1 Julia and the Competition

"Ready Simeon?" He nodded as a ball of magic formed in his hand, "You sure about this?" Simeon nodded again, "Okay, Curious Tome, Random Spell, Broken Blade," A black blade formed, hovering behind his hand.

"Pain Tome, Unbroken Will," A golden aura formed around his body as his teacher jumped with his spell, "Pain Tome, Agony," He strained up as his body began throbbing. The blade slammed into him but bounced off harmlessly.

"Curious Tome, Random Spell, Hail of Blades," Three blades formed behind Mr. Smith and flew towards Simeon, who swatted the blades out of the air and they faded as they hit the floor. Mr. Smith smiled and clapped, "Have you been practicing with Julia?"

"I have, my magic is weird, so I practice."

"Shall I see you later, Simeon?"

"Maybe, I am not sure," His aura faded and his body stopped hurting, "I wanted to talk to you about something, but later."

"You know where to find me."

He walked into his room and dumped his uniform jacket onto his bed. He was in a room with himself, unlike most of the students since there were more rooms than there needed and he didn't have a place in another. A knock came on the door, "Who is it?"

"Me," He heard Julia's voice from behind the door, "Is it locked?"

"No, not like it would block you."

"I am not going to blow up your door, Simeon, I am not crazy," She sat down on his bed as he typed away on his computer, "Is that the same game as yesterday?"

"And the day before, this guy is not too bad," He said as his hands sped over his keyboard. Julia sighed and he closed his computer, "Sorry, you want to talk."

"Yes, I do."

"Go ahead."

"I wanted, wanted to ask you something."

"Mhm, what about it?"

"I have been sitting on this thought for a while," Simeon smiled, "Why are you smiling?"

"Can I guess your question?"

"No, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be my partner in the competition."

"You should've told me that you got qualified first," She smiled, "Good job."

"Why didn't you participate?"

"You forgot about my magic, huh?"

"Oh, I did, um," She giggled nervously, "You want to do something, since you won't have classes?"

"If I accept the offer."

"You won't?" She sighed, "Okay, well, I'll see you later," She stopped at the door, "I'll be training."

"When have I tried to let you down?"

"Never."

"Tell them you have a partner, for the competition."

"You want to?"

He got up and went to his wardrobe, "I'll meet you at the arena, you can wait for me or start earlier."

"Okay," She blew him a kiss as she normally did and vanished from his sight. He began changing into his arcane uniform. He pulled on two gloves and tied his shoes once more.

"Time to train."

He stood near her as she tied her hair, "Simeon," He snapped out of his daydream, "I need to train, I mean, we need to train."

"Mhm, what do you want to train?"

"My tome's ultimate spells."

"On me?"

"Yes."

"I haven't mastered mine," He shrugged as he began moving to the other side of the arena, "How far?"

"There is good," She called back, "Ready?" He put his thumb up and a black aura then formed around his hands, "Air Tome, Hurricane of Blades," A ball of silver bolts formed in front of her hand. Simeon had seen her use it before in a practice, as soon as the ball hit the opponent it would create a whirlwind of steel shards, an extremely powerful spell, coming from a common tome, one of the three base tomes, Fire, Nature and Air. His Pain tome was a rare variant of the Nature tome, that lacked offensive spells unlike the one Julia had. He waited for the magic ball to near him. He lifted his hand and the ball simply vanished as it hit his hand while causing it to strain up. Julia squinted and then put her hands together, "Air Tome, Ultimate Bolt!" Lightning jumped between her hands and she slowly moved them apart. They joined and created a yellow spear that gleamed in the afternoon sun. She hurled it at Simeon.

"Pain Tome, Unbroken will," A golden aura formed around his body, everywhere but his hands. He dodged the spear as sparks and electricity jumped to his hand as he grabbed it. He let the spear spin his body before releasing it. It soared towards Julia before she dived out of the way as it slammed into the wall of the arena. She got up and dusted herself off and placed her hand forwards again. A golden outline of a book formed in her left hand as a spell began forming in her right, "Wind Tome, Ultimate Storm!" A lightning bow fired a ball of smoke at him. He grabbed it with his right hand and then covered it with his left hand as his feet began sliding back. His body began screaming in pain, "Pain Tome, Agony," More pain shot through his body. He grit his teeth as he slowed to a stop and his hands absorbed the spell, cancelling it. He fell to one knee and spat on the floor, "Holy, that hurt," He held his ribs and slowly stood up as Julia ran towards him.

"Are you okay? Do you need help? Are you hurt? Did I overdo it? Anything feel broken?" She blurted, "I am sorry, I really am."

"No, you did good, it was good."

"But you are hurt."

"Anything for you," He smiled holding his ribs, "Have I ever told you about how my magic works?"

"We clearly need to know each other more to have a chance."

"Oh yeah, I am aware of that, I also have to see your tapes for the competition."

"What tapes?"

"The ones they film in practice and the qualification rounds here, you know."

"Oh, okay, um, I'll ask for them."

"Already did, Mr. Smith is sending them to me tonight."

"Oh, okay, well, I asked Ms. Olivia for the research she has on my tome and yours, to get to know it better," She said as they began walking out of the arena, "Is it real that you have no offensive spells?"

"I think, Ms. Olivia nor Mr. Smith nor Mr. Todd nor Sir Gillijan know about an offensive spell in the Pain tome."

"But there are plenty of other teachers here."

"The Pain tome is as rare as Mr. Smith's Curious tome, so pretty unknown, and his only has two spells, Copycat and Random Spell."