John studied the rest of the day and went to meditate instead of sleeping. It was a habit he was acquiring. Meditating instead of sleeping was a hard thing to achieve, he slept most of the nights while trying to meditate, but he knew he could achieve this habit someday. He got up from his bed in the morning and went to class.

The week quickly passed, and the tournament was about to happen, it would happen in two days, on a Friday. I was excited to discover what I could achieve on it, remembering that there would be many students whose talents were very high. The boys that threatened Imir didn’t even know what they were doing, they were only scum between the students of their class. There were true geniuses in the school, one of them was Lionel Firemane, a genius from the Firemane clan, that had a rare sun affinity. The Sun affinity was different from the star affinity. The later had a much softer approach, even though it could exert a huge power. However, the sun concept was much fiercer, and it could destroy almost anything that stood in its path.

Miss Ana said to us that the class competitions would have two phases, a team tournament, and an individual one. The team tournament would require 5 students per team, and we had already decided that the students that would participate would be me, Imir, Oberon, Namur, and Lilac. Our team was well balanced, and even though we didn’t have achieved tier 1 yet, we were close.

We trained our teamwork in the last few days, to be synched in the competition. We knew that many students from the noble class would already be at tier 1, and our only advantage would be our concepts and our teamwork, nobles were not humble enough to cooperate against “scum” like us.

The grand day finally arrived, I got up from my bed, and make sure to sleep properly this night. I took a shower and donned the white robes from my class. I meditated for some time to remember all the insights that I had on the concepts, and got up and being prepared. I left my room and went to the great arena.

The teacher had already told us that the students would meet in the arena and that the competitors should arrive earlier than the others. I left the building and saw the sun rising on the horizon. I stopped in place and felt the sun on my skin, warming my body and giving me energy to keep going. The sun… Plants needed sunlight to survive and thrive…. An insight came to me at this moment, and I remembered all the visions that I had inherited from my ancestors. I was on the verge of a breakthrough, but I still couldn’t advance.

I shook my head after seeing that I still couldn’t grasp it, and went toward the arena. Although it was early in the morning, many people were already up and walking toward the arena. I looked around and saw some students that would fight against me.

There were 10 different classes of first-year students, one of them being composed of commoners, eight of them being composed of sons and daughters of rich people, and one class of nobles. The one that had the most chance to win was the class of nobles; after all, they were scions of great houses.

I arrived before the arena and looked at the majestic entrance. A great arch made the entrance, and a great hall was behind it. in the end of the hall, two stairs were leading to the seats, and beside the stairs, some doors where the competitors could enter the arena. The hall was adorned with statues of monsters, dragons, and legendary figures. I saw one great statue that was between the stairs, there was a plaque and engraved on it was “Elias Campbell, the great archmage.” The statue was 7 meters tall, the man was using a robe, with an open book on his right hand, and a staff on his left. There was an air of grandiosity around the statue, and all the seniors that passed through it showed respect unconsciously.

I looked around, searching for a moment, and finally found Miss And waiting for me in front of one of the doors. I approached her and saw that all my teammates were already waiting with her.

“What took you so long boy! Let’s get going.” She turned around and entered one of the doors.

I followed after her together with my teammates through some corridors and finally arrived in the waiting area. It was a private room, with a circular formation on the corner. There were various chairs and tables around the place. It had an air of graciousness, and everything was clean. Teacher Ana gestured for us to sit, and everybody did as asked.

“Good morning my dear students.” She said with a sweet voice. “I will explain to you how we will proceed from here. She pointed at the wall and said. This wall will show the battles that are happening in the arena, as soon as the event begins. And that formation circle will teleport us to the arena. Any questions?”

She looked around and saw that all the students were quietly waiting for the competition, with eager expressions. “The dean will appear in a moment to open the event, and all the teams will be teleported to the arena, be ready.”

We waited and after almost half-an-hour, the teacher called us, and we stood on the formation. A white light enveloped us, and we were teleported to the arena. The place was huge. I saw countless rows of seats in the stands, they were all filled by students from many ages, But there was a special place where teachers and school managers were.

In the main seat, a man whose aura covered the whole arena stood. He was wearing a white robe with dark details, and his aura was breathtaking. many teams surrounded us, from the first years until the seniors.

The man that was seated on the main seat stood, and everything in the arena stopped. No sound could be heard, and I even held my breath for a moment. A majestic voice, full of wisdom and with an awesome aura was heard. “My name is Elias Campbell, the dean of this academy,” I remembered where Isaw that name before, the book of introduction to magic! “We are here today to witness the talents that this school is grooming, be it new buds, or the ones that are already flowering. This tournament will decide how the resources are divided between the classes. each year has ten classes, and the ones who will do the opening are the first-year students. Let the competition begin!” There was silence for a moment, and the crowd went crazy, they hurrayed for a moment and Elias raised his staff, and hit the ground with it, making a huge wave of mana, the wave engulfed all the teams, making them disappear.

