"We would begin with the announcement of our first contenders." Mr. Walker announced a nod towards the higher seats.
He was inviting the Dean to take the podium.
The Dean stood up causing a small outburst of cheers from the students in the hall. Everyone loved the Dean of the academy, because of his calm, and caring attitude.
He would always provide a listening ear to every of the students that had come to him no matter the level of their grades.
The Dean gave a nod, and the hall immediately went silent which proved the level of respect that his students had for him.
Two square boxes with transparent lids were placed in front of him by a teacher, and he dipped his hand into both of them.
The students held their breath as their breathing slowed down, each one of them wishing they would be given a very simple opponent so they could easily pass this stage, and go home.
Martin mentally prepared himself for whoever was coming his way, he wasn't like the other students, and he just wished that his opponent would be able to survive his onslaught rather than give up immediately.
The Dean had picked up two separate papers, and Walker had moved to retrieve them.
He walked to the middle of the battle area in the hall,
"Brad Torres, and Hadley Perry." Walker read out the names of the students on the paper calming down the hearts of the other students that were not called.
"Please, step out onto the center." Walker moved aside while two students came out of the crowd, one with a small look of confidence, and the other who looked like he wanted to be swallowed by the ground.
"You are only allowed to make three moves on your opponent. Once I identify the winner, the match would stop." Walker read out the instructions to them.
"What if someone died?" Brad spoke staring straight into the Walker's eyes. He had a medium length hair with short bangs that covered the wide expanse of his forehead.
"Do you plan to kill someone?" Walker raised his brow at him.
"No. What if he isn't able to take it, and yunno, gets crippled or something. Would I be blamed?"
Brad didn't want to kill anybody, he could vaguely remember what the man in that hooded jacket had told him to do so he just asked the question.
"The match would be stopped before any of that happens." Walker turned around after the contenders had shook each other's hand promising a fair fight.
"Begin." The sound of Walker's voice was all they needed to hear.
It was race between who moved fast enough, and was able to deliver the deadliest blow.
"Water rune: Hydro Whip." Despite his bulky looking appearance, Brad has a soft voice as he extended his arm with precise movement aiming the line of water towards Perry's open chest.
The whip moved with a great amount of flexibility causing Perry to shudder from imagining the amount of pain he would from such amount of elasticity.
"Earth rune: Rock shield." Perry was too slow, and his magic control was also weak which led to the slow formation of the shield.
With one blow, Brad had thrown Perry out of the fighting center, and was immediately declared as the winner of the match.
"We have a winner," Walker moved to lift up Brad's hand in a show of victory causing his supporters to yell widely for him.
Brad was unsatisfied, the match had already been decided before he came up.
Perry was an F grade student, and there was nothing special about those students. He realized that the school had a terrible system.
It would have been the exorbitant bribes that all those noble families had given to the school.
"Judges?" Walker was handed the results of the match, and he announced that Perry would be expelled since he showed no improvements after being F-grade, and Brad would remain in his grade.
The hall instantly lost the air of silence.
"They never said anything about being expelled or not being promoted!?"
"What about our written exams? I emptied my soul in the library would just be kicked out?"
"Why wasn't that guy promoted? Wasn't he good enough?" A timid girl looked around, she was more than anxious, and she wasn't the only one.
"Why am I even here? I'd just get expelled. I'm committing suicide! Don't stop me!" A boy walked out of the hall with downcast shoulders.
"Hey, wait for me. Let's die together!" Someone else walked out after him.
They had never thought that the school would actually expel them, they expected something like another repetition of the same year.
With that announcement, the number of the students in the hall had reduced, some retired to their fate, and others were too lazy to try.
The next match quickly began with an A-grade student, against a B-grade student.
Theo stood at the center of the hall, facing this A-grader just so he could increase his grade.
The last time he had fought in the magical examinations, he was just a weakling and had given up, but now he felt like he could do better after he had heard those strange rumors about Martin.
He looked around, and spotted the familiar face staring at him, seemingly interested in his match. Theodore gave Martin a smile, causing his opponent to misunderstand him.
"That's one thick backbone you have there, B-grade. Remember there was a reason I was placed in a grade above you." The name of the boy who has been placed as Theodore's opponent was known as Mayn.
He couldn't believe that such a puny B grade was laughing at him.
The match began, and he sped towards Theodore, with a ball of fire that blazed with a scary intensity.
'I'll make you wish you were never born.'
"Fire rune: Fire Ball."
Mayn thought he had Theodore where he wanted him when he suddenly felt something grip his legs, causing him to stand in one place.
He looked down to see that there were water tendrils, and the whole battle area had been filled with water, there were even suspended water droplets in the air.
"What in the world?" The expression of immense confusion was vividly drawn across Mayn's face, and on the faces of everyone present.
Martin's eyes widened, and straightened his back. Theo had a zone.
That was a real life zone in front of him. How did this happen?
"Is that a zone?"
"It's really a zone!"
"Why are my ancestors not blessing me in such manner?!"
"He's my age mate! How does he have a zone, and I don't? I'm going to end my miserable life! Don't hold me!"
"I'm not holding you. I wanted to say that you can't jump down from the school. The pile of bodies below would break your fall."
"I don't care. I'm heading to my death. I wouldn't be this useless in my next life."
The appearance of a zone at such a young age had shocked everyone who was present.
Walker knew that there was absolutely no need to continue the match since the boy had shown his immense growth.
He couldn't help but feel a painful sting at the back of his head. Walker was proud but jealous, he didn't even have a zone at such a young age, unless he would have been a powerful man with a lot of ladies right now.
Curses!
Mayn's face had twisted with different emotions.
'Just because he has a zone doesn't mean he's better than me. I am the A-grade here! Just me!'
His thoughts were laced with envy and jealousy. He was going to make this little brat pay for embarrassing him in front of the school.
Mayn wasn't going to give up, even if the tendrils had held him in place, he was still going to fight.
His fire ball move had already been cancelled out because he had lost concentration due to the shock he has gotten from Theodore's zone.
"Fire Rune: Blazing Furnace." The fire elementals raged wildly the moment Mayn activated his spell.
The shot of fire took the form of a dragon and rushed into the air before moving down with high speed to crush his measly opponent.
Everyone was mesmerized by such authentic magical control, it was spectacular, and it made them realize the true potential of an A-grade.
The spell had even increased the temperature of the hall to an higher degree, and this dangerous spell was heading straight for Theo.
It came in contact with the water droplets from Theo's zone causing a huge burst of steam to rise up from the ground.
Walker knew he had to stop it but the steam that was released had basically blocked everyone's vision.
Mayn's face had a huge smile plastered to it, he knew what he was doing when he released such an heavy spell. If nothing was in his way, Theodore would be burned to a crisp.
Dead! And he wouldn't mind suffering for it, at least he had gotten rid of someone who could steal his own light, and Mayn was never the type to stay in the shadows.
Martin who was resting by the corner had a smile on his face, due to his increased human abilities, he could see through the generated steam, and he had already expected what would happen.
Did this little A-grade think of himself as a big-shot because he had a fire rune?
_Hurry up Theo, and slap this bat-eyed human back into his place. _