He showed the emblem of the school to one of the clerks and was brought back to his long missed dorms.

After walking up four flights he encountered his buddies again just sitting and doing nothing but lying down. When he approached them, he noticed they were beaten to the point of multiple bruises and he was quite shocked.

He summoned his seal of rejuvenation which healed them after ten minutes each, considerably slower than Zephyr's as his physique was well beyond them.

"Zephyr...?" Aqua groaned as he got up.

"Yeah, what happened to you guys, someone knock you guys out bad in the sparring match? Zephyr cracked a joke to poke fun.

"Yeah, and on our way back here, up here, when we leave here. Those nobles are sick people!" Aqua grimaced as he told of his and Magma's unfortunate dorm life.

"WHAT!?!?" They dare to go so far!" Zephyr said shocked and outraged.

"They didn't know where you went so they took it out on us." Aqua explained.

"What about Lute?" Zephyr had a sinking feeling.

"Don't worry she's alright, her divine pet beat everybody into submission and even the returned Claude doesn't recklessly mess with her, just some small tricks like shunning her and insulting her, of course her personality was a soft one so she started staying at her own room and we haven't seen her since the last class we went too about a couple of days ago."

"Is the academy letting this happen? Why not go to our teacher Linus?" Zephyr muttered in rage, hearing Lute get bullied triggered his dormant anger.

"Aside from the insults which they expressed were disgraceful, they allow personal matches as a way for one to test their progress with their peers. It doesn't matter if we say no because once they attack they just say it was a close fight and leave, this is a battle academy.

Even our teacher cannot do much in terms of their bullying, they close their ears to his strict reprimands." Magma chimed in.

"I see." Zephyr stood up and left the room.

"Where are you going? Claude is back from his training. He might attack you the first chance he gets!" Aqua yelled to inform him.

"I know what I'm doing, just getting some light exercise in." Zephyr responded in a heavy tone.

After a moment of silence while on their beds, they heard a loud crash, yelling then quietness outside. Then the same thing moments later and the repeated clamor alerted the others in their own rooms and when some people got up they saw a terrifying scene.

Kids were groaning and in pain strewn about everywhere, and these ones were the noble kids. Soon a loud crash occurred downstairs and repeated yelling happened and the same routine repeated itself.

After a kid found the courage to run downstairs he gasped. The same scene happened with the noble kids unconscious with the commoners trembling fearfully by the sides.

It seemed he differentiated his targets by how flashy their clothes looked and disregarded the poor students.

Once again more yelling happened and before even waiting the crowd wanted to see him in action.

They rushed downstairs and all they saw was a typhoon of a person run forth, grab a kid chuck him into two other kids, send a crushing heel kick to their chests to render them each unconscious and move onto the next room.

He did this all with surprising efficiency and speed. After this the crowd made way for him as he went down to the second floor.

"Isn't Claude's room there?" A kid mumbled and they saw a surprise waiting there. Rows of noble kids were cluttered together in the hallway with popes, clubs, spoons and bats.

They obviously were alerted to this incoming threat and prepared to face their attacker. There standing in the middle was a boy Zephyr barely recognized, Claude.

"How dare you attack me, did you really think our grudge would be settled after one fight? Let's get him together for his ruthlessness!" Claude egged them on and he watched them surge forth.

Sadly however, his will to fight faded when he saw the brutality of Zephyr. No one was on his level anymore in this entire building and he showed that today.

One throw was all that was needed but he made it a point to strike using his heel to crush them under his foot. When Claude was the only one left he pulled out a real sword to scare Zephyr away.

"Stay back! This is a rank two armament called the flowing blade. My father gifted it to me as a reward! Stay back!" Claude started waving his sword in a bid to stave Zephyr off. It was a shiny blue longsword that was the height of Claude, however, it didn't matter to Zephyr.

All he did was barrel forth and before Claude could move he ate a kick to his chest which knocked the air, as well as dinner out of him. Then another foot crushed his head under him and he was pushed even further under the gravel and then while suffering the humiliation a small voice appeared beside him.

"Did you think I wouldn't pay you back for what you did to my buddies?." A sliver of his intent to murder leaked out and it finally rendered Claude to faint. Zephyr stood up, looked around to basically the entire dorm room and finally announced his verdict on the matter.

"Just because I am gone does not mean you can just fool around and bully my closest friends, remember who has the largest fists here and do not get out of line, all of you brand this into your skulls. Insulting Lute is equivalent to insulting me, and I will not hold back like I did today. Move." He walked past the trembling kids and made it back to his room, due to the commotion only being in the dorms and the gate keeper was away at the moment the whole thing faded for a bit.

Zephyr made it back to his room and without saying anything jumped on his unfamiliar bed and immediately went to sleep.

