*FIVE DAYS LATER*

I sat on the floor, sweat pouring down my face. The combat gear produced an uncomfortable sensation, but perhaps it wasn't my outer body that was in discomfort. It was something in me.

I shook my head, rubbing my temples out of frustration. Squinting my eyes, I carefully observed the surroundings as the once prosaic building now radiated with colors.

'Everything is the same yet so different,' I scratched my head, letting out a gasp. "How did she know?"

'Why is everything appearing different?' I slammed my first onto the ground. 'Was she right?' I slammed my fist again, closing my eyes and sighing. 'No, Allura assumed I changed myself to act more like a mage. Little does she know, I'm trying to become more detached from this life.'

I opened my mouth wide open, clenching my eyes as my head began piercing with pain. Grabbing my head, I laughed. 'Why am I letting a little girl with idiotic ambitions dictate my mood?'

Taking in a deep breath, I gaped at my fist. My vision became disoriented from emotions. I turned off my brain, twitching my right hand. I clenched my fist, punching myself in the face.

My vision recovered, but my face was in pain. Trying to turn my brain off, I focused on breathing.

I opened my mouth, exhaling as much as I could. My eyes bulged out while sweat dripped down my hair. Relaxing my face and gasping for air, I inhaled a heavy amount of oxygen.

Who cared if Allura was right or wrong. I was trying to change myself by detaching all my feelings.

I gritted my teeth, looking up. "I thought I didn't care about this new world." Sniffling, I rubbed my eyes. "I only needed to care about myself."

Tears ran down my cheeks as I tried clenching my teeth to stop the tears, but they wouldn't stop.

I made myself numb to my surroundings to preserve a little peace. But numbing myself to pain, anguish, and issues of others destroyed any chance at me living an authentic life. I knew it eradicated any possibility of an authentic life. But, when I allowed myself to feel those nuisances, it created the unexpected.

It was something I couldn't wrap my mind around.

I grabbed my hair, pulling it in frustration. Bashing my head onto the ground, my hands trembled. "Why does the world around me feel more vibrant?" I slammed my head again. "Why does the world around me feel more vibrant?"

I raised my head, standing up. "The world should feel more grim taking on the responsibility of nuisances, so why does it feel more vibrant?" Lightly flicking my head, I took a deep breath. 'I came to the facility to practice, not vent.'

I closed my eyes immediately, opening them and glancing around. Visualizing my surroundings, I relaxed my arms and closed my eyes. "I'm ready." I imagined the magic entering my system, becoming refined into mana. I enabled mana to course through my peripheral — enough to detect the ambient magic surrounding me.

I opened my eyes, witnessing the orange balls of magic. Extending my right arm into the air, I pointed my index finger to the floor, allowing lightning to fluctuate out the tip.

I closed my eyes, calming down my mind. I needed to wait... Wait until the lightning settled.

A small constant flow of lightning emitted out of the tip of my index finger, and that's when I understood it was time.

*BUZZZ*

*BUZZZZZ*

*BUZZZZZZZZZZZ*

*BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*

I narrowed my eyes, examining a set of ambient magic. One sphere resided ten feet away from me to the right, while the other resided ten feet to the left.

"LINK," I whispered, pointing at one of the ambient magic spheres. The lighting emitting off my finger connected to one of the ambient magic spheres. I yelled again, aligning to another ambient magic. "LINK."

My lightning managed to connect to two different ambient spheres. The lightning remained attached to my finger. The lightning went to one magic sphere and from there to the other.

I bit my lip, trying to maintain the output. But my finger began spazzing as I remained linked, forcing me to stop. A fiery sensation etched my finger, causing me to cease the magic.

I held my finger in discomfort. Despite the pain, I couldn't help but bear a wide smile.

I could maintain lightning linkage for roughly fifteen seconds, meaning other magic motions would be manageable. Or at least I hoped it would pan out successfully. Because if it didn't, then practicing linkage was a waste of time.

I held out my hand, creating a cup with my right hand. "Form." A medium-sized ball of lightning formed from the cusp of my hand. Gaping at the magic spheres, I closed my eyes. 'Now comes the hard part.'

"LINK," I yelled, lifting my right hand while the ball remained on my cusp. The lightning sphere formed a small thread between the two ambient spheres. I gritted my teeth, throwing the lightning sphere like a baseball. "Release!"

The sphere of lightning hurdled towards the first magic sphere to the right, swiftly turning left, reaching the second magic sphere. The lightning neared the final sphere, dissipating in the process because of the lack of output.

"Ok, it works," I whispered, jumping up and down. "Concentrate, concentrate!" I kept jumping, trying to focus on the mana circulating through my system. My eyes fidgeted while my self-consciousness grew.

It was hard to keep the utmost focus as Allura's doubt about my resolve created tension. I wasn't sure why I let her doubt eat away at me, but I was. Even if it was eating away at me, I knew I had to recognize all my hard work. I tried remembering why I even continued, and only one idea appeared: diligence.

