Iatus and Amber stood facing a small circle each. The rest of the class was being supervised by Claudius at the other end of the long hall that was the classroom. They each had a list of demons, Iatus had 61, but he couldn't tell about Amber as her list was rolled up in a scroll. They began their summons simultaneously, chanting the verses in almost perfect time and imps appeared in the circles together. They summoned another, then another, then another.
After about the twentieth, Iatus began to feel the strain of summoning so many demons at once. Amber looked across at him and smiled harshly at his discomfort. When they hit thirty however, it was Amber that collapsed into a kneeling position, breathing heavily, strain showing on her face. Iatus felt tired but not overly so, like he was carrying something heavy on his back.
Amber looked up at him in disbelief, gritted her teeth, stood up and continued summoning. The Pentacles were looking pretty full as the demons swirled about, trapped in a cylinder that rose, invisibly, from the circle. It was amazing the variety of imps there were; little balls of fire, living rocks, birds without feathers, bats with large eyes and small ears, lizard things he couldn't place and many more weird and wonderful things. Iatus summoned his 30th imp then he heard a thud to his left and looked around. Amber had sat down heavily on the floor, she lay spread eagled and breathing raggedly. He went over to her with a concerned look.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm fine," she spat.
"You don't look fine."
"Well, I am. Go back to your circle."
Iatus picked up the list of demons she had been trying to summon. There were easily 100 names on there.
"Amber, how many were you trying to summon?" he asked, slightly shocked at the girl's ambition.
"251. That would give me a mana level of 260. One more than the current record," she gasped between breaths.
"How do work that out?" Iatus asked.
"1 level for each lesser imp, 2 for every greater imp, 8 for a lesser jinni, 10 for a greater, 40 for a lesser shedu, 50 for a greater, 120 for a lesser mara and 150 for a greater... roughly."
"Oh." Iatus said and looked up from the list.
Claudius called a stop to the summons and went over to see what had happened to Amber.
"Are you okay there Amber?" he said in a kindly voice.
"Yes, sir, just tired."
"Don't worry Amber, you will get used to the strain as you grow with it, when I started I could only just keep a jinni, but now I can hold a lesser shedu.
"So you're a level 50?" Iatus enquired.
"46, actually, where did you get 50 from?" Claudius said, surprised.
"Well, you said you can summon a shedu, and you keep Niana, so I presumed you must be able to hold both."
Claudius smiled, "Rank isn't everything Iatus, I wouldn't trade in Niana for a mara."
Iatus frowned, "Why not?"
"Demons aren't just about power, they are individuals just like us, with their strengths and weaknesses, Niana is exceptionally smart and brilliant in her own way. Nothing could replace her in my mind. The dark element is a strange thing anyway, its focus is based on stealth and deception, so pure magical power isn't as important. The most powerful dark mage ever could only hold one mara. Now, let me take care of Amber and you get back to your summons, what are you on?"
"This will be 31, sir."
"Blimey, I guess I really was wrong about your power level, not many first years get past 20, I've only known one get past 30 before. You don't even seem that drained either, I suspect you could give some of the graduates a run for their money."
Iatus smiled in a self-satisfied way and went back to his circle.
Suddenly there was a mighty crash from the other end of the hall. A giant with a bull's head was standing in the summoning circle at the opposite end of the room. Everyone looked stunned at the thing apart from Capitus who was doing a little dance shouting 'I did it' over and over.
Claudius stormed over, looking furious, "Capitus! Capitus! I told you to wait you blasted child! What if you had done something wrong and gotten yourself eaten! AND that is a minotaur, a GREATER jinni, you air brained brat, I told you to summon LESSER jinni."
"But, but, they get to summon stuff on their own!" Capitus complained, sounding hurt, "And anyway, if the filth can summon a jinni as easily as he did then I can summon a greater jinni, you said yourself he had no power to speak of. And I am and Ahenobarbus, I can summon anything I choose."
Capitus then crossed his arms and took on a sulking face.
Claudius fumed, "You will do as I tell you to, you insolent brat, and if you ever talk about another student like that again you will scrubbing floors with your hands! In here you are all just students, you are not better than anyone else because of your precious daddy, got it?"
Capitus pouted and glared at the Tribune, "Of course I am better then him, and if you don't believe me I shall prove it, I will challenge him to a duel."
