Duelcrest Academy

“Shit!”

I tried with all my might to pull my hand away from the ceiling, but the force crushing me against it was far too strong.

"It almost feels like... the effect of Gravity Surge but in reverse!"

Meanwhile, the stone floor beneath us began to swell, as if a huge leak underneath it was trying to rise to the surface.

"Think Elizabeth... think...!"

Luckily my wand was still in my right hand.

"If it's like that spell, then..."

«Gravity surge!»

My spell countered the force pulling us towards the ceiling and we descended, remaining suspended in mid-air.

«Let's go!»

I increased the gravity in the room even more and managed to make us touch the ground. The floor was now full of cracks and I almost tripped over one.

We immediately sprinted towards the right wall of the room. Sophia cleared a path for us with her sword and we barely made it through the hole when the floor behind us lifted completely and crashed violently into the ceiling. For good measure, we ran through a few more rooms before stopping.

«Th-that... w-was way too close,» I said, panting.

A moment's hesitation and we would have turned to mush.

«What the hell is going on? Every bloody student seems to know that spell by now. I thought it was hard to cast,» Sophia blurted out, panting as well.

«I don't think it was Gravity Surge this time. As the name implies, the spell works by increasing the force of gravity. In this case it was reversed, like it was pushing us off the ground!»

«We don't have time for a physics lesson! Are you saying it's another innate power?»

«Probably... but you're right, we don't have time. We have to face them, we can't keep running away.»

«But we don't even know where they are!»

«I have an idea.»

Even if we were talking about innate powers and not spells, their range could not be infinite.

Besides, if they had targeted the very room we were in, it meant they were keeping an eye on us.

"So..."

I placed my hand on one of the walls of the room and concentrated, expanding my mana. The flow I created passed through the stone without any difficulty.

I tried to keep the feeling I was experiencing in my mind.

"Okay...and now..."

Careful not to be seen from outside the room, I approached the open door and barely leaned out, pointing my wand towards the corridor.

The flow of mana I generated this time was much more powerful and I tried to spread it as far as I could, probing both sides of the hallway.

After a few seconds, I felt my mana collide with something of a different consistency than mere stone.

"Gotcha!"

Coming out into the open, I pointed my wand at a specific section of the wall and shouted:

«Flare!»

The surface of the wall exploded, revealing an empty space behind it from which two figures tumbled down onto the floor.

Despite the cloud of dust created by my spell, I saw that they were already getting up.

Sophia jumped out of the room and rushed towards them.

«Amy, wait here!»

I didn't wait for her answer and ran in that direction as well.

Sophia was almost on top of her when she was thrown backwards and slammed into the opposite wall. A stone spike began to form in the ceiling above her.

«Fireball!» I shouted, aiming halfway between our two opponents, a short red-haired boy and a girl with long brown hair.

The ground rose in front of them, forming a barrier that blocked my spell.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the stone spike above Sophia had stopped moving.

"It seems that whoever controls stone between them cannot activate their power in two spots at once."

We were halfway down the corridor.

Our two attackers had separated after my spell, the girl was on my left, one hand outstretched in front of her in Sophia's direction, her wand in the other.

"She must be the one pinning her to the wall... As I thought it has nothing to do with gravity."

I threw a Fireball in her direction with my left hand, while attacking the boy on my right with my wand:

"Water cannon!"

A powerful jet of water roared in his direction, but the ground rose in front of him, shielding him.

"Unless they are trying to trick me, he must be the stone-shaper."

Meanwhile, the girl had blocked my spell with a water shield and was slowly approaching Sophia.

The latter seemed to be doing everything she could to resist the invisible force holding her against the wall.

A vein pulsed in her temple and I could see tears of frustration in her eyes. Lately it seemed she was destined to be powerless in any confrontation we had...

"But I will protect her."

I continued to throw fire darts at the female student, trying to stop her from moving, while amplifying the water jet as much as I could.

