Students gathered in one of the training domes of the school. They sat huddled in one of the stands of the room while awaiting the confrontation between Zain and Cassius. The two mages then surfaced from the changing room, donning skin tight attire, completely different from their uniforms.
"Everyone, be sure to pay close attention. This lesson wasn't supposed to be told until a few weeks into the school year…but since someone is so eager to get started, I've bumped up it's schedule." Cassius began talking to the remainder of his students before finally turning to Zain.
"Be honored. You will be the soil with which the truly talented mages of this kingdom will be planted in. And I will be the one to watch over them, and help them bloom into magnificent flowers." Cassius threw his hands out as a number of seeds were thrown to the ground, before quickly burrowing into the earth below them.
Zain was confused for a moment, before an array of magic circles formed on the ground below. Numerous vines sprouted forth without warning and started to attack Zain in whip-like motions. The earth below Zain got destroyed from the sheer force that was contained behind them.
"Let us begin with Magic types. Of course there are the main elements. Water, earth, fire, wind, etcetera etcetera. Anything that the world naturally produces, can also be a type of magic. However, there are slightly more rare magics in the world, that don't coincide in the natural meaning. My magic is….somewhat on the border of what is natural, and unnatural."
Zain dodged one of the thorny whips from colliding with his head as a massive updraft was caused after the attack. The vines continued their relentless onslaught as they attacked in Zain's direction. Yet, he seemed to be struggling for some reason.
'The vine's are speeding up..!' The attacks became blindingly fast, so much so that even Zain was being pushed to his limits faster than normal. One tendril shot straight at him and grazed past his arm and drew blood. As Zain leapt back Cassius began smiling as the cheers of his students egged him on further.
"You must be confused by what I stated earlier. You see, my magic involves plants. Nature, if that wasn't obvious enough. But that's not everything…you see my plants are magic based, and thus thrive off the magic in the surrounding air and earth. The longer they stay out on the field, the more mana they absorb from their roots to nourish themselves." Cassius began talking about his magic, as his vines rose up to the air. A dark green hue started to surround the thorns on the edges before small buds popped out in their place.
"Like I'll let you!" Zain picked up on this transformation and decided not to let it proceed any further. Black bolts of lightning surged to life in Zain's palm as a javelin formed. With a shrill noise Zain launched his attack at Cassius who stood in place. His grin grew wider as the attack was swiftly blocked by something large and red. Dust kicked up and obscured the vision of everyone present, yet Cassius continued to calmly speak.
"And once my plants gather enough mana…." A low grumble followed his sentence as a giant shadow loomed over the professor. Yellow eyes gleamed through the dust as a howl blew away the covered field. What stood was a giant red flower with mangled teeth, and drool quickly pooling to the floor. It's eyes glanced through the battleground before looking towards Zain. It's pupils focused on him and did a headlong charge towards him. "Life is formed…"
Cassius finally finished his explanation as Zain dodged another attack. The same black spear was formed in his palm before getting thrown towards the oversized flora. Yet with its giant size the creature simply diverted the attack, and sent it into a nearby wall. The flower continued to charge towards Zain in a maddened daze before bashing it's face into a wall after Zain dodged.
"What the hell is this thing?!" Zain cursed in anger as he watched over the unknown creature. It's speed and destructiveness weren't all too high, but it was annoying to deal with. The fact it was so madly obsessed with charging at him was already an issue, but he still needed to be wary of the other vines that swung at him in rapid succession. His options to move around were being restricted, while also having to deal with a giant force gnawing at his heels constantly.
"Having trouble? Didn't you say you would 'devour' the knowledge I had?" Cassius snidely intervened. He smiled before dropping more seeds onto the ground. Vines sprouted from these as well before they began attacking Zain's pathways and limiting his options further. The remainder of the students all cheered on as Cassius bowed to them.
"Now students, since this lesson was brought up a bit earlier than intended, how about next week we begin talking about magic circles and what effects they have on spells?" Cassius had completely taken his focus off Zain to feed his ego.
With each passing second Zain grew more frustrated at this. The annoyance of being trapped and belittled had pushed him near his limits. His eyes had been set on the giant flower before he lunged towards it, lightning in hand. As he grew closer his hand pierced the head of the giant flower, causing it to shriek in pain before flailing about. Zain dug his hand further down into the beast before backing out. Yet as he fell down he noticed the wound he inflicted on it started sealing itself up.
"It can regenerate?!" Frustration left him as he landed on the ground, only to have his leg grabbed. A vine wrapped itself tightly around him before dragging him across the floor and whipping him to the other end of the room.
