James remembers standing beside Cassandra Galanis, two meters apart in an improvised arena, facing them were two boys, standing just like them.

Their clothes suggested they were fighting for a while, either with each other in this format, or with others previously.

Looking up and to the left he sees master Nero, and a familiar figure: a fairly tall woman with dark skin, cornrows, sleeveless padded leather armor. She's fairly muscled, but looks nimble as well, having two long daggers strapped to her side, they look enchanted with magical glyphs and something from his memory tells him they would usually be coated in poison as well.

Next to her a big dog that looks like a dobermann is patiently waiting by her side, but a peculiar mark was on the dogs head, scars that look like runes. His memory starts to hint James into the right direction, this was master Marva Senya, and those two they were fighting are her acolytes.

She's a very good friend of master Nero, he would bring James to meet her now and then to train him in physical combat, James had a knack for that as well, while master Nero was never fond of effort himself. There was also an older man there, with medium light brown hair, roughly swept back and a slightly bushy beard, wearing brown clothes. It was someone Nero knew for many years: master Douglass. Well, ex-master Douglass, he was pardoned from duty by the Order for unique reasons and nowadays he was running an orphanage for magi children. One such child was Silas, a young boy who was there with him on that day, watching from the bleachers with them.

The two boys they were fighting weren't weak acolytes. One of them was Jack Quinn, the other was Ryan Martinez. Jack was an interesting case, he was headstrong, talented, but he had an issue. He could not directly interact with the arcane, despite his body having the capacity. He ran away from Douglass's orphanage when he was young and was causing trouble in America until master Marva Senya recruited him to save his life.

In this world rogue mages who stray from the Order and their protectorates are hunted down by rogue-mage hunters. They are sometimes special human mercenaries, but most times they are masters who are given that specific role by the Order. Naturally rogue mages are not generally children, so when Marva found the boy, she forcefully took him in.

How was Jack talented if he could not directly use arcane? His idea was splendid, he figured out that his blood still had potency within itself, and he used that blood to etch spells from spell-books into cards. At first he used poker cards that he found in Marva's belongings, but lately he made a hobby out of crafting his own. He always had a deck of cards strapped to his belt, ready to dish out different spells.

Ryan was fairly new, but he also had a knack for physical combat. The arcane gives powers in different shapes to different people, Ryan's real powers came in late, when he was a teenager. He was strong enough that he could leap distances not possible for humans, and strong enough to punch in small craters in the ground. Marva was present in Jamaica to visit her family when she was sent by the Order to deal with him, having arrived in Veracruz she stopped him from fighting with the humans there who were antagonizing him. The boy had obvious blade scars on his hands, indicating that he was used to fighting people using sharp objects while he himself was unarmed. Thankfully, as mentioned before, his real powers surfaced later in his life so he hadn't accidentally killed anyone, Marva was relieved to know this.

The harsh reality is the boy would have probably went on a rampage the following days if Marva had not arrived in time. In a sad turn of events, the locals who had heard that there were magi hiding, passing through their city started to look for him and his little sister, whom he had ran away with from an abusive household from northern Mexico. He could not overpower the angry mob, who beat on both of them when they were found in the alleys, she was so frail that she did not survive her injuries, and passed away right in front of his eyes. Ryan was found by Marva the next day when he was causing a scene in the middle of the city to try and lure out the same aggressors. She arrived in time, before Ryan's attempted lured them out, and persuaded him to join her.

Both of the boys, Jack and Ryan, were looking forward to becoming masters, so were James and Cassandra.

These fights were not organized to declare a winner, but rather to try and bring out every acolytes nature and mindset in a fight scenario and to see how dangerous their powers could be.

Masters would be ready to step in and stop the fights if they would get out of hand, except most of them had no intention of doing so. The Order did not have a merciful reputation for their own, willing to let acolytes endure the worst of pains as far as they were concerned, this was likely generated from the fact that the Order wished to keep only the most loyal or useful candidates between their ranks. Though there were masters specialized in aiding physical and mental wounds on-site, they would only step in after the combat finished, plus any magi was way more resilient than any human, but the issue still persisted that the Order was willing to let acolytes kill each other in the process.

