First Lesson On Magic

Seeing the others moving to the red machine by the wall, Jake followed them. Anna explained what the machine is for along with the other devices in the training room.

"This machine here," Anna said while pointing at the red machine, "is to measure your release of magic. It can measure the amount of magic you bring out of your body, it also shows how close you are to actually using your magic since most of you don't know how to use it yet."

Moving to the large television, Anna also explained what it does. "This television is not for you to watch movies with, if that's what your thinking. These goggles here," she said as she took the devices on the stand, "are simulation goggles, you put them on and your mind gets transported to an arena set beforehand. It's like a game but, anything you can do with your magic in the real world, you will also be able to do it in the simulation and I'll be watching everything you are doing in the television."

She moved towards the large doll next and the students followed her from behind.

"Wow dude." Kevin said. "Have you ever seen a butt as big as that?" he asked while staring at Anna's butt as she walked to the large doll.

"Can you stop being a perv Kevin?" Jake asked. "I'm trying to pay attention."

"Come on man, look at that butt and tell me it's not the most beautiful thing in the world." Kevin said.

"If you're done admiring my behind, why don't you come here and hit this doll as hard as you can." Anna said.

"You heard her Jake." Kevin said already pushing Jake to the front. "Quit admiring her butt and go hit the doll."

"Are you nuts?" Jake asked moving back to join the students. "I wasn't the one admiring her butt, she was talking about you."

"And how would you know that?" Kevin asked.

"He's right." Anna said to Kevin. "I am talking about you."

"Oh." Walking forward, Kevin touched the doll and felt it. It was made from Frith –a hard substance used in the production of weapons for training. "Miss Anna, how am I supposed to hit something this strong as hard as I can?"

"I think it's with your hands." Jake said chuckling. "You can do it Kevin."

"The rest of you shouldn't think he's the only one that will hit the doll." Anna said. "When he's done, you all will hit the doll one after the other. If you break any bones, we have someone who uses healing magic among us." she said whilst looking at Smith. "He will heal any injuries you might sustain."

"But Miss Anna," Smith said timorously, "I don't know how to use my magic yet."

"That's why I'm here to teach you. As some of you may have noticed, when you got your magic the state of your body also improved, your strength, speed, stamina, and so on. They didn't improve by much but you'll have to increase the little improvement done by training. Now, Kevin, if you don't mind." Anna said and gestured at the doll.

"Here goes nothing." Kevin said and threw his fist out towards the head of the doll as hard as he could.

When his fist connected with the doll's head, a crack was heard by everyone in the room and the number 4 was shown on an electric board above the doll.

"That's got to hurt." Max said laughing at the look of pain on Kevin's face.

"The number you're seeing on the board above is the number the doll rates your strength." Anna said. "Smith, you're going to have to use your magic to heal Kevin's hand. I don't think anything is broken but you still have to heal it. To use magic as the beginners you are, you need a strong emotion as a trigger. Emotions like happiness, anger, even sadness can be used to trigger your magic."

Jake wasn't listening to what Anna was saying because he already knew what she was telling them. Instead he was trying to use Cat's magic he had mimicked, Empathic telepathy. Already learning the feeling he experiences when channeling magic, Jake tried to use his anger as his trigger again. At first nothing was happening, he didn't know what Cat's magic could do but based on its name he knew it had something to do with the mind.

Using more anger to trigger the magic and also learning the way the magic is flowing through his body, Jake began to hear the thoughts of some of the students near him all at once. Not being able to discern anything he was hearing and turning his head from side to side, Jake stopped using his anger but he was still hearing the thoughts of the students.

Closing his ears with his hands while turning his head in an attempt to block the thoughts out, Jake was about to fall to the floor but was caught by Anna who helped him into a pod which was close to the boards at the back of the room.

Getting into the pod and hearing a strange whirring sound, the thoughts Jake was hearing were starting to go away. Looking out of the pod through a very thick transparent glass, Jake could see Anna and the students staring at him.

"Are you okay?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, you can let me out of this thing now." Jake answered.

Turning off the pod, the glass in front of Jake slided open and he came out with wobbly steps. "What is that?" Jake asked as he took a sit.

"That is a pod is a nullifier, it's for situations like this. When you lose control of your magic, all I have to do is get you into the pod and it nullifies your magic. What happened to you?" Anna asked.

"It's just like you said. I lost control of my magic."

"Did you use anger to trigger it?"

"Well, sort of." Jake said.

"Sort of?" Anna asked in an answer-me-clearly tone.

"Okay, I did use anger. But only because..."

"I don't want to know why. You are never to use anger as a trigger for your magic again, understood?"

"Yes."

"Good." Anna said. "Let's get back to what we were talking about. And Smith, good job on healing their fists."

"Thanks Miss Anna." Smith replied elatedly.

"As you just heard me tell Jake, none of you should ever use anger as a trigger for your magic unless you are in a very desperate situation. Anger as a trigger is a double-edged sword, it can make your magic much more powerful but at your own expense. You can lose control and do something you never meant to do or your mana becomes completely depleted leaving you defenseless.

"Mana is what allows us to use magic, completely depleting it is never a good idea. A person with a large amount of mana can use magic for a long time without reaching his or her limit, but with a small pool of mana, reaching your limit won't take long."

"How do we know when we've reached our limit?" a student asked.

"Weren't you listening when Mr Ken told us you bleed from the nose if you've past your limit." Kevin said.

"He's right." Anna concurred. "Looks like you're not just a pervert, you actually have something up there." she said to Kevin.

"I also have something down here." Kevin said pointing in between his torso and his legs.

"Keep trying kid. You might succeed one day." Anna said smiling.

"Could you be anymore shameless?" Smith asked.

"She totally likes me." Kevin said ignoring what Smith asked him.

"Jake," Anna called out, "you haven't hit the doll yet."

Getting up from where he was sitting, Jake went to the front of the doll and threw a punch at it but not with his full strength. Looking up after hitting the doll, Jake could see the number 10 being displayed on the electric board.

"10?" Kevin shouted. "How the heck are you stronger than me by this much?"

"It's not a big deal." said Kyle, a student with a bulky stature and orange hair. "Mine was 9.6 which is basically 10."

"Yeah but look at your size though and look at Jake's." Max said. "How did a body like that contain that much strength?"

"What can I say? It's not always about size." Jake said.

"That's correct. Observe." Anna said and went to hit the doll but held back a lot of her strength.

Looking up at the electric board, the students could see the number 43.2.

"What!" the students shouted.

"How did you do that?" Jake asked. "You didn't even use your magic."

"Years of training." Anna replied smiling. "No one would expect me to have strength like this and that would be their first mistake."

"Miss Anna," Kevin said, "do you take days off?"

"What?" Jake asked confused.

"I just feel people need a little rest once in a while." Kevin said sincerely.

"Dude, are you making a move on your teacher?" Max asked.

"No." Kevin replied. "I'm only showing my concern."

Shaking his head, Jake waited for Anna to respond.

"I'll tell you what Kevin," Anna said, "we're going to have a friendly spar. If you can lay a finger on me, I'll give you a kiss on your cheek right now."

"A kiss on my cheek?" Kevin asked. "If you're very confident, why not on my lips?"

"Alright. I'll give you a kiss on your lips if you can touch me in a spar."

"Deal."

Going to the center of the room, the other students gave both Anna and Kevin enough space to spar.

"You're going to lose Kevin." Jake said.

"Oh be quiet." Kevin said as he got ready to fight for a kiss he had wanted since he set his eyes on Anna.