Chapter 12 — Lucas vs Nicholas, Roland vs Gerald

Lucas POV's

I couldn’t feel our vice-captain’s mana anymore. Did she lose? Did Artemisia beat her?

Dude… I’ve gotta check this out.

I tracked the last place I sensed her magic and saw Artemisia there—so yeah, Selena lost. I needed to get out of there.

Walking away, I spotted Nicholas—our rival vice-captain from Eryndor.

Alright… time to throw down.

I tried zapping him with a lightning spell, but he noticed me and dodged immediately.

“Oh? That’s Lucas Cyrus, isn’t it?” he asked like he knew me.

“Yep, that’s me—Lucas Cyrus.”

“Want to duel?” I tried.

“Sure. But let’s eat first—I brought snacks.”

Sounds fair.

---

After we ate, we spaced out for the duel.

“How about a signal, Lucas?”

“Hm... leaf falling to the ground?”

“Okay.”

I plucked a leaf, dropped it. Once it hit the ground, we both fired spells.

He cast something big—I dodged. I threw lightning—I swear he dodged.

“Dude, stop dodging!” I yelled.

“You too, man!” he shot back.

We traded spells and dodged back and forth.

Then I thought of a sneaky move. I’d lure him into weakening his knees with minimal mana.

His spells went wide… perfect moment. I closed in and touched him—tag! I won.

“You cheated!” he protested.

“What cheating?” I replied.

We both laughed, okay?

“I won’t lose next time,” he said before vanishing.

Finally done. Time for a break… now what about the others?

---

Roland POV's

Just finished setting up a shield spell around our base. Gotta scout the area a bit.

“...This should hold, I think.” I mumbled.

I stepped out, and not long after, someone came charging straight at me—

Gerald Noctvale, the tank from Team Skystride.

Alright. Let’s throw hands.

He slammed into me. I held my ground. Counterattacked—he dodged, then smacked back.

Suddenly, boom—a giant wall of earth blocked my view.

Sneaky move, Gerald.

He came at me again, but I reflexively threw up a defense wall just in time.

We both stopped, locked eyes. Heavy tension.

I don’t know how long we stood like that, but something told me—

Next hit decides everything.

“Think you can tank my final move?” Gerald asked.

“No clue. But I’ll try.”

Then he pointed to the sky.

I looked up—and my brain short-circuited for a second.

Bro summoned a meteor.

LIKE, HELLO??? WHO DOES THAT???

No time to panic. I had to think. Fast.

But before I could do anything—

BOOM.

Something shattered the meteor midair.

That... that had to be the captain. Only he could pull off something like that.

Even after the explosion, shards rained down like magical hail.

“Yo, it exploded!” Gerald laughed.

I locked his movement so he couldn’t dodge. But turns out, he did the same to me.

Well played.

We just stood there, talking like old rivals, waiting for the fallout to hit.

As the shards hit us both, we looked at each other, nodded—mutual respect.

Then... our bodies faded.

---

I woke up inside Skystride’s base.

“Roland?!” someone called.

I turned around—

"Vice-Captain?!"

“What are you doing here? What happened to our base?”

“…Yeah, I got taken out. But I took down my opponent too,” I replied.

“I see…” she said softly.

“What about you? Who beat you?”

“…Artemisia.”

“…Dang.”

We both sat in silence for a bit. Then we talked.

And all we could do was hope our team was still hanging on out there.