Chapter 60.2- Doom Days

The names flashed on the board and I hoped to go first. At least if I did then that would mean I’d get the tension out of me and then could relax fully for the next one. It seems the fates would rather I sat with the knot in my stomach for a while. But at least they were kind enough to give me a good show. Cece and Okonkwo’s names flashed on the board. I looked over at the Chinese girl that had somehow managed to worm her way into my good graces with the conversation last night.

“Good luck” I whispered to her as Aleksander turned and practically stomped off once the names were called.

“Thank you. I’ll need it." She said. I nodded. No one had any illusions as to how big a threat Okonkwo was. It wasn’t just that she was powerful. It was how she fought. She fought in a way that made all the muscle memory we learned about dueling useless. Things like focusing on your opponents wand to read their intentions became useless platitudes when facing an opponent who didn’t use a wand and cast spells by either snapping her fingers or singing in a language you could not understand. I’d only bothered learning Yoruba, so the Igbo Okonkwo spoke was as alien to me as anything else.

Someone would expect that as close as the Yoruba and Igbo people were to each other (geographically speaking), then at least some parts of the languages would have evolved to be mutually intelligible. But that was a can of worms I was not going to be touching with a long pole.

“Any tips?” She asked next. I quirked a brow.

“We both know you’d rather face me than her” She asserted.

“What makes you certain”

“The fact that you think you can beat me”

“And you don’t think I think I can beat her?”

“Why mess with a sure thing?” I found myself laughing then.

“The totem around her neck is some sort of magical focus. There’s no chance it would be that big and heavy without serving some function. Also, she’s careful to touch it every few minutes when she duels— as if she’s making sure it’s there and okay. Wouldn’t be doing that if it wasn’t doing something. And we both know real wandless magic is impossible. The Romans beat the wandless tribes for a reason. Use the things her unorthodox focus is bad at and show the world why we still use wands” I advised.

“You’re good at giving advice. Better than I expected”

“Yeah, and if it doesn’t help you beat her then it should be enough for you to force her to reveal more of her trump cards. Give me a good look at what I’m going to be facing” I said. She scowled.

“Buttock” She said. What?

I was chuckling all the way back to the box as I thought of the translation charms fucking shit up that badly.