NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: The Exercise 1
"All right, line up! Don't make me shout that again!" Mr. Laymore the MAGIC instructor shouted to the students of class 2-C and they hurriedly scrambled to form a line at the school grounds. You can feel the air of excitement like a tingling of electricity emanating from the students as they readies themselves to start their favourite class of the entire day… Practical MAGIC.
"Finally, some action!" Bruno exclaimed, his classmates nodding in approval, all are in agreement that this is indeed the highlight of the day.
"Okay listen up, I want two lines, one for the boys and one for the girls, hurry up, we don't have all day, move, move, move!" Like a drill sergeant, Mr. Laymore shouted instructions to the students.
One by one in an orderly manner, the students started to fall in line, one for the boys and one for the girls, just like what Mr. Laymore said.
"Very good!" Mr. Laymore gave the thumbs up sign, indicating his approval, he then proceeded to take a logbook from a table nearby. Opening the logbook with a ponderous look on his face, he then took his pen and crossed something from the book.
This made the students kind of nervous, but to their relief, Mr. Laymore looked at them and smiled, then with a snap, shut the book close with a resounding thud. He then placed the logbook back at the table.
"So here is what we are going to do for the day, I want you all to pair yourselves with the person adjacent to you, and that person would be your partner for the rest of the school year." Mr. Laymore then produced a clipboard and started to list the students in pairs.
"Looks like we will be partners for the rest of the school year…" Chitose said in a low voice, while looking down on the ground, observing the ants marching in a straight line. The fat girl didn't even bother to see who her partner is, nor cared if he heard her or not, she just felt that she must say those words out of formality, even though she doesn't know who she was talking to. For her all of them are the same, they all don't want to partner up with a girl who has a very little amount of mana in her body.
Some of the students even joked about how mana was expelled from her body to make space for fats. That's what people always say behind her back, but she doesn't care at all.
Tusk was honestly disappointed that he wasn't able to partner with Lyn. If only he knew what was going to happen, he might not have chickened out and instead placed himself adjacent to the girl, but because he got cold feet, he instead placed himself behind a person adjacent to Lyn.
"That bastard Bruno got lucky! Just look at him grinning like an idiot who just won the lottery. I should be the one in there, instead, I am here partnered with… wait, who is my partner anyway?!"
Looking around, Tusk finally found his partner, it was Chitose. A look of utter disbelief was clearly visible on Tusk's face, it's not that he doesn't like Chitose, but he was worried because he has already heard about the rumors that Chi has almost no mana in her body, and this would really hinder him in the tests to come. This day is really not very good for him.
There is nothing more he can do about it, so with a deep sigh, he went over to where Chi was standing and seemed to be looking down.
"Hey Miss Chitose, how is your day? I am your partner by the way. Let us do our best okay." Tusk greeted in a little tensed but cheerful voice.
Chi looked up and saw Tusk smiling stupidly at her.
"Pffft!!!" Chi once again failed to contain her laughter at the sight.
"Yeah yeah I get it, I look stupid… just cut it out already… geez, you really love to laugh at me huh?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I just can't help it… hah, okay, I am not laughing anymore! Glad to meetcha partner!" Chi exclaimed and gave a V sign with a cute wink.
The MAGIC class has begun, and the pairs are now segregated in teams. Team A is the attacking team, while Team B is the defensive team. To the dismay of Chitose who belongs with Team A, Lyn and Claire are both in Team B. It did not help that her two friends seem to be enjoying themselves at the fact that many of the girls of the class are giving Chi murderous glances due to jealousy of being partnered with Tusk. They are happy that for once, Chi is the center of the envy of the girls.
Mr. Laymore stood on a makeshift stage in front of the assembled teams and explained the rules of the exercise.
"The rules are simple, Team A attacks, Team B defends their flag" Mr. Laymore then showed a small triangular blue flag for Team B to protect.
"Team A must attack and capture the flag of Team B in one hour, use whatever spells necessary to get the job done. Don't worry about injuries, that's what the medical team on standby is for. Hehehe! If the time limit expires and Team B manages to protect and defend the flag, then Team B wins and with that, they will be given a pass for the exams, same goes if Team A wins. Pretty simple huh? Any questions? None? Very good. Then let us begin!"
And with that, the exercise begins. Both teams scrambled for best positions. A group of Team B students proceeded to erect barriers of protection on their base. Claire used her earth manipulation to dig a moat around their base.
"Lyn, I need a raging current in my moat, can you please make one?"
"Gladly! Leave it to me, I will make it as such that will make them regret it if they try to cross it!"
Lyn filled the moat with water, but not just ordinary water but a corrosive one, similar to acid, and Lyn made it so like a swift running river.
"Would you look at that, scary yet so beautiful…" Mr. Laymore watched with awe at the excellent teamwork of Claire and Lyn.
Claire then proceeded to erect a eight foot wall around their base, reinforcing it with gravel and limestones and with Lyn's water, she hardened the earthen wall to produce a hard substance.
"Whoa Claire, what kind of manipulation is this?" Bruno asked with wonder.
"Ah, Lyn and I just combined our magic to harden the earth and gravel and to make them bond more tightly. I call it concrete, pretty neat huh?"
On Team A's side the group is pretty much more chaotic and disorganized, to the dismay of Tusk, everyone is doing their thing, and just firing their spells around the hard wall of Claire. Turning to face Chi, he held Chi's shoulders with both hands and seriously exclaimed his thoughts.
"We are going to lose if this keeps up, we need a plan of attack"
"So what plan do you have in mind? Because honestly, I don't have any…"
Tusk looked at Chi with an incredulous look. He knows well that Chi doesn't have enough mana to even cast a simple spell.
"We need to make a focal point of attack, do you know any fire adept among our group?"
"I think Meilou controls fire, but she has a tendency of burning herself by accident, although this doesn't happen anymore recently." Said Chi while looking away from Tusk's eyes, blushing. "Don't stare too much…" she muttered quietly so that Tusk won't hear.
"Okay, let's go find Meilou then." Tusk said as he started to run to the group of Team A students on the right side of the field.
He spotted the familiar braided ponytail of Meilou in the group, so with utmost speed, he ran towards her, shouting her name.
"HEY MEILOUUU!!!"
A startled Meilou looked around to see who was the idiot that shouted her name, she swore she would burn the fool into a crisp. She hated her name because it sounded so provincial. To her surprise, she saw the person who shouted her name, it was none other than Tusk. Her crush calling her name, it must be the happiest day of her life, and she felt like floating in the air.
"Tusk my dear, did you call me?" Asked Meilou with doe eyes.
"Yea, I was looking for you, I need you!"
Those words have a different effect on Meilou however…
"He said he needs me! Oh my God this is it, I am getting a confession!" An excited Meilou was babbling.
"Uh, that's not the reason why I called you… we need your fire… to break that" Tusk points to the concrete barrier of Claire.
"Oh that… okay, whatever you want, I will do!" Meilou declared. "But how do we do it, it's so hard to destroy, I tried"
"Let's combine like what they did. Lets see what happens when you infuse fire with lightning!" Tusk said with a grin forming in his face.
Chi just stood on the side silently observing Tusk and Meilou, thinking of how to better utilize lighting and fire simultaneously.
"Hmmm… might be worth a shot…" Chitose thought as she walked forward to join Tusk and Meilou.
"Oh Chitose, what can you do?" Mr. Laymore murmured as he looked at the plump girl walking toward her teammates.