As is Friday

Sarean's class was kinda interesting but it was mostly going over what you learned about belief and how it impacts magic. No new revelation or further explanation of magical development. As you are making notes you wonder if Sarean has talking to Clare yet. Clare's interests were almost exclusively of the smutty varity but she had talked about this worlds magic and her learning it with some passion. Actually might be why they haven't talked, if they did you might not find them for a few weeks, just room filled with Clare's cum and Sarean's ... sap, pollen, who knows.

By the time that Stephanie's class comes around you are intensely curious what the theme of the duels will be. She'd been doing personal instructions only five of the ten of you so far. Mary had told you that you won't be joining her at the muster grounds, probably a good thing to be honest, you didn't have sex yesterday to focus on your imbuing and trying to figure out the range without cooking anyone or thing. Not a whole lot of success there, your stump seemed unaffected by the radiation which you really hoped meant you were immune to your own imbument and not that the radiation had no affect on a champion who can heal as fast as you can.

When you left the grounds Mary was looking distinctly unsatisfied, as were a few of the soldiers you passed on they way out. Every single one of them, the moment they saw you tensed to try and tackle you and claim the prize, if Green hadn't walked you out you are pretty sure you would have been dragging at least a dozen soldiers behind you as they tried to bring you down.

"Class." Stephanie said as she walked into the arena. Behind her a collection of sticks about twice the width of your palm were being carried. You check the magic but couldn't see any so it wasn't like the enchanted pain sticks from weeks ago. "Grab a stick if you are an even number."

The audience looked confused and you saw Cynthia hesitating as a few students waited for her to open the betting. Stephanie's students didn't both with confusion, after the Firestones you think everyone is much more confident in grabbing things that won't be blowing up. As the even numbers grabbed their sticks, you try to figure out what the game is today, silently hope it's not about imbuing an improvised weapon. If it is that something not blowing up was going to be a short lived confidence boost.

"Today you will duel in pairs." Stephanie said flatly. "If you have a stick put it in your right hand, if you are on the right of someone who has a stick take it in your left." Down the line people grab sticks.

Ana and Vatarie, Asune and Nika. You can feel the deep discomfort coming two of the four. Vatarie won't have anywhere near as much maneuverability as she is used to, Nika has to be close to Asune while she fights with her wires. You feel bad for Nika, fingers crossed Asune still wants to impressive you with her empathy and won't consider Nika collateral damage to reclaiming her place as second in class.

"If your stick is destroyed or you take your hand off it you both lose. There is no yielding." She walked down to Nine and Eight. "You must challenge at least once." You could feel Nika wince at that. "And you can challenge anyone."

Nine and Eight did the smart thing and challenged Seven and Six. The four walked into the arena only armed with the stick between each pair. Either Stephanie wanted a magic only fight, or she knew if she let people have sword there is no way Nika wasn't become collateral or at least a human shield. Asune might be trying to impress with her empathy but she still really likes winning and pain.

The two pairs had a moment to quietly chat and plan. Cynthia took the extra time to rapidly scribble notes and hand them out. You were curious what the odds were, she'd been a every single practice session since that first day and she didn't have the gulf between herself and everyone else that you did so she probably had a much better understanding of everyone's skill levels.

"Begin." Stephanie said the word and a small explosion of wild knocked everyone in the stands backwards. Nine and Eight had apparently settled on a knock the other side down. You saw a few scraps of paper being blown out of hands and Cynthia being accosted for replacements.

Seven and Six withstood the blast by crouching down to reduce the effect of the wind. Possibly the only time that has ever been a good idea in one of Stephanie's classes since they won't be getting jumped by an enemy with a sword.

The blast wasn't slowing however, and Nine and Eight were advancing. Their magic was working in impressive cohesion, though you hadn't seen people using magic offensively as a team before. The closest you'd come had been when they all decided to defend you against Mary's Personal Guard, and that was basically just layered shields.

While you watched you heard hushed chatting from down the line of students. In the wind it was hard to make out any words the two teams were strategizing pretty intensely.

Seven and Six made their move when Nine and Eight were a little out of arms reach. Instead of trying to fight the wind blasting them with their own they'd sent their magic down. Pulling sand down creating a small patch of quicksand that Nine stepped into. She tripped and fell face first but Eight didn't let go of the stick, only just keeping her from falling into sand.

Seven and Six grabbed Nine under hand arms and pulled. The wind magic was stopped which was good becasue the sand was starting to get hard to see through. Eight grabbed Nine's wrist with the hand not holding the stick and tried to stop her from being pulled out of her grasp.

What had been a magic fight was now a tug of war with Nine and the rope. Nine tried to use magic to knock Seven and Six away. It wasn't going to work the two were holding her firmly enough that trying to dislodge them was actually helping them, giving them more momentum to try and pull Nine free of Eight's grasp.

It wouldn't last much longer as you could see the stick slipped from Nine's hand.

"OW WHAT THE FUCK!" Seven shout, her right hand was no longer holding the stick. "You bit me." She accused as Stephanie called an end to the duel. "She bit me." Seven said to her partner who shook her head in disappointment.

"Swap stones." Stephanie said to the four of them. Stones were swapped though reluctantly as yet more accusation of biting kept going. Honestly it was a good thought to have. Nine had no chance of getting out of that, she and Eight were going to loose because she wasn't watching were she was walking. If Seven was going to put the win condition in munching range taking advantage makes up for the blunder. "Who will you challenge?" Stephanie asked the losing pair.

The four of them looked at each other. "Them." The new Eight said pointing at the new Seven and Six.

Seven and Six looked really disappointed all of sudden. They weren't exhausted but they had used more magic than their opponents so attrition was against them in another magical fight. They retook their position and Stephanie gave them a moment to plan before starting the fight.

This time there was no magical open salvo, the new Seven and Six just charged in and jumped on the previous winners hoping to pull the apart. It was effective in the sense that it surprised the new Nine and Eight before they had a chance to make more quick sand. It was less effective in that they hadn't thought about how to pull the two apart. Instead of grabbing one together they grabbed one each.

Almost as one both pairs noticed that both of their stick were right next to each other and it was impossible to pull the others apart without also letting go of your own stick. The pause lasted for a few seconds as everyone tried to think of how to get out of this without letting go of their stick or giving the other a chance to make them let go. The new Seven decided that if it worked once it would work again and she leaned down to try and gnaw on an arm, possible even planning on gnawing it off.

Instead of success it earned a knuckle sandwich. "Fuck you." The deliverer of the sandwich said. From there things descended into less a dignified duel between nobles and more a wrestling match with the only rule being don't let go of your stick.

It got increasingly violence as punches and knees went from being aimed at the arm that needed to be taken out, and more at where might make that arm release. You throw a glance over at Asune and see her aura getting a little excited watching the violence. Nika was getting even more nervous.

Eventually someone figures out that fire beats wood and there is a flash as a fireball engulfs a set of hand, a second one joining shortly afterwards. There is a refusal to let go of the burning wood but hands are pulled away exposing a bit of Seven and Six's stick. A punch from Eight takes that opening and snaps their opponents stick. The moment it doe the fire is extinguished and all parties roll away to focus on heal the burns.

When hands are recovered stone are swapped back to their original owner. Stephanie walks over to Nika and Asune as the four women return to their places all looking less happy with the wins than usual.