Christie was tired and the exam had barely started. Perhaps she had been too rough in the handling of her agates. Thankfully, when her agates were free, they expanded slowly enough that it was hard to harm anyone. In any case, if someone were to be hurt, that would be her.

  The redhead walked back to the grades with a soft pant once the teacher had declared the end of the duel, only to find that a gathering of people was looking at her agape.

  Ah, I forgot I hadn’t shown the rest of the class the true magnitude of my agates just yet… Not wanting to confront the maelstrom of questions that was looming overhead, Christie skedaddled and sat next to Agatha, using her as a shield to protect herself from the questions.

  Her roommate chuckled at her mannerisms. “You know that you cannot shove them away forever, right?”

  “That does not stop me from trying,” the nouveau riche said as she pressed closely against the villager.

  “True,” she smiled. “If it makes you comfortable, you can stay like this.”

  Like how? Only then did she realize that she was practically hugging her roommate as she threw her body on top of her. It wouldn’t have been as dramatic if she weren’t a head taller than Agatha, as it made it look as if she was swallowing her whole. Well, she said I can… Christie slid her bottom ever-so-slightly away, if just to give the seamstress a bit of breathing room, but still maintaining close contact.

  A moment later, the girls were focused on the next duel. They were nothing interesting, truth be told. The problem with Agatecraft was that the Speed command reigned supreme in combat. It was just that effective, almost rendering useless any other strategy. Though at the same time, that is only true for First Stratum lithorists. Teacher Dago has shown the importance of series commands, and at that point, Speed isn’t the keystone, but a link of the chain like any other command. She thought, mostly to placate her inferiority complex a bit, as she couldn’t use the Speed command with her sea of stone.

  René Dago made the winners stand up for the next round of duels, and there wasn’t anything highlightable beyond that. Both her and Agatha got placed against students they didn’t know and hadn’t highlighted in Agatecraft before, so they both made quick work of them. One through quality, the other through quantity.

  Christie had originally been scared of the duels, but she was performing far better than she thought. Well, considering I only need to infuse a single command and let the agate do the work… This scenario favored Christie heavily. Students just couldn’t outrun her agates, even if the field was considerably big. She could just stand still without needing to apply any of her horrendous physical capabilities, and she would just win.

  The next round of duels was the same, though her opponent now had the foresight of the previous duels, and he almost got her by shooting his agates ever-so-slightly faster. If it wasn’t because she tripped on her sea of stone from the surprise, she might have lost then and there. They say luck is a skill, do they not? The redhead chuckled as she recalled her agates after her pyrrhic victory.

  The problem of the duels was that she constantly needed to recall her agates, and therefore, she couldn’t keep her agate bracelets, as the command still reached them, no matter if they were connected directly to the sea of stone or not. It truly behaves like a single agate, Christie sighed as she walked next to Teacher Dago because her duel had been the last one of this round.

  And she almost wished she had lost it after her opponent was decided.

  She was going to confront Agatha in the arena.

  Anticipation was killing her as they sat next to one another without speaking. She couldn’t know how that duel would go as she honestly couldn’t imagine Agatha losing. She shone too brightly for that to happen.

  It was hard to remove her eyes from Agatha, but she finally achieved it and focused her gaze on the arena. The first duelists of this round were Shayla Belkadi and Cristobal Echevarria, also known as the two students with the most agates in the class, barring Christie. Whilst her former roommate had the advantage of quantity – by having a single one more than her opponent – the noble boy had the undisputed advantage of quality. If Agatha weren’t in the class, he would probably flaunt the title of the student with the highest quality agate.

  That was only an outlier of his agates, however, but the rest of his fourteen agates weren’t slouches either. Echevarria had it all, both quality and quantity, and he was probably the best lithorist of their promotion. The reality was that Agatha and Christie were just outliers on both extremes of the spectrum, or rather, the extreme of the bell curve as that boy sat perfectly on the top of the curve.

  Well, the actual top of the bell curve would be like a lithorist with ten agates of standard quality instead of one with fifteen of high quality, but when pitted against the two girls, Echevarria truly looked average.

  Both students actually didn’t highlight their massive amount of agates but instead they highlighted their battle-styles. Shayla was defensive with her many agates surrounding her like barriers, whilst Cristobal was meticulous with all his agates surrounding him like sentries.

  It was a mostly useless tactic as all the agates were of the First Stratum, but it made Christie pause when she thought that they wouldn’t be for long. If there was one student who could replicate René Dago, it was Cristobal Echevarria.

  Much like Agatha’s Speed command was monstrous, Cristobal’s Control command was highly respectable. Control movements tended to become orthopedic when a lithorist had to manipulate several of them, yet the blond was able to handle his set of fifteen agates with almost the same dexterity as Agatha commanded her lone agate.

