(Julius Argenti POV)

I could see the shadows of the birds approaching us, unaffected by the tornado right next to us. I didn't know how they managed it, nor did I care at the moment.

I wished they weren't hostile, but I could feel their intent to attack us. But, I wasn't going to let them get the first hit. I created four {Water Spears} from the rain and launched them at the birds. Just as they were about to hit them, I froze the spears to deal more damage.

Though they easily destroyed the {Ice Spears} with a flap of their wings. That attack wasn't supposed to deal damage but to gauge their strength. Even still, destroying with a flap of their wings instead of dodging did demotivate me a little.

As they got closer, I could finally make out 5 shadows.

'They are definitely C rank, maybe even B rank. I thought Mrs Rumbles got rid of all animals B rank and above. And the bird hanging a bit further back seems even stronger. My instincts warning me to not attack it at all costs.'

In retaliation, the birds started pelting us with {Water Bullets}. Though they didn't hurt, the sheer number of them was quickly weakening us.

Our classmates tried to fight back, but it being midnight as well as the birds being able to move freely in the sky meant that most attacks failed to land.

'Why aren't killing us? The one at the back could do so easily. Why are they here.'

I racked my brain to find the answer until I remembered the homeroom teacher of Class 4A. His name was Kentora Loho and was a part of the 15 royals. He was an A rank mage who was a beast tamer.

As the name implied, beast tamers could tame and control animals. But not all mages could become this sort of mage.

It required a mage to have high talent in facilitation and contamination mana qualities to do so. I don't know the specifics but one of our previous classmates dropped to class 4A to learn from him.

'These birds must be his. They probably received instructions to only disrupt us, so we'll be safe.'

"Everyone, forget about the birds. They won't hurt you. Just try to defend yourself from its attacks."

I hoped my message got to everyone.

Everyone kept ignoring the birds that we now knew were nuages, as kept relentlessly harassing us.

Nuages were birds that lived on top of clouds and could manipulate the air around them like breathing. Even baby nuages were unaffected by the air currents. They could also manipulate water (and only water) but couldn't create it.

(AN: They were similar to Altaria and Swablu from Pokemon. Think of them like cloud birds)

Even though I told everyone not to attack, my pride wouldn't allow me to just be attacked without fighting back.

I could probably kill one of them if I went all out, but I understood that was a bad idea. Though Beast Tamers could control animals, it wasn't complete slavery.

The nuage at the back would kill me if I killed another one. The closer in strength the animal was to the tamer, the less control the tamer has over the animal.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

For example, he could order any B rank animals and below to do anything such as killing their own children. But for A ranks weaker than him, he had limited control over them.

Unaware to me, all the nuages were given orders to not kill the students no matter the reason and disobeying it would kill them. They were to protect them at even the cost of their lives.

*Chirp Chirp*

I could hear the nuages laughing as they attacked us and it was getting on my nerves. But I was patiently waiting when I suddenly launched a {Water Whip} at three of the nuages.

The nuages surprised by the attack attempted to break the whip, but I froze whips as the ice spread to their soaked cloud-like feathers.

With the added weight they fell to the ground like a rock. James also notice my intention and increase the gravity so they fell fast.

They hit the ground with a crash. But such a simple attack wasn't going to stop them. I use more rain to create a water sphere and trapped them inside. To stop them from escaping, I froze the water.

I hoped I bought some time and nuages would stop attacking. During this entire time, the nuage hanging at the back didn't intervene.

I sighed in relief as we start running as fast as we could through this muddy forest and encouraged everyone else to do the same.

I had gotten used to dealing with the tornado winds by manipulating the mud so it held me down. I think most people in our class figured out a method to do so.

Even though I didn't want to admit it, this lesson was helpful in teaching us how to use mana without thinking.

At this moment, whenever I used mana I had to consciously use it. Even when enhancing and reinforcing myself, I still had to think about it.

Though I wasn't focused on it, a prolonged fight would've sapped me of my mental energy and willpower.

Learning to use mana subconsciously would help immensely to conserve energy and mental strength while being able to react quicker in unexpected situations.

I had never learnt this at SUITE as we trained to prepare a lot beforehand and to deal with confrontations as quickly as possible. We never needed to learn how to survive drawn-out battles.

During my time at Central High, I realised how narrow my view of combat was. I was only trained to investigate targets so I could kill them as fast as possible by exploiting their known weaknesses and running away when in danger.

It was all about survival and completing the mission. Though this was useful for assassinations, I didn't want to be an assassin all my life.

This style of fighting was heavily reliant on information. If I didn't know the opponent I was facing and wasn't in a position to run away, I would be screwed.

After an hour of walking and not dealing with the nuages, we finally arrived at the base of the mountain.

We didn't want to be pelted by the rain any longer so the mages with the solid attribute created a temporary shelter inside the mountain. It wasn't very big as we didn't want a cave-in to kill us all.

Everyone wanted to change their clothes, but there was only one room. There were definitely some boys wanting to peek at girls.

I could even see now that some boys such as Christopher and Rio staring lewdly at the girls whose curves could be seen because of the wet clothes. Most of the looks were directed at Violet and Amina.

Violet was irritated by it but wouldn't do anything but scold them. On the other hand, Amina was going to definitely lash out if this continued. I didn't want Amina to cause a cave-in.

"Here, let me extract the water so we can get this over with."

The other mages with the liquid attribute didn't try to do the same as they weren't confident in their control over their attribute only removing the water, without ripping the fabric of our clothes.

Amina looked at me and nodded. She trusted my character and weakened her {Distortion Field} allowing me to manipulate the water close to her body.

(AN: {Distortion Field} was mentioned in chapter 32. If you don't remember it is a small area extending a couple of centimetres outside a person's body which others cannot manipulate mana.)

The other girls were suspicious, but after seeing me extract the water from Amina's clothes without doing anything else, they allowed me to do the same.

I didn't have any thoughts of doing anything lecherous because I had no interest in a girl's body (as I had already seen Veronica's on multiple occasions) and I didn't want to make half our class my enemy.

After I finished, I could see the disappointed faces of most boys. I could hear them mutter things like "is he even a man" and "Why'd he go and do that?".

I shut them up by drying their clothes as well. Then, after I was done, I looked outside and focused on the storm, wondering what else was going to happen.