"Why don't we do some drills on our own?"
Upon, saying this, the young prince stood straight and clapped his hands a couple of times to catch the rest of the class' attention.
"My fellow students, since our instructor is not here to guide us today, why not do some drills like he told us to?" he said with the confident air which befits a member of the royal family.
"What do you propose, Prince Alexander?" an older looking student from the military department asked respectfully.
"I suggest a friendly competition between comrades, to test our defensive skills when it comes to combat," Xander suggested. "In a real battle, we could never really tell what kind of attack would hit us, so I propose that we have a small drill to see if we can successfully defend against different types of elemental magic by countering it with the opposite element."
"Oh, sounds interesting!" Dorin said excitedly.
And this was what Xander was really after.
"But half of the class, particularly those from the military department, do not have a special element of their own," a student said.
"Most of them are merely relying on magical cells to use elemental magic on their weapons of choice," said another. "Likewise, a mage usually has only one element! How can we use the opposite to defend ourselves?"
"We have elemental shields as well as wards," replied a military student. "We can use that."
"We also have our own ways to defend ourselves from magical attacks, regardless of what element is being used," said Mordecai. "You can just use any method you can think of, the important thing is for you to be able to block your opponent's attack. If you have the opposite element, then much better."
Xander waited as his fellow students talked among themselves.
"So, we would need to fight and defend ourselves at the same time?" asked a student from the magical department.
"Yes, but not physically. You would just need to counter your opponent's attack. We are to keep a certain distance from one another and only use long range skills to hit the area surrounding your opponent. Magic is mostly projectiles, after all, compared to physical melee attacks."
The class mumbled in agreement.
"So, we win if the attack goes through our opponent's shield, or if he hits it back?"
"Exactly."
"I'm in!" Dorin raised his hand.
"Me too, this sounds like fun." Johan cracked his knuckles.
"We're ready as well," said the group of military mages. But the rest of the class were still hesitant, particularly those from the magic department.
"The military students have elemental weapons and shields," they said amongst themselves. "Those weapons can be imbued with more that one element, and can magnify magic a hundred times over!"
"We will have to ask them to lower the charge of their weapons," Mordecai suggested.
"Also, no one will be forced to join this drill, you may choose to stay and simply watch the rest of the class. May I also inform you all that we have two very talented medics here, in case someone gets hurt," Xander added, looking at Mordecai and Bennette who quickly looked away.
"Then the magic students should also do the same! No strong magic is allowed."
"What's the point of the drill then?" Johan frowned.