Beatrice didn't understand the words that boomed out over the stands and the arena, but she recognized the Headmistress's voice. She was alone in the holding room, as Nova had gone up ahead to the stands to watch. The earth witch had the mental image of Nova sitting on the bleachers, her long legs crammed into the small space between the rows, with The Witches Three all around her looking down nervously at the arena. Adeline would be trying to keep their spirits high, while Hanan wouldn't blink from her nervousness, and Sascha would look dour at the whole thing. But Beatrice thought of Nova there, anxiously bouncing one leg, waiting for her.

The thought that Nova would be there, hoping for the best and watching her, gave Beatrice some strength. She clutched her wand tightly and tried to focus on the booming voice of the Headmistress.

"In an unprecedented turn of events, we have a duel between the scions of prominent houses." The Headmistress's voice was even and neutral, but the roar of the crowd threatened to drown her out even with the magical amplification. "Enter, Beatrice of the Oakendale Gaias!"

The young druid swallowed dryly and took her first step onto the arena grounds.

It was dusk, and once she began to walk to the center of the arena, two magical spotlights flared to life and hovered over her. Every strand of hair was illuminated in their strong lights and, she knew, every move she made would be seen from this point on. She cast a glance at the stands at the arena and balked in surprise. It seemed like everyone who went to Ravensburl had come to watch the duel and crammed themselves into the stands. The crowd was a mass of faces and a blur of colors, and with the spotlights shining in her eyes, she couldn't find Nova or her friends at all.

The Headmistress's voice boomed again once the initial cheers and screams from the Ravensburl students died down. "Enter, Circe Amelia of the House of Hawkswood!"

The cheers that came from the opposite side of the arena were deafening. Some Hawkswood students used a lesser version of the voice amplification spell to make up for the fewer numbers, but the louder cheers for Circe put a damper on the Ravensburl student's enthusiasm. In response, the rowdy Ravensburls only screamed back louder.

Circe herself was unfazed. She emerged from the holding room on the other end of the arena and walked towards the middle with her head held high, the spotlights that hovered over her lit her grey eyes till they practically shone in the light. Her robed flowed behind her as she walked, and she seemed even more powerful alone, without her two hangers-on trailing behind her.

"I'm surprised you actually showed up, Gaia," Circe said once the two combatants had entered a marked circle in the middle of the arena.

"Hello to you too, Circe," Beatrice said dryly. "Sorry you can't have your friends to help you."

"My friends?" The other witch scoffed. "Misha and Lana serve me, that's all. I'd hardly call them friends. And what about you and the half-breed and outsiders you keep company? They can't come to your rescue now."

Beatrice took a breath and tried to steady herself. "I'm coming to their rescue this time. This duel's for them and for everyone like them. Ravensburl accepts everyone, Circe, regardless of who they are and where they come from. It'll even accept you! Why do you think this is such a bad idea?"

"Because, little miss Gaia, not everyone deserves it." Circe scoffed. She drew her wand from the sleeve of her robe and held it out in a spell-casting stance. "If you went to Hawkswood you'd understand. Only those of pure magical pedigree should have the power, influence, and knowledge."

"It's good I chose not to go to Hawkswood then because that sounds terrible. That's not the kind of world I want to live in, and I think Ravensburl can change that kind of thinking. So I'm going to fight for it, Circe." Beatrice likewise held her wand out at the ready. "Besides, you'd make a terrible roommate, I'd hate to be stuck in the same year or even class with you. You never seem to stop talking about yourself."

"Why, you little--!" Circe growled before she was cut off.

The Headmistress's voice sounded out over the arena and the anxious, excited crowd in the stands one last time. "Begin!"

The two witches sprang into action immediately. Circe raised her wand and Beatrice anticipated it to be an offensive spell, so the first spell that left her lips was a wall of vines that burst out of the earth to shield her. Circe's fireball crashed against the vines and set them smoldering, but Beatrice was already on the move. The earth witch pedalled backwards, creating enough distance between herself and Circe so that she could see the spell coming and prepare an answer to it.

Circe, on the other hand, stayed true to her hot-headed and quick personality. She chased after Beatrice and let loose quick-casting fire spells in response to her plant-based defenses. If she could overwhelm the dryad with her speed and flames, then Hawkswood would secure the victory. The thought of an easy win brought a cruel smile to Circe's face, and Beatrice couldn't help but feel nervous.

Circe's fireballs were eating through the vines that Beatrice was throwing up as quickly as she can to shield herself. She had to change tactics, and fast. The earth witch spoke a spell and drew her wand in a circular motion aimed at the ground around her, and instead of vines, a wall of earth shuddered upwards. Beatrice heard the sound of a fireball whizzing through the air, only for it to sizzle uselessly against the wall. The wall wasn't enough of course, and Circe was surely on the other side of it coming up with a solution to get past it, but all the same, it gave Beatrice some time to think.

