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“So, what did we do wrong?” I asked my team. The initial looks I received in reply were surprise, confusion, annoyance, and anger.

“What do you mean what we did wrong? We won did we not? Why are you asking questions like this?” Henry said with annoyance in his voice.

“Yeah, what is your problem? And who are you to ask questions like this, you are just from a Baron house, barely a noble!” Arabella said in anger with a haughty attitude.

To this, I just turned and gave the two noble mage brats a cold stare, the kind of stare only a person who has died and taken lives before could give, and they immediately clammed up.

I focused on Arabella and said, “Who am i? Well, it is as you said, I am just the son of a relatively newly ennobled Baron, and I am also someone who can kick both of your asses combined, and everyone knows it.”, then I focused on Henry, “And you, you want to be the leader so badly, but besides shouting “Charge”, you did not do much leading at all, you were too busy having a magic dual, did you even notice our front line crumbling?” I asked as I pointed my thumb back at Dave and Sam.

“Wh-Well it did not happen so it's fine isn't it?” Henry rebutted with a flustered expression.

“It’s “Fine” because I am stronger than most, but that is not the point of this group exercise. Can you say the same thing if I was not in your group? Dave and Sam were at a disadvantage when facing off against the last group and they are not going to get any better in the next few minutes, that should be where your leadership should come in and organize and assist the front line.” I chastised Henry, but in the same vein, I also felt kind of bad for bringing Dave and Sam into the lecture, they were doing their job properly.

“Oh yeah? Since you are talking like you know it all, what would you have done?” Arabella snapped at me.

I sighed and answered, “For starters, one of you mages should have assisted the front line with spells or more augmentation for their armor while the other mage countered the opponent mages’ spells, even if it meant losing ground in the spell battle. And besides, why were both of you rooted in place while casting spells? If you had just walked around while casting, you could have dodged half the spells they threw at you.”

At this question, Henry and Arabella shouted at me things like, “What do you know, you are not even from a mage family!” and “You say it like it is a simple thing, with the speed and quantity of spells we are casting, do you know how much concentration that takes, let alone move around while doing it? Can you even do it?”

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To which I blurted out, “Yes I can… wait, can’t you?”

The two mages were about to shout something at me again when they froze with their mouths open and looked at me dumbstruck, and shook their heads in the negative.

Are they shitting me right now? “What is the highest circle of magic can both of you cast now?” I asked.

They both looked at each other and replied “Third circle.”

“Mentally, or with chants and gestures?” I asked to clarify, to which they answered with the latter.

Hearing this, I bury my face into my palms. My Advanced Spell Theory class has started the basics of third circle magic, and nowhere in the curriculum does Intermediate mana manipulation come up. With the time it took me to get the hang of Intermediate mana manipulation, it is most likely a class of its own.

But nonetheless, I expected the children of noble mage families to have at least started learning Intermediate mana manipulation by now, one of the exercises to train Intermediate mana manipulation was moving around and multitasking as the spell was constructed.

With my face still buried in my palms, I asked, “So neither of you even started on the intermediate stage of mana manipulation?”

“No, why would we do that when we have magic foci tools?” Henry said as he raised his cheap academy-issued practice wand, it was a basic thing that allowed the students to focus their magic slightly better, but I am sure they have much better personal magic foci that can hold runes to assist their casting. “Besides, do you know how long it takes to master it? We rather spend time learning more spells, we will leave that for when we get older.”

Mum was right about these noble kids, they rather boast about how many powerful spells they have learned and supplement their shortcomings with magic foci tools instead of learning to manipulate mana better in order to use magic with a lot more versatility.

“Well, if you actually got your mana manipulation up to the intermediate stage, you would be able to cast first and second circle spells with little to no effort.” I said as I cast multiple second circle spells of different elements into the air at the same time with a simple hand wave.

After my display, the two mages were silently staring at me, in fact, they were not the only ones who were silent, I looked around to see the mages of other teams also silently staring at me. “Shit.”

Not wanting to be in such an awkward environment, I dragged my team to a more secluded area in the stands, and once we were all seated, I carried on as if I did not just show off I was capable of intermediate mana manipulation.

“So… I can safely say the both of you are not able to cast while moving around?” I asked and the two mages nodded rather timidly all of a sudden, all their haughtiness evaporated into nothing.

I sighed and asked them to gather around and looked at Arabella, “You are going to be the leader next round, so let's get some planning done before we are called again.”

I dug around in my pocket, pulled out five silver and five copper coins, and placed them on the bench, “While we are waiting, we will run through some scenarios.”