The Magus Game

On the top of the large stairs, dozens of men and women wearing robes of different colors could be seen standing in front of a huge purple tower. In the center of this crowd of people, an old man with a long white beard was standing firmly. Not a single person on the ground could deny the charisma emanated from this man, Altus Drayden, the headmaster of the Magus Academy, as he simply stared at them with his profound gaze.

Dozens of tiny transparent blue cubes flew around the sea of acolytes, before they flew further above the grand assembly and projected a large screen. It was the same that had been used to display the list of names last year, this time though, it displayed a close-up image of the headmaster's face.

Almost everyone inside the hall was amazed when they saw the distinguished man up close through the screen. Many of them were looking around the cubes, as well as the screen, trying to figure out how they worked.

They then noticed the screen also showed the faces of the magus beside the headmaster. When they looked up, they saw the tiny cubes were in front of the person on the screen. It turned out that the screen was able to project whatever those tiny cubes saw.

Hearing the loud chattering among the acolytes, the headmaster immediately stomped his staff. A deafening sound quickly echoed through the hall, stopping all the chattering of the hundred acolytes, causing them all to look at the old man with a long white beard. These acolytes stared at him intently and opened their ears to listen. Unfazed by thousands of pairs of eyes staring right at him, Altus Drayden calmly opened his mouth as his voice began to spread throughout the whole hall.

"The Magus Games are a yearly event to celebrate progress and acknowledge those who have talent. In the next 20 days, for the second year, this will be your trial, so we can find out who deserves to be given the best the academy can offer" said the headmaster. He then looked at the sea of acolytes beneath him and added. "May the best acolyte win!"

Hearing the headmaster's encouragement, all of them showed their enthusiasm for the event. They wanted to do their best.

After the headmaster said his words, a beautiful magus stepped forward in high spirit. "Dear acolytes, I'm Serena and I will be the host of today's game. The game itself will be observed by the institution and our guests coming from outside."

When the acolytes heard the game was not only observed by the institution's magus, but also by others outside of it, their already high enthusiasm shot even higher.

"This will be our biggest and most anticipated event so far. That's why I suggest you all give your best in competing and don't ever give up!" Magus Selena said.

"Always try to look your best, especially when you are being approached by this tiny cube… do you understand?" continued the beautiful magus with a cheeky smile.

Most acolytes had already read all the information they could put their hands on about the Magus Games. They had gathered as much information as possible to better prepare themselves, with some of them even having detailed information. Emery and the others did the same, because no one wanted to lose in this game and they had decided to get ready ahead of time.

The Magus Games themselves were separated into three rounds. The first one will be held today, the acolyte could join the next round, that would be held in the next ten days, if they passed the first round, simple as that.

The rule would be the same until its last round. In the end, a bunch of groups that could make it to the last round would be considered the most talented ones. Even though the rule was simple and looked easy, the challenge might not be as easy as they thought.

The beautiful blond magus continued her speech, "The classes will be divided into groups, 10 classes per group. If you are from class 45. You will be in group 4 and so on. Now, it's time for you to team up! Hope you have wisely chosen your partners, as finding good teammates itself is part of being one the best magus."

An information suddenly came from the symbol on Emery's palm.

[Will you be participating in the Magus Game?]

[Yes]

[Choose your team]

When Emery was trying to make sense of the words he just received, another information suddenly popped up inside his head.

[Julian Kaesar from Class 77 would like to invite you into the team. Will you accept?]

[Yes]

After Emery accepted the invitation, he could see that Julian had added all their names and they were now a team.

Clapping his hand in excitement, Julian couldn't hold his enthusiasm anymore and said, "Alright, guys. The five of us are already in one team. We are Team 99 of group 7. I'm sure that if all of us can cooperate well this round, we can win this game!"

Klea, who heard Julian's words, rolled her eyes and sighed before saying, "Ai… Can't we just make our own team name? This one screams 'silly' to me."

Thinking for a moment about the rules of the game, Julian opened his mouth, "Uhm… I'm sure there is no rule that holds us back from naming our own group." Turning his head to Klea, he said, "We can pick our own name if we want to. What do you have in mind, Klea?"

Klea fell silent thinking about the possible names, while others kept their mouth shut. Seeing the situation, Julian said, "What about you others? Does anyone have another idea about the group name? Emery? Chumo?"

"Wait. Why come you didn't say my name?" asked Thrax, annoyed.

"Because… your brain full of muscle?" replied Julian.

Just before another fight broke out between the two boys, Klea finally woke up from her deep thought, "How about '5 Jewels'?"

"5 Jewels?" asked Emery in curiosity.

Klea looked at Emery and said, "Yeah! I like the sound of it and it also represents our team's personality better." Turning her gaze towards others, she asked, "What do you think, guys? It sounds great, right?"

Seeing the three boys silence, Klea crossed her arms and said, "Ok what about.. 'The Queen's Warriors'? I'm fine with either of them."

Looking at the expression plastered on the boys' faces, Emery could sense that all of them dislike the name Klea just suggested. But he knew all too well that none of them would dare to say no to Klea. They would rather agree to anything she said rather than facing the 'consequences'.

"How about 'The Eagle'?" blurted out Julian after the momentary silence. Thrax replied, "Is this about the Roman and their eagle?"

"It's a symbol meant to inspire others," said Julian calmly.

Thrax scoffed at Julian's words, "Huh?! You should choose lion or bear if you want to inspire…" said Thrax, "Eagle.. Heh, what a joke."

Feeling the familiar tense atmosphere, Klea said, "Okay, stop it you two," she then turned her head towards Emery, "Emery, what do you think?"

Rubbing his chin while contemplating, Emery then said, "I think we should just keep it simple and use our home as the group name."

"The name of our planet? So… Earth Magus?" asked Klea.

"It's so plain…" commented Thrax, "But, I guess it sounds fine."

Hearing the agreement from the loud bull, Julian then quickly addes, "Alright then, Earth Magus it is." Turning his head towards Chumo, Emery saw him nodding his head in agreement.

The beautiful blonde magus once again speaking, "Now, I will announce this year's first stage theme." The chatter immediately quietened down when the acolytes heard that. Magus Serena flashed a smile before saying, "This year's first stage theme is… Defend the Bridge!"

The crowd of hundreds of acolytes started to turn wild, when they heard this year's theme.

'It's a fairly easy game to understand. Just stand on the bridge and don't fail on defending it!" said Serena, looking very excited as if she was the one who would participate in the game.

"Defend the bridge?" muttered Emery in confusion. In all honesty, he never really knew all the different themes that could occur in the game's stages. Julian, on the other hand, looked very worried.

Noticing the expression on his face, Emery asked, "What's wrong, Julian?"

"This is bad, guys. This is the worst possible theme for teams such as us."

Confused, Emery asked again, "What do you mean?"

"Don't you get it, Emery? It will be much harder to defend the bridge with only five people. In this theme, the number of the team members really affects the outcome" explained Julian.

While Emery was still thinking about the matter, Magus Serena gave the last announcement regarding the first stage.

"The objective on this stage is simple. Just like the previous first stage games, this will be an elimination game, only 50 teams from each group are allowed to move to the next round. This means the game will not stop until leaving only the top 50. Easy, right? Aren't you all excited?"

[Total team of group 7 :121 team]

50 teams out of 121. Being able to pass this stage meant that they would be in the top 40% of the acolytes. Realizing that, Emery was determined to pass this stage no matter what he had to do later.

Seeing the enthusiastic acolytes, Magus Serena said, "Without further due, you may all step into the portal. The game will start shortly."

"Good luck!"