The Dawn of a New Era

The 'Northern Training field' was unlike Exemplars other training fields in that it was a massive plot of void of any and all man-made structures surrounded by a massive wall with for gates located in the cardinal directions. The wall was constructed from solid stone reinforced by immensely powerful; Earth Magic, and stood one hundred-feet tall and ten-to-fifteen feet thick. 

This section of land was very rich in natural resources including, High-Rank Demonic Beasts, Magic Ore and Mana Crystal Veins, and rare vegetation. As such at the time of Exemplars conception the school had claimed this land for the training of its students in the various aspects of exploration and survival, building the previously mentioned wall as a way to control its flow of traffic.

Just as dawn was beginning to break the next morning Malikai and Maeve approached the wall's Southern Gate, intending to use the northern training field for their morning combat and magical proficiency training.

When they neared the gate at the base of the wall a slender woman wearing a pitch-black mask and leather armor appeared in front of them, her hands grasping the hilts of her twin daggers as she spoke flatly, "Credentials are necessary beyond this point."

The two of them nodded in response before reaching into their respective pockets and pulling out Temporary ID cards they had been given by Exemplar's Administrative Staff the previous day.

The woman received the Identification Cards from the two of them and briefly looked them over before passing them back as she spoke, "As Examinees you are allowed entry; but your time within is to be limited to six hours every time you enter with 3 days between each entry."

After the two of them indecated their understanding she turned around and vanished.

"Enter", Her flatly-toned voice rang out from the void as the gate located before them slowly rose up, granting them entry into the Training Field.

Over the course of the next half hour the two of them explored a section of the vast forest that served as a sort of buffer zone, separating the wall lining this huge swath of land, and the more mountainous region of the area.

As they did so they purposely steered clear of the areas belonging to various Demon Beast as their purpose in coming here wasn't to harvest materials from such Demon Beast or engage them in battle as a form of training.

Instead the scoped out the area in search of an area suitable for them to engage in combat.

And they soon found a medium sized field whose ground was relatively flat, and took up their individual battle positions.

"Ready?" Maeve asked.

"Affirmative." Malikai nodded.

In response Maeve immediately leaped into action cloaking her fists in flames made up of various shades of red with streaks of gray as she launched forward in his direction.

As she moved in his direction Malikai waved his hand and the Mana in the surrounding environment responded forming countless ice spears aimed in Maeve's direction before moving forward with a speed almost invisible to a human's naked eye, approaching her from every direction.

Maeve reacted almost instinctively, punching forward with her draconic strength. 

The flames cloaking the fist she threw forward flared up as if they jointly composed a small sun.

The flames melted the ice spears approaching her from the front, and she continued onward uninterrupted.

Malikai was unfazed by her actions and summoned an Even greater amount of mana forming a single spear of ice, whose presence caused a penetrating chill to fill the air around them and to ground to be covered in a layer of frost.

He grabbed the spear, wielding it with a high degree of ease as he himself jumped into action, rushing forward to fight her head on.

An instant later they met in direct contact; Malikai thrusting the spear towards Maeve over and over again from a wide array of angles, and Maeve using her flame covered hands to parry his attacks as she attempted to bypass the spear and land an attack on his body.

***

A few hours later Sora entered the Northern training Field.

After he entered he headed in the direction of the clearing that Malikai and Maeve had located earlier, and sent him via text message earlier.

As he approached the clearing he picked up on various signs that indicated the relatively high intensity of their combat practice, causing him to pick up speed so he could actually see them engaging offensively.

In moments he bypassed the final layer of trees enclosing the clearing and the two of them entered his line of sight.

Maeve’s forearms and the backs of her hands were covered in reddish-black dragon scales that were impenetrable as diamonds, and clumps of flame danced both on her hands and in the air around her as she launched punch after punch in Malikai’s direction alongside the occasional kick.

Opposite her, the spear Malikai had previously created, had long since been broken into icy fragments which reverted back to dust sized particles of Mana that dissipated into the surrounding environment.

Malikai was know wielding his fist only slightly less expertly than his counterpart, yet his ability to fully manipulate the surrounding mana allowed him to expertly perform magic both offensively and defensively as the exchange numerous attacks at every instant.