As Zain regained his balance he looked at the open field before him, seeing the giant flower charging towards him at high speeds, along with a multitude of other plants. The field was crowded, and he needed a way to clear it in one go. His mind raced at the posible spells he has that could clear such a field, and in his last moments of thought, the Masked Maged appeared in his mind. That combination spell of water and lightning that he used in their fight not only covered a wide area, but also held great destructive power.
"If someone like him can do it…" Zain muttered underneath his breath as he raised his hand above his head. A black magic circle formed in his palm as lightning and mana flowed out. Cassius turned his head towards Zain, only to have his eyes nearly fall out from his head.
'What?! He's conjuring a magic circle?! I haven't taught anyone here about making one yet! How the hell does this peasant know how to form them?!' Cassius screamed in his mind as Zain's spell finished. A wry smile formed on the professor's lips as he thought Zain finished too late. With his plants right upon him, they would cut off his movement before beating him within an inch of his life.
"You're all in the way." Zain spoke as the face of the giant plant was cleanly cut in half. The plants in the same pathway of the beast were also split in half as the roots shriveled up and died on the spot. The flora's head fell to the ground with a heavy thud as Zain clutched on to a black whip made of lightning. He clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction before walking forward.
"I hate needing to use one of his spells, but this ain't the time to complain…" With whip in hand Zain began lashing out in the jungle before him, slicing through the vines. Cassius reeled back in shock as his growing army of vines was torn through in mere moments.
"He was holding onto a spell such as this? This isn't over yet!" Cassius shouted towards Zain as three other large flowers burst forth from the ground and charged after him. Zain turned his focus onto them while dashing forward.
"Hey, teach? Since you seem to know so much about magic, then you obviously know one of the characteristics of lightning magic, right?" Zain asked Cassius as his whip grew in length before slashing across the entire stadium. Chunks of green were torn through in rapid succession as Zain went on the offensive.
"Amongst all the magic types, lightning is the fastest. And with the trait of 'cleaving' I put on this spell, your plants won't have any time to regenerate. Not while I'm still hacking them to pieces." Cassius had summoned more vines and flora to attack, yet they were all swiftly chopped to pieces as Zain's spell sliced through them all.
"Here. Have another one." The same whip formed in Zain's other hand before unleashing flurries of attacks too fast for the eye to track. The surrounding areas were quickly torn to shreds as his lightning cut through everything. Cassius switched to focus on defense from Zain's onslaught of attacks. One spell had turned the tides of this fight, allowing him to utterly crush his opponents greatest strength of crowd control.
'Now!' Zain knew this fight was over, and charged forward to Cassius's shell. He quickly tore through it before grabbing his teacher by the collar and pulling him out. The two made eye contact as Zain violently tossed him to the ground before mounting him with his fist raised.
"That's enough!" But before he could deal the finishing blow, a shout from the principal stopped him in his tracks. His eyes looked over to the entryway of the room to see the burly man standing with his hands resting at his side.
"Mr. Zain, while I am happy to see how eager you are to learn, I'd rather you not place your teacher in the hospital before he can teach you anything." A small chuckle left him as he began walking down the stairs to meet the two in the center of the ground.
"Mr. Zephyr! Expel this student! His violent acts and outbursts aren't suited for this school, let alone my class!!" Cassius had scrambled to stand up before shouting his complaints towards Zephyr, yet the latter simply held his hand up to silence him.
"Cassius, I decided to place this student within your classroom so he could learn and grow as a mage. You don't have the authority to tell me to snuff out his future."
"But sir! He is clearly too violent to even learn anything! He attacked me in my own classroom!" Cassius was desperate. His calm and cool demeanor from earlier was nowhere to be found in the current moment.
"Yes, I know. However, that attack hadn't gone unprovoked." After finishing his sentence Zephyr raised his hand as a white light suddenly flew from over Zain's shoulder and rested in the principal's hand. It grew in size before displaying what had happened in the classroom earlier. Cassius was stunned silent as it clearly showed him provoking Zain to react in the manner he did.
"What is that…?"
"I had a feeling that Mr. Zain would have a few…issues when it comes to integrating into his new environment. So I placed a little recorder on him in the event one of you decided to put your pride before reason."
"One of us..?" Cassius could only repeat the words being relayed to him in utter confusion before Zephyr began smiling.
"Yes, one of you. This entire fight has been broadcasted to the other teachers in charge of Mr. Zain."