A GENTLE BREEZE SWEPT THROUGH the grassy fields and around the mana barrier surrounding them. Gayle steeled himself and faced forward. It was high time to put up or shut up. Jaycob sat a few feet away, choosing a spot designated as his referee box. He shifted his gaze between the sapphire-haired lad and his lackeys before straightening up and cackling. The red-oni lived for stuff like this, whether he was directly involved or not.

“Alright, then. Combatants, cast your barriers!”

““Tutela!””

Gayle stood across from one of Jaycob’s lackeys who stepped forward, a taller boy with dark skin and green hair. A veil of blue light formed around the two of them, molding itself into their bodies' shape. This was done to prevent any fatal injuries. In the ages prior, it was not uncommon for young mages to fight to the death, however the end of the Industrial Age, the Terra Edict only permitted the use of lethal offense if the mages in question cast protective barriers on themselves beforehand.

The rules of a duel on major academy grounds were thus: the first mage to collapse the other’s barrier was declared the winner.

“Alrighty, then,” Jaycob haughtily folded his arms. “Combatants, you may begin!!”

WOOOOOSSSHHH!!!

Gayle didn’t waste any time. As he accelerated past his opponent, arcs of electric energy spidered around his body. Before the upperclassman could act, he flung his silver bolt-a-rang, a throwing weapon shaped like a lightning bolt, enchanted with electro-magic at his target’s wand, knocking it out of his hands.

“Yow!”

With the boy disarmed, Gayle doubled back and swept the leg, knocking his opponent off his feet.

“Wahh!!”

Before the green-haired boy could hit the ground, Gayle leaped upwards, kicking against the air like invisible trampolines bouncing him higher and higher. While settled in the air, blue electricity danced around his forearms and a pair of metal gauntlets materialized, covering his formerly bare hands. Gayle then channeled his mana and uttered a spell:

“Fortis Fulmen… ”

The electric currents called forth from his incantation crackled and chirped around his arms and down to his now metal-clad hands, which he had made a gun gesture. Aiming down towards his target, his mana pool ran wild as he shouted:

“Static…Shot!!”

And with a—KRAAAAAAAAAK!!—and a—BOOM—powerful volts of lightning shot out from the sapphire-haired boy’s metal fingers, string his opponent, pushing his body to the ground with great force.

“Urgh!!”

The impact was so intense, his barrier glowed red, and then…

Pssshhh!!

It broke. And just like that, the duel was over.

“Oh-ho!”

Jaycob’s eyes lit up as he leaned forward, momentarily astounded by what he'd just seen. After a brief moment, he finally raised his right arm, signaling the end of the duel.

“Winner: Gayle Mazin!”

Following Jaycob’s announcement Gayle landed on his feet and brought his attention to the other two lackeys.

“So? Who’s next?” 

 He’d been itching for this all morning, and now he was finally getting to blow off some steam. The adrenaline rushing through him was so intense that, for a moment, he felt like he could take on Radical Red right then and there. 

 Reel it in, Gayle. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

 What fueled him even more was how these clowns had made a mockery of the catgirl from the cafeteria. While he wasn’t particularly close to Freya, she was, like him, a resident of Little Hōjo—and by extension, a subject of Yuki’s. 

 And if they disrespected Yuki’s subjects, that meant they disrespected her. 

 As her vassal, Gayle would be damned if he let anyone get away with that.

Come now, I haven’t got all day!” He called out, his electricity still pulsing around him. Jaycob looked over to the others. His eyes settled on the human boy with orange hair for a moment before flashing his gaze to Gayle, silently commanding his lackey to be the sapphire-haired boy's next opponent.

The orange-haired boy gulped, the image of what just happened to his friend moments prior must've still been fresh in his mind. He turned an eye to the female red-oni, who was still maintaining the mana barrier. She fixed him with a confused squint and then used her head to gesture towards Gayle.

“Well? You heard my cousin,” she said with urgency in her voice. “Off you go, then!”

“C'mon, Marta! You saw what he just did to Ramesh!” He pointed to the green-haired boy still lying on the grass groaning in pain. “I can't move that fast and neither can you! There's no way, we can—”

“Combatant number two...cast your barrier!”

Jaycob spoke those words with such authority that the orange-haired boy suddenly stepped forward, seemingly by pure instinct. Despite making his objections known, when Jaycob issued an order, his underlings knew they'd better damn well do it without question...lest they wound up where most of his opponents usually go. He sighed and drew his dagger.

“Tu-tutela!”

“Combatants, you may begin!!”

The second bout wasn’t much different, however, this go round, the orange-haired boy managed to cast a fire spell that curved slightly as it volleyed towards its target.

