When all the students were gathered, a middle aged man in an all gray suit and a white dress shirt stood out to address the students. Nick knew who this middle aged man was.
"Good morning students, my Name is Ray Menzes of the enforcement office. I am here today acting as the chief invigilator for this exam venue. Let me explain what you will be doing here today. The exam will take the form of one on one battles that will conclude if a student becomes incapacitated or a time limit is reached or an invigilator feels that the match needs to be stopped for whatever reason that they find worthy. The rules of the match are simple: defeat your opponent within the time limit without killing or permanently crippling them. Now, let me warn you of that latter part, If a student purposely kills or permanently cripples another in this exam, that student will be immediately executed on my authority. These rules are in place with the thought: it is better not to clip the flowers before they have had time to bloom. The purpose of this exam is to show off your magical prowess to the judges observing the match so that they can give you a biased but rational evaluation, nothing more. Each match will take place in one of the rooms in this building and all at the same time with a time limit of one hour. Don't worry, there are more rooms in this building than are plainly visible so you will definitely be assigned one. Each match will have two Regular Magician judges who will be watching at all times until the match is concluded. You have twenty minutes to prepare before you are each randomly teleported to a room with your opponent. That is all."
When he finished speaking Ray Menzes disappeared as if he was never there.
(No wonder I didn't see him after he entered the orientation hall on the first day, it seems that he can make himself imperceptible. Whatever...I'll be doing cooler things than that with my magic someday.)
Nick went to the side and took out his holstered scrolls. He attached two sets of attack scroll onto his two forearms, one on each arm and attached his movement and defense scrolls to his thighs, movement on the right and defense on the left. Some students looked over at Nick's weird accessories probably due to the magic energy that was being attracted to the scrolls. Nick didn't know how well his scrolls would do against another students spells but he had great hopes that the intensity of the magic that the scrolls attracted wasn't just empty flash. Some students seemed to want to talk to Nick about his scrolls but they decided against it due to the current circumstance.
(Well...at least they can read the room.)
It might be because Nick was very perceptive towards the mood changes of others, when Ray Menzes finished his speech the temperature in the room dropped by a few degrees, figuratively of course, everyone became on edge, eyeing each other warily. Even those that acted like best of chums before were smiling at each other awkwardly now.
(That's probably typical in a situation like this. Competition often brings out the worst in most people.)
When the preparation time was over, Nick suddenly felt light on his feet and then the entire scenery in front of him changed from that of the main hall to a closed room with a raised concrete stage and three other people sitting at the far right of the stage. There was a flash of light at the opposite end of the stage and another student appeared.
"Hmmm...this student looks familiar...oh!"
Nick couldn't help but be surprised, it was his neighbor Don Bartholomew. Nick hadn't seen him in a while because he hardly left his room in the last few months. Don looked almost the same except that he's more muscular now compared to a few months ago. Nick didn't notice him in the sea of students earlier. When Don saw Nick he gave a smug smile and spoke:
"Well...if it isn't my quiet neighbor, Nick Capitol. I haven't seen you in a long time, man. Looks like you've been holing yourself up in your room this entire time but haven't made any real progress. Did you know, a lot of the girls in our dorm are talking shit about you behind your back because apparently you are the only one in our year that has not formed a mindscape yet, they say that they are embarrassed for you. Don't you worry though, I took some revenge for you by fucking some of them real hard. Some of them even had some really tight pussies, I almost hurt myself a few times in your defense bro. Be a pal and just be my punching bag so that I can look good in front of the Regular Magicians"
Nicked scrunched his face and raised his eyebrows when he heard that.
"I really don't like the way you talk."
"Ha, ha."
Don laughed and shrugged his shoulders in response.
One of the three people sitting at the side of the stage spoke, he was a man that looked to be in his early thirties and was wearing an all black suit with a white dress shirt:
"My name is Frank Wright and I will be your invigilator for this exam. The two gentlemen to my left are Regular Magicians that will act as judges for the match, you do not need to know their names. The match begins in one minute. Please get on the stage and get ready."
Both Nick and Don followed Frank's instructions and took their place at opposite ends of the stage. Nick purposely stood exactly opposite to Done and when one minute had passed, Frank shouted:
"Begin!"
Don immediately clasped is hands and after releasing them, four soccer ball sized fireballs appeared above him, glowing orange-red. Don chuckled and spoke:
"Ha, Ha, although I'm not sure what magic scrolls you have attached to your arms and leg, I know that you come from a poor background so you definitely couldn't afford to buy top quality ones to compensate for having no magic of your own so I'm sorry for what's about to happen."
After giving a hypocritical speech Don willed for the four fireballs to approach Nick's position at high speed. Even as Don was speaking Nick reached for a scroll on his right thigh. As soon as he held it, the entire scroll crumbled into dust, as the four fireballs were about to reach Nick, there was a blue flash of light and when it disappeared so did Nick. At the moment the fireballs hit Nick's previous position with the concrete at that position being scorched black from the heat, Don noticed a shadow come over him and he raised his head slightly, with wide opened eyes he saw Nick in mid-air above his head. Nick, remembering the movements of Ron Varrow in his first combat class grabbed Don by the head and used his momentum and gravity to push Don's face hard into the concrete, Nick now being low to the ground, holding down Don's head said to him flatly:
"You talk too much."
