Gralgra and Selia stood three yards apart. Gralgra hadn't spoken during their previous encounter in the streets. She stood seven feet tall, oiled leathers glistening in the sun. The auroch beastkin's horns curved forward, looping around to her fierce smile like a rams. In her massive brown furred hands was a pole fil, eight feet of hardwood held aloft a two foot ntern of solid iron, glowing with Illutair's radiance.

  Selia stood in a slight crouch wings unfurled, greatsword drawn in a 'plow' guard, holding the bde close to her brilliant steel armored waist. The symbol of Ultar, a scale, prominent upon her chest. Her tail low to the ground.

  "BEGIN" Havn squealed in joy.

  Gralgra advanced, bellowing a deep throaty ugh. As the rger woman with a rger weapon, her pole fil, she had several feet of reach compared to Selia's greatsword.

  Gralgra shifted her hips and small cow's tail, transferring the force from the small movement up into the polearm, swinging down towards the crook of Selia's neck.

  Selia slid back, her wings pushing against the air, letting the polearm pass in front of her uncontested. Gralgra stutter-stepped forward and swung again, using the momentum of the original swing to continue her advance. This time Selia struck out, spping the shaft of the polearm with her false edge, pushing it out and down the centerline and stepped in for a strike to the head with the true edge. Gralgra half-stepped away from the slice, pulled her core in and brought the polearm's shaft back horizontally towards the dragon's horned head.

  CLANG!

  Bodies flew apart, having both struck true at the same time. They kept their bance, but were each pushed back a step.

  "SIMUL!" Havn squealed once more.

  It was a short brutal bout. Each swing, if it nded, would have been lethal if not for their armor and their magical protections.

  They reset their positions, waiting for another signal.

  "BEGIN"

  Gralgra stepped forwards, swinging their pole fil in small short arcs. Selia's left cw grabbed the bde of her sword towards the middle and bashed the fil's head. Pushing the bind, Selia advanced as Gralgra retreated. Twisting her arms, Selia brought the false edge of the sword into the back of Gralgra's neck and swept her foot, toppling the rger woman to her knees, dirtying the leather in the sand.

  "SUBMISSION: Selia seven, Gralgra four, twenty-five ties"

  "How can they safely fight each other? What happened?"

  "Use your mage-sight, notice the that bubble of magic around both their weapons. They're padded to reduce the force. They also have protection magic to transfer the force from the head to the entire body."

  Vicktor turned on his mage-sight and saw that it was true. A rigid bubble existed on both their weapons and armor, extending outside their red auras.

  There identical auras. Looking around Vicktor saw that they all had identical auras expect for the a few orange auras –the instructors.

  He gestured towards them and noticed that his only aura was incredibly simir to theirs. A confused face formed as Nora answered the question on the tip of his tongue. His headache building, he dropped his sight.

  "They don't advance the same way we do. The gods grant it to them all once instead of progressively. Kill enough sewer slimes and your god instantly makes you ten times stronger than you were a minute ago. It's basically cheating in my opinion" Nora mented.

  Ar responded, "It's got some very weaknesses and specificities th–"

  "WHATS UP ATHEISTS WANNA FIGHT?!"

  Selia and her group had obviously noticed them.

  Victor responded quickly, "Sure, we'll need some protection though, we already know about you and SPUNK."

  The red flush on her face caused his feeling of uselessness to quickly evaporate.

  Maybe he did need a rival? Someone to spur him on...

  "State your terms, nonbeliever."

  "It's a bit more complicated than that, I'll tell you when you're older."

  He sighed. Tapping his staff on the ground a few times.

  "Isn't the concept of a duel between Chosen and Mages a little useless as an actual comparison of battle effectiveness? Only adaptability in combat. You five–"

  He pointed at the assembled Chosen.

  "Should have no idea what me and my friends are capable of besides her bow and his wings. I have no idea what boons you have, only your weapons of choice. If you want to duel that's fine with me at least, but the outcome will highly depend on the rules of engagement."

  "It's about honor" Selia shifted her greatsword to rest on her armored shoulder. "Plus I want to fight the brand new Mage who arrived in my city. Did you know that the only things on your report are from the academy, the rest is redacted?"

  "Did they redact my enormous manhood or are you still looking for my spunk?" The girl reddened easily. Gods she was cute...

  Red, but undeterred, she shot back, "I agree to the duel."

  He paused, resting his hand on his chin, considering.

  "You and I first, Selia. Then my group versus your group. The loser of our bout pays for dinner and the loser of the group bout pays for drinks."

  "DEAL" The woman shouted after her compatriots nodded.

  "So it is settled. However, I have an additional wager, my spunky friend. If I can restrain you, you will wear my spunk around your neck in a jar. I can do something simirly demeaning if you can restrain me."

  "Pervert! I am going to beat you!"

  "Yes, it's in that redacted part of the file. Your grandmother is in there too by the way." It was only technically correct, she had the ability to remove him from the city if she wished, so her consent of his presence might have been in the report.

  "Aurelia runs the city, it's not really a surprise!"

  She paused, reddened slightly, then smiled deviously.

  "If I restrain you, you'll tell me everything that's redacted in your report."

  "It's a date then." Vicktor grinned "I need a set of protective enchantments, can't tell you my secrets if I'm dead."

  Selia walked off, her cute scaly tail swinging in the light breeze. He respectfully looked for a few moments longer then turned to his friends.

  "How fucked am I?" Vicktor said to both of them.

  "I wonder if your date with Selia will end up on your record." Nora joked.

  "I hope you win, it's a little annoying that you have seemingly two big secrets that you haven't told us. I don't like her knowing before us. I know you had that conversation with Princep Talia, but..." Ar trailed off.

  "If I lose that much. IF. I'll tell you the childhood one. The other secret needs to stay hidden for a little longer. It's important enough where she will keep it a proper secret if I lose."

  "Vicktor, that doesn't help as much as you think it does. But go kick her ass. You keep staring at it after all."

  "Hey it's a nice tail, she's got great nice wings too"

  The stood in silence for a few moments then he heard a voice to his right.

  "Put this on" a grinning Selia forced a pendant into his hand. "Put some mana into it and it will distribute all force equally around you. You still might break some bones from how that force gets applied, but you are exceptionally unlikely die."

  The four walked over to a free section of the arena and Vicktor attached the pendant around his neck. Several onlookers wandered over to watch the unusual fight. A total of 20 people, including two healers.

  Vicktor fred his mage-sight and push a small amount of mana into it.

  With the mage-sight on, he was able to see the bubble of protection extend from his neck to his extremities. His vision was lighted obscured by the semi-transparent bubble. He noticed that familiar tail and wings saunter to the other side of the arena, tracing her lovely form in a solid red light. As the nausea began to overtake him, he cut the magic to the inscriptions.

  "BEGIN!"