Bravely Battling Breadhead By Broom

By the time we near the end of class, Longstraw has moved on to the combat applications of broom riding. I guess given that some monsters can fly, travel isn’t the only thing brooms are important for.

“Now, before we wrap up, I thought it’d be fun to have ourselves a lil’ demonstration. I’d like for two students to take to the skies and try their best to knock each off their brooms. However, we don’t have a healer on hand, so no using magic that will cause your opponent harm… at least, not much. Any volunteers?”

We all step back.

Maybe she’s not so different from her father.

“Oh don’t be a bunch of babies! I may cut it close, but I promise I’ll catch the loser before they hit the ground.”

We all take another step back…

…well, almost all of us.

A tall, well-built wizard in silver ball earrings steps forward with a cocky smile. He’s got dark eyes, angular eyebrows, and a chiseled face, but—while I hate to be mean—all of that is totally betrayed by a ridiculous hairstyle that makes it look like a giant purple loaf of bread hanging off his head.

“Tell ya what. Make this an official duel and you can count me in—I could use the ranking boost. No weaklings though. Only another 3rd Order.”

“I can do that,” Hilda replies. “Any other volunteers?”

Another step back.

“Alright, you’re twisting my arm here… but fine! Whoever wins gets no homework for the rest of the trimest—”

“Ooh! Me! Me! I’ll do it!” I jump forward.

Lucas whispers. “Nora, this class doesn’t have any homework the first trimester—they told us during orientation."

Oops.

“Uh, I’d like to rescind my—”

“Alright, we have our volunteers!” Hilda claps. “Fly twenty meters up, start ten meters apart, and on my mark, duel.”

We hop on our brooms and take to our positions.

“In accordance with the Summoner Code of Honor, I hereby witness this duel between Rocco Roll and Nora Littleroot. May their souls clash, and victory belong to the stronger will. Let the match…”

“This is my first duel, so I don’t really know how these things go, but I hope we have fun!” I smile.

He grins. “Oh, I will.”

…

Hm… not sure I like how he said that—

“Begin!"

“Woah!” I manage to avoid the brunt of a large blast of wind magic he immediately fires off, but even just being near it sends me tumbling through the air, barely clinging onto my broom. “Hey! I’m just a beginner! Shouldn’t you be—”

He charges straight at me, reciting one-word incantations as he fires off more wind magic.

“Eep!”

I try my best to dodge, but he continues knocking me around. Meanwhile, my wind magic, which is noticeably weaker than his, can’t land at all due to his nimble maneuvering.

This clearly isn’t his first time riding a broom.

Gradually, however, I get the hang of dodging all his attacks, bringing us to a stalemate.

“Alright, not bad, you’ve got moves.” He smirks. “But let’s see you avoid this.”

He summons a purple bipedal bird monster a little less than half my size. His plume looks like a mohawk, with yellow eyes and a gray beak curled into a mischievous grin. He has sizable wings, sharp taloned feet, and massive forearms and hands—with one holding a wooden club while the other holds a burlap sack filled with various belongings.

“Hey! No fair! She never said we could use summons! Mine can’t fly!”

“It’s a summoner duel, ain’t it? Maybe you should’ve thought things through a little before accepting!” He turns to his summon. “Flank her!”

His monster swoops in from the side and takes a swing at me with his club, barely missing. Surprisingly agile, his feathers must have the same mana-slick coating as any ordinary bird, allowing him to cut through the mana-dense air with ease.

“Hey! That could’ve hurt!” I yell.

He laughs. “It’s a duel, you pansy!”

Argh! Breadhead here’s really getting on my nerves!

Unfortunately, the ensuing onslaught of attacks is so oppressive I don’t even have the time to be angry. The duel quickly takes a turn for the worse as I’m forced to simultaneously avoid his wind magic and his monster taking pot shots at me from behind with his club or by firing hardened feathers at me.

Eventually though, his monster comes at me from above. It’s a bit hard to see with the sun glaring behind him, but I’ve finally got the chance to get a guaranteed shot on this monster. One well-placed boulder and he should be knocked out of commission!

However, as I raise my wand—

“Robberroc Magic: Pilfer!”