Up in the stands, Nova couldn't stop bouncing her leg from how nervous she was. She watched the spells fly, plants burned away and Beatrice hastily retreating till the earthen wall came up, all without blinking. There had to be some way to delay Circe enough for a counterattack. That would be easy enough with her own lightning, but Beatrice was more proficient at slower, more deliberate magic. The worry and stress began to manifest as a building headache in Nova's temples, but then the tech witch saw her roommate leaving flowers everywhere she stepped.

The Hawkswood heiress was silent during this duel, unlike at the previous team battle where she barked orders at Misha and Lana. Now, only having to focus on her actions and on her next spell, Circe opted to save the gloating for later. Until she also saw the flowers.

"Hah!" Circe's lip curled into a smug sneer. "Flowers? What do you think that's going to do, Gaia?" She advanced past the earthen wall to continue chasing Beatrice around the arena. She paused to dig her heel into a small yellow flower that sprouted out of the ground.

"I just thought it would add a little bit of color to the arena." Beatrice's answer was guarded, and she watched Circe's every step while her own left small flowers around the arena. The longer a flower was on the arena, the more it started to grow. With Circe constantly walking toward Beatrice, she didn't see the flowers behind her quickly growing to the height of her waist and beyond. "You know, something pretty to look at while we fight."

"You're wasting your time, Gaia! This is hardly a fight!" Circe aimed a full fireball blast and a tiny flower, incinerating it immediately.

"I don't think so, I think it's going quite well actually." Beatrice seemed to only retreat and conjure weak defenses, and that infuriated Circe.

"Complete waste of time! I thought you were better than this, Gaia. I thought you were an actual fighter! Turns out, you're just a coward." Circe growled. She stopped chasing after Beatrice and began to cast a spell, holding her wand above her head and making circular motions. A massive ring of fire began to take shape in the air above her, and as the flames grew in heat, it also grew brighter. The light from the ring of fire cast strangely long shadows from things behind Circe. "What?!"

The flowers that Beatrice had been leaving around the arena grew to the heights of palm trees. Giant sunflower heads and massive yellow bells loomed over the Hawkswood girl, staring down at her as if she were nothing more than an ant. With a downward flick of Beatrice's wand, the huge flowers crashed down onto Circe who, with a scream, released the ring of fire spell, causing the flowers to continue falling all around her, except now they were also on fire.

Up in the stands, Nova laughed.

Beatrice stayed focused on her opponent, even after Circe's form was completely obscured by flaming flowers. The gasps and yells from the crowd were only a buzzing in the young druid's ears. The booming voice of the Headmistress didn't come, and no professors or staff came rushing onto the arena grounds. The lack of intervention had Beatrice swallowing dryly, her eyes staring unblinkingly at the last place she saw Circe. The fight wasn't over yet.

With a yell, a gout of water like a burst fire hydrant erupted from underneath the pile of flaming flowers, strong enough to send them flying in all directions, the fire was immediately put out. Circe stood, dripping wet with her robe singed in places, and absolutely furious. Her jaw was set into a sneer as she stood and brushed herself off, reclaiming some sort of Hawkswood composure even though the earth witch could clearly see her burning with embarrassment. Both duels she had ended up soaked with water, but the determination that shone in her pale eyes kept Beatrice on guard. She looked like she wanted to steamroll the druid.

With a flourish of her wand, Circe called up a strong wind that blew through the arena. At first, the wind blew through her hair and robes, drying her off somewhat, till the wind whipped Beatrice's own hair into her eyes and she realized it was swirling around. She held up an arm to shield herself from the buffeting wind as debris and bits of her vines and earth were being picked up into the flurry. There was a yell from the crowd and Beatrice immediately looked up.

The giant flowers were still burning, and now they were being caught up in a growing vortex! The flames twisted and whirled, the added air giving them more fuel until they grew within the wind into a flaming cyclone.

Beatrice stared at the opponent's newest move with a growing sense of horror, while Circe simply laughed as she bid her magic to grow even more. In a panic, Beatrice turned and ran.

"Where are you going, little miss Gaia?" Circe laughed as she continued to chase the young druid, but this time with the ease of a predator toying with trapped prey. "I've got to hand it to you, that stunt you pulled with the flowers threw me off for a second. But here, let me give them back to you!"

The spell Circe spoke was long, something in Latin, Beatrice believed but wasn't able to hear. She was too busy running away as the flaming cyclone turned and bore down upon her, moving away from Circe and drawing a burning path in the ground as it moved. Rocks and bits of her own conjured plants were sucked into the wind and were immediately incinerated.

"Come back here, we're not done with our duel!" Circe taunted over the roar of wind and flame. "Or are you giving up? Good old Beatrice Gaia, protector of the unfortunate, turning tail at a duel!"

