Library of Mages (6)

The Year 1 exam is straightforward. It's a fight against a second-year student, and the judges will grade the performance in the fight. Five days before the start of the fight we received information on our opponents.

I was supposed to fight an Arcane Artist, while Emily a Martial Artist. Depending on what kind of Martial Artist, it was, it will change the fight a lot. If it is a Tank, she may struggle for a bit longer compared to someone that main focus is attack.

As for me, I was not worried about the fight at all. I already fought an Arcane Artist that had a lot more experience than the second-year student.

When the time for the fight came, I was on my 24'th cycle. We ware in a stadium in a far end of the campus, this is the spot of the exam. There were three teachers present, two that I never saw before and 27. The two didn't seem to care about the exam, while 27 looked annoyed.

Be it because of the exam or the loophole in his words. Either way, he didn't look happy. The stadium itself was big, few students were sitting in the stands, eating and relaxing. The weather was slowly becoming chillier as days passed but sitting in the warm sun was as relaxing as ever.

Emily was to fight first; thus she was getting ready. "Did you find any info on your opponent?" I asked.

"Her name is Jol. The second year, average grades, lightning elemental essence. It shouldn't be a challenge. As long as I keep the distance, it won't be a problem. What about your opponent? Do you want to know?"

"No need to. I just have to make the fight entertaining. After that, we will hear what 27 has to say."

We knew the location of the library now, so even if he is not willing to tell us… we will find a way. The two we were supposed to fight soon came to the stadium and approached us, one of the teachers seeing them started explaining the basic rules of the duel.

"This exam will test the ability of student S-319, Emily Flores, and student S-320, Domingue Blake. If satisfactory the students will pass the year one exam. I, Otto Perry, Breanna Briggs and 27 will be the judges of the exam. The rules are simple, you will be given a body shield that represents your life. Your task is to break the opponent's shield. Do not hurt your opponent if possible. And do your best. Understood?"

""Yes.""

"Good, S-319 vs. B-6498 goes first. Take the shields."

The shield looked like a plate with dozens of patterns on it. When Emily put it on her chest, similarly to my soul image, only the color was blue. This shield allowed for things pass from the inside, making that spells that radiate from the body are able to pass while everything from the other side is blocked.

Emily and her opponent stood in the middle of the stadium staring at each other. The teacher was standing between them confirming that both are ready. She then started cutting down form five and walking backward.

When the teacher reached the edge of the field, he said Start and the fight began. Emily summoned dozens of black feathers and sent them towards the approaching Jol. Jol clad in lightning, with a sword in hand was rushing towards Emily. With tens of feathers approaching her she held her sword up to defend. But no attack came, the feathers started to circle around her with high speed.

Only now did she realize her mistake. She shouldn't have stopped. Aiming for the blind spot, Emily attacked with the feathers. With the sword that was filled with lighting, Jol defended herself. Whenever a feather approached her, she waved her sword, if it missed the lighting would detach from the blade destroying the feather.

Emily kept sending the feathers, but she couldn't harm Jol at all. Her control was not enough to attack with more at the same time. Or at least I thought so. Out of nowhere, four two-meter blades appeared, aiming at Jol from four different directions.

While everyone was focused on Jol and her dodging, Emily made the blades from the feathers. With her hand high up she watched as the shocked Jol didn't move.

As her hand descended, the blades fell. Twisting her body to the limit, she tried to dodge the incoming blades. The stadium was filled with high pitched screeching of the shield as the blades scratched on it. It didn't break. Using this chance Jol run out of the circle of feathers and attacked!

Her sword slashed at Emily's shield shattering it in one slash. The fight was over.

"Ok, you two. We will let you know of the results later. S-320 vs. A-5341, Let's go."

Emily and Jol left the field while my opponent and I entered it. We got the shields and put them on. I was wondering how my soul image will react to this shield. But I wasn't planning on using my soul image in this fight.

I could dominate the fight with pure strength, but that would be no fun. So, I prepared a few things that I can use instead. The moment the word 'start' reached my ears, I used the seal in my hand to summon a shield in front of me. Seconds later, a fireball blasted the shield making it shake slightly.

This was the same Shield Seal I created a month ago. I did some small changes to make it a little bit stronger which decreased the size to a slightly larger round shield. Defending from the approaching fire, with my other hand I grabbed more Instaurare Cores.

For the past month, I kept studying seals, preparing more different types of seals. Which I now wanted to put into use. Seals can do a lot. Almost anything. With a little help from Ike, Travis and his team I created quite a few seals.

I activated the Seal in my left hand, the Instaurare Core glowed brown as I slammed it into the ground. Pillars of dirt rose from the ground creating a forest. This Seal was holding one of three spells Ike learned even though he was a Martial Artist, The Forest of Pillars.

With the protection of the pillars I ran around the place hiding from my opponent, and he wasn't pleased with the current situation. He blasted the pillars destroying them, but their sheer number would exhaust his elemental essence.

I couldn't use The Forest of Pillars Seal again, it was a single use only. With that, I pulled another seal and activated it. A metal dagger shoot up from the ground which I grabbed quickly. This seal was another gift from Ike. The Dagger was summoned with the help of a Martial Technique, and thanks to the simplicity of Martial techniques I was able to stack more of them in one Instaurare Core.

The biggest problem with these kinds of seals is that I cannot recharge them myself. The spell needs to be put inside of the seal by a person that can cast it.

With the dagger in hand, I made a quick dash and threw it mid-dash at my opponent. He reacted quickly to the flying dagger, but his reaction speed wasn't fast enough. The dagger slashed at the Shield and cut it clean making it disappear!

It was a perfect throw! Just enough to break the mana shield but not to hurt the opponent. In case I would fail I was ready to summon another dagger with the seal if my opponent would've somehow dodged it.