It was day 1 of class.

The classroom had surprised Jack; it was not what he had expected. His first class was labeled operations. He had a lot of speculation about how that class could go, but when he found the room, it was fairly plain. The room looked like a lecture hall. There were ascending rows of desks with a large front area for the teacher to educate from. The teacher was a diminutive man named Choi, he appeared ancient and looked frail, but Jack had heard from his classmates that he was once a famous duelist who had retired with a perfect record. He walked with a grace belying his age, something about the way he paced back and forth in front of the class, reminded Jack of the few times he had seen hunting beasts. No wasted energy in the way he moved, perfectly balanced and silent as he walked. When he spoke his voice was calm, and he had a slight accent.

“This class is called operations. Every year I am asked why and what they mean by operations. Operation is a polite word the academy has used to label this class. In reality, this class is more about survival, I will be teaching you about being an elemental user and what you need to do to survive. Being an elemental user can be a blessing, but it can also be a curse. You have been given a lot of power, and there are no limiters on what you can do with it. Many experienced users have managed to hurt and even kill themselves. It is my goal to ensure every single one of you survives and lives to old age.”

“Elemental users are incredibly powerful and can perform feats akin to gods, and yet they can just as easily be killed as any other normal person. The most effective and easy way to do that is with a gun. Fortunately, there are many ways for an effective element user to prevent that from happening. The most common method is mana shielding. This is where the user will engulf themselves in a high quantity of mana. The thick mana membrane will slow and stop the bullets. This technique is extremely exhausting and hard to maintain for more than a few moments, even by a master. Another common technique employed, is to cover your body with the specific elemental mana that the user has absorbed. Depending on the element absorbed, this can help in different ways. Various elements have different effects when a bullet strikes them, meaning not all elements can be used for this technique. Stone a common element for example can cover the user ensuring their safety. Fire another common element is able to coat the user but is unlikely to melt the bullet before hitting the elemental user. For this reason, an element that can protect a user proficiently is recommended to be absorbed first.

“Another Common protection technique is an enchantment; metal manipulation is the easiest and most common. An enchanted object, usually something small attached to the user will emit a magnetized aura that will divert incoming metal objects that are traveling at high speeds. Metal Manipulators can be one of the most dangerous elements on the modern battlefield if wielded properly. The strength of metal manipulators is the only reason for the constant viability of many abnormal weapons used you can see in the present day. Today we will be practicing the most common method used, basic mana shielding. I believe the best way to learn is by experience, so we are going to play a little dodgeball.” A mischievous grin slowly spread across his face as he said the last sentence.

A murmur went through the class.

“Dodgeball?

“The kid’s game?”

I haven’t played that in years”

“I love dodgeball.”

“I thought this was a serious school, what’s going on?”

Jack could tell something was going on. He didn’t know what dodgeball was, but he knew he did not like that smile on Choi’s face. A few minutes later Jack found himself in a small square gym. The floor was some sort of rubber, it looked like it would still probably hurt to fall down but not nearly as much as a hard surface like pavement. He jumped up and down a few times tentatively trying to get used to the hard rubber ground beneath his feet. Looking at the walls they were astonishingly plain with a ring of windows near the ceiling that let in a small amount of light. Looking around you could see that all the students were wearing shorts and a tee shirt; the basic physical activity clothes provided by the school, and on each student’s chest was a small pin clipped to their shirt.

“This pin is used to count how many times you have been struck, and how many times you have successfully blocked the ball by mana shielding.” Choi had explained earlier.

Jack examined the pin. It was small. it didn’t actually have a pin, but somehow seemed to magnetize itself tightly to whatever piece of clothing it was attached to. The pin had a small holographic display that showed two numbers, one was red, and the other was green. Currently, they were both showing zero. The pin was silver and was in the shape of a small hexagon. An enchantment ran along the pin’s outer shell in a digital pattern that could barely be seen.