I was never accurate at emitting magic or even controlling my augmentation. Furthermore, my manipulation was worse than subpar. After being told I had little proficiency in manipulation, I had to devoid research on it.

That created frustration because my other magic types were unhurriedly improving, and my low mana reserve didn't help the situation either.

I remember it clearly — a couple months into training for the tournament — a day of defeat after another. I needed to be more proficient; there had to have been a solution.

That day, I simply sat down and thought up ideas. After hours of thinking, it clicked. Everyone had a skill they were adept at, and mine was augmentation. I could go faster and gain some physical strength, so how could I excel in that feature I possessed?

The answer was obvious: control. I lacked control, but how could I fix it? Reaptingly practicing augmentation wasn't helping. So I decided to combine my other skills with augmentation but combining augmentation with conjuring wasn't helpful. I lacked too much in both to assist one skill with the other. Similarly, manipulation was a no-go as I lacked too much in it. Plus, I didn't see any benefits of manipulation with augmentation.

Perhaps I wasn't trying to see the benefits of manipulation. I could see something most couldn't. Being unqualified with manipulation was insignificant because I could still view the ambient magic.

After weeks of meddling with ambient magic, I realized I could slightly manipulate it. My lighting could remain on the ambient spheres for around three seconds. It wasn't a lot, but it felt different, almost like it was easier. That notion was confirmed when I stepped far from the ambient sphere, connecting to it.

I assumed that reaction per se could only occur because of the two major theories: pre-determined equilibrium or dictated magic. I wasn't sure what caused the phenomenon, but both theories supported the notion, so I didn't need to know.

The reaction affirmed a few ideas: magic was faster, easier to perform, and followed wherever the ambient magic was.

Most of my training focused on maintaining linkage between ambient magic, but there were a few downfalls. My magic only went wherever the last ambient magic was located. Furthermore, the amount of time creating a linkage determined the effects that would occur to me, and combining it with augmentation obliterated my mana reserves.

Generally, the faster I created a linkage, the more negative effects occurred, nausea, headaches, shivers, and even inability to move.

I pinched myself on the cheek, wrinkling my nose. "Focus, focus, focus." Continuing to jump up and down, I augmented my body with lightning. Visualizing the two ambient spheres, I created a link to my body. I stepped forward, whispering. "Link..."

*BUZZZZZZZZZZZ*

The link dragged me towards the rightmost ambient sphere, suddenly turning me around towards the other. My body was out of control, being pushed against the force. I barely witnessed my surroundings, though the ending was clear as day.

I created eye contact with the object nearing me. No... I was nearing the object!

I tried controlling my body, but my muscles wouldn't budge. I used all my strength in closing my eyes.

I hit the wall, flopping onto the floor and falling onto my back. My head ached in pain, and so did my body. I tried lifting myself off the floor, but I couldn't.

Despite the numerous times that I tried, I couldn't get up. I remained on the floor, facing the ceiling. Luckily I could do small movements like blink, twitch my fingers, and breathe, but even those took a lot of effort.

What were seconds turned into hours as I meticulously stared at the ceiling. My thoughts were rampaging, but I remained focused on the wall, silencing the thoughts.

It wasn't helping that my thoughts began splurging out, causing my head discomfort. In an attempt to seal my thoughts, I closed my eyes, concentrating on breathing.

*HUFF*

*PUFF*

*HUFF*

*PUFF*

*HUFF*

*PUFF*

*HUFF*

A pressure pressed against my stomach, forcing me to gasp for air. I extended my eyes open in pain, letting out a deep breath.

*PUFFFFFFFFFFFFF*

"What are you doing on the floor," a voice laughed.

I shifted my eyes towards it, noticing the individual: Ash. He was already dressed in combat gear which could only mean one thing: training officially started.

Displaying a wide-open mouth, I gasped. "Help me up."

Ash reached out his arm, grasping my hand and helping me up. He gaped at my face, shaking his head. "Bertin told us to keep the training light before the tournament." He glanced at my body, up and down. "Whatever the hell you're doing, it's definitely not light."

"Yeah, yeah," I whispered, holding my chest. "What time is it?"

He rolled his eyes, taking out his map. "It's 1 P.M."

I tilted my head, eyes gaped at Ash. "Really?"

Ash rubbed his eyes, placing his map back. "Stop looking at me like that. You look like a monkey." He walked towards the middle of the room, continuing. "Most people won't be showing up since it's best to avoid injuries." He shook his hand in the air. "That being said, if you don't want to look like a fool to the few that come, then let's warm up."

"Yeah," I whispered, nearing Ash. I stood in front of him and waited for him to finish stretching.

"I'm ready," He grinned, swaying his dulled short sword.

Taking out my daggers, I got into position. I gripped my right dagger, extending it towards his sword.

It was an unwritten rule, but when Ash and I warmed up. We'd always begin with combat, then ease into magic.

Our blades met, mine being overpowered. Taking three steps back, I stretched my sore arm in a circular motion.

Ash pivoted, setting his foot towards me and swiftly running.

Standing still, I waited for his move.

