It's always worth asking yourself: what decides a fight?
Mana? Talent? Technique? Or maybe sheer stubborn determination to not fall over before the other guy does?
Facing the third-year student across from me, it felt like a question that needed a deeper exploration. He had the calm confidence of someone who knew he had an unfair advantage and wasn't embarrassed about it. Integration-rankers had three times the mana quality and quantity compared to those of us still clawing at the barrier between White and Integration. It was as if we were all playing the same game, except his dice went up to twenty and mine only managed six—on a good day.
