It wasn't long before the Cloud house and the Zero Province Academy learned what the Star house was doing. At first there was disbelief and indignation. Once they accepted the reality of the situation the Cloud house got to work on the best way to counter attack. It was clear that they should pool their resources into one school.

It just so happened right now that they didn't have many branch or main house members in the proper age range. Never the less, they used all their influence to transfer several students to the Zero Province Academy. Though none of them could hope to match Vladimir Star they did manage to find several strong very strong students that they hoped could make a difference.

If they couldn't deal with Vladimir then their best bet was to try to win the other matches. They were not overly hopeful. By now the names of other students who were transferred were known and their background was looked into. At the least they would be low B ranked wizards. In most years such talented 3rd year wizards would be considered the super elite who would be the top end fighters to decide the fate of the main tournament. This was not most years.

The Cloud house would pool all their resources into training the best they had but many whispered it was hopeless. Perhaps if Mary Saint Cloud was a few years older she could have been a fine ace of the team and at least win one match for sure, as long she she was not matched up with Vladimir. Sadly this was not the case. Being too young and inexperienced, she was ignored in favor of the top of the 3rd year crop.

That was fine by her and the rest of the group being trained by Lee and Peter. Peter, now being a member of this group, would sit in on the training and was becoming a very valuable resource. He didn't know much about Lee's mana or magic techniques but he had a wealth of fighting experience and plenty of techniques of his own. Lee and him talked about their training practice before each session to be sure there would be no miscommunication or stepping on each others toes.

While the practicing was going well it was becoming clearer to Lee they were on pace to fall short of where he needed them to be. He planned to use the time in the month after the selection tournament for his school to take everyone back to his village and train with the old man. He believed knowing how important this was that the old man would become a temporary teacher for his friends just this once.

One month wouldn't be enough time. It took Lee 3 weeks to travel from his town to the school. Even if it was by foot, he assumed it would probably take at least 3 days even with the fastest possible means of travel. Mary recommended carriages with the fastest horses that could be rotated every day when they stopped at the bigger towns along the way. Though tricky, such a thing could be arranged with letters and using the name of her house. Not to mention the wealth of the Cloud house.

Assuming an entire week would be wasted going back and forth they would have only 3 to train. That was simply not enough time. After a discussion of what to do about this it was Mary who came up with the solution on how to solve such an issue.

“Well, the tournament for our school is done a month before school ends at the schools own discretion right? What if Peter pushed for it to be done earlier? They might be open to that if you argue that the sooner we know who our fighters are the sooner we can pour all our resources into training them?”

It was a very smart idea. After discussing it they decided it would be best to not even mention it till about 2 months before the end of the year. If mentioned too soon they may rush to do it before Lee's group was ready. It would be tricky to balance the timing. They would have to be at least decent C ranks to take the spots but would need to leave enough time to hope make it up to B before the tournament started.

Each jump was harder than the last. In the month they have been training Amanda and Derrick had moved out of F rank. River assumed they would be able to get to D rank almost as fast. The problems really started after that. Much of this rapid growth was due to improvements upon some foundations already built in their body from years of training.

They didn't control mana entirely properly but before starting this training they were at least use to the feeling of controlling it. Their mana supply had been built up over the years and with a few minor changes it would be expanded and more efficiently used. Soon these easy gains would make way to the harder gains of building upwards on the entirely new abilities they would need.

Mary, David and Tom had similar gains but to a smaller degree as there where less mistakes that needed fixing. Still they held a strong advantage over the others. Peter had only been with Lee for about a week at this point. Lee had taught him the new techniques for controlling mana but so far he was seeing absolutely no results. It may be as Lee feared and his mana system had become to set in it's way.

Perhaps the old man would be able to do something about it but Lee sadly had no answers to his problems. When Lee told Peter about the situation he was depressed but determined to not give up. Lee didn't tell him many details about his teacher but only that he may be able to help. That was all the motivation Peter needed. He knew if he continued on his current path his growth would only be minor from now on. He had come to realize he was hitting his limits with his current training. Any hope was better than none.

