Right after he had touched the door, Maximilian appeared in another place, where everyone else already was.

It was as if Rome's Coliseum had been remade with a stone ceiling, completely surrounding the students who were looking around.

"Alright everyone!" said Maximilian, instantly having everyone's attention.

"From this day on and for the year to come, you will endure a lot. First thing first, the pendant around your neck."

As Maximilian pointed at them, the student noticed a small crystal pendant around their neck.

"Take it between your hands and infuse your mana in it." ordered Maximilian.

The students looked at each other for a second, wondering why they should do it.

"Can we know why we have to do that?" asked one of the students.

"Certainly...because I ordered you to." answered Maximilian with a kind smile.

A heavy silence lasted for a second.

"Okay, it seems like some points have to be made clear..." sighed Maximilian.

"When I tell you to do something, you do it. The only question you're allowed to ask is 'how much time do I have?'. I'm not going to waste time by explaining every exercise to you all. It is also part of your training to understand by yourself how you're supposed to do it and why I make you do it. I might give you tips here and there, but only when I will feel like it. Does it answer your question?" finally asked Maximilian to the student who simply nodded, looking down at the crystal between his hands.

"So...how long do we have?" asked Ilin with a small sly smile.

"That is a good question. You have approximately the time it will take the ground to swallow you." calmly said Maximilian as he snapped his fingers.

In a second, the student's feet were swallowed by the ground, turned into quicksand.

"Good luck." happily said Maximilian before he disappeared with Lin-Lin and Binvo, leaving the students alone and slowly getting absorbed by the ground.

"What is happening!"

"We are going to die!!!"

Panic quickly rose among the student group, some of the youngest and least experienced students were desperately trying to pull their feet out of the quicksand, but were only managing to go down even faster.

"Don't move! It would swallow you even faster!" exclaimed the tall thin young man with his book still in hands.

Ilin, not paying attention to the others, was focusing on the crystal, eyes closed. Less than a minute later, her pendant started to shine and her body was magically pulled out of the ground, the quicksand disappearing under her.

"Look! Ilin made it!" exclaimed one of the students.

Quickly imitating the semi-gnome girl, a dozen boys and girls managed to make their pendant shine, William among them.

"Hurry! You're already half gone!" exclaimed some of the ones out to the ones still caught in the quicksand, getting more and more desperate as they were disappearing.

Other students finally managed to make it, but three young dogkins were still going down.

"I can't do it!!!" cried a dogkin as the quicksand was arriving at his chest level.

"Focus! You can do it!" encouraged William, although the worried face he was making didn't reassure the young one.

Seeing the quicksand swallowing the young one's chest, William and the others started to look around, searching for anything that could help.

"We must pull them out of there! Quick!"

"There's nothing for us to use!" exclaimed Ilin, trying to extend her hand to catch one of the disappearing ones, without success.

All around the ones still in it, the quicksand zone got wider, forbidding any help.

Crying for help, one of the three still in the quicksand got completely swallowed, quickly followed by the second one.

"NO!!! PLEASE! HELP ME!!!" begged the last one as he scratched the quicksand, desperately trying to get out.

In an attempt to save the young one, William laid on the ground, reaching as far as he could, but could barely touch the young one's fingertips.

"HELP M...!"

In a second, the voice was muted, disappearing with the body in the quicksand. The ground retrieved his normal firm state right after that.

William hit the ground with his fist, everyone silent for a second.

Suddenly, coming from far away, the sound of a bell echoed three times.

"Well...it seems like I overestimated this group a tiny bit. Three times the bell rang, three of you are gone..."

The students turned around to face Maximilian standing there, alone, with a pensive air on his face.

"Why did you do that!" exclaimed Ilin.

"Me? What did I do?" innocently asked Maximilian.

"YOU DROWNED THREE OF US IN QUICKSAND! YOU LET THEM DIE!" shouted the semi-gnome girl as she pointed at the place where the three had disappeared a few seconds ago.

"I let them die? Really? It wasn't me who stood there without doing a thing." calmly answered Maximilian as he scratched his chin.

Ilin was going to say something back, but it was as if the words didn't want to come out.

"Let this be a lesson for you all. If you were stronger, if you had more power and known how to use it, you could have saved them. You want to blame someone? Go see your reflexion in a mirror! This is not a holiday trip but a training you bet your life on!" exclaimed Maximilian as he pointed at the fighting ground not far away.

"If you're done blaming others for your mistakes, I suggest we get to work..." said Maximilian as he stomped on the ground four times.

Behind him, coming out of the ground, appeared four doors, one for each element as indicated by the pictures on them.

"Those of you who managed to survive the quicksand have earned the right to choose an element. Think carefully about it and choose a door. Each one of those doors will lead you to a specific training ground where you will learn to use it. Choose wisely, there won't be any way to turn back once you have chosen." explained Maximilian.

"You lie..." said William as he stood up, brushing away the beginning of a tear that had started to form at the corner of his eyes.

"...Everyone knows it is possible to learn different element spells, why are you trying to separate us?" questioned the young mage.

"It seems like you have trouble memorising a simple rule..." simply said Maximilian.

"What rule? Not questioning you? We see where it led those three!" exclaimed William as he pointed at the ground.

Not answering William, Maximilian made a wide gesture with his right arm, followed by the same gesture with his left arm.

All around the students appeared four hundred figures, soldiers made of stone, fire, wind and water. A hundred for each element, each standing straight and awaiting an order, any order Maximilian could give them.

"Don't mistake me for one of your teachers, William. Don't think for a second I would need any 'safe way' to dispose of you all. As you are now, you could barely resist a sneeze of mine in your direction. I'm making you chose because it is the best way for you to get better. This will be the last time I say it. If you don't want to follow my training, you are free to stay here and try to make it by yourself." seriously said Maximilian.

With a single snap of his fingers, he made the elemental soldiers disappear. Stepping aside, he showed the doors with a hand gesture.

"Now, choose well, students."

.........................................................................................................................................

"It'ks too hot!" exclaimed a lizard girl.

The ones who had chosen the fire path were now standing on a metallic circular platform placed far above lava.

"Where are we?!" questioned Ilim as she looked around, imitated by the six other students with her.

"Right above the heart of a volcano, why? Don't tell me the slight heat is bothering you..." calmly said Maximilian, currently walking on the edge of the platform, apparently appreciating the heat coming from the magma.

He was looking a bit different, all his clothes were bright red, even his eyes and skin had taken a slightly redder colour. His hair were looking like flames in a fireplace, red and slowly waving around.

"K'slight heat?! We are burning here!" exclaimed the lizard girl.

"Burning? Not a chance, unless you fall down, of course..." answered Maximilian as he pushed a small rock from the platform with his foot, the stone starting to burn even before it touched the magma.

"How can this be? We should be suffocating..." stated Ilin, worriedly looking down.

"I made sure no toxic gas would bother us. We are situated much further than what security would require. Here, you can barely feel the heat of a desert before midday. Each day from here on, the platform will go down a tiny bit, so it isn't going to get any cooler, believe me..." explained Maximilian with a sly smile.

"But...we're going to die!" exclaimed the lizard girl, making the others sweat even more than they were already.

"Of course...if you don't manage to adapt." calmly stated Maximilian.

The students let their worries and discontent be heard. Ilin, stepping a bit nearer Maximilian, calmly breathed in.

"How?"

"How?" questioned back the man.

"How can we adapt?"

Smiling warmly at the semi-gnome, Maximilian made a wide gesture, opening a path leading to the volcano's side, revealing several rooms where the students would be able to sleep, eat, wash, simply put, live.

"I'm going to teach you. Welcome to the furnace."

.........................................................................................................................................

"I can't see a thing!"

"Joe? Is that you?" asked Claire, another young mage, a slightly overweight girl who had chosen the earth path too.

In the pitch-dark place he was now, Joe was holding the book tight against his chest like he would have with a protective charm. His vision had never been that good and his parents had to go see a smith who helped him by making glasses, the price asked by a priest to even try healing him was simply too much for his family. It was also one of the reasons why he wanted to be a mage, winning enough money to heal his bad sight.

With four other students, Joe was standing as still as he could, trying to see something, anything, but to no avail.

"Need a light?" asked someone in the dark before a clapping sound could be heard, echoing around the students.

All around them, stones started to shine brightly, lighting on the place as if it was bathing in sunlight.

Quickly observing around, Joe noticed they were standing in a circular ring situated at the centre of some kind of underground arena. Surrounded by several floors looking like seats, the students were like actors without a public. The upper ground led to a small and basic living space with everything the students could need.

Sitting on one of the numerous big rocks on the ring itself, a brown-coloured Maximilian, looking like a moving stone statue, was looking at the students, amused by their lost air.

"Welcome to the amphitheatre!" exclaimed Maximilian, his voice echoing in the vast room around them.

"Is this the place where you will teach us? Why is it so dark?" questioned Joe.

"Dark? What are you talking about, with so much light around, I could have sworn we were outside on a sunny day." stated Maximilian as he slid down the rock, letting himself fall.

"I suggest you quickly forget about your eyes, they won't be helpful at all in here, not for long at least." calmly said the man.

"What do you mean?" questioned another student, worried.

"Exactly what I just said. See those shining stones? They will slowly and steadily lose their light. By then, you will have to see without your eyes or else...well, let's say your time among the living might be too short for your taste..." explained Maximilian with a chuckle.

"...See without our eyes? How do you want us to do that?" wondered Joe out loud, actively writing in his journal.

The thin young man was interrupted in his writing by a hand closing his book. Looking up, he saw Maximilian looking at him, a sly smile on his face.

"The answer isn't in this book, but under your feet."

.........................................................................................................................................

"WATCH OUT WILLIAM!"

A young Egyptian-looking dark-skin catkin girl caught William as he was going to fall, the floor ending right behind him.

"Thank you." said the young mage as he looked down where he was going to fall.

Clouds. The edge opened to nothing but cloud hiding the ground.

"How deep is it?" questioned William as he pushed a rock from the edge, the stone disappearing in the clouds without a sound.

"The question should be 'How high are we?'" said a voice from above.

The six students looked up as one, discovering a white-coloured Maximilian sitting midair. White hair, white eyes, white skin and white clothes, the man seemed to constantly have a slight breeze slightly lifting his hair up.

Dropping from his invisible chair, the man landed without a sound before the group.

"...How high are we?" simply asked William, fearing the answer.

Maximilian made a wide gesture, creating a large gust of wind that blew away the clouds around the circular platform.

"High enough." answered the man.

"Oh, goddess..." simply said the catkin girl as she looked down for a second before stepping back, afraid of what she had just seen.

The students who had chosen the wind path were now standing on a platform situated at the top of several columns supporting it, the same kind of column was supporting the small open-air living ground. Everything looked like some kind of tree house, if the tree house was made of stone and situated at the top of more than fifty, several hundred high, stone columns with visibly no way down, except for the obvious one.

"Goddess..." panted the catkin as she sat, out of breath.

"Will you be alright?" worriedly asked William.

"No...I have a fear of heights." admitted the catkin, putting her face in her hands, slowly sobbing.

"My my my, if that's not heartbreaking..." stated Maximilian with an amused voice as he was calmly walking on the platform edge.

"Can't you see she isn't well?! Why are you doing this to her?" growled William.

"Me? I'm not responsible for her weakness...but if you think I am, I might as well go!" said Maximilian in a dramatic sentence as he let himself fall from the edge.

All the students screamed and, excepted for the catkin, ran to the edge to see Maximilian fall, only to see him lying on a big ball of air.

"Worried about me? I'm moved..." said Maximilian with a smile as the ball flew above the platform, letting him fall on it gracefully once again.

"Now listen well, I won't repeat myself. There is only one way out of here..." stated Maximilian as he pointed down.

"Frome here on, without any warning, this will happen." said Maximilian as one of the columns crumbled in a tremendous din.

"I suggest you all learn to fly before the columns under your feet decide to go down too..." calmly stated Maximilian as he slightly blew on his nails, as if he had just announced them the time of the day.

"Humans can't fly." stated William.

"Not with that attitude, that's for sure." answered Maximilian with a chuckle.

"I...I think I'm gonna be sick, I...I can't breathe that well..." said the catkin, panting hard.

"That's because of the height. Here, oxygen is rarer, you will have to learn how to control your breathing, each movement must be useful. If you move around aimlessly, you will quickly suffocate." explained Maximilian.

Turning on himself, he left the ground, lifted up by a small silent tornado.

"Here you will learn how to fly, welcome to the nest!"

.........................................................................................................................................

"'Guelan', is that it?"

The human-looking lamia turned around to see the eight students who had chosen the water path too, all looking at her.

"That's my name...how do you know it?" questioned the girl.

"We heard that guy calling your name. Do you know what is going on here? Where are we?"

The question was understandable. Above and all around them, there was water. The place they were in looked like a massive dome of glass under the sea, so deep they couldn't see the sunlight. The light was coming from floating rocks here and there, allowing them to see inside the dome as well as they would have with electric light. But, outside of the dome, after one metre, it was deep dark. No matter what was hiding around them, they couldn't see it.

Inside the dome, it was dry. The circular fighting ground they were on was situated on the lowest part and, situated near the dome top, were living quarters that could be reached by stone stairs with, at their sides, old-looking stone towers.

"We are under water..." matter-of-factly stated the lamia, pointing up to prove her point.

"Are you making fun of me?" asked the one who had talked to her, a lizardkin taller than the other students. He came near her, a good head taller than her and shadowing her with his large shoulder.

"You asked her where you were. If you don't want an answer, don't ask a question."

A voice echoed all around them. Looking around, one of the students suddenly shouted as he pointed at something out of the dome.

A silhouette appeared from inside the water and went through the dome as if it was nothing more than a big bubble.

Blue-coloured with hair looking a lot like algae and, Maximilian combed back his hair like he would have done going out of a bath.

"A bit fresh, but delightful nonetheless...to answer your question, our friend Guelan doesn't know anything more than you do about all this. Maximilian met her today after all. Concerning your other question, she answered perfectly."

"We are...underwater?" worriedly asked one of the students, looking around like he couldn't understand what he was seeing.

"Aren't you a bright one... This place will be your training ground for the time to come. You will learn how to use water like no teacher would have dreamed of teaching you...at least I hope you will, because otherwise..."

Coming from all around them, drops of water started to fall, creating an artificial rain that lasted for a few seconds before stopping.

"What was that?!" questioned the lizardkin.

"Water." simply answered Maximilian with a sly smile.

"From this very instant, at some moments, water will get through the dome, slowly filling up this place. On the good side, it will be a good source of water and food..." stated the blue man as he pointed at a small fish desperately trying to swim in far too little water, quickly suffocating.

"...On the bad side...well, seeing how none of you is a fish nor a mermaid, I highly doubt you would appreciate living underwater without air."

"Are you going to drown us all?!" exclaimed a student.

"Me? That would be a waste of time and effort. I'm here to teach you, it is up to you if you're going to die or not..."

Showing the place around with a wide gesture, Maximilian said.

"Welcome to the bubble tank! Let's see how well you can swim!"

.........................................................................................................................................

"Where are we?" asked Octavia.

Black Widow had teleported with her, leaving behind the capital. Now the two arachnes were standing in a vast room looking a lot like a castle ballroom.

"Castle Noire, domain of Lady Noire." answered a cold and wasted voice from behind Octavia who turned in a jump.

Before her was a skeleton, its eyes without eyelids looking straight at her. It was wearing a mage robe and was equipped with a mage staff made of bones. Three other skeletons, looking a lot like the one that had talked, were actively using some magic on the journey crystal.

"Keeper..." greeted Black widow before going away, waiting a second for Octavia to follow her.

"What are those creatures?" asked the arachne.

"Liches. Foolish mages who thought they could go against Lady Noire. She allowed them to come back as undead and they, in return, swore allegiance to her. We use them to be sure no one except us can use the journey crystal. This way..." explained Black Widow as she turned in yet another corridor.

The inside of the castle was dark and cold, barely lightened up by torches burning green. The tall arachne stopped before a big door.

"Go in here, I'm going to see if Lady Noire can see you now."

Seeing Octavia a bit hesitant, Black Widow pushed her a bit further.

"Go in, there are people inside you should meet."

Without another word, Black Widow walked away, leaving Octavia alone. Slowly, the white arachne opened the door, going inside.

The room was high, hexagonal, with a lot of small spaces looking like bedrooms without beds.

"Is someone here?" asked Octavia, the silence being too heavy for her.

From the side, a form jumped at her. The white arachne barely had the time to turn before eight long legs closed around her human body part.

"Wow! It was true! A white arachne!!!" shouted a high-pitched childish voice as two human hands started to touch Octavia all around, studying her.

Octavia barely had the time to see pink spider parts before a deep feminine voice echoed in the room.

"Thomisa! This is not a way to greet our new sister!"

"Oh! You're right! Sorry!" quickly apologised the pink arachne before jumping back, letting Octavia go.

The one named Thomisa was small, barely a metre high. She looked young, but her eyes betrayed a more advanced age and knowledge of life than what she looked like. Her spider parts were shiny pink, her flesh too, but more like a healthy baby, and her hair were also pink, but darker. Her eight eyes were entirely black, and her teeth were shiny white. It wasn't hard to tell what her teeth looked like, the small arachne was smiling widely at Octavia as she was excitedly dancing from four legs to her other four legs like a child waiting for candies.

Octavia felt another presence behind her and turned around before looking up, her eyes opening wide as she did so.

The one who had talked to Thomisa was huge, at least three metres high on her eight massive brown hairy legs. The arachne looking down at Octavia smiled warmly at her, a bandage covering her four left eyes. If the arachne was huge, her physique was well-balanced. Her spider parts were strong-looking and her human parts looked like an amazon, with a chest that could make the small pink arachne suffocate if she tried to hug her.

"Hello, I am Goliath. What is your name, sister?" asked the tall arachne with as much tenderness as her deep voice could show.

"Octavia...who are you? What is this place exactly?" questioned Octavia, her eyes going from one arachne to another before coming back.

"This is our bedroom, our sanctuary. Here, Mistress Noire protects us, we can live freely and wait for her to call for us." explained Goliath as she showed the room with a wide gesture.

"Call for us? For what purpose?" asked Octavia, curious.

"To rule over this land at her side..." answered another voice, tired, coming from the ceiling, in the dark.

"Cariaben, come over here and greet Octavia." asked Goliath, looking up.

"Alright..." answered the feminine voice in a yawn.

Without a noise, a blue arachne appeared from the ceiling, using her web to slowly come down, head first. Like the three other arachnes in the room, her hair looked like silk, only hers were cobalt-blue coloured. Her skin also had a slight blue colour, and her spider parts were deep blue, with tiny black spikes covering her legs.

With a tired smile and a slight wave of the hand, the blue arachne greeted Octavia, upside-down.

"Please excuse Cariaben, she is a bit...lazy, sometimes." sighed Goliath.

"I'm not lazy, you are hyperactive." retorted the blue arachne as her eight blue eyes were slowly closing.

"Yeah yeah...spin spin!" suddenly exclaimed Thomisa as she pushed Cariaben with force, making the blue arachne turn around fast.

"Nooooo." weakly protested the spinning arachne.

Thomisa and Goliath laughed all heartily at the scene and, even if still a bit uneasy, Octavia let a feeble laugh be heard for a second.

"What a marvellous sound to hear." said yet another new voice from behind Octavia.

As the other Arachne saw who it was, the three politely bowed for a second. Turning around, Octavia was greeted with a warm hug, tender even, by a magnificent lady.

"Black Widow explained everything to me. Let me welcome you to my domain, Octavia."

.........................................................................................................................................

In a closed room without any exit, another Maximilian was sitting, eyes closed.

All around him, energy crystals were floating, emitting a slight light and energy waves resonating with his. Threads of mana were linking the half-naked body of the man to the crystal around him, looking like shiny blue nerves on the man's body.

*Everything is going well, I'm glad all could be done in time...*

While he was waiting for the students to arrive at the academy, Maximilian had quickly created the first door, then another one, and another one. Each time, he had created a door inside the door. Like that, he would have all the time he needed to create everything.

The strange thing was that the alternate dimension he had created at the Director's office was still there, only waiting for him to open the doors once again. Behind the doors, it was nothing more than a vast plain of brown earth, with nothing on it, no hills nor holes and, of course, no building nor life. Maybe was it because of Maximilian's way of thinking while he was creating it, but the place had a sun and a moon, with the same day/night cycle as in the 'normal' world.

The first thing he had done was to summon Asterife. The least you could say was that the Imp was surprised.

"What the hell is this place?"

"An artificial world I'm going to use for training from now on."

"Okay." simply answered the imp.

"Seriously? Like that? Without any question?"

"Listen, friend. The more I get to know you, the more I understand I shouldn't doubt anything you say." seriously stated the imp.

"Anyway, what did you need me for? There is nothing for us to take here..." observed the imp.

"You're right. Actually, what I want from you is a bit different this time."

"I'm listening..."

"As a summoning, do you have any way to contact other summoning being?" questioned Maximilian.

The imp scratched one of his long ears, unsure.

"That depends...we imps aren't liked by all the clans. I could contact some of them, but it will be risky. Which one did you want to contact anyway?" questioned the imp.

"I don't have a name to give you, actually. What I'm looking for is some kind of merchant summoning, one that could get me...things."

"Things? What kind of things?"

"Living things."

Asterife observed the human for a second or two.

"Don't tell me you want to trade slaves now..."

"Slaves? Hell no! What I need are animals, monsters, leaving things to populate the training ground. Do you know one who could do that for me?" inquired Maximilian.

Asterife crossed his arms for a minute or two, thinking hard.

"There...might be someone...but he is expensive, a lot more than my clan is." said Asterife.

"Mana coins?" asked Maximilian.

"Mana coins." answered Asterife.

"Everything is fine then. Can you bring him here?"

"Do I look like a travelling cart to you? I'm going to find him and bring you back the invocation spell. Wait for a bit." said the imp before disappearing.

Alone once again, Maximilian clapped his hands.

"Well...while I wait, I might as well get to work. Let's get those seeds I bought the other day to good use..."

.

.

.

"How long was I gone exactly?" asked Asterife as he looked around.

"Fifteen days, more or less." answered Maximilian as he took a sip from his waterskin.

"...It has been an hour, at most." stated Asterife.

"Alternate dimension, remember? Time here is accelerated. One hour outside is worth approximately two weeks in here." explained Maximilian.

"Oh...that explain the scenery change..." said the imp as he looked around.

While he was waiting, Maximilian didn't lose a single second. Using barely all his mana again and again, he had shaped this new world like he wanted to, using elemental magic to make the four specific training grounds, as well as other places he would have to use later. All was done like he wanted to, the man had stopped only to eat, drink or sleep a bit, giving his mana pool the time it needed to be completely refilled.

Asterife and Maximilian were now sitting at the top of a hill, having a vast view of nearly everything around.

"So? Did you find him?" asked Maximilian.

"I did. He was surprised at first, he is not used to be contacted like that by another summoning. Here..."

Asterife gave Maximilian a sheet of paper with an invocation spell written on it.

"Just a little advice, don't call him for nothing. It wouldn't be the first time he sets some monsters free to punish someone for wasting his time."

"I'll be careful. Thank you for your help, Asterife." said Maximilian as he gave him some mana coins for the service.

Alone once again, the man pictured the summoning mark on the ground and started to read the formula out loud.

Once done, Maximilian waited for a second or two, expecting a small tornado like Asterife had used the first time, but something else appeared.

Coming from the ground, a door literally grew out without a sound, quickly reaching two metres high and wide.

*That's different...should I knock or...*

Interrupted in his thoughts, Maximilian saw the door open to let out... a white rabbit.

Maximilian blinked once or twice, observing the one before him.

It wasn't a rabbitkin like his friends at Arold's house, but a literal rabbit, only this one was standing on his back paws, was wearing clothes, a black three-piece suit with a bow tie to be precise, and had a wicked intelligence in his eyes.

"You called the raiser Palinoo?" questioned the rabbit in a professional tone, with a voice far too deep for his small appearance.

"Indeed...is it you?" questioned Maximilian in a similar professional tone.

"Only for those able to offer themselves my services. Are you one of those? You aren't one of my usual clients, I suppose you must be the one who asked the imp's help?" asked Palino, a disdain for Asterife barely hidden.

To answer him, Maximilian created several mana coins.

"I have more than enough, but do you have what I need?"

As the reflect of the coins shined in the rabbit's red eye, a mean smile appeared on his face as he slightly bowed to Maximilian.

"Dear customer! I would be happy to show you my collection!" stated Palino as he snapped his claws, making a book, thicker than the biggest encyclopaedia Maximilian had ever seen, appeared.

"Please, enlighten me on what would please you, my Good Sir."

Maximilian scratched his chin for a second.

"Really? Aren't we supposed to make a contract before?"

The news seemed to please the rabbit.

"A contract? What a wonderful idea! I thought you were just a simple passerby who wouldn't require that much, but a fidelity contract will indeed guaranty you the best of what I can offer!" excitedly stated Palino as he snapped his claws once again, making a contract appear this time.

"If you could..." asked the rabbit as he presented the contract to Maximilian.

Like he had done with Asterife, Maximilian made a contract with Palino who, after studying his blood for a second, almost jumped in delight.

"Dear customer!! I hadn't realised my dear friend Asterife had led me to someone as important as you! The contract is made and I am at your service." declared the rabbit as he presented a ring to Maximilian, a gold ring with a small rabbit head pictured on it.