Capitus grinned sadistically at Iatus and shouted, "I, Caius Capitus Ahenobarbus, challenge you Iatus, to a duel. Tomorrow at midday."
The whole room gasped, and Claudius looked shocked, his head spinning between Capitus and Iatus.
Iatus looked up at the minotaur glaring down at him. He had no idea what had just happened but the whole room had gone deathly quiet and all eyes were fixed on him. He gulped and bit his lip.
"I accept," Aelith whispered in his ear without seeming to move.
It took all his willpower not to glance round at the owl in horror.
He knew he had to accept, he couldn't possibly back down in front of all these people.
He looked up at the minotaur, took a deep breath and then said, "I accept."
There was uproar in the room as people clapped and shouted excitedly.
Claudius shouted his hands and waved for order, the class quietened long enough for him to dismiss them, all except Iatus, they filtered out in a long line, except Amber who had managed to prop herself against a wall and was unable to move. When the last student had left Niana came in, leading a servant who carried Amber away.
Claudius then turned to Iatus, "Damn that boy, insolent brat, just because his fathers a consul. And now he's got a minotaur. You don't know anything about spells yet, do you?"
Iatus shook his head.
"Well, I expect Capitus does, his father will have prepared him with all of the duelling know-how. I suggest we take this time to teach you the basics. This could take some time, so I would send a demon to collect you some food."
Iatus nodded and summoned up Gopple and dispatched him, the little demon complained that he was being undervalued but went off all the same.
Claudius took a step back, "The most useful tool you will use is a shield. The spellword for a shield is Merres, spells are easy enough to use, even just saying the word will bring up a shield of some sort, but managing to control the spell is another matter and it takes practice. Like summoning you can use the words to shape out exactly what you want if you know them, but that takes time and is impractical in battle. Give it a go."
Iatus said the word and a field of energy appeared in front of his face, it shimmered like a mirage and when he moved his head it moved with it.
"Well, okay, try and direct the flow of mana over you, don't try and imagine it as a shield, the spellword will do that, just shape the flow of mana, imagine it like water, flowing over you."
Iatus tried to get the mana to flow and the hazy area seemed to spread out a little, then it started to drip down until it reached the floor and began to puddle around his feet.
"Okay... try imagining it like a bubble, feed the mana into it and make it grow."
Iatus did so and sure enough a haze began to expand out from him, taking Aelith along with it. The bird flapped and panicked and slid off the bubble, landing heavily on the floor. The bird ruffled its feathers and then flew off to sit on one of the book shelves.
"Very good, there you go, now try and increase the flow without expanding the bubble, make it thicker and stronger. You will need to practice that on your own. The other key spellword is Ero. Ero is the most basic attack spell, it is basically a ball of pure mana fired at someone. Niana, get out one of the dummies."
The door at the back of the hall opened as if by itself and a straw dummy began to wander out. It settled a few meters away.
"Now, say Ero and direct your mana at the dummy."
Iatus' first shot was no bigger than a spark, going no more than a meter.
"Little more power."
Iatus frowned in concentration and extended out his hand, showing his palm to the dummy, and repeated the spell, a giant ball of sizzling white energy shot from his palm about the size of a head. It crashed into the dummy, splitting it in two and sending straw into the air.
"Well, that was easy," Claudius mused, looking at his broken dummy.
Iatus made a bashful face and Aelith returned to his shoulder.
"You can work on the manaball tonight in here for a few hours and then you will have to work on the shield tonight."
Iatus nodded, "Thank you, sir."
Claudius nodded back, "Just make sure you beat Capitus tomorrow. An official duel hasn't been seen in a while so the arena will undoubtedly be packed, and remember, duels here are to first blood drawn, so be prepared. Although many spell don't draw blood until they kill you, so watch out, Capitus knows that there is no penalty for killing you in a fair duel and he will if he can."
Iatus swallowed and Claudius left him with the dummies.
When he returned to his rooms Ava had already heard and came out with a thousand questions as soon as he entered the room.
"Who does Capitus think he is? How did you get yourself into this? Why didn't you say no? Where have you been? How are you going to beat a demon that size?"
Iatus waved her away, "Firstly, by getting some sleep."
Ava swallowed her next question and went back to her room.
Iatus turned and went off to bed himself, also wondering how this had happened so quickly.