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As we start to pair off against each other in the arena and the lights in the surroundings dim considerably to bring all the focus solely on us I close my eyes for a second and take a deep breath. I then widen my stance considerably in order to start off with the improved projected flame spell. This is currently the one spell I know how to perfectly well and is the one spell I'm sure they're expecting of me. But it is a spell I need to use for the time being. Improvise later. Attach the spells I need to survive first. As the four bars start showing up as I ready the spell I start pouring in a second spell inside the Projected Flame spell. On top of that I also am constantly moving my tail but trying to keep it from being too obvious as I cast a separate spell with that appendage.

"I suppose it'd be too much to expect any other sort of initial play from you. Very well, but you better pick your opening gambit well for I will not be simply allowing you to do whatever you want." Arell comments back at me.

I crouch a bit deeper and notice now that tinkling sensation when I'm looking at the spell and the way it feels. But that'll have to wait till a bit later. For now, I need to put everything I have into making sure this one spell hits. And as I pour my very heart and soul into the second spell I release. Arell starts trying to dodge it but the spell still pings him in the shoulder.

"Well shot," he applauds me as he brushes at the shoulder to show how little it meant to him. "Pity the second spell was a dud."

"Not a dud," I comment before firing again. This time he jumps out of the way, but is still hit in the shoulder by the arrow, showing that I have him under the effect of a targeting spell.

"Not a dud, then," he shrugs and draws the sword at his waist. "No matter, a targeting spell won't help you much in the long run. Unless you have something with a bit more of a punch than that little trick you won't even make this an interesting match. And it doesn't matter what you try and put into your attack, I can simply deflect those you especially charge away."

"Don't underestimate me just yet," I comment before scrunching my head a bit and trying to figure out what I could do about the Projected Flame to deal with the sensation that there could be more to it.

I adopt the pose, same as before but the stance itself still feels fine. But I'm sure I had felt something missing again. Curious about it I release it and that's when I notice that sensation reappearing. It's not so much that the stance is wrong, it's the firing mechanism. I adopt the pose again and consider what is going on. I think my problem is that when I fire it off all I'm doing is letting go and letting the spell fly off on its own. Giving myself the most time to try and feel it out I start not holding the pose but firing right after each other. Arell, during this time seems perfectly content to just keep swatting them away. I think what I need to do is to accelerate its departure. With a normal bow this is done by the tension of the bow itself. But my bow is, as far as I can tell, visual in nature only. So, if I were to wrap a sensation of something like a rubber band from one hand to the other, then I can potentially have the rubber band release when I release the bow and that should speed it up. And as I try to figure out how best to do that from just the feel of the sensations I notice a change going on with the bow. Instead of the four arms of the bow, the top and bottom are starting to split down the middle and the closer I get to what feels like it should be, the closer my bow seems to get to having six arms instead. Arell also seems to be starting to have trouble deflecting them and by the time I get the six arms complete quite a few are starting to get past his defense. I can see some metal break off from him and crumple to the ground but the concentration of the spell keeps me from knowing what that is.

I'm pulled out of my shots at him by a kind of strange roar coming from him. I'm not sure if it is the roar causing it, but he roars at me and I feel a shockwave strong enough to push me out of my stance. I land gently enough and ready myself in case he's about to do a follow-up attack.

"That's enough!" he shouts at me as my head tilts to the side. That attack doesn't seem capable of doing any real harm, at least not at that range. Not sure if it'd be more at close range. Mainly just seemed to just knock me back a foot or two. Definitely not something to be used aggressively. However, I notice out of the corner of my eyes that a pair of wings made out of a golden light begin to grow out of my back, slightly dull at the moment, but definitely starting to glow brighter. "No more games. I will not allow you to just keep hitting me with that."

I take the Projected Flames stance again but before even the little branch things can start to show up again Arell rushes at me, causing me to leap backwards to avoid his attack.

"Those wings won't save you. I can fight just as well in the air as I can on the ground. And probably far better than you could."