WOOOOOSSSHHH!!!

Gayle evaded the spell with ease, rushing towards the boy and planting his right knee into his plexus.’

“Grrrgh!” the orange-haired boy cried out. The barrier spell would prevent any lethal attacks from weapons or powerful spells, however, physical attacks could still dish out a great deal of pain.

The impact of this swift blow made the boy double over, favoring his stomach. Gayle scoffed.

These jerks aren’t even worth using my gear on, he thought, cursing himself for wasting a perfectly good bolt-a-rang in the previous contest. What a sad excuse for upperclassmen In their defense, it was clear that none of them had any experience fighting a Mazin, who was well-known for being a family of speedsters. Despite his family’s size, Gayle was one of the few children born in his generation and the only one with a legitimate claim to his house’s seat.

Truth be told, this put him at an advantage, and he didn’t like it one bit. He felt a mix of irritation and disappointment, wishing for a real challenge

This shit is so boring! Seriously! I’d be better off sparring with Kat!

Feeling his adrenaline course through his veins, he decided he’d end this quickly, so he could move on to Marta. Surely the female red-oni would give him more of a challenge than these clowns.

Gayle leaped into the air, electric currents danced around his arm as he drove his fist down on the back of the orange-haired boy’s head.’

KA-DOOOON!!

The boy’s body is forced into the ground from the impact of Gayle’s electro punch, the ground around them cracking and forming a semi-crater. And then, the boy’s barrier flashed red, followed by a…

Pssshhh!!

Once again, the barrier spell gave in and broke, ending the duel. And once again, Jaycob cried out passionately.

“Ho ho! Dexterity and strength! Now that’s how it's done!” He stood up and held his right hand aloft. “Winner: Gayle Mazin!”

Gayle didn’t even blink. His head then snapped in Marta's direction. This sudden move caught her off guard.

“—?!”

“You!” He pointed at her with vigor. “Bring your ass!”

◆◇◆

“Still no word on the headmaster?”

“Damn phone’s not even ringing. Just what the hell is he up to?”

In the faculty office, lined with ancient tomes and modern magitech devices, Professor Martin Seagrain of Class 1-A paced back and forth, his MT phone pressed to his ear. His colleagues were seated at a nearby conference table: a large, muscular man of Anubian descent with a huge afro, and a Caucuskan woman with a curvy yet athletic figure and long brown hair tied in a ponytail.

“Whatever he’s up to, him going silent for this long ain’t a good sign.”

“Ah, you worry too much, Ox. Headmaster Payne’s prolly gone on one of his special expeditions.”

Professor Montague Oxford, better known as “Cannibal Ox,” and his partner-in-crime, Professor Mary Idolbeard, were Phoenix Academy’s resident combat instructors. As students, they were the most feared duo in the history of Academy Showdown, regularly appearing in the event’s Tag Duel division where they were undefeated each year they competed, solidifying themselves as school legends. The Duo of Destruction, they were called. Their sole loss as a team happened at the Pegasus Cup tourney during their freshman year. Their die-hard fans, however, would argue that loss hardly counted as they were nowhere near the same level as they were in their later tenure.

Mary, despite it being against school regulations, took a swig of her canned ale. “You know ‘im by now, Marty,” she said with a chuckle. “He’ll be back before you can say…hmmm…‘Nightwalkers knit their knickers in Nifelheim’ or something!”

Martin pulled his phone away and frowned at her. “But…you just said it,” he pointed out, already annoyed with their current predicament. “Don’t tell me you’re drunk already, Mary. What did I tell you about that?”

“Hey, this is my first one!” She raised her right hand innocently. “Dragon Scout’s honor!”

The larger man next to her scoffed. “Heh. More like her tenth,” he revealed as he picked up his hoagie from his plate. “Can’t go two minutes without drownin’ in the stuff.”

“Spoken like a true lightweight, there, Ox,” she smirked, taking another long sip. “Yer just jealous.”

Ox furrowed his brow. “Of what exactly?”

“Whatever,” Martin sighed. “Just make sure Professor Xiao doesn’t see you. We’ve been catching enough hell as it is.”

“Still no luck?” came a voice from the door across from them. In walked a younger Caucuskan woman with a neck-length bob cut that was a striking lavender color and dark brown eyes. She wore a midnight blue A-Line dress with short sleeves and a pair of round clear spectacles. The crest tattooed on her left forearm was that of a carcajou, the symbol of House Kedvale of Brookville.

“Oooyyyyy…Venus~” Mary called out, raising what looked to be yet another full can of ale.

“Yo, this ain’t a pub, you maniac!” Ox chided, pulling his best friend back to her seat. “She’s right over there! No need to shout.”

