Seventeen felt great happiness in his soul when he saw the satisfied faces of his students. "Looks like you guys enjoyed it.", he smiled.
"Of course we did! You're an awesome cook sir!", Ray exclaimed. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Sir, have you eaten?", Gray asked.
"Yeah. I ate before you guys came.", he lied. He couldn't tell them it's kind of useless for him to eat.
"Alright, guys. Since it's the first day, no dishwashing duties for anyone.", he clapped his hands. "Sir, is it true that we are getting another instructor?", Rhea asked.
"Yes Rhea, we are.", Seventeen said with a strained smile. Just remembering Ruth Aeva is causing his eye to twitch.
"That's awesome.", she exclaimed, her elven ears twitching.
After dinner, they went to the common area and passed the time talking with each other until close to midnight.
"Alright, guys. Time to go to sleep. You guys will be having lessons tomorrow.", Seventeen announced, soon everyone was in their respective rooms.
Arthur stared at the ceiling as he lay on his bed. "What a day", he sighed. A lot of things happened. He became a student of Cardinal Academy. Despite being in practically the worst class, he got an amazing teacher. He made new friends and possibly, a rival.
He raised his hand and clenched it, "Soon I will be able to protect everyone.", he declared. With this thought, he turned off the light stone and fell asleep.
It could be his imagination, but he saw a silver streak dart past his window. Before he could think about it, he was fast asleep.
*******
Seventeen stood on the roof of the dorm building. He is completely dressed in black and his black cloak fluttered in the wind. He saw Selene flying towards him. He held out his arm and the falcon perched on it.
"Is everyone asleep?", he asked. Selene nodded.
"Good. Look after them for me. If there is any trouble, be sure to alert me.", Seventeen instructed. The falcon nodded. Despite not being capable of telepathy for the moment. Seventeen can hear and recognize Selene's cry no matter the distance.
Currently, Selene is to cry out if any problem arises while her master is away.
"Okay. Good luck.", saying this, Seventeen let Selene go. She circled him once and disappeared into his room.
(I hope she doesn't sleep on her job)
"Me too.", he said as he drew an imaginary circle in the air, {Space Code: Rift}, a small tear appeared in the air which grew to his size. He could see a snowstorm raging on the other side. He put on the black fox mask and entered the rift.
He came out near the huge chasm he crossed a month ago. The wind is blowing really hard and the snow is piling up high.
Seventeen then spread magia thinly around him, enabling him to sense everything the magia passes through. Soon the thin magia enveloped the entire mountain range.
Suddenly he sensed immense magia from a mountain in the east. "Prime, can you pinpoint the source of that magia?", he asked.
(Already done. That's Mt Raviel. It is an interesting mountain with multiple peaks surrounding a crater. I wonder if it's volcanic or if something else caused that crater?)
"Can you see anything in the crater?"
(No. Seems like the crater is shrouded by dense magia. You can't enter it from the air. The only way to enter is through a passage among the peaks)
Seventeen controlled the winds, {Air Code: Winds of Flight}, He floated above the ground and flew towards the mountain. In a short moment, he landed halfway up Mt Raviel.
He held onto his cloak. The wind up there is more fierce. He couldn't see anything in the dark and blizzard. He activated his thermal sensors to gauge the cold and yelped as the cold pierced his sensors.
'Damn that's cold, even when I put the sensors at low sensitivity.', He immediately deactivated them and trudged forward. The wind and snow became more intense with each step.
(This blizzard is getting worse. Visibility is poor and I wouldn't suggest you activate your magia vision. You will be blinded by the immense magia in this place)
In addition to normal vision, Seventeen has different vision modes. His magia vision enables him to see magia and its flow in everything, from random pockets of magia in rocks to the entire magia channel network of a warlock.
It is helpful as he can predict an attack from a warlock by seeing the flow of magia.
After trudging through the ever-increasing snowstorm for a while, he reached a huge open field near the summit of the mountain and stopped. Seventeen activated his magia vision and saw dense magia glowing a deep blue color
'You are right Prime. This magia density can blind me.', he remarked.
(Told you so)
Suddenly he saw a different magia condensing right under his feet, "Oh shit.", he quickly jumped to the side as a huge spire of rock erupted from where he stood a few seconds ago.
Multiple spires erupted from the ground and followed Seventeen as he dodged them. One of them came in front of him which he dodged by moving to the side. Suddenly a spike shot out from its side towards him.
Seventeen summoned Nyx and sliced the spike into two. A small enchanted chain dangled on the handle of the sword. It acts as a limiter on Nyx's deadly enchantment. Now only the wound-inflicted stings instead of pain exploding all over the body.
'These aren't traps. Someone is attacking me. And judging by the color of magia, it is an earth attribute user.", he thought.
The magia of each attribute has a specific color. While pure magia is a deep blue in color, the magia for Fire is red. Similarly, for Earth, it is yellow, for Lightning it is bright blue. Water magia is pale blue while Air magia is a light green color.
