I made the first move, using a simple Flicker Step to close the gap between us. My swordstaff came up high and slashing, and Amelia met my opening cut with a perfect parry, turning it aside with seemingly no effort. I followed up with a thrust, but Amelia side-stepped the stab with smooth grace, pivoting away and out of my reach.

  Rather than let her retreat, I pressed the attack. While I had decided not to draw on my mana too much, as I simply didn't have enough left to waste, my already strengthened body should have been enough to pierce her guard. Yet despite that, none of my strikes landed as she batted aside questing attacks with easy parries or slipped away from them entirely.

  It was like fighting water, and after a few quick exchanges, I took a few steps back to regroup.

  Amelia had altered her style into a quicker, more defensive one than I recalled. She seemed to favor parries, blocks, and dodges that used little energy, presumably augmented by mana to grant her superhuman speed and precision. I found that an overwhelming offense wasted less stamina overall, but I couldn't deny the efficacy of her strategy.

  Amelia's dress was loose enough that it wouldn't impact her abilities much, and she'd kicked off her heeled shoes at the start of the duel. As far as I could tell, she carried no other magical implements besides whatever allowed her to summon her staff. Then again, she might have something hidden in reserve, so I had to be cautious just in case.

  Two things gave me pause. First, I felt exhausted. I was well aware that my core had enough breadth to outmatch even some masters by now, but even I couldn't fight a dozen duels in a row without a cost.

  If I had fought her even two duels earlier, it would've been an easy matter to simply overpower her. Amelia had reached Fog, but there was some lingering instability in her mana signature that suggested she had advanced recently. I caught a strange broadness to the ice mana, which I suspected must be a consequence of her gathering technique, but had no idea what it meant.

  However, the real thing that stayed my blade was simple. I didn't want to end this duel early. What I wanted, more than I had realized, was to see how far Amelia had come and to show her my growth in turn.

  Suddenly, Amelia was in front of me. She moved fast, her staff sweeping low for my legs, and I stepped over the strike as I turned, trying to flank to her side. She turned with me, bringing her weapon around again, and I brought up my blade to block her follow-up just inches from my face.

  Amelia pushed her advantage, and I soon discarded any notion that she had taken to using a more passive style. Maybe it had been a trick, or maybe she had just wanted to take my measure herself. Either way, she moved and struck with a vicious, lightning-quick flurry of strikes that danced around her body in dizzying patterns.

  I warded off her attacks without taking a strike, though it was a closer thing than I had expected. Amelia's mana continued to rise, her speed growing, and more than one attack came closer than I would've expected to landing. Maybe I had used up more of my stamina than I realized.

  "You've gotten better," I remarked as we fought, blocking a particularly confusing set of quick attacks interspersed with feints.

  Amelia simply glared at me and remained silent. I wavered between what I wanted to say to her and what I should say to keep up the ruse of an arrogant noble. In the end, I settled for something in between the two.

  Our weapons clashed, and I stepped in close, pushing her back as I leaned in and grinned. "Is that all you can do? I didn't think that—"

  Amelia shoved me away before thrusting with her staff so quickly I had to lean back far enough that I nearly lost my balance. And then, strangely, I did. I stumbled, recovering just in time to ward off her next set of attacks.

  Her attacks had a touch less finesse, her face twisted in anger as she struck. I blocked and parried, my heart racing as I felt her attacks come closer and closer to hitting. The brisk air brushed through my hair, and the wooden haft felt cold in my almost numb hands—

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  Wait, numb?

  I used a Flicker Step to get some distance, sliding backwards along the grass as I broke away from the latest engagement. My eyes flicked down to my swordstaff, and then I returned my gaze to Amelia. Her mana continued to shift in her body, but as I focused, I realized that strange breadth had grown.

  Moving on a hunch, I stretched my senses in all directions. It was a summer's evening, warm and pleasant, yet now it felt cold as late autumn or early winter. And now that I looked for it, the ice mana around us felt stronger and denser, almost as though the density had grown sharply.

  I returned my attention to Amelia, and my eyes slowly crawled down to her staff. Now that I looked more closely, it appeared a touch paler. Almost...almost like it had the faintest sheen of frost along it.

  Ah, so that was her plan.

  Ice magic was an insidious thing. It was the reason I considered it among the most dangerous elements of all, even moreso than the more classically destructive mages such as fire and lightning.

  A skilled ice mage didn't dominate you with overwhelming raw power. Instead, they weakened you slowly and inexorably before striking the fatal blow. You might fight one, not realizing until it was too late that your mind had dulled, your reflexes had slowed, and your body was sluggish and weak.

