The Magic Academy of the Royal Kilguana University, a prestigious, prominent, influential, and respected institution. This has been said many times already, but it was without seeing the size and quality of the buildings.
Marbled, delicately sculpted, maintained to perfection without any cracks or mold on the walls sparklingly clean. The buildings looked new and freshly built if it weren't for the inauguration stones indicating their date of construction.
Some were barely a few decades old while others were several hundred years old. Isaac had played a game with his apprentices in which everyone tried to guess the age of a building. Whoever had the closest number won the round.
Like the Royal Palace, some buildings were provided with equipment and furniture worthy of nobility. Others were simpler and Isaac quickly understood why.
Where the decorated buildings housed students adorned with accessories and clothed with embroidered and quality clothes, the simpler ones had people dressed in what might be considered "common" clothes.
Some even had brown shirts with holes in a few places, which somewhat intrigued Isaac.
- "These are the quarters of the servants and the commoners" indicated Betina when they passed by one of them.
In all, the Academy was divided into three circles. First, the outer circle, mainly the residential area containing the student dormitories, the girls' ones in the North and the boys' ones in the South, with the staff dormitories in between. For commoners, a common bath and showers and a communal canteen were available while the nobles had private quarters with their own kitchen and chefs as well as individual sanitary facilities.
The middle circle, the largest one of the three, contained the majority of the buildings. There were classrooms and amphitheaters, a library, some administrative buildings, the barracks for the Guard, a free training area, and two parks located to the East and West.
Finally, the inner circle contained the most important buildings where the most "sensitive" archives and books are held. The offices of the Headmaster, the main administrative staff and, the teachers. This is also where the upper and more advanced classes took place and where the famous dimension that Betina spoke about was located.
Unfortunately, Isaac didn't have time to complete the tour of the inner circle before a sad setback arose. Master Kyle Julius Ravenfair, a barely 23-year-old official mage of the Ravenfair House, Academy instructor, professor, and expert in Magical Creatures and Combat Strategies.
However, the most interesting information about him that was relayed to Isaac by Treya was his master: Zachary Kol, the current Magus of the Court. Isaac already sensed the plot in the air and he wasn't very surprised when he saw his dear Earth-born colleague already prepared for the duel in the University battle arena.
Located in the common areas near the Academy and surrounded by multiple commercial buildings, the arena was a place often used for combat but not exclusively for it. Because of its size and its capacity to welcome spectators, it also served as a place for grand announcements by the Board of Directors or for the organization of shows.
Often deserted when not in use, this time the arena was packed and Isaac immediately thought Zachary had something to do with it. The young Archmage seeing his colleague entering the arena quickly came to greet him, an innocent smile decorating his face and friendly slapped his back.
- "You should see your face, it's only a small duel with an official mage, you can do it without a problem!" Zachary announced, laughing lightly and ignoring Isaac's weary and bored look.
- "A 'small' duel? Look at how many people are here" he retorted, pointing to the crowd seated.
Zachary laughed again and pushed Isaac forward towards a staircase leading to the basements.
- "It's nothing to worry about," he said to reassure Isaac before starting to turn to leave. "By the way, we are going to do two stones at once, your aptitude test will take place at the same time as the duel. We are going to register your mana output using your badge"
It seemed anything but a coincidence. Isaac started to turn around and was about to retort when Zachary resumed, this time very quickly.
- "Ah. And the directors are present in the assembly."
He was sure this wasn't a coincidence at all. With that, Zachary vanished in a flash of light without giving Isaac time to retort or complain.
Seeing the last glimmers of the Magus' teleportation spell, Isaac stood still for a few seconds, still digesting the information he had just been given, speechless. Several seconds passed silently, his apprentices were as still as he was, before he set off, determined to end this fight as quickly as possible.
The rules of the duels were simple and Betina had explained them calmly to him on the way. The duel that Kyle had instigated was a four-on-four team fight. Of course, in normal times, a duel can be refused except for one special case, the case in which Isaac was: a duel started by a professor.
Normally, a professor would not come and start a duel out of nowhere against a student and the rules for such a duel to take place would have to be framed by strict rules, but at this time Isaac was officially not a student. Neither he nor his apprentices and there were no rules preventing this duel from happening unless another professor wanted to cancel it, which none obviously wanted to do.
Once his apprentices were ready for their fight, a guard motioned for them to follow him and led them to a hallway at the end of which one could hear the cheering roars of the crowd and the distinctive voice of Zachary himself.
---
This is how Isaac ended up here, in a crowded arena with Zachary as a host alongside his apprentices against an official mage and three apprentice mages.
The enclosure was rudimentary, the ground was covered with sand, making the falls less dangerous, and the walls illuminated inscriptions, indicating that a barrier had been placed to make sure the public was safe. Unsurprisingly, Isaac could easily identify the three headmasters of each institution as well as another character, probably the famous Director of the entire University.
