The class abuzz, Mrs. Haymath stands in the front of the bustling students with a small bag of water strung up to the side.
Attempting to speak up, Mrs. Haymath's voice is drowned out by persisting chatter, almost everyone bursting at the seems with excitement for the days duel, Valentina Elskaya VS Alex Wilson, two of the three women in the Top 10.
Unlike the rest of his classmates, Mark sits watching silently, "Here I am doing something nice and hardly any of you care!" Her presence continuing to be almost entirely ignored.
Mrs Haymath's mood souring quickly, she reaches her last straw when an overdramatic yelp rings out from the back of class, deciding to blow a strong gust of wind at the class sending loose pieces of paper everywhere and sentencing everyone to a bad hair hour.
"Do I have your attention now?" Mrs. Haymath asks, her voice infected with her blatant annoyance, "You'll all be cleaning this up before you leave in case any of you get any ideas.. Now I wanted to light a spark under at least one of you, and I still do, so I'll be showing you something I've recently learnt about my ability. There's always something new to discover even when you think you've reached your limits so watch, you realistically only get one power in your life so making yours count is so, so important. No other teacher would do this and I definitely won't a second time so watch carefully."
Tentatively stepping into position at the other end of her desk she inhales some air and releases it as she also raises a hand above her head, holding it there. Despite their previous demeanour the students watch silently and as the silence hangs above them Mrs. Haymath suddenly makes a quick slashing motion across the thin bag of water, cleanly slicing it in half sending the water splashing down upon the desk and floor.
Mrs. Haymath regains her composure with a nervous smile and begins to speak but Marks own thoughts drown her out entirely, "Wind Manipulation can do that? Slashing? Why did I never think of that? An endless weapon as long as you have the strands, movement, hell even defence if I needed it. Disregarding it up to this point was stupid and its even stupider since having Resonance."
The usual chaos emanating the halls is almost entirely replaced by an air of excitement for the upcoming duel, even in the private, exclusive portion of the school.
While hardly even approaching the same level of anticipation there is a small buzz building in the human half of the school too because who wouldn't be excited to see a potential world leader in action.
Skulking around the empty corridor corner outside the duelling hall, Mark sees his chance as the teacher guarding the door places the box for phones down to the side so he can scroll on his own.
"Grab it quick and quiet." Mark, reassuring himself as he approaches doing his best to seem normal.
Lifting one of the few phones in the box Mark pulls it towards himself quickly, the doors watchmen looking up in annoyance as it reaches his palm, "What are you doing here?" The teacher asks, looking him up and down sceptically.
"I want a good seat so I skipped a class." Mark answers, holding the random phone he'd taken out in front of him, "My classes are optional." He adds, shaking the phone as if he were a rich brat and the teacher his servant.
"Only the snobby ones would know about the ridiculous skipping class crap." The teacher thinks to himself before relenting, the watchman snatching the phone from his hand with a smirk, wanting petty revenge for the attitude. "Go ahead." Suddenly launching the phone back towards the box with enough force to break it and flicking his head back to see Marks reaction.
Marks eyes linger on the box but he quickly overcomes any notion of guilt, "Thanks." Breezing past the teacher and into the hall to the teachers confusion.
Looking out across the seats there are more people than Mark had initially expected given only the more privileged students were given the choice of optional classes.
Despite being the only solo person there, Mark still makes his way down to the closer seats. "I want to see everything clearly but seeing each other before or after could be somewhat awkward. Anthony would complain about the camera quality if I zoom too much.." Stopping both his descent and thought, Mark climbs back up a few steps and walks to the halfway point of the seats. "Here.. A quarter of the way up is good enough."
Time creeps on and person by person the massive hall is growing in population, that is until the final bell rings out. Hardly a few minutes pass and the once calm, chatty atmosphere is gone, replaced by a push and shove battle for seats that are quickly becoming more and more scarce by the second, until those who couldn't find themselves one are relegated to standing in the nosebleeds.
"How are you feeling about it all now?" Jacob, getting a small jump out of Alex as she struggles to get into the correct state of mind. "I thought you were Karl." Alex mutters alongside a nervous laugh.
"How are you liking your odds?" Jacob, rephrasing his question the second time around. "Odds don't mean much to me right now, but I'll get her. I'll hit her good." Alex says now standing, her heart thumping against what feels like her ribcage and jumping at her throat looking for an escape.
"Is that the bar now you've faced me?" Jacob responds with a grin but Alex doesn't react to his light provocation in the slightest, only looking up towards the noise despite the slightly grimy locker room walls in between them.
"The only times its been that loud is when I've been in the crowd." Alex laughs as her head falls down, giving her a view of the bench she'd been sitting on.
"Don't worry about it." Karl interrupts from the door way, gaining both of their attention, "You're up." He follows up stiffly.
Trying and failing to pump herself up with forced, hollow anger towards Valentina and thumps to her chest she only gets a few steps towards the door before Jacobs words get her attention, "The adrenaline will start on its own before you even make it to the centre. You'll already be blocking all the noise out when Miss Walsh is talking to you so just nod." Jacobs tone of voice making his words seem like a hassle to even think of.