Just before the fight started, a man came with a boy. Both of them had white hair, even though the master didn't seem that old, hinting that it might be a genetic trait. This adult also had a white beard, and beautiful, luxurious blue garments, with a distinct embellishment on the back of his coat: a crystal, white rose motif, the crest of House du Blanc. They went to master Nero and started a discussion. That must have been the day Alexander joined James and Cassandra under Nero's mentorship. This was one year ago, when Alexander was 15 and the other two were 17.

James didn't know what they were talking about, but he felt he had to make Nero proud regardless, and so that's the feeling that James remembers best from that day.

He also remembers trying to fight Ryan while Cassandra was busy with Jack.

James had heard about Ryan's past, and felt sorry for him, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from winning.

Some events from the confrontation clearly make their way back into James's memory-

In the arena, in the middle of the fight, Ryan tells James "I'll become master, James! I want to protect the weak! I know you want the same thing, so come at me with your full might! Let's help each other get strong and fulfill our dreams!" James nods in agreement, signaling with his fingers to charge at him.

Ryan then leaps into the air, preparing to land a devastating punch to James, but James leaps forward himself, rolling out of the attack. James looks back where Ryan landed 'Phew, that's some freaky strength right there, he caused the ground to rupture under him-' before James could finish his thought Ryan sprints towards him, ready to attack again. James was also blessed with increased physical attributes, but not to the extent Ryan had been.

Ryan gets too close for James's comfort and throws several punches that make audible feedback from the sheer power, but James dodges all of them with a stressed look 'This-is-not-so-fun' he thinks as he dodges the attacks.

When Ryan shoots out a strong right-hand cross that pulverizes half of the thick stone wall that was 15 meters in that direction, James dodges to his own left, catching Ryan's wrist in his right hand, and then striking at his elbow with an open left hand. This attack dislocates Ryan elbow, almost tearing his arm off, James smirks, but Ryan barely reacts as if to be hurt, instead, while James still holds onto his wrist, Ryan looks back at him with his own smile and uses the control from his upper arm to launch James into the air, sending him horizontally into Jack who was focused on fighting Cassandra at the time.

Jack gets ready to throw a card at Cassandra, something catches his attention from his left, it's James coming at him way too fast to dodge. James pushes both of them into the stone wall of the arena. "Get off of me Reeves. Before I make you swallow this one." Jack says as he lifts up a card. "Yeah, yeah, my bad." James responds as they both stand up.

But then Cassandra expression lights up with an idea and shouts "James! This is perfect! Switch!" indicating that they should switch who they fight.

James doesn't get to answer to the proposition as he senses Jack getting ready to attack him from behind. James ducks instinctively, avoiding a card that flies by his head, going into the wall and exploding. He jumps in the air and catches a stone that shattered and was sent flying from the impact, throwing it at Jack's second incoming card, trying to deflect it. The card explodes on impact as well. The dust created by the exploding stone created a good enough cover for James to grab another stone. 'I know what to do now. His red cards explode on impact, huh? Try this!' James thinks to himself, preparing an attack.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

As the next card comes out James runs towards it, throwing the stone 'I will use the next dust created to cover from which side I will attack him!'. While running closely behind the stone James witnesses the moment of contact and is gets ready to preemptively pick a side, as he goes to the left he notices while being parallel to the card that, in fact, it did not explode. Jack says "Jackpot!" and snaps his fingers, detonating the card with a delayed effect. Exploding right next to James, it sends him flying fairly deep into the stone wall of the arena. There's an audible gasp from the magi watching this unfold.

At this point Alexander's father had left, leaving him with his new mentor: master Nero. "These are to be my colleagues? Hmph! I expected competition..." Alexander thinks to himself.

Meanwhile back at Cassandra's confrontation with Ryan...

"I'd rather not hit a lady." he says to Cassandra as he forces his lower arm back into place, healing almost instantly.

