Redgrave Versus Stonefield

Lucas makes another stupid face at me, and I can’t help but giggle as I shove his shoulder. “Stop it! You’re so not funny.”

I glance over at Petra, who’s got a massive grin plastered across her face.

“Petra, what’s with you?” I ask. “Why do you keep staring at us?”

“Oh, nothing. I just can’t help but notice how much closer you two seem after the last match.”

Realizing what she’s implying, my heart skips a beat and I grab my chest. My breathing quickens as heat rushes to my face. I look over at Lucas, but he avoids my gaze the instant our eyes meet—which just makes me feel even more self-conscious and confused.

I turn back to Petra, who's grinning even wider. “P-Petra! You—I’m rooting for Arthur now! I hope you lose!”

“No, you don’t—I know you love me. I’m very lovable.”

“Yeah, well, that may be true, but I, uh—ugh! Fiddlesticks!”

“Nora! Language!” Jane reprimands.

I gasp and throw my hands over my mouth. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it, I swear!”

“You’re too precious for this world, Nora, you know that?” Petra teases.

“Leave the poor girl alone, Petra,” Jane scolds.

“Alright, alright. I’m just kidding around. Let me go kick pretty boy’s butt real quick so we can have ourselves a rematch. That fine by you?”

“...Yeah. Okay. Good luck, Petra.”

“Luck?” Petra scoffs. She throws her club over her shoulder and heads toward the center of the arena. “You don’t need luck when you’ve got skill!”

As Arthur heads for the center too, I use perception aura to augment my hearing and listen in on their exchange.

“If you’ve got real skill, you don’t need a summon either.” Arthur remarks.

“Alright everyone,” Super Grandpa addresses the crowd. “It’s time for the penultimate match—Petra Redgrave versus Arthur Stonefield!”

The crowd roars with excitement.

Petra smirks. “Don’t tell me you’re just a pretty face. Surely you’ve got enough brainpower to understand that we are summoners, right? Summon’s literally in the name.”

“Sure, a necessary evil for slaying large hordes, but small fry? Hardly needed.”

Petra’s eye twitches. “I’m sorry, I must be misinterpreting you. It sounded like you just implied I’m not a threat.”

“How about I make things clearer? Your boorish behavior is unbecoming of a summoner, and I don’t need my dragon to take down you nor that ogre of yours. You showed promise at the start of the trimester, but you’ve let Nora fill your head with nonsense, and now you foolishly galavant around with your monster like it’s some sort of fellow warrior.

“The whole lot of you are a disgrace. Lucas with his dishonorable contraptions, the brown-haired girl and her aggressive mediocrity, Nora and her backward attitude toward monsters. You’ve let them make you weak. So now I’m afraid I’m going to have to knock some sense into you the same way I did with Nora back in the cave."

“...You did what?”

Petra whips around toward me and immediately catches the guilty look on my face. She turns back to Arthur.

“I’m gonna beat you to a bloody pulp.”

He turns and walks back toward his position. “You can certainly try.”

“GRAH!” Petra smashes the ground with her club, leaving a small crater.

“Petra!” I call to her. “Don’t listen to him, he’s trying to rile you up! You have to stay calm!”

She heads into position, takes a deep breath… then turns to me and flashes a reassuring smile.

Guess I was worried over nothing. The old Petra would’ve attacked him before the match even began for all that smack talk. It makes me proud to see how much she’s come.

…

Come on Petra. You can win this. I know you can.

Petra points her club at Arthur with a smirk. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

Arthur takes a low stance, shield raised. “Let’s.”

“Let the match… begin!”

Petra charges alongside Pepper, weaving between the fireballs Arthur sends flying their way. Once they close the distance, Petra swings at him from the front while Pepper leaps overhead, bringing his club crashing down from above.

Arthur sidesteps, flawlessly parries Petra’s attack with his shield, then catches Pepper as he lands and throws him over his shoulder. Arthur rolls with Pepper, carrying the ogre’s momentum through the roll.

