-Chapter 33- Example Through Demonstration
Looking at our Professor he looked like a low-class adventurer. It was certainly a surprise to see he was at the same stage as me being Light Yellow Stage.
He continues to speak to the entire class, "It is a privilege to have not just one but three Disciplinary Committee members in my class, so thank you for signing up. My name is Professor Geist." It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic but I just chose to ignore it.
It would have been fine if he was just proud of his days as an Adventurer and used some of his stories as examples of uses of certain spells. But he went on for the next hour telling stories of his days being an adventurer. Most of the stories he had told had nothing to do with this class and just him flaunting his brave efforts fighting some 'fearsome foe.' He went nowhere and never even started teaching. I was debating just leaving the class and going to ask the Director to swap out this time slot for another class.
I decided to stay seated when he then slammed his sheathed sword onto the ground to catch all of our attention.
"Enough about my adventures, this class is meant to be the Practical Mana Manipulation or PMM. This means we will be doing everything through either example or doing it yourselves. Any questions?" He looked around the room and upon seeing no hands raised he continued, "Good, now what's a better way than learning through hands-on experience."
"While most of you are extremely new to magic it may be best to use people who are more adjusted to using magic, good thing we have three. I'm sure we are all curious as to what sort of ability the members of our newly formed DC can boast." He says while the students around the room agreed.
'He really will make this class a pain,'
In the end, Feyrith is chosen to demonstrate his abilities to the class, he is brought to the front of the room to the battle arena. He and the teacher stand on opposite sides of one another. The professor begins 'guessing' Feyriths abilities. "You must be a light orange stage conjurer, with water specialization. Pretty good for fifteen years of age. Don't worry, since I am at a higher stage than you, I will restrict myself to just long-ranged attacks."
They agreed on the terms and the so-called 'demonstration' began, Feyrith began by shooting a Water Serpent spell followed by a Flood Domain spell. I should really learn from conjurers, spell matching, and strategies.
The professor responded by launching a fireball. It was quite a surprise to see it was blue fire. It seems he has some skill to match the big game he talks about.
In response to this Feyrith put up a Water Wall spell. The fireball spell, a low-tiered fire spell, had destroyed the Water Wall and allowed the Fireball to continue past the defense and approach Feyrith. It was Feyriths loss, he wasn't able to make a water barrier in time and the professor was forced to adjust the size of the fireball to the size of a fingernail. This still knocked him back quite a bit and he landed on his back.
"Do you surrender?" Professor Geist asked confidently while he had two more of those blue fireballs in his hand.
"Yes, I concede." Feyrith returned back to his seat.
"You did amazing Feyrith," I told him to try and raise his morale.
"Would anyone else like to volunteer," he said looking directly at me. Did he notice I was in the same mana core stage as him? I was about to volunteer but Kathyln shot up from her seat when she noticed he was staring directly at me. When she arrived down at the arena and took a bow standing across from the teacher.
After a quick exchange of words they began their demonstration, Kathyln lifted her blue staff and she conjured the first spell, two beautifully designed ice javelins were formed at a moment's notice, 'So she is skilled with Ice magic.'
"Fire," I heard Kathyln mutter in her soft voice as the two javelins flew at the professor. Professor Geist however had summoned a blue fireball that met the two ice javelins and made them instantly begin melting.
"Ice Javelin, Fire" she muttered again, this time five more of the same spell launched towards the Professor.
"Ember Wisps!" The Professor prepared a spell and released it into the arena, small little flaming orbs of blue flame spread out across the room, a spell similar to one Lucas had used before.
"Break," Kathyln muttered, as the five ice javelins shattered into small sharps of ice.
"Fire!" the professor roared in a smug response, he commanded the orbs of blue fire to launch streams of fire at Kathyln. She was too focused on finishing her spell with the shards to where she ignored forming a defense to protect herself. I leaped from my seat even using infinite step to get there as quickly as I could. Not wanting to risk any chances I got to Kathyln and pulled her close to me, and in a blink of an eye, I used earth magic to envelop an Earth Tomb around us.
The beams of concentrated blue fire crashed against the outer walls of the tomb protecting Kathyln and me. She finally realizes what is happening and upon seeing me holding her close to me in the cramped space of the Earth Tomb she blushes. She doesn't push me away though acknowledging that we didn't have enough space in the Earth Tomb to step away so she accepts my embrace.
When the blasts of compressed fire stop hitting the Earth Tomb I release the spell letting the walls of earth fall to the ground, while they fall I release Kathyln from my hold and she stumbles back.
Looking towards the professor his face is in shock, he probably wasn't able to understand how I had gotten there so quickly. But after the shock came to a wave of relief, he was probably thankful that the spells did not reach the Princess meaning he was off the hook.
