tournament

"And now, welcome the new classes competing in the annual welcoming brawl." An announcer says, the classes 1, 3, 6 and 8 in the arena below the filled stands where many upperclassmen and a few other people, like military recruitment and royals are sitting.

The crowd applauds, while the four classes step out of the corners of the large, square arena. The arena has many different landscapes within it, one corner being on top of a hill, another being at the foot of one, while one corner is in a sandpit and the other one being in a swamp.

The middle of the arena is covered in a lot of trees, giving the classes the opportunity to set traps and launch surprise attacks.

"The competition is an all-out battle between the four competing classes. The objective, to protect the king. If you would move your eyes to the displays above the arena you will see the classes competing roster and each King. The king is marked by wearing a red cloak in the battle. The rules are, no killing blows and put on a good show. Now, begin!" The announcer shouts, the magical barriers around each classes starting spot disappearing.

Lily looks around and to the display above.

"Alright. We are in the sandpit. The 1st class is on the hill to our left. To our right in the swamp is the 3rd class, leaving the 6th class across from us in the most disadvantage position. They will probably locate to the forest while the 3rd class is probably going to try and rush at them." Lily explains, looking at her team.

"Now, the 1st class is probably on their way here with a lot of their forces, but I doubt they will get their king off the hill, which is the most advantageous position in the battle. Now, I think we should go with formation 3." Lily says, getting nods in acceptance. The class then splits up in two teams. One team heads towards the 1st class while the other heads to the forest and tries to draw a lot of attention. James is with the first team and uses a spell to hide his red cloak, which is allowed, he can't take it off however.

In the meantime, Tim uses an illusion spell to do the opposite and present his red cloak to draw the enemies attention.

While the group with James, Lily and their defensive team head towards the 1st class the advancing group of the class sees that the king is not amongst the group and change their focus to the group headed to the forest.

"The king is with the other group, let's chase them and make Geroge proud." The leader of the offensive group of students from the 1st class shouts and leads his classmates into the forest.

"Good, they bought it. Nice idea Lily." James says, patting his blonde classmate's shoulder.

"Ahem, yes of course." She says blushing slightly.

The group of 7 students continue to head towards the 1st class's starting point.

When they arrive at the foot of the hill the 1st class rushes them, trying to keep them forced at a distance. Leonhard erects a long stone wall between them and the first class and James uses the cover to extend his invisibility spell over his whole body, running around the wall, which gradually gets worn down due to the many attacks fired against it by the other class.

When the 1st class breaks through the wall Leonhard is thrown back and slides along the ground a bit, Lily healing him quickly while Serena and Kai try to buy the two some time, engaging the approaching opponents with their two other teammates, Sam and Tina giving them backup with their support magic, Tina enhancing the brawlers and Sam disrupting the enemy movements.

While his classmates distract most of the 1st class opponents James walks behind the king and his one left over guard, who is using support magic to assist their frontline.

James knocks out the support mage with a quick hit to the neck, still invisible and when their king turns to the downed mage James gradually becomes visible, a head sized magic circle rotating around his left hand and he places it on the opponents surprised head, knocking him out while whispering the low-level torture spell he used to knock him out "despair."

"And with that the first king is down. The 1st class has been eliminated." The announcer says and all of the 1st class students get enveloped by a magic shroud and pulled out of the arena and into the stands.

"Alright. Let's wait for the others to get here. Guys, well done so far." James says, sitting down on the top of the hill with the others joining him.

They wait for 5 minutes and then see 4 of their classmates head towards them.

"Where are Tim and the rest Yasmina?" James asks, the girl sitting down next to him and James picks a few leaves out of her hair, before dusting off her black suit. All the students wearing the same costume of cargo pants and button up shirts. While every team has a different color. The 1st class was white, the 3rd class is blue and the 6th class is red.

"Knocked out." Yasmina replies, smiling gratefully, lying down and relaxing a bit.

After 10 more minutes the announcer says "And that takes care of the 6th class. Now it's up to the two remaining classes to show who will win in this first round of the tournament."

"Alright. That's my cue." James says and salutes to his team with two fingers, before two magic circles move up his body until he's invisible again.

"Alright. Whose turn is it to pretend this time?" Yasmina asks.

"I'll do it." Leonhard volunteers and crushes a piece of paper James handed out to everyone and uses his magic on it, a red cloak appearing behind him as an illusion.

While his classmates wait in the advantageous position James rushes over the battlefield, quickly appearing back at their starting point and moves towards the swamp area from there. After reaching the middle between the two starting points he sees the enemy king standing anxiously, with two guys staying behind to protect him.

"Alright. Let's do this." James says to himself and holds out his hand, still invisible and two magic circles appear and move towards each other, a see-through sniper rifle getting formed in his hand.

He closes his hand and opens it again, a yellow bullet in it. He loads the round and lies down, still invisible with everyone but a few people in the stands being none the wiser, only seeing a yellow glowing a few centimeters above the ground.

He aims at the enemy king, locking on with his scope and selecting a spot on the guys temple he wants to hit, a small line of magical runes flowing down the scope and onto the bullet.

James pulls the trigger, a silent 'pflip' being the only sound made before a second later the enemy king collapses, spasming.

"And we have our winner! Congratulations to the 8th class on an impressive performance." The announcer says and James appears, his gun disappearing.

He then regroups with his classmates at their starting gate and they leave with the people in the stands applauding.

"Hey Miranda. We did it!" Tina says, giving her a thumbs up victoriously.

"I know. Thank you. All of you." Miranda says, grateful for their effort.

