Ember From A Forgotten Flame

Chapter 17- A Three Second Advantage

With classes starting again, my days became packed. Anytime that wasn't spent in class, in an arena, or helping Mr. Ahimoth was spent eating or sleeping. Long days weren't something foreign to me, yet I found the deadline to be a looming presence that grew each day.

For the first month of our tournament preparations, we were flying. We were picking up new spells at an impressive rate. We took a break on dueling to focus on building our toolkit. That's how Sirena explained it. However, by the end of the second month, we hit a wall. We only knew so much. Only been exposed to so much.

"It looks like we are going to focus on dueling for the next three months," Azalea said as we walked into the Justice Arena.

"There's something we haven't done yet. Have the first years duel the second years," I mentioned. It had been on my mind the past couple weeks, but I haven't had the chance to bring it up.

"You're right. It's probably long past time," Sirena said. "Okay. You and me, Ser."

I started despite the fact that I really shouldn't have been surprised. Everyone else backed off as the two of us took our places in the arena. Despite the cold air, I wiped off my sweaty palms on my skirt. Though we had been practicing together for months now, Sirena was still more experienced than me. A year doesn't seem like a long time, but it matters a lot especially in these early years.

Evrain signaled us to begin. I prepared myself to block whatever Sirena threw at me. My focus was on what was nearby in the essence. I noticed a stream of Earth essence turn around and start heading towards Sirena. A couple seconds later, a dust devil was heading my way. Jumping out of the way, I gathered some Fire essence to send out a fire tornado. I felt a stream of Water essence change course, and Sirena summoned a wall of water to protect herself.

We fell into the standard rhythm of dueling. I could tell Sirena was starting slow, so I played along. Might as well warm myself up if she was letting me. Because of this steady pace we had set, I took more notice of the changing ribbons of essence. Of course I noticed when I changed the course of the essence, but there was a second set of moving essence that was going away from me. Towards Sirena.

I paused mid spell as this information actually sunk in. I knew what school of magic Sirena was going to use before she casted the spell.

"Now that is an advantage," I whispered to myself. Unfortunately I was distracted with my realization, and Sirena got a direct hit on me with another dust devil. That wasn't a good look.

Regaining my focus, I summoned a firewall. I needed to know how much extra time I would be granted. The stream of Water essence turned, and I started counting.

"One. Two. Three." Sirena wrapped herself in water as the firewall passed over. Three seconds wasn't a great deal of time, but I had to make it work.

I waited for Sirena's next move. It was Storm essence that moved next. I gathered Water essence in response. I spun a disk of water in front of me as lightning shot from Sirena's wand. The bolt hit the center. Steam rose from the disk as electricity spread throughout the disk. With the remaining water, I threw the disk at Sirena. I managed to clip her shoulder.

We started circling around each other. A few seconds of quiet later, Earth essence moved towards Sirena. I counted three seconds while continuing the circling path. Right at three, Sirena summoned a boulder. I went the opposite direction that I had been moving while summoning vines to tangle Sirena's legs. The boulder sailed into the shield right where I would have been. The vines tripped her up, and Sirena landed on her knees. As quickly as I could, I sent out balls of fire to chip damage off.

Sirena countered with a flood of gravel sent my way. As I dodged out of the way, Sirena freed herself. I got a glance at the health bars. Both of us were around halfway down with Sirena ahead. I was glad I was able to recover after the dust devil, but I still had work to do.

Shooting a wall of fire, I prepared a bigger blow. As soon as Sirena cut her way through the wall, I shot icicles her way. Catching her off guard, I landed a couple hits. Then, I held back and waited for her next move. Some Earth essence dove towards her. I quickly prepared some Water essence. Sirena sent out a spear of gravel. I used a column of water to focus the gravel upwards. My timing was off so some of the rocks hit me. With what I caught, I sent the gravel filled water back towards Sirena. Not expecting a counterattack that quickly, I landed a solid hit on her.

I was now leading and could end this with one or two decent hits. It was that moment the essence decided to surge. I was forced to completely block out the essence in fear of getting flooded. Sirena didn't seem to be affected and sent out icicles. I got hit several times as I attempted to dodge the non magical way.

Hastily, I dodged all the things Sirena threw as I tried to regain a stable grip on the essence. Each time, it nearly flooded me. The stream was chaotic. Any sort of pattern I had figured out was gone. On the verge of panicking, I sent a silent prayer. If I couldn't control the essence, I had to trust it.

I skidded to a stop, held my wand in front of me, and opened myself up. Before I could register what type of essence I was using, there was a recoil from my wand. Fire exploded from the end and raced towards Sirena. Despite her best efforts, it hit her, giving me the win.

The fire might as well have used the energy of my soul. I was sucked dry. The essence also seemed to calm down. How convenient.

"That wasn't easy," I commented as I sat down on the ground outside the arena boundaries.

"You pack quite the punch when you want to," Sirena said, hands resting on her hips. I saw my friends nod in agreement. Alex was the one nodding the hardest.

"It's not always my decision," I mentioned.

"If you can do things like that consistently, you will be a force to be reckoned with," Azalea said.

I propped my head up with my arm, elbow resting on my knee. "That's the thing. I can't control it. The essence just decides to flood me, and stuff like that happens. I can't pull that amount of essence myself." I tried to explain.

"You have such a weird connection to the essence," Sirena commented.

I nodded. "I think I'm more sensitive to it than others." I paused before I added, "It seems that I can sense when people are gathering essence and what school."

My friends stared at me in shock. "Wait seriously?" Azalea spoke first. I nodded slowly.

"That would explain some of the things you pull out there," Sirena commented.

"That's a huge advantage," Hayden said.

"It gives me about three seconds of warning," I clarified.

"Still, that's three seconds more than what we get," Sirena said, gesturing to the group.

"You have always been good at countering," Garnet mentioned.

"I happened to figure that out during this duel," I said.

"Well you need to practice using that during duels. You aren't going to be able to brute force your way to Champion of The Myre. Normal strategies aren't going to work," Evrain said.

"He's right," Sirena replied. "I think we've all known that you aren't going to win with strength or skill. Everyone you face outside of your year is going to have you beat there. You are going to have to be clever. If you can predict what your opponent is going to do, even by only a few seconds, you have a powerful secret weapon."

"A secret weapon," I repeated.

"No one other than us will know that you can predict their movements," Alex said.

I stood up. "And no one will be expecting it. Predicting one's actions with the essence is completely unheard of."

"We need to figure out the best way to use it," Hayden finished.

There was a beat of silence before Garnet commented, "This is insane."

"Yes. Yes it is," I agreed. I had long come to terms with the fact that what I was attempting was absolutely, 110% insane. But still, it was seemingly less and less impossible. 

A/N: Hello there. I just wanted to stop and say thank you for reading this story of mine. Cause, well, there are actually people reading it. The fact that there is anybody following along has motivated me to write more. I hope to continue delivering chapters with some level of frequency. Hope you are well and see you in the next chapter.