Bog Standard Isekai

Brin shot his spears first and Vitor blocked each of them with a perfectly located shield of packed sand; surely some anti-projectile Skill was helping him there. But he’d expected that, and his Mirror Men charged in next, seven of them with spears.

Vitor’s sword appeared in his hand and he battered them away, dodging while muttering words of Language to help him back, slow them down, and grind away their glass.

Every time he sliced a Mirror Man, Brin let the glass break away, sharpened it, and shot it at Vitor. The air surrounding Vitor was a storm of flowing sand, blocking every danger while also stabbing out back at the enemies.

It gave Brin the moment he needed to get his own body in place. He used his best glass as a lance and thrust it forward.

Vitor caught the lance on the flat of his blade, letting the momentum push him backwards away from Brin’s Mirror Men. Almost. He’d almost gotten him. Just a little more.

Brin turned the lance into an axe and chopped down. When Vitor blocked, he let the head fall off, turned it into a sawblade, and started spinning, cutting through his shroud of sand. He saw it make progress, getting closer. Almost there.

Brin sharpened the glass into his hand into a spear and thrust forward.

An impenetrable wall of air blocked his spear, and then Vitor was being pulled back through the air to land safely behind the white-haired, youthful figure of Ian of Avion.

“Stop!” Lumina shouted, and appeared between Brin and Ian a moment later. “What is the meaning of this?”

Ian sneered. “Your boy–”

“I’m aware,” snapped Lumina. “Are you out of your mind, Brin? What’s gotten into you? A formal duel, agreed upon by both parties is one thing. Randomly attacking a classmate in a friendly dance is quite another! Ten Chaos points will be deducted,” said Lumina.

That actually kind of hurt. Those weren’t that easy to get! He’d gotten perfect scores in every class so far, and he only had twelve.

Then he felt a familiar weaving of magic, but sourced in an unusual way. Lumina was combining elements to produce illusion magic. The Silent Voice, specifically. “Listen quickly, I am no expert with this spell. I felt something just now; I think you nearly forced Vitor to reveal something. Something important. Press harder, if you can.”

From all appearances, she was frowning with terrible anger, literal sparks of lightning in her eyes. It was scary to know it was an act. Was Lumina really this good at acting?

Brin nodded, but turned it into a grimace. “You can’t do that! I earned those!”

“I hardly think Chaos points are a worthy punishment…” started Ian, but then flinched when Lumina turned her glare towards him.

“And what would you propose?” Anyone watching would assume that Lumina was projecting her anger at Brin onto Ian, but Brin thought the anger at Ian was real. He’d blocked Brin’s magic right at the last second, preventing Lumina from learning something about magic she desperately wanted to know. Yeah, that fit his mental model of his adoptive mother a lot better.

Ian said, “A suspension. A lashing. Revoking of privileges. I would say we should speak with his parents if–”

“I will maintain my house the way that I see fit, and I’ll thank you not to make aspersions about my parenting,” said Lumina, with such anger in her voice that Ian dropped the shield protecting Vitor and kept his staff ready to summon more shields for himself.

“Of course I would never, but…”

Brin silenced himself and then started chanting in the Language. He still had the spear in his hand. “<Biting Power, Vicous Blade, Sharp. Cutting. Energize and Fly…>”

He couldn’t assume he’d be able to hide the use of Language while surrounded by [Mages], even if they couldn’t hear his voice. Lumina definitely could already feel it, and Ian could as well, and any moment now he’d stop being too distracted by Lumina to realize what was going on. Brin couldn’t wait.

“<Fire!>” He lunged forwards towards Vitor. Pain flew up his arm as his spear exploded against Vitor’s reactive shield of sand, blowing a wide hole. Brin still held a six inch length of glass, what was left of the spear, so now it was a knife. Vitor parried, and Brin let him shave off more glass. With the last inch of glass, Brin pivoted and slashed, cutting a scrape on Vitor’s cheek.

