Master vs Apprentice
Mizuki rose from the chair and slowly walked towards the barrier around the sparring area. The robes were heavy and the gold of the armour and chest pieces glimmered in the sun. They made her feel like a court mage, someone of importance. Camélia stood proudly at the other side of the area clad in the forum’s robes.
“The duel between Mizuki Motte and Professor Camélia will commence,” announced Vauquelin.
Mizuki took a deep breath, readying her staff. She had often thought about how to best sages. Nouliths utilised offensive and defensive spells in tandem. Their shields were hard to break, but in her studying of the sage arts, she thought of the easiest ways to best them in a fight- just hypothetically.
amélia extended her hand, controlling the aether around the nouliths spurring them into life and floated around her, but Mizuki wasted no time in using the aether manipulation spell, and in a flurry of blue aether hurtled towards Camélia before she could react. She appeared just to the left of her, swinging her staff into each of the floating nouliths, using a skill she had picked up from Estinien’s rather brief lance training. Camélia aimed the nouliths at Mizuki as she vanished back to where she had started.
“What terrible form! I certainly didn’t teach you that” she lifted her hand to direct the nouliths back at Mizuki but the sound of crackling lightning filled the air As a purple glow engulfed the nouliths one by one and they fell to the floor with a thud.
Camélia frantically tried to spur life into the nouliths but they refused to move. “What underhanded trick is this?”
“Simply a matter of overpowering your aether,” Mizuki explained briefly, holding her staff before her as a magick sigil appeared beneath her feet. “You might remember this spell Master, you saw it all those years ago.” Mizuki held her staff up, her eyes shone brightly and the skies darkened.
An explosion echoed around them, the ground trembling from the roaring flames. When the fire and smoke cleared, Camélia had managed to spur two of the nouliths to life and had conjured a barrier strong enough to withstand the blast, but as she lifted her arm to point the nouliths in Mizuki’s direction they exploded, falling to the ground in pieces.
“The duel goes to Mistress Mizuki,” announced Vauquelin, and the barrier protecting the bystanders fell, signalling that the duel was officially over.
Snippet: Tales of a Hero: Chapter 10