—it’s yoinked out of my hands by a small, condensed stream of wind magic Breadhead fires off.

I whip around. “No! My wand—”

His summon slams his club down on Broomalina, sending her spinning as I plummet toward the ground with a scream.

“See ya!”

The teacher starts to cast a spell to cushion my fall, and I cover my eyes. But right as I’m about to hit the ground—

Broomalina swoops in, rescuing me.

“Broomalina! You saved me!”

She rattles happily as I scratch her handle.

“He may have taken my wand, but I don’t think we’re out of this just yet.” I look up. “I think I’ve got an idea. Are you willing to follow my lead?”

She nods.

“Alright, let’s do this!”

We fly straight upwards at Breadhead, who immediately starts to dodge out of the way.

He taunts. “You’re gonna have to do better than—gah!”

I fire off a huge cloud of dust from Broomalina—right in his stupid face!

I soar into the sky as fast as I can, then just as I get as high as I need to go, I leap off Broomalina.

Breadhead, in a coughing fit, tries looking up at me through the dust in his eyes and the sun’s glare at my back.

“What are you?! Insane?!”

I’m not sure if he’s referring to the dust cloud, riding an autobroom, or willingly leaping off of my broom… but I guess it really doesn’t matter—

Because I’m currently hurtling toward him faster and faster as I fire off wind magic from my hands and feet.

He tries firing magic at me but between the dust, sunlight, and my smooth side-to-side dodging with short bursts of wind magic, he’s missing every shot.

“Ugh! Club her!”

His Robberroc comes at me from the side but just before he can hit me—

“Squawk!”

The Robberrroc lets out a pained cry as Broomalina slams into him at an off-angle.

“What?!” He watches his summon plummet to the ground.

Breadhead’s breadhead pivots back to me.

“Why you—agh!”

“See ya!”

By the time he looks back in my direction, I’m already crashing down on him, smacking him point-blank in the face with a blast of wind from my palm. He goes flying off his broom and toward the ground, just barely caught in time by a cushion of wind created by the teacher.

“And it looks like we have our winner!” she calls out.

As I descend to the ground, I’m met with clapping, as well as—

“Littleroot!” Longstraw shouts.

Uh oh, am I in troub—

“That was incredible! I can hardly believe that’s yer first time ridin’ a broom! And at the end there, how’d ya even manage to fly like that? A flight spell should be way beyond what a first year can manage.”

After explaining to her how I mix low level incantationless and wandless magic in order to fly, her smile widens even further.

“Remarkable! Have you given any thought to joinin’ the broom racin’ team? I’m the club advisor, and I’m tellin’ ya now—we’d love to have ya board!”

“Oh, I uh—”

“You gotta! A promisin’ young rider like you, I just know you’d go far!”

“I’ll, um… think about it.”

I hear a groan from behind me, and race over to Breadhead to offer him a helping hand.

He looks up.

I smile. “Thanks for making my first duel memorable. I had fun!”

He ignores me with a frustrated grumble and starts walking off.

“Wait! You still have my wand!”

With another grumble, he stomps back over and begrudgingly hands me my wand, before heading off again.

“Thanks, Breadhead!”

I immediately gasp and cover my mouth as the class giggles.

He turns around, one eye twitching. “What the hell did you just call me?”

“I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to be mean, I just… kinda already forgot your name.”

The class giggles again, and his face turns red. “Oh, you’re gonna regret picking a fight with me, Littleroot. This isn’t over. Not by a longshot.”

He storms off.

Uh oh. Whenever someone shouts ‘This isn’t over!’ and makes a dramatic exit, things haven’t exactly gone well for me.

“Nora!” Lucas snaps. “What was that? I asked you to stop drawing unwanted attention! How difficult of a request is that?”

“I… I'm sorry, Lucas. I didn't know any of this was gonna happen, I just… I wanted less homework so I could spend more time in the library and… with you.”

Lucas averts his eyes, his face turning slightly pink. “Just—just be more careful! Alright?”

“You’re not mad at me… are you?”

His expression softens. “Just… be more careful, will you? Please?”

I let out a sigh of relief, then smile. “Okay!”

Alright! No more drawing attention for the rest of the day! Should be easy enough…

Right?