Noah Wilson POV
"Yeah! I didn't expect to see you here Taci."
As I looked to Taci, I couldn't help but smile it's been three years since we last saw each other. Even though we sometimes send letters to each other since he need to train, and wasn't allowed to use communication scrolls so we are limited to letters.
"Why are you here though? And why are you bald?" I asked.
"To 'study' of course! And I want to copy my master's style." Taci replied as he looked at my friends. "Greetings my name is Taci. You must've been Noah's friends, it's a pleasure to meet you all."
As Taci introduced himself the others also introduced themselves. As if forgetting a certain someone. Taci examined both Arthur and Ellie intensely, but I saw something wrong on Taci's face.
"So your Arthur, I heard a lot about you from Noah's letter." Taci said as he put his hand forward asking for a handshake.
"Yeah. That's me it's a pleasure to meet you. And this is my sister Eleanor Leywin." Arthur accepted the handshake and pointing at Ellie. Ellie put her hand forward.
I saw a red tint appeared on Taci's face as he accepted the handshake. I smirk knowing I had another way to teased Taci.
"I heard from the director that your the captain of the DC. I will also be a member starting today, please take care of me from now on." Taci said bowing his head.
"No need to be stiff, and no need to bow right brother!" Ellie said cheerfully putting her hand on Taci's shoulder. Taci blushed but no one noticed it except me and Arthur. " It's good that I will have someone around my age in the campus. And we're also colleagues!"
"Yeah! It's good that I'm not alone either." Taci replied, while Ellie nodded her head.
"Excuse me you little Brat! Don't you have manners? You interrupted us while we're talking and your ignoring me?" The girl we forgot yelled at taci.
"Who are you anyway?" Taci asked as I saw a vein mark appeared on his forehead.
Even though Taci looked kind, he showed no respect for someone he think lower than him and showed no respect on him. Even though he changed a bit after we trained together, he would still get angry looking at those types of people.
"Charlotte the campus beauty." The girl replied smugly. Hearing this the whole cafeteria burst in laughter.
Taci raised an eyebrow hearing this.
"Campus beauty? Are you by any chance attend the snarlers academy?" Taci asked looking innocently but clearly mocking her self-proclaimed beauty.
The whole cafeteria roared in laughter, After hearing Taci's remarks.
"If I were you I would leave right now to lessen the shame you will receive." Taci advise her, as Charlotte left the cafeteria.
"So what's the lessons you will attend taci?" Ellie asked after she saw Charlotte left.
"I asked the director to place me where I have someone around my age, or the same class as Noah. But she said I should attend the same class as Eleanor Leywin which is you. So the class you will attend will also be the one I'm going to attend." Taci replied. As Ellie was happy after hearing this.
"Why are you not in uniform though?" Elijah asked.
"I will officially attend the Academy tomorrow so. I will only watch for now." Taci replied as Elijah nodded his head.
"So what's your plan for now Elijah?" Arthur asked.
"Well maybe go to library or train." Elijah replied shrugging his shoulder.
"Why not train along with the DC?" I suggested as he looked at me as if he just realized he was also a member.
"Yeah why i didn't think about that!" Elijah said.
"Try to duel Feyfey. He's also a conjurer and one of the strongest I know." Arthur suggested as Elijah nodded before he left.
"Let's go to our next class." Caera said as we all nodded.
I can see Arthur was annoyed at Taci, who was chatting happily with Ellie.
I couldn't help but smirk, knowing that even though it will be limited I know this semester will be fun.
Arthur Leywin POV
I couldn't help but get annoyed, as I saw that brat was chatting with Ellie. As we make our way to our next class, which is Team-fighting Mechanics I.
The classroom, or should say field, to be more accurate, was on the other side of the academy, where all of the upper division classes were held.
The "room" consisted of a huge grass field with several obstacles placed randomly, encased by high walls with runes engraved in them. On top of one of the walls was a separate little room protected by a glass encasing. I assumed that the room was used as a viewing platform for the rest of the students.
I saw some students had arrived before me, talking to each other, and I immediately noticed some familiar figures.
"I didn't expect to see guys in the upper class. And who is this new boy with you?" Curtis Glayder waved at us as soon as he realized who we are Grawder, Curtis' bond, was lying with his eyes closed right next to him
"My name is Taci, I will officially attend this academy tomorrow. And will be a member of the DC like you." The boy introduced himself.
"O-oh I see." Curtis nodded.
"Good to see all of you again, guys! Captain!" Claire Bladeheart put her arm around my neck while smiling brightly. "We have to do our best not to embarrass the disciplinary committee, right?"
"Is this the whole class?" Caera asked looking around.