*It's...surprisingly cute...*

"Alright then, let's see which one of my babies will satisfy you. What were you looking after? Salamanders? Goblins? Insects? I have everything you can think of." explained Palino like a seller would present his goods to a VIP customer.

"I will require a variety of monsters and other creatures, dangerous and not, to create a training land. I need swimming monsters, flying monsters, fire-breathing monsters, poisonous and edible..."

Maximilian explained what he was looking for to the summoning who simply nodded sometimes, listening carefully to his customer's demands.

"So? Do you have all that?" finally asked Maximilian after he was done.

"It will cost you a lot, but I have all you asked for. Let me show you the different beast I can propose you."

Palino and Maximilian's transaction took several hours. For each kind of creature Maximilian wanted, the rabbit had a selection. Once he had chosen the ones he wanted and how many, Palino took notes of his order and, in the end, recapitulated.

"Will that be all?" inquired Palino.

"For now? Yes, but it is not impossible that I will require more later. Could you set them free where I wanted?"

Each time he had chosen a monster, Maximilian had pointed where he wanted them on a map of the place he had made.

"There won't be a single problem about that...If you don't mind me asking, for whom is this training going to be?"

"Mages, student mages who will choose to follow my training." simply answered Maximilian.

"You mean...those monsters are going to face students?...Well, at least my babies won't starve." said the rabbit as he shrugged.

While Palino was taking care of Maximilian's order, the man created mana coins, a lot of mana coins, to pay him. Asterife wasn't wrong, the rabbit prices were high. But, at least, Maximilian wouldn't have to catch the creatures himself, a blessing seeing the time it would have taken.

After a while, the rabbit came back to Maximilian.

"All done! The creatures are free and will gladly try to devour your dear students. Now for the paym..."

Palino stopped talking as he saw cauldrons of mana coins next to Maximilian.

"I don't think I forgot some, but don't hesitate to contact me if I did." said Maximilian with a smile.

The man could see the rabbit's red eye moving quickly, counting.

*Does every summoning knows how to count that well?*

"I'll have to recount, but it should do it." stated Palino as he snapped his claws once again.

Coming from behind the door, an army of ants arrived and went under the cauldrons, lifting them and transporting them back behind the door.

"That's useful..." said Maximilian as he saw the little being moving around.

"Indeed they are. Be it for moving heavy things or taking care of bothersome non-paying people..." explained the rabbit, the mean smile not leaving his face.

"Now, Dear Customer, you will have to excuse me, but I have some hunting to do. After your orders, I will need to catch some of these beasts once again."

"Before you go, Palino, there is one last monster I've seen in your selection book I'm interested in. Could we talk about it for a bit?" said Maximilian as he pointed at one particular monster in the rabbit book.

"This one? I don't mean to tell you how to populate your training ground, but this species of monster isn't really going to be much of a threat to your students, you know..."

"I know, I need one of them for something else. A special breed, if that's possible..."

"You intrigue me. Go on..."

The two discussed some time about the special monster, Maximilian paid the rabbit once again and gave him a small phial with a red liquid inside, then Palino bowed to Maximilian and went back behind his door, closing it behind him. The door disappeared into the ground, leaving no trace of its passage.

Far away, Maximilian heard the different cries of beasts and smile.

"Another thing taken care of, now I need my teachers..." said the man as he took several precious stones from the Havenbag.

.........................................................................................................................................

The training began the day after the students arrived.

To begin with, each of Maximilian's representation made sure they had good bases. Although slight differences could be observed between the different path, the idea was the same.

"The classic mistake made by mages is to neglect their physical aptitude. Simply put, if an enemy gets close enough, you're done for. I'm not going to waste my time so you can die by the first moron's hand able to reach you. There will be two kinds of training: for the mind and for the body. You can't hope to be good mages if your body cannot sustain the force of your own attacks. That's why..."

He was strict, he didn't leave them a second of rest apart for sleeping, eating and...answer nature calls.

The training days were all the same. From morning, long before sunrise and even before they could hope for breakfast, it was physical training. It would last until midday, then, until dinner long after the sun was down, it was magical training.

If they were strict, the trainers weren't mean nor cruel. Each time one of the students needed help, he would make sure the student received the help needed.

One thing, though, was sure, the students were suffering...a lot.

..............................................................................................................................

"What is going on? Tired already? I thought you wanted to be stronger?"

Maximilian was taunting William's group. They were currently climbing up one of the platform's side. For them to reach what would be their meal for midday, they had to climb.

"I suggest you don't give up, the fall could be painful." absentmindedly stated Maximilian, upside-down.

To fall would mean going down the very high column the fast way, a good way to motivate the students.

"Come on guys! We can make it!" cheered the catkin who, as long as she didn't look down, hadn't any trouble climbing, using her claws to have a better grasp.

"Listen to your friend, she seems confident...and if it can help you not give up, think about the creatures currently climbing the rocks under you..."

William opened his eyes wide as he heard Maximilian's words. Looking down, he saw monkey-like creatures climbing up, fast.

"Hurry up! Don't look back and hurry up!!" shouted William as he started to climb once again with a renewed motivation.

"They're getting close..." observed an amused Maximilian, floating on his air ball.

One of the student's feet slipped for a second, almost making him fall down, but a gust of wind, pushing him against the rock for a second, allowed him to continue to climb without him noticing the white Maximilian observing him with a smile.

Once at the top, the first ones there helped the others before stepping away from the edge.

A few seconds later, the monkey-looking creatures reached the top too.

They were fifty centimetres high, not very large, had a white fur and a yellow face with three eyes, completely blue. As they screamed at the students, the young ones could see their tiny sharp teeth that could have easily torn their flesh off.

"What are those things!?" questioned Sphixine, the catkin who had helped William the first day.

"I know what they are! Cheetuls!" stated another student.

"What is a cheetul exactly?" asked William, not leaving the creatures from his sight.

"My father has told me about them. They attack travellers on mountains and forests path, always in groups. They don't know magic but their teeth are dangerous."

"As well as their claws and their teamwork." added Maximilian as he dropped several things before the students: staffs.

They looked a lot like simple mage staff, only those ones had been reinforced with metal at their extremities.

"Fight for your lives!" ordered Maximilian as he disappeared in a gust of wind, like a mirage would have.

"What are we gonna do?! He abandoned us!" asked one of the students, panicking.

"You heard him..." said William as he threw the others the staffs, keeping one for himself.

"We fight!" said the young man with all the resolution he could master.

One of the cheetuls jumped at William, claws and teeth out. The young mage used his staff like a baseball bat to swing as hard as he could, hitting the monster right in the face. The cheetul was sent back to his congeners who looked at William with fury in their eyes, mad at the one who had dared to hurt one of them.

One after the others, the cheetul started to hit the floor several times, opening their little mouth wide to let out a scream meant to intimidate the students.

It worked quite well, the youngest one of the group dropping the staff to cover his ears and closing his eyes, teary.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!" shouted the little one, losing his composure.

A gust of wind passed by, slightly hitting the back of the young one's head like would have a stern teacher. As the young one opened his eyes in surprise, he could see the staff rolling back at his feet, runes on it shining weakly.

"Who among you knows spell?" asked William.

"I can cast a wind blade, but only once..." answered Sphixine.

"Same here, what about you William?" asked an older student, unsure of what to do.

"I've learned the wind arrow spell, I can launch it three times, at most. But after that I'll be down, it will exhaust me." admitted William.

"Anyone else can launch something?" asked Sphixine, trying to shake the others awake, but they were barely able to stay up after the climbing session, and facing monsters right after that wasn't good for their morale.

"It's no use, they are barely there." growled the catkin.

"I..." came the young one's voice, making the catkin turned to him.

"I think I can make one wind arrow, maybe two...I know it's not much but..."

"It's better than nothing, glad to have you with us." said William without turning back.

"I think...the staffs are magic. Something shined on mine for a second..." explained the young one as the cheetuls slowly started to move, surrounding the student's group.

"If they are, it could save us...is everyone ready?" asked William, lifting his staff.

"As well as possible." admitted the catkin.

"CAST!" ordered William as he and the three others started to aim at the closest cheetuls.

From the twelve monsters, after the mages were done, six were still there, surprised for a second.

William had a knee on the ground, exhausted like he had thought he would be, but he smiled nonetheless as he took a look at the two monsters he had killed with his arrows, the third projectile had missed.

The young one was unconscious, the second wind arrow had killed the nearest cheetul, but it had taken a lot from him, maybe even too much.

Sphixine and the other student were still up, but breathing hard. Sphixine had killed two with her large wind blade, while the other student managed to cut one monster's arm off, the cheetul currently screaming on the ground while losing his blood, dying quickly.

The monsters, having lost half of their group, hesitated for a second.

"You two! Do something to help us!" ordered Sphixine at the two who hadn't move.

Seeing the monster's number decrease had shaken them a bit, finally making them do something.

"Wind arrow!" cast the two, each injuring one of the cheetuls.

The rest screamed in rage and flee while the injured ones dashed in the young one's direction, aiming for the defenceless one.

"Kill them!" ordered William as he tried to stand, but failed.

Sphixine went to protect the young one, staff up. She hit the first cheetul but was injured by the second one's claws, her forearm bleeding.

"AH!" screamed the catkin in pain right before she kicked the monster hard, making it fall off the platform, its scream echoing for a few seconds before disappearing into the clouds..

Right after that, the two students who had acted last attacked the last cheetul standing, hitting it from both sides. The small monster died, his skull broken.

"We made it..." sighed William in relief.

"Congratulations, you manage to survive a group of twelve level three monsters... while being level four all of you!" scolded Maximilian as he reappeared right where he was before.

"Level...three? I thought they were level seven or ten, at least." said Sphixine, surprised and disappointed at the same time.

"Be glad they were not...do you realise what it means?" asked the man as he made a wide gesture with his arm, the cheetuls taken away by a gust of wind.

"That we have a lot to learn?" said William, finally able to stand again.

"That is the greatest understatement in human's history..." sighed Maximilian.

"Well...at least you all survived, good job for that. You two! You will be on washing duty tonight." ordered Maximilian to the two who had attacked last.

"Washing what?" asked one of the two, they hadn't been told anything about cores until then.

"I'll find something, trust me. For now, let's make sure the young one is well and that our catkin friend doesn't lose an arm..." growled Maximilian as he helped the two, healing them. After that, the students ate and drank while discussing with Maximilian about their fight, what they had done wrong and what could be better.

"Now that you have eaten and drink, let's go down..." said Maximilian as he stood up.

The students growled as they stood up, going back in the direction they had come from.

"Not so fast! You'll be going down that way..." stated Maximilian as he pointed at the other side of the platform. That side faced the inside of the structure, leading to the central fighting ground...thirty metres down. Another thing was that this side was simply impossible to use for climbing, the rock too smooth to have a good grip.

"We can't climb that side down..." observed Sphixine, quickly stepping away from the edge.

"That's a good thing I won't ask you to climb down then..." said Maximilian with a sly smile, right before he kicked the catkin off the edge.

.........................................................................................................................................

"WATCH OUT!" shouted Ilin as she jumped on the side, almost dropping her staff as she evaded a fireball in her direction.

"Don't let it corner you or you'll die!" barked Maximilian like a military officer, watching the scene from upper grounds.

The students of the fire path were currently having a hard time fighting off a flamingmander.

The creature was, simply put, an alligator-sized salamander constantly on fire, able to spit fireball and to rolling itself into a ball to dash at its victims.

Ilin, visibly the best student of the group, had tried to launch a fireball at the flamingmander, only to see it devoured by the monster.

"A little detail: you're supposed to fight it off, not nourish it!" taunted Maximilian, receiving a death glare from the semi-gnome in return.

"What do we do now?" asked another student.

"We use what we have." answered Ilin as she nodded in the direction of their stocks of water.

"Good idea!" accepted the tall student as he ran in that direction with two other students he called on his way while Ilin was still doing her best to fight off the monster, keeping its attention on her.

She was jumping on one side, rolling on another, always stepping back a bit more while the monster was advancing.

Finally, she found herself blocked at the platform edge, her back to the fire pit.

*Nowhere to run now...*

It was at that moment that a water barrel, lifted up by the three tallest students of the group, fell on the monster, drenching it completely.

The monster stopped moving suddenly, opening its big mouth wide to let out a scream of pain as its skin started to crackle severely.

"NOW! EVERYONE ON IT!" ordered Ilin as she ran in the monster direction, hitting it hard.

Following the semi-gnome example, the others attacked the monster, killing it thanks to seven students' coupled effort.

"Well done!" complimented Maximilian as he let himself fall on the platform, coming near the dead monster.

"You could have helped us!" growled Ilin as she pointed at red Maximilian.

"Why? It is not my training, but yours. What are you expecting to learn by having someone else fight for you?" calmly asked Maximilian as he opened the beast mouth, tearing off one of its big teeth.

"I know but..."

"Don't sweat it, you will have other chances to get better. Here, catch this, a trophy."

The semi-gnome received the big tooth, looking at it for a second.

"Good job with the water, flamingmander are defenceless once their fire is extinguished. But be careful, you won't be able to waste more water like that or you will have a ration problem." explained Maximilian.

"But...what are we supposed to do if we are attacked again." asked one of the students.

"You're wrong." simply said Maximilian to the student who seemed relieved for a second.

"You think we won't be attacked again?"

"What? No no, I meant to say your question was wrong. It is not 'if' but 'when' you will be attacked again. I suggest you learn how to control fire well enough for when it will happen." stated Maximilian.

"What do you want us to do? Fire spells won't do anything to it." said Ilin.

"Beginner mistake. Mastering fire is not only being able to set things on fire, but also to extinguish fire as you desire. A true fire master knows when, where, how, why, what and who is supposed to burn. That's what I'm going to teach you, but first..."

Pulling out a knife, red Maximilian cut off a piece of the monster's flesh, proposing it around.

"Who wants a piece of slightly burned flamingmander's meat?"

.........................................................................................................................................

"Where do they come from?" asked Guelan.

"From the water! I saw one passing the dome like it was nothing!" answered Cekgo, the tall lizardkin who was dubious about her at first.

Most of the student of the water path had found shelter on upper positions, but Guelan had stayed behind to help Cekgo when she had seen him get caught by one of the sbarcs.

Looking like big yellow lobsters, the sbarcs had entered the dome without any troubles and had attacked without any warning. Cekgo had been the first to be attacked, the monster injuring his leg.

It was only thanks to Guelan's quick action that the lizardkin hadn't lost his leg. But, as she defended the lizardkin, the monster's claw almost reached her. She protected herself, but the monster's attack broke the ring of masquerade, making her retrieve her normal form. The lizardkin was surprised, of course, but didn't have the luxury of refusing her help in his state.

Like the students of the other paths, they had received reinforced staff to defend themselves but had troubles doing so. Guelan didn't know any magic spell that well, Cekgo was suffering too much to concentrate and the ones on upper grounds were too far to aim right.

"I can't use magic!" admitted the lamia, helping Cekgo to go up.

One of the Sbarcs almost reached them, but Guelan hit it hard enough for it to be pushed back several metres.

"It would be a good thing to throw a spell..." suggested blue Maximilian, standing on a nearby tower, observing the scene.

"I can't! I don't know any!" desperately answered Guelan as she continued to go up with the student, barely conscious because of the blood loss.

Maximilian sighed and pointed at her staff for a second, whispering something.

*It will be only this time, Guelan...* heard the lamia, Maximilian's voice coming from her staff for a second as rune appeared before her, quickly changing in words she could understand.

"Water spike?" asked the lamia as she took a look at blue Maximilian, only to see he was gone.

Right then, she felt a scrab's claw closing around her tail.

She opened her eyes wide as she turned, acting on reflex.

"WATER SPIKE!!!"

From her staff came a massive spike of water, piercing the monster before sending it flying, hitting other Sbarcs on its way.

Breathing hard, Guelan helped the lizardkin up, finally reaching the upper ground. The monsters quickly gave up once their shell started to dry, going back into the water situated on the training ground.

"What are you?" worriedly asked one of the students once they could clearly see Guelan true form.

"I'm a lamia..." answered Guelan, helping Cekgo lying on one of the beds.

"I know that race! Aren't you monsters? What are you trying to do here?!" questioned the same student, quickly joined by others behind him.

"If I had to take a guess, I would say 'learn magic'. But that's only me saying it..." said Blue Maximilian as he arrived from behind one of the columns supporting the ceiling.

"But....she's a monster!" stated the student, making Guelan frown.

"Is that so? Would a monster risk her life for someone else? From where I was standing, I saw every each of you running away, not looking behind even once. She, alone, helped Cekgo, almost losing her tail in the process. Speaking of which..."

Blue Maximilian kneeled next to the lizardkin to tend his wound.

"If you can't fight side by side, how long do you expect to survive in here? Sbarcs are surely the least dangerous things you will have to face, believe me. Guelan?"

Tearing her eyes away from the accusing students, the lamia looked at Maximilian.

"For a first time, this was a very good spell, congratulations." congratulated Maximilian.

Hearing him, Guelan smiled a bit.

"Thank you, I..."

She tried to speak but seemed to lose all strength in a second.

"Go lay down for a bit. Launching a spell that powerful for the first time took a lot from you. The others, since you managed to get away from the fight without any injury, I suppose you won't have any reason to not go fetch the monster's bodies, am I right?" stated Maximilian, barely hiding the orders in his question.

The students looked down for a second, none daring to face Maximilian's eyes as they went out of the room, obeying their teacher.

"Guelan..." asked a barely conscious lizardkin.

"Yes?" answered the lamia.

"...Thank you." simply said the tall lizardkin before closing his eyes for a bit.

"...You're welcome." answered the lamia, allowing a small smile on her face as Maximilian winked at her discreetly.

.........................................................................................................................................

"How is your arm doing?" asked Maximilian as he sat next to Joe.

"I'm fine, thank you..." answered the young man as he continued to write in his thick book, the feather literally dancing on the white page.

Earlier, the earth group had managed to kill three of the five scoles that were attacking them.

Looking like one-metre-long mole covered with black scales and long slightly poisonous claws, the monsters were blind but had a very good sense of smell. One of them had managed to cut deep in Joe's arm while he was paralysed by fear, shaking the young man out of it. It was a good thing because the next hit would have been for his throat.

"You threw a good spell, the monster didn't see it coming...figuratively speaking, of course."

"It's not funny." simply said the young man as he continued to write.

"That's harsh...Joe, what is bothering you?"

"I...I couldn't move." admitted the young mage as he finally stopped writing, his eyes looking straight at the darkness before him, out of the rocks light.

"That's true, and you got hurt for that. Next time, you will remember the pain inflicted by your mistake."

The young man stayed silent for a minute.

"It's...going to get worse, isn't it?" asked the young mage as he touched his healed arm.

"The monsters will be more numerous and far stronger...but you will be stronger too. Go get some sleep, Joe, tomorrow will be harder."

Once alone, Brown Maximilian scanned the zone around before nodding to himself. He went to the training zone centre and sat, closing his eyes for a bit.

.........................................................................................................................................

In the closed room, the linked Maximilian sighed as he opened his eyes for a second, smiling to himself. The several lines of mana running on him like shiny blue nerves were also pulsating like blood vessels.

*All is going well. The teachers are working well, and I am doing fine.*

Before four of the crystal around him, the different scenes at the four elemental paths had played, each time looked over by the different form of Maximilian. Two other crystals were displaying other scenes, other people's training going as well as the other students...more or less.

*The orders are simple: I mustn't bother Maximilian as long as everything is going well.*

.........................................................................................................................................

* For the year to come, you are going to follow a special training. It will be hard, very hard, but I trust you. I have to pay more attention to the others for now, but I leave this with you. You can contact me in case of emergency. Do your best, Lin-Lin, I'm counting on you.*

Maximilian's words echoed in the panda-lady's mind as she parried the puppet's attack. Ordering it to stop for a second, she went to drink a bit of water, the artificial sun above her head making her sweat in her training armour.

Maximilian had made another mokujin, specially made for Lin-Lin.

Her training ground was situated under several dozen metres wide magic dome. She had everything she needed to live, situated in a corner, and all the remaining space to train. Maximilian had given her a stock of mana and health potion, just in case, and a single directive: train.

For nearly a year, she would fight against the magic puppet he had made, each time getting stronger to match her. To help her get stronger, Maximilian had given her a special armour. The equipment wasn't finely made, nor beautifully decorated. It was heavy, far heavier than her usual equipment, and each hit she received while wearing it would hurt a lot more than normal. What's more, Maximilian had given her other gauntlets, made to be harder to cast magic with.

*This armour is enchanted to help you. It is heavy and you will feel even the slightest damage received in it twice as vividly as you would have without it. Excepted for nature calling and bath time, you can't take it off. Wear it to eat, wear it to sleep, wear it to train. This 'hindering armour' will show you its real worth once your training will be complete, believe me.* had explained Maximilian before patting her head as an encouragement and teleporting away.

*I must take this chance. If I can become stronger, Maximilian will be able to count on me more.* thought Lin-Lin, panting hard in the heavy armour.

"Mokujin! Please spar with me!" exclaimed the panda-girl as she dashed once again, her weapon in hands.

.......................................................................................................................................

"You sure Binvo can do it?" had asked the minotaur to Maximilian.

The man had spent a bit of time with the minotaur, teaching him the base of healing spell. Once done with the explanation, the man had given the minotaur a new set of gauntlets, specially made to help him cast magic, like the one he had made for Lin-Lin.

"I'm sure you can." assured the man, showing the minotaur his bleeding hand.

To be sure the minotaur could do what he wanted of him, Maximilian had decided to be the guinea pig, at least for a bit before going away.

It had taken some time, but Binvo had finally made it, constant tries and mana potions showing good results.

Looking at his healed hand, Maximilian nodded, satisfied.

"Very good, you've got the idea. Now begins your true training."

After he had given the minotaur the explanations, Maximilian had left him alone too.

Binvo's personal training ground looked a lot like Lin-Lin's, expected for one thing: the sparring partner.

The thing looked like a human, or at least it had an humanoid silhouette. It had two legs and arms, was equipped with a stone shield and sword, made of flesh with...well, with nothing else. It could very well have been a meat puppet, it had skin, hands and feet, but no nails, eyes, ears nor mouth.

"What is this thing?" had asked Binvo.

"A flesh golem. It is made to attack anything going inside its zone, the wide circle you see on the ground is his. It will always copy its adversary's level, so don't be afraid to hit hard."

"You want Binvo to kill it?" wondered the minotaur out loud.

"You can't kill it, not with physical attacks. What I want you to do is to beat him, injure him, then heal him. Like that, you will train your body and mind."

"How many times Binvo must do it?" asked the minotaur, curious.

To answer him, Maximilian patted his shoulder, smiling at him.

"As many times as needed. Do your best, Binvo, I'm counting on you."

And with those few words, Maximilian disappeared, leaving the minotaur to his training.

.........................................................................................................................................

*It's a shame Octavia wasn't willing to come. Well, I'll bring her here later. It's strange to think that only one day will pass outside, while a whole year will pass here...anyway, there is a lot to do, it's a good thing I prepared a lot of mana and health potions in advance, the youngsters are going to need them. Everything is in place, I can concentrate on my own training.*

And like that, the training began.

.........................................................................................................................................

Several weeks later...

.........................................................................................................................................

"Good job, William!" exclaimed the white Maximilian as the young mage landed more or less gracefully on the ground, panting.

The training was going on and on, day after day, and the effects were starting to show.

William and his friends had started to get used to the training, strengthening their body and mind with each passing day. William had just managed to use wind magic to cushion his fall from the higher platform. He was the first one to make it, applauded by the others who were cheering for their friend.

The first time, Maximilian had simply pushed them off the platform, all of them, making them fall thirty metres down.

Useless to say, their scream could be heard from afar. He had created an air cushion right before the ground, invisible, and saved them, getting several deaths looks that time.

But, day after day, they had learned to jump by themselves. The idea was to make them be at ease with the fall, to be sure they could keep their calm and be able to act even while falling.

And, finally, William had been the first to make it, finally using his staff to project air before him, slowing himself down.

It was far from perfect and the young man had emptied his mana pool with a single spell, but it was a first step taken.

"Finally! I can finally see some progress! Alright, drink a mana potion and go back up." exclaimed Maximilian with a broad grin as William sighed loudly, putting a knee on the ground.

.........................................................................................................................................

"Move aside!" ordered red Maximilian as he came close to a lying Ilin.

She was in bad shape, her face left side was gravely burned, a little present from a flamingmander right before it was taken care of.

The students had finally managed to kill one of those monsters without using water. To be more precise, Ilin did, right before the monster had spit a last fireball. The semi-gnome didn't manage to evade the hit and had rolled on the side, her face injured and staff heavily damaged.

Quickly healing the girl, Maximilian slightly tapped her cheek, sighing.

"What good is there to defeat your enemy if he takes you with him? You were overconfident, young girl."

Ilin growled, she didn't like him calling her that.

"You have something to say? If I'm wrong, show it to me by your acts, not a tantrum." scolded Maximilian as he stood, taking the burned staff handed over by one of Ilin's comrades.

"But...with that being said, you managed to extinguish its fire long enough for your friends to act, I have to give you credit for that. Here, good job." said Maximilian as he extended the magic staff to her.

It had kept its slightly burned state, but a red rune was now visible on it, reinforcing it.

"Alright everyone, you know the drill! Take care of the monster's corpse and stand ready for the next one!"

As she stood up, Ilin was joined by the lizardkin.

"I'm k'sorry! I wak's too k'slow and you got hurt. K'sorry!"

"If you can't keep up, at least stay out of my way." simply growled Ilin as she passed next to the scaled girl, pushing her on the side.

