At the end of the month, during an assembly; principal Jena announced a sorcerer's practical assessment exam.
They wanted to examine just how much of what the young sorcerers learned, was actually applicable, and how far the knowledge that they carried with them into junior high, was usable.
Xavier, who was standing in the crowd; let his emotions get the better of him, as a wide smirk swept across his face.
"Hey, there's that Xavier guy again. He seems to be excited about the practicals," the same girl he left at the stands said.
"Why would he be? With no aura? He's a sitting duck out there," The girl's orange haired friend replied.
"Wanna ask him in order to find out?" The girl suggested.
"Ew, no! I'm not catching that disease, he's probably excited because no one is stupid enough to catch that," she replied.
When Xavier got home, he wasted no time and went straight to the river for training.
As Xavier began absorbing nature energy, he started to see visions; visions, of a Falcon soaring, high in the sky, whizzing by at blistering speeds.
Xavier chased after it, and kept the pace, until he finally caught up with it; the falcon then gently swooped down, and landed upon his hand.
When Xavier opened his eyes, he had markings on his face, and his right eye came to, but slowly returned to normal.
"Looks like you found your spirit animal," Gasper said, carrying a smile on his face.
"How long have you been there?" Xavier asked.
"Quite some time actually, I always happen to know when someone is about to unlock their spirit animal."
"What's a spirit animal anyway?" Xavier asked.
"Spirit animals are your guide into the spirit world, and that's an important step for spirit enlightenment but we'll get back to that later."
"Each person has their own spirit animal, and the markings on your face are a representation of that spirit animal," Gasper explained.
"What does a falcon mean?" Xavier asks.
"The falcon spirit animal is associated with taming winds, flying freely with them, but never allowing them to take you away."
"Which means that your wind abilities are inherently going to be phenomenal, as well as your lightning abilities; due to the amount of time Falcons spend soaring in the sky. That means, you're going to be fast enough to close the distance on your enemies, and beat the living shit out of them."
"I haven't started lightning yet though," says Xavier.
"True, true, and that's okay; you're going to have to stick with the few abilities I've taught you this far. Your wind abilities are more than enough to close the distance; it's not quite lightning fast, but sound speed is just as useful, and, your wind abilities would greatly compliment your fire abilities."
Gasper continued, "A fair warning though, if you ever come across a Euthenian. Combine your air and water spells in order to create ice. Even if your fire is enhanced by air, nine times out of ten; you'll always lose in a battle of fire power against a Euthenian."
On the day of the exams: every junior sorcerer was gathered in the school courtyard, where the two senior sorcerers last fought.
Principal Jena walked out on stage, and explained how the exams would be run.
"Everyone present here will be teleported to random locations, spread across the country. Your task will be to find, and get to the event arena on time."
"Only eight sorcerers shall be allowed to enter the arena and further instructions will be provided to the sorcerers that make it on time from then onwards."
"In case any of you were wondering, yes, there will be a few lucky students to get teleported into the event arena with little to no hassle."
"Don't worry about the arena being difficult to locate, as it's really hard to miss, any questions?" There was a long pause, everyone was worried about who their first opponents might be, and how to deal with them.
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"Nothing? Okay, guess I'll have to be a bearer of bad news. Before any of you make fools out of yourselves, teleportation of your own is prohibited. Anyone caught teleporting will instantly be disqualified, and believe me, we'll know," Jena said, with cries and jeers following shortly after.
Jena smiled, "Sounds like teen spirit. Let the exams, begin!" Principal Jena concluded and everyone got teleported.
Xavier was teleported to a desert, a favorable outcome for him, as his wind techniques would fare well.
Xavier took to the air, and with the aid of his eye, saw the event arena, but Xavier hadn't caught wind of the eye's presence in doing so. Wasting no time, Xavier quickly made for it.
A sorceress in his class saw Xavier heading for the arena at blistering speeds, and got quite impressed.
"How is he going that fast without any mana?" She pondered, and decided to take him on before he got to the arena. It didn't take long before Xavier noticed he was being tailed, and as a diversion, created three clone projections.
Xavier wasn't quite capable of creating solid clones yet, as his low mana pools wouldn't allow him to do so, but by manipulating the surrounding light; he was able to make temporary projections to confuse his enemies.
Confused, the girl went straight for the one still heading towards the arena. The girl fired off a burst of aura, and when it stuck the sand, Xavier's projection vanished.
