Nick hadn’t expected to meet many people on his way to the dueling rooms. It was still early morning on a rest day, which meant few would be out and about, and even fewer people would be interested in physical exercises.

He hadn’t expected they wouldn’t encounter anyone at all. The hallways were completely empty, almost as if they had been declared off-limits.

Would Archmage Hone be so petty as to arrange all this? Stupid question; of course he is. His son might not have inherited his skill with magic, but it’s clear that this small-mindedness is genetic.

A quick check with his empathic sense told him that the two older apprentices seemed determined to beat the stuffing out of him, and didn’t particularly care whether they would have to go through Eona and Bellamy to do so.

As far as he could tell, his opponents hovered around level fifty, maybe a bit higher, which was a respectable achievement that ranked them in the top half of non-masters in the Tower and would qualify them as elites outside of it.

Nick had recently reached level sixty, and he was well aware that his broad range of affinities and unique skills allowed him to hit above his weight class.

Neither of his friends would stand much chance against them, especially if, as he suspected, they had outside help to ensure a win. However, with Bellamy being part of the ducal family and Eona coming from a respected knightly family, they would make excellent witnesses if things escalated into accusations of foul play.

You can never go wrong being too careful.

“Get in,” the blonde mage grunted, placing his hand on the crystal outside the dueling room and claiming it for the next while.

Nick did as bidden, maintaining a thin smile he knew was especially infuriating. Emotional sensing is useful for more than just understanding people’s intentions. I have become a master at rage-baiting over time, sharpening my craft to be as irritating as possible.

Once everyone was inside the fairly plain room, whose only really interesting feature was the series of defensive glyphs on the walls and the spectators’ stand, along with the stronger presence of the Tower’s wards that would prevent accidental deaths, Nick took a moment to stretch, making a show of getting ready. “Alright, how do we want to do this? I can take you both at once, or if you want to test me out first, I can take the weakling first.”

He intentionally didn’t specify who he was talking about, mainly because he didn’t believe either of the two was noticeably stronger than the other, but the deep-rooted insecurity he felt within the larger mage made him immediately assume it was him.

“Who the fuck do you think you are, huh?!” he growled, taking a threatening step toward Nick, only to be stopped by his companion.

“Warren, we must do this properly. You can crush him all you like, but follow the instructions.”

With one last nasty look in Nick’s direction, Warren turned around and stomped to the other end of the dueling chamber, where lines carved in the stone marked the spots each participant had to stand on. “I’m going to enjoy this. Terry, I apologize, but you might not get a turn.”

“Now wait a minute,” Eona interrupted. “We said we wouldn’t let you bully Nick into anything, and we mean it. Why would he want to duel with you when you so clearly have no intention of holding back despite being much older than us?”

“You don’t have a choice,” Terry shot back with a darkly amused grin. “You all stepped into a dueling chamber out of your own free will, as registered by the crystal outside. We’re only going to follow the rules of courtesy because it keeps things clean, but if you make it too tough for us, that’s off the table. And you don’t want that to happen, trust me.”

His piece said he planted himself in front of the exit, making it clear he had no intention of letting them out without a fight.

With a sigh, Nick shook his head and moved toward the empty spot on the other side of the dueling platform. “It’s fine, guys. If they want to face me one by one, it will just make things easier for me. I need to warm up before the main event anyway, so the big guy is doing me a favor, really.”

The gnashing of teeth on the other side of the room was clearly audible to everyone, and if Nick had been an average first-year, he was sure it would have sealed his fate.

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He wasn’t, though, so he just smiled in amusement.

“The duel will end when one of the two participants cannot go on anymore. Now get ready,” Terry said authoritatively, waving his hand and causing a shimmer to fall between the two duelists and everyone else.

For a moment, Nick worried he might attack his classmates, but the man leaned back against the door, watching him expectantly.

That was when he sensed a large buildup of mana and had to stop messing around.

Warren, his large opponent, had about average reserves for his estimated level, but surprisingly, he seemed capable of bringing a good portion of it to bear at once.

That wasn’t a skill often seen, since mages below Prestige usually were more conservative with their pools, because once they were used up, there wouldn't be much they could do to defend.

Clearly, Warren didn’t think he’d last that long or believed he could take him in a melee fight if it came to that.

Given his sheer size, Nick wasn’t sure it wasn’t realistic, but he had no intention of finding out.

Then, ice spread all around him, dropping the temperatures well below zero and forcing him to float off the ground lest he slip and fall into an undignified heap.

Ah, I see. The first major spell completely controls the battlefield and makes summoning most other elements more difficult.

