Chapter 2: The Challenges

While Cyre carried the tired elf on his back he looked to the sky and noticed the three moons faded by the sun's bright light.

"Man Shiroe today really is a beautiful day for us to graduate huh?" He slowed down enough for shiroe to look towards the sky and see the beautiful sight. The sky was always a wonder to behold but at this time of the morning it always seemed to pop more, the three moons still visible in the sky as the sun was just above the horizon shedding its light across the sky causing a sight as if half of the sky was the morning with shades of yellow, orange, and pink. While the other half of the sky looked much more like the night was still upon them, the many constellations still visible for a while, the galaxies above them shifting around as if they were alive and responding to their thoughts of it, the night half of the sky was shaded with beautiful cool colors such as purples and blues. The two of them stopped for a moment to enjoy the sight before hearing the sound of the combat class instructor calling their names.

"Come on Cyre, you can do it you can make it." Shiroe cheered apathetically from his shoulders. Cyre readied himself before rushing off past the courtyard, across the campus, and through the open gates of the arena where the class was held.

"Very close you two you were late for your last class of mine!" The instructor walked from the sidelines of the arena. The Instructor was quite a tall dwarf for his size almost reaching the shoulders of Cyre. "So are you two challenging me again, or well one of you?" He laughed heartily as he stepped out into the field followed by the teens, as the three walked to the center of the wide coliseum-esque structure the students in their class took notice and started to surround the trio. "Alright this time who's fighting me?" The coach beckoned at the two.

"Shiroe and Cyre are late again!"

"Does this mean we'll get to see another fight from Cyre?"

"Oh, I hope so the last one was so intense." Gossip started to spread as the other students dropped their fighting tools and headed to the sidelines to watch this oncoming spectacle.

"I think I'll let Shiroe fight you this time I'm gonna challenge my personal record coach." Cyre laughed loudly as he patted Shiroe's shoulder.

"Oh yeah, Cyre's strength is his speed, right? Then yeah he'd probably do the laps and then join the fight!" One guy commented thinking quite intently with a few others around him nodding their heads in agreement.

"Speaking of which I've never actually seen Shiroe fight before, he's always so late that he gets remedial classes with Coach Lare'l."

"You know, you're right. As an elf, he should have a high magical aptitude right? So he should have the advantage against a Dwarf whose skills lie in strength and defense."

"Psh! You're praising them too much." The sudden insult stood out. " After all what's a stupid Terran and an Elf gonna do against a Dwarf?" One voice stuck out. "I mean after all one's just the child of a defector and the other's so lazy he can't even be awake through the easiest class." A lot of people looked over to see an Alf sitting on the Arena's seats.

"Who's he?"

"He's a new guy, he was above average in his class so he was put into the Senior classes yesterday." more gossip started to go around but now more targetted towards the Alf.

"Hey watch your tongue man!" One human student walked up towards the Alf and grabbed him by the shirt, " Just because Cyre's a Terran means nothing! The war ended 20 years ago stop talking in the past!" The student raised his fist but his wrist was grabbed by someone behind him before he could hit the guy.

"It's ok Ralph, honestly." He looked behind him to see it was Cyre holding his wrist, who then let go. "If he wants to make fun of me then it's just my job to prove that I'm not what he says I am." He laughed as he headed right back to the middle of the field where Shiroe and the Coach were waiting. "Now Shiroe I want to not hold back against him alright?" Cyre smiled while stretching, preparing for the run. His statement was met only by a nod from Shiroe who removed his jacket and looked at his opponent with a serious expression which was met with nothing but a large grin from the Dwarf.

