After using up all of his newly drawn formations during his texting outside Leo decided that he needed to prepare more paper slips in advance, so, after letting his mana recover for some time, Leo spent the rest of the day drawing magic circles.

  He thought about it for a bit and decided that ten of each should be fine, except for ‘Thorn’ as he definitely was going to use it the most, so he made twice as much of it.

  By the time nighttime came around he had again almost completely drained his mana multiple times, as even if it didn’t consume as much as casting the formations, drawing over fifty of them definitely took a toll on Leo. He also realized that the two small ink bottles he picked up weren’t nearly enough, as he was already almost at the end of one of them, so he asked his mom to pick up a dozen or so if she was ever at the general supply.

  A thing that Leo didn’t consider before was also how he was going to distribute the paper slips for easy access. After some contemplation he decided that he would put the magic circles in four of the belt bags total, splitting them up so that his left hand could reach for the ‘Vine’ and ‘Bamboo forest’ spells alternating as needed, while his right hand he would use primarily for ‘Thorn’ to attack, while also having the option to use ‘Barberry’ and ‘Cactus field’, which he decided to put in one bag, as the two formations were supposed to be used together anyway.

  Thoroughly exhausted, Leo finally went to bed, falling asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

  The next morning, after getting some sandwiches from his mother for breakfast and grabbing a cup of tea Leo started to make some last minute preparations. He threw on some sportswear, but decided to test an idea he got just that moment, when recalling his previous spar with Sally and how she taped two formations to herself while also remembering his tests the previous day.

  Before putting on his socks he laid one slip of the ‘Bamboo forest’ spell on each foot, so he had a fast way of responding to attacks. Leo also decided to make and take along two of his ‘Glowleaf’ spells just in case. Being done for the most part he headed out of his room.

  “Mom, I’m going to meet a friend to train for the trial.”

  “Oh you’re gonna meet with Bim? Did he also decide to try for the Magic Contest?”

  “Ehhh, no, I’m actually meeting up with Sally, she’s the friend I told you about, that I’m training with…”

  “That’s nice, you should bring her around sometime. I’d love to meet her.”

  “Um, sure, I’ll swing it by her, I guess.”

  “By the way, I wrote to Laura’s mom and she said that they would come by next Friday and stay for the weekend. Anyway, have fun, love you!”

  “For the whole weekend? Fine, bye mom, love you too.”

  *****

  The stadium was pretty easy to reach - it was just a straight line with one of the tram lines.

  Leo arrived a bit early, but didn’t have to wait for Sally, as she was already there, warming up in the central part of the stadium, which was a well trimmed grass field surrounded by track lanes. She was wearing a set of dark red sweatpants and a jacket of the same color with some white stripes placed here and there. She also had the same belt as Leo wrapped around her waist.

  There weren’t a lot of people there, only around ten or so, and most were using the tracks. When Sally spotted him, she stopped stretching and started waving while jogging in his direction.

  “‘Sup, how are you?” She gave him a gentle squeeze, and continued with a smirk, “Ready to be embarrassed yet again? I’ve been cooking up some nasty stuff.”

  “Pfft, in your dreams maybe. Last time I had to hold back so you wouldn’t cry, but seeing how cocky you are I think you need to be taught a lesson. Anyway yeah, I’m good, how are you?”

  “I’ve been using my mana non-stop these last couple days. So I’m a little tired, but nothing too crazy.”

  “Same. So, how are we doing the spar? Until the first hit again?”

  “Hmm, that felt kinda fast, so why not go until three hits? Or until someone gives up.”

  “Sure. Let’s get started right away, you’re already warmed up and I’m fine as is.” He suggested and started backing up a bit to get some distance between them.

  “If you’re sure, then I’m for it.” Sally also took a couple steps back, “Ok, then I’ll start the countdown.” Leo quickly took out a copy of ‘Barberry’ and ‘Cactus field’ and mentally prepared himself. He planned to open the same way as last time.

  “Three… Two… One… Go!”

  Almost identically to their previous spar, Leo immediately placed his right hand and activated ‘Barberry’, summoning a wall of bushes and dashed a couple of steps to the side. He then activated ‘Cactus field’ just in time to see Sally jumping over the bushes, same as last time.

  Her eyes widened a bit when she saw that she was unable to land. Leo was already trying to cast ‘Thorn’ as quickly as possible after grabbing a slip for it. Not even a second later three small thorns were flying in Sally’s direction. Leo could hear that she was also casting something, even though he couldn’t see her touching a formation.

  A platform, that Leo realized was a trapdoor, appeared beneath her feet while still in the air and a moment later ‘opened’ launching her up and forward, but not before the thorns hit her left calf, although not piercing her sweatpants. Leo grabbed for another ‘Thorn’ with his right hand, while taking a ‘Vine’ with his left.

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  As Sally was being launched a little bit Leo could hear her activate another magic circle and suddenly a sliding door appeared in front of her angled towards him. She then grabbed onto the frame of the door and as she did it started moving rapidly in his direction. Leo could also hear another spell being activated.

  Not having any other choice he prematurely ended ‘Cactus field’ to move more freely and activated one of the ‘Bamboo forests’ on his foot. As the bamboo started sprouting Leo also realized what the other formation he heard was - it was the same pair of doors that had cost him their first bout. His defensive spell didn’t cover the ground to his sides, so he had to hastily step back.

