--- Ria
Ria was one of the candidates chosen by the Mage Association, along with others, including Litz.
The surroundings were familiar, as they were back in the coliseum where they had the tournament.
They were then addressed by a cloaked woman with a blue robe.
"All of you have shown exceptional potential as mages, either through sheer power, or wit. That is why you are invited to become official mages of the country, from here, you can either continue academy as normal, or start learning practical skills with us." The robed figure announced.
No one that made it this far even considered staying in the academy over being true mages.
The main reason was, of course, that it would bring prestige to their respective families if they became powerful mages, excluding Ria, of course.
"You can call me Raze." She added.
"What exactly do you mean by practical skills?" Litz asks.
"Dealing with beasts is just part of the job. Academy may have shown you how to form a basic attack, but the creativity to come up with new attacks under pressure is what will define your strength. We're going to be working on your weaknesses here." Raze answered.
"Weaknesses? What weaknesses? I'll deal with everything by myself!" Rulio, the more arrogant of the group announced.
"Your personality is your weakness, you're not even all that. Don't forget how you lost the tournament..." Raze mocked, as the other selections laughed.
"It's not my fault the orphan here is so freakish..." He grumbled.
"Hey! Don't call Ria freakish, she's just better than you!" Litz interjected.
"No, no, he has a point... She needs more than just overpowered flame spells to get very far. Casting fireball at 200% power isn't going to solve every problem." Raze continued, "And that is why we are here. Each one of you will be facing a Komainu that has had its claws and fangs removed."
"So it's just going to be a monster? That's no big deal!" Rulio pridefully announced.
"No, they will each be tailored to your specific weaknesses, not every monster can be overpowered, not every monster can be defeated by tricks, and not every monster will fight only with strength. Ria, you're up first!"
Out of all the other candidates, Ria was the most carefree.
Everyone else was focused on success, either for themselves or their family's standing as nobles.
While Ria only cared about impressing Lava and receiving praise.
"Release the first beast!" Raze called, moving everyone but Ria away and telling them not to interfere.
Out came a large beast that was a mix between a lion and a dog.
It has a powerful looking mane and slightly red tinted fur.
Ria wasn't the brightest fighter, so the first thing she did was cast
Raze was already facepalming, not knowing what else she expected.
The Komainu roared while lunging forward, getting hit directly with the fireball and taking no damage.
Then she tried
The beast was already in range to strike, and almost at the point to require intervention.
"
Raze perked up slightly thinking there was hope for her after all, but the reality was that she was just copying what she heard Liza could do.
"Komainu retain the ferocity of a normal beast while being easy to train and adaptable to our needs. As you can see, this one was raised specifically to be fire resistant."
Litz was the next to go, but his opponent was dedicated to complete strength.
Given his known weak Mana pool, he was not expected to win like Ria, as all Ria had to do was use anything other than a flame attack.
Litz tried to substitute raw power with efficiency and wits during the tournament.
As his Komainu rushed him, it roared wildly and sent glowing slashes hurtling towards him.
Contrary to his normal style, he cast
Raze was surprised at Litz suddenly being able to cast such a powerful attack spell.
Until recently he barely had enough Mana to be on par with other nobles, and now he's performing above average.
The only reason he was a candidate for this was because of his judgement in the tournament.
He had the perfect mindset for a mage, but lacked the power to fully use it. Or at least that's what she thought.
Raze didn't have high expectations, since what more could the country expect to get out of what are basically kids?
--- Saer
"My lord, about that dragon..." An advisor began.
"What about it?" Lord Saer asked.
Advisor: "It seems the subjugation has been canceled by the guild."
"What? Why?" Saer demanded, slightly troubled.
Advisor: "It seems the dragon managed to register as an adventurer itself, with the help of another high ranking adventurer."
Saer: "Fine, who was this adventurer?"
Advisor: "A reputable swordswoman called Raine."
Saer: "I suppose it's no longer my problem. Though it sure would have been nice to have a dragon under my command."
Advisor: "If it's not out of line for me to ask, why did you bother attacking that village in the first place?"
Saer: "The church has known about the foretold demon invasion for a while now, trying to unite the world to fight together. But to me, installing religion does nothing but damage the critical thinking skills needed to use magic effectively. Real strength comes from the pen, not the scepter. The pen can summon armies with a swipe, but the use of such a versatile weapon requires ammunition- money!"
--- Lava
After returning to the village and certainly not telling Gramps what we did on the way back, I wanted to work on my ability to fight with transformation active.
Relying on magic and brute force makes me half as effective when I'm transformed.
Granted, most dragons solve everything with magic and brute force, but they don't need to transform like I do.
That's why I asked Raine to teach me how to use a sword.
"You're a little young to be fighting, even for a dragon. Are you sure you need to know this? I'm not all that great with a sword myself if it wasn't for magic, why don't you just dedicate yourself to magic?" Raine tried to dissuade me like Gramps would.
"I don't want to be helpless if I can't use magic..." I vividly remember barely winning against bandits because of that.
I'm not so great with a sword, but I can feel where attacks are coming from well enough to avoid everything.
"You're already good enough at this to be equal with most people, you just have sloppy movement, but also natural mastery of combat sense that isn't easy for humans to achieve."
"Combat sense? What is that?" I asked.
"It's like Mana perception without sight, it's harder to use but it can almost seem like precognition in battle. I have to take these two back, but I think I can come back to show you some tricks sometimes."
Raine is such a helpful adventurer, hopefully she teaches Taz and Chase well so they don't get hurt.