The Hunter Mage

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Wow then what do you and the rest of the boys talk about?" She asked, peering at him.

"Other stuff," he muttered softly. He couldn't tell her he mainly kept to himself.

"Well then," she started to say, obviously not wanting to waste time. "There's wind magic, fire magic, water magic, nature magic, and unrestricted magic, unmagic…" She before bursting out into laughter, "That's what the kids call themselves."

"What's unmagic?" Vernon asked, puzzled.

"That's magic with no relation to the other categories."

Vernon's eyes widened, "What kind of magic?"

"Well, there's invisibility magic and light magic but we are still not sure if that is a subcategory of Fire magic." Captain Robbin turned to find Vernon staring at her with bright eyes and a wide smile.

"Do you think I could do that too?" He grinned.

"Absolutely not!" She replied without a shred of doubt and chuckled. "Trust me, if you were in that league. You would know. Now, pick a group and I don't need to tell you unmagic is out of it."

"Okay, um…" He paused and brought his thumb and index finger to his chin as he tried to think deeply about this. He was trying to take this as seriously as possible, he really wanted to know what his magic was.

His first thought was fire and he badly wanted to choose that too but he didn't need anyone to tell him he was likely not a fire mage, he could sense it and even though the magic was the most appealing to him, he knew he definitely couldn't thrive there.

Maybe some softer, something less hot… "How about water magic?" He suddenly blurted out.

"Not bad, not bad but I need you to be sure on this one. You're not asking for my permission, you're choosing. " She paused as she waited for him to confirm her words.

"Okay then, I choose the water magic group."

"Hmm, that's not a bad choice. Alright off you go, I already briefed the teachers, Cavin should know what to do when you approach. Remember, you only get one try at this. Good luck." She shifted her attention from him and Vernon immediately knew he had been dismissed.

"Thank you," he rushed out and fled the scene wondering what was in store for him at the water magic group. Was that his affiliation? Would he finally perform magic? All these thoughts rushed through his mind as he slowly made his way to the group.

It was farther than the wind magic group from the shade and once again, he had to pass through the fire magic group who were just starting their training. Their teacher glared at him along with the students as he made them stop. Vernon didn't think they liked him so much.

He sighed and continued on, the next group being the water magic. The teacher was a petite figure, at first glance Vernon couldn't figure out the gender. They had their head tied back in a ponytail that hung off from the middle of their head.

Their outfit was a mixture of different colors that was hard for Vernon to look at. "You must be Vernon," Cavin said as he approached, even the voice didn't tell him much.

He nodded accordingly, keeping his eyes down knowing that without a doubt he was the center of attraction. "Vernon here…" The teacher went on, “Would be training with us for today, don't mind him and perform as you usually would."

This magic group was smaller than the wind magic group and there were a ridiculous amount of girls. He had only seen about two boys but did not want to stare at anyone, so he had kept his face down without taking note of who was and wasn't in this group.

"Why does he have to train with us? He obviously doesn't have water magic!"A voice from the student muttered and everybody yelled out, "Jay!" But Vernon didn't need to hear the name he had known the instant he had heard the voice that it was Jay, for a lot of reasons he couldn't stand him. He looked up and their eyes met.

"Well Jay, if you have a problem with this arrangement you can take it up with Captain Robbin. I am very sure she would like to hear what you think." Cavin said as softly as possible, smiling in a nice but creepy way that said, 'I like that you're sharing your opinion but don't mess with me.'

Vernon watched Jay shrink into himself and broke eye contact with him. He wasn't sure if it was because teacher Cavin mentioned Captain Robbin or the don't mess with me aura that was oozing out of the teacher.

"I didn't think so," Cavin added when Jay didn't say anything. "Ladies, create a little space for him so he can get in line."

Vernon watched giggling girls make way for him as Cavin pointed where he should stand, they looked to be around his age and just about two or three looked a bit younger. He quickly walked over to them and joined the queue.

"We already started for today but for your sake, Vernon, we would go over it again. Try to keep up and if you aren't sure about something, wait for me to finish that particular step before calling out to my attention that you are confused, do you understand?"

Vernon nodded vigorously even though he had absolutely no idea what Cavin was talking about nor what the routine would be. He couldn't do magic, would he just imitate the moves he saw?

Well, he didn't say any of these out loud as he joined the queue. Almost immediately, they all squatted to the floor and crossed their legs. Vernon was so stunned that for a couple of seconds he couldn't react.

Finally, he was able to throw himself on the floor before he got any odd looks. What in the world was going on? That wasn't all the group then closed their eyes and clasped their hands together while crossing their legs on top of each other.