After the whole debacle in the cafeteria, all of the second-year students were called to head towards the training arena. We were directed to all gather along the canopy of connected skywalks. Once there, we were met by a person dressed in a long trench coat and wearing a Fedora. A tag on his trench coat identified him as, "Himitsu". He was leaning back against a railing, standing in the center of all of the connected skywalks, on a glass circle that seemed to just be floating in the air. It wasn't connected by anything obvious, and so the only answer that I could come up with, was that it was a product of magic. Or maybe even excellent engineering.
After almost a full minute of silence, Himitsu pushed off of the railing, and finally began to speak. "Thank you all for gathering here. As I'm sure you've already guessed, this is the schools training arena." He stretched out his arms in an encompassing gesture. "Not only is it extremely large and beautiful, but also...." He reached out a hand into the air, before closing it into a fist. Instantly, a massive bolt of lightning was called down from the sky and crashed straight into ground with immense force. This sudden use of a very powerful magic spell startled more than a few students, including Erika, who was still half asleep right next to me. Once the debris cleared, we could see that the training field was completely unscathed. That massive bolt of lightning was the equivalent of throwing a foam ball at a mountain.
"It may have seemed like the ground wasn't affected at all, but what had really happened was that the damaged ground was reconstructed instantly! Impressive right? This goes for pretty much all of the environment here. This is where most of the actual use of magic will take place, or 'The fun stuff.'" He had said it in an over-the-top tone and even put up finger quotes, which just looked really unnatural. "Inside of this training arena, we will hold examinations of magic abilities, practice situations, and most importantly...MOCK BATTLES!"
Those last words were able to get a reaction out of the students. Battles? Inside of a massive, beautiful arena? Not to mention and indestructible one? Sign me up! was the probably the thought that went through most of the student's mind. Himitsu seemed to take a look at his watch. "Thats all you really need to know for now, as most of the activates involving this arena are going to be left up to your teachers to coordinate. However, seeing how it's the very first day of school, and we still have a good chunk of time left, how about we hold some mock battles right now? Any volunteers?"
Nearly a hundred hands shot up. Pretty much everyone gathered around her right now wanted to participate. Everyone except for me. When Erika noticed that I hadn't put my hand up, she tried to force me to. I didn't even try to resist, as I knew it would be to no avail, and instead, began to pray that I wasn't chosen. "Hmmm? There sure are a lot of enthusiastic students here. Who to choose, who to choose?" After around 30 seconds of contemplation, Himitsu finally seemed to come to a decision.
"You! Brown curls!" He pointed directly at Nova. She began to crack her knuckles, and I could tell she was excited. "And You! Golden bracelet." He pointed to a girl who was really tall and had short black hair that stopped around her nose level. She wore a multitude of shining gold bracelets on either hand, as well as large leather boots that rocked jewelry of their own.
I turned to Erika. "Know who that is?"
Erika nodded with a dejected expression on her face. "How could I not. Thats Aura. Her families pretty high ranking and has ties to some of the 10 grand magic families. I'm pretty sure she's European or something."
Someone who's family has ties to some of the 10 grand magic families was no joke. The 10 grand magic families were 10 households who produced generations of extremely strong and competent magicians. Their roots could be tied back to some of the very first users of magic in history, and because of that lineage, they are considered "Royal Families." "You seem like you really don't like her. Is there a reason or-"
"Don't ask dude. Just watch the fight." I promptly dropped the subject without further pressure.
By this point, Nova and Aura had made it down into the arena and faced off against each other. There was about 700 feet of distance that separated the two, and standing in the direct center of them was Himitsu. He had his right hand raised into the air. "You guys will have five minutes to fight." He took one glance and Nova, and then one glance at aura, before bringing his hand down in a downwards arc and shouting, "BEGIN!"
As soon as the battle commenced, Aura began by pointing a finger gun at Nova and firing a massive beam of magic that consumed everything in front of it. It traveled much faster than the speed of sound and was the size of a literal train. As the massive blast of magic made contact, it generated a large amount explosion that launched a building size plume of smoke straight into the air. In the next moment, a wind spell was cast that instantly dispelled the smoke, revealing Nova standing there, unscathed, her curls bobbing and blowing in the wind, and a smile on her face.
