Nick lied on the ground barely able to think because of the pain that he was in. He only said something outrageous in order to get the owner of the voice to reveal himself or at least his intentions but who would have guessed that the rank 3 Magician would have such a quick temper, directly injuring Nick before he even finished his sentence.
Nick spoke through gritted teeth, unable to even raise his upper-body to look at the Magician's face:
"If you're going to kill me, just do it."
Lieutenant Andrew Wiles looked at the feeble young man on the ground and his annoyance immediately faded away.
(Young men are ignorant and are therefore often fearless. Even though he has caused some excitement, why should this young man be any different? Even I acted wildly like him once upon a time.)
Remembering his younger years working his way up in the ministry, Lieutenant Wiles smiled and shook his head, then addressed Nick while pointing his right index finger at him and casting a spell on him:
"My name is Lieutenant Andrew Wiles of the ministry's military internal affairs division. I came here in search of a rumored inheritance. Tell me, is that toy mountain range supposed to be where it is housed?"
Nick's left leg twisted back to its correct orientation and was healed; Nick immediately lifted himself off the ground after sensing the change and realized that his other injuries had also been healed. He looked at the man in front of him and replied while shrugging his shoulders as they stood only one meter apart:
"The inheritance was a lie I told in order to lure students here. It's not my fault that the military took the rumors so seriously."
Andrew's right eyelid started to twitch once more after listening to Nick's remark, feeling an intense urge to flay the brat in front of him but he ultimately calmed himself down and replied:
"Indeed, many of our lower ranks are incompetent which was why this matter received so much attention from us. In any case, explain to me what that object is then."
Andrew pointed at the miniature mountain range encased in a unique space that floated only a few feet away from Nick. Nick looked at his creation, then looked back at the lieutenant and replied:
"Oh that, I uprooted the mountain range that was situated within this area and shrunk it, then enveloped it in an altered space so that I could carry it around."
Andrew stared at the object for a while and maintained his usual disinterested composure but he was internally a little shocked.
(How did this young man accomplish such a thing at his rank? Destroying the mountain range at his rank would be entirely possible with a few months of consistent effort but taking it way from its roots should amount to a wild fantasy for him. Is this young man really rank 2?)
Andrew thought a bit more about the situation and seeing that Nick maintained an indifferent expression throughout their interaction, he asked:
"Aren't you worried that I will kill you since I now know that there is no inheritance?"
Nick replied disinterestedly:
"Worried? If a rank 3 Magician like yourself wanted to kill me, I would have no way to resist anyway, so why worry? In addition, I assumed that if you were going to kill me, you would not have healed me."
Andrew chuckled and started to feel like this junior was a little 'cute'. He replied with a smile:
"I am not going to kill you."
(Of course I am not going to kill you. The Never Ending Battlefield makes it difficult to permanently kill someone and even if that were not the case, I cannot willfully murder students without consequence. Besides, making enemies out of peculiar Magicians is how entire families with thousands of years of history get eradicated within days...sometimes hours. No, If you're even a little special, I'd rather groom you in order to obtain benefits.)
Andrew continued:
"Why did you announce that an inheritance was hidden on that mountain range?"
Nick replied:
"So that I could incite the students and start a war."
Nick did not intend to lie to a rank 3 Magician, there was simply no point in doing so. Andrew raised both eyebrows and asked in response:
"Why do you want a war?"
"Because peace does gain me any benefits at this time."
Andrew opened his eyes wide and looked at Nick as if he was seeing him for the first time, then he started laughing heartily, saying:
"Yes, yes, benefits are hard to come by in peaceful times but are you not afraid of biting off more than you can chew? There are actually a few students that are now within this realm that are close to reaching rank 3; they mostly come from lineage families."
Nick maintained his indifferent expression and replied:
"What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."
Andrew squinted his eyes and replied:
"Indeed, that is true. Hmmm...I'll tell you what, I will have my people spread rumors that the inheritance does, in fact, exist and that it is likely to help you promote to rank 3 but you have to do something for me."