"Hmmm, there should be a few... ah, there they come!" Looking back, I saw several more students and I couldn't help but smile wearily.
"Princess Tessia is as beautiful as always, isn't she?" I heard one of the students murmur.
Walking this way amongst the small group of students was Tessia Eralith, my childhood friend, and Clive Graves, the student vice president.
She noticed me and I could see her make her way toward me. With Clive following behind her.
Clive, shot me a death glare as he saw Tess walked toward me. It seems like he didn't learn some lesson.
"Good afternoon, Princess Tessia!" Not bothering to remove the arm around my neck, Claire smiled and waves at Tess.
"Pleasure." She responded, as she arrived in front of us. She looked at us and greeted us one by one. Before her gaze landed on Taci.
"Who is this boy?" Tess asked.
"He's Taci a new member of the DC. And will officially attend the Academy tomorrow, and he will watch us for now." I replied as she nodded.
"Tsk! It seems like we couldn't asked the DC to do their jobs seeing they were full of kids. I'm sure even their captain is not that great." Clive spat as he shot me some death glare.
"Not that great? I think I saw you get unconscious, after being put on his little spell last night." A voice replied. Turning our head we saw Lucas Wykes walking toward us.
"Little spell?" Tess asked.
"It's nothing he was so annoying last night. When I left after you arrived on your dorm he confronted me, and threaten my family. And I just teach him a little lesson." I said shrugging my shoulder.
"If you have any problem about our members. You can ask the director since she was the one who choose us." I said, as he looked away.
"How did you know it?" I asked Lucas in a low voice, as he stand near me.
"After that incident we had in the dungeon. My brother beat the shit out of me, he even asked one of his colleague to help him. I found out that she knew you and found out what happened in the dungeon, and she gladly help my brother, by putting me inside an illusion. Last night I was finding you to say sorry, since my brother told me your identity after he saw me change. But I didn't expect to see you and that Clive, and you used the same spell Aya used." Lucas explained in low voice. "I'm really sorry for what I did in that dungeon. I hope you forgive me."
I couldn't help but smile at his change.
"It's okay. I just hope you will not do the same thing again." I said as he nodded.
"Good! Everyone's here!" a loud voice suddenly booms over the field. As all of the students started turning their heads to locate where the voice had come from, I looked straight up to see a massive hawk-like mana beast hovering over the field.
This beast was at least 4 meters long and its wingspan was well over 8 meters. With its sharp talons tucked underneath it, the beast slowly made its descent, revealing a well-toned woman with a giant sword strapped to her back, standing up on the back of the hawk.
"Welcome! My name is Professor Glory, and I will be the one teaching all of you brats! This Flare Hawk is Torch, my precious bond."
The first thing I did is to measure the professor's mana core, I saw her core and she's at the light-yellow stage, with earth and fire attributes, and can use glass?
I forgot doing it stealthily, so the professor found out someone was examining her core. And she tried to hide it along with her affinities, but it was too late since I already saw it. She looked at me shocked before she composed herself.
Hopping off of her Flare Hawk, she made her way around the group of students in her class. Studying each of the students she passed, she took a closer look at some of them before making her way towards me.
"I have to say, you guys have set the bar pretty high for all of the other classes," she announced after inspecting all of us.
"Well if it isn't my newest colleague, Arthur Leywin. It's a pleasure to meet you," Professor Glory gave me a playful grin, as if she was itching to tease me. I know she was holding back by wanting to ask me for a duel after she knew I could see her core.
The students started murmuring amongst the group in confusion.
One of the male upperclassmen raised his hand. "Professor Glory, what do you mean by colleague?"
"Ah! All of you already know him as the captain of the DC. A real prodigy if I do say so myself. He's also a newly appointed professor for the Practical Mana Manipulation class that you guys all took during your underclassman years." She gave me a firm pat on the back. This woman is smart she couldn't challenge me, so she make the whole class make me their target.
"WHAT?!!"
"You can't be serious, Professor!"
"If that brat is a professor then I'm the king of this continent!"
"What has this academy turned into, to accept a freshman as a professor?"
"How is that even possible? Even the best upperclassmen these days don't get picked to be professors, but that first year did?"
The various noises of protests made me sigh. They were bound to find out eventually but it would've taken the upperclassmen a bit longer to find out this news, considering they didn't really get much information about the lower division classes.
Our group didn't pay any attention to them, Which annoyed them more.
"Now, now! Before we jump straight into complaints, we should have more faith in the director's decision. He has qualified to some degree by beating the professor that taught the class previously!" She shot me a wink.
"But Professor Glory! The underclassmen professors aren't all that great anyway! I bet some of the upperclassmen students here could beat most of them!" Another round of complaints issued on, making me grow sleepy.