  That difference in quality and skill was what defeated Shayla. The Intaksolfani wasn’t even disappointed when she lost, revealing that she had already expected this outcome. Apparently, the quality of agates was really important, but that was a thing Christie didn’t know nor had experienced because her agates were all of the lowest quality.

  More duels came and went, slowly getting a bit longer as the students got more competent and they were able to shrug off attacks, but inevitably, their turn arrived.

  Agatha and Christie walked onto the arena.

  The redhead could feel the gazes of all the students weighing her down. She could feel the expectation, not just hers, but also of the whole class. No one had said anything, but she knew this was the most anticipated duel. But as it was about to start, Agatha raised her hand before Teacher Dago could give the signal.

  “Yes, Miss Malachite?” The black-uniformed soldier said.

  “Could I use a wand?” The blonde asked.

  “No one has used one during all these duels, yourself included,” the teacher countered.

  “To be fair, no one asked.”

  René Dago let out a dry chuckle at that remark, the man’s sense of humor proving to be as weird as always, and then turned to face Christie. “Are you fine with that, Miss Valasela?”

  “Uh… sure?” It made no difference to Christie, and truth was, she wanted to see what Agatha wanted to do with a wand in hand.

  “Then it is settled.” As the soldier continued speaking, Agatha took out a wooden handcannon from her uniform coat. “If any further duelist wants to use wands, they will require the permission of their opponents. Otherwise,” he let the last syllable hang as he gave the girls in the arena a handful of seconds more to prepare. “Start!”

  Like she had done before, Christie released her sea of stone onto the field. But Agatha wasn’t caught by surprise like the other students, whether it was her foresight or her lightning-fast reflexes.

  The sapphire-eyed jumped in the air, and she refused to fall back to the ground again. Agatha was grabbing onto a cylinder made out of her lone agate that had been suspended in the air and didn’t bulge, much like that tactic she and René Dago had used the first day of class, only that now it wasn’t improvised but well calculated.

  As the seamstress hung in the air by her left hand, she raised her right arm – which carried the wooden handcannon – and pointed it at Christie.

  The redhead instantly panicked.

  If there was one student who knew how fast Agatha’s little sapphire was, it was her. Christie ducked, as useless as the gesture was, and even though she heard the explosion that always accompanied Agatha’s Speed command, she didn’t feel any pain. Hesitatingly, Christie opened her eyes, and she saw how a wave of agate had grown out of her sea of stone and made a translucent, green and red wall between her and the single-agate lithorist.

  Huh? So I can do that… That was a surprise for the nouveau riche. She knew she could make primitive shapes even without the Shape command as she was already used to releasing things like her sea or her pillars, but she didn’t know she had that much control.

  Agatha was equally as surprised as her, but unlike the squeamish redhead, the blonde snapped out of her confusion instantly. Her roommate had fallen atop her sea of stone after having shot her single agate at her, and with her handcannon still lifted, she recalled her little sapphire and shot again. Instead of using Speed – normal for the looks of it as the wall of agate Christie had summoned wasn’t that cracked, nor was she dead – Agatha using the Spin Speed synergy René Dago had taught her weeks ago. The handcannon allowing it to shoot it without the Control command as a setup and making the shoot nearly instantaneous instead of a charged endeavor.

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  The sound that the spinning agate made was quite sickening as it screeched against the stone wall and cracked it. But Christie’s agates were many, and even if agate was more brittle than bedrock, the lone agate didn’t manage to get through.

  She can’t get me… but how will I get her? It might seem like Christie was trying to participate in the duel, but the truth was that she was scared for her life. Her fight or flight reaction had kicked in simultaneously, leaving her petrified.

  Yet her roommate didn’t remain still.

  Agatha started running on the surface of the sea of stone. The petite girl was athletic, but thirty meters was nothing to scoff at, and it would take her seconds to traverse them. Maybe I can make use of this? Christie made one key realization: Agatha was running on her agates.

  Christie sent the Recall command to her agates, but as always, the command had first to ripple to the whole sea to take effect. It didn’t take long, only milliseconds, but her roommate’s reaction time was out of this world as she jumped the instant she saw the agates in contact with Christie disappear. By the time the sea of stone rippled out of existence, the blonde was airborne again. Yet unlike before…

  “What?” The redhead couldn’t help but proselytize her confusion aloud, even if that lost her valuable time, as she saw her roommate fly.

  It wasn’t true flight, or at least something like what René Dago had performed. In fact, it wasn’t flight in any sense of the word. The girl just had a platform of agate underneath her feet. She has summoned it shaped already, Christie realized. She’s spending one of her commands with Shape and the other is Anchor. That deconstruction of her roommate’s capabilities didn’t help her in the slightest as the petite girl started rushing at her like a rabid wolf.

