"Ugh, Ange, we might as well just quit."
"Wha- Moira? We made it to the finals; why would we quit?"
The redhead stared, openmouthed, at her teammate. "Are you joking? Have you seen this?" she asked, waving her hand at the paper tacked on the wall. "We're up against Cassandra and Jonathan. They're undefeated."
"So are we."
Incredulity flooded Moira's expression as she fumbled for words. "We- no- that- that's because we've never entered a tournament before! We can't lose at something we don't do!"
"Yeah, but how do you know we won't stay undefeated? Maybe we're better than them and we just never knew because we never tried."
"I'm not even going to begin to explain everything that was wrong with that logic."
"Nothing was wrong with it!"
Ignoring the protest, Moira continued, lowering herself down on a bench and taking off her gloves. "They've been practicing for years. Years! We decided to enter this tournament on a whim yesterday. Yesterday, Ange! It's probably just sheer luck we got this far anyways."
"Uh-uh, none of that," the smaller wizard said, planting herself down on the bench next to Moira. "We got this far because we are great - awesome, even. And we are going to beat Cassandra and Jonathan because they don't know how we fight. Most people are returning competitors, so they're used to each other's styles. Meanwhile, we've got the element of surprise. It's simple logic, Moi. Trust me."
"Things rarely go well when you say 'Trust me'."
"Well probability means that it has to go well eventually, yeah?"
"I-" Moira frowned, scrunching her face up and drawing her eyebrows together in confusion. "No. That's not how it works at all."
Before she could say any more, a head poked into the room, interrupting the scattered conversations. "The match will begin soon. We need the competitors to come out. Next is Jonathan and Cassandra vs Moira and Angela."
A boy and a girl strode from the other side of the room, looking as polar opposite and cohesive as black and white. The boy was light from his hair to his eyes to his clothes - his blonde and blue and white - standing in sharp contrast to her darkness - her brown and black and purple. The girl caught Moira's eyes and called out, "Good luck," with a smirk. Before Moira could shake her captivation, they were gone. She breathed out a shaky breath, and beside her, Angela fidgeted.
"So that's Cassandra and Jonathan, huh?"
"Yeah," Moira said dumbly. "I guess so. By the spiral, how are we ever going to beat them? All they did was walk past us and I feel like they already won."
"Nah," Angela said, her voice noticeably less confident than before. "We've got this. It'll be easy. Come on: we have to go." She got up and made to walk away, but then glanced back with a mischievous smile on her face and added, "You got your deck?"
Moira scrambled to chase after the fleeing - and wildly giggling - girl, her voice ringing out in an irritated tone punctuated with stifled laughter. "That was one time, Ange! One time!"
She caught up to Angela at the edge of the stadium, skidding to a halt as she heard the announcer's voice ring through the air.
"On this side: you know 'em, you love 'em, it's Cassandra Titanwalker and Jonathan Seasong!"
Moira watched nervously as the two wizards waltzed out into the arena, confidence radiating from them as loudly as the cheers from the stands. She straightened out her cloak and checked that she did, in fact, have her deck.
"And their challengers, the diamonds in the rough: Moira Moonpyre and Angela!"
She hesitated for a moment, only setting her feet in motion when she felt Angela's shoulder brush against her own, her soft voice murmuring, "Come on, now."
In the middle of the circle, Moira shook hands with Jonathan as Angela did the same with Cassandra. They stepped back, ready to begin their battle, when the announcer's voice interjected.
"For this final round, we've got a special twist for you. This duel… will be fought tag-team style!"
Once more, the audience erupted with cheers, and though Moira could see a flicker of uncertainty flash across Jonathan's face, she felt herself shrinking back into her cloak. Pulling Angela toward her, she hissed, "Ange, what are we gonna do? We can't solo!"
Laying a hand on her chest and feigning offense, Angela whispered back, "Excuse you, but I can solo just fine, remember?"
"Of course, Ange. How could I forget that time in Dragonspyre when you went into the tower and came flying out the window?"
"Shhh- shh- no. No, we don't speak of that." Pulling back and speaking in a normal voice, she added, "It's just a tournament, Moi. Lighten up a little."
"Competitors: who will represent your teams first?" The announcer asked.
After a moment of whispered discussion, Moira stepped forward, and watched as Cassandra did the same.
