Rubert woke up groggy, his mind buzzing and heart pounding before the alarm even rang. He'd barely slept. The tournament was today.
Still half-dreaming, he shuffled to the sink, splashing water over his face. The cold didn't help. His thoughts were racing—replays of his fight with Sabrina, Noelle's smug promise of a secret spell, his own hopes of finally competing alongside them. Today was supposed to be the day.
But fate had other plans.
The screen of his phone buzzed with a train service alert: Severe Delay - Estimated Departure: 3 Hours Late.
His eyes widened. That wasn't just a hiccup. It meant he wouldn't make it in time.
He called Sabrina first.
"You're kidding," she said after a stunned pause.
"I'm not," Rubert replied, already pacing. "I've tried checking buses, rideshares, even flying carpets—nothing's getting me there in time."
"Then what do we do?" Noelle's voice came through in the background, distorted by speakerphone.
"We split the team," Rubert said, trying to stay calm. "You two register as a team of two. I'll shift my registration to solo and join the local qualifier in my own city. If we all win, we meet again in the regional bracket."
Silence. Then:
"...You better not lose," Noelle finally said, voice low but firm.
Sabrina followed. "And we better face you at regionals, or I'm walking to your house and throwing a fireball through your window IRL."
Rubert chuckled. "I'll make sure to build a warding glyph on my doorstep."
They said their goodbyes, and as the call ended, a different kind of realization hit him.
If he wanted to meet the girls again, he couldn't just play solo—he needed to win the doubles qualifier. But to do that...
He needed a partner.
The square in his city was packed, spell glyphs and player auras blinking all around. Rubert scanned the area, hopeful, but most of the duelists were already paired off—some teams of two or three warming up, others checking in with staff. His heart sank.
No luck.
He sighed, about to head toward the solo registration booth, when a voice called out from behind.
"Hey! Are you that guy from the video?"
Rubert turned. A boy, maybe two years younger, stood grinning up at him. Short black hair, oversized jacket, and eyes that sparkled with something Rubert hadn't expected: admiration.
"I might be," Rubert said, cautiously. "Why?"
"I loved that move with the teleport and the fireball. You fighting today?"
Rubert nodded. "Trying to. You are too?"
"Yeah, but I'm solo. Couldn't find anyone good enough to team up with."
Something clicked. Rubert extended his hand.
"I'm Rubert. Want to try your luck?"
The boy's grin widened. "Samuel. And yeah, absolutely!"
They barely had time to shake hands before tournament staff summoned them to their assigned arena. Five arenas activated at once, shimmering barriers of light forming domes over each one. A company representative—an NPC avatar of the game's staff—appeared in the center square, addressing the entire gathering.
"Welcome, Duelists! Today's qualifiers will be conducted under the standard double-match rule. Five-minute hard time limit. Arena boundaries enforced. Stepping outside results in HP loss. No outside interference. Fight with all you've got!"
A bell rang.
Rubert and Samuel were up first.
They barely had time to swap spell loadouts. Rubert glanced at Samuel, half-expecting hesitation, but the kid's face was already set. Focused.
"You know Krivaa?" Rubert asked as they entered the arena.
"Yeah," Samuel said. "Saw it used by a raid boss once. Didn't know players could get it until I watched that video of you using it."
"I've got a version. You?"
Samuel shook his head. "No. I'm built for solo duels. My setup's not great for teams, especially not to support most summons."
Rubert nodded. "That's fine. I've got support spells and a summon focus. I'll play backup—"
"Actually—" Samuel started, but the timer hit zero.
Too late.
The enemy team moved first. Two men, both older than Rubert, launched a coordinated combo: One slammed his hand to the ground, summoning a stone wall between them and their opponents. The second ducked behind it, chanting.
"They're setting up something big," Rubert warned.
Samuel didn't wait. He hurled a glyph: "Shard Bloom" — a cluster of destruction shards exploded against the wall, cracking it open.
Rubert triggered Krivaa.
The glyph circle flared above his palm, summoning his Eidolon with a flicker of red plasma and runic light. The crowd gasped. Some were already pointing—Krivaa summons were rare enough that many had never seen one in person.
As the wall crumbled, the hidden enemy revealed his hand: a supercharged fire spell, larger than any standard fireball.
"Teleport to Caster!" Rubert commanded, pulling his summon between him and the blast just in time. The summon's plasma shield held.