  The sheer acrobatics of the girl made Christie tumble and fall on her bottom.

  Agatha was flying.

  She didn’t know how, but her roommate approached hastily as she was walking in the air. Walking on the air… Christie thought as she slightly trembled on the ground. There is only one way for her to do that… There! It was a quick flash, but the redhead saw how a platform appeared exactly where the blonde was about to step, then before her whole body plummeted down from the lack of ground, Agatha used that platform to step as if it were the ground and then place another one beneath her next step.

  It was so seamless that Christie couldn’t believe it at first. And when she did, she had forgotten about the duel. She just wanted to see that girl shine brightly as she did.

  But how? The question assaulted her, only for the answer to follow near-instantly. The Second Stratum! Because her agate is on the Second Stratum, she can now summon it away from her body!

  By the time Christie realized that, shining Agatha was right in front of her, only a handful of meters separated them. And she was raising her handcannon. In a panic, Christie raised her arms and let her agates free. Whether she was trying to attack with a pillar or defend with a wall, she couldn’t even answer herself that question. She just acted out of instinct.

  And that instinct failed her as the moment Agatha shot her agate, the seamstress was no longer touching ground and gravity claimed her. Enough for the pillar of agate to miss her and the lone agate to fly free.

  If it wasn’t enough of a bright victory for Agatha, the villager made it so her little sapphire spiraled around the nouveau riche’s pillar, until it abruptly came to a stop and then softly but mockingly bonked Christie’s forehead.

  “Ow!” The redhead clutched her forehead as she squirmed on the ground.

  “Hehe!” Laughed the mock sapphire mockingly as she landed on both feet with ease.

  “You are horrible, Agatha!” Christie pouted. “What need was there for those final acrobatics?”

  “Which one? The jump or the agate spiral!”

  “Both!” She let out an outcry.

  “Oh, the answer to both is none at all,” Agatha grinned in the brightest and cruelest of delights. “And I wanted to try Amplify Control. I never had the chance until now.”

  “That was your first try?” Christie didn’t know if to be outraged or amazed.

  “I tend to do things better on the first try; it is all downhill from there. The air walk was also a first try, though I did get some practice with the remote Summon command beforehand.”

  Oh, I guess she was doing Summon Shape and then applying Anchor rather than Summon and then Shape Anchor. A minor correction that didn’t factor in the outcome in the slightest. Perhaps I should just move when I am fighting instead of thinking…

  “Here,” Agatha offered a hand. “We should get going. At least one of us has to pick lots again.”

  Christie accepted her hand and sighed. “I hate when you enter ‘mock sapphire’ mode.”

  “Oh, is that now a thing?” Her roommate said mockingly as she heaved her up.

  “It has always been, only that you are even more mocking now. Is Fran?ois a bad influence on you or something?” The redhead dusted her pants as she spoke. She couldn’t be more thankful that the military uniform used trousers, not only because they were easier to dust than a skirt, but also because she believed she had peed herself a little from the jumpscare.

  “Mayhaps~” the mock sapphire said pompously.

  “And why the handcannon?” Christie chose to ignore her, even if she had been the one to ask the question.

  “Oh, it is really hard to aim midair, so I wanted as much assistance as I could get. Though let me be frank here, I did not expect to have to perform all those gymnastics. Since when are you able to do the wall thingy?”

  The redhead blushed slightly. “…since now.”

  “Oh?” Agatha made the most egregious of grins. “So who is the one first timing things now, eh?”

  “Shaddup!” Christie couldn’t care that she was being informal with her slip of tongue; she had enough mock sapphire for the whole week in this conversation alone. “Do you not have lots to pick?”

  “I sure do!” And her roommate dashed away after that.

  Exhaustedly, Christie sat back in the grades. Some people threw her gazes of fascination. For better or worse, she had been the student who had lasted the most against Agatha. She dismissed those gazes and sighed again. Since the beginning, she knew it was impossible for her – she got far enough already – but defeat still left a sour taste in her mouth. If there was anyone she wanted to win against, it was Agatha. Though she couldn’t tell why she was feeling that strongly about it.

  Whatever it was, the next round came soon. One that Agatha won promptly, and then she was in the finals. Unexpectedly, her opponent was none other than Cristobal Echevarria.

  “Start!” René Dago announced, yet none of the lithorists engaged in combat.

  Agatha had her agate orbit around her, whilst Cristobal had made all his agates airborne and created a field that blocked a direct line of sight. What is she doing? Christie didn’t understand why her roommate didn’t instantly put an end to this. The blonde looked at the noble boy’s agates, her eyes jumping from one to another. Finally, she sighed, her shoulders slumping down.

