Katherine Espinosa gets into Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy: one of the most competitive and prestigious academies for wizards. People come to the academy from all across the world. However, she must pass the thirteen-day trial to be officially enro...
"Today we will be using attacking spells. Now, I'm going to conjure up a group of Umbras for you to defeat with your tackling spell..." Professor Schuyler started the lesson as everyone including me took off our cloaks. "Umbras, think of them as doppelgängers, or a clone of you. To defeat Umbras, you must use spells that involve the four elements. Others are prohibited. Shall we begin? Apareo Umbra!" Before anybody could say anything, the professor waved his wand and countless black shadows in the shape of his figure appeared every corner around us.
"Grades will be decided by how many Umbras you defeat. I'll just say this now. Running away won't work. Umbras can be very violent. To not get hurt, attack with all you've got!" I turned my head to see Elias and Luca's reaction to this, they were giving each other death glares.
"Luca..." Elias calmly said to his rival.
"Yeah?"
"Let's have a serious match to see who can beat the most Umbras." He offered holding his hand out for Luca to shake.
"Seriously? Sure, you're on," Luca replied with a smirk as he shook his hand vigorously. "I'll go easy on you if you'd like."
"Trust and believe; I won't lose." Elias boasted with confidence.
He retorted, "Whatever helps you sleep at night, prince Elias."
"Let's begin. Go!" With the professor's command, the Umbras start attacking. One bum-rushes me and tackles me down to the ground. Pinning me down like the monster in a horror movie.
"Acies ventos!" I yell instinctively. Out of nowhere, a wind spiralled from the ground to mid-air and swiftly takes the Umbra so far off in the woods, its' demonic screams get smaller and fainter.
Then it hit me; my wand rolled inches away from me when I got tackled, so it was never in my hand... I don't know how, but I think I did hand magic... Maybe I'm just hallucinating. Maybe I'm imagining Elias right now running over to me asking repeatedly if I'm okay. Oh, wait, that's real.
"Katherine!" He cried, shaking my shoulders as if he was shaking me awake from a nightmare.
"What happened?" I asked, snapping back to reality.
"You zoned out after you defeated that Umbra. You're hurt, you need to step out." As I rubbed my head to somehow relieve my massive headache on the back of my head, I pulled my hand back to see blood on it.
I quickly nodded before taking a seat at the bench next to a girl with pretty pink eyes, her brown hair tied up into pigtails with matching pink ribbons.
"You did good." She complimented with a bubbly smile. She handed me an ice pack and I gratefully took it. "I'm Liz Hart."
"Thanks, Liz. I'm Katherine." I replied with a sad smile, my eyes returned back to the field to watch my friends kick some Umbra butt without me...
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I observed the game with the ice pack pressed against my head. Luca was toying with the Umbras rather than eliminating them while Elias and Yukiya blasted any Umbra that stood in their way.
"Time's up!" Professor Schuyler shouted, signalling the rest of the Umbras to disappear wherever they came from. Once everyone was gathered around the professor, he said an incantation and a piece of paper with our scores appeared.
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My eyes turned to Elias and Luca eyeing each other down. Elias, with rage, and Luca, emotionless. The friendly match took a turn for the worse.
"Why?" Elias asked clenching his fists, his knuckles turning white.
"No need to look so scary, man. You won, didn't you? Congratulations." Luca answered without his casual cheeky-grin expression. He now wore a dull expression on his face.
"Elias, why are you mad? You won, you should be happy." I interrupted, attempting to be the peace-maker of this argument.
"I'm mad because he didn't even try," Elias snapped. "Luca, for once why don't you compete like you mean it?"
"There's a surprise if I ever heard one. I was serious, you know?"
"No, I don't know."
"Hm. That's a sentence I thought I'd never hear out of your mouth before. If you competed against Yukiya, I wonder if you'd get this pissed..."
"Unlike you, Yukiya would've actually competed with me." The two kept throwing more insults at each other and the bickering was getting more heated by the second. Students hovered around waiting for what was gonna happen next.
"That's enough, you two!" Schuyler yelled causing the students who were standing around to go back to whatever the hell they were doing.
"Aw, looks like we ticked off the professor," Luca stated monotony. "Tch, whatever." Luca uttered those last words before storming away from the field. Seeing this new side to Luca, the boy who always laughed and poked fun of Elias now with an emotionless expression, was different.
"Luca Orlem! Where do you think you're going!? Class is still in session!" He scolded, practically screaming at Luca. He made an excuse that he feels sick and makes sure to make one last sarcastic remark while looking at me and Elias before getting out of sight.
I spoke up, "Are you okay-"
"I don't want you to worry about it." Elias interrupted, talking over the bell that signalled us to leave.
"I just asked if-"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Just don't worry about me and Luca. He has incredible talent, and everyone knows it. I just don't get why he would squander it. I don't understand." He vented. I looked up sadly at him as he threw his cloak over his shoulders and stormed off...
