Vanguard Academy – Day One

  In a world obsessed with strength, mana, and legacy, Vanguard Academy was the furnace where heroes were forged—and failures erased.

  Its highest halls were divided by prestige into four elite combat disciplines:

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  1. Knights – “The Iron Vanguard”

  Role: Frontline duelists and shock troops

  Core Trait: Physical-magic synergy with mana-infused armor and weaponry

  Training Focus: Combat form, aura reinforcement, battlefield durability

  Description:

  Knights stand at the vanguard—disciplined, relentless, and proud. Donned in enchanted armor and wielding heavy relic-css weaponry, they utilize Aura Channels to redirect mana into strikes that crack stone or shields that deflect sorcery. Respected by nobles and feared by commoners, they are the personification of old-world martial order.

  Signature Skill: Mana Armament – temporarily infuses weapons or armor with votile elemental aura.

  Cultural View: Arrogant traditionalists. See themselves as the true protectors of civilization.

  Notable Subcss: Runebde Knights – channel ancient glyphs into every bde arc.

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  2. Elementalists – “The Fmeborn Circle”

  Role: Ranged devastation and elemental control

  Core Trait: Incantational spellcasting through focused mana streams

  Training Focus: Elemental resonance, invocation patterns, environmental synergy

  Description:

  The most visually spectacur—and destructive—mages. Elementalists bind natural forces to their will through mana harmonics and eborate incantations. Students specialize by affinity: fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning, or more exotic elements like void or blood. Rivalries are fierce; so are the explosions.

  Signature Skill: Elemental Binding – fuses two elements into a hybrid anomaly (e.g., magma, stormfire).

  Cultural View: Prodigy-obsessed and deeply competitive. Seen as the academy’s "stars."

  Notable Subcss: Arc-Fusion Mages – experts in unstable element combinations.

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  3. Reapers – “The Bde of Endings”

  Role: Infiltrators, assassins, cursed magic users

  Core Trait: Veil magic, stealth, and soul-touch techniques

  Training Focus: Ether bending, silence arts, hex-infused bdework

  Description:

  The dark mirror of the Knights. Trained in silent kills, shadow travel, and corrupted arts, Reapers operate in secrecy. Many are feared more than beasts. Their Veil Arts allow partial phasing, illusions, and decay-touch—a magic that tears at life and sanity alike.

  Signature Skill: Fade Step – slips the caster out of physical space for 0.8 seconds.

  Cultural View: Disliked. Distrusted. But undeniably lethal.

  Notable Subcss: Cursebinder Reapers – wield bleeding-edge hextech and soul siphons.

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  4. Support Casters – “The Harmony Circle”

  Role: Healers, protectors, strategic enhancers

  Core Trait: Flow-based magic that links to allies

  Training Focus: Restoration arts, buff matrices, adaptive shielding

  Description:

  Often dismissed as passive—but the wise know better. Support Casters master Mana Threading—a spellcraft that connects their mana flow to others’. They control tempo in group fights, heal wounds mid-battle, and erect dynamic barriers that bend and react to threats.

  Signature Skill: Arc-Shield Array – deploys a rotating defense grid that adapts to magical and physical attacks.

  Cultural View: Underestimated. Patient. Often overlooked until it’s too te.

  Notable Subcss: Ether Weavers – advanced spellcrafters who can enchant allies' gear in combat.

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  And yet, Kai Arclight… was admitted into none of them.

  Instead, his name was scrawled in fading ink on a rusty roster under:

  Css Z

  Dorm: South Annex. Quarantine Level.

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  The South Annex – Css Z Quarters

  Cracked walls. Mossy stone. Doors that creaked like tombs. This wasn't a dorm—it was a pce for burnouts and broken toys.

  Inside, five others stared at him.

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  Grenn Bohr, a mountain in a school uniform, grunted from his perch atop a busted bench. “Another reject, huh? Welcome to the dump.”

  Kai met his eyes. Cool. Calm. A street-born stare.

  > “The bottom’s where all the best revolutions start.”

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  By the window sat Lira Valtain, silver-haired, guarded, and flipping a shard of crystal with surgeon-like precision. A healer, they said—but the scars on her knuckles told a more violent story.

  > “Css Z gets people killed,” she muttered. “Mostly ourselves.”

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  Near the hearth, Tessai Vorn scribbled tactical matrices into the floor with shaking hands. Once a genius strategist. Disgraced after maniputing a Rank War. Now ranked 9 and forgotten.

  And then there were the twins—former nobleborns expelled for illegal elemental fusion magic. One sparked when he spoke. The other steamed. Kai didn’t need names yet.

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  > "Outcasts. Broken tools. Dangerous minds. Just like me."

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  Later That Day – Mentor Rhovana’s Office

  Their instructor was a retired Reaper. Scars. Dead eyes. A voice like gravel.

  > “You want back into the real csses? Earn it.

  Today’s mission: Clean-up duty. Ruins of the Lost Court.

  Tier E. Or so they say.”

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  Mission Site – Twilight Over the Ruins

  The ruins were supposed to be empty.

  They weren’t.

  From the shadows, a creature burst forth—twice the size of a direwolf, pted in obsidian bone and dripping with void mana. A Tier 3 Shade Beast. Way beyond an Tier E-rank mission.

  The squad panicked.

  > “We were set up!” Tessai screamed. “That’s a baiting type—it mimics prey cries!”

  The Shade lunged. Grenn intercepted it with a roar, but was smmed back. Lira’s healing circle fizzled—her mana too low.

  As the monster charged toward Tessai—

  Kai moved.

  One moment he was behind the line.

  The next—he was in the beast’s shadow.

  > “Electric Vein—Pulse Arc.”

  Lightning erupted from his fist. The Shade convulsed, limbs jerking as raw voltage tore through sinew and shadow. Then—fme.

  “Emberrend.”

  A copy of fire conjured from Eran Dovarn’s legacy, coalescing at Kai’s palm. It twisted, forming molten crescents, then detonated—fury made flesh.

  Not just copied.

  Refined.

  Mastered.

  The Shade ruptured in smoke and ember, the battlefield falling into silence. .

  Kai stood over it, panting. Calm.

  Only Lira saw what truly happened.

  > “You combined two spells in seconds…”

  Kai met her stare.

  > “Don’t tell anyone.”

  > “Why not?”

  > “Because I’m not done collecting.”

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  Vanguard Academy – Later That Night

  Word spread fast.

  A “Zero” took down a Tier 3.

  And on the highest floor of the Spire of Weighing, Lucien Crowne, Rank 80 and heir to the Prime Circle, stared at a scry-crystal of the event.

  > “Interesting,” he whispered.

  > “Let’s see what kind of storm this Zero brings.”

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