Nick slightly frowned after the lieutenant spoke, thinking:
(He wants to help me, what for? Sigh, is this another deal with the devil that I'll be forced to make.)
After realizing that the dean of Richter Order Academy, Xavier Gecko, had tampered with his soul, Nick did not want to carelessly make deals with stronger Magicians but it seemed that in this circumstance, he had no choice. Nick replied:
"What do you want?"
Andrew maintained his genial disposition as he said:
"Oh, it's nothing, I have a niece that fancies space magic and I was planning to have her transferred to Richter Order Academy. I think that you would be a great tutor for her."
Nick put on a weird expression and asked:
"Are you trying to set me up with your niece?"
Andrew chuckled and replied:
"Even if I am, do you dare refuse?"
Nick smiled bitterly in response and replied:
"I dare not. I agree, but the details will have to wait until my exam is over."
Andrew lightly nodded his head and replied:
"Then I will contact you at a later time, I will have the rumors about the inheritance spread within the next few hours so you better be ready for what comes later. Oh, and I don't have to tell you the consequences of mentioning our conversation to other people, right?"
Nick shook his head, saying:
"I can make a good guess at what the consequences would be, sir."
Lieutenant Andrew Wiles lightly laughed, then shone with a blinding white light that forced Nick to momentarily shut his eyes, at which point Andrew disappeared and the light vanished.
Nick opened his eyes and thought:
(His niece, huh? I read about this kind of thing before. Legacy families often try to use their family members to create close ties with promising Magicians in order to prepare for their assimilation into that family. Does that strange guy intend to rope me into his family? Hmph...not happening!)
"If that weirdo does what he says he's going to do then I need to prepare for the worst and while I'm at it, I should review the events of my last battle. What happened at the end of it that allowed me to beat that sword path Magician the way I did was too bizarre."
Nick cast Absolute Push and Absolute Pull and raised himself towards the sky, soon casting Clear Space to disappear from sight.
******************************************
A blinding flash of white light appeared on a section of the grassy plain, soon vanishing and revealing Lieutenant Andrew Wiles to the six uniformed Magicians that had been waiting at this area for a while. They had already set up a small camp fire and were playing a card game that was popular on Grand Earth, not reacting to his appearance. Andrew frowned and asked:
"Didn't I tell you all to remain on the alert in case I called you to the site of my meeting with Nick Capitol?"
A woman who looked to be in her late twenties but had and emblem with two red stars pinned to her left breast area got up from her sitting position on the grass, ending her game with her teammate and replied:
"C'mon lieutenant, waiting here is so boring, we had to pop out our decks for a quick game; we were still on the alert, people call it multitasking. Anyway, what is the situation, did we obtain an interesting inheritance?"
Lieutenant Wiles internally snorted and replied:
"Never mind whether we got it or not. Rachel, I want you to call your subordinates within Shelter Town and have them discretely spread information to the students there that the inheritance that Nick Capitol is hoarding is real and is likely to promote him to rank 3 before the exam ends but only if he is uncontested for it during the next few months."
Sergent Rachel Platt put on a weird expression and replied:
"Why would I do that? Is it true?"
Andrew's genial smile immediately became sour when he heard Rachel's question and spoke in response with a trace of his magic power leaking into the atmosphere; the surrounding vegetation began to burn with a white fire as a result of coming into contact with the lieutenant's magic power.
"It's none of your business whether it is true or not, just do as I say and make sure to make it clear to your subordinates that this information is not to be treated as official intelligence and so should not be reported directly to the supervising officers."
Under the pressure of Andrew's magic power, Rachel chuckled and replied:
"No problem, boss. I only wanted some clarification to make sure that your divine name wasn't dragged through the mud."
Andrew openly snorted and spoke to the five other men present:
"You all will do the same."
******************************************
Four hours later in Shelter Town...
Students sitting in one of the town's most popular restaurants gossiped about recent events:
"Hey, have you heard?"
"Heard what?"
"That four strong and famous soldiers had fought Nick Capitol early this morning and lost miserably, embarrassing the ministry."
"What, is that really true?"
"It should be. One of my friends has been having a relationship with a soldier and he told her about it in passing."
