There is no sign of the enemy forces on Big Mound Hill. All earthwork and defensive positions have been abandoned. We also found the batteries left behind. Twenty-three mana cannons have been secured. We also found rations and supplies that were left untouched. It would seem that the enemy retreated in much haste. We followed their tracks to the cluster of cities east of the system of hills

The cities of Grosgow, Blackhill, Tourners, and Mackenvale are devoid of all life. There were also no signs of animals, and all the plants in the area have withered. Scouts have searched the surrounding plains for any clue as to the location of its citizens. So far, we have found nothing. There are tracks signifying a large movement going east. Perhaps the opposing army took their citizens with them in their retreat.

We will continue our reconnaissance and push forward to the next city, Liftersville.

(Report of the 2nd Scouting Unit, 1st Cavalry Division of the Coalition Army)

The sharp edges of the double-headed axe sliced through the air with a keen whistling sound, surges of lightning were creeping along its blades. A blacked robed man leapt out of its way, carrying his precious basket along. The flying axe bit deep into the stage, causing several cracks to appear. The stored energy that it built up dispersed into the ground with several lightning bolts snaking across the stage.

“Stop dodging, you spineless coward, and fight like a man!” The hulking man bellowed, hitting his chest with his fists. “I, Garrin Thunderfist, never dodge anything!”

“Good for you then,” Aya said. “Also, good for me that I’m not as crazy as you.”

Garrin roared in anger. He extended his left arm and beckoned at his axe. The axe vibrated, and under its own power, wrenched itself free from the ground. Whirling through the air, it came back to the hands of its master.

“Now, I will throw it again. This time, prove yourself to be a man!”

Aya rolled his eyes. He correctly guessed that one of the gems slotted onto the axe gave it lighting properties. Surprisingly, the second one gave it the power to return to its owner. Perhaps in the hands of an expert blade master, such effect would have been very useful, the blade behaving in unexpected ways, throwing the opponent off guard. One could also partially recall the weapon, stop it in midair, while the user sprints to another location and recall it again to change its trajectory. Partnered with another weapon, an opponent would need to constantly look out for his back as well as his front.

However, the barbarian he was fighting only throws his weapon with all his might, and then recalls it and prepares to throw it again. He has dodged the axe a few times, enraging his enemy.

“I should probably end this,” Aya said. Only ranged attacks went his way. They were dangerous to face head on. Upon contact, the lighting gem unleashes its energy; there is also a possibility that the lightning damage has a paralyzing effect. Of course, having the constitution of a dragon, he probably didn't have to worry about it. There was a pitiful number of weapons that can actually hurt him; it would be surprising if he will be up against some of them during the preliminaries. He made up his mind not to take advantage of his not so normal body.

Aya raised his brow. The barbarian wants him to attack in close quarters, purposely making openings by throwing his weapon away. The defense amulet will then come into play in a melee fight.“Even a newborn groof can see through this ploy.” He waved his basket at his enemy, taunting him. “Oh wait, baby groofs are blind.”

Garrin raised his axe over his head, and with a mighty swing using both his hands, released his fearsome weapon into the direction of Aya.

Aya sidestepped the axe and charged towards the barbarian. Lightning bolts snapped at his heels as the ax collided with the stage behind him.

Garrin gestured for his axe once again but realized that the BasketSlayer was getting near him. He balled his fists and threw out a punch. Aya ducked low. With a maniacal laugh, Garrin swung his other fist downwards. It crashed into the stage, burying itself a foot deep, its intended target nowhere to be found. He looked between his legs and realized that the BasketSlayer dove beneath him.

Aya stood up. “Watch out for your axe.”

The sound of metal upon metal resonated throughout the arena.

“Wow, I’ve underestimated the defense boost of that amulet.”

Garrin gave a throaty laugh while he pulled his arm from the ground. He massaged his head at the spot where the axe that he recalled hit. “Excellent tricks, little man! But all attacks are nothing before my Ironhide Amulet!” Sparks danced all over his body, but he did not seem affected. “This amulet gives me a body that’s harder than iron! I am also unaffected by magic.”

“Really awesome trinket. But my basket is more powerful than that.”

“Enough games,” Garrin growled. He picked up his fallen ax and touched the last gem on its blade. It started glowing blue, brighter, and brighter, soon, the blue light enveloped his body.

