Derrick Hill heard the wizard's words and with them he felt death tightening a noose around his neck. For a moment, just a single moment, he felt himself freeze and his mind go blank. As if with blinding fear he had already accepted his fate. Seeing the palm point directly at him with the lightning magic ready to no doubt go through his heart Derrick snapped out of it.

“Earth wall!” he chanted gathering earth magic. He wall went up around him but was fairly weak. He was not yet proficient using earth magic. With no idea what else to do he ducked behind it. The lighting shot through the wall and over him. The wall doing little to stop the magic was enough for him to avoid the lightning by making his attacker lose track of his location behind it.

Sky shouted “water arrow.” The arrows cut throw the air and toward the white masked wizard.

The wizard met them in midair with well-aimed wind magic to push them away. He then used the same wind magic to quickly blow Sky backward and into a tree which he hit with a large thump “serves you right brat; now sit quietly and watch.”

Mary Saint Cloud used her wind magic to move fast and attempted to circle behind the white masked man.

David Rain was chanting a lightning magic spell that looked particularly nasty.

The white masked wizard thought 'even though they're all brats, a few of them are pretty good. I don't want to have to worry about so many at one time. Let’s cut those numbers down. He chanted a spell and a great earth wall began to build around him on all 4 sides. It was thick and heavy. It protected him from any spell the kids were likely capable of casting.

He then used a great amount of wind magic inside and weakened the structure of the wall. He forced his wind magic to explode in all directions creating a large gust of wind and turning the earth magic into projectiles.

Most of the students were unable to avoid the blast and many were knocked out or incapacitated. The white masked wizard gave a look around and saw only 5 students still standing. David Rain and the blonde hair commoner boy he threatened to kill earlier seemed to have used magic to block the attack.

He was surprised to see the commoner boy had stood in front of the Sky brat who was conscious but slumped against a tree. What a pest that commoner brat was. He saw Mary Saint Cloud had managed to avoid the attack entirely with her wind magic. There was also a brown haired commoner girl who stood behind a tree to avoid the attack. Maybe she had been there for a while. He couldn't be sure.

He looked at the kids “truly impressive. I didn't think so many of you would still be standing after that. Now this is looking much more manageable. I wonder out of all of you who will be the last to fall.”

*****

The shame of the house of sun looked over the forest. There was no way that man could have avoided such an attack. He surely must be dead. He used water magic to put out the fires. He hoped his attacks didn't attract too much attention. Perhaps if he put out the fire they could go undetected for a bit longer and have a full day's head start before anyone knew the kids were gone.

After putting out the fire he went to the white masked man on the ground. “Looks like that teacher got you pretty good. I do wish I had more powerful companions.”

“Help me, my body is broken and I think I might be dying."

“Don't be so damn dramatic, it's just a few broken bones and some internal injuries.”

“Please use your healing magic, it hurts all over” he asked.

The Shame knew of all the types of magic in the world, healing magic was one of the most draining. He used a good amount of mana already to defeat that teacher. He probably had maybe half of his usual power. He got angry and went overboard using such a spell. Half would be more than enough to handle the kids he knew but what if another wizard came?

“Fine, but I'm only going to heal your bones and the serious internal injuries. The cuts and strains I won't fix. I want to save my mana in case another wizard comes along”. He healed the white masked man of those injuries. The white masked man still felt pain all over his body but it was less and he could get up and walk around at least.

The shame stood up. “I'm going to go make sure everything is all set with the kids and get them back to this spot. You stay here and gather your mana as best you can. Be sure we're not leaving anything behind that's important or can identify us.” He picked up his gold mask, put it on and then went into the forest.

*****

As River was making his way towards the camp he noticed whatever was happening there was over. There was no more magic being used in that area. He heard and felt magic in a slightly different direction. "Should I go to camp first or towards the fight going on right now?"

He wanted answers of what was going on at the camp but if lives were in danger right now he had to go there first. He changed direction and went towards where the magic was now being cast.

*****

Derrick Hill knew he had to get all the other classmates who were now unconscious or hurt too badly to move to a safe spot. He turned to Tom Sky “can you still move and fight?”

Tom Sky said “Of course! This is nothing; I just had the wind knocked out of me.”

Derrick could tell he was hurt but he was still able to help. “Amanda and I will move those that are hurt out of the way while the others keep him busy. As soon we are done we will rejoin the fight.”

Amanda hesitated for a moment “O-okay, yes, we must keep them from getting caught up in the fight.”

The white masked man replied “That's so sweet of you two; do you think everything will just go as you want?”

Mary Saint Cloud shot a strong gust of wind magic at him. He blocked it with his own wind magic. Mary then used wind magic in her other hand to push herself to the left and shot quickly again. The white masked man didn't expect this and had to dodge out of the way as he had no time to cast any spells. The wind nicked his shoulder and made shallow cuts.

“You overestimate yourself” she hissed with disdain. “I'm no ordinary student. I'm the pride of the Saint Cloud family and I shall one day be the strongest wizard in the world. You'll not even be a worthy footnote in my history.”

“Shut your mouth you dumb bit-” lightning came at him shot from David Rain. The white masked man was able to dodge it this time as he was on his toes from the last series of attacks.. Feeling himself boxed in he had no choice but to cast a powerful earth spell around himself.