The sorceress slowly turned around knowing she had been fooled, and received a flaming fist to the face. The sorceress was hurled quite a distance, but Xavier was capable of easily closing that distance.
In quick succession, Xavier delivered multiple consecutive strikes that hurled the sorceress further into the direction of the arena. Xavier continued his constant furry, until they came across shore; where Xavier's last blow hurled her over the ocean waters.
The girl was stuck in thought, bouncing over the ocean waters like a skipping stone. "How did Xavier know the location of the arena this far out? and how is he, of all people; capable of doing this with so little mana?"
Before she could gather her thoughts, and prepare for her own attack, a massive wave coming from the direction of the event arena, was on course for a head on collision.
The sorceress tried to stop her momentum by dragging her hands over the ocean waters, but was greeted by the sight of Xavier, hot on her tail.
Xavier sent a wind slash that saw her crash into the wave. Once she got caught by it, Xavier froze it in an instant, trapping the sorceress.
Xavier then continued to charge on to the event arena, wasting no time. By the time the sorceress was able to break free; Xavier was already far off on shore, still heading towards the event arena.
The event arena was located on a small island, surrounded by a thick, lush green forest.
On the other side of the island, Gabriel made landfall, and with his hands in his pocket, casually made his way into the forest.
Two sorcerers emerged from the ocean behind Gabriel in an ambush attempt; they drew with them large amounts of water from the ocean, and attempted an attack on Gabriel, but before they could flood the shores, Gabriel let out a bright flash of light, and the two got temporarily blinded.
As the two fell towards the shore, Gabriel struck the sand beneath him with enough force, that it hurled them into the air.
With the glistening spark of his yellow aura, Gabriel blasted the two back across the ocean. Gabriel put his hands back in his pockets, and proceeded with his casual walk towards the arena.
A sorcerer who had Gabriel in sight, chose not to engage after what he had just witnessed.
Xavier was closing in on the arena, and had the front entrance well in sight, when a female sorcerer descended upon him, and blocked his path.
"You're quite an interesting fellow," she said, and erected a thick, massive wall that surrounded the entire arena.
"Let's see you get over-" she got startled, as before she could even finish her sentence, Xavier completely ignored her, and already began his ascent.
Puzzled, the sorceress smiled, and forged two bolts of lightning, that she threw Xavier's way.
Xavier was forced to involuntarily activate his right eye, and dodged both lightning bolts, sending highly compressed, and heated air slashes towards her in retaliation.
The sorceress was able to avoid the slashes, but they ignited the grass beneath her. Surrounded by flames, the girl smiled and said, "Is that so?"
As Xavier began making his decent, the girl destroyed the entire wall surrounding the arena, and used the rubble to attack Xavier. As she took to the air; the sorceress used a telekinesis spell to refine each rock, and shaped them into spikes.
Hurling each one of them at Xavier; Xavier clasped his hands, dismissed all of them using a strong wind gust.
As Xavier continued to fall towards the ground, sent three more of his flame compression slashes, and made nine extra projections of the slashes, in an attempt to confuse the sorceress.
The sorceress grew evermore impressed, "Oh, you're good at hiding it!" she exclaimed, and made a shield out of her aura that blocked all slashes and their projections.
After releasing the shield, Xavier was nowhere to be seen, and his low mana reserves made it difficult for her to sense him.
The sorceress descended upon the ground in order to get a better feel, but as soon as she did, Xavier emerged from the earth beneath her, and gave her an uppercut.
Twisting and turning in the air; Xavier delivered a kick at the end of his corkscrew flip, that saw the sorceress freeze on impact.
Frozen in place by his technique, Xavier took the opportunity and made a great escape into the arena.
The sorceress' eyes grew wide in surprise, seeing as she wasn't expecting Xavier to make such a move. "I suppose it's only fair, this is an exam after all," she said, slowly melting the ice off her.
Xavier got to the arena on time, and was the fifth sorcerer to get there. Xavier noticed a few of his classmates, save for Gabriel, who was nowhere to be seen at that time.
A few moments later: Gabriel emerged, laxed as ever and barely even breaking a sweat; he was the sixth sorcerer to appear.
Shortly after, the girl Xavier fought before he got in, entered; then the last sorcerer arrived shortly after.
As the final eight sorcerers gathered on stage, center of the arena; the main entrances to the arena closed shut, signaling the end of the first phase of the assessment.
Should I post a new chapter five times a week?
