Chapter 66.

PART 1.

After the event was over, Hatori spent his time mastering elemental magic. He tried to cast the basic fire spells, but apart from a few sparks, he failed to achieve anything substantial. Looks like throwing fireballs left and right while cackling evilly is going to be harder than he thought.

But when Nandan dueled with Tufan last year, they made the elemental magic look so easy.

The time of the festival, which is celebrated in the final month of the year in the Academy, every year comes and goes, and nothing interesting or impressive happened this year, unlike the duel of the previous year. Though Raven ended up helping Suresh with his championship this year as well.

Right now, it is the time after the festival. Everyone is worried about their upcoming tests and exams, but Hatori and his friends are relaxed. They are busy following their course. Hatori is returning from another failed session of elemental magic, where he sees Suraj being bullied by a bunch of second-year students. Remembering the feeling of helplessness, Hatori decides to help him.

“You should pick someone of your size.” He said, stepping in their way, appearing out of nowhere.

Their faces pale in recognition. The students who made their name in the color event this year as the entire stint in the forest is dubbed as have developed a terrifying reputation among their year.

“I’m sorry.” Said one of the bullies. “We’ll just leave now.”

“That’s right.” Said Hatori. “He’s way too nice, but if you would have bullied me, I would have come after you in your sleep. Not that I need to do that. I’m the strongest in the second year; no one can beat me.”

It was as if Hatori called out luck itself when he uttered those words, not realizing what kind of misfortune was headed his way.

Right at that moment, Ishwar is on his way to his master, walking by the kids nearby. But those words stopped him cold in his tracks. He looked around to see whether anyone else had heard those words or not. When he sees only himself and the kids there, he stomps up to them, and stands in front of Hatori, pushing the bullies aside.

“You should be careful of what you say. Someone might take offense to that,” he said to Hatori.

“Oh yeah?” Hatori refuses to be intimidated by this older student. “And who’re you to tell me that?”

“Ishwar Chandravanshi, at your service.” He did a mock bow.

“Listen, no one tells me what I should or should not say. Besides, the words I have just spoken are the fact. No one can deny that.” said Hatori.

Ishwar looks at this stubborn boy in front of him. Just a year ago, he was running around, trying to dodge the Swaraj and his boys. Though Ishwar is leaving with his master today for his apprenticeship, after enjoying the festival, he can’t leave this boy as he is now. He needs to teach him a lesson in humility.

“Then do you claim that you can even take on older students like me? a sixth year? Is that it?” asked Ishwar.

“Yes, I can take you. But I’m not just gonna take you. I will defeat you!” said Hatori.

“Words of challenge, boy.” Said Ishwar, and he puts his magical pressure on Hatori, trying to ground him.

But Hatori has trained under the terrifying pressure of Zeko. No sixth year is ever going to bring him down, no matter how strong they might be. Hatori counters with his magical pressure, driving Ishwar away from himself in this magical arm wrestling. Ishwar is surprised at this, but he is not worried. After all, he has more ways to bring down his opponent than his pressure. But he decides to play defense in this fight; he wishes to see what Zeko’s student will do next.

Once he gets rid of his magical pressure to a suitable extent, Hatori fires Poison Stingers and Piercers. He even added some Slicers for good measure. But all those spells just bounced off Ishwar’s clothes.

Clucking his tongue, Ishwar retaliates with a wind spell, throwing Hatori to the ground with the force of the air. “For all your strength, you lack in spell variety.” He spoke.

Hatori gets up from the ground, feeling as if the air itself punched him in the stomach. He walks closer to Ishwar; when he doesn’t react, he grabs his arm and tries to apply a hold on him. But Ishwar did not budge in the slightest. His skin feels like rubber in Hatori’s hands. Hatori casts a Slicer on his head, but the spell bounces off his skin.

‘Even his skin? What is this guy?’ thinks Hatori.

But he didn’t have much time to think, for Ishwar picks him up, and throws him to the ground with a lot of force. ‘Now I understand what Josh felt when we fought last year.’ Thinks Hatori.

He still does not want to give up, so he gets up and tries to burn Ishwar with his still-developing flames. “That is ridiculous!” The air itself picked up Hatori and slammed him to the ground.

“You should learn by this point that you’re outclassed, boy. You only killed Swaraj because he wasn’t in his right mind. He would have destroyed you otherwise.” Said Ishwar. “Now, take him away from here.” He orders the kids who are watching this fight.

The second-year students have respect for Hatori. Not many survive after challenging an older student. His performance was impressive to them. They took him to his room. As Ishwar is walking away, Hatori thought that he would throw a potion at him. But he decides that he lost this time, fair and square. No need to invite more trouble on himself.

PART 2.

Hatori didn’t get injured much after that fight; aside from a few bruises and scrapes which are easily healed with a potion, his ego took the real damage. Ain’t no potion which can heal that.

Right now, he is sulking on the ground while his friends try to console him. “At least you survived an older student. isn’t that good enough?” asked Josh.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

“Besides, that is a great way to know how far we have to go.” Said Raven. “Incentive to train more, in my opinion.”