I have to think. I can't just keep dodging, eventually my stamina will run out or he'll figure out the pattern to how I move. I need something to defend myself against that sword. Could I make a sword out of magic? Probably wouldn't be as durable, but would be a start. As Arell starts rushing me again I close my eyes for a split second to try and feel out the spell and bring it forth, as if drawing a sword from a sheath that doesn't exist. And then I hear a collision and see that his sword has been successfully stopped by a sword made of fire in my hand. Naturally as it is made of fire I highly doubt that I'd have any effect whatsoever against him, but as a defensive measure. But then we'd run into the issue of me, someone who's only been here for such a short while, trying to fence against an opponent that has probably spent years practicing and with a sword that cannot hurt him. Meaning I need to use it as a defense and do something to put more distance between us. My tail is apparently already on the task. Even while my eyes and my arms are focused on the swords to keep me alive, my brain and my tail are already working on the next step. And it seems to be making a kind of a smokescreen. As I drag my tail across the ground, little trails of white smoke rise up from the ground at the impact. Though I don't know truly how well this will help me considering I have a glowing sword and glowing wings and he has neither. But I have to trust that my body and my instincts know what they're doing.

I finally notice what all the smokescreen is actually doing as it starts to rise up. It's only white as it leaves the ground because that's the color of the ground. As it begins to make contact with my own body it changes color, blending in with the color of my body. It even goes so far as to make the sounds coming off my body. So, it isn't so much that of a true smokescreen that is designed to just completely hide someone's location by obstruction vision, this one will hide my location by instead making it look like I'm everywhere in the smokescreen. And for an even better effect, it doesn't wrap completely around my eyes. It's something that takes a bit of getting used to but the spell leaves a small path of fogless air directly in front of my eyes. Meaning I can see through the smokescreen a bit, though on a bit of a delay from where I'm looking.

Curious to see what it's doing with the sword I look over at my hand and don't even see the sword at all. Well I can, when the path of vision reaches my sword I can see it again, but the fog itself is completely obscuring it. Definitely makes this a very useful fog and something I'll definitely want to remember for future use if it can conceal any spell I'm casting. But as I take a look at the sword in my hand, something seems rather off about it, my mind now focused on trying to figure out what that is instead of what I should be doing which is how to deal with my opponent. And that distraction costs me the spell as Arell roars again, knocking me back and completely dispelling the fog. Suppose that would be one drawback to it. Easily countered by a strong force and I suppose it takes a while to get to a large enough area to really help much. Either way I'm still looking at the sword, my head cocking slightly to the side as I try to figure it out.

"Oh no, I recognize that look. There's no way in hell am I going to allow you to figure out what all you can add to that sword, fire or otherwise." He shouts while charging at me, this time being mindful of whether or not my tail is creating the mist again.

I finally figure it out as he gets to within striking range and simply let go of the sword. The sword stays perfectly in place and stops his own attack. And in one very fluid motion I crouch back, ready my bow again and fire it into him again.

"That's just it though," I say to the very shocked expression on his face. "The sword doesn't really need anything. It's moved by your will. So, the thing that was bothering me is that if it's moved by your will, why would you need to be holding it in the first place?"

Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that though this realization does give me a bit of breathing room, it doesn't really change my situation all that much. It means I can now have enough room to periodically fire another round into him which is a definite improvement. Unfortunately, at the level of impact it seems to be giving him my Projected Flames spell, the only spell I've been able to hit him with, is still far too weak to do much good. By the time that I could beat him into submission I'll have long since ruined my arms and run out of magic. I flap my wings a few times, debating whether or not it might be prudent to take to the air and see if these things actually can allow me to fly or not but end up deciding against it. Being something born with wings he'd have the advantage of knowing how to fight properly in the air. On top of that I know that any spell that requires contact, like my tail keeps doing with the ground is unusable, as is ones that require a stance to pull off correctly. In short, not nearly as much gain for all the risk involved. Thinking on it more I try a bit of experimentation while on the ground and find that in order to shoot effectively I'd need to be shooting at the side, but to fly I'd have to flap perpendicular to the ground. Meaning I could only hit him in the air if he happened to be on my side, the targeting spell only able to do so much for me. So instead I try my best to come up with some form of ice spell, seeing if perhaps that's what could be used to do some actual damage. But not having spent much time studying ice magic the best I can figure is perhaps to try and do a spell normally but then invert it. This is a very awkward way of doing things. It's not so much that it feels like I'm doing something wrong. Definitely feels inefficient, but it's more my body doesn't really seem to be able to handle this kind of magic as easily as it would fire. If fire magic for me is like throwing a baseball, ice magic would be like trying to throw a baseball backwards with your foot. Doable, but definitely not easy. I suppose that's what those proficiency things were when they rated me. That fire and healing magic comes naturally. Other elements come a bit more awkwardly and take a bit more getting used to.