Walking into the dueling grounds The Doll immediately noticed the large number of people that were present. It appeared that there were over one hundred students here, which was the majority of the students in Dreadwood.
The Doll felt every pair of eyes land on her as soon as she entered. At this point The Doll was sure that anybody who didn't know the reason for the duel now knew it was The Dolls fault. Lukaz and Darius were fighting over her, Lukaz for her honor and Darius for her claim to the Ashencroft lineage.
The Dolls hands began to shake as she felt the gazes of every student peer into her with far too many emotions for The Doll to pick exactly which one felt the worst.
Why was her hand shaking?
The Doll was used to gazes such as this; she felt them from Father's court far too often to buckle under this pressure. Yet for some reason this felt different; it felt as though the weight of these stares would cause her to fall where she stood.
Seemingly noticing The Doll's shaking, Malina gripped her hands tighter. For some strange reason the action brought comfort to The Doll causing her shaking to slowly subside. Looking towards The Doll with a smile, Malina began confidently walking up the stairs of the dueling grounds to find an open seat that was as far from the duel as possible.
As the two walked up the staircase The Doll was tempted to look back and see if Lila was following them, yet The Doll couldn't seem to pry her eyes from Malina. Her head bopped up and down as she energetically walked up the stairs. Her pigtails somehow remained completely still as her head bounced in an enchanting motion.
As The Doll watched Malina climb up the stairs, unable to pry her eyes away from her, that strange feeling she didn't know formed once again. The Doll furled her eyebrows in frustration; she didn't know what was wrong with her or why this feeling kept arising.
It had to be related to The Strings.
Reaching the top of the staircase, Malina found an empty spot where the three of them could sit without anyone else nearby. It helped that the vast majority of the students chose to sit in the rows closer to the center so they could see the duel in detail.
As The Doll sat down, she turned her gaze from Malina and to the center of the dueling grounds where the duel would actually take place. The Doll had witnessed very few duels in Gelun when she was younger before her father forbade her from watching duels after the loss of her magic out of fear someone may challenge her directly after a victory.
Yet despite The Doll’s limited exposure, she could vividly remember the brutal sights of what took place in Gelun. Fortunately, by comparison, the dueling grounds in Gelun were much more brutal than what was before her now. Rather than the ground being covered in snow and ice, it was covered in simple sand. There was no trench dug so deep The Doll could not see the bottom along the outside of the circle. There weren't even any spikes lining the walls.
The lack of brutality made sense considering the people dueling were noble students whose death would cause problems for the academy's reputation. The Doll found it likely there were even more measures in place to ensure that nobody died in the process of the duel.
The Doll turned her attention to the middle of the dueling grounds. The Doll analyzed two large runes lying in the center of dueling grounds. Inscribed into one the word "SHIELD" and the other the word “PROJECT,” this was the one similarity between the two arenas. Before the duel started, each of the participants would activate one of the runes to ensure the crowd had a proper show whilst staying safe.
The shield rune would put up a transparent shield made of pure mana that would block any magical attack that hit it, keeping the crowd safe. Meanwhile, the project rune would ensure the crowd could hear the spells being cast by enhancing the duelists' voices.
The Doll suddenly felt hot breath against her ear as Malina pushed her hair aside and leaned in to whisper, “Are you nervous, Dollie? Your hands won't stop shaking.” The Doll quickly jolted to her right in shock, surprising both Malina and Lila, whom she had bumped into.
Why had she done that?
Still recovering from the shock The Doll said, “That was hardly necessary.” She did her best to mask the embarrassment in her voice with indifference.
Malina moved back to her original position with an odd grin on her face. “I was just worried you were zoning out again.” She then giggled and added on, “Why are you so jumpy? It's so unlike you.” Malina was right The Doll found her reaction rather unbecoming and wasn't sure why she reacted in such a way.
The Doll stared silently for a moment, attempting to rationalize a response but finding it difficult to think properly. Her head felt fuddled around in a way that was different from when The Strings messed with it.
Lila, taking pity on The Dolls inability to form a response, decided to respond in her stead, "I-I'm sure Lady Ashencroft is just ne-nervous Lady Regius.” The Doll nodded in response to affirm Lila's claim in a far too rapid manner.
Leaning back against the wall, Malina's grin only grew as she said, “Rightttt.” Purposely dragging the end of the word on for a reason. The Doll couldn't decipher. Rather than attempting to rationalize Malina's actions The Doll focused on trying to calm herself down from her oddly flustered state.
