(A/N: Changing some details of the school arc.)
Jude POV:
I was really surprised when I saw Tess lash out at Arthur like that. Tess has been like my sister since we met. I knew her from Arthur's stories he told me in the night and was able to create a strong bond with her while we were both training as I was under Director's tutelage trying to master sound magic. She is extremely talented in her own right, already an orange core mage at the age of 13.
I decided to go to the newly formed Disciplinary Committee which would act as the police of the academy. I was the student council President after all, so I needed to act like it. I entered the room where the DC would exist. I saw that the members: Arthur, Claire, Feyrith, Kai, Kathyln, Curtis, Theodore and Doradrea. They were the strongest eight students aside from the student council.
It seems like they had already introduced each other. I smiled at Kathyln who blushed as she looked at me. I clapped my hands and raised my voice, "Now, I'll let your team leader explain your job, however, I'll be overseeing this operation to make sure nothing goes wrong. The Vice President Tessia will handle my duties for now."
Arthur POV:
"Before the club rush commences, the student council would like to formally introduce to you, the students of this academy, a group that was personally picked by the director in hopes to resolve and prevent disputes amongst students as well as enforce penalising measures for troublemakers. While the student council's main job is to help the director make sure this academy and the events held run smoothly, this group's job allows them to use magic appropriately to uphold the peace and safety of students, whether against other students or trespassers. Please join me in welcoming the disciplinary committee!" Tessia's voice rang at her last words.
The auditorium filled with applause as the red curtains we stood behind was raised. We stood there, shoulders square and hands glued to our sides. I had to admit that with people like Curtis with Grawder behind him, Theodore, Claire and even Feyrith, we were an impressive sight in our colour-coordinated uniforms.
I took a peek at Tessia and I realized she was staring at me but as soon as our eyes met, she quickly turned her head away. As we stood in front of the students of Xyrus on the stage, side by side, we pulled out our knives and held them out in front of us so the insignia showed. Unsheathing our knives, we proceeded to do a small, choreographed routine before saluting the crowd.
Claire spoke out on behalf of the disciplinary committee with a short speech before we all headed out towards the back of the stage, leaving the crowd with mixed emotions. For some students, the disciplinary committee meant to serve as a shackle that prohibited their spoiled behaviour. For others, the disciplinary committee served as an aegis, protecting them from the threat of harm.
Either way, it would be an interesting school year.
Jude POV:
I sat through my many boring lectures. Though I was allowed to take advanced mana courses, even they felt boring seeing that I was already at the silver core stage and had a very advanced understanding of mana.
When I arrived at my next class, I noticed that the layout of this room was very different. It was shaped like a miniature arena, with a battling platform in the middle, encased in a barrier field, and rows of seats circling around it.
More and more students started filling the room after a few minutes. While most were first years, there were some second years that decided to take this class later.
"Umm, hello?" I turned my head to find Kathyln in her disciplinary committee uniform standing beside me.
"It's been a long time," I said with a small smile. She seemed to be blushing furiously already. She came and sat down next to me. I took the opportunity to whisper into her ear, "Looks like our time to date is not far away." I smiled in joy as I saw her getting redder.
I saw Arthur come where I was sitting and sit down next to me. "It's been a long time since I saw you," he said with a smile. I nodded my head and said, "We should talk more you know."
"Well, look who we have here! If it isn't Princess Kathyln and my rival, Arthur Leywin." From the front of the door, Feyrith confidently walked towards us.
Feyrith seemed to recognize me and slightly bowed, "Student Council President."
I nodded my head in acknowledgement. To be honest, I only took this lowly class to see how Arthur and Kathyln were doing. A rather upbeat, bulky man wearing light armour clapped for everyone's attention. However, I was surprised to find out he was at the light yellow core stage.
