a little easy on him, Princess. He’s on edge like the rest of us. This is the first duel of the last week after all. Not to mention it includes the second years Rank 3. What we’re about to see is going to be a sight for sure,” Hopper explains.

  Penelope turns to me. “Why are you even nervous? Wasn’t it just last night when you said that we should believe in Lord Garus? Where did your faith go?”

  “It vanished the moment I sat down,” I joke.

  Penelope gives me a hard glare.

  “Joking aside, of course I’m nervous. Garus is my friend.”

  “He wouldn’t agree with that,” she reminds me.

  “That doesn’t matter. A friend is a friend, and what kind of friend would I be if I wasn’t at least a little bit worried about his safety? It doesn’t mean I don’t believe he can do it. I’m just worried he’ll pull a Hopper and end up half dead by the end of the duel.”

  “What does that mean, pull a Hopper? I do not want this to become a thing!” Hopper says.

  Penelope sighs. “Hate to break it to you, Hopper, but it already has. I heard some of our classmates saying it a couple of days ago.”

  “And I even heard some of the kids out in the city using it this weekend,” I say while omitting the fact that I taught them.

  Hopper places his head in his hands. “Why?”

  Before he can answer, a familiar voice booms through the arena. “Welcome, everybody!! It’s your favorite announcer, Vivi! What a duel to start the final week of the Class War, am I right?!” Vivi announces from the announcer booth.

  The packed arena roars to life as the doors to the arena open. In the fight pit, Garus and Abigail walk towards the center.

  “In this corner, we have Abigail Luft! Rank 3, the uncontested master of wind! In the other corner, we have Garus Krait! Rank 7, a scrawny kid with a don’t talk to me aura, and I may be evil face!!” Vivi says some crazy shit with an odd amount of passion.

  “I can’t tell if she’s making fun of Garus or… I don’t know,” I say.

  Penelope looks up at the announcer's booth. “I’ve watched enough of these duels to tell you one thing. Vivi is… to put it nicely, a character.”

  Hopper covers his bunny ears. “She’s also loud.”

  “As agreed by the participants, we will be changing the terrain into that of the Krait Fields, a bit boring, but pretty! During the terrain change, if the participants could initiate the [System] duel!” she says as the fight pit morphs into a large flat field of wheat with a singular windmill near the center.

  “By the [System], I, Abigail, accept this duel. I was wondering what your first years were planning, but I wasn’t expecting this. Giving up already?”

  “By the [System], I, Garus, accept this duel. That’s the furthest thing from my mind.”

  “Begin!” Vivi yells.

  Abigail stands there and lets out a yawn. “I really don’t understand why you’re doing this, Lord Garus.”

  My gaze lingers on her hands. Wind magic users are tricky to fight for many reasons, but the biggest reason is that their attacks are invisible. For now, she wants to talk, so I’ll keep her talking and wait for my moment to strike. In a battle against magic users, it’s the first to run out of mana that loses.

  “For the same reason you are. To win.”

  Abigail cocks her head. “I’m not talking about this duel. If you wanted, I would forfeit this duel in a heartbeat. I’m talking about why you turned down the offer that Turk and Xarex presented you with.”

  A faint chittering drones throughout the field. She’s drowning out our conversation. No, she doesn’t have this [Skill]. This is somebody else, but how did they cut through the barrier?

  I let out a sigh as my annoyance begins to build. “I’ll tell you the same thing that I told them. I don’t want any part of that stuff. So, you can stop asking me about it.”

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Abigail shakes her head. “Your brother will be greatly disappointed to learn that you’ve been taking orders from an inferior, a devil at that. It's truly sickening. You're the son of Archduke Krait, descendant of the First Chosen, have you no shame?” she asks, letting her mask slip.

  The word devil burns my ears. A word that has passed my lips many times. A name that I’ve spent my whole life hearing, but I never actually stopped to listen. Damn it! All these memories are pissing me off. I feel like I’m about to do something stupid if I don’t calm down.

  “You Purists are all the same. Shame this, inferior that. I’m honestly sick of hearing you talk. Can’t you come up with an original thought of your own? If you can’t, I’d rather get to fighting already,” I say as my eyes stay glued to her hands.

  “It seems you need to be taught a lesson in manners. In the absence of your brother, I will do it for him,” she says as her hand twitches.

