"There are quite a few wands here, all of these wands are of the best quality," Jack commented in amazement.
"Naturally," Thomas added. "The academy only provides the best, and all the wands are at least D-Rank or above."
"Starting off with D-Rank! Amazing."
"Shh," Thomas's voice dropped down to a whisper, "take a look at your student, I think she'll be able to connect with a strong one."
The two looked at her with expectant eyes, filled with childlike curiosity.
At least they stopped bickering, and what do I do here? Nichole looked around confused.
The room had multiple wands floating around. The wands unlike normal weapons pick the user, but there have been cases of users dominating wands too.
"Try to feel their presence," Jack yelled from behind.
His voice echoed through the large empty room, the rooms empty because the other class had already picked their weapons.
Thomas winced at the sudden outburst, "Ouch, can you do that away from me."
His voice despite the yelling calmed her down, I don't why there are so many bad rumors about him.
Nichole extended her right hand as she closed her eyes, everything around her wrapping up in darkness.
I can feel it, the darkness vanished, dots of light appeared. These must be the wands, blue dots, and a few white dots, now try calling one of them.
The wands all began emitting mana slightly. The emittance was very faint, that Jack could only barely sense it.
"They're all resonating with her," Jack spoke, his voice a faint hum.
"All of them!" Thomas couldn't hide his excitement.
"Yes, when a wand is being picked, they emit a small amount of mana, but all the wands around her are giving off the same amount of mana," Jack eyes focused on her, "the wands are fighting for dominance."
"She could have been a good magic swordsman," Thomas sighed, "manakai, why did she choose that?"
"Are you saying Manakai is a bad path?"
"It is, isn't it? From what I saw against your fight, you were in between on both spell casting and martial arts."
"Exactly what I was thinking, why is Miss Shia causing a fuss over me?" Jack asked, his voice filled with innocence.
"For one you're a Six-Star, and I'm not a mage, but maybe she liked the quality of your spells, but I have to admit your spells casting was slow, and the sword, you've got it mixed up with other weapons."
"I guess I do have a few bad habits," Jack tugged at his collar.
"A few!?" Thomas gasped. 'You have a damn mountain."
"And Miss Shia, she isn't even giving me privacy, she was there in my bathroom this morning telling me she wanted to give me a bath personally."
"Ah," Thomas chuckled. "It's the final stages of obsession, you're stuck with her forever, it was the same for me in the beginning too."
"She came into your bathroom?"
"Yes."
"While bathing?"
Thomas's cheeks flushed red from the memory, indicating something far deeper than a normal bath. Jack's cheeks flushed along with his, understanding what he meant.
"Eww," Jack backed off in mock disgust, "I didn't need to know that."
The room lit up, Nichole stood there with a wand in her hand. It was a small white one, it vibrated before growing up into a four foot long staff.
CLAP CLAP
Jack walked towards, whole Thomas clapped his hands, congratulating Nichole.
"It's a C-Rank short staff, if you want it to go back to its wand form, close your eyes and imagine," Jack advised.
"Yes, sir," Nichole nodded, closing her eyes and focusing. After a few seconds the wand went back to its original size.
"The short wand lets you cast spells with short incantations, while the staff mode lets you use larger spells while cutting down on a few of the incantations, but be aware, the staff mode drains your mana when using spells."
"Thank you professor," she nodded.
"Why so stiff, loosen up a bit, both of you," Thomas interjected.
"I can't really loosen up after what you just told me," Jack replied flatly.
"Hey, that was nothing," Thomas put his hands over Jack's shoulders gripping him in, "I sure even worse stuff will happen to you."
Jack's eyes caved in at the thought. He could feel the imminent dread that laid in wait for him.
Still not fighting, I guess they made up, Nichole let out a small chuckle.
"It seems the kids are all gathered around at the training grounds," Thomas said.
"Can I go there professor?" Nichole tugged at Jack's sleeve.
"Oh, feel free to do so, it'll be a good learning chance."
"Thank you sir," Nichole nodded as she ran off excitedly.
"Should we join her?"
"Why not?"
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"You ready," Finn posed, holding up his gun in fashion.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Aileen positioned herself.
"Well, let's begin..." they began counting since there was no referee.
"Three..." Finn said.
"Two..." Aileen continued.
"One..."
"Begin," Finn shouted.
Aileen lunges forward, chanting, "Agility," her speed increasing, appearing before Finn within a second.
RFE, and focus the mana on your feet imagining a springboard, just as Aileen appeared before him, Finn shot back a few meters at unbelievable speeds.
He pointed his gun at her, feeling the trigger and pulling it once, firing a shot at her, but it bounced off a hexagonal white barrier which she had casted.
"Shield," Aileen chanted. "Is that all Finn?" she taunted.