The Light and Darkness attributes are white and black. The Time attribute is golden while the Space attribute is silver. The magia of the Plant attribute is dark green and for Beast it is brown. Other attributes have specific colors like these.
Seventeen could see a network of yellow magia in the ground extending from a single point. "There is my attacker.", he said to himself.
Slowly a masked figure emerged from the snowstorm, their cloak billowing in the wind. 'Looks like Zephyrus was right about masks being popular', he thought as he looked at the blank mask with only two slits for eyes.
(This one is strong. There is no need to hold back)
Seventeen clenched his sword. His opponent took out a small tube from the depths of their cloak and extended it to make a long cylindrical staff. Time seemed to slow down as both of them faced each other.
Suddenly both vanished from where they stood. A huge shockwave blew away the snow on the ground as the two of them clashed. Sparks lit up the darkness as both weapons pressed against each other with immense force.
Seventeen used a chain of sword strikes which were deflected by his opponent with dexterous skill with the staff. They both jumped a few distances away from each other.
"Damn she's good.", Seventeen muttered.
(How did you know your opponent is a woman?)
'During our close attacks I um, noticed her curves.', Seventeen would've blushed if he was able to do it.
(Very observant, aren't you?)
His opponent raised her staff. The ground rumbled as huge chunks of rock broke off the ground and levitated around her. She pointed her staff at him.
'Oh shit!', Seventeen thought as the huge chunks of rocks hurtled toward him.
"Well, two can play that game.", he said. {Earth Code: Stonemaster}, huge chunks of rock broke off the ground around him. He launched them to intercept the rocks coming at him. They collided with each other and shattered into small pieces.
{Air Code: Wind Burst}, Seventeen dashed forward but suddenly a huge rock came out of nowhere, "Ah damn", he said as it slammed into him, shattering and blasting him away. He landed on his feet near a rock wall and noticed the woman extend her hand to her side.
"Damnit", he swore as he jumped back just in time as another rock spire passed in front of him. {Lightning Code: Thunder Burst}, lightning gathered in his fist and he shattered the spire. He then dashed at his opponent and punched.
But his fist got stopped as it met the staff. His opponent swung it at his head. He parried it with Nyx. He dashed towards her and slashed upwards, the woman dodged it but her hood fell off. Light purple hair fell to her shoulders and Seventeen saw two cat ears on her head.
'Holy damn! She's a demi beast!', he exclaimed inwardly.
(Not just any demi beast. She's a freaking catgirl! Nice!)
'This is not the time for your anime obsession Prime!'
Seventeen sliced another rock that came at him in half. He plunged Nyx into the ground, {Ice Code: Spike Bloom}, ice spikes erupted from the ground and headed towards his opponent. Her eyes widened behind her mask and she jumped to avoid getting skewered.
She landed on a rock and looked at the fox mask. She couldn't believe what she saw. Her opponent was not only formidable with his blade but also has mastery over four attributes, which is practically a miracle.
'Beating this guy would be tough', she thought and decided to use one of her strongest codes. She thrust her staff into the ground and clasped her hands, {Earth Code: Stone Puppets}, the ground trembled as rocks started swirling around in the air.
"Ah shit. Not that code", Seventeen said as a giant hand formed out of the swirling rocks. Giant feet of rocks stomped the ground as their legs formed and connected to an enormous torso.
Soon the head formed and the empty eyes glowed with yellow magia. The stone giant stood in front of Seventeen, the cracks between the rocks glowing with earth magia. It stood a towering 30 meters.
'Damn she's becoming serious. Judging by the size of this thing, it could be slow but just having that assumption will be a mistake.', Seventeen thought as he gazed at the towering figure in front of him.
The stone giant raised its fist and brought it down with lightning speed. 'It's fast', Seventeen thought as he simply dodged it. The huge fist created a crater where he just stood.
(You're not creating your own stone giant. Is it because you're worried about an avalanche?)
'Indeed Prime. I seriously doubt it's a good idea to have two stone giants duking it out on each other on a mountain with densely packed snow', Seventeen replied after dodging another fist. He felt another surge in magia to his left.
He turned his head and saw another stone giant forming, "This catgirl is indeed powerful.", he muttered and jumped back. Maintaining one stone giant requires a lot of magia and focus. To be able to create a second giant is a marvel.
The first giant thundered towards him.
Seventeen suddenly smiled, "Hey Prime, I think I know who we are facing,", he said aloud.
(That's funny. Even I figured out who our catgirl is)
"Let's get serious", he faced the huge fist coming at him with tremendous speed and power. A loud boom reverberated throughout the field. The catgirl squinted as the dust and snow cleared.
What she saw shocked her. Her stone giant is hunched over and motionless, its huge fist stopped by a single fist of her opponent. It seemed like he just bumped fists with the giant.
Seventeen smiled under his mask as he saw the stone giant's hand crumble and fall.
(Nice fist bump Seventeen)