A vague haze was rising above the sand, hanging not a hand higher above its gravelly surface. With each step, puffs of fine dust rose into the air clinging to everything, staining all that it touched with a rusty hue.

 

"Are you ready?" Sofia assumed a proper posture waiting for the girl to move. Her courteous vigil seemed rather pointless as the girl kept her arms to the side, looking like she didn't know what to do with them. In addition, it didn't take a genius to see that her eyes meandered toward the nearby students watching them with a deadpan expression occasionally broken by her eyebrows rising and dipping in small yet surprisingly expresionate palet of frowns.

 

I'm not going to practice that much today, I guess. I still have to go easy on her. If I accidentally hurt her my chances of helping my House go down to near zero. What spell do I even use, she looks so distracted by the people around her any spell could probably shatter her defences.

 

"I'm starting." Sofia raised her voice causing the tiniest sign of acknowledgement to come from the high-noble.

 

Sofia's hand came to her belt and unlatched a wand, a catalytic rune along its whole length came to life glowing with a sea-green light which matched her eyes.

 

Slowly she pointed the dangerous tip of the weapon toward the girl, idily swaying from side to side. "Firebolt" a half whisper willed the mana inside her to come rushing into the tip of the metal rod feeling as if her innards were hooked on a fishing line and somebody was tugging on the fishing rod.

 

With a brief delay, angry red letters manifested on the tip of the wand before a puny in size bolt of mana zipped toward the high-noble with deadly speed.

 

For a second the girl's dual-coloured eyes turned toward Sofia. Her brows dipped slightly appearing annoyed by the spell. The scion of House Junker felt her soul leave her body as the girl didn't even attempt to step aside for the spell."

 

"Huh?" 

 

The bolt of fire fizzled out of existence barely managing to leave the tip of her wand. The frontierwoman's eyes travelled to their lecturer who must have watched everything unfold but she found him focusing on showing another pair a spell. 

 

"Lady Siri was that you who caused my spell to disappear?"

 

"Yes?" The blue and golden stars seemed to have realised what had happened but rather than show surprise they appeared slightly worried. Like a child getting caught stealing from the jar of treats from the kitchen.

 

"Did you use counterspell?" Sofia leaned forward making sure her words were only heard by Lady Siri's round ears.

 

"Can humans do that?" Lady Siri asked, her leg drawing circles in the sand.

 

"Ehhhh... it's a very rare thing to be able to do that." 

 

"Ohhh," The Firmusian noble nodded along with Sofia's hushed words. "Can I do it?" Lady Siri asked as if seeking permission from the enchanter.

 

"Of course. Why did you ask?" She already suspected why the truly blessed girl seemed skittish. There are simply abilities given by the System that one keeps very close to your chest and never shows it to anyone but something felt off about the way Lady Siri scanned each exit.

 

Is she expecting someone to appear because she counterspell me?

 

"So I didn't do anything suspicious? Pfffu, I didn't break my promise to Iris." A proud smile appeared on the noble's face as her hand rested on her chest holding something under the fabric. A necklace of sorts perhaps?

 

"You two," A voice suddenly rang inside Sofia's ears as the lecturer seemed to have materialised right next to them. "Having a little chat I see."

 

"Apologies, we were simply discussing what my next spell should be." Sofia quickly barked out, while the girl next to her watched her.

 

"I had seen you cast only one spell, that discussion of yours started awfully quick," The man said appearing not too happy." What spell did you cast?"

 

"Firebolt Sir." After hearing her words, the man let out a long drawn-out sigh.

 

"And you Miss Junker think after casting a single level one spell entities you for a break?" The mage spewed his arms outwards pointing at the people around them, their foreheads glinting in the sunlight. "If you don't break my shield with three spells you are going to stay behind class."

 

"But I was assigned by the Master of Students to accompany Lady Blackworm around the Academy." Sofia tried to save herself from the terrible fate awaiting her. She had seen other students who were ordered to stay and she didn't want to share their fate of collapsing from severe mana deficiency.

 

"And? This is Oriripol and not a royal ball, you don't get special treatment anymore. It's not like the Ladyship will lose her head without you."

 

Even as the man's words spoke of a common doctrine in the ranks of the Geni'i, that outsiders in Oriripol are all equally below the mages and no name held power over them. As shameful of a city as it was, this doctrine made the mage city what it is now, with many nobles regardless of their status sending their talented children to the Academy, bringing trade and talent into the city. Perhaps the frequency of this sentiment expressed by the native Oriri made Sofia find it unreasonably amusing that Lady Siri seemed to be held on a different pedestal than everyone else, with no punishment nor any animosity aimed toward her. 