.........................................................................................................................................

"No, no and no! Do it again!" ordered the brown Maximilian.

Breathing hard, Joe made his staff turn around before hitting the ground, making it shake a bit, but nothing more.

"Once again!" ordered Maximilian as the others were watching from their seats, not daring to say anything.

The young mage repeated the gesture once again, with the same result.

"Joe, I want to see a stone wall before you this instant or it's not going to be pleasant..." threatened Maximilian.

"I can't...it's too hard for me..." answered the young mage, looking down.

"In that case...DIE!" growled Maximilian as he created a massive boulder he threw at him.

Panicking, Joe reacted by reflex.

"STONE WALL!"

A massive wall came out of the ground to block the boulder, the projectile and protection shattering together as the young mage fall down, unconscious.

.........................................................................................................................................

"How long have I been unconscious?" questioned Joe when he saw brown Maximilian sitting next to him, facing the underground darkness.

"A couple of hours. The others are sleeping, here, eat this..." ordered the man as he presented him a bowl of a grey mixture that had become the usual meal of the earth path students. It was some kind of paste made of cereals, mushrooms and scole's meat. It had a strong smell but tasted okay nonetheless. The young mage sat and started to eat slowly, retrieving his strength.

"I'm sorry if I disappointed you, I'm not a great mage..." apologised Joe.

"Yet." simply answered Maximilian.

The young man looked up from his bowl, curious.

"You're not a great mage yet, that will come later. Do you know why I treat you like I do, Joe?"

"Because...you don't want me to slow the others down?"

"Wrong. I treat you like I do because I think you can do better, a lot better than what how you're doing now. I have seen today that continuing like we've been doing until now won't do, so I have decided to act a bit differently. I will start with this..." stated Maximilian as he showed Joe his book. The young man tried to take it back, but Maximilian was quicker than him.

"From this moment and until your training is complete, I will keep this book. You have taken too much of your training time writing in it and this can't go on. Each second you were writing, I want you to be training. You were staying up late to write, you will stay up late to train. You are going to train twice as hard as the others from here on, Joe." declared Maximilian, his eyes not looking away from the darkness before him.

"Twice as hard? I can't! I'm going to die if I do that!" exclaimed the young man as he tried to stand, but was still too weak to do so.

His bowl fell from his hand, but Maximilian caught it before giving it back to him.

"The old you will certainly die, yes. But it will only be for the new you to spring."

Joe suddenly looked at the darkness, where he could have sworn something had moved, something large.

"Yes, Joe, in the darkness of the amphitheatre, you will be born anew." promised Maximilian.

.......................................................................................................................................

"So? Is everything going well?" asked Maximilian as he sat next to Guelan.

The lamia was silently watching two scrabs fighting each other for a fish on the watery training ground, sitting at the edge of a tower leading down.

"Yes..." simply answered the lamia, although the tone of her voice was indicating something else.

"Is that so? I could have sworn the fact that you keep eating alone was a good way to tell everything isn't going that well."

"I learn magic, that's all that matter..." said the lamia as she looked down, a shadow on her face.

"Since you're talking about that, I wanted to talk to you about your training results until now." stated Maximilian as the lamia looked at him.

"I told you, I am not a good student..."

"What you lack isn't capacity, it's self-control. You can do magic, you can cast a spell, you just can't control the flow of your mana."

Guelan sighed at Maximilian's explanation.

"It's not as if I could do something about it. I always have been told to be a good girl, to not show my emotions, to be polite. How can you expect me to forget everything I've been taught until a few days ago?"

"I don't ask anything like that. But, Guelan, if you want your magic to get better, you will have to be at peace with yourself, and giving your feeling a chance to get out, in another way than a flow of mana, is a good way to begin. You could start by opening yourself a bit to the others in the group..."

"They are scared of me..."

"They are scared of me too, you know..."

"It's not the same! You are, you are...to be honest, I don't know what you are exactly." admitted the lamia as she looked at the scrabs once again.

"That's harsh. Haven't I introduced myself when we met at the orphanage?" joked the blue man.

"...We both know you are not the one I met at the orphanage." stated the lamia, looking at him from the corner of her eyes.

Blue Maximilian chuckled for a second.

"Was it that obvious?"

"You are blue...ish. I may not know a lot about humans, but I, at least, know you don't change colour like that."

"That's not entirely untrue..."

"And there is something else...your aura." explained Guelan.

"What about my aura?" asked blue Maximilian, interested in the girl's explanation.

"As a priestess's daughter, I've been able to sense aura since a very young age. Your aura was far more powerful, although hidden, at the orphanage than what she is now. That and...I don't know, something is different."

The blue Maximilian laughed a bit.

"Aren't you an observant one. You are right, I am not Maximilian...well, not entirely."

"If you're not him, who are you?"

"Not 'who' but 'what', young lady. I am a golem, created by Maximilian to teach the students of the water path. He gave me the knowledge required to teach you efficiently, as well as enough memory of his to know who I would be talking to."

"A golem? But...you look so much like the true Maximilian...and you still have an impressive aura, far too powerful for a simple golem."

Blue Maximilian chuckled once again.

"It's only because Maximilian took a lot of time and effort to create us. The power of a golem depends on who makes it and how it is made. He gave us his face, slightly colouring us to be more 'in phase' with the element taught."

The lamia still observed the golem for a long minute.

"Aren't you sad?" finally asked Guelan.

"Sad? Why?"

"Golems are ephemeral. You will die very soon, no?" questioned the lamia.

"I will exist long enough to teach you all that must be taught. I have a purpose and have enough feelings implemented in me to be willing to make it. I don't think of me as something very different from a living being with a short life." explained the golem with a shrug and a weak smile.

"I think this is sad, nonetheless." said Guelan.

"It's not. Once my time will be over, my spirit and knowledge will go back to Maximilian. He will remember everything that has happened to me, he will remember this discussion. And, to be honest, I think he will like to see how you can feel sorry for a simple golem like me. You are a good girl, Guelan."

The lamia stayed silent for a minute, once again.

"...Blue."

"Blue?" asked Maximilian.

"You don't have a name, right? I'm going to call you Blue." stated Guelan with a little smile.

The golem looked up and scratched his blue three-days beard.

"Teacher Blue...this has a good ring to it, I like it." said the golem with a smile.

A bit away, a discreet noise caught Blue's attention. Looking behind, he saw Cekgo trying to hide.

"Well, miss Guelan. As your teacher, let me give you some advice. Don't let what you think people could think of you stop you from trying. I think you already have more friends in this group than what you may believe." stated Blue as he nodded in the lizardkin direction.

Guelan looked at Cekgo, frowning for a second.

"Go now." ordered Maximilian as he slightly pushed her away, looking at her going away with her comrade, awkwardly trying to hold a conversation.

.........................................................................................................................................

Three months later...

.........................................................................................................................................

"Don't let your mana flow be disturbed!" Ordered Windy.

At the four elemental paths, the different Maximilian had soon been 'unmasked' by the students. All had, more or less, a reaction resembling Guelan's. One or two dared to try to say a golem couldn't be a teacher, but several hours of added exercise made them forget that soon enough.

The four teachers received fitting names by the students, and so the white Maximilian had been renamed Windy.

The students of the wind path were currently fighting each other with their staff covered by wind magic. This exercise was part of the physical training, meant to teach them how to fight at close range. The form had to be maintained for as long as possible, and strong enough to resist the attacks.

"Always remember that your magic staff isn't made for close combat, without magic protection, it could easily be destroyed by your enemy's weapon. William! Your blade is fading away!" barked Windy as he observed his class.

William was opposed to Sphixine, the catkin and him had slowly begun to distance the other students of the group, fiercely battling each other.

The catgirl and the young man had a special friend/rival relationship that had started to grow between them, one always pushing the other to surpass himself. And it had worked like a charm, the two getting better by the day. When one was making it before the other, the other was even more motivated to make it too.

Right now, Sphixine had the upper hand, her beastkin nature giving her a natural strength William's human body couldn't offer. The relentless attacks of the catkin pushing the young man back, he had to put all his mind in maintaining his wind layer on his staff.

Continually pushed back, Sphixine finished her attack with a heavy blow that set a gust of wind free, pushing William a step too far. The attack hit the young mage hard, shaking him for a second as he fell off the platform edge.

Seeing her friend out cold for a second, the catkin opened her eyes wide.

"WILLIAM!!!"

Windy only looked at the scene, waiting. Sphixine didn't think, she jumped in his direction and caught him. In her position, she was facing the emptiness under them. She breathed in and, making a wide gesture with her staff, set a massive gust of wind free, pushing the two back on the platform.

"Are you okay!?" inquired the rest of the group, getting closer to see how their comrades were doing.

"Sphixine...you saved me?" questioned the young mage as he came back to his senses, shaking his head to chase away the dizziness.

"Of course..." answered the catkin, panting hard.

"Of course I did, whose face could I rub my victory on if you weren't there?" taunted the catkin as she smiled at him with all her teeth out, laughing weakly.

"Okay everyone, go back to training!" ordered Windy, chasing the other students away as he came closer to the two on the ground.

"Good job." complimented the teacher as he smiled at Sphixine.

"Sir Windy, I'm sorry but my staff..." apologised William, only to see it in Windy's hand.

"You really thought a student would be faster than me? Take your weapon back, young mage, and try to not drop it this time." taunted the golem with a sly smile.

"You had the time to go retrieve his staff? Why didn't you help him?!" scolded the catkin as she stood.

"I didn't need to, he was already in good hands...how is your fear of heights doing?" asked the golem with another sly smile before going away, making the catkin realise she had looked down without losing her self-control.

As she looked at William, she couldn't help another laugh.

.........................................................................................................................................

" Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!" shouted a student of the fire path, rolling on the ground to extinguish the fire on his arm.

"Too slow! Your arm is fine, get back in line!" ordered Red, as the students had started to call the red Maximilian's look-alike.

"Ilin, your turn! You two, fire!"

The exercise was simple: one student was casting fire attacks, another one had to protect against them one way or another, by creating a firewall, by extinguishing the flame before it reached or, simpler, by dodging the attack.

Ilin, determined in her willing to learn in an almost fanatical manner compared to the others, had quickly become the class leader. Against her, Maximilian decided to put two of her comrades, pushing her limits.

The two cast a fireball, the two projectiles flying at Ilin quickly. The semi-gnome hit the ground and cast a fire wall, stopping the two magic projectiles.

"Again! And Ilin, this time I want you to stop the two projectiles by two different ways!" ordered the fiery teacher, getting surprised look from the students.

"Two different ways? I won't have the time!" retorted Ilin.

"You can do it! FIRE!"

The two fireball flew once again. Ilin cast a fire wall and, immediately after, tried to cast a fireball to counter the second one. But, in her precipitation, the fire wall didn't hold well and the fireball she cast hit the other too close to her.

She got hit, by her own explosion and the magic projectile from her comrade.

She flew a metre back before rolling on the ground, small flames on her mage robe.

"Stand, Ilin! I know your defences against fire are better than that!" barked Red, as serious as a military commander.

Growling, the semi-gnome stood, her face showing the pain inflicted on her. Her staff, still in her hand, was now broken, half of it still on the ground.

"By the great flame, can't you take more care of your toys, girl?" taunted the teacher as he came close to her. He picked up the half-staff on the ground and the other half in Ilin's hand.

By the look in her eyes, he could see she was far from pleased with her way of calling her, that and the fact she was in pain didn't help.

"Good, I see the fire in your eyes is still burning..."

The teacher joined the two halves and chanted something. The two pieces joined, fused together by some kind of solidified magma, a stone matter warm to touch but perfectly safe to handle, with red runes pictured on it.

"It is the last time I will fix your equipment. Take care of your weapon or learn to cast spells without it."

The semi-gnome took the offered staff and nodded, straightening herself as she did so.

Red smiled at her.

"If you understand, then that's fine."

Turning around, Maximilian made an 'encore' gesture.

"OKAY! ONCE AGAIN!"

.........................................................................................................................................

"My glasses! They are broken!"

On his knees, Joe was desperately trying to put back together the shattered pieces of what used to be his glasses, broken a second ago by one of his comrades, by the punch he had received by his comrade, to be more precise.

"Serves you well! It will teach you to be the teacher's favourite!"

"I'm not..."

"Don't lie! We saw how he talks to you privately, how you two are always up before and after us all. What does he give you? Special treatment? Better food? Tell us!"

As the days were passing by, the light was getting feebler and feebler. In the darkness every day more present, the students of the earth path had started to fight amongst each other more often, under the observations of Boulder, the brown Maximilian.

It was the very same Boulder who appeared from the obscurity behind the attacking group who had started to accuse Joe. Passing an arm around the two tallest's shoulders, he smiled at them.

"My my my...aren't we jealous? If I had known you were that willing to follow Joe on the nightmare road, I would have forced you on it too."

Surprised by their teacher's sudden appearance, the students took a few steps back, excepted for the two currently held by their shoulders.

"You want the same treatment as Joe? Very well. To begin with, consider that half your sleeping time will be dedicated to training from now on. The little time you had for yourself after eating? Training, the 637 seconds you take to go take a leak? Make it five minutes long at most!" explained Boulder with a ferocious smile.

Around him, the other students gulped loudly, not daring to say a word.

"Sir Boulder, it's alright. They didn't mean it, we are just all having a hard time with the lights turning off." explained Joe, standing.

Boulder smiled as he saw the other students looking at him with a new respect, now that they knew what he had been going through.

"I'm not listening to you, young man. Not looking for a fight is one thing, but letting yourself be beaten up is something else." scolded Boulder as he finally let the two other students go.

"Letting himself be beaten up? What do you mean Sir?" asked Claire.

"What? Didn't he tell you? Joe, what a modest guy you are!" taunted the teacher before creating a new shining stone, brighter than the others. He threw it in the direction of the pitch-black darkness. The students gasped all as one when they saw what was hidden there.

"You want the same treatment, be prepared to face the same kind of enemy." seriously declared Boulder as the stone light slowly disappeared, hiding in the shadow the corpse of a gigantic centipede with its body destroyed by several earth spikes nailing it on the ceiling.

.........................................................................................................................................

"Good teamwork you three! Guelan, raise your water shield, it's losing its strength."

Around the water path students, several bipedal fish had appeared from the dark water. The water level had slightly gone up day by day, and bigger creatures were coming in.

Hence the fish knights. Those monsters were intelligent enough to make weapons with coral, shield and armour with big shells. They were ferocious, they didn't fear magic, and they were numerous.

"They are also called 'goblins of the sea'. Don't think for a second they are stupid, because they will ambush you and kill you easily. Group by three, help each other! One attacks, the other two protect. Once done, exchange places!" had explained and ordered Blue from a tower above, observing the scene.

The students had placed themselves on the upper stairs, maintaining a safe distance with the monsters and attacking before they came in reach of their coral weapons.

Guelan had slightly improved her social activity, doing her best to open a bit to the others. All were, of course, not pleased with her, but with Cekgo's help, she managed to make some friends. With people around her to express herself, she had slowly managed to control her flow of mana, making her spell clearly better. Teamed with Cekgo and a human girl, she was doing well, although she still had some trouble keeping spells on for long.

"What's this thing?!" exclaimed one of the students.

From the dark water, behind the fish knight's line of shields, came another kind of those monsters. It had twice the size of the others, was equipped with a golden sceptre, protected by golden shells, and had a coral crown on its head.

"Fish King. Watch out, students, this one is a caster." warned Blue as the monster lifted his sceptre high, the jewel on it starting to shine.

Before it, several small magic circles appeared, producing several hundred razor-sharp drops of water that flew at the water shield produced by the students.

Under a literal rain of spells, the students started to retreat, pushed back by the power of the attack.

Seeing an opening, the fish knights started to attack, injuring four students in one grouped attack.

"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK TO THE ENEMY!!!" roared Blue.

As the rest turned back, they could see their fallen comrades, bleeding. They hurriedly started to attack, pushing the fish Knights back a bit, but their lack of power and unity was a great advantage for the monsters who, after the initial surprise, started to advance again, shields up.

"Work together! If you don't, they're going to die!" barked Blue, pointing at the students on the ground.

Guelan and Cekgo, fighting next to each other, were experiencing as much difficulty as the others. One of the fish knights arrived in reach and, jumping high, attacked with his sword.

"Watch out!"

Placing himself between the lamia and the monster, Cekgo lifted his staff up, blocking the attack. But, acting on instinct, the lizardkin forgot to cover his staff with magic water, the lack of elemental protection making the simple staff too weak to block the sword.

In a cracking sound, Cekgo's weapon was destroyed, broken into two pieces. The lizardkin's action barely slowed down the monster, its sword coming down quickly.

"Water Spike!"

At the last moment, a water spike pierced the monster, pushing it back and allowing the sword to cut only superficially. Cekgo fell down, sitting with his broken weapon in hands.

He looked up to see Guelan, staff up, pointing at where the monster was a second ago.

"Are you okay?" asked the lamia as she nodded at his injury.

"I'm alright, my scales are thick. Thank you, it's the second time you save me."

"You saved my life a second ago, we're even. Can you stand?" asked Guelan as she extended a hand that the lizardkin took, helping himself up.

"I'll be fine, but my staff won't be useful anymore..."

"Take mine." said Guelan as she extended her magic weapon to him.

"What? Why are you giving me your staff?" asked the lizardkin, surprised.

"I'm almost out of mana, plus, I have an idea..."

Blue was observing the scene, arms crossed.

*Not good, they are going to be in a very difficult situation if they don't act qu...hm?*

Blue noticed Guelan moving fast, using her snake physiology to quickly go around a tour, circling around the monsters. The rest of her group was keeping the fish knights occupied, getting their attention.

The fish King, once again, lifted his long sceptre up, preparing another magic attack.

"Everyone! shield up, together!" ordered Cekgo as he pushed back a fish knights to place himself right before one of the fallen students, lifting up his magic shield to protect himself and the unconscious one.

Quickly doing like their comrade, the rest of the group united to protect the ones down, all focusing on protection. The fish knights started to hit the shields with their weapon, the magic protections holding well enough.

The fish king let out a roar as his magic attack was cast, allowing his subordinates to get back a bit, letting the magic projectiles hit the shield for them.

"Hold your grounds!" roared Cekgo, putting all his might in his shield.

The attack rained on them, then it was the fish knights, once again, who attacked.

"What are we going to do, Cekgo? We won't be able to sustain another attack like that!" exclaimed one of the students next to the lizardkin.

"Don't worry, Guelan has a plan!" assured the lamia's comrade.

"The snake-girl? How can you put our lives at risk for one of her plans? She could very well side with the monsters!" spat the student.

"Shut up and protect!" ordered the lizardkin, showing his pointy teeth to him for a second.

The fish king lifted up his arm once again.

At that exact moment, as the monster's energy and focus were concentrated on his arm, Guelan attacked.

Circling around the massive monster like a snake around its prey, she quickly evaded a pitiful defensive attempt of the caster and use her sharp claws to cut deeply, opening its throat wide.

Dark red blood gushed out, the monster opened its big mouth wide, but no sound came out.

*Alright! Now phase two!* thought the lamia as she took the sceptre from the quickly dying monster.

Pointing the magic weapon at the attacking monsters back, she focused all the mana she could and...

"WATER ARROWS!!!"

The staff shined as several magic circles appeared before Guelan. Surprised by the lack of roar to warn them, the fish knights realised too late the attack was aimed at them, a good half of their forces dying before they could turn around to lift their shield.

Right as they did, the rest of the students dropped the protection to attack too, focusing on the few monsters still up.

Caught between two attacking sides, the fish knights quickly died.

"Guelan!" shouted Cekgo as he ran to see how the lamia was doing. The last attack had taken a lot from her and she was now leaning against the massive monster's body.

"You made it! Your plan worked!" exclaimed the lizardkin as he kicked the monster's body for good measure.

"Told you..." answered the lamia with a weak smile as she closed her eyes, losing consciousness.

.

.

.

"Rise and shine!" said Blue as he tapped the lamia's cheek, waking her up.

"Where am I?" asked Guelan as she sat, looking around.

"After-battle meal in the living quarter. There is a lot of fish soup to eat, it would be a shame for you to miss that." said Blue with a smile.

Getting up from her bed, the lamia slightly staggered for a second.

"I'm still sleepy..."

"You'll sleep when you're dead. Something that shouldn't take too long if you continue to empty yourself like that. If Cekgo hadn't come to me, carrying you should I had, for me to make you drink a mana potion, it could have been bad...really bad, Guelan."

"Sorry...how are the others?" asked the lamia as they arrived at the living quarter centre.

"Ask them yourself, everyone is here. They insisted on waiting for you to eat..." innocently said Maximilian.

"They did?"

"Of course we did!" exclaimed Cekgo.

"It's thanks to your bold move that we're still alive so...sorry for before." apologised one of the students who had been rejecting her before, imitating by the others.

They all enjoyed the fish soup, not bothered by the fact it was made with 'intelligent being', the said being were trying to kill them after all.

"Here. It is yours..." said Cekgo as he extended the staff back to Guelan.

"Keep it." said Blue as he passed next to them.

"But, what about Guelan? My staff is destroyed, what will she use?"

"Guelan, catch!" ordered Blue as he passed something to the lamia.

It was the monster's staff, but it had been modified. It was longer, thinner, and runes had been pictured on it.

"Good job." congratulated Blue as he patted the lamia's head.

.........................................................................................................................................

In his personal training space, Maximilian was standing among stone rubble and puppets parts, panting hard.

*Good...very good. This time I have for myself is a blessing, I can freely test what my memories allow me to remember.*

"The least I can say is that I can still make a lot of progress when it comes to originality, don't you think?" asked Maximilian as he looked at Dragnïr's egg, silently resting on a red cushion at the top of a pedestal.

"It's good you're here with me or I might have felt lonely..." said Maximilian with a chuckle before focusing again, mana visible all around him.

"Back to training!"

.........................................................................................................................................

And like that, months passed.

Each day was harder than the one before, but each student was stronger than the day before. The different groups slowly became like families. They were eating, sleeping, training, suffering and living together, fighting strong monster one next to each other before being able to take them on, one versus one.

From the different groups emerged leaders, the students who managed to get more powerful than the others, under the careful observation of their teachers.

William and Sphixine were still rivals, but the two were nonetheless the two best students of the winding path. Since she had been able to get over her fear of heights, Sphixine had made a lot of progress, only to be quickly caught back by William, doing his best to get better every day.

Without too much surprise, Ilin had been followed by a good part of the fire path group since day one. Even with her, sometimes, harsh way of being, clearly telling those not able to follow her to jump off the platform to stay out of her way, more had started to consider her their class leader as she had slowly started to pay more attention to Red's bits of advice, slowly gaining in maturity and self-control, although she still had a hard time controlling herself when Red was calling her 'little girl'.

Since they had seen the giant centipede's corpse, the four other students on the earth path had started to respect Joe, completely welcoming him in their group and, in return, Joe had proved to be a good adviser, helping those having problems with the training to get over it.

Guelan, with her new magic weapon as proof of her victory, had found a new self-confidence that helped her a lot. Seconded by Cekgo, the lamia girl slowly became the water path leader, often coming up with good plans to take over monsters too powerful for a front attack. With success after success, the other students quickly decided to follow her plans, more than happy to be able to vanquish those flesh-eating monstrosities.

Lin-Lin and Binvo, in their respective training zone, were giving their all, dedicating each instant they could at their training, defeating and being defeated over and over again. The days were repeated, again and again, with the only small change that was their enemy getting stronger, following their progression.

Maximilian had spent all this time training too, experimenting new ideas coming to his mind as days were passing.

Finally, the gigantic hourglass Maximilian had placed in a corner of his training zone shined, showing it was empty.

"So, the time has come...the next phase of their training will begin soon. Let's get ready!" joyfully exclaimed Maximilian as he went to get Dragnïr's egg, only to stop midway, smelling at his armpits.

"Okay, a bath first..." admitted the sweating man as he stepped above the numerous corps of gigantic monsters.

.........................................................................................................................................

The four students group were very surprised to not find their teachers that morning, only a shining Crystal at the centre of their living quarter.

The message that played once they were around it was the same for the four groups.

"Today is the day..." echoed Maximilian's voice around them.

.........................................................................................................................................

The crystal shattered as the platform started to shake.

William and the others knew perfectly well what it meant, because they had lived that very same situation several times before, each time a column had collapsed.

But this time, it was far more violent. They all looked at each other and knew this time was different, the last few columns up were finally giving up, and they had only one way down.

"Alright guys! It's not different than our daily routine on the high platform!" assured William, although even him couldn't help but feel uneasy at the idea of falling down so low.

"What if we can't make it? What if we fail?!" asked little cloud.

Little Cloud, like the rest of the group had started to call the youngest student of the group, had made a lot of progress too. He had worked hard, secretly admiring Windy whom he considered an example to follow. And his hard work had paid, he had become far better than what he could have hoped to be by following the normal curriculum the magic academy of Griffinia would have offered him. As William and him were talking one night, Little Cloud had told the older student why he wanted to be a mage so bad: The young one wanted to be a hero, just like the powerful mages in histories, the ones his mother would read to him every night when he was younger. William had listened to him and, with some few words, he had made William his friend: "You will be one, I'll help you be one."

"There is only one way to find out, don't you think, Little could?" asked William with a wide smile, trying to reassure himself as well as the youngster.

Their conversation was interrupted by a large rift breaking the fighting ground in two.

"Okay! Time to fly!" exclaimed Sphixine as she ran to the platform edge and jumped, quickly followed by the others who decided thinking more about it wouldn't do them any good.

