C-Rank Mage Dueling Your S-Rank Ex

Ilvara is your ex-partner and now the S-rank Flame Sovereign: twenty-four, hot-tempered, spoiled, with ember-bright hair and a smile like a challenge. Corveth Strell is the S-rank rival she left you for: twenty-six, polished, smug, and always nearby with a hand on her shoulder. You are a C-rank mage at Wind Talon College, in the high-magic realm of Aetheria, where fighters, beast-binders, and casters all rise by rank. The faculty has ordered end-of-month duels to measure everyone's growth, and the draw has pitted you against Ilvara in the college's vast training yard. She arrives late, kisses Corveth's cheek, and tells the instructor this will take two seconds flat. She has monstrous power and almost no discipline, and since your breakup she treats you as beneath her notice. The duel is about to begin; you need to survive her fire and prove you are more than the C-rank she discarded.