You're playing with the big boys now
Playing with the big boys now
Every spell and gesture
Tells you who's the best! You're
Playing with the big boys, now!
You're playing with the big boys now!
You're playing with the big boys now!
Stop this foolish mission
Watch a true magician
Give an exhibition how!
Pick up your silly twig, boy
You're playing with the big boys now!
Playing with the big boys now
Every spell and gesture
Tells you who's the best! You're
Playing with the big boys, now!
You're playing with the big boys now!
You're playing with the big boys now!
Stop this foolish mission
Watch a true magician
Give an exhibition how!
Pick up your silly twig, boy
You're playing with the big boys now!
— Hotep and Huy, The Prince of Egypt
He chanted a song of wizardry
Of piercing, opening, of treachery
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer song of staying,
Of resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
Of trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape,
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps.
Of piercing, opening, of treachery
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer song of staying,
Of resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
Of trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape,
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps.
Backwards and forwards swayed their song,
Reeling and foundering as ever more strong
The chanting swelled, Felagund fought
And all the magic and might he brought
Of Elvenesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothrond,
The sighing of the Sea beyond,
Beyond the Western world on sand,
On sand of pearls in Elvenland.
Reeling and foundering as ever more strong
The chanting swelled, Felagund fought
And all the magic and might he brought
Of Elvenesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothrond,
The sighing of the Sea beyond,
Beyond the Western world on sand,
On sand of pearls in Elvenland.
Then the gloom gathered; darkness growing
In Valinor the red blood flowing,
Beside the sea where the Noldor slew
The Foamriders and stealing drew
Their white ships with white sails
From lamplit havens. The wind wails
The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn.
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn—
In Valinor the red blood flowing,
Beside the sea where the Noldor slew
The Foamriders and stealing drew
Their white ships with white sails
From lamplit havens. The wind wails
The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn.
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn—
And Finrod fell before the throne.
— An excerpt from The Lay of Leithian, The Silmarillion
Back in the days before even the Mythic Paradigm was in place, the Pure Ones dueled through storms and rain, wind and sun. They boiled up great lava flows from the earth and summoned down huge mountains from the sky. Their conflicts formed oceans, raised glaciers, birthed islands, and, some say, started an ice age. Who would blame the Sleepers for their thinking these warring Pure Ones were gods? Many times, whole tribes were wiped out by the battles of these "gods."
In the early Mythic Age, I know there were many kinds of magickal contests: the shapechanging duelnote , the contests of Willnote , the contests of Fatenote , and the Duel Arcanenote . It was not until the grand and glorious Order of Hermes turned its thoughts to dueling that we were given a means of true testing! That's right, boy. What I'm talking about is Certamen. Evolved from an ancient contest put to members of the old Cult of Mercury, Certamen was a true testting of the full measure of a mage without possible harm to Sleepers nearby or the mages themselves. Now we can settle our conflicts on the field of honor, just like in the old days, without dragging the locals into it.
—Mage: The Ascension - Book Of Shadows
He tried to cook my bones; I absorbed the heat and turned it into five hundred pounds of impaling invisible force moving at roughly eighty-five miles an hour straight into him. He dispersed it into a fragmentation rain, spraying both of us, cutting like a storm of nails and razor blades. The sacrifice play gave him the time he needed to follow up with a spear of devouring light. My partial lack of a soul actually gave me an upper hand in weathering it, which surprised the old bastard. I sent lightning into his spine, crisping his nervous system. He retorted by causing my lower intestines to rupture and boil. He knocked aside my defensive spell and gave me a concussion, which was supposed to shatter my skull. The push left him open, however, and I managed to counterstrike more out of reflex than any tactics. I made his blood boil like he was in a vacuum. He countered and punched, and I countered it and punched.
A war of magic, a duel between wizards, isn't exactly like you see in the movies or read about in books. Sure, there are spells of harm and defense cast, but at some point, sometimes sooner, technique fails you, training fails you, and you are left with heart and spirit, blood and balls. As with boxers in the twelfth round, it all comes down to the will and the ego, and trust me, wizards have plenty of both.
—Nightwise
Dooku: Master Yoda.
Yoda: Count Dooku.
Dooku: You have interfered with our affairs for the last time. (hurls various debris at Yoda, who catches and throws it aside)
Yoda: Powerful you have become, Dooku. The Dark Side, I sense in you.
Dooku: I've become more powerful than any Jedi. Even you! (shoots Force Lightning at Yoda, who deflects it all)
Yoda: Much to learn, you still have.
Dooku: It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of The Force... (ignites lightsaber) But by our skills with a lightsaber.
Yoda: (draws his own lightsaber and fights Dooku to a stalemate) Fought well, you have...my old padawan.
Dooku: This is just the beginning!
Yoda: Count Dooku.
Dooku: You have interfered with our affairs for the last time. (hurls various debris at Yoda, who catches and throws it aside)
Yoda: Powerful you have become, Dooku. The Dark Side, I sense in you.
Dooku: I've become more powerful than any Jedi. Even you! (shoots Force Lightning at Yoda, who deflects it all)
Yoda: Much to learn, you still have.
Dooku: It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of The Force... (ignites lightsaber) But by our skills with a lightsaber.
Yoda: (draws his own lightsaber and fights Dooku to a stalemate) Fought well, you have...my old padawan.
Dooku: This is just the beginning!
—Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
At the very heart of the battle, Teclis wrestled with the dark sorcery of the Witch King. Naggaroth's dark master had perfected his evil arts over long millennia and for the first time, Teclis met a foe that was his match. Awesome magical energies were focussed and brought to bear. Lightning streaked the darkening sky. Terrible clouds, capable of stripping men to the bone, were turned aside by magical winds. Daemons howled and gibbered as they surged through the carnage. Teclis strode into the sky to better observe the battle. From the blasted hilltop, the Witch King matched him spell for spell.
—Warhammer: High Elves Army Book (4th Edition)
Inevitably, such plots and counterplots can lead to rivalry or even outright conflict between different Crypteks and conclaves. This, in turn, can lead to duels of technosorcery that inevitably result in the losing Cryptek suffering a most unpleasant if scientifically impressive fate - such as being transmuted into liquid adamantium, moved a nanosecond out of phase with the rest of the universe or being transformed into a speck of dwarf-star matter and hurled across the galaxy.
— Warhammer 40,000: Codex - Necrons (5th ed)