They had learned to use only a tiny bit of mana to create a veil of wind around their staff to be able to plane, literally slipping in the air as they started to go down fast.

Looking at Sphixine flying next to him, William laughed out loud, happy to see their training had worked so well. The group went down smoothly for several minutes.

"When you think about it, we could have done this months ago!" shouted William to cover the wind's sound.

"You're right! I wonder why Windy wouldn't allow us to go, it's freaking awesome!" answered the catkin, overjoyed, as she turned on herself, enjoying the feeling of freedom.

Their joy was soon interrupted, though, by massive forms above them. Noticing the shadows pictured on the clouds under them, William looked up and opened his eyes wide.

"WATCH O...!"

And William saw little cloud disappear, taken down by one of the dozen massive flying monsters coming at them, a mix between bats and pterodactyl. The monster attacking little cloud had attacked the young mage, aiming at the smallest of the group first. With the little prey between its two massive clawed paws, the monster went under the clouds, Little cloud's voice quickly disappearing far away.

"DEFEND YOURSELF!" shouted William as he turned on himself, using his staff to launch a series of wind attacks with his friends help, not caring about their increasing falling speed.

.

.

.

"What happened?"

Opening his eyes, William was suddenly in pain, the back of his head killing him.

*I remember! The monsters attacked us, we defended ourselves and I fell...was I knocked out for a bit?*

Looking around, the young mage saw he had been lying unconscious on a tree branch, a dozen metres above the ground.

"I'm still not on the ground...I must find the others!"

........................................................................................................................................

"The platform is melting!" exclaimed the student next to Ilin.

As soon as the message had been played, the runes under the platform vanished, letting the full heat hit it hard.

"We have to go away!" exclaimed another student.

"Where? The exit is too far high and the lava is right under us!" shouted another one.

"USE THE LAVA!" shouted Ilin.

Under the surprised look of her comrades, the semi-gnome hit the platform hard, provoking a large wave of magic energy.

Under them, the surface of the lava became black in a second, turning to stone before melting once again.

"What are you doing?!"

"Help me solidify the lava surface!" ordered the semi-gnome.

"What!? Are you mad?! If we do that, do you know what will happen?" exclaimed the student.

"Exactly. Half of the group, prepare a magic protection against the heat and fire, the other half, help me solidify the lava by extinguishing the fire. We are going to get out of this volcano by the grand door!" shouted Ilin as she hit the ground once again.

"She's crazy!"

"Do you have another idea? No? Then do as she asks!" ordered the other student as he helped Ilin.

Two groups formed, four were creating a shield large enough to protect everyone, the three others were constantly solidifying the lava surface.

It didn't take long, the volcano started to shake. The lava's heat, having nowhere to go, was accumulating under the solidified layer.

"It didn't take long...isn't it a bit too quick?" wondered one of the students out loud.

"Haven't you understand yet? This is not a natural volcano, this place is artificially made for us. I don't expect this volcano to follow the natural rules when it comes to the time needed." answered Ilin, continuing her solidifying work.

"Needed for what?" asked another student, one of the few who hadn't understand yet.

To answer him, the volcano shook even more before stopping for a long second.

All the students focussed on the shield as the semi-gnome shouted out loud.

"A LAVA EXPLOSION!!"

As her words left her mouth, the stone layer started to rise, the lava pushing it out in a massive explosion. Pushing against the platform, the layer of stone quickly started to melt into lava once again, quickly attacking the platform.

"MAINTAIN THE SHIELD!" ordered the semi-gnome as all were looking up, watching at the volcano top quickly approaching.

Right before they reached it, the platform break, the violence of the hit and the heat finally destroying it.

The magic shield gave up the very second they were pushed out of the volcano, the group scattered in every direction by the force of the explosion.

..............................................

"What do we do!? What do we do!? It's so dark, I can't see a thing!!"

A loud slap echoed in the pitch dark place that was the training ground.

"Did you calm down?" asked a stern but worried Joe.

"You hit me? Why?"

"We have to stay calm, remember your training." said Joe as he kept his eyes closed.

It had been dark for a while, the crystal light had been barely shining for nearly a month, but now there was no light at all, and the numerous noises around the student group weren't reassuring them at all.

Strictly following Boulder's training, Joe had learned to find his way with his eyes closed, using earth magic to clearly see without his eyes. It was thanks to that trick that he had been able to slap his comrade's face right on.

"We have trained for that, we can do it. Close your eyes and use your magic to see around you." ordered Joe, taking the lead.

"You're right, sorry." apologised the one who was freaking out a minute ago.

For a second or two, the group stayed silent, focusing on the environment around them.

"Everyone is ready?" finally asked Joe.

"Ready for what?"

"Isn't it clear? We have eaten the last rations yesterday, the crystals are off and the runes that were protecting the training ground have no magic in them anymore. We have to find a way out or we will soon be surrounded by too many monsters for us to handle." explained Joe.

"You're right...but where should we go? I don't recall having seen any way out of here while we were training."

"It's because there isn't an open way yet. It must be part of the training, we must make our own exit. Use earth magic, locate a place where the stone is weaker, it will be our way out." explained Joe.

"Yeah! let's spread out to cover more ground." proposed another student.

"Not too much, though. Stay near enough to be able to help each other, we don't know what could attack us." warned Joe as he went in the stone wall direction, using his staff to slightly hit it. Each time, a small wave of mana echoed, like a sonar of some sort, searching for any weakness in the structure.

*There must be a way out. I cannot imagine Boulder would have wasted his time teaching us, only to let us rot in here right after.*

"Other here guys! There is something different with this part of the r.... AAAAAAHHHH!"

One of Joe's comrades had been had. One of the gigantic centipede monsters was hiding against the wall and, as the young man had hit against it to check the structure integrity, the massive mandible closed around him before the monster hurriedly dug in the rock, disappearing into it in a few seconds.

"EARTH SPIKE!"

Joe launched a powerful earth spell, the earth spike following the monster in the tunnel it had made.

They barely had the time to hear to monster's cry of pain before the tunnel collapsed behind it, definitely closing that path.

"No!" exclaimed Joe as he hit the ground.

The others came close to him, waiting for what they should do next.

"Hurry! Find a weak point and dig! Use earth magic and dig your way out before more come!" ordered Joe.

Losing their friend had shaken their mind, and they spread to search for an exit. They barely had time to look around that the ground started to shake around them.

"Hurry up! Escape!" Exclaimed Joe

A rift started to appear in the centre of the place, quickly advancing in their direction.

"I found a way!" exclaimed one of the students.

"Me too!" exclaimed Claire.

"Go!" ordered Joe, also finding another weakened spot to dig in.

The four students spread, each digging its own tunnel to get out.

Joe quickly went through the earth and rocks, using what he had learned to quickly move the material around. He wasn't hearing nor feeling his friends anymore, but he had no time to worry about that. Behind him, he was feeling the gigantic form getting closer and closer.

*Hurry! Hurry! Move! Go forth! Always forward!* was ordering Joe's mind, focusing all his energy before him.

He was almost flying in the small tunnel, running forward to reach an exit, any exit, anyth...

Light!

It came in a second. He passed through the thin earth layer separating him from the outside and literally flew out of his hole, pushed outside by the force of his own actions.

As he landed loudly, he heard the pain cry of a gigantic underground beast, quickly fleeing from the sunlight to go back under the ground.

"I'm out....I'm out?....I'M OUT!!!" finally shouted the young man as he threw his hands in the air, desperately laughing out loud as he fell on the ground, feeling the sunlight on his skin after nearly a year underground.

"I'm out...but where are the others?"

.........................................................................................................................................

"Water Arrow!"

The fish knights fell, dead, back in the quickly rising water.

The water level had started to slightly increase day after day, but last month had seen a boost in the rising speed. And now, right as the message Crystal shattered, it was visibly coming up by the second, quickly feeling up all the bubble tank.

The students had seen that, and naturally decided to go up. The slight problem was that even at the highest point of the bubble tank, they were still at the bottom of what could have been an ocean.

"If we go out, we could die!" argued one of the student.

"If we k'stay here, we are k'sure to die!" answered Cekgo, arguing back.

The two were interrupted by a water arrow flying straight up, hitting the tank bubble's top.

All eyes turned to Guelan, currently pointing her staff at the top.

"What the hell are you doing?" asked Cekgo.

"The water is getting near, the monsters too. We must escape, if we break the roof, we could escape that way." explained the lamia.

"Are you mad!? We're going to drown in here!" exclaimed one of the students.

As they were arguing, a good half of the student's group were protecting the platform they were standing on, launching spell at the upcoming creatures.

"It's the only way. We learned how to use water as a shield, let's do that. We can all lock ourselves in water spheres to go up, it should hold until we reach the surface." explained Guelan.

"What if it doesn't hold up?" asked the student

"What if we stay here?" retorted Guelan.

A few seconds of silence later, Cekgo nodded.

"She has a point, guys. We can't stay here, but we might make it outside. What do you propose, Guelan?" asked Cekgo, trusting his friend's plan.

"Half of us protect the platform, the others focus on the ceiling centre above us. Let's attack one specific point as one, it should do it. Once we see the dome starting to shatter, we focus on personal water shield to be able to sustain the water falling on us. The mass of water pouring down should push the monsters back long enough for us to manage to escape." explained Guelan, thinking hard about it.

The others looked at each other for a second, then nodded.

"I guess we don't have much of a choice. Let's do that then!" agreed the student who was arguing before as he prepared his spell.

They followed Guelan's plan, launching water spikes as one while their friends were holding the monsters back.

They launched their attack once, twice, thrice, f...

They stopped. A loud growl echoed in the water under them. Something big, massive, gigantic even, had entered the bubble tank, taking advantage of the high water-level.

"What was that? Did someone saw something?" asked one of the students.

As if to answer him, a long green tentacle dashed out of the water, turning around the student and lifting him off the ground.

The young man's scream of fear got everyone's attention.

Acting quick, Guelan focused some water around her staff, forming a blade of water. Dashing on the tentacle, she cut it in an instant, freeing the young man and making the monster in the water roar in pain.

"Hurry, everyone at the platform centre!" ordered Guelan as she saw the bubble tank top starting to shatter.

"Everyone! Raise a shield around you and once you will be immersed, go up!" ordered the lamia, raising her own shield.

They all did like that, right as numerous tentacles were coming out of the water.

They were getting close to them, but luckily, the falling parts of the dome blocked them for a bit.

The water poured down on the group, their shield holding up quite well.

As soon as they could, they started to go up, straight up, leaving behind what had been their home for nearly a year.

*We might actually make it.* thought Guelan for a second as she dared to take a look under her, only to open her eyes wide.

It was as if the monsters were fighting amongst themselves to see who would have the pleasure to devour them. The scrabs were fighting the fish knights, the two kinds of monster tearing each other apart. Some kind of wide manta ray with long arms were turning around and attacking the tentacle from the monster still buried under the dome.

*Let's hurry before one side gets the upper hand...* thought the lamia as she continued to go up as fast as she could.

Suddenly, a violent current shook her shield, forcing her to slow down for a second.

Looking down once again, she saw that the monster with the long tentacles had, in a matter of seconds, won against the three other kinds of monsters, literally tearing them apart as it escaped from under the ruins. The monster in itself wasn't anything more than an agglomeration of tentacles turning around each other, hiding what was certainly the monster's true face underneath. The current was provoked by his tentacles turning around fast, creating small underwater whirlpools disturbing the students' ascension.

*I must do something or this thing is going to catch us all.* thought Guelan as she turned around.

Breathing in, the lamia let her shield shattered to focus on her attack.

She launched a water blade, then another one. The two magic projectile cut through the tentacle, making the monster roared his pain, his cry underwater making the same sound as an earthquake.

The tentacles slightly spread to reveal several hundred teeth totally covering the inside of a circular mouth that started to breathe in, creating a flow of water leading to it.

Guelan launched one spell, then another, but to no avail, she was carried away, getting nearer the certain death that represented the monster's mouth.

*I can't...even...breathe...* thought Guelan, suffocating without her shield.

As her sight was getting darker, she saw a wave of mana pass right next to her, then another. A hand caught her, pulling her inside a mana shield.

Cekgo, swimming as fast as he could, pulled her with him while the other students were launching their attack. Half of them had kept their shield and were protecting their attacking friends.

"K'stay with me, Guelan! If we attack together, we can ek'scape thik's thing!" said the lizardkin as he slightly slapped the lamia's face, waking her up.

"I'm fine...cover me while I attack." said Guelan as she turned around, pointing her magic weapon at the still advancing monster.

"WATER..."

The crystal on her sceptre started to shine blue, getting everyone's attention.

Understanding what she was doing, the other started to cast the same spell. In the dark water, several blue points started to shine.

"...SPEAR!!!"

In a united shout, several massive water spear dashed in the monster's direction.

As they collided with it, the magic projectiles blocked the monster's mouth. The gigantic creature quickly started to expand, the already massive body swelling like a balloon.

"FLEE!" shouted Guelan as they all started the go up again as fast as they could, trying to get as far away from the swelling monster as possible.

Then, in a heavy detonation, the tentacle monster blew up, creating a wave of energy quickly catching on them. The students did their best to escape it, but the energy wave was simply too fast and, with a force that shattered all the students' shield, collided with Guelan and her friends.

Pushed around without being able to do anything against it, Guelan and Cekgo were separated, the lamia quickly losing consciousness under the violent pressure from the energy wave.

.

.

.

Guelan opened her eyes suddenly, throwing up the water in her lungs.

She looked around, quickly noticing the sunlight on her face.

"I'm out of the water..."

Behind her, she saw a deep river, clearly not wide enough to be where the training ground was.

"How did I end up here?...Is it because of the energy wave? Where are the others?!" suddenly exclaimed the lamia as she looked around. But, except for her magic weapon, she had nothing and no one with her.

..............................................................................................................................

All around the training world Maximilian had created, the students suddenly felt the crystal around their neck starting to pulsate. As they touched it, a ghostly blue Maximilian appeared before them.

"Congratulations for still being alive! From now on, the next step of your training is waiting for you..."

Pointing at the highest hill, as high as a small mountain, the apparition continued.

"...there. Here is what you have to do: get there as quickly as possible, while not dying, of course. Whoever will arrive first will be rewarded. This very world as been created for one purpose: make you stronger. You are alone right now, do your best to go further and, of course, be careful as you do. I have hidden, here and there, some things that could very well make the difference between life and death for you, so keep your eyes open."

Pointing at the sky, Maximilian revealed a massive white cloud. It had the form of an hourglass currently flowing.

"I suggest you get to your destination before the hourglass emptied itself...in a month."

The sound of a bell echoed in the distance.

"The sound you just heard, in case you've forgotten, signify one of you has...how to say this...came across an unfortunate event. It is just a tiny indicator to keep you all informed. Good luck!" ended the ghostly Maximilian in an amused tone, disappearing in an instant.

All around the training world, the students looked around, nodded in confidence and/or pray for a second before starting their journey to the high hill.

.........................................................................................................................................

A week later.

Three times, the bell had been heard. Three times, the young mages had felt their heart tightened in their chest, fearing for their friends and themselves.

After several days, groups had started to form. Some students meeting others on their way and deciding to help each other to fight the monsters off.

If they could have fought each other to eliminate another contestant, they knew perfectly well that a helping hand to face the creatures on the way was worthier than a slight advance on the track.

.........................................................................................................................................

"Joe! You're alive!" exclaimed Claire as she ran to him, hugging him for a second.

"I am. Are you alone? Did you find someone else?" inquired the young man.

To answer him, Ilin appeared behind the earth student.

"Joe? Glad to see you survived." greeted the semi-gnome.

"Ilin? So the other paths are here too..." said Joe as he squinted his eyes to try and see a bit better.

"It seems so. Where are your glasses?" asked the girl when she saw his naked face.

"Broken. Don't worry, I manage without them." reassured the young mage.

"I hope so. Let's continue on the way then."

The newly made trio went on the path for a while. Forest was all they could see around them, large trees and coloured plants blocking their way.

"What path did you choose again? It's been a while and I have trouble remembering it." asked Joe.

To answer him, Ilin burned a wall of branches before them, opening a way through.

"...I can't say why, but it doesn't surprise me that much..." admitted Joe as he followed the semi-gnome.

The trio arrived before a stone wall they needed to climb to continue.

"Shit! That's too high, we will have to find another way." cursed Ilin as she observed the natural wall without any way to be climbed.

"No need to." simply said Joe as he came before the wall.

"Can you give me a hand, Claire? It will be quicker." asked the young man to the girl who nodded, coming next to him to face the wall.

"What do you have in mind?" asked Claire.

"Stairs. There is no need for anything too complicated, just a path for us to take." explained Joe.

"Alright, let's do this." agreed his friend.

With the two earth student on it, a set of stairs was quickly made from the stone wall itself, opening a path for the trio.

"Good job, you two." said Ilin before following the other two on the way.

"I have to say, you are far more capable than what I remember, Joe." said Ilin.

"Thank you...I guess." answered the tall young man, not really knowing how to take the semi-gnome words.

"If we have to travel together, I think we should try to know a bit more about each other's capacity. You two have earth and I have fire, I think there are some good things we could do together...if you don't screw things up, of course." said Ilin, ending her sentence on a slight taunt.

"It...could be useful. I suppose we could try." agreed Joe.

................................................................................................................................

Day after day, the different groups were advancing, some slower than the others, some losing their way a bit. Others were, simply enough, blocked by the monsters attacking them, they had to stop early to catch their breath and were losing time looking for things to drink and eat.

On the other hand, some groups were doing well, very well even.

.........................................................................................................................................

"Cekgo, look! Isn't that a health potion?" asked Little Cloud.

The young mage had been saved by the lizardkin two days ago. Taken away by the large flying monster, Little Cloud thought he was a goner, but when a water spike pierced the monster wing, he fought together with his newly made friend to kill the creature, getting nothing more than severe scratches and a bruised leg.

"It k'sure look like one, but...what if itk's a trap? It could be poik'son, don't you think?" asked the lizardkin as he carefully took the phial between his scaled fingers.

"You're right, we can't know for sure...I have an idea!"

.

.

.

When Maximilian had ordered his monsters from Palino, he had also ordered enough creatures to be sure his students would have things to hunt.

It was a small rabbit with a horn on the forehead that the duo had caught. Little Cloud used his wind magic to slightly cut the little creature's body, making it bleed. Quickly after, he let a drop of the potion fell in the rabbit's mouth.

In a second or two, the injury closed back.

"Itk's a health potion." stated the lizardkin, currently holding the rabbit down.

"It seems so..." answered Little Cloud as he let two drops from the phial fall in his mouth. Quickly, his slight injuries closed too, leaving him as good as new.

"Feeling better?"

"I'm totally fine. What should we do with it?" asked Little Cloud as he nodded in the rabbit direction.

To answer him, the lizardkin broke the animal's neck, killing it in a second.

"What? We have todayk's dinner now." simply stated the lizardkin as he saw the mortified look on the young mage's face.

.........................................................................................................................................

"Ready?" asked William.

"When you are." said the fire path student next to him.

The young man had met the tall student from the fire path and, even if slightly leery at first, the boy quickly opened up to William who was, at the moment, helping him cross a ravine.

It was too large for the fire student to cross on his own, but with the help of William...

The fire student nodded at the wind one and he ran, jumping as far as he could. At the same time, William used wind magic to push him further, literally lifting him up in the air to allow him to pass.

Once done with his comrade, the young wind mage crossed easily.

"You okay?" asked William as he looked at the kneeling fire student.

"I hate ravine...to be honest, I hate this whole place in general."

"Well, it's not exactly a holiday trip but...on the other hand, that's not what was promised to us." said William as he patted the boy's shoulder.

The fire student sighed as he stood up.

"You're right, he didn't lie, I am stronger now than when I came here at first."

"Like all of us, man. Like all of us."

Suddenly, the fire mage pushed William to the side, lifting up his staff.

"FIRE ARROW!"

William felt the fiery projectile passing right next to his head. Turning around with his weapon up, he saw a giant spider, her two front legs up and ready to attack, but stopped dead by a single fire arrow right between her eyes. As the monster fell down, William quickly looked around checking if there were others of her kind.

"Thanks, man. I didn't feel it at all." thanked William.

"We may be from different groups, but we are all in the same boat in the end. Let's go away, okay?"

"Yeah, I don't want to hang around any longer." agreed William, following his comrade away.

.........................................................................................................................................

"How can I know you're not a monster?" questioned Sphixine.

"I could ask you the same thing..." answered Guelan.

The two young ladies had met in some kind of swamp zone and, the least you could say was that the catkin's first impression wasn't that engaging.

"You have scales and a snake’s tail, it's strange..."

"You have cat ears, fur and tail, it's not less strange." answered Guelan.

The catkin had pointed her staff at Guelan and the lamia had done the same, the two not leaving the other from their sight.

"I'm a student from Griffinia's academy of magic...Who are you?" questioned the catkin.

"I was brought to the academy by Maximilian." answered the lamia.

Guelan saw the catkin was thinking hard. After a few seconds, the memory of that day came back to her.

"I remember your face! But you had legs back then!"

"I was disguised back then." politely answered Guelan.

The two kept silent for a second or two.

"So? What do we do now? We can't exactly stay like that, pointing at each other with our weapon, forever." stated Guelan.

"I don't know about you, but I can keep this on for long." proudly said the catkin.

"You...are not that bright, am I wrong?" asked the lamia as she heard the catkin

"HEY! I'm not stupid!" exclaimed the catkin.

As Sphixine shouted for a second, a gigantic worm dashed from the swamp nearby, it's round mouth opening wide to let out a dozen thin and long tentacles.

The viscous appendages turned around Sphixine, lifting her up in a second and pulling her to the mouth full of sharp teeth.

"Water blade!"

A blade of water cut the tentacles, allowing the catkin to put some distance between her and the monster.

"Thank you for the help." thanked the catkin as she pulled off a tentacle still on her."

"It's too soon for the thanks, the monster is still there. I'm from the water path, what about you?" asked Guelan as she got in fighting position.

"Wind. You helped me, it's my turn to help you."

Pointing their magic weapon at the crawling monster, the two girls joined their magic to attack together, one injuring the beast while the other was distracting it.

.

.

.

In a last shriek of pain, the worm fell down, green blood gushing from the numerous injuries covering its body.

"That was a big one...thank you for your help, snake-girl."

"Guelan." corrected the lamia.

"Sphixine. What do you say we stick together for a bit?" answered the catkin as she extended her hand.

"As long as you don't try to attack me while I sleep." answered the lamia with a sly smile as she shook the catkin's hand.

"Deal!"

..................................................................................................................................

Another week passed. The different groups went further and further on the way. The ones who had lost their way were now back on track, catching on the ones with the most advance quickly enough. The bell echoed two more times, always worrying the ones still there, willing to know if it was a friend who was gone.

Finally, two days before the hourglass was empty, some arrived at the hill's base, sighing in relief as they could finally expect to see the end of their nightmarish journey.

.........................................................................................................................................

"Finally!" exclaimed Cekgo as he admired the high hill before him.

"All we have to do now ik's to climb thik's hill and we will be there!" joyfully said the lizardkin.

With Little Cloud at his side, the lizardkin started to go up. The slope was gentle, the sky was clear, there was no monster around, it was simple...maybe too simple?

"Don't you think it's strange?" asked Little Cloud, walking next to his comrade.

"What?"

"There is no monster, no obstacle, no trap, nothing to stop us. Isn't it a bit too easy?"

The boy's observation made the lizardkin slowed down.

"You're right. Blue wouldn't give uk's victory like that..."

"Neither would Windy. Let's be careful, we barely have no potion left." stated the boy as he checked at their stuff.

On their way, the different groups had found, carefully hidden, one or two potions that had served them well during their journey. But, after several meetings with monsters, the health potions were nearly completely gone, as was the mana ones.

Nonetheless, the duo went up, keeping their eyes open to be sure nothing would surprise them.

For hours, they went up without a single problem.

They had to stop for the night. They finished the last pieces of food they had, sleeping on the hill side, taking turn keeping guard like they had learned to do.

Finally, after a complete day of climbing the seemingly infinite hill, they finally saw it.

A wood cabin, simple, massive, wide, circular.

"Is that where we're supposed to go?" asked Little Cloud, a bit disappointed.

"Thatk's what the mek'ssage k'said...letk's go, we'll k'see whatk's ink'side."

As they approached the cabin, the duo was suddenly stopped by the ground starting to shake under their feet.

"Whatk's happening?!" exclaimed Cekgo.

As the two saw something starting to emerge from the ground before them, they had the reflex to jump back.

A good idea, because two seconds later, the place they were standing on collapsed, a massive stone hand getting out of the earth.

In a growling sound, a three-metre-high stone golem was facing them.

Without a second of hesitation, the golem lifted up his two massive fists and hit the ground, creating a shockwave that ejected the duo.

Rolling down the hill, Little Cloud was luckily stopped by none other than William.

"William?!"

"Little Cloud! You're alive!" happily exclaimed William as he helped the young one up.

"Thanks to Cekgo, yes. He helped me with the monster that had brought me down." explained the young mage.

"Speaking of monsters..." interrupted the fire student as he pointed at the golem with his staff.

"Thik's fucker k'surpik'sed uk's! It came out of the ground and k'started to attack juk'st ak's we were going to reach the cabin." explained Cekgo as he brushed the dirt on his mage robe away.

"What are we going to do? It's clearly guarding the entrance." asked the fire student.

"I guess we've got no choice, let's attack it." proposed William.