"Hey, I also heard something about that. Rumors are that when the four soldiers and Nick Capitol were battling, the stray attacks from the conflict killed many approaching students and soldiers and dyed a large portion of the grassy plain red with blood."
"I heard that the mountain range that is supposed to be within the area has somehow disappeared and that Nick Capitol has stolen it away."
"Are you drunk, man? What kind of rumors are those, they're clearly bullshit? If Nick Capitol can steal an entire mountain range, then this daddy right here will drink his own piss."
Not long after that was said, a young man barged into the restaurant and screamed:
"It has been confirmed by the military! Nick Capitol is hoarding an inheritance that is guaranteed to promote him to rank 3 but only if he remains uncontested for it during the next few months. Not only that, but that bastard actually stole away the mountain range that houses the inheritance."
Everyone in the restaurant was shocked and gasps could be heard all around.
A young man that sat beside the man that made the earlier declaration handed him a cup and asked smugly:
"Hey daddy, are you going to drink that piss now or later?"
******************************************
"Awwwwwwwww!"
Moans could be heard throughout the room of a certain inn within Shelter Town. A naked blonde haired young man held a tall, naked woman with an athletic body down as she was bent over the room's wooden dining table.
The young man had his right hand firmly placed in the middle of the woman's upper back while his left had held her left butt cheek as he thrust his groin against her buttocks. The man's breathing continued on raggedly and circumstances remained in this manner until five minutes later when he moaned aloud and did one final harsh thrust against the woman, releasing her from his right hand's grip immediately afterward.
The woman felt a warm liquid shoot up inside her and smiled before raising her upper body away from the table. She turned around and asked the young man:
"Jessie, did my body satisfy you?"
The white young man who looked to be in his early twenties and had a head full of short, black hair looked at the woman with his light-brown eyes and replied:
"It sure did but I'm not exactly sure why you suddenly showed up here to gift me this experience."
The woman lightly smiled and said:
"During your time in this exam, it was decided that you will be the heir to the Auburn family transformation path legacy. That means that you are very special to me."
Jessie Auburn chuckled and replied:
"In that case, I think I deserve a round two to celebrate the good news."
The woman shook her head while reaching for her uniform that was on the ground, saying:
"I need to get back to work. Also, I think there might be something that you need to pay attention to. A young man from your academy is now rumored to have an inheritance in his possession that is guaranteed to get him to rank 3 but only if no one else fights with him over it. I don't need to tell you the value of such an inheritance, right?"
Jessie thought for a moment before replying:
"Are you referring to Nick Capitol? I've been hearing those same rumors about an inheritance, has your people confirmed its existence?"
The woman finished putting on her uniform that sported an emblem that consisted of three gold bars and two red five pointed stars at the left breast area and replied:
"It's basically been confirmed by a reliable source but nothing official from the highers ups has been publicized."
Jessie smiled and muttered:
"Interesting..."
*******************************************
A young soldier walked up to a large, wooden door and knocked on it hurriedly, shouting:
"Commander Wallace, this is private Munger requesting an audience to make a report!"
An voice with an aged but carefree tone emerged from beyond the door, saying:
"Come in."
The young soldier opened the door and entered the commander's office, closing the door behind him. He went up to commander Wallace's desk and saluted, saying:
"Commander, a sudden flood of students are leaving the town in response to rumors that we have apparently spread to them."
Commander Wallace raised his right eyebrow while reclining in his office chair, asking:
"We? Who is we, private Munger?"
Private Munger shook his head and replied:
"I don't know exactly, sir, but considering the the fact that the rumors were only initially directed at the students and that they originated from our own people without the Barrack's supervisors being aware, I suspect a high ranking officer of ours is behind this. Due to the rumors, the town is now almost empty of students. Sir! Do I have permission to speak freely?"
Wallace smiled at this passionate junior and replied:
"Go ahead."
Private Munger spoke with resoluteness in his tone:
"I noticed that Lieutenant Wiles's people have been busier than usual during the past few hours."
