Chapter 2: Ch 2: The Duel

I woke up and tried to braid my hair. I failed and retried. I failed again and managed. I used the skill [Ice Mirror] to make sure I looked presentable. Hot as always! My braid is a bit sloppy but my beauty makes up for it! I wish I could make a friend who could braid my hair for me. Braiding is one of the many things I’m terrible at. I stepped outside and was met with glares from other Misha. Another thing I am terrible with is dealing with other Misha. They were either envious of my looks or accolades. I decided to ignore them and stopped by some shops for groceries. I sent them back to my house with a [Dimensional Portal].

A short-range teleport made sure that I arrived on time for my duel. Beatrice was surrounded by people as always.

Beatrice spotted me and had an obnoxious grin on her face. “Ah look who we have there! It’s the slut! How many humans have you seduced yet!”

“The number of humans I have seduced is equal to the number of brain cells you have.”

Beatrice seemed confused. “I don’t get it…”

“I knew you wouldn’t… I’m surprised you even found your way back to Witchaven, so what do you want?” I crossed my arms.

Beatrice pointed her wand at me. “I see that you have become aspirant and didn’t bring your catalyst with you! You must have realized that you’re no match for me!”

I sighed. “The word you needed to use was ‘arrogant’, not ‘aspirant’.

“I will have you know! I have updated my moveset! You won’t be able to touch me!”

I looked at Beatrice who wasn’t wearing her hat. I wondered if I should tell her. I decided to take my hat off to add to her humiliation when I destroy her in this duel. ”You seem to have left your hat at home, so I will take off my hat too.”

“Huh! Where did I leave it? Did I come here with my hat?” The Misha around her shook their heads.

Our race is doomed if this bitch becomes the current strongest Misha. I carefully put my hat on the grass. Just like my hair, my hat was blue. It also had Mistflowers on it.

We get born with our hats. It is a part of us. At any time, it holds 70% of our mana. It can also cast magic by itself and the patterns on our hats indicate from what family we are. Besides those, it’s highly customizable. Most of the customization requires knowledge about mana runes and magic circles so only I can tweak my hat further. I believe that we as a race are missing out on ignoring this function and it is one of the many arguments I have to support my research paper.

Our hats are indestructible so it isn’t in danger. Getting separated from our hat greatly diminishes the amount of mana we can influence and that’s why this bitch’s blunder is such a big deal. It does however ease the requirements on our catalysts. Wands and staves act as catalysts but can be any shape or form actually. These help us control the vast mana that resides in our hats. Without our hats, we might not need them. I can fight without a catalyst and it gets easier if I’m not wearing my hat. I can pull this duel off without my hat. Beatrice however can’t do this.

“You will regret looking down on me!” She pointed her wand at me and started casting [Strip]. I did not enjoy the fact that she wanted to embarrass me by stripping my clothing. I used [Reflect] and her clothing flew off.

“Ahh! You bitch!” She didnt bother covering herself...

“If you don’t want your skill to be [Reflected] back then don’t cast it!” I used [Azure Flower] and azure petals floated around and attacked Beatrice. They doused out any flames she tried to produce. She just stood in it.

I have observed how other races fight and we Misha are quite… stationary. She could easily move out of my [Azure Petals] but she didn’t. It might be her intelligence or just how Misha fight. The temperature rose and her hair started to look like it was made out of fire.

“Ooh look at you, Bea! You can finally be considered as being hot!”

“I have always been able to use fire!”

“That’s not what I meant…” Multiple floating fire orbs appeared around me which made the temperature rise even more.

Another reason why I feel different is because the Misha is a race that’s quite serious. We have often heard that we have no sense of humor. Am I really that different? I moved water over from a nearby pond, multiplied its volume by 8, and used [Tsunami].

It swamped the courtyard and extinguished the [Fire Wisps].

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

I had tweaked my [Tsunami] a bit. It is a large tidal wave that crashes into my opponents. It also breaks light and earth-based defensive skills. A tweak that I have made is that it will also make my next 3 skills mana-free and have no cast time.

Misha cast times are a bit slower compared to the other races but they make up for it by being disproportionally more powerful. At least that is as long as my research has been unpublished. My research had revealed to me that many of our shortcomings can be solved by studying magic runes more intensively.

A steam eruption followed and Beatrice looked like she was made out of fire. It doesn’t seem as if my [Tsunami] did as much as I had hoped. I sent [Azure Sharks] at her. They had an easy time moving around because I had flooded the area.

“How annoying! And where is your catalyst!” It took her this long to realize.

“I don’t need one!” I smiled.

“That is impossible! No Misha has ever been able to fight without a catalyst! Stop lying!”