He cocked back his sword, holding it with both hands. He aimed it towards me, bringing his weapon down.

I went on the defensive, bringing both my blades near my body.

I was uncertain where Ash's blade would meet. All I could hope was that my senses would be enough.

Moving his body in a rightward motion, Ash attacked to my right. He accelerated the blade, nearing my chest.

I tried deflecting the attack, but the strike flung my blade in the air, causing Ash to strike my chest.

I fell to the floor, kneeling on the ground.

Ash placed his sword away, looking down at me. "I didn't come here to watch you rest. We need to review formations! If we mess up, Bertin and Allura are gonna kill us."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, placing my blades into my wristband.

I rubbed my neck, smiling. "Ash... Can I ask you a question?"

He turned his head, staring at me. "What?"

"How do you deal with stress?" I bit my inner cheek, remaining a stern face.

Ash wrinkled his nose. "Huh." He squinted his eyes, looking at me. "Did you hit your head? What are you talking about?"

I raised both my arms, shaking my head. "Well, yeah... But, I'm ok now..."

Ash scratched his head. "Huh."

"I'm being serious. How do you?" I rubbed my temple, gazing at the floor.

"That's unlike you to talk about feelings." He crossed his arms, looking at me more intensely. He tapped his feet, shrugging. "I'm not sure if I understand your question, but honestly, I don't." He paused, continuing. "I don't have anything to stress over. I'm at the best academy the world has to offer. I even live in the best place the world has to offer."

I forgot who I was asking. Most individuals at Fech were nobles, so what would they have to worry about?

"But I guess... I do worry about the small things. Like maintaining my friends, making my parents proud, and finding a girlfriend." He tugged his lips down. "I guess, right now. I'm worried about the tournament."

"Whatever," I muttered, cracking my knuckles. "We need to go over formations."

Ash ignored me, continuing. "I guess; I don't know how to handle it. Maybe just living life is the best way."

I flicked Ash's head. "Mr. Philosopher, let's review the formations."

Ash nodded his head, placing his hand on his head. "Alright! Alright!"

"Each group has multiple members. Though, only two participants for each group can participate in a contest," I said, fiddling with my fingers.

"That's obvious-" Ash tried interjecting, but I flicked another part of his head, causing him to hold his head and jump on his feet.

I let out a sigh. "What if there's a scenario where Allura doesn't participate, and it's just us two."

Ash's jaw dropped as he shook his hand in the air. "Why would we ever consider not putting Allura in a match? It doesn't matter what the rules of the match are. We have to put her in."

I stared at my hand, narrowing my eyes. "But say if there's a scenario!" I paused, looking up at Ash. "I doubt there would be, but it's best if we do more practice with our formations."

Ash placed his hand on his chin, slowly rubbing and nodding his head. "That's a nice way to waste time, but I guess if it eases you."

"Alright, sounds great," I said, nearing Ash. "Since we're both mainly augmenters. It's best to focus on the double frontal scenarios we learned."

Ash nodded, closing his eyes. "That and maybe you trying conjuring."

I shook my head disagreeing, getting ready to rebuttal, but Ash stole the words out of my mouth.

"I hate how you're more adept at conjuring, but suck at it," Ash sighed, shaking his head.

"Me too," I laughed, glancing at the floor. "Me too."

Ash leaned forward, feet pointed towards me. "If we stick to a double augmentation formation, we'd need to maintain distance."

"Not too far from the opponent, but not too close," I said, trying to display that I already knew.

"So which one of us would be at the front is still debatable. I think you'd be fit for that role." Ash said but was cut off.

"Hey, hey," A female elf — Cailu — walked near us, and following the female elf was a male elf — Elmon.

I waved at them. "Hey, what brings you guys here?"

"Hmm, good question," Elmon smiled, rolling his eyes. "We're practicing, duh."

Cailu laughed, nudging her twin brother. "Let's not be rude."

Ash remained silent, paying attention to all three of us.

Cailu neared me and lowered her body. Her face was inches away from my face. "Would you guys like to spar?"

Ash interjected. "We shouldn't be doing anything intense, especially two days before the tournament."

"That's a little rude to decline a spar," she said, her smile turning into a scowl. "Let's not be rude now."

"That's fine. A light spar should be no problem," I shrugged, backing away from the girl. "But before we start, why don't you two change into your combat uniform?"

"Sure thing," she smiled.

Both the twins walked towards the changing room, leaving Ash and me alone.

Ash narrowed his eyes and lowered his eyebrows. "Are you stupid?" He came closer to me, whispering in my ears. "Those two are probably pissed at us. It wasn't too long ago when Allura beat both of them in a spar."

"Why would they be mad about losing? They're only a year older than our grade anyways."

Ash created a fist, hitting his own head. "You idiot, Allura beat both of them at the same time."

"Huh, when was this," I looked around then at Ash.

He bit his lip, face-palming himself. "A couple days ago."

"We're ready," the twins announced, walking out of the changing room.

'FUCK,' I thought, gaping at a nervous Ash. 'FUCK...'