The scent of old sweat and dust filled Bert's senses as soon as he entered the Thunderbird Dual Arena. The sudden plunge from the blinding, hot summer sun to the chilling, dimly lit arena caused him to blink behind his large glasses.

He had never been to the Dual Arena before. It was a large oval arena with a low ceiling and low wooden bleachers surrounding a dusty dirt arena floor. Soft light emanated from both the overhead lamps and the cast-iron light posts that surrounded the arena floor, where a circle had been carved into the dirt. Opposite the tall doors of the arena rose a large wooden booth, where the President of the Duals and his committee sat to watch and judge the dual proceedings.

During the Duals, the arena was packed with spectators, including students, parents, and community members alike. These duels demonstrated the strongest and most talented individuals among those at the university; it was every Sorcerer University's primary sport, with the top students from the university's duels competing in the Great Plains National Dual Championship in a few months.

Bert sighed. Unfortunately, he would be watching the Duo Duels.

The Duo Duels were those who weren't necessarily powerful enough to make it into the main duels, but still got a chance to compete and make a name for themselves. It was no less interesting or competitive, but was always overshadowed by the single-competitor duels.

During his first week after moving in, Bert had managed to secure an internship with the Pella Paper, the local newspaper of the University town. He had always enjoyed writing, so he was excited to pursue this hobby while earning money in university. As a newbie, he was assigned to report on the Duo Dual Initiations. His boss informed him that he could work his way up to the main Dual reporting if they liked what they saw.

Pulling out his notepad, he carefully sat on the furthest bleachers, watching as the sparse crowd slowly shuffled in to watch the Duo Duel's Initiations. Bert was thankful there weren't many people here, as he could utilize his specialization magic without bringing too much attention to himself. 

Carefully removing his glasses and placing them onto his lap, he closed his eyes and drummed his fingers on his eyelids. As he did so, images snapped in his mind. Different viewpoints and memories from each insect as it zoomed around the arena, or birds stuck in the rafters, whipped through his mind's eye, giving him plenty of options to utilize in getting a closer look at the duels. 

A dragonfly sat on one of the wooden gates staring out onto the duel arena. Quickly, Bert opened his eyes through his fingers, locking onto the insect to gain control of the creature's viewpoint, gaining temporary control over its eyes. 

Dragonflies were Bert's favorite insect to use his powers on. Their multi-lensed eyes and ability to stabilize despite their speed made them the perfect viewpoint.

Through the dragonfly's eyes, the first couple of initiations were intriguing: an earth elemental focus and a sound manipulator won against a water elemental and a plant elemental. Then, a combat specialization and a wind elemental defeated an illusion specialization and a wind elemental. But eventually, Burt began to watch the trials mindlessly, using the trials more as an excuse to practice specialization magic than actually watching the battles as he jotted short notes on his notepad. 

The initiations seemed somewhat repetitive; those who won had planned some strategies with their magic together, while their opponents seemed to participate for the fun, not too concerned about actually passing. 

It was strange; on a few occasions, he seemed to have mindlessly written down the wrong outcomes, or noted moves by certain opponents that didn't actually happen, forcing him to recheck his work and cross them out,  a task that kept disturbing his magic practice, as when he opened his eyes to check his notes, he had to refind the dragonfly to continue this magic: something not tricky, but something Bert soon found tedious. 

Bert sighed. He needed to focus. If he wrote something wrong in his article, he doubted anyone would notice, but it still wouldn't look good for his first story on the job if he got caught.

"Damas and Nadowessi vs Willians and Williams."

As Bert finished scribbling his final notes from the last battle, he blinked at the two women who now entered through the arena's gate. 

Both were wearing their uniform pants. And their hair is in loose buns at the top of their heads. But while the shorter, dark-haired woman wore a loose, high-necked white blouse, the other woman wore a black blouse with a deep red embroidered vest. A strange, dark metal bevor around her neck.

Bert immediately recognized the smaller woman, and his heart rose to his throat.

 The pretty manager of the flower shop.

He quickly cleared his throat and sat a bit straighter, despite being hidden from the girl's view, excitement at seeing her again causing his heart to skip a beat.

