Professor Dmitri’s selections amazed rlin, and it did not fail to amaze the rest of the students—perhaps even those selected were not different.
Nikolai, Park Yuri, and Choi Sangook were those who had been chosen to take him on. rlin could see the man’s vision; Nikolai was in Cohort Fateglass. Park Yuri was in Cohort Spearhead. And Choi Sangook was in Cohort Dragon Eye. This way, rlin took on students of different Cohorts.
And, honestly, he was fine with it. At least, he didn’t have to fight anyone he was particularly close to. And… He got to take one more crack at Choi Sangook. The bastard had even been smiling when his raised hand hadn’t gone unnoticed. It seed he too wanted to fight rlin as much as rlin wanted to fight him, but obviously for different reasons. rlin had co to realize that ice magic was basically his own antithesis. This way he would be able to strengthen himself even better. Choi Sangook didn’t realize it, but he was just a training dummy to rlin. And the thought caused rlin’s lips to twitch into a smile.
“All right,” Professor Dmitri continued after the students had settled down. “Make your pick, rlin. Which of the duels do you want to be graded on?”
rlin glanced at Professor Dmitri who didn’t spare him a look and turned back to the seated students. It was not even up for debate which duel he wanted to be graded on. He had never fought Nikolai before, and had no idea of the boy’s capabilities. He couldn’t assu he would do well against the lad, and if he wanted to help it, he would love it if the boy could earn so points.
Of course, because he was not being graded in a duel didn’t an his opponent would get free points. But at least they would be noticed better. And that thought naturally corresponded with dueling Park Yuri as well. She was a student of Cohort Spearhead, and also the granddaughter of the Guildmaster of the Silver Dragon Guild. If there was anyone he didn’t want to be graded against, it was her. After all, he recalled from the usual gossip that she was also an A-Class Mage.
And that left him with the person he was sure he had a shot against: Choi Sangook. He had engaged the boy once already, and had fought against actual ice monsters. He stood a chance.
“Choi Sangook,” rlin said, and a flurry of murmurs rose from the dead. He saw Hakyun with a narrowed gaze. The boy probably thought he had done it because of him, but he didn’t need to worry. His choice was completely undriven by emotions and based on pure reasoning.
“Haha!!” Choi Sangook burst into laughter and clapped his hands wildly. “Good choice, Deficient Mage! Good choice!”
rlin simply sighed.
Professor Dmitri then nodded in acceptance of rlin’s decision, nudged his glasses, and stepped down from the podium.
“Nikolai Volkov, co down,” he said, motioning for the boy to stand up. Then he tapped on his smartwatch and imdiately the podium sunk into the ground, slapping a look of awe on everyone’s face as they watched the transformation. A hexagonal ring grew out of where the podium had been, and around it crackled to life a net made of blue surges that felt a bit too ethereal to be electrical. Mana surges.
Nikolain got to where rlin was then and they greeted each other with a smile.
“I saw your video,” Nikolai started. “I know you’re strong, but don’t hold anything back and let’s give it our all,” he said with a brief nod.
“Sure.” rlin reciprocated the nod.
Nikolai had been a good guy to Hakyun during the physical assessnt, and even though rlin would go all out respectfully, he would try his best not to subject the boy to any harm. Well, that was considering the boy was not on a whole other level.
Well, it didn’t matter. A friend of Hakyun was a friend of his.
“You may both head in,” Professor Dmitri shifted aside as rlin and Nikolai walked into the ring. He then turned to the rest of the students. “This might just be a simple duel to you all in hindsight, but it is more than that. Dungeons and Towers require teamwork. With this duel, you will learn all about how your fellow mate fights, that way, when the Dungeon and Tower simulation practical cos around, you will not fail woefully. Every course ties into the other at Prestige Academy. Joke with one, you joke with all the rest.”
Loud gulps resounded through the White Room. Then Professor Dmitri turned back to rlin and Nikolai.