"In a tag team duel, team members may switch out as many times as they like, and team members sitting on the sidelines may save up their pips and plan strategy, but only one wizard from each team may be in the ring and casting spells at once. In order to perform a legal switch, the active team member must completely exit the ring or be deemed defeated before their teammate enters. Once a team member declares themself or is deemed defeated, they will not be allowed to switch back into the arena. Wizards, if you will: take your places!"
Jonathan and Angela retreated to the benches in the outer ring, while Moira and Cassandra turned and put 20 paces between them. Wands were drawn, stances were planted, and menacing glares were given (mostly by Cassandra, though).
"Let the battle commence!" shouted the announcer.
In the time it took for Moira to even form the beginnings of a plan, Cassandra sprang into action, and was next to Moira faster than she'd think was possible if she hadn't just seen it.
"Boo," she whispered, touching the tip of her wand to Moira's shoulder. A jolt of electricity sparked up the wand and into Moira, leaving her with a nasty shock as she jumped away, spinning to face the diviner. As she turned, she discovered Cassandra could disappear just as fast as she could appear, and whipped her head around once more to see her standing in the middle of the arena, a blade already floating hear her head.
Shaking her head to clear the remnants of the shock, Moira conjured a blade for herself and sent a trap to lock onto Cassandra. As she put another blade up, she saw the purple flash of a spell from the corner of her eye. A large stormzilla rose up between the two wizards, obscuring their view of each other. As the stormzilla swung its head around, searching for its target, an idea sparked in Moira's mind, and she scurried behind the storm creature to buy herself time as she waited for the pips.
Soon, flames encircled the ring, and the familiar roar of a helephant filled the room. Without a clear target, the helephant appeared confused, and walked forward for a few thundering steps before coming to a halt. Moira waved her arms, exasperated with the creature's cluelessness.
"That!" Moira shouted, pointing at the stormzilla.
The helephant lumbered around, seeming to have only noticed the stormzilla for the first time just then. Moira rolled her eyes again, and proceeded with the plan.
Jumping out of the ring, she waved Angela in, hissing as they passed each other, "Get a centaur ready… fast." Angela nodded and smiled, a familiar glint in her eyes, and Moira knew she understood the idea. Maybe they could make this tag-team thing work after all.
She watched in awe as the stormzilla and helephant battled each other, completely forgetting about the wizards in combat, and, it seemed, causing the wizards to forget about each other as well. Cassandra hadn't stopped to stare, but she certainly had become distracted enough to not notice Moira's exit. She watched from the edge of her seat, praying for Angela to be quick enough, as she knew the helephant would not remain for long with her out of the ring.
Just as the helephant began to flicker, Moira met Cassandra's gaze, giving her a smirk of her own as the diviner's mouth formed an 'O'. Just as she spun around to search for her new opponent, a centaur burst through the air where the helephant had stood not a moment before. Soon, branches bombarded her, casing her in and breaking her focus, and her stormzilla fizzled out into sparks. When the dust cleared, nothing but Angela and a beat-up Cassandra were left in the ring. Letting out a low noise reminiscent of a growl, Cassandra launched herself at Angela.
For a moment, Moira expected Cassandra to begin beating Angela down with her bare hands, but she was, unsurprisingly, wrong. Instead, a serpent burst from the tip of her wand, crackling with energy as it slithered toward Angela, snapping its jaws each time it lunged forward.
As the small girl stumbled backward to avoid the electric bite of the snake, she glanced at the cards floating to her left, finally selecting one and raising her sword to cast the spell. The snake darted forward once more, this time snapping its fangs around her leg and sending a clearly painful shock through her before disappearing. Moira flinched and watched anxiously as Angela shook her head and turned to face the music that had begun to play.
A satyr danced toward Angela, sending a healing beam her way. Moira had always loved how peaceful Angela looked while interacting with healing magic, but this time was short-lived, as Cassandra's next attack hurtled toward her within seconds. The swarm of lighting bats surrounded her, spinning a cage of electricity to close in. As the current cleared, an expression of anger had come over Angela's face. Though, Moira considered, she still didn't look that frightening, since she was approximately the size of a fire elf… okay, maybe two fire elves… stacked on top of each other in a cloak. Moira chuckled slightly at the thought, but turned her attention back to the battle as Angela recovered.
Moira could see that both girls were getting low on power, no longer exchanging spells, but rather circling each other slowly, a pained look on Angela's face and a predatory grin on Cassandra's.
Cassandra broke the circle first, flitting to the edge of the ring and swapping places with Jonathan. Like Cassandra, he sprang into action, immediately hanging a tower shield in the air in front of him. Soon after, Angela paused, planting her feet where she stood.
