The next morning found Aida bleary-eyed and in a slump, despite having gone to bed early.

  Perhaps it was nerves about facing Dev - Aida was already anticipating a tough match, and expected to lose. Her only goal was to at least put up a respectable fight against him and not embarrass herself.

  Levi's strategies yesterday had been useless - Aida knew she wouldn't be able to pull any of them off, not with how Dev was clearly better than her in both the elemental and physical aspects. There was one strategy, however, that had made Aida shake Levi until he turned into a bobblehead when he suggested it.

  "Just use your feminine wiles on him."

  Dishonorable and unlikely to work. And she had even less idea how she could pull that off, especially in the middle of combat. It wasn't like she was fighting in her regular school uniform with her skirt - they were all going to be wearing their tracksuits, which did not make an alluring silhouette whenever they got wet.

  Therefore, Aida had resigned herself to facing her first loss. But at least anything I do will be a better performance than when he drowned me in the first match.

  Waters were fighting last today, which meant Aida had to sit and wrestle with the anxiety of waiting for her doom as everyone else completed their matches. It didn't help that Kuri decided to sit with Aida and Sue, the two Fires commenting and analyzing everyone's strategies and execution with gusto.

  Aida was able to follow along with the critiques, though she wasn't sure she could absorb their wisdom in time for her own match.

  "Wow, I'm impressed at Tera's balanced approach to the fight. She seems much more stable than Pritchard." Kuri was leaning forward in her seat, her eyes sparkling.

  "That's right! I don't remember her being so mature in a fight before." Sue mirrored Kuri’s posture, right on the edge of her own seat.

  Tera was certainly fighting Pritchard more seriously than Aida had ever seen the girl fight - she seemed especially dialed in lately, perhaps as a result of what happened at North Ocean Village. It had been hard to fully grasp the change in Tera's improvement, due to how haphazard their class schedules had been ever since the school started sending their third years off-site to perform star cycle-long sponsorship assignments. However, Tera was moving efficiently, exploiting every mistake Pritchard made and barely giving him a chance to capitalize on any of hers.

  The caramel-haired girl had a look of intense focus on her face, even when Pritchard managed to hit her with an unexpected boulder; she just broke through the rock, bruised, sweating, and panting, but kept her gaze fixed on Pritchard.

  "Ouch. I'm surprised she's still standing so solidly," Aida said. Kuri nodded beside her.

  "Yes, that was a perfectly timed Defense Up. I think she would be quite an asset for an Adventuring group..."

  "Are you going to extend her an offer?"

  "I'm thinking about it! She has a good personality, so I think working with her will be easy."

  "Kuri, have you heard about Dev Flau putting together an Adventuring group?" Sue asked, scrunching her face up as she eyed Pritchard critically. "What are your thoughts about that?"

  "Oh, yes! We spoke about that," Kuri said airily. She grinned. "I'm optimistic for them. They have the connections and skills to make it work. I've already met with the boys, and they all seem ready to bear the torch." Kuri lowered her voice conspiratorially, making Aida and Sue lean in to hear her next words. "We have a handshake agreement where we'll take them under our wing for the first year - so they'll basically be an extension of the Gullbeaks."

  "Really? They get your support for free?" Aida asked. Kuri shook her head, smiling.

  "Details aren't straightened out yet, but they've offered to pool their resources into objectives of our choosing. These kids are quite smart - they recognize that we're as independent of an Adventuring company as they come with our information networks being built through communities we've helped, so are more likely to avoid being directed into some sort of power struggle between the major families."

  Aida shook her head in wonder. Dev really was serious about his proposal to create an Adventuring group - and it sounded like he'd convinced the rest of his friends to commit to the cause as well.

  It really is easier to make things happen when you have the resources...

  "Ah, it's time for the Metals," Sue observed. She peered over Kuri's form at Aida. "Are you ready for your match?"

  Aida grimaced. "I don’t think more preparation will make much of a difference for me."

  Kuri smiled briefly. "Don't worry so much. You aren't giving yourself enough credit for your abilities."

  Aida subsided into sullen silence, knowing she wouldn't be able to convince these two confident Fire battlers otherwise.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Abedi Bellow and Ruth Cadmum's battle was the highlight of the Metal matches. Even Abedi, who was normally the one who least enjoyed combat, seemed to be invested in the fight.

  He had finally managed to connect his mana abilities and physical combat together, no longer limiting himself to just his battlehammer. Now he was changing the shape of his weapon's head between strikes in order to keep Ruth on her toes. There was still a clear preference for the massive hammer, but Aida was impressed at how quickly Abedi was able to mold the mass of metal into a sharp blade and back.

  Ruth, for her part, was leaning into her speed and agility. Her favored weapon - a pair of gauntlets with claws protruding out of the knuckles - flashed in the light as she parried and struck, demonstrating her own quick metal manipulation as well.

  Relieved she didn't have to spend precious processing power on countering weapons, Aida slipped out of her seat to take her place with the other Water students waiting for their turn at the ring, Sue and Kuri's encouragements echoing in her ear.

