The smell of burning earth hit my nostrils as I walked into the arena. Underneath my shoes the earth had been scorched, streaks of blackened char crisscrossing the arena and across my vision a myriad of colours presented themselves to me, the mana in the surroundings twinkling in greeting. Motes of bright teal mana rose out of the ground, lazily gliding across my skin and clothes.

Lightning mana.

A bird's soft cry echoed in my ears. Agni could feel the strength of the mana in the arena, reminiscent of fire mana, but there was no fire mana for her to control.

“Yeah, it's strange.” I whispered to her.

The closest descriptor I could give the mana was very felt like fire’s cousin. It cared nothing for consuming the things around it. Or burning. All it wanted to do was destroy.

"This is a rare element you've set me up to fight against.” I handed Kyle back the card he'd handed me. It had my opponent's information on it.

Cagney Grave: 64 points. Rank 76.

Lightning and connection magician.

"I didn't have to do much." Kyle glanced at the card with a smile. "Cagney requested to fight you.”

"She did?" I frowned.

That was either a good thing or a very bad thing. I didn't know the girl personally, but I knew that other than her there was only one other lightning magician at Koshima academy. My fellow Marked One, Gerial.

In fact, I had thought he was the only lightning attuned magician at the academy until now. I’d thought I would've noticed Cagney before today if she’d attuned to such distinct elements.

"I accepted it on your behalf since I thought It’d give you a challenge." Kyle said.

The third year had a cheeky smile on his face and his eyes were curved upwards in a constant expression of joy. He'd seen my surprise and revelled in it.

"It's not too much for you, is it?" He asked.

"Not at all." I said.

I glanced around the arena room, but my opponent hadn't arrived yet. The lightning mana crackled a greeting as it passed by my face.

Power pulsed within me as I focused on my earth attunement, gathering together the will and the focus of the ground underneath me in preparation for the fight.

I’d wanted a challenge, and now I’d get it.

Kyle himself was acting like an agent for me. He would take care of the intermediary work of finding opponents, allowing me to focus on the fights. He set himself up at the side of the arena, hands clasped together in silent meditation as we waited for my opponent to arrive.

We'd both got into the arena early and I was focusing on communicating with the earth around me when I noticed a flash of light in my inventory. Somebody had sent a message to my texting regent.

[Hey! How did the observer go? He better have gotten you someone worth your time.]

The text had been sent by my cousin, Berlia.

I sent her a reply with the rank and elements of my opponent. She’d been happy that I was getting into the battle spirit, but I could tell from the text she sent that she was going to volunteer to be my observer and set up matches for me. I’d promised her that I would see what I could do about alternating between her and Kyle.

After all, there was no harm in having more than one match a day.

There was a flash of light and I looked at the texting regent expecting to see Berlia’s reply. Then there was another flash. And another. Followed by several more. A flood of messages came in a row and my lips curved upward into a smile.

[Brother! Roxxy told me what happened! Congrats on attuning.]

[To water, I mean.]

[Now we both have dual elements.]

[This is so cool.]

[Are you fighting yet?]

[That’s cool.]

[Best of luck!]

A barrage of text appeared in the pages of my book as Gerial caught up with the messages I'd been sending him. My fellow Marked one had been busy all week. I'd also barely seen him these past few months except for when he'd set me up with Wahyu to help the church build houses.

[Thank you. I'm about to fight, just waiting for my opponent. Thank you for the luck. I haven't heard from you lately, what have you been up to?]

I sent a quick message back to him and winced. Amanda had been helping me to master the art of sounding casual in text messages, but I'd always preferred face to face conversations. Anything I sent over the texting regent ended up seeming like a robot trying to sound human.

Gerial’s reply was quick and fierce.

[I’ve been meeting up with the church of Fue.]

[Hopefully Alyssa will join our class after the excursion.]

[Next Semester, I mean.]

[Maybe.]

[The monster kind of scared them.]

My connection to the earth mana beneath me disappeared as my concentration wavered. I hadn't known that Gerial was meeting up with the church of Fue. That was big news, and I knew he would only be telling me because he knew that I wouldn't spread the word out to others.

Alyssa.

I'd heard the name before, but only from Gerial’s mouth. Everyone else knew her by her title.

