team assessment

"Why can't we beat him?" Henry asks, panting while sweating up a storm, standing besides Lily while Serena and Yasmina try to land a solid hit on James, who basically dodges and only redirects their attacks, not going on the offensive against his teammates while they are in their class's training ground.

"Yasmina. Now!" Serena shouts, the white-haired girl casting her agility and speed enhancing spell on the redhead, who closes her distance to James in a second and unleashes a fury of blows on the teen who blocks them with a small round shield he creates with his weapon creation magic.

Serena ducks lower after a couple of punches against the shield and then feels an influx in strength from Lily casting the spell they tried in class a couple of days ago.

She steps to her left and uses her right leg to wrap it forcefully around James' right one before throwing her body against the shield with the increased strength, succeeding in throwing James off balance.

The experienced fighter responds by using his flying spell to recover and flies with his back against one of the area's walls and flies up along it, attempting to push Serena off himself but her hold on him and the shield is more than he expected and instead of trying to overpower her he dismisses the shield and slips underneath her grip, managing to round her body smoothly, wrapping his arms around her from behind and flies back down to the ground, with her trying to overpower him, but fails until she manages to pry his fingers off her belly and she falls the last 2 meters to the floor, rolling over her shoulder and turning to face him again in a crouch.

"I got him!" Yasmina shouts, coming flying at the landing James with a streak of lightning following her extended right foot.

James leans backwards, still floating and dodges underneath the kick, grabbing Yasmina's hips as she passes by him and redirects her attack to Lily and Henry with a turn of his body during which he looses his flying spell.

Henry jumps in front of the blonde supporter and blocks the attack while using a weak earth armor spell on himself which reduces some of the damage from Yasmina's attack.

In the meantime, Serena jumps at the falling James, literally tackling him midair and manages to overpower him again, ending up with him on his knees and her with one knee on his calf while holding him in a chokehold, James struggling to free himself before tapping out against her arm.

"Finally got you." Serena says happily, still holding him, only loosely now though, both finally noticing their intimate contact with her body pressed against his back and James head pressing into her chest.

"Yeah. Good job guys." James says a slight blush on him until Serena releases him from her hold.

"I don't really get how this is supposed to help us become a stronger team if we're fighting our trump card?" Henry asks, sitting on the ground after Yasmina's attack, Lily casting her water of healing, regeneration on the teen.

"It helps Lily most of all, she can see how you should react against stronger opponents and how to make use of the team's advantages." James explains, going over to the group with Serena who is smiling happily, high-fiving Yasmina when they gather in their team.

"We are seriously lacking a defender, aren't we?" Yasmina asks.

"I'm trying, but I don't have much experience with spells yet. I only got into the school with my martial arts knowledge." Henry tells them.

"It's fine. We're not gonna go to dungeons or outside the border soon anyways. We got time to increase your skillset." James tells him, patting his friend's back.

"Impressive work, I'm not sure I could even land a hand on James now that he's showing his true abilities." Miranda says, revealing herself, coming from around their training ground's corner.

"Yeah, you'd be a bad matchup. I'm superior in pure magic spells and amount of magic power to you." James agrees.

"So you're weak in martial arts?" Yasmina asks in realization.

"Technically yes, but he just has a completely different skillset when it comes to close range fighting if the rumors I heard are true." Miranda says.

"Why didn't you use that then?" Lily asks looking at James mildly annoyed.

"There isn't really a non-lethal version of it." James says, surprising Yasmina, Lily and Henry.

"Good choice not using it." Henry says nervously.

"I still want to see it. We can't function as a team if we don't know how everyone is fighting." Lily says expectantly.

"Fine." James says and two daggers materialize in his hands and the group sees a pillar of Sand erect before instantly falling to the floor again. All five of the observers feeling a prick on their neck with James standing besides Lily suddenly.

"What was that?" Yasmina asks, feeling at her neck, a droplet of blood on her hand same as everyone else's neck.