His first of the night, and he’d needed three.

He felt a wall of air blast him away from Vitor, and then different magic caught him. Lumina held out a hand, freezing him five feet above the ground. He growled and gnashed his teeth, not wanting to give away the fact that she’d put him up to it in the first place.

“This is not to be borne! Keep this up, and I’ll apply all of Ian’s suggested punishments. We’ll start with another twenty Chaos points!”

Again, that was really frustrating. "I need those points!”

“You need to learn to conduct yourself properly in polite society. Maybe this was all too early for you,” said Lumina.

“Too early? After how long I waited? How dare you?” Brin said. He knew Lumina was play-acting an argument to try to give him another opening, but even so that was sort of a low blow.

Then he heard Hogg’s voice. “Hey, I’m going to take over comms; Lumina’s right. She’s not great with this spell. Split your mind. I need to talk to a part of you that's not so pissed off.”

Brin did, and tried to calm down with the split mind.

It wasn’t that easy to have two minds feeling different things; near impossible, actually. The emotions lived in the body, so he’d still feel the excited heart rate, and the cocktail of hormones that was pushing his teenage body to lash out, to fight.

“[Commune with the Elements] evolved from [Meditation], and you can use it like that. Try to restore some of your Mana if you can. You're going to need it,” suggested Hogg.

Brin meditated with his second mind, trying to sense the resonant glass all around him. Meanwhile, he let his first mind argue his case in front of everyone. "This was an agreed-upon duel! Vitor and I worked everything out before the dance. Tell her, Vitor!"

Vitor nodded and started to speak, but Lumina cut him off. "That’s enough. We’re leaving.”

“No!” Brin shouted. He struggled against Lumina’s magic, writhing in the air. “I’m not done with him yet! Just let me… just one more time!”

“That’s completely out of the question,” said Lumina.

He noticed Jeeves out of the corner of his eye, leaning down and saying something to the band’s [Bard]. Chico shrugged and then nodded. “Why not let them at it?”

Lumina and Ian both turned to look over at Chico, surprised. Vitor continued to frown at Brin, as if trying to figure him out.

“I’ve never been to one of these dances that didn’t end in something like this. Why not just make it official? Let them duke it out and we can all get back to our evening,” said Chico.

Both of Brin’s minds agreed with this idea. One for practical reasons, and the other because he just wanted to get back to the duel. It had just been about to get interesting.

“If I set you down, can you promise to be calm?” Lumina asked Brin.

“Fine,” said Brin, which wasn’t an answer, but Lumina let him down anyway.

“You can plainly see that young Mistaken is in no mental state to maintain gentlemanly conduct,” said Ian.

“Why’s that matter? I see two of the strongest [Mages] in the Tower here. Surely the two of you are enough to keep it from getting out of hand?” asked Chico.

“I suppose…”

“We definitely need it to get out of hand. Lumina says he needs to feel trapped. Cornered. Completely overwhelmed,” said Hogg.

“It’s not a horrible idea…” Lumina said reluctantly. “It would certainly aid us in ending this evening on a note slightly less sour.”

“I see no reason why I should agree to this,” said Ian.

Vitor shook his head. “But you aren’t the one who need agree, are you? I am the insulted party. I promised Brin a duel tonight. I wish to give it to him.”

“See? Simple as that,” said Chico.

Brin didn’t think it was. The duel might give him a chance to overpower Vitor, but simply winning wasn’t enough, and… yeah, he was sure. That last lunge had broken his wrist again. He used pins of glass to set it in place, and covered the bone where it was fractured. Covering all of his bones would kill them, but just a small portion for a small amount of time was fine. Probably.

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The more he thought about it, the more he wasn’t sure he could give Hogg and Lumina the kind of win they needed. He had to change the game. Vitor had promised that Brin could change the rules of the duel however he wanted, right? Well Brin had something in mind.

