Zeke led Leon over to a group of beastly looking people. There were someone who had a humanoid body, but the head of a dear, while there were two grizzly looking werewolf. Another looked like he had been carved from a tree. All in all, there were five of them, including Zeke.
"Guys, this is Leon. Leon, these are some of my friends that I made earlier." Zeke introduced them to Leon. Leon spent a few moments getting to know their names, and they also got to know him a bit.
The guy with the dear head was called Doe... A very... odd name, but it was what it was. The first werewolf was a girl, and her name was Patricia, while her twin brother was Patrick. The tree man, a young Woodee, went by Arthur.
(A/N: Odd names, right? Well, don't worry, you'll get used to it.)
Out of all of them, Leon was most intrigued by the Woodee. Woodees were like the Treefolk that Leon had heard of while growing up and reading old fantasy books of the past era, before the Sanctum's reemergence. In fact, there were basically no difference between them, but the Woodees were a sub race of Treefolk. There were many of such sub races.
When Zeke's friends inquired about why he, a Caster, was in a Combiner class, he had to explain how he could both cast and combine, which led to him having mixed classes.
As they were speaking, the teacher, a young woman that looked like she would be around her mid to late twenties, stepped through the doors of the class.
"Are you little girls ready to play?" Her voice was loud and authoritative as she spoke, and she had a wolfish grin on her face, like she was a feral wolf that just stumbled into a chicken house. Everyone quickly came over from whatever part of the class that they were in and assembled before the wolfish looking woman. She had a head full of dark red hair, and her eyes glowed brightly with a red color as she looked at her students. If she was not a teacher in the academy, then the students might have been tempted to run for their lives!
"Good Morning, class. My name is Avery, and I will be taking you in this Basic Combat Class. Here, you will hone your ability to combine with your elements and fight. Of course, if you do not want to take part, then all you need to do is say so." She grinned.
No one spoke up. Why would they even think of leaving? They might as well just leave the academy all together!
"Ah, no cocky young masters? Sad. I would have loved to beat them down a bit." Avery sighed, feigning a look of disappointment. Leon's face twitched at how carefree she was. He did not think he had met someone so shameless as her, who did not bother hiding her thoughts one bit.
"Well, let us start. We will begin with you all introducing yourselves and the elements you are attuned to." She said and crossed her arms.
One by one, the students began to introduce themselves. When it got to Leon's turn, everyone looked at him, as he was the last person on the line of twenty students, and he also had the uniform of a Caster on.
"Leon Cromwell. I am a versatile mage with an affinity for all four basic elements." Leon said. The four basic elements were fire, water, earth, and wind.
"Oh, I think I heard of your earlier." Avery raised her chin in thought and whistled. "Well, it doesn't matter. All of you are welcome to my class. Just to be clear, do not expect to be pampered. You will all be drilled to the bone, and I will make fine mages out of you. I hope you are ready for hell?"
"Yes Ma'am!!!" Everyone yelled out together. They felt like they were suddenly in the military, and that Avery had turned into a strict commanding officer.
Avery proceeded to split up the students into pairs. In order to test out their strengths, they would fight against each other one on one in different areas of the class. The class was big enough, and the students were too weak to be able to cause any serious area of effect damage. If any attack looked like it could disrupt the flow of another spar, then she was confident that she could stand in its way and stop it.
She looked over the student pairs one by one before stopping on the pair of Leon and Nathaniel. The two of them stood on opposite sides and stared at each other.
"Looks like an interesting pairing. I wonder if they will be able to impress me." Avery spoke to herself and went over to a chair to take a seat. From where she was, she could see everything that was happening in the class.
As Avery watched, Leon also studied the student in front of him eyes him with a vicious look, and Leon could instantly tell that he was trouble.
"Come at me." Nathaniel said and motioned for Leon to begin.
"Alright. Go easy on me." Leon showed a forced smile and began to pull upon both the mana in the surroundings and the mana within himself. A serious frown spread over his expression as he called upon the fire element, which he was most familiar with. He was taking this seriously. He could tell that for some reason, this Nathaniel had a problem with him. Why? He had no idea.
"Do your best or I might end up hurting you." Nathaniel said as he allowed his body to morph back to his true form. Scales broke out all over his body and his pale skin turned to a yellowish brown shade as the scales covered it.
Nathaniel was a member of the obscure Naga race that originated from the Sanctum. As most of his people did, he specialized in water magic, but he was also blessed with an affinity for poison magic, on top of the natural poison that he already possessed! This was a very deadly combination, and he planned to use it to his advantage in his fight against Leon!