"Attack it! Are you mad?! This fricking thing is three metres high at least!" whined the fire student.

"If you have another idea, I would be happy to hear it." answered William as he weakly smiled at his comrade, admitting the fatality of their situation.

The fire student sighed and lifted up his staff.

"I hate this place..."

The four split, evading a rock falling on them, threw by the massive enemy.

They waited for the golem to pick another one up and attacked as one, the two wind students launched their wind spikes at his chest while Cekgo and the fire student attacked the arms, making the large golem let go of his projectile. The rock fell hard on the monster's head, letting out a loud cracking noise before the golem fell down in a loud and heavy sound.

"YEAH!! In your face, fucker!" roared Cekgo, overjoyed.

"That was easy." sighed the fired student as he sat, relieved.

The four turned around when they heard the voices of others, arriving at the top of the hill.

"Cekgo!" called Guelan from afar.

"William! Little Cloud!" exclaimed Sphixine as she saw her two friends.

The friends reunited with a hug, laughing out their joy to see each other again.

"I'm glad you made it. What was the sound we heard earlier?" asked Sphixine.

To answer her, William pointed at the golem on the ground.

"Wow! You kicked a golem's butt! Good job!" congratulated Sphixine as she stepped closer to see it better.

"Hey! You think he is a friend of Windy?" asked the catkin, half-joking.

Guelan, who was talking to Cekgo, suddenly felt something and shouted at her friend.

"SPHIXINE!! GET BACK, QUICK!"

The catkin turned around, a curious look on her face, only to feel a massive hand close around her.

"ARG!" shouted Sphixine as the massive rocky hand started to crush her body.

"WATER SPIKE!"

"WIND BLADE!"

"FIRE ARROW!"

The three types of magic attack hit the golem hard, making it lose his grip just enough for the catkin to fall down, landing hard on the ground.

While the others were covering him, William ran to get his friend and pull her back to safety.

Sphixine was still conscious, but clearly in pain, her body broken at numerous places.

"William! make her drink that!" ordered Little Cloud as he gave him the rest of the health potion.

"Thanks!" said the young man as he did so, helping the catkin to drink.

Sphixine coughed loudly, hissing as her broken bones retrieved their usual state in less than a minute.

"Are you alright?" inquired William.

Smiling at him, the catkin nodded.

"You didn't really think I would die so easily, right?"

"And here I thought I would finally be free." slightly taunted the young man as he helped his friend up, receiving a playful slap in the face while he was laughing.

"What is this thing doing?" wondered the fire student out loud.

"It's changing..." observed Guelan.

"What do you k'see, Guelan?" asked Cekgo.

"The energy coming from the golem...it's getting more powerful. It's as if it was evolving." explained the lamia.

Before them, the golem had stood up again, its body shaking a bit. The cracks the students had been able to inflict it were now shining lightly. Growling deep, the golem started to grow, quickly reaching five metres high. As it grew, the cracks enlarged, now covering all its body. Then, finally, the stone layer on the golem fall, revealing a diamond-like body with two shining eyes currently looking at the students.

"A CRYSTAL GOLEM!" shouted William as he remembered pictures from his numerous days at the academy library.

The five metres tall monster pointed at the ground. In a shattering-glass sound, spikes of crystal started to come out of the ground, forming a line of spikes quickly going in the students' direction.

"JUMP ON THE SIDE!" shouted Little Cloud.

By reflexes, the students evaded the attack, silently thanking their teachers for the physical training they had endured the months before.

As they stood, they all started to cast. First, it was Cekgo and Guelan who attacked.

"Water spike!"

Two long spikes of water flew at the golem who, without a sound, lifted his arms before himself.

As the water spikes collided with the crystal hands, two blue magic circles appeared, completely blocking the watery magic projectiles.

"What the hell! How come it didn't do anything?!" cursed Cekgo.

"Maybe is it immune to water?" proposed the fire student before launching a fire attack.

Seeing the fire projectile approaching, the crystal golem made the same gesture as for the water attack, blocking the fire arrow with a red magic circle.

"My turn!" exclaimed Little Cloud as he launched a wind blade.

The curved wind blade dashed at the giant monster, only to be blocked by a white magic circle on the golem's hand.

"What do we do now?!" asked the fire student, clearly not sure of himself at the moment.

This time, the golem pointed his two arms at the ground, creating several lines of crystal going in the students' direction.

"WATCH OUT!" shouted Cekgo as he jumped on the side once again.

William and Sphixine jumped on opposing sides, splitting to evade the attack.

This time, though, the lines of crystal started to split too, one arriving right under William.

Right at the last moment, the young man managed to raise a wind shield, blocking the attack. But, the violence of the crystals thrusting against his shield projected William, making him land hard on the ground, unhurt but shaken nonetheless.

Moving slowly, the crystal golem took a few steps in the boy's direction, each of his steps doing the same sound as a massive rock hitting the ground.

"WILLIAM!!!"

As William got back to his senses, he saw the golem foot lifted above him, blocked by a wind shield other than his.

Looking on the side, he could see Sphixine and Little Cloud uniting their forces to protect him.

William tried to go away, but other crystals came from the ground, blocking his way.

"William! You must get out of there! We won’t be able to hold for long!" warned Sphixine.

The others were doing their best to make the golem move, but were unable to do it. With one and, the monster was blocking the water attack, with the other he was blocking the fire attack, nothing was making him step back.

"EARTH WAVE!!!"

Under the monster's foot still on the ground, the ground shook and shattered, making the monster lose his balance and fall down.

Taking the chance, William jumped out of the crystal circle, running back to his friends.

It's there that he saw two earth students. The two were pointing their staff at the ground right under the monster's foot.

"Thanks, guys!" thanked William, realising he had just avoided death.

"You're welcome. The others are coming too!" explained the oldest one of the two.

"The others?"

"We were with a water and a fire student. They went back a bit to show the way to others we saw from a path above when we noticed the giant thing from afar. We came here to help while we wait for them. What's the plan?" finally asked the earth student.

Seeing the crystal golem already trying to stand once again, William had an idea.

"Everyone! Let's block this thing on the ground! Use any inhibiting spell you know! Don't let it up!" ordered William.

"Good idea." accepted Guelan as she and Cekgo created a water semicircle they used to block one of the golem's arms.

Acting quickly, the eight students came around the golem, using any spell they knew to block it as well as they could.

"What do we do now? This thing isn't going to simply wait for us calmly." stated one of the earth students.

As if to answer him, the giant monster started to struggle violently, trying to break the spells blocking his arms and legs.

"HOLD IT DOWN!" ordered William.

Focusing on their spells, the students were managing quite well.

The monster struggled for a bit longer and stopped, understanding it wasn't how he should do it. Looking straight up, the Golem opened his large crystal mouth wide, emitting a deafening roar that shook the ones around.

A magic circle appeared right before his mouth and, as if the golem was spitting them, three one metre wide crystal flew out of his mouth.

While in the air, the crystals shined for a second and transformed, becoming smaller version of the golem blocked on the ground.

"Watch out! He spawns tiny himself!" warned Little Cloud as he jumped back to evade an attack from one of the three smaller golems.

"Little Cloud!" exclaimed William, letting go of his spell to help his friend.

All around the giant golem, the students were forced to retreat, fighting off the three small ones.

Even if clearly less powerful than the big one, the three small golems were dangerous nonetheless. The crystal claws serving as their hands were cutting like razors, as the bloody shoulder of Little Cloud was proving. Their crystal body was resistant, but, apparently, they could receive some damage nonetheless.

Blocking one of the small ones, William protected Little Cloud for a second.

"How are you doing?"

Turning his staff around, Little Cloud pushed the tiny golem back with three wind arrows, before hissing as he put a hand on his bloody shoulder.

"I'll be fine, but thanks for your help."

Now free of the spell blocking him, the giant golem slowly started to stand once again, this time not blocked by anyone.

"Thik's fucker ik's getting back up!" exclaimed Cekgo as he parried an attack from one of the small ones, hitting back with his water blade.

"We can't waste time with the small one, let's get rid of them!" said Guelan as she focused her spell for a few seconds before letting go, piercing the same small golem with her water spike.

The small crystal golem staggered, but stayed up, still fighting.

"K'shit! How do we kill them!?" cursed Cekgo.

"MOVE!" came a voice from behind the lizardkin.

By reflexes, Cekgo and Guelan jumped on the side. A flaming boulder hit the small golem hard, making it fall on the ground, rifted.

The students on the hill saw Joe and Ilin, leading the rest of the students behind them, had arrived.

Not giving the small golem the time to stand again, Joe jumped on it, placing his magic staff right above the rift.

"Earth Spike!" cast the young man.

Working like a wood cleavers cutting a log in two, the stone spike separated the left side of the golem from the right, the crystal monster shattering immediately after.

"Students from the different paths! Work together, cracked their skin and used that to shatter them!" ordered Ilin, the small young lady acting like a true leader on a battlefield.

With the reinforcement provided by the rest of the students arrived, they quickly took care of the two small golems.

While the others were taking care of the two small ones, Joe, William, Ilin, Sphixine, Guelan and Cekgo got together to build a plan, acting together to know exactly what the different paths students could do to help to destroy the crystal giant.

.

.

.

"Everyone knows what he must do?" asked William, the others answering him with a single nod.

"Okay, let's do this!"

The different leaders ran to their friends, quickly explaining their role in the plan to not waste any time, the crystal giant almost up.

As the second small one shattered, the giant golem was up again, already pointing at the ground.

"Earth path! With me! EARTH WAVE!" ordered Joe, launching a grouped attack with the four other students from the earth path.

A literal earthquake shook the ground right under the golem's feet, forcing it to stop his attack to keep his balance.

"Water path, block his feet!" ordered Guelan, seconded by Cekgo.

Arrows and spikes of water dashed at the golem's feet, quickly turning the ground into a muddy mess.

"Earth path, with me!" ordered Joe as he led the four other earth students on the monster's side, making them all focusing on one single spell.

"Wind path!" called William.

"Fire path!" called Ilin, standing next to him.

"ATTAAAACK!!!" shouted the two as one, casting their spells as one.

The two group united, launching a volley of spikes and arrows, of wind and fire, all mixed together to dash at the golem's chest.

Seeing the incoming attack, the golem lifted his arms, blocking the volley with a white and a red circle.

"Guelan! Now!" exclaimed William.

"Water path, break his arms!" ordered Guelan. With her friends, she quickly ran under the golem and pointed her staff up, aiming at the monster's forearms.

"Water blade!" cast all the students of the water path as one, uniting their spell in a single one, forming a massive water crescent moon blade that came from them, dashing at the monster's arms from under.

The blade collided, cracking the forearms, but they were still there.

"Again!" ordered Cekgo.

A second blade collided with the arms, cracking them even more, the wind and fire path students not giving the monster a single second to evade the water attack.

"ONE LAST TIME!" shouted the lamia and the lizardkin.

"WATER BLADE!!!" shouted the students a third time.

For the third time, the blade went up and, this time, break the arms with a shattering-glass noise.

While the students of the water path were running on the side to evade the falling crystals, the wind and fire path students stopped their attack for a single second, but only to look at each other, nodding.

"WIND...." started to cast William, Sphixine and their friends on one side.

"FIRE..." started to cast Ilin and her comrades on the other side.

"TORNADOOOOO!!!" shouted the two groups as one, creating a single red and white whirlwind shaped in a cone that hit the golem with a tremendous force.

Without his arms to protect himself, the golem received the attack completely and, destabilised by the mud under his feet, couldn't do anything but fall back.

Behind the falling body of the giant, Joe gave the signal his friends were waiting for.

"NOW! EARTH STALAGMITE!!!"

The five mage, all pointing at a single point on the ground, made a massive stone stalagmite come out of it.

If the spell wasn't that hard to cast alone, the five mages together had only one purpose: strengthening it.

Strengthening their spell enough for it to sustain the fall of a crystal giant.

And the golem fell on it. Betrayed by his own weight, the monster quickly saw his chest pierced from behind by the earth spell.

He desperately tried to lift himself up with his now non-existent arms. But, in a few seconds, the light in his eyes disappeared, the monster stopped moving and, like dust blown away by the wind, his crystal body disappeared.

A long silence fell on the group for a good minute, then.

"YEAH!!! WE MADE IT!!!" shouted Cekgo, overjoyed, quickly joined by the others in his after-battle relief.

.........................................................................................................................................

They all took a minute or two to rest, sharing the bit of potion they still had to heal those needing it the most.

Some were surprised, to say the least, about Guelan being a lamia, but her friends stood up for her, helped by Sphixine, Joe, William and Ilin who couldn't do anything but recognise her important role in their victory.

"It's true that it's thanks to everyone that we manage to win without losing anyone...now that I think about it...aren't we a bit too much?" stated William as he looked at his comrades all around.

"What do you mean?" asked Cekgo.

"Give me a second. Everyone! Can you tell me if someone from your group is missing?" asked William, speaking loudly to be sure everyone was hearing him.

They took less than a minute to realise the disturbing truth: no one from their group was missing.

"Wait a minute, I thought every time we heard the bell, it meant someone was dead." said Little Cloud, thinking hard.

"That's not what he said." answered Guelan, everyone looking at her.

"The words were 'came across an unfortunate event'. Technically, he never said anything about dying." stated the lamia, making everyone look at each other.

"Well, anyway, since we're all here, I suggest we go to see what's inside this cabin, it's where we're supposed to go after all." proposed William as he stood to go to the cabin.

"Wait! Who said you would be the first one to go?" asked a fire path student as he stood, he and three others blocking the way.

"Yeah! We all heard whoever reached it first would be rewarded, why should it be you?"

Coming behind William, the student of the wind path faced the ones from the fire path.

"You have a problem with that? He was there before you. Don't forget it's thanks to him too if we are still alive."

"It's Ilin who has done the most!" retorted the fire path student, he and his friends raising their staff, imitated by the students from the wind path.

"Guys! Guys! Stop this! I never said I would be the only one to go in." hurriedly said William, lifting his hands up in a sign of peace.

"And? What do you suggest then? This cabin is clearly too small for us all to go in." said the one leading the fire group.

"Let me think...why not send in four of us? One for each path, would that be fine for everyone?" proposed William.

The different groups talked among each other for a minute or two.

"We propose Ilin. If you try to fool her, we know you'll regret it , a lot." stated the student from the fire path.

"Alright...what about the other paths?" asked William.

"Guelan will go for uk's." said Cekgo, pushing the lamia further.

"Me? Really?" asked the lamia, not sure if it was a joke or not.

"Of courk'se! Your plank's have k'save uk's more than once already. We all know itk's thankk's to you we managed to ek'scape from underwater." said Cekgo, the others nodded their consent.

"Well...thank you, really."

"Don't thank uk's yet, we k'still don't know what ik's ink'side." said the lizardkin as he nodded at the cabin.

"You're right, I'll be careful." said Guelan as she came next to Ilin, near the cabin entrance.

"I'll represent the earth path." stated Joe as he stepped further, encouraged by his friends behind him.

"Okay.Now for us, guys, who do you think should..."

"You go in, William." said Sphixine.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want you to feel left behind or something. Little Cloud, you were the first arrived, are you okay with this?" questioned William.

"You and Sphixine are the best of our group. If she says you go first, I say you go first too." answered the young mage, Sphixine playfully shuffling his hair as he did so.

"Typical follower..." mumbled Ilin, looking up in a bothered way.

"In that case..." said William who hadn't heard her.

William came next to the three others and, as one, they pushed open the two large doors.

...................................................................................................................................

In the cabin, a crystal was on a pedestal, pointed at by four statues of Maximilian around it. Each one of the statues had a precious stone place at its heart level.

"What do you think we're supposed to do?" asked Joe, observing one of the statues closer.

"The precious stones are emitting a very feeble energy wave, like they're waiting for something." explained Guelan, focusing her attention on the precious stones.

"There are four statues...each of them has a different stone on their chest, do you think we're supposed to use them?" asked William.

"Isn't that an evidence? I think Maximilian wanted us to make it here together. Look, this one has a ruby on its chest..." stated Ilin as she put her hand on the precious stone, using her mana to activate it.

The ruby shined red, line of red mana ran along the statue, then on the ground, to reach the crystal on the pedestal. The crystal feebly shined red, but nothing else happened.

"What are you waiting for? We're not going to stay here, are we?" said the semi-gnome, waiting for the others.

"This one has a sapphire..." stated Guelan, doing like Ilin and obtaining the same result, although this time it was a blue light that went inside the crystal on the pedestal, the red and blue lights dancing inside it.

"I suppose the emerald could be a good representation of the earth." said Joe as he used his mana to activate the third statue, adding a green energy to the other two.

"All that's left is the diamond for the wind, it makes sense." said William as he imitated his comrades, activating the fourth stone.

The four colours danced in the crystal, faster and faster, until they mixed in one, golden-coloured, energy.

The crystal shined brighter and brighter, starting to float off the pedestal.

Like a giant heart, the crystal pulsated, destroying the wood wall around the four statues. All around, the students gathered around to see what was happening, only to be pushed back a bit by the force coming from the crystal.

A bell sound was heard, echoing from inside the golden crystal, louder and louder, as the crystal was shining brighter and brighter.

"I CAN'T SEE A THING!" shouted William, forced to close his eyes, lifting his arms before his face because of the light strong enough to pass through his eyelids.

Everyone around the crystal did the same thing, blinded by the crystal, deafened by the bell sound.

Then...all went quiet and the light disappeared.

"CONGRATULATIONS!!!" echoed the voice of Maximilian.

When they opened their eyes, the students could see they were standing right in the middle of the very same coliseum they had arrived at, several months before.

Sitting at the emperor's place, Maximilian was clapping hard, laughing his joy out loud.

All around the coliseum were crystals, floating silently as different images of the training grounds could be seen. At Maximilian's side were Red, Blue, Boulder and Windy, all having a little smile on their face.

Jumping down to come close to the students, Maximilian joyfully patted William's and Joe's shoulders as he passed next to them.

"What a show! All united to defeat an enemy too strong for you, it was marvellous!"

"You...you were watching?" asked William, his eyes going from an observation crystal to another one, not believing his eyes.

"What? You thought I would leave my students alone? The idea was to train you, not kill you." explained an amused Maximilian.

"But...you let three of us die the very first day we arrived!"

"What? You mean those three?" asked Maximilian as he pointed at something behind the students, making them all turned around.

There were the beastkins, all of them smiling widely as they were waving at everyone. Suddenly, they hit their own head hard, shattering themselves like porcelain statues.

"What the hell!" cursed Cekgo.

"I call them 'porcelain silhouettes'. They are nothing more than a well-made puppet created to look like students of your school who have chosen to not come here. Their only purpose was to give an authentic feeling of danger to you all. Don't you think it worked well?" asked Maximilian, amused.

"You...you tricked us!" exclaimed Ilin.

"Indeed, and you all have been marvellously easy to trick." chuckled Maximilian.

The tension among the student was broken by Little Cloud's slight laugh.

"Whatk's making you laugh?" asked Cekgo as he slightly tapped the young mage's shoulder.

"I don't know, I feel relieved. No one is dead after all, and we are finally done. I feel...I don't really know." answered Little Cloud, a sigh of relief leaving his mouth.

"I...guek'ss you're right. I don't like being played with, but in the end, all ik's fine."

Ilin wasn't so inclined to laugh.

"What? Are you all going to let it slide like that? This man ridiculed us all!" exclaimed the semi-gnome as she pointed at Maximilian with her staff.

In a second, Red was before her, hands behind his back, his foot pushing the girl's staff extremity down.

"Please tell me you're not going to throw a tantrum, little girl..." said Red with an amused chuckle.

Ilin growled, knowing perfectly well she had no chance of winning against her teacher, even less in her tired state.

"I...I won't...but I still am not going to forgive him, nor you if you knew!" warned the semi-gnome.

"Anyway!" interrupted Maximilian, his joyful but powerful voice not giving anyone a choice other but to shut up.

"This part of your training is over. For months, you have been taught the basics of what being a good mage means. You have live and train in groups, you have survived the journey to this place. Now, for the last month of your training, you will all train alone."

Maximilian's announcement made them gasp.

"You will now be teleported in separate rooms, for each is own. You will have all you need to rest, eat, drink and wash. With you, you will all have a human-sized puppet..."

He explained them all what was Mokujin and how it worked.

"You won't have your teachers anymore, this long session of training is yours to manage. In exactly one month, you will all be teleported back here, and then...TOURNAMENT!" finally exclaimed Maximilian, raising his arms in the air.

A long silence fell on the student group.

"A...tournament?" asked William, unsure.

"Indeed. The last event of this training will be a tournament to which every of you will participate. Use the month to come to surpass yourself, come back and surprise your friends and rivals, show me the results of your personal training, prove me you have become good enough to take care of yourself!"

Over with his speech, Maximilian clapped his hands, making all the students disappear.

"Those crystals around their neck are really useful..." said the man to himself, chuckling.

...............................................................................................................................

Like Maximilian had explained, all the students found themselves in separate rooms with enough space to train and live their life. A warm meal was waiting for them on the table, the bath was filled and warm and the bed felt comfy and was a real blessing after all this time spent in the wild.

A lot of the students couldn't resist and dropped on the bed, closing their eyes long before they were down.

Some of then, though, didn't waste any time and directly started their training, keeping an eye on the small hourglass in their room showing them how much time was left until the tournament.

.........................................................................................................................................

"I thought we were supposed to be alone for a month?" said Joe.

In front of him was Boulder.

"It's your reward for being one of the first arrived. You are allowed to have one hour of my time for the month to come, choose well when you wish to receive my help, I won't stay for long. I only came today to give you something..."

In a second, Boulder was before Joe, his hands on the young man's eyes. Mana poured in the young man's orbits then Boulder disappeared.

"WHAT ARE YOU DO...ing? I...I can see? I can see perfectly!" exclaimed Joe as he looked around, his sight not troubled anymore.

"Thank you, Sir." said the mage as he turned to face his training puppet.

................................................................................................................................

And, with everyone going at his own pace, the last month passed.

....................................................................................................................................

"WELCOME TO THE TOURNAMENT!!!"

The students were standing once again in the coliseum, talked to by Maximilian.

The man was standing at the emperor's place, With Lin-Lin and Binvo at his sides.

Physically, the two hadn't change that much since the beginning of their training, if only looking a bit more muscular, finely for Lin-Lin who had kept her feminine warrior beauty, and more visibly for Binvo whose arms were looking stronger than ever. What had changed the most was their aura, calm and controlled, it was hard to tell their real power. The minotaur was equipped with a white tunic reinforced with a mithril chainmail. His arms were covered by a heavy-looking white metal covered with golden runes. He had his hammer on his back, proudly sporting his father's weapon for everyone to see. Lin-Lin's spear was nowhere to be seen but, on her shoulder, a little blueish thing, as big as a fist, was silently observing the scene.

Looking like a big drop of water with big round eyes and a mouth, a slime was quietly resting on the pandalady's shoulder.

"The place you stand right now will be your battleground. At the count of three, you will be teleported at the zone's edge, at equal distance from each other. The tournament will have two phases, the first one is a battle royal. Work in teams or alone, it's your choice. The battle royal will end as soon as only eight of you remain, then we'll begin the second phase: one against one confrontation. The rules are simple: no killing. Apart from that, have fun!"

Raising his hands, Maximilian clapped once.

"Three..."

The students were all teleported, appearing inside individual magic shield, there to be sure none of them would try an early attack.

"Two..."

A second clap and the shield shined white.

"One..."

The shields disappeared.

"FIGHT!!!"

.........................................................................................................................................

It was a literal fireworks of magic. Fire arrows, wind blades, water spikes, earth boulders, spells were flying around, hitting their target once on two, while the other time it was hitting someone else.

Small groups formed for a while, but quickly split once they started to fight amongst themselves.

Each time a student was down, unable to fight, he or she was teleported out of the battleground. There, the four golem teachers were giving them mana and health potion, making sure they were fine.

Maximilian was glad to see the students were also using their close combat faculties, using their mana covered weapons to fight off those coming close enough.

*Good, good, they kept the reflex to fight accordingly to the situation.*

The battle royal quickly disposed of half of the students, leaving only a dozen of them fighting after barely ten minutes.

Small duels happened here and there, then a single clapping noise echoed, signalling the end of the fight.

"Well done! Well done! The battle royal is now over. Let this be a lesson for each and every of you, you will sometimes have to deal with the melee, don't let a different situation disturb your concentration. But the lesson will be for later, let's all congratulate our eight finalists! They have formed a very coordinated trio during the battle royal, APPLAUSE WILLIAM, SPHIXINE AND K...Oh, sorry, LITTLE CLOUD!!" said Maximilian, deciding to stick with the young mage nickname.

The three wind path students out of the fight cheered for their friends.

"She has been like a burning demon for all her adversaries: ILIN!"

This time, it was the fire path students who cheered for the semi-gnome, who simply lifted her staff up, smiling at her comrades.

"Their earth protections have brought their opponents to their knees in desperation: JOE AND CLAIRE!"

The human girl who had travelled with Joe and Ilin was standing next to him, clearly surprised to be one of the finalists. Nudging at her, Joe showed her their three friends shouting their names, encouraging them.

"And finally, watching each other's back, our scaled duo of the water path: CEKGO AND GUELAN!"

The two's friends whistled and called their names. Cekgo laughed out loud as he waved at them, lifting up Guelan's hand to do the same, the lamia proving to be a bit shy in that situation.

"Now I will pick names randomly, establishing the different fights. While I do this, don't hesitate to drink a mana and a health potion. Oh, another thing..."

