NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: The Exercise 2
The very air on the school ground cracked with a myriad of different magical energy as the students of class 2-C went on with their exercise in the practical application of MAGIC.
Team B's concrete walls withstood the barrage of attack spells controlled by Team A students as Claire continues to reinforce her concrete wall with more gravel and limestone every time a crack appears.
"This is fun, I haven't felt this much excitement in a long time!"
Lyn was surprised at her friend's reaction to the situation. She knows too well that Claire hated being pressured into a situation. She wonders what changed her friends attitude towards all this.
"Are you okay Claire? Did you hit your head or something? Are you having a fever?" Asked Lyn as she placed her hand on Claire's forehead checking her temperature.
"I am fine, don't worry too much, geez; you are like my mom!"
"Well, I can't help but worry, you know. Besides we need you to keep that wall up, so it's not like I would just let you faint or anything. Our whole defence rests upon you!"
The conversation of the two friends was interrupted by a large explosion just above their heads. A wide eyed Claire looks in horror as a large chunk of her wall was obliterated by a powerful blast of what seems to be lightning but has a reddish hue.
………………..
Chi walked toward her teammates to listen to what Tusk has in his mind. She went to the left side of Tusk and started listening to his explanation to the group. Looking at Tusk's explanation and his animated movements on how to best commence the attack on the wall, brought out a certain feeling from Chitose.
Somehow she can't seem to take off her eyes from Tusk… a blush started to form on her chubby cheeks, she felt her face heat up and her heart started to race.
"Snap out of it!" Chi muttered as she slapped her cheeks to hide the blush. "Must focus on the task at hand!"
"All right, let's do it!" Is the only word that Chi heard Tusk say, so she just pretended to understand everything that was said in the mini meeting.
Team A has started their assault, from the left flank, Tusk and Meilou are starting to cast a combination spell, while Chi, who has very limited mana just watched for any Team B defenders who might get any funny ideas of attacking the two while they were vulnerable. The Team A right flank squad started to fire offensive spells, to draw the Team B defenders to their side of the wall, thus leaving the left side unguarded for Meilou and Tusk. A male student named Greg from Team A started using his wind control to lift the wood shards that his teammate Bret made with his wood MAGIC control.
Shards of wood, sharp as can be, started barraging the right side of the wall, not really making any significant damage but very effective in keeping the defenders busy and annoyed at the same time.
"Who the fuck is spamming that shit!" An irritated Team B defender named Marcos shouted at his companions.
"I recognize that annoying MAGIC, it's probably that douchebag Bret making splinters again! I am so going to murder that bastard!" Shouted Allan to Marcos before he got hit by a splinter right up his ass.
"ARGH! Goddamnit!!! You are so FUCKING DEAD Bret, you goddamn bastard!!!" Shouted Allan as he removed the splinter that was lunged in his right butt cheek.
Team B's wind controller Jane started to create a small localised squall to somehow mitigate the barrage of splinters. However the squall did little to subdue the splinters of Greg and Bret
"AH GREG YOU ANNOYING FUCK!!!" A frustrated Jane screamed at her counterpart on the other team, who also happens to be her boyfriend.
"WHEN THIS IS OVER, YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET THIS!"
"Sorry honey, all is fair in love and war!" Laughed Greg as he continued to control and sped up his wind. "Keep it coming Bret my boy, they are annoyed as fuck!"
"Hell yeah bro!" Bret then continued his wood control and made sharper splinters to attack the defenders.
…………………….
Back on the left flank, Meilou has finally finished infusing Tusk's lightning with fire.
"I think the amount of infused flame is not enough Mei… I still can't feel the heat, amids the electric coat. Maybe you can fire it up some more, like way more."
"But if I did, I might burn your hands, and I don't want that to happen" Meilou explained, doing her best demure lady act.
"Pffft!" Chitose chortled at Mei. She knows what's going on. "Come on Mei, this is no time to flirt. We need to destroy that wall fast."
"I - I wasn't flirting! I wasn't flirting at all!" A flustered Mei explained.
"Sure you weren't…"
Tusk was silent through the whole exchange, pretending not to hear anything, although every now and then, he steals glances at Chitose, admiring those beautiful gold eyes.
Meilou continues to imbue fire on Tusk's spell until his whole arm starts to glow an angry red, beads of sweat start to form on her forehead as the temperature rises high enough to actually affect even a fire controller.
"That's enough Mei, I think this is more than enough power to blast that wall." Tusk finally said with a pained look on his face, due to the absurd heat he is feeling right now.
Tusk then raised his right hand to the direction of the wall.
"All right, this is it, now or never…"
Making sure that his sight is straight and that no teammate is in the way, Tusk released a bolt of flame infused lightning towards the wall.
With a sound of a hundred thunder, a bolt of red lightning streaked across the school ground hitting the concrete wall with a force enough to obliterate a medium stone building.
………………..
They heard a loud explosion, they felt the wall shook with such ferocity that they could have sworn it separated from the ground. The defenders scrambled about panicked and confused. The lightning blast worked beautifully for the attackers team as it completely crumbled Team B's defenses.
Claire was able to erect an earth canopy to protect Lyn and herself from the falling debris just in time. Creating such a barrier requires intricate control over the element that you are using, as such, a canopy not only shields the controller, it also provides restoration of mana spent. A top tier spell indeed.