“A Speed Rune. Weird to place it on a weapon,” Aya said. “Let’s see how fast you are.”

The two competitors charged at each other. One had his axe raised over his head, the other, his food basket.Garrin was the one who quickly closed the gap. Baring his teeth, he stomped his feet with each step, slightly shaking the stage. He swung his axe downwards, anticipating his enemy’s movement, ready to cleave the BasketSlayer in half as soon as he was within reach. However, the BasketSlayer stopped abruptly just before he came within the range of the axe. The axe sliced thin air.

In the blink of an eye, Garrin stepped forward and swung his axe sideways a couple of times. Aya ducked a couple of times and kept circling Garrin, confusing him.

“Um, excuse me, just trying to reach something,” a voice said to the side of Garrin. The BasketSlayer caught his arm while evading his blade and then climbed over him, carrying his basket by his arm. Garrin attempted to shake him off, and reached out to grab him, the axe was too big to use in very close combat.

The BasketSlayer clambered over Garrin’s shoulders, pushed off his head and jumped over him, landing behind him. The barbarian quickly turned to face his foe, swinging his axe around. His eyes caught a hint of glint swinging from the neck of his adversary.

“Your axe explodes upon impact, right?” The black robed man threw a punch. His fist collided with the edge of the axe.

A ball of lightning consumed the two participants and momentarily blinded the spectators.

Orvin Nephtali sat on the edge of his seat as he watched the fight of the person who defeated him. He can barely follow the movements of the BasketSlayer and Garrin as they had their final clash. The BasketSlayer threw something offstage before he punched the axe of Garrin. Then came the blinding flash. Rubbing his eyes, he wondered who won in the end, he was sure that both of the fighters were hit by the lightning magic.

The two fighters were still standing, sparks covered their bodies. The black robed man moved, and calmly walked to the side of the stage, retrieving the thing he had thrown earlier. It was his basket. He did not want his basket to be damaged by the exploding lightning.

He was about to walk back to exit the arena when he stopped and removed something from his neck and threw it. Glinting through the air, it landed near the feet of Garrin. Several people gasped as they realized what it was. It was the Ironhide Amulet.

“That big brute is paralyzed.”

Orvin faced his elder sister beside him. She was dressed in blue robes, streaked with yellow on the shoulders, a medallion bearing the coat of arms of the Dolsworth Academy hanged by a silver chain down her neck. Orvin believed her; she would surely know if someone was paralyzed with lightning magic, given that she was a water and lightning mage- a very rare and powerful combination.

“I can see how you were defeated, Orvin,” his sister said. “That ‘BasketSlayer’, whatever his real name may be, was not even scratched by his opponent. Furthermore, he did not defeat his opponent by striking him. Instead, he tricked his opponent into electrocuting himself. He did not use any magic at all. He was just extremely fast and has a lot of battle experience.”

“He used some magic when we fought. Blood runes appeared on his skin. I actually don’t know what magic that was, it also did not seem to have any effect. I assumed he failed to cast something.” Orvin stood up from his seat and straightened out his robe. “I’m going to meet him, Emelie.”

“And why are you going to do that? We went here to Krysperium, along with other schoolmates because we are seeking acceptance into the Milla Lyceum. Our school will boost its reputation if some of its students are accepted. We are not here to join fights in the arena.”

“I know tha-”

Emelie raised her hand to cut him off. “We will officially be in the service of Krysperia if we are accepted. You know what that entails. Have you forgotten your reason for being a mage, no…our reason.”

“I need to grow stronger, I can learn something from him! It will help me getting into Milla!” Orvin pleaded.

“All right. But promise me that you will get in Milla Lyceum.” His sister smiled at him. “You know that you’re not alone in this. I’m always here for you. Come, let’s meet him.”

“Quill, keep your shield steady. Just relax and breathe slowly. Imagine the mana flowing around in a sphere encapsulating you, timing it with your breathing,” Aileen looked at the rest of the junior trainees. “One weak point in your shield can bring the whole thing down. Expect to be attacked from all sides, don’t lose focus when you are under fire.”

A dozen young Fahllyrs arranged themselves in two lines on top of a wide drum tower, connecting the external walls of the temple. Aileen sat on top of one of the merlons lining the battlements, with the sun behind her back. She, once again, wore her full armor.