Our team appeared in the room where we were previously, and all of us were stunned. The show of power made by him was amazing, he could even teleport the teams back without much hassle. I looked at my teammates and saw that their reactions were pretty much the same, their mouths were so open that you could even fit an egg there.

“Hey, pay attention and meditate to be at your peak states.” Ana said after shaking her head, she must have expected our reaction.

Everybody seated on the ground and concentrated on the mana surrounding us, we circulated our mana through our bodies while relaxing and breathing deeply, a technique that Ana taught us. We stayed like this for some time, until the wall lighted up, and the arena appeared behind it. Looking through the wall, we could see the arena from the side. I realized that the wall must be enchanted to show what was on the other side.

Dean Elias motioned, and a man floated from the teacher stand and levitated above the arena. “My name is Liron Predic, and I will be the judge for today’s event. Every participant will receive a badge for protection, and as soon that badge is broken, the participant is eliminated in that round. Now, we will have the Lighthouse class against the Noble class!”

The arena shouted in excitement and each class appeared on one side of the arena. Liron waved his hand, and five badges floated toward each team. the badges arrived before the participants and attached themselves above their robes. A transparent shield appeared for a moment and disappeared.

“The competition can start now, BEGIN!”

the Lighthouse team was arrayed in a triangular formation. While the ones from the nobles stood in place where they were teleported. A young man looked at the other Lighthouse team and said. “Olavo and Lilian, go ahead and destroy them.” The students that were called nodded their head and stepped forward. Olavo had dark hair and yellow eyes, while Lilian had ginger hair and brown eyes.

The leader of the Lighthouse team snorted and said. “Your pride will make you lose! ATTACK!”

The members from the Lighthouse team gathered their mana and released many attacks toward Olavo and Lilian. Olavo stepped forward and formed a yellow shield, made of sand. Although the shield looked fragile, it held against the attacks and was not destroyed. Seeing that the shield was effective, Lilian stepped forward and released crude fireballs against the enemy team.

The battle progressed in this fashion. Olavo defended while Lilian attacked. The teams approached each other, and Olavo constricted the members of lighthouse team, while Lilian quickly finished them off.

John was alerted while seeing the dispute. The members from the lighthouse team had all achieved the first tier, while Olavo and Lilian were already at the middle stage tier 1.

I recognized one of the members of Noble’s team, Lionel Firemane, the most powerful first-year student.

everyone in the room was looking at the fight with attention, trying to grab their weakness and strengths. everything could change if we won or not. I evaluated the strength shown by the Lighthouse team and concluded that we could defeat them easily, however, even the two that fought for Noble’s team were not easy.

The judge announced Noble’s team victory and both teams disappeared from the arena. We looked at the arena and waited for the next match, it would be one amongst second-year students.

I eagerly looked at the arena, looking forward to see how well the student’s from other years fought. A light enveloped the arena, and two teams appeared on it. The judge introduced them, and the fight began.

This was a genuine fight, not a play like the last one. The teams showed great teamwork and good control of their concepts. I realized that we were ahead of some students from the second year in terms of concepts. The fight progressed, and the team showed their worth.

All of them were at least at the late stage of tier 1 and could control their mana with finesse. The fight ended in victory of team Moonlight, and the judge ended the fight. I turned to teacher Ana and asked. “Teacher, what it the name of our team?”

After hearing my question, all the members of my team turned toward her, eager to hear the answer. “Of course the name of the team is Darksky. All the team receive the name of the main teacher of that year, and after that, they can choose to change it from the third year on, where there is no more exclusive teacher.”

Everyone nodded after hearing her answer. I thought that the name was fitting. We would turn all the other team’s sky into darkness!!

We looked over the window and saw the fights progressing. from the fifth year on, the students were too strong, and I couldn’t even understand some of the things and ways they used their magic.

What I got from watching the fights, was the information that almost all of the students from the academy had one of the four elements as their concepts. I knew that the four elements were more common among the populace, according to what the books said, but I didn’t realize that it was this common.

I realized that almost 90% of the participants used one of the four elements, and that was a huge number.

After the fight of the fight from the ninth-year students, the last year of studying at the college. The judge said. “The first hound is finally over, Now, let’s begin the second one! I call to the stage Darksky team and the Goldenbull team!”

I looked around and saw the excitement and nervousness on my colleagues' faces. I turned to them and said. "Hey guys, let's rock them!" With a smile on their face and everyone smiled after me.