It was needless to say that this was the fanciest school that both Hazel and Matthew had ever attended. The walls were clear of any graffiti, the floors were shined so much so that you would be able to see your reflection and there was even a battle dome in the middle of the gym! Matthew had read a little bit about battle domes and their use but he never thought that he would be able to actually see one up close and personally let alone use it, but that's exactly what he got.
"Students please line up in an orderly fashion. My name is Mr. Sun,15 teachers have been split into groups of 3s to measure your elemental aptitude, your mana pool and your physical examination. Is that understood?" the man shouted like a drill sergeant.
"YES" All the students shouted in unison.
Sun, after ticking off a box on his clipboard, stomped his foot on the ground and began sorting the students by age. "Ages 4 to 6 into the green queue, ages 7 to 10 to the red queue, ages 11 to 13 to the blue queue, ages 14 to 16 to the yellow queue and ages 17 to 18 to the white queue".
A little bit after the students started to move out into their assigned age groups, Hazel tugged slightly on her elder brother's sleeve. "Matthy, what are we doing?".
A little bit annoyed by his sister's ignorance, Matthew dropped to one knee and patted her on the head. "You have to go over there to where the green line is and I have to go to where the red line is, okay? Make sure to stay focused and pay attention".
Giving Matthew a quick nod, Hazel trotted obliviously to the green line and got in line. Matthew, after seeing his sister off, joined the red line and awaited further instructions. Since he was busy taking care of his younger sister, Matthew was quite aways at the back of the line. A little bit bored, Matthew focused a bit of mana to his ears to heighten his hearing and he was able to overhear some whispers.
"How well do you think you'll do on the test?".
"Better than you, that's for sure".
"Oh haha, come on dude, we gotta get similar results or we'll end up in different classes!".
"Buzz off bro, I'm not stunting my growth just cuz you wanna be in the same room as me".
"Ugh, fine. So who do you think will score the highest?"
"Probably that Demetri kid. He's got some sick fire bullet ability that he's honed since he was a little kid I heard".
"Yeah! Rumor has it he's learnt a series of new abilities to support his fire bullet ability, he's probably going to wipe all the tests".
"Yeah, it's either him or Lauren the Typhoon, the princess of the seas! Can't believe all the children from the major families are attending Kiertzche academy".
"Not to even mention Zayne Ares. That kids spooky..."
"We better steer clear from those 3, it's not wise to get on the bad side of the major families".
Blinking a couple of times, Matthew was processing the information that he had just heard. Was he hearing things right? All 3 of the kids from the major families were attending Kiertzche Academy and were within his year level. He took a big gulp and pushed back his thoughts of dwindling his capabilities just to not attract attention, no, he took this information in strides and aimed to do better than the 3 kids. It was a little dangerous as they were the 3 major families but he wasn't going to let that hold him down, this was for the future of his Mother and his Sister after all.
The lean gruff man stepped out from a dark tunnel with his clipboard in hand and asked for the next student to come forward. As the first students walked into the dark tunnel into the battle dome, Matthew felt a strange sensation wash over the area and wondered what it was. He was smart enough to not play it off as just the wind and waited for his turn to ask Mr. Sun. "Mister, what was that strange sensation that came over the area?".
This question opted Mr. Sun to raise an eyebrow in surprise. "You felt that?".
A little confused, Matthew nodded his head and waited for an answer from Mr. Sun.
'looks like that old man's brought in a lion's cub.' Sun thought to himself with a grin plastered on his face. "Don't worry about it, it won't harm you, come on in already".
A little weary about the question just being brushed aside like that, Matthew took it with a grain of salt and proceeded through the tunnel. When he got to the other side, it was like he teleported to an entirely new area. He had read from a news article that Battle Domes had spatial magic infused into them to make the area inside larger but it was an entirely different thing when seen in person. On his left was a field filled with flowers that was probably for the younger kids, In front of him was an open field and to his right was a massive forest, probably for the older kids.
Seeing the bewildered Matthew, Sun couldn't help but grin. Clearing his throat to grab Matthew's attention, he proceeded to take him towards the testing areas. "Okay, please step up to the first podium and proceed to the 2 other ones after you've finished".
Matthew couldn't even nod his head at Sun before the man had disappeared into thin air. If it wasn't for the cloud of dust and the small figure in the distance, he would have thought that Sun had disappeared. "Mr Herzia, please step on to the podium and fire a raw burst of mana towards the target".
Matthew didn't like using raw mana as it was bland and weak. He had once used only raw mana to hide the fact that he was an earth mage but after he saw a fellow earth mage get beaten down just for being an earth mage, Matthew had used his earth magic to fend off the attackers and swore to himself to be proud of being an earth mage. Now, the reason why raw mana was weak was because a person could deflect even the strongest of blasts with just their bare hands. It's said that this phenomenon occurs because the human race evolved to be able to house, use and contain mana so naturally their skin would be able to completely resist it.
Lifting his right hand up as straight as an arrow, Matthew charged up a beam of raw mana and aimed at the target dummy. "With all my strength?".
The teacher nodded and gave Matthew the go to use all his strength. Charging up his shot, he charged for a full 10 seconds before firing it off. A sharp shrilling shriek of sound was released to the area and everybody in a 2km radius could hear it. The teacher was stunned, quite literally from the sudden burst of noise that breaking the sound barrier emitted. She stared at the sight of the target dummy and her jaw dropped upon seeing the state of the dummy. half of it was missing and the ground was scorched around it. She only tore her gaze away from the dummy after hearing the pain filled grunt coming from Matthew. "Oh my god, Mr. Herzia, are you alright?".
Matthew had never shot a full powered blast before in his entire life, so he had no idea how strong it would actually be. Needless to say, his tiny body was unable to compensate for the explosive power and harmed itself in the process. His shoulder had been dislocated and his palm on his right hand was lightly burned.