So Peter continued training his mana the way Lee showed him. He had the hoped that even if he saw no results if it even had a 1% chance of making any changes more likely in the future when he met the boy's master it was more than worth doing.

The next 6 months continued like this. Tom Sky had long ago moved on to the 50 lb weight and had become fairly nimble in it. He longed to take it off and to discover what his true quickness had become but Lee would not let him do it till one week before the tournament. He thought that would be a good amount of time for Tom to become use to the new feel of his body. His mana control had become excellent and his magic much stronger and creative.

David Rain, as Lee knew he would, had improved the least in this time. Still, his powers had improved a good deal. So much so that it would make any normal student so jealous they would turn greener than the grass with envy and wonder what they had wasted all year doing. His martial arts skills had come a long way. Though still clumsy compared to Lee he had a good natural body for it. His punches and kicks packed power and if you let him grab you and were not quick to defend the match would be decided.

Derrick had grown in a very interesting way. His water magic had made great leaps but in the mean time Peter had also focused on teaching him earth magic. This was mostly under Derrick's insistence. After seeing the fight between Peter and Lee he saw the value of earth magic and the tricks one could do with it. His style slowly reflected this more and more .

While others focused on power techniques he followed more in the footsteps of Lee. He found interesting ways to use his magic and often thought several steps ahead of his opponent. The more Lee got to know him the more he realized what a sharp mind he had. He had practically learned magic by himself with only a few lessons and an old book after all.

His talent was good but his most dangerous weapon was his intellect. He was a true genius who never really showed it due to lack of confidence. As he gained more confidence it appeared more often. He came to be a great adviser for Lee when it came plans on how to deal with the tournament and discussing new tricks that could be used in a fight. The were things Lee never would have thought of by himself. Surely he was a great ally to have on your side.

Amanda's shyness, at least within the group, had completely vanished at this point. She was still painfully shy around outsiders but felt comfortable and let her personality show with her friends When she wanted to, she could be pretty hilarious. And when she finally wore her hair in a way that stopped covering her face her cuteness could be seen. She had started to be approach by more boys in the class but politely and shyly declined.

Her mana control was actually starting to catch up to Lee. Truly she had a pretty amazing natural talent in that area. When Lee talked to them about the importance of physical stamina and how much it was undervalued Amanda took it to heart the most. All of the group was in decent shape, as it was known physical stamina helped with mana control, but Amanda took it to another level. By the end of six months she could nearly keep pace with Lee on his runs.

There was a strong fire under that shy personality. This combined with her mana control turned out to give her the best magical stamina of anyone in the class including River. In a long drawn out battle she would be impossible to deal with for nearly any opponent.

Mary was still the best of group but the the gap had closed a decent amount. It took a while but she was happy to see the results of the training. The gap between her and Lee was still clear but it had turned from what felt like an ocean apart to more of a giant lake. It still felt huge but at least she could almost see the other side now. When they fought she was far inferior but not completely overwhelmed and helpless.

“Today I floated the idea about moving up the tournament to the headmaster”. Peter paused to make sure they were all listening. “I've no doubt it will soon be discussed with the Cloud house and we'll have an answer sometime tomorrow. It seems very hopeful. The advantage of getting 2 months instead of 1 to train our representatives to fight the Dragon Academy and the Star brats seems clear.

I expect they will probably rush to have the tournament as soon as possible once they have decided. Probably no later than the start of next week if I'm any judge. You have all come a long way. It would have been nice to train a little longer but we're simply running out of time if we want to stick to the plan.”

All the students agreed it was true. None of them were worried to hear the news. They had been expecting it very soon and were excited to test their new skills. It just so happened Peter got a chance to talk one on one to the headmaster today alone and couldn't pass up the chance to do so.

“Great, this is better anyway.” Lee turned towards the rest of them. “I want to get these matches behind us as soon as possible and we can move on to more important things. Tom, go ahead and take off the weights now. I want you to get use to fighting at your own body weight as soon as possible. For now, I would like Peter to do a quick measuring of our power to tell us where we stand.”