This was one of the occasions where she was in charge of training her juniors. Shield training requires weathering through a large number of different kinds of attack. Aileen can continuously attack them, with her extremely large mana pool, training her family members, while at the same time training herself. Met with a win-win situation, she eagerly volunteered for the job.

"All of you close your eyes. Concentrate on maintaining your shield, maintain an equal amount of thickness throughout.”

Without any movement or incantations, more than hundred wind arrows started to form above the trainees. The trainees heard a slight whistling sound and the rain of arrows started to descend. None of them missed their target. Each shield was hit more than a dozen times, all of them held. Aileen kept summoning wind arrows above them, continuing the barrage. She never felt any fatigue, the wind arrows that she cast were quite weak; it was simply to test the trainees’ concentration.

She slowly began increasing the strength of each arrow; she also started to spin them to increase their speed and penetrating power. The trainees stood straight with a determined face, enduring the relentless torrent of magical attack, sweat forming on their foreheads as their mana was getting depleted fast. Aileen was quite proud of them for being able to apply watch she has taught so quickly.

She turned her head to gaze at the setting sun behind her, her thoughts wandered to the fight of Mr. Tourist that she watched. It seemed that she had made a wrong assessment of him. He was able to quickly finish a fight with a fire-earth mage without using any magic. His story of buffing himself with the blood runes on his skin did not seem believable because all his movements contained no hint of mana enhancing his body. Aileen could not detect any mana line at all. That would mean that he fought a magic caster without using any magic or weapons and won without so much as breaking a sweat.

The Fahllyr bloodline and an exceedingly large mana pool. Was she just strong because she got lucky? Lucky to be born into the Fahllyr family, lucky to be born with such mana capacity. If that were all taken away, will she still be strong? All throughout her life, she relied on her inborn gifts. Perhaps she would change tact in her training. She should not solely rely on her mana capacity, if she did she might really end up in Milla Lyceum, training as a mage.

Mr. Tourist was surely no ordinary person based from how he fought, Aileen thought. She remembered that she was not able to drag him when they meet in the lowest level of the temple; it seemed that it was not only her imagination. Why was he there anyway? There were plenty of pilgrims and tourist visiting the temple, but that was the first time she saw someone was lost down and ended up at such a remote place in the temple.

The sound of glass shattering reverberated through the air, and then another, it was followed by two pained cries. Aileen snapped out of her thoughts and stopped the downpour of wind arrows.

Two trainees were not able to maintain their shields and were hit by the wind arrows. Aileen jumped down from where she was sitting and started walking towards the portal going down.

“Give them some health potions and have them checked in the infirmary. Quill, your shield became uneven towards the end and was already wavering. Anyway, good job all.” Aileen looked at them and gave them a smile and a nod, hoping that no one would notice that she forgot that she was pelting them with wind arrows

“Our lesson tomorrow will be alternating between shielding against a strong attack from a single point and maintain a spherical all-around shield.”

They finally found the black robed man sitting on a bench beneath a tree outside the arena annex where his fights were held. He sat cross-legged with his basket, now filled with food, and a bottle of clear sparkling orange liquid by his side. He spotted both of them coming over.

“Hey, mage guy… and mage gal beside mage guy,” he said. “Sorry, I’m not really good with names.”

“This is my sister, Emelie, and I’m Orvin. It’s all right if you don’t remember my name. Our fight ended so quickly anyway, I doubt I made any impression on you.”

BasketSlayer gestured to the empty bench in front of him. “At least, you were able to summon the fire serpent before I got to you. Looks like you easily connect with fire spirits.”

He was able to discern that just based on a few minutes of fighting her brother, Emelie thought, quite surprised. “Why do you think so?” Emelie asked, testing him.

“The fire serpent listened to his summons even though his mana pool can only allow it to maintain its form for a few seconds. Its material form was gigantic and it even has a name. Obviously, spirits like that are going to be proud and would generally listen to mages that can continuously supply them with large amounts of mana- which your brother does not have.” BasketSlayer picked up a sandwich from his food basket. “Is it alright if I eat while we talk? What are we going to talk about anyway?”

“It seems that you are very informed regarding elemental spirits, Mr. BasketSlayer. May I know what your name is?” Emelie looked at her brother who also wanted to speak, indicating that he let her do the talking.

