Private The Ten Duel Commandments

It had been awhile since Tilly had been able to flex her magical muscle. She always loved these sorts of practical classes, but she tended to focus a lot more on the arcane. She wasn’t someone who explicitly sought out fights, but who could resist an honorable wizard’s duel?

Her clothes, as usual, were a mishmash of nostalgia and practicality, with a pair of black running tights, some gray shorts, and a gray sweatshirt framed underneath a green poncho, made of comfortable linen and enchanted to keep her cool and comfortable. The brim of her pointed hat sheltered her eyes from the harsh sun drifting in through the skylight, casting her face in shadow. Oh, this probably made her look really cool. Maybe she should stand up a little straighter or something.

She had a few goodies with her, as per usual, the most obvious being the large oaken staff in her left hand, as well as the uniformly carved rod in her right. She carried the thing in an honest-to-goodness leather holster, and it looked like a thick, charred stick with a leather handle, rather than a refined instrument. Also at her side, crammed into loops on her belt, were two bottles. One was a gatorade bottle with the label unceremoniously torn off, filled with a pitch black liquid. The other was a green sports bottle with an orange cap, the kind that you can squeeze to drink quickly.

She looked like a cheap LARPer, all she was missing was a foam sword. Actually, why didn’t she own a sword? Gandalf used one, why shouldn’t she?

Making a mental note to look into the logistics of owning a sword on school grounds, she removed the bracelet that prevented her from using her magic. Normally, electronics that were just in her general vicinity were fine, but she was probably about to start slinging some pretty powerful spells, so she impulsively checked that nobody had left their phone out or something. She didn’t wanna pay the bill for frying someone’s iphone.

”Y’know, I’ve never really done one of these. Do we salute? Bow? Sing the national anthem?” She asked nobody in particular. She’d glance at her opponent, and then to the instructor, who shrugged. Nonplussed, Tilly brought up her rod and twirled it away from her face with a flourish in a quick fencer’s salute. ”May the force be with you.” She said to her opponent, uncharacteristically sportsmanlike. She had much more respect for a fellow practitioner than she might for, say, a scion of a god or something.

She had to admit, she was a little anxious. Pride was a dangerous thing, and Tilly had it in spades. She’d worked hard at mastering the arcane all her life, but she only really had a few years’ experience in the arts, and only one year of actual formal instruction. This girl reeked of magical energy. She half expected her to come flying at her screaming “Kakarot.” As someone with a bit of a complex, whose power didn’t come naturally, she felt a twinge of envy, but buried it away. Winning against someone with so much magic at her disposal would just prove how far she’d come, and losing probably wouldn’t be that embarrassing. Probably.

Well, there were a few theories to combat with vancian magic. A traditionalist might say that a wizard always waits and listens, reacting decisively and ending a fight with as minimal force as possible. While it was true that the eldest of the wizards always avoided using excessive displays of power, she always thought those old geezers were just afraid of throwing out their backs. She was in her prime, and her power only waxed.

Besides, if all she did was react, she’d run out of magic long before she was able to land a hit. Between her spells, potions, and enchanted items, she did have a bit of wiggle room, but not enough to stall. If she ran out, she’d basically have to concede, reduced to only basic magical trickery at her disposal.

When the judge gave the command, Tilly’s poncho rustled, clearing over her right arm as she drew and brought her rod to bear against Lottie, aiming its charred bulk towards her center of mass.
”Polpetta piccante!” She shouted, and a ball of concentrated flame swirled about before her, fired towards her like a shot from a canon, rapidly expanding in size. She probably wouldn’t have used a spell like this later into the duel, once they’d both begun to tire. Concentrated flame was not something you went fastballing at someone in a friendly duel lightly. She knew that Lottie would be able to disrupt or avoid her leading attack, but seeing as her rod was only capable of the one spell, she figured she’d start this duel off with a bang.

...Besides, what was a wizard’s duel without a fireball or two?

There was a brief moment where the fireball made contact with its target, and, like it did every single time before, exploded on impact. In this moment, despite its familiarity to Tilly, she felt her stomach sink. It was always hard to tell if someone had just been fried, at least at first. She’d only actually used it successfully… what, twice? And she’d never actually hit anything with a pulse.

Still, she was relieved to see her opponent bouncing around from within a shield bubble as the flames parted, excited by the vibrant display of magic. She couldn’t help but stop and smile as Lottie’s muffled praise seeped through the barrier...

-Right, wizard’s duel.