“Shut up! You guys are weaklings, who would be destroyed in seconds. You have no right to console me!” what the hell? Kid, this is going too far in this narrator’s opinion.

“What? You picked a fight; you lost the fight. Don’t take it out on us!” said Shin, while others nod in agreement.

“And what will you do if I do take it out on you, huh?” Said Hatori, getting up from the ground. “You guys can’t beat me even if you join each other. What will you do then?”

“Careful now.” Said James. “We have trained seriously this year, and we’re not as weak as you think we are.”

“Big words.” Said Hatori. “No way you’re stronger than me.”

“That is it! Let’s teach him a lesson.” Said Josh, and it seems this boy is a glutton for punishment today.

Hatori is confident that he can take them out easily. He uses the Blast spell to separate them, but Raven kicked that spell back at him. After scrambling to get away from that spell, Hatori ends up right in the way of Josh, who moved his club-like foci like a hammer, and the air hits him in the face. “Elemental magic!” he said in shock from the ground, spitting the blood to the side.

“No. but I’m not telling you this.” Said Josh, moving to him to deliver another blow.

Hatori rolls to the side, where James made some grasping motions, and Hatori feels as if he is getting strangled. He is proud to see that James is not using any foci now; if he wasn’t using this on him, Hatori would have felt prouder.

He continues to try to struggle out of it, but Raven is ready with his spells to get at him, while Shin is playing a theme on his harp. Due to the music, silk appears around Hatori’s body, and his body is covered and his hands and legs are bound by it.

“Wow. You've completed that spell already?” asked Josh.

“Yeah, but I do need to shorten casting time,” said Shin.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” asked Raven.

“You got lucky!” screamed Hatori, trying to get out of the silk. But the silk was strong; it did not budge in the slightest.

“I say we leave him here like this for a day or so; let’s see whether he changes his mind then or not.” Said James.

“Good idea.” Said Raven.

They walk away, as Hatori screams behind them. Though they wanted to turn back and admit that they were just joking, they did no such thing. Their friend needs a lesson. He should respect them. until he learns that lesson, he must suffer alone.

Bound and unable to move, Hatori has only his thoughts to accompany him on the silent ground. He thinks about what he has done to get to this point, why are these things happening to him? What he has done to deserve this?

He goes backward to analyze the day. He understands that insulting his friends wasn’t a good thing when they were only trying to cheer him up. but why did Ishwar fight him?

“You should be careful of what you say. Someone might take offense to that.” Ishwar’s words come back to Hatori. He sounded like he was trying to warn him. ‘Mages are proud. They don’t like to be challenged.’ Thinks Hatori. ‘If some other older student would have heard my bragging, what would they have done?’

An image of Hatori lying in bloody pieces while his friends were crying over his death came to his mind. ‘I understand now. I have to be careful from now on, I can’t just go brag around. Only the strong deserve to do that.’ Thinks Hatori. ‘And I will never insult my friends again.’

The next day, all four make their way to Hatori. “Well?” asked Josh.

“Well, what, untie me already.” Said Hatori.

“Don’t you know the magic words for that?” said Raven with a smirk, quite proud of his pun.

“I…” Hatori tries to say, but the words die in his throat.

“Yeeeeesssssss?” said all four of them.

“I…” he choked before he could complete his sentence. Taking a deep breath, he decides he will say what he wants to say without stopping in the middle. “I’m sorry.” He utters the words. “I should have never insulted you. You guys are the best friends a guy can ask for.”

The silk comes off. “Right words.” Said everyone. “Though please forgive us for being so harsh.” Said James.

“Nah, what’s a little beating among friends?” said Hatori.

PART 3.

It has been two months since Hatori received a beating from Ishwar and his friends. Ishwar is nowhere to be found in the Academy ever since that day. But Hatori decides that he will pay him back one day for the favor he did him with interest.

For now, they all look at their results. James is happy, his ranks have improved a little. But he still dreads the commentary of Shakuntala. Hatori doesn’t care. According to Zeko, as long as he is doing well, he doesn’t care about his rank. Though if it falls too low, then he might decide to take an interest. Hatori decides that he will never give him that chance.

And just like that, a normal year comes to an end. Hatori is glad that he has not killed anyone at the end of his exams this year. A strangled cry of outrage interrupts his thinking. “How? I can expect that to happen once, anyone can have a fluke. But twice?”

“Looks like Mira is not happy with her rank.” Said Shin.

“Who cares?” Said Hatori. “Daphne tells me she is never happy. She didn’t want to bunk with her this year as a result.”

“Come to think of it, everyone who bunked with her last year said the same thing.” Said Josh.

“Anyway, you guys are coming this year to visit me as well, right?” asked Hatori.

“Of course!” They all said it together.

This year, they have to do a lot of things. Many new things to learn, and perfecting old things they have learned, cause more havoc with their yantras; but before they can do any of that, they wish to slack off for a few days.

Then, it is back to working with magic.

(End.)