Lee could have done this himself but he very intentionally wanted this to come from Peter. He felt bad about how he has undercut him. It wouldn't be wrong to say at this point Peter could be argued to be more student than teacher to Lee. He wanted him to keep the teacher relationship with the others as much as possible. He decided not to share the fact he could sense levels too to help Mr. Leaf in that regard.

“Okay, all of you stand in a line and I'll check you one by one.” To help give them the idea of if they were considered a strong, weak or average level in their rank Peter had gotten use to using plus or minus terms. These terms were not usually used but not entirely unheard of. “Derrick C rank, Amanda C rank, David... C- rank.”

Peter knew he shouldn't have paused but that surprised him. David started ahead of both before but now was behind. He had worked just as hard too. “It's okay, I was expecting that. Magical rank isn't everything. It's about who wins the fight in the end. I may be this rank but I am the most deadly C rank you are ever likely to meet.”

“Glad to hear it, I'm sure the other students won't know what hit them!” Peter gave him a pat on the back and moved on. “Tom C+ rank, Mary B- rank. Good job both of you. No one you are likely to meet will be your match in our school's tournament. I would ask you both try to hide a bit of your power. We don't want to attract too much attention yet. Who knows what those star bastards might do.”

Peter put his hand on Lee to feel his level but Lee walked away from him. It made it look like a pat on the back. “Good job everyone. We already finished our training so I think we can call it a night. I'm sure we'll all do great at the school tournament. Just fight smart and don't make any big mistakes and we should all have no problems. I don't want to undersell the difficulty of this but in the end I don't expect any of us to lose. Look at this as a practice run and match experience.”

They all agreed they would do so and left for the night happy with the news. Lee had purposely not asked Peter to measure their level for the last 3 months. He wanted them to be enthusiastic and excited about their growth before they fought. While he believed their in their victory he would be certain to leave nothing to chance. He made a mental note to talk to Derrick about if there were any ways to set it up so they wouldn't meet each other till the end. They could still make the team if they won enough consolation matches but it be better to avoid too much of that.

“You intentionally didn't want me to tell them your power, right Lee?”

“I didn't think it would be a good idea to do that in front of them. I want them to still have the proper respect for your power that they should.”

“You've moved from A- to A in just 6 months. That is a very big jump in the time frame. At this rate you'll be the youngest wizard to make S class I've ever heard of. Our fight before was close. If we fought now I doubt I would have much of a chance.” Peter smiled, half proud of his student but half feeling defeated at his own inability to improve. He had made barely any progress these last 6 months. His rate of growth had been slowing down more and more recently. At this rate one day he may be as strong as Lee is right now, but that would be all.

“When we finish this tournament you'll be our chaperone and go with us to meet my teacher. I think there's a good chance he can do something about your situation. Don't lose hope.” Lee tried to sound as confident as he could, but honestly he wasn't sure. Wasn't it his own teacher who hammered home how important it was to build these foundations while still young. Then again, he also said he had been an exception and managed to find a way around it. So it wasn't entirely hopeless either.

Peter could read between the lines. Lee was many things but he wasn't a good liar. He knew his odds weren't good. But not good was better than what his present situation would have been had he never met Lee. He would happily take it. They bid good night to each other and retired to their rooms.

When alone, Lee sat on his bed and reread his letters. Some from his parents, some from the old man and some from Alura. He missed all of them terribly. He started to miss them even more now as the prospect of meeting them got closer and closer. “Only a few more weeks.” He didn't know if he was speaking to himself or the letters, as if those precious people could hear his voice through them.

The next week passed by quickly. The training was always intense but now it was even more so. They soon learned the school tournament would take place the following Monday and into Tuesday if need be. Lee wanted to talk to Derrick and Peter about possible ways to try to set things up so they could mostly avoid fighting each other.

“Actually, I've already taken care of that.” Derrick didn't even stop his mana training while sharing this.

“How the hell did you do that? This is suppose to be all randomized. They made sure of it.” Peter was in disbelief.