  Then the first sliding door collided with the growing bamboo and tipped over, making Sally fall with it. Almost at the same time the two other doors collided, blocking Leo’s field of vision and also sending a rush of pain up his leg, as he wasn’t able to move away in time.

  Just a second later he again saw Sally jumping over her own twin doors looking down at him from above. Leo immediately raised both his hands, first activating ‘Vine’ and then ‘Thorn’ just after that. He, for the second time now, heard Sally activate a formation without touching anything and, just as last time, a trapdoor appeared beneath her, but this time, as she moved to jump the ‘Vine’ Leo had activated wrapped around her ankle, trapping her and allowing the ‘Thorn’ he had cast to hit her, though she was able to fire of one last magic circle and suddenly an open glass lid appeared on the ground in front of him.

  It then proceeded to close rapidly, slamming into his chest and pinning him to the ground, which sent another rush of pain through him, but he didn’t care, as with his two previous spells hitting their mark he had won their spar.

  “Fuck yes! Suck it, Sally, you ain’t got nothing on me.” Leo gestured with both thumbs to himself.

  “Damn, at least take me out to dinner first.” Sally was standing on the ground not far from him after falling out of the air due to her trapdoor disappearing. She quickly dismissed the mana in her formation and freed Leo from his jar lid prison

  “No, but really, good match, it was close. And the way you fight… It looks awesome. You didn’t even touch the ground once.” He stretched out his hand in Sally’s direction to fistbump her. She returned it and plopped down on the ground next to him.

  “Thanks, you also got some interesting new spells. The cactus field and the vine you grabbed me with really caught me off guard.”

  “Yeah, I made the cactus field to specifically counter you. I just couldn’t come up with anything else.” He was still breathing a bit heavily, but was wearing a bright smile, “By the way, how did you cast your weird floating trapdoor? I didn’t see you touch any magic circles.”

  Instead of answering Sally pulled up a pant leg with a grin revealing a row of taped on paper slips.

  Leo chuckled, “So we had the same idea. Mine are inside my shoes though. Anyway, wanna take a short break and do a couple more rounds?” He said as he stood up.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice!” Sally practically jumped to her feet.

  *****

  About an hour later, during which Leo found out that he didn’t become as good as he thought he did, seeing as the score stood now at 5-3 in Sally’s favor, the two friends were sitting on the ground looking very haggard. Small droplets of sweat were running down the sides of their faces.

  “Get fucked, Leo.” Sally exhaled in the midst of her panting, “Wanna go… grab a bite to eat?.. I know a good place.”

  “Sure, just… give me a minute.” He was also still trying to catch his breath.

  A couple minutes passed and the two were already on their way back to the station.

  “So, what’s the place you wanna go to?” Leo asked as they approached the station’s waiting area. As it seemed they were the only people expecting a tram.

  “It’s in the northern part, close to where I live. My dad decided a couple of years ago that he was going to be a chef. So after going to an educational program for a bit he now runs a small place.” Sally shrugged a bit as she scratched the back of her head.

  Leo’s eyes widened a bit. “Damn, that’s cool. Thinking back, depending on what my element was going to be I also thought about becoming a cook.” He said as they arrived at the station and he leaned into the railing, turning his gaze to the sky with a somber look.

  Sally snorted and Leo glanced at her questioningly. “This contest shit really messed up our lives, huh? I don’t even know if that’s a bad thing.” She turned to look at him anxiously, “I- I guess I just wonder sometimes, what if we participate, go to these planets, fight people. Ma- maybe kill someone and that’ll change us? Make us less… human?”

  I’ve never seen her this distraught… Leo couldn’t help but think. I almost thought that she was unable to be scared.

  “I don’t think we’ll kil-”

  “But we might! I looked it up, and there hasn’t been a single contest that didn’t have at least a single casualty, even though it’s been not required to murder the other teams for almost two hundred years! Even you almost killed me with your thorn spell by accident. You don't remember?” Sally was starting to talk faster and louder as her rambling continued. By the end she was almost screaming.

  "...Sorry." She added in a whisper.

  Leo was stunned opening his mouth trying to say something, but unable to bring even a single sound out. He took a deep breath trying to calm himself and grabbed Sally by the shoulder.

  “You know, I think the fact that you were so worried that you decided to look it up — it proves that you care, that deep inside you there is something that refuses to let you become a bad person.” He let go of her shoulder and turned to the tram that was approaching, “Hope that helps.”

  It was quiet for a while and Leo was too nervous to look back in Sally’s direction.

  “Thanks.” He heard her say in a small voice and finally decided to peek her way. She was staring at him with a small smile and eyes that were still a bit wet.

  “Come, let’s not worry about that today. Didn’t we want to go and put your father’s cooking under trial? Or do you actually think he’s not that good a cook?” He said the last part in a mocking tone while going into the wagon.

  Sally stifled a laugh. “You’re gonna be blown away by the shit he can cook up.” She got into the tram after him, “By the way, I’m so telling him that you doubted his cooking.” She settled into a seat and looked at him while stretching her arms a bit with a satisfied smirk on her face.

  Leo instantly paled and landed on a seat next to hers. “Please don’t.”

  Sally broke into laughter, doubling over. “Relax, bro. I won’t.” She reassured him after catching her breath and wiping the tears from her eyes.

  She paused.

  “...Maybe.”