"Less than a dozen humans awaken their powers as sorcerers outside of Dayland. Thankfully, mana threats only appear in Dayland as well. Now facing those threats requires mana. These threats are named Corruption Beasts, but CB or beasts for short. They have a level of danger that goes from one to seven. And they can be identified as 'Maniacal'. Can anyone tell me what that means?" Kai explains then ask
Victoria raised her hand and Kai nods at her. "Maniacal means that the CBs can use spells."
"Correct, Victoria. Maniacal beasts usually have higher levels of mana and usually around the range five to seven." Kai pauses for a second to breathe and continues, "due to your lack of experience you'll be going on missions in pairs. To assess who matches with who, you fight."
"First fight, Dan and Volta."
Dan and Volta then walks away from the row and walked out to the side. The others then walked a few steps back to spectate. Dan and Volta stood across each other, about 15 meters away.
FIGHT 1
"Have at it!" Kai yelled
Two black sofas across a short distance from each other. In a somehow lit-up pitch black room. A place of Dan and Jon's inner monologue or conversation.
BLACK ROOM
"So, Dan, this is a quick heads up, just a small warning, a caution..."
"Fucking say it!"
"We saw her earlier and from that, I can strongly conclude that she might possibly, probably, most likely..."
"I swear to fucking god."
"A speedster-type sorcerer."
"So, she's fast?"
"Yeah, that's quite their whole schtick. They're fast and they've got good battle sense."
"What are my odds?"
"Since when have you given a shit about that?"
Volta stance her right leg behind her, her knee bent. She suddenly surges with bright cyan electricity and moves around Dan and circles behind him. He could only see her after image and the dirt trail that she left. She "frame jumped" behind him. Dan casts "Black Envelope: Gauntlets". His arm-focused amplification spell. While mid-casting, Volta lands a frontward kick to Dan's back. He got propelled forwards and tripped over, he quickly recovers by rolling forwards and turning his body in the other direction. His spell is finally cast, he wastes no time and smashes both his hand to the ground. A wave that was approximately four to five meters tall, followed by dirt and wind pressure, rushes toward Volta.
She had the same surge of electricity as before and bulldoze through the wave. She quickly lands a low frontward kick directly at Dan's face. An unblocked kick backed with a speedster's amplification spell made him disoriented. His vision ablur, but he can't stop moving. As he falls over, he immediately rolls away from Volta and does a Kip up, and casts "Black Envelope: Headgear" and "Black Envelope: Gauntlets". Volta closes the distance in an instant, with her fist already in motion to punch Dan's face. He shifts his body to the right to dodge and catches her hand by the forearm with his left hand.
She goes in for a left hook, Dan catches her left hand too. Then Dan tried to close the distance for an attack but was stopped by Volta raising her right knee that hit him right in the balls. He took the hit and was in pain. Then Volta's head and neck were surging a lot more than the rest of her body, she pulls her chest along with her neck and head backwards and landed a devastating, unblocked headbutt. His amplification was dispelled by the headbutt but was able to block half the damage.
Dan unintentionally lets go of Volta. His head and nose were bleeding. He held his hand to his face trying to pressure his nose. Volta was relentless, she lands a low kick on the side of Dan's left knee knocking him lower to the ground. Then Volta holds Dan's head and jumps up with her knee aimed at Dan's face. Dan was able to put up his hand with amplification and block the hit.
It still was a heavy hit that made Dan fall to the ground. Completely on the ground, he landed on the right side of his body. Volta slowly approaches him. Then something felt different, Dan's mana wavelength seemed different from before. Dan uses both legs to interlock his with Volta's and drops her to the ground. As she drops to the ground, he casts "Black Envelope: Gauntlets", then he smashed his fists to the ground behind him, and lifts them off the ground.
Volta being fully in control of her body was able to turn her body around like a cat. She landed on her feet, heading the other way. Then she does her "Tag and Run" tactic. Landing a hit at superspeed then running circles around her opponent, and keeps up with it. Her hits were precise, and her speed was faster than before.
Struggling to break free, Dan defends himself with "Black Envelope: Black Body". A full body version of the his Black Envelope varietal. He could stop Volta's hits from dealing serious damage but it still hurt.
"Just jump up." Jon rolled his eyes
Dan followed suit, switched to "Black Envelope: Footgear" and jumps up in the air.
