The next day, as his classes ended for lunch, the voice came to him once more, "Let us begin the training now."
"I can't do that, I need to eat, but after I can," Uri mumbled to himself, "What do you need?"
"I need a tree or something of that nature," The voice replied, "In a quiet place preferably."
"I can find that, I think," A few minutes later he stood alone on a forest path on the academy grounds. Uri was alone with his disembodied mentor, "How is this?"
"Excellent, now find a tree and strike it."
"Strike it?" Uri walked towards a tree and looked at the trunk, "That is going to hurt."
"Not if you try and create my armor, Uri," The young mage tried to focus and then found that his hands had become surrounded by a mysterious black aura. He felt compelled to hit the tree with all of his power and built up rage. An armored fist slammed into the tree as his magic formed a black gauntlet around his hand. The strike left a large mark in the tree and several cracks along the trunk, "Your strike is unpracticed but a good base to build on."
"Should I do it again?"
"Break the tree and we can see what to do afterwards," The voice replied. Uri nodded and drove a more targeted fist into the cracked tree trunk. A large splintering sound and bits of wood flew into the air before the tree fell back and slammed into the ground. The young mage looked at the shattered stump in front of him and then looked around, he could barely believe that he just felled a tree with his own hands, "Good job, Uri, that strike was more like the magic that I have given you."
"Thank you," Uri responded, looking at his fist and then at the felled tree. Power, that was all he could think about at that moment. He was powerful, very powerful. If he used his power wrong, he could lead to the end of the world he knew. If he used it right, he could protect those he held dear.
As the voice guided him through several hours of training that evening, he began to piece together a suit of black, magical armor. It started from his fists and slowly made its way to form a helmet that made him see the world in a slightly different way. It highlighted magic around him and nearly seemed to act as a way to detect things around him instead of actually seeing them, "This view will render you immune to any distractions as you fight with my magic, young Uri," Uri nodded silently as he began to think about the magic he was learning. The young mage was training magic with which he was unfamiliar with and had limits that Uri could quite not grasp, even the idea of the death of magic as he knew it was something too abstract to actually understand, it was simply something that filled him with dread and fear.
With the aid of his bodiless mentor, Uri Geld was slowly able to unlock the knowledge of his new found magic. His studying of the forbidden magic was using up more time than his studying of his life magic. The voice had lost its ominous tone and sounded like a simple teacher, eager to give someone its knowledge while also making sure to warn Uri about the danger unleashing uncontrolled rage through the Dominator's magic could bring about.
A few days later, Uri walked alone as he walked back from the last lesson of his day. Normally, Kelly would be waiting for him and they would walk together and hang out until the general dinner time. There was something strange about it, nearly as if she was held back by something, "Let go of me!" He heard her scream out and he began running, it was surely Kelly.
"What are you going to do now?" He heard David's taunting voice, "I have your stupid guitar now," Uri sprinted round the path and saw them not very far from him. He tossed his books aside as the voice came to him.
"Let us put theory into practice, Uri," A black aura formed around his forearms as he approached them. They didn't notice him until he called them out and was very close to them.
"Let go of her!" His body slammed into David's body. The force sent him sprawling to the ground and sending the guitar into the air. His right arm moved on its own and grabbed it by the neck before holding it with his arm out straight. The black aura was faint but the hope that had lit up in Kelly had faded and became fear as she was thrown down to the ground. Uri's eyes were filled with rage as he turned to the two others who seemed hesitant to engage him. David stood up and slammed his elbow in the back of Uri's head but there was little to no reaction from the young life mage who simply turned around and slammed his fist square in David's nose. Blood spurted out of it as he fell back and Uri followed him down to the ground and landed a few more large punches on his face and his head. He let out animalistic grunts as he battered the man who had attacked Kelly. The two other mages were now simply trying to stop him and one grabbed his waist and the other grabbed an arm. The magic he was using was stronger than him, was stronger than the two young mages and was fueling his rage.
