Dueling: New Challenges

As you looked over your uniform once more you nervously tried and failed to tie your tie. You had a dueling tournament match now with Hokkaido Academy you were supposed to represent Ash Forest Academy and despite Pierce reassuring you that you would do fine you still felt nervous as the rules had been changed.

First they had now allowed signature spell cards which hadn’t been allowed for years. Secondly they had expanded the arena from the length of one football field to that of three football fields. While that gave you a lot of breathing room for your necromancy spells you had brushed up on your other magic just in case you came across someone specialized in countering your necromancy spells as you had become pretty dependent on them. Finally they had removed the spell dampeners now making all of the spells much nastier meaning burns, cuts, electrocution and other horrible features were more painful and likely.

As you struggled to get ready soon Harmony stepped forward with little Anthony in her arms before she placed him into your arms and spoke. “Stand still for a moment let me take a look.” she said taking your tie into her hands. You nodded remaining as still as you could while little Anthony looked up at you his brown and blue eyes locked onto your blue and green eyes.

“There now show them why the BlackThorn family shouldn’t be messed with!” Harmony said kissing you briefly before taking Anthony back from your arms. You only nodded donning your rifle, sidearm and wand before leaving the locker room.

Stepping onto the arena grounds you could hear the roar of students as your opponent also stepped forward looking around you saw Harmony and Anthony seated in one of the many private boxes of the arena with Pinkerton Agents vigilantly keeping watch.

Standing across from stood a student of Asian descent by the looks of it clad in what appeared to be Samurai armor? Unlike any of the students you had faced before you saw he carried no wand however he did rest his hand on what appeared to be a sheathed blade. However it was his eyes that caught your attention as they appeared to be grey and foggy if you were correct it appeared he was blind!

Being cocky had led to the downfall of some of your fellow students especially the rich ones you weren’t about to fail now you thought to yourself as you and the other student walked to the center of the arena.

Soon the two of you stood across from other his eyes looking in his general direction for before he spoke. “May you bring honor to your ancestors Nathaniel BlackThorn.” The student said bowing to you.

Awkwardly you nodded before replying. “May the best duelist win.” You said before attempting to bow much in the same manner as he did.” In response your opponent only nodded. As the two of you began the walk back you cursed yourself for listening to Harmony’s lecture about Asian Customs now you looked like an idiot.

As you stood on your side of the arena you drew your lever action inspecting the grey **** wood it was made of before twirling the rifle in your fingers in anticipation as you waited for the official to signal the start while your opponent only stood hand on what appeared to be his blade.

The flag flew and with a loud whistle the match was on. You smiled as you recalled the little gun trick your buddy Pierce had shown you with the lever action you had before you took a handful of bullets and tossed them into the air twirling the rifle in your hands you used the open receiver to catch the five bullets quickly firing five fireballs at your opponent with a twirl of your lever action as you waited.

Your opponent on the other hand only stood his ground hand still on his blade as the fireballs approached him. Then in a flash of white faster then you could see the five fireballs were sliced in half and headed towards you were three water magical blades. Acting quickly you rolled out of the way before seeing your opponent slammed a paper tag onto the arena floor.

Quickly his side of the arena began to grow large bamboo stalks quickly concealing him much to your dismay before you heard his voice echo throughout the arena. “Honor demands your blood what will do now Nathanial BlackThorn?” You heard his voice echo all around you.

You smiled drawing your wand and summoning a small flame onto the tip of your wand before replying. “No disrespect to your culture but honor’s overrated.” You said before lacing your lungs with wind magic. You released your breath blowing the small flame into a makeshift inferno as the green flames began melting the bamboo stalks much to your satisfaction.

However you heard footsteps before stopping the spewing of flames as you looked behind you to see your opponent blade drawn a few feet behind you. Eyes wide you drew your rifle only to be disarmed before narrowly dodging another slash from his blade. You tried drawing forth your wand only for it to be cut in half leaving on your sidearm and whatever magic you could use with hand magic.

“What will you do now Nathanial?” Your opponent said as he stood a few feet from your blade poised to strike. You contemplated your next move before drawing your colt M1911 and slowly backing up. “Well as much as I would love to enjoy your company close combat is not how I roll you.” said before whistling.

Soon Nook began caw as he flew down to you before you were engulfed in a flock of crows and disappeared from sight. You could see your opponent remain still before he spoke. “Well played Nathanial however the battle is not over just yet.” He said before sheathing the blade and walking towards the bamboo forest you were now watching him from.

