Chapter 4: Improvements are slowly coming

After the scene that just happened inside the classroom, all of the students and mentors started their training sessions. Reine and Lugh went to the central library of UMDA to study more about techniques on how Reine can improve her skills; Greta went to a forest with Baalberith as he suggested for her training needs a lot of concentration near nature is at its finest. Vian and Amon went to virtual training room inside the UMDA campus for Vian's training. As for Yen and Zagan, they went to the open grounds of UMDA; Philomina and Paimon are also there but there are on the other side of the grounds.

The UMDA grounds is so wide that most of the school events happened here like concerts, festivals, parties and many more. Philomina can see her friend still struggling to communicate with Zagan, who is lying down on the ground while giving instructions. And after a quick moment of glancing at them, she focused on her own training with her mentor.

"Alright Philomina. Let's us start with what you can do with wind magic. Can you please demonstrate to me?" Paimon instructed to Philomina.

"Do you want me to hit any thing?" She asked her mentor and he replied,

"Not really. I just want you to show me what you can do with your wind magic. This is to just check your current abilities." And Philomina nodded to her mentor and took a step forward. Then Philomina closed her eyes and took a deep breathe, she opened her legs to stand firm and extend her arms and palms facing away from her; she continued her steady breathing and then wind is starting to form around her feet. She started moving her arms elegantly– as if performing a dance. She opens it wide then gestured it back to the center, stretched her right arm to draw a circle before stopping again at the center and did the same thing with the left. Her right foot adjusted forward a little more then she took a deep, sharp breath; the wind around her on the ground starts to move faster and sharper. Philomina opened her eyes and then thrust her right arm upward and the wind gathering around her turned into a wind wall surrounding her.

She placed her right arm down and then the wind wall slowly disappeared. Philomina opened her eyes and noticed Paimon staring at her intently, she felt uncomfortable at the intense stare and the deafening silence added to her nervousness.

"Umm... Sir Paimon?" Philomina stuttered making the staring Paimon cut off his gaze from her.

"Oh... I'm sorry about that Philomina." He apologized while chuckling lightly and scratching his nape.

"W -What do you think?" She can't get rid of her nervousness from a while ago and Paimon replied to her,

"From my observation, its a good defensive magic using wind; however based from my observation, its still lack power and magic. While you were doing that, I pricked it with fire magic on the ground." Philomina is surprised from his evaluation and looked at the ground, there she noticed some burn marks near her feet.

"I - I did not notice that."

"Now I got a glimpse of your strength and skills. We can move to your training." Philomina took a deep breath and nodded in response to her mentor's words.

"Firstly, I would like you to focus your mana into the center your body. This is for you to have more strength and power on any magic that you cast upon." Paimon started giving instructions and Philomina brought out a small notebook to write down that instructions given by her mentor.

"Next, I want you to remember that you are in control of your body and thoughts. Spells can turn into any form that you want, as long as you are in control. There are many cases that the caster loses control of oneself for casting a very strong spell that is out of his league, and I don't want you to experience that. So for this next step, I want to you think of any form that you want for the spell that you are going to cast; it could be a defensive or offensive spell. It would all depend upon you." Philomina is scribbling furiously on her notebook while Paimon continues to give instructions.

"Enough with the notebook Philomina, why not try it out?" Paimon said while chuckling at his students' action. Philomina flinched when her mentor asked her to demonstrate again.

"Umm... Is it alright if you can show it to me?" She stuttered her suggestion to her mentor, afraid of being rejected and pointing out mistakes.

"But how will you learn from that? If I show you how I do it, isn't there going to be a chance that you will imitate me?" He replied.

'He is not wrong there though.' She thought to herself and sighed.

"I - I'm afraid that I will not meet your expectations." Philomina muttered under her breath but Paimon, being a nekomata, has sharp hearing skills; heard what Philomina said. He poked Philomina's forehead making the girl flinched and looked up to her mentor.

"That's part of the learning process. If you did not meet my standards, then try and try again." He said and grinned at his student. Philomina's eyes starts to tear up when she heard what her mentor said.

'He's right about that. I shouldn't be afraid. I will continue and try my best to meet his standards. Not everything is perfect.' She thought again to herself and wiped the tears on her eyes.

"Thank you sir Paimon." She said and brought out her brightest smile towards him, making the nekomata startled by her sudden attitude change and her smile.

'That smile... I hope I'll get to see it everyday.' He thought to himself and then he ruffled Philomina's hair,

"Wha-?!"

"That's the spirit Philomina! Now, show me what you can do." He said and Philomina nodded in response and went to an open area.

"Continue to improve and bloom, my student." He muttered to himself while looking at Philomina, who is doing the same dance again but then her movements became even more elegant and sharp than before.

Philomina released her spell, instead of having a wind wall surrounding her, a light wind gale, that goes around her like she's inside a tornado and three big wind orbs, white and green sharp wind gales going around each other to maintain its shape. She opened her eyes, and her eyes changed color to emerald green, then she saw her mentor is already in front her clapping his hands and said,

"Good job Philomina. Why not try throwing those orbs upward?" Paimon suggested while pointing the sky above them. Philomina nodded and extended both her arms, palms facing away from her. She elegantly move her right arm upward, making one orb fly to the sky; then quickly her left arm move upward and then her right arm again. The two wind orbs followed and all of them clashed at the sky, sharp wind gales are released in the sky cutting though the clouds.

"Wow..." Yen muttered as she looked at the sky and Zagan just whistled at the sight.

Philomina stared wide eyes at the sky, the result of her effort and focus, has paid off. The light wind surrounding her has died down and she looked at her mentor who is looking at the sky as well.

"I told you." He said and grinned at Philomina. She was still start struck with her spell casting, she didn't know that she has the capability to do that. And her mentor helped her to release the potential within her.

"I did it!" She exclaimed while smiling back to her mentor and Paimon just watched her as she celebrate her success.

"We can do more than that, Philomina. That is just one step to being a wizard. Are you ready to continue?"

"Yes, sir Paimon." She said and her smiled didn't disappear from her face and Paimon looked at her and thought,

'Soon, my student, you will bloom into something even more beautiful.' And then the mentor and the student continued their training. And Yen saw it all happened from where she was and said to herself,

"I will not let myself be left behind. I will improve as well just like Philomina." Without her notice, Zagan, standing a few feet behind her, smirked at his students' determination.

'You will also bloom, my butterfly.' He thought to himself.

Development and improvements are starting to go through these students towards their goal, these mentors sure know how to bring out the best of their students.