I decline to participate.

Wesley's words reverberated throughout the classroom. The heads of all the students present looked at Wesley in disbelief then turned to the second elder to see what his reaction might be.

The elder simply stood there on that raised platform with his trademark smile still present. This smile caused a cold sweat to form on Wesley's back, he recognized this smile, this was the same amiable smile the elder always had, but Wesley didn't see a smile, he saw a sneer, the devil's sneer.

The classroom was deathly quiet for what seemed like an eternity as the elder satered at Wesley who just stood there pale. After a short moment, the elder spoke up with amusement in his voice:

"You can't decline."

"Is the competition mandatory."

"No, it is not."

"Then why can't I decline."

"Because it is not in your best interest.."

This sounded a lot like a threat, as if saying that if Wesley declined, he would be in some sort of jeopardy. Hearing this threat Wesley didn’t know how to react or what to say, but before he could even say anything, the elder continued speaking:

"Hohoho, You can decline, but if you do then I will fail you and then you'll spend one extra year with me."

Hearing this, Wesley immediately made up his mind, he would participate if only to pass this class since the last thing he wanted to do was spend an extra year with this elder. This was another one of the academy's rules, that if a student fails a class then they will definitely retake it next year. The elder continued speaking:

"Furthermore, your rankings are so low that a single win could increase your classmates' rankings by a lot. So do you still decline?"

This was simply beating a dead horse. Wesley was already willing to participate so that he wouldn’t be forced to retake the class,but he wasn’t going to expend too much effort, but now that the students heard about how he could improve their rankings by a lot, there was no way he could just blow it off. As if synchronized with Wesley's thoughts his surroundings started buzzing with discussions and even some of the students around him started shouting:

"Do it Wesley, we believe in you."

"Don't you dare refuse Wesley. Don't you dare."

Wesley only looked begrudgingly at the students who were all shouting at him then shook his head resignigly and said:

"Then, I'll participate."

"Hohoho, good choice. The competition starts tomorrow at ten, so don't be late."

.............................................................................................................................................

The day of the competition, Wesley had to leave the Manor earlier than usual, around ten in the morning, since the second elder specifically told him not to be late. Wesley really despised this second elder, not only did he give Wesley a constant feeling of dread and fear since their first meeting, but his fickleness that fools people into thinking that he is only an amiable senior, made Wesley continuously sigh inwardly. Of course Wesley knew that this old monster meant him no harm, but that didn’t alleviate the fear in his heart one bit.

When Wesley reached the academy, he noticed a blue robed young man leaning against the entrance of the academy with a giant broad sword on his back. Kellan always had an impressive countenance that captured the attention of people around him, be it his massive body, his equally massive sword, or his cold and aloof face. As soon as Wesley saw Kellan leaning against the entrance, a smile crept on his face as he walked up to him:

"Kellan, were you waiting for a while?"

Kellan immediately glanced up at Wesley and spoke with a friendly smile:

"No, I just arrived. Only, I didn't want to go in there alone."

"Yeah? Well let's go and get this done with."

"Yeah."

Kellan and Wesley immediately walked in and headed directly to the meeting hall. The rankings competition was being held in the same hall as the entrance academy except there are now raised stage that was used by the Headmaster was now going to be used for the battles.

There were six different columns of seats arranged in pairs in front of the raised stage. Each of the columns was reserved for the students of each of the six major classes of the academy; water, fire, earth, wind, light and swordsmanship.

Although some students belonged to more than one of these classes, and all had other classes as well, there was no doubt that each student identified with one of these classes, making this competition, essentially, between the classes rather than the students.

Kellan and Wesley walked to the front of the left-most column where the first to seats were reserved for them. While walking to the front, Wesley noticed that all the other contestants were present meaning that the competition was about to start. Wesley heaved a deep sigh and sat in his seat, he really didn’t want to be part of this.

After a few minutes of waiting, six azure robed elder walked into the hall, Wesley instantly recognized two of these elders as the second and third elders. Each of the elders walked to their respective columns and whispered something to the competing students. The swordsmanship class was in the far left so the second elder was the last to reach his destination.

