Lucien vs Axel

Stone shattered and wood splintered as Axel fought me in a reckless frenzy. In this dungeon he could go all out, not caring how many walls or floors we destroyed in the process.

Despite his aggressive assault, he didn't seem intent on killing me. Like he had announced he was just testing me, making sure his attacks would be something I could handle and observing my reactions.

I'm not sure how my combat skills relate to my relationship with Lily though.

As easy as it would be for the demon lord, I didn't think I should kill him either. That would be tough to explain back outside. Instead, I focused on keeping up with his attacks. The downside was that he kept amping up the intensity whenever he realized I was able to keep up.

He easily deflected a series of fireballs I threw at him with his spear, then noticed his left leg was encased in ice. Before I had a chance to take advantage of the opening, he threw his spear straight at me with enough strength to pierce through at least three walls behind me after I just barely dodged by jumping to the side. Before I managed to get back up, he recalled his spear, one of the few spells he did master.

He shattered the ice and rushed at me right as I got on my feet. With lightning speed, he stabbed at me several times. I was able to raise barriers of ice to stop his attack, each one shattering a barrier only for me to put up a new one.

His attacks were coming faster and faster, until he somehow noticed the looming threat of a large boulder I had created above him, aiming to crush him with its weight. I expected he would destroy it, giving me an opening to attack him directly. Instead, he disengaged and jumped backwards to get out of the boulder's trajectory.

The heavy mass of stone crashed into the already weakened floor, which started to crumble. A hole opened up, and we fell into a large cavern below. Even as we were falling, Axel didn't stop his assault. He jumped off the falling debris in such a way that allowed him to get close enough to attack me while also sending him on a trajectory that let him reach the next chunk of falling rock.

Just like in my duel against Seraphine I used bursts of wind magic to alter my trajectory and narrowly dodge his attacks. Eventually we both landed on the floor of the cavern. It was dark, only illuminated by chunks of wood that fell with us from the ruins above, set ablaze by the heat and friction of our impact.

“Not bad, Draivelle, I can see how you managed to beat Goldy-boy.” Axel said, his weapon was still drawn.

“Thanks,” I said, not sure how to respond to the sudden compliment. Then I had a realization. “Wait…where are we?”

Despite his hot-headed nature, Axel still realized what a problem getting lost would be. He immediately put his weapon aside and pulled out the map. “Hold on, let me check.”

After a bit of searching, he claimed to have found the room we were in. I was surprised he found it so quickly, our fight had taken us through several rooms and across floors, and it didn't seem like he was keeping track. I looked at the map and the room he pointed out, and I understood.

This...isn't even close...This guy can't read a map.

Not only were we lost, but we probably have been since long before our duel even started. Finding our way back would be a chore and a half. I was about to explain it to him and suggest that we use the teleportation stone to return to safety, but we suddenly heard two voices.

“…and another thing, when you're the one casting the light spell, you'll need to maintain it even if a bat is flying into your face!” It was unmistakably Seraphine. "Especially when I'm fighting off a giant lizard!"

Coming from one of the adjacent tunnels was a flicker of light that rapidly grew brighter. Soon after, I saw Lily, who held a small orb of light in her hands that she was using to illuminate the tunnel. She saw us, battered and bruised and stopped dead in her tracks. Axel immediately acted like nothing was out of the ordinary and just threw her a casual "'sup?".

Seraphine followed Lily and was just as surprised to see us. “Lucien? Lord Rozwald? What are you doing here? I thought this field trip was designed so that the teams wouldn't meet?”

Axel just pointed upwards to the collapsed ceiling. "We came from up there. Floors kinda brittle in these parts."

Lily looked at her feet worried that the floor might give out at any moment, while Seraphine inspected the collapsed ceiling for a moment. Then she just sighed and then pinched the bridge of her nose. "Whatever, I had a bad enough time as it is, I don't even want to bother with how you two idiots managed to mess up this badly."

Lily smiled, her usual optimism shining through. “Well, we're together now. The more the merrier, right?”

I'd rather not team up with Lily, but at least we won't have to worry about being lost anymore.

“Right.” I agreed. “We should probably stay together. It'd be safer.”

We started moving again, this time as a four-man group. With more people, the dungeon's trials were not much more than a nuisance, giving me some time to talk with Seraphine.

“Just how much of a hard time did you have down here?” I asked, curious as to how they had been doing before meeting us.

“More than you know.” she replied. "Is it too much to ask of someone not to scream every single time something pops out of the shadows? This is a dungeon, not the Royal gardens! How did she even get into this school?" she complained. I nodded understandingly. She sighed and added: "You owe me. Big time."

We kept moving, Axel would clear the way and Lily handled the navigation. Seraphine and I mostly stayed in the back. Things were going smoothly until suddenly Lily screamed.