Wallace burst out with laughter when he heard that and said quickly:
"Enough, little one. I don't want you to ruin your career prematurely so let me inform you that the lieutenant's family is deeply entrenched within the ministry's bureaucracy, even more so than mine so don't insinuate so easily in regards to him."
Private Munger maintained his solute and replied:
"Thank you for the advice, sir."
Commander Wallace waved his hand in dismissal, saying:
"You can go now, private, your report has been received gratefully."
Private Munger left immediately after and Wallace only shook his head in disappointment, saying:
"Little Andrew is doing as he likes again but I suppose this is not a bad result. Those students were supposed to be here for a training exam but most of them acted like they were on some kind of vacation. Although their grades have nothing to do with me, Since many of them will be future recruits, I'd like to see more hustle among them. I didn't think, however, that this was the method that would get them to act."
Considering that Nick defeated four of their most promising rank 2 Magicians by himself, Wallace had already decided to send an official recruitment request to the Richter Order Academy ahead of Nick's graduation to show them the ministry's stance as it relates to Nick Capitol and the importance that we intend to place on him.
"Such a good seed should belong to the government."
**********************************************
Three weeks later, on a section of the grassy plain...
A large piece of ice suddenly jutted out of the ground, spreading in an almost linear path by about ten meters and only stopping when its tip rose to almost twelve meters above the ground.
A young man wearing a thick, blue, fur sweater walked along the incline of the piece of ice until he reached its tip that was soaked in blood from having impaled another young man through the stomach. The dying young man muttered with his last bit of energy:
"Uriah, I am going to kill your ass one day."
The other young man who had frost visibly developing on his sweater looked at the dying man with pity as he took the hood of his sweater from his head, revealing his completely silver hair and saying:
"Don't blame me for your death, you poor soul. It was your fault for being blind and not recognizing your obvious better."
The dying young man responded to Uriah's conceit by spitting blood onto his leather boots. Uriah looked at the fresh blood stain on his boot and said:
"...and to think that I advised you with good intentions only for it to be in vain."
Uriah snapped his right index and middle fingers together and the ice that impaled the young man became colder and the rest of the warm that the man's body contained was taken from him, freezing his blood, bones and flesh. The man died silently with almost completely blue-purple skin that was now visible on his face and hands; a moment later, the man transformed into specks of light and disappeared.
Uriah then proceeded to slide down the slope of the large piece of ice and when he reach the ground, he cancelled his currently active spell, resulting in the frost that accumulated on his clothes to melt away into vapor. He spoke with his deep voice:
"I am almost at the site where Nick Capitol is rumored to be hiding the inheritance. I've encountered and fought many other students in the past few days but the frequency at which I've had to kill them has increased dramatically in the last day. People are getting restless the closer they get to the inheritance. Are they trying to remove their competition early on?"
Uriah snorted, saying:
"A bunch of blind fools. How could their cheap tricks eliminate this ice god so easily?"
He chuckled and walked forward in the direction of where his intel said that he would find Nick Capitol and the inheritance.
"Man, I am strong but I lack a good movement spell so I have to walk everywhere. If I could afford a decent ice path inheritance when we get back to Grand Earth, that would be for the best. Why did that dirty old man of mine leave out a movement spell from the inheritance he gave me."
"I wonder what kind of inheritance Nick Capitol is attempting to keep for himself. God only knows how many people are coveting it. I'll have to kill him quickly before anyone else is able to get their hands on it."
"Come to think of it, what kind of magic does Nick Capitol use again? Some people say space magic while others say soul or blade magic. It's pretty weird that even the magic he uses is mixed up in rumors but I guess that's what infamy will cause."
Suddenly, when Uriah finished speaking, he heard a voice whisper beside him:
"You sure do talk to yourself alot."
Uriah quickly cast a spell in response:
(Influence of Absolute Zero)
A blast of cold air emerged from Uriah's body leaving frost on his sweater and blowing out in all directions, freezing the grass and dirt below his feet solid. Despite his speedy attack, however, a dagger appeared out of no where being held by white complexioned hand that thrust it towards Uriah's abdomen and ruthlessly stuck it into his belly, then let it go. The hand disappeared again before reappearing along with the rest of the attacker's body about ten meters away from Uriah's front.
