There was tension in the air as we walked along the seats of the arena. My knee bounced off someone’s leg, and I apologised. It was starting to get crowded.

The air was warm, a combination of the bodies packed into a small area, and the crisp fire of Amanda’s hair. It drew people’s attention towards us, a few of them glowing with magic in response.

They thought she was showing off.

“There’s a good spot.” I pointed at some free seats near the first row.

We rushed over, and barely managed to sit down before another group arrived. They grumbled but didn’t stick around long, seats were being occupied every second.

“Nice one.” Amanda crowed. “Do you know how the arena works?”

I stared at the building around me. There were symbols carved into every inch of its metal hull. My mind conjured images of their meanings and their connections to each other, I had seen these before. I looked at Gold, and he stared back at me. They were the symbols that he had made back home.

These were far more numerous, and complex.

“I have an idea. I’ve only sparred once with someone.” I admitted. “In that one we couldn’t get hurt. There was magic in place that marked us if we took damage.”

Amanda nodded. “That’s exactly it. You can bring your own weapons, as long as they’re checked in beforehand. If not, the arena will provide weapons for you that are spelled to not do harm.”

“You are going to root for your brother to win?”

Amanda placed her hand underneath her chin and looked at the arena.

“Master Wilhelm is known for his battle prowess. The reason people want to challenge him is because it’s rumored Crijik’s Marked one had agreed to fight with him.” She peeked at me. “That’s a big deal.”

I knew that was true. Gerial had been scheduled to fight William before I’d come along.

“Is G- I mean, is Crijik’s Marked one a good fighter?”

I didn’t want to use Gerial’s name, not until I worked out which friends would act normal about my friendship with a Marked one.

“You’re pulling my tail, right? You really don’t know?” She stared at me and then back at the arena. “He’s good. That’s all I’ve heard. I guess we’ll see soon enough.”

She gestured towards the arena entrance. Students were parting to let a boy through. William.

He’d changed since I had last seen him properly. Now that I could take in his visage for more than a few seconds I could see that he had grown just as much as I had. Maybe even more.

His body had gotten bulkier. Not cartoonishly big, but more defined than any teenager would normally be. He was tall as well, standing at least half a head above the rest of the students.

He looked like a soldier.

He didn’t carry his onze with him. Instead, he had a sword strapped to his back. It didn’t glow and appeared to be made of normal iron. There were symbols glowing on it, bright orange.

People around me started cheering as he stepped into the battlefield. It was a simple sandplain.

“He borrowed one of the arena swords. That’s going to be insulting to my brother.” Amanda whistled. “The nobles like to use their individual weapons. They’ve trained with them for longer.”

“He’s a wise guy.” I said. “I’m sure he’s thought of all the options.”

William had a cocky expression on his face, but I recognised the calm underneath the façade.

From the other side of the arena people stepped into the sand. Amanda’s brother, and his group. There were no sneers on their faces, and each one stood to attention. Amanda’s brother was quickly left alone as his group left the battlefield’s boundary. He clasped his hand to his chest and saluted William.

The act was over. He was here to win.

“What’s your brother’s name?” The sounds of the crowd died down.

“Alexis.” Amanda whispered. “I know I joked about him losing, but I really think he has a shot at this. My dad said he’s going to be in class two at least.”

Class two. I hadn’t thought too much about next week, but once our measurements were done, we would be separated into our real classes based on our abilities.

Our temporary classes would be disbanded.

Those that were at the very top of the year level would be put into class one. Class two was for the other exceptional talents, and it continued until every student was placed in the classroom.

Right now, nobody knew who was strong, or who was weak, or who was smart and who was dumb. The measurement was more than just a test of mana, it would test other attributes as well to determine where students would be placed in the curriculum.

We had already been accepted into Koshima academy, but the measurement would tell us where we were in relation to everyone else.

The only exception was specialised subjects, such as my earth magic studies class.

Maths, science, language, history, magical ability and more. The academy wanted to know who to focus their efforts on nurturing.

If Amanda thought that her brother could get into class two, that meant he was already in the top percentile of students.

There was a hush in the crowd as the two opponents walked towards each other. The symbols in the walls glimmered with mana, and I saw the people around me looking at them with wide eyes.

William and Alexis shook hands, smiles on their faces.

They both knew what they were getting into. There would be no rivalries and no excuses. The best man would win, and the loser would have to pick up the pieces of their broken pride.

I was distracted from their meeting by a tug in my chest. My eyes scanned the area I had felt it coming from, but there was nothing there. It was an empty section of the arena devoid of chairs.

I activated my mana sense, And I saw a figure gazing at the arena.

Gerial.

His features were blurred, but I could see his arms were crossed and his back was laying against the wall. He was here to see William fight.