The teacher let out a small chuckle and popped Matthew's shoulder back into place. "I don't think you should use your full strength for the rest of the tests".
"Yeah, no kidding" Matthew said, letting out a wry laugh.
Lifting Matthew off the podium, the teacher placed him back on the ground and pointed in the direction of another podium. "That's an S for mana capacity" She murmured to herself while writing something down on her note pad.
Making his way towards the other podium, Matthew rubbed his shoulder a bit and winced from pain as he had forgotten that he had burnt his hand. "Ok, never doing that again".
When he arrived at the next podium, the teacher stationed there let out an excited squeal. "Hot dog! I saw your little display from all over here and gee whiz, Jennine got her work cut out for her! Hi, my name's Brock and this is the elemental aptitudes test. I wonder what little thunder-bolt here's element is!".
Matthew was a little overwhelmed by the sudden shift in personality. The previous teacher was so aloof, and now this one was practically erupting with enthusiasm. "So what do I do now?".
Reaching into his pocket, Brock brought out an empty mana crystal. "Imbue your mana into this here ball, after I run a few diagnostic tests to trace what little elemental residue that you have in the ball, I will tell you and write it down on my note pad".
"Oh, no need" Matthew said as he conjured up a pillar of earth. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm an Earth Mage".
"Gosh darn it! I made a bet with Jahad that you were a storm mage! Damn, now I owe him 50 bucks" Brock whined. "Ah well, congratulations kid! Your in the top 70 percent that can fully manifest their elemental magic at this age. Take pride in that fact".
Matthew's eyes glistened a second time upon entering this school and was again shocked at how chill everybody here was. Brock noticed the boy's eyes watering a little and patted him on the back. "I know that there are a lot of garbage outside of this school, but here...it's different. Kids from varying positions get enrolled here regardless if their break neck poor or homeless, it all depends on you".
"Now, off you go, to the last podium" Brock said, giving Matthew a gentle push towards the final podium.
Matthew walked with an extra spring in his step towards the last podium where a tall and burly man waited for him with a large smile on his face. "Well you look happy don't ya kid? That was the easiest fifty dollars in my life! Thanks for being an Earth Mage!".
These feelings swirling around Matthew were foreign to him. The emotions wafting over him were like a hazy mist in the early morning, drifted through every pore in his skin and seeped deep into his soul. He had only ever experienced these emotions in one place before.
Home.
'Was this how being welcomed felt like?' he thought. It all seemed too good to be true.
Matthew being naturally careful, had always felt like his life would be ruined by one little misstep.
Everyday was like walking on glass for him. 'What if I turned this corner? Will there be a gang of street thugs, ready to pummel me down? What if I look at somebody wrong and they follow me home? Will they hurt my family? What if I mess up, what will happen to my family?' Were the thoughts that were always on his mind. Not once did he let up, not once did he show weakness and he will continue to not do so. This was his ultimatum on himself, and this was the drive to his ambitions. He would become a Grand Mage and destroy the social norms that he and his ancestors suffered through. That was his dream.
Jahad had noticed the fire that was blazing in Matthew's eyes and simply got into a basic boxing stance. "Alright bud, seems like you need no warm up! This will be a test of physical aptitude and combat prowess. Let's see what you got!".
In a single burst of movement, Matthew raised the earth beneath the soles of his shoes and seemed to surf on the earth. He lowered his arm so that it could graze against the ground and as soon as it reached the earth below him, a small wave of spikes started to manifest out of the ground and soon became a small tsunami of spikes. Jahad let out a singe "HA!" and stomped his foot deep into the ground. When Matthew got close enough, a torrent of water erupted from the ground and completely engulfed his small stream of rocks. Through gritted teeth and lightning quick reflexes, Matthew quickly conjured a solid slab of earth that he used as a sort of ramp and pushed him far up into the air. In the air, Matthew seemed to touch the heels of his feet and unveiled his secret weapon. While he had just enough air time left, Matthew touched his feet to reveal excess compressed earth that he hid there in scenarios just like this and formed dual gauntlets of earth.
Timing his strike just right, he waited for the exact moment where he was up close and personal with Jahad and struck down hard, causing Jahad to take a single punch to the face
'This kid!'.
Not having enough yet, Jahad swung out his arm and flung Matthew away, creating some distance between the 2. Instead of 1 foot into the ground, Jahad stomped both of his feet into the ground and dug his hands into them too. Matthew wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste and sprung forth towards him. He charged a big attack where he would throw a rock and have it accumulate mass as it gets thrown at it's target, but just as the rock got moderately big and pretty close to Jahad, an avalanche of water burst through the ground and wiped out the rock and almost wiped out Matthew.
Jahad looked ahead at the ruins of his attack and half expected a half dead 8 year old to remain there. "Ah...Sorry buddy, seems like I went too far".
When the vapor cleared, Jahad was left in shock as to where Matthew had gone, he had simply just disappeared. He looked to the skies half expecting an 8 year old with a pair of wings but was utterly surprised when the ground beneath him shook and an 8 year old burst out, uppercutting him in the chin.
Laying down with his back against the floor, Jahad let out a massive grin and laughed a heartily. "I can't believe I got done in by an 8 year old!".
"Yeah, nobody does" Matthew replied which in turn got another laugh out of Jahad.
Creating a torrent of water underneath him, Jahad pushed himself up and sat down in a cross legged position. "You are one special kid! Not to be elementist but I can't believe you are an earth mage! I mean damn~!".
Smiling ear to ear, Matthew let out his hand to help up his teacher. "Thanks! Your not too half bad yourself".
"Haha, I think I'm going to like you kid!".