Uriah looked at his slim, dark eyed, horse faced opponent who had a shaved head and grimaced. His opponent opponent spoke indifferently from what he deemed to be a safe distance:
"Don't bother moving. My earlier strike was intended to destroy your liver which I more or less succeeded in doing so it won't be long before you die here. Do you have any last words?"
Uriah looked at the dagger indifferently, then pulled it out with his right hand, asking:
"Are you an idiot?"
His opponent looked on with shock expressed on his face because the dagger that Uriah drew out did not have an ounce of blood on it and Uriah himself did not bleed from where he was stabbed. The man only saw a patch of solid ice where the wound was supposed to be. He screamed at Uriah:
"What the hell are you?"
Uriah sighed and replied:
"Same as you, only a lost soul in a troubled and forsaken world looking for some adventure."
The man put on a weird expression and asked:
"What?"
Immediately after he asked his question, however, he noticed that he had lost the feeling in both his legs so he looked down at them only to see that they were now covered with a thick accumulation of frost. The man was about to cast a spell in order to flee from this strange opponent of his but Uriah quickly snapped his right index and middle fingers and both the young man's legs shattered like glass.
Uriah's opponent screamed, not in agony because the nerves at the sight of his injuries had already died from frostbite, but because he no longer had a means of escaping after losing his legs:
"Somebody, help me! This bastard here is trying to kill me!"
Uriah walked towards the man and pointed at himself with his right index finger, asking:
"Bastard? Who, me? Well, well, mister, it looks like I need to teach you some manners before I send you off. Yes, I am only doing my sworn duty as a citizen of England by punishing you for your misdeeds and carrying out the appropriate amount of justice."
The man panicked when he saw the obvious malice in Uriah's expression as he said that and stretched out his now freezing right hand in order to cast a spell:
(Phantom Form)
Suddenly, Uriah disappeared from the injured man's vision; Uriah sensed that his surroundings had changed in a bizarre way as he could no longer interact with the grass on the ground or even hear any sounds but he could still see everything around him clearly. He tried to touch the frightened man on the ground but his right hand only passed through him as if his own body was not made out of solid flesh.
Uriah thought:
(Hmph! Just a pitiful trick.)
Uriah focused his attention on his mindscape and spent thirty seconds, forming the laws for one of his spells before casting it:
(Freezing White Aura)
The young man on the ground immediately witnessed as the temperature within the surroundings plummeted until even the cold air felt painful to breath in; a cold, white mist also spread throughout the area, seeming to come out of nowhere. The man's body started to freeze at a visible rate until he could no longer move and eventually Uriah appeared in front of him again, his sweater covered in frost, asking:
"Are you a phantom path Magician? That's a really rare path, it's such a shame that you're too weak to properly utilize it, though."
The young man was forced to remain completely still in response to Uriah's rude comment because his limbs and upper-body had been completely frozen except for his head and throat but all that changed as Uriah stretched his right hand towards the young man's body and within three seconds, the young man became a pale blue human statue. Uriah flicked his right index finger on the man's forehead and his frozen body immediately developed spider-web patterned cracks before eventually shattering like glass. The frozen pieces of the man's body transformed into specks of light and disappeared soon after.
Uriah cancelled his spell and quickly shook off the residual frost on his sweater before moving towards his destination once again. He spent the next few hours walking slowly along the grassy plain, feeling that things were surprisingly peaceful, even with the occasional attacks directed at him.
(I've been locked in my room at the inn meditating since the exam started so I am not too familiar with the current state of things but considering the uproar that news of the inheritance created in Shelter Town, shouldn't I be seeing much more people going this way?)
While Uriah was pondering, the sky suddenly became overcast with the clouds above him forming large shadows. Uriah looked up and observed the passing white clouds but quickly discovered that something about them was unnatural.
"I sense a great deal of magic power infused within those three clouds that are blocking the sun. Are they a part of someone's spell?"
