I stood in my dorm room, staring down at the tokens that were spread out on my desk. Without a word, I slowly began to pick out the ones I wanted, slipping the stones into one of three pouches that were currently tied to my waist. The ones that were contained in jewelry went into place next. After I was finished, I was fully armed and ready for my upcoming duel with Teressa.

Once I was ready, I allowed my thoughts to wander back to last night and the dinner I’d had with my family. It had been filled with questions about Todd and just about everything else about my life at the Academy. My mom and dad had spent most of the meal probing me to see how much I’d changed and to get a feel for who I’d become. It seemed to surprise them a bit when they finally realized that I was no longer a guy in a girl’s body, but that I truly had become female.

When dinner was over and I’d returned to the Academy, I’d changed into my succubus form and spent the rest of the night working. I spent part of that time working on the homework Amylia had given me and the rest planning on how to deal with Teressa. I knew that if I wanted to get her off my back for good, I was going to have to go big…bigger than I ever have before. My goal was not just to beat her, but to convince her once and for all not to mess with me.

For a brief time, I’d actually considered delaying the duel until the sun set. Then, I could turn succubus on her, and maybe even turn her male and feed on her. That might have scared her away from me for good, but also would have undone all the work I’d been doing to try convincing everyone that I wasn’t a monster. Even Amylia wouldn’t tolerate me doing that. That idea had been thrown out quickly, but I did have others that appealed to me as well.

“Don’t get too attached to a single strategy,” I reminded myself of some advice Gayle had given me. “Be flexible and ready to adjust at a moment’s notice.” Then I repeated one more piece of advice that Gayle had given me, one that I’d also learned the hard way. “Don’t get cocky or underestimate your opponent.”

I looked myself over one more time and then started for the gym. I arrived a few minutes later, seeing that the audience was already starting to gather. Since everyone in school knew there was a feud between Teressa and me, our grudge match was getting a lot more attention than another duel might. There were even several teachers present to watch, including Amylia.

Mrs. Khuto was the referee again, which was appropriate since she’d been the referee the last time I’d dueled Teressa. She could be tough, but she was always by the book so I knew that she would enforce all the rules without bias to either side. She carefully looked over the bracelets and the duel circle to verify all the safety precautions were still intact while Teressa and I stood there glaring at each other.

“I’m gonna beat you even worse this time,” Teressa spat at me angrily while I just stood there, trying to give my best innocent look.

“Go and kick her ass,” Sylvie called out to me while Todd, Eve, and Kimberly cheered out encouragements.

“Good luck,” Gayle called out from where she was standing.

Kaellie wasn’t about to be outdone and yelled out to Teressa, “Send this freak home in a body bag…” Surprisingly, Monica gave her friend a quick glare.

Teressa and I put on the silver bracelets and stepped into the circle. As soon as Mrs. Khuto called out, “Begin,” we both sprang into action.

I grabbed two stone tokens at once and called out, “Engage,” activating them both simultaneously. One of them was a spell shield like what I’d used at the party while the other sent a blast of wind straight at Teressa to try blowing her out of the circle.

Teressa dropped to her knees to fight against the wind, but had already activated one of her own tokens at the same time I had. A ball of green light appeared in the air and shot towards me. I dove to the side but the ball changed directions in mid-air and hit me anyway. My shield glowed for a moment to let me know it had protected me, then it vanished along with the ball. Teressa looked annoyed, which made me wonder what that attack would have done if I hadn’t been protected.

“Invoke,” Teressa cried out and suddenly the stone in my hand crumbled away before I could activate it. I already knew the stones in my pouches would have been destroyed too since she’d probably been using the same stone shattering spell Kaellie had used against me in our last duel.

“Frak,” I muttered in annoyance, even though I’d been expecting that move. I decided that I was definitely going to have to learn a way to ward my pouches to protect the tokens inside from this kind of thing in the future. Fortunately, I had come prepared. I touched one of the beads on my wrist and said, “Engage.”