Blocks of ice now sat between the two of them, while a thin, but growing sheet covered the floor, and snowflakes filled the air. It was a remarkably quick and effective act of weather manipulation, though on a relatively small scale.

Then again, not everyone has the benefit of [Parsimonia] on their side. I’ve gotten used to getting the most effect for my mana, but most mages face efficiency issues with every new spell they learn.

For a moment, Nick considered taking the bait and challenging Warren’s control of the battlefield. He had a habit of doing that himself, and several of his spells could easily turn this into a stamina contest he knew he would win, but it would take too long, and he had another fight ahead.

“[Thunderbolt],” he called lazily, using the many crystallized snowflakes hanging in the air to aim a powerful bolt straight at his opponent.

Warren seemingly had been waiting for that, because the moment Nick lifted his hand, he was engulfed in a thick layer of ice as the two massive blocks around him closed in to form a shield.

The subsequent explosion sent smaller shards flying in all directions, which then accelerated and converged on Nick like a swarm of angry insects.

[Crest of the Thunderbird] materialized around him, absorbing the hits effortlessly, but Nick kept his guard up, as he could sense a surge of excitement in his opponent the moment its golden glow appeared.

Did they review my duels during Lasazar’s tournament? I suppose that makes sense, since they know I’m capable of defeating multiple older apprentices on my own, but that means the Archmage must be heavily involved in this. I doubt these two have access to that kind of information on their own.

Nick was sure the wards recorded everything in the Tower's public areas, but that information was probably protected by multiple layers of encryption and authority, meaning no mere apprentice could access it.

Yet, Warren had been clearly waiting for his shield spell to appear, and the reason why was quickly revealed.

More mana than had been used even in the initial battlefield control spell flowed through the large man, but instead of going into a spell, it all poured into an artifact he summoned from a spatial pouch.

That might be a problem, Nick admitted to himself, feeling the cold grow so intense it made even mana want to freeze.

It was something he had encountered only once before, when he had witnessed the last dregs of his father’s fight with the ice elemental, but to believe that a middle-level mage like Warren could replicate the majesty of a Prestige creature…

Even though he was within the shield, his breath started to fog, and he realized waiting it out would only make things worse. The artifact Warren used had stabilized, and the larger man seemed completely comfortable in these conditions, while Nick felt mana draining from him to combat the cold.

He must realize I can't afford to remain still, which means he anticipates a sudden, explosive attack to finish the duel quickly. He really did his homework, huh?

That would be the obvious choice, and Nick was tempted to take it, even though he knew it was what his opponent wanted him to do. He definitely felt enough resentment to fuel a [Spirit Crunch], which would ignore the ice barrier and directly attack Warren’s soul. However, beyond the mortal effects this would cause—escalating the conflict into a full-blown blood feud—he was pretty sure the other had something else hidden in reserve.

Thinking back to what these two knew about him, Nick concluded that they were waiting for him to try to solve the problem with brute force.

He was known to have overpowered even Emile, the top second-year student. For someone like him, it was only natural to use his greater reserves when his back was against the wall.

Fortunately, Nick wasn’t so limited in what he could do. He had more subtle weapons in his arsenal, especially ones capable of handling area effects like this.

Without further hesitation, he clapped his hands together, the sound ringing strangely, as if the air couldn’t bear the full weight of the noise.

[Territory] took shape smoothly, spreading beyond the boundary of [Crest of the Thunderbird] and encroaching into the area affected by the artifact Warren was using. The distortion it caused was barely noticeable, but Nick sensed a flash of surprise from the spectators, indicating that at least one of them recognized what he had done.

“Begone,” he said, and so it was.

The mana that had been constantly pressing against him, trying to freeze him solid, suddenly no longer obeyed its master.

After all, there was nothing unique about the type of mana being used. It was simply ice-aspected—something he had seen at much higher levels—and it couldn’t exist within his [Territory] unless he allowed it.

“What?!” he heard from the peanut gallery, but paid it no mind. This was a spell he was still working on to perfect, and any loss of concentration here would mean it failing on him.

Fortunately for him, Warren could no longer control the artifact with the same intensity, having spent most of his energy activating it, and so he could do nothing but watch as the ice he’d worked so hard to create melted away, and the temperature started to rise, until it leveled off at a comfortable level.

Nick could see the moment he realized he’d lost in his eyes, but he didn’t let him take the coward’s way out. If he felt confident enough to challenge him to a duel where one could only get out by being incapacitated, he should face the consequences of that.

The next [Thunderbolt] easily pierced the flimsy shield Warren threw up, slamming him against the far wall and leaving him a twitching mess.

“Next!”