Chapter 7.2: GOOD JOB

That was weird. Aiden left after saying those… well… words. Mages from different places started to arrive the arena. There are reserved seats for mages that are member of the royal families so I know that my parents aren’t here yet. I’m sure they’ll be in front.

“Are you ready?” I looked at Aeolous who’s with his friends and Esco at the back. I sighed deeply before answering. “Yes” I trained so hard ever since I was little so I am pretty confident with my magic but I still feel nervous. This is the real deal, confidence alone would not assure me of my victory. I need to be smart and agile. I am my father’s daughter, a lot of people expect great thing from me and its making my stomach churn in nervousness.

“So are we. Let’s see each other on the field. Good luck!” Aeolous was smiling as he said each word but it didn’t really help to ease my nervousness. The four guys left to somewhere near the arena, I am currently here at the waiting area for the trainees, right at the back at the podium where the exam master, knight leaders and current Magic King will be sitting. Esco remained by my side.

“Nervous?” Esco checked. I saw at the other trainees went near to where we are. Its probably starting.

“Really nervous” he looks nervous as well.

“Me too. I feel like my stomach is about to burst open and my intestines will come out”

“That’s disgusting” then we both laughed. After a few seconds we fell silent and the nervousness resurfaced. I breathed a bit loud to release all the pressure I am feeling but its not really doing anything.

“Welcome mages!” we heard the exam master greeting all the audiences. My nervousness tripled, this is it!

“Today is… a very special day, for you will all witness Magic. There are more than a hundred mages who participated in the training but only twenty-six made it this far. Today marks a special day, for these mages will prove their strength to be worthy of becoming our next Magic Knights, Magic Knights Leader and one will be our next Magic Leader. Today you will witness as they take their first step towards greatness. Let’s all welcome, our examinees!”

We all lined up in front of the podium, there were two lines, one for the men and one for women. I was at the backmost of the line while the other light mage is on the front. There are more boys so the line is not equal, I stand next to Esco, the other four is in front behind him was Aiden.

Everyone clapped their hands to welcome us.

“Yes, you see right before your eyes… the future of our Kingdom’s Knights”

“Now, let’s all welcome, the three Magic Knights Leaders” a spatial magic appeared on the side of the podium. The three magic Knights Leaders went out of the portal and stood on the three chairs placed on the sides of the King’s chair.

“And let’s welcome our Kingdom’s Magic Leader, King Magnus!” everyone rose from their seats to welcome the King. King Magnus is a fire mage, my father met with him once and I remembered that his aura is as tremendous as my father. He talked to me before and he was really kind but he’s aura is just so powerful that even though he showed kindness towards me, I still kept a distance.

“Ah! Yes! Today is indeed, special. Every decade, our kingdom hosts an exam for our future protectors and leaders. I am aware of all your hard work and as your King, I am really proud. Let’s not make the trainees and audience wait. Let’s start the exam” everyone served him a round of applause. The King sat down on the chair in the middle and after him, the Knight Leaders, followed.

“Now, our examinees, please go to the back of the podium as the exam takes place” we did as we were told, we walked back to our station as the exam master start the exam.

“The exam will have two parts, the first part is where the examinees will battle against mages that have the same magic as them. Only one winner will be chosen to proceed to the next part of the exam. The second and final part of the exam is the battle against all the winners from the first part of exam. The examinees who remained standing at the end of the time limit, which will be announced later, will automatically be part of the Kingdom’s Knight and the rest, we’ll see what the Knight Leaders can offer. Now, I will officially open the exam” the crowd cheered as the exam begins. My heart is beating so fast, I breathed heavily to release nervousness but its just not enough to relieve the nervousness that I am feeling. Esco and I are seating next to each other, I can feel that he is feeling nervous as well. I think everyone in here is nervous, it’s only natural though. If we don’t make it here, we’ll have to wait for another decade for another chance.

There is a mirror magic at the top of the arena so that everyone can see what’s happening on the arena. Even us, whose here at the back, can see everything. The first one to battle is the two spatial mages, spatial magic are really convenient on the battle field. When there is emergency from a far away kingdom, as long as the spatial mage has seen the place, they can make spatial magic to that place. Their magic can alco be formulated into an attack, a strong one at that, but only few spatial mages were able to do that.

The two guy was standing far away from each other. A few moments, spatial magic surrounded the arena. Every mages name their attacks but we don’t really need to say the name of the spell before it activates, we can easily formulate attack as long as we are strong enough to generate it. If we have to say the name of the spell first, it would be too long before the attack is sent to the enemy. Its not necessary to name a spell but we still do although we don’t need to shout the name of the spell on actual battlefield. That would be bothersome.

