Grudge Match [Pt 1]

A couple of weeks went by and eventually, it was time for the mid-term assessment.

As expected, everyone passed the required goal. Instructor Sykes told the class that he was impressed and encouraged them to work even harder.

"I can see that you've all become Primary-Level Mages and many of you are even past level 5. As I said earlier, you will all be rewarded accordingly" with this he brought out a box and opened it.

Its content was different magic paraphernalia, ranging from magic-equipment to pills.

"These are for you" Instructor Sykes continued "But, as you know the school works with a strict hierarchy system, so the strongest gets to pick first."

Arnik found this intriguing. He was interested in knowing the power ranking of the class. The Elite students were very secretive when it came to their abilities so this would be a golden opportunity for him.

The giant screen in the class came on and a list appeared.

"In first place, Eissa Frost. Please step forward and pick whatever you want."

Arnik looked at the beautiful young lady as she stood up. A long time ago when they were both quite young they had been good friends and got along quite well. She was a beautiful young girl that always had a smile on her face, but over the years she had changed and her personality had grown colder—just like her magic.

Eventually, she stopped smiling and started keeping to herself. This had earned her the nickname 'Ice Princess'.

As she walked past Arnik, he felt a cold chill. She got to the front of the class and looked at the contents of the box, eventually pulling out what looked to be a necklace out of the box and returned to her seat quietly.

In second place was Vaella Pyro, the daughter of Belzebub Pyro, currently the strongest Fire mage, she was nicknamed 'Fille de l'enfer'—which loosely translates to the daughter of inferno.

Having displayed a high affinity for magic at an early age, she was regarded as a highly gifted mage and many believed that she would surpass her father someday.

Contrary to the belief that the Pyro and Frost families had disdain between them, their relationship was quite cordial—Belzebub and Gale were very good friends although their daughters did not quite share their sentiment.

They considered each other as rivals and always strove to outdo one each other.

Vaella's personality was quite different from Eissa though. She was very vocal and authoritative, having quite the temper. Arnik had been very careful not to cross her path since he had witnessed her fight once and he knew that he was nowhere near her level.

Vaella stepped forward and also picked something from the box, and so did the other students after her.

Arnik was the 11th person to be called up, he walked to the front of the class and looked in the box. Even though most of the equipment had been taken, he still looked through until something caught his attention.

It was a small blue orb, it almost seemed to be calling to him, he looked at the tag for the name, 'The Core of Basan.'

'Basan...!' He thought to himself, he had seen that name before, but where?

Arnik decided not to think too much about it, and proceeded to take the orb. Immediately he touched it, the curious boy felt a reaction from his chest,

"The crest must be reacting to it" He thought to himself and walked back to his seat.

Rowan was called up next and he walked up to the box, he looked around for a bit before picking up a steel ball with four red holes on each side. Arnik remembered seeing the name of the ball, it was simply 'Godin'.

He didn't think it was anything special, but Rowan seemed to be overjoyed with his pick. The rest of the class eventually selected the remaining contents of the box.

"Since you're all done, you all can take the rest of the day off. Consider it another gift from the school for exceeding expectations. Class dismissed!" With this, Instructor Sykes left the class and so did the students.

Arnik was just about to leave when Rowan called out to him.

"Hey, Arnik! Let's go to the dorm gym and get some training done!"

Arnik quickly replied "Oh, sorry, I have to rush to the school library to check something. Go on without me. I'll join you in a bit."

"Suit yourself" Rowan replied with a shrug, before eventually leaving the class with some other classmates.

Arnik hurriedly left the class and went straight to the Library. Once there, he proceeded to use the Magic catalog.

It was a piece of magic equipment that helped one search for anything in the library instantly. He tapped the catalog and it opened up and the book's pages were empty,

"The Core of Basan" He said and light began to emanate from the book.

An index number popped up and he used this to find the book while searching he looked around the school library. It was much bigger than that of the Frost Mansion and held a lot more books about more varied topics.

There were usually a lot of students here, but today their numbers were quite a few, this was probably because of the mid-term break. Hardly anyone spent their free time cooped up in the library, after all.

Arnik soon found the book he was looking for—it was an old brown book with the words 'Mythic Creatures' written boldly across it.

He found an empty desk and chair, seating down to read. The boy soon found what he was looking for.

The Basan was a rare bird-like mythic creature that could be found in Urla, one of the many magic regions scattered around the world. Basans lived together in pairs and were usually bright orange in color.

However, on rare occasions, a mutation occurs and Blue Basans are created.

Arnik brought out the orb once again, staring at it observantly.

"This must be the core of a blue Basan. I wonder why the school would give something like this away"

He stopped to look at the book, Basans were fire attribute mythical creatures, so this orb would probably be very helpful to him to help increase his strength. He decided to go see Olea for advice later and proceeded to close the book and leave the library.

He went back to his dorm room to change out of his uniform and left for the dormitory gym to meet up with Rowan. On getting there he found a group of students gathered around.

'I wonder what's going on...' He thought to himself.

Just then, he heard a familiar voice saying "Piss off!"

He pushed past the students gathered and saw Rowan and Gerdi at the center of the crowd. Rowan looked very angry.

"There's no way in hell that I'm giving it to you! You had your chance to pick whatever you wanted and you did, so why should I have to swap with you!" Rowan said angrily.

"Well for one I'm a Lithos and you're just some irrelevant nobody from a branch family." Gerdi answered, a smirk plastered across his face,

"And more importantly, I'm much stronger than you. I'm even doing you the favor of asking for it when I could just take it forcefully. You should be on your knees thanking me" Gerdi continued.

"Huh you're stronger than me? Just cuz the ranking says so? Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and fight me!" Rowan answered.

At this point, Arnik ran up to him. "Calm down, Rowan, he's just trying to rile you up"

Rowan knew Arnik was right. Gerdi was always trying to get under his skin and he had always ignored him, but today was different. Rowan wanted to shut him up once and for all!

"C'mon if you're stronger you'd fight me. Or is Gerdi Litho all bark and no bite?!" The crowd was getting riled up and the situation seemed to be getting out of control.

Just as Arnik was beginning to panic, someone from the crowd spoke up.

"Hold on!"

Eeryone turned in the direction the voice had come from. It was one of their classmates—a lightning user known as Rajin Basset.

"Isn't it against the rules for students to engage in duels without supervision?"

The crowd began murmuring among themselves and seemed to calm down a bit. Just as Arnik was about to let's out a sigh of relief, another voice spoke up.

"That is indeed true, but it shouldn't be an issue."

Just like before, everyone looked towards the direction of the voice, including Arnik. He didn't recognize this person, but he was most likely a senior.

"My name is Werner Tidme. I'm a member of the student council, and since it is within my power... I will oversee this match!" He said with a smile.