Magic Combat (II)

Hade felt two soft melons bombard his chest as the girl squeezed the life out of him.

Predictably, this action was met with deafening silence in the large indoor training ground.

A pin could've dropped to the ground and literally everybody would've heard it.

All the testosterone-pumped adolescent boys in the enclosure nearly had nosebleeds and the girls, well, heart attacks.

Was this the same fiery unapproachable goddess they knew?!

Professor Miller was simply dumbstruck.

'What is this girl thinking?' she wondered to herself.

Even the usually stone-faced Naomi could not help but have her cheeks redden a little. She slowly mustered her confidence before questioning her friend.

"H-Hey Iolana, w-what are you doing?"

After what seemed like a lifetime, the alluring redhead finally let Hade go. She turned to see everyone's sights glued on them.

"What?" She asked as if there was nothing wrong at all with what she had just done.

"He's my cousin," she explained.

Cousin.

As that word reverberated around the training ground, you could hear a few sighs of relief, mostly among the girls.

Aliandra surprisingly found herself among this group. Wait, did she like the newcomer?

Sadly, the revelation did little to appease the grief the boys felt.

Cousin? So what?!

The point was, that redhead had felt the godly sensation of those two mountains concealed beneath the thin layer of fabric of Iolana's combat gear and there was no excuse for that!

"Damn it!" Rozar cursed under his breath. Just yesterday, he had nearly lost Aliandra, and now Iolana too.

The damned pretty boy was going for the whole prized stock!

Very soon all they will be left with will be the weirdos and the uglies!

Meanwhile, Professor Miller only made the connection between Hade and Iolana now that the two redheads were standing next to each other.

However, besides the similar hair colour, the two had nothing else in common.

In fact, on another day, Calley would've believed that her beautiful but unreserved student was making things up.

However, the fact that Hade barely had any change of expression when Iolana 'mauled' him further testified that the two were indeed related.

Contrary to everyone else, Naomi responded very differently to the news.

The wheels in her mind were spinning rapidly because also unlike everyone else, she knew just which family the Roxleys- Iolana's family were.

The de facto rulers of Karthmere province for many millennia, the Roxleys were an old conservative matriarchal clan that dated back to even before the empire was founded.

Through thick and thin, they had survived the harsh test of time but sadly, in this day and age, they were already past their prime- a shell of their former magnificence.

You could even say that in recent times, they had already been absorbed by another more powerful family.

A family that had come from nowhere and soared above all other aristocratic families to stand amongst those at the pinnacle of power in the Edin empire.

Yes, it was the mysterious Ronen family.

Naomi looked at the handsome boy standing calmly next to Iolana. That indifferent gaze, that confidence that nearly bordered into arrogance, how could she not have seen it before?!

She had been puzzled why he had only introduced himself as 'Hade.'

At first, she had assumed that perhaps he came from humble beginnings but only now did she realize that it was some sort of attempt to keep his identity a secret.

'Of course!' Naomi exclaimed in her head. No one this talented could've remained hidden, at least not from her and her sources.

Not unless they already had power and influence rivalling or even perhaps surpassing her own.

'It's him,' She concluded. This was the second son of the feared family of Harlston, Hade... Hade Ronen.

...

The whole Iolana drama soon came to an end.

Although many in the crowd would've liked to continue gossiping, this was the First Imperial School. Every student here had been deemed to be the very best out of nearly one thousand other students and a million others who had applied.

It was either that or they came from extremely powerful backgrounds that the Schools had no other choice but to put them in the Origin Class.

Once things calmed down, Professor Calley explained how the Magic Combat class worked, mainly for Hade's sake because he was new.

The students would be drafted into groups and fight against each other in one on one battles until one winner emerged from each group.

The winner would then proceed to fight against the other winners from the other groups in the finals until there was an official first, second and third place.

As the name suggested, the battles incorporated magic law application and they were set up into a tournament-type scheme.

Magic Combat was one of the few classes in which students were allowed to let loose and in a way, it showed them just how far they had come.