  Suddenly, the wheat flattens in front of me as a gale slashes towards me. I barely side-step the attack and send back a [Fire Bolt]. The flame rockets towards her and is snuffed out before it reaches her. She must’ve used her wind magic to suffocate my fire magic. Not unexpected, but still unsettling to see. I need to keep my distance before she-

  The field of wheat around me begins to sway erratically. Visible wind begins to form. Rocks begin to fly through the air. I feel a tug as the wind begins to form a small tornado that’s still growing. The tornado violently tears through the ground as it heads towards me.

  Time to move. With no hesitation, I run towards the only cover around. The windmill. Crashing through the door, I immediately regret it as pain radiates through my shoulder. Slamming the door shut behind me, I catch my breath. Looking around, I watch as the gears in the windmill spin rapidly. Everything is still going according to plan.

  A piece of the windmill snaps and goes flying past my head. Okay, maybe not everything is going according to plan. The tornado outside slams up against the side of the windmill.

  This thing won’t last long, and neither will I if I keep hiding in here. As if proving my point, a piece of stone from the wall is sucked out into the tornado and then thrown back at the windmill.

  Time to start step two of this plan. With great difficulty, I climb up the stairs until I reach the very top of the windmill. If my calculations are correct, and I’m sure they are, this should do the trick. Placing my hand against the gear of the windmill, I use [Telekinesis] and force it to rotate. The gears groan under the combined weight of my [Telekinesis] and the Tornado outside. Don’t snap! The gear begins to move under my will, and it slowly begins to pick up speed. Turn by turn, the wind outside slowly begins to dull until it’s no more.

  Taking a peek out one of the windows, I watch as pollen chokes the air, making it hard to breathe and see.

  “Impressive, as expected from a superior being, but what are you going to do about this?” Abigail asks from down below.

  The wind picks up, and suddenly I find myself without a roof. The top of the windmill falls to the side, kicking up more pollen. This is what a [Skill] is capable of when pushed to the higher [Levels]? Amazing.

  Abigail flies up and looks down at me. “Do you finally understand? This is what power is, Lord Garus. This is the power you should wield. It’s your birthright as a human. Join us, and you will become powerful enough to help us rid this world of the inferiors. What do you say, Lord Garus? Have you seen the light?”

  I struggle to get up as I try not to inhale the pollen in the air. “You’re right. I want power. I want to be powerful. It is my birthright,” I proclaim.

  “So you’ll agree to join us? Marvelous, we-”

  I carefully put my hand up. “Oh, I would never join you guys. Not even if I was at death's door and you were the only way to survive.”

  “What are you trying to say? Do you or do you not believe this power to be your birthright?” she asks with a hint of annoyance.

  “I do, but not because I’m human. I’m Garus. I was born to attain great power. It doesn’t matter if I was born a Dwarf or a Beastkin. Hells, it doesn’t even matter if I was born a Vashrin. I’d still be Garus, and I’d still attain great power. Most importantly, I’d win this fight no matter what I was, because that’s who I am. I’m a person who refuses to lose. To put it in terms you’d understand, you’re the inferior, and you always will be as long as I live in this world, or rather, my world,” I proclaim.

  The thin veil of calmness finally slips from Abigail's face as she breaks into laughter. “You’ve truly lost your mind. Your world? Truly laughable. I think it’s time I stop playing with my food,” she says as she puts her hand up.

  Suddenly, the air around me disappears, or rather, it’s pulled away based on the movement of the pollen. Even the air in my lungs is forcefully vacated. The burning sensation spreads throughout my chest as I gasp for breath. Fear creeps into the corners of my mind as my body screams out for air. It’s only natural.

  Looking up, I see her still floating outside the vacuum. A simple smile crosses my face as I clench my fist. Thank you for being so predictable.

  A flash of recognition passes through her as she looks around at her, but it’s far too late. Final step, [Inferno].

  The entire space around her is suddenly alight in the glow of flames. The flames meet the pollen. A subsequent chain reaction of explosions fills the space around me, creating a red sea of flames.

  Fighting to breathe, I watch as the flames are snuffed out before they can reach me. Which is great, but I still can’t breathe. Black dots fill my vision as the sea of flames dissipates. As soon as they do, the vacuum around me collapses, followed by fresh air. Gasping for breath, I look around at the scorched landscape. Down on the ground, I find a badly burned Abigail trying to pull herself off the ground.

  “You’ll regret this,” she croaks out.

  “I’m done regretting.”

  I send a stray brick into her head using [Telekinesis], promptly knocking her out.