“Flashburst!”

A point-blank explosion sends Pepper flying into a wall with a pained grunt.

Petra growls. “You’ll pay for that!”

CLANG!

Their weapons clash, and the two launch into an incredible one-on-one duel.

Arthur is 3rd Order in offensive and defensive aura, but only 1st in speed and perception.

Petra is 3rd Order in offensive aura and 2nd in everything else.

“Ogre Magic: Red Rush!”

Petra pushes her senses and speed even higher. If she’s going to stand any chance of beating Arthur, she’ll need to outmaneuver him and land fierce, well-timed counter attacks…

At least, that’s what I thought.

Despite Petra’s superior speed and perception aura, Arthur’s skill with a sword and shield is so immense that he’s able to completely close the gap—

Actually, worse than that.

He’s gaining ground on her.

Without a single misstep, Arthur blocks every one of her attacks, answering with small, calculated stabs and slashes whenever an opening presents itself. Nothing flashy. Nothing strong enough to pierce her defensive aura. Just enough to methodically whittle her down while conserving far more stamina and mana than she is.

Even an amateur like me can tell how incredible his technique is.

I can’t believe this guy’s a first-year.

He fights like a veteran.

Petra managed to grab his shield and yank it aside, opening him up to an overhead strike with her—

He kicks her in the stomach, sending her reeling back.

“Sloppy,” Arthur comments

Petra grins. “We’re just getting started!”

“GRAH!”

Pepper—now back in action—brings his club crashing down from behind. Arthur twists aside, avoiding the brunt of the blow, but his foot slips as he steps away.

Petra immediately capitalizes, landing a clean hit. His defensive aura absorbs most of the damage, but not all of it.

“Hmph. Lucky shot. It won’t happen again.”

Petra and Pepper attack from opposite sides, hammering Arthur with alternating blows. He still manages to evade any damage, but now he’s burning through mana much faster, forced to react on instinct rather than meticulously read and respond to each attack.

Petra and Pepper may not share the same kind of emotional ink Pudding and me do—but they’re still fighting almost perfectly in sync. After dueling together countless times, they’ve learned each other’s fighting habits inside and out.

And their rhythm is only getting better as the fight drags on.

Eventually, Arthur slips up. Petra and Pepper each land a well-timed blow, and his sword and shield slip from his hands.

Petra immediately seizes the opening.

“Ogre Magic—”

Petra and Pepper wind up in perfect sync and swing.

“Polar—”

As their clubs near each other, they suddenly accelerate, snapping together like magnets.

“—Crush!”

Smashed between their clubs, Arthur—

My stomach sinks as I realize he dropped his weapons on purpose.

As the clubs clamp down on him, Arthur floods mana into his defenses and detonates an explosion from his body. At the same time, he pivots and jumps, twisting free at the last second—catching Petra and Pepper completely off guard.

Their clubs snap together beneath him, momentarily unable to be separated.

Arthur pushes off the joined clubs and backflips behind Pepper. Still upside down, he fires explosion magic directly at Pepper’s head from point-blank range.

BOOM!

Pepper goes flying into Petra, sending both of them tumbling across the arena.

Arthur immediately charges after them.

Pepper slides across the ground, completely spent, but Petra lands on her feet. From the look on her face, she’s still got plenty of fight left in her—even with her back against the wall…

Literally.

Arthur closes in to finish the fight, but Petra whips out her wand.

She fires boulder after boulder at his head with short, one-word incantations, putting everything I taught her into practice. However, Arthur raises his shield and blocks them all effortlessly without slowing down.

As Arthur closes in on her, he starts lowering his shield.

“It’s time to end this—”

SPLAT!

Arthur stops dead, his feet caught in a puddle of adhesive slime from a bomb Petra threw while he was blocking—courtesy of Lucas and Pudding.

“I couldn’t agree more!”

