King Galdrick, the newly crowned King visited the Academy of Magic to witness the end of year exams.

  While the mid-year examinations were a hunt for mana cores, demonstrating the competency of the students, the end of year exam would be sparring between the students, to see the fighting capabilities of the students

  This time, not only would student be pitted against student, but the better students would be pitted against their examiners or guest lecturers!

  After the student's assembled, the students were ranked and paired up, and the battle began! The King was eager to see if the next Hero would come out of this batch of 3rd year students, which was the first time they would be allowed to demonstrate their abilities in battle after 3 years of magic training

  Many of the matches took pce outside on grounds all over the Academy, examined by the many Academy examiners for their grades. Only the top 20 were considered good enough to try to impress the King!

  The draw was kept a secret as the examiners seeded them and would only call their names when it was their turn. The students weren't even told who they were fighting!

  "Is that your sister? She looks good. The champion for this year I bet" King Galdrick said

  "She is the most talented among our generation. But I don't think she will be first" Prince Lucinder said

  "Really? Who then?" King Galdrick asked

  "The one she is betrothed to" Prince Lucinder said

  "Who is this lucky guy?" King Galdrick asked

  "I don't know. My parents, King Aldair and Queen Luna only told me his name is Asn" Prince Lucinder said

  "Asn? Never heard of him. Which one is he Dumbledalf?" King Galdrick asked

  "Heh.. do you want to be surprised based on his performance? Or do you just want me to point him out for you, sire?" Dumbledalf said

  "Oh, a surprise sounds fun. I hope he is everything you hinted him to be" King Galdrick smiled

  Aria won her first match easily. However, since the mid-year examinations, Asn had overtaken her and took her first pce

  A few matches ter, Aimee won her match easily too

  Then Anvi did the same, smashing through the other student's shield easily an knocking her out of the ring

  "The girls are impressive this year. But when are the boy's turn to show up?" King Galdrick asked

  "Wait and see!" Dumbledalf said with a smile

  On the opposite side was a tall and muscur female student. She was Roselyn, and her rge breasts and shapely hips were only covered by a skimpy chainmail bikini

  She swung her sword around, before stopping at a pose. Then she bowed to the King

  "She looks good. Her movements remind me of the captain of your private elven guard, Laureal!" King Galdrick said

  Then Asn's name was called

  He calmly walked on stage and bowed before the King. Then he faced Roselyn

  The referee was Sir Gahand, the padin and master of Bolton. He raised his hand and started the match

  The moment the match started, Roselyn surrendered

  "I yield!" she said aloud

  Asn then bowed again to the King and walked off the stage

  "What the hell?" King Galdrick thought

  The matches were round robin, not knockout, meaning each of the 20 students would have to fight the other of the 20

  Roselyn would actually prove to be a good magical swordsman and gave impressive performances as her rank of 7th would show. She actually fought Anvi to a draw, which was the best fight thus far

  Aria and Aimee were also impressive, defeating all their opponents with ease and making the King excited for when they would meet

  But Asn was the most disappointing as everyone yielded to him if they met him, giving him victory in every round without showing anything!

  Even Aria and Aimee yielded as they felt they had no chance

  Only Anvi challenged him although she had lost to Aria and Aimee

  But all their cssmates knew that Asn and Anvi were best friends, and knew he wouldn't hurt her

  Straight off the bat, she charged at him with her lightning covered axe/hammer weapon

  Asn barely moved but it got Anvi to miss, creating a dust cloud that covered the area. But upon the clearing of the dust, the audience saw Anvi on the ground, with Asn pointing his bde at her neck and forcing her to surrender

  King Galdrick wasn't satisfied, and since Asn was the champion anyway, he decred the next match would be between Asn and Sir Gahand the Padin!

  Asn remained on the stage and bowed to the king again, as Sir Gahand walked to his starting position

  The moment the match started, Sir Gahand charged and closed the distance

  Asn suddenly raised his Cursed and it became a bde as he crossed swords with Sir Gahand. Several times they cshed weapons and Asn defended every blow

  Sir Gahand suddenly used aura on his own body and weapon, and pushed Asn back

  Asn suddenly "Hulked up" becoming berserk and countered

  While Asn couldn't use aura, his strength surprisingly matched Sir Gahand, as his weapon was mithril and could withstand the Aura infused sword

  "A berserker rage, yet being able to maintain his sanity! I've never seen this before" King Galdrick said