- "Isaac, what are we going to do?" Rebecca asked, worried about how things had turned out.
Isaac also didn't quite know how to react or what to do. They had to wait for Zachary's signal to begin the duel, but as far as the combat itself was concerned, only spells that could cause mortal wounds were prohibited. Now that they were here, they might as well take advantage of the situation.
- "You take the apprentices, I take the official mage" he replied simply.
Artiel, Rebecca, and Iracuz nodded. They didn't stand a chance against an official mage but against apprentices? Hopefully, it was doable.
- "I'll let you discuss a strategy," he said looking in front of him.
In the center of the arena was Kyle, his opponent, casually walking towards them under the applause and cheers of the audience. The young man seemed to move the crowd easily, waving his hand at the spectators in the stands and sending them kisses. His clothes, the standard of any official mage were simple and with some gold embroidery, showing that despite his young age, Kyle had an experienced background.
However, his dress was quite tight, revealing a V-curved body. Not to mention that he was objectively beautiful, it was not without surprise that the girls in the enclosure only had eyes for him. Without delay, Isaac set off to meet him, leaving his apprentices to their strategic discussion. Once they got face to face, Kyle wasted no time and gave his interlocutor a bright smile.
- "I couldn't introduce myself earlier, Kyle Ravenfair of House Ravenfair, delighted to meet you" he declared, holding out his hand.
Isaac shook hands with his interlocutor.
- "Nice to meet you, Isaac" he replied simply.
He was a little surprised. Of all the people Isaac had met, Kyle was the first who had not called him "Excellence" immediately.
- "Sorry for the sudden duel, an idea of Master Kol" he then admitted, scratching the back of his neck slightly, a little embarrassed.
Isaac rolled his eyes at this.
- "Of course it was him, it didn't sound like a coincidence at all, I was wondering why the 'test chamber' was taking so long to be prepared" Isaac commented with a sigh.
Kyle chuckled lightly in response before looking at the crowd, giving them more gestures of greeting.
- "Master Kol asked me to make as much noise as possible to attract everyone. He didn't tell me clearly why, only that it was a matter of raising your reputation" declared Kyle with a slight laugh.
Ah. So it was again a political movement. That was to be expected from Zachary. Either way, he just had to follow his plan.
- "It will be an instructive moment for me" he answered honestly.
He never had the opportunity to fight against a real mage. The fights with his apprentices weren't exactly fair, although even here things didn't seem to be either. The two men shook hands again then left the center of the arena. Isaac returned to his apprentices who had finished their discussion and stood beside them, waiting for the signal to start.
- "What did he want?" Iracuz asked.
Isaac turned towards his apprentices who were waiting for his answer and came to their side.
- "We agreed on letting you fight, apprentices against apprentices, for the beginning of the duel. Try to show the best of your skills, your future headmasters are watching" he replied pointing to the stands.
Artiel and Rebecca swallowed hard, worried and under pressure, while Iracuz didn't. He already knew he was not going to be a student. Seeing that they had no more questions, Isaac straightened up and waited quietly. His wait was not long as soon after, Zachary flew over the enclosure before taking his enchanted stone and announcing the start of the fight.
The next moment, Iracuz and Artiel were already sprinting forward, passing by his side and causing a sudden wind that lifted a few sections of Isaac's clothes. He knew their strategy very well, he had witnessed it during their training in their trip to the capital.
Artiel called it the "V formation" for a good reason. Iracuz and Artiel, the two melee fighters, rushed towards their target while Rebecca stayed behind, boosting them with her magic. However, this time things were different. Instead of providing passive aid to boost their performance, Rebecca casted a spell that Isaac had never seen before.
- "Shadow cloud" she whispered, pointing her wand in front of her.
As soon as these words were spoken, a black ball formed at the end of his wand before producing a thick cloud of black smoke rushing rapidly towards the three opposing apprentices.
Isaac immediately understood their purpose, they wanted to use their gifts to sneak in the shadows and transform their surroundings. This tactic made him smile. They were using his lessons on making a favorable environment for them.
For now, he didn't need to intervene and his opponent, Kyle, didn't seem to want to interfere either, as they agreed.
Isaac then looked up at the stands and unsurprisingly, they all had their eyes fixed on the arena, their attention completely focused.
Isaac was curious to know what they would think of his pupils. Artiel and Iracuz were completely out of sight, be normal vision or mana vision, which led to sudden surprise and applause. No one expected apprentices to be able to use such advanced spells like camouflage and invisibility.
On the opposing side, the apprentices taken by surprise immediately prepared countermeasures. One of them launched a beam of light while the other two casted fireballs in an attempt to disperse the cloud. The distance between it and Kyle's team was still quite large, they still had time to intercept them.