His true strength

"This…wasn't what I was expecting at all." A burly man with his arms folded commented as he watched the replay of Zain's fight with Cassius. He stroked his stubble filled chin while his eyes took in all the information present. "Of all people I didn't expect Cassius to lose, let alone to a student."

"What do you think is going to happen next Clive…?" A light and dainty voice sounded out her question next. She was soft spoken to the point that if you weren't paying attention, you could easily miss what she had to say.

"I don't know Daisy…all I do know, is that Cassius is gonna have a hard time forgetting this…" The two concluded their speech as they continued to watch on the screen.

Down in the arena however, Zephyr continued to talk down to Cassius, reprimanding him for his actions towards a student.

"Let me remind you Cassius, that first and foremost you are a teacher at this academy. You have no right to force a student out of your classroom simply because you don't like his upbringing. I'd suggest leaving your little desire to gain favor with royal families at home. This is a professional institute, and I'd expect you to act in the same way in such an environment." Zephyr's words were harsh and right to the point as he scowled down towards Cassius.

"Yes sir…" Cassius held defeat in his voice as he bit his lower lip. He bowed once before walking out from the area and taking the students with him. Zain was about to follow with him, but stopped as he was called out by Zephyr as well.

"Zain, this also involves you too. I understand his treatment of you was clearly unfair, but that doesn't give you the right to just fight a teacher. Your actions during this were also unbecoming of a student."

"Says the man who decided to record me without my permission, and stream it to my other professors." Zain snapped back, which caused Zephyr to break out a wry smile.

"Well…I will admit I took actions a bit too far as well. Then how about we all look back on what happened today, and think about how we can better ourselves..?"

"Fine by me. Long as that guy doesn't pull something like this again, I'll play along." With a huff, Zain walked off before stopping once more. "And, I need you to print me another schedule. Mine got eaten up by a plant."

"It shouldn't take too long." Zephyr chuckled while promising to hand Zain a brand new copy as they all finally went their separate ways. However Zain didn't have to travel too far as he simply moved to another dome, as his next class began. Combat class.

"All hands at attention!" A loud voice immediately grabbed everyone's attention. Heavy footsteps could be heard as a tall, tan skinned man walked in front of everyone. His eyes scanned everyone across the room while keeping his arms behind his back.

"Everyone of you here is a mage who has led an easy life. You've been well fed, longed for nothing, and continued to live through life without knowing much in the way of danger. That changes today!" His posture shifted to face everyone in the room, causing a few people to jump from his vigorous actions.

"My name is Clive Stone! I'm an ex-mercenary turned teacher, and my job now is to pound the knowledge of combat into your heads! You can have all the power in the world, but it's meaningless if you don't know how to use it!" With each word he spoke he got louder and louder. His presence had completely dominated the classroom as all eyes were focused on him.

"Now! Your first order of business is to follow my orders exactly! I need to assess what kind of skill level you all are currently at! For the next week, I'll be pitting you all against each other to see how far you go and how far you'll make it in a fight. That is…except one of you." Clive's eye's had landed on Zain as he stood with perfect posture, almost as if he was a soldier. Clive silently admired the way he was taking things before continuing to speak.

"Zain. I can safely say that when it comes to combat, you far outclass any of the students in this room. There's no need for me to assess you." Zain stared back at his professor, confusion quickly rising on his face.

"What? Why?!"More than anything, Zain desired to have more combat experience. Fighting against other mages was the only way he could plan counter attacks against the masked mage.

"I know you may be confused, but after seeing you fight Cassius it's clear to me that you have more combat experience than the rest of your classmates. It's pointless to have you fight against them." Truth be told Cassius thought he had much more experience than someone his age should have. He was curious if he ever was a mage for hire when it came to hunting down demonic beasts, but that shouldn't be possible given his age.

"For this week alone, use this time as a free period. You can study for another class, or anything else you really desire." Zain was clearly adamant on doing anything in this class, yet no matter what he tried, Clive wouldn't let him join.

"...Understood." Reluctantly, Zain left the arena grounds before returning to the stands above everyone else. He sat and watched as Clive silently looked over the one on one fights before writing down something on a notepad and moving on. Zain's teeth ground into one another as he was forced to watch others train.

"This is a waste of time." With an angered sigh Zain stood up before walking out of the stands and into the changing room down below. The sole purpose of him coming to combat class was to learn new ways to fight, yet he was told to do nothing for the next week. He cursed underneath his breath as he changed clothing with a new goal of roaming the halls or studying new spells, but that was put to a stop as a cry of pain could be heard, along with the loud sound of something, or someone, being thrown into a locker.

"How many times have I told you not to ignore me when I call you?! You think you can just walk away from me? Huh?!" Another loud sound of a person getting slammed into a wall could be heard with a small groan of pain.

"I-I told you already…I was deep in thought and didn't hear you!"

"Who said you could talk back to me?!" A sharp slap was heard next as the person in question had their glasses drop to the floor. Zain looked over to see three people standing in the locker room. One of them was obviously being bullied and had their back forcibly pushed up against the door of someone's locker. The bully in question only raised his voice louder while asking questions. The other student, who seemed to be his accomplice, stood by and laughed while egging his friend on to pick on him more.

Zain had closed his locker and ended up catching the attention of the three, since they hadn't noticed him come in at all. Without even realizing it, Zain was caught staring at the instance of bullying.

"The hell you looking at?" One of the bully's had turned their attention to Zain.

"P-Please! Help me!" The boy cried out, desperately wanting to be saved, however Zain started walking past the three of them. His silence in the matter seemed to make one of them mad as they walked in front of him.

"Woah there pal…it seems you don't understand what's going on here. See, my friend over there is doing the nice thing and making sure that little runt over there knows his place. If he steps too far out of line he could get hurt." The bully's friend was trying to cover up what they were doing and label it as helping one another.

"However, some people might look at what we're doing and call it "bullying". Now you seem like the smart type, so I'll let you off with a warning. Tell anyone about what you saw here, and you'll be getting the same treatment to make sure you stay in line too. Understand?"

Zain's eyes looked down to him, the random bully's sleazy appearance coming back into his eyes before he pushed past him.

"I don't have time to deal with you people. Do whatever you want." Zain's shoulder harshly bumped into the bully's and almost knocked him into the floor. Taken aback by how he was almost dropped to the floor by someone walking into him, he got angry and threw a punch in blind fury.

Unfortunately for him, Zain's reflexes were faster, and allowed him to counter attack and knock him out in one swift motion. After seeing his friend get laid out in mere seconds, the main bully went after Zain as well, only to end up in the same situation. With the two now down for the count, Zain gave a disappointed sigh as he walked out the room.

"Nothing but a waste of time.." Zain complained as he walked through the hallways and decided on what to do next.

"Wait up a second…!" The voice of another person came rushing from behind before collapsing onto the floor behind Zain. They managed to grab onto his heel and forced him to stop in his tracks. Annoyed, Zain turned over to see the top of the boy's head, his frizzled light brown hair reflected the light coming from the nearby windows before the person in question rose their head.

"Ow…..Oh! Uh, thank you for-"

"I didn't save you, so don't bother thanking me for anything. Now let go of my leg." Zain easily broke free before walking onwards.

"No, wait up! I'm still injured here!" The boy quickly stood up before continuing to chase after Zain.