"No, no, what are you doing? Move!" Moira yelled, but her voice was drowned out by the screams of the audience welcoming Jonathan to the ring. Angela stayed where she was, hardly moving at all except to contort her face even more, and Moira realized Jonathan had stunned her. She clenched her fist, willing Angela to move before Jonathan could strike.
But she didn't. A large boulder of ice slammed into her back, knocking her to the ground. As the stun wore off and she had only begun to climb back to her feet when an ice beetle rammed her side, knocking her down once more. Moira jumped to her feet and only barely restrained herself from running into the ring. As much as she hated seeing Angela hurt, she knew the theurgist had weathered far worse than this and would be more upset if Moira got them disqualified.
So, instead, she just watched Jonathan beat Angela down into the ground. Every time she tried to get up, another spell, even just a little blast of ice from Jonathan's wand, would knock her down again. He was rationing his power perfectly; Moira never saw a moment when he had to wait before casting a spell.
Angela managed to grant herself a reprieve by summoning a seraph, which gave her enough time to stand up, but the victory was short-lived, as Jonathan came out virtually unscathed as his shield absorbed most of the damage. Allowing her to stumble away, Jonathan turned with a flourish of his cape, sending Cassandra back in.
Now, Cassandra certainly wasn't in the best condition, but Angela was much worse. With the same predatory smile, Cassandra cast her spell, and the arena filled with water. Moira could do nothing but look on in horror as the water crashed down on Angela, sending her into the rocks at the edge of the ring. When the ocean cleared, Angela was on the ground again, fighting to get up. From her place in the dirt, she sent a treant out, flinging her arm wildly at Cassandra. The treant's attack knocked the girl to the ground, evening the playing field. Both girls struggled to get to their feet, but when they did, Cassandra looked more than a little bit steadier than Angela. With a scowl, Cassandra switched out once more.
"Come on, Ange," Moira muttered as Jonathan approached, "just declare yourself defeated." But she knew full well that Angela would do no such thing.
To Moira's surprise, Angela did appear to be hobbling toward their side of the arena, presumably to switch out, but she stumbled and pitched forward just short of halfway, dropping her sword to catch herself. In an instant, Jonathan was upon her, bombarding her with spell after spell. As a sheet of snow blanketed the arena and an ice colossus began to take shape, a green glow began to form around Angela.
"Yes!" Moira cheered, pumping her fist in the air. She's finally casting a spell - she's bringing it back! But as she cheered, the ring filled with leaves, and as they rose up, swirling with dust in a powerful wind, any view of the two dueling wizards was blocked out completely.
A strange humming and energy filled the air, causing Moira and many others to visibly cringe and a few wizards to even cover their ears. Then, quicker than it began, it ended with a loud crack, and the wind disappeared, leaving everything still except for the leaves' slow flutter to the ground. When the leaves and dust had finally cleared enough to see, Moira in a sharp gasp, running the short distance to the edge of the ring, though she was careful not to cross.
In the center of the ring, surrounded by fading leaves, lay the unmoving forms of Angela and Jonathan. Moira moved around the ring in a futile attempt to get a better look, and met up with Cassandra as she did. They shared a quick glance, and Moira could see that despite the battering the diviner had taken, she was brimming with adrenaline, and worry creased her face. As the wild cheers of the audience began to die out, they shared a nod, communicating the same thought.
They stepped into the ring at the same time, disqualifying both teams simultaneously, and ran to their respective teammates. The crowd was no longer cheering, but rather murmuring within itself, everyone asking everyone else what was happening. As they approached Angela and Jonathan, Angela suddenly seized and let out a loud gasp, her eyes flying open. Moira knelt beside her and looked on with horror, helpless as she continued to convulse and groan. Jonathan stayed silent and still. The crowd's murmurs grew louder and more frantic.
Four wizards ran out into the ring and, pushing Moira and Cassandra out of the way, scooped up Jonathan and the once again limp Angela, carrying them from the arena. Left in the middle, Moira looked over at Cassandra, who held a defeated and terrified expression. Moira had no doubts the same look was plastered on her own face.
With Cassandra in tow, she ran to follow the wizards who had taken Angela and Jonathan. As she took the final few steps out of the arena, she noticed the crowd had gone completely silent. She glanced over her shoulder and was met with dozens of faces, their expressions all mirroring her own.