Quill started towards the field.

  “Don't lose now.” Rhena smacked his back. It was a gesture of good luck. Rognor pumped his chest with his fist, while Narrah nodded.

  Quill sighed. He didn't really need it. He was a lich with centuries of knowledge, and despite having the equivalent of only one month's practice, more than capable of defeating the human over the long term.

  The two suns had settled over the castle heads, leaving the last of light to shed on the sky with the shadow looming over the courtyard. Many of the windows from the castle walls flickered orange lights, and the lampposts beside the stage guided Quill's eyes as Gerald started from the other side of the crowd.

  Quill yawned. It had already been a long day. He couldn't wait to take a nice warm bath and drop dead in the academy dorms.

  “Would you indulge me in a bet?” Quill shook Gerald's hand.

  Gerald blinked before he laughed. “A gold coin then.”

  Quill nodded before he turned and started for his side of the field. On the wooden stage was the Chancellor, Kael, staring at him with a half-amused expression. Quill pretended not to notice before he stopped and turned again to cast Scripts for the Marble Puppets.

  The rules were different for Summoners and Arcanists. To give the special Archetypes an even chance at showcasing their magic, they were allowed specific advantages to summon their familiars before the start of the match. Quill used the opportunity to summon his Puppets, the White symbols over the air, casting a faint light over his skin.

  Within an appropriate time, he was able to complete it before he then pushed his mana to the Scripts. Eating away half of his manapool, the air in front of him stirred and bent, contorting the very space it had taken before chunks of solid white materialized and compacted to form the Marble Puppets, revealing the two Constructs Pen and Notebook with their spears high in the air.

  Their White outlines steamed along the edges, a seeming heat licking the air around the armor, and all around, murmurs passed along the crowd.

  “A White Summoner.” One of the voices said. “First time I’m seeing one.”

  “It’s cheap magic.” Another said. “He won't win against Gerald.”

  “Want to bet on that?”

  Even Kael looked impressed at the display of Quill's Marble Puppets. It wasn't every day to witness a White Aspect mage, and it was all the rarer to see a White Aspect Summoner.

  Quill stared as Gerald finished his Scripts too. He was casting his own summons. Water flowed from his palms before gushing out like a rushing river, coalescing into a ball around a center before it then stirred into a faint outline of an Elemental, a giant water creature shaped like a humanoid slime.

  It was obvious that Gerald was a Summoner. That would be anyone's guess the moment he called his Water Elemental, but Quill had to take into account dual Archetypes. It wasn't common to see mages specializing in many Archetypes, especially at the low rank of Iron, but as he’d seen before from Elarah, it wasn't impossible.

  Quill himself was a Summoner-Caster, after all.

  “Your Constructs look good.” Gerald shouted over the distance.

  “You like them?” Quill shouted in turn. Of course, they weren't just good–they were . He’d devoted an entire month to these Puppets, and he had to prove their worth here.

  Quill could hear the beating of his heart, excitement boiling under his skin as the crickets chirped under the grass. When the sound of the bell finally rang, he then shared a single command to the Marble Puppets.

  Pen and Notebook stirred, advancing with fast steps right for the Elemental. It was a straight fight between Quill's Puppets and Gerald's Elemental.

  The Constructs marched over the grass before they met in the middle of the field, staring each other down before the Elemental was first to strike. It reared and rammed down, its slime-like arms splashing against the dirt, shaking the very earth, but Pen and Notebook were fast to dodge and flank the giant along its sides.

  Pen swiped its spear to the Elemental’s calf, scooping a large amount of water to topple the Elemental to its knee while Notebook took the chance to thrust forward, piercing right through the downed giant, aiming straight for the pseudo-Core inside its chest.

  Quill grinned as he watched. He had improved the Puppets ‘movement’ Scripts after the fight with the Sporeghouls, and they really were making the most of it with their Marble Brain. Compared to their first fight in the sewers, each step and move here was intentional and purposeful, almost replicating a trained soldier now.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  It was still far from what Quill had envisioned for them at their best, but it was a good baseline for the next Puppets to come.

  A sound like an underwater drum shook the air. Pen’s spear found its way on the Elemental's chest. The pseudo-Core inside shook and cracked, the water around failing to maintain form only for a second before the Elemental soon recovered and reshaped its body.

  It then lashed its giant hand, rearing straight for Notebook before it bowed low and barely dodged the strike. The Elemental was fast enough to hit the Puppets, but its arm barely grazed the Marble Armor’s side. That would've been a devastating blow to any normal summon, but for a Marble Puppet like Notebook, it would take more than a graze to break its armor.

  Quill ordered Notebook through the Mana Link, his order taking precedence over its own Marble Brain. The Puppet followed with no delay, turning to stand as a crack showed itself on his Marble Armor. It was bad to have Notebook stand here when he was injured, and Gerald had seen that, but it was only a bait. Quill gave a different order to Pen, and as soon as the Elemental turned and rammed its watery fist straight for Notebook, Pen struck its spear right over the Elemental’s chest.