The stone barrier protecting the boy began to crack, but I soon realised it was useless. Every time it came close to breaking, other stone would rise to reinforce it.

"Fuck... of course we have to fight this guy in a fucking stone building!"

The guy had an almost infinite supply of materials for his power.

Suddenly I saw something moving down the corridor to my right.

«Fireball!»

I was just in time to summon a water shield to block the attack coming from around the corner.

My heart sank.

"How could I forget... There were three of them following us!"

More spells were being cast from around the corner, forcing me to doublecast to defend myself while maintaining Water Cannon active.

Now that she no longer had to fend off my attacks, I saw the girl on my left point her wand at Sophia, now completely helpless, her trembling hands still anchored to the wall, making it impossible for her to deflect the spell.

«Fireball!»

«Water shield!»

The spell vanished before it reached her.

"... Amy!"

My friend was leaning out of the door of a room further down the corridor, her wand pointed at the girl holding Sophia down.

"Good thing she didn't listen to me... I'll have to apologise to her later!"

But we hadn't won yet; even if Amy had taken my place to protect Sophia, I still had to find a way to get rid of the opponent in front of me.

As if he had read my mind, the boy suddenly jumped to his right.

"FUCK!"

My Water Cannon finally managed to pierce his stone shield, but crashed into the wall, missing the boy. The stone spike that had formed in the ceiling above Sophia began to shake again.

Meanwhile, a Fireball was whizzing towards me from around the corner.

I only had a second to think.

Completely ignoring the attack that was about to hit me, I focused everything I had into a single spell.

«Water Cannon!» I shouted again.

The red-haired boy in front of me tried to protect himself by raising the floor as a shield again.

This time though, since I was no longer splitting my mana, the jet of water was so powerful that it instantly shattered the barrier.

The boy was lifted and sent crashing into the wall behind him, sliding to the floor unconscious, leaving behind a trail of blood.

«Water sh-»

But it was too late.

I had just time to catch sight of a blinding light to my right. I heard a deafening boom as I was sent flying.

«ELIZABETH!»

Sophia's scream seemed to come from very far away. My ears were ringing and the right side of my body felt like it was on fire.

I steeled myself and tried to stand, but my legs didn't seem to want to move.

I managed to lift my head, which was still spinning.

The explosion had sent me flying next to Sophia, who was looking at me with a terrified expression.

"It's ok... now that the stone shaper is out of the game, we can win without a problem - OH NO!"

I had just realised that I was no longer holding my wand.

"It must have slipped out of my hand when I was hit by the Fireball!"

I looked up to see the brown-haired girl pointing her wand at me:

«Fireball!»

I raised my hand and shouted again:

«Water shield!»

My wandless barrier was just enough to negate the spell.

But another one came my way immediately.

«Water shield!»

This time it was Amy who protected me.

"But... this situation... we're screwed!"

Meanwhile, our two opponents were approaching.

The girl was slowly walking towards Sophia, while our other mysterious enemy had finally made himself visible. A thin boy was now running down the corridor in our direction, continuing to cast spells.

"I don't have the strength to stop a physical attack right now, if they reach us, we really are screwed!"

It was a hopeless situation.

There was only one thing that could save us. And just then a voice echoed out:

«The examiner is now in action, 37 students remaining...»

"It's over... still 12 more people to go before this massacre is over."

I tried desperately to doublecast some offensive spells to stop the girl who was inexorably approaching Sophia.

She stopped to defend herself. But it was no use... her ally was now only a few metres away.

I saw him draw his sword, raise it above his head...

As the boy passed the door to a nearby room, something lit up.

"What...?"

An explosion suddenly went off, hitting our opponent and sending him flying legs first.

«Fireball!»

I heard Amy yell behind me.

The brown-haired girl conjured up a shield. But I didn't miss my chance.

«Lightning Bolt!»

My weak electric jolt seemed to do little damage to her.

The girl, seemingly impatient, drew her sword and threw herself at me, her hand still pointing at Sophia...