Not long after he asked his question, One of the clouds seemed to descend from the sky towards his position; it moved strangely, coiling itself until it reached the ground before dissipating, revealing over one hundred students that stood apart as if they belonged to many different cliques. Most of them chattered amongst themselves while a man that looked to be in his early twenties, about Uriah's age, smiled genially and ran forward to greet Uriah, saying:
"Hello there. My name is Floyd Crowley of Raylam Priest Academy, surely you've heard of me?"
Uriah indifferently responded:
"No, I haven't?"
Uriah was also a student from Raylam Priest Academy but he spent most of his time isolated from the other students, practising magic and studying, so he was not familiar with most of his peers.
Floyd's genial attitude did not change despite Uriah's cold response, he stood one meter away from Uriah and spoke:
"Well then, I am glad to make your acquaintance. I happen to be one of the three Crowley brothers and we have been gathering students around the area in order to share supplies and intel so that we can more effectively deal with Nick Capitol. See all the other students behind me, they have agreed to compete for the inheritance fairly once we have killed Nick Capitol and there are more students riding on those two other clouds that are being manipulated by my brothers. Are you perhaps interested in joining our 'raiding party'?"
Uriah took another look at the two other large, white clouds in the sky; he could not see or sense the people riding them which lead him to think:
(What an interesting cloud path spell, it not only acts as off-the-ground transport but also as a concealing method; if not for my special magic sense, I would not have even known that the clouds were not naturally formed. He says that he is gathering people to fight Nick Capitol but here are over one hundred people behind him. Does he rate Nick Capitol so highly? Well...I did hear that the man defeated several fairly strong soldiers...)
Uriah then took the time to examine Floyd's entourage and found that they were all mostly standing around and gossiping or watching his and Floyd's conversation.
(My instincts indicate to me that none of these people are very formidable, though. This is just a motley crew of hopeful losers, I've seen a few of them since leaving Shelter Town and I am not interested in wasting my time joining them. I don't know what this guy's intentions really are but it is unlikely that he thinks that by just gathering a bunch of people, they can defeat a strong Magician.)
Uriah shook his head without a change in expression and replied:
"If Nick Capitol is as strong as the intel that's been spread by the military suggests, then your group won't be of much use except as cannon fodder so no, I am not interested in joining you."
Floyd frowned in response to hearing Uriah's words and asked:
"What the hell do you know?"
Uriah gave a dry chuckle and replied:
"Numbers hardly matter when dealing with strong Magicians, that is, unless your group has many equally strong people in it. I can already tell, with just my strength alone, I could waste your little party."
Floyd was about to curse at Uriah when he sensed a magical disturbance coming from one of his brothers' clouds.
(The spell that generates and maintains that cloud should be keeping bursts of magic energy within a certain range of intensity hidden. Why can I sense someone's magic power from down here?)
The large white cloud suddenly dissipated as one young man with a head full of trimmed black hair and light-brown eyes floated down towards the ground with a plain expression on his face, looking at the people below him as if nothing strange happened.
The people on the ground looked at the young man with confusion, many whispering amongst themselves:
"What happened to everyone else on that cloud?"
"Maybe the Crowley brothers have a teleporting spell too."
"Why would so many people except that one guy be teleported somewhere else?"
...
Floyd didn't know what to make of the situation. His brother Peter had been transporting nearly one hundred students on his cloud and he was shocked at their disappearance. He ignored Uriah and screamed at the descending young man:
"Hey, what's your name? What happened to my brother and the rest of the people that were riding the cloud with you."
The brown eyed young man pointed at himself with his right index finger and replied:
"My name? I guess I'm not that famous even though my family is. My name is Jessie Auburn of Richter Order Academy, As for your brother and those other people...well, I found them to be an eyesore so I killed them all."
Floyd looked at Jessie with wide opened eyes, not believing what he was hearing.
(Is that man crazy? How would he manage to kill so many people so quickly?)
Floyd snorted and replied with anger in his tone:
"You better stop talking nonsense and tell me what I want to know."
Jessie sighed and held out his right hand, pointing it at the crowd below him.
(Lava Transformation.)
