News and Plans

"Something happened in Tanza."

Tracy said to Wallace but she didn't mind if others heard her. Anyway, it seems that the news she was about to tell would be cascaded to them sooner or later.

"Oh? Something that would require both of you to coordinate with the instructors about its details?"

Wallace asked though he still seemed not too interested. Upon seeing his reaction, Tracy smiled and added.

"It seems some mutated magicians attacked some government facilities in Tanza City. Isn't that quite interesting?"

"Mutated Magicians?!"

As soon as Tracy revealed the news, Ericka blurted those words out attracting attention from other students in the area. She ducked her head in shame and asked again in a lowered voice.

"Uhmm... There are still Mutated Magicians?"

Tracy nodded to her but since the last match between Isolde and Abuxorth was about to start, she didn't make a follow up on the news and watched the battle instead.

On the other side, Gilbert was just looking absentmindedly at Tracy's gorgeous appearance. And since there was a vacant seat beside him, Tracy decided to sit beside him which made Gilbert even more conscious to himself. There, he remained quiet until the end of the match.

Ericka noticed Gilbert's stiffness and upon seeing Tracy seated beside him, she immediately understood and rolled her eyes at him.

***

'Mutated Magicians? If I'm not mistaken, this term only appeared due to some kind of human experimentation made by an underworld organization a few decades ago and they should have been eliminated by the government as soon as they appeared. Perhaps they have survivors? Well even if that was the case, they shouldn't be able to finance that money-eating project.'

Wallace thought quickly as he remembered the history lesson he learned.

'Well, I'm not related to that. Let's leave it to the government.'

He looked at the matchup on the stage that was about to start.

"Isolde' Sana vs Abuxorth's Elaiza"

As soon as the whistle was blown signaling the start of the battle, their mana shell was activated but it can be seen that the intensity of their shell wasn't as strong as before. Both of them have already fought once after all and they also don't have enough time to be fully recovered.

Sana immediately moved further away from Elaiza as she was aware that her opponent specializes in short-range but powerful burst magic.

Elaiza activated Wind Haste skill allowing her to have faster movement to catch up on Sana. As she tried to get closer, Sana threw her a spell to either slow her down or damage her mana shell.

"Plant --Elemental Whip!"

"Earth Enchant -- Stone Wall"

Elaiza hid behind her Stone Wall to avoid getting damaged by the Elemental Whip. But although she stopped the whip from hitting her, this defense only lasted for a few seconds. She cast her magic spell and readied to get in range to destroy Sana's Mana Shell. She needed to advance to throw this and soon found an opportunity.

Bam! Bam! Baaam!!

Due to powerful strikes of Elemental Whip. The Stone Wall was destroyed and torn to pieces, but it served its purpose as Elaiza was ready to release her magic spell.

"Lava Stone Spike!"

Sana immediately noticed the conjuring Grade 2 magic spell behind her and realized that there was no time to dodge so she instead released the spell she was readying to supposedly defeat Elaiza.

"Prime -- Water Jet!"

The skill she released was thrown behind her, the collision between the two spell made her momentum moving forward. As she got closer to Elaiza, she released an almost instant cast magic spell called Mana Explosion.

"Booommm!!"

This mana explosion was targeted above Elaiza, she tried to resist the explosion from destroying her mana shell but it wasn't enough. She was still defeated and her mana shell was destroyed.

"Haaa~ That was tough."

Sana exclaimed as she saw Elaiza's mana shell shattered into pieces.

"So, you actually have a Mana Explosion. Well, at least I forced that out."

Elaiza said after she realized that she lost the battle. It was normal to hide some skills as you will be fighting the other 11 magic academies. Having an element of surprise to defeat an enemy in the upcoming battles would be a good strategy.

Sana was also exasperated at the last moment, their team planned to use the Mana Explosion only for some specific Magic Academies that they will be fighting later on. For it to be revealed on the very first battle would destroy their plans, but due to Lava Stone Spike a Grade 2 spell cast by Elaiza, she had no choice but to reveal her trump card.

As the four academies left, the automatons cleaned the stage where they've battled before calling out another four magic academies.

It was now the battle between, Odrexelts and Phoenix together with Neon and Sacred Peak Academies.

***

Within the meeting room allocated for Mystic Gate Academy.

"Have you recognized the Magic Spell cast by that student from Leonhearts?"

A third-year student from the academy asked the question. He was together with almost all the participants. They have to come up with a plan to avoid or resist that magic spell.

"I heard it was called Traceless Oscillations, it was already checked by the organizers and nothing is uncanny on the spell. It was a legal Grade 2 Magic Spell."

It was answered by Sheryl. As someone who transferred from Leonhearts, she was a bit curious about the background of the magic spell that was used before, so she already consulted the organizers on the premise that she's accusing them that they've used illegal magic spell.

But of course, she was ignored by the Ministry handling the affairs and provided a brief introduction to the magic spell used. But it's specifics is highly confidential.

"How do you think we could fight that back?"

As soon as this question was heard. The room remained silent. A minute had passed before Sheryl suggested an idea.

"We don't. I believe that the magic spell requires the magician to have strong mana fluctuations for it to be released. Because of the magic spell was that easy to release, the first 3 combat magicians could have used the same thing and dominated the whole matches."

Sheryl said these words while watching the replay showing in the monitor placed within the room.

She was also looking expectant for tomorrow's battle for 2nd years.

'Let's see how my mana artifacts fare.'

Sheryl smirked a bit and said to herself.

"Hmm, I was also thinking that."

Agreed by a third-year mana technician near her to save himself. After all, planning or strategizing would normally fall under the third year's hands. He also added some more words to supplement or explain Sheryl's plan.

"So we can expect a loss from the first year, Hilda, but we have to make sure we win the other fights. Now about the Mana Explosion used by Isolde, was it something similar to our Magic Spell?"

This kind of meeting wasn't just taking place in Mystic Gate's meeting room. Other schools were also planning and even made the same conclusion:

Expect a loss from Hilda but you must win the other matches.