"Is the Mage department in a forest?" I said out loud because I was alone
The road to the class appears to be through a forest because the road was just a small cleared path through the bunch of trees.
I can hear some sounds of crickets(?), birds and other animals deeper in the forest so I know I'm not going to check it out.
The road was apparently made up of a maze of twisted knots for road. I'm supposed to just follow the bends till the end, okay
They were some small mutated looking hedgehog-weasels with pointy bristled skin on long bodies. They appeared to be grazing on the trees.
They mind their business I mind mine, or I just want to observe the situation first.
As I walk down the empty forest path road to the Mage department, I can feel 'something' happening. It's like I'm about to achieve enlightenment.
The forest path is quiet and peaceful and relaxing. I could just stay here quietly
Suddenly my entire tranquil state of mind id interrupted by the sound of an argument approaching, the alien birds that were peacefully perching on branches felt the tremors and hurriedly flew away, the small animals that were gathering food scampered away
When I turned back I saw the same group of class idiots that were playing around as soon as the first class ended.
It was a group of about fifty people, all in their teens, all wearing blue robes with some of them wearing the same Emmisser as me.
With the way they're moving close together to each other in this thin path they're practically shoving against each other!
They were moving close together without giving anyone of themselves breathing room
They were a tight knit group apparently. Some of them had already seen me but showed no reaction, only glancing back towards the people beside them as if they couldn't be bothered to spare a 'nobody' a second glance.
What was going on?
All of a sudden, there was a disturbance! Someone from the back of the crowd muscled past the people in the middle and made it to the front of the group. Just as he barely made it out a number of three hands ruthlessly grabbed onto his robe and dragged him to the back where he was originally from and threw him to the ground where he was marched upon and lay, his conditions unknown.
Some two or more out of the group of people who tried to use the distraction to leave the tight formation only to suffer the same fate.
It was when I looked into the eyes of each of them that I realized they weren't playing around.
Each of them were shoving against each other with ferocity, eyes looking at each other with eyes of crazed animals! Almost as if they were eyeing bags of flesh instead of classmates.
My initial thoughts of going over instantly died out. I realized that I should be running away from these people instead of going over!
But alas, they were now less than five meters in front of me and could no longer ignore my existence
And as expected once they reached that point they all stopped and glared at me as if I was their enemy!
But unexpectedly they didn't even pay attention to me, even after they reached a distance where I could see each of their faces and even peek through the gaps and see the people sandwiched between the front and back clearly.
Their ferocity was overwhelming; they would be on me in mere seconds. I wasn't planning on sticking around to be trampled on!
"Get out of here, you idiot" the girl with green hair spoke as she dragged another girl's hair. They were both grabbing each other by the hair.
'Yeah, I'll be out of your way, bossy' even though they were moving reasonably fast, that was relative to walking speeds. I planned on doing a light jog down this straight winding path to class.
I immediately started jogging while loosely holding my bag. Just as I was at the corner for the next bend the bag fell down causing my new uniform to land on the sandy soil
'How embarrassing…' I wasn't even happy that the uniform was still protected y a transparent plastic bag, I just picked it up and rounded the bend with increased speed hoping that no one saw.
What I didn't know was that they ALL saw a different thing
The girl with green hair who told the plain clothed stranger to 'get lost' was the most shocked out of all of them. 'Da Hell?' is what she thought
They had all been trying their hardest to win the item on this month's agenda as it would be very vital for their progression as Mages.
And this guy that was in front was actually a fellow Mage, a new student?
It all started when their teacher had announced a new Challenge; a simple race between Mages.
No Spells, no nothing, first to come from Miss Eliza's class to the Mage department wins One(1) bottle of Core rebuilding drug!
But what followed was a series of; plots, backstabs and even sabotage for the competition. She and the other two only managed to escape because they avoided school until today.
She couldn't afford to miss this if she still wanted to maintain her rank as strongest Mage! Her eyes went to the number two rank, Tristan busy pushing against a fellow mountain giant but mid-push also met her eyes and he then looked beside her where the number three was currently pulling her hair.
They all understood each other. They HAD to stop that kid.
All this transpired in the span of half a second, and they weren't the only ones who noticed.
Before some of the clueless ones could catch up, she and some of the strongest or slyest of them all broke off simultaneously towards the bend in the path easily running at a faster speed now that they had shaken off their pursuers and already rounded the bend leaving a crowd of forty chasing them with a gap between them.
As soon a I reached a suitable distance from them I slowed down and started jogging casually again. Turns out that I must have overreacted right? Wrong!
I heard sounds like galloping horses coming from behind me and saw a girl with green hair followed by a boy and a girl followed by a crowd all running my way!
My brother, I ran for dear life
"Why are you guys chasing me" I barely managed to ask after running after three more bends and confirming that they really had only me in their sights. 'How far is that damn class?'
"Stop running! We just want to talk"
"""""YEAH""""" they shouted in unison
I didn't even deign to answer, a group of sore losers once said the same thing to me after I talked smack about their group leader. I wasn't falling for that one.
But also, weren't these guys seriously slow?
The gang of sore losers were much faster than them, and 'they' didn't train any Energy. I looked back for the nth time and noticed the gap between up had widened, there was another bend just in front, I really hoped it was the last one so I leave this narrow road.
"Is that kid on steroids?" Risia Mandonez said with increasing urgency in her voice to which the others exclaimed in argument.
They were on the last bend before making it to the Mage department. If things went on like that a newbie would successfully manage to sweep off the experienced old-hands in this race.
It's not like they were slow. No, they were much faster than an average person by at least twice but this kid must have trained in improving his physique somehow, which was just damn useless on any other day except for today! Ahhh
She was already feeling tired out, which was ironic because her Mana Core was still full of Mana... wait
"You, new student! This is your last chance to stop, I'm warning you!" she shouted so he could hear.
He responded with silence as he neared the final stretch before the turn, after the turn was just a straight path to the cluster of buildings where the Main Mage building was with smaller sub-class buildings.
'I gave you a chance'
Without saying anything else and while pumping her legs she reached into her pocket and removes a small plant that was nestled there. The plant was a paralyzing spike-shooter fern that she'd prepared just in case. Normally a Plant Mage would spend her Mana to shoot a spike but this one was already loaded.
'The rule says no use of magic during the race but what if I already fed my plant beforehand'
As long as the new kid went down she would be the winner. That would be her third Gold Challenge victory, meaning a win in a 3-credit course, all that in just six months not counting her 2 silvers and 7 bronze.
She suddenly added more energy to her sprint even though she was already tired 'If only they didn't waste so much time fighting themselves.'
She watched him round the bend before reaching seconds later and turning.
As soon as she turned she raised the paralyzing plant up like it was a gun and fired without even aiming at the dark silhouette not far in front.
The gun- fern made a sound of a plastic toy being stepped on as it released a spike made of pure Mana at its target.
She watched the spike fly towards the target before it eventually found its target and stuck while still running.
'Yes!' she exclaimed but was cut short when she noticed the spike hung in the air while her target was still running, the large blue painted building right ahead of him
Her mood that was lifted high just came back down.
But that wasn't the end of it, she had been following too quickly and crashed right into the 'invisible wall' and tumbled down to the ground with it.
"Joshua?"
It turned out to be Joshua Lancaster? The formerly hospitalized and bedridden Space Mage who had been gone wince the first week of school!