Lily took the empty seat next to Aida at breakfast the next morning, scooting her chair close to Aida. "Hi! Ready for your match today?"

  "Yeah, should be fine," Aida said cautiously. She was slated to fight Weyn Bure today, who had ranked nineteenth during the preliminary matches at the beginning of the school year. They had managed to avoid crossing paths throughout the entirety of the school year, but he didn't seem to harbor any resentment towards her for her underhanded tactics she had used during their match.

  "Good, good," Lily said airily, dumping her toppings into her porridge as she mixed it thoroughly. "That's good. Anyway, Vanita and I were talking - we know you'll be okay in combat, but we thought we should warn you to be on your guard in case Weyn says anything weird."

  Oh no.

  "What kind of weird stuff are you talking about?" Aida asked suspiciously, her spoon suspended in the air. Lily cleared her throat as she swallowed her own spoonful of porridge, holding a finger up as she thoroughly chewed the contents in her mouth. Aida waited patiently as Sue looked between the two of them, her own spoon resting between her lips.

  "So not everyone believes it," Lily finally started, her tone overly lighthearted in that way people spoke whenever they were trying to downplay something serious. "But, you know, since you dated Ezra for a little bit..."

  "Ah," Aida said, understanding. Rumors had abounded, of course, though Aida had luckily managed to avoid them - mainly because she was too busy keeping up with her coursework and training to devote any time to tracking public opinion, and partially because everything she had heard in the beginning had been too nonsensical for her to continue keeping an idle ear out for her general reputation. "Thanks. I'll ignore what he says."

  "Yup!" Lily stuffed her mouth as she nodded vigorously. She continued talking with her mouth full, her words barely comprehensible. "I tol' hing off when he firs' started sayin' shtuff in tha beginning, but—" Lily swallowed before she continued in a more conversational tone "—I don't think he stopped entirely. Anyway, just don't let him throw you off your focus."

  "I appreciate the heads up," Aida said, smiling. "I hope he says something interesting."

  In her previous life, she had never attracted enough attention to have been wrung through the rumor mill. She knew being targeted was usually unpleasant, and perhaps it was her naivete speaking, but she couldn't help but wonder how vicious - or interesting - the rumors might be.

  After all, I never did anything bad or wrong.

  "What kind of things have you heard?" Sue asked keenly. Lily shrugged.

  "Stupid stuff. I barely remember. He was just really upset that Aida got into Class 2 in the preliminary rankings, so he was ranting about how the teachers weren't fair and stuff. I told him it was his fault he didn't get more points to beat Aida, so it had nothing to do with fairness." Lily belched. "Anyway, he stopped talking after whenever I was around, but I've still heard Aida's name a couple times, so I don't think he's totally moved on."

  "Cool. Cool cool cool." Aida sighed as she looked across the dining hall at where Weyn was sitting with a few other Class 3 boys. He was studiously avoiding looking towards her, even though they were in each other's line of sight. He certainly looked ill-tempered.

  "Has he improved a lot?" Aida asked. Even from across the room, with the interference of everyone else's mana, Aida could still sense that he wasn't fully relaxed - whether because of nerves or because he really had a bone to pick with her, Aida wasn't sure.

  "Ummm..." Lily hedged, looking guilty. "He's worked hard. I'm sorry," Lily burst out. "I think I accidentally motivated him when I was just trying to get him to shut up."

  Aida sighed again as she patted the sad girl on the head. Great.

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  Waters kicked off the matches for the day - followed by Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal. Aida suspected the teachers set the schedule that way in the hopes that Ezra would wake up in time to participate, but when she had looked in on him after breakfast he was just as still as when she had brought him back.

  Dev had given her an encouraging smile as they split off to their respective rings, but with Lily's warning in her mind, Aida had also paid attention to Lyn Trippe. She noticed the blue-haired girl give Weyn a meaningful nod, along with a glare to Aida.

  I wonder who else might have trash-talked me behind my back, Aida thought sarcastically.

  As they took their positions across from each other, waiting for Professor Gemma to kick off the matches, Weyn gave Aida a hard look but said nothing.

  Aida wondered if there was anything she could say to talk Weyn down. Upon reflection, she had gotten lucky with Pritchard - he had broached the subject and made amends first, at the Loded Peaks. Maybe she should have tried harder to connect with Weyn, show him as far as she was concerned, everything was water under the bridge - but they honestly had no opportunity to cross paths during the academic year, so Aida hadn't really thought of him too much.

  As Aida began fidgeting with her fingers, wondering what Gemma was waiting for before starting the match, Weyn smirked.

  "Did you enjoy your time in Class 2?"

  "I did," Aida replied pleasantly. "I learned a lot. Did you have fun in Class 3?"

  As soon as Aida asked her question, Weyn's expression darkened, making her realize too late that she shouldn't have tried to be friendly - especially considering how sensitive he was. He probably took that as an insult.

  Weyn scoffed. "You really think you're funny, don't you?"

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Sorry," Aida said quickly, raising her hands in a placating gesture. "I wasn't thinking."

  When will Gemma kick off this match? Aida thought, agonized.

  Opting to avoid putting her foot in her mouth even more, Aida clasped her hands together and tried to look as apologetic as possible - thankfully, before Weyn could do more than scowl, Gemma finally started the match.

  Reflexively sending a few mana blasts at Weyn while she repositioned herself, Aida easily avoided Weyn's own retaliatory blasts. They circled each other, feeling out each other's mana and power.

  Aida's primary weakness was still physical combat, so her best bet was to keep Weyn - and everybody, honestly - at a distance. Fortunately, Dev's insistence that she work on her ice spears had paid off - they only costed slightly more mana than a mana blast, though she hadn't had the opportunity to refine her ice spears enough to create different sizes the way she could for her mana blasts.

