Mana pooled into my arm as I formed a small amount of water compressing it slightly and spinning it fast enough to almost turn it into mist, if it wasn’t for my spell keeping the water together, the centrifugal force would have ripped it apart. I aimed for the centre of the target, adviser making a crosshair UI along with a predicted landing point. Hardly half a second had past when … BANG! A sound similar to a gunshot went off. My water bullet moved at close to the speed of sound, unable to break through the sound barrier as wasn’t solid enough to handle the dynamic pressure.
It flew through the target leaving a perfect hole hardly half a centimetre in size in it, unfortunately it did not stop there going further until it hit the back wall a hundred metres behind it carving another small hole into the wall. Luckily it dissipated early enough not to go through the wall. “Excellent control and aiming, that is what you all should strive too, a perfect demonstration of today’s lesson!” was the astonished exclamation from the professor.
A murmur of shock and admiration spread through the students present. After having had finished my turn I went to the group who was done with their turn. Misha and Neffie was waiting for me a look of pride and astonishment leaking through their effort to keep their faces blank. “Wow! That was awesome, how did you get it to do that, I only barely got it to spin fast enough to go through the target.” Neffie said a look of pure curiosity completely breaking her poker face. “Visualisation… it’s something I have been training my spells with since I learned how to cast my first spell.” I replied, a hint of pride in my voice as the excitement of my little over the top display coursed through my veins.
A few other students still had their turn, most having had lost their motivation after my spell blew their results out of the water, but another kid stepped forward with confidence. Henry Acredios, a middle-class noble’s child and one that had his own adventurer’s card was up. How did I know he had his own adventurers card you ask? Well, he made a huge display of it the first day of school when he got here, showing everyone and everything that had an eye to look towards his direction.
He took a strange stance practically shouting his spell aloud. Though his actions were a bit over the top he still at least got a pretty good result, getting his magic shot straight through the centre as well before he looked towards me saying. “Look and be amazed my dear rival and tremble at my accomplishment as I will soon catch up to you!” I was quite taken aback, especially by how he could say something so cringy with a straight face and not even feel remotely embarrassed. A couple of students face palmed.
The reason he was so showy was because he was only a few ranks below the top ten on the entrance exam but I seriously had to fight from bursting out from laughter because of his words. After all the students had their turn, the teacher stood to the front her words echoing as she spoke. “As expected, this almost perfectly aligns with the entrance exams results, except for a few exclusions.” She looked pointedly at me on the last part before continuing.
“This was neither an assignment nor a test so it won’t count for you year or even trimester. This was more to showcase the extent of your peers and your own understanding of what we are going to be learning. However, for those of you who can score higher than eighty percent on the midterms this first trimester will be allowed to take place in the advanced classes continuing forward.” Professor Anna’s word both dashed our hopes and reignited a new one in us just before the bell rang to head to the next class.
My next class was alchemy, I headed there expectantly, only to hear the teacher say that we were not going to be doing any practical in his class till we first mastered the basic theory. Making the entire class groan in annoyance. “Do not give me those looks. Alchemy is not something to fool around with, one wrong move and you could accidentally remove these entire class expectant futures all because of hasty idiocy.” Was his only say on the matter before diving into another long-winded lecture on the safety environment necessary for alchemy to be done.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
I sat bouncing my leg up and down reminding me of my previous life’s school life and the struggles of having untreated ADHD when I was there. When the bell finally rang, I basically sprang up reaching the sword instruction class before anyone else Thomas entering shortly after me a look of pure anticipation on our faces, excitement making us giddy. After the class got together professor Alishia the sword instructor led us to the training field the targets having had been removed in this sort time. As me and Thomas went closer to the wall he said. “Heard you put this hole in here, pretty cool, glad you didn’t use such a spell on me during our duel.” He chuckled my display already having had spread throughout the school at a speed faster than a bullet train with the rumour mill.
The professor called the students to order before saying. “Line up, you are going to be sparring with wooden swords in accordance with your entrance exams results. This should ensure that even those of you who are not confidant in your sword skills won’t be paired up unfairly.” What she said made sense as no one wanted to be paired up with someone that could possibly beat you black and blue before you even got your first strike down. Neither should you want to prey on someone whose skills weren’t on par with your own.
Me and Thomas were paired up making me feel nostalgic. The rough-hewn wood handle of the sparring sword in my hand gripped tightly I lifted it and went into my natural stance. The sword felt heavy, but lighter than a steel one on the same size would have been. Unlike this morning me and Thomas were up first. The teacher looked at my strange stance with a look of confused curiosity before saying “begin.”
The words barely left her mouth as a clack sounded. Then another and another before, Bam my sword hit Thomas square in the stomach. I was gonna continue but the teacher stopped our duel. “I will admit your sword technique may be good but today’s lesson is all about our standard sword movements, I can see that you have perfected your own personal sword movements, but for the sake of this lesson stick to the mandated stance and techniques.” Her word felt like a splash of ice water on my fired-up nerves as I quickly got into the sword movement that they had given us. The words to begin had once again barely left her mouth as… CLACK, CLACK, CLACK, CLACK, Thomas and I were almost equally matched blurring across the training field Thomas barely blocking and retaliating in time before I had to go through the same thing.
I used a bit of chi to speed up and put more force into each blow putting Thomas on the defence. I had to give it to him thought he could no longer retaliate as easily he was still holding his own reading, my next moves like an open book, making my increased speed meaningless. I feinted right before cutting upwards. he stepped back. My sword whistling an inch past his hip as he stepped forward sword heading for my shoulder.
I stepped aside. the sword missing, but changing direction mid movement, a mistake on his part as the unnatural movement cost some of his balance. I swung up whacking his sword up before I pointed my sword at his throat. “I submit.” Was Thomas’s response our breaths coming out in gasps. My heart was pounding, and I could fell the blood pumping through my veins which were bulging.
Clap, clap, clap. The applause from the teacher sparked the rest of the students own astounded applause before she said. “Perfect form and execution, it seems you two are worth teaching after all.” She turned around before continuing. “Keep that up and you’ll be able to go to the advanced class sooner than the rest.” After we went to a place to rest and look at the rest of the matches, she called the next pair up the rest was also quite well skilled, most student managing to execute the sword movements and techniques well if not to me and Thomas’s degree.
When the final pair finished up the professor spoke. “at least this year’s class is better prepared than last year most of you might end up in the advanced class before the end of this year before she dismissed us. Thomas walking along side me as we struck up a conversation.
