The final student to face Seraphine was Clark, another ten-year-old boy but unlike the others who were skilled in combat, Clark was quite known for his movement techniques.
As soon as he heard Sir Roland's announcement, Clark immediately moved to circle his opponent.
'Alright…'
Seeing that her opponent was not approaching her, Seraphine moved first.
'Let's see what you can do…' She thought.
Soon, her sword struck Clark's sword...
Pah!
It was a test to see how tightly Clark was holding his sword. Seeing that the sword was not disarmed easily, Seraphine controlled her attack speed.
This time, Clark sidestepped to dodge and perfectly avoided the attack. The exchange between the two continued for a minute and the crowd watched in awe as Clark was able to somewhat dodge Seraphine's strikes and even display some well-timed deflections and counters.
At one point, Clark even tried to copy Hayden's movement and feinted to the left, then spun to the right, and delivered a quick strike aimed at Seraphine's body.
Unfortunately, his sword could only hit the air… At the very least, his attempt was met with a nod of approval from the Knight Candidate.
"You're a clever one…" Seraphine muttered as she decided to end the match.
In just a couple more moves, a quick thrust disarmed Clark, ending the match.
"You have a good footwork… If you train hard, you'll be fine even in the outside world."
Clark smiled as he felt more confident with his talent. "Thank you, Lady Seraphine. I'll keep improving."
As the examination came to an end, Lady Seraphine addressed the students.
"Today, you've all shown great potential… The result of the examination will be announced two days later." she said while looking at everyone's faces.
"Whether you passed or not, remember that this is just the beginning. Becoming an Apprentice earlier than others in your age, should not make you lazy! Keep training, keep improving, and one day, you may stand among the ranks of the Knights."
The students cheered as their spirits were lifted by her words.
Hayden, Rufus, and other top-performing students exchanged glances, as they knew now the rivals within their generation.
***
The next morning, Hayden ate breakfast with his servant before going back to his training routine. There were no classes today so they were able to go around the Academy.
After an hour in the training yard, Hayden walked through the bustling halls of the Academy and his Ocularis Lens scanned the environment as usual.
As he was on his way to visit the Forge, along the way, he noticed groups of students huddled together.
As he checked them, he realized that they were discussing the latest edition of the Dawnspire Newspaper.
'Newspaper… Right, I haven't read any of them yet.' Hayden thought as he decided to pick one up.
The newspaper was actually free as long as they read it near the administration room.
Of course, these newspapers weren't issued daily but weekly.
Hayden only heard that it was known for its detailed coverage of events across the Austere Kingdom.
Today's edition, however, was particularly fascinating, with several alarming headlines dominating the front page.
The biggest was "Magical Beasts on the Rise!" followed by "Evil Magician Sightings" and a small headline about "Top Mercenaries Making Waves".
These three headlines on the front page certainly attracted a lot of students.
'Let's see…' Hayden muttered as he started reading the news.
The first article detailed the increasing sightings of magical beasts near the western borders of the kingdom. According to the article, villages in the western region had reported attacks by Three-Core Black Wolves and Five-Core Scaled Serpents, creatures that were rarely seen in such numbers.
As Hayden was reading, he heard the other students worrying about it as well.
"This is bad," one student muttered, his face was pale as he read the article. "If the magical beasts are getting more active, it's only a matter of time before they start targeting my hometown. "
Another student shook her head. "The Knights will do something about it. We can just sit here and wait for good news."
"It's not like that! Do you think they will mobilize a Knight for such a simple matter?" Another student said.
Anyway, Hayden's Ocularis Lens recorded the details of the article, storing the information for future reference. He made a mental note to research more about the magical beasts and their behavior. It was a bit that information about magic beasts was limited within the library.
Hayden then shifted his focus to the second article about the Evil Magician.
It reported sightings of an Evil Magician in the northern region called Bloody Mary, a figure long thought to have been defeated. The Evil Magician was said to be gathering followers and causing chaos in remote villages.
"Evil Magician… I wonder if this person can be killed by Aura Knights as well." a younger student whispered.
It was common knowledge that Aura Knights were weaker against Magicians. Magicians were capable of using invisible sorcery, curses, elements, and other tricks that could not be blocked by sword or aura.
Unless they were able to catch a Magician off guard when they weren't wearing magical items to protect them, it was hard to kill them.
The student's question was obviously met with silence…
However, Hayden, who was listening to their conversation, was silent because of excitement. For some reason, the existence of magicians excited him. It felt like he was getting closer to these mysterious and powerful figures of this world.
He wanted to meet them!
"But that should happen once I've gotten a bit stronger." Hayden reminded himself.