The rest of the exams

After a while of me standing around, not believing Iris grades, we finally moved back to the entrance of the training hall. The others were waiting for us there to hear the results.

What made Iris results so hard to fathom for me, was that all her grades improved in the same way as mine. However, the higher up the grades got the bigger the difference between each of them. Getting into E grade should actually be quite easy for any hybrid, anything beyond would get harder and harder.

Despite her astounding results, Iris still didn't appear to be happy. What Mr. Black said hit her hard. She had believed to be strong enough to protect us all on her own. I guessed this might change her way of training and could make her more focussed on fighting as a team again.

Having walked a while without a word between the two of us, we came back to the entrance. The rest of the team held back their excitement for Iris results as they saw her current mood. Just a quick congratulation, nothing more. Iris then decided to let Emilia go up next for the exam.

I went with Emilia inside the training hall; Iris stayed back with the others.

Mr. Black once again would be the teacher to do the exam, he told us beforehand already. Knowing this, we went looking for him. It took only a short while for us to spot him. He stood roughly in the same spot as last time.

"So, now it's you, healer girl. Do you want to spar against me or do you want to stay with your current grades? It is quite common for healers to not focus on sparring after all. But knowing you bunch of kids, you will certainly not go for the regular way, am I right?" Mr. Black asked us in a taunting manner.

"Yes, I want to fight you. I haven't been only focusing on my healing abilities after all. I will show you what a healer is capable of…" announced Emilia in a battle ready voice.

"That's the spirit, just take whatever weapon you like and come at me when you are ready."

Emilia didn't own a sword by herself, so she had to take one of the many the school allowed us to borrow. Surprisingly, she also picked a celestial sword; I had never seen her use one before though. Swinging it around a bit she seemed to handle it fine.

She got herself ready for battle and unlike Iris, she infused her body with celestial energy instead of the sword alone. Having charged up a bit, the celestial energy around her body flowed even more wildly than Iris did before her. This attracted another bunch of students again, they were all still a bit hyped from the earlier fight.

As for Mr. Black, he only spectated what was happening and waited patiently, similarly to the last fight. However, unlike last time, he pulled out his sword in anticipation.

Emilia started to charge at him right away and tried to hit him with all her power. The sword swung at Mr. Black with a rapid speed. The following sound of the impact showed the might behind it. By buffing herself, Emilia became quite the capable sword women. By now, all the students were paying attention to the two of them.

Upon contact, both the celestial swords suddenly flared up and let out an aura of celestial energy around the two of them. Emilia tried to overpower her opponent by using all her energy reserves at once. But against Mr. Black, this was in vain. He simply parried her sword to the side and retreated back. Using his technique to overcome her powerful blow.

Emilia's sword hit the ground in the meantime and left an enormous crater behind. Even he couldn't go up against her raw power. What she lacked in technique, she made up with her celestial power. She charged at him again but this time the celestial energy wasn't as wild as before. She had used too much and ran dry on it.

Mr. Black easily took the sword head on this time. He also threw a punch towards Emilia's stomach, however he stopped the fist right before the impact. Obviously he didn't want to hurt students if he had a chance not to do so. The spectating students started to clap, they seemed to have enjoyed the show.

"Your celestial energy caught me a bit of guard there. It is astonishing. But your raw strength and technique are way too weak to handle it in such a way. If you actually want to become a swordswomen, you would have to improve on those more. However, I would suggest you to train your celestial energy to become a mage. Your team already has two swordswomen after all. It would also fit your talents better. For now, your strength is at a E grade and your technique is only at a F+ grade. You have improved since last time but please overthink what you want to become", Mr. Black explained.

I had heard of other students trying to become a mage but most of them had problems finding out their elemental affinity. A certain amount of control over celestial power is needed and most mages achieved that in second to third year. By using one's own elemental affinity and their celestial energy, one is able to cast strong magic spells using the celestial energy in a more pure form. This is quite advanced however and no one in our class managed to become a mage so far, just as expected. Becoming a mage may be harder than becoming a swordsman but the payoff is also huge. Once a mage can cast spells consistently, their fighting strength can't be compared to ordinary swordsman anymore. Basically a huge power spike and a bit of a gamble.

Emilia seemed happy with the results. She decided to let Lisa check her magic affinity with another artefact. Most students only opted to check it once their control over celestial energy was on a certain level, doing so before was mostly a waste of time. For healing skills, this magic affinity wasn't needed however. It came somewhat as an inborn ability and only angel hybrids could learn those so easily.

Having finished the exam with Mr. Black, we proceeded towards Lisa. She had been waiting for us, as she also watched the spar against Mr. Black.

Emilia put her hands on the artefact right away and like last time, one stone after another lit up. Now, even the forth stone lit up but it stopped at that. The fifth one didn't show any reaction whatsoever.

"Great, this puts your celestial energy completely too C grade. Last time you still struggled to reach it. I assume you also want to test your magical affinity, right? What Mr. Black told you is correct, going for magic instead of swordsmanship might be better for you", Lisa explained.

She took out another artefact, which looked like a slightly see-through stone. All Emilia had to do, was to put her hands on the stone and infuse it with celestial energy. The colour the stone turned into would then tell us her affinity. Lisa put the stone on another table and let Emilia take a seat in front of it. It seemed to take some time till one gets the hang off infusing the celestial energy in the right way, even if their control over celestial energy is already great.

After around five more minutes, the stone lit up in a blueish colour. Emilia immediately got excited again, quite understandable this time however.

Lisa stopped the test and said: "Your affinity seems to be with water magic. Most hybrids do have an affinity actually, but most lack the celestial power to manifest it. I will recommend you a teacher, who can help you learn the basics."

Having finished the tests, Lisa updated Emilia's ID.

On it stood the following:

Name: Emilia

Age: 13

Race: angel hybrid

Magical affinity: water

Subtype: healer/mage

Fighting strength: F --> E

Celestial energy: D+ --> C

Fighting technique: F --> F+

Overall rating: E --> D

Magical affinities also got their own column on the ID, I was quite surprised by that as I hadn't seen it before. The only ones of adults I had seen so far were from Lisa and Mr. Black, both of them used swords.

We went towards the entrance again and then it was time for the rest of the team to do their exam. Nothing worth mentioning happened in their exams however, although they all were in a good mood knowing how much they had grown. Althaia skipped the fighting test right away but she also decided to test her magical affinity. Her control over celestial energy wasn't good enough, so she had to wait until later on.

Their IDs read the following:

Name: Althaia

Age: 13

Race: angel hybrid

Subtype: healer

Fighting strength: F

Celestial energy: E --> D-

Fighting technique: F

Overall rating: E

Name: Julian

Age: 15

Race: angel hybrid

Subtype: brawler

Fighting strength: E --> D+

Celestial energy: F

Fighting technique: E --> D+

Overall rating: D

Name: Lander

Age: 14

Race: angel hybrid

Subtype: brawler

Fighting strength: E --> D

Celestial energy: F

Fighting technique: E --> D

Overall rating: E+