He quickly scribbled down their names, not wanting to miss a second of this initiation.

"Aww, the rejects have teamed up," Bert heard someone snicker in front of him. "Look how they tried to match." 

A chorus of chuckles bounced through the small clutter of first-year boys. Bert bit his tongue, not a fan of such a jab, mentally cheered the two girls on, hoping they might prove the immature boys wrong.

Two tall, burly, identical-looking men with curly blond hair entered the opposite side of the arena, their chests bare, with matching brown vests and blue jeans. At their entry, the crowd went wild, yet nobody commented on their matching outfits.

The men began flexing their muscles, pointing to their friends in the audience, and making suggestive gestures as they glanced from their feminine opponents to the crowd that jeered in response.

Bert glanced at the women who stood with their backs facing the men in the center of the circle, awaiting the beginning of the duel. The two women were not noticing their opponents' mocking actions; instead, they whispered to each other and nodded at the others' suggestions with serious expressions.

Eventually, the two brothers made their way to the center, comically stepping back as if tripping, slamming into the backs of the women, and causing the two women to stumble.

The two women shot the men dirty looks as they exchanged a wordless glance, their eyes pointed in annoyance.

Bert hid a smirk; he had seen that look before.

Eventually, the men settled down, standing in their positions. The bell tolled, indicating the beginning of the duel. As the four carefully stepped to the outside of the ring, Bert clenched his fist around his pen, for the first time, feeling a stange mix of anxiety over the match.

As soon as the tenth bell tolled, and as the four swirled around, the two women disappeared in a blink.

One of the men laughed, unfazed by their invisibility, as he moved his arms in a swirling motion and began to manipulate the wind around the center of the arena, picking up the dust in an attempt to expose the women's shapes.

However, the wind only dispersed the dirt on the men's half of the arena, with not even a breeze disturbing the dust on the invisible women's side of the arena.

 Just when it seemed their magic wouldn't work, the forms of the women appeared in the dust beside the two men. The two women charging at them with their own wind swirling around their arms,

 The other brother also used a large gust of wind, attempting to blow the two women's shapes back from them, but it didn't work. The shape of the taller woman quickly reflected the wind at the brothers, controlling the arena's swirling dust, which caused him to curse and lean forward as dust blew into his eyes. 

The brother then stumbled into the center of the arena, as he began rubbing his eyes in an attempt to rid them of the dust.

As he moved towards the center, another version of the man appeared where he had just been standing, and his brother swiftly sent a gust of dusty wind to dislodge the illusion.

But as the brother stumbled backwards, falling from the force of the wind, a bell tolled.

"What the fuck, Jeremy?"

The brother who remained in the circle blinked at his fallen brother before glancing at the other man standing in the center of the arena.

The brother's minik's grin spread, his mouth slipping into a reptile-like smile, one hand beckoning the remaining brother forward.

Jeremy William's face turned into a scowl, all hints of teasing and amusement vanishing after accidentally pushing his brother out of the circle. The humiliation seemed to flip a switch in the man, who moments ago had seemed to treat this duel like a joke. 

Running forward, he shot a gust of wind at his fake brother, causing the phony brother to stumble backward at the impact.

Bert blinked. Was the other brother truly an illusion? Or was it one of the women in an illusion disguise of the brother?

The man kept pushing forward, the power of his wind propelling the fake brother to the opposite side of the arena.

The fake brother stood on the edge of the arena's boundary, his teeth gritted, as he tried to push back against Jeremy's wind magic. But as Jeremy let out a yell, sending one last wave of wind against the mimic, the fake brother stumbled out of the arena.

No bell tolled.

Suddenly, fire shot from the air behind the man, causing the man to let out a scream as he stumbled forward, ripping off his vest as it caught fire. 

A second bell tolled.

The crowd roared in a mix of amazement and disappointment.

The two women visualized the space from which the fire had originated. 

The blond one stood in front of the darker-haired one, who peeked around the taller one with a large grin as she watched Jeremy curse, slapping out the burning vest in the dust. 