I was eager to see Teressa start plumping up again like she had last night, but to my surprise, there were three identical copies of her standing there. My spell hit one of the three Teressas and that one vanished. The other two Teressas laughed at that. Teressa had obviously improved a great deal since our last deal, but then again, so had I.

“Eat fire,” I yelled out, activating another one of my tokens while Teressa did the same.

A disk of light appeared in the air in front of the two Teressas, probably some sort of shield to protect against a fireball. However, in spite of what I’d yelled, it wasn’t fire that I’d summoned. That had just been a distraction. A large illusion snake appeared between the two of us. Both Teressas shrieked and jumped back, but stopped just before they went through the circle.

“At least I made them waste their shield,” I muttered, annoyed that this hadn’t worked.

The Teressas activated another token and a humanoid figure made out of fire appeared in front of them and started to stumble towards me. I had no idea if this was an illusion, a conjuring, or real fire that had been formed into that shape. Because of that, I had to assume the worst.

I activated one of the bead tokens on my bracelet and suddenly I disappeared in a puff of smoke, at least as far as everyone else was concerned. This stage trick I got from aunt June would make me invisible for a few seconds and I didn’t waste them. I ran around the fire monster and punched one of the Teressas, making that one vanish along with my invisibility. I grimaced in frustration and swung at the other Teressa, the real one, but she staggered backwards and hit the ground. She quickly got back up, activating one of her tokens in the process. There was no effect that I could see and that worried me a little.

The fire creature was coming towards me again so I had to back away from Teressa. Fortunately, it moved slow enough that I could avoid it. Unfortunately, avoiding this thing was a distraction that I really didn’t need. While I was backing away and trying to think of what to do next, Teressa activated another of her tokens, sending a blast of water at me, either trying to hit me and blast me out of the circle, or forcing me to avoid it and get closer to the fire creature.

“Why don’t you give up now,” Teressa taunted as I avoided both the water blast and the fire creature. I’d hoped I could somehow get them in contact with each other, but the water blast stopped before I could figure out how. “You know I’m going to kick your ass, you ugly monster…”

“Now that’s just being mean,” I spat out, activating a token and sending a wave of freezing cold towards her. Ice began to coat everything and she shivered and moved out of the way. I decided that it was time for my secret weapon, something that I’d spent half the night putting together. It was pretty risky to use, especially since I’ve never even tested it out. I reached for the token and stated, “Engage.”

There was a faint shimmer around my body for a second as my spell shield clicked into place. However, that wasn’t the only effect. This was my first attempt at creating a chain spell on my own, though it was a very simple one with three links in the chain. The second spell that triggered immediately afterwards was to create a brilliant flash of light that would blind an unsuspecting opponent, and then the last spell activated and I found myself being thrown across the duel circle, straight at Teressa.

Teressa was stunned from the flash and caught completely by surprise by my flying tackle. I hit her hard enough that we’d both probably get some bruises, but I sent her flying back to the edge of the circle. But as soon as Teressa hit the circle, she abruptly stopped, almost as though hitting an invisible wall.

“You’re not getting me out of this circle,” Teressa exclaimed with a smirk.

I grimaced, realizing that this had to be an effect from that one spell that hadn’t appeared to do anything. She’d somehow blocked herself from being able to be knocked out of the circle. That seemed unfair to me but Mrs. Khuto didn’t call out a foul so I assumed it was within the rules, just like destroying your opponents tokens were.

“It looks like I’ll have to take this bastich the hard way,” I muttered in frustration. If I couldn’t knock her out of the circle, I’d have to make her cry uncle.

I glanced to the fire creature but it was already starting to fade away. Teressa reached into her pouch and pulled out two more tokens, activating both of them at the same time. The ground started to shake as though in an earthquake and then there was a blast of raw force that might have thrown me out of the circle if my spell shield hadn’t countered it.

“Why won’t you just lose?” Teressa nearly screamed at me.

I just spat back, “I’ll be damned if I’ll lose again to a jealous little bitch like you…”

“You’re not even human,” Teressa snarled. “You’re a monster… You don’t belong here…”

I glared at Teressa furiously, then dodged to the side as she sent a ball of fire at me. Both of us were getting pretty low on tokens as well as options, but neither of us was about to give up. This fight had become too personal and each of us would fight to our very last token if necessary. And beyond.