 

I guess the name Dar Blackworm holds sway in the incorruptible hearts of our teachers.

 

The pairs near them stopped practising, a welcome abode in the unreasonably tiring exercise of both physical and mental fortitude. The rest of the students shifted their attention to the lecturer whose lips moved but his words were drowned out by the wind.

 

The heroic scion felt her blood leave her face, leaving her almost as pale as the cryomancer next to her. Her view of the older mage was obstructed by a shield wall. Ghostly representation of soldiers held firm, intending to defend the Oriri mage. For a moment Sofia couldn't decide if her lecturer didn't summon guardians, mistaking conjuration class with this one but his hand stayed in the air making the enchanter wish the illusionary vision was a summon.

 

Powerful spells tented to be flashy in their appearance and the shield wall in front of her was certainly impressive. This could only mean that the mage had no intention of being lenient, most likely intending to go on a lecture about hubris and there being always a bigger fish in the lake or something like that.

 

The smartest idea would be casting a not to expensive spell but powerful enough to seem like a legitimate attempt and be done with the mage's song and dance bu

t... but she was the scion of House Junker and a great-granddaughter of a Hero no force in Niuran would make her not try her best.

A glance at the spell told Sofia that casting three individual spells would be pointless. By the time she casted the second spell, the mage would replenish the shield's mana. A flurry of spells would have been the best option like Magic Missile but she was an enchanter, those sorts of spells were documented to be spread far and wide in her class progression.

 

Maybe if I presented the right idea of how to break the shield I wouldn't have to be carried on a stretcher.

 

"Crimson Convergence." From a single blood-like crystal, four crystals split off arcing far away from each other. 

 

The shield bearers on the far side of the shield wall, lunged forward to intercept the far-flung shards, a faint thread following behind them. Four more shards materialised, taking an even wider arc around the shield wall causing more winged soldiers to take off in pursuit. The shields the ghostly mirages held barely showed signs of damage as the crimson crystals exploded into a glittering rain of red dust upon impact. 

 

"Fairy Needle." 

 

Sofia's words were the first thing everyone heard before a thin metal needle emerged from the glittering cloud, aimed at a small opening left by the over-eager defenders.

 

"Good attempt, you failed though." The Geni'i's voice seemed magically enhanced as a shieldbearer was recalled back into their place at an impossible speed defying any physical law and ruining Sofia's plan. "I hope everyone can learn from this presentation of outstanding improvisation, especially for an enchanter without any sure way of dealing with a powerful defence. Who can tell me why she failed at the end?" A long moment of silence and contemplation passed as everyone analysed the brief duel in their head. "Magic lies, the phantom shieldwall is simply the skin which the spell wears but it is not limited by it. It didn't matter if the illusion was ten meters or hundreds of meters away it would have appeared at the exact same time to fill the gap as soon as I noticed what Miss Junker was doing..."

 

 

 

"Oh, I'm dying." A man let out a pitiful cry as he lay down on the warm sand, like everyone else his muscles ached as if burning needles were passed through his veins

 

No person was able to stand up without their legs quivering under them. The constant casting of spells had even taken a toll on Lady Siri albeit she still remained the most dignified person in the arena which seemed to have attracted the attention of some endurance freaks who seemed to be enjoying their legs feeling like slimes.

 

"Sleep?" The pale noble kneeled down beside her guide and rested her head against her flat chest.

 

Why is she furrowing her brows?!

 

"I'm tired." A melody of a voice announced seemingly expecting something to happen as she lifted her head looking rather disappointed before yawning and falling over onto Sofia's lap.

 

"I'm tired too," Sofia replied trying to not bonk the rude noble on the head. "Lady Siri?" She pushed the high noble slightly before trying to lean forward to look at her eyes and check if her Ladyship Dar Blackworm had somehow fallen asleep.

 

"How did she fall asleep?" A woman sitting in front of the two turned around and said to her training partner. 

 

"I wish I could sleep while my veins are on fire." Someone added.

 

Sofia tried to move the cold brick of softness somewhere other than her dirty skirt, quickly learning to not disturb the northerner as the prickly cold coming from within her delicate body felt like a sword with each discontented purr she emitted.

 

"I guess you will be sharing my punishment, Lady Siri..."