Standing in front of Wesley and Kellan, the second elder still had his classic smile on and his hands behind his back as he inspected the two of them carefully. Then he spoke:

"Kellan, Wesley, your numbers are eleven and twelve respectively. You both have low rankings so you got the last numbers...."

The second elder paused slightly to see how Wesley or Kellan reacted to his comment about their rankings. He knew how talented they both are, and they too know how talented they are, so having such low rankings despite their talent shows how biased the system is. Fortunately, neither Wesley nor Kellan cared much about rankings since it is utterly pointless.

Seeing that neither Wesley nor Kellan reacted to his words, the elder approvingly nodded and continued speaking:

"...however, since your rankings are so low, you should increase by quite a bit if you win. Remember, in one on one battles, the swordsman has the advantage."

"Yes elder."Both Kellan and Wesley replaid together.

"Oh, and Wesley, You don't have to force yourself too much. If you show me something interesting, then you can forfeit the remaining matches."

Having finished his words, the second elder simply nodded and walked away to the back of the hall and so did the other elders. As soon as the elders walked away, another elder walked onto the stage and cleared his throat to quiet down the students, after everyone had their attention on him, the elder spoke:

"Now, we will begin the first year rankings competition. The rules are simple, have your opponent submit, leave the stage or fall unconscious to win. You cannot fatally injure, maim, or cripple your opponent. There will be three rounds to this competition, and the opponents will be randomly drawn for every round while ensuring they are not from the same class. The entire competition will be held today. Finally, please limit your area spells to the size of the stage, that is thirty feet by thirty feet."

…................................................................................................................................................

"First match. Number 4 and number 8."

Two students came up, the first was a wind mage while the other was a earth mage. This match was not very since the two elements counteracted one another, so it went on for more than ten minutes, until the wind mage ran out of mana and submitted.

"Second match. Number 10 and number 5."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

These two were a fire mage and the other wind mage. Although the power of the fire mage was ferocious, the wind mage was simply too fast for him, so he continued evading him while inflicting small damage here and there until the fire mage couldn’t continue.

"Third match. Number 6 and number 12."

Wesley was currently slouching in his seat with his eyes lazily shut. Suddenly Kellan who was next to him slightly nudged him with his elbow causing him to open his eyes only to notice everyone looking at him. Wesley immediately looked on the stage and found that there was only one guy standing there while staring at him.

"Wesley. It is your turn."

Kellan's voice rang next to him causing him to instantly stand up. Wesley immediately walked towards the stage with an embarrassed smile on his face while all the other students laughed and giggled.

Wesley walked onto the stage and stood opposite of the other students while shooting him and apologetic smile. The other student looked at Wesley from head to toe, and seeing the sword in his left hand and his foolish expression, he couldn’t help but feel disdain towards him.

"My name is Paelar Rol. Water mage, rank ninety seven."

Wesley looked closely at this Paelar's face and seeing the blatant look of disdain on his face, he couldn’t help but shake his head as he realized that he was being looked down upon.

"Wesley. Rank two hundred."

Wesley's words not only shocked the Paelar, but the entire student body. What does it mean to be rank two hundred, it meant that you were the lowest ranking person in the entire class since there are only two hundred students.

Hearing Wesley's words, Paelar became even more disdainful, furthermore, he couldn’t help but curse his luck. Facing off against an opponent with such a low ranking meant he won't be getting any increase from winning since if the winner has a lower ranking then they get the loser's ranking.

Now that that the two have exchanged their introductions, an elder who was standing near the stage shouted:

"Begin"

As soon as the words left the elder's lips, Raelar started muttering something as for Wesley, He just stood there motionless. In one on one battles, a swordsman has the advantage since they don't have to wait for the mage to finish his preparation, but Wesley just standing there surprised everyone present.

"Why do you think he is just waiting."

"I don’t know. Maybe he's just dumb."

"haha, at least now we know why he's ranked last."

Similar conversations were going all over the hall. After a ten heartbeats worth of time, Raelar finally finished his preparation and shouted:

"Water Fog."

