Practical Entrance Exam Pt. 2
1845 Words
I stood on the sidelines with Mindy, Azalea, and Leia by my side, watching each of our fellow applicants attempt to hit even one of the targets set before them. As we watched, I had taken the time to observe my peers' magic, both nobles and commoners alike. As expected, due to the written exam, the commoners were quite exhausted from using their mana earlier to properly cast their spells, though there were some who managed to hit a target, even if it was just barely.
"Next group of twenty, come up. ID numbers 181 to 200," Edward called.
"After that group, next group is us," Leia informed.
"I'm feeling kind of nervous..." Azalea spoke.
"Don't worry about it, you'll be fine," I assured.
"How is your mana, anyway?" Mindy asked. "From what I can see, the commoner applicants only have a few people managing to hit the targets, though barely. No doubt from their lack of mana from the written exam."
"Actually, I have plenty of mana to spare. Especially, when the source of my magic is from these." As Azalea said that, she took out a pouch from her person. From the pouch, she took out a seed, much to our confusion.
"A seed?" Leia questioned.
"You'll see when we go up," the commoner confidently claimed.
"Next group, step up," Edward called.
"Sounds like us," I informed. "Good luck, guys."
"You too," Leia replied.
With that, the four of us stepped forward with sixteen other applicants. One by one, from number 201, each applicant used their magic in an attempt to land a hit on one of the targets, though were only barely able to do so, and with such a light damage, at that.
"Number 210," Edward called.
"Here!" Azalea responded, stepping forward.
Upon seeing her step up, several nobles behind us sneered and snickered at her.
"Another commoner."
"This is not going to last long."
"She might as well quit while she can."
Despite the whispered insults, though, Azalea was calm as can be, as she took out some seeds from her pouch. Seeing her do so made the nobles behind us hold back more snickers.
"Seeds? What is she hoping to do? Pelt the targets with them?"
"Even if she did miraculously hit one, this is a magic test. The poor fool."
From the corner of my eyes, I saw Leia glancing at her fellow nobles, completely unamused with their behavior. In all honesty, I was as well, especially as I was born a noble, and born with memories of how immature most nobles were towards commoners from books and shows.
Azalea continued to ignore the words spoken behind her back, instead simply closed her eyes and took in some calming breaths. A dark green magic circle appeared in the palm of her hand, causing the seeds in her hand to glow.
"Let's go. Thorny Vines!" she tossed the seeds at the targets. As expected however, she did not throw far, and the seeds all hit the ground.
Seeing this poor display of magic made the nobles laugh quite loudly.
"What the heck was that?!"
"That's it? After all that?"
"That has to be the poorest display of magic I have ever seen!"
"Examiner, just fail her already."
Embarrassing as the display was, I noticed Azalea still looking quite confident and looked back to the seeds she tossed. As I did, they glowed once more for a brief moment, and the unimaginable had occurred. The seeds suddenly opened up, causing seedlings to sprout out and grow into thorny vines, extending over to the many targets up ahead and pierce through several of them.
"Yes! Success!" Azalea cheered, while the rest of us applicants were surprised by what we witnessed.
"Wait... What just happened?" a noble asked.
"That... That was a fluke, right?" another noble questioned.
"It has to be! No commoner should have that sort of magic!" exclaimed another.
Rather than silencing them, Edward simply wrote down his evaluation of Azalea's performance. "Alright. Next. Number 211."
"Here," Mindy called, switching with Azalea, as the latter's magic wore off on her plants, causing them to wither away, and allowing the targets to restore themselves.
As she regrouped with us, Azalea asked, "How'd I do?"
"Did you need to ask? That was amazing!" Leia answered in a whisper.
"You can say that again," I agreed. "That has to be one of the best so far."
The commoner girl rubbed her nose in slight embarrassment, before turning her attention to Mindy. "How do you think Mindy will do?"
"Only one way to find out."
With the harpy, she had her wings spread out, light green magic circles appearing on the tip of her wings, gathering wind within them. She then put her wings together, causing the gathered wind to combine into one sphere of condensed air. "Wind Blast!" Mindy tossed the sphere at the targets. As the attack neared them, the condensed air suddenly exploded, causing the targets to be blown away by the force.
Unlike with Azalea, no nobles were shocked at what they saw. Rather, instead what came out of their mouths were...
"As expected of a monster."
"Not surprised she has that much wind magic in her."
"That monster will see her place soon enough."
