Ep 29. I Tend To Pick Favorites. (5)

  The archmage leaned his against his fist, sing the names of students on the dot at hand. A faint smile curved his lips, and his humming filled the otherwise quiet office.

  After years of witnessing the headmaster’s usual, ky attitude that choked the office from overwork, their pleased expression and lightened mood was nothing short of shog to his poor secretary standing by. Heck, his employer was even giggling like a child from time to time.

  “So a grand total of 14 students met the initial affinity threshold…fewer than what I’d expected, admittedly.”

  “An affinity scale of 90 is quite rare, headmaster. And…I think many students were rather intimidated that the sed portion of the exam was a mock duel against you.”

  “Haha! I do wish they wouldn’t be so intimidated. I’m but an old man nearing his retirement.”

  “…You ARE an archmage, headmaster.”

  “What meaning does that title carry? ‘Tis but a word attached to my name – without my approval at that. I’m but a simple researcher like any other academic.”

  “…”

  “Well, shall we be off then? It’s time to greet our most taleudents.”

  ? ? ?

  ‘…And it’s barely been an hour since he said that.’

  The secretary ched his eyes, turning away in respoo yet another explosion that enveloped the stage in smoke. Aside from the settling dust, a student’s heavy coughs and heaving breaths were the only audible sounds; they dearly held onto the staff in hand with shaking arms, standing behind a barrier spell that had taken the brunt of the impact.

  Oher side of the arena was a grinning headmaster. His blue overcoat was still perfectly ; his gloved hands were calmly folded behind his back, with one of them holding onto his e in a retively loose grip. A yellow stone was attached to his pendant – the same pendant that was being worn by the opposing student.

  “Oh? A splendid barrier! Splendid indeed. It’s rare to see lightning-aspected spells used in defensive ways.”

  “This is nothing. I still…!”

  “However, a mage must always remain vigint. We must always be thinking five – no, ten steps ahead.”

  As soon as the headmaster finished his sentence, another series of explosions burst forth from the floor beh the student, leaving the poor boy no room to react. When the smoke cleared for the sed time, shattered pieces of his kirium pendant dropped to the floor, its fragments bright blue from abs the spells that would’ve harmed the wearer.

  “Persevere in your endeavors. !”

  The defeated studereated from the stage after bowing to the headmaster, his expression mixed with regret and respect. His magic hadn’t even been able to reach the oppo.

  The secretary brought his peo the list in hand, crossing out yet another name. After a long sigh, he approached the stage to inform his employer:

  “Headmaster. student is…the st one. Zion.”

  The mage raised his eyebrows. That was the name of the student that had caused the entire examination to take pce – and being st on the list meant that they were the first oo pass the first portion, which he’d only heard so much about.

  ‘So this student is the perfect adapter that broke the sg device! My, I do look forward to seeing what they’re capable of.’

  Meanwhile, Patrick was sitting at the audience seats with several other students and instructors that had e to watch. While no audieickets had been sold for this particur event due to its abrupt execution, he’d still mao gain himself a seat as an enforcer on duty, tasked with making sure that ‘nothing got out of hand.’ Teically, anyways.

  Of course, nothing even came close to getting out of hand thus far. The duels had all been one-sided; the headmaster had never even been scratched yet. Patrick scoffed at how the duels had progressed thus far, gazing down on the mage standing in the arena.

  ‘I guess that’s only natural. Talented or not, they’re just first and sed year students…against an archmage.’

  Archmage Gio Dugrin. Headmaster of the Magistitute, and a mage that is said to be challenging the gates of the 10th circle. Every user of magic throughout the ti knew his name, and many aspiring mages looked to him as a role model. Whether these junior years were special or not, there was no way mere students could hope to test su individual in a duel.

  For students, that is.

  Patrick looked to the other side of the stage, towards the familiar figure climbing the small flight of stairs.

  He could still remember his little sibling’s admission exam: the boy had climbed the stage sweating his brains out, nervous and g in fidenow, the same sibling was stepping up to the stage once more, looking and behaving like a pletely different person – and obviously without a single hint of hesitation in their eyes.

  ‘Yeah…I don’t know if we t that as a ‘student.’ Don’t get hurt out there, buddy.’

  And while you’re at it, try not to hurt the headmaster either.

  The headmaster greeted his final challenger with a hearty chuckle.