“Not human,” I exclaimed with an almost evil grin. “Thanks for reminding me…”

With that, I reached for Vera and the spell contained within. I’d spent half the night working on that chain spell and the other half working on this one. It was the most powerful and complicated spell I’d ever tried, requiring me to not only be in succubus form but to also channel in every ounce of stored sexual energy I could absorb and pour into it. It had been a challenge for myself, just to see if I could possibly pull it off. I hadn’t tested it yet so had no idea if I’d even been successful. And though I hadn’t planned on trying it in this duel, I didn’t really have anything to lose.

“Engage,” I exclaimed, unleashing the spell on Teressa.

Teressa gasped and then dropped to her knees, suddenly not looking very good. In just a moment, I saw that she was shrinking, getting smaller as her body began to change and transform. Her hair pulled up and into her scalp while her skin took on a sickly green color. I watched in awe, hardly able to believe that it was actually working. Less than a minute later, there was a frog in the middle of a pile of Teressa’s clothes.

I slowly walked over to Teressa, who tried frantically to hop away, though I easily got her and held her up in my hand. “Who’s not human now?” I demanded of her. Then I exclaimed loud enough for most of the stunned audience to hear, “Oooh, you’re so slimy. I just hope you don’t give me any warts…”

“Teressa is incapable of continuing,” Mrs. Khuto announced. “The duel is over…” But instead of announcing my win, she added, “But I have concerns over the use of that last spell.”

“Hey, that was perfectly fair,” Sylvie yelled out angrily.

Mrs. Khuto gave me a suspicious look and said, “That transformation spell would be a class nine…well beyond the amount of magic you can draw.” She paused to stare at me with an intent look before adding, “I have serious questions as to whether you cast that spell yourself.”

“You cheated,” Kaellie screamed out.

“Cheater,” another student yelled.

“I did not cheat,” I protested angrily, seeing the squirming frog back down before I lost my temper and did something like throw her across the room. “I cast that spell myself…”

“Please explain how someone on record as a class four or five is capable of casting a class nine spell,” Mrs. Khuto said.

Just then, Amylia came up and said, “I believe I can explain that.”

Mrs. Khuto looked at her curiously. “Please do.”

Amylia gave her a faint nod before saying, “I have recently been giving Erin additional tutoring, at her own request, on how to perform rituals. She was interested in expanding her range of spells.” Then in a quieter tone so that the entire audience didn’t hear, she added, “Erin is also capable of drawing a greater amount of magic when in her alternate form. I believe she classifies as a class seven or eight. Using a ritual while in her other form would provide enough magic for her to cast a high end transformation spell of this nature.”

Mrs. Khuto stared at me for a moment and then looked back to Amylia. “Erin has demonstrated advanced pattern manipulation skills in class and I believe that constructing a pattern of this complexity is not beyond her skills. You have confirmed that she would be capable of acquiring enough magic to form the spell, and she is on record as exceeding known limits before. My objections are withdrawn.” And then in a louder voice, she called out, “Erin is the winner.”

There was some cheering at that as well as some yelling from people who weren’t happy about the outcome. But to my surprise, most of the reaction seemed positive. My friends immediately rushed to me, patting me on the back and congratulating me. Other classmates, a few of which were virtual strangers, came up and did the same thing as well.

Teressa had just finished changing back and was frantic, though Kaellie and Monica were covering her up and ushering her out of the gym as fast as possible. I might have gloated a bit more at the sight if Todd hadn’t given me a celebratory kiss.

“Congratulations,” Amylia told me once the crowd began to disperse a little. “That chain spell was quite impressive for one of your experience.” She gave me a look of pride at that and then added, “Very well done.”

I grinned proudly at that, then on a sudden impulse, I gave Amylia a hug. When I pulled away, she looked a little startled but not at all upset. She chuckled and wandered away while I went and gave the rest of my friends hugs as well. After beating Teressa like this, I was definitely in a good mood.