Sophia, however, seemed to have finally managed to pull an arm away from the wall and was holding it in front of her, as if in some strange meditation position.

Even as the steel blade fell upon me, I couldn't take my eyes off my girlfriend.

Her expression was calm and focused.

And suddenly her hand came down and...

She disappeared.

It only took the blink of an eye.

Sophia was no longer pinned to the wall.

She was behind my attacker, her hand protruding from her chest.

The hot blood of our opponent poured over me as her now lifeless body slid over me.

Soon, however, her corpse was lifted and I found myself face to face with Sophia and Amy, who were looking at me worriedly.

«Lizzie! My goodness, your side!»

I lowered my eyes, only to raise them again in disgust at the sight of the blisters that had formed on my skin.

«Let's get you to a bed,» Sophia said.

«NO!» I yelled, «help me get up, Aldric has started to move... we have to get away from him.»

«But...»

«No buts, it hurts like hell, but I'll survive.»

I bit my tongue as my two friends grabbed my arms.

But suddenly I felt the person supporting me on my right loosen her grip.

«Huh? Sophia? SOPHIA?!»

I saw her fall backwards, but I didn't have the strength to support her. We both fell, but luckily Amy managed to support us at the last moment, preventing us from hitting our heads.

«SOPHIA?! What's wrong?!»

I put my hand to her cheek. Her face was extremely pale. The girl opened her eyes weakly and looked at me as if to apologise:

«It... it seems my body didn't like the way I used my pow-»

Her voice was cut off by a loud coughing fit.

I watched in horror as blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

'...'

My head began to spin and I felt a growing sense of nausea.

"This is a nightmare... it must be a nightmare."

A hand rested on my shoulder, gently pushing me away.

Amy slipped an arm around Sophia's back and lifted her up with great difficulty.

«Amy...»

«I'm sorry but you're going to have to get up on your own Lizzie, I'm not strong enough to lift both of you...»

I nodded.

The pain was so bad I wanted to scream, but eventually I stood up, my legs shaking.

«Come on, let's get her to the bed... right now all we can do is hope that no one comes through here before the end,» Amy said, taking charge.

Slowly, supporting a now unconscious Sophia, she made her way to the nearest door.

I limped after her.

As I recovered my wand from the ground, my gaze stopped on our third opponent, who had been hit by an explosion whose cause I didn't know.

«Amy... that guy... was it you who...»

«Ugh... yes, when you told me to stay put, I took the opportunity to place magic seals in the doors to the rooms I could reach thanks to the gaps Sophia had created,» Amy replied, laying the

latter down on the bed, «I thought it would be useful if someone else came to attack us.»

«You're brilliant... sorry I treated you like you were useless... you saved us both.»

Amy huffed:

«What are you talking about... it's because you forced me to stay hidden that I was able to help you. You know, Celeste once told me: "People like you can't win in an honourable duel, the only way to fight is to play dirty".»

Amy sat down in a chair, exhausted.

With all the strength I had in my legs, I approached Sophia's bedside.

«I think she's just fainted,» Amy said.

Indeed, her pulse seemed normal and her breathing was regular.

"What the hell did you do Sophia... After you told me not to do anything stupid!"

I ran a hand through her hair.

Maybe that was the first moment I really realised that Sophia wasn't actually immortal.

"Please... if there is any kind of god out there... let this battle end quickly..."

The minutes passed.

An explosion in the distance.

Screams.

Every moment I prayed it would be the end of this nerve-wracking wait.

But the magical voice did not speak.

On the contrary, a particularly close explosion sent my heart into my throat.

I approached the door with trembling steps.

I saw a shadow stretching across the corridor.

"N-no no no... why... WHY?!"

A towering figure entered my vision.

Its black robe was stained red with its victims' blood.

I pressed myself against the wall before he could notice me.

But the thud of his heavy footsteps was a melody that sounded the end of the sweet dream I had been living these past weeks.

No god would come to save us.