"Then what?"
"Track her and catch her."
Dan switched to "Black Envelope: Headgear" and traces Volta's movement. She was already midair about to land a reinforced punch. He shifts his body back and catches her fist. Then Volta holds his hand firmly and her other hand holds his other arm. She lifts up both her legs, curling herself into a ball and pushes both her legs right Dan's chest. Dan was leveling downwards and Volta amplifies both her legs with "Lightning Amplification". Dan burst downwards and into the ground, cratering it.
Volta was dropping to the ground, she switches her amplification focus to her right arm. About to land a ground pound from about 30 meters in the air.
"Alright, that's enough."
Volta didn't stop.
"Ah shit."
Volta was getting closer to the ground about five to eight meters high. Then a really bright white flash and a loud explosion sound. Volta lands her hit to the ground. She missed somehow. She's confused but doesn't express it through her face. She looks behind her to see Dan being carried by Kai whom is standing, grinning at Volta.
"You won, congrats!" Kai congratulates
Kai taps Dan's face to check on him. He was still conscious, he's relatively 'okay'.
"You still with us, Dan?" Kai asks
"Pfft.. Yeah."
Kai stands him on his own and helps him walk back to the crowd. Dan drops to his butt and sat on the ground.
"Well that didn't work."
Dan pulls out a red handkerchief and starts wiping the blood on his face, feeling frustrated but he was also grinning to himself.
FIGHT 2
"Now, Laura-chan against Lau." Kai said
Laura grips her sword tightly, her heart was beating loudly. They took same positions as Dan and Volta did.
BLACK ROOM
"Chan?" Dan said confusedly
"It's a Japanese word." Jon said
"I know what it means."
"Then, why're you confused?" Jon ask
"I dunno. Probably nothing."
Laura rests her left hand on the edge of her katana scabbard, her thumb folded against the sepoa. Her right hand gripping the katana firm but relaxed. Her right foot in front, her knee slightly bent. A drop of sweat runs down her cheek. Her eyes looked determined but she was nervous. You could barely see it but she was shaking.
Victoria forms two guns in her hands. Two HK P30L's. Bullets are formed within the magazine with her mana. She never actually has to reload her gun. And it shoots just like the actual gun. However, the bullet velocity can be adjusted by the amount of amplification she back her bullets with.
"Go!"
Victoria points both her guns at Laura. Without hesitation, she pulls the trigger for both guns. The bullets were travelling towards Laura's chest. Laura flicks her left thumb, releasing her katana from the scabbard. She draws her sword with her right hand in a sideway motion, an iaiko sword drawing. Her blade collided with the bullets and cuts them in half. Victoria pauses and was amazed. "Wow" she said in her head.
Laura changed her stance to Ko Gasumi No Kamae—with both hands holding the katana, close to her face. Her hands were crossed next to her face, and the tip of her blade pointing at Victoria. She casts "Light Amplification" on both her arms and channels it to her sword. She straightened her blade, pointing upwards, and swings clockwise. Slashing the air, then the tip of her blade touch the grass, and swing up upwards with the sharp edge pointing up and out. As she swung up, a huge ascending wave of electrifying mana heading toward Victoria.
Victoria drops and rolls to her right. Laura follows through with her initial attack and performs a side sword swing by turning 360 degrees.
After rolling Victoria raises one of her gun and shoots once at Laura. Laura predicted it by her 360 degrees sword swing, Crescent Blade Art: Full Moon Swing. Laura again cuts the bullet. She changed her stance to Sasagakure No Kamae—with her right hand she held the blade aside of her head, pointing backwards, and facing up. Her left hand out straight and her palm opened. She casts "Light Amplification" again and jumps up, lifting both her legs high up. She dashes forward and uses her sword to disarm Victoria by knocking both of her guns off her hands.
"Alright that's enough you two. Next."
The two rejoins the class.
FIGHT 3
"Next up, Heath against..."
Kai looks at the class, mumbling to himself, having a dilemma in picking the student. He catches Hiro staring at him. Kai grins and picks Hiro. "Alright, Heath against Hiro."
Hiro jumps. He starts to sweat profusely. He and Heath stood apart, away from the crowd.
"Go!"