Stomping on the ground, Maximilian made a squared ring come out of the ground.

Measuring a dozen metres on a dozen and one metre, the stone square rose one metre above the ground level.

"There are some tiny differences with the battle royal. You still can't kill your adversary, but other rules will be added. First, you can win by making your opponent fall off the ring. I said fall, he must touch the ground or it won't count. If you fall anywhere on the ring and don't get right back up, I will start to count, if I reach ten, you lose."

While they were listening to Maximilian, the eight contestants were gladly drinking the offered potions, waiting for the names to come out.

"The names have been picked!"

Snapping his fingers, Maximilian created a stone board on which the eight contestants names were written, showing against whom they were going to fight.

.

.

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. .

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. . . .

. . . .

............... ................ ................ ...........

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

Claire Cekgo Guelan Sphixine LittleCloud Ilin Joe William

"There you have it! The first fight will be CLAIRE VERSUS CEKGO!"

Four sets of stairs appeared, leading to the different groups of students. The ones not fighting had to leave the battleground, giving space to the ones fighting.

Joe nodded at Claire and left her alone, the chubby girl holding her staff tight with two hands.

Guelan patted Cekgo's shoulder before going away, leaving the lizardkin alone with his opponent on the ring.

"HEY! CLAIRE!" shouted the lizardkin from the other side of the ring, surprising the human girl. Worriedly, she looked up to see the lizardkin, showing all his pointy teeth in what was his best friendly smile.

"LETK'S HAVE FUN! GIVE ME ALL YOU HAVE!" shouted the water path student, making the girl feel a bit better. She breathed deeply and let her grip loose a tiny bit, closing her eyes for a second before reopening them, looking surer of herself.

"I WILL!" shouted back the girl, the students looking at the ring cheering for her as well as for Cekgo.

"MAGES! READY YOUR STAFF...FIGHT!!!" shouted Maximilian, starting the fight.

Cekgo didn't waste a second, he dashed in Claire's direction, his staff covered by a thin layer of mana water. By reflexes, the girl protected herself with an earth shield, blocking the lizardkin attack.

"Earth push!" exclaimed Claire from behind the stone wall, making the stone layer dashed before her in an impulsion.

"K'shit!" cursed Cekgo as he jumped on the side.

"Earth arrows!" cast Claire, turning her staff around.

Before her, a dozen arrows appeared.

"GOOD JOB CLAIRE!"

"SHOW HIM HOW IT’S DONE!!!"

The girl's friends were shouting, cheering for the chubby girl fighting.

With a wide gesture, Claire sent the arrows in Cekgo's direction, the lizardkin quickly raising a water shield to protect himself.

All the arrows broke against the shield, excepted for one who went through, ending in Cekgo's hip.

Hissing, the lizardkin pulled it out, throwing it on the ground.

"My turn!" exclaimed Cekgo as he started to cast too.

"Water wave!"

Before the lizardkin, a massive wave of water appeared before dashing in Claire's direction.

"Earth wall!" cast Claire, hiding herself behind the wall appearing before her.

"Water Impulk'sion!" quickly cast the lizardkin.

A thin layer of water appeared under Cekgo, in a second, the puddle became a column, launching Cekgo up.

Claire, surprised by the lizardkin quick action, barely had time to look up before the water student next action.

"Water Hammer!"

Handling his staff like a baseball bat, Cekgo created a massive hammer head at his staff extremity. Turning on himself, the lizardkin hit hard on Claire's side who didn't have the time to raise her shield again, barely protecting her body from the damages but sent flying nonetheless.

The girl fell out the ring.

"CEKGO WINS!" declared Maximilian, making the earth path students cheer.

Claire stood, shaking her head with teary eyes.

"Hey!"

Turning around, Claire saw Cekgo extending his clawed hand to her, waiting for her to grasp it.

"You fought well, you don't have to be ak'shamed of yourk'self." said Cekgo with another friendly predatory smile.

Laughing feebly, Claire took the lizardkin's hand, standing on the ring to receive her friend's cheers.

........................................................................................................................................

The two girls were sidling slowly, facing each other at opposite sides of the ring.

Guelan and Sphixine had travelled together, they had seen what the other could do, and it was a month of training prior. They knew very well the one in front of them wasn't to be taken lightly.

Like a snake and a cat observing each other, the two stayed silent for long minutes, then...

"Wind Dash!"

Coupling her natural speed with a wind impulsion, Sphixine closed the distance between her and Guelan in a second, readying her claws and staff.

The lamia reposted, creating a water layer around her .

"Water Jags!"

Sphixine had to stop abruptly to evade the ground covered in icy little points as sharp as razors. Using the second of hesitation from the catkin, Guelan pointed her staff at her and...

"Water spike!"

Sphixine barely evaded the hit, the magic projectile bruising her side as she jumped on the side. If it was not for her natural agility, the catgirl would have suffered a lot more than a slight cut on her side.

Jumping back to put some distance between them, Sphixine put a hand on her side, checking how serious it was.

"I see you're not willing to go easy on me..." said the catgirl with a feral smile.

"Would you forgive me if I did?" asked the lamia as she shattered the protection around her.

"Not a chance..." answered the catkin as she licked the blood off her hand, her eyes taking a more animal form.

"That's what I thought!" exclaimed Guelan as she started to cast several water arrows, sending them one after the other to try and reach her target.

On her side, Sphixine jumped high, using wind to go even higher. Once in the air, she started to launch wind blades one after the others. The two girls launched attack after attack, parrying their adversary's spells while sending theirs.

The two stopped after a minute, realising none of them would have the upper hand.

"Is that all you have, Guelan? Don't tell me you spent the last month sleeping?" taunted the catkin, panting a bit.

"I could tell you the same thing, did it take you an entire mouth to bath correctly? I thought cats were known to be cleaner than that." retorted the lamia with a sly smile.

Making her staff roll between her hands, Sphixine laughed a bit.

"If you insist. Let me show you something I've been working on this last month..."

Focusing for a second, Sphixine aimed at several places around the ring, air ball were launched from her staff, sometimes aiming at Guelan who evaded them without a problem.

"Done! I hope you're ready!" declared the catkin as she focused once again, this time on herself.

Quickly looking around, Guelan noticed the airballs weren't disappearing, floating around silently.

*What the...?*

Hitting the ground with her staff, Sphixine looked straight at Guelan, a feral smile on her face.

"WIND...HUNT!"

And she jumped in Guelan's direction, turning on herself, a long wind blade on her staff. Guelan evaded the attack, only to be cut right after on her side by the catkin coming back.

As the ones looking at the fight were gasping and exclaiming, Maximilian was looking with a lot of interest how his students had used their time alone, Guelan cursed as she put a hand on her side.

*How?*

Standing back where she was, Sphixine pointed at her own cut.

"That's for earlier. Now for my victory..."

Sphixine jumped in Guelan's direction once again. This time, the lamia turned around as she evaded the initial attack.

What she saw was Sphixine bouncing back on one of the airballs, coming back at her even faster.

"Water shield!" quickly cast Guelan, blocking Sphixine's wind blade just in time.

Not stopping for a single second, the catkin jumped back on a ball of air, aiming for another one, then another one,...

Going from one ball to the other at an increasing speed, the catkin was almost invisible to the lamia, who didn't know in which direction she had to focus her shield. The lamia, mumbling something, had to drop her shield to prepare her next attack.

Suddenly, Sphixine appeared right in Guelan's back, hitting hard.

Cut deep along her back, the lamia emitted a silent scream before falling down.

Sphixine panted hard as the airballs disappeared.

"It's my victory!" exclaimed the catkin, raising her arms.

Her joyful shout, unfortunately for her, didn't last long. Guelan's body turned transparent, watery, before it turned in a puddle of water.

"What!?" exclaimed Sphixine, right before she received a pillar of water between her shoulders, sending her out of the ring.

Behind her appeared Guelan, a satisfied look on her face.

"Water Mirage..." simply said the lamia as the students in their seat stood up to cheer, applauding the fighters.

"GUELAN WINS!" exclaimed Maximilian, applauding too.

Climbing back on the ring, drenched, Sphixine shook around a bit, getting the water off her.

"How? I thought I had you..."

"Water mirage, it creates a perfect copy of me while my true body escapes my enemy's attention." explained the lamia, proud of herself.

"You got me well, I thought I had you but you were playing with me all along.

"It's not true, I barely made it, your attack was just a bit too late. If you had attacked a few seconds earlier, I would have lost."

Friendly slapping the lamia's shoulder, the catkin laughed.

"Next time I'll be even faster then!"

...................................................................................................................................................

"Ilin! Let's do our best!" suddenly exclaimed Little Cloud as the two were climbing on the ring.

As the semi-gnome passed next to the young mage, she smirked for a second.

"Do what you can, I don't think it will require 'my best' to win." whispered Ilin, pitifully patting the young mage's shoulder.

Leaving behind an astonished Little Cloud, Ilin went on her side of the ring, preparing herself.

"LITTLE CLOUD VERSUS ILIN...FIGHT!"

"Wind a..." started to cast Little Cloud.

"Fire Ball!" interrupted Ilin.

Even before the wind path student could finish his chant, the semi-gnome launched her attack, forcing him to jump on the side to evade it.

Losing his balance, Little Cloud fell down, rolling a bit.

Some of the students were looking at the scene, laughing, while his friends from the wind path were cheering for him.

Little Cloud stood up and faced Ilin once again.

"Wind sp..."

"Fire Ball!"

Once again, Ilin forbid Little Cloud's spell by launching hers at him.

This time, Little Cloud took a little bit too much time to evade the attack. The magic projectile hit the young mage's side, making him turn around while he was still mid-air, landing heavily on the ground, near the edge of the ring.

"Stay down, boy..." simply said Ilin, walking calmly in his direction.

"One..." started to count Maximilian.

Panting hard, Little Cloud pushed on his arms, rising from the ground.

"Wind blade!" hurriedly cast the boy.

Without even stopping, Ilin threw another fireball to counter Little Cloud's attack.

"You're persistent...Fire hammer!"

Creating a massive fire head on her staff, Ilin hit hard against Little Cloud's side, sending him flying.

Using the time he was up in the air, Little Cloud turned on himself, creating steam, a lot of steam that started to cover the ring around him, making the fighting ground looking like a gigantic cloud.

Quickly losing her sight, Ilin smirked.

"Don't tell me you are trying to hide from me?"

Apart from the feeble sounds of the students talking among themselves, Ilin heard nothing.

"So you are coward enough to hide from me! Come on, show yourself, you're wasting everyone's time!" taunted the semi-gnome, the extremity of her staff starting to shine red.

She thought she saw a silhouette moving beside her.

"Fireball!"

The red projectile disappeared in the cloud, visibly not reaching its target.

The silhouette appeared on the other side, for only a second.

"Fireball!"

Once again, the projectile missed its target.

"Wind arrow!"

Ilin moved just in time, evading the arrow that only brushed against her cheek, slightly cutting it.

"So you can fight a bit, boy..." said the semi-gnome as she wiped away the blood dropping from her injured cheek.

"Wind arrow!"

Once again, a magic projectile came from somewhere in the cloud. This time, it did not hit, Ilin countering the attack with her staff.

"Enough with this game!" exclaimed the semi-gnome as she raised her staff, focusing for a few seconds.

"Let me show you how magic is done...FIRE WAVE!"

All around her, a ring of fire appeared and dashed forward, expanding in every direction and quickly passing everywhere on the ring.

"ARG!"

The cloud disappeared, revealing Little Cloud rolling on the ground, his robe on fire and arms slightly burned. His face was alright, but only because he had dropped his staff to protect himself on reflex.

He managed to extinguish the fire, but stayed down, breathing hard, sobbing a bit.

"And stay down!" ordered Ilin.

"One..."

"Why the hell did you even come here, boy?..."

"Two..."

"Did you think it would be a game? Stay on the side and let the true mage fight. Your place isn't here!" spat Ilin, clearly disdaining Little Cloud.

"Four..."

"I'm...I'm not going to give up!" said Little Cloud as he started to get up.

"I ORDERED YOU TO STAY DOWN!" shouted Ilin as she hit Little Cloud's face hard, the young mage leaving the ground for a second before landing a good metre away from his staff.

"Five..."

From their seat, the students were encouraging Little Cloud. Even some of those from the fire path recognised his will and were cheering for him too.

Clenching his fists, Little Cloud spat a bit of blood.

"Six..."

"I'm... a mage too..."

"Seven..."

"You're just a boy, stay down..."

"I RISKED MY LIFE TOO!!" shouted Little Cloud as he put a knee on the ground, pushing on it to stand up.

"You're not the only one who survived the training! Everybody here, everyone is the same! Who are you to say I can't fight!? It's not fair!" said the young mage, standing proudly before his adversary.

"You would dare to compare yourself to me? I'm a half-human! Don't you dare try to tell me how injustice feels! I am better than you! Then you will ever be!" spat the semi-gnome as she made her staff turn between her hands, starting to chant her spell.

"You may be better than me...BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I'LL LAY BEFORE YOU WITHOUT GIVING MY ALL!!!" shouted Little Cloud.

Something strange happened. Little Cloud's hand shined with mana for a second and, as if echoing with it, his staff shined too. In an instant, the magic weapon came back to its owner's hand by itself, the wind mage making it turn between his hands.

"As you wish, FIRE COLUMN!"

Pointing at Little Cloud, Ilin created a column of fire that dashed in his direction.

"WIND SHIELD!!!" shouted the young mage, protecting himself behind his magic protection.

The fire spell hit hard, stopped for only a second by the shield before tearing it to pieces. Everyone could hear Little Cloud's scream of pain as the spell reached its target, continuing on its way. It left behind a burned Little Cloud, his mage robe half gone and his flesh a lot darker than before. It was only thanks to his well-made protection that the young one hadn't burned entirely. He was injured, he was burned, but he was still recognisable, he was still there.

Ilin didn't say a word, simply looking at the lying wind student. No sound came from around the ring, all were waiting to see what was coming next.

"You're not ready to face me. Stay down and don't get in my way ever again, fool..." finally said the semi-gnome, ready to turn around.

She was stopped by the growling sound of her young opponent, pushing hard on his arms to stand up once again.

"I won't...lay down...I...I'm gonna be...a Hero...I'm a mage too..." painfully said the young one as he stood up once again, raising his staff before himself.

Ilin sighted and started to chant once again, casting another fire column.

"Don't come crying afterwards... "

"I am a mage too..." repeated Little Cloud. Chanting his spell, eyes closed to focus, he made his staff turn quicker and quicker between his hands.

The column got nearer and nearer, melting the ring under it. It approached Little Cloud with nothing on its way to stop it.

"It's over!" declared Ilin with a feral smile.

Less than a metre away from his target, the column suddenly stopped against an invisible wall.

"What?!" exclaimed the semi-gnome.

For an instant, nothing was heard. Then, as he opened his eyes shining white for a second, the young wind mage cast his spell, breaking the silence.

"WIND FURY!!!"

As the young mage's staff pointed before him, its extremity touched the fire column, destroying it in an instant. From the young mage came many, many wind blades, shaped like moon crescent. They flew out of him before dashing in the direction pointed by his staff, exactly where the fire student was.

Ilin saw her spell getting destroyed, then the impressive numbers of magic projectiles coming for her, so many she couldn't see the sky anymore.

"FIRE SHIELD!!!" screamed the semi-gnome as she literally planted her staff in the ring, creating a wall of fire bigger than any she had done until then.

The blades collided, one after the other, not leaving an instant of rest to Ilin. As numerous as water drops on a rainy day, as violent as the wind during a stormy night, the fire wall was being destroyed.

*How can this be!? It's not possible!* thought the pretentious young lady, using all her mana to maintain the fire wall as well as she could.

And then, after another wind spell collided with it, the magic wall broke, surprising the semi-gnome who closed her eyes.

* I'm done...for?*

She was expecting the fury of blades to take her, to tear her apart, to destroy her, but nothing came. Opening her eyes, she saw Little Cloud standing there, not moving.

*What is he doing? And why does he seem so tall right now? How...*

She only then noticed she was on her knees, emptied of her energy and her hand clenching tight on her staff like it was the last thing keeping her alive.

"Why aren't you attacking me?" asked the semi-gnome, a sudden feeling of anger coming to her.

Little Cloud didn't answer.

"I FORBID YOU FROM TAKING PITY ON ME!" shouted the semi-gnome as she rose, pushing on her staff as she did so, using mana to cover her staff with fire, she dashed in Little Cloud's direction, ready to hit.

"DON'T PITY MEEEEEE!!!"

In a flash, Red appeared before his student, blocking her weapon with a single finger.

"ILIN WINS!" declared Maximilian from his seat.

"I won? But he is still...!"

It was then that the semi-gnome saw Little Cloud's eyes. The young one had the look of a fighter, one that wouldn't let anyone push him around, one who would fight until the end, but more so, the vague look of someone unconscious.

The last spell he had cast had taken so much from him that he had fallen unconscious while standing up, his staff still pointing at Ilin right before him.

Windy appeared before his student, health and mana potion in hand. As he touched the mage, the young body collapsed in his arms, like a flesh puppet emptied of any life.

"Is he?..." inquired Ilin.

"Dead? Almost, but the crystal around his neck was there for that." explained Red as he pointed at the shattered crystal on the ground.

Windy made him drink the two potions entirely and lifted him up, taking him out of the ring.

"Out of the ring, little girl, we have to fix it before the next fight." said Red as he only then let go of Ilin's weapon.

"But, I, I..." tried to say Ilin, not really knowing what to say.

"Not a word, you have talked enough for a bit, I think. Do you want to do something nice? Go see the one whose honour you spat on." said Red as he chased her out of the ring, focusing on fixing it with Boulder.

Ilin took a look at the other students, not really knowing what to say. Some were happy for her to have won, some weren't pleased with her reaction, and others like William and Sphixine were clearly angry at her for how she had treated Little Cloud.

The semi-gnome didn't talk to them immediately, going out of the ring.

She had to pass next to William, who was coming down to go on the ring for his own fight. He stopped her for a second.

"I'm going to win this fight, then it will be you against me. Rest well, because I won't go easy on you." warned the wind student before continuing on his way.

The proud mind of the semi-gnome came back for a second, standing straight.

"Start by winning this one, we'll see what comes next!" retorted Ilin.

...................................................................................................................................................

"I'm happy to face you, William. Let's do our best." politely greeted Joe, standing at the other side with his staff in one hand.

"No matter what happens, no hard feeling!" answered the wind student as he got in position.

"And now for the last fight of the quarter-finals, JOE VERSUS WILLIAM...FIGHT!"

Joe hit the ground twice while William was casting his spell.

"Earth boulders!"

"Wind blade!"

Surprising William, it was two boulders that dashed at him, not one like he was used to. One was destroyed by his wind blade, the other flew at him.

Using a wind impulsion, William jumped high and attacked again, sending several wind arrows at Joe.

The earth student evaded the projectiles and hit back with earth ones, aiming as well as he could at the mid-air target.

"You missed!" taunted William.

"You too!" answered Joe with a smile.

Landing gracefully, William and Joe observed each other for a bit, trying to find an opening to exploit.

"Wanna see a new trick I've thought about?" suddenly asked William.

Without giving Joe any time to answer, William launched several airballs in Joe's direction.

Evading them, the earth student seemed surprised.

"That's your trick? I saw Sphixine using it not an hour ago! Don't tell me you were sleeping!"

"It's a bit different...WIND PINCUSHION!"

All the airballs transformed. Tiny spikes appeared on them, all facing Joe.

"SHIT! Earth Shell!" exclaimed Joe, crouching to cover himself with what looked like a big turtle shell.

A second after, the airballs exploded, sending a good hundred thin projectiles on the stone shell, all planting in it.

"You make a good target while you're not moving!" exclaimed William as he jumped high.

"Wind Hammer!"

A mass of condensed air appeared around his staff, forming a Warhammer. The wind student hit hard, shattering the shell.

"It's my w...!"

Nothing! Joe wasn't there.

On the ring, William looked around, trying to find his opponent.

Suddenly, a column of stone came from the ground right under him, hitting hard against his hips. The force of the impact sent him flying for a few seconds.

As he landed, William barely had the time to stand again before another column appeared right under him, sending him back in the air, making him cough blood.

"Wind...cushion!" coughed William, landing on a cloud-looking cushion that appeared right under him, allowing him to stay mid-air. This spell was a game, a little something taught by Windy to congratulate them the first time they had managed to really make progress. William hadn't thought this would be useful, let alone in a fight.

He waited a bit, but no more column came out of the ground.

*...Of course! He can't see me from underneath! But how the hell did he managed to lend two successful hits in a row if he can't even see his target?* Thought William, thinking hard about it.

As the wind student was observing the scene, some pieces of the shattered stone shell fell on the ring.

In a second, another column came out of the ground, surprising William for a second.

*The sound! He attacks when he hears something...in that case!*

Landing without a sound on one of the columns, William created several wind spikes, all pointed down. He dropped them one after the other, the long projectiles piercing the ground.

Each time, a new column was coming out of the ground, trying desperately to hit a William not even there.

A battle of hide and seek began on the ring. William was dropping his wind spikes and Joe was attacking with his earth column, the two students trying to find their opponent.

*It's going to take too much mana at this pace, I have to do something..* thought William, stopping his attack for a bit.

Observing the unrecognisable ring, the wind student's attention was caught by one of the numerous holes in the ground. An idea came to his mind.

*This could work...*

William focused for a bit, gathering mana at his staff extremity that started to shine white.

Under the ring, Joe was waiting, eyes closed. He had learned to focus on sounds to locate his targets, but it seemed that William had quickly caught on that, because no sound could be heard above him.

*Focus, Joe, focus...a sound, any sound...there!*

The earth student had heard something, as feeble as a bird leaving his tree branch, but it was there.

In a second, he launched his attack, ready since minutes ago.

William had jumped, his attack ready. A vivid pain ran along hi leg as an earth spike suddenly appeared, deeply cutting its side as it grew out of the ring.

William clenched his teeth, doing his best to not lose his concentration.

The wind student aimed at one of the numerous holes in the ring and plunged in its direction.

"WIND..."

As William's staff entered the hole, the student let his energy go in an explosion of mana.

"...EXPULSION!!!"

A wave of energy, like a condensed tornado, exploded under the ring, destroying its surface.

Among the debris, Joe flew up, blew away by the spell he didn't see coming.

*Not yet!* Thought William as he used a wind impulsion to follow his opponent in the air.

Joe opened his eyes and saw William coming at him. Acting on reflex, the earth student turned on himself, making a wide gesture with his staff.

The debris around him shined and dashed in William's direction.

Making his staff turn like an air-screw before him, the wind student aimed for a frontal attack.

"Wind tornado!"

A small whirlwind appeared form the student staff, engulfing the earth projectiles as well as Joe.

"IT'S OVER!" shouted William as he aimed at the ground, out of the ring.

The tornado, acting like a giant arm, projected Joe down, the earth student using the few seconds before he hit the ground to soften it with magic.

"WILLIAM WINS!" echoed Maximilian's voice, followed by the student's cheers.

Climbing back on the ring, Joe brushed away a bit of the dirt on him.

"It's my loss, good job William." said the earth student as he extended a hand that William shook.

"You surprised me with your underground attack, it was a close call for me."

"The quarter-finals are over! I suggest the ones still in the game to drink potions while the ring is fixed, the semifinals will begin very soon." explained Maximilian.

...................................................................................................................................................

"Are you ready for this?" asked Guelan, facing her friend on the ring.

"Damn right I am! I'm going to k'show you how well I can use your k'staff." answered the lizardkin.

"First semifinal match, CEKGO VERSUS GUELAN, FIGHT!"

"Water Claw!" exclaimed Cekgo as he jumped forward, moving his staff around.

Guelan cast a water shield, protecting herself against the dozen water claws dashing at her.

The sharply made claws impacted with her shield, shattering it. Following his magic attack was Cekgo, staff covered by a water blade in hand, ready to hit.

Using her snake tail, Guelan caught his leg and pulled, making him lose balance while she too cast a blade on her staff.

She quickly had to let go, Cekgo threatening to cut her tail. The lizardkin made his staff turn around, parrying her attack as he jumped back a metre before dashing further once again.

"Water shield!" cast Guelan once again, hiding behind it. Her blurring form visible behind the layer of water.

"It won't work!" exclaimed Cekgo as he cut through, destroying the shield in an instant.

The lizardkin stopped for a second as he discovered Guelan wasn't there.

*It's a trap!* shouted his mind as he turned around right in time to receive a water ball, hitting him like a warrior punch right in the chest.

Cekgo stepped back, panting hard, his breath taken away by the sudden attack.

Looking before him, he saw another dozen water ball flying in his direction.

*SHIT!* mentally cursed the water student as he cut the first one in two, jumping on the side to evade the magic projectiles volley.

"Don't tell me you're forfeiting already!" taunted Guelan, on the other side of the ring, her staff pointing at her friend.

"You'll have to do better than that!" retorted the lizardkin as he hit the floor several times with his staff.

"Water k'snake!" cast Cekgo.

Each time he hit the floor, a snake of water appeared from the ground, the body of the watery creature disappearing into the ring and their head looking at Guelan, baring long fang at her.

"My turn!" exclaimed Cekgo as he pointed his staff at her.

As one, the dozen watery creatures dashed in Guelan's direction.

She cast another set of water ball and threw them at the snakes, but the creatures caught the magic projectiles in their large mouth before literally gobbling them down, barely slowing down.

One of the snake’s head left its body, launched at the lamia like a bullet. The long fang pierced her skin, biting her shoulder hard before disappearing.