"OOWW." The watching crowd let out their reactions as the first exchange of the battle occurred.
"Despite the strength and speed Aura's attack, Nova's standing there completely unperturbed, with a daring smile on her face!" Himitsu was sitting on the railing of one of the sky walks, commentating.
Aura looked at Nova, unimpressed. In the next second, Aura dashed towards Nova, leaving a crater in the ground from where she leapt off from. She aimed a punch directly for Nova's chest, which Nova blocked both of her forearms. The ground beneath them instantly began to crack and shatter, and debris was kicked into the air. Winds also began to swirl around them. Aura let one of her legs touch the ground, and then used it to twirl and bring the other one around for a side kick too Nova's face. Nova dodged cleanly by simply leaning back into a flip. Aura did not let up though, and she chased Nova down, continuing to throw punches and kicks. Nova continued to block and dodge.
"An up close and personal showdown! It seems these to ladies are going mano a mano!"
"Nova's strong, but definitely not physically stronger than someone like Aura. So, she's playing this more on the defensive until she gets the chance to use a powerful magic ability and take her down in one hit!" Erika explained Nova's strategy.
"That strategy hinges on her ability to continue taking these attacks from Aura, and who knows how much longer she can do that for?" I pointed out the obvious flaw in that strategy. Depending on how long it took for Novas huge final attack to be ready, it could already be too late.
"Oh, but Nova is one strong little gal. That is one thing I know for sure." Erika said those words with absolute confidence.
After dodging another kick from Aura, she used it as a chance to grab her leg and flip her upside down. She was preparing to follow up with a punch to the gut, however Aura was quicker, already charging up another beam of magic to be fired, even as she was upside down and flying throw the air. The massive beam fired, and Nova just barely managed to move her head out of the way to avoid it. However, instead of just smashing into the ground and exploding, the beam instead split into multiple smaller balls that began to fly towards Nova like homing missiles. Nova instantly jumped into a series of back handsprings and flips and twirls to avoid the attacks, watching as they exploded all around her. Aura dashed through the smoke caused by the explosions, which give her enough time and cover to catch Nova off guard, allowing her to land a vicious blow to Nova's left side, which sent her flying across half of the arena, only coming to a stop after hitting a tree.
Another large cheer from the crowd. "OHH! Ladies and gentlemen, the first blow of the battle has been landed, and it goes to Aura!"
A few more of those and she'll definitely be out for the count.
Aura dashed towards Nova, preparing to follow up with a viscous combo. It was a pretty perilous situation all things considered. However, Nova looked up and once again, she smiled.
At the same time, Erika seemed to smile as well.
"She's all set up." I murmured to myself as I connected the dots. I looked up in the sky. There, you could see what seemed to be the light of something falling back down to earth. I could sense the faint magical energy of that thing begin to grow as it got closer and closer. By this point, everyone else had seemed to notice it.
"Folks! What is that in the sky! Is it a bird? A plane? Or wait! Could this be the magic spell that Aura had launched at the beginning of the battle!"
That was indeed what it was. At the beginning of the battle, when Nova seemed to have face tanked Aura's blast, what she had actually done was deflect it and send it straight into the air, using the smoke as a diversion. Now, it had come back down just in time to save her. I didn't know how high the barrier extended, but it was safe to assume that she let it reach that limit, before curving it back down to the battlefield.
The beam began to pick up speed and it seemed that it would crash down just at the same time Auras first blow would land. In bated breath, the crowd watched as the massive beam of magical energy was about to make contact. From where I was standing, I could see Nova mouth the words, "Supernova." Which was undoubtedly badass.
Just as the move was about to hit her, Aura pulled her hand away from the punch, and instead use it to cast a defense spell to block the magical attack. The force of the blow pushing against Aura's defense spell caused massive amounts of wind to be kicked up, and the ground around them to be shredded and cratered completely. However, the attack seemed like it was too strong and was about to overpower her. Just before the magic spell tore through her defense spell completely, she closed her hands, and the entire magical spell was altered, transforming into a sword.
"UNBELIVIABLE! Aura has just regained control of her magic spell!"
Aura then turned to Nova, and began to aim a slash for her when-
Himitsu intervened, declaring the five minutes over.