During the magic exercise exams on Friday, Ro put aside her nervousness about being alone with Ky and did her best on the test. It wasn't hard to do. He hadn't ever alluded to the question he had asked or her lack of an answer, but Ro still felt like, sometimes, he was waiting for something. As she hurried from the room, she thought she heard a sigh.
When her turn came up in combat training, she was paired off with a boy named Nico who fought with a staff. He decided to close immediately and fight her staff to daggers. It was over fast. He swung down in and overhead strike. Ro blocked and rolled right. She ended up in the step out position and her body moved without thinking. She spun and Ro, stabbing him in the abdominal aorta. Then she struck at the base of the neck. Then she spun again and hit his liver. Stopping, because she'd completed the last part of the chain attack, she realized that she had won. She wasn't even breathing heavy.
The class had watched her in stunned silence as she got down from the ring and retook her seat. Momo and Aerie both congratulated her with surprised looks on their faces. Momo lost her next fight which was against Mirran. Then it was Aerie's turn. She fought Alexi and lost. Then after a few more rounds, it was Ro's turn again. This time she was fight with Geon, a stone devi, who fought with a great sword. First, he started by sending bolts of earth at her, all of which she dodged with ease. He paused, confused by this, creating an opening. Ro charged and jumped at him daggers raised. He swung his sword at her flying form and immediately she blocked with her daggers. It was like stopping a boulder, his blow was so powerful. She landed on her feet and immediately had to bend back to miss a blow aimed for her middle. She righted herself and found him swinging from the top right in a diagonal sweep. Using her daggers, she deflected the blow to the side. His momentum had him leaning forward, so quicker than he could react she pulled her left dagger free and swung for his throat. The blow felt like it connected. He staggered back clutching his neck and coughing. From in between his fingers she could see a red line that tore across his neck.
Her classmates shifted uncomfortably in their chairs as she skipped back to her seat. Ro wore a huge grin. To the library she would get to go.
Ro lost her last match. She fought against Alexi. He used his mind control to force her to surrender. It seemed she still needed more practice with Ky. When she asked him why he had done that, he said that he enjoyed watching her fight, not fighting with her. This made her blush with anger and embarrassment.
Ro put it out of her mind in the time it took for the rest of the fights to finish up. Aerie won her other two fights and Momo did too. Brawn also did well. He won two out of three of his fights. Alexi as usual won all three of his fights. Angelique also won her three fights.
After the fights ended, Ro quickly returned to her room, showered, and headed to the library. She found a book she thought might contain the magic she was looking for and made her way to a vacant practice room. Once inside she attempted to open the book to the page of the magic, to no avail. The book wouldn't open to any page after the index but the first. In reading the writing on that page, she learned that to move on in the book she had to complete each magical exercise three times. She thought this was odd but set about doing it anyway.
The first magical exercise in the book was wall of impenetrable fire. Ro made sure to read the exercise in its entirety first, remembering Aerie's earlier anger with her. The magic seemed simple enough. Slowly she performed it and watched as to her amazement it worked. To test it Ro threw a bolt of water at it. The fire remained intact. She allowed it to dissipate with a smug smile. One time down. She cast it again.
Rage was, at this time, walking by the practice rooms having just finished his own practice session. He stopped when he saw the hideous girl casting fire magic. He felt his temper rising under his skin.
Students knew not to practice fire magic now because this was when he practiced, and he was proprietary about fire magic. He knew that students still practiced it in secret or when he wasn't around, but he couldn't be everywhere and had to allow it. However, he had taught them that from noon to six fire magic practice was off limits in the practice rooms. So, when he saw this grotesque person doing just that, he felt the heat of anger. Still there might be a reasonable explanation for it. Like the girl was insane or was looking to be punished or, even more unlikely, she simply hadn't heard about the unspoken rule.
Rage stepped into the small room.
"What exercise is that?" His calm voice cut across her concentration and the wall dissipated. Not looking away from the book, the girl replied,
"Wall of Impenetrable Fire." She cast it again and Rin felt a little tic under his left eye as her rudeness compounded the anger he was already feeling.
"What year are you in?" He asked too calmly.
"Year 1. Do you need something? You are ruining my concentration." She still did not look at him.
"Then that book is too advanced for you. You're done here." He replied, snatching the book from the girl and tucking it under his arm. Now she did look at him, anger flashing in her murky green eyes. "I'll return it for you." The girl reached for the book to take it back.
"No thank you. I wasn't done with that." His hand reached out and snagged her around the throat. As his hand brushed the chain that he could not see around her neck an image of Ky popped into his mind, then out of it.
"When I say your done with something, you're done with it." His voice was thick with the anger he was restraining. Suddenly, he felt shadows forcing his hand open. He sent them away with his mind and stepped closer to her purpling face. "Using magic on me? Who do you think you are?" His black eyes simmered with hate.
"I am the Nug." The girl choked out. Quickly she brought her knee up and slammed it into his groin. He wasn't expecting this, and the blow caught him unawares. He doubled over in pain, releasing her. Coughing she grabbed the book from under his arm. "I don't care who you are. I said I wasn't done, asshole." She marched off. Rage's hold on his temper snapped. He saw red as he threw a firebolt straight for her back. He smirked as he imagined her writhing in pain as she burned.
The firebolt was a foot from her when it froze and dropped harmlessly to the ground and shattered. The girl didn't stop walking away. Rin turned, looking for the person who had done it. He saw Ky walking to him.
"Brother." He seethed.
"It's rude to attack a person when their back is turned. And it's against the rules when it's another student." Ky told him with a polite smile.
"I see you're still keeping up with that good professor routine. Don't tell me she was one of yours?"
"Yes. She is the Nug."
"Well you haven't done a very good job of teaching her. She is rude." Ky thought about what he had seen after he had appeared. He had come because he had felt his brother's touch on Ro's necklace and a good thing too because that firebolt would have caused her some serious damage. It seemed to him that the Nug had responded appropriately.
"Maybe. Anyway, I have things to do. Put some ice on that." Ky said this with a smile taking amusement from both his brother's pain and the shame he'd feel knowing someone had seen him get kneed in the groin. Ky walked off happily.