An adult I may be, older than any of them, it still annoyed me how lowly they thought of my close friend, my best friend who was pretty much a sister figure to me.
"Number 212. Step up," came Edward's call.
"Right," I answered, stepping up to the plate, as Mindy approached me.
As we passed each other, Mindy placed a wing on my shoulder and nodded. I simply nodded back at her and got into place. As I stood there, I closed my eyes and focused, causing a dark blue magic circle to appear on the palm of my hand, and water to form from it. Upon doing so, all the nobles behind me laughed at the sight of my affinity.
"Water magic? That girl uses water magic?!"
"What a joke! That's even more ridiculous than that other commoner!"
"There is definitely no hope for her."
"What is she planning to do? Water the targets? She's a disgrace of a human being for even thinking she has a chance here."
As annoyed and irritated as I am with the insults, I also had to mentally thank them. Mindy helped enough in using that Wind Blast spell, which also leaves a good breeze in the area, a breeze I needed to help keep my focus, but hearing their insults so loud and clear also helped. Not only that, but if there was one thing I actually do like about arrogant nobles like them, the more their ego rise...
The more enjoyable their shocked expressions will be.
I had the water form into a wall before me, and summoned out multiple dark blue magic circles around me, instantly silencing them. Reaching into the water wall, I pulled my right arm back, and in turn pulled out strings of water from it.
"Water Bullet Barrage!" I shouted, releasing the strings as they returned into the wall. The moment I released the strings, bullets made of water were shot out of my magic circles, all hitting the targets. I did not stop there, as I had the water wall grow bigger. "Tsunami!" I punched the wall, causing it to collapse down and reform into a wave, one that made its way to the targets and crashed down on them, taking the targets down.
I felt quite satisfied with the result and turned to regroup with my friends. As I did, I snuck a glance at the nobles and held back a smirk upon seeing their flabbergasted expressions.
"W-Wait a second... What in the world was that?"
"We... We did see that, right?"
"No way. Our eyes had to be playing tricks! There's no way Water Magic could do that sort of damage!"
"Could all of our eyes be pulling the same trick?"
As expected, their reactions were very satisfying.
"Lady Levi, well done!" Mindy exclaimed as she approached me.
"Thanks, Mindy," I thanked as I petted her on the head.
"What the heck did you do?!" Azalea asked as she and Leia rushed over to me. "I've never seen water magic that strong before!"
"Back at you with your plant magic," I retorted, causing the girl to be silent.
"Still, you really are something. I've never heard of Water Magic having any sort of attack spells before," Leia pointed out.
"It's called 'training' and 'research'. After all, there has to be more to Water Magic than just watering plants."
"Is that how it is...?"
I then glanced at Edward, for my turn was done, and he should've called for Leia to be up by now. When I did, I caught sight of him staring at me, before going back to writing down some notes. This made me wonder if I had changed his mind about my magic, about me, and if I had a chance to return to the Anberibca family.
"Next. Number 213, step up," he called in a calm tone.
"Ah, right!" Leia responded. "Okay, it's my turn. Wish me luck, guys."
"Good luck, Leia!" Azalea said.
"You can do it!" Mindy followed, as I only nodded to her in support.
Leia walked to her spot, with the targets restoring themselves to normal. As soon as they did, the noble girl held out a hand towards them, and a large red magic circle appeared below her. Flames emerged around her, much to my surprise. Not with the amount of flames, nor with her affinity, but more as how the flames were acting. I grew up watching Lennox and Edward use their Fire Magic often, and their flames were controlled. Leia's flames? They were more wild. And there was also the expression she had on her face...
Leia swung an arm forward, directing all the fire straight at the targets before her. Upon contact, rather than simply burning the targets down, the flames exploded, completely destroying all the targets. No... Not 'destroying' them, as it was more that she annihilated them all to ashes.
I was completely speechless at the power, as did Mindy, Azalea, and all the other commoner applicants. Even during my time with my family, I had never seen such destructive power before, and my family was supposedly the strongest noble family in the kingdom. Leia must be from some rivaling noble family that I knew nothing about. I never really bothered to know much of what goes on in the rich world since I got kicked out of my family.
While some of us were dumbfounded by the display of power, the nobles all seemed quite amused with what they witnessed.
"Heh. As expected of Lady Leia."
"A magic truly worthy of a noble. Especially that of a duke family."
"You mean the duke family."
Their mutters made my curiosity grow. Just who exactly was Leia...?
- Writer