Up in the stands, Nova was rigid with worry, while The Witches Three were beside themselves trying to yell encouragement and help to their friend. The tech witch's mind was racing a mile a minute; there must be some way for Beatrice to get out of this! But what? As first years at Ravensburl, they only knew the most basic of spells, ones that Circe would have mastered by now. The Hawkswood scion was clearly leagues ahead of the roommates and their friends, with a mastery over elemental magic that allowed her to have an answer for nearly everything. She was using fire to counter Beatrice's plants, but this wind spell seemed even more powerful than the last... The tech witch couldn't help if the Hawkswood family were most adept with air and wind magic, owing to their name. Nova's leg continued to bounce at a rapid pace to match her skyrocketing heart rate.

As Beatrice ran around the arena, her legs and lungs burning from the effort of keeping her far enough away from the cyclone so as to not let the rest of her burn as well, she was thinking. Break down the situation, she thought. Calm down, take a breath, and think. Analyze. What element can work well against both wind and fire? She adjusted her grip on her wand and aimed it at the ground as she continued to run. She was a witch of the earth, and there was a lot of it at the arena. She might as well use it to the fullest.

As the spells and possibilities ran through her head, the memory of her training session the day before came to the forefront of her mind. Duelling The Witches Three and Nova back to back with no rest hammered home the need to think quick on her feet and adapt to every possibility. While her own skills were limited, there was always a way to turn the situation around. She just had to have the imagination for it.

When she fought Hanan, her friend's forte was sigils with some beginner fire magic. Complex sigils were drawn in the air with Hanan's wand, and the patterns weren't always visible, curbing Beatrice's ability to anticipate. Instead, she had to react once the spell itself came into effect and cast a counter spell within the few seconds she had before the spell could connect and blast her. Adeline's duel pitted Beatrice against sound-based magic, where the previous problem with Hanan applied, but most of the time she couldn't even see the spell itself. Sascha's ink magic had the ability to attack from every direction, while Nova's electricity moved faster than Beatrice could think. All of her friends had different skills and abilities, and dealing with Circe should be no different.

The earth witch had seen enough of what her opponent was capable of, and now it was time to send her own spells at her, with a lot fewer flowers.

The fiery cyclone continued to advance on Beatrice, and she finally let loose the spell that she had been casting at the ground. As she ran, large redwood trees shot out of the ground, growing as tall as the tops of the arena stands. The tree roots spread rapidly, twining and tangling around each other and raising large bumps all along the arena ground. The roots impeded Circe's advance as she now had to climb over them, duck under them, or blast her way through them to get to Beatrice. The cyclone's flames blasted the treetops, but the denseness of the compacted trees disrupted the flow of air somewhat and worked to slow the cyclone itself. While Circe was dealing with the obstacle to her mobility and visibility, she didn't notice how the howl of the wind was dying down.

With her opponent distracted, Beatrice cast another spell at the ground and disappeared. A hole opened up between two raised tree roots, and the earth witch hurried into it and out of sight of the now-enraged Hawkswood. The tunnel fell open before Beatrice, and while it was cramped and dark, the trees and her magic served to guide the earth witch's way under the arena. That, and the fact that, despite moving a few feet underneath the earth, the noise of the arena was faint but audible.

Tree branches and vines began to grow between the spontaneous forest, blocking out the magical spotlights' light and making the makeshift underbrush suddenly dark. Circe, annoyed at this predicament, conjured massive storms of fire to burn away the obstacles and clear a path to where she last saw Beatrice. She didn't notice that the ground under her feet was getting softer until it was too late.

The ground opened up underneath the young Hawkswood, and a massive Venus flytrap plant snapped its jaws shut with the witch inside. Circe screamed and reached for the lip of the plant, but could only look helplessly out from between its thin "teeth" as she felt the plant tighten around her. Her wand arm lay pressed between her chest and one of the plant's leaves, and she only managed a weak flick of the wrist. The resulting fireball was too small, and it fizzled out with a whimper. The magical fires and cyclone began to subside as Circe couldn't keep up the spell while trapped inside a plant.

"I believe we have a winner," came the amplified voice of the Headmistress. Beatrice wasn't sure if she heard a hint of a smile in the Headmistress's words. As the crowd roared, the massive trees began to sink back into the arena's ground, leaving only the Venus flytrap and its prey visible in the arena. The spotlights swivelled to illuminate the trap and the struggling young witch inside, and the noise from the crowd was deafening.

"With one combatant unable to continue, that concludes this duel," The Headmistress continued. "The winner, Beatrice Gaia!"

There was noise everywhere, and lights and the realization slowly sinking in that she won, she actually won. Beatrice stood in shock under the spotlights even as the arena stands chanted her name. Dimly, she registered that someone had vaulted the railing of the arena stands and was running, sprinting full-tilt, right at her.

Nova swept Beatrice up in a tight, proud hug, and kissed her hard on the lips in full view of the entire school.