“Ogre Magic: Blood Wager!”

Petra floods her weapon with mana, Blood Wager dramatically raising the amount she can channel into a single attack—at the cost of rapidly draining her vitality. After watching Arthur shrug off one of her strongest attacks, she knows this is the only way she can win.

With the attack fully charged, she unleashes her final gambit.

“Ogre Magic: Heaven Splitter!”

Far larger than the one from our own duel, a massive crimson wave of energy crashes toward Arthur, still trapped in the slime. Panic flashes across his face, and right as the attack is about to hit—

A giant shadow falls over the arena.

“Dragon Magic: Gale Wing.”

The attack tears through the arena, but when it hits the barrier and dissipates… there’s no Arthur.

Petra’s eyes dart around “What?! Where did he—”

She starts to look up, but it’s too late.

Arthur dives from the sky, a terrifying black dragon looming above the arena behind him. He smashes into Petra with his shield, plunges his blade into her chest, and unleashes a point-blank explosion from his shield.

Petra lies battered against the wall. She tries to get up, but coughs blood.

Petra!

Arthur gets off her. “I take back what I said about you being weak. You’re the first person who’s forced me to use my summon. You may take pride in that, though it doesn’t change the fact you’re still a fool for letting Nora sway you.”

He pulls out his sword, causing Petra to yelp in pain. But as he begins to walk away—

“You really have no idea who you’re up against, do you?” Petra laughs, coughing up more blood.

Arthur chuckles. “A little late to by hyping yourself up, no?”

“Not me. Nora. I may not be the smartest summoner, but I know this: Nora’s special. She sees the world in a way nobody else does. She draws in the people around her and always changes them for the better—even stubborn jerks like you. She’s gonna flip this whole society of ours right on its head, and there’s not a thing you’ll be able to do to stop it. Just you… wait and… see.”

Petra’s eyes close.

“And the winner is… Arthur Stonefield!”

Arthur de-summons his dragon and shakes his head as he walks away. “Ridiculous.”

I bang against the barrier and turn to gramps. “Please! You have to let me in there!”

“I’m sorry, Nora,” he replies, “But the barrier can’t be—”

With a burst of wind magic, I leap into the air and race through the stairwell and halls until I make it out to Petra.

“Petra! Petra! Are you alright?”

No response.

She’s hurt really bad.

Medical wizards rush over, stabilize her, and take her to the infirmary.

Furious, I take to the air and fly toward Arthur, skidding past him as I land and blocking his path before he can exit the arena.

“W-What’s wrong with you?!” I shout.

“What’s wrong with me? Monsters have plagued humans for centuries. They’ve killed millions of us, and you and your friends want everyone to lower their guards and make nice with them? Your ideas are poison. They’re a threat to the kingdom, and it’s my duty to put down any and all threats to the kingdom. Now move.”

“N-No!”

“Excuse me?”

“No! I’m tired of being scared of bullies! Of being told what I’m supposed to think! I know there’s a future where we don’t have to keep fighting, where humans and monsters can live together in peace, and summoners are the key! Monsters aren’t our tools, they’re our partners! And I’ll prove it to you! You think you and your big, strong dragon are so scary? Well, me and my ‘weak’ little slime are gonna kick your butts so hard you’ll have no choice but to acknowledge us!”

He shoves me aside and walks past me. “Empty words from a loud-mouthed fool.”

“I’ll burn it.”

He looks back. “What?”

“My monster encyclopedia. If you win, I’ll burn it. I’ll stop visiting the stables. I’ll stop researching monsters. I’ll give it all up. I’ll admit I was wrong and you were right, and I’ll stop spreading these ideas you hate so much. You can end all of this today. You have my word.”

“And what is it you want from me if I lose?”

“I don’t want a thing from you.”

His expression falters.

“I’m gonna prove you wrong even if it’s the last thing I do.”

The hesitation disappears from his face. He turns away and scoffs.

“I’ll hold you to that.”