There were other people that were just as out of place. They were older and more confident. Our seniors had come to see the fight as well. There weren’t as many of them, but I could sense their stronger presences scattered around the arena.

Amanda followed my gaze. “Everyone wants to see how good the pizza is.”

“Pizza?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Everyone will want a slice of him.” Amanda poked her tongue out. “I'm surprised you don’t know about the miracle baby.”

I hadn’t heard that nickname before.

“Is it so bad?” I spoke. “Koshima academy is supposed to accept only the best.”

“They do.” She nodded. “That’s why it’s amazing, and horrifying. We are some of the top people of our generation. My brother trained for thirteen years to get where he is. More than a dozen skills he spent blood, sweat and tears to obtain. And William…”

Amanda leaned towards me.

“Did you know he’s about to turn three years old? He’s aged himself with concoctions but it’s not for physical power, it's to catch up with the mind he already has. We’ve all spent years training to reach the level he had while in his diapers. Everyone wants to see if our hard work is about to be thrown in the trash.”

Koshima academy didn’t care about the age of its students. It only cared about their abilities, and their intellect.

These students didn’t have the advantage of [wisdom]. Or reincarnation. They’d aged mentally the normal way, through the passage of time.

Years of studying and training. A head start of a decade and the ability to learn and level their skills in that time. They were all natural teenagers, and they held that against William.

His existence caused awe, and fear.

The students around me were quiet. They’d gone through their lives believing they were the cream of the crop. Now they were in the presence of a genius that was more than a decade younger than them.

Some burned with a passion for battle, others had already been defeated before they began the fight.

I hadn’t had the chance to expand my skills, both due to lack of access to skill knowledge and time, but I had still caught up to them in levels for the skills I did have.

That would be a slap in the face to anyone that heard about it. They poured their life into their training. It would feel terrible to have someone come along and do it in less than a quarter of the time.

It would hurt even more when that person breezed past your level just as quickly.

William stepped back from Alexis and made his way to the other end of the stadium.

Amanda winced. “That’s not a good idea.”

I was going to ask her why when Alexis raised his hands and two glowing bows appeared in the air. The match hadn’t begun yet, so they hovered around him without firing.

One was adorned with brilliant gold ornaments, and its materials shimmered with reddish-purple lights. The other was simpler, its tip glowed red, and it had a strange protrusion that was carved out of a light blue crystal.

He was a long-ranged fighter.

Alexis raised his hand and another weapon appeared. It looked like a cross between a dagger and a bow, glowing red and purple.

He grasped it in his hands and the bows moved independently from his body. I couldn’t see any openings. The air around him shimmered, and something pushed against my body, an invisible pressure that cascaded across the arena stands.

Amanda wasn’t joking when she said her brother was strong.

William emitted no pressure but didn’t back down either. He held the sword in front of him, and I saw something crawl across his feet.

Blue gemstones.

There was a chime, and they faced each other. Their bodies were still, and their expressions were calm.

Then there was a second chime-

Sand exploded around William. Alexis had sent a dozen bolts of magic straight at him. His weapons didn’t need to be loaded or fired. It was all automatic.

Blasts of red and purple littered the air around William, and the crowd drew in a breath.

Would it be that easy?

The sand fell back to the ground.

William was gone.

Alexis turned around and raised his dagger. The air filled with the sound of metal scraping against metal as his dagger met with William’s.

William had gotten behind him without anyone noticing. My eyes narrowed. That was the technique the knights of the church of Crijik used.

Alexis’ bows locked onto William, but he moved and put Alexis’ body between himself and the weapons.

The bows started to move into new positions and William raised his hand. From his starting position in the arena a glowing blue light flew through the air.

It was his sword.

Not the iron one he held in his hand. The one he had used in his fight against me. I looked at him and saw that the blue gemstones had disappeared from his feet.

Some of the students tried to warn Alexis, but their words failed to reach his ears. He was fending off William’s blows with a smile on his face.

He thought he had his opponent trapped.

William’s gemstone sword stabbed into his back, a bright orange line appearing and the momentum pushing him forward. His lost footing was his downfall, and William finished him with a cut to the neck with the iron sword.

The crowd was silent.

Alexis’ bows stopped moving as he realised what had happened. William’s blue sword returned to him, and the gemstones broke up into pieces and covered his hand like a glove.

I’d never seen an onze do that.

He helped Alexis up to his feet and then they turned to face the crowd.

“Good match.” “Good match.”

They spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. There was silence, and then a cheer broke out. Clapping filled the air, joined by the occasional yell.

Amanda and I joined in, but my celebrations were cut short as I spotted something on the stage with my mana sense. A murmur broke out around me and I could see that some of the other students were starting to take notice as well.

An invisible figure strode towards the combatants. There was a shift in the mana around them, and a third person appeared in front of William and Alexis. The crowd went silent.

It was Gerial.