  “I never apologized, did I?” Agatha suddenly said.

  Cristobal arched a brow, as if asking himself if that was a trap, but he decided to engage in conversation. “No, you did not.”

  “I see,” the villager smacked her lips, followed by a wry smile. “I am sorry for that, and for taking this long to say it.”

  “It was not your fault, but the teacher’s,” the noble boy shrugged. “So yeah, apologies accepted.”

  “Good, good,” Agatha nodded. “So… do you want to make a spectacle?”

  “Always,” Cristobal grinned.

  “Can I?” She wiggled around her handcannon wand.

  “Go for the throat.”

  With those words, Agatha rushed at the boy as if something had possessed her. Cristobal threw a handful of agates forward to deter her, but those were instantly shot down by an agate that moved faster than thoughts. He then shot a handful simultaneously, but they were so close to one another that they couldn’t even get close before they were taken down.

  The girl continued running as if the previous duels hadn’t taken a toll on her body and Cristobal made a nervous smile before he threw all his agates barring one at Agatha. All were aimed low, and before Agatha made her movement, Christie understood what they had meant with a spectacle.

  Repeating the same gesture as in their duel, Agatha took to the skies. Though this time, her opponent had anti-air options, making her a sitting duck.

  If it wasn’t because First Stratum Speed agates were really predictable. Christie had been witness to Agatha’s monumental feats of acrobatics and reflexes, yet she managed to surpass herself yet again as she stepped on an aerial platform, summoned a handgrip in the air which she used as a fulcrum, and with a somersault, she threw her body into the air, gaining more height, then she shot with her wand.

  It had been only a couple of seconds during which she had performed that whole series of movements. And even Christie had difficulties comprehending it, let alone being able to think about how she had done it. Christie only knew that Agatha was shining the brightest she had ever shone with those unrestricted and wild movements.

  The supersonic agate flew free in the air, but it flew far more orthopedically than Agatha’s agates usually did, so Cristobal was able to take it down through sheer numbers as he dogpiled his agates on Agatha’s until it completely lost its momentum. Not a second later, Agatha recalled it and used it as a platform. She remained static as she took a deep breath.

  “Tired?” Cristobal jested.

  “Yeah,” Agatha responded with honesty as she slightly squatted on the platform…

  Oh, crown in the heavens, Christie suddenly felt sick. She is five meters in the air! How can you do that? Her hands slightly trembled as she imagined herself in the blonde’s position.

  “The acrobatics are tiring and all, but honestly, the problem is my head. I think it is going to explode. Somersaults and lithorica do not mix at all.” It was true that the girl looked a little pale and nauseous. “Do you mind if I end this already?”

  “I think you are overestimating yourself if you think you can this instant-“

  Agatha raised her handcannon as the noble was speaking, and an explosion echoed throughout the field. Cristobal stopped speaking the moment he heard that explosion, but alas, it was too late already, for her roommate’s agate traveled faster than sound.

  “Ugh…” The noble collapsed on the ground as he grabbed his thigh.

  The fact that he was just clutching it instead of howling in pain meant that it hadn’t even been a full-power Speed command. And it was still faster than sound. She must have slowed it at the last moment with Control, otherwise… Christie was just happy that Agatha had decided to bonk her with the agate instead of shooting it at her.

  As for the winner, she had resummoned her little sapphire once the hit had been confirmed and she used it as a handgrip again. She remained suspended in the air like a sausage for a moment before she slowly began descending.

  “Huh?” Agatha muttered in surprise. “Hmm?”

  The next moment, she was slowly ascending. Then slowly descending again. And ascending again.

  “Have you had enough fun, Miss Malachite?” René Dago said aloud for everyone to hear as he walked into the arena.

  “I wanted to try a new synergy I have found,” she said as she slowly descended to the ground. Emphasis on the slowly.

  “Yeah, I have seen as much,” the teacher sighed before regaining his composure and raising his voice. “What you have seen here is the Control Anchor series command. Anchor normally locks an agate on the three axes, but Control allows to selectively free any given axis. Freeing the y-axis – the vertical one for those not versed – allows the user to create lift-like contraptions. But they are awfully slow as the power and speed are solely dependent on the Control command.”

  Christie would take note of that, if it wasn’t because it was totally useless to her. Then Teacher Dago clapped mightily, most likely assisted by concealed lithorica.

  “With this, the midterms are over,” he grabbed Agatha’s forearm. “I proclaim Agatha of Malachite the victor of this small tourney!” Then he raised her arm.

  Whilst the gesture was a bit awkward as the difference in height provoked a massive dissonance of arm movement, that didn’t stop the petite girl from shining brightly. Even the crown in the heavens seemed to dim out.

  For she had outshone the sun in Christie’s eyes.

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