What better way to check your progress than to fight against other practitioners your age?

Internally, Hade also guessed that the other reason for these weekly tournaments was to create a spirit of competition between the students.

No one liked to lose, that was just a fact of life.

That was even more true for these students who were supposed to be the best in their age group.

Who would be okay with being constantly beaten week in and week out?

'This harmonious and cheerful atmosphere, how long will it last and who will be the first to break?' Hade wondered to himself.

There were a total of six groups with four students in each group, twenty-four students total. Professor Miller drafted the groups herself and would also act as the referee.

The rules were simple, fight till your opponent concedes or till he or she is rendered incapable of fighting back.

Simple but ruthless.

One might've argued that these rules were too harsh because that the participants were merely 16 or 17-year-old adolescents, however, the real world was even harsher.

Power did not discriminate. Either you were weak or you were strong, it was as simple as that. Age had nothing to do with it.

Hade was drafted into an underwhelming group, well, at least that was what the whispers around him were saying.

However, there was one name that he recognized in his group and coincidentally, it happened to be the name of one of his newly assigned dorm mates.

Once Hade saw the name, he immediately looked over, only to meet a gaze that had long already been fixed on him.

Upon making eye contact, Quinn broke into his signature grin, but that did not fool anyone.

Hade could tell that the scrawny teenager was the kind of person that pretended to be friendly but liked to play mind games with others.

In fact, what really annoyed him wasn't the grin, rather, it was the insincerity behind it.

Ironically, Dorian was the complete opposite. You could always tell what the bug-eyed weirdo was thinking about you, which Hade preferred.

But yes, the glaring definitely had to stop though.

Whilst staring at Quinn, Hade immediately decided that if he were to be good dorm mates or even possibly friends with him, then he had to pull the mask off his bogus facade.

And now that they were bound to face each other, he was not above beating him the hell out of it.

"Hey look, the Professor put Rozar and Dorian in one group!" One of the students close to Hade suddenly exclaimed loudly.

It seemed that he had been right, there was indeed some sort of history between the two, and it definitely was not the good kind.

"Do you think it's gonna end up as another draw?"

"Well, the last two did, why not this one as well?"

"Tsk! That's why Saul's taken first place every damn time!"

That was another thing. To accommodate everyone and avoid wasting time, matches had a five-minute time limit. If the five minutes came to an end and there was no clear winner, the match was declared a draw.

What did a draw mean? Simple, both students were eliminated.

This was intentionally set up so that the students grew up knowing that in life there were only winners and losers. There was no middle ground.

A win meant you got to stay in the competition and a loss, well, that was obviously automatic elimination.

The winner after all the group matches were completed would be the winner of that group and would advance to the finals.

The same system was also used in the final rounds.

Interestingly, matches between Rozar and Dorian had all ended in draws that resulted in them both being eliminated.

No wonder Dorian had been so shocked by how easily it had taken Hade to get the better of the big guy.

Previously, the two had always collided in the final rounds which is why Hade found it amusing that Professor Miller had now decided to place them in the same group.

Hade had an inkling that the equilibrium the two boys had had so far, would be broken today.

Nevertheless, draws were still the most common result for most matches.

To Hade, this was very understandable. If two contestants were closely matched, getting a winner in just five minutes would be difficult.

Since most of the students in the Origin class were ranked mid-Mortal-class and only a few top students were in late Mortal class, a draw was the most likely outcome.

However, somehow, one particular person had ended up winning the class event both times in a row.

So far, only he had a perfect record.

Some attributed it to him having never faced either Rozar or Dorian but was that it?

Was it just a coincidence?

Hade did not think so.

If it had happened once then maybe, but twice in succession? That was one too many times for it to be a coincidence.

Hade looked at the winner of the two previous Magic Combat tournaments and coincidentally, the guy was also looking at him.

His golden earrings shone in the light with a peculiar glaze.

Two sky-blue eyes met two deep blue ones just as Professor Miller announced, "Let the games begin!"