I Ignored Beatrice and used [Azure Spear], grabbed it, and ran at her. She had no issues dealing with the [Azure Sharks], What she couldn’t deal with was me pointing the [Azure Spear] at her neck. “Apologize bitch! Else I will send you to the sickbay!”

I was met by a fiery glare. “Apologize for what?”

“Those rumors about how I sneak out of Witchaven at night to seduce and fuck humans at night!”

“I don’t see how I need to apologize; it wouldn’t take much imagination to believe that you would do such a thing.” She looked at my amazing figure.

“Unlike you, I spend all my time on my research and not bullshit as spreading false rumors.”

“So, tell me, it must feel great to have the men of other races under control.”

I lowered my spear and slapped her. “You are a Misha; you know just like everyone that claims without evidence are looked down upon and is a sign of low intelligence. Unless you have hard evidence, apologize and dissolve this rumor!” Beatrice flared up in anger and I cooled her off with a [Waterblast] and kicked her catalyst away.

“Stop being a jealous bitch and strive for excellence.” The surrounding Misha started to chatter. Most realized that there was indeed no evidence of any of these rumors.

Besides it being a disgrace to perform such acts, Misha, in general, aren’t fond of humans, especially not men. A reputation like this could haunt me for the rest of my life if I don’t address it. I would rather hole up in my lab and continue my research but someone needs to cool this bitch down.

I stomped toward my lab but I got stopped by an old professor of mine.

“Causing trouble again Aya?” This professor is one of the few people here who treat me like a normal Misha. I gave her something that I deemed as precious and didn’t give out often. I gave her my smile.

“Remi! I just had to teach Bea a lesson. She was spreading rumors again! How have you been? When are you going to become this academy’s headmaster?” Remillia, or Remi as I called her was the professor who helped me graduate 27 years ago. Unfortunately, she also helped that idiot Bea graduate too but I don’t blame her.

This is just a demonstration of how competent she is if she can even make an my stupid ex-classmate Bea graduate.

“There is still much to do before that happens, how is your research going?”

“It is difficult but I will know if I’m finished after I completed my revision, which I will today. I’m excited to find out what the council thinks about it!” I tried to be cheerful but Remi and I knew the reality.

“The council… is not very fond of you Aya… please don’t write anything that antagonizes them too much. A lot of the council members got their egos bruised when you demonstrated that most of the magic, we use is inefficient…”

“I know, but are their egos more important than the well-being of our race?”

Remi had a tired look on her face. I know that she tries her best to placate the council but the council is filled with 3 millennia-year-old hags that are rigid in their ways and have halted and curbed any Misha that strove for progress.

I hypothesize that the only other Misha that had delved into anything related to my research, got silenced by the council. I sighed. “I will do my best, thank you Remi. Can you keep an eye on Bea? I’m afraid she might do something stupid again.” The tired look on Remi worsened. She nodded and walked off.

Everyone has their own problems that they have to deal with. I went to the library to relax a bit. I had tried to find a topic to research after I finish my current one. I am still trying but I haven’t found anything yet.

I got approached. “Oh, look who it is, it’s the know-it-all Ayaru. Are you here to find out more things everyone is doing wrong?”

I put the book I was holding away and walked away.

“Yeah! You run, bitch!” I left the library and headed over to my lab. At least there are no people there.

I unlocked my lab and went inside. I laid down on the small bed and cried in my pillow. Why is everyone treating me so poorly? Am I a bad person or do they just don’t like what I’m researching? I just want someone to be proud of me, someone who treats me normally. Someone I can talk to and have fun with.

I got the longing to visit Paula but I decided to be strong. After I finish this, I can visit her all I like. I’m almost there.

I made an [Ice Mirror] and looked at myself. I was a mess.

“How unsightly,” I said, mocking myself. I tried to fix my braid but I only made it worse, so I had to loosen it out.

“Is research the only thing I’m good at?” I looked at my lab. The shelves of research materials. The arrangement of magic runes I had isolated and had on display for easy access, a large setup where I could easily input magic circles or create new ones, find out all the variables needed to improve it, and side effects certain combinations would make.

I looked at all the fruits of my labor. I then looked outside. I don’t have friends, my peers hate me, and my superiors see me as a nuisance. I don’t have anything to look forward to in my life. Nothing that makes me happy besides cake and visiting Paula. I also can’t even give myself the hairstyle I like because I can’t braid. I picked up a booklet that demonstrated the art of braiding. I read through the instructions and tips and tried again. I don’t regard myself as clumsy but I was just unable to do a good job at this. I sighed and refreshed myself before I would go over everything I have researched in the last 27 years.