The students were standing around the gym, some were conversing quietly, and everyone looked nervous. A few of the students eyed the scar you could see protruding down Jack’s leg. The scar had faded a lot compared to how bad it looked when he originally saw it in the hospital, but unfortunately, it was still a very disturbing sight he thought. Jack was incredibly self-conscious and hated standing around in shorts. Since he had absorbed an element and was given a stipend, Jack had gained a large amount of weight, but he was still skinnier than the average student.

“Are we supposed to choose teams?” one of the students who seemed more confident than the rest spoke up as she looked around.

“I didn’t say anything about teams,” Choi spoke, his voice came out of a speaker in the corner of the room, the teacher nowhere to be seen. Everyone looked around confused when suddenly the gym door slammed shut on its own accord. It was eerily quiet for one second, then there was a sound, it was a quiet banging, but it quickly increased in volume and speed. Unexpectedly a small hole in the middle of the floor opened up. One of the students almost fell in as it opened. After righting himself he leaned over and looked down into the hole, suddenly a large ball shot out and smashed the boy right in the face. He was taken completely off guard and was thrown back off his feet.

He made a sound as it hit him in the face, something like “Pfblblblahh.”

Unfortunately, that was not the only one to exit the hole, it was quickly joined by a second and third. They launched out in quick succession and all hell broke loose. They were the size of a soccer ball and made a large buzzing sound as they flew around. One of them whizzed past Jack’s head and he got a better look at it. Its material looked like different metals stitched together with a weird thread. The thread looked like a thick multicolored metal wire.

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As soon as the balls ran into something they would bounce off in a seemingly random direction. The gym quickly fell into a hectic nightmare of everyone running and screaming, trying to not get crushed by the dangerous machines. The class was not doing very well as a whole, with a few exceptions. Jack was one of the exceptions. Gant had been training him for a few months now and it seemed to not have gone to waste. Using basic stepping techniques, he made sure he was always balanced as he moved, even spinning a few times. When dodging wasn’t an option, he would focus all his mana on the spot that was going to be struck. Even with the mana training and experience he had enchanting, this was extremely difficult, and he failed on multiple occasions to stop the incoming projectile. They seemed to be made out of metal but when one of them struck him it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it should have, it felt like they would soften on impact before bouncing off in another direction. But every time he was able to successfully block one with a proper mana shield, it felt like a solid iron ball launched from a cannon. This change in pressure led him to believe the abnormal-looking balls were extremely advanced and would sense if they were being blocked by mana and test the full strength of the shield while keeping the students relatively safe.

One flew at Jack from an awkward angle, it bounced off the ground near him and flew upwards toward his stomach. He had no chance of dodging, so he focused his mana. He had mere moments, but he paid attention to the swirling mass within his body and projected it out in an unreserved fashion. The ball was blown back by the shield Jack had produced.

Woah, what was that? That was all Jack had time to think before another one flew at him from above this time. This one had been flying overhead and somehow changed course mid-flight. “Shit.” Jack lifted his arms over his head and was only able to create a small shield as the ball easily broke through and hit him hard. His vision blurred slightly then he shook his head clearing it. He looked around quickly.

A thin tall girl with bright white hair seemed to be the only one doing better than Jack at dodging. She casually evaded the devices with little effort, and Jack was momentarily distracted by her grace and found himself getting struck directly in his nether regions by a ball he hadn’t noticed in time. He found himself reflecting back to when he considered them relatively safe and found himself changing his opinion. “This is insane!”

After regaining his composure, he looked around and tried to formulate a plan. “A wall, if I have a wall behind me, they can only come from one direction.” Jack stood up and ran towards the closest wall, but then he saw holes start randomly opening in on the walls. That’s when he realized there were more than 3 balls. “Oh god, they are coming from everywhere. I need someone to watch my back. The white-haired girl was only halfway across the gym, but with the commotion going on it looked like a mile. Jack blocked another ball as he kept looking around. One of them smashed into him from behind. Jack faceplanted. After a moment he rolled onto his back, just in time to see another one falling right towards his face. “Oh shit.” he moved his head to the side as it flew towards him. That’s when it suddenly changed direction midflight and smashed him again in the face. “Oh, come on!” Jack thought.