Eventually Maeve managed to breach his defenses and land a solid punch on his sternum.

But just as she did so, Malikai managed to produce and launch a dark gray bolt of lightning possessing a platinum-gold center from the center of his open palm.

The lightning bolt instantly slammed into Maeve’s body; and both attacks elicited small grunts of pain as the two of them were thrown backwards.

As the two of them tumbled to the ground, Sora once more began moving and arrived beside Malikai, who had just risen back to his feet.

He (Sora) looked the latter over and spoke, "You're as strong as I thought you would be, if not stronger."

"And?" Malikai asked in response as he dusted off his robes.

"It makes me want to fight you." Sora answered directly.

"Well that's not what I had you come out here for, and as such; it will not be happening today." Malikai returned off-handedly.

"I can wait. And speaking of that, what did you want to show me?" Sora asked.

"The results of a project that he's been working on for a while." Maeve supplied as she approached, having dusted off her own robes and undone her partial transformation into her Draconic form.

"What a coincidence!" Sora exclaimed before continuing on to explain, "My sister actually needed my help with something similar yesterday, that's why I had to take off."

"That is a coincidence." Malikai replied.

He then opened a hole in space and pulled out both the metal combat boots he had just finished crafting with the previous day with Rin's help.

He then turned to Sora and pushed the boots into the latter's grasp and said, "Put these on."

"What do they do?" Sora, who had been watching Malikai's action's with great interest, asked as he bent down to remove the shoes he had previously been wearing and put on the boots he had just been handed.

"They reduce the affect of all Gravitational Fields on the user, while also improving the wearer's ability to preform Air Magic." Malikai replied succinctly.

"Interesting." Sora stated after pulling the shoes on and noting that they automatically adjusted themselves to fit him perfectly.

He then began to bounce up and down on the balls of his feet as he he adjusted the altered sense of gravity that settled over him, while his already profound perception of Air-Attributed Mana and resultant ability to utilize Air Magic underwent an unfathomable sense of enhancement.

After a brief period of bouncing up and down, he bent his knees and pressed his feet firmly against the ground before launching himself upwards.

Almost as soon as he moved, a muted sonic boom sounded out and a small cloud of dust billowed outwards.

In the same moment his figure briefly vanished and he appeared a hundred or so feet above the ground and continued soaring even further upwards for another two-to-three-hundred feet.

On the ground below Malikai and Maeve cloaked themselves with veils of Mana in order to prevent the dust cloud from affecting them and stood side by side as they observed his ascension and the following exhibition of aerial feats.

When the inertia from his original jump ore off he called forth the wind and used it to reorient himself  push him forward with practiced ease, flying through the sky and preforming sophisticated aerial maneuvers with an unfathomable fusion of unparalleled grace and untold ferocity.

He then spread his arms wide as he swooped through the air visible gales of wind became took shape around him as he once more began to ascend upwards penetrating the layers of clouds located above him.

After that he suddenly began to jump off of the very air itself hurtling from region of sky to another.

"I expected them to be effective, but this is just ridiculous..." Malikai commented as he 'watched' what transpired above the layer of clouds above before continuing on, "Though it could be that only someone of Sora's talent pool or skillset could utilize them in both; such an effortless manner after being introduced to them only moments prior, and this successful a manner in general."

"What part of this is unexpected exactly?" Maeve asked with zero sarcasm in her tone.

"Well for starters I didn't expect him to adapt to either the implementation aspect or the actual reality Gravitational Field alterations so quickly. I designed them to provide a baseline reduction in the affects of all Gravitational Fields by 20%, with the user being able to push that all the way up to 80+% at will at the expense of a greater Mana supply. And estimate that he is currently sitting stably at the 50% reduction range, having already deduced the manner in which to alter it at will. When you think about it, that alone is already worthy of praise, as the ability to adapt so quickly in the alteration of not only this World's own Gravitational field, but the Gravitational Fields of all the surrounding objects is not something often seen." Malikai explained will continuing to observe Sora's demonstration up above.

"That it is." Maeve affirmed as she too kept her attention on Sora.