Chapter: Congratulations!

"Elenora's Academy of Magicka never fails to collect the most interesting mages" Five chuckled "This is getting more fun the longer I keep you guys alive, come on show me everything you got! Before I get bored" Five shouted with a grin

"Ken, I want you to analyse this technique, so watch carefully," Tatsuo said, holding his katana tightly with both hands. Tatsuo took a steady stance and breathed with his stomach instead of his chest. "Sōryū style: Eastern Green Dragon!" Tatsuo swung his blade downwards releasing a green dragon made completely out of mana, the dragon raced towards Five with a destructive force and speed. The dragon destroyed the very ground underneath it, leaving a trail behind it.

The dragon had its mouth wide open prepared to strike five. This is the same spell Tatsuo used when he first joined the fight. Five stood in front of the incoming attack, prepared to face it head-on. Five grabbed the dragon's mouth, forcing it to stay open, the dragon pushed Five back a great distance but five was able to keep its jaw open using brute force.

"Sōryū style? You know, I think I know someone else that uses this sword technique!" Five chuckled as he held back the attack while being pushed back "This one is stronger than the first one" Five thought to himself

Five tensed up his muscles and claws protracted out of his finger, with more effort than last time, Five ripped the dragon in half which caused it to vanish. Before Five could even react, Eldrin was right in front of him with his right hand recoiling back "100 tons, Crushing blow!" Eldrin plunged his fist into Five's stomach, making him gasp for air. "And now. Raging Thunder, demolition fist!" Eldrins left had quickly exploded into lightning before he delivered a destructive uppercut that sent Five flyings into the air.

Five did a flip while in mid-air and quickly regained his posture. "Not bad kid!" Five shouted down towards Eldrin. Before Five could do anything else his attention was turned to Tatsuo who looked like he was prepared to cast a spell. Tatsuo threw his katana(Shunsetsu) at full force towards Five in mid-air, Five saw Tatsuo's katana flying towards him, so he simply maneuvered his body to the side while in mid-air, dodging the incoming katana.

"Try again!" Five chuckled as he started making his way down towards Tatsuo.

"I wasn't aiming for you...Ken now!" Tatsuo shouted

I disappeared from the ground and instantly repeated in mid-air high above Five. "Got it!" I replied as I caught Tatsuo's katana(Shunsetsu). Five turned his head around while in mid-air and looked at me with a surprised face. While in mid-air stuck between me above him and Tatsuo below him on the ground, Five had no choice but to raise his guard.

Tatasuo unsheathed his second katana(Higure/NightFall). His second katana gave off a sinister feeling like it was hungry to kill, but I shrugged it off and prepared myself

"Okay now to do the technique Tatsuo did, so I have to breathe with my stomach and angle my body and arms like this….and this should be it. Let's add a twist to this attack" I thought to myself as I positioned myself in mid-air. "Ken's Style" The katana sparked with intense red lightning. Tatsuo took a firm stance and held his katana(Higure) tightly, ready to strike. At the same time as Tatsuo, we shouted "Sōryū Style: Eastern Red Dragon!" And he shouted "Sōryū Style: Eastern Green Dragon!"

I swung the katana downwards releasing a red dragon made completely out of raging red lightning, Tatsuo swung his blade upwards releasing a green dragon made completely out of mana, his dragon was much bigger and more ferocious than his previous ones.

Both dragons flew towards Five at great speed with destructive force. Five used his right hand to block against the red dragon while using his left hand to block against the green dragon, as much as Five tried he was struggling to stop both dragons and slowly he was losing grip on both of them. While Five struggled he was left wide open for an attack, Eldrin stood firmly facing Five with his right hand held up. "Zetherus varn valel keal Zetherus valen!" Eldrin casted in Magus(Language of Magicka).

Five layers of magic circle appeared above Eldrin's right hand, and from the magic circle, a bolt of raging purple lightning in the form of a spear manifested above the magic circles before landing in Eldrin's hand. Eldrin gripped the purple lightning spear tightly before throwing it with full force at Five. The purple spear travelled at lightning speed towards Five, but before it could hit him, Five conjured up a force field in front of him that collided with the purple spear.