Too many things occurred all over the period of one day and it wore Zephyr out, but he was pumped for the next day and to restart school.

Just like that the night passed with the gatekeeper wondering why the dorm was so eerily quiet aside from some occasional mumblings.

After being shaken awake Zephyr rapidly changed and got ready and followed along Magma and Aqua as they led him back to class.

As he entered he saw a scene that made him quite sad, there sat a beautiful young girl sitting alone near the middle of the room while basically everyone there seemed to be covertly isolating her, even the girls who praised her kitty were now awkwardly at the side.

This was the worst kind of bullying, isolation. It was a brutal torture for a young kid and this also made Zephyr angry but he calmed very quickly.

Some kids weren't in the dorm rooms and there were a bunch of classes for the same age so while he got his point across, some people may have missed it and the entire girls dorm probably were still in the dark and were still continuing it.

Thus Zephyr walked up to Lute and sat by her side, just like he used to. He grabbed the kitty Ivaldi and wore a wide grin. "I've found a partner for you, come, Flaare!" With that a burst of flames appeared and took the form of a meter long kitten who started rolling around and meowing once it saw no danger.

The previously small and fur ball that was Ivaldi also grew and became the same size but its aura was still a bit stronger than Flaare and its appearance finally looked majestic.

It had the same golden shade hair as Lute's, and it had a light jewel embedded on its forehead that shone resplendently. It had its eye color change to a ruby red, looking all the more imperialistic and beautiful, like a work of art.

The two felines played around with each other while Lute just silently stared at Zephyr with tears forming.

"Did someone bully you!?!?" Zephyr inquired with a dark face.

Lute quickly shook her head and after a couple more random questions finally broke out into a small fit of laughter like beautiful refreshing bells in the air.

"You really look like a princess more than some noble daughter of a military man." Zephyr teasingly joked.

"Stop insulting my dad! Your dad waa also in the army!" Lute quietly whispered as she shot back.

"And I'm a boy, its good we have a strong dad to teach us to be strong, imagine your dad teaching you the same stuff ahaha." Zephyr broke out laughing and Lute quickly broke out in a joyful mood.

Her depressed tantrum was erased with the wind. Their conversation lasted twenty minutes while the teacher rushed In way after the bell to start class.

"Sorry I'm late class, I had some matters to take care of and it kept me busy." Linus looked disheveled and tired but still kept his trademark scholarly look as he finally noticed Zephyr beside Lute.

"Oh, the vacation has finally ended, did you enjoy your travels?" Linus good naturedly asked.

"It was alright, pretty new to me though." Zephyr responded in kind.

Anyways, back to our lessons on Runes, there are many variations but there are a couple known ways to produce them that is pretty difficult. I will just be talking about two ways, natural and artificial. Natural is having the talent to inscribe a certain rune and it is inherent to you, able to activate its power on yourself and others. Artificial on the other hand is something more interesting. This type of art is considered rune crafting. Generally runes take on a circular base made up of ones energy, and from there, one would inscribe certain patterns and maybe even send a sliver of their ability into the center to make a rune. A rune can have many different effects, it can make weapons become divine and sharp, abilities become boosted, be used as a trap, counter, and also with healing as well as many more ways."

Linus then stopped to catch his breath then continued on.

"The path of runes is the second most followed profession, after battle of course. There are of course ranks to separate the low class from the elites. They are comprised of Apprentice, Acolyte, Scholar, Meister, Saint, Refined, Prestigious, and Heralded Rune makers. It is a path as diverse and creative as the person doing it, any runes they make can be totally unique or be an improved version to an already studied one. However there's no need to come to a decision yet as this will be studied in your third years more in depth after everyone has fully succeeded in summoning."

Then Linus went back to his boring script that put half the class to sleep. Zephyr on the other hand was now fully interested in the art of Rune making. it looked relaxing and creative.

After listening to Linus ramble on for the rest of the day they moved onto the field once again.

"Its that time of the week, we will hold a round of sparing. Pair up!" Linus ordered and the group quickly made their groups.

Zephyr this time paired with Lute and they walked to the corner of the field and just let their pets battle for a bit while they continued talking and did a soft round of sparring.

"Whatever happened to Simon?" Zephyr hadn't noticed his buddy since he arrived and was curious to know about his situation.

"His father picked him and his brother up and just left the city, it's been about a month and they're still gone, maybe they had family there and are visiting for a while." Lute explained.

"I see, anyways how is your cat so strong?" Zephyr watched with his mouth wide open as Flaare was being slapped around with no semblance of defense being formed.

"Hehe" Lute laughed at their comical scene while Zephyr broke into a smile.

"I like this side of you more than when you were gloomy." Zephyr broke out in a dash to find somewhere better to play around while Lute blanked for a second and followed right after, a cheerful smile plastered on her face.