"Claire, what's with you today? That was an awesome control you just did." Expressed Lyn with awe. She has never seen Claire this sharp before. Something is definitely off.
"I don't understand it myself, I just feel, I don't know, just… super!" Claire explained with a cheerful smile. "It's like I can do anything, and everything. It's like my emotions are finally free! All of my bottled feelings, I want to pour it all out Lyn, I will pour it all out!" Saying that, Claire grabbed the back of Lyn's head, and in the darkness of the earth canopy kissed Lyn deeply and passionately.
A shocked Lyn tried to pull away from the kiss, but Claire pulled her back again and this time she forced her tongue into Lyn's throat, Lyn lost all of her strength and accepted Claire's kiss. What surprised her is that she actually liked it, so she reciprocated with a deeper hotter kiss. After a few passionate moments, Claire looked straight at Lyn's eyes, and gently brushed a stray hair away from her pretty face.
"I love you Lyn, I always had..." Claire confessed, amid the chaos that is happening outside of the earth canopy.
"Let us talk about us after this exercise is over okay?"
"Okay" Claire replied sheepishly.
………………...
Outside the canopy was pure pandemonium, with the left wall completely obliterated, Team A started to push their assault. Bret created an impressive wooden bridge over the acid moat.
"ATTACK!!!" Cried Greg, rallying his team forward like a true military general, to the embarrassment and annoyance of Jane, who is now seething with rage.
"Holy smokes, look at Jane's boyfriend go!!!" Say's a short guy named Bong pointing his finger on the running Greg.
Jane, who was already irritated due to how things went, shot a gust of strong wind that sent Bong flying far to the ground and straight to where Mr. Laymore was observing the battle.
"Bruh!!!" Was all Mr. Laymore could say to the still woozy Bong.
The group of Chi, Mei and Tusk also started to move towards the opening of the wall. Tusk's right arm is still hurting from firing the fire infused lightning bolt, but he just gritted his teeth and endured the searing pain.
Chi noticed this; before she was just intrigued about this boy from the capital, now she is very curious. Why would Tusk go to such lengths just to win an exercise that would only exempt them for the exams?
She doesn't have time to mull these things though since she can see Bruno has already spotted them and is getting ready to cast an element that he controls.
"Watch out!" Chi pushed Mei and Tusk to the side with an agility that seems impossible to do with her body frame just in time to also dodge a flying shard of quartz.
"Whew, that was close. Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine… but I think I might have a bruise on my ass…" Mei said half jokingly as she started to pick herself up. "Hey Tusk, are you good?"
"Uh, don't worry about me, I can still go"
"Don't push yourself too hard," Chi said with genuine concern. "You can rest here for a while if you want, Mei and me can…"
"I told you, I'm fine" Tusk shot back, cutting whatever Chi was going to say.
"If you say so…" Chi replied. "But first, we gotta do something about Bruno over there"
Bruno was determined to protect the breach on the wall at all cost, he knew that in terms of elements, he is outpowered by fire and lightning which is faster and hell of a lot more powerful.
He needs to out think his opponents if he wished to stall them long enough for the time limit to expire.
"Maybe I can erect a wall of quartz? No, that won't work, quartz are way too brittle to be a wall, let alone defending against those two monsters. Hmm, I can shoot quartz shards but it's not fast and not numerous enough to hinder them." Then he got an idea, he saw how Team A's Greg and Bret utilized both of their elements to make an annoying barrage of splinters. " Maybe, just maybe it might work, but quartz are a lot heavier than splinters though…"
"JAAAANE!!!" Bruno screamed, trying to get Jane's attention.
Good thing Jane heard him and rushed to his side.
"What is it?"
"Jane, can you control a wind spell that is strong enough to launch quartz shards?"
"Of course I can! Ah I see what you want… say no more, and keep those shards coming!" Jane said with a wink, fully understanding what Bruno was hinting at.
Jane started to form a localized cone of vacuum and set the base of the cone in front of Bruno while aiming the tip towards Tusk and company.
"Now, here goes nothing!" Bruno proceeded to feed the vacuum shards. The vacuum then started spitting the shards in rapid succession. "It works!" Bruno shouted with excitement.
Mei released a stream of flame towards the shards hot enough to melt them before they can even come close. "Hah! How about that!" Mei shouted to Bruno in challenge. "Forward guys!" Meilou ordered her companions.
Bruno and Jane are panicking since their strategy isn't working at all, Bruno's shards are melting at an exponential rate, and Jane can't blast Mei since Fire feeds on wind.
"We are going to lose…" Jane said exasperatedly, she can see on the other side of the wall, her boyfriend Greg is in a frenzy, sending her teammates flying all over. "Bruno, they will capture the flag at this rate…"
"I know that, but still we can't give it up, not until the very end. I don't know about you, but I will make my last stand here!" Bruno passionately exclaimed.
Jane just rolled her eyes.
"That won't be necessary Bruno" said a melodious voice behind them.
Looking at her back, Jane saw Lyn and Claire started to cast a spell. From the very ground rose a monstrous form, Claire's shaping the earth in a humanoid form, while Lyn started to imbue veins of water to it, so that she can control its movement.
Jane stared in great admiration and awe at the ten foot Earth Golem that Claire and Lyn created.
"Looks like the tables have turned" Jane said with a smirk.
Across the field, Mr. Laymore just shook his head in admiration for the two girls.
"My, my… would you look at that..."