"Uri, stop!" A voice called out before a ball of magic hit the young mage and sent him off of David. Despite trying, his rage was quenched by the spell he had been hit with and Kelly held him down with nothing more than a hand on his chest.
"Uri, please, calm down," She begged as the headmaster and Ms. Hollow approached. With the help of two summoned creatures, they moved Uri out of the situation while two automatons aided David to walk towards the infirmary.
"Very good, Uri, that is the power of my magic," The voice spoke as the balck auras faded, "We shall practice it again some other day."
He was sitting in front of Ms. Hollow as his muscles trembled and twitched, "Well, how do I say this without stepping out of line?" She sounded very annoyed, almost as if steam could leave her ears.l, "You nearly killed a student and refused to stop, are you mad?"
"No."
"Then do explain your actions, Uri."
"He touched Kelly."
"Go on," She swapped which leg was crossed and leaned forwards slightly, "You better have a reason."
"I was done with my classes, and as I walked I heard Kelly scream let go of me," Uri began, "I lost it and ran to help her, David was taunting her and I attacked him."
"You nearly killed him."
"I will accept any punishment, as long as Kelly is safe, I am fine with it."
"What is your relationship with Kelly Solven, Uri?"
"I would call it dating."
"What would she call it?"
"I am her boyfriend and she is my girlfriend," Ms. Hollow nodded and sighed before taking some notes, "I wouldn't let anyone harm her, and she had saved me from David in the beginning of the year and so I was happy to return the favor."
"She hadn't done that type of thing to save you."
"Yes but the situation was also very different," Uri sighed, "What punishment will I face?"
"You seem keen to move on."
"I am."
"Why so?"
"What do I care?" Uri snapped back, "Why can't we just get on with it? I admit to what I did and that's that."
"Apparently you were struck in the head and barely reacted then you resisted two students pulling you off and then were barely put down by a strike from a Grim Reaper to push you back."
"What about it? Rage makes anyone stronger."
"Not that strong, Uri, that was abnormal strength, you fractured his jaw, shattered his nose and were about to break his skull, all that with your bare hands, do you understand that?" The young life mage shrugged his shoulders and didn't add anything else, "Alright, I will need to discuss this with the headmaster, as usually this is grounds for expulsion but we are not in the position to expel you."
"Why is that?"
"As you are an orphan and have no real home to go back to, we have signed a contract that we would be responsible for you."
"So what?"
"I need to find a consequence for your actions."
"What do I care? I did my part."
"Yes, you pummelled David into unconsciousness and then continued to do so," She was visibly upset and her voice was snappy and cold, "I don't see how that is something to be proud of."
"I may not be to proud of my origins but if I remember one thing about how the Oik were from class and those textbooks, they didn't take shit from no one and stood up for their loved ones."
"Being Oik is nothing to be proud of but also not something you chose," Ms. Hollow replied as Headmaster Solven walked into her office, "Good afternoon, Headmaster Solven."
"Good afternoon," He made his way to the third chair in her office and sat down, "Has your talk with Uri enlightened you about anything?"
"Not exactly, but I can let Uri explain himself."
"I beat up David to protect Kelly."
"I heard that from her and the two other students."
"What punishment will he face?" Ms. Hollow asked and the two teachers turned to look at each other, "He doesn't seem to care about what the punishment ends up being."
"I really don't, as long as Kelly is alright, I am fine."
"You have a real obsession with my daughter, Uri," Uri nodded at the headmaster's remark, "But yes, she is fine, but you will have to do 80 hours of academy service."
"Only 80?" Uri looked at the headmaster, "I can do 80."
"You don't exactly have a choice here, Uri," Ms. Hollow commented before the young mage shrugged, "Do you know what it means for you?"
"No, but are you going to explain it?"
"Helping sort returned books, helping clean up after potion classes, giving up your free time, at least parts, to help the academy," The headmaster explained, "I am glad this problem had a quick resolution, but I do hope you can understand that this behavior isn't tolerated on our academy campus."
"Nor should what David have done be tolerated."
"That isn't in question, Uri," The headmaster stood up, "Go now, there is no need to hold you much longer."