“No, absolutely not!”

  Yep, should’ve expected that.

  After coming home Leo sat his mother down and told her that a Magic Contest would be held, which she already knew as someone at work had told her, and that he wanted to be a candidate to get his father back. Which led to her protest.

  “Don’t get me wrong, Leo, I’m not saying ‘no’ because of a selfish reason like keeping you safe. I just can’t accept that you are potentially going to risk your life for a reason that doesn’t include your desires.”

  “It doe-”

  “But it doesn’t. You’re doing this for me, because you see how much I miss him, because you think he misses us too, and you probably also think that by freeing the Exile you can ‘continue your fathers work’. But in all of that… where do you fit in?”

  It was silent for a moment.

  “You know mom, I… I think I made a new friend today. I had so much fun hanging out today because of them. They also want to be a candidate. And I wanna continue hanging out… Also… I just think it’s cool, okay? I wanna go out there, kick some ass, and then come back and everyone will think I’m a hero. And… And then… I will be super popular. Everyone will want to go out with me.”

  Leo’s mother started laughing so hard she had to hold her stomach.

  “What?” With every second Leo’s face became more and more red, “I thought you wanted to hear a selfish reason. I can’t believe I said all that…”

  “It’s fine sweetie, come here.” While still laughing a bit she stretched out her hands, offering a hug and Leo buried his face in her shoulder to hide his embarrassment, “You can participate, I don’t mind. But now you have to train a lot, get on the team and actually win, or else that speech would be way too embarrassing, wouldn’t it?”

  His mother gently stroked his hair.

  “I can get in touch with Layla’s mother and ask if she wants to train you. Even if you didn’t get along when you were younger, she’s one of the most talented formationists of our time.”

  Leo grimaced at that, “She’s a bully.”

  “Oh, come on, you were ten and she was sixteen. We don’t even know if she’ll accept. At least give it a try, ‘hero’.” She chuckled.

  “Fine, but please, never ever bring what I said up again. I wanna forget about that as soon as possible…”

  *****

  Leo was incredibly tired.

  He spent the previous night reading through the encyclopedia he got at the library and found himself unexpectedly drawn in, reading about different plants that grow on the different planets, so he was trying not to yawn while getting undressed at the wardrobe.

  After suppressing another yawn Leo noticed Bim trying to get his bed hair under control a couple of clothing racks farther.

  “Yo, Bim, how’d your classes go yesterday?” The boy looked over and smiled.

  “Awesome man, watch this!” He thrust his hand forth dramatically, “Cover in shadow.”

  Everything around Leo suddenly became a bit darker. But before that he could’ve sworn he heard something, but in the end he decided to ignore it.

  “You tryna become a supervillain?” He chuckled, “Actually, this would be super useful at a smeltery or something.”

  “I know, awesome, right? What about you?”

  “Don’t think I can give you a demonstration, but so far the only thing I’ve done is summon a limp biomass or something…”

  Leo suddenly felt a tap on the shoulder and after turning around saw that it was Sally. She gave him a quick hug.

  “Morning!”

  “Good morning?” After hearing his response and giving a small wave in Bim’s direction she turned around and left.

  Leo turned back to Bim, who was staring at him with a quirked eyebrow.

  “You got a girlfriend already?” He then made a mock offended expression and gasped, “You cheated on me!”

  “Shut up, she’s a friend. We’re both getting extra classes from Mrs. Canton to prepare for the Magic Contest trials.”

  “She seems nice, you should introduce us if you get the chance.” Bim started walking towards the wardrobe exit, “Anyway, catch you later, gotta get to class.”

  “See you.”

  *****

  Having finished all of their classes for the day, Leo and Sally went to Bella’s classroom. She was rocking in her chair with one of her legs prepped against the edge of her desk all the while holding a tea mug in one hand and a book in the other.

  “Finally, I didn’t have a class to teach, so I’ve been waiting for the better part of an hour.” She placed the mug on the table and closed whatever it was she was reading. “I’ll get straight to the point - I expect you to be able to draw at least third level magic circles by the first trial. You’ll also start getting your hands wet with creating new spells by yourself.”

  “Huh?! Aren’t we basically skipping a whole quarter like that?” Leo exclaimed with a shocked expression.

  “Eh, you’ll be fine… Or rather, you have to be. You guys are formationists, remember? I don’t think you realize just how much of a disadvantage you have in direct combat. You can only use spells prepared in advance. You run out while engaging someone? You’re dunzo. Basically, you’re more limited in terms of having a variety of different spells ready at all times and your casting time is longer and you have to position yourself weirdly, because when casting spells on the go you don’t have a surface to lay your magic circle onto.” Bella paused for a second, looking both of them in the eyes, “So the only way for you to keep up is to have better wordchains.”

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  The woman stood up and walked towards the student desks, then stopped and sat on one of them.

  “Anyway, come here. I wanna quickly check Sally’s assignment and then I wanna see you brainstorm some ideas.” Mrs. Canton waved them over, “And also, starting tomorrow, you have to wear your belts at all times so you get used to them.”

  Both students walked over, chose a seat and pulled out some pieces of paper, pencils and the brushes and ink they got the previous day. Then Sally picked up one of the paper slips that had writing on it.

  “So, I couldn’t exactly figure out five different things, but I now know that for my element sliding and swinging doors count as doors. Also windows, drawers and hinged jar lids.”

  “Okay, good job, try to experiment some more, but don’t stress it too much. Now, let’s get to the meat and potatoes. As you know, each level on a magic circle allows for up to five runes, but also makes it exponentially harder to draw and activate. So you need at least three spells that will be your bread and butter to store in your belt. For today, let’s make one offensive, one defensive and one utility wordchain, these can always change, I just wanna see how you work so I can prepare some stuff for next time.”