After that Nick quickly removed his hand and grabbed another movement scroll from his right thigh and as he willed, it crumbled, there was a flash of blue light and when it disappeared Nick was at his initial position.
One of the Regular Magicians who was reclining in his chair actually stood up as soon as Nick got back to his initial position. Frank and the other Regular Magician also looked surprised.
Nick stood calmly but was inwardly excited.
(Shit, that actually worked so perfectly. My movement spell 'Great Circle' is based on the principles of spherical geometry. All spheres have an infinite amount of great circles which are circular planes that cut through the center of a sphere and they all meet at opposite ends of the sphere.My spell allows me to move myself along a great circle of an imaginary sphere that I dictate the size of towards the opposite end. The most special thing about this spell is that the imaginary sphere can take shape ignoring the obstacles in the way such as the walls or even the concrete stage that we are standing on as long as I don't attempt to move through any solid objects. This spell was a pain to conceptualize and put into practice but thank God it worked. I purposely stood exactly opposite to Don for a chance to act once he let his guard down. Its a good thing he didn't move from his initial position when he cast that spell.)
Don raised his head from off the ground. There was blood coming out of his nose and his eyes shone with anger but realizing his loss just a moment ago, he decided to stand up and calm himself before making any more moves. Nick wasn't in a rush to fight directly with Don because the goal of the exam was to show off our magical prowess to the Magicians, not to have a heroic battle. Don took a deep breath in and began running towards Nick as if he had nothing to lose.
When Don had halfway closed the distance between him and Nick he yelled and stomped his right foot.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh, you ungrateful bastard, I tried to be civil but you don't know how to appreciate favors so take this, `Vulcan's Fissure`."
(Did he seriously yell out his spell's name like what they do in an anime. Is this guy retarded?)
The ground cracked at high speed moving towards Nick; a powerful blast of fire moved along with the growing crack and even though Nick ran to the side trying to dodge the attack, it change trajectory toward wherever he moved to so Nick decided to meet the attack head on. He quickly grabbed his defensive scroll from his left thigh and as he willed it the scroll crumbled just as his eyebrows were starting to be singed by the heat of Don's attack - that was how close Nick was to being hit. Don saw the strangest thing he had ever seen since coming to this academy, Nick met his attack head on but slid right past it, his attack making no contact and dispersing as it reached the end of the stage. Don's eyes were wide opened but he caught himself in his shock and ran towards Nick who was a lot closer to him than before. Don activated another spell, both his hands and forearms being enveloped in fire. Nick was so close to Don that he could feel the heat coming from the flames; Nick quickly grabbed another movement scroll from his right thigh and with a flash of blue light, he appeared in mid-air in front of and slightly above Don. Don couldn't believe it, his opponent was actually delivering himself to him to be burnt up.
(Maybe the heat from my spell made him go confused. No, that's not likely, this guy's scrolls are weird, I should end this quickly.)
Don swung both his fists towards Nick knowing that Nick couldn't dodge because he was still in mid-air, however, Nick already had a scroll in his hand by the time he appeared in front of Don. As Nick willed, the scroll crumbled and Nick used both his hands to grab Don's fiery fists. The smell of burnt flesh emanated from the stage when they made contact but then Don let out a loud shriek.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! What the fuck, my hands."
Don jumped backward freeing himself from Nick's grasp, he cancelled his spell unconsciously and started rolling around in agony. Don was in so much pain that he couldn't even think, both his wrists had somehow changed position, causing his palms to be facing the opposite direction of their normal position. Nick didn't want to waste anymore time because he is in great deal of pain himself, with his burnt palms, he tore another attack scroll and pounced on Don, this time grabbing his knees.
RRRIIIIIIIIIIPPPPP!
With a ripping sound Don's two knees along with his lower legs were twisted in the opposite direction. Nick quickly backed away to see Don convulsing in place from the pain. With that Nick felt a force that he couldn't resist push him softly off the stage while the invigilator appeared beside Don seemingly using magic to stop his convulsions and heal his injuries. Nick felt tired but satisfied, he almost didn't mind the stinging pain that was coming from his burnt palms and fingers.
(All of my magic scrolls worked well in the battle, the spell I used to defend against Don's Vulcan's Fissure is called `Parallel Pass` - it forces two figures into separate planes for a few moments resulting in them never 'meeting' during the duration of the spell. That's why it would seem to Don that I slid past his attack, because it came right at me but once my spell activated, it had no chance of crossing paths with me; the spell makes use of the principles of Euclidean geometry's parallel postulate. My other spell that I used to hurt Don so badly, I call `Rotational Change`. It's nothing complex, it uses the principle of transformational rotation to rotate whatever I touch by a certain amount of degrees above 20 degrees. I can't actually control the number of degrees of the rotation but lucky for me that both times were an almost 180 degree rotation. My spells aren't perfect but their effects helped me show off so I'm so proud of myself right now.)
Nick was truly glad in his heart. After the invigilator healed Don's injuries, one of the Regular Magicians appeared in front of Nick, cast a spell by raising his hands emanating a soft white light, healing Nick's burnt hands and demanded:
"Boy, you've got some interesting spells, be my, Devon Mason's disciple."
Nick looked squarely at this Magician and thought:
(Not this shit again.)