  The Elemental toppled before dropping again with a knee, its pseudo-Core cracking and breaking against the spear. All this time, Quill was staring at Gerald, and something was telling him that he was commanding the Elemental with nothing but raw orders instead of creating a pseudo-brain for his Elemental. That was why Quill was going to win.

  But the look on Gerald’s face made it clear that he wasn't one to back down.

  When the Water Elemental’s pseudo-Core cracked for the final time, its shape then deformed before all the body of water dropped to the ground in a lifeless puddle. The Elemental couldn't contain its shape any longer, and the Puppets had won their first fight against another Construct.

  But Gerald wasn’t done yet. He stirred and wrote another few Scripts in the air, his eyes aiming at Pen and Notebook. Quill returned with another set of Scripts, readying a White Ball to his side, but Gerald had been faster.

  Quill was foolish to think that Gerald was just going to stand there and accept his loss.

  Balls of water coalesced around Gerald, a halo of raindrops stirring around him before they then zipped through the air, their spherical body deforming to a thin arrow-like projectile. They struck Pen and Notebook, pounding on them like metal rain, and that was when their Marble Armor finally cracked. Steam hissed from the cracks, slithering like tongues before another torrent of water balls struck them.

  “You’re a Caster, then.” Quill struck the canvas of his Scripts before two White Balls warped around him. They shook with energy, and with a gesture of his hand, he sent them flying towards Gerald. The man, in turn, used a Quickscript to summon a shield of ice around him, barely cracking with the strike from Quill's barrage of White Balls.

  “You'd better ready your coin, Fenith.” Gerald cast another set of water balls, sending them reeling to Pen and Notebook again. The two Puppets attempted to dodge the volley, but they were much slower than the projectiles. The rain struck and pierced their armor, steam erupting as their body broke apart, and it was only a matter of time until their Marble Heart would fail.

  Quill needed to act fast. His Puppets alone couldn't win him this fight. If he was honest with himself, he was still a step down the ladder compared to Gerald’s level as a Caster. His White Balls couldn't do anything to Gerald's ice shield, and they were in every way inferior to his water barrage.

  There was nothing left to do aside from using his head.

  Quill squinted over the field. Through the hazy steam produced from the Puppets’ heat and Gerald's rain, it was hard to see Gerald right now, but the fading light from the sun bore his shadow through it. Finally, an idea swept over Quill's head.

  He had used it before with the guards, and he was willing to do so again. The White Balls were still on the ground, fully formed and waiting, before he then commanded the White Balls to strike again. Gerald turned, taking his attention to cast the Quickscript of his ice shield to protect himself.

  The White Balls had failed to hit him, deflected again by the thick ice. But that wasn't what Quill was hoping for.

  He pushed off his feet and pierced through the steam between them.

  He slid his knife from his Holder to his hand. He only needed to close the gap, and Gerald was only a few meters away from where he was, but like his failed surprise, it wasn’t going to be easy. Gerald used another Quickscript to ready another volley of water balls before sending them flying straight to him.

  Quill grinned. The knife was just another catch, a way to draw Gerald's attention. The water balls launched, reeling straight for him like rain, and although he didn't know the Quickscripts to cast White Sphere around to protect him, he didn't need to. He cast the spoken Scripts of White Application right against the air, producing a blinding light that plummeted Gerald's accuracy before Quill then dropped down to the ground low, dodging the water balls.

  He then murmured the spoken Scripts for White Reversal, applying it directly with a palm to the ground beneath. Unlike Black Application, White Reversal was a fast deconstruction of creation itself. The ground below shook before it cracked, shaking the very earth below Gerald's feet to sweep him off his footing.

  That was all Quill ever wanted.

  He lunged through the steam, knife held high before he then rammed it straight for Gerald's chest. Gerald rolled over the ground to dodge, sending dust flying before he then countered with a fist, but Quill was faster to cut off his strike before he slid his knife again.

  Gerald blocked. Quill struck again. Gerald tried to push off the ground to gain footing, but every time he did, Quill only cut him off with a push to his shoulder. No one could’ve imagined a Summoner to be useful in melee combat, and yet here he was. In the flurry of hands, Quill finally found a chance to strike.

  He wasn't going to miss the opportunity.

  He dove past Gerald's hands, blocking and splitting them to the side before he slid his blade straight through Gerald's veil of Protection. The break of the spell sent them both tumbling back, rolling over dust and dirt, but that only meant one thing.

  Quill coughed and pushed off the ground with a dry spit. Through the dust clouds, he could hardly see anything. He could only hear the crowd around the field, whispering and talking and shouting, calling out with a strange conflict, almost as if there was an argument.

  When the clouds finally lifted, he could only see Gerald on the other side. He was standing on the broken ground with a defeated look.

  Quill had won.

  Thanks for reading!