Suddenly, the ground beneath the over one hundred students, covering a radius of over ten meters, became stone melting lava. The students screamed tragically as they had been given no time to prepare for the change and the suddenness of their circumstance resulted in most of them being crippled from sinking into the lava by a few feet which resulted in them being too shocked, pained and distraught to save themselves.
Most died from the sheer heat in two seconds before their half melted corpses transformed into specks of light while those who had persistent defensive spells like rank 2 Copper Skin or Jade Skin struggled for a little longer before they too melted and died.
Jessie observed his handiwork with an expression of boredom plastered on his face but his expression then changed to indicate slight interest when he realized that two students had actually survived his method.
Floyd breathed roughly as he sat cross legged on top of a small, white cloud that was now hovering five meters above the ground, looking at the altered environment and thinking:
(What the hell just happened? There wasn't even a magical disturbance or any indication that he cast a spell when all that lava appeared; he has to have a way of concealing his magic power but it seems like he did not use it when he dealt with the other people on the cloud.)
In Floyd's mind, there was no point in now trying do deny Jessie's earlier claim when the results of his power were now on full display. Floyd's mind was overwhelmed with anger and shock; anger because his plans had basically been ruined before they really began and shock, not only because Jessie was such a powerful Magician with strange magic, but because there was another equally strange Magician near him. Floyd looked towards Uriah's position with some amount of envy.
Uriah stood in his position with half of his body covered in frost while his eyes glowed with light-blue light. The ground beneath him and within about six feet of him all around was frozen solid with crystal clear ice being visible as it released a chilling bluish mist. This frozen 'oasis' was maintained while surrounded by a stagnant pool of lava but the ice did not seem to show any signs of melting. Uriah focused his attention on Jessie and spoke loudly:
"Hey you over there...Ballsie or whatever. Do you mind turning the temperature down? I don't want to ruin my sweater, it cost me eight months' allowance to buy."
Jessie's benign expression suddenly turned to a frown and he replied:
"Ballsie? The name's Jessie and I don't care about your sweater. You seem different from these other losers but don't think that I won't kill you just because you have some skill."
Uriah replied indifferently:
"That's laughable. If that petty trick is an indication of your abilities, then you have alot more to learn. I've wiped my ass crack with better spells than yours."
Jessie's right eyelid twitched in response to hearing that and he replied simply while pointing his right index finger at Uriah:
"Oh..."
Jessie's body erupted with a large cloud of magic power as he cast a spell:
(Advanced Transformation: Burning Trench)
The area around the three students, covering about a fifty meter radius, began to quake in response to Jessie's spell and both Uriah and Floyd went on high alert but before either of them could cast their own spells, pillars of fire erupted at random spots from the grassy plain as well as from the small area that Jessie had already transformed into a lava pool, soon spreading out to change the environment into an inferno before dispersing.
The grass within the area was burnt to ashes and the ground began to emit the smell of sulfur as it somehow began to break away, soon forming a deep, narrow trench of blazing orange-red flames; the trench was about eighty meters long and twenty meters wide.
The change happened so quickly that even though Uriah immediately cast a spell to cover himself with what he liked to call 'absolute zero' ice, he still fell into the trench of fire without much resistance. Floyd attempted to fly away from the trench using the small cloud that he rested on but Jessie shook his right index finger at him before a cylindrical pillar of fire blasted out of the trench, enveloping Floyd.
When the pillar of fire dispersed, Floyd was nowhere to be seen and Jessie stood alone, levitating above the hellish scene where orange-red flames cast their bright glow on the surroundings with the ambient temperature resulting from the scorching flames that continuously leaped out of the trench left the atmosphere bone dry.
Jessie shook his head and muttered:
"I didn't plan to do this but I had to at least teach that ice-for-brains some manners. No one gets to dis my magic in front of me."
