Eli

  While I had been happy for the little break from my studies, I was ready to return to class. I had been attacked twice, tortured once, and nearly killed on multiple occasions. The worst part was that every attacker had gotten off with little more than a slap on the wrist. I had seen each and every one of them at some time since then. Well, except for Professor Sabastian. He was barred from entering the academy.

  That was it. The only reason punishment was levied was probably his killing Professor Bennett. Walking out of the dorm building, I looked out over the circle our class had installed around the building. Professor Olivia and Professor Hill had walked the entire group through how to build it.

  The circle was a simple enchantment that took no skill or special materials. It could even be laid in sand or with salt. If that sounds familiar to you, it should. All of the stories about witches and salt circles have some basis in reality. Such a simple construct can block anyone from entering or exiting. It just depends on how it is invoked. In our case, someone invokes it right before bed.

  If you are stuck outside the circle at that time, then you have to get someone to let you in or find another place to stay. I had not had an issue with that, though. Somehow all of my class knew where I was at all times. In fact, a few of my classmates were stretching near the circle. Their bodies facing toward me.

  To be honest, it creeped me out whenever I thought about it. When I asked Joanne about it, she said, “You not only protected them from a bunch of mages, but you helped to summon an Angel. You should see the following Anne has. At least they are not calling you a saint or something.”

  So, I just ignored them as I got ready for class. Crossing the circle, I went to the field for my first class. Standing there was Professor Hill. As if my walking across the line had been the starting gun, the rest of the class walked out of the dorm.

  “Good morning,” Shouted Professor Hill. Even then, I could barely hear her, and I was near the front of the group. “I will be taking over for Professor Bennett. But don’t let the idea that my size means I couldn’t take any of you. The day that any one of you can beat me in any form of combat is the day I retire. Now, let us start with a light jog. Let's say, five miles?”

  With that, we started to run. She didn’t stand there watching. Professor Hill led the class down a few paths and around the entire campus before returning to the field. She repeated this with every exercise she made us do. Pushups? She set the pace as she cranked them out. By the end of class, each of us were sweating buckets. Her face was barely flushed.

  Racing into the dorm, I flew through a shower. With damp hair, I grabbed a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee from the cafeteria. Wolfing it down as I hurriedly walked back to the field. Standing in the middle was Professor Olivia.

  Seeing the class gathering, she said, “While I am happy you all survived the incident over break, I am unhappy with your performance. Was it an ambush? Yes. Should most of you have cowered and frozen up? No. Joanne was the only one who could develop and implement a plan. Now there is no way for me to teach you how not to freeze up. However, I can drill attacks and defensive spells into your head until it becomes second nature. Then you won't have to think when this happens again.”

  The class stayed quiet. We all knew just how close we had gotten to death. Seeing our determined faces, she continued, “With that being said, the academy competition will be starting at the end of this month. Each of you are required to participate in the combat portion. Your assignment until then is to attack Eli.”

  My eyes bulged upon hearing that. “What?” I said as others asked similar questions.

  She held her hand up. “Whenever you see him walking around, attack him. He will defend himself before returning an equal forced attack. So, pay attention to how powerful the spell is that you use. If you cannot defend against something as powerful, you probably should not cast it.”

  She turned to me, “Your defense is strong enough for this. I need you to work on reading incoming spells and modulating the power of your spells and your reaction time. As soon as you see their spell, you should be casting yours.”

  Taking a breath, I nodded. I would do anything asked if it meant getting stronger. The stronger I was, the less I would worry Alissa. While she had disappeared soon after I fell asleep, I could feel her in the distance. Nothing physical or even words, but a few emotions leaked through from time to time.

  Suddenly the professor smiled. My shield flared to life around me. Multiple spells peppered it from all sides. “Damn.” “I was hoping his shield was still down.” Came a few voices. I shook my head. I would never let this shield drop again if I had a choice.

  Pulling power from my core, I formed a few spells. Three really. The first was a normal light spell; only I was pushing enough power through it to shatter it right after the spell activated. The result would be a brief but intense flare of light. Basically, a flash bomb, just without the sound.

  With everyone blinded, my other spells would go to work. One was a simple water spell. Just powerful enough to knock a person onto their back and get them a little wet. That spell sat inside the third spell which copied it for every target I gave it. This had been one of the first complicated spells I had created on my own. The problem was that it only worked on simple spells. Four to five components max coupled with very little mana for activating it.

  Closing my eyes, I cast the flash bomb and waited until the spell ate itself. People around me cried out in surprise and pain. As soon as mana was unable to pass through, I opened my eyes and selected everyone as a target. Water flew up from where I held the spell.

