The green courtyard surrounded by stone halls was bathed in the warm hues of the setting sun as Athra and Thalia found themselves alone, Thalon and Tyrian had left to rest as they had been exhausted after the fight and ensuing practice. The pair was away from the rest of their peers, Athra was leaning against one of the large trees as Thalia was laying down in its shadow. The relaxed atmosphere had its charm, but the visage of his resting teammate was urging Athra to do something.

"What do you say, Thalia? Care for a friendly duel, you were told to practice defending, and I see no better way to do that than fighting. Let’s make it interesting. How about a little wager?” 

"A wager, my prince? You've piqued my interest, but are you sure your highness is in a condition to make such an offer after the events of our earlier team exercise? I strictly remember it not ending in your victory against me". Thalia responded as she turned to her side to face the prince, as interested as she was, she didn’t want to get up yet and give her excitement away.

“Well, considering it was a three-on-one, and I was still fighting you to a standstill, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you are trying to get out of it. How about this? To make things fair, I’ll give myself a challenge and will not be using my usual weapon and instead fight using my brother’s style.” Athra smiled at Thalia’s remark, a foreign mischievous glint could have been seen in his eyes could be seen for a moment as he responded.

“I can hardly refuse such a generous offer now, can I? What’s the bet?” Thalia replied, she was slightly annoyed with the prince seemingly underestimating her, but her pride would not get in the way of her curiosity this time. She slowly got back on her feet and dusted off her fitted sleeveless, violet tunic. The tunic had a modest neckline that was only enough to allow ventilation to ensure comfort during intense swordplay without revealing much. It reached down to her mid-thigh, seamlessly blending with the trousers of the same color that covered the rest of her legs.

"If I win, you'll have to reveal a hidden talent or share a secret. And if you win, well, you get to choose a task for me. Deal?” Athra said. He was pleased that Thalia, due to her pride being wounded by being underestimated, had not realized the only way for him to use a scythe would be to magically conjure one, thus making the duel into a spellsword duel.

"Deal. But don't expect me to go easy on you, just because you have decided you would go easy on me, my prince. Secrets are a valuable currency, after all." Thalia responded as her pretty face was adorned with a grin. In her mind, this was a perfect opportunity to have the prince pay more attention to her, something he had already been doing since the hunting event, even if she had not realized it yet.

As soon as the agreement was reached, the duo was teleported into an arena away from the sights of any would be spectators. 

“Since I do not carry a scythe with me, I suppose I will have to conjure one, surely that is not a problem for you seeing as you agreed to the duel.” Athra said with a grin.

Thalia was only now realizing what she had agreed to was not just a duel involving weapons but magic as well. Suddenly, what was a surefire win according to her seemed to become a task that would require her absolute best. However, she was never one to back away from a challenge, so she would do what she always had done and have fun facing it.

“Since the prince is using going to be using a conjured weapon, it is only fitting his subject should follow suit. I would not dream of insulting you by not utilizing the advantages of conjured weapons myself, while you yourself do. After all, I am sure your highness intends to face me only at my best” She replied as she with a quick movement of her slender fingers unbuckled the weapon belt she had on her. Confidently, stepping away from the belt and the swords on the ground, she conjured two scimitars by channeling her mana without waiting for a reply.

Athra chuckled to himself, he was impressed by how fast she had gone from suddenly realizing she had been baited into a spellsword duel to adapting his own strategy for herself. He also put down the weapon belt that held a normal bastard sword, something he had started carrying on him in the past decade after realizing he didn’t need to use a soul weapon to fight other students. Following her lead, he stepped away from the belt as well as he conjured a scythe resembling his brother’s.

“I believe since I am supposed to be training how to defend your highness should be leading while I follow.” Thalia suggested with a smile. Her eyes were already shining with the tell-tale light of ‘foresight’. She knew Athra would not be counting himself as the victor unless he broke through her defenses after her words, and their go-to spell ‘foresight’ was much more useful while defending than it was when attacking.

“Very well, lead I shall then.” Athra replied as he repeated what he had done earlier and let his mana cover his body. The following moment, his scythe was already being swung vertically down, aiming to slash Thalia in two down the middle.

Thalia had foreseen the attack but despite that she had barely any time to react and block the path of the sharp curved edge of the scythe with her blades, the speed provided by burning mana to enhance the body directly was truly terrifying to face if one couldn’t do the same. She foresaw another swing coming from the side, stepping back she narrowly avoided it. 

One after another, Athra’s slashes chased her around as he gracefully dodged and blocked. After every failed attempt, Athra would conjure another scythe while dismissing the other to attack from an angle that would be impossible if he had to worry about changing the momentum of the weapon.

“You seem awfully proficient with a weapon that’s supposed to not be the weapon you prefer to use.” The silver haired woman shouted out in defiance, she refused to believe Athra was merely ‘borrowing’ his brother’s style.

“Well to be perfectly honest I never once claimed I was not proficient with one. It was the first weapon I was taught to use after all, thanks to my brother’s insistence.” Athra replied. He had spent close to a century and a half using the scythe only before his brother finally had given in and allowed him to train with other weapons. One could say he felt more at home with a scythe than any other weapon, but a D’lora never used their preferred weapons in public duels, and he had insisted in following that tradition unlike his twin.

“I can’t keep up with him using just ‘foresight’ and ‘haste’, my reaction time is barely enough to react. I need to see better, I suppose there is no helping it.” Thalia thought to herself as she used ‘blink’ to get away.

Athra followed and repeated his onslaught of attacks. However, this time, much to his surprise, Thalia danced around the swings without needing to block once. He narrowed his eyes as he took a step back for the first time in the duel and stared into the woman’s eyes, the faint glow of ‘foresight’ was replaced with a clear silver shine. Realization dawned upon him.

“Seeing as you are relying on your birthright of your house, I decided I would do the same, my prince. I would prefer if this could remain between us, though, as no one else knows I can utilize it yet.” Thalia spoke. She was not happy that she had to reveal that she could use her household’s special eyes that could see into the future even further than ‘foresight’ spell allowed one to. After all, the spell was created by people trying to copy her founding ancestor’s talent, but losing the bet seemed even more unpleasant. 

Athra smiled as he nodded his head, indicating he would keep it a secret. He was happy that she would willingly show her something she hadn’t shown others, but her claim that he was relying on his birthright had irritated him. He knew she didn’t know what he had to put himself through to increase his mana pool and how he was not born with it unlike the rest of his family, so even though he knew she couldn’t have known, those words were like mockery for him. His smile turned from the warm accepting one it was when nodding to a cold sadistic one matching the glint of fury in his eyes.

“Let me correct a misconception you seem to have about me relying on my birthright, and show you how a D’lora abusing it would truly look like. Brace yourself and make sure your eyes never lose sight of me.” He spoke. Within the same moment he let go of every bit of restraint he had, his entire mana pool was now ready to be utilized with just a mere thought. He did not care about revealing his transformation, if it came down to it, he’d even use the power he had stolen from the goddess.

The coldness of his voice and the anger within the tone was something Thalia had not seen before. It was easy to tell she had offended him somehow, but she did not know how. She made a mental note to talk about it with him later, but for now she had to worry about the fight ahead. The air had become suffocating as Athra’s mana swirled around the entire arena and just like his killing intent focused on her.