As dangerous as that sounded, it actually made me more confident. If the whole idea was to project and deflect things from the cane, that meant we probably wouldn’t be using our attunements, which would significantly improve my odds.
“The rules are simple. Once we begin, you will commence firing at the team opposite you. You can attempt to deflect your opponents’ orbs with your own, or by activating your cane and physically knocking them out of the way. No offensive spells, this is cane practice. Your only weapons are the canes from the box. You can, however, use any defensive abilities at your disposal.”
He turned around, looking at the other side of the room. “You’re disqualified once you’re hit by three orbs. When that happens, step to the safety of the ring. The judges,” he pointed at the older students, “will remind you if you’ve taken three hits. I will be activating a barrier that will prevent any stray projectiles from exiting the battlefield and hitting bystanders.”
Teft began walking out of the field. “You’ll be scored both based on hits you land, deflections, and how long you last. Survival is the most important of the three.”
Lord Teft pointed to the boundary of a lane. “One last thing. You must remain in your lane until someone adjacent to you has been disqualified, at which point you may move if you chose. Oh, and if I didn’t make this clear enough before — you’re all starting at once.”
I stared blankly for a second after that line, picturing what was going to happen as soon as two lines of twenty students opened fire and began deflecting projectiles.
Utter. Chaos.
I should have guessed that Teft’s idea of dueling practice couldn’t possibly be as simple as a duel.
From the murmuring around me, I could tell that others shared my opinion. The student on my left was clinging to his cane like it was the last piece of driftwood in the ocean.
Oh, Patrick was on my right. That was good.
He nodded in acknowledgement when I noticed him, looking grim.
I was displeased when I realized that Marissa was on the opposite end of the field.
With defensive skills allowed, attunements like hers had an advantage. She could potentially deflect projectiles with a bare hand without needing to rely on a cane or her barrier. I didn’t know her personal capabilities, but some Guardians could cover their entire bodies in mana. If she could do that, she’d be practically invincible in this test.
I didn’t have much more time to assess the competition. Teft stepped out of the lines, knelt down, and muttered a few words. The lines behind us marking a rectangular field began to glow, illuminating the barrier he’d activated. There were no barriers between the lanes themselves, though.
The lanes implied that we were expected to start out by firing at the person directly across from us, but that wasn’t necessarily the best strategy. Most people would probably fixate on their direct “opponent” on the opposite side of the lane. Maybe I could get Marissa out early by taking her by surprise...
But I didn’t want to risk it. There were better gambles to make than trying to attack the strongest opponent immediately.
“Begin.”
The word was too soft to be an appropriate signal for the insanity that followed.
I didn’t bother trying to make a first strike. Instead, I shifted my feet into a dueling stance, presenting a smaller profile for my target. As he raised his cane and fired, I flicked the upper rune on my cane. The sharp pain that accompanied the activation indicated that it was taking more mana than my normal cane did, but that was to be expected.
I didn’t expect how quickly the glowing sphere would be coming at me, though.
It was slower than a dueling cane’s blast, certainly, but it wasn’t slow. I raised the cane to try to parry, but my reaction was stunted by the pain.
The sphere impacted harmlessly against the wall on my right, hopelessly off-target.
I was so relieved that I entirely missed the other sphere, coming from a completely different opponent. It was inches from hitting me when a blast from my right knocked it clear out of the way and into one of the sides of the arena.
I turned to my right, giving Patrick an incredulous look. He was already back to facing forward, in a dueling position of his own.
“Focus up, Corin. You can thank me later.”
I gritted my teeth, nodded, and slipped back into my dueling stance. I didn’t think I’d ever seen Patrick look so serious about anything — and if even he was taking this seriously, I had to do the same.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes for a moment, and then exhaled.
Mana glowed around me, almost blindingly bright — but with my attunement active, everything felt clearer, easier to take in. As the energies surged around me, I felt aware of the spheres that were coming my way, even if I couldn’t see them. With a simple flick of my wrist, I sent an incoming sphere out of my way... and directly into a team member on my left.
“Minus one point from Corin Cadence for friendly fire,” a student intoned behind me.
Resh.
The student that I’d hit rubbed at his arm, giving me a nasty look. Fortunately, it wasn’t someone I knew.
“Sorry!” I shouted. I meant it, too. I might have even blushed.
Okay, taking this seriously, step two. No more hitting my team.
My direct opponent fired another projectile at me, this time much more accurately. I stepped to the side, firing a sphere at the floor inches in front of him. Just as I suspected, the floor was charged with mana to prevent it from being damaged. The sphere bounced off of that mana and right into my opponent’s chest.
He had a look of utter shock as it slammed into him, staggering back a step at the impact.
Before he’d recovered, I’d fired three more orbs. Taking turns? Please.
There were no turns in war.
Of my three newly-fired spheres, only one connected with him. I deflected another two from other opponents in the meantime, sending them as close to my opponent as I could, but failing to get them quite at the right angle.