"Haha! To be honest, I'm itching to test how strong you really are, boy! Unfortunately, Director Goodsky made it clear for us to not do that. So! These students here will test you in my place!" She put her hands on her hip, grinning in anticipation.
I knew it.
By now, I noticed a sudden raging fire burning in some of the male students' eyes as they looked at me. I could almost see the words they were thinking etched into their face.
'I'm going to kill this bastard.'
'Who does this brat think he is?'
'Murder, murder, murder, murder...'
'I'm jealous. Why is he good looking too? He needs to die.'
The female students, on the other hand have a look in their eyes that scared me even more. Their stares remind me of hyenas looking at fresh meat as they almost drooled over the 'goods' that I suddenly became to them.
Clive scowled in contempt giving me a death glare after hearing what the professor said. It seems like Lucas also noticed Clive's action as nudge my side.
"What did you have in mind professor glory?" I asked as I already accepted my fate.
"Fear not! I am a just and fair woman!" she harrumphed
Just and fair, my ass.
"We will start off this semester by playing a little game! Aren't I so nice?" By the look on her face, she was the most excited about this. Continuing on, she said, "So! What kind of game should we play... a mock team battle? War?"
"How about putting all of the DC against the SC." A voice said, turning out head it was Clive who said it. We all looked at him weirdly. "I think the president and I will suffice if the immediate loss rule affecting Arthur Leywin is implemented,"
"Why don't we put Arthur and his friends in the same team, while us and the DC will fight against them, Making it a five versus five team battle." Lucas said as he nudge my side, I think I know what he's planning.
"Professor I agree with Lucas but instead of five, we will do it by four. President Tessia and Taci will stay out for some reason." I said as they all looked at me confused.
"Why?" Professor Asked.
"You should ask president herself, while taci wasn't allowed because he isn't a student here yet." I said as the professor nodded before turning her head on Tess.
"My core is not stable for the meantime professor. The director also forbid me from accepting a duel." Tess replied as they all nodded.
"Okay! So team 1 will be Arthur, Noah, Caera and Eleanor, Arthur will be the king take him down and your team will win. Team 2 will be Clive, Lucas, Curtis, and Claire your king will be--"
The professor couldn't finish her word as I interrupted her.
"There's no need for them to have a king because it will be boring for them to have one. We need to take them all down for us to win."I said as team 2 but Clive agreed.
"Are you sure about this Arthur?" Professor glory asked as I nodded. "Okay! So team 2 will be defeated after all of them surrendered or defeated."
"The match will have a time limit of 30 minutes, where we will have a short discussion and a breakdown of it afterwards. Please gear up!" With that, a pile of what looked like exercise gear dropped to the ground out of Professor Glory's dimension ring.
Turning serious, she began explaining. "This is special equipment designed by artificers to measure the amount of damage that is dealt. This equipment will activate, releasing a shrill noise, if the damage it takes passes the threshold that's encrypted into it. If anyone chooses to ignore this warning and continues to fight or cast spells, it will lead to immediate expulsion from my class and other possible consequences regarding your stay here as a student. This rule goes for any upper division fighting class in this academy, so engrave it into your guys' brains. All of you are at the level where protecting yourselves with mana shouldn't be a problem. Let me reiterate this but, this equipment won't protect you so don't rely on it as a source of protection," She announced to everyone else in the class as well. Clearing her throat, Professor Glory shouted. "Do I make myself clear?!"
"YES!""
"Good! Now, the eight of you gear up." She got back on her bond while the rest of the students headed towards the viewing platform.
'Sylv you should go with Tess and sleep.' I said as my bond leaped from my shoulder to Tess.
"Thank me later." Lucas said as he picked up his gear, and walking away to change.
We also did the same after the team 2 finished. The gear consisted of a tight jacket and a series of straps that I wrapped around my legs and arms.
"So what's the plan?" Ellie asked after we finished putting our gears.
"The plan is simple. You will send them some arrows to ruin their formation. While the three of us will dashed forward to fight them head on, Caera will deal with Claire, Noah against Curtis and I will fight Clive, You will fight Lucas. Just make sure all of you will take care of yourself Ellie and don't be overconfident." I said as they all nodded.
"Man. I pity Clive for his stupidity he just make himself your target." Noah said as Caera nodded.
"It's not my fault, he think himself as a big shot just because he's from a noble family and a member of the SC." I said shrugging my shoulder.
I looked for Clive, Lucas, Curtis, and Claire and I saw them a few dozen meters away.
I took out Dawn's Ballad, as Ellie, Noah, and Caera readied their weapon as well.
Professor Glory's powerful voice echoed through the battlefield, signaling us to begin.
"LET THE MATCH COMMENCE!"