A burst of wild flames scorched the earth before them. Students rushed forwards with devastating speed. Through it all Mr. Allenbury never wavered, never hesitated, not even for a second. He casually avoided an explosion that sent waves of heat cascading through the arena. He sent rising students crashing down into the earth with a flick of his tail.

When the wall of flames erupted from the ground beneath him, they trapped him, encircled him, and slowly shrunk. Smaller and smaller they shrunk. Gradually Namar was beginning to think they’d won. That they’d beaten their Mr. Allenbury, and shown their worth. But he knew, deep down, that it wouldn't be nearly that easy.

A white glow emanated from behind the pillar of flames. He couldn't see what was happening, but he could hear it. Screaming, the sound of bodies thrown against a wall. An inexplicable sizzling sound that permeated the air. When the fires dropped Mr. Allenbury was still standing, and on his glowing white disc he looked down on the students. Many of whom were knocked out against a wall, or limping weakly towards the arena gates with reddened skin. The few left standing looked shaken, and exhausted.

“Nice try, and although I like the way you think, I’d like to point out one colossal issue in your little plan - besides of course, trying picking a fight with me in the first place. You see…”

Juno snuck up on Namar, and tapped him on the shoulder.

“If I could have a minute your time.” She whispered.

Namar raised an eyebrow.

“I've come up with a plan of sorts. I think we can pull it off, but I am in need of your assistance.”

“Alright let’s hear it.”

“All I require; is that upon my signal, you barrage him with every every ounce of mana you’ve left, and I mean all of it. Empty your mana pool.”

“Anything else you’d like to tell me?”

“That’s all you need to know. Let us handle the rest and I'm certain the odds will change in our favor. If we do this right then chances are that we can distinguish ourselves among the best - no, the very best in the school.”

Could he really trust a girl that he met about thirty minutes ago? Then again, she did buy him food, and she was very patient when it came to dealing with him. She was however, a noble, so who knew what she was really up to. Then again…

“A yes, would suffice quite nicely in this situation.” She huffed.

“Wait. I’m thinking.” At the very least if the entire plan turns out poorly it’d be a good learning experience, so there really wasn't much to lose in this situation. If it turned out well, he could distinguish himself from the crowd, which would be quite nice…

“How much longer are you going to think about it? Hurry up already!” She dropped her softer, more elegant accent in favor of her normal one.

“What’s the signal?” He hastily gathered mana into his hands. It was inefficient, the shape of the orbs was certainly less than uniform. Their surfaces were a chaotic mess of ripples and waves.

“You’ll know it when you see it, just get ready.” She stormed off, making brief nods at other students and quickly speaking with a couple of them.

He watched Juno closely and waited for some kind of signal, all the while checking to make sure Mr. Allenbury was still talking. When she finally stopped walking she settled into a fighting stance. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and nodded at him once.

Namar took that as his cue, and sent all of his mana exploding outwards all at once. The emerald spheres in his hands were larger than cannonballs, and ruptured into blasts of green light with a heavy, explosive crash. They were beacons of light that painted the world a shade of emerald, and as they approached Mr. Allenbury, he was no doubt alerted to their presence.

The disc beneath his feet simply disintegrated, and Mr. Allenbury fell a long way towards the ground. The blast sailed over his head and impacted harmlessly on the ceiling. He oriented himself while he was falling into an upright position, and turned to face Namar. Another disc manifested itself beneath his feet and he effortlessly stuck the landing.

“You see? This is what I'm talking about. If you’d demonstrated some patience those blasts of your would’ve been much faster, and far stronger than it was just now. You had plenty of time, and plenty of-”

Jagged beams of red light zoomed towards Mr. Allenbury. He raised his hand, and they collapsed harmlessly against a smaller, more fluid disc of light. “You know what,” he sighed. “I really should save the lectures for later. I have about … thirty seconds to clean the rest of you up.

With that the disc beneath his feet angled towards their direction, and Mr. Allenbury lunged forward at twice the speed anyone had previously managed. He was headed directly for Namar. There wasn't enough time, he could barely process what was happening. Then he felt a rumble beneath his feet. The ground below was becoming exponentially colder.

Suddenly the stones fractured. Again, and again at a seemingly impossible pace. Then they started moving, all of them rushing forwards, the world becoming a wall of frozen debris in every direction. The ground beneath him slowly turned into a crater, as the rubble rushed outwards and around him from beneath his feet. He fell over, the ground slipping outwards from beneath his feet.