"That's unbelievably fast." Yasmina says while Lily stares at James slightly scared.

"Wind and lightning augmentation layered over each other." James replies, suddenly appearing next to Miranda.

"I bet even demons can't follow that speed." Henry says excitedly.

"I wouldn't be so sure but it wouldn't matter much. I haven't learned many high-powered magic spells yet so even if I were to surprise them, with my current abilities the damage would be minimal." James says.

"Why don't you know stronger spells then?" Lily asks curiously.

"My father raised me with another skillset in mind. Since he always assumed my brother would take his place on the battlefield, he had me trained as the one cleaning up the country and taking out our human enemies." James explains, none of his friends being able to tell how James is feeling about this.

"So you're like an assassin or something?" Henry asks.

"I'm widening my skills currently, but yes as it stands right now I believe there are only less than 10 people alive who would stand a chance against me in a fight but a whole lot of monsters I wouldn't even put a dent into." James says, dropping his daggers which turn to a shower of dust before even hitting the ground.

"Say, is your brother even fit for the frontline? He's a support mage like me, right?" Lily asks curiously.

"Hell no. At least not in the heroic sense that father imagined. But to be fair Alfred's doing a good job as a man leading from the back." James replies with a smirk.

"But enough about me. What are you doing here anyways Miranda?" James asks, changing the topic.

"I'm making rounds through the groups to make sure everything runs smoothly, you're actually the last group." She explains.

"And how's it looking?" James asks.

"So far so good. No mayor personality clashes or anything." She informs her students.

"Not even with Tim and his friends?" Lily asks.

"No." Miranda says shaking her head.

"He only doesn't like us Lily. Our countries have hated each other for what? 80 years now? That kind of upbringing doesn't go away overnight." James tells the blonde.

"Yeah, I guess. I should probably be glad you're here or I'd be the only Rowan in the class." Lily says with a grin.

"Yeah, that's right I am curious Miranda, how come our class has more mixed countries than most other classes?" Henry asks.

"Because we're all the lowest scoring recruits, right?" Serena asks the green haired beauty knowingly.

"For the most part, yes. Other than Yasmina all of you have had usually one field where your scores were absolutely horrible and it's usually the case that a new teacher doesn't get to pick more than one student they want." The teacher explains.

"Who'd you pick? Did you pick me for my superior intellect?" Lily asks grinning chipperly.

"I picked James. Out of pity." Miranda says.

"Pity huh? That choice definitely worked in your favor teach." Henry comments amused.

"It's time for me to call it a day now. I promised Kai I'd meet up with him in an hour." Henry tells them and promptly splits up from the group.

Once the teen is gone the four girls share a look with each other before turning to James and look at him expectantly.

"What?" He asks nervously.

"Well. We're all sweaty and dirty and you still haven't given us a key, so lead the way Prince." Lily says, wrapping her arms around Mjranda's and Yasmina's.

"Yeah, yeah let's go." He groans, leading them to his home while the three girls chat, Serena falling into step besides him.

"Are you OK?" She asks quietly.

"Why wouldn't I be? I mean even if you beat me I still think I held my own pretty well." He says relaxed.

"I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about your past as an assassin." She replies.

"Do you want to know the truth?" He asks, Serena nodding as reply.

"I'm not OK. Since that event in the dungeon... I feel powerless. I mean I trained my whole life with barely any time for things like fun, a social life, let alone love or friends. Only to be helpless against the very enemy my country is supposed to protect everyone from." James answers heavily.

"At least you have friends now right?" She tells him, looking back at the three laughing girls behind them.

"Yeah. I guess that's true. Now I only need to get stronger." James says with conviction.

Serena then suddenly stops and excuses herself from her friends, "I just remembered. I have something to do. You guys go ahead I will take a bath later."

The three girls say a quick goodbye to the redhead while James stands still watching her leave for a couple of seconds before Yasmina pulls him out of his daze, pulling him along by his hand with a warm smile.