The clock struck 5 pm, casting a golden hue over the classroom of 1-A, where the students eagerly awaited the start of their "History of Magic and Combat" class.
The teacher for this class was the same teacher they had met on the first day of school.
The teacher's name was Mrs. Evelyn Bennett.
Mrs. Bennett is currently taking attendance.
"Clara Anderson?"
"Here!"
"Chuck Everhart?"
"Here…" Chuck said with a barely audible voice.
Mrs. Bennett paused for a second to look for whose voice it was.
She was quite sure that the voice she just heard was not that of Chuck.
She had seen Chuck and heard Chuck's voice before.
Chuck's voice held clear confidence in it, meanwhile, the voice she just heard didn't seem to have an ounce of confidence in it.
Once Mrs. Bennett saw that the voice she heard came from Chuck, she was quite surprised.
'What happened to him?' Mrs. Bennett thought.
Chuck had changed. He was nothing like how he was before.
Before, he used to sit however he wanted; Mrs. Bennett even warned him about how he sits several times, but now, he sat like any other student.
Mrs. Bennett had made up her mind to ask him what had happened later after this class.
"Cal Borret?"
"Here!"
"Rick Samches?"
"…here," Rick said with a raspy voice.
Mrs. Bennett raised an eyebrow.
'What happened to those two? They've changed completely since the last time I saw them.' Mrs. Bennett thought.
'I'm going to talk with them both later.'
Mrs. Bennett proceeds with the attendance.
"Lucian Elysia?"
"…" Nobody responded.
"Huh... okay then," Mrs. Bennett said to herself as she marked Lucian's name on the tablet she had.
'Wait, isn't he…' Mrs. Bennett thought as she remembered Lucian, and him being late to her first class.
Mrs. Bennett paused.
'Looks like we have a troublemaker in this year.' Mrs. Bennett thought,
In Nova Academy, you were allowed to come late to class with a maximum of 10 times for the whole school year.
And Lucian, already being late 2 times, had only 8 tries left before he got expelled from his school, or, even worse, get sent to the military.
"Adbeel Von Brisha?"
"…" No response.
Frustration became evident on Mrs. Bennett's face.
'What? Two students are late? Even though it's only the second day of school? Weird.' Mrs. Bennett thought.
"Gabriel Ainsworth?"
"…" No response yet again.
Mrs. Bennett frowned, her frustration growing by the second.
"Adrian Silvinaus?"
"…" Nobody responded.
Mrs. Bennett gritted her teeth.
"Slam!" Mrs. Bennett slammed her tablet at the podium, getting all of the students' attention.
"DO YOU ALL THINK THIS IS A JOKE?!!" Mrs. Bennett screamed, with a face full of anger.
"You all..." just before Mrs. Bennett could continue, the classroom door opened, and 4 boys came in.
Mrs. Bennett's eyes widened.
Lucian, Gabriel, Adbeel, and Adrian came in with a nonchalant attitude.
The classroom was quiet, not even the students' nervous breaths could be heard.
"Why so quiet?" Lucian asked.
"I mean…" before Lucian could even explain what he meant, Mrs. Bennett activated her mana zone.
"Mana zone, Glacial Haven."
Ice began to spread out from where Mrs. Bennett was standing.
The ice spread at an incredible pace.
The ice covered the walls in a matter of seconds, and soon, the whole room was covered in ice.
The temperature dropped dramatically.
Mrs. Bennett's brown hair began to float up, an incredible amount of mana could be sensed from her.
She clenched her fists and teeth.
She was still facing the class; she didn't even bother to turn her way to Lucian and the others.
Mrs. Bennett's eyes landed on Lucian.
At that moment, Lucian felt a chill run down his spine.
Lucian began to sweat presumably, his heart beating faster with every second.
"You!" Mrs. Bennett roared.
"It was all because of you! Wasn't it!" Mrs. Bennett roared at Lucian.
Mrs. Bennett slowly walked up to Lucian, her gaze never leaving him.
"Drop, drop." Some students dropped from the sheer amount of pressure Mrs. Bennett was giving off with her mana.
"Step." Mrs. Bennett's steps could be heard throughout the classroom.
The pressure increased.
More students passed out.
"Mrs. Bennett! Please stop!" Clara begged.
Mrs. Bennett paid no heed to Clara and took another step.
"Step."
More students collapsed, and Clara was now on her knees.
Ice began to crawl up from Clara's knees.
"Haha, that's a pretty good trick," Adrian said, his voice being heard by everyone in the class.
"…" Mrs. Bennett said nothing.
"Crack!" Cracks began to spread from where Mrs. Bennett's foot had been placed.
The pressure increased twofold as all of the students passed out from the pressure.
Mrs. Bennett's eyes glowed with an intense sense of anger.
Her blue eyes focusing only on Adrian.
'How come they are fine? Even though my mana zone is at 20%, it should be enough to handle E ranks like them, so just why? Why aren't they on their knees!' Mrs. Bennett asked herself.
Mrs. Bennett began to doubt her own ability. How could a couple of E ranks stand up to her mana zone?
If they were struggling against her pressure, then she could understand, but they didn't even seem to have been affected at all!
Lucian was even looking around and asked.
"What are those guys doing?" while pointing at his now passed out classmates.
"Beats me," Gabriel shrugged.
'Her mana zone ain't affecting us; there can only be two solutions at the current moment. It's either that we are stronger than her, which is practically impossible at the current moment, so that only leaves us with one solution.
Someone casted a mana barrier over us.' Adbeel thought, his eyes searching for who it could be.
His eyes soon landed on Adrian.
With his hands in his pockets, Adrian wore a sly smirk on his face.
Mrs. Bennett seemed to also have had the same thought as Adbeel, but once she saw Adrian's smirk, she didn't hold back anymore.
Mrs. Bennett was going to release the output of her mana zone to 100%.
But before she could even move a finger, Adrian took action.
"Mana zone, Garden of Judgement."
The classroom transformed as Adrian activated his Mana Zone, "Garden of Judgment." The tension escalated, leaving Mrs. Bennett and the remaining conscious students in awe of the unfolding magical confrontation.