He breathed deep as if calming himself. “It’s not fair if it’s just me and Vitor. This is a social event, isn’t it? Let’s make it 5 vs 5.”

“A team challenge? And I can choose any five?” asked Vitor.

“You can choose any four. Sancta Solia, man. This is a school!” said Brin.

“Me!” shouted Guoncal, and then he was pushing through the crowd. "Let me face him! I have somewhat to prove, as thou dost know. And I will show that [Mage of Creeping Things] is a war mage, and that I have not the selfsame manner of weakness as the late Jaozin.”

Brin let his adrenaline-fueled mind talk. “The [Archmage of Creeping Death] was a hero. He risked his life to save tens of thousands of lives. Likely including my own, you little punk. Agh! I’m really sorry. I just hate you so much. Ares. Rhun.”

Ares hopped into place with a “Hyup!” and Rhun slid next to him. “I thought it was just the war, but now I think your whole life is like this.”

“Will you–?”

Rhun held up his greatshield, pulled from Sion’s spatial backpack. “Whatever you need, Second. You know this.”

Brin nodded.

“Don’t choose Sancha. Choose Almenesh,” said Hogg with Silent Voice.

Brin looked over to where Sancha was gritting her teeth and summoning her resolve. “Will you be offended if I tell you I don’t want you on the team?”

“Not at all!” she said quickly.

“I have someone in mind. Almenesh?” Brin asked. She was a [Name Carver]. He had no idea what that meant, but he was extremely eager to find out. The only question would be if she’d accept. They’d only spoken a couple times.

The Pollisian girl looked surprised to suddenly be the center of everyone’s attention. “I… Yes. I accept. I will fight with you, Brin isu Yambul.”

She walked up and stood in line with Brin’s team. She whispered, “I have one trick, and then I will be next to useless. I will confuddle and confuse all spells, just once. Use me well.”

“Got it,” said Brin.

The last position was taken by Marksi, an absolute given.

Vitor took Guoncal, but then Ian chose the next two. A second year [Mage of Flame] named Raold, and Bia’s friend Rafael.

“I trust there be no ill will between us,” said Rafael.

“None,” said Brin.

Ian shouted over the crowd to Bia, who’d come back inside after everyone had started shouting. “And who better to finish off our set than the esteemed Lady of Guven.”

“Absolutely not,” said Bia.

“Your father would want–”

“I said no,” said Bia.

Gyromia stepped forward. “Perhaps I…”

“What? No!” said Ian.

“You don’t have to do this for me,” said Vitor.

“I will it! And trouble thyself not, good Vitor Ellvas, for my power shall not be proven wanting.”

“If this is your desire…” said Vitor.

Brin nodded to her. “Gyromia. Always a pleasure.”

He’d been trying to be friendly, but she paled and looked away.

They had their teams, but only a few seconds to think things over. Giving both teams any time to plan would help Vitor more than Brin. He needed to keep the momentum. [Battle Sense] guided his thoughts around the direction this fight would go.

“Rhun, guard Ares and Almenesh. Ares, take down Raold first. Prove you’re as fast as you say you are. Almenesh, I’ll tell you when,” said Brin.

The three nodded.

“We’re ready,” said Brin.

That pulled Vitor’s group out of a huddle of their own, but he didn’t seem rushed or panicked. “You’re letting your pet fight? You know he may get hurt.”

The annoying thing was that Vitor wasn’t even taunting Brin. He was actually concerned. This was the wrong attitude for him to be having. Lumina apparently needed to get Vitor’s back against the wall in order for him to reveal his ace-in-the-hole. He was acting way too confident.

“This isn’t even his final form,” said Brin.

Main: Run GlassDragon.exe

He felt his magic swirl as his directed threads summoned light and glass to create the puppet he’d first used in the fight against Zaff. Marksi seemed to bulge and swell, growing until he was at eye level with Vitor, and about twenty feet longer. He had more horns and stubs of bones in this form, looking like a real dragon. He roared, and all of the students who were standing in a circle around the duelists took a few very large steps back.

