Chapter 2: [Prologue 2]

"Staring at this building never gets old," whispered Kaion as he looked up at the giant colosseum that stood in the city center. This was where most magic battles for entertainment purposes took place, but today it would be the venue for the magical academy entrance exam. And every would-be mage's starting point.

"Write your name, attribute, and advancement technique here, please. The fee will be ten Enarcs, credit isn't allowed," said the woman at the entrance in a rather dronish tone.

Kaion wrote his name on the sheet but left the other two spaces blank before handing over his ten-odd Enarcs. The woman seemed angry about having to count so much loose change, as most people had paid the Enarc as a single coin.

"You haven't written your attribute," snarled the woman after having counted the coins.

"I don't have one," replied Kaion, before quickly walking into the colosseum. The entrance was like a tunnel, leading all the way to a bottom section of the colosseum where the participants were getting ready. The waiting chambers were very simplistic, with grey walls and a few benches evenly spaced out all around the room. Kaion looked around and found a nice empty spot for him to lounge around while they waited for the placements.

"Welcome to this year's annual magic academy entrance exam. It seems that this year we have a lot of aspiring mages, we apologize for taking so long to get things in order. However, the placements have now been decided, and this year we will be conducting the exam in groups of 6," announced what sounded like an old man from the upper portion of the colosseum.

"Sound magic," whispered one of the participants sitting a few benches away from Kaion.

[Magic,] thought Kaion, his heart pulsating as the man explained the rules.

"Only two participants from each group will be chosen. We've tried our best to arrange the groups fairly based on attribute and advancement techniques. However, we'd like our students to understand that things might not always be fair in the real world. Hence, there are a few groups with... inbalances," continued the man, slightly pausing towards the end.

"We will be calling out the participants shortly. Each match will be one minute long or will end when one participant is unable to fight. Without talking further, let us begin," finished the man. Kaion could hear the crowd cheering intensely from down below, even without the use of sound magic.

He was fired up and ready to go, however, it took a while before his name was called. Slowly but surely, the number of participants in the waiting room decreased, until eventually, it was his turn to fight.

"Kaion, attribute..."- the announcer paused once he realized that Kaion hadn't written his attribute, before quickly moving on "versus Elton Mirtude, attribute wind." The two entered the arena through two tunnels that came from opposite sides. As the light from the midday sun shone upon Kaion, he felt the audience's presence. These were the most eyes that had ever fallen on him, and he could feel their pressure, each and everyone one of them expectantly awaiting his battle.

"Keep your spells as non-lethal as possible. Any unnecessary permanent injury could lead to disqualification," explained the announcer from his stand.

"You may begin!"

The moment the announcer uttered the words, Kaion focused his mana into an irregular-shaped ball, feeding a good chunk of his mana into it.

"A magic bullet? That won't work," whispered a few of the spectators. And they were right, though magic bullets didn't require incantations to be cast, they lacked sufficient power to hurt anyone with even a trace of mana in their veins.

Kaion's opponent smirked before beginning their incantation, their whole body visibly relaxing once they saw what Kaion was trying. "Lord of the winds and storms, hear me. Bless me with your..." as the boy began chanting, a series of concentric rings appeared around his palms.

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[Too slow!] Before the boy could finish chanting, Kaions magic bullet had already reached an enormous size - about the size of his head. The spectators held their breath, never before had they seen such a massive magic bullet. Though whether or not its size increased its effectiveness was yet to be seen.

After carefully aiming, Kaion let it lose, and the blue ball of mana zipped towards his opponent. The boy had to stop chanting to avoid the attack, luckily magic bullet was constricted when it came to direction, and could only move straight ahead.

The boy barely managed to dodge the bullet, causing it to hit the ground directly in front of him. A smokescreen of sand and dust was flung into the air, covering the boy's field of vision. A split moment later, Kaion was upon him, and in one massive swing, Kaion's fist smashed into the boy's face. Knocking him out.

"A physical attack in a magic exam?!" shouted some of the spectators, disgust audible in their voices.

Kaion looked to the announcer to see if he would say anything about it, but apart from a look of disdain, he said nothing.

"Winner, Kaion," he announced after being quiet for a moment.

Kaion was led to another waiting chamber, this one with less participants than before.

[Just two more fights,] thought Kaion, his breathing loud and jagged due to expanding so much mana at once. He looked around, and everyone there seemed to be out of breath as well, perhaps he wouldn't be the only one at a disadvantage.

[No, that's idiotic thinking. Even if they are tired, that trick of mine won't always work,] decided Kaion, before sitting down with his legs crossed to absorb mana from his surroundings. His advancement technique -if it could even be called that- was very crude. His mana capacity was massive, though he could only absorb a small fraction of what he could breathe in using the technique.

It was actually a waste  of time even attempting it, as the mana absorbed would be insignificant when compared to what he could absorb naturally through sleep. But that wasn't the point, he did it merely to focus himself.

After a few hours, the first selection was complete and the announcer began calling out names for the second round. This time, there was significantly less time before Kaion's name was called out.

"Gray Sulivan, attribute lightning, versus... Kaion."

Feeling a bit more confident from his previous win, Kaion walked through the tunnel towards the arena. It was now later in the afternoon, however, the sun was still overhead, shining slightly more directly into his eyes.

"Keep your spells as non-lethal as possible. Any unnecessary permanent injury could lead to disqualification," explained the announcer from his stand once again.

"Isn't that the Smite Lord's son?" whispered a few of the spectators from the stand, referring to the white-haired boy that stood in front of Kaion. It was odd, but Kaion could feel a weird pressure emanating from the boy. It was different from the pressure he felt from the crowd, this one felt like a cold chill, it made his heart slow down, and froze him in place.

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