EQUINOX || The Catalysts Series, #3

XIV

When they step through the gates of Arcane Academy, Lena and Roen are greeted with a crowd.

"A duel?" Roen wonders, shuffling forward to the fields to take a look.

Lena frowns, following Roen toward a cluster of students that form a giant oval around the field, with two students indeed in the dead centre, trading flashes of magical blows. And as Lena inches closer to the nearest students, she feels the ground underneath her rumble with a great enough force to threaten the beginnings of an earthquake.

There is a blast of earth resulting in exploding rubbles, and one of the two students duelling with each other comes flying to the edge of the crowd. Murmurs and whispers spread like a wave around them, and Lena looks over a student's shoulder to see.

A curtain of students part only slightly, just enough to reveal a whiff of dark hair. The fallen duelist shakes his head as he coughs through the smoke.

Lucifer?

Another figure steps through the plume of dirt smoke, the high length boots of Arcane Academy stomping the ground between them. The dust clears, and a dark-skinned girl barks, "Where's all that power you've shown?"

She tosses her long braid behind her shoulders and throws her long arms wide, an open challenge to Lucifer. The morning sunlight glints off her nose piercing.

When Lucifer doesn't reply or stand to his defence, the girl angrily swipes her palms across the ground in a swift motion. The ground shakes, but Lena realises then it's not from the threat of an earthquake.

The ground bursts open, an enormous trunk sprouting from its depths, as thick and healthy as three men. The tip is massive yet spiralling into something deadly, and it grows wildly and blooms straight toward Lucifer.

And yet, Lucifer does not stand. Time seems to slow, all that between the giant killing flora and the boy on the ground.

Lena watches without a sound—everything and everyone is drowned out from her.

She'd saved him. They'd all saved him. All of them, risking their lives; Reyes, risking his own mobility. They went through all that trouble to get him out of the slump he gotten himself into—and dragged two other innocents along him—and now he's just...

Lena doesn't know what happens in duels. She's had her own, but Caelus surrendered before things got out of hand—right before each side unleashed the full blast of their powers. Apart from that, she never actively participated or witnessed another duel. When does it count as a victory on one end, and how does a student lose?

There's no way students duel to the death on Arcana's watch, but how far will they go before these prideful students yield?

How much will they lose?

There's no way Lucifer is going to just let the girl attack him like that. And yet there he is, on the ground, not making a move against the girl. Not so much as defending himself. Why would he, after all they've been through to make sure he's alive, safe—

He's selfish. That's all Lena can think as her blood rages. Suddenly, Lena is angry. All she can see are the red tinges in the corners of her vision as she shuffles forward, making her way in between students. Some protest, but Lena thinks they back away and make room for her—she doesn't know what expression she's making, but it is certainly not a positive one.

She nearly reaches the front row. There, she sees Lucifer at the edge of the centre clearing the students make out, close to a few of the students there, who do not flinch or move away from him but instead gawk at his fallen form. They circle him in their positions alone, eyes watching and assessing like a hawk.