Only the claws, horns, and teeth were real, made of glass and piloted by Marksi. The rest was illusion, also piloted by Marksi, but no one would ever be able to tell, and the unnerving speed at which Marksi would dodge all of their spells would just add to his menace.

Vitor began to look a little worried, and that was before Marksi roared, a sonic blast that shook the room like thunder.

Ian objected. “You can’t actually mean to let–”

“Begin,” said Lumina.

Ares struck first. “Zap!” A bolt of lightning crashed into Raold, but the [Mage of Flame] must have expected it, because he was ready with something to deflect. Brin didn’t recognize it as a spell, per se, more like Raold was arguing in the Wyrd that hot things shouldn’t hurt him. This must’ve been what [Mages] meant when they said Authority. It wasn’t enough.

“And Pow!” Ares' second beam hit Roald square in the chest and he went down. Lumina and Ian were probably doing something to protect their lives, but they weren’t protecting against all injuries, because Brin could see the electricity burns under Roald’s scorched clothes.

Everyone else sprang into motion as well, and even the band started playing epic battle music.

Vitor launched volleys of sand bullets, even as his shroud of sand blocked all of Brin’s darts of glass. Rafael was more conservative with a single spear of water, blocked by Rhun, but he’d drawn his sword and looked to be more than passingly familiar with it.

The fight between Brin and Vitor was fast and desperate. Vitor was trying his best to take Brin out of the fight before he could ramp up, outpacing the growing glass chains and the Mirror Men who were rising to their feet all around them. It was all Brin could do to deflect his sand missiles, and when Vitor leapt at him, he wondered if he was screwed. His body was just too fragile.

Marksi launched himself at Vitor, only he overshot. Brin was so distracted he almost didn’t dodge Vitor’s lunge. Marksi never missed. And he didn’t hit the ground on the other side, but stayed up in the air. Gyromia.

Rhun put himself between Brin and Vitor, blocking the [Thirsty Blade] completely, so Brin turned his attention elsewhere. Ares had tried to pummel the [Mage of Water] with more lightning, but Rafael easily redirected it into the ground.

Marksi roared in frustration, and he’d put webs under his fingers to try to swim through the air. It was actually kind of working, but not quick enough.

Brin threw a spear of glass at Gyromia. She held up a panicked hand and completely redirected its momentum. It slammed back haft-first into Brin’s gut, winding him, but he’d done what he needed. That panicked gesture had distracted her from Marksi. Now free, the dragon launched himself at Rafael.

The [Mage of Water] defended with spell and sword, putting up a heroic defense against the dragon that even Brin had to appreciate. The [Bard's] music started to emphasize that struggle, ignoring the rest of the fight. Something Brin really couldn’t afford to do.

Rhun had bought him the moment he needed. His glass chains were already starting to give Vitor trouble, and that was nothing compared to the Mirror Men. Since he’d prepped the area, he had all the glass he needed and didn’t need to waste his Mana summoning any more. Instead, he could put his power into strengthening his copies, and they were limitless. Every time Vitor struck one down it immediately began to repair itself while being replaced by three more.

Rafael was on his last legs. Vitor was nearly overwhelmed. Gyromia had been shaken from the start. They were nearly there.

A volley of stars fell from the ground and decimated a dozen of Brin’s Mirror Men in a single instant. Ares started shaking and slapping himself while Almenesh began to summon pebbles and little vines, both of them struggling against some power that Rhun couldn’t protect them from.

“Did you forget about me?” cheered Guoncal.

Bugs. Guoncal had been ramping up too, and now his bugs were ready. Little glowing lightning bugs that exploded with enough power to destroy a Mirror Man. Little pill bugs that burst with corrosive acid when they were slain, and stinging flies and mosquitos to distract and confuse. Rhun was concentrating on the pill bugs, whose acid did nothing to him, and caught the stray lightning bugs when they approached Ares and Almenesh, but he could do nothing for the rest.

