Chapter 53: Chapter 53: There’s nothing better than a friend, unless it’s a friend with chocolate.

There never was a right day to see a teenager getting murdered. I heard the students suck in a breath around me, and the hairs of my arm rose as tension washed over me.

William laughed.

“Indeed. Perhaps it’s time I demonstrated my worth.” He placed his hand on his opponent's shoulder. “It is far too quick to battle now in the arena, we need a bigger crowd. Let’s make a date for lunch.”

I stared at his challenger. I expected signs of nervousness, a slight twitch of his shoulder, or maybe a shiver. There was nothing. His opponent smiled lightly, grabbing onto Williams fingers, and gently pushing them off him.

“I’ll hold you to that.” The boy stepped back.

The moment the agreement was made his lackeys stood up straight, their arrogant demeanour disappearing. They saluted William, and then walked behind the leader, the group disappearing into the corridor.

“What just happened?” My eyes narrowed.

It looked like William had fallen into a trap. He stood proud, not bothering to look towards his future opponent. Instead, he returned straight back into the classroom he had just left.

Did he leave it just to take on a challenger?

I wanted to say hi to him, but the atmosphere was strange. Instead, Amanda and I made our way down the corridor.

“Young master Wilhelm is famously bratty.” Amanda eyed the classroom door. “I know a few people that were planning to provoke him into a fight. Those guys wanted to make themselves look like tempting targets.”

That explained their attitudes. It also explained William’s. He was faking being spoiled, and they were faking their arrogance.

“People are confusing.” I spoke. “If they wanted to fight each other, they could’ve just asked. No need for all these games.”

“They’re all planners and tacticians. Forget their enemies, I bet you they’re going to outwit themselves next.” Amanda smiled.

Considering William was playing them like a fiddle, she wasn’t wrong.

We walked down the corridor until it opened up. I thought we were heading into a hall, but instead we were facing a bright and vibrant garden.

A breeze brushed against my cheeks, and the faint scent of flowers and fresh earth tickled my nose. Coloured flowers had been planted in a sequential pattern, red, yellow, orange, blue, green, and purple.

“Want to grab a bite? I brought extra.” Amanda gestured.

There was no shift in the mana around her, instead, Agni flew up into the air and then dove into the gardens. Her head popped up occasionally to check on Amanda, then she drove back down into the flower bed and swam among the plants.

I nodded. The earth called to me. This ground was richer than any other I’d seen. I’d fight William again to have a bed made of this.

Amanda skipped beside me.

“Food? I brought my own-”

My voice and body stopped in their tracks as a divine smell drifted towards me. Amanda had pulled out an entire smorgasbord from thin air, and its aroma caressed my free will, teasing it away.

Amanda smiled at my struggle, and we found a free spot to sit in. She rolled out a blanket and started placing food on top of it. Gold was still sleeping on my shoulder, and I gently lowered his dirt nest onto the grass.

“This is beautiful.” I took a deep breath in.

It wasn’t just the world around me. It was the mana as well. It called to me and invited me to lay down on top of the earth and truly experience its greatness.

There were streaks of different coloured mana flying above us. I looked down at the blanket to see Amanda had finished setting up her meal.

It was a lot of food.

She saw my stare and she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear to hide her nerves.

“My mum… is really confident that the way to make friends is through their stomachs.”

“She was absolutely right. Motherly wisdom is the best.” I brought out my own food. “Let’s do an exchange, my snacks are your snacks.”

There was one area my family wasn’t restricted in. Food. I brought it out of my inventory and placed it on the blanket.

I was grateful I’d practiced separating the dirt section from the food section.

We ate, and relaxed. The jitters of meeting someone new slowly died away, and we soon stopped talking to admire the new surroundings.

I held my hand out and a small mote of red mana floated towards me, and pressed against my palm. Then it went towards Amanda with more gusto, and to my surprise she high-fived it as well.

My palm felt warm. “That’s the first time I’ve seen somebody do that other than me.”

The mana fluttered over to the next group of students to greet them.

Amanda watched it go with a smile. “Are you fire attuned as well?”

“Actually, I’m an earth magician.”

“That explains the nest.” She ran her finger over the dirt around Gold.

I waved my hand, and a stone ball flew out of my inventory. It zoomed around Amanda, and she made a game of trying to grab it.

I felt something warm snuggling against my neck and looked around to see a small bead of fire whizzing around my head. I looked at Amanda and she gave me a cheeky grin. It was a clear message.

I wasn’t the only magician on campus.

My lips tugged into a smile. At Zodiac, Indra was the only person that could teach me. Everyone else was kept in the dark about my skills.

Here, I didn’t have to keep my abilities a secret.

The teachers knew what I could do, and the students would find out sooner or later, if they even cared. My classmates would know by the end of the day.

I waved my finger at the stone ball, and it retreated back into my inventory. The fire stopped as well, as Amanda waited for what I was going to do.

Slowly, a small tendril of metal flew out of my inventory. It wriggled in the air cautiously, and then made its way towards my friend.

She stared at it with wide eyes.

“Is that… metal?” She examined it.

I nodded.

It felt good to be in an environment where I didn’t have to hide my skills anymore. It was like keeping a part of my body locked away.

“I didn’t even know we had metal magicians in the academy this year.” Amanda released my iron and it buzzed in the air. “You should give fighting a go. Get some of that ranking glory for yourself.”

I watched the flames catch up with the iron and both of them moved through the air, the iron was partially under my control, partially under the whim of the mana inside it.

Once I reached higher ranks of my earth skills, I realised that total control wasn’t as important as allowing magic’s intuition to take over. It allowed me to concentrate on other things, and that realization had allowed me to unlock stone grasp.

