Chapter Sixty-Seven: Claire's Test

*The Next Day Back at the Arena*

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to day 2 of our attendance exams at the Xymaris Magic Academy. Yesterday we saw many students with great potential be selected by our second years, including, in a rare even, the number one-ranked second year picking Alex Blackwood to mentor. Now for today's exams, hopefully we will see even more interesting things happen in this tournament, and will we see our second-ranked seat make her choice? We shall see on another amazing day.

The announcer was getting the crowd excited as claps and cheers rained in.

"Now the first matchup today is the young noble Kirk Landings facing off against the beautiful but deadly Claire!"

Both Kirk and Claire walked to the center of the arena, Claire holding her daggers and Kirk using a rapier fencing sword.

"LET THE MATCH BEGIN!" the announcer yelled out, and immediately Claire stuck both of her daggers into the ground, causing a giant ice pool to spread around the center, making Kirk struggle to get his balance.

"Seems, with some inspiration from Alex Blackwood's move yesterday, Claire has frozen the entire center of the arena; considering court fencing requires good footing, this spells trouble for Kirk Landings." the announcer said.

Claire moved around the ice with ease, almost as if she were skating, which made Kirk have to defend more than attack since his movement was now very limited.

Claire kept striking, which made Kirk have to keep backing up, becoming more and more off balance.

"Damn, this is bad... I'm outmatched." Kirk thought to himself. Kirk's family didn't possess any combat oriented magic; the fact was, in the end, he was outmatched in all categories, but he had his honor to uphold. He wasn't going to surrender.

When Claire attacked again instead of defending Kirk, he attempted to parry her attack, which succeeded at first. However, Claire quickly rebounded and managed to land a kick on Kirk's cheek, making him fall down immediately. Claire then used her magic to freeze his arms to the ground, making him unable to defend himself, which ended the duel.

"And your winner by rendering her opponent unable to defend himself in the time of five minutes and eleven seconds, Claire!" the announcer yelled out.

Cheers from all around the stadium came in as Claire waited for her to be selected by the second-year students; luckily, she had a pretty good idea who was going to be her mentor.

*The previous day*

Raven, Freya, Amelie, and Claire all sat in Raven's room together.

"Now, Amelie and Claire, about a part of our plan: we need to make sure our group stays tight-nit. Freya is already locked in to be Alex's mentor, but now we have an issue. One of you two will be left without one of us being your mentor." Raven said.

"Oh, it's fine if you pick Claire. Considering all of you are more used to combat magic, it would benefit you guys more." Amelie explained.

"But Amelie, you do know that means you're at risk of not being selected, right?" Freya said.

"I know, but I'm confident I can appeal to at least someone. I haven't trained all year for nothing after all." Amelie said.

"Just be careful with who selects you; not every second year is a good person. If it's someone we know, we can tell you whether or not to talk to the headmaster about being reselected." Freya said.

"I appreciate that!" Amelie said.

The three talked for a few more houses until they had their plan to put into action.

*Back to the stadium*

"Now, second-year students, you guys know the drill; raise your hands if you want to be Claire's mentor."

Dozens of hands were raised, but one was more important than the others.

"And it's happened that the second-ranked seat, Raven Blackwood, has made her choice, and by rank priority, Claire is now to study under Raven." the announcer said.

Raven and Claire looked at each other and nodded.

Their plan was coming together slowly but surely, all in an effort to help Alex.

Alex was watching from the stands, with Freya standing next to him.

"Good job, Claire." Alex thought to himself.

Despite having very difficult emotions, he still wanted the best for those he cared about. Claire had been there with him for a long time, so she held a special place in his heart.

"Good, it looks like our plan is coming together." Freya thought to herself.

Freya looked at Alex's face, which had a slight smile on it.

"Good, at least I know he can truly smile." Freya thought to herself.

Alex turned his head and saw her looking at him with a slight blush in her cheeks.

"You feeling alright?" Alex asked.

Freya noticed she was staring at him too long and said "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

"Alright, you sure? I can get you some water or something if you're feeling hot." Alex said.

"I'm fine, really, but I appreciate that, Alex." Freya responded.

Freya noticed Alex was still a very nice guy, just like Raven had said, even if he had some issues.

"So Freya's question is, why did you pick me?" Alex asked Freya.

Freya was surprised by this question but also knew the exact answer.

"Truth is, you may think it's because I'm friends with Raven, but that's not true, not entirely. Your magic was extremely powerful, not to mention that having two different magical elements is extremely rare. While I may be good at fighting, I'm mainly a studious type of person, especially with rare magic like yours. Also, that sword you have is rare; I've never seen one quite like it." Freya explained.

Alex looked surprised at Freya, giving her a confused look. He honestly thought she selected him purely because of her friendship with Raven.

"Well, Freya, you just earned more of my respect." Alex said.

"Good. I hope I earn a lot more of that from you." Freya said with a beautiful smile.

Alex smiled at seeing that sight. He would admit Freya was gorgeous, and there's nothing like a genuine smile from a beautiful girl to lift your mood.

Freya was just happy to see him smile; she knew there was potentially a way for Raven's hope to be realized.

Then the announcer came back on stage and said:

"For our next match, we have Adelia Morrigan facing off against Sarah from Leicester Town!"

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