XUAN

Today was Xuan's first day at the academy. He'd arrived and had just been finding his bearings in the entrance hall when he noticed a surge of students moving in a particular direction. Following them, he was brought to a large hall packed with students. It looked in disarray, students finding their friends and segregating into small clumps here and there. The crowd settled into excited murmuring as a lady walked on stage. She brought with her an unspoken power and presence, drawing in the students attention.

"Hello and welcome to the Academy!" she announced, "Today is the first day of your journey here we're going to go through a few procedures to assess you all. No-doubt you all have a high rank in the district test, a pre-requisite for entry, but you will be using our ranking from here on at the Academy.". "Please proceed down the hall to the arenas, teachers will be waiting for you there with further instructions.".

Xuan joined the rest of the students heading towards the arenas, catching wisps of conversation along the way. "I heard that the Academy's ranking is the toughest one in the whole state, getting near the top is a guaranteed position in the army.", "...top students get private tutoring from the teachers, there's no limit to where they can go after that!". Most students moved in their clumps presumably formed from their previous schools, though there were still a lot of exceptions either from out of state or special exception like Xuan.

As they concregated in the arena preparation area teachers began organising them into tiers losely based on their district ranking. The assessments were going to be mostly battle focused, more specific assessments were to be held in the classes in the following days. Students were to participate in 3 1 on 1 battles until either side was incapacitated or surrendered.

He was quickly matched with 3 others, the 4 of them to take turns battling eachother. As the teacher was matching them together their district ranks were mentioned. Xuan was placed with 3 middle ranked students. They made small talk and introductions while waiting to begin. Tipped off to Xuan's lack of rank, the other students had a mix of reactions from curiosity to anger. Special exceptions we're a bit of a controversial topic among the students, skipping the rankings was seen as a cop out and the sign of an influencial person buying their child entrance.

Xuans situation was not that, but that was information he wasn't going to share and whether the students believed him was another story again.

Soon enough the assessments began. Each group of 4 would have a student from a senior grade watch over their battles, with a teacher overseeing each area of the arena. Healers were on hand, as these entrance battles were known to get serious, the students eagar to prove their worth.

Xuan saw all kinds of magics as other groups began. Fire, lightning, water, and earth the easy ones to spot.

Two others from his quad moved to the designated area and prepared themselves. Shortly after announcing their name and main magic they began. Jax and Henry were both classical mages, flinging their spells and manipulating their elements from affar. Walls of earth formed infront of Henry as Jax gathered fire on his hands, both keen to show off their flashy spells to make a good impression on the teacher grading them.

The fire left Jax's hands with explosive force, the air rippling behind the magic hurtling towards Henry. Unfazed by the fire Henry braced himself behind the walls of earth. The fire exploded, eliciting a smirk on Henrys face. It didn't last long though as he looked up to see Jax flying over him, more fire hurtling down. The fire was stopped by a hastily erected earth shield, though Henry wasn't looking as pretty as he started, his breathing haggered and clothes singed. Creating the shield at the last second had cost him more energy than he would have liked.

Occationally firing back with earth spikes, the fire-fight went on for about a minute longer before Henry conceded, out of energy. It wasn't a very high level fight but both participants had decent control over their magic, a solid foundation to be built upon. The teacher looked on as they finished, writing down notes in an impassive manner as a healer came over to check on the participants.

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Xuan was up next, against Priscilla. Her main magic was force, being able to amplify or dampen the force of her own attacks and those against her. He caught the small grin when he announced light as his main magic, an easy fight in her eyes. Light users were mainly healers as well as large scale battlers, often amplified by special equipment.

Xuan knew her assumptions but didn't bother to expand on how he differed from the stereotype. The teacher looked on for the battle, not expecting much but interested in Prcillas force magic and how Xuan would deal with it. He signalled the start of the fight. Priscilla kicked off the group in a magic powered rush towards Xuan, knowing that giving a light magic user the time to charge an attack was a rookie move. She approached fast, preparing to punch him in the chest. Her swing only missing by millimeters as he moved aside, too fast for her liking.

The teacher raised an eyebrow at Xuans suspiciously quick dodge and subsequent inaction. Priscilla regained her stance quickly and moved forwards again, this time in a more controlled fashion. The first couple of swings Xuan was able to dodge, however he soon had to start blocking them in a more serious manner. Xuan could tell he was taking damage from the extra force amplifying Pricillas attacks. Seeing him blocking these empowered strikes with his bare arms the teacher frowned. Xuan started emitting energy from his arms while blocking, negating a large part of the force.

Seeing Xuan continue to shrug off her sustained, force powered assault Prscilla grew frustrated. Few students her age could handle sustained pressure from her, and certainly not a flimsy light user. Losing her patience a little, she slowed down to prepare a kick. Using force to propel her leg off the group at supar human speed she threw it at Xuans ribcage. It would crack a few bones but at least it would take him out of the fight.

Seeing the leg fly towards him Xuan countered by blasting energy infront of him. Light and energy are very closely related and share a lot of properties, it wasn't unusual to see mages using both. It wasn't a focused attack but it would separate them enough to put him out of danger. Priscillas leg flew up but instead of finding ribs it found a blast of wayward energy, damaging her leg as she was blown back. The teachers eyes shot up. Light and energy magic took time to charge up and focus, this is the main reason why light users excelled at large scale battle environments and why Priscilla assumed an easy win in this fight. Seeing Xuan release a large burst of energy almost instanttanously was a first for him, not even something he though the teachers at the Academy could match.

Xuan took up a stance with his hands radiating energy, ready to counter anything more serious Priscilla threw at him. She stood up, anger in her eyes at being beaten in melee and having her leg damaged by a light magic user. After refocusing herself for a second she charged at Xuan again, this time faster than before. As she neared she drew a sword, seemingly from nowhere. It vibrated with a ominous tone, danger apparent. The teacher shot to his feet and yelled, detecting the bloodlust in Priscilla, his voice falling on deaf ears though as the battle continued. Other students looked on in horror. It wasn't unusual for students to use weapons but they are suppose to reveal them at the start with their main magic if they intend to use then. Lethal and powerful weapons like Priscilla's sword are also banned from these early assessment matches.

Xuan didn't have the regular mage upbringing, attending schools and being doted on by teachers and parents. His was far more ruthless, his survival in his own hands from an early age living away from civilisation. Something in him flipped as he saw Priscilla aproaching, detecting the danger of her sword his brain fell into survival mode, all pretenses of trying to act normal dropped. He came at her in earnest. The energy from his hands crackling with red lightning magnitudes stronger than before. He brought his hands up to release the energy.

Just then, two people appeared between them. A teacher with a serious look blocked Priscillas sword with his own with apparent ease while a senior erected an energy barrier in Xuans direction. A horrible whining noise covered the arenas, interupting all other fights as Xuans energy tore through the barrier and went through the side of the seniors stomach. He quickly realised the person infront of him was not his original target and ceased the attack, withdrawing a few meters. The senior fell over in pain, clutching his side destroyed by the energy. His cries broke everyone out of their surprised stupour as Priscilla withdrew her sword ashamedly and the new teacher called over the healers, his eyes falling on Xuan with a complicated expression.