"We are not done yet!" I shouted as I raised my magic power

"We won't lose!" Tatsuo shouted as he also raised his magic power

"Just die already!" Eldrin shouted as also raised his magic power

Eldrins purple spear shattered the force field that was stopping it, the lightning pierced straight through Five's chest creating a gaping hole, the spear continued to pierce straight through the labyrinth. Both the dragons overpowered Five's brute strength and crushed him, causing a big explosion. I quickly dropped to the ground before the explosion could reach me.

The three of us looked up at the explosion waiting to see if that was enough to take Five out. The explosion soon clears out and Five falls to the ground with a loud thud.

"Is he finally down for good?" I said looking at Fives body on the ground

"If he gets up, I'm ready for another round" Eldrin added on

"He should be dead, with a hole that big in his chest added on with the destructive force of the two dragons….but I can still sense life in him" Tatsuo added on

While we waited a little longer to see if he would get up, Five out of nowhere started to cough, before his fingers started to move. Five let out a beastly gaffle before he slowly stood up "I'm satisfied...now I can kill the three of you!" The gaping hole in Five's chest started to close up on its own. The three of us were shocked by how he was even able to stand after so much damage.

"What the hell is happening? Wolf beastfolks don't have a healing factor...that should have killed him" Tatsuo said, trying to figure out how Five was still breathing

"Well not to point out the obvious but he obviously, not a normal beastfolk" Eldrin added on as he tightened his fist

"This isn't good...should I release my second seal?" I asked myself as I looked at Five

Before anyone could do anything, a bolt of black lightning came zipping by Tatsuo, Eldrin and I, jetting towards Five at high speed. Five raised his right hand towards the bolt of black lightning in an attempt to stop it, but the bolt phased through Five's hand and struck his chest.

The black lightning immediately let out a huge discharge of black lightning that covered Fives entire body, Five let out a loud groan in pain. That single bolt of black lightning seems to be doing more damage than the three of us could manage together. Fives screams of pain went on for several seconds before coming to an end, as the black lightning vanished.

"That spell ignores durability and directly attacks your soul," Ace said as he appeared walking out of the direction the black bolt came from.

"Ace!" I said with a smile

"Seems like backup has arrived," Tatsuo said

"Ooouuu if it isn't the famous Ace Sharma! What's someone like you doing here" Five asked with a grin as blood dripped from his mouth

Ace ignored Fives question and just walked up to Tatsuo, Eldrin and I. "I'm sorry that you three and the other students were in danger….as your supervisor I have failed all of you and put you in serious danger, please do forgive me and the other supervisors" Ace said in a polite tone as he did a little bow

"Wow so polite...grandma Edna would love him," I thought to myself while looking at Ace. "No no it's fine, you're here now so no need to apologize" I replied as I scratched the back of my head

"As long as we don't fail, then it's fine" Tatsuo sighed

"I'm not bothered" Eldrin added on

"Thank you for the kindness" Ace said with a smile

"Hey don't ignore me!" Five shouted before charging at Ace. Before Five could reach Ace, he immediately stopped in his tracks as soon as Ace glared at him with a death stare. Five's entire body was covered in sweat with a horrified expression. "The hell is this feeling…" Five stuttered as he walked back away in fear

"Is he scared?" I said surprised

"No way….this can't be real" Tatsuo said shocked at Fives reaction

"I'm here as the guardian of these students" Ace replied as he turned around and fully faced Five.

Five stood there looking at Ace while breathing heavily "If I had taken one more step I would have been dead for sure!" Five said to himself.

Fives scared expressions slowly changed to an excited and joyful expression before he started laughing out loud "You're someone I should get serious with, from the start". Two giant flaming black magic circles appeared behind Five, a huge black monster-like arm with white claws and white fur, submerged from the magic circle.

"This is the spell he used to rip apart the beastly ape from when he first appeared….so he must have been holding back the whole time up until now? This isn't good, seems like I underestimated the situation I'm in, I should have released my second seal from the start, looks like I'm the only one that's running low on magic" I said to myself as I placed my right hand on my stomach

Tatsuo and Eldrin were tired and had definitely used up large amounts of magic, but out of the three of us, I was the most exhausted

"You three take a break, from here on out I'll be the one fighting," Ace said staring at Five

Ace and Five stared each other down, raising high tensions between each other, but before any one of them could make a move, a portal opened up next to Five and from the portal, a small girl lounged comfortably in a floating bean bag chair, slowly flew out of the portal. The little girl had light purple hair, with aqua eyes and an expressionless face. She wore a brown teddy bear onesie and had a magic orb flying beside her.

