Class One Non-Elemental Mage

Lionel stood waiting for professor Nora to begin his practical magic exam. The older woman had closed her eyes. Behind her stood professor Matthew, silently watching. Lionel glanced around at the other contestants going through their practical. All of the other prospective students were starting to summon elements, but their teachers seemed distracted by something. That something was Lionel.

Lionel could see each of the professors peering at him every few seconds. He was starting to get a bad feeling but wasn't quite sure why. He glanced back at professor Nora. She had her eyes open now, they were a stark shade of green and felt different than before.

Professor Nora spoke. "Let's start with Earth"

Lionel thought of an Earthen orb and before him floated a perfectly formed sphere of Earthen energy.

Lionel felt a sudden drain on his Vervane and his Sphere of Earth faltered and faded away. 'What the heck was that..' He thought to himself while forming another Earthen energy orb. this one shimmered for only a few seconds before it sputtered out of existence. Lionel was concerned, he hadn't run into any issues with elemental magic for more than a week. Yet, here he was unable to keep his magic active.

Nora spoke again and drew the boys attention to her. "Not as strong as I thought." a small smirk shone through her otherwise stoney expression. "Fire"

Lionel followed her instructions and summoned flames. He watched Nora's bewitching eyes glance at his fire magic. Suddenly he felt a large drain on his Vervane and his flames faded. The drain on his life force wasn't anything he couldn't handle, but that drain would add up quick if it kept on.

Lionel brought up more flames, this time with more intensity. He focused the flames into a small sphere of dense energy. He watched Nora carefully feeling the flow of energies around her. Nora was quick and glanced at the dense flames. This time it took almost five seconds before the flames faded.

Lionel had seen magical energy flowing from Nora's eyes. Her expression now was tightened with no smirk. He finally understood, the Professors were trying to keep him from competing... Drindle had warned him that something like this could happen, but Lionel just thought he was being overly paranoid.

Nora continued saying elements and having Lionel use magic. She would snuff out the energies almost as quickly as he could summon them. Lionel was becoming frustrated, and Nora's confident smirk had returned. That smirk made him angry. 'Aren't teachers supposed to help students?' Lionel thought to himself right before Matthew took a step forward.

Matthew spoke which drew everyone's attention. "Please finish up the Practicals and move on to the Physicals."

At that Lionel closed his eyes. He wasn't going to fail and lose his opportunity to help Drindle, and this woman wouldn't stand in his way either. Lionel focused and drew deeply on his Vervane. Earth, Air, Fire, Lightening, and Water; an Orb of each formed quickly. Those orbs were each the size of Lionel and more dense with energy than Lionel had ever summoned. He stood panting waiting for the draw on his Vervane from Nora's eyes. Instead nothing happened. Lionel looked at Nora. Her eyes were narrowed and her mouth was a fine line. She seemed very irritated with the situation. There were gasps and expressions of awe behind Lionel. He turned his head toward the noise. There he saw all of the other competitors staring at him with mixed looks of shock and awe, while others were envious and jealous. Lionel quickly and embarrassedly expelled his magic.

the only few people left in the coliseum seats were making a loud ruckus.

"Enough" a loud voice rung out. It was Matthew. "Please proceed with the physical Nora." The man didn't seem upset by the sudden turn of events, instead he seemed impressed and nodded at Lionel.

Nora's still mad appearance walked forward and held her medallion out to Lionel. He stood quietly, he was still breathing hard from the expended energy. Nora's eyes tightened even more as she slowly lowered the medallion.

Everyone was quite waiting to here what the medallion's findings were. "Class One Non-Elemental Mage." At that, whispers went through the crowd of onlookers. those whispers quickly grew into a loud raucous cacophony. It wasn't that there hadn't been other Class One Mages throughout the day, but Lionel was the first and only to be called a Non-Elemental Mage.

A frustrated Nora could barely be heard. "Please proceed to Richard across the Arena, he will give you your next instructions."

With that Lionel turned on his heel and walked in the same direction that Seba had earlier. He could feel all eyes on him as he strode across the field.

Seba stood slack jawed with a dumbfounded look on his face as Lionel walked up. "Why didn't you tell me you could summon every element at the same time?!" To Lionel it seemed like a silent rule that no one spoke of their abilities. On top of that Drindle had warned him to be quite and not reveal too much.

The Master-Apprentice contract held Lionel's tongue from answering with anything but "I don't know."

Seba was still smiling as he spoke again. "Either way, I watched you struggling at first. Then, Boom!!!" The sun tanned youth was over exaggerative with his arms spread eagle. "You go and use every element! Man, that was so cool!"

Lionel smiled abashedly and walked to the person known as Richard. All the students moved out of his way with only Seba standing close by.

"Are you the one getting everyone in an uproar?" An older man in his late fifties was the presumed Richard. He wore a chest plate of iron or steel and had a mace strapped to his waist. The man spoke as if he was in the Military. "Back to it Maggots." all of the other students including Seba Immediately began running around a dirt oval track. Richard turned to watch as the students ran. "This is the true physical test." He spoke to Lionel bluntly. Both Richard and Lionel stood watching the running students. "We need to wait for the others to arrive."

As soon as the man spoke those words, The other contestants that had just passed and classification walked up.

"Listen up" Richard turned from the running students and spoke to the five newcomers and Lionel. "You passed what they call their 'physical'." The way the man emphasized the word physical, was sarcastic and seemed demeaning to the word. "Now we test your true physical prowess. You were the last Prospects to be passed for the day, so tomorrow I want you here bright an early." the old man turned back towards the running students and continued to speak. "We will use the results of my test to split you into groups. The members of each group will fight against each other in the next step of the competition." Richard continued his explanation.

Lionel understood now why Richard seemed to take aim at what the professors called a physical. They were only looking at the Vervane and it's growth potential. Richard on the other hand would be gauging the prospect's battle prowess and physical power. Like Drindle had said before, a mage who was strong physically would have more magic at their disposal than the same mage who was physically weak. Lionel assumed the grouping was done to ensure that a really strong contestant would not face off against a weaker opponent. Based on what Richard said only those inside the same group could face each other. The winner of each group would then have a chance to face off against a similarly ranked Royal Academy Mage. Lionel felt excited about the coming battles.

Richard spoke loudly again. "Your Dismissed!"