Chapter 31
Null vs Silver
Friday arrived.
The duel hall was a separate space from the practice hall â€" formal, with
observation tiers on three sides and a floor that had mana-containment
enchantments built in to prevent spell damage to the structure. Standard
duels attracted small audiences. The word had gotten out about this one
and the observation tiers were at capacity.
A null result provisional against a Silver-rank second-year. The
audience was there to see what happened to the null result, and most of
them had already decided.
Cyan stood on his side of the floor and kept his right hand uncovered
for the first time in six weeks.
He'd thought about it carefully. The Mark was going to be visible
regardless once the duel started â€" he couldn't both use it and keep it
hidden. Better to have it visible from the start, on his terms, than to
have it appear midway through in a way that looked like he was hiding
it.
There was a murmur in the observation tier when people noticed it. He
let them notice.
Orris walked in with the particular ease of someone who had done this
many times and found it agreeable. He looked at Cyan, looked at the
Mark, and his expression did something small and quick that he covered
fast. Not quite reconsideration. More like a slight adjustment in
approach.
The faculty witness explained the rules. Standard duel: first to
incapacitation or forfeit. No killing spells â€" the containment
enchantments would absorb lethal-force outputs but the rule existed
regardless. Begin on the signal.
Orris didn't wait to see what Cyan would do. He opened with a
Silver-level Pyros burst â€" not his maximum output, a probing shot, the
kind you used to establish range and see how a new opponent moved.
Cyan didn't move.
The Pyros burst crossed the floor, hit his absorption radius, and
stopped.
The silence in the observation tier was immediate.
Orris looked at the space where his spell had been. His expression
shifted from controlled to calculating.
He tried Aeros next â€" a pressure wave, the kind designed to knock an
opponent off balance rather than deal direct damage. It hit Cyan's
radius and fragmented, the kinetic mana dissolving into his palm in
pieces.
Cyan stood on his side of the floor and felt the Silver-rank mana
feeding into him and did the specific mental work of holding it rather
than releasing it, building pressure rather than spending it, because
the pressure was the point.
Orris switched tactics. He came forward â€" if the ranged spells weren't
working, close range was the logical response, where a Silver-rank mage
with combat training had overwhelming physical and mana advantages over
an untrained provisional.
He got within three meters before Cyan pushed.
Not a spell. Not a shaped cast. Just a raw push of the accumulated
absorbed mana â€" Orris's own spells, weeks of practice hall residue, the
ambient mana of the duel hall itself â€" directed outward from his palm in
an unfocused burst.
The burst hit Orris like a wall.
It wasn't elegant. Vael would have had notes. But it was approximately
two weeks of compressed Silver-rank mana output released in one second,
and it hit Orris center mass and took his legs out completely.
He went down.
The faculty witness waited the standard five seconds for him to rise. He
didn't rise.
'Match concluded,' the faculty witness said. His voice was entirely
professional. His expression was not.
The observation tier was completely silent.
Cyan walked to the edge of the floor and picked up his glove and pulled
it on. He didn't look at the observation tier. He didn't look at Orris
on the floor. He walked to the exit.
In the corridor outside, Dain was leaning against the wall because he
hadn't been able to get a seat in the observation tier and had watched
through the doorway.
'That,' Dain said, 'was either very smart or very stupid and I genuinely
can't tell which yet.'
'Both, probably,' Cyan said.
He kept walking.