The Marked one of Fue. The divine of creation.

I met her once, only for a moment. It had been a stressful time for me and I hadn't gotten to talk to her properly. I'd never forgotten her, but chances to meet with a Marked one were nonexistent except in special circumstances. And never alone. Gerial had said she was coming to Koshima academy, but I'd hadn’t seen her since arriving. Apparently she had been delayed, and when the monster attack occurred her church had felt further deliberation was needed.

Gerial hadn't been happy about it.

"You've got an awfully serious expression on your face.” A voice called out to me, breaking my train of thought. “You don't have to worry, your opponent is high-ranked but she's actually new to the scene.

“Cagney is trying to rise up quickly herself.” Kyle motioned toward the floor of the arena. “The staff had to prepare this place specially for her. She's new to the ranking fights. You're new to the ranking fights. It was a perfect pairing.”

His logic made sense but his expression told me that he just wanted to see me fight against someone strong.

“Thanks for the pep talk.” I said.

His smile widened.

“It's not like you're fighting a Marked one.” He joked.

“I'll treat it like I am.” I shifted my focus onto the task at hand.

Gerial was the only lightning user I knew, but I wasn't anywhere near his level. Unlike William and Amanda, Gerial didn't fight me even for practice. But I did want to fight him. Even if it was just for fun and not official.

This opponent would give me valuable information for when I eventually convinced him to give me a chance to spar.

My hold over the earth around me strengthened and I thought over my opponent’s abilities. The lightning element wasn't as rare as metal, but it was infinitely more destructive. There was a reason why Gerial was known for his battle prowess.

Lightning could win a fight before it had even begun.

"Why did she challenge me to a fight even with her high rank?” I said. "Is she challenging every fighter possible?”

Kyle looked at me and then towards the arena entrance. "No, I think it was personal.”

“What—”

Kyle raised his hand, cutting my question off. “She's here.”

There was a shift in the arena. A chill ran over my skin, and I looked down to see the hairs on my arm standing straight and tall, notes of lightning mana drifting between them. I gazed up as the lightning mana flew across the room to greet the magician. Between the bright lights were slivers of silver-blue and silver-green mana. Communication mana.

Fury. Jealousy. Anger. Confusion.

Each mote sent a different emotion coursing through me. They were the thoughts and feelings of the magician communicating with them. Her intentions were muddled with negativity, but then the mana dispersed around her and our connection was lost.

"You’re the guy that's calling himself Crijik?” Cagney’s voice crashed against my ears.

Fury laced her every word and her anger cascaded across my skin.

"That's me." I hid my curiosity behind a smile. It looked like my ploy to get people to challenge me by naming myself after a divine had worked.

Unless there was another reason for her to be angry at me.

Kyle stood back as Cagney stomped through the room. Instead of taking her position on the opposite side of me, she strode toward me and held out her hands to grab at my face.

I dodged before she could take off my mask.

"Hey!" I swatted her hand away.

"I can't see what you look like.” Cagney said.

"If I wanted you to know what I looked like, I wouldn't have put the mask on." A bead of sweat ran down my neck.

My opponent was radiating heat as arcs if lightning raced across her robes and skin. All of it centred around an object hidden underneath her robes, and she huffed as she saw me trying to find the origin of the magic. It wasn't just her magic that I was curious about. Her intrusion into my personal space gave me a good look at the person I would be fighting.

Cagney looked familiar. Really familiar.

She had black hair with streaks of purple in it, highlights of some kind, and a strong chin coupled with a piercing gaze designed to intimidate.

What interested me the most were her eyes.

They were purple.

The source of the familiarity cleared up in an instant. She looked like a female version of Gerial. Or at least someone that was trying to imitate him. She'd gotten the hair colour wrong, but she'd clearly gone to great lengths to get the rest right. Even her robes were modelled after his. They were white. Intricate silver and gold patterns coalesced into an eye in the middle, similar to my own.

It was clear that the ensemble hadn't been put together by accident.

"Are those contacts?” I squinted and tried to get a better look. “You do know that Crijik’s Marked one has naturally purple eyes, right?”

I leaned forward, but her hand met the forehead of my mask, pushing me away from her face. I saw her blush faintly, more embarrassed that I'd called her out on her eyes than anything else. I'd seen what I needed to see. She had found contacts that looked exactly like Gerial’s eyes.