  Dev smiled at Aida as she approached, making Levi’s seductive phrasing of "wiles" bubble up in her mind. She smiled back stiffly.

  "Don't expect me to go easy on you," Dev said, a sing-song lilt in his voice.

  "Didn't you go easy on me during the preliminary match? I still don't think I can counter that," Aida replied, tightening her ponytail. She nodded towards Lara, who was standing right at the gate. "My only goal is to be a good warmup before your main match."

  "You're aiming low." Dev smirked before glancing at Weyn, who was standing behind Lara and talking to Lyn, his opponent for the day. "You certainly handled yourself well yesterday."

  Aida smiled ruefully. I guess it looks a lot different from the outside. "Any advice you can give me on how I can avoid getting stomped by you?"

  Dev paused, tilting his head. "Just stomp me first."

  Aida looked at him skeptically, though all he did was smile mysteriously in response. Healer Luk opened the gate, allowing them into the ring before she could press him for clarity.

  They took their positions across from each other, Dev still wearing that mysterious smile.

  Aida spread her mana out, lightly touching his mana in a facsimile of two boxers touching gloves. She focused on her breathing as she met his icy blue eyes, prepared for Professor Lloyd's signal.

  The playful smile was gone from Dev's face, and he was now watching her with a predatory look, sending shivers down her spine. His mana had also turned chilly, reminiscent of an icy wind.

  As soon as Lloyd released the students from their holding pattern, Aida couldn't think of anything else. Whatever feeble hope she had that she could execute any one of Levi's strategies (like preparing waves of icicles while engaging Dev in hand-to-hand combat) was thoroughly dashed as all she could do was react to avoid getting impaled or caught by any of Dev's attacks - jets of water, ice spears, walls of water that were just the beginnings of his Water Cage - Aida had a brief second of pride as she hardened the surface of Dev's water so she could ricochet off of it out of the impending trap he was setting up around her, allowing her to refresh her Double Jump as she fled his grasp.

  Unfortunately, such was the urgency of her escape that she didn't have time to do more than send a few icicles at Dev that he neatly knocked aside, not even bothering to move from where he was standing.

  For some reason, Aida found his refusal to move highly disrespectful.

  Gritting her teeth, Aida decided her one goal this match was to get him to dodge her attack.

  She continued evading Dev's attacks, careful to weave closer to him without alerting him to her plan. Sometimes she flew away from him, sometimes she leaped towards him, but always she aimed to close the distance, making sure to fire some icicles at him periodically to lull him into a false sense of security.

  Finally, Aida saw her opportunity. She had managed to herd Dev into the center of the ring, making him chase her while thinking he had the advantage by how easily he could manipulate her movements - all the while she had been surreptitiously collecting the puddles and droplets of water that were left around the ring as Dev abused his mana pool.

  She saw Dev flinch out of the corner of her eye as he felt Aida's mana roil underneath his feet, and she immediately took advantage of his distraction to jet towards him, her fist primed.

  Aida had half a second of thrill that she might be able to land a hit on Dev before he tore through her control of the water at his feet and erected a water wall in front of him, right as Aida plunged into the water he stole from her.

  Fortunately, he didn't freeze the water quickly enough to trap her entirely in there, allowing her head and fist to erupt out of the water before the ice arrested Aida's momentum, capturing her with a supremely unattractive grunt.

  Aida shook the wet bangs out of her eyes, sighing as she looked down at Dev's face. He was standing mere inches away from her as he gazed up at her, a smile curving his lips.

  "You didn't even move, did you?" Aida asked in resignation as she peered down at his feet.

  "I almost did," he said courteously. "Do you want to try to break free?"

  "No, I'm nearly out of mana," Aida said glumly. "I forfeit."

  "Dev wins Match 2!" Lloyd called from the side. "Let her down."

  Dev reached out to catch Aida as he dissolved the ice wall, supporting her as she fell limply to the ground, exhausted.

  "You're not hurt otherwise?" Dev asked solicitously.

  "No," Aida murmured. "I just want some of Healer Luk's tea."

  With Dev's help, Aida walked over to the edge of the arena where Luk had preemptively set up stools for the students to rest after their matches. He poured her a hot mug of tea before taking one himself, sitting beside her.

  Aida took a sip, sighing deeply as the steaming beverage ran through her body, chasing off the chills of being trapped in an ice cube. The fragrant tea rejuvenated her enough to bring some spunk back. She eyed Dev beadily, who was calmly sipping from his own mug.

  "Why are you here? Surely you don't need the tea."

  Dev shrugged. "It was a tough match."

  Aida scoffed. "Don't patronize me."

  "It was an interesting match," Dev conceded. He pulled his wand out and began pulling streams of water from both of their clothes, leaving Aida refreshingly dry. "I didn't know what your goal was, so I had fun trying to figure out your plan."

  "If you had just moved, I would have accepted my defeat without making a fool of myself," Aida grumbled. Dev chuckled as he leaned over, pressing his shoulder against hers in a friendly gesture.

  "But that wouldn't have been very fun, would it?"