~ Battle of Paths ~

His eyes got wider as he received the new information. How was he going to be able to advance or solve the mysteries of this realm, or why he was brought here, if he would be stuck to doing a few parlour tricks before tiring out?

It was a big dilemma.

"This is bad," he blurted as they entered the building.

It was a big hall that mirrored a mini stadium.

"Don't worry, it's just a test. No one will take it seriously. You just have to be smart about it," Elora whispered in comfort.

Stealing an inconspicuous glance at the grinning Lucas that was seated at the other side of the hall, Richard chuckled sheepishly, "Yeah, right."

Soon enough, all twenty of the students had found a place to seat, around the empty court, that was almost as wide as two basket ball courts.

"Sorry we're late," James made his presence known as he and Hazel squeezed their way through other students. He sat beside Richard, while Hazel sat next to him.

"Well, nothing has started. I guess you're still early," Richard shrugged, turning to face his friend, only to make eye contact with Hazel.

He could barely remember her from the former Richard's memories, but he was sure they got along quite well. This prompted him to wave and say, "Hi."

She waved back with a terse smile and immediately faced Master Kincaid below.

The Master cleared his throat and began with a loud voice, "I don't need to talk much. You already know how this goes."

'I don't,' Richard replied in thought.

"This session is going to be a gauntlet match. Who'll volunteer as the first two contestants?" asked Master Kincaid.

With a short burst of steam, Lucas Kane appeared beside the Master, who simply smiled and waved at his other students, "And who might the second person be?"

Everyone turned their faces away, excluding Elora, who sized Lucas up in disdain. She didn't dislike him at first and had almost fallen for him, if he hadn't beaten up a boy that asked her out to a dance. He was being over protective, and they weren't even friends to begin with. She hated boys like him.

She was also a better Mage than he was, which made her the perfect volunteer. She sighed and lifted her hand.

However, just a second before then, as Richard made to turn his face away, Eric, one of Lucas's lackeys, kicked him in the face. The force of the kick threw Richard off his seat, and he skidded down, till he rolled to a stop on the court, by Master Kincaid's feet.

Master Kincaid didn't see the action that led Richard to this state, but he had a pretty good image of what happened. He knew that Lucas never liked Richard because of how close the latter had gotten to the princess. It was very obvious why he would want to fight him here and humiliate him.

He let out an exasperated sigh and helped Richard to his feet, whilst announcing, "It seems we now have our second volunteer."

Richard's eyes dilated and he interjected, "What? No! Someone kicked me!"

The princess and James stood up simultaneously, trying to explain what happened, but Master Kincaid turned deaf ears. He knew better than to listen to them in that moment.

He did so for two good reasons. For one, if he listened and punished Eric, who kicked Richard, it would only spite Lucas further, who would in turn corner Richard outside the school and beat him up.

Also, if he decided to let Richard go back to his seat, Elora would jump onto the court. And of course, she'd defeat Lucas, staining his pride. And just like before, he'd go after Richard outside the school premises and pummel him for chickening out.

It wasn't as though he wouldn't try to bully Richard on the court, but at least Master Kincaid would be able to intervene before it went out of hand.

"Sorry, but it's been decided. Please, have your seats," the Master gestured for the complainers to sit down. They grudgingly did and he let out a relieved sigh.

He then stood between Lucas and Richard, "Okay, lads, listen. This is only a friendly spar. There is no winner. Do not go too far," he turned his gaze toward the nervous Richard. "Or overexert yourself. Am I clear?"

Richard nodded, while Lucas scoffed.

'I'm so dead. What kind of misfortune is this?' Richard panicked inwardly. 'No one is brave enough to face him, and they all have bigger mana reserves. What do they expect me to do? His mana reserve is probably like a flowing lake compared to my small bucket. Shit!'

Master Kincaid scrutinized them with his gaze, before getting carried by an incorporeal wind. He floated over to the princess's side and sat beside her.

Elora rolled her eyes and shifted away from him.

"Trust me, I did this for his own good," he whispered.

Elora ignored him and focused her gaze on the commencing battle below.

Lucas conjured a small ball of fire in his right palm and lazily hurled it at Richard. He didn't want to finish him off quickly. He wanted to make the latter suffer, and then leave him with a warning not to mingle the princess ever again.

The anxious Richard managed to dodge the fireball by jumping sideways. Although the fireball almost had no life and force in it, Richard felt he could have dodged a fiercer one as his body felt really light.

Lucas simply chuckled at this and began to mumble some unclear words as he conjured more fireballs in both hands. He made them hotter this time before tossing them at his target in quick succession. He didn't stop until he had about ten fireballs hurling in the air.

Richard swallowed hard before bouncing on his toes. Using his surprisingly light body to his advantage, he began to run, jump, and flip, just to dodge the fireballs. It was quite easy, making him wonder what was going on.