"Oh, what's up Eight? Come to give me a hand?... If so I don't want it" Five said looking at the little girl

The child-like girl known as Eight, let out a long cute yawn before looking at all of us. "Five, stop playing with your food, It's time to head back," Eight said looking at Five

"No way! This might be the only chance I get to fight Ace" Five replied looking at Ace

Just before Eight could say anything the orb next to her started to glow before a silhouette face appeared on the orb and started speaking "Five you are to return with Eight immediately, Six has collected all the necessary information we need" After the order given by the silhouette face, it disappeared

"Well isn't this a pain! But seems like the four of you will live a little longer" Five said as he scratched the back of his head in frustration. The beastly arms behind Five vanished "Until next time. Three of you boys better get stronger!" Five said with a smirk

And with that, both Five and Eight left through the portal, which immediately closed up as soon as they entered. Ace let out a loud sigh of relief before he turned around and faced the three of us.

"Where are the other teachers?" I asked looking at Ace

"The other teachers are spread throughout the entire labyrinth helping every other student and making sure there are no more intruders" Ace replied, "now are the three of you ready to head back to the hotel?"

The three of us nodded our heads. Using his right hand, Five opened the gate of the labyrinth which led to the outside in front of the hotel, the four of us headed into the gate and made our way to the hotel, where we were met by other students that had come from gates that lead into the labyrinth. We were told to wait in the lounge room until everyone was back. Man, I just hope everyone from my dorm is doing okay.

"Ken! Your okay" Hanako called out to me as she walked out of a nearby gate with Claire, Nelly, Aemma and Emilia's group following behind

"I told you I'd come back in one piece" I replied with a smile as Hanako stood in front of me with a soft smile of relief. I then looked over at the others "I'm also glad the rest of you are back"

"So you survived? But by the looks of it, you barely made it out alive" Claire said looking at me. She didn't show it but for some reason, I could tell she was relieved to see me alive

"It's great to see you too Claire…" I replied with a smile

"Looks like whoever you guys were fighting was seriously bad news," Emilia said looking at me then Over at Tatsuo and Eldrin

"This is nothing" Tatsuo replied

"I just want to sleep" Eldrin sighed

"Well this final test was a complete failure…..i-i...told you all s-something….b-bad was going to...h-happen…." Kogla complained

"Well we are safe now, so relax" Danny replied

Some more time passed and everyone was finally in the lounge room, there was a lot of talking going on among the students about what was going on and a lot of them were really worried, some students were heavily injured but fortunately, no students died.

"Settle down everyone!!" Falera shouted, instantly getting everyone's attention

"First of all, on behalf of all the teachers and supervisors here today, we would like to apologise to all of the students for the misfortunate turnout today!" Ace said, looking at all of us.

"The Academy will do everything in their power to make sure the criminals who ruined this event and hurt you guys will be caught and brought to justice!" Ace continued to say as he clenched both his fist "due to this unfortunate turnout, you all will get an automatic pass, so Congratulations! For those that made it this far, you all passed the survival camp!" Ace Said throwing his arms in the Air

All the students looked at each other before letting out a sudden burst of joy and happiness, although a lot of them had heavy injuries they were happy that they passed, everyone cheered as loud as they could.

"For those who have suffered any form of injury, be it physical or mental, please head into the infirmary where Julie will treat you all" Ace said pointing in the direction of the infirmary. "Students are free to relax until tomorrow, but for safety reasons, no one is to leave the hotel until then"

"Well, this calls for a celebration party!" Koko said looking at the RisingSun dorm members

"Can't we just relax?" I sighed

"Nope! It's a tradition that we celebrate every victory" Mira said looking at me

"Yeah, Ken don't ruin our tradition" Leo added on

"Ken trust me there is no point in fighting it," Krow said as he placed a hand on my shoulder

"We should invite other students" Drew suggested

"This is definitely going to be a long night" Catherine sighed

And with that, the RisingSun dorm members got ready to throw a huge celebration party in the girl's room. As usual, the party was loud and messy and went on into the night filled with laughter and fun.

Meanwhile in Belthon

Cal's bar was once again empty, the usual party of five were sitting at the bar alongside with six other members facing one individual behind the counter.