  Leo stares at the paper in front of him for a bit and thinks about what he could make.

  Hmm, what can I even attack with? Thorns? But if my opponent is wearing something other than just their underwear they’ll be useless, so… big thorns? Or one giant thorn would be probably better. And it should be fast.

  Leo took the brush, dunked it in ink and, after concentrating on his mana, started drawing the circle. Giant Thorn Fast Eject Single. As he drew he focused on the sound of the mana flowing out of him, trying to detect any differences from the first time he drew a magic circle, but it sounded pretty much the same - still a petal being ripped from a flower.

  As Bella saw Leo finish, she stood up from the desk and walked over to look at his formation.

  “Very good, though if you can’t perfectly control your mana, since you didn’t specify a direction, it will shoot straight up out of the circle.”

  “Oh, yeah, makes sense, I didn’t think about that.”

  “As you get better at controlling you can drop the Single and maybe replace it with Forward.

  Not long after their exchange Sally also started drawing her circle and this time, as Leo concentrated on the sound of the mana he did hear a difference - he couldn’t explain it, but whereas his sounded like a petal coming loose because of a gust of wind, Sally’s sounded like someone had picked up the flower, separated one of its petals and gently blown it into the air.

  Leo and Bella looked over at her formation.

  “Hmm, Sliding Door Forward Slam Single, interesting, I wanna see how that looks.” Leo said as he studied Sally’s wordchain.

  “Wait, I have another one.” The girl started drawing again. As he heard her mana’s sound Leo confirmed that it wasn’t just a fluke - Sally’s mana did sound different, “There, to match the other one. Sliding Door Inward Slam Pair.”

  “Very nice, by the way, when we’re done you can test these out outside, maybe tweak them if you want and then show me the result on Monday. I would love to go with you, but I still have some stuff to do later.”

  *****

  The pair both finished preparing the two remaining formations in a short time. Leo was very focused on his own magic circles, trying to hear even the smallest differences in the sound of his mana, thus far without any success, so he didn’t see what Sally prepared for hers. With that they were done for the day and headed outside.

  “Hey, wanna do a duel outside with our spells we just made, like Bella suggested?” Sally asked as they were in the wardrobe putting out their outside uniforms.

  “For sure, I would’ve asked if you didn’t.” As he said this they started heading to the courtyard, “What rules are we gonna use anyway?”

  “I have no clue what people usually use. Let’s just go until the first hit. With a spell of course.” They already arrived in the courtyard and now stood about five meters apart facing each other.

  “Fine by me.” Leo replied and started thinking about his options.

  Fuck, how am I supposed to do this? I literally have one shot to get her, she at least has two. And my ‘Thorn’ has a weird trajectory too… I prepared a Hard Wide Bark Spew Single as my defensive option, but I can’t expect it to protect me if she uses the doors going inwards. I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m also just gonna suck ass at combat and mana control and won’t be able to react and defend myself.

  Leo was getting nervous and frantically tried to get himself under control, which wasn’t really working.

  I like my utility option Dense Barberry Bush Spew Line, as it should give me some cover and slow Sally down, but again, I have no fucking clue how my spell or her attacks actually work… I guess I’ll just use ‘Barberry’ as an opener and as soon as I hear her mana I’ll use ‘Bark’.

  He put his utility spell in his right hand to activate it as soon as they start, his defense in his left to be able to activate it instead if Sally decided to attack him immediately. Lastly he tucked the paper slip with his attack into the front of his pants to be able to grab it as soon as he used up his first formation.

  Sally did something similar as she took out a bit of tape and attached two paper slips to her chest and took one in each hand, though because of the small size Leo couldn’t make out what formations she put where.

  “Ready when you are!” He was trying to hide his nervousness by sounding more confident.

  “Kay, I’ll count down from three…”, Leo mentally prepared himself by concentrating in advance on ‘Barberry’, hoping that Sally wouldn’t be able to immediately cast due to the countdown, “Three… Two… One… GO!”

  Leo thrust his hand against the ground, channeling mana into his right palm and half a second later almost a dozen bushes emerged in a line almost ten meters across. The shrubbery was almost entirely solid and Leo, as quietly as he could, moved a couple of steps to his left at the same time grabbing his ‘Thorn’ slip with his now empty hand.

  Then he heard it - almost undetectable, the sound of wood cracking, a sound he now associated with a formation being activated. Leo, like his life depended on it, activated ‘Bark’ thinking Sally was trying to use one of her attacks.

  A layer of bark, way too thin for Leo to think that it would protect him against an incoming attack shot out of the earth. Only there never came an attack - he locked eyes with Sally, who had a crazed look in her eyes as she was somehow flying over the bushes he conjured.

  Fuck! I’m an idiot, she didn’t use an attack…

  One of her hands shot to her chest where she secured her magic circles.

  Leo knew that he was in deep shit if he didn’t do something immediately, so he brought his right hand to the front of his wooden shield, trying to angle the slip for ‘Thorn’ to fly in Sally’s direction.

  As he activated his formation, he could already hear the sound of Sally having cast the attack. In his peripheral he could see two doors appearing and approaching him as a thorn the size of his fist shot out at incredible speed but missed the mark. Then he felt the two doors slam into him.

  “OW! Fuck that hurts!” Leo shouted.

  “Bro, have you seen your thorn?! Do you know what would have happened if that had hit me?”

  “...”

  “It’s okay, I’m not mad or anything, especially considering I destroyed your ass.” She put one hand over her heart, thrust the other to the sky and dramatically looked up, “Oh muses, sing your songs, play your ballads in honor of the hero born this day… me.”