"ARG!" shouted Guelan, casting her water shield once again.

Seeing that, Cekgo turned his staff around, manipulating the watery creatures as he did so, forcing them to turn around the girl's protection to attack her sides and back.

"You think I'll let you do as you please!? Water whirl!"

Guelan started to turn on herself, faster and faster, disappearing inside a whirl of water.

Cekgo, surprised by her attack, forgot to stop his snakes and the creatures got destroyed as they tried to attack like the other had.

The whirl started to get nearer Cekgo.

"You make an eak'sy target like that!" taunted Cekgo as he started to cast several water spikes and arrows, launching all of them in Guelan direction.

One after the other, the magic projectiles got destroyed by the whirl, still getting nearer Cekgo who, without even noticing it, got cornered.

Looking on the sides and up, the lizardkin suddenly noticed his position and how he would not be able to jump high enough to evade the incoming blow.

*K'shit, I got carelek'ss!*

Cekgo closed his eyes, waiting for the blow. But, at the last moment, the whirl stopped, leaving behind a nauseous Guelan who stepped back a bit, looking a bit out of balance.

"I feel dizzy..." admitted the lamia.

Cekgo almost fell down, the shock and stupidity of the situation causing too much damage to be ignored.

"K'SERIOUK'SLY?!" shouted the lizardkin as he dashed in his friend's direction, ready to hit.

His attack was ready, he knew he had no chance to be countered by Guelan in her state. He saw her open her mouth but knew she wouldn't have the time to cast any sp...

The time seemed to stop for a few seconds, Cekgo's sight was suddenly obstructed by a sticky matter, a smelling sticky matter.

"Oh gosh...I'm so sorry!" apologised Guelan, honestly apologising to her vomit-covered lizardkin friend as she was using her sleeve to wipe her mouth.

"Did you...juk'st...barf on me?..." asked Cekgo, as surprised as disgusted by the situation.

"It was an accident, I'm so sorry!" apologised Guelan once again as she used her staff to pour water on her friend, washing his face as quick as possible.

Behind the vomit mask, she discovered a very angry-looking lizardkin, looking down at what could very well have become his victim because of what she had just done.

"I'm so sorry, please excuse me!" said Guelan as she warily stepped back, clearly understanding what her friend's look meant.

Cekgo closed his eyes for a minute, breathing hard.

"Alright...I'm not playing anymore! GUELAN!" called the lizardkin, stepping away from his friend.

"THIK'S IK'S MY LAK'ST ATTACK! I'M GOING TO WIN!! TRY TO K'SURVIVE IF YOU CAN!" shouted Cekgo as he started to focus his energy on his staff.

Not really knowing what was coming, Guelan started to focus energy too, preparing to defend against her friend's attack.

Black clouds started to appear above the ring. Cekgo, eyes closed, was visibly focusing a lot.

"WATER...RAIN!" shouted the lizardkin as he pointed his staff at the clouds.

Without a sound, drops of water started to fall from the clouds, quickly becoming a downpour on the ring.

The two were quickly drenched, but Cekgo didn't lose his focused look. Pointing his staff at Guelan, he cast the second part of his spell.

"WATER...BLADES!"

Guelan heard a sound of crystallisation. Looking up, she shouted as she jumped on the side, evading at the last moment a dagger-long blade falling on her.

She barely had time to take a breath that another blade was falling on her.

As the lamia was doing her best to evade the numerous blades falling on her one after the other, Cekgo taunted her.

"You can't hide from my rain of death, Guelan! Anywhere on the ring, my water bladek's will find you. Give up, itk's your only chance!"

"You wanna bet?!" retorted Guelan as dashed in the lizardkin's direction, quickly passing between the falling blades.

She aimed at him, but Cekgo parried her attack with his staff, counterattacking.

"What? You thought I would leave myk'self defencelek'ss? I can fight while thik's k'spell ik's on!" exclaimed cekgo as he pushed Guelan back.

Focused on her opponent, Guelan failed to see another one of the falling blades and got hurt. Her snake tail got cut, deeply. Blood started to mix with the heavy rain.

Screaming in pain, the lamia stopped moving for a second. That little moment allowed three other blades to injure her, one thrusting into her already hurt shoulder, the other two cutting along her side.

"ARG!!!" screamed Guelan, quickly hiding herself under a shield. Silently crying her pain away, the lamia had to think quick, the blades already starting to shatter her shield.

"Forfeit, Guelan! I'm not willing to hurt you more than I need to!" admitted Cekgo, giving his friend a minute to think.

Her eyes left the ring for a second, looking away. She vaguely observed the seats from where the other students were watching without a word, but with their mouth moving around.

*Why are they moving their mouth without making a sound? Oh...It's me, I can't hear anything because of the rain...* thought the lamia, the blood loss making it hard to think.

Her eyes stopped on Maximilian, looking straight at her, not moving.

*And you...what would you do in this situation?...Now that I think about it, I've never really seen him fight...the only time I've really seen him use magic was when he made those modifications at the orphanage...Who am I kidding? Even then he seemed like a giant and...THAT'S IT!*

A sparkle passed in the lamia's eyes, she had an idea.

Looking up, she could see her shattering shield, the water blades falling down and the black clouds above.

*I have one chance...* Thought Guelan as she stood under her shield, her injuries painful.

"Ready to give up?!" asked Cekgo, pointing at her with his staff.

Looking at her friend, she simply smiled weekly before lifting up her staff, pointing at him first...before pointing up at the clouds.

"Water tunnel!"

A long tunnel appeared around her, piercing right through the black clouds.

"I won't let you!" exclaimed Cekgo as he hit the tunnel hard, shattering it.

But, as the tunnel broke, Guelan was nowhere to be seen.

*Above the clouds?* thought Cekgo, quickly turning his staff around to make the clouds disappear, willing to see where she was.

As the black clouds started to disappear, Cekgo saw a falling form.

"THERE YOU Ar....!!!"

Muted by a sudden sense of preservation, Cekgo hurriedly tried to focus all the energy he could in his water shield, but deep inside, he had the dark feeling that it wouldn't be enough, because, in less than two seconds, the ring was going to be hit by a falling water fist as big as the fighting ground.

"WATER FIST!!!" shouted Guelan, her staff leading the giant fist down.

The massive form hit hard, destroying the lizardkin's shield in a second, engulfing him and blinding everyone's sight for a minute.

The water disappeared, as well as the clouds and the dust that had been lifted up by the energy wave.

Guelan was there, lying on the ring, breathing hard, next to a standing Cekgo, looking up with his mouth wide open, a bit of foam drooling from it, and rolled eyes.

"GUELAN WINS!" declared Maximilian as Blue appeared on the ring to help Guelan up before he lifted Cekgo up in his arms, carrying the lizardkin out of the battleground under the cheers and applause of the students who clearly had enjoyed the show.

...................................................................................................................................................

"It's your turn next, will you be alright?" asked Sphixine.

"I'm ready! I have drunk my potions!" stated William as he stood up.

"No, I meant...will you be alright facing her?" asked the catkin as she nodded in the ring's direction, where Ilin was already waiting.

Her little tantrum against Little Cloud had made the others a bit cold, but it didn't look like it was bothering her that much.

Sphixine and William had become friends, close friends. It wasn't strange to see the two train together late at night while the others would already be asleep. Naturally, night after night, they had learned to know each other better. It was one night that William, after yet another training with his friend, admitted he had liked the semi-gnome for a while.

But, after he had seen her reaction with Little Cloud, still unconscious at the moment, his feelings had changed.

"I will." simply stated William as he calmly went down the stairs leading to the ring, the students cheering a lot more for him than they had for Ilin.

"How nice it must feel to have so many people behind you..." sarcastically said Ilin as she looked at the students.

"Maybe would you have more people behind you if you hadn't treated Little Cloud like you have." answered William, pointing her staff at her as he got in fighting stance.

"..." Ilin didn't seem to have anything to retort and got in position too.

"Second semifinals match, WILLIAM VERSUS ILIN, FIGHT!" declared Maximilian.

"WIND WAVE!" shouted William, casting a huge wave of wind that blew like a tempest condensed in one single gust.

Ilin planted her staff in the ground, the base of the weapon, bright red for a second, melting the stone to enter it.

She tried to resist, but her feet left the ground for a second, the semi-gnome tightening her grasp to not let go. The dust flying around her forced her to close her eyes.

When she heard someone step right beside her, she knew the next seconds would be painful.

Using his staff, William hit from behind, sending Ilin flying, her staff in hands.

He followed her, preparing for the next blow.

"Wind ball!" cast the wind student, several magic projectiles hitting Ilin hard before he reached her.

"And now...WIND HAMMER!" finally cast William, sending the semi-gnome down with a powerful hit on the back.

The small girl fell down hard, the ring stone breaking under her.

Landing on the opposite side, William breathed hard, the succession of magic attacks had cost him a bit of mana, but he felt better.

"Get up, I'm not done with you yet!" said William.

Standing up, Ilin simply brushed away some dust from her robe, a disdained look on her face.

"What? You've done something? I'm sorry, all I felt was a slight breeze on my face." taunted the fire student, her staff in hands.

"A slight breeze?! What about that!" exclaimed William as he dashed forward.

The small smile on the semi-gnome should have been a sign for William, but the anger was blinding the young man.

"Fire veil." simply cast Ilin, a thin layer of fire appearing before her.

"IT WON'T STOP ME!" shouted William as he cut through the veil with his staff.

As he cut through it, the veil fell on him like a spider web, a layer of fire sticking on him in a few seconds.

When he remarked it, it was already too late, the veil was covering him and he was burning alive.

"AAAAAAAAARG!!!" screamed William as he rolled on the ground.

"This is how you fight with your element." simply said Ilin as she turned her back on him walking to face Maximilian, visibly waiting for him to announce her victory.

She felt a gust of wind and turned around, eyes wide open.

Before her was standing William, his mage robe and flesh burned at different places, sometimes severely. One of his arms had been more exposed than the other, several places where the flesh had turned black was a good indicator.

"I'm...I'm not done for yet..." panted William, his face miraculously not burned that much, he had a long burned scar on the left side of his face, though, and his left eye was closed.

"Fool! Why did you stand again?" questioned Ilin as she pointed her staff at him once again.

"AS IF I COULD LOSE AGAINST YOU!" shouted William before casting a simple wind spike, his eyes shining white for a second.

"It won't wor...!"

Ilin had cast her shield once again, confident the attack would be blocked easily like it had been before. The semi-gnome was very surprised to see the wind spike pierced her protection, aiming right at her chest.

Evading the hit by reflexes, she nonetheless got hit, the magic projectile passing through her shoulder, leaving behind a hole in it.

"AAAAAAARG!!!" screamed the girl as she fell on her knees, a hand on her injury.

"How does it feel to be on the receiving end?" panted William.

Looking back at him, the semi- gnome's eyes shined red.

"RECEIVING END? I'M GOING TO INCINERATE YOU!!!"

The wind student dashed forth, covering his staff with a wind blade ready to hit.

"GET AWAY FROM MEEEEE!!!" shouted Ilin, outraged, as she hit the floor with her staff.

A wave of red energy emanated from her, forcing William to hurriedly retreat, using a wind impulsion to do so.

He did well, because a single second after, half the ring was burned, the stone ground almost melting.

The cloud of dust and steam disappeared, revealing a red Ilin. Her nerves had taken the colour of magma and her skin was darker, almost black. The semi-gnome looked like a small feminine magma golem.

"Fire...body." breathed out the fire student, her breath letting out fire sparks.

The students were surprised, some horrified by their comrade new form, others by her power, realising she could have killed them if she had wished to. Maximilian wasn't wasting a single second of the fight, his eyes on the ring, waiting for what was going to happen.

"What the hell is that?" questioned William, warily looking at his opponent, keeping his distance from her.

Ilin didn't answer him, she simply started to come in his direction, flames covering her staff.

"Wind arrow!" cast the wind student, several times.

The magic projectiles hit Ilin, but didn't do anything to her. Her dark skin acted like a fire armour, protecting her from the arrows too weak to hurt her.

She pointed her staff at him and let out a stream of fire, using her weapon like a flamethrower. William jumped on the side, knowing perfectly well how painful the fire could be.

Using wind, he turned around her, fast, and hit her back with his wind-covered weapon.

The staff hit, but nothing happened. Ilin slowly turned to face him and grasped his staff.

"You will burn..." said the little fighter, her voice far too deep for her size.

William's staff started to turn bright red, a wave of red energy coming from Ilin's hand.

"AAAARG!" screamed William, forced to let go of his burning hot weapon.

Unarmed and shaken by the burning pain, he couldn't do anything to evade the fire hammer coming from his side, Ilin handling her own weapon with her other hand.

The fiery head hit hard, the sound of breaking bones indicating some of William's ribs had given up right before he was sent flying, turning mid-air to land hard near the ring's edge.

"Fool...how could you even think about winning against me with a will so feeble..." said Ilin as she took William's staff in her other hand, the weapon now bright red too, and made a clawed hand appeared at its extremity.

"You think you have any rights to patronise me?"

William could have forfeited, he could simply have rolled out of the ring, but Ilin didn't seem to be willing to let him do. Using her newly made weapon, she pulled him back at the ring centre, unceremoniously throwing him there like a pile of rags.

The pain of his broken ribs hitting the floor woke the student up, coughing loudly and painfully, blood coming out of his mouth as he did so.

"How do you think semi-human like me are treated out there? I am the best because I have to be. While your mommy and daddy were happily raising you up, what do you think mine were doing!?" questioned the fire path student has she used her clawed weapon to lift William up and threw him down once again, certainly breaking another of his ribs by doing so.

"The human who screwed my mum was soon gone once he learned she was pregnant! How do you think her own kind treated her? THEY REJECTED HER FOR HAVING A HALF-BREED IN HER!!!"

Once again, the semi-gnome girl hit William hard, this time aiming for his shoulder. The breaking sound left no doubt about his shoulder's state.

"How can you even begin to understand how badly I've been treated by others? Don't ever again try to tell me how I should act, not today, not tomorrow, NEVER!" finally shouted Ilin before turning her back to William, walking away once again.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! CAN'T YOU SEE I'VE WON ALREADY!? WHY ARE YOU NOT ENDING THIS FIGHT!!!!" shouted Ilin, raising the two weapons in her hands.

"One..." simply started to count Maximilian.

"It's no use counting. He won't stand up again." said Ilin.

"Two..."

"I told you there's no need to be counting." stated Ilin again.

"Three..."

"Stop it..." said the semi-gnome girl.

"Four..." continued Maximilian.

"Stop it!" asked Ilin once again.

"Five..."

"I SAID STOP COUNTING!!!" shouted Ilin, her voice echoing around the battle ground.

Maximilian stopped, Ilin breathed hard but smiled, thinking her orders had been followed.

"I WIN!!!" shouted the semi-gnome in victory, but no one was applauding her.

"What!? Am I not worthy of your cheers?! Or is it simply my representation that left you speechless?" taunted Ilin.

"They don't applause...because the fight...isn't over yet..." said a voice coming from behind her.

Turning around once again, Ilin opened her eyes wide as she saw William up.

The wind student was in bad shape, one of his legs and shoulders were clearly broken, he was beaten up and burned in some places, but he was still standing.

"What will it take to make you give up!?" exclaimed Ilin as she dashed forward, staffs up.

As his opponent was getting close, William closed his second eye for an instant.

"I finally figured something out..." calmly stated William.

As he opened his still valid eye, it shined white. His still valid arm rose and caught his staff, quickly blocking the second one with it.

"WHAT!? How can you...?!" exclaimed Ilin, her eyes looking at William's hand around the red staff.

To her horror, she saw a wave of white energy run along William's weapon, rejecting the red one.

"I know why you desperately wanted Maximilian to end this fight...you're scared." calmly stated William as a gust of wind pushed Ilin back, leaving William with his staff in hand.

Quickly getting back in her fighting stance, Ilin laughed without any joy in her voice.

"Scared? Me? Of What?"

"Not what, whom..." said William as he pointed at someone sitting next to Windy, looking at the fight.

Looking behind her, Ilin saw Little Cloud silently observing the scene, like all the others were doing. As her eyes met the wind student's, she hurriedly turned her eyes back at William.

"And? Why should I be scared of this loser? I defeated him completely!" exclaimed the semi-gnome, her hands clenching harder around her staff.

"You're scared because, even though you treated him like a loser, you experienced fear facing him. For a second, you felt like you could have been defeated."

"Shut up..." ordered Ilin.

"You don't want to lose any fight, you want to be admired, you want people to follow you."

"Shut up." ordered Ilin once again, a little bit louder.

"You're scared of what could happen if you lose. You're scared of being rejected by everyone. You can hit me and scream all you want, throw a tantrum if it pleases you. But in the end, you're just pitiful!" finally ended William.

"SHUT UUUUUUUUP!!!" shouted Ilin as she dashed forward, her fiery hammer up.

"Another thing I figured out is that your attacks were getting weaker each time. I wonder how much energy that spell of yours is taking from you..." calmly said William as he hit the ground, his staff shining white for a second.

"FIIIIIIRE...." cast Ilin as she jumped.

"WIND..." cast William, focusing all he had in his staff extremity, the weapon's head shining like a diamond.

"...HAMMEEEEEER!" roared Ilin, her silver eyes shining red as her fiery weapon hit down.

William turned on his valid leg, evading the hit that broke the ground as it collided. Then, simply touching Ilin's chest with the point of his weapon, he said.

"...fury."

On his seat, Little Cloud opened his eyes wide as he heard the name of the attack he had thought about, some of the students looking at him for a second as they, too, recognised it.

For a second, everything was quite, then, appearing in a whirlwind of blades, dozens of wind crescent-shaped blades hit Ilin directly, pushing her off the ground and away from William. The semi-gnome didn't have the time nor the force to cast any shield, the blades broke her dark skin like they would have a black shell. The fiery layer around her shattered, but the attack didn't stop. She was cut severely at several places, some of her blood dropping on the ring as she was pushed away.

William's attack finally ended and the wind mage fell on his knees, barely conscious. Ilin fell down, landing out of the ring.

"WILLIAM WINS!!!" declared Maximilian, the students finally letting their voices, applause and cheers be heard.

Windy appeared before William, taking him away to be treated before his next match.

On the ground, Ilin coughed loudly, blood coming out of her mouth for a second as she lied there, not willing to stand.

"How does the ground feel?" asked Red, suddenly there, standing next to her.

"Surprisingly comfy...are you here to mock me?"

"Maybe, you are a loser, after all..." said Red as he lied down, putting a health potion next to her as he did so.

"What should I do now? Everyone is going to hate me..." said the semi-gnome, not really knowing how she should react.

"Maybe, but I don't think that would be because you've lost..." said Red as he looked at the sky.

"...William was right, I'm afraid of being left alone. I...I don't want them all to hate me..." finally admitted Ilin as tears began to fall from her eyes.

"Can I make you a confession?" asked Red, making the semi-gnome turned her head in his direction, surprised.

"A confession?"

"I am nothing more than a golem, but Maximilian is exactly like you. He fears loneliness, he doesn't want to be left alone, that's why he has found friends so dear to him. Friends with whom he travels, next to whom he fights, with whom he argues, but friends he loves like a family." said Red as his red eyes looked straight into his student silvery ones.

"Him? You want to make me believe that man has the same fear as me?"

Red simply nodded.

"Power is nothing more than an instrument, what you are inside mustn't change because of it, never forget that."

Looking back at the sky, Ilin breathed out.

"My mother...she as never resent me for what was done to her, she loves me dearly and raised me as well as she could. I...it's for her that I want to be the best, I want to give her everything she deserve. I may be half-human, but I am the daughter of the kindest gnome woman alive before everything else. "

"And that will be the case, whether or not you get to be the most powerful. You will always be the loved daughter of your mother." simply stated Red.

"You...that may be right, but I still am laying on the ground nonetheless."

"You know what's great with the ground? It's something you can use to stand back after you've fallen." said Red as he stood, extending a hand to her.

Ilin looked at him for a second, emptied the health potion and took his hand.

As she stood, she, only then, realised the two of them were not alone. All the students of the fire path were there, silently waiting for her to say something.

"Now, it's time for you to grow up a bit, little miss tantrum..." said Red with a kind smile as he presented her staff back.

.........................................................................................................................................

"How are you feeling? Does your body still hurt anywhere?"

Lying on a stone table, William was currently healed by Maximilian, the man using his healing magic coupled with the health and mana potions to be sure the student would be alright.

"I'm fine, thank you."

After he had scanned William, Maximilian went away, going to see Guelan to be sure she too was ready.

Alone with his friends and teacher, the wind path student sat on the stone table.

"Good job with that jerk, you showed her how it's done!" said Sphixine, friendly hitting William's back.

"You know...in the end, I feel sorry for her." answered William,

"I don't." simple retorted Sphixine.

Little Cloud nodded.

"I understand you, William. When she and I were facing each other, she looked sad."

"Seriously?! Aren't any of you two glad she has received a good ass-kicking?" asked the catkin, dumbfound.

"I'm glad I've won." admitted William.

"And I'm glad he used that spell to do it." added Little Cloud.

"Talking about that spell..." interrupted Windy, getting all his students' attention.

"I must congratulate both of you. Little Cloud first for having the idea, and William for having been able to use it in combat so soon. Now comes the downside, you must use it only as a last resort."

"Really? But this spell is awesome! Why can't he directly hit with it? It would give him the upper hand." said Sphixine, not understanding.

"Because of that..." simply said Windy as he slightly pushed Little Cloud, the young student almost falling down.

"This spell is taking everything from you. It is powerful indeed, but if your opponent is still up after that, you will be too tired to do anything about it. Little Cloud is still young and, while very strong for his age, too feeble to correctly sustain the after effect of it. Even after being healed and having drunk a mana potion, he is still feeling dizzy. William is older, his body his stronger and more suited for it, but he is not yet experienced enough to correctly control this kind of spell. I'll allow you to use it, but do it only if you're sure of yourself." explained Windy.

"I'll be careful, Sir." answered William.

"Alright then, go on that ring and make us proud!" said Windy as he slightly pushed his student.

...................................................................................................................................................

"Are you ready?" asked Blue

Guelan had asked her friends to leave her alone for a minute, telling them she had to calm herself a bit.

"I'm...to be frank, I wasn't sure I would go this far..." said the lamia, looking down.

"Isn't that why you've trained so hard?" asked Blue as he sat next to her.

"I trained because I wanted to be stronger, that's all. I thought that, at this point, I would already be out of the competition."

"Good." simply said Blue.

"Good? What's good about what I just told you?"

"You didn't train for the tournament, but because you wanted to be stronger. Congratulations, you've done well. Tournaments, wars, fights, they are nothing more than ways to test yourself. They are not reasons for you to be stronger, but winning would be a good reward for your efforts. You get stronger for yourself, then you find what you want to do with this power of yours."

"And now? What should I do?"

"Well...since you've come this far...why not winning?" proposed Blue, his casual answer making the lamia laugh a bit.

"I'll do my best."

"That's all I ask of you. Go on this ring, give everything you have, and see what happens. In the end, all that matters is that you have fun." said Blue with a kind smile.

"Alright!" answered the lamia as she took her weapon.

...................................................................................................................................................

Water and wind spells were flying around.

William and Guelan were giving their all, moving around, trying to take advantage of any weakness they could find, while the other was doing his best to evade and counter-attack.

Alternating between range magical attacks and melee, the two students were colliding, again and again, none of the two willing to give up.

"Water mirage."

Guelan disappeared from before William who looked around.

"Wind circle!" exclaimed the wind student, emitting a circular gust of wind that swept the ground.

Reappearing, Guelan was pushed back, protecting herself behind her staff.

"Found you!" victoriously exclaimed William as he dashed once again, staff up.

It lasted for a bit. William was faster than Guelan, his wind capacity was helping him to move around freely and he was using it well, trying to attack Guelan's blind spots.

Guelan, on the other hand, had a tactician spirit. She was fighting like she was playing a chess game, and her lack of speed was efficiently replaced by that. When William was attacking, she was deducing what he was going to do, and acted the best way possible.

The two knew they couldn't go on like that for long.

Putting some distance between them, they started at each other for a bit.

"You're good!" said William, complimenting his opponent.

"Thank you. You're not bad either." answered the lamia, her face showing she had followed her teacher's advice, she was having fun.

"What do you say we give them all a show?" proposed William as he started to focus his energy in his staff.

"I was going to propose you the same thing!" answered Guelan as she did the same, her staff's base on the ground.

In his seat, Maximilian observed the two finalists. He had seen some really good spells, the young ones had good ideas and would, later, become great mages.

*I wonder what's coming next...* thought the man as he rested his chin on his crossed hands.

William started to turn his staff around, white energy following his weapon's movements.

"Wind cut!" cast William as he made a wide gesture in Guelan's direction.

The lamia's sense of danger screamed in her mind, ordering her to quickly jump away although nothing was coming at her.

Nonetheless, that very same sense of danger had saved her numerous times already, and she wasn't going to question it today. She quickly moved away, but felt something on her side.

Looking down, she saw she was bleeding, her hip was cut, deep and thinly, as if a blade had brushed against her.

The pain came suddenly, forcing her to put a hand on her injury, luckily not serious enough to threat her life.

"How?..." simply questioned Guelan.

"Wind cut. I've learned to condense the wind in an invisible blade I can aim how and where I will. You've lost, Guelan, you won't be able to counter my attacks." explained William, already preparing another blow.