"I understand that most of you are first-years and that many of you have just awakened not too long ago. However, parents have been more and more dedicated to teaching their children as soon as they awaken before they even send them here, so even that assumption is mostly inaccurate. However, for the sake of equality, I shall assume that every first year is a beginner in mana manipulation, of course with the few exceptions, i.e. the four sitting right there." He pointed to the four of us while giving us a wink, drawing attention to us from everyone inside the room. He made sure to slightly bow in respect to me, I was a silver core mage after all.
"I'm sure everyone, including myself, is curious as to what sort of level in ability our newly formed DC has. They are the ones that are going to be protecting the students here in this academy, after all, right?" Several shouts of agreement spawned from around the room.
I inwardly sighed, realizing that this professor was going to make this class a real pain in the ass for them. I saw even Kathlyn's brow twitch in annoyance on her usually expressionless face.
"Hmph! Well. if Professor Geist insists, I shall volunteer myself on behalf of the disciplinary committee to demonstrate the ability that our group, that was personally picked by the director, possesses." Feyrith got up from his seat and placed his right hand over his heart in a proud manner.
Sigh...
"HAHA! That's more like it! Feyrith, correct? Come down to the stage," he gestured.
Feyrith elegantly hopped down from his seat onto the battle arena in the centre of the large classroom. Some of the students cheered for him while others were eager for blood.
"Hmm, if my guess is correct, you are a light orange stage conjurer with water specialization, correct? Pretty good for a fifteen-year-old, even as an elf." The professor rubbed his chin, studying him.
"Yes! By the fact that I cannot sense your mana core level, I assume that you must be quite a bit of a higher level than myself. It is an honour to receive your tutelage." While Feyrith's response was very well-mannered, he had a slight tone of arrogance, as if implying that even if the professor was a higher level, he could stand his own against him.
"Of course! I am at the light yellow level stage, after all! To make things fair, I will only use long-range attacks in this demonstration." He took out a two-handed sword from a dimension item he had attached to the buckle of his belt and stabbed it into the stadium behind him.
I could tell Feyrith was about to protest that it wasn't necessary but before he could, Professor Geist held his hand up. "Please. If I were to lose, I would at least have an excuse, right? Please cut this old man some slack." He winked at him as the other students started laughing.
He sounded sincere but I could tell that he was confident in winning against Feyrith, even with this handicap.
"Let me quickly set up the barrier before we begin so that our audience is safe from mana projectiles." The professor mumbled a few incantations and space around the arena started glowing dimly.
"Let us begin!" He grinned as Feyrith took out his wand and prepared for a spell.
"Water Serpent!" A stream of water circled around Feyrith and soon took the form of a giant snake. "Flood Domain!" Feyrith instantly set off another spell immediately after the water serpent spell formed. Soon, a pool of water rose up to their knees on the arena, and the water serpent dove into the layer of water surrounding both Feyrith and Professor Geist.
A domain spell was a higher-tier technique that was used to make the territory more advantageous to the casting mage.
"Fireball," Professor Geist said to my surprise. The low-tier spell that every fire attribute mage learned formed in Professor Geist's palm but rather than the normal reddish-orange colour, the spell glowed a dim blue.
It amazed me that an augmenter was able to figure out and apply the theory behind the properties of fire when even the smartest conjurers had trouble efficiently using it.
The blue fireball shot out of Professor Geist's hand and flew towards Feyrith, who had no idea how strong that spell actually was.
"You'll have to do better than that, Professor!" Feyrith confidently flicked his wand up and manipulated the layer of water on the ground to form a thick wall of water in front of him. At the same time, the Water Serpent spell Feyrith conjured erupted out of the water beside Professor Geist and lunged at him.
Our professor enveloped his left arm in a blue flame and braced against the force of Feyrith's spell. As the water serpent struck Professor Geist, a cloud of steam erupted, hiding him from view.
Meanwhile, the blue fireball smashed into the wall of water, creating a sharp hiss as our professor's spell bore through Feyrith's defence, making its way towards my fellow DC member.
Feyrith's face paled as he realized he was defenceless against the fireball but he was able to react in time to form another layer of water in front of him to minimize the damage.
