The leader of the Herval family was an Earl, and they were renowned fire magicians, so much so that anyone from their family is guaranteed into the Academy just by name recognition. Chris knew this, but Haven did not, and decided to play along, staying silent as he monitored the situation.
“Alright, if I deal more damage to that target then you’ll leave us alone?” Haven questioned. “Sure why not, I’m feeling generous,” he paused thinking for a moment, “but one more rule, it has to be a firebolt just like mine, otherwise it’s not fair, now is it?”
He let go and slowly backed away. He thought that by limiting the attack to what he was good at, it would guarantee him someone to step all over even as a first year. Before the boy had time to mentally congratulate himself, Haven pressed his hand forward, and razed the target in an instant.
The boys behind Herval looked dumbfounded, and Jenny and Lily didn’t seem to react much better. “H-How dare you”, the noble boy paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, “What kind of dirty tricks did some plebeian like you pull to do that? You didn’t even say the incantation, how am I supposed to know what spell that was? It easily could’ve been a completely different spell!” He grew irate at this commoner showing off, and tried to find any excuse on how he could maintain his ego.
Haven looked him dead in the eye, “Do you want to walk away now before you embarrass yourself more, or do you want me to do the exact same thing, but this time I say the incantation, guaranteeing that I win. Your choice.” The son of the Herval family scowled and stomped away with his gaggle of goons.
Once out of earshot, Chris started laughing, “Ahh man, you got that punk good, I can’t believe that’s all an Earl’s son has to offer. Ridiculous.”
The shocked expression on Lily and Jenny’s face had yet to falter. “How.. how did you do that? You didn’t even say anything, but you cast such a strong firebolt?” Lily seemed like she couldn’t believe her eyes.
Jenny was even more shocked, “He was the son of an Earl? And you bested him using the fire magic his family is known for? Haven, how strong are you?”
Haven pondered for a bit, “Maybe a third as strong as my master here,” he said as he slapped Chris on the back. “Come on man, I told you not to talk like that, my family already has to deal with enough, I don’t want to bring them any trouble.”
Chris sighed, “Can you guys show me what you can do, and describe in detail how it compares to the average students in this Academy. If you do, I’ll show you what I can do, and see if maybe I can teach you a little.”
Lily decided she wanted to go first, “What spell should I use?” “Just use your strongest one, since me and Haven need an idea on how to act around here.”
“What do you mean Chris, why do we have to act differently?” Haven whined.
Chris sighed, “If we stick out too much, our families might have problems, people might want to challenge us, our teachers might want to target us in class. It’s better to blend in. For now I want you to pretend that your firebolt is your strongest spell.”
Haven sat down on the bench, “You know I’m no good at fire magic, but now that has to be my strongest?” Chris gave the go ahead to Lily, “This is for our safety, once we get strong enough we won’t have to hide it, but for now we need to be careful.”
Lily used water whip, and it chipped into the target, dealing a small gash. Lily fell to the ground, wheezing, “Can I rest now, please.” She was too tired to be nervous, half of her mana was drained in a single attack. Chris helped her up, and sat her on the bench next to Haven. “Haven, you know what to do,” Chris commanded.
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Haven pressed his hands against her body, near her stomach, and she started fidgeting. “Please calm down, and trust me with this,” Haven was sad this girl he found cute didn’t trust him at all. He focused his magical energy like he was attempting to create a mana-bolt, but instead focused it inside Lily. Her breathing settled down, and she began to feel better.
“What just happened?” She grabbed at her skirt and fiddled with it. “I simply pulled mana from my body and the air, and put it in you, so you could feel better. Chris was doing that to me during training for a year since he had more mana than I did. Do you feel better?”
Lily sat up, “Yea, I feel a lot better, thank you.” Chris spoke up, “Alright Jenny, show me what you can do, full power.” Jenny began calling upon the wind, and slung it towards the target. A simple windblade spell isn’t too bad, she casted it decently quickly, by saying the incantation really fast, and the dent in the target is about an inch deep. If it hit a person it would hurt pretty badly.
“Alright Jenny, not bad.” Jenny managed to stay standing. “You’re sitting here judging us, but you still haven’t shown us what you can do, ya know,” Jenny huffed. “Fine, fine, I’ll show you something pretty simple, as I can’t do too much damage to the area.”
Chris held out his hand with his index forward, his thumb up, and the others curled. He focused the energy into a tiny glowing bead, and fired it towards the target. The entire target split into pieces, and the stone wall behind it looked cracked. In the time it takes for a normal person to say a single word for an incantation, Chris fired a destructive bead of pure concentrated mana. “Ahh crap, I still went too hard, maybe I should’ve just used a firebolt too, at least those fizzle out when they hit things,” he sighed, “No one tell anyone I did that alright?”
Jenny almost fell over from shock, and Lily slumped into the bench. “So how hard did you go on that attack?” Lily asked, her legs shaking. “I would say maybe like fifteen percent. What do you think Haven?” He pondered for a moment, tapping his foot on the ground, “I’d say it’s more like ten percent, but you know best.”
Jenny, frustrated at their claims, “So you’re telling me, Chris is way stronger than what he just did and Haven, and Haven’s fire attack is one of his worst? You guys are just boasting right? Like that doesn’t make sense.”
“Chris, you wanna show her the thing? I mean they did help us out, it might be good to earn their trust,” Haven said as he stood up.
Chris scratched the back of his head, “No one tell anyone about this, because no matter how much I search, I can’t find anyone else who could do this, not in any of my history books, not in any of the village’s either. I even took a peek at some of the Church’s on the way here. Promise!”
“Fine, we promise, can you just get to proving how amazing you are or whatever,” Jenny said scornfully. Chris adjusted his feet, gaining balance first, and with one swift movement, he vaulted into the air. Jenny followed him with her eyes, and suddenly he stopped. Chris was just standing on the sky.
‘What kind of hocus-pocus bullshit is that?’ “What are you doing? How are you doing that? What the hell kind of stuff do people from your village do?!” Jenny yelled up at Chris. Chris yelled back, “I help the fields, but other than that I don’t help the village out a ton! Oh wait, I also hunt Orcish Boars so we have tasty meat!” Chris suddenly saw someone in the distance, and turned invisible, and dropped down to the ground.
“Whew, almost got caught there,” Chris laughed but Jenny and Lily couldn’t believe what they just saw. “So let me get this straight you little demon, you can use high potency destructive magic, you can stand on air, you can help people recover mana, you hunt Orcish Boars for meat by yourself, and you can turn invisible. Did I get everything?” Jenny was flustered. “I’m really good with a sword too, but other than that, I’d say that’s pretty accurate.”
Jenny groaned out, and curled into a ball, “Compared to that, my magic is worthless. What was even the point in coming here?” Chris reached his hand down to Jenny, “I can imagine it’s frustrating, but if you’re willing, I’ll teach you as much as I can. Same for you Lily.”
Jenny takes his hand and hoists herself up, pretending she wasn’t just upset, “Then I guess I’ll have to take you up on that offer then?” Lily walked over, “Me too, please.” Chris smiled, “No need to make it seem like such a big deal, I gotta train that guy over there too, if he can learn it, you can too.” “What’s wrong with me, huh?” Haven huffed.