- Michael -

“To start off, do you know his affinities?” Julia asked.

“No…” I shook my head. Neither of us knew any definitive information on him. We rarely interact with him since he’s a second year and there's nobody who knows him well. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even have any friends or acquaintances we could interrogate.

“We’ll just have to make assumptions based on what we saw at the sparring hall.” Julia surmised. “I couldn’t see very well from the stands, what do you think?”

“What do I think? Maybe you have bad eyesight I guess.”

“Not that you idiot.” She jabbed my ribs angrily. “I’m asking about Aidin.”

“Oh, that. From what I could tell he was using his Essence itself to attack.”

Julia’s eyes widened. “You mean he was using his Essence as a medium?”

“That’s how it looked.”

It’s definitely a strange way to use magic. Instead of using a standard medium, to attack with the fuel itself is unheard of. I personally can’t see the benefit of doing so because of how much Essence it would consume. I can imagine myself passing out within seconds fighting like that.

“It must be a form of basic magic, just on a larger scale,” said Julia. “To think it could be used like this, this could revolutionize our understanding of essential energy.”

Oh god, she’s nerding out again. I need to catch her attention quickly before her mind goes off to wonderland. I brought my hand to my mouth and harrumphed loudly.

“So how do you think we could counter him?”

Julia returned to reality and glared at me before replying. “Well before we can think about countering him, we gotta understand the magic that he’s using. Do you know how to use basic magic?”

“Hmm… I don’t think so.”

“Didn’t you say you could use all magic forms?”

“Hey, basic magic slipped my mind cause nobody uses it.” It’s true, nobody uses basic magic. The first two magic forms discovered were Vector and Alteration. Basic magic was discovered later on and because of how obscure it is in experimental or practical use, not many opt to research it in depth.

“It has its uses,” Julia retorted. “It's necessary in both extrasensory perception magic and general push-force reactions.”

Look at you using all these big words. It's not like I don't understand what she's saying, I just have no idea what those are.

“Okay, do you know how to use basic magic?”

After hearing my question, Julia smirked knowingly. “In fact I do. I’ve researched it independently and integrated it into my Algorithms.”

“Wow, impressive~” I clapped with an exaggerated look of awe plastered on my face… and as I expected, she instantly punched me in the gut. What a violent impulse. Even if I’m used to it, it still hurts you know. Maybe I should stop teasing her… no, that basically amounts to admitting defeat. I will never admit defeat!

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“If you don’t know how basic magic works then we won’t get anywhere. It’s probably better if I show you how to use it in one of the Application Halls.”

Seriously…

She walked to the door and beckoned me over. “Come on, let’s go.”

After leaving, we arrived at the room five minutes later. For some reason we went all the way to the first floor when there were plenty of Application Halls on the fourth. I doubt Julia forgot that, considering that she bragged about memorizing the school layout some time ago.

The door to this room was different from the ones on the fourth floor. I’m aware that classrooms and offices have different entrances by design, but this one in particular looked marginally less new than the rest. Julia raised her arm up to the dial pad presumably to enter a code, but instead the door clicked open automatically.

“Wait, how’d you do that?”

“Hmph hmm~ one of the perks of being an engineer.” She smirked smugly for the hundredth time this week. “Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to synchronize my datacard to the newer installations, hence the long walk, but this is definitely a success.”

Success? More like illegal. I’m not a lawyer, but modifying the equipment from Sync and using it to hack into a school facility sounds like Hollywood-grade illegal activity to me.

We walked into the now opened, ceiling-free courtyard, and were met with an unexpected sight. There were already people here, quite a few at that, and they stood in a circle between the pillars spread out across the room.

Upon closer inspection, I could make out two people standing across from each other in the center of the mob and from their stances they were definitely gearing up to fight. None of the what looked like thirty people noticed our presence due to the spectacle happening in front of them so we easily sneaked into the crowd to see what was going on.

“You got this Philly!”

“Ya can’t lose this Darren!”

The crowd yelled and urged the two students on as they got ready to pounce on their opponent. What was this, a fight club? I don’t see the school accepting the use of the room this way. And from what I could see, almost everyone here was a first year just like us. If one of them seriously injures someone, it’ll lead to more than a ten word apology note.

“Now now, Hold your horses! This is the fight that we’ve all been waiting for! On the left we have the Fierce Falcon, Darren Grumbly! On the right we have the Rabid Rampart, Philly Winters!”

What are these cringy titles? I’m getting embarrassed just hearing them. I can’t imagine being called by those names, forget pridefully flaunting them.

“Both have raced through the qualifying rounds and are now entering the final six in a scramble for the number one position! Let’s hear what the contestants have to say before we commence the battle!”

The commentator approached one of the fighters, Philly I think it was, with a microphone in hand.

“Do you have anything to tell the crowd before the fight!”

The boy postured and smirked arrogantly. “Kek! None of y’all gonna beat big ol’ me in a beatin’ battle!”

“You heard the man!” He ran over to the other person. “How about you young man!”

“Hmph! You’ll never again glimpse upon the elegance that is my ring dance, if the opportunity now is taken not!”

“Oooh! Words of a fighter! I’m looking forward to this unprecedented fight of the century, that is about to begin!”

Holy mother of god, I am getting second-hand cardiac arrest from listening to this. The fight is being blown entirely out of proportion. Unprecedented? Fight of the century? First of all, what the fuck is a ring dance?

“These two top class competitors are pumped and ready to go! Are y'all ready?” The man stood between the two with his arm outstretched.

“Three… Two…”

Both contestants took an anxious step forward as the milliseconds clicked ahead towards the fight.

“One…”

The crowd was silent, watching the combatants intently as to not miss a second of the fight. Everyone was on their toes as the built up adrenaline was waiting to burst out from the crowd.

Then, the moment came.

“GO!"