After work ended for the week and the next week began Dragis changed into some battle robes after work and reported to the Aesir training fields as requested. Once he arrived an elder walked up to him with a serious look on his wizened face and dressed in the head trainer’s robes.

“Good morning Junior Dragis! I do hope you have come here ready for quite a challenge when it comes to training these young lords.” The elder says with his head hanging low

Dragis makes a confused look “I am surprised you need my help Elder Josha with the years you have spent training the young I thought this would-be child’s play for you.” he said with a questioning tone.

“I will be honest with you out of all the elders I am one of the weakest when it comes to magical power at a rank one magical emperor but I am the one who has the most knowledge of natural laws and magical cultivation methods. These two facts lead me to this very position of being the best option when training younglings who have yet to find their own path and being able to fight people slightly stronger than me. People at your level are beyond what I can easily train and these five youngsters have gotten to where I cannot keep them in line without openly threatening them and I cannot do that. They respect strength and since you have knowledge sufficient to train others and the extreme power for your age you should easily be able to gain their respect and keep these five in line.” He says slightly with his head held down and shoulders slumped.

Dragis smiled with understanding and sympathy for the elder “Then Senior I will trouble you to lead me to where these five are and to introduce me.”

Elder Josha turns and starts to lead Dragis towards the very back of the training area. As they pass through the first area that has a small pavilion they see a small group of children sitting in front of an older man who is teaching magic theory to the children.

“Now we all know we are able to use magic thanks to drawing power from the excess energy from the grand crystals and that lesser crystals can hold certain types of energy for use in everyday things like cooking and transportation or in battle but can anyone here tell me how we humans use magic without the crystals?” The older man asked.

Several of the kids raise their hands and the teacher points to a young red-haired boy near the front of the class.

“Yes Joshua.”

“With hand signs and channeling the magic through our meridians!” the young kid yelled out

“Correct we use hand signs to focus our minds and send certain elemental energy to follow a preset path through our bodies and the environment and the fusion of the energies create a spell. It is possible for one to memorize these paths and cast spells without them but one distraction and boom the spell goes off in your face.” The elderly man says with a slight wave of his arms making the children laugh for a bit.

“Don’t you miss those younger days where you could just sit and listen and have no worries about what tomorrow may bring?” Elder Josha asked

“When I was young in my branch family there was no one who understood magic well enough to teach us let alone explain how we should train,” Dragis said with a sad smile

“Yes, I forget you and your brother both come from a branch family. It really is quite marvelous that one of the lowest branch families produced two people such as yourselves.”

“Had it not been for the family pulling together and buying us training scrolls we would have never had a start.”

“How on earth did the two of you get so strong from nothing but a scroll? your comprehension abilities must have been monstrous!”

“We had a lot of trial and error and a lot of patience and tenacity. O and luck, lots of luck.” Dragis says with a grin. He could not tell him they both found a cave that had been left by a magical lord or higher that had a water recording in it that taught the both of them a training method that trained all five of the elements hand in hand. Nor that I had found a grey orb that absorbed into me giving me a time bloodline magic.

As they continue walking they finally come to the back of the training area where the private arenas rest.

“I have to warn you these five are very arrogant but their power at their age allows them to back it up.” Elder Josha warns Dragis

“No worries I am sure I can handle them and get them well prepared for the upcoming ranking event.”

As Dragis walks in he sees four figures around his age sitting around one that looked a couple years younger than them just talking.

“Stand up and greet your new trainer!” Elder Josha tries to yell with authority

The younger five do not even pay him attention and continue to talk as if no one was there.

“I do believe an elder of the family just told you to stand up,” Dragis says using magic to amplify the volume and make a slight show of power.

This gets their attention causing them to look over at him with disdain and looks of superiority.

“Why it is the branch families pride and joy Dragis Aesir the mighty come to train us poor main family members.” The youngest one says with a voice thick with sarcasm.

“You may want to be careful he may use one of his FireIce spells and cheat to beat you like he did to gain the branch family some favor.” The only girl in the group remarks with a grin.

“What use are cheap tricks against true power. Had Aquila not been too young by two years to compete in the family meeting he would have beat all of the others.” Said a large man with a scar on his face barely missing his left eye.

Dragis makes a quick analysis of the others using traces of their aura of magic to gauge their magic and concluded that they were all magical kings ranging from level one for the female and the young man was level three and that the large one was probably more focused on physical training rather than magical.

“Well if that is how all of you feel how about we make a small bet?” Dragis ask with a confident grin.

“What kind of bet were you thinking branch man?” the one named Aquila askes

“How about we all spar if one of you can beat me I will leave and admit that the branch families are useless trash like you think but if I win then you must let me train you and listen to my orders for the duration of the tournament,” Dragis says as he crosses his arm

“So, you will take all five of us on in duels one by one by yourself?”

“That is the bet unless you five prodigies are too scared of a poor branch man? I won’t even use my cheat spells as you call them” Dragis says with a mocking tone

“Us scared of a member of a branch family especially the one that brought the main branch shame in every competition for the past several generations!” The woman yelled

“You are a branch scum.” The larger man yelled

Aquila just crosses his arm walks over “You really think someone like you with magic power like ours can beat all five of us? Since all of us are in the same realm of power without your tricks this will be an easy won bet.”

Aquila then walks back before Dragis can respond and sits behind the other four showing that he thought he would not even have to fight in this competition.

“Then elder I must trouble you to act as a judge for this sparring session.” Dragis glances at the elder with an apologetic smile.

As he finished speaking the elder flew up to the judging platform activating the protective shield that kept people on the outside from being harmed as well as from being able to tell the exact spells being used.