  Splitting into multiple ping-pong-sized balls, the water flew at each person. The professor barely lifted a finger. I didn’t see her cast a spell but the ball targeting her twisted and turned toward me. Before it reached me, I cut it off. The rest of the balls reached their targets at that moment anyway.

  People cried out in annoyance as they were soaked. Smirking, I looked around. A few of them started to glow in various colors. My smirk dropped as I tried to figure out what was going on. Suddenly all five of them threw massive single-element spells at me. The only element missing was darkness.

  The ground under me opened up and filled with water. A pair of fireballs, one orange and the other gold, following me down. The combined heat of the two fireballs vaporized the water. Watching the steam, I noticed it swirling around the fireballs before flinging back at me. Whoever had cast those spells had coordinated well. None of the spells would have triggered my shield as they did not target me directly. Too bad for them I had turned my spell on full as I noticed the glow.

  My shield hit the ground first, jarring me to a hard stop. Sighing, I contemplated what spell I should use to return fire. I couldn’t use most of my typical spells because their spells were still attacking me. Until they stopped, I would be unable to take down the shield.

  Making up my mind, I started to form a spell in front of me. Something that would do absolutely nothing to anyone. In fact, it wouldn’t even target them, just their spell constructs. As soon as it was done, I braced myself before opening one of the shield hexagons that was against the ground.

  Steam trickled in along with the heat as my spell flew out and around my shield. Threads spooling out to latch onto each spell. Mana poured from the shield, through my spell, and into their constructs.

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  As the amount of mana in their massive constructs increased, they grew more intense. That was an expected side effect. I was aiming for the backflow that would occur as a result. In some ways, mana could be considered a fluid. What I was doing was similar to pressurizing one side and letting that pressure push the fluid around.

  Mana flowed up the spell path and into each of the castors. Almost instantly, they cut their connection to the spells. As a result, the only spell that vanished was the light spell. My lack of light mana meant I could not sustain it. Taking control of the other spells, I turned them on their castors.

  One person fell into a pit, another was drenched, a ball of fire chased a third, while the fourth and fifth were assaulted by howling wind. I had to smile as I remembered how little I could do when I first started casting magic. Holding one of these spells would have been nearly impossible, and now I was holding six extremely complex spells at one time.

  Casting a seventh spell, I used a column of wind to lift me up to the top of the pit as I canceled the other spells. Returning my shield to normal, I looked at the carnage around me. The grass was smoking in some areas, torn up in others. While I had torn up the field, I had ensured that the force wouldn’t permanently harm my classmates.

  Professor Olivia’s clapping drew everyone’s gaze to her. “Good first attempt. Keep trying.” For the rest of class, they took turns throwing spells at me. Both in groups and on their own. A few managed to hit me, though never directly.

  Finally, the professor dismissed us to head to our next class. “Welcome back. I think it is time we went over some relevant traditions and practices that the mage society as a whole follows.” Professor Perez started as he waved the door closed. “These range from holidays to events. One such event is nearly upon us. Can anyone guess what that event is?”

  “The academy competition?” Robert hesitantly said.

  “Correct. This event is how we determine where everyone is in terms of power and skill. That is why everyone is required to participate. In fact, your ranking will determine your future prospects and ranking. There have been cases of mages going from the slums to nobility. Even more rare is the opposite happening.”

  The professor turned and wrote out bullet points on the board. “The entire competition is designed to be typically finished in a week. However, we have more participants this year than usual, so it will likely take two weeks. Of that, the entire first eleven days will be the first-year brackets. After that, any mage may challenge any other mage for their position.”

  He finished writing on the board and pointed to them. “These are the rules for the competition. As you can see, they are fairly straightforward and loose.”

  ‘Do not set magic ahead of the competition. Artifacts and enchantments are allowed but must be deactivated up until the fight starts. Try not to kill your opponent. Do not target anyone in the audience. No outside interference.’

  The rules were pretty simple, though a bit annoying. If I wanted to use it in the fight, I would have to create the shield enchantment. The spell was just too slow to cast. No one was likely going to give me the time to do so.

  “There will not be an exception being made to these rules this year.” He said, looking directly at me. “It seems like most of the participants and council wish to see the shield spells limits. I recommend you finish an enchantment or find a way to cast the spell rapidly.”

  Nodding at that, I let my mind wander through the rest of the class. I spent time thinking about how I could change how I cast the spell. By the end of class, I had come up with nothing. Wandering down the walkways to the cafeteria, I decided to focus on something else.

  My defense with the spell was fairly strong, but my offense was lacking. I needed to come up with some spell that would not be affected by it. The barrier would stop mana from flowing in and out unless it was built into the shield. I didn’t want to have to cast a shield over and over with a different attack built in, so I would need something that would affect a target at a distance.

