As Kaya and Ralph Eisen got into their duel, Aylin couldn't keep the smile off her face as she turned her eyes away from her downed brother to Marcus who, despite his agreement, still looked unsure.

Baler began to stir then, placing his hands against the ground to try and rise up but without sparing him a glance, Aylin clenched her fist and conjured a pillar of ice that descended to squash him into the ground.

"Arrghhh!" Baler cried out and then went limp.

"So," Aylin said to Marcus, "What are you going to do to me?"

Her perfect lips formed a smirk, and she wiggled her brows in a way that caused Marcus to shiver as tingles traveled down his spine and to every part of his body. Even to a specific part of his anatomy that he quickly had to tame.

The thought of spotting a hard-on while he had Recording Crystals trained on him and was probably being watched by more than half of the students at Lochxen, his Professors, and even his parents back home, helped him rein it in.

He gulped and then cleared his throat. He raised his hands and crystalline spell circles appeared around his wrists. The spell circles traveled down from his wrist to his forearms and then back up to his clenched fingers before crystals began to appear, creating gauntlets.

"Whoa, pretty," Aylin said still with a smirk but she meant it. The crystals that formed Marcus's gauntlets were like clear-cut gems. There were some impurities but they caught the light in a beautiful way.

Aylin observed the gauntlets for a while longer and then looked back up at Marcus's face,

"The Arognites," she said,

"Crystal Magic. Yet another synthesis of Earth Magic. Like your Metal Magic teammate.

Your family has dabbled in both Mage and Mage-Knight Practices. I see you favored the latter. Like my idiot brother there.

Then let's begin."

And begin they did.

Marcus had just raised his arms like a boxer ready to throw out jabs when Aylin was pointing her hand at him, creating a spell circle faster than his brain could follow to conjure a chilling attack he reacted to purely on instinct.

Marcus wasn't at all a terrible Mage-Knight in training. He was about as good as the others who took the class with him excluding the monster that was Cynthia Kragsten.

Still, maybe Aylin was going somewhat easy on him since she didn't feel as vindictive toward him as she felt toward her brother because he managed to deflect her attacks and get close to her and made a jab at her face.

Aylin dodged it with a smile.

"Impressive— Hmph!" She started to speak only to get shut up by a fist to her midsection.

She had sensed the attack coming. She had brought a movement spell to mind to get out of the way but had become far too sluggish in casting said spell.

'Wha-?' Aylin started to ask herself as she let the force of the punch send her sliding back. Confused about what was happening with her.

And then she realized.

She was running out of Mana.

Going all out against your mostly defenseless brother and then choosing to face off against his teammate right after without any rest had its consequences. Who knew?

Marcus followed up. Aylin erected a wall of ice. It was too thin and it was broken through with a single crystal-gauntlet blow, allowing Marcus to get close and hit her with a two-hit combo to her ribs that got him a win and earned him Combat Magic Points as well as stole him some of Aylin's 'Study of Magical Beasts Points' as per the rules.

The impact of his hits to her ribs caused Aylin's tits to wobble which is an incredible feat considering how snug her vest was against her body and it caught Marcus's attention, holding it long enough for Aylin to use most of what little Mana she had left to cast a movement spell and put distance between them.

Marcus shook off the hypnotic pull of large wobbling breasts and made to press on the attack when he heard plucking sounds. Like someone was playing a guitar in an upbeat tune.

Magical musical symbols appeared then, coming together to create fists that struck at Marcus in a mimicry of the combos he had thrown at Aylin.

Except, these fists were created with magic. Controlled with thoughts. They were weightless and moved at the speed of their caster's magic, thus, as quick as Marcus was to strike down one, the other two still hit him, sending him sliding away.

As he came to a stop, Marcus looked over at Eloise who was now stepping forward, one hand stretched out.

"You said you were staying out of it," Marcus said to her, indignant.

"Doesn't seem like I'm allowed to," Eloise said and gestured at the score screen where she was now at negative points.

Apparently, in a team duel, any loss in any matchup is considered a team loss so all team members suffer it.

Wins? Not so much.

Wins are only awarded to winners of matchups or in terms of participation.

Clearly, the scoring was calibrated as such to rid the team of bystanders.

Eloise let out a sigh.

"Believe me, I don't like this any more than you do," she said and looked at Aylin,

"May I?"

"Have at it," Aylin said with a smile and took a couple of steps back.

Marcus frowned, his eyes on Aylin's retreating self only for his sight to be blocked by Eloise's pretty face.

"Don't look at me like that," she said, "I mean, really, I should be your opponent. Everyone else on our teams already matched up."

"AH!" Marcus yelled then, not happy to have what looked like an impending victory get interrupted but eager not to lose his momentum any more than he already did.

Eloise opened her mouth and sang a tune that might as well have been a spell word because it called a spell circle into appearance to summon a ripple of Magical musical notes that spread wide, slamming into Marcus's approaching self.

He tried to sidestep but Eloise had kept that in mind in her casting, creating a wide range he couldn't possibly avoid unless he moved faster than her spell. Alas, at the moment, he couldn't.

If he couldn't outrun it, Marcus decided to fight it.

A crystalline spell circle appeared against his raised arms and took control of the crystals on his gauntlets, increasing the quantity and creating a massive shield that he stabbed into the ground to remain rooted.

Alas, Sound was far too powerful.

It pulsed right through the interlocking crystals, dismantling them so they shattered and went flying all about while the full might of the attack hit Marcus and sent him flying into a tree trunk.

He hit the tree, groaning at the pain and wondering how much worse it would be if he didn't have the protective vest.

That successful attack completed a trio of hits, earning Eloise her first win which was recorded and cleared her negative score while leaving nothing behind.

Marcus fell from the tree he had been slammed against and landed on his feet already with an attack prepared but when he tried to aim it, he realized Eloise was gone. Every semblance of her aura and presence seemed to have vanished.

"What the—?" He started to ask when space rippled a couple of meters to his side and Eloise reappeared.

Puzzled as to what level of invisibility she had possessed to erase her existence so efficiently, Marcus still tossed out his spell. Sending crystal blades at Eloise but she propelled herself to the side with a booming tune and promptly vanished again.

This time, she reappeared more quickly with a spell circle composed of Musical notes ready above her hand.

Marcus readied himself for defense only to hear a tune played right beneath him and he looked down to see she had cast a large spell circle there and he was then hit with a vibrating force that sent him rising ten feet in the air.

Eloise clenched her hand into a fist then and the spell circle she had created above her hand glowed brighter as a gigantic replica appeared above Marcus.

The gigantic spell circle conjured trumpets of musical notes that were blown in harmony, creating lances of joyful music. So joyful that Aylin began to tap her feet to the tune.

The joyfulness was juxtaposed by how viciously the lances came down to skewer Marcus who was still rising in the air, sending him slamming into the ground, hard enough to create a deep tremor.

Funny thing was;

That tremor added to and completed the harmony with a brilliant flourishing finish.

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