"I'm not that kind of lady." Cassandra replies and then hastily speaks out: "Twilight Wisdom: Ciretose Tsalb!" as she uses that spell incantation she evokes arcane blasts from her hands, shooting them at Ryan. Thanks to the distance he manages to dodge them using his increased speed and reactions. Ryan thinks to himself "Woah! I don't have an answer to pure arcane, I need to dodge and get close, but if one of those blasts hit me it could leave me without an arm, leg, or worse...".

From the sidelines several whispers are heard about how an acolyte can use the unstable forces of pure arcane with such elegance. Alexander himself is also impressed by Cassandra's aptitude, knowing the risks of using pure arcane spells.

Ryan recollects himself quickly, he was not the type to expect the odds to be in his favor, he sprints towards her and as she shoots a few arcane bolts he slides under them, pushing the ground aside as he gets closer. Just before he manages to hit her, Cassandra does a twist and front-flips over him. "I told you I'm not that kind of lady. I've got moves as well!" as she says that she sends a blast straight into Ryan's back. Ryan looks back and as he does he gets hit, the arcane attack being an equally piercing, slashing and destructive force.

The moment of contact creates a quick sound akin to a river's waterfall falling all at once into a pool of million shards of broken glass and the boy falls to the ground without making a sound. Cassandra almost worries, then she remembers her other opponent, but before she could turn towards Jack, Ryan screams in a rage. He comes full force towards Cassandra, his hand going for her heart, master Senya gets worried that Ryan will go too far, but Nero puts his hand on her shoulder as to indicate that things are under control. Just as he gets too close, Cassandra hastily speaks out: "Eternal River: Ciretose Reirrab", an arcane barrier form around Cassandra from her hands, slicing Ryan's hand at the wrist.

Ryan starts pounding on the barrier with his fist and the stub of his arm, the force of the strikes creating shockwaves behind the barrier. It is indeed a tough thing to look at, and yet Cassandra is calm, and thinks to herself "Poor Ryan, he's so mad that he can't even think. Nothing beats pure arcane. Well... you'd need a spell or an attack loaded with significantly more arcane energy to shatter it, a potency tug of war. But I'm sorry Ryan, this match-up is rigged in my favor. I'm your immovable object!"

As Ryan tirelessly tries to get past the barrier that wasn't budging...

Jack thinks about James's attempt and says "You must be thinking you're so smart Reeves... what a waste. Surely you don't think you'll become master with second-hand tactics like that-" before Jack finishes his idea an arm holding a thumbs up appears from the stone wall. James crawls out of the hole in the arena's wall, turning his hand into a thumbs down, being almost unscathed, his clothes slightly torn and some bruises.

"That was good, I'll give you that, got any more of them magic tricks?" James says to Jack. Jack's sight of disbelief turns to frustration as his grits his teeth and clenches his fist "You little-" he says as he puts his hand on his deck grabbing several cards.

The fight between the two resumes, James does not say a word or waste a second and sprints at him with increasing speed making Jack nervous. Jack sends out three cards in quick succession as a response.

The first one, a blue card, detonates right before reaching James, several shimmering chains spawn out, ready to ensnare him, as they close in James hastily speaks out: "Laerehte Sniahc!", the chains stop in their tracks, dropping to the ground and disintegrating into nothingness.

Jack stresses out even more: "Impossible! How did he counter-spell my card? There was under a second when it was flying that he could've read the etching to discern what spell it would be... was that enough? But to think that fast, to reverse the order of the incantation as well... this is the double-edged sword of my cards: I don't have to invoke the spells out loud before sending them, but I cannot add concentration elements to them... no matter, this may yet be his end!"

The other two cards are next, closing in, James leaps high into the air and over the arena, seemingly attempting to dodge them, but the cards drift into the air and deviate to James's sides. Jack snaps with both hands "Gotcha!" he thinks to himself. The cards explode with such force that the arena shakes, some of the present masters preemptively create barriers to protect the gallery of magi watching.

Ryan flies to the side from the force and drops unconscious as Cassandra's barrier almost breaks and she gulps from nervousness with her eyes open wide witnessing the explosion. They were not expecting Jack to resort to such overwhelming force to stop James.

