support magic?

The next day class is starting again.

James is the last to arrive besides their teacher.

Stepping into their training ground he sees the students in three groups, the people he's trained the other day minus Sam being in the first group, Tim is standing with his two friends, Bob a 1,80 meters tall, bulkier teen with upstanding green hair and Simon a 1,70 meters tall, thin blonde.

And the last group consists of the remaining girls.

Who are chatting amongst themselves as well.

"James and those 6 seem pretty close." Luisa, a sporty girl with long pink hair flowing down to the middle of her back says.

"Yeah, I wonder if some of them are hooking up even. Yasmina seems pretty interested in James." Robin agrees, the tan girl being one of the taller people in the class at 1,90 meters, having straight, dark-brown hair to the nape of her neck and a bust equaling that of Lily.

"I don't think they are. And James is pretty nice actually. He helped us train the other day, I tagged along when Kai was training with them." Sam tells the girls.

"Right, you and Kai are from the same city right?"

Tina asks curiously.

"Yes." Sam answers blushing a bit.

"Ohh, do I detect a romance?" Erin asks with a smirk, the girl standing at around 1,75 meters tall, having short blonde hair, and blue eyes.

"No." Sam says embarrassed, looking over to her friend and their group secretively while James joins them.

"How are you guys?" James asks, arriving behind Lily.

"Better than ever." She says flirtingly.

"Hah, with what I overheard yesterday I'm not surprised." James replies chuckling.

"What did you hear?" Kai asks curiously.

"Nothing!" Yasmina, Lily and Serena shout simultaneously while blushing deep red.

"Class, good to see that all are here. I want to thank you again for your support and congratulate you on your first win at the 4th magic academy." Miranda says, praising her students.

"However, one competition win is no reason to relax and stop getting stronger, so let's get right into today's exercise." Miranda tells them.

"As you all know we started with assigning roles for the tournament and that's going to be something that will always happen. In this school, In groups when you fight demons or monsters. It doesn't matter. What a commander needs to know first of all are your roles. And while I know some of you have experience with certain roles. I want you to explore every role during the next days." Miranda says.

"Why?" Bob asks.

"It's not rare for preliminary teachings like family traditions and such to contradict natural gifts you may possess. So, Leonhard for example, comes from a family known for their aptitude to earth magic and defense spells, but maybe he is actually more suited for support magic or offensive wind magic. And I want you all to have the opportunity to get a feel at what you're suited for and what feels right to you." Miranda explains, seeing the students nodding in agreement.

"What's the first role we'll train?" Yasmina asks.

"Support magic, it's the most unrestricted by element and requires the least amount of magic so even our students who are more leaning towards Martial Arts can get a feel for these spells." Miranda says.

"Here, on this page you will find all the spells I want you to perform during today's exercise." Miranda says, handing out a page to every student, before going up to the viewing platform to observe them.

"Any tips Lily?" Yasmina asks, James group turning to the blonde supporter.

"I don't know these spells either. I use different ones." Lily says shrugging her shoulders.

"As far as I heard support magic is all about the intent. That's how shrine maidens and priests came to be for example." James explains.

"Alright, let me try, Blessing of the lion, strength!" Kai says, attempting to cast the spell by saying the words.

"Miranda? Isn't there some movement required to cast spells?" Leonhard asks the teacher loudly.

"Usually yes. But these are all very low level if you have any talent with support magic, you should be able to cast them with just the words, intent and magic energy." Miranda replies, all of the students listening intently.

"Let me give it a shot." Lily says, casting the same spell Kai tried to perform on Leonhard, whose body glows orange for a moment. He goes over to Kai and picks him up under his arm with one hand.

"That worked." Leonhard says impressed, putting the asian teen down, who frowns.

"Had to check." Leonhard says shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, yeah." Kai grumbles.

"My turn." Yasmina says, casting the spell on Serena, who looks around, everyone but James taking a long step back and James shrugs his shoulder, going over to her.

Serena smiling a little at this before putting on her game face and nods at James, who gets in a blocking position his arms raised in front of him and she punches full force, James flying right into the wall with a loud thud.

"OK. That worked." He coughs, giving the group a thumbs up while Serena helps him to his feet after seeing him on his knees.

"I'm next." Henry says, casting the spell on himself and attempts to lift Leonhard from behind, groaning while struggling against the weight of the mountain of a man.

"Yeah I didn't get it." Henry says laughing, fist bumping with a relieved Kai.

Serena and Leonhard then try casting it, Serena trying to use it on Yasmina and Leonhard on Lily.

"Girls don't play fair." Kai says nervously, hiding behind Leonhard, who nods at Yasmina to hit him but he blocks the attack no problem.

Lily goes over to James and tries to punch him, James easily catching the fist with his hand.

"Aww." Lily pouts, before smirking and quickly casting it on herself and punches James again, forcing him back a step or two after blocking the strike.

"That felt great." Lily says happily.

"James aren't you gonna use it?" Lily asks stretching her body excitedly, Kai nearly drooling at the sight of her slightly bouncing breasts underneath the black training suit everyone is wearing.

James casts the spell in himself and nods to Lily, saying "Try again."

The blonde comes over all too happily and punches him full force, knocking him over while he is blocking.

"Guess I didn't get it either." He groans, Serena helping him up with an offered hand.

"Seriously? I thought you were like all powerful or something." Kai says surprised.

"Thanks for the confidence in me but no. I can't cast every spell right of the bat either. I mean to be able to use a healing spell I had to work on that spell for I think somewhere between three weeks to a month." James informs them.

"Basically, I'm no good with support magic as far as I know." James says, offering a fist bump to Kai who instead pulls him into a hug and shouts "brother!" dramatically, before Leonhard pulls the Asian teen off the prince.