"Oof!" The fireball, now reduced to the size of a fingernail by the time it reached Feyrith, still left a hole in the protective uniform he was wearing, knocking him back a couple of steps before he stumbled onto his butt.
"Do you surrender?" Professor Geist gave a wide grin as he walked out of the cloud of steam while juggling two more blue fireballs in his hand.
"Y-Yes...I concede." Feyrith had his head down in shame as he trudged back to us, his uniform soaking.
The students were all mumbling about how the DC wasn't that great, doubting whether we actually had the capability to protect them.
"Would anyone else like to volunteer?" he stated while looking at Kathyln and Arthur. Kathyln suddenly shot up from her seat and spoke. "Please guide me well," she said simply before lightly hopping down into the arena.
'At her level,' I thought while getting bored, 'She will crush him.'
The professor wasn't bad at all, but he didn't know how to use his core to its full potential. Comparing him to AA-rank adventurers like Jasmine would be insulting them.
"Kathlyn Glayder. I must say that it is an honour to have your presence in my humble class." Professor Geist gave a deep, exaggerated bow. "Please do not hold whatever the results may be in this 'demonstration' against me," he continued, putting on a pitiful face.
Her cold expression unwavering, Kathlyn just nodded, drawing her staff out from the dimension ring on her pinky. "Very good! Let us proceed!" The Professor clapped, fire igniting from between his palms.
Without a word, she lifted her sky blue staff. Before Professor Geist had a chance to unleash his fireball, two javelins of ice formed around Kathlyn. "Shoot." I heard her mutter before the javelins fired towards our professor.
So she decided to go the offensive route to keep Professor Geist from attacking her. A faint smirk crept up on our professor's face as he lifted his hands that were still aflame, ready to block the ice spears.
As soon as the ice javelins touched the fire on his palms, they instantly melt, disappearing slowly as a sharp hiss resounded. "Ice Javelin," she muttered again, and this time, instead of two, five spinning javelins formed near Kathlyn.
"Shoot." Her expression remained icy, like a coiled serpent ready to spring.
"Haha! Impressive! As expected of our princess!" Professor Geist grinned, the class leaning forward to get a better view of this intense battle. Since most of the students were first-years, they weren't at the level where they'd be able to conjure something like this, let alone almost instantly.
Our professor concentrated as the five spears shooting toward him, ready to pierce through if not countered. "Ember Wisps!" The spell he prepared finished in time as Professor Geist jumped back, releasing small, floating orbs of blue flames.
Wasn't this the spell Lucas used during his rank examination as Arthur told me?
"Break," Kathlyn muttered, and she willed her five ice javelins to shatter into an uncountable amount of small, sharp shards of ice.
"Fire!" Professor Geist, his face not nearly so smug as before, willed his orb of blue fire to shoot at his opponent. Kathlyn, on the other hand, was so focused on finishing her final spell that she ignored the incoming streams of blue fire about to hit her.
Or so everyone thought.
Suddenly, a water spell appeared out of thin air to block the fire spell.
'Good to know she remembers her training,' I said with a smirk.
"Ice Tornado!" She said as she announced her final ice spell.
The battle was over, the professor wasn't capable of taking that spell. As if right on cue, the professor use blue fire orbs to try to counter the ice spell, but was too weak to do anything.
His body was clad in ice as his teeth clattered from the cold.
"Do you surrender?" Kathyln said with a cold look on her face.
The professor barely managed to nod before the princess freed him out of his prison.
As if on cue, the bell rang, and I walked down to the stadium, picking the princess up before exiting.
"That was a good fight Kathyln," I said as I brushed her head. She nodded before thanking me, her red face betraying her.
"You defeated a light yellow mage at the dark yellow stage, you are quite strong," I complimented her more.
Some of the classmates whispered about our relationship but I ignored them alongside Kathyln.
"I still have a long way to go," she said before putting her face down.
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This is the discord link for the TBATE fanfic server. I just joined the server recently as a new author! https://discord.gg/QCrcHgyH6p