“Oh. There you are, Professor Kedvale.” Martin put his phone away and shrugged. “No dice, I’m afraid,” he told her. “Though I suppose we should be accustomed to the old man doing whatever he pleases.”

“Ha, you’re telling me!” Venus laughed. “I recall a moment during my freshman year where the headmaster was to speak at Professor Xiao's fiftieth-anniversary banquet, only to duck out on it due to a ‘last-minute hunting trip’.”

“Oh, yeaaaah. I remember thaaaat~” Mary said, sounding more buzzed than before. “We caught like fiiiiiivvvve drop bears and two manticores. That trip was epic!”

“Mary, for Mother’s sake…” Martin pinched the brim of his nose. “Don’t you have a class after this?”

“Yuup! Suuuure do!”

“And remind me how you got this job again?!”

Ox’s eyes lit up as he stared down at his MT phone. “Well, this drunkard teaching a class should be the least of our concerns…” He brought his gaze over to his colleagues and used his mana to pull an image from his screen and project it onto a digital screen in mid-air.

“““......!”””

Martin and the ladies gaped at what they were seeing. There was an announcement posted on PMA’s student forum. The bulletin read: ‘Clash of the Nobility! Little Hōjo’s Katsumi of Clan Kusanagi (fr.) challenges Reeds’ Valcour of House Harvester (jr.) to a duel!’

A grin formed across Ox’s lips. “Guess we finally get to see a freshie in action, eh Mary?”

“Oh!! Flippin’ finally!” Mary exalted, suddenly sober again. “The first day’s halfway gone and there hadn’t been so much as a whisper of a duel from these timid freshmen. Glad to hear one of ‘em is stepping up! When's it supposed to happen, Ox?”

He scrolled down the bulletin. “At the PMA Battle Arena. After school at around 4:30.”

“Damn, that's three whole classes from now!” Mary complained, sounding like an impatient child. “Back in our day, we'd just go to blows. Where'd all this ‘regulation’ crap come from?”

“To lower student death rates, I imagine,” Ox clarified, a note of sarcasm in his voice. “Remember the Hullington Brawls? The Miller Twins versus Conrad Kittles from the Middle Age?”

“Ahhh, yeah…” she said between sips. “In the twins’ case, picking a fight with an S-Class mage with a Celestial Art was just a dumb move on their part.”

Martin walked closer to the screen and skimmed over the details.

“Hmm, it says Miss Urahara will oversee the bout,” he observed. “If a Project Galanga member is there, then we can leave it in her hands.”

“Oh, come now, Professor Segrain,” Venus gave the older instructor a nudge. “It’s after school hours, so who's to say we can't go watch? Besides, it’s not every day you get to see a freshman of this caliber taking on an upperclassman. Where’s that sense of intrigue I’ve heard so much about?”

Martin sighed. She got him there. Katsumi of Clan Kusanagi had finished at the top of his class at Kusanagi Primary Dojo, run by his father Lord Tiger. He remembered witnessing the youngster in action for the first time, marveling at how his numerous battle scars and the loss of his left eye did little to deter him from dominating any student who crossed his path. Secondary schools from all over competed for the opportunity to enroll The One-Eyed Cub, however, Martin, as well as anybody who followed the Taqoran aristocracy, knew that the boy's sympathies lay with Clan Kageryuu and its remaining member, Lady Yuki.

So if there were anyone who wanted to see Katsumi’s first duel, surely it’d be the man who scouted him in the first place.

“Oy. The lass is right, Marty,” Mary concurred, clapping her colleague hard on the back. “The headmaster will turn up soon. He always does! Now, be a good sport, and let’s go watch these noble boys give it their all!”

“Now, now, Mary, don’t forget you’re an instructor first,” Venus reminded her, turning on her heel. “That said, this duel is sure to draw a full house so I wouldn't miss this for the world! Let’s check it out!”

Like brother, like sister…

“Hell yeah! The final bell’s sure takin’ it's sweet time!”

As Mary passed Martin, she tried to hand him a fresh can of ale, only for him to push it back towards her. Shrugging with indifference, as if to say “Suit yourself!” she cracked the can open and took a swig before following Professor Kedvale out of the room. Just then Ox wrapped up what was left of his hoagie, stood from his chair, and approached him.

“Hey, I don’t like it when B.P. pulls this kind of crap, either,” he stated, “but it’s not like the school will descent into chaos with him gone.” He scratched the back of his head as he mulled over that last part. “Mmm, well…not much...not while we’re around, anyway.”

Martin grinned. Ox had a point. This wasn’t the first time the headmaster had left them to their devices. Nor would it be the last time. It didn't matter if he was there to do his job or not; they still had theirs to do.