"Kathyln, are you ok?" I ask to be met with her looking down, preventing me from seeing her red face, she nods slightly letting me know she was fine as she rushed to her seat. After she had returned to her seat, I turned to the professor. "I guess I'm your next opponent?"
"Oh- yeah, since you're also a conjurer I'll once again use long-range spells." He says while once again getting ready.
"No, fight whichever way you prefer." What I had just said must have struck at his pride making his expression turn to subtle anger.
Upon seeing I wasn't withdrawing and wand or staff he confusingly asks, "Are you not gonna get prepared?"
"I already am," I remarked, making him get even angrier. He picked up his sword and unsheathed it, he at least still had the self-control to coat it with mana dulling the edge so I wouldn't get cut. Though I'm not sure that would even matter because he also coated it with blue fire.
The battle began as he approached me with his sword drawn, I pivoted around him getting to an angle where he couldn't hit me with his sword, and in my hand, I summoned a concentrated gale of wind and launched it at his side. This spell pushed him back several feet.
Keeping pressure on him I try using an Earth Shard spell launching several small pieces of pointed earth at him. Though to no use as he uses a quick spell of fire to knock them out of the air. I conjure a wind barrier around me, as he begins to charge at me again as I prepare another spell while I use my knowledge of sword fighting to avoid his attacks.
Finishing my spell I launch a large Wind Torrent spell launching them back while it cuts up the outer layer of their clothing and some skin. I followed that up with a Rupture Spike earth spell to launch an earth spike out of the ground pointing at him. Although he blocked the point of the spike it still pushed him back far enough to be close to the edge of the arena.
Now being able to finish the job, I conjure a constant flow of Wind Blades at the professor cutting him up all over and finally launching him out of the arena breaking the barrier that was around the arena. It was my win.
The professor gets up from the floor after his loss storms out of the classroom. Feyrith runs up to me patting me on the back, "Good job Art, just as I expected from my rival." he laughs confidently. Since my fight had lasted till the end of the class we all began leaving the room. While leaving I had been speaking to Feyrith on theories for how he could have handled his demonstration better.
Since we had to part ways for the next class he waved bye as he turned down a different hall. It was then when Kathyln approached me and asked me a question, "How did I do?" She asks in her quiet small voice.
"Huh?" I didn't know she was close by so her showing was a surprise to me, was she following me the entire way here waiting for Feyrith to leave before asking?
"In my spar against the Professor, how did I do?" She asks again, clarifying.
"Oh, well I guess you choose to keep playing the offensive rather than protect yourself was a big mistake. You didn't have anyone there to assist you while casting so in this case you would need to pay attention to all your weaknesses."
"Oh," she says.
"You still did great though, your skill in ice is great and you have really good control over the shape and size of your creations."
Upon hearing me praise her skill she is forced to look away in embarrassment. "Thank you-," she responds while still looking away.
Since I didn't have any class to get to since my next one will be after lunch I had nowhere to be. So I kept wandering the halls with Kathyln following me, "Not to be rude but don't you have a class to be? I'm not sure you can just follow me around and miss class,"
"I have a lunch break for this class so it will be fine," she responds. "Do you not want me here?"
"No no I don't want you to leave. I was just concerned that you may miss your class because of me." I answer.
We continue walking and talking for a while since neither of us has anywhere to be. It's approaching the start of the next class time when Kathyln asks me a new question. "Can I call you Art like my brother does? It's fine if you say no-"
"Yeah, you're free to call me whatever you want. Friends can give each other nicknames whenever they want, can't they?" I say.
"Um- ok,-Art." She shyly says my nickname, she tries to say something else but has to look down, "Since friends give each other nicknames… Could you give me one?" She asks.
"Sure, how about-" I am cut off from saying my idea when we hear someone yell across the hall to get our attention.
"Hey, you two! Come here!" A raggedy man wearing a dirty lab coat calls out to us. We listen and go to him. "I'm in the middle of teaching a class right now, if either of you is free could you drop this off to the teacher for Runic Language?" The dirty-looking professor had a box in his hand that looked rather heavy from the way he was struggling to carry it.
"Sure I can take it, I actually have class there now so it will be just on the way."
"Perfect take this brat." he hands me the box which he had been struggling to lift. He is quite surprised to see I had no problem lifting it however but just decided to return to his classroom.
"I have to bring this to my next class then, sorry for having to abandon you while talking. I'll see you later though for the DC meeting." I say to Kathyln.
"It's fine, I must be getting to where I need to be as well." she responds, I can barely hear her say the next thing as I walk off, "Bye"