Was he that good at evading things, or was Lucas still toying with him?

He suddenly came to a stop, and met face to face with a spinning ball of flames. It was as the heat of the flames slightly scorched his face, that another memory fragment dissolved into his mind.

He recalled as the former Richard trained with his father to hone his physical stats, in order to compensate for his extremely low mana reserve. That was why he was quite ripped, yet slender. His muscles were built majorly on agility, not strength. He was quite strong too, but was sometimes useless against Mages with mid and long range attacks. He would have to get close to deal any damage to his opponent.

It now made sense to Richard why he was so light on his feet. But did that mean he was going to be jumping around and evading like a circus clown for the rest of the match?

'I have to think of something,' he pondered internally after sliding below the last fireball.

But just as he turned on his knees and made to stand up, a small compressed ball of gravity struck his abdomen. In that very short span of time that he was hit, he felt the space around him distort. He felt the weight of a fully stocked wardrobe slam into him point blank.

Everyone was stunned by the next thing they saw immediately the small ball hit him. He was blitzed across the court, until he slammed his back on a wall, birthing erratic cracks on the concrete. He was pressed a few centimetres into the wall, his hands and legs spread wide.

It didn't even reach another three seconds before he coughed out a sparse amount of blood.

The students gasped. Some gasped in concern for Richard's state of health, others were awed by Lucas's terrifying ability.

Possessing the Gravikinetic Mage Path, which is a sub path under the Void Mage Path, Lucas understood the basics of push and pull, and a few other tricks to distort gravity.

Funny enough, he was still a Murmurer, the tier after the lowest in being a Mage. All Mages begin as Spellcasters. In other words, they'd have to loudly recite spells for their abilities to emanate.

Murmurers only have to whisper the spells.

Just as Hazel had said, the magical system of power was quite tricky. Mage Paths were riddled with sub paths, which in turn might also have another round of sub paths. There was also the case of the Resonant Mage Path, whereby, a few Mages could advance from one sub path to the other.

However, the tiers were the pillars that always remained constant. All Mages advance from being a Spellcaster, to a Murmurer, then to being a Psyon, before ascending to higher tiers.

Princess Elora squeezed her fists, her brows arched down. It took every thing in her not to leap off her seat and stand in between the boys.

Hazel started braiding her hair worriedly, while James sunk his head between his knees.

"You're stronger than this, lad," Master Kincaid whispered in anticipation.

'What the hell was that?' Richard questioned inwardly as he forcefully pulled himself out of the wall, landing rigidly on his feet.

His bones still tweaked from the unnatural force that hit him. Getting slammed against the wall only made it worse. He had also coughed out blood because of how the ball of gravity churned his insides.

But he was still okay. At least he could stand. His muscles weren't just for show. With a few yanks and shoulder twists, he was able to overcome the surreal tweaking in his bones.

It had only been about ten seconds between the time he punctured the wall, and when he ejected it. But Lucas wouldn't let Richard rest.

Lucas inconspicuously created another tiny ball of gravity in his palm, while igniting a ball of flames around it. Then he took a pitcher's stance and flung the fireball at Richard.

Richard didn't even have enough time to evade this time around, as the fireball crossed the distance in a whim. He crossed his arms before him at the very last second.

With a mild boom, the fireball exploded on impact and Richard was sent flying backwards with so much momentum, that he dug a small hole through the wall he had once punctured.

The pain was very real this time around.

Still managing to walk out of the hole, he huffed and panted for breath, 'Why was the fireball so fast and heavy? Why'd it explode?'

Though his mind was boggled with these puzzling thoughts, he couldn't help but feel grateful toward Lucas for moderating the heat of his flames, or else he would have lost more than the sleeves of his jacket. His forearms were slightly burned and covered in black soot.

'I have to stop defending and attack this time around,' Richard resolved in his mind, moving away from the small smoke cloud that had formed from the explosion.

He saw Lucas drift his black eyes towards him and he almost froze. But the fear of getting caught up in another explosion overwhelmed him and he clasped his hands forward in a whim. He made sure they were directed at him, before he muttered, "Boom."

The hall went silent for seconds as they anticipated what would happen at the bold gesture. But another ten seconds passed and nothing happened.

Lucas had prepared to counter any annoying sound attack around him, but nothing was forthcoming. Nothing at all.

"Huh?" Richard raised a brow as what he had in mind never happened.

Though he could only expend very little mana, he had thought of erupting two simultaneous sonic booms close to Lucas's ears, which would disorient the latter and give Richard enough time to close in and give the decisive blow.

However, reality is often disappointing.

At that moment, Richard's mind clicked. Another fragment of memories bled into his mind, and he felt really embarrassed of his new realization.

Not only was he low on mana, he couldn't activate his magic without reciting the spells loudly.

He was still a Spellscaster.