"So the mighty Prince is a dope in my field of expertise. Well, if you ask nicely maybe I can give you some lessons." Lily says teasingly.

"Dope, really?" James asks sighing.

"Just calling it as I see it." Lily says triumphantly.

"Yeah, well let's see how well you perform when we get to the martial arts role." James tells her.

"Oh... yeah. Quit making fun of James and get to casting everyone." Lily then tells the others, sliding over next to him and leans into his side, whispering "Sorry, I got carried away." and gives his cheek a peck.

"You are one hard to figure out woman." James tells her amused.

"Well a lady's most attractive feature is mystery." Lily says teasingly, before casting the next spell.

The groups all continue to go through the support spells Miranda gave them, only Lily and Tina having talent for all spells, while Yasmina could do half of them, same as Tim and Robin could perform two of the 8 as well.

"That took longer than I would've figured." Kai says, their group sitting on a bench on the school grounds, eating their food together dressed in normal clothes instead of their all-black training clothing.

"You aren't still mad are you, James?" Lily asks James, sitting next to him with Yasmina on his other side.

"Do I look mad?" He asks chuckling.

"No, but you're the internal fury kind of guy." Lily says, stealing some of his food.

"Well for someone worried about my opinion on you, you certainly don't act like it." James says amused, offering his plate to the girl, who picks off some berries from it happily.

"Why are you four so close suddenly?" Kai asks squinting at James, Lily, Serena and Yasmina.

"We trained together while you were doing your workout." James says shrugging.

"And we went over to..."Yasmina starts to say, but James quickly covers her mouth with his hand, making her blush slightly.

"I don't need them coming to use my bathroom as well." James whispers in her ear and Yasmina nods in understanding.

James removes his hand from her mouth and Kai waits patiently before Yasmina continues eating instead of continuing her sentence.

"I knew it. James how could you steal all those pretty ladies away from me? Not fair bro." Kai says dramatically.

"Shut up and eat your food." James replies with a laugh.

"Are you steal me away? I wouldn't mind you know." Lily whispers in his ear, rubbing over his back, only for Yasmina to pinch her hand and makes the blonde let go of James.

"James, we wanted to talk to Miranda." Serena then says, standing up and waits for him.

James nods, handing the rest of his food to Leonhard who accepts it gladly before the two leave to look for their green haired teacher.

"I don't see her here." James says, stepping into their class's training ground.

Serena nods in agreement.

"Any idea where she could be?" She then asks, sneaking her hand into his.

"We can check her place." James says, a slight smile on his face.

The two then head to their teacher's place hand in hand, breaking the contact just before knocking on Miranda's door.

"Yes, what is it?" Miranda asks shortly after, peering outside in a short, red tube top which struggles against her voluptuous figure and equally tight sitting white pants.

"Miss Miranda." Serena says, surprised by the revealing outfit, since her dresses are usually attractive but in a modest and classy manner.

"James, Serena. Come on in." Miranda says, opening the door completely for them.

"What can I help you with?" Miranda asks.

"Why did you break the ring?" James asks instead, seeing the ring he gave her sitting on her table with multiple scratches and other damage.

"Oh I was curious how you got such an item." Miranda says embarrassed.

"I made it. It took me a week to get it just right." He says, looking at what formerly was one of his best creations with shock.

"I never saw something like this and wanted to know how it worked." Miranda says.

"Haah, anyways. We're here for a request. I would like your help with teaching Serena a technique." James says after sighing tiredly.

"What technique?" Miranda asks surprised, but glad to see James making friends.

"Mist of concealed danger." James says.

"How can I even help? I don't know the technique." Miranda says.

"Yeah, but you have pretty decent affinity to mist spells, so I can tell you how it works and you can teach Serena." James tells her.

"Why not teach her yourself?" Miranda asks.

"Cause I'd prefer not to end up choking to death." James says with a raised eyebrow.

"Right Mist... Yeah sure we can try that." Miranda agrees. I will inform you when I am ready to teach you Serena." Miranda tells the redhead who nods in thanks.

"Could I have a moment alone with James?" Miranda asks Serena, who nods, telling him "I'll wait outside."

Once the redheaded girl left Miranda's place the teacher asks, "Are you sure about this? You never taught anyone how it works before. Not even your father."

"Yeah, I think I can trust her and I know I can trust you." James replies calmly.

"Thank you. That means a lot after our recent talk." Miranda says relieved.

"Now, why the heck did you do this to my ring? It was perfect." James whines, picking up the damaged ring.

"I'm sorry OK?" Miranda apologizes.

"It's just such a waste." James sighs.

"What's done is done. So when do you want me to teach you?" James asks.

"I have time around 6 pm every day." Miranda says.

"Good. I'll meet you and Serena at the Battle sim." James says.

"You're doing pretty well so far as teacher by the way." James compliments her while moving towards her door.

"Thanks." She says smiling warmly while showing him out.

"What did she want?" Serena asks curiously.

"She just wanted to check if I really want to share this spell with you two." James answers.

"Why? What's so special about it?" Serena asks.

"I created it. No one else knows how it works." James explains, making Serena stop surprised.

"And you want to share this with me?" She asks shocked.

"Yeah." He says, turning to the frozen redhead, only for Serena to quickly crash into him, her arms around his neck while hugging him passionately, saying another "Thank you." while taking in his calming scent as they are embracing.

"You're welcome." He says returning the hug.

"We'll meet Miranda at 6 at the battle simulators. Do you have anything in mind you want to do until then?" James asks, Serena nodding and pulling him along with her, leading them to the battle simulators.