“BasketSlayer’s fine,” he replied. He picked up the bottle beside him and began drinking from it. “I really like this thing…some sort of fruit juice, probably. Good thing they allowed me to take a bottle out. Free food is very good. Too bad, I don’t have a place to stay.”

“We can provide you with a place to stay!” Orvin blurted out.

Emelie gave him glared at him then turned her attention back to BasketSlayer. “Uh, Mr... BasketSlayer... my brother wants to have some help with improving his skills. He really needs someone with plenty of battle experience to guide him.”

“Why?” BasketSlayer started rummaging around his food basket for his next food to eat.

Emelie wrinkled her nose a bit seeing such uncouth behavior. She decided to keep a civil tongue for the sake of her brother. “My brother and I are planning to enter Milla Lyceum. Given my proficiency in water and lightning magic, I am greatly confident of my ability to enter. However, I am not too sure of the ability of my brother. I would like you to help my brother enter Milla Lyceum.”

“Milla Lyceum?” BasketSlayer gave them a blank look.

“You don’t know about Milla? How can you no-”

“Oh! Milla Lyceum! Of course, I know about it. Who doesn’t know about Milla Lyceum? I was just so focused on eating this meat roll that my mind kind of floated away.” He took a giant bite out of his food and grinned at them. “What would you want me to teach him?”

“Although my brother has some special skills when it comes to fire spirits, his general abilities as a fire-earth mage are mediocre. Having dual affinity is not enough to enter Milla Lyceum,” Emelie said.

Orvin hung his head to his side. “I’m trying really hard.”

“I know you do,” Emelie said, patting his head. She then turned again to BasketSlayer, who chewed on a chicken leg. “My brother needs an edge over the other applicants. He thought that perhaps you might give him some pointers on fighting. Witnessing you effortlessly winning both your matches, I am sure that my brother will learn a great deal from you.”

“In return, we provide you with shelter,” Orvin piped in.

“Sounds like a good deal to me. Why do you want to enter Milla Lyceum anyway?”

Orvin looked at his sister before replying. “One of my goals is to become a very powerful elemental mage. My inspirations are the great legendary mages of the Dragon’s Chosen.”

“Really?” BasketSlayer replied. “So you idolize the Elemental Archmagus Rebecca Ravenstone from the Dragon’s Chosen?”

“Not really, I’m more of a fan of the Venerable Elemental Archmagus Clement Tiberius. After all, he was the one who led the heroes in defending this city while the Dragon Emperor KrystFallen attacked the enemy.”

The sound of munching stopped. “Elemental Archmagus Tiberius?” BasketSlayer said slowly.

“Yes! He was the great Archmagus who commanded all five elements!”

Emelie looked at her brother’s beaming face as he was talking about the hero he greatly admired. She was happy that her brother was happy, she will do whatever it takes to make him realize his dream, even if she needs to hire the services of an uncivilized man. BasketSlayer had stopped chewing the chicken leg he was eating; its bone was sticking out the side of his man, he had a perplexed look on his face. Such an ill-mannered man, she observed. She hoped that her brother does not pick up bad habits while being taught by him.

“Your academy teaches elemental magic, right? Are there any void magic schools around?”

The two siblings gasped. Emelie’s hand flew to her mouth; she leaned back as if repulsed by what the black-robed man said. “Don’t speak of such vile magic! You can’t even consider it magic! There are no more of their kind in this Empire.”

“I’m sorry if I offended you in any way. I’m a warrior from the far away land of Roghinia, and as you have seen me fight, I will take down any enemy using my vast knowledge of how they fight. I was only asking about, those…um… other kind of mage, so that I will be prepared in my travels.”

Orvin stared in amazement. “Rohginia, that is on the other side of the continent. You must have faced a lot of challenges on your way here.”

“Understandable, you should be prepared if you meet them. However, Krysperia is not the place to look for them. I do not know if there are any practitioners of that accursed branch of magic left here, or in any of the surrounding countries,” Emelie said.

“Why is that?” BasketSlayer reached for his bottle to take a drink.

“They don’t teach you history in Rohginia? Krysperia waged war against the Houses of those despicable casters and eradicated them. It was shortly after the Siege.”

The BasketSlayered gave a surprised cough and spluttered orange liquid on the ground.

“What?”