Duel(1)

"Despite the fact that magic has been studied for centuries on end, many things still lay outside the wide bubble of knowledge belonging to mages." Mr. Isaac began to explain his earlier statement.

"If a mage with an affinity for darkness uses mana art, they get the enhanced strength and speed but when it comes to the special ability received, there is none that is known of." He concluded looking at students with black streaks in pity.

"Now, enough beating around the bush. Let's get to the actual exercise." Mr. Isaac sat cross legged on the ground.

The students, Logan included sat on the ground with him.

'What could be so different about the darkness element that there's no known applied effect of a mana art.' Logan furrowed his eyebrows, a habit he was starting to develop.

"Close your eyes and focus on your mana core." His voice instructed the students who quickly complied.

"Focusing on your mana core, lead out a controlled stream of mana and stop there." He relayed further instructions.

"Lead the stream of mana from your core to the tip of your middle finger." The voice guided and the students attempted to do such.

As the stream tried to flow through the flesh, it rejected it causing a large amount of pain to course through all students, Logan included.

"I know it's difficult and painful but you have to strive and push on." Mr. Isaac encouraged the students.

"With each trial, the energy will be able to move closer to its intended target." He revealed as he guided the students.

Logan was so engrossed with what he was doing that he barely registered the flow of time.

It took a while and a resounding siren to break his attention and inform him of the end of the class.

'That quickly? The mana conduit I was creating barely reached a centimeter. Just how long will it take me to reach the middle finger of my right hand?' Logan pondered before taking out his tablet to check his schedule and much to his surprise, he didn't have any class at the moment.

Two hours each for the first two classes, an hour for lunch and two more hours for the last class of the day. That was how the class scheduling worked in the academy.

Logan left the dojo and headed to the cafeteria.

He sat at an empty table at the back, far away from hating eyes.

He ordered his food and was about to dig in when Orion burst through the doors of the cafeteria.

He turned his head slowly, observing everyone around with his forehead creased.

He spotted Logan and smiled before running over.

"Man, you sure are hard to find. Moving to your next destination while avoiding talking to anyone else or doing any other thing. People will think you're a weirdo." Orion sighed as he sat down beside Logan.

"How is that any different from being called a freak?" Logan cocked his head as he asked.

"Point taken." Orion replied, raising his hands in mock surrender.

Orion without wasting much time ordered his food and started eating while occasionally telling Logan what he claimed was…

"The hottest gossip in our year bro. I know what I'm saying, she's a shapeshifter." Orion went wild with stories, many of which left Logan confused.

He couldn't fathom how students in less than three days of actually being in the academy could create such wild stuff.

Logan finished eating and was waiting for Orion who was ordering his third plate.

'I thought only the first plate is free. For him to be ordering this much, he must have money and quite a lot at that.' Logan's eyes darted around his body trying to find any tied to nobility but found none.

A siren resounded throughout the academy notifying students that the lunch break had ended.

Orion gulped everything down in a near instant even almost choking a few times.

"Okay, gotta go. Having Blacksmithing class. Don't forget our duel." He waved as he ran out of the cafeteria.

Logan couldn't collect the spells yet because it wasn't the end of the day.

'Guess it can't hurt to continue with the mana art.' He thought heading to his room.

******

In the academy at the moment, a person held a tablet in hand, they tweaked at it until the screen started to display an image.

The image moved revealing its status as a video.

"Hold back on your mission. That bodiless Lich has struck a deal with someone there." The man in the video spoke.

The man was Emperor Kai!

"Okay sir. If that's his wish, then I shall obey." The person bowed to the video before heading off.

*******

Logan entered his room and saw Jack practicing a few spells.

Jack looked at Logan, guilt still in his eyes. He clearly still wanted to address their past issues but Logan didn't want to.

Not because he was petty but because for him, it was a clear indignation of who Jack really was.

People often blamed their parents for leading them astray but that wasn't always an excuse especially for someone as old as Jack.

Logan doubted that two months were suddenly going to change the perspective those from his home town had of him.

'So what had changed with Jack all of a sudden?' Logan thought as his nose crumpled up in disgust.

He ignored Jack and sat crossed legged to begin the technique.

He could hear Jack sigh before leaving the room.

Logan focused on his mana core and brought out a thin controlled stream.

He directed it to his finger tip but it stayed lodged in place, only moving towards its target by a mere centimeter.

This was far different from what was required of Logan for the Mana control part of the academy's assessment.

Mana Control required him to bring it out of his body and the challenge laid on preventing the dispersion of the mana.

This mana art required him to move the mana within his body, his flesh, muscles and tendons, outside the natural path flow of mana.

Each try and advancement he made felt like someone was digging through his flesh with a blunt and rusted knife.

Logan made progress by another centimeter and opened his eyes to rest when the siren resounded once again.

"The duel." Logan sighed before standing up and stretching.

He headed to one of the six buildings within the academy grounds, the training hall.

It was just like the dormitories. Tall, white with windows.

Logan entered and saw multiple doors surrounding him and this was the ground floor.

Many rooms were closed with 'WAIT. IN USE' written in red with only a few being green.

Logan entered one of the open ones and waited.

He sat in a lotus pose as he took in deep and stable breaths to calm himself until he felt someone's gaze on him.

He opened his eyes and saw Orion.

"I have been waiting." Logan said with a smile.