At the bottom of The Wall of Fame
Eric was freezing. He had woken up in his bedroom of disappointment and left with a banana. The fruit didn't last the trip down the stairs. He was heading to the schools arena for the next part of his training. They had been working with Ball for the entirety of autumn, so finally being taught a new form was a big deal for him. He still couldn't form a fire Ball, his earth Ball was little more than a ball of dirt. However, his air and water Balls were the strongest in the class, much to the anger of certain nobles.
He checked his battered wristwatch he had found on the ground a month ago and sighed. He was going to be late again. He picked up his pace, since had he continued walking he would have been 7 minutes late. Now he would only be late by 5 minutes!
Teach was standing at the front of the class, arms crossed and tapping her foot impatiently. When he finally reached the group, he received several glares, before Mat hurried over to talk to him.
"Where have you been? I tried finding your room but Hatch and my rooms are on the final floor and I couldn't find another door on our floor. Where the hell is your room, so I can make sure your on time for once?" Mat spoke quietly and quickly, almost speaking without moving his mouth.
"My rooms entrance is at the end of you corridor, you can't miss it." Even as Eric said that, Mat was shaking his head.
"I looked at the entirety of my floor. The corridor ends in a blank wall. So stop lying and tell me where you live already!"
Teach clapped her hands once, getting their attention. She wore a scowl, apparently their argument had increased in volume until it was clearly audible. They shut up quickly after that, and finally, the lesson began.
"Alright students," the teacher stepped into the middle of the arena, while the class stood at the outer edge. "Now that I have seen you in action, I can rank you on your skills." She summoned an earth Wall, much to the excitement of the class. She then tapped it with her finger and bits of hardened earth fell to the floor to shatter into smaller bits. She stepped to one side, revealing that there was writing, ingrained into the Wall:
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1. Opal FEA
2. Ruby FE
3. Thesus W
4. Serena F
5. Hatch EAF
6. Dwane EF
7. Marina WF
8. Libertina EW
9. Jane WFA
10. Cassidy AF
11. Huge EF
12. Chloe FE
13. Leo FA
14. Nymphadora WA
15. Rhys FA
16. Thomas AF
17. Eric WAEF
18. Lily E
19. Charlie AE
20. Mat AE
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"Now you know where you stand. Whoever stands out the most in Wall training today will get moved up the ranks. If I see any slacking, at ANY moment of time from now on, you will go down the ranks. Now, lets begin"
She walked back over to her Wall and turned back to the class, using her sword to point out the Walls dimensions. "How powerful a Wall is depends on how connected you are to your specific element. We call this mastery. There are six stages of mastery, and each contain nine stages of rank within each mastery. So, since I'm a fourth rank third mastery, my wall is three meters wide, and able to withstand four attacks of a similar mastery. To form a Wall, gather the elements magic and then try to place it in front of you. It is typically used to block magic attacks, but it can work against other forms of attack. Just remember, each wall can be countered by the opposite element, so you cant rely on pure defence when your attacked. Now go, lesson ends in 1 hour."
Once again, as soon as she finished, the nobles were already at it. One in particular seemed incredible, summoning air and earth Walls everywhere, all exactly the same size, 1 meter long, by 3 meters high and half a meter thick. In fact, everyone had the same dimensions of their Walls. The only differences was what elements they used and how hard each individual wall was. The girl who always seemed to be better than everyone, could summon walls so hard, it took multiple nobles barraging them with magic to chip it slightly.
Eric was actually quite good at Walls. He could make both Earth and Air Walls in under 2 seconds. He could even form a Water Wall without a Ball with his water vapour method. He was asked by a noble how he did it, and with only a minute of talking about how it worked, the noble was able to do it too. With a handshake, he received the guys name, Thesus, before class was called back to the edge so their new rankings could be displayed.
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1. Opal FEA
2. Ruby FE
3. Thesus W
4. Serena F
5. Hatch EAF
6. Dwane EF
7. Marina WF
8. Libertina EW
9. Jane WFA
10. Cassidy AF
11. Huge EF
12. Chloe FE
13. Leo FA
14. Nymphadora WA
15. Charlie AE
16. Rhys FA
17. Thomas AF
18. Eric WAEF
19. Lily E
20. Mat AE
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Almost immediately, Serena walked over to punk girl, who always seems to be the best at everything without much effort, and patted her on the back.
"First place in the ranking after two assessments? Not only that but you weren't paying attention in most of the lessons. I'm not completely sure, but I think that is a new record Opal. How on earth did you manage it?"
"Lets see... Practice, patience, training, knowledge and a will of iron Serena. You're doing fine for someone who only joined in with my training to keep me company." The girl, who Eric finally knew the name of, replied after a short pause. Serena chuckled as the two of them started walking out of the arena, past Eric as they did so. It was as they walked past, Eric saw something he had never seen before: Opal was smiling, a genuine happy smile.