Hiro casts "Lightning Blade", a two bladed sword. Heath cracks his neck and pulls his right fingers up. Between his finger was a flaming card. A style of sorcery that he honed since he was a child—"Infernal Cards". Heath, with his card, slices the air. Three "Infernal Cards" appeared beneath his initial card—floating. Heath throws the card in his hand at Hiro. Hiro accidentally parries the card. While still surprised by the card being thrown at him, Heath had disappeared from his sight, the three cards too.
Hiro panicked and lifts blade and holds it behind him, over his shoulder. His sword opened to his back. Heath reappeared behind Hiro, he was mid-dash and with one of his three cards he slices Hiro's blade. Heath's eyebrows rose, he was genuinely surprised that he missed. He followed through his dash and drops to the ground. He "scissors" Hiro's legs and drops him to the ground. Heath locks Hiro's legs and extends the length of the card in his hand. All the way to Hiro's neck.
"Alright, good work Heath, Hiro. Next fight."
Heath releases Hiro and helps him up and leaves to the class.
FIGHT 4
"Second to last, Nathan against Jay."
The two prepared to fight. Same routine, across each other.
"Go."
Nathan casts "Ice Rink", he freezes the ground around him, about 30 meters in radius. But he accounted for the crowd so he ignored that area and focused his spell on Jay. Jay stood still and was frozen in place. Nathan casts "Frozen Fist", he deliberately freezes both fists and shelles them in ice. Nathan runs up to Jay and goes for a left upper jab. Jay raised both his hands to protect his chin. Nathan then with his right hand, goes for an inside hook to Jay's kidney. Jay triangulates his left hand to protect his kidney.
Nathan then kicks Jay's right knee with his left knee. Forcing Jay to turn his knee and shatters the ice he was frozen in. Then Nathan closes in and lands three consecutive right elbow hits to Jay's upper stomach. Nathan pulls back a few steps, lands a low right kick to Jay's left knee. Nathan the casts "Ice Spear" and stabs it to the ground. Nathan grabs the spear with both hands and lands a double kick to Jay's chest, however, Jay was able to block it with his hands. But it didn't stop the fact that he was launched backwards by Nathan's kick.
"Going easy on me?" Nathan whined
Nathan pulls the spear out of the ground and changed the blade for a block of ice and turned it into a sledgehammer. He smashes downward at Jay. Jay rolls to the right and dodges. Jay kips up and stands back up. He then finally lands a blow on Nathan, a back hand to the face. The exact moment of impact ignited an explosion that repelled Nathan about 20 meters.
"I wasn't going easy on you. I was just waiting for the right time." Jay smirked
Then light appeared. Similar to aurora borealis. The light covered around Jay. Nathan then stood up and snapped his fingers. The light quickly turned into ice and froze Jay in place, again.
Nathan then swings his sledgehammer like a baseball bat and launches Jay out of the ice.
"That's enough you two."
Jay gets back up slowly, aching but nor hurting. He stretches his hips and neck. He was unscathed somehow. Nathan seems pissed off at the result of the fight.
FIGHT 5
"And for the last one, Sam against Kris."
Sam was nervous, seeing that all the other students were proficient in being a sorcerer, even Dan. He was the only that was unprepared. Kai knows this but doesn't say anything. Kai accompanies Sam in walking to fight. He lowers his head and spoke softly. "I want you to know, win or lose, don't feel bad, okay?"
Sam nods and braces himself.
BLACK ROOM
"Jon, how's he gonna do?"
"Huh? Why you asking me?"
"Just tell me."
"According to your memories he's quite the fighter, pretty good with knives too. But... That's not gonna be nearly enough. Her mana wavelength isn't all that. But I'd say she's a mid to close range fighter, on top of that she specializes in ice. If it was water or wind maybe he'd stood a chance."
"So, he's fucked?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Go!"
Sam runs toward Kris, he's trying to close the distance—make it a hand-to-hand combat. But Kris was quick enough about it. She rubbed her palms together and blows on her right arm. Spreading out mist that freezes everything it touches. Sam ran directly into the mist and froze in place. Kris casts "Frozen Sledge" and hits Sam's face like hitting a cue ball in pool, just that she hit him very hard.
Sam breaks out of the ice and falls over. It was a very disappointing defeat for him. He couldn't even defend. He just lost.
"That's enough, Kris."
Kai attends to Sam on the ground and lends him a hand.
"Alright, that's it. I'll quickly evaluate your skills and put you into pairs."