"Where is no.12?" The individual behind the counter known as No.1 asked

"She is obviously not here, like always" Eight replied in an expressionless tone

"Let's just get started, I'll fill her in later" A women sitting on the far left known as No.3 said

One sighed before slowly nodding his head "well our plan on testing the homunculus was a success, with the information we have collected Six will be able to improve them before our assault on Elenora's Academy of Magicka ''. One then filled an empty glass with some wine before taking a sip and continuing to say "Nine do you have any news about the Star of Mageia?"

Nine was sitting directly in front of One "I've been a teacher at Elenora's Academy of Magicka for quite some time now but even then I haven't been able to locate the exact location of the Star of Mageia, but I do know that it's in a pocket dimension, which is somewhere underneath the Academy" Nine replied

"Isn't the Star of Mageia, pure unfiltered raw mana? Why aren't you able to pick up such a powerful magic signature?" A male known as No.11 asked

"Well from what I know the dimension containing the star is sealed by powerful binding spells, maybe those binding spells also mask the magic signature" Nine replied

"In that case why don't you just go into the Academy caller and look for the bindings? Undo them and open a gate for us to come to take the Star?" A male known as No.4 asked

"Well first of all if I suddenly started lurking in the Academy cellars I will look suspicious and probably blow my cover, and even if I somehow manage to wander the cellars and find the binding without blowing my cover I'd still have the binding spell to deal with" Nine replied looking at Four

"The bindings themselves most likely won't be a problem but undoing a binding strong enough to mask the presence of the Star of Mageia will definitely cause a sudden shift in magic in the area, which will cause a big disturbance and before I can get to the Star, other teachers or even the Wizard Elites will already be at the scene and I'll be surrounded with no escape" Nine continued to explain

Five then suddenly let out a loud groan of frustration "Why don't we just storm the place destroy everything until we find the Star of whatever" Five complained "all this talking isn't going to get us anywhere"

"For once, Five I think your destructive idea could be useful" A women known as No.6 added on "how about we send out a small team as a distraction while another team scatter throughout the cellar looking for the Star" Six suggested

"And what about the sudden shift in magic?" Four asked

"Elenora's Academy is filled with powerful mages, a sudden shift in magic shouldn't be all that noticeable during a huge fight" Six replied

"Then it's settled, this will be our third phase after we capture August Granfold!" One said with a grin

Back to Zeless Island

It's now late at night and everyone is asleep including the RisingSun members, only the teachers were outside patrolling the area in case of another attack. Altho all the students are fast asleep, I'm still awake inside of the bathroom, standing in front of a mirror.

"Today sure got out of hand," I thought to myself "Five was sure a monster, his magic power was definitely on par with Falera and he wasn't even using his full power" I continued to say "I underestimated the situation, I thought I could handle it in my current state...but I guess I was wrong"

I took off my jacket and my t-shirt, stripping myself bare-chested. I placed my right hand on my stomach and slowly a black magic circle, with weird scribbles that I assume are of an ancient language and six smaller magic circles around the first, appeared on my stomach. This is a seal my grandpa put on me when I was only 12, it's a spell that seals away my mana.

The small magic circles surrounding the big one act as locks, sealing away a portion of my magic power, and each lock has a different way of opening it, although I only know how to open one. There were originally 7 locks but my grandpa opened the first one and he taught me how to open the second one. With only one lock open I'm far weaker than both Eldrin, Tatsuo and anyone else on their level or higher.

"Didn't think I'd need to open the second gate but here goes nothing?" I said. I put my thumb on the second magic circle and I twist my finger like a key and just like that the second magic circle disappears and the entire seal starts to glow bright blue for a few seconds before stopping. My body felt different, it was as if I was in a new and stronger body but at the same time, it felt similar.

"Now I just got to figure out how to open the other locks, but for now I need some shut-eye," I said to myself as I put my shirt back on

END OF VOLUME 1!!!!

(Word from the author aka ME!) First of all, I'd like to thank everyone that read this far! This is the last chapter of Volume One! I will be releasing a bonus context that will explain the magic System in my universe, so stay tuned for that! As for when Volume two will be released, I'm not too sure myself as my main focus will be writing the main storyline for my shared universe project. Again THANK YOU FOR READING!)