Training Day

"Good evening Class, I trust you all have enjoyed your respective lunches and are prepared for another interesting lesson!" Instructor Shizune addressed her recruits with an rather strange greeting.

After watching them nod their heads a bit she continued.

"It's been three months since you all arrived at this Academy, and the time has come for you all to return home to visit your families for the holidays, however, I do not plan to let you all go without a test!" She fixed them with a stern glance.

"This test is twofold, Dragonslaying theory and Practical Magic, We have gone over these in class, if there is anything you've forgotten you may refer to your notes, I want a 5 page essay- each, by the end of the week, dismissed."

Ra buried his head in his arms and moaned aloud.

It didn't matter that Ra never attended his classes, it didn't even matter that he'd never written a single note, the problem for him was- he'd have to write... now.

Which was the last thing he wanted to do, but Ra wouldn't be Ra if he didn't have his ways. He already had a plan in mind, but first, He had to get as much training in as he could before he left the Academy.

Ra immediately left the lecture hall and ran towards the Arena, he would spend the rest of the day tackling S grade challenges, Ra wasn't stupid, the power scaling of Headmaster Gram and that self proclaimed 'Dragonlord' Neb, Was far beyond what he currently knew, If he wanted to match them he had to improve.

Entering the Arena, Ra chose the live-stream option, Calibrating the challenge to S grade; He wasted no time at all, swiftly entering the formation.

An S grade challenge was typically composed of high tiers, high stage, and high rank Dragons, there were no weaklings here.

Ra was currently facing 12 Dragons and none of them were below the Evolved stage, among the Green Dragons alone were 3 Saint rank Evolved Dragons, 5 Primal Blue Dragons, 2 Evolved Red Dragons, and 2 Ascended White Dragons.

Ra gulped.

Steeling himself, he soul formed.

Ra's soul forming was fast and seemingly instantaneous, in fact his sword was emitting a brighter glow than usual, he held the sword perpendicular to the ground, adjusting his stance he activated his tier 1 vanish, in the next instant the air around his body split as he cut through it, dashing at an astounding speed toward the nearest Dragon, This Dragon was a green, as Ra closed the distance, it dropped from the air revealing another Green Dragon right behind it, this Dragon flapped its wings sending a gust of wind in Ra's direction, Ra cast a mana spell, allowing him to surf along the edge of the gust of wind, using it to bolster his speed he surged towards the grounded Dragon, Ra's tier 1 vanish timed out, he wanted to cast it again but it required him to adopt a specific stance and he was traveling at far too dangerous a speed at the moment, rushing headlong at the Dragon he leaped into the air, spinning slightly he deflected the gaping maw of a Dragon attempting to bite at him with the flat of his blade, stepping on the subsequent dragon wing he propelled himself higher into the air, he flipped forward in the air and brought down his sword with a resounding thud on the Dragon's skull, The Dragon roared in pain, beating its wings it rose into the sky, flapping furiously it attempted to shake him loose, a huge Ascended White Dragon barreled towards him flailing in the air as he clung to his sword still wedged inside the Dragons skull, Ra released the weapon and activated his tier 3 Obliterate on the swords hilt, the sword shot clear through the Evolved Green Dragons skull, shattering it, Ra fell from the sky attempting to right himself, casting the mana spell for weightlessness Ra managed to slow his descent, The White Dragon was still after him so Ra soul formed again, his sword materialized in his hand, his arm already swinging to intercept the Dragons fangs head on, behind him Two Blue Dragons completed their magic array, a threefold multi-colored magic circle formed in the sky above Ra where he was locked in combat against the White Dragon, he cast a mana spell to increase his weight and immediately plummeted like a stone toward the ground as he silently lamented his lack of dragonslaying spells.

The dragonslaying spell Draconic Flight would help him immensely in this situation.

Ra was glancing around wildly in an attempt to find a way out of this situation, finding none he decided to go for broke, incantating a mana spell he spoke rapidly and felt his internal mana reserves drain, In exchange he had managed to erect a tier 3 mana barrier encompassing a space covering 10 meters in every direction, in this moment he crashed into the ground, he would have cratered if not for his mana barrier, he was unable to take damage from something like falling while inside of it, Ra quickly got to his feet, soul forming once again he dual wielded two soul weapons!

The Dragons unleashed an onslaught of physical and magical attacks from every direction, Ra was on the defensive, he blocked, parried and deflected the oncoming attacks, He resembled a God of War in the heat of battle as he endured the attacks, he suddenly threw both weapons into the air, as he incantated a mana spell once again, his mana reserves tanked again, The soul formed swords became animated, blocking the attacks for him as they flew through the air, moving so rapidly they resembled nothing more than a glowing blur. Ra's sweat poured heavily into his eyes, his brown hair was soaked so thoroughly it appeared black.

There was a difference between casting mana spells and incantating mana spells, casted spells used the mana in the air, but incantated spells were much more mana intensive, requiring you to draw from your own reserves, these reserves could not be manually restored only recovering over time, and at this moment Ra had exhausted nearly all of his, when one's body has no mana stores their combat power is drastically reduced, mana is just as important to the magical races as their own blood, without mana one would inevitably shorten their lifespan, in fact, wasn't the war with the Dragons all because of the decreasing supply of mana, Ra had no time to ponder this thought as his spells began to expire, Taking his swords in hand Ra rapidly spun in the air, his blades slashing at the Dragons gaping jaws as his momentum carried him upwards into the air, Ra had been fighting these Dragons for 45 minutes, having killed one Evolved Green Dragon and injuring 3 others, but as his strength flagged he knew this battle was his loss, still he continued to fight, beating back the Dragons with savage strikes, he anointed the ground with blood and sweat, he wasnt truly injured but his body still took damage inside the formation, he turned as he fended off claws, wings, and tail strikes, until finally a Dragon made it past his defenses, dealing a heavy blow, he didn't even know how he died.

Ra was immediately ejected from the formation, unwilling to give up, he directly entered it again, he repeated this process again and again, his desire to grow stronger unstoppable, When Ra finally exited the Arena he was mentally exhausted, his uniform which was normally resistant to moisture was soaked through, his hair was a mess and he was slightly incoherent, he made his way back to the boys dorm his surroundings a blur, he pushed open the door and walked straight to the shower, and stripping naked collapsed beneath the scalding stream of water and fell asleep.