Just as she began calming herself down, cheering erupted from the bottom of the dueling grounds seats. Looking towards the center to see the cause of this eruption of cheers The Doll saw Lukaz walking out of a door that had been previously closed.
Lukaz wore his academy uniform looking identical to how The Doll would see him on any day in the academy, with two exceptions. The first of these exceptions was the sword that was sheathed on his side; from what The Doll could tell, it appeared to be Lukazs's own ornate sword with his family crest of a snake carved into the golden end of the hilt.
The second exception that The Doll noticed was a stone bearing a rune that appeared to be strapped over his heart with leather buckles pushing it close to his chest. Inscribed into it was the word "END." The Doll had never seen such a rune before and was unknown to its purpose.
Watching as Lukaz walked The Doll noted how every step he took seemed to be filled with confidence and was accompanied by a winning smile. It was clear from his strut alone that Lukaz had no doubt in his mind that he would win this duel.
The crowd cheered as he walked along the dueling grounds, waving and smiling to the crowd. To her right The Doll heard Malina scoff but say nothing, likely realizing any words she tried to say to The Doll would be unheard over the roaring crowd. The Doll was almost tempted to look and see Malina's reaction to the sight but found herself unable to meet her gaze.
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After reaching the center of the dueling grounds, Lukaz gave a bow to the crowd before standing up and bringing his hands up to the air, signaling that his introduction was done. The crowd's cheers began to slowly die out as the door directly opposite from Lukaz slowly opened revealing his challenger.
Unlike Lukaz’s entrance The Doll noticed a severe lack of any noticeable cheering for Darius’s own entrance. It was immediately clear that the crowd, much like The Doll either didn’t want Darius to win or didn’t believe he could. Yet despite this fact there were still a few supporters who cheered as he walked in.
Darius’s own entrance was also far more tame than Lukaz's; he had a sword at his side and identical rune clinking to his chest, yet his demeanor was entirely different. Rather than waving and smiling to the crowd, he kept his gaze dead set on Lukaz. The Doll could see the intense anger in his eyes even from the distance she was from the center.
Once Darius reached the center, he made no spectacle or indication that his entrance was done. Instead, he turned towards the crowd, his eyes rapidly scanning every face before picking out The Dolls. He extended his hand out and pointed his finger at her before shouting, “YOUR NEXT!” The Dolls reminded her of calm in her seat, yet she felt a sharp pang of fear arise in her from the sheer rage within Darius’s eyes.
He somehow seemed even angrier than he was that day in swordplay. The Doll shuddered at the thought of having to face someone who seemed to despise her so heavily in combat. But those worries would quickly subside after Lukasz's inevitable victory.
Malina's grip on The Dolls hand tightened once again in reassurance before she scoffed once again and said, “What a creep.” With a note of disgust evident in her voice that seemed to trump even The Dolls' own disdain for Darius.
After Darius turned his hateful gaze from The Doll a cold voice filled the arena, “Welcome students of Dreadwood to our dueling grounds, a place I'm sure many of you never expected you would see used.” The Doll immediately recognized the source of this voice as Headmaster Moris, who seemed to be projecting his voice from the faculty box.
Murmurs began to spread throughout the crowd as the headmaster paused in his introduction. To her left The Doll heard Lila mutter something far too quiet for her to properly make out, but it almost sounded like the word "embarrassing" was used.
Cutting through these murmurs, the headmaster spoke again, causing immediate silence to fall on the dueling grounds, “As I'm sure all of you are aware, I am your headmaster, Moris, and I will be playing the role of onlooker to this duel.” The Doll was shocked by this; it seemed that the headmaster and Darius had a close relationship, and the onlooker was supposed to be a completely neutral party. But she supposed Moris was the headmaster, and that did mean he held the highest position of power at Dreadwood.
As The Doll ruminated on this, the headmaster spoke once again. “For those of you who have never witnessed a duel or do not know the rules of a duel, I will be explaining for both your pleasure and as a reminder to our participants." The crowd remained dead silent, none daring or caring to speak over the headmaster.