The blond woman quickly spun around with wide eyes, jumping and clapping her hands in excitement, as the darker-haired woman laughed at her partner's reaction, reluctantly joining in with a small clap of her own.

"All contestants are denied."

The woman froze, and a murmur immediately spread through the crowd. 

This was easily the most interesting battle that had happened so far. In fact, this might have been the first one where Bert watched two people actually execute a planned fight, instead of just flinging their elemental powers or other specializations back and forth. Bert wouldn't mind coming back to the duals if it meant seeing these two women fight again... 

And not just because his heart was doing backflips every time he laid eyes on the pretty girl with black hair.

"And what's the excuse this time, asshole?" The blond woman shouted as she stomped over to the booth where the committee sat. The shorter woman followed after her with her arms crossed, spitting to the ground as she came up behind the taller woman.

"We won fair and square, Brian. You can't deny us this time." The pretty, petite woman scolded as she shook her head.

"Actually, I am President Dean. So I can do whatever I want. One of my dogs told me that a little birdie has been wearing her heartstone to the duels."

"So?" The tall blond woman scoffed, "There has never been a rule against heartstones in Duels."

"Yeah? Well, there is now." President Dean replied, as the committee men around him chuckled. "So, you are hereby denied due to the use of your heart stone. Better luck next week, Sqaucky."

A whispered murmur echoed through the crowd as the boys in the booth chuckled.

Bert took a deep breath, his fist clenching around his pen as he made note of the President's sudden change of rules. This was certain to gain attention in the paper. There had never been a ban on heartstones before. 

Many students had advocated for their ban for years, as they believed it gave an unfair advantage to those who didn't create a heart stone. Still, there was never any movement towards changing the rules, since all sorcerers possessed the ability to create a heart stone if they desired. 

This new rule would undoubtedly change the dynamics of the duels.

"No. There isn't." An older woman snapped, her voice booming over the murmur of the arena. 

A petite woman with short black hair and round glasses suddenly stood from her seat in the bleachers, pointing an accusatory finger at the men in the booth, who blinked back at her in surprise.

"If you want to change the rules so suddenly, then you will have to redo all the trials again, President Dean." She demanded, "You are not allowed to suddenly implement new rules in the middle of the dual initiations. If you would like to propose changes to the rules, you may submit a request to my office, which will be considered for next year's initiatives. If you truly wish to implement a no-heartstone rule in this year's duels, we can discuss doing so after the initiations end and the real duels begin. But from what I saw, these young women should not be denied from this year's duels."

A murmur went through the crowd, and from what Bert picked up in the hushed whispers, the woman standing was the university's President. She had only become the President of the university two years prior, so many students were still unfamiliar with her.

"President Willard," Brian announced, his teeth clenched into a fake smile. "Welcome to the Dual Initiations. We are honored to have you here among the spectators today." Brian paused as he drummed his fingers on the ledge of the booth. "I appear to have spoken too hastily in my announcement of the new rules."

He carefully leaned back into his seat, and one of the men standing beside him whispered into his ear, causing Brian to shake his head with a sigh. Whispering something back with frustrated urgency. 

"We will implement the rules going forward in both the main and duo duals, and I will submit a request to have the rules officially changed for the next initiations."

"I am glad to hear that." President Willard said with a nod, sending the two girls in the arena a smile and a wink. "You know, I loved watching these ladies' initiation. Can look forward to more duels with these two in the official Duo Duels?" she added pointedly, a pencil brow raised at the Duel counsel expectantly.

The whole area held its breath as the pointed question loomed over everyone's heads. All attention now turned to Brian, the audience silent as it waited for him to take back his denial of the two women. 

The Duo's President's fake smile slowly slipped into a glowering scowl as his dark eyes danced between the two women standing below him.

Taking a short breath, he quickly reinstated his fake smile before turning his attention back to the President.

"Damas and Nadowessi... pass"

~Author's Note~

Who's excited for this developing dynamic? <3

Also, I am getting really exhausted with coming up with magical powers..... LMAO If you have any suggestions or want to be written in, please state ur man name and powers, and I'll do my best to accommodate XD