The ocean erupted around Jay, who kept it relatively small, only to arm level. He stepped forward, suddenly changing the depth of his domain to slow another boulder until he touched it. He stepped closer to Kid, who started throwing pebbles again. Jay checked his mana. About three eighths left. He started running, dashing forward through the ruined ring. Massive spikes shot out of the ground as boulders catapulted themselves at him. A shield of rock encased Kid as he approached, another series of massive spikes attaching him. How much Mana does Kid have?

  He gave a water bullet just enough power to pierce the outside and stick in the dome before he exploded it, breaking himself a hole to enter. He stepped inside, seeing Kid stand there. "You've made a mistake," Kid said.

  "What's that?," Jay asked, readying his mana for a single summon.

  "You stepped under earth," Kid said, still trying to act cool.

  "You are standing in front of a merman with a trident to your back," Jay said, enlarging his arena and summoning a merman in front of Kid as he turned around.

  "You're lying!," Kid said as he turned around, the merman scurrying to his back.

  "I would recommend you check again," Jay said, signaling the merman, who tapped his trident to Kid's back.

  Kid carefully turned around, seeing the trident. "I-I'm not done yet!," Kid shouted. "Earthquake!"

  The entire area rumbled as Kid looked around with a victorious smile. Jay lost his footing in an instant, barely pushing away all the rocks that had tried to lang on him in the first moment.

  In the second moment, two rocks attempted to crush him between them as they clamped shut around him, not managing to do much as he Crushed one of them, the other one hitting him and sending him flying into more rock.

  In the third moment, a giant tower of rock attempted to fall on Jay, at least until he blasted it apart with a water bullet.

  In the fourth moment, a path to the outside was revealed.

  As the moments compounded, Jay found himself increasingly far away from the surface, the earthquake powerful enough to create a giant hole. He managed to keep his height constant at times, but always ended up falling more often than not.

  Eventually, the earthquake ceased, having created a raving with Jay at the bottom. Kid stood at the top, watching Jay at the bottom. "Surrender, or get pebbled!," Kid said, a rock already flying around him. Jay leveraged the ocean around him, summoning a sea turtle at a depth high enough to climb on it. Stepping on the sea turtle, he jumped as high as he could go, before summoning more to land on and jump higher.

  He quickly reached the top, none of the pebbles launched having come close to hitting him. Jay stepped towards the earth mage, avoiding a halfhearted pebble, and tapped him on the shoulder. Crush descended around the Earthshaker, and Jay turned to Aquamarine, whose eyebrows had been raised. "Jay seems to have won this one," he said, pausing for a moment. "No pun intended."

  Jay released Kid, who didn't seem very happy at this loss. He walked over to demand a 'rematch against Jay, who was checking his Mana. One tenth was left.

  Millie stood over her opponent, holding the Wind Dancer in a web of kraken tentacles. Her eyes met his, and he shivered. Hoping she had drank enough coffee to be relatively awake at this moment, he walked into the ring.

  "Uh, are you still sleepy?," Jay asked Millie.

  "No, why?"

  "You don't realize how much of a monster you are when waking up?," Jay inquired.

  "Oh, I'm just a bit irritable. Nothing to the extent of what you're talking about, though."

  Jay shook his head, waiting for the match to start.

  "Oh, I forgot to say go."

  Jay immediately rocketed to the side, avoiding the tentacles converging on his starting position. Drawing a sword he had nabbed from a rack around their area, he sliced one in half, stepping around an attempted leviathan bite. He examined his Mana. Two eights and rapidly recovering.

  He cut through another tentacle, grabbing the summoned worm's tail and pulling it past him. Then a dragon's head appeared above Millie. He froze and made eye contact with her. A malicious grin appeared on her face. "I win!," Millie said as the dragon suddenly spit fire at Jay.

  He dodged to the side, but the beam moved to attack him. Jay checked his Mana. One third. It would drop a little because of this, but he should be fine. Jay released a water bullet at the dragon, going right through its fire and dissipating it. He stepped to the side once more, avoiding more tentacles. "How much Mana do you have?," He asked.

  "A lot!," was his only answer as he dodged mythical beasts.

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  Jay checked his mana again. One half. He couldn't wait any longer. Millie was starting to get used to his habits. He stepped around a Earthworm tail before summoning his domain. Shoving away the tentacles, he approached, inevitably, inexorably. Millie summoned another leviathan, but Jay temporarily removed his domain, slapping the leviathan head to the side before reactivating his domain. Jumping forward, avoiding another set of tentacles, he made his way towards Millie, who was smiling. "I have another trick."

  Millie was still smiling as she turned into a dragon, scales growing out of her limbs while she grew explosively, turning to a massive size. Looking down on him contemptuously, She shot down fire, which he quickly intercepted with the water he was holding. It turned into steam, providing a small area where he wouldn't be seen. Immediately moving, he stayed in the steam. Moving to the leftmost he could go in the mist, he dashed at Millie, shooting a few ineffective water bullets before touching her and activating Crush. The massive creature didn't play nice with Crush, acting very hard to keep stationary and not shooting fire.

  Jay summoned a stonefish, having it inject its poison into the dragon. Summoning more, he tossed them around the arena, seeing the dragon start to step on a few.