Upon hearing the crowd's silence, Moris continued to speak, taking a deep breath that was heard over the projection of his voice, “The rules of a duel are really quite simple: it is simply a fight between two people to settle a disagreement. Both participants put something on the line, and the winner of the duel will gain whatever it is they put on the line, while the loser deals with the social humiliation of losing.” The Doll sighed in relief at the implication that there would be social humiliation for losing, confirming it would not be to the death like the duels in Gelun.
Without missing a beat, the headmaster continued, “To begin a duel, both duelists will activate one of the two runes in the center before backing up precisely ten steps and introducing themselves to activate their magic. The challenger of the duel will always introduce himself second. From there the only rule is you cannot make any attempts to kill or dismember your opponent, as we are not barbarians.” This earned a slight chuckle from the crowd; however, the doll figured that it was likely the headmaster had not intended for this to be a joke.
The Dolls suspicions were confirmed as the headmaster continued to speak ignoring the chuckles, “There are three ways that a duel can end; the first and most common way is by one duelist breaking the other duelist's end rune. Upon this happening the shield around the dueling grounds will be lowered and the duel will be ended. The second way is by the yielding of the other duelist; if one duelist admits defeat, they must turn off the shield rune surrounding the dueling grounds to end the duel. The third and least common way is if the onlooker, in this case myself, deems the duel to be too brutal, in which case I will turn off the shield rune from here and declare a winner.” The Doll did wonder where the headmaster would draw the line on what was considered too brutal.
The Doll also couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if Gelun had such precautions in place. If all duels weren't always to the death, perhaps she wouldn't have been exposed to such brutality so young. As The Doll thought about this memories that she preferred to lock away threatened to resurface.
A cold throne room painted in red.
A woman screaming and begging for her child's safety.
An intruder she couldn't even bring herself to gaze upon.
Yes, I should think about this.
No The Doll pushed these memories down as quickly as they rose up; she would never allow herself to remember. Nothing could make her think about what happened that day. The day her life changed.
The headmaster's voice projected throughout the dueling grounds once more, “Now let us begin this duel. Zephyr will be activating the projection rune and Ira the shield rune; after that, both shall give their introductions. Once introductions have concluded, I shall give the signal for the duel to start.” For once The Doll was happy to hear the headmaster's cold voice as it so effectively cut through her thoughts, allowing her to push those memories back down.
Below, Lukaz and Darius both advanced towards the center, stopping just before their respective runes. The Doll saw their lips move, exchanging quiet words before everything they said would be broadcast to the audience.
Then without wasting a moment the two stepped on their respective runes. The Doll couldn't see anything happen, but based off the pressure The Doll felt against her hand. It seemed Malina was leaning forward, likely intrigued by the influx of magic that everybody but The Doll could sense after the activation of the runes.
The two duelists both turned around and began walking.
One step.
Two steps.
Something was wrong.
Three steps.
Four steps.
The Doll wasn't sure what, but something was wrong.
Five steps.
Six steps.
Every sense was flaring up, warning The Doll something was wrong, but she didn't know why.
Seven steps.
Eight steps.
There was no doubt in The Doll’s mind that Lukaz would win, and this mess would resolve itself.
Nine steps.
Ten steps.
Both of them turned around.
The two simply stared at each other, neither saying a word before Lukaz spoke, “My name is Lukaz Zephyr, primary heir to the Zephyr lineage. Fiancé to Lady Ashencroft and a noble far above your standing. My magic is that of the elusive snake.” After finishing his introduction, Lukaz gave a bow, causing the crowd to erupt with cheers.
As the crowd cheered, Darius made no moves, simply staring at Lukaz. Malina's grip suddenly tightened on The Dolls hand as she said, “Darius’s mana is different.” Before The Doll could ask what Malina meant by this, Darius stepped forward, causing the crowd's cheers to abruptly stop as they all seemed to notice whatever it was Malina had noticed.
Immediately after the crowd's abrupt silence, Darius spoke, “My name is Darius Ira, and I am the calamity that embodies wrath, nothing more.” The introduction confused The Doll he made no mention of his magic, meaning nothing should happen.
Yet as soon as he finished, Malina gripped The Dolls hand even tighter, as everybody in the crowd gasped once again, noticing something The Doll didn't. Even Lukaz, who had previously looked unwaveringly confident, took a step back, seemingly nervous.
Despite the crowd's adverse reaction and Darius's lack of proper introduction, the headmaster spoke as if nothing happened, simply declaring, “The duel may now start.” Then what The Doll saw next shocked her to her core.
Red.