``And begin!'' [Shawn]

We're at the central arena of the academy. After my parents decided to rent the Barker cottage, on the condition that Alfred agreed to let Tony live there with me, Shawn took us to see the an exam that's currently being conducted, in the course of chant-less combat. And it seems like he saved the best for when he got here.

The two that are currently being examined are a swordsman with a square shield, and a woman with a spear. The swordsman has clear blue hair, and a matching rope with emerald green wave markings on the bottom, whereas the woman has summer green hair with clear streaks of rose. Her robe is much more exquisite, depicting a summer forest with roses blooming.

They are both in their late teens, the boy being a birdkin and the girl a lizardkin. Shawn told me it's their last year at the academy, so they would have to be either seventeen or eighteen. Not much younger than I were when I died..

They already summoned their aura, and bowed at each other from opposite sides of the arena.

``Page Rose and Vaughn Aaron. These children have been at the top of their year since the day they entered the academy. And bitter, bitter rivals since the same day. Miss Page comes from a rather wealthy family that's been in Bightkeep for generations, while Mister Vaughn was orphaned a few years before he joined the academy. As he couldn't afford the tutelage, he lives off a scholarship from the Order of the Sword. He has quite a few achievements under his belt from excursions with them in the area. Miss Page, on the other hand, has an outstanding academic record that Mister Vaughn could never hope to match, much to his own regret.

Theory versus practice.

This match should be one that few here shall ever forget.'' [Shawn]

I look around. The place is packed. There are several thousand people here, and though the arena itself is not that big, the tribunals are rather large. The tribunal is separated into three, like everything else in this world apparently, giving the impression that there are three separate teams competing.

The chanting, however, makes it abundantly clear that there are only two teams. The entire blue tribune, along with half of the green tribune, is chanting ``Aa-ron! Aa-ron!'' while the rest is cheering ``Ro-ous! Ro-ous!''. Guess ``Rose'' is hard to yell in rhythm.

And indeed, as Shawn said, this will be a match that I won't forget anytime soon.

As soon as they finished bowing to each other, Rose used magic to pull several boulders up from the earth around her, each the size of a basketball, and compress them into perfectly round spheres. As they float around her, she swings her spear around to hurl them towards Aaron in quick succession.

Aaron, on the other hand, quickly spread his wings and takes off, prioritizing his mobility over an immediate attack. As he darts around the arena, using magic to make sharp and sudden turns to avoid the flying boulders, the edges of the arena showing ripples whenever the boulders miss him and fly towards the audience.

As Aaron makes a sudden stop in front of our part of the tribunal, the boulder he avoided stops dead in front of me

As I flinch form the shock, the boulder is smashed against a ripple in space.

``Do not worry Nathan, the water magicians here are most excellent. Something of this caliber is no problem at all for them.'' [Jessica]

``Water magicians? But there is no water?'' [Nathan]

``They spread several thin layers of water out across the arena. You cannot see them, but they are still there, and nothing can pass through them.'' [Jessica]

So this world has barrier magic too, how convenient.

As the remains of the boulder in front of me is released from the barrier and falls to the ground, the battle changes in an instant. Rose stops throwing boulders to pull hundreds of smaller rocks from the ground, but before she finishes Aaron swoops down to strike at her. As he is half way, she flicks her spear at her to lunch the last boulder towards him, though it's much slower than the earlier ones, on account of her maintaining the spell that pulls rocks from the earth. He swings his sword in front of him, sending a wind blade out in front of him, much larger than the one I can produce with my boots.

It slices the rock clean in half, and he sweeps down between the two separated halves to strike at Rose.

Just as he pass through the two halves, Rose lets go of her staff with her right hand, reach out towards him with an open palm.

And tightens her hand into a fist.

The two halves of the boulder explode into small rocks that shoot out in all directions, and the rocks she just pulled out of the ground drop to the floor.

As the tribune gasps, Aaron crashes to the floor, his wings bloodied.

``So she got the first point huh..'' [Shale]

``It is his own fault for falling for such an obvious trick. Really, if he had not shown off and went through the projectile, it would have been simple to avoid taking such a bad hit.'' [Jessica]

``She must have known he would do that, otherwise she wouldn't have prepared a scattershot like that. But getting him from his blind side, what excellent technique.'' [Shale]

As my parents discuss the tactics and events, Shawn looks proudly at the scene unfolding, a small smile across his face and expectation in his eyes.

Guess this fight is far from over.

As Aaron picks himself of from the ground, Rose is breathing heavily. Using that much magic must have taken a toll on her, a burden that Aaron is free of. On the other hand, his wings seem too injured to let him fly, and so they stand silently in front of each other again, waiting for someone to make the first move.

This time, Aaron makes the first move, and starts unleashing a flurry of swings towards Rose, each propelling a blade of air forwards at high speed.

Rose takes a defensive stance, and slowly back away as she whirls her spear around to pull plates of rock from the ground to block the blades, each torn in two by the impact before the blade itself dissipates into mana.