  It opened its mouth again, a plume of fire rushing at Jay, who once again countered with his domain. He stopped concentrating on his block before stepping forward.

  Directly into another plume of fire. This defense was hasty, a simple hardening of the water at the edge of his defense. It didn't work as well as before, without time to concentrate, letting some of the fire through and onto his clothes.

  The dragonflame started to burn him, introducing Jay to true agony. He ripped off his shirt, stomping out the fire. Glaring at Millie, he ran at her, summoning a very specific animal in his hand.

  Millie raised her foreleg to step on him as he tossed a marbled cone snail at her. It hit her in the leg before falling, unnoticed. He watched the foot go up, dodging the broadcasted attack and the tail swipe afterwards, which was less visible. He desperately dodged attacks, waiting for it to work. Millie managed to get her tail around him, trapping him in a circular area. Hs still managed to dodge many of the attacks, due to how awkward it was for Millie to fight with her tail in that position. Eventually, she figured out the trick. Corner her prey and then eat them.

  He watched the feet come down in a specific path, knowing this was the end. He followed them, because he didn't have a choice, before finally ending directly in front of a paw poised for a sweep. Jay waited for the blow to come... but it never did.

  Millie fell over, the poison having finally worked on her huge body. Stepping out of the ring, Jay fell over. That had been painful. Aquamarine walked over to Millie, tapping her. She got up immediately, her body receding from a dragon into a human.

  Millie doubled over, puking, as Jay watched. Apparently transformation didn't feel good.

  "So, how are you doing?," He asked her.

  "Good. How'd you win?," Millie retorted with a question of her own.

  "I threw a marbled cone snail at you," Jay said.

  "Those things are nasty. Why not something mythological though?"

  "I couldn't think of any that live below the sea and can compete with a dragon."

  "Leviathan, idiot."

  "I guess."

  They quickly stopped chatting as Aquamarine gathered the class. "Back to your dorms, except for you." He pointed at Jay. "You get to meet Diamond."

  Jay followed Aquamarine as he walked out of the building, directly towards the dorms. When they got there, Aquamarine led them around the building instead of into the front door. When they reached the back door, a guard stood there, stepping aside to let Aquamarine through. He stared into Jay's eyes, which were a pitch black at the moment, and shook his head. "Aqua, is he with you?"

  Aquamarine nodded and Jay was let into the building. They walked through the halls until they reached a room with a diamond hanging on the door, passing rooms with other gemstones.

  He opened the door and Jay stepped in. Time to meet whoever this 'Diamond' was.

  Diamond sat, sipping tea as he watched the magical cameras he'd set up around campus. Onyx and the others' prison was still secure. Nothing had changed since Ruby's visit. He turned to the dorms, starting with the oldest kids, the fourth years. They would graduate at the end of this year.

  He examined their training and found nothing different from the usual. Just each student working with their counsel and doing what they normally did, prepare to fight against the monsters infesting the world. He noticed someone accidentally hit their counsel with a lightning bolt, but it was easily blocked and they continued.

  Diamond looked at the third years' dorms, examining them. He blanched. A teacher had been replaced with a doppleganger. Tapping the desk, he thought of how best to deal with this situation, then shrugged. Eradication would work. He patiently waited for the five minutes it took for the teacher's class to end and the students to file out before firing a beam of radiance, teleporting it directly into the doppleganger's head.

  He quickly moved on to the second years' dorms, finding nothing out of the ordinary other than the usual complex social environment, with breakups happening all the time and people finding 'new love' shortly afterwards. Diamond shook his head. This class had been weird. Perhaps even weirder than he was, he thought, chuckling.

  Finally, he pulled up the images of the first years' dorms. They were all outside, attacking dummies. There were a few interesting prospects here, like the girl biting the head off a dummy or the boy crushing his dummy's neck. He was just about ready to move on when a knock came at his door. "Yes?," Diamond asked, turning to face it.

  "It's Jade," Jade said, stepping in.

  "So, what is it?," Diamond asked. "Anything important?"

  "Yes," Jade said, nodding. "Very important. The kid over there-" she spoke, pointing at the one who had just crushed his dummy's neck, "-has multiple paths, each with a different discipline."

  "I can see how that'd be annoying," Diamond said. "So-

  "ANNOYING? TRY NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE," Jade said, losing her temper for a brief moment. She took a deep breath. "No one else has had multiple paths, or multiple disciplines before."

  Diamond patiently waited for her to finish before speaking. "Bring him in, then. I want to see what he can do."

  Jade nodded. "Far better. What I would expect from a director of a school."

  She turned and strode out of the room, her movements fast enough to blow paper off his desk.

  Diamond grabbed the sheets of paper which fell off, one in particular catching his eye. It was a letter from the king. He looked at the door, already sensing Aquamarine and the kid, who was apparently named Jay, arriving. So they were going to be coming anyway, starting their journey before Jade had asked him for the meeting, and Jade had just informed him that they would be here. Otherwise, they wouldn't have arrived so fast.

  He set the letter aside, sighing. He would get to it later.

  Diamond watched the door open, ready to fulfill his duties as a headmaster.