  A major issue with casting a spell that would have to pass an effect through the shield was that said shield could become solid at any time. That did make the shield great at stopping a physical attack, but it also stopped any forces from passing through. If not for that, I could maybe have used a high-pressure stream of water or fire as an attack.

  “What are you thinking about?” Janet asked. Her face was next to mine as she spoke into my ear. The whole group laughed as I jerked back in surprise and nearly fell off the bench. I had been so focused that I hadn’t even noticed when the table had filled up.

  Blushing, I answered, “I was trying to come up with some sort of attack that the shield wouldn’t stop. Something I could use.”

  “That isn’t a bad idea,” Robert said. “One of the things some people were thinking of doing was just hammering you until you gave up.”

  “You and a few of the guys were thinking of that,” Joanne said as she punched his shoulder. She must have put some force into the punch as he winced and rubbed at it.

  “If only you had light magic,” Janet said wistfully. “Some of the more powerful light magic spells can create something akin to lasers.”

  “Why has no one used such a spell against me yet?”

  “It eats more mana than every other high-powered spell.” Janet seemed annoyed at that fact. “Even if the entire class put all the mana we had into a single cast of that spell, we wouldn’t be able to activate it.”

  “Odd question, but what exactly did you do before all of this?” I asked her.

  “I worked in a research facility. Personally, I was an AI researcher, but we did have a few groups working on lasers. Mostly it was for weapons, but they also were looking into other applications. Though the problem always came down to power.”

  “Is that why you are able to create spells so easily?” Robert asked through a mouthful of cheesy noodles.

  Nodding, she said, “Spells are surprisingly similar to programming. They are linear, and some can even take in variables. Most don’t even realize it when they change the destination of a spell. Why else would a spell be able to chase a target? A fireball doesn’t have the ability to track anything, after all.”

  What she said made sense. I just had never thought of it before. “What exactly does magic do anyway?” Robert asked. “I mean, how does it generate effects? Does it create the phenomena or manipulate the forces around it to create the desired effect?”

  That question stumped me, but Janet seemed like she had asked the same question as she had an answer ready for him. “Both. It depends on the spell. Spells like the shield use mana to create the effect without relying on any other physical object or energy source. Theoretically, the shield will work even in space. As for spells like fireball, they use the mana to manipulate the air. Compressing it and heating it up.”

  I shook my head. There was no way we had enough energy in us to pull off some of those feats. I voiced my doubts. “How would we even hold enough energy inside us to pull off some of the spells I have seen?”

  “It’s not that you don’t have the energy for it. The mana is used to move energy around. If you were to completely isolate a room and measure the energy contained inside of it before and after casting a spell, it would be exactly the same. The energy will just be concentrated where the spell was cast.”

  “What about spells that call up physical objects?” Joanne spoke up. “Rocks don’t just float in the air, and the stones don’t lift off the ground.”

  “Ah, but dust does. If you watch the rock as it forms, you will see a thin cloud surrounding the spell. The same goes for water spells. That also means that it will be harder to cast such spells where those materials are not readily available.”

  “Like water in a desert,” I mumbled.

  Janet nodded at me before continuing, “My only issue is that I have no clue where mana comes from. It can easily manipulate the forces of nature, which shouldn’t be possible, and do so with complete control. We are talking about particle physics on a level humans couldn’t even accomplish in theory.” She took a deep breath to calm down. “But I think we got a bit off-topic. I have a few ideas that could help with casting spells through the shield. However, I would like to test them first.”

  “Sure,” looking down at Sàga to check the time, I rushed through the rest of my food. “Damn, our weaponry class starts in a few minutes.”

  Everyone rushed through their food, and we took off running for the field. As soon as I stepped onto the grass, the entire class launched spells at me. My shield stopped each spell with ease. The only issue was that it only covered me. My friends had been a few steps behind me and outside its protection. They were blasted back.

  Everything around me slowed to a near crawl as this happened. My mind racing. Furiously thinking through what just happened. Anger boiled inside of me as the spells stopped. The professor furiously casting spells to stop those still in the air as she raced towards us. The lull allowing my shield to drop as I pulled on the mana from the shield. Not thinking as I gathered as much as I could grab.

  Before I had a chance to release the ball of power, it vanished. A ripping sound reverberated through space as a massive chestnut-colored wolf bounded through. While she had been lying next to me, I hadn’t realized just how big she was until she stopped right in front of me. Her head reached my shoulders. She stood there facing the class with her chest rumbling.

  As fast as the world had slowed down, it sped back up. Pain flooded through my mana channels. On top of that, my head felt like it was being split open with a spike. A jackhammer pounding on it at full speed. Wobbling on my feet, I nearly fell to the ground. A furry back pushed against me, letting me lean on it as I regained my balance.