She snapped back to attention, and quickly studied the barrier. Her senses gave her enough of a hint, that the barrier’s purpose was, simply put, not to be broken. She was pretty sure this thing defied the laws of physics. That fireball was probably the strongest thing she could cook up on short notice, and it had passed over the shield without so much as a shimmer of magical strain.

”Wall of force. Nice.”” She said,, holstering her rod beneath her poncho. She weighed her options. As much as she’d love to wail on that barrier and roast her inside it like Firelord Ozai, she wasn’t sure how the laws of thermodynamics held up against something that didn’t really seem to like Sir Isaac Newton all that much.

There wasn’t really all that much she could do. Cautiously, she approached the barrier, and rapped on it with her staff. There was a palpable impact, as if she’d struck a stone wall. ”Okay, it’s not a Star Wars shield. This bad boy stops everything” She whistled, impressed. ”I like your magic. I don’t know if I’ve ever pulled off a barrier this strong.”

Then, an impish little grin crossed her features. She transferred her staff to her right hand, and took a small piece of chalk from her pocket. She traced it on the floor, forming a small circle, not quite large enough to fit your foot into. ”Acmeius.” She muttered, and with an effort of will, the circle became black as night. She pulled a potion from her holster, the gatorade bottle filled with pitch-black liquid, and shook it vigorously, before dropping it into the hole.

The bottle seemed to vanish into the darkness, and soon the circle sealed itself shut. The instant that hole vanished, however, another one appeared, forming on the ground within Lottie’s barrier. No sooner did it appear that the bottle shot up into the air, the hole sealing itself behind it. It soared up and impacted the barrier’s ceiling, then exploded into a black mist, which drifted down towards her, blotting out the light from within the bubble

It was just a harmless sleeping drought with a bit of carolina reaper for flavor, but one wiff would make her eyes start to droop, and if she took in much more, she’d be passed out on the floor in a matter of seconds..

It was honestly kind of endearing how Lottie smushed her face up to the wall of her barrier to get a better look. Even in the heat of honorable battle, she couldn’t help but feel a twang of guilt for the cheap shot through the floor of her shield, transforming her impenetrable barrier into an inescapable cage.

And she felt this guilt for exactly one moment more before light flashed around her and suddenly everything was dark. And man, was she tired. Was she already sleeping? Were her eyes closed or open? She couldn’t tell. She took in an involuntary breath, but then her eyes snapped wide open, and she forced herself to cough.

”K-kansius!” she sputtered, raising her left hand. A current of air rushed around her, and the inky black cloud swirled towards the most obvious target. Lottie’s aura was no joke, but it had the pleasant side effect of making it incredibly easy to aim at her even whilst blinded.

The cloud would rush towards Lottie and swirl around her as it rushed past, risking more exposure to the sleep-inducing drought, before impacting against the wall and dispersing into the air, harmless. Her poncho ruffled as she braced herself against her staff, coughing in an attempt to stave off the potion she’d inhaled. She rubbed at her eyes, fighting off a yawn, but seemed otherwise okay. ”Thunderation, I need a mask or something next time..” She thought aloud.

As her poncho billowed in the wind dramatically, Tilly couldn’t help but stand up a little straighter as she felt the pride that came with slinging around her full power gave her. It wasn’t often that Tilly got to show off. As the mist billowed past Lottie, dispersing against the wall, she caught sight of the raised wand, and brought forth her staff, preparing a counterspell to dissipate whatever she threw at her. The air shimmered around her as a magical field manifested, ready to defend her-

And then Lottie’s hand began to droop downwards, and she slowly began to drift off to sleep. She actually felt kind of bad for winning, what with how adorably Lottie was defeated. As the wand clattered to the floor before her, she brought forth a finger in a “Come hither” gesture, telekinetically lifting the wand up and into her fingers. She took it softly, respectfully cradling it with her fingers like a baton as she stepped towards her. She drew the remaining bottle from her belt, knelt down before Lottie, and squirted a bit of the contents onto her face. The dispelling potion smelled and tasted like water, but was absolutely clear, to the point of surreality. Just a little bit of the substance on her face would be enough to rouse Lottie, and once she got her bearings, Tilly would hold out the wand, turning it in her hand so that she was presenting the handle.

”Sorry Lottie, your princess is in another castle.” She smiled. Honestly, she was surprised that this wasn’t going to her head more. These things literally always did. ”That was a good match. You almost had me with that switcheroo thing, would you show me how you did that? It was so wild, I would have been a goner if the barrier didn’t drop, how did-”

And off she went into an excited tirade, the way she often did when magic was involved.