"I didn't mean to put you in such a difficult position. Thank you for helping me." She says, tears now threatening to fall out of her eyes while she smiles brightly and her students group hug her, other than James, who sees a blonde man in his late twenties standing in a nearby corridor, wearing a majestic uniform.

"What so you want Alfred?" He asks, joining the man, leaning against the wall opposite of him in the corridor.

"I would like to say I came to cheer on my little brother, but you probably already know father send me." He says.

"The official prince gown is a bit of a dead giveaway. Not exactly the clothes to sneak away to pay a family visit." James replies analytical.

"Sharp like a whip. Glad to see you haven't changed much. Though I was surprised to see you actively taking part in a match." Alfred says, ruffling his brother already unruly hair.

"Well Mir. made a dumbass bet." He sighs.

"Anyways, father said you can take school seriously from now. Your research goals have been reached. Though you may not want to reveal too much too fast." Alfred tells him.

"Yeah. I know otherwise other countries will find out why our country suddenly developed stronger magics than them." James agrees, crossing his arms while looking to the floor.

"I have one more experiment that seemed to have worked out, but father shouldn't know yet. He will rush to use it, but I will still need a while to perfect it. Unperfected it could kill someone. I mean I was out for 2 days." James says, unbuttoning his shirt and turns sideways, showing his brother the branding of the four tailed crocodile.

"What did you do now you reckless brother of mine?" Alfred says worried, brushing over a part of the branding, feeling the damaged skin still healing.

"It's better if you don't know how it works just yet. Let's just say I have more magic than our entire royal court now." James says, putting his shirt back over his shoulders, leaving it unbuttoned though.

"Really? Amazing." Alfred says with widened eyes.

"You should probably go now before you draw too much attention." James tells his brother fixing a brooch on his jacket.

"Right. Before I go though. Do you finally have a girlfriend? How about that white haired girl in your class or Miranda. I mean dating a hot teacher..." he says, only to be pushed towards the exit by his younger brother who mumbles "shut up you pervert."

"Ah James, where were you. Who is that with you?" Kai asks, spotting the teen emerge from the corridor with his older brother.

"Wow. I can't believe it. Prince Alfred in the flesh." Lily says ecstatically and pushes through the crowd of her classmates, bowing in front of the brothers.

"She never bows to me." James says with a smirk.

"Thank you all for taking care of my little brother. I know he can be quirky, but he means well." Alfred says, waving to the class.

"Well I need to go now. I will try to visit sometime." Alfred says, patting his brother's shoulder and leaves.

"He is sooo dreamy." Lily says blushing, looking after the blonde royal.

"He's 10 years older than you and engaged." James says.

"So? A girls heart wants what it wants." Lily tells him with a pout.

"Alright everyone let's go eat something. My treat." Miranda says and the class goes out to town, eating a bunch of pizza on their teacher's expense.

"Man, Leonhard is quite elegant and reserved but he certainly knows how to eat." James chuckles, while joining Miranda at the bar in the restaurant, sitting down in the seat next to her.

"Yesh. He dosh." The teacher says tipsily, having had a few drinks too many when her students dared her to drink some more after she already needed something strong to calm her nerves.

"You shouldn't drink so much if you can't handle it." He smirks.

"It's fine. You will protect me won't you?" She says, staring at him.

"Of course." He says, putting her arm around his shoulder and gets her to stand up and walk with him supporting the drunk woman.

"Alright everyone, I'm bringing Miranda home now, so anything you get from now on is on your own costs. See you soon." He tells them, the class having a few days free to recover after the tournament. He pays for everything they ate and dunk so far and heads back to the school, lifting up Miranda in his arms and flies to the school with a magic circle levitating him, twirling underneath him with the green haired, busty beauty leaning into his chest.

"My, what do we have here? Hey kid who exactly are you anyways? I know you're supposed to be some lazy prince, but... your skill if much more advanced than that." George says, spotting him and the barely conscious teacher arrive on school grounds.

"You lost the bet so just leave Miranda alone and I won't need to be a thorn in your side ever again." James says dismissive of the teacher whose turn it is to patrol the school grounds.

"It was just a stupid bet. As if I'd pass up on that piece of ass." The blonde teacher says laughing to himself.

"Wait here for just one second." James tells the half passed out teacher, lying her down sideways on a bench, Miranda's eyes opening slightly from losing his comforting warmth.

"I will give you one more warning. Don't show your face around my class and our teacher again." James says seriously, staring down the teacher who takes off his sunglasses.

George grins and casts a spell, a fireball about 20 centimeters in diameter flying towards James face, who leans to the side relaxed, letting it pass by him and taps his foot on the floor, a magic circle he has been drawing in the dirt lighting up before a lance of fire stabs through the ground at George's feet, piercing through his right foot and scratches and burns his right cheek.

"Now you have a reason to wear those glasses dumbass. Didn't you ever learn not to mess with someone out of your league?" James asks, a cage of lances then erecting in an instant around the now scared shitless teacher.

"I spared you tonight. But don't expect the same curtesy if you piss me off again." James tells him, the man nodding shakily while holding his burned face.

"I think you should head to the nurse and get that practice accident looked at, don't you?" James tells the man who quickly runs away once the fire around him disappears.

"What an ass." James sighs annoyed and sits down next to Miranda who pretends to be asleep but failing.

"We should probably talk, but for now you need to get some rest." James tells her, lifting her in his arms and carrying her to his apartment.

A few minutes later he enters the apartment large enough to fit his whole class at least twice in it and carries her to the bedroom. Once there he lies her down in his king-sized bed, pulls the covers over her and brushes some hair out of her face.

"J...jame." she mumbles, by now having really fallen asleep and he goes to the living room, lying down on the couch, setting a machine to play some relaxing music until he falls asleep.