"No, I'm just getting started," his gun shimmered blue as he poured mana into the black pistol.
"Mana infused bullets?" Aileen scoffed. "That's going to drain you pretty fast."
"Who cares," Finn retorted with a no nonsense tone, but his thoughts were different. Damn, this thing is hard to use, let's try what the old man taught me, align the three cores and use the output to...
Nichole entered the training ground only to see the ongoing duel and the large crowd around. She tries to stand on her heels to look at the match.
Finn surprises everyone by taking a step back and throwing the gun at her with full force.
"Huh, shield," she chanted, while maintaining her composure.
The gun bounced off her shield just like the bullet before falling to the ground. But during the short gap, she had failed to notice Finn running straight for her.
"What the hell is he doing, is that how he uses a gun?" Donatello sighed, placing his hands on his head.
His fist glowed deep white as he swung his fist onto her shield smashing it apart, the particles of the shield scattered.
Aileen raised her hand ready to cast another spell, "Ember," a small ball of fire forming on her palm.
But before she could cast the spell, Finn puts his hand in front of the spell and begins chanting, "By the frost: Emit," a shot of energy scatters shutting off Aileen's spell, and freezing her hand.
Aileen quickly pulls back, noticing Finn catching a breath. "No fair, that's not how you use a gun," she complained.
"You're pretty good," Finn clenched his fist and pulled. In a moment's gap, the gun that was on the ground came flying into his hands.
"What was that?" everyone gasped in surprise.
"Telekinesis?"
"Huh," Aileen gasped in surprise, "how did you do that?"
"A little tricks of my own," Finn grinned, looking down at the pistol in his hand wrapped around in blue strings connected to the threads wrapped around his fingers.
"Strings..." Jack murmured, watching the fight unfold from the balcony.
"The boy picked a gun? I was thinking of making him my disciple, he looked like had potential," Thomas who was leaning on the rail, spoke.
"Why do you want to make everyone you see your disciple?"
"I don't simply say that to everyone I see, but these two I just saw had talent, I could feel it."
"Well, Finn was able to use the first form of the Black Winter Swordsmanship."
"Black Winter? Is that yours?"
"Yep, but then again it's an art made by someone incompetent," Jack replied in mock.
"Forgive me Jonathan," Thomas chuckled, "I wasn't trying to make you angry or anything."
"Whatever, but why did he pick a gun? He doesn't seem to know much about it?"
"You do?" Thomas asked skeptically.
"Actually, yes, I used guns and bows, I was quite the master at it," Jack's chest swelling in pride.
"Guns and bows?"
"When I received enlightenment, I realised the two aren't fundamentally different, but their difference lies in the core."
"What are you blabbering about?"
"I can't explain it, it's this feeling you can't explain, it's similar to how you can't explain the difference between me and you, when we are the same."
"We aren't the same."
"I was just using an analogy, but you hurt me."
...
"I guess it's time to use this gun properly," Finn pointed it at her, his finger tugging at the trigger while the gun glowed blue.
"Shield," Aileen cast her shield, waiting for Finn's strike, she knew she had to strike Finn right after the shot.
BANG
A blue beam of light shoots off the gun, striking the barrier and breaking it apart, the bullet falling down after losing momentum.
Aileen maintains her composure and tries to cast another shield but notices Finn wasn't shooting because something was wrong with his gun. This is my chance.
"The gun's lodged because he threw it earlier," Jack said.
"Well, the gunmaster should teach him how to shoot straight," Thomas commented.
Woah, the boy filled the gun with mana and shattered the shield with one bullet and even used mana strings to make threads, Nichole looked at Finn in wonder, and the girl isn't half bad, her casting speed is fast, but the boy is just stronger.
Finn gritted his teeth in frustration, Shit, I shouldn't have thrown the gun, now it's not working properly, he cried internally, putting the gun back into the Holster, and putting up his hands, "I give up."
"That fast?" Aileen raised an eyebrow.
Finn rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, my fault. I'm sorry for the short match."
"Boss," Donatello walked towards him, "you shoot with a gun, not shoot a gun."
"Yeah, I'm sure I jammed the gun's mechanism, it's not working any more, here look," he pointed it at the ceiling and pulled the trigger.
BANG
"It's working just fine," Aileen replied as she jumped back, scared.
...
"Hey, I'm sorry about all the harsh things I said earlier," Thomas spoke in a low voice.
"It's alright, I was also pretty insensitive," Jack brushed it off.
Thomas raised his hand, "Well, as an apology, I'll buy you dinner."
"Oh, really?" Jack looked at him, the topic piquing his interest. "Then do I get to pick what we eat?"
"Feel free to choose."
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"Woah, this scan feature is awesome, I feel like a pervert," Daniela chuckled.
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