Chapter 15: Useful Lessons and Bad News

"This course is about learning how to fight and survive," Captain Exelcia said. "It's not about winning or losing anymore. The most important thing in any combat situation is that you and your allies live to fight another night. And to that end…"

Captain Exelcia took one of her hands off her massive hammer and held it out before her. In a flash, a bubble of water appeared from the palm of her armored hand and slowly grew, descending to the floor. It dropped to the ground with a loud pop.

"As you might remember, my affinity is that of water," Captain Exelcia continued. "But I'm also a defensive specialist. Captain Skylee, would you mind helping me out real quick?"

Captain Skylee stepped forward from the back wall where the other captains observed Captain Exelcia's lecture. The bubble of water continued to grow larger and larger until it was bigger than a person. Zel could have easily fit inside it. Once Captain Skylee approached the growing orb she waited for further instruction.

"Just give it a good ol' thwack!" Captain Exelcia exclaimed.

Captain Skylee delivered. She presumed a fighting stance and, after only a moment's hesitation, twisted and delivered a blistering wheel-kick to the water's surface. As her blow connected with the bubble there was the sound of an impact in the classroom, but to the student's tremendous surprise, Captain Skylee's foot remained distinctly outside the confines of the bubble, unable to punch through.

"One might not think of the water affinity as being useful for physical defense," Captain Exelcia continued, "But our affinities allow us to manipulate and change things about mana as it represents itself through us. For me, that means I can produce water that is as hard as stone. Some people can make stone like liquid, as the Duphor family does. Others still are able to change the very basic properties of what we would consider the norm of their affinities, such as making cold fire. Some people even are able to enhance their own bodies using their affinities."

"The ability to do any or all of these things depends greatly on the user's magical flexibility, Captain Ceres' specialty." Captain Exelcia said. "But generally once a mana user has reached the skill level that you are at, there are some things that tend to stand out about your magic. Things that make you unique. The entrance exams taught us what your magic looks like and some of the things it can do, now it's time for us to figure out what you're good at."

"We'll get into the meat and beans of general mana manipulation later." She continued. "But to make sure that you all have the skills needed to stay alive out there, we're going to focus on what you're good on first. And to that end, we're going to take advantage of this." Captain Exelcia gave her bubble a loving tap.

"When in the field, offense is your best defense," she explained. "When you don't know who or what you're fighting, as will often be the case, it is best that you hit hard and fast first rather than get hit hard and fast first. Now, she may not have pierced my bubble here, but Captain Skylee ain't no slouch. The kick you just saw had no mana behind it, she didn't use her affinity at all, but still she nearly managed to poke a hole through. This is one of my personal signature techniques, and this bubble right here is just about strong enough that someone in their first or second year should be able to break through it no problem, so long as they hit it hard enough. And therein is the lesson we'll be learning tonight."

"Each of you will come up and hit the bubble with your best shot, just like you did with Captain Crans, but this time we'll get some physical feedback. As you watch your fellow students come up, make sure to think about your plan of attack. Let's go, you first!"

To her surprise, Captain Exelcia was pointing at her. She got up from her spot and made her way to the bubble.

"So, I just hit it?" Zel asked.

"That's right," the captain nodded. "You were having some trouble hitting a living target during the exam, maybe hitting something else will allow you to let loose a little more."

Zel looked at the bubble. It wasn't iridescent like soap bubbles, it was literally just a mass of water that was gently flowing around a big air pocket beneath it. The water itself could not have been more than a knuckle length deep.

Zel didn't particularly like being picked as the first example, but she'd used her mana in front of all these students before. There was no reason to be nervous. She took a deep breath and felt the familiar tingling as she filled her arms with mana. Just as Captain Exelcia said, there was no one to worry about hurting this time, so Zel let loose. Arcs of white lightning tinted with blue and purple arced from her fingertips, making contact with the surface of the orb instantly. Zel put quite a bit of mana behind her attack, but to her surprise when she let her mana relax the orb was entirely unharmed. There wasn't any indication that Zel's lightning had touched it at all.

"No good." Captain Exelcia said bluntly. "You've got a lot of mana, like a lot a lot, but you aren't any good at focusing it. Your attacks come out spread and it feels like you can't control them. Those kinda hits are worthless against a barrier like this, I barely felt anything at all when you hit the bubble."

Captain Exelcia's normally cheerful and sparkling attitude was quickly replaced when it came to giving criticism. She spoke in a flat tone of voice as if the words she spoke were the hard truth, and there was no room to retort. Zel felt a bit hurt.

"Go ahead back to your seat, Zel. As you watch the other students come up, go ahead and brainstorm some ideas to make your lightning more focused." Captain Exelcia concluded.

Zel returned to her seat feeling somewhat defeated. Miriya did her best to cheer her up with a thumbs up, but this wasn't a sensation that Zel was going to get over too easily.

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Not really supposed to, I suppose, She thought to herself. It was just like Captain Exelcia said, they were learning for real now. Sure, they would be graded and assessed to make sure that their skills are up to snuff, but at the end of the night, it was more about learning to survive than it was about getting good marks. There is no room for soft words when one's life is on the line.

From that point for the rest of class, the experience was reminiscent of the exam. The students all took turns heading up one at a time and trying their best to pierce Captain Exelcia's bodacious bubble barrier. Luckily for Zel, she was not the only one to receive the scathing words of advice from the Captain. Most students received advice similar to Zel, needing a more focused approach to the barrier to have a chance of being able to pierce through. Some students were more specialized for pinpoint damage, however, Miriya being among them.