It gave the other team some breathing room, and he felt the swelling power as Rafael and Vitor both started chanting in the Language, preparing large spells. Gyromia noticed and began preparing a large spell of her own.

Ares swatted at the bugs while beginning to chant as well. Brin figured it was coming down to one big spell fight, and started empowering a glass javelin with his nastiest words of Language.

“My time is now.” Almenesh raised both hands in the air, completely ignoring the flies biting her skin, and the quarter-sized mosquito growing fat on her cheek. “[The Turning of the Names].”

Every spell… switched. Brin could feel what was going on immediately, as the intentions he’d assigned to his spear in the Language was torn away, and reassigned to Rafael’s spell on his water.

Every spell activated, but using the words of Language that had been prepared by the person on their right. Brin found his spear suddenly charged with the lightning spell Ares had been preparing, and it exploded in his hands. He quickly summoned gloves of glass over them, willing himself not to look at the ruined state of his fingers.

Rafael’s water turned to a javelin, and blasted Guoncal off his feet. Guoncal’s spell killed a large swathe of his own bugs, and they fell out of the air. Vitor’s sand all stopped attacking or defending and flew around in little bug-shaped dots. Ares' magic spluttered out in a burst of air and flame, trying and failing to do all the things Vitor had been doing. Gyromia pulled herself off her feet and then slammed herself down hard into the ground, bouncing twice.

Marksi recovered first, since he hadn’t been casting anything. He charged Rafael and again, Rafael expertly deflected the claws with his sword, but Marksi sensed that it was time to wrap things up. <Laser!>

A beam of rainbow light took Rafael off his feet and out of the fight. Chains wrapped around a struggling Vitor bearing him to the ground while Mirror Men surrounded him and put the points of their spears to his neck. Guoncal was out, but Gyromia was surprisingly still in and rising to her feet.

Rhun, Ares, Almenesh and Marksi were all still whole. Almenesh and Ares were out of Mana, but that was fine, they just needed to stand there and look menacing.

It was time. Brin charged another glass spear. He aimed… and then threw it at Gyromia.

She obviously didn’t have the power to reverse its momentum like she had the last one. She watched, afraid, and unable to dodge in time.

Vitor roared. He blasted out with his sand, putting everything into one last spell. The glass restraints and mirror men exploded in a final desperate swell of sand. He burst from the chaos and threw himself in front of Gyromia, blocking the spear with his chest.

The spear collapsed into a harmless poof of glass petals.

Brin laughed. “Don’t be silly. I wouldn't hurt Gyromia. No, it’s you I'm after.”

Brin let some hanging spears of glass fall, striking down at Vitor. He’d put too much Mana into escaping his restraints, and he couldn’t gather enough sand. The first spear hit his shoulder, then the other his back.

That was three wounds. Brin kept going. Another spear, charged with energy struck down.

A red hand reached out of Vitor and grabbed it.

It was not Vitor’s hand.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” something shouted.

Then everything was chaos. People screamed. His glass exploded. Something slammed into him. Pain, and he was tumbling across the ballroom floor. He got a glimpse of a red figure, eyes wide and skinless like an anatomical diagram. “Leave Vitor alone!”

Lumina cast spells of might and fury, held shields of air and stone, and the monster was fighting. It was hanging on, against Lumina. It was winning.

Then as abruptly as it started, it ended. Ian grabbed Vitor with threads of air and flew him out of the hall. The monster screamed again, and then escaped after making a hole in the wall with a single punch.

Brin managed to use [Wyrdic Inspect] through bleary eyes. Power. Overwhelming Power. Water. Emotion. And a System message.

Name: Calixtum Tanner

Class: Who Is Clothed In The Shroud

Age: 17

Level: 50

The End of Part 2