As soon as shouted this, a white, obscure fog spread out from his body enveloping the entire stage. The moment the fog enveloped Wesley, everyone present knew that he had lost, the advantage a swordsman has over a mage is in the preparations of spells period,but once that chance was missed, then there is no guessing who won. This Water Fog spell provided Raelar with cover by hiding him from Wesley, hence giving him time to prepare for another spell. There is no possible way left for Wesley to win now.

After a few more breaths, another energetic shout came from Raelar who was inside the fog:

"Water Prison."

The fog that was governing the entire stage suddenly started compressing, and continued compressing until it become a ten feet wide sphere of blue water, centered at where Wesley stood. Raelar currently had his right hand facing the sphere and had a smirk on his face, he had won this match in less than a minute.

However, everyone present was not staring at the blue sphere, rather they were staring at Raelar with unbelieving looks on their faces. Raelar noticed the looks of the audience and felt extremely proud, how could they not be impressed by his marvelous skills.

Only, the audience were not really staring slackjawed at Raelar, but at the area behind, Behind Raelar stood a blue robed, blue haired boy with a dark sword in his hand. Somehow, Wesley has managed to evade Raelar's spell and snuck behind him without him even noticing.

Wesley simply shook his head at how bothersome this entire thing is, then without a warning, his right hand that still held his sword swung towards the back of Raelar's head. The moment the sword came into contact with Raelar's head, he tumbled forward and immediately lost consciousness with his smirk still on his face.

Wesley then lazily walked away from the unconscious body on the floor and straight to his seat. However, no one dared to remove their eyes from him, as they followed him with their eyes while their mouths were wide open. This sluggish youth who was ranked last in their class suddenly defeated a person ranked in the top hundred so thoroughly.

The entire hall was deathly silent as if the people couldn’t believe what they were seeing. But the moment Wesley sat down, the entire column of students behind erupted into loud cheers. Why wouldn’t they cheer, they all just witnessed a swordsman like them so perfectly beat a mage.

"Wesley how did you do it?"

Kellan who was sitting next to Wesley spoke up and asked what everyone was wondering.

"Huh. Do what?"

"How did you get behind him without his notice?"

"Oh, that. It is one of my Silent Techniques, Silent Flicker."

"Is that so."

While Kellan and Wesley were talking, an elder was on stage examining the unconscious Raelar, after probing him a few times, he nodded towards the elder who at the bottom of the stage who then spoke loudly:

"Next match. Number 2 and number 7."

"Next match. Number 1 and number 9."

"Next match. Number 3 and number 11."

This time it was Kellan's turn. He faced off against a earth mage, but Kellan didn't wait for his opponent to finish his preparation and attacked as soon as the elder spoke and although Kellan was not fast, he was still fast enough to cover twenty feet before his opponent can finish. This gave Kellan a quick bu bland win.

Wesley was now ranked ninety seventh while Kellan was ranked twenty third. The two of them combined gave their classmates an average increase of ten ranks which was tremendous.

The announcing elder once again stepped onto the stage and spoke again:

"We will now begin the second round. There will be three matches for this round. First match, number 5 and number 11."

This was Kellan against a wind mage. Kellan tried to rush his opponent before he finished preparing his spell, unfortunately for him, Wind mages are naturally very agile and their spells reflect this, so before Kellan was able to reach him, the wind mage finished his incantation and continued evading Kellan for the rest of the match. Kellan was a strength based swordsman, so stamina was not his strong suit causing him to become exhausted after a few minutes of chasing the mage around. Eventually Kellan gave up and submitted causing his ranking to fall from twenty third to thirty fifth.

"Next match. Number 1 and number 12."

It was once again Wesley's turn. But this time Wesley was not dozing off, rather he had his hand up and looking straight at the elder who was doing the announcements. The elder looked back at Wesley puzzled and spoke questioningly:

"What is it?"

Wesley turned his head to look at the second elder who standing at the far end of the column with a smile on his face. Seeing that Wesley was looking at him, the elder slightly nodded at which point Wesley turned his head to the front and spoke:

"I submit."

Saying those, Wesley immediately caught up with Kellan who was heading towards the exit and left the hall.