  But she also didn't want to act too hastily and show her hand early - after all, she had finally developed her mana pool and stamina enough that she didn't have to bet everything on a single strike early on.

  Weyn seemed to have no such compunctions about holding back: he immediately summoned water out of the ground, attempting to capture Aida in icy manacles to hold her in place. Fortunately, Aida had been on the alert, feeling the ripple of mana in the air.

  Weyn's mana control was - relatively sloppy, Aida was mildly interested to observe. Or maybe it spoke to Class 2's abilities. It wasn't uncommon for Aida to fall prey to sneak attacks by her classmates during their training sessions, but Weyn's mana was so wild he might as well have been comically telegraphing a punch.

  Aida interrupted the beginnings of the crystal formations at her feet with an expert mana needle at the thinnest membrane surrounding the bulk of the liquid Weyn had generated - and neatly capturing the rush of water as it flowed out of his invisible container into her own much sturdier mana shell.

  Weyn's eyes widened in fury as he realized Aida had completely overtaken his water. It was obvious he had been prepared for her to steal the dregs of his water, which explained the thin streams of water he had left as bait conspicuously behind her. Clearly he hadn't been expecting Aida to become this savvy when it came to combat.

  Feeling Weyn's mana firming up to retake control of his element, Aida quickly separated the captured water into ten icicles, launching them after him and forcing him to dodge as they all plinked into the ground, his heels barely avoiding the sharp projectiles.

  Aida frowned, skipping back with a light Surge to avoid his lunge. I need to work on being more unpredictable with the icicles.

  Weyn summoned water again, this time keeping tight control. Aida was forced to dodge his jet of water, along with avoiding his bullheaded rampage as he continued chasing her around the ring.

  Despite his initial underestimation of her, Weyn didn't continue giving Aida that handicap. His mana control was sloppy, but he compensated for that weakness by continuing to push Aida with physical threat, never letting her get a second to focus on breaking his mana resistance.

  How do I get out of this?

  Weyn's long reach, supplemented by his water, was his biggest threat. She knew she couldn't let herself get captured - she didn't want a repeat of what happened during the first match with him. He would be merciless. Ironically, she should probably have tried to end the match early; with every repeated miss, Weyn got closer and closer to her, using his water to corral her from creating too much space between them.

  Is my mana control superior enough that I can break through his mana resistance now that he's on guard?

  As Weyn bore down on her from the front while his water flanked her, Aida had to make a split decision - forge her way through water and try to wrest enough control of the water away from him for her to make a near escape, or attempt to bulldoze through him and ultimately be at his mercy.

  Deciding unpredictability was more important, Aida leapt backwards away from Weyn, raising her arms as she feinted a dive through his water wall - she caught a glimpse of Weyn's triumphant expression - before she double jumped, rocketing towards Weyn.

  She caught Weyn with her elbow right on his nose as he also leaped towards her, doubling the force of the impact.

  Aida tucked her head as she braced her trailing hand against her fist, pushing through his physical defenses with a Mana Surge and targeted Mana Penetration for good measure.

  She felt his mana go limp as he lost consciousness, water splashing down around them as she rolled through her attack.

  Immediately, Aida returned to Weyn's side, activating her overlay to evaluate his condition.

  Broken nose, facial fractures, concussion. Aida was honestly impressed at how durable Weyn was; her elbow was smarting from the collision. She looked to Professor Gemma, waiting to confirm her victory was called before she began healing Weyn.

  Healer Luk came up as Aida finished sorting out his bruises.

  "Hello, Healer. I'm not confident with the brain, so I haven't treated his concussion yet..."

  "That's fine," Luk said, performing her own examination of Weyn as he lay sprawled out on the ground. "Very good. I'll take it from here."

  Accepting her dismissal with relief, Aida pulled the water out of her wet clothes, lingering to watch as Luk carefully placed her fingers around Weyn's skull, splayed in a delicate pattern. A glow emitted from Luk's fingers before Weyn's eyes finally fluttered open.

  "Do you know who you are?" Weyn's eyebrow lifted at the question, suspicion tingeing his expression.

  "Weyn Bure, third year student at Maglica Academy, Water element."

  "Very good. Do you know where you are?"

  "...Final placement match."

  Luk nodded, satisfied at the answer. "Excellent. Can you get up and walk around a bit? See if there is anything odd with your body."

  Weyn sat up, his face darkening as he caught sight of Aida standing behind Luk.

  Now is the optimal time to make an exit. Keeping her face expressionless, Aida headed towards the stands, where she saw Lara and Dev were already seated among the spectators while their opponents, Lyn and Levan, sat on stools inside the ring holding mugs of tea.

  Lyn avoided Aida's gaze while Levan gave her a shaky smile that she returned, gratified. I have at least one friend here.

  Lily and Levi met her at the gate, beaming.

  "You sure showed him!" Lily thrust her elbow up in an awkward uppercut, while Levi chuckled.

  "Thanks," Aida said, smiling. She wished the two of them luck with their matches - except for Levi, she informed him as he rolled his eyes - as she headed towards where Sue was sitting.

  Healer Bokar stopped her, his smile stretching across his entire face. "Aida! What a strong performance," he said happily. "I'm so glad I managed to make it back to Maglica in time to watch - are you hurt?"

  "I'm fine," Aida reassured him. "How are things in the rest of the world?"

  Bokar's smile dimmed as he shrugged. "You know. So-so. There wasn't much monster activity during the Fire Festival, which was nice. The spirits must have drawn strength from our celebrations and helped tame the monsters' ire."

  Bokar laughed heartily as Aida nodded along, smiling. It was superstition, of course - Aida doubted there was any spiritual warfare happening. Bokar clapped his hands cheerfully.

  "Anyway, I'm going to watch Lily's match - wonderful job, again!"