  My body, strong as it was, couldn't ignore those effects either. I hadn't noticed at first, either because I was distracted or simply because she had increased the strength of her magic slowly, but it had crept in all the same.

  It was a stupid mistake, and I mentally kicked myself. Amelia had already begun using early versions of such tactics two years ago, and I should have expected it. But I was thrown off enough by her challenge that I hadn't remembered.

  Still...it wasn't enough for her to beat me. I had held enough tricks in reserve to win even now, and I was reasonably sure that she didn't have enough held back to throw me off again. All I had to do was stop holding back, and it'd be over.

  For just a moment, I almost decided to keep holding back. Amelia had ignored my attempts to reach out, and this, ugly as it seemed, was the closest we had come to speaking in two years.

  I was disgusted with myself just a moment later. Not only was it reckless and not only did it all but ask for me to lose, but far more importantly, it was insulting. Amelia was someone I respected, and treating her like a child, as I was doing now, was ridiculous.

  If I wanted to fight her, I needed to do so with everything I had.

  I let out a slow, even breath, then drew on what was left in my core. My Armor snapped into place, my Arcane Body flowed through me, and I moved with all the speed of a Flicker Step.

  When I reappeared, Amelia had already drawn her staff up to meet my attack. But my strike didn't come from my swordstaff. I had left the physical weapon behind, tossing it aside even as I moved to engage withher. Instead, I pushed a roaring stream of Aether into the bracer sewn into my left sleeve.

  Both my bracers served the same purpose. They helped create and maintain Aether-forged constructs in battle. The right conjured a shield, ensuring I always had one on hand, but such considerations had led me to wonder what might happen if I lost my swordstaff? That seemed too great a risk to simply let slide, so I had begun working to rectify such a weakness.

  Mana poured into my bracer, and I felt the runes roar to life. Aether formed in my left hand, and I closed my fingers around the haft of a swordstaff forged of flickering emerald Aether. It burned in my hands, the sheer density breaking down the material of my gloves, and I ignored the discomfort as I slid to a stop before Amelia.

  Our weapons moved in near-unison, mine falling from above and hers rising to meet it. I felt the ice mana within her staff, reinforcing the wood until it was as hard as steel.

  My blade cut through it with a whisper.

  Amelia's eyes widened, and I took advantage of her shock. I stepped in low, pulling my right hand back as I drew the Aether away from my bracer and into a spell instead. It was a simple shove, carrying the same force I had used to beat several foes already, and I hoped it would be enough now.

  My hand shot forward, shimmering green energy dancing between my fingers. I pressed my palm against Amelia's stomach, trying to ignore the twisting in my gut as I felt the warmth under the soft fabric. I hesitated for only a second, then released my hold over the mana.

  And I found myself standing not in a field, but inside a room of some kind.

  I blinked, still crouched low with my hand extended. Amelia had vanished, as had the onlookers and my brother. In fact, as far as I could tell, I was alone.

  Slowly, I straightened, releasing the rest of my spells as I took another look at my surroundings.

  The room appeared to be a study, empty aside from a few bookshelves against one wall, a large fireplace with flickering purple flames, and a plush leather lounging chair. There was a door at one end of the room, and behind me was an open archway leading to a balcony.

  My first assumption was that someone had jumped into our duel. Maybe an apprentice or even an adept who had grown irritated enough at my provocations that they decided to step in and teach me a lesson?

  But as I thought about it, the idea made no sense. Flynn had created an array not only to protect onlookers but to ensure no one tried to interfere with the duels. Moreover, I should've sensed any magic, even some small working.

  And this wasn't small. Someone, somehow, had plucked me from the center of an array, teleporting me across an unknown distance, and they'd done so with such ease and such speed that I hadn't even sensed it until after it was done.

  I felt a chill run down my spine as an idea occurred to me, but before I could put words to it, I heard a voice speak from the balcony.

  "Good evening, young man," a light, feminine voice said.

  I turned just in time to see a woman seemingly materialize from nothingness. She was backlit by the moon, cast in shadows with her features hidden, but I didn't need to see anything. What I could sense told me enough.

  My mind returned to when I had first Awakened. I thought back to the sword my counterpart had conjured in the air, splitting the ocean with a single spell. I remembered the magic around Colkirk, vast enough to protect an entire city from even a fleck of snow, and I recalled visiting the valley left behind by Torros the Titan-Bane.

  I felt awe and dread in equal measure, a surety borne from knowing that I stood before something so far beyond me they might as well be divine. This wasn't a person, but magic incarnate.

  This was an Archmagus in the flesh.

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