Samuel wasn't so lucky. The fire engulfed him. He flinched a bit, his HP was dangerously low
Rubert looked for the second opponent—gone. Vanishing spell.
He activated Spectral Sight—a utility spell that revealed cloaked targets.
There.
The enemy had flanked far left, preparing to take Rubert by surprise. Rubert didn't hesitate.
"Golden Bind!"
A thread of golden light shot out, coiling around the enemy as they lunged. They froze mid-strike.
"Set Target: Left enemy! - Fireball"
His summon launched a fireball—but before it hit, Rubert activated a buff glyph in front of it: Enhance Effect.
The fireball grew, glowing with intensified heat and velocity.
It struck clean.
The enemy screamed, ignited in plasma flame. Damage ticked rapidly as Rubert followed up with another command:
"Fire Wisp—launch!"
The summon sent floating motes of fire dancing toward the target. The enemy tried to block—but the wisps passed through the shield.
"Living spells," Rubert thought to himself. "You have to attack them, blocking doesn't work."
The enemy retreated, casting defensive barriers that fizzled uselessly.
Rubert let his summon keep pressing while he turned—
Samuel was struggling.
His opponent had cast Quagmire, rooting him in a sticky, damage-dealing area spell. Worse, a new spell was charging: Xiuhcoatl—the fiery serpent, one of the rare unblockables.
Rubert's blood ran cold.
He knew that spell. Slow to cast, unstoppable by ordinary shields. The only counters were high-tier water or ice spells—which neither of them had.
Samuel's HP was dangerously low.
But the kid didn't panic.
Instead, he slammed a hand to the ground, eyes blazing with focus. A towering spectral figure erupted above him, only the upper half of her massive body in view—Skjaldmær, the Shield Maiden. Ghostly armor gleamed around her, translucent and solid at once, and she raised a shimmering shield in front of Samuel just as the Xiuhcoatl spell launched.
The fiery serpent screamed through the air toward them.
The Shield Maiden stood her ground.
The spell hit—and held. For a moment, it seemed the serpent would pierce through, but the giant circular shield of the maiden flared brilliantly, absorbing the full impact. When the blast faded, the shield remained, glowing yellow with residual energy.
Rubert's eyes widened. "That was—"
"Skjaldmær," Samuel said, breathless but grinning. "It converts damage into defense."
The enemy caster blinked in disbelief.
Samuel wasn't done.
He began chanting again, this time with both hands raised. A new glyph circle formed on the tip of his finger—complex, rotating, small, layered with deep yellow runes. The cast time was long—Rubert could feel it ticking by, a countdown no one else seemed to notice.
The other team started to move. The one Rubert had pinned earlier was recovering, already forming another attack glyph.
Rubert acted fast. He ran in front of Samuel, blocking a quick spell of the first enemy, then following it up
"Krivaa— Teleport To Caster!"
His summon burst forward right in front of him, enemy spells flail wildly and bounce off of it. The Krivaa summon's HP quickly fades after a barrage of shield-breaking spells.
Rubert uses this time to turn back and cast a "Shield Boost" spell on Samuel, immediately getting out of his way after it.
Samuel's chant reached its peak.
"Total Shell Explosion!" he shouted.
The Shield Maiden lifted her sword and drove it into the shield she'd conjured. The barrier and the shieldmaiden herself shattered—but instead of disappearing, the fragments spun into the air, gathering above Samuel's fingertip into a glowing sphere of raw energy.
"Kaboom!" He uttered with a glee smile.
A beam of condensed light—infused with the full defensive value of the absorbed spell—shot across the arena like a lance, ripping through both enemy players' barriers and slamming into them with devastating force.
The explosion rocked the dome.
When the smoke cleared, both enemies were down, their health bars empty.
The crowd went wild.
Rubert blinked, stunned.
Then he turned to Samuel—who was swaying on his feet, drained but smiling like it was the best day of his life.
"You said your setup wasn't good for teams," Rubert said
Samuel grinned. "Guess I was wrong."
People started flooding their patch in the arena, wanting to both congratulate them and to understand their spells, both of which Rubert wanted to avoid.He ran out of the arena, with the excuse that he remembered that he needed to do something.
And he did. Samuel followed him, accompanied by a crowd of people that wanted to hang out with them. He found Rubert perched in a corner, looking attentively at his AR display - Sabrina and Noelle were entering the arena.
Their fight was about to begin.