“Yes it was, they had a random draw and wrote down the results. Those went badly for use. Luckily, the results seemed to have gotten misplaced and they had to hurriedly order a new random draw. This was done quickly with less ceremonial fanfare. It was done by two teachers in a back room who pulled out pieces of paper with the students names on them.

They simply decided to place the information on the headmaster's desk because it turned out he was away on business to see the cloud house the day it went missing. They sent him a letter to saying they lost they results and had to quickly make new ones. I intercepted it to be sure the results were not included before I put it in the outgoing mail. Then I simply replaced their results.”

“That's a bold move Derrick, but what if the teachers remember those results or have them written down somewhere else? Won't they wonder what happened?” Peter thought this plan was rather reckless.

“Well, to fix that I sent them a letter under the headmaster's name. They were informed he was so furious over the losing of the results he considered tossing them out of school then and there. The letter states he will do the draw himself when he gets back and to never mention this ugly mess again or he simply won't be able to contain his anger.”

Lee gave out a laugh. “Well, I think that will work. It's rather risky though. What if you were caught or something went differently than you expected?”

Derrick shook his head “I would've made sure not to get caught no matter what. If something went differently. I would just form a different plan on the fly. It wasn't like I thought this would go exactly as it did. I had a number of ideas to use depending on how things played out. In the end I doubt anyone will really look too closely at it. The worse thing that happens is they do another draw. If that happens I'll just find a way to fix that too.”

Lee was shocked. This timid Derrick could be quite the sly and sneaky character when need be. He was just glad he was on their side. As it turns out no one seemed to look deeply into the matter. Particularly not the two teachers who did the random draw. If anything they took to avoiding the headmaster all together.. What had Derrick put in the letter he sent to them? It was probably better not to ask.

This morning of the tournament all the students woke up and went to have breakfast. Classes were suspended for the day. Even those not competing would get to watch the event. It was something even the observers were excitedly looking forward to all year. In the end, just a bit under 64 students applied. It seems some of the transfers scared others off from competing.

Lee stretched with his fellow mates. Peter would have to referee and play neutral but he kept a sharp eye on Lee and the others not wanting to miss what they were doing.

“I wonder what they'll say when a bunch of first years are on top of the school rankings?” David asked.

“They'll likely be in too much pain to say anything. Probably a good deal of moaning though.”

Amanda gave a shy smile.

“Come on everyone, they're our fellow classmates, we can't be too rough. But there is that one asshole... Mike something... I'll point him out to whoever gets him.” Tom thought when it comes to him they could be a bit rough.

“Remember everyone, conceal your abilities as much as the matches allow. We should assume the Star house has eyes here. Don't give them any free information.” Derrick looked carefully for anything that appeared out of place.

“I don't care if they're here or not! Let them watch if they want. I'll show them what happens when they dare to cross the Cloud house.” Mary hoped they were watching. Her only regret is there were no Stars to fight today.

“Tom, I have that Mike guy. Are you sure he deserves it?” Lee wanted to know if Tom was serious.

“When he heard you talk about how much you loved you're mom's homemade boar stew he said you were a momma's boy and mentioned several things he'd rather have your mother do for him besides make boar stew.” Amanda told him

“Son of a bitch...” Lee angrily walked toward the ring.

“Is that true Amanda?” David whispered.

“Well... It was either he said that or commented on my chest size apparently not being impressive enough. I can't seem to remember which it was.” She smiled putting her hands behind her and skipped to the ring to watch the match.

“David, just between you and me. If you ever do end up going out with her; make sure you don't piss her off.” Tom patted his back before walking to the ring. He didn't want to miss this. Mike really was an asshole.

“This is getting old. Just confess your feelings already. This will or won't you routine is starting to bore me.” Mary starting to walk.

“Maybe you should follow your own advice or is it house Cloud tradition to act like an 8 year old girl who pushes and insults the boy she likes?” Mary blushed at his comment.

“I have no idea what you're talking about!” She quickly walked to the ring with David chuckling at her red face as he went towards the ring as well. He didn't want to miss this. Mike really was a bit of an asshole after all.