The stones shifted imperceptibly, when the curtains raised he could see the form the rubble had taken; the shape of a giant hand. Another student raised her hand and let loose a ray of chilling frost. The hand closed in on Mr. Allenbury, attempting to crush him in its frozen grip, the ray of frost attempting to seal off attempts at escape.

Just as the hand was about to trap Mr. Allenbury he slipped its grasp, but not in the way he was expecting. He flew outwards, but it didn't look like he’d jumped. Rather, it looked like he’d been thrown. He sailed high into the sky and, once again oriented himself in Namar’s direction. He used the tail on his back, and propelled himself off another white disc, shooting forward with the same deadly speed.

The fist behind him started to move once more. The stones that composed it shattered the ice, and flew backwards like a thousand tiny arrows. Another student let loose a grid of jagged red mana, but rather than being aimed directly at Mr. Jamison, it was headed straight for Namar, and he was powerless to do anything.

The ground behind him fractured again, sinking him beneath the ground, and protecting him from any incoming damage. None of that stopped Mr. Allenbury who charged head on through the danger. He landed next to Namar, who was already halfway buried in the ground.

The tail like appendage on his back shot outwards it grabbed onto him, pulling him from the ground and throwing him through the mana grid. The jagged net tearing at Namar’s clothes and leaving bleeding red marks on his skin. Their teacher followed through the opening that Namar made in the grid, but he wasn't done yet. As Namar flew through the air Mr. Allenbury punched Namar, and sent him flying directly towards Juno.

His body glowed a brilliant shade of white, and suddenly he felt a stinging sensation course through every inch of his body. Spikes of light shot outwards. They turned and crawled around his body, binding his arms and legs. Another spike shot through the ground, nailing him in place. Suddenly he was just a conduit for someone else's mana, a puppet to be used as a weapon. He was mostly out of mana, and forbidden from forcibly creating more. Tendrils raced outwards from his body attempting to strike at everyone within range.

The world became a blur of ideas, as he sat there, with nothing more to do than watch. He took note of the battle for future use. Oddly enough, Mr. Allenbury never once sent a ranged projectile at anyone, despite clearly demonstrating that he was extremely proficient with them. Instead opting to use the tail on his back, somehow using mana to strengthen his limbs and, whatever it was that he did to him.

Even stranger, Juno never seemed to move from the same place. Instead using rubble to defend herself rather than do the sensible thing and move out of Namar's range. Her rubble constructs moved around in area that should've been far beyond anyone’s threshold of control, but instead of keeping her distance while the rubble did its work, she stood completely still.

He wasn't even sure how Mr. Allenbury turned him into a weapon. By this time he was off in another area of the arena, and a few of those students were also turned into weapons. Anchors were the only way he knew of to increase the threshold and move in different places, but Namar was a living being with his own mana, there was no way that Mr. Allenbury could somehow interfere his body and turn it into an anchor.

Unless…

Of course! It was his clothing all along. Once he had enough mana he could use it to shred his clothing and destroy the anchors. While he was already out of the game, he could still buy a few extra seconds, and maybe some extra credit for the survivors. He'd also be able to stand out from the rest of the crowd as a dedicated team player, and a resourceful mage.

The spike that nailed him to the ground dissipated, more bindings appeared around his body. They started moving, forcing him to move along with it. Suddenly he was moving towards Juno, not of his own volition, but because the bindings forced him to.

Hopefully he’d be able to charge up enough mana in time to save Juno. She was one of the only friends he had right now, and probably his only shot at making any more…

He should at least warn her about it.

Namar sauntered towards her with janky, broken movements. “Hey, Juno!”

“Namar?” She sounded surprised. “You’re still awake in there? I don't suppose you’ve got a plan right now do you? I'm just a bit curious given the current situation. I mean, I've mostly got it under control, but… Any assistance lent would be preferable?” Given the tone of her voice she definitely didn't have anything under control.

“Yes. Close your eyes when I tell you to close them.”

Vicious tendrils lashed out at Juno from behind his back. More rubble deflected them, but she insisted on not moving.

“Why, exactly?”

“Hey! I trusted you, so you should trust me on this one.”

“Oh… alright.” It was clear at this point that she was losing speed, and many of that of the constructs she made earlier were destroyed. At this point it was safe to assume that she was running quite low, since she hadn't made anymore of them.

“Alright.”

Three…

Two….

One….

Was that enough? That should be enough.

“NOW!”