Miriya's attack was identical to the one from the exam, she wasn't yet comfortable with her bow, so she wore her trusty slingshot on her waist and delivered a pellet at blistering speed into the side of the bubble, but even she was not able to penetrate through.

Another standout was the large Clickfolk. They seemed to have a much higher grasp of the complexities of mana than most of the other students. He shared the same affinity as Captain Exelcia and he, with his ability to turn water into a jetstream with tremendous force, was one of only two students to be able to pierce through the liquid.

The other was, of course, Cleinz. During the exam, Captain Crans had thwarted him easily and not given him much of a chance to show his skill, but there was clearly more going on to him than met the eyes.

His magic seemed simple for how complex it was. He again donned the armor of stone and equipped his rock armaments before lunging at the sphere. During the exam, Cleinz had hit nothing, his spear hanging helplessly in the air as he was quickly disarmed by Captain Crans. This time, the tip of his spear made contact with the bubble and pushed through with an explosion of mist and droplets of water as the force of his blow pushed his weapon through seemingly without effort. He was the only student within the class that received a compliment from Captain Exelcia, who called his technique "excellent."

There were many other incredible students, however, and Zel could immediately see what Captain Exelcia had meant by trying to find what they were good at. If there was anything that Zel was lacking that the majority of the other students had, it was a specific plan of attack. Zel had always just used her lightning generally, its destructive force was inherently dangerous, and she had never thought of any methods to enhance these properties. Many of the other students were the opposite. Some would form weapons out of their mana, like Cleinz, some of them had specific attacks that they developed to enhance the destructive force of their attacks, like the large clickfolk. Even Jammy, who Zel now knew possessed possibly the least mana in the class, was able to product stronger than results than Zel because she was using her plants efficiently and, though she was unable to pierce the barrier, Exelcia said that her only issue was the force she put behind her mana, there was nothing wrong with her execution.

Zel tried to familiarize herself with her fellow students as they all took their turns, now that she didn't have the stress of being tested on her shoulders it was much easier to actually take in the other members of the class and learn about them.

There was the gorgeous Splitfolk woman from the fancy Splitfolk group with the flowing white hair. She had a fire affinity and appeared to have unbelievable control over it. She could make flowing tendrils of flame that struck at the bubble with force you could hear. It seemed a general trend that the students from the fancy Splitfolk group were generally a cut above when it came to their magic, which annoyed Zel but made sense if they were all in the same group as Cleinz.

The Clickfolk, however, were not so harmonious. It quickly became abundantly clear that the large Clickfolk was the most skilled among them by far, perhaps with Jammy in a distant second or third. The majority of them struggled tremendously, earning a speaking-to from Captain Exelcia that sounded almost angry.

There was also another Splitfolk man who was taller than Cleinz but much skinnier who had a wind affinity, but he had problems similar to Zel. His control of his wind was not precise enough to pierce through the barrier alone. It felt nice to know that someone else struggled in the same way she did.

As they wrapped up the final students, Zel felt that she had a better handle on the level of the class, but she also noticed that there was one student who did not get called up. It was a Splitfolk woman who was stunning, she had dark blue hair at the top of her head that gradually melted into an orange or red that almost looked like it was on fire and she wore a gentle, though somewhat bored expression on warm lips. It was strange though, as Zel couldn't remember seeing her at the exam. Zel found herself staring a little too long until the girl looked in her direction and she snapped her attention back forward.

When Exelcia finished up with the last of the students, she addressed them all once again.

"Alright! A mighty impressive group all of you are! Quite the crop we have this year." She continued, "now normally we would have a few more courses in this room, namely the magical flexibility course and the teamwork course, but we want you to spend some time stewing on what you've learned, so you won't be receiving any more specific instruction from us until tomorrow where Captain Ceres will give each of you coaching to improve your magic individually. You will still attend your other elective courses, and I have one more announcement to make related to your teamwork course. The groups that you will be part of!"

The classroom grew dead quiet, which seemed to amuse Captain Exelcia as she continued.

"These groups will be the people you spend the majority of your time during your first year with, and likely longer than that," she said. "In these groups you will be expected to participate together in class, complete various activities together, and, most notably, complete the final exam together."

The students grew restless upon hearing this, voicing questions and concerns, but they fell on deaf ears as Captain Exelcia kept speaking.

"Dream Academy has an interesting philosophy of individual prowess over large groups, but that does not mean there is no merit to working together, and you will be expected to mold and mesh with any group of people you meet in the field, including ones that you may not have any synergy with or you may dislike them personally. Failures for these reasons are unacceptable, and with the teamwork course, we hope to turn you into flexible combatants who can shine under any circumstances. Now, the list."

Zel had expected Captain Exelcia to produce a paper from which she could read off the groups, but she began reciting names of students seemingly from memory. She looked at each student as she spoke their names and which group they would belong to. There was a general trend that Zel noticed rather quickly that made her nervous. The number of students in each grouping was either three or four, but no matter how many people were in each group it seemed that no one was satisfied. Students would frown or groan as they heard their name called along with the others. Zel had a bad feeling as Captain Exelcia made her way down her mental list until she came to Zel.

"The next group will be Zel, Miriya, Jammy…" Zel felt her worries melt away as Captain Exelcia said the name of her sister and friend, immediately thinking that her group would not be so bad, but then Captain Exelcia hit her in the gut.

"...and Cleinz!" She said.

Fuck.