By the time the balls stopped bouncing, almost every student was lying on the ground curled up. Every student except the girl with white hair. She stood directly in the middle of the gym, an uninterested expression on her face.

A moment later Choi entered the gym, a slight bounce in his step, and a smile on his face. It was clear that he had enjoyed the spectacle. The boy who had been struck in the face at the beginning of the exercise quickly stood up and started berating the teacher.

“You could have torn my head off!” the student was furious; some dried blood had dripped down from his nose.

Choi turned and looked at the boy and calmly said. “The number one killer of an elemental user is a gun.” He seemed unperturbed by the student’s outburst. “When I was a boy, I came to this class just like you. I was eager to learn and to fight. So was every one of my classmates. My year was full of many prodigies, and they were incredible fighters, I was nothing compared to many of my peers. Many were even of high royal lineages like yourself.” Choi pointed as he looked around the class. “Now,” Choi said softly. “Every single one of my classmates is dead.” It was quiet as we all considered the thought of being the last one of the class alive. Looking around it was literally impossible for the students to comprehend. “When you have seen as much death as I have Mr. Smith.” Choi was talking as he started rolling up his pant legs. “You will thank me for being so hard on you.”

Everyone was now looking at both his legs. His legs were fully mechanical, metal replacing flesh all the way up to the mid-thigh. Everyone was silent as they looked at the mechanical parts that had replaced his legs. They looked incredibly advanced, they seemed to be a serious combination of magic and science. Jack could see small pistons and some incredibly advanced-looking springs. While his feet were surprisingly small and looked to be made of a rubber material similar to the gym floor.

Everyone seemed to mull over what he said as Choi slowly rolled his pants back down. “Now, let us take a look at your scores.”

When they handed in their badges each student was given a count of how many times they had been struck, also how many times they had successfully stopped a ball with enough force to stop a projectile flying at lethal force. Some of the numbers were pretty bad for the students, Jack did notice however that every student did manage to block at least one, every student except one. The girl with white hair didn’t register a single block or hit. Choi smiled slightly when the number was displayed to the class.

“I do appreciate your abilities Ms. Rambova, but the aim of the exercise was to block the balls with your mana.”

The girl looked at him with a weird look on her face, a combination of confusion and sorrow. She seemed to mull it over for a second, then turned around and quickly left the room without saying a word.

This was when Jack got a better look at the girl, she was absolutely stunning. Her hair was bright white, slightly wavy, and flowed down to her mid-back. She wore the same clothes as every other student but somehow, they looked better on her. After she left, the remaining class focused back on their scores. There was another boy who did really well, Jack had no idea how he had missed the boy earlier or how he could have blocked so many with his obvious size impediment. There was no polite way to say it, the boy was very fat, but somehow, he had blocked the balls a staggering 45 times and was only hit 3 times. Jack had been proud of blocking 20, a much higher number than the average, but Jack had also been struck 10 times, almost as many as the class average. He swore to himself that he would do better next time.

After finding out their results the class quickly filed out of the gym, Jack had been incredibly interested in the girl with white hair but when he left the gym she was nowhere to be seen. He frowned as he looked around, suddenly he found himself face to face with the boy who had taken the ball to the face. The boy looked him up and down once with a scrutinizing gaze. Here we go Jack thought, the class bully. To his surprise, the boy put out his hand.

“I’m Trent Smith.”

“Uh, Jack,” he said shaking his hand. The boy’s hands were extremely soft, but he had a tight grip and a firm shake.

“Next time, I’m gonna beat you,” was all he said, then he turned around and walked away.

Jack was very confused and stood there dumbfounded for a minute, but then he remembered he needed to get to his next class.