Alex smiles and nods before walking out of the locker room, leaving Karl and Jacob alone. The two trade looks but Karl beats Jacob to the punch, "Thanks. I didn't know what to say."
Surprised, Jacob performs his best obnoxious laugh, "Here I thought you'd be worried." "About?" Karl responds bluntly. "Being replaced, maybe? Who knows you might be and your just afraid to fight for her. After what happened last time I cant blame you." Jacob, playfully punching the air in front of him in an attempt to get under his skin.
Karl shakes his head and looks Jacob dead in the eye with nothing but faint pity, "You don't like her, you just want someone to like you. Cut the act and just be a real person, that's a good start. I meant what I said, thank you." Karl stands for a moment to no response, understanding what he may be feeling he nods his head before turning and leaving Jacob standing alone in the locker room, the faint buzz of the students waiting for the duel now his only company.
"I'm so flipping excited for this!" Brian exclaims giddily as the two competitors make their way from both sides of the hall to meet in the middle, obviously everyone else excluding Santos giving an annoyed eye roll or sigh.
"Where's Jacob?" Freya asks the room to shrugs and a total blank from Karl who stands inches from the glass, a raw bundle of nerves perfectly disguised with false poise.
"Everyone else is here, why isn't he?" Freya, following up her previous question.
"Should we care?" Jack, managing to say what almost everyone else was thinking with a question of his own, followed by Miles shortly afterwards, "Henry isn't here either by the way."
Freya turns to him and flicks his forehead but not too hard, "Stop bringing him up, I'm sick of it." Miles shoots her a confused look, "He's a nice dude. If anyone has a problem with him its probably on them." Without a second thought she flicks his forehead again but this time turning it up a notch, "Be quiet."
Subtle giggling catches Freya's attention and she snaps, swinging around like one of hells most trusted soldiers, flinging an empty platter straight towards Brian's noggin with her telekinesis, "Don't turn into that moron!" Freya, almost shrieking as she points her finger right towards, what felt like, Santos' soul.
Standing across from one another, Alex cant help but savour the moment in front of the biggest crowd she had ever been in front of, "ex.. alex.. ALEX!" Miss Walsh roars as she places a rough hand on Alex's head and turns it back towards her opponent, Valentina.
"I can hardly hear a thing, I know I can but it's so dull. I don't think I've ever felt this way before a fight and definitely not one I'm going to lose!" Alex thinks to herself as Miss Walsh lists the rules, without even realizing a teethy smile had propped up onto her face.
"Mind games?" Valentina's first thoughts seeing her opponents contorting face, "Bring everything because I will."
Alex doesn't hear a word, just the shifting of her lips from talking to a smile, "I'm gonna hit you good!" Alex thinks, Valentina's perceived cocky smile fuelling her motivation.
"Begi--." Alex lunges backwards launching spikes and Valentina swats them away in her pursuit. Recklessly, Valentina swings her blades to no avail, Alex dodging on the back foot with limited offense in retaliation.
Slipping away from Valentina's downward slash, Alex notices a slight flicker on the blade and dives out of the way before a brutal wave of lightning can strike her.
"She shouldn't be able to do that yet, she said she had nowhere to practice. Is this the effect of the weapon conjuring acting like a conduit?" Mark thinks to himself while struggling to concentrate on the duel due to feral students beside him going wild.
On one knee, Alex steady's herself and launches a flurry of spikes towards the approaching Valentina who yet again bats them away far too easily using the larger of her two blades, the sound of them colliding producing a wretched scraping sound.
"She just doesn't stop coming!" The thought crossing her mind as she continues in her effort to maintain a distance. In the Top 10s box Karl watches intently, muttering praise under his breathe.
"This is nothing. It's just like chasing a headless chicken." Valentina thinks, continuing in her seemingly endless chase to catch Alex in her range, only taking her focus off of the pursuit when the colliding of their weapons makes a much different sound to every other time.
"Its cracking..." Immediately Valentina releases her power and reactivates it, but in the small amount of time it took Valentina to realize the damage, process the excess of said damage, release it and form her blades again Alex stopped her retreat and launched a spike rivalling what she had previously almost caught Jacob with in their spar.
The distracted Valentina hardly even saw it coming, Alex and Karl's plan worked a treat. Alex's spike tears through Valentina, only stopping when it reaches the opposite side of the hall, lodging itself in the bare earth underneath the halls protective shell. Blood followed the spike, becoming thinner and thinner until it found its final destination, the blood soaked spike infecting the earth with red liquid.
Alex conjured the spike, she put excess strands into it and she launched it with the intention to hit but for some reason the possibility of it actually doing so never actually occurred to her.
In that moment, Alex pauses, her mind going into a momentary overdrive. Thoughts of a crushing victory over royalty, a rare dual wielder at that. Acknowledgement in her fighting prowess and her spikes. Nobody would ever be able to look down on her again.
But Valentina never paused, she continued moving forward and now she's in sword range.