Jessie was about to cancel his spell when a voice reverberated within the surroundings; the voice was not loud but Jessie could still perceive it coming from every direction and it was absolutely clear, with an underlying coldness that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up:
"Absolute Freeze, Persistent Influence"
Jessie felt the temperature within the atmosphere plummet even as the flames within the trench raged and less that three seconds later, the flames died out, instantly being replaced by ice and frost that spread out of the trench, freezing the surrounding earth and sending a mass of crystal blue ice as well as frigid wind upwards into the air, filling the trench completely and not stopping until the ice stood like a glacier nearly fifteen meters above the ground, almost enveloping Jessie as it rose.
Jessie clicked his tongue and levitated away from the ice before he was encased by it and soon he levitated to a safe distance twelve meters away from the frozen trench. He thought to himself:
(That is certainly a mighty spell. How much magic energy reserves does that ice-for-brains have to be able to do this? Well...I guess it doesn't matter, it looks like he buried himself with his own power...)
Jessie suddenly felt the temperature around him drop even further and he frowned intensely but before he could find out the cause, a gust of visibly bluish, cold wind flowed to his left side from which a white complexioned hand was formed from condensed wind and grabbed onto Jessie's left shoulder.
(Chilled To The Bone)
Jessie immediately felt his left shoulder and entire left arm go numb as it became covered in bluish-white frost in mere moments; he could no longer move his left arm as a result. Jessie immediately turned his face towards the hand that grabbed him and emitted a loud shriek from his mouth which caused the surrounding atmosphere to vibrate.
The hand that had grabbed his shoulder broke apart like shattered ice in an instant and the cold wind was displaced like a fan blowing away dust. The bluish, cold wind flowed to the ground and transformed into a white young man with silver hair and glowing, light-blue eyes. Uriah looked at the levitating Jessie and openly sneered, saying loudly:
"Your arm looks like it has seen better days, old boy! I think I'll call you limp limb from now on!"
Jessie gritted his teeth and looked at his left arm closely, assessing the damage:
(My arm is purple-blue and is nearly dead from frostbite. This cunt is going to pay for that! I was being gentle with him before but now I'm going to rip him apart. The inheritance can wait.)
Jessie quickly took out a red healing potion from his space band and drank it, at which point, the frost on his left arm mostly dissipated and warm returned to it again despite the discoloration that remained.
Uriah raised his right eyebrow and thought:
(He dispelled the chill so easily. That has to at least be an intermediate grade healing potion. It looks like this guy is connected.)
Jessie knew that intermediate grade healing potions were difficult to buy and that generally, only influential families and important government officials had access to them.
Jessie flexed his left arm and then partly focused his attention on his mindscape, forming various laws. After ten seconds, Jessie silently cast his spell:
(Blind Griffin Transformation)
Jessie's body became enveloped in a white light that hid his features and which visibly writhed about. Uriah had noticed Jessie's attempt to cast his spell from the beginning but did not move to interfere because Jessie's sound wave attack from earlier had harmed the organs in his inner ear and he was now left trying to recover his sense of balance by discretely casting a healing spell on himself.
Soon, the light enveloping Jessie faded and a magic beast that looked like a large lion that seemed to be the size of an SUV and had two black, eagle like wings on its back as well as a black scaled serpent for a tail. The magic beast looked at Uriah and snarled, showcasing its pointed teeth and when it flapped its wings, a loud buzzing sound reverberated within the surrounds. One thing that Uriah noticed almost immediately was that this magic beast had no eyes.
(So this man is a transformation path Magician, that explains why he was able to alter the environment so drastically before. Unlike the laws for other types of magic, transformation path laws which can be altered at will by transformation path Magicians can basically be found on everything and can produce all sorts of characteristics. It is a path that can take the form of all other paths.)
Uriah knew that he had found a troublesome opponent in Jessie and braced himself for a difficult fight.
****************************************
Two men stood at the edge of the final large cloud that carried dozens of now stupefied students who noticed the conflict that was happening below them.
One of the men who had a shaved head and buck teeth asked the other man who seemed younger than him and currently wore a frightened expression wile restlessly rubbing his light brown, wavy hair:
"What now, Crowley?"
Will Crowley looked at the ruined terrain below and the two people that had caused the change and remained silent for a long time. He then remembered how his brother Floyd had died so tragically and he muttered without thinking:
"Fuck me."