  “A pleasure to meet you, Zion! As you know, my name is Gio Dugrin. You’ve been told of the rules, yes? Standing outside the stage parameters results in instant disqualification. All types of magic are allowed. Yoal is to shatter my kirium pendant, while proteg the one you’ve been given.”

  The dragonlord was indeed wearing the same yellow pendant herself, which had been given to her before the mock duels began. But she hadn’t paid hers any mind; for her, what mattered wasn’t how much the stone would protect her, but how much it’d protect her oppo. And so, Serenis seized the ce to properly quantify her estimate.

  “I have a question.”

  “Hm? Yes, do ask.”

  “This stone – how much mana it absorb?”

  “The kirium pendant? A 4th circle spell will be just about its limits.”

  “Only?”

  “Oh? ’Only’? Hahahaha! My, if you’re by any means worried of my safety, then I assure you that I will keep myself safe. Attack me to your heart’s tent.”

  “…Is that so? I appreciate it.”

  “Yes yes, as much as…hm?”

  Five distinct patches of mana began to crackle above the dragonlord. The headmaster’s ughter abruptly came to cease as his eyes made out the spells f above his challenger’s figure.

  A ball of fire.

  A streak of lightning.

  A diamond of ice.

  A spike of metal.

  And a rugged stone.

  Five separate spells of differing elements floated above the dragonlord’s head. Individually, they weren’t anything hy – but when Serenis held her hand outwards, the elements slithered across the air in response, beginning to fuse into a singur orb at her palm. A horrifying screeawed at the audience’s ears as the five elements violently resisted their fusion; several spectators had to cover their ears.

  “What is that thing?!...Is he using five different elements at once?!”

  “…A penta synthesis? From a first year?”

  Patrick watched the dragon in horrified silence, fixing the grip on his staff. A streak of cold sweat brushed his as the enforcer prepared to shield the audieh a barrier spell.

  ‘That’s not synthesis…that’s not even a spell, that’s just five different elements forcibly being pressed together. It’s an insanely unstable mass of mana!’

  Forcibly fusing different elements was only known as a guaranteed way to get a spell to explode on the caster; fusing five robably a guaranteed way to open a hellgate on the spot. As far as Patrick could tell, Serenis was on the verge of killing everyone in the area, herself included.

  trary to her spectators, Serenis remained indifferent about the unstable orb in her palm; she nontly made a tossing motion as the e mass uself across the air, leaving a steaming trail in its path towards the headmaster up ahead.

  Gio unfolded his arms, fixing the grip on his e. Once he firmed the trajectory of the ining mana bomb, a pitch-bck shadow engulfed the tip of his e that expanded into a bck, void-like rift in the air.

  A murky sinking sound reverberated from the rift as the dragonlord’s orb sank into the bed space. Onpletely absorbed, the rift closed up and disappeared. Only then did Patrick loosen the grip on his own staff, sighing in relief of the potential disaster that had passed.

  The archmage let out a nervous ughter. He was smiling, but it was no lohe fortable, id-back grin that it was before.

  “…My. You use some iing spells, Zion.”

  “Focus.”

  As the dragonlord curtly instructed the headmaster, Patrick could see her figure beginning to crad fade like a broken image. Moments after, she disappeared from sight.

  ‘A shrouding spell? Or-‘

  The enforcer’s eyes darted over to the headmaster. Just like he’d expected, Serenis’ figure flickered ience behind the archmage.

  “Hm!”

  Gio’s e drew a fiery arc across the air as he swiftly turned around, swinging his enfmed on into the student that had appeared behind him. Several spectatasped in surprise, watg the swing happen almost immediately as Serenis had appeared.

  “Did he just teleport? That fast?”

  “Not just that, the headmaster read the teleport!”

  “That’s what it takes to be an archmage, I guess…”

  Unfortunately, the e ly sliced through the dragonlord as her image seemed to once again flickered out of existence. Gio widened his eyes, watg his fming e ect to nothing but the floor below.

  “What? But how-“

  “Focus, child.”

  Serenis seemingly appeared out of the blue, once again behind the headmaster that had turned his back from the st swing. Her right arm was noticeably glowing in a faint blue light as she grabbed Gio’s overcoat, somehow managing to throw the archmage into the air single-handedly.

  ‘Reinfort?’