"Okay, I think I'm getting a better picture of why you wanted to fight me personally." I resisted the urge to smack my face.

She was a Gerial fan girl.

Agni let out a quick chirp, so softly that only I could hear it. She was amused. From the way the flames on my hair were lighting up, I could see she was barely holding back her laughter. I didn't blame her.

This was exactly what Gerial spent most of his life trying to avoid.

Being the living vessel of a Divine came with its ups and downs. They were given powers beyond their imagination, but it also came with responsibilities. And fame. Lots and lots of fame.

Gerial having a fan club wasn't news to me. I'd seen the way my fellow students looked at him. Some thought he was a living god, and that mentality wasn't limited to the academy.

"I don't know what you're talking about.” Cagney said. She threw her robe’s hood over her face. It didn't cover up her eyes.

“Koshima Academy doesn’t have a lightning magic class.” I said.

Gerial had told me about it himself.

“I sincerely hope you're not a stalker.” The words slipped out of my mouth.

That was the wrong thing to say.

The mana around Cagney shifted and I shut my eyes right before a brilliant flash of light cut across them. Using my [Mana Sense] I could see teal mana gathering together and coiling through the air. She’d transformed the mana into lightning, but it didn't run freely through the air.

Instead, the mana gathered between her hands and circled around an orb-like shape. It was the same object that I'd seen within her robes earlier. Whatever it was, it gathered mana toward it like a lightning rod. The light died down and I opened my eyes, taking in the item that Cagney wielded as a weapon.

It was a globe. The regent looked like an empty snow globe, or a carnival psychic's orb. There was lightning trapped within its transparent surface, forming a mini-storm inside.

At the head of the storm was a pair of narrow purple eyes staring daggers at me. If looks could kill then this match would already be over.

“I don't care about the points.” The lightning crackled over my vision, leaving streaks of light that stayed after I closed my eyes. “When I win, I want you to change your name.”

"My name?" I asked.

Her tone dripped with animosity, but I didn't dismiss her request straight away. I'd intended to keep the name Crijik for as long as I could, but it wasn't a dealbreaker for me. I also didn't intend to lose. There was an opportunity here, if I was willing to take it.

"I do care about the points.” I rebutted. “I’ll tell you what, if I win, you’ll give me more of your points. Let's say three quarters. And if I lose, I'll change my name.” I turned toward Kyle. "Is that allowed?"

The third year student shrugged his shoulders and looked at Cagney, and then back to me. Now that I was gazing at him using my mana sense instead of my eyes, I could see motes of blue floating across his form. He was a water magician.

"If both parties agree to it there's no reason we can't up the stakes.” He smiled. “But there’s a huge discrepancy in your ranks. Winning already nets you half her points, asking for three quarters is too big of a difference. You have nothing else to give her aside from a promise to change your name.”

He looked at Cagney, and she shrugged.

“I don't care. His persona’s name means more to me than the points do. It's not like I can’t just get them back.” She glanced at me. “Not that I'd lose.”

“You're confident. I like that.” Kyle smiled. “Listen, You're a skilled fighter. But don't fall into the trap of thinking you can earn the points back easily, or that you can’t lose at all. After all, you're not intending to lose either, are you?”

His last question was directed at me.

“I'm not.” I confirmed.

“Then that change of reward wouldn't be fair to Cagney." Kyle shook his head.

“You want to call off the fight?” Cagney asked.

“Fue, no!” Kyle held up his hand. “I'll put up some of my points instead. Let's call it a wager. Yeah, that'll work.” He spoke more to himself than us. “If Crijik loses, you’ll win half of the points that he would win by beating you, with the difference made up by me.”

Kyle turned to me. “Also, if you lose then you'll give up all of your points. And your name.”

"Deal." I didn't have to think twice about it. If I lost, the points were easy to win again.

If I won, then it was more than worth the bargain. The agreement was still drastically in my favour.

"Deal." She responded immediately.

We walked to our respective sides of the arena, preparing for the battle to come. The lightning mana in the air gathered toward her, billowing with confidence and bravado. She wasn't like Hassin. She had a true connection with her element.

Cagney was confident, but so was I.