Spatial spells started to release spatial attacks that targeted the other mage. Their attacks were almost equal in strength, they have to think strategically to outsmart the other one. If they don’t, this will go on forever. They keep on defending and attacking for a few minutes until was able to sneak one spatial spell near his opponent, allowing him to hit his opponent directly. The other guy fell to his knees.

The battle continued and winners were announced one after another. First was spatial, next to it is the sound then silver followed by ice. And the battle between three lightning mages has ended a few seconds ago.

The crowd screamed when the exam master stood up to give a few words. “And now, the battle against primary magic mage user will start. I know everyone is excited about it. Not only that primary magic mage users are naturally stronger than other magic mage user but also, the next leaders of our kingdom’s Knights and the next Leader of Mages will come from this group. First up are our earth mages” the crow went wild as they welcome the two women who are earth mage. The two went to the center of the arena and prepared for the fight.

The ground started shaking, rocks after rocks fell to the arena. It was an endless earthquake. But one girl was showing more strength than the other, hat girl won the fight after she made a pretty deep hole on the ground where the other girl is standing, making the girl fall into the pit. The girl who won throw huge earth rocks to the pit making the other mage not able to fight back.

The next battle belongs to water mages. There were three battles among the seven water mages. All the water mages that won was man, one of the three who won was one of Aeolous’ new found friend, the one that also came from the royal families. After the water mages, wind mages were next. Aeolous and Esco both won on their battle. Their magic was so much stronger than their opponents. I congratulated them when they went back to the examinee’s area and they bid me good luck.

Next up is fire. Aiden and the royalty man went to the arena. The temperature rose tremendously, it feels like we are placed right next to the sun. The ground in the battle area turned into lava, both were elevated from the ground as they throw their spells to one another. The man made a ball of fire and threw it below Aiden, Aiden wasn’t able to avoid it, the ball of air quickly exploded giving Aiden a few bruises. But it wasn’t that deep. They both generated strong fire magic on their hands and pointed it to each other, after a few seconds, the royal man kneeled after getting hit by Aiden’s fire magic. Aiden won.

I stood up, the last round would be me and the girl. Aiden was walking towards our area after the royal man. The royal man looked so angry but his is keeping his cool since there are a lot of people in here. I looked at Aiden, he gave me a smirk and an I-told-you-so look. Earlier he said that he’ll burn his opponent to crisp and he somehow did.

My opponent is already in the battle area, looking smug towards me. When I am already in position, I saw my parents in front of the bench, looking intently to me. He looks like he will not accept anything besides victory.

The girl quickly threw a powerful spell to me but I quickly made a gesture to absorb her magic. A circle magic spell appeared in front of me and it absorb everything she threw at me. She kept doing that from different angles but my spell does not have any blind spot but it can only absorb a limited amount of magic. When my spell reached its limitation, I quickly made a whip and hit the girl. She failed to dodge and it hit hurt so much that I almost felt sorry. She stood properly and tried to hit me with a powerful spell but I was quick enough to cast a shield that defended me from her magic. I wasn’t even trying too hard. She did not give up and tried to give all the magic she has and focused it towards me, she’s planning to attack me with all she got. Her spell was forming in her hand, so… slow. Before she even released and point it to me, I was able to build a powerful empty light ball and build it around her. When she realized that I was trapping her inside, it was too late, she couldn’t stop her attack anymore. In a split second, her attack was trapped inside my spell injuring her. All that attack power she wants to send to me, hit her. She fell down, I’m sure she can still stand after this. I also made sure that the attack that would hit her will be reduced so she won’t be injured too badly.

I stopped my spell and looked at my parents, my father nodded at me and I did not bother to nod back or smile. I head back to our area.

“You did not even move from you position. Not even a single sweat… just how powerful are you?” someone who I am not familiar with, spoke. I just looked at him and he quietly back down. The girl was already walking behind me, I can feel her. Good thing she’s alright.

I saw Aiden and Esco looking at me with a hint of smile. Aeolous and his new found friends looked nervous.

“That ends the first part of the exam. That was mind-blowing. Now let’s all call all the winner from the first round. There would be 13 participants to the last part of the exam. One from light, three from water, four from wind, one from earth, one from lightning, spatial, ice, silver and sound” A few minutes after my battle with the girl, we were summoned back to the arena to continue the exam. I looked at father, he mouther me something. He said…

…WIN.