"We'll see about that...Water Mirror!" suddenly exclaimed Guelan as she hit the ground with her staff.

While William had been charging his attack before, she was preparing hers. Her staff, touching the ground, was continuously pouring water into it, and all that water suddenly came out in an instant, blinding William for a second.

Once he could see again, he was surprised to face...himself, a great number of himself actually.

All around the ring, images of Williams were there, facing him in the exact same position.

"What the..." said William, walking a bit on the side to try and see where Guelan was. As he moved, the mirrors followed his movements, the several images of himself still looking at him.

"I'm a bit disappointed, Guelan! You really thought those mirrors would stop me?" asked William as he lifted his staff high, hitting the ground with it.

"Wind circle!"

All the images did the same as him, but not only was the reflexion imitating him, they launched the same spell with the same power at the exact same moment, provoking a slight explosion of wind magic that threw William down, hard.

"Ouch! What the hell!? Those mirrors reflected my attack? No, I'm sure I didn't put that much power in it...they all attacked with the same power!" quickly understood William as he stood up.

"Good guess!" said Guelan, appearing right behind him.

In reflex, William jumped away from her and launched a wind blade. Immediately, Guelan disappeared behind one of the mirrors, evading the dozens of wind blades projected everywhere on the ring.

"ARG! SHIT!" cursed William, his shoulder bleeding hard. Surprised by the numerous attacks, he didn't have the time to dodge all of them and got hit.

"How does it feel to be hit by your own attack?" asked Guelan, still hiding.

"Show yourself!" ordered William, pointing his staff at where he thought the voice was coming from.

"I prefer not to, you seem a bit annoyed right now..." politely refused Guelan.

"I'm going to break those mirrors!" exclaimed William.

"Be my guest..." simply answered Guelan.

Doing as he had told, William used his staff as a baseball bat and broke one of the mirrors, shattering it down.

The very next second, he felt a vivid pain between his shoulders.

Turning around, he saw Guelan, claws out with blood on them. He tried to hit her but she quickly got away.

"COME BACK HERE!" ordered William, almost casting a spell but stopping at the last moment, fearing what would happen if he did.

"Don't wanna..." playfully answered Guelan, her tone starting to irritate William.

He came next to another mirror and broke it before turning around, prepared to hit Guelan. What he didn't see was that the lamia was right behind the mirror he had just shattered, slashing one of his shoulders this time, cutting his flesh deep once again.

"AAAAAARG!!! OKAY, I'M FED UP WITH YOU!!!" shouted William, finally losing patience.

"But we're having sooooo much fun..." taunted Guelan, purposely angering the wind student even more.

"You want some fun? TAKE THAT!!!"

William gathered his energy, focusing it in his staff that started to shine, the extremity looking like a diamond.

*Now!* Thought Guelan as she hurriedly went in one of the ring corners and used the mana she had left to cover herself in several layers of water, creating a semi-sphere above her curled up form.

"WIND FURY!!!" shouted William, turning his staff around him to try and destroy the mirrors.

Even with her shield covering her, the lamia felt the massive energy set free by the mage, she felt the numerous lost wind blades hitting her protection, it went on for two good minutes. In the end, her shield was destroyed, her back and shoulders were bloody because of the several blades that had managed to pass, but she was still standing, looking at the mess before her eyes.

The mirrors had done what they were made to do, they had reflected, imitated the magic attack, creating a two-minutes long tempest on the ring, with magic projectiles flying everywhere at the same time. Of course, receiving several blades had destroyed all of the mirrors, but it was not what was the biggest mess on the ring.

Right in the middle, William was there, on his back, blood everywhere. He literally had stood at the very centre of his own attack, receiving it numerous times, and every inch of his flesh, or nearly, was cut.

Exhausted by her lack of mana and blood loss, Guelan approached the wind student.

"Still alive?" simply asked the lamia as she came next to him.

William wasn't moving, his eyes were closed and he was barely breathing. He whispered something, visibly out of strength.

Not hearing what he was saying, the lamia bowed to get nearer.

"What?"

"Got you!" said the mage to be with a feral smile.

William had heard his teacher well, he had followed his advice. He knew the wind fury was going to take a lot from him, and he knew Guelan knew it too, she had seen him use it before, she knew what to expect. It was the reason why he had forced himself to stop the spell sooner, keeping a bit of mana left.

This bit of mana, he used it to cover his fist and...

"Wind Punch!"

The fist collided with the lamia stomach, making her open her eyes wide.

"Y...you..." tried to say Guelan, but no sound was coming out of her mouth.

She stepped back a bit, dropping her staff as she fell down.

"One..." echoed Maximilian's voice.

*I've done it! Now all I need to do is to get up!* thought William as he tried to stand.

Unfortunately for him, his last forces had been used for his last attack. As Maximilian was still counting, the wind student was cursing his lack of strength, his body simply refusing to move.

"Ten!" finally echoed Maximilian's voice, a heavy silence falling around the battleground.

"William and Guelan are still down! To decide who the winner will be, we will see who will be the first one to stand and say 'I WIN' to us all!" declared Maximilian, making the different students shout their cheers even louder, calling William and Guelan's name.

William saw Guelan moving a bit, her bad state plus the final hit had reduced her to the same level as him.

A battle of will began, the two searching deep inside themselves, looking for the tiny bit of last strength that would have allowed them to win.

With tremendous effort, William managed to roll on his chest. Every movement was a torture, every cut in his body was hurting like a blade piercing his flesh, but he went on.

One hand, two hands, he looked at Guelan who was still down, coiling her tail.

*Come on, PUSH!* mentally screamed William, his arms shaking as he managed to get on his knees.

The air itself felt like a lead coat, pushing him down, forbidding him to stand, but he pushed and pushed, Guelan still behind him.

Finally, on his feet, the wind student looked at the others, his fellow students and friends, his teacher, all the ones he had spent the last year with, all waiting for two words from him.

"I w...I w...I" the words did not come out of his mouth.

William wondered where everyone had gone, and why was the sky at their place, then he realised he had fallen back, his body finally giving up.

Turning his head on the side, he saw Guelan, who had used her coiled tail to rest on, she raised her hands in the air, victorious.

"I WIN!!!" shouted the lamia, tears in her eyes, before falling down too, unconscious.

From their seats, the students screamed her name in excitement, the fight was over.

"GUELAN WINS THE TOURNAMENT!" shouted Maximilian, his voice seconding the joyful shouts of the students around him.

...................................................................................................................................................

The tournament was over, and with it was concluded the year of training. After a good session of potion drinking and healing spells, the two finalists could join their friends at the after match event: the banquet.

The students were very surprised to find, on the different plates, some of the monsters they had fought during the last year.

"Cheetul skewer, flamingmander stew, fish knight bisque, I thought it would be a good idea to make everyone have a taste of the different monsters you all had to fight. At least those that are edible, of course." explained Maximilian with a chuckle.

"How did you caught them all? It's a freaking lot!" asked Sphixine, not hesitating to take a bite from the cheetul meat.

"That would be us." said Windy as he arrived with the three other teachers.

"Once we were sure you all were out of the training grounds, we went on a hunting trip."

"And I won!" announced Boulder.

"You don't have that much of merit, the monsters you brought back are naturally gigantic!" said Red.

"Nonetheless, I won!" retorted the earth teacher with a good laugh.

"Anyway. Drink and eat all you want. You all deserve it!" said Maximilian as he showed the food and drinks to the students.

...................................................................................................................................................

The feast was joyful, the students of the different paths were having fun all together, putting aside the slight arguments they had during the tournament. In the end, they had all survive Maximilian's training, and they respected each other for that.

"May I talk to you?" asked Ilin.

She was addressing Little Cloud, currently taking a sip from his cup.

The young student's friends didn't look that pleased to see the semi-gnome, the small girl focusing on the wind student to evade their look.

"Yes?" answered Little Cloud, leery.

Seeing the young one was willing to follow her elsewhere, the semi-gnome lead him a bit away and closed her eyes for a second, breathed in and bowed for an instant before she stood straight once again.

"I'msorryforwhati'vesaidtoyou!" said Ilin so rapidly that all went out as a single word.

Little Cloud looked at her for a second before he tilted his head to the side.

"Hum...what?"

"I said I'm sorry, okay!? I shouldn't have treated you like I did and I feel bad for it." said Ilin, the semi-gnome clearly having a hard time apologising.

"Okay." simply answered Little Cloud.

"Okay?" repeated Ilin, curious.

"In the end, I lose to you. You weren't lying when you said you're better than me." said Little Cloud.

"I..."

"I'm not finished!" interrupted Little Cloud.

"You beat me today, but that doesn't mean I won't get better, and when I do, I want you to fight me again. That day, we will see who wins, what do you say?" asked Little Cloud as he extended a hand.

"I...okay!" answered Ilin with a smile as she took the young student upper arm, the two sealing their promise to fight again one day.

...................................................................................................................................................

"EVERYONE!" shouted Maximilian at the end of the meal, getting all the students' attention.

"Now! After the fights, after the hardship, after everything you've been through this last year. There is one last thing I must do!" announced Maximilian.

The students looked at each other, wondering what was happening.

The four teachers joined Maximilian, standing behind him.

"I want every and each of you to know that I'm proud of you all! What you've been through, a lot wouldn't have been able to endure it, but you did. This will be the final night of your training year, and tomorrow you will be back at the Academy of Griffinia. Some things will change for you, you will find the normal classes easy, maybe boring. What I ask of you is to not give up, don't waste your time, continue to get better. You won't have your teachers, but you have each other, train together, become better, and better again!" said Maximilian, quickly noticing several understanding nods from some of the students.

"But those pieces of advice are for tomorrow! Tonight, I want to reward you all!" stated Maximilian as he clapped loudly in his hands once.

The crystals around everyone's neck shattered, even the one Little Cloud had received to replace the one he had lost during his fight.

To begin with, their overused and old wears shined for a second. Every student received a new hooded mage robe, the details coloured in their element. The new robes were clearly of a better quality than what they had before, with slightly reinforced upper arms and shoulder leather armour’s parts. Next, their staffs changed, a crystal with the colour of their element appearing at the top and runes of their element's colour pictured on it, all the way down.

"This equipment, I want you to use it to become better." stated Maximilian, explaining how the runes pictured on the staff would allow them to stock mana in it, exactly like he had done for Alariel.

Among the students, though, four were surprised to see their equipment hadn't changed at all.

"With that being said. Your teachers and I have decided to reward the four best of you all, the ones who arrived at the top of the tournament and, all this year, have proved to be a tiny bit better than the rest."

Maximilian stepped back a bit, leaving space for the four teachers.

"I call Joe." said Boulder.

The earth student, pushed further by his friends, arrived before his teacher.

"Joe, the unsure boy who arrived before me the first time is dead. Now, all I see is a strong young man, one that will lead others to greatness, like you helped your friends to see in the darkness of the underground. Receive my gift, Joe, and may the earth always lead you further."

Boulder concluded his sentence by opening his arms, revealing an emerald heart shining brightly. A line of green energy flow from Boulder to cover Joe. When the light disappeared, the young man had also a new robe and staff, but different than the others. His robe had more armoured parts, covering all his arms and legs, and those were made of a silvery metal covered by emerald runes. His staff had turned to stone, its head transformed into a fist clenched around an emerald.

"Wow...thank you S...Sir?" asked Joe as he saw Boulder's state.

The golem simply smiled at him before looking at his other students behind him.

"I'm proud of you all..."

The golem gave back his journal to Joe, nodding at him.

"I think your story will be worth reading...goodbye." said Boulder as his skin was turning grey, the emerald on his chest shattering.

Boulder disappeared, his body crumbling like a destroyed statue. Some remnant of green energy flew to Maximilian and entered his chest, the man closing his eyes for a second.

"He really is proud..." simply said Maximilian before signalling the next teacher to go on.

"I call Ilin." said Red.

"Why am I not surprised?" asked one of the fire students, his friends laughing a bit.

"Are you going to disappear too?" asked Ilin as she arrived before Red.

"My body is, not my memory. I will live through this guy..." said Red as he showed Maximilian with his thumb above his shoulder.

"Ilin, you are fiery, impatient, you don't see losing as a possibility and you are hard to handle. You are exactly what fire personified could be, and that's saying a lot. But, more than everything, you are a gifted lady." said the fire path teacher, insisting on the 'lady' part.

"Receive my gift, Ilin, and be a flame, a light in the night for your friends and a blaze for your enemies."

Red opened his arms like Boulder had done, letting red energy flowing from the ruby shining on his chest to cover the semi-gnome.

Like it had for Joe, she received a new robe and staff, her armoured part covered by ruby runes. Her staff had kept its magma appearance, its head representing a magma sphere inside wich a ruby was.

"Never forget! You control the fire, and not the opposite." said Red to all his students before turning to ashes, remnants of red energy entering Maximilian's chest.

"I call William." said Windy.

"Sir...must you go? Can't you continue to teach us?" asked William as he arrived before his teacher, receiving a good hair-shuffle from the man in return.

"Don't tell me you're getting sentimental now!" laughed the golem.

"You left the nest, now you must fly by yourself. You were uncertain, you were feeble, now your heart is light, you have friends around you and your magic will give you the wings you need to reach even higher. Receive my gift, William, and always let the wind lift you up."

William received a similar robe than the other two, with diamond runes pictured on his. His staff head was now representing two opened wing, giving the weapon's top an air of long battle-axe, a diamond was placed right between the wings.

"Fly high..." said Windy in a breath as he disappeared in a simple breeze, like dust taken away by the wind. This time, white energy flew to Maximilian's chest.

"I call Guelan." finally said Blue.

"I don't want your gift." said the lamia.

"Really? And why is that?" asked Blue, an amused look on his face.

"I don't want you to give away your life force for that. You could stay with us, you could become a teacher at the academy, or..." said the teary lamia.

"Guelan..." interrupted Blue with a kind smile as he patted the girl's head.

"My life is nothing more than a sandcastle on the beach. After a while, the tide must take it away. Don't be sad, I'm not, because I've lived long enough to see you become who you are today. You were a little girl, a lost child who didn't know where her place was. Today, I see before me a young lady lamia whose future shine like the sunlight on the sea surface. Receive my gift, Guelan, and may the water from your tears be only one of joy."

Guelan robe was a bit differently made. Her lamia anatomy made a long robe a bit impractical. The lower part of her robe was made of a long sapphire chainmail covering her tail, ending with a silver blade covering her tail's end. Her staff was now representing a snake, with the top as the snake's head, a sapphire in its mouth.

"Never let others tell you when you should go with the flow." said Blue to his students before his body turned transparent and disappeared in a puddle, remnants of blue energy going inside Maximilian's chest.

"This concludes this little ceremony. Out of here, no matter what others could say to you, I see you all as mages. Now, stay awake as long as you wish, but remember that tomorrow, we go back to the Academy!"

...................................................................................................................................................

"Will you be alright, Maximilian?" asked Lin-Lin, worried for the man.

Maximilian brushed away a tear from his eyes.

"I'm fine. Sorry to have worried you, it's just that...I didn't expect those four to develop so many feelings for their students."

"You made them so they would think like you, is it that surprising?" kindly asked the panda lady.

"I guess you're right...but hell! Four hearts crying their separation his hard to handle!" exclaimed the man.

"It will pass, don't worry." said the panda lady as she patted the man's shoulder.

Maximilian felt a massive hand patting his other shoulder. Binvo had imitated Lin-Lin, the two exchanging a smile of complicity.

"You two...are you making fun of me?" asked the man, surprised.

"We wouldn't dare..." said Lin-Lin, looking away.

"We respect Maximilian too much for that...does Maximilian wants a hug?" continued Binvo. The minotaur had made good progress in the way he talked, but still had troubles with pronouns.

Maximilian shook his head and sighed.

"To think you two would mock me like that, I'm feeling lonely right now..."

"Pooo?"

Maximilian felt something cool coming on his shoulder. Looking on the side, he saw the blue slime looking at him with sad eyes, as if sharing his pain.

"You are the only one kind with me here, Pori..." said Maximilian, faking loneliness as he poked the slime, making it laughed, some kind of 'ri-ri-ri' sound.

"Binvo still don't know what this thing is..." said the minotaur as he looked down at the drop of water-looking being.

"Pori? He is a slime, Maximilian offered him to me when I finished my training." said Lin-Lin.

"Slime? What is it? A monster?"

"Yes and no. Savage slime can be found on the southern islands, but this one is special. I asked Palino for help, he raises monsters, and he had what I needed to raise this little fellow. I asked him to make one especially for Lin-Lin. It took nearly a year but the result was worth the wait."

"Palino...the rabbit with clothes?" asked Binvo.

"Yes, the very same I told you about. Pori is a special kind of slime: a bag slime. He and Lin-Lin have a special link, placed upon him by a drop of her blood. He is the one carrying Lin-Lin's weapon in him, it's more useful for her to go around without it." explained Maximilian.

"And he is super cute too!" stated Lin-Lin as Pori hopped back along her arm to go back on her shoulder, nudging against her cheek.

"Anyway, we might as well rest a bit too. Tomorrow we go back to Griffinia, we will go see Octavia and then, we will leave the city for a new adventure." stated Maximilian, his two friends nodding in agreement.

..................................................................................................................................................

The banquet hall was full of students and teachers currently eating. Seating at his reserved place, Director Alistair was observing the massive door with his old eyes.

All night long, he had tried to force it open, but couldn't even scratch it, and it was bothering him, a lot. This man, this Maximilian, had appeared before him one evening and he had done as he wanted, forcing the old man to follow his plans.

*A day...he said he would be back in a day with students after, as he told me, giving them a one-year worth teaching...how could he do that? It's impossible!*

The old man was interrupted in his thoughts by one of his teachers, a haughty looking thin middle-aged man with long black hair and a nose too big for his face.

"You seem troubled by this door, Director. Don't be, that man is visibly playing a game with you. How could he teach for one year all alone? To those misfits, nonetheless!" said the man with a laugh, his voice as haughty as his look.

"Professor Ruvress...I suggest you don't underestimate this man, he has proved to be able to give weight to his words..." warned the Director.

Hearing the old man speaks, a woman teacher looking a lot like she had just hit a wall with her face, flattening it, sniggered.

"Director...even if we were eager to admit this unknown man's capability, let's not forget those who followed him. I have notified the ones absent, I can't say we're missing any important student."

"What do you mean, Professor Latiple?" questioned the Director.

Putting on glasses that certainly managed to hold on her flat nose by magic, she unfolded a parchment.

"From what I see, about half the group, at least, is composed of non-humans. Beastkins and half-breeds, and even the few humans in the group aren't from any worthy family...should they disappear, I don't think it would be too difficult to dispose of the problem." explained the flat-face lady.

"Aren't you a precautious one, Lady Latiple. I admire your professionalism." said Ruvress, exchanging an unpleasant laugh with his fellow teacher.

The Director was thinking about it when everyone in the room stopped talking, the runes on the door had begun to shine.

The teachers came before it, at a secured distance, their magic weapon in hands just in case.

"This man is really back after a day? I wouldn't have thought he was serious..." said the Director.

The doors opened, letting Maximilian out, followed by Lin-Lin, Binvo and the students, all wearing the hood of their new mage robes on their head. The door closed behind them and disappeared, leaving no traces behind.

"I see we have a welcoming committee. You shouldn't have, Director." said Maximilian, half-joking.

The teachers and the Director did not lower their weapon, some of them preparing a magic circle.

"You have some explanations to give, Sir Nilmerus. Who are those people?" said the Director.

"What's the problem, Director? You don't recognise your own students?" asked Maximilian as he stepped a bit on the side, letting the students step forward, pulling off their hood and revealing their faces.

Recognising known faces, some of the teachers lowered their weapons, others didn't, but all of them looked really surprised.

"Those are the children who followed you behind that door? But...they have changed so much!" observed the Director.

It was true. After a year of physical and mental intensive training, the students had grown well, clearly looking stronger. The few who had a weight problem when they had left were now chubby at most, muscles replacing their fat. Claire was a good example of that, the earth path student had lost a lot of unwanted flesh, but won so much better one. Among the students, numerous were those looking at them with wonder, envy and, sometimes, anger. But in the end, the general feeling shared by the assembly was, understandably, surprise.

"Director, something isn't right here..." said a teacher to the Director's ear, not leaving the group from his sight.

"What is it?" asked the Director, not moving his eyes away either.

"I scanned the group. None of them has a level under fifteen." said the teacher, worried.

"None under fifteen? Impossible!" whispered the Director.

"That's not all...those three, Sir Nilmerus, the pandakin and the minotaur, they are over thirty. The minotaur's level is thirty-five, the girl's level is forty and Sir Nilmerus's level is...fifty..." stated the teacher, clearly not at ease.

"It's impossible! Are you trying to tell me those three have a level above the teacher's?"

"From what I saw, Director, some of the students have a level above some of the teachers..." corrected the observer.

"Impossible..." said the Director.

"Alistair." called Maximilian, interrupting the teacher.

"I'm afraid my time is short. I promised you a year’s worth of teaching for students I would deem worthy, I have done so. I consider my debt paid. You have before you the best students your Academy has seen since long ago, I suggest you put them all in the same class, they are far more powerful than your other students and I doubt they could learn a lot at their side. Let them train together, help them grow. As the Director of this place, I count on you to help them achieve their true potential." said Maximilian as he passed next to the Director, not stopping.

"Who said you could leave!?" exclaimed Ruvress, pointing his staff at Maximilian, imitated by Latiple on the other side of the leaving man.

The man felt something, a wave of energy, and heard the people around him gasp as they stepped back. Looking above him, he saw a dozen earth spikes pointing at him.

"I suggest you don't do anything stupid, Sir." said Lin-Lin, her hand pointing in the man's direction, clearly the one who had cast the spell.

"Weapon is dangerous if handled against Maximilian." said Binvo as he took Latiple's staff without any problem, surprising everyone with his fast movement.

"Apparently, they did." simply answered Maximilian as he got out of the room.

Right at the exit, the man lifted his hand, waving once at the students without turning back.

"See you again!"

As one, the students politely bowed to him.

"SEE YOU AGAIN, SIR!" said all the young mages as the trio went out of the room, Binvo casually putting Latiple's staff against the wall before he followed the other two.

...................................................................................................................................................

"Hello, you three! How are you doing?!" greeted the innkeeper as the trio arrived.

It surprised Lin-Lin and Binvo for a second, before they remembered that if, for them, it had been a year, for everyone else, it was yesterday.

Greeting their friends on the way, the trio went up.

As they arrived before the locked door, Maximilian breathed in and knocked.

"Octavia? Are you there?"

With no response coming, but with her presence clearly felt inside, Maximilian sighed.

"Octavia, it's been long enough, I'm coming in!"

Easily breaking the door open, Maximilian stopped right on his track as he saw the inside of the room.

There, floating above the ground where Octavia's bow was, some of her hair slightly shining green seemed to be mocking him.

"What's this?" asked Lin-Lin. She tried to approach but Maximilian stopped her, blocking her with his arm before stepping closer the floating hair.

"A lure...placed here to make us think Octavia was still in this room."

As he got close, the hair straightened and dashed at him, aiming for his neck like needles. Catching them, Maximilian barely had the time to feel an unknown energy before the hair burned away, consumed by a green flame.

"Maximilian? What's happening here? Where is Octavia?"

Bowing to pick up the arachne's bow, Maximilian closed his eyes a bit.

"She's gone..."

"What? You mean she left us? Why?" inquired the pandagirl.

"Someone took her. Octavia doesn't know this kind of magic, nor does she knows how to teleport." said Maximilian, not feeling his eight-leg friend anywhere near.

"But who? Who could take Octavia like that? There isn't any trace of struggle. It's almost as if..."

"She willingly followed whoever it was..." concluded Maximilian as he stood, his eyes still closed.

"Willingly? How s..."

"Give me a second, Lin-Lin." said Maximilian as he concentrated, focusing on the unknown energy he had felt on the hair.

*Focus...group the two energies, Octavia's and that unknown person's...out of the capital...far away...*

Around him, Maximilian lost all feeling, he wasn't in the bedroom anymore, his mind was flying higher, searching for something, an echo of some sort, anything strong enough to be felt.

Then, as feeble as a whisper, a feeble candle in the darkest night, an echo. Maximilian's mind turned to the east, where he had caught a trace of the two energies.

*Found you!*

Maximilian opened his eyes, filled with a burning fire.

"What did you find?" asked Lin-Lin, sensing Maximilian's boiling rage.

"The east..." answered Maximilian, doing his best to stay calm.

He put Octavia's bow in the Havenbag and went out, followed by his friends.

"The east? Where in the east? Where is Octavia, Maximilian?" asked Lin-Lin, clearly worried.

"From what I've felt, she is in the very land the King bestowed me..."

"You mean...Lady Noire's territory!? What could she want of Octavia?"

"That I don't know Lin-Lin...All I know is..."

They went out into the street, Maximilian's aura making everyone instinctively moving out of his way.

"...If this undead bitch has done anything, and I mean anything, to Octavia, she will have to pay the price."

"Maximilian, please stop for a second!" called Lin-Lin, finally managing to make him stop.

"Me and Binvo, we are with you, no matter what you wish to do. Please tell us, what do you wish to do? What do you wish for?"

Caressing the pandalady's cheek, Maximilian allowed a feeble smile to pass on his face.

"Thank you, I know I can always count on you two...but this time, we may need a bit more hands for what I'm planning to do."

"What do Maximilian plan?" asked Binvo.

"War." simply answered the man, the simple word leaving his mouth with so much conviction that some people around them on the marketplace lost strength in their legs.

"We're going to war!"