``Bold move, especially since he took such a beating.'' [Shale]

``What do you mean?'' [Nathan]

``Summoning matter is rather costly compared to just manipulating, remember? The cost is much less for an Air user, but it's high none the less. In return, it has a much higher impact, which is why he can split the rock walls she pulls from the ground.'' [Jessica]

``Why do they move their weapons around to cast spells?'' [Nathan]

``You can't see it, but they have inscribed mana lines along the blade and the staff. You can learn to use those to control the spells you cast.'' [Shale]

``But if those are all the spells he can use chantless, he is going to have a problem.'' [Jessica]

``Why?'' [Nathan]

``Because she is sure to have something up her sleeve for close combat. And if he cannot step past the range of her spear, he is going to lose this.'' [Jessica]

As my parents keep talking quietly to themselves, Rose pulls up a single boulder and hurls it at Aaron. As he stops to dodge the attack, keeping a close eye on the boulder as it passes him, Rose runs ahead to strike at his exposed flank.

He blocks her thrust with his shield, and takes a step back, followed by another thrust to his front leg, which he parries just in the nick of time, catching her off balance.

Rose quickly takes a step forward to regain her balance, but is rewarded with a quick slash across her forearm, lacerating her skin and making her blood flow down to her hand and drip to the ground as she jumped back to regain her posture.

Aaron capitalizes on her mistake, and quickly close the gap to get pass her range, bashing the point of her spear away with his shield. She lets go of her spear with one hand to give him a quick jab across the chin, staggering him long enough to regain her range and stance.

At this point, they are both injured and low on mana, panting heavily as they each take a short break, maintaining the status quo.

``Point two Aaron then..'' [Shale]

Staring at each other, panting heavily and obviously feeling their wounds, the intense silence between them ready to break the moment any of them blink.

It seems they are whispering something to each other, either taunting each other or commending one another on their tenaciousness.

As a drop of blood gathers on her knuckle and fall the to ground, he strikes.

He sends a volley of air blades towards her in rapid succession as she swings her spear to pull rocks from the ground, blocking his attacks midair.

When he comes in range to strike at her, she pushes a pillar of stone from under his feet to push him off balance.

He use it as a stepping stone to leap far above her, showering her in air blades, forcing her to pull pillars from the ground to encage herself. As he lands, he takes a stance and gather magic for a second before swinging his sword and sending a huge air blade towards her cage.

Unable to evade from within her cage, she pulls a massive wall from the ground. The air blade collides with it, and pulverize it rather than cut it in two, before both the air blade and the wall vaporize into mana particles.

``Point three Aaron as well.'' [Jessica]

Aaron doesn't miss the chance, and leap in towards Rose, who is still caught in her cage, unable to dodge backwards. She steadies herself, and stab at him repeatedly in quick succession.

Narrowly evading and using his shield to block, Aaron slowly pushes her further into the prison of her own making, making it harder and harder for him to flank her.

Aaron swings his blade and calls forth an air blade, cutting several pillars down at once and opening up the cage to give him some more wiggle room.

As the pillars come crashing down, one of them balance for a second before falling towards Rose.

Caught between the falling rock and Aaron's rapid strikes, Rose attempts a desperate blow towards Aaron's shoulder as he swings his sword to launch a charged air blade.

As Rose's spear penetrates Aaron's shoulder, the pillar shatters.

What's left of the pillar scatters across the floor, and Aaron falls backwards, bleeding profoundly from his shoulder.

A clear gasp rings out across the arena, as the fight comes to an unexpected finish.

``So she finishes with a triple pointer huh?'' [Shale]

``He threw the fight, her reply better be worth it. Did you know about this Shawn?'' [Jessica]

``Of course I did. He tries to hide it, and he's convinced he succeeds, but she's the only one that doesn't know.'' [Shawn]

As the teachers rush in to heal the contestants, Rose falls to her knees next to Aaron. She tries to stop the bleeding from his shoulder, yelling at him in confusion before he turns his face towards her and reach his uninjured hand up to caress her face. She puts her hands over her mouth, clearly shocked from his words, before she quickly leans forwards to hug him as the crowd explodes into cheers and applause, and the teachers arrive to treat their wounds.

``Well isn't that nice Aaron, you managed to tell her before you graduated...'' [Shawn]

He says as he stares ahead, caught in his own thoughts.

``You said this is an exam?'' [Nathan]

``Hmm? Oh, yeah.'' [Shawn]

``And what course was it again?'' [Nathan]

``Chantless combat, why?'' [Shawn]

``Are exams usually conducted with sharp weapons?'' [Nathan]

``Well not all of them of course, but once you reach the age of fifteen you're expected to experience dangerous situations, so from that point on, all of the exams that require you to spar involve sharp weapons. But don't worry Nathan, I'm sure you'll be quite alright, and short of a fatal head would we have doctors that can save your life and limbs.'' [Shawn]

He says with a warm smile on his face.

I give a slow nod, and slowly sit down in my chair as the audience keeps cheering for both of the contestants.

He was right..

I'll never be able to forget this...