“The duel ends when your opponent gives up, or sothing similar to a lethal strike lands. You have five minutes. Begin.”
rlin was always ready. His body tensed up as he brought the activation of Reader Mage to the tip of his tongue. But at that mont, he noticed Nikolai stealing a brief glance at Professor Dmitri and he frowned. The boy’s expression had crumpled for a mont there. And rlin knew that expression. It was the one a person wore when they had sothing to prove—when there was a certain burden on their shoulder.
Was there sothing he was missing between Nikolai and Professor Dmitri?
He didn’t have the ti to settle into his thoughts as Nikolai arched his brows and let loose his Grimoire from the pouch around his waist. rlin’s heart skipped a beat at the color of the Grimoire. It was black and without any accentuation, just like Hakyun’s.
Nikolai was a D-Class Mage.
rlin felt a sour taste creep onto his tongue. He had already promised not to hold anything back, but even if he tried to be humble, he was well aware that he was sowhat stronger than a D-Class Mage at his current level. He’d been able to take on C-Rank Ice Wyverns, and had fought against Chima, an A-Class Mage, and won, despite the fact that Chima was holding back. Wasn’t it only sensible that he placed so sort of restriction on himself to balance things out?
No. He was not at the level to be feeling conceited and giving people the edge in a battle. Nikolai had raised his hand of his own accord, he had wished that they gave it their all. Who was he to think the boy deserved pity? He was going to fight like he would any other person. He was going to be decisive. rlin’s eyes narrowed into a glint.
Nikolai channeled his mana and the air around his arms brimd with life. rlin was curious as to what sort of magic his eyes would be blessed with, and he was pleasantly surprised to find out that Nikolai was not amongst the common category of Mages. The veins on the boy’s arms bulged, his flesh writhed, his fingernails turned into claws, and as every one present watched with focused gazes, his skin’s color changed into a blend of orange and black stripes, a mountain of fur sprouting over them.
rlin smiled amidst the murmurs. A creation Mage.
“Ready?” Nikolai asked, his voice having been tampered with as well as it beca extrely raspy.
“As ready as I can be,” he replied and Nikolai dashed forward.
rlin was no longer caught by surprise at the possibility of Mages being lee rather than ranged, and he had long put his whole misgivings about Warriors behind him after experiencing Chima’s capabilities and, well, Janeth’s strength. In fact, a Mage who could switch between lee and Ranged like Chima had shown during their spar back in the dorm, was the kind of Mage one was to fear the most. They were versatile and quick.
However, Nikolai was not that Mage.
rlin had no problem evading the boy’s attacks. They were crude, slow, and without rhythm. He could predict where Nikolai would strike next just from how his waist moved, and he danced aound every blur of claw easily.
Nikolai had a look of furstrayion on his face, but rlin only focused on it for a brief second. What his mind was most drawn to was how the boy’s magic worked. He knew Creation Mages had had their DNA tampered in accordance with the knoeldge their mana possessed. What he wanted to know about was the chanics. And he was unable to prevent his curiosity from escaping his mouth.
“How does this work?” rlin asked as he ducked beneath an overhead slash and evaded a following diagonal swipe of claws. “Oh, yeah. I do understand the basics of Creation, I just don’t understand how it translates to reality. Are you like a half-human, half-beast, but can control the latter part of your body? You know, let it co out at will or the likes?”
Nikolai’s brows arched into a frown as he kept trying every ans he could think of to get a hit on rlin. “What is this?” the boy asked, his tone low. “Are you kidding here?”
rlin snapped back to reality then, realizing how his actions would look to a third-party. And well enough, his thoughts were correct.
“Isn’t he just toying with him?” a student asked from the crowd. “That Nikolai guy hasn’t even landed a single hit, and rlin just keeps dancing around him.”
“This is boring,” another yawned.
“This is not a show.”
“We haven’t even seen his anti-magic at work. At this rate we won’t even see it.”
The murmurs grew louder, expressing their displeasure with how things were proceeding, and rlin felt extrely bad and displeased with himself. He’d ssed up. Nikolai had an embarrassed look on his face. And, instinctively, he knew the best thing to do here was end things before it got even worse.
rlin jumped a few steps back, putting a substantial amount of distance between him and Nikolai who had beads of sweat running down his head as his breathing pulled in and out. Imdiately, rlin stretched forth a hand and activated Reader Mage.