“Damn these kids may be more trouble than I thought.” Again he did the same tactic and made it explode with wind magic. He hoped to hit a few of them but seeing the attack before they were ready for it and able to block it or dodge it.

He saw Mary blocked it with wind; however David Rain blocked it with lightning. He recalled it was only element he had used so far. If that was all he could us then he could take advantage of it, lightning magic takes the longest time to prepare between attacks, a tradeoff for its strong damage to a single target with relatively low mana use.

He used a strong, large wind attack on Mary which pushed her back into the woods and caused himself to jet towards David Rain. He was still preparing his next attack and not yet ready to defend himself. The white mask man unleashed a water attack which probably broke a few of David's ribs.

David Rain squirmed on the ground in pain “you're nothing but criminal scum” he yelled at the man through his gritted teeth and pain.

The wizard's anger came to the surface “just for that I'm going to break both your arms brat.” The white masked man was getting ready to shoot 2 powerful wind spells at David. Just before he did Amanda jumped out from behind a tree and after chanting unleashed a powerful fire magic on him. “Leave him alone!”

He quickly used water magic to block as much as possible as the size was too large to dodge. He felt pain shooting through his arm. He smelled burned flesh and saw his left armed was pretty badly charred. He would be unable to use it until it was healed.

He turned on her “I'm going to kill you for that you filthy commoner!” He shot a powerful water magic in her direction.

Amanda had managed avoid attacks by either dodging them or getting behind trees. Unlike most of the student fighting she couldn't yet use magic without a chant. Coming out from the forest to protect David left her exposed to the enemy. The attack was too big to dodge and with no time to do anything to try to block it with magic she covered her body and head with her arms as best she could.

The force of the impact knocked her off her feet and she lay on the ground with a broken leg. She screamed in pain.

“I'm surprised you are still alive, I guess I didn't put enough into that.” He walked towards to her to end her life

“Leave her alone” David yelled from the ground. He tried to get up and do something but he could barely move. With his body in such a state it was hard to focus and control his mana.

"What's this? A Brat from the Rain house caring about some stupid commoner girl? That's a surprise indeed."

Amanda lay on the grass helplessly looking on as the wizard approached. David knew she had risked herself to save him and now she found herself in such a state and about to die because she tried to help him. He never thought to care about the filthy commoners in all his life until this moment. For the first time he found himself caring about a commoner.

“I swear if you touch her again, I'll spend the rest of my life tracking you down. I swear it on the house of Rain!”

“Big talk for someone in your predicament, you were powerless to keep yourself from getting in such a state and now you'll be powerless to save her life. Lament at your own incompetence. It's that which caused her to die.” He summoned lightning magic in his good hand and aimed it at her heart.

Suddenly he felt a humongous surge of magic and looked across the field. It was Tom Sky having cast giant earth elements attacks in his hands. Tom smiled “Do you think I've been doing nothing all this time fool? This is my most powerful attack passed down in the Sky house for generations. This will be the end of you!”

He shot both earth element balls at the white masked man. However, their aim was odd. They were heading towards him but they were aimed too high. Clearly they would go above him and miss. What kind of silly attack was this?

Suddenly Tom yelled “Now!”

Mary came out from behind a tree which was close to the one Clovercame out from behind of. With her wind magic she pushed him away from Clover and backwards. The spell was already cast by the time he saw her so he had almost no time to react “damn she can cast fast."

Right after being puhed back some 30 feet he saw the Hill brat. He was casting a spell already. The last part he heard was “great water barrier”. A giant barrier of water appeared and swept over himself and the other students. The white masked man thought; what was the point of such a spell?

He only realized then, he lost track of the 2 giant earth balls. They were now directly above him. Before he could do anything he realized what was about to happen “You, you brats!”

Both earth balls had a massive amount of wind magic in them. It was similar to the attack the white masked man used. However, it's much more difficult to have a magic inside another magic absent your body and throwing it than to be physically located in the center of magic and controlling the layers.

Tom let loose the wind magic inside of both the balls of earth magic. From all directions powerful earth magic was shot at incredibly high speeds. Maybe if it only came from one spot he could have blocked or dodged but coming from everywhere it was impossible.

Derrick Hill's water based defense was not as good as earth based defense but it was thick and a decent distance away from the blast, even he was worried for a moment it wouldn't hold up. After it was over Hill let the water barrier disperse and dropped to his knees in exhaustion. That took a lot out of him.

The students saw the white masked man. The mask was no longer covering his face but it would have been impossible to tell what he looked like. His body was mangled and his life was gone.

“We did it” Hill said trying to catch his breath.

David Rain tried to get up. “How is the commoner gir-; I mean, how is Amanda?”

Mary motioned for David to stay down for now. “I'll check on her, do any of you know any healing magic? It'll be hard to move like this” they all shook their heads no.

Derrick Hill rubbed his eyes and tried to think of the best move. “Carrying everyone obviously isn't an option; I’d say one of us goes to school as quick as possible and the others stay to hide the injured and defend them if needed.”

Mary nodded. “I’ll go. I can get there the fastest with my wind magic, but you'll have to watch over everyone else till I get back Hill.”

Before she could leave she heard a voice “Well, I don't know if I should be more impressed or angry. You actually managed to kill my comrade. I guess I'll have to punish you for that. But it shows you may be worth more than i thought.” The gold masked walked out of the forrest.