After we were admitted into the academy, we had one day of break before we started as full-time students. Esy and I didn't do much on our free day. We stayed in our room and enjoyed each other's company.
Our first day as students started with the gathering for our first magic lesson in the Academy. Our first lesson was basic mage combat. And we met the other dominating affinity mages of our year.
There were a total of 7 dominating affinity mages that we met that day. The first one was the princess of the Necron Empire, Hatari Persan Necron. As already stated, she had a dominating nature affinity.
The next Mage was Mustaffa Skullfall. He had a dominating water affinity and was the 2nd Young Master of the Skullfall family.
Maria Lightforge, the Young Lady of the Lightforge family, had a dominating light affinity.
The Young Lady of the Firethrone family Isabella Firethrone had a dominating fire affinity.
With a dominating Darkness affinity present was Perkuro Darkwell. He wasn't the young master of the Darkwell family by blood because he was born into one of the branch families. He became a Young Master after his affinity had been revealed.
Tario Bussard came from a small noble family that was in a steep decline until his affinity had been identified as dominating Wind affinity.
Last but not least, the only commoner from the Necron Empire, Shadow. That was how he introduced himself, and his affinity was, oh wonder, a dominating Shadow affinity. He was the son of a blacksmith and a merchant's daughter.
It wasn't exactly the start of the school year. It was 4 months into the school year in the Heasmaton Kingdom and 2 months into the school year in the Necron Empire.
We gathered on an exercise field once again, but this time, it was the magical exercise field, not the physical exercise field. To my astonishment, no one of the nobles tried to start a useless and unnecessary fight with me. The reason revealed itself soon.
Our teacher manifested out of thin air 5 minutes after everyone gathered. Our teacher's name is not really relevant, because he isn't famous for being named Frigon Gatakula. He is renowned as the golden Mage. And I should refer to him as such.
"You are no fun at all! I told you to stir up the new kids a bit before I arrive." A lean man with golden skin and golden hair appeared in the middle of the group.
"Sir, you told us not to stir up trouble with the new kids under any circumstance." Tario Bussard intervened. He was the smallest among the group and had bright green hair.
"I obviously meant that you should gang up on him to show him who the boss is." The golden Mage said.
"Who would clean up the mess of 5 dead nobles?" Esy asked innocently.
The golden Mage started to laugh like crazy: "If you are so sure about that, why don't we have a little sparring match then. The winner gets crowned King of the Class!"
"OK, I'm in. Who needs to be dethroned?" I said as I stepped forward.
Surprising the Golden Mage somewhat.
"Wasn't she the one challenging the class?" Isabella Firethrone said. She was a tall redhead with an athletic figure.
"So what?" I asked. "I am the one fighting. Don't worry. I will hold back enough to not kill you instantly."
Just as Isabella was going to explode into my face, Mustaffa Skullfall stepped up against me.
"So you want to dethrone me? I would like to see you try!" His tone was arrogant and conceited.
Tension was high from the get-go.
"Students, this is a sparring match, so you get to cast your strongest defensive spell before we start the duel," the golden Mage spoke.
Instantly, Mustaffa started to cast a defensive array. It looked like a Rank 3 spell so I decided to play ball and started to cast the spell Moon Shield, which is a Rank 3 Level 10 spell, and the strongest Rank 3 defensive spell I knew.
I was severely disappointed as he only produced the Rank 3 Level 1 Spell Water Fortress. The worst part was that he started before me and finished afterwards. While a flood of Water Mana was invoked to form a fortress, I was only protected by a thin dome of silver light.
I think I will save you from the unintellectual, barely half decent taunting that I was subjected to.
While the golden Mage inspected our defensive spells, he indicated with no expression any surprise whatsoever. After he made sure both spells were working as intended, he spoke in a serious voice: "Good, both parties are prepared. The rules are simple: you will attack each other until you breach the defensive spell of your opponent. You are under no circumstances allowed to use potentially lethal force. I will be your judge, and I will intervene if I deem it necessary. Ready. Set. Cast!"
I wanted to go easy on him and started off with the spell Dawn with enough mana for 4 automatic chain activations. By the time I completed my spell, Mustaffa had cast the Spell Water Serpent four times. It is a Rank 2 Level 4 süell and more a flashy move to impress the girls than anything substantial.
I let his 4 Water Serpents hit my Moon shield because I knew that it wouldn't even scratch my shield even if he was throwing his water serpents at me until he ran out of mana.
After his spells hit mine, he erupted in Euphorical laughter and taunted me. If I was too afraid to cast spells in front of his superior power. I let him talk himself into a frenzy before I activated my Dawn spell.
His voice was cut off after the first barrage of fireballs ripped half his water fortress into shreds. A second, a third, and a fourth wave rained down on him. After the last spell effect vanished, I could see the golden Mage holding a feinted Mustaffa in his arms.
"Congratulations, you are the new King of this class. Rank 3 Spells are not common among your age group. The only reason he was King is because he could cast Water Fortress." the golden Mage said.
"Then I apologize. I saw his rank 3 spell and acted in kind had he stayed among the Rank 2 spells would have used them. I just thought Rank 3 was the norm here."
"That spell was Dawn, am I right?" the golden Mage asked.
"Yes, it was indeed the spell, Dawn. Why do you ask?"
"It is impressive that you were able to cast Dawn four times in such a short timeframe."
"What do you mean? I only cast the spell once and used automatic chain activation. After all, Dawn is only categorized as a distraction type area of effect spell."
"You came prepared. Impressive. We should continue this conversation some other time. Now, I want to see what our second newcomer can do. Are there any volunteers to fight the silver haired beauty?"
After a moment of silence, the princess herself stepped forward to volunteer as Esys opponent.
"Oh, that is perfect!" Esy exclaimed joyfully. "I was nonetheless going to check how strong you are. After all, you need to have at least some quality if you wish to become my husband's concubine."
Women can be scary. I had no clue what her goal was, and I don't know if it worked or not. All I know is that the class became silent, and we could hear Hatari's blood starting to boil. Her face started to rapidly change colour from normal to pale white, to red, to purple, to black.
The golden mage didn't need to say anything as both women began to cast their absolute best defensive spells. Both choose the spell mobile mana wall. A spell that is centred on oneself and can be moved as long as it is active and you focus on it. It transformed the battle is a battle of attrition from the get-go. Mobile Mana Wall, also famously named Mana shield, is a spell that sucks every last bit of mana out of your body as long as it is actively taking damage.
It isn't commonly used because it is only a Rank 2 Level 1 spell and more a safety measure for experiments than an actual defensive spell. It also becomes less cost efficient the stronger you get.
After both women had prepared themself, they stared at each other waiting for the go signal from our teacher, yet the golden Mage didn't start the fight. Instead, he was casting a wide area of effect spell that covered the whole exercise field.
"Ready? Set. CAST!" The golden Mage's voice was nearly drowned in the clash of their first spell exchange that they had cast while waiting for him to give the go signal. A clear violation of the rules, but no one in the class was willing to point that out. Not to mention that I would have trashed them, but the retaliation from the two women fighting wasn't something they would be looking forward to.