I sat back and considered her words.

The idea of fighting wasn’t repulsive. I wasn’t in the combat section of the academy. Magicians were considered an entire section of their own, even if some did focus on military tactics and fighting.

There was a simpler term for the two sections.

Knights and magicians.

“You know, that’s not a bad idea. I’m curious about how I measure up to everyone else.”

“Me too.” Amanda replied. “I’m a little more geared towards fighting than most magicians.”

She curled her fingers into claws, and I saw them shift and light up, transforming into flames. Then she flicked her fingers and the flames died out.

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She looked up at me with glittering eyes. “I really want to see that fight.”

“What a coincidence, me too.” I grinned. “Let’s call it lunchtime entertainment.”

William would win, but I wanted to see how the other people in the year level compared to him. Almost a year had passed since we fought, and I was sure he had improved by leaps and bounds.

Maybe I’d find more friends by sparring with them.

Getting to know people before my Mark was revealed was one of my priorities. Gerial had warned me time and time again against gold diggers. Or in this case, power diggers.

There was a moment of silence as the conversation died down.

It was comfortable.

In the distance we could see the arena. It was in use, I could tell by the glimmering orange shield, probably by someone in the later year levels.

A shadow passed over my eye, and a wing smacked into my face. Gold had woken up. He chirped happily as he took in the bright surroundings.

A small shape fluttered in front of him, Agni. He took to the air, and they flew across the garden together. I let him go, he had enough practice surviving outside, he would survive a few minutes in a safe environment.

“What class do you have next?” Amanda spoke.

I checked my timetable.

“Earth magic studies.” A grin broke out across my face.

Indra was an amazing teacher, but sometimes it was nice to have someone new. Indra had said it himself. New people bring new perspectives, and new ways of seeing the old patterns that I couldn’t connect.

“Very nice. I bet you can’t guess what I’ve got.” She brushed her fingers through her hair.

It was still smoking.

“Fire magic studies?” I guessed.

“Wrong.”

“Really?”

“No. I just wanted to see the surprise on your face.” She giggled. “It’s fire magic studies.”

Her cheerful energy brightened every word she said.

We chatted until the bell rang in our ears to go into class. There was one bell that rang a few minutes before break ended, and then another one to let us know we should stop being lazy and be in class.

Amanda and I separated, but not before she showed me where my new classroom was. It was still the first day and she was almost as comfortable as William in the academy hallways.

I had a smile on my face. I would meet with William soon, hopefully before his fight, and I knew Gerial was around here, but it was nice to make a friend in my class.

Gold seemed happier than usual as well. I don’t think he’d ever met another intelligent bird before.

“We’re making friends all over the place.” I fed him a snack.

Amanda had bags of them and insisted I take a handful. Gold had nibbled on my ear until I accepted.

I scanned the room I was entering.

This class was a lot sparser than my other ones. There were only ten students here, including me. Each one turned to look at me as I walked in.

“Number ten. That’s all of us.” A voice called out.

I saw a boy grinning at me. He had green hair, and parts of the dye had washed off onto the shoulders of his blazer

“How do you know that’s all of us?” I remarked as I made my way towards them.

A few of them looked towards the front of the classroom, and the green head boy pointed at it as well. Towards the blackboard there were ten statues. I narrowed my eyes as I spotted a familiar figure.

It was me.

The stone statue was as tall as my knee and didn’t make me look good at all. I couldn’t feel any earth mana inside it either. That was strange.

I sat down and there was an instant wave of power in the air. All of us looked towards the front of the room. There was nothing there.

Then, one of the statues moved. Its head turned towards the nearest student, and I saw his likeness carved into it.

The others moved too. Each one turned to face a student, and I saw my own face looking at me, carved from stone.

There was a pause.

A presence washed over us, and the statues began to move. Step after step resounded through the air as they moved in unison towards their flesh counterparts.

A will contested with my own as the statue drew nearer. It was fighting me every step of the way, and I fought back.

Earth manipulation.

I took a deep breath in and allowed my mind to calm down.

There was less resistance than I’d expected, and then the statue stopped moving. I was used to practising on the living wall, which was impossible to take over.

The students around me were all in similar situations, except for one. The statue reached that student’s legs and tapped them.

Then it stopped moving.

We stared at it. It hadn’t hurt him, but he had a grimace on his face. This was a test, and he had failed.

A new wave of power rushed through the statues, and we began our fight again. One by one the people surrounding me fell.

After the fourth wave there were only three of us. It was me, the green haired boy, and a stout student whose body resembled the stone she was trying to stop.

I felt the pressure overwhelming me and heard a grunt of disappointment to my side. Then there was a tap on my leg.

The statue had reached me.

I sat back in my chair, sweating from the effort. The girl had crossed her arms and glared at the statue. She’d fallen right before I had.

There was only one of us left. The boy clasped his hands together as he concentrated. Finally, the statue stopped.

He fell back into his chair and put up a hand in surrender.

“I can’t go on.”

The statues turned to stare at him, and then they began to quiver. I watched as my face simmered into liquid and then melted. It was disconcerting.

From around the room other pieces of stone began to flow into one pile in front of the blackboard. They crawled on top of each other, struggling to reach the top. Each tendril grasped onto higher ground, slowly forming into the shape of a person.

There was silence in the room until the process was complete. A familiar figure was now standing in front of me, his chest glowing brightly.

“Good afternoon. I am Tago of the earth. I will be your earth magic studies teacher for this semester. I have just tested your abilities, and I find you all lacking.”

He shuffled towards the desk, and the chair groaned in protest as he sat down.

“Now then, any questions?”

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