"To keep this fair I'll let you choose a weapon and I'll take a smaller one, we'll fight till the other's mana shield is broken alright Shiroe?" The coach explained before picking up a sizeable hammer. Shiroe said nothing and nodded before grabbing a one-handed sword with a short blade. "I haven't forgotten the last time you fought me, kid, If it weren't for my experience in defense you would've won with that last attack." The coach laughed heartily. The two fighters stood about 10m from each other as Cyre readied himself to sprint on the dirt track. As a student stepped forward to set off the beginning of the challenge, the two fighters cast their magic surrounding their bodies in a semi-transparent light, the coach's was yellow while Shiroe's was green. The student threw his hand downwards as the chaos began. In bursts of dust Cyre's stride down the dirt track began as he raced around the arena multiple times. Meanwhile, in the middle of the arena, the sound of metal and stone clashing was echoing throughout the stadium. The clash between the teacher and student was surprisingly intense for the spectators as to them Shiroe had never shown interest in anything and had always sat around pathetically throughout every other class, but now he was fighting one on one with the teacher of combat class, and not only was he holding his own he was gaining ground as each slash from his shortsword reverberated throughout the stone walls and pushed the coach backward ever so slightly. As the battle dragged on Cyre's laps number went higher and higher until he stopped by the students again causing a small gust of wind with his sudden lack of movement.

"So how's he doing?" Cyre asked sitting down to catch his breath real quick. But no-one answered as they were a bit too dumbfounded by the sight they were seeing. "Oh I see, none of you have ever seen Shiroe fight before today, have you?" He laughed before standing right back up and watching the battle from against the wall. "go get 'em buddy." he cheered quietly. As the battle continued the others could see quite a few visible cracks in the translucent barrier covering Shiroe, though only one could be seen on the Coaches.

"Ah I see you're running out of mana lad, don't you think it's time to bust out "that" move again?" The coach goaded as he ducked under Shiroe's next jab and thrust his hammer into his abdomen causing another large web-like crack to spread across his barrier, this also threw Shiroe back 10m. "Words of advice for my student. If you're facing someone with much more experience than you, dodge as much as you can until you know their defense enough to damage it. And vice versa try and keep as much about you secretive from them, don't use yer' best moves unless its a show of power or yer' in a tough position." The coach smiled as he lifted his hammer pointing it straight at the elf. "Now show me this move you've been working on!" He shouted as he rushed towards Shiroe raising his hammer to strike down on his barrier. Shiroe looked up at his instructor as he rushed him and smiled, before releasing the mana around him causing his cracked barrier to dissipate.

This caused the instructor to pause for a moment but that was his mistake, Shiroe then raised both his hands and chanted, "Rise Borea!" there was dead silence for a moment as both Cyre and Shiroe smiled. a sudden gust of snowy wind rushed into the arena and circulated Coach Lare'l before constricting and lifting him into the air and throwing him around the snow-white tornado that had formed in from of everyone. Inside the large cyclone of freezing wind, they saw the yellow shield surrounding the Coach shatter and him shouting.

"Ah! Kid calm down! Calm down! You win!" His voice echoed as the cyclone started to dissipate letting the coach down not so gently. "well," he said dizzily as he stood up very shakily. "I'd say you two improved quite a bit. Cyre, your body enhancement has gotten better you beat your record by 10 seconds this time! And Shiroe though this isn't your mana control class I must say that you put up one hell of a fight today. Your mana barrier needs some work but other than that I give you an "A" on today's performance." He dusted off his pants before giving Shiroe a thumbs up and then turning back to the rest of the class, "Alright now you know what I'll be grading you on for this last class now, fighting prowess, adaptability, mana barrier integrity, and overall performance." He called out. "Now one at a time you can either fight me or another person and I'll grade you." as the class lined up for duels between each other or the teacher looked back at Cyre, "By the way Cyre I'm excluding you from this grade as I tested your abilities last night so just rest up and bring Shiroe to the medic to get those bruises healed and just in case, we wouldn't want him getting mana deficiency." And with that call, Cyre propelled himself off the wall and walked over towards where Shiroe was grabbing his jacket and putting it back on.

"Well with that said I'm sure that we'll do alright in the Bright test right bro? Though I still have to pick up a vessel later." he sighed, "But I'll here let us go get some mana potions then you'll be back in tip-top shape." Cyre spoke with a happy tone as he and Shiroe walked outside of the arena over to the medical area, the sounds of weapons clashing and magic being casted fading behind them