You quickly and quietly contemplated your options obviously he was well aware of his surroundings based on the fact that he could easily find you and he was a close range fighter relying on his environment perhaps you could slow him down? Yes! Thats its you thought as you drew forth of your spell cards you smiled disappearing into a flock of crows once more before standing on your side if the arena.

Burning the spell card soon your half of the arena became covered in relatively flat rolling tundra plains similar to that of Russia. However as your side of the arena began to finish shifting you could hear the sounds of yelling before blue apparitions of Imperial Japanese soldier began charging your position. Based on the fact that they weren’t ghostly green but instead blue it was clear that he was using summoning magic to summon or channel something perhaps his ancestral line? He did mention them briefly earlier.

Using one of your hands you concentrated focusing as much as you could drawing forth your necrotic magic before ghost green Union soldiers appeared in marching order. Already you could hear orders being barked out by ghost green Union officers as blue Imperial Japanese infantry charged your position.

“MAKE READY...AIM...FIRE!” You heard as the sounds of muskets began to fire, their volleys of lead onto the charging Japanese the sound of muskets firing could heard before a large plume of grey smoke covered the battlefield as now cannons and other weapons of war were joining the fight. The sound of marching could be heard as more and more Union troops streamed onto the battlefield in droves their numbers growing by the minute.

However a white flash appeared popping into the sky and like that your ghost army disappeared as blue Imperial Japanese troopers neared your position. Taking a deep breath you formed a ring with your hand before blowing releasing a giant stream of green flame engulfing your opponent’s army. After burning a circle of fire around you however you clasped your hands channeling wind magic before expanding your will through the wind. The scorching green flames expanded with it encircling you and expanding as you focused the fires to spread onto the arena around you.

You looked closed your eyes as you exerted your mana to its limits having burned through a lot of mana before you opened your eyes and looked to your right. There in the box sat your loving wife and son with Harmony’s ever present smile on her face as little Anthony laughed clapping his hands. You were battered and bruised but you didn’t hear no bell.

Closing your eyes you clapped your hands before moving one of them to your vest pocket and clicked your pocket watch once. Then everything stopped and taking a deep breath you snapped your pocket watch open turning the dial before clicking the watch once more. Either this would work or you would fall here and now finally you clicked your watch once more before time resumed.

You held your ground before the arena went silent as a large turquoise portal opened up high in the sky behind you before the USS Enterprise slowly emerged from it in full combat glory unlike your necrotic spells however the sailors were as alive as they had been and the ship was on full alert with blue hell cat fighter planes and dauntless dive bombers taking off the carrier’s deck as her anti-air and secondary batteries began to rotate to engage the blue imperial Japanese.

You sighed in relief as you watched another white flare of magic fire into the sky popping to no affect as this wasn’t necromancy. You sat back satisfied as squadrons of hell cats and dauntless dive bombers raised the bamboo forest where your opponent resided before the whole forest was set ablaze.

You watched your opponent stumble out of the forest before he stabbed his sword into the ground and a blue apparition of the battleship Yamato began to emerge from him. Moving quickly you clicked your pocket watch once before another portal opened up as the USS Missouri slowly emerged from the portal alarms blaring as it rotated its main batteries to engage the Yamato while the Enterprise’s air squadrons began attacking the Yamato as fighter planes, torpedo and dive bombers alongside fire support from the USS Missouri laid waste to the ghost blue Yamato.

For several minutes the crowds of the arena went silent as the naval battle unravelled with the USS Missouri trading volley after with the IJN Yamato combined with the massive flak barrage the Yamato deployed in a futile attempt to deter the Hellcats and Dauntless diver bombers.

The sounds of blaring alarms and gunfire dominated the arena as you watched on hoping that you done enough to secure victory. Then a hit as several Dauntless Dive bombers released their payload scoring a direct hit. Hellcat soon followed strafing the deck with machine gun fire as a large explosion rang out in a bright blue display of colors. It appeared that the USS Missouri as managed to penetrate one of the opening the bomb had left behind detonating the Yamato’s magazine.

You looked back to see the sword your opponent wield shattered as the Yamato exploded and began disappear into dust. All the while the USS Enterprise, USS Missouri and the air squadrons set sail at flanking speed before disappearing into more turquoise portals.

As the smoke cleared you saw your opponent on the ground **** his sword shattered and in pieces obviously he had overextended himself and had channeled too much mana into the sword exhausting himself and destroying his sword in the process.