  "Nor have I. He is the one, right?" Lucinder said

  "Yep, he is the one" Dumbledalf said

  They watched as the battle became more intense, with neither of them getting the upper hand

  "You've shown your warrior skills. Show me magic!" Sir Gahand said

  Asn smiled

  Suddenly, Asn used his magic, turning the whole world upside down with illusions, with him adding in attacks from the earth, wind and water to mix illusion and reality, that even the King got confused due to the fact that nothing he knew was true anymore. Sir Gahand couldn't even tell which direction to puke to

  Sir Gahand could barely use his aura to protect himself as he was smmed to the ground in a heap

  "My turn. I want to test my future brother in w" Lucinder said as he jumped into the ring

  Asn turned to face him

  "Since I'm not a magician, and since you've shown your martial prowess, can I test your martial skill?" Lucinder asked as he drew two elven bdes

  Asn looked at Lucinder and smiled, having been told by Aria that he was her brother and put Cursed away and drew two bdes out of nowhere

  Holding two bdes, Asn suddenly didn't look like a magician anymore, rather a elven warrior!

  They both charged and cshed in the middle of the ring, as their bdes moved at rates too fast for the eye to follow

  But neither could overcome the other and no matter how fast they were, the other matched him and it was a stalemate

  "Why do I get a feeling that he is holding back?" King Galdrick asked

  "He is like that, sire. I've seen him spar with the examiners and the best students like Aria, Aimee, and that dwarf Anvi, and he could be on par with him, making them look good, but when he turns it on, they never had a chance. That is why nearly all of them conceded earlier" Dunbledalf said

  "If he is such a good warrior, why didn't he join the Knights at the Knight Academy?" King Galdrick asked

  "Because he's registered as a Fire Mage, sire" Dumbledalf said

  "Fire mage? But he's never shown any...." King Galdrick said before realizing that he has been pying all along and was never serious. Even Dumbledalf couldn't see how deep his skillset was

  The combatants halted and both Lucinder and Asn bowed to each other with respect. It was a draw as Dumbledalf expected

  "Where did you learn your combat, Asn? Your swordsmanship is orthodox elven, yet different using more brutish force..?" Lucinder asked

  "My parents taught me. My mother is a half-elf and had learned it from her father, who learned it from his father, who was an elven warrior who died in the 1000 year war. She married my father who is a human barbarian. So my style is probably a mixture of both" Asn lied

  "Oh that expins it. Maybe I can give you a few tips on the proper elven way" Lucinder said

  "I would appreciate that" Asn said

  King Galdrick listened in and wondered also wondered how deep his abilities were

  --

  Having pced first, Asn was awarded a flying cloak, which can allow the wearer to fly

  He noted that it was bck as well, making it perfect to hide in the shadows

  It responded to mental commands and thus he could use it to bring objects, or do minor tasks, things that he could do with telekinesis, but requiring no mana usage

  He was also awarded an amount of 1000 gold, which was quite a sizeable sum for an average student, but nothing compared to the dragon hoard that he had kept in his shadow dimension.

  Aria and Aimee were awarded joint top two and three and thus divided both amounts in two, which was originally 500 and 300 gold, taking 400 gold each and a telepathic ring each, enabling the wearer to communicate directly with anyone she wants within her line of sight

  They both accepted their prizes and suddenly Asn got bombarded by both girl's communication, unable to talk back but was forced to listen to both at the same time

  Anvi was awarded fourth with an equal win-loss ratio as fifth pce Roselyn, but she was awarded because she was the only one that faced Asn

  She got 100 gold while Roselyn was awarded 50 gold pieces

  And thus ended the Final Year Examination for Third year

  --

  And so the year ended with Asn taking top spot

  He also was busy secretly "entertaining" three cssmates namely Aria, Aimee and Anvi

  But this was the end of year break, and Asn was gd to have a break from the three girls, each wanting him nearly daily

  This was the first time the students were able to return home to visit after three years

  Asn couldn't wait to see his parents after so long. He has been sending letters, but he never dared inform them about his betrothal with Aria, in fear this secret might be intercepted by someone

  So he packed his bag, and don his cloak which he now calls the Bck, and his staff cursed and boarded the carriage

  The carriage home to Sailormon was unforunately filled with Anvi, because Smithe was the next town from Sailermon, and Aria, because an elves carriage would pick her up on the way to Smithe. Asn knew that this would not be an uneventful ride home

  But Asn wondered why was Aimee also in the carriage with them?