He had never deconstructed the spell of a Creation Mage before, but at the mont, his feeling of curiosity had been tainted by his stupid actions a minute or so ago, and so he could not relish in the mont.
[Perk: Reader Mage Activated]
[Analyzing spell…]
[Analysis complete]
[Spell: Beast Arms.
Category: Novice, Tier I.
Spell Wielder: D-Class Mage.
Spell Description: A spell ford by shaping the nucleotide sequences present in the Mage’s modified deoxyribonucleic acid to correspond with a certain aspect of the knowledge their mana possesses. In this Mage’s case, the knowledge of the cellular structure of the arms of beasts of the panthera genus.]
[Deconstructing Process: Disrupt the bonding between the weakest of the rung base pairs of the Mage’s deoxyribonucleic acid, which is the adenine to the thymine pair, by channeling your mana into the construct of their hydrogen bond. Do be careful though, this ti it is not your life that is at stake. Too much mana and you risk a widespread cell death in the Mage, killing them.]
rlin froze. He had gotten him an idea of what he wanted to know, but the knowledge left a sour taste in his tongue. He had never thought that using his anti-magic would put his opponent at risk, and not him. Kieran had not tackled an opponent with ‘beast magic’ in Singularity Mage, so rlin was not sure how to go about this here. He was no longer a novice as to how he channeled his mana, but would it be wise for him to risk it with soone else’s life on the line?
If sothing can go wrong, it will go wrong…
[Deconstruct?]
[Yes?]/[No?]
rlin made his decision.
No…
He lowered his hand and the mana that had wrapped around his hand vanished.
“Huh? What’s going on? Has he used anti-magic?”
“When? I didn’t see anything?”
Murmurs sprung to life, but the fact that Nikolai still had his spell active gave them the answers they needed. And it seed his actions angered the boy, because he now looked furious. rlin decided to end this so other way.
[Perk: Reader’s Bookmark Activated]
[Bookmarks (2): Flash Step (Activated)(Requires at least 190 milliseconds reaction ti to function). Mana Spring (Requires at least Level 10 Strength, Level 15 Agility, and Level 20 Resilience to function)]
[Conditions to function t: Agility Level: Level 16 (190ms reaction ti)]
[Intelligence Level is low; effectiveness will be reduced]
[Bookmark: Flash Step, Chosen.]
[Bookmark: Flash Step, Activated.]
Nikolai clenched his chin and pushed forth one more ti, but he was only halfway towards his target when rlin blurred into view before he could react.
A look of shock slapped Nikolai’s face as he halted in his tracks, visibly confused as to what step he should take in that instance. However, he was too late to co to a decision. rlin clenched his fist and slamd his knuckles into Nikolai’s belly, taking the air out of his lungs and dropping him to the floor.
Nikolai wrapped his arms around his belly as his eyes reddened, and a second later, his beast arms vanished.
There was a pause so loud the air stilled, then…
“rlin Tyrrell is the winner of the first duel,” Professor Dmitri announced. “Nikolai Volkov earns no points for his Cohort or academics. Leave the stage.”
rlin sighed and stretched forth a hand at Nikolai who was hunkered over. “Good—” His eyes widened as the rest of his words caught in his throat.
He knew he had ssed up more than once during the duel, sending the wrong ssages with his actions, but that should be no reason for Nikolai to have such a pale look on his face, like he had seen a ghost. For a mont there, rlin felt like his strike had been too hard. But he had definitely held back with his punch. Then what could he have done to make the boy look so…depressed?
“Nikolai Volkov, I said leave the stage!” Professor Dmitri’s tone was a lot harsher now, even far more than when he had been ridiculing rlin in his class, and that prompted rlin to glance his way. rlin’s expression worsened. The man was staring straight at Nikolai with eyes that glinted animosity.
It was then that it dawned on rlin. He put together the pieces, the surna and the hair, and he ca to a conclusion: Professor Dmitri and Nikolai were related. And he, a Deficient Mage, had most likely just made a ss of their bond.
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