The black smoke fills the arena, especially higher up where James was in the moment of impact. The magi watching from the bleachers are all in shock, except for Nero who had remained in perfect stillness, unphased by the blast, and had been staring at the smoke for the whole duration, squinting as to try to see every detail of what had happened.

Jack was thrown off-balance from the recoil of the hit, but he sits up, coughing the smoke out and worrying that he may have exaggerated. He looks up to the smoke and thinks "Well, you asked for it Reeves..." At that point Jack started to look downwards from the point of impact, expecting bits of James's charred body to drop any second.

But then, as he finishes his thought, James reappears from the smoke, still in the trajectory of landing an attack towards Jack, almost as if nothing happened. Alexander was watching from the sidelines, shocked and almost irritated that someone could survive something like that. After all he was skipping years of training thanks to being seen as a prodigy from the noble family Du Blanc, he has big shoes to fill and maybe the competition he wished for might just be more than he hoped for.

Back into the fray Jack shouts out loud "Damn you, Reeves! Just drop dead already you animal!" his feelings quickly turn back into anger as he tries to get up, ready to throw more cards. But it's too late, James lands a kick onto him, keeping him down and sliding several meters, dragging Jack under his foot. As Jack tries to get a card in his hand, James quickly backhands him, knocking him out in one slap. James looks back at Nero and the new boy, winking and waving his hand once while smiling.

The first question Alexander addresses to his new master is a question "Who is that guy?" Nero answers while looking at James "To you? A nobody." saying it in a proud tone, winking back at James, having acknowledged what James has done to survive the blast and the fact that an unexperienced eye would not have seen what had actually happened.

"Well go on then, the little 'prince' is curious, would be rude not to explain." says Marva.

Back before the moment of impact...

Right before the explosion James reached with his hands out towards the cards, though seemingly counter-intuitive. As the cards ignited he muttered with intense speed: "Chorus: Erif Reirrab."

Concentration words are used my mages to help them focus and strengthen the resolve of their spells as an extension of the magi's will, sometimes spells are written down with specific concentration words by their makers, but they can be changed and experimented with.

"Chorus" in this instance was used to repeat the nature of the next sustained attack consecutively onto the element used for the next spell chanted by the magi.

Most magi would use barriers of different elements that would counter the main element of the attack coming their way, surely most would pick water in the case of a fiery explosion, but James picked to surround himself with a fire barrier. Planning to absorb the initial explosion repeatedly into his own barrier at the risk of losing control. But with Nero as his mentor James knew well how to play with fire. James had essentially reflected the explosion with several times as much power.

This interaction was explained to Alexander by Nero.

And thus Alexander reacted "But that must mean...", Nero responds "Yes, the bulk of the explosion was in fact mostly created by James."

Marva then says "Smart little one, he used Jack's anger to make him doubt how much power he had used. When James was out of that smoke he was already accelerating too fast for Jack to react in time."

"I have to be better than him. I have to." Alexander thinks to himself.

Following the fight Marva jumps down and helps Jack and Ryan get up, getting them medical assistance from the masters specialized in aiding physical damage.

As Nero jumps down he says "Oi, ova' here!" to Cassandra and James.

They come running to him, and as he high-five's them Cassandra yelps in pain "Ouch, ouch, ouch!"

Her hands are almost bright red and hot, not too different from looking burnt.

"I'm sorry that I relied too much on pure arcane spells master Nero... Clearly I don't have full control yet." she replies being disappointed in herself.

"It's fine Cassandra, I know we talked about this, but you both fought with style. As long as you understand the risks before you take them, I did my part." he reassures her and congratulates them both.

Nero then continues: "I had faith in you at every turn, knew you'd see it through. Now, there's someone who will be joining you! Say hello to little mister Alexander du Blanc. You guys left a really good first impression I'm sure."

The last thing James remembers is Alexander almost forcing himself to shake his hand.

In the background Ryan and Jack had woken up. Ryan looks at James from a distance and nods with a slight smile, hinting that he's glad he had the chance to fight him and Cassandra.

Meanwhile Jack was clearly pissed and not even attempting to look at them, which reminded James that he was currently shaking the hand of someone with a similar expression.

Then the memory stops as James hears Nero in the present...

"Oi!"