  Patrick clutched his head, wrag his brain to remember whether if he’d ever taught that to his little sibling – and he definitely hadn’t.

  Reinfort, by virtue of using mana, was teically ‘magic’ – and therefore, still within the realm of this exam’s regution. The problem hysical reinfort wasn’t a form of magic mages actually used. Reinfort was majorly used by hunters who couldn’t properly learal magic.

  Meanwhile, the spectating students gasped in surprise for a pletely different reason. They could uand an archmage reading someoeleport in split seds; what Serenis had just done, however, did not make any sense. Her image had flickered twi succession, and the archmage’s read had failed.

  “…Alright, now expin what happened.”

  “Two teleports?”

  “You know that’s not possible, right?”

  “Hell if I know then.”

  Patrick grimaced at the sight. There was no way a student would be able to follow that. Even an astute mage wouldn’t be able to tell without a careful examination.

  ‘The first teleport was just a moving illusion to distract him. While the headmaster was occupied with a teleported fake, she used a shrouding spell and walked the whole way...’

  Many intricate spells required plex preparation that could stret for hours or days; teleportation was one of them, and food reason.

  What would happen if a mage were to actally teleport into aing terrain? The overp would instantly split their bodies into tless pieces and kill them. Even with a small miscalcution, one could end up telep their arm into a wall, their leg into the ground. A mountain of mages had lost their limbs, or even lives, with one small miscalcution ieleportation formus. He was ventional to prepare the spell for at least an hour, days for longer distances; evehe spell involved immeasurable risk when sight was promised.

  As, there was no such risk involved in what Serenis had done. What she’d teleported was an illusory double, not her actual body. The ruse had effectively fooled her spectators and oppo alike while she simply walked over to the headmaster with a shrouding spell, appearing before the archmage to throw him into the air like a pying ball.

  Gio grinned from the air as he fixed his posture. His mind was rag with excitement and anticipation, but most promi of all was genuine surprise.

  “Truly remarkable! Never have I seen an individual use teleportation in such ways!“

  Serenis shook her head in disappoi. It was almost like he wasn’t listening to her at all.

  Clearly, he’s still not fog.

  “…Hm?”

  Notig the student shaking their head in dismay, Gio hurriedly expanded his mana across the arena. Only then did his senses finally pick up spells that were surrounding him.

  Serenis sighed from below, folding her arms behind her – just like Gio had been doing throughout the entire event.

  “Have you fotten your own words? One must always look ten steps ahead.”

  The archmage hurriedly raised his arms to cover his face. With all the time he’d wasted being amazed by the student before him, even he didn’t have enough time to react to the ining spells he was reading around him. A spsh of green liquid burst forth from the ground to greet his fall, and several pilrs of metal materialized around him, crashing into his figure in the green poison.

  The crowd worriedly watched the headmaster bee a bck silhouette, covered in poison and locked midair by the metals g together. With the enormous pilrs interseg into a poisonous mass high above, the se even seemed like an intricate death row.

  Poison and steel elements were ofteogether for lethal purposes; it wouldn’t have been surprising if a corpse were to melt onto the floor.

  The secretary’s gaze was fixed onto his employer’s silhouette.

  “…Headmaster?”

  Gio’s murky shadow began to darken further and further. Drops of bck liquid fell onto the flradually being a stream of shadows that pooled into a bck puddle on the arena.

  A deathly silence filled the air. The dragonlord’s spells faded away, leaving nothing but her and the archmage’s remains across the stage.

  Serenis remaiill, quietly staring at the puddle ahead. When the crowd was busily w how to respond to the se before them, the dragonlord’s annoyed voice broke their silence.

  “Do you pn to stay that way forever?”

  Another hearty ughter broke out as the archmage emerged from the mass of shadows. Parts of his overcoat was now torn and molten, and one of his gloves had pletely vanished. In exge, his pendant remained safe and intact.

  “My si apologies. I hoped to scare you a little, but it seems you see right through my antics.”

  The fiden the archmage’s expression had all but disappeared. A firm grip on his e sighat he could no loake this mock duel lightheartedly.

  “Shall we tinue?”

  “…”

  Meanwhile, Gio’s secretary finally let go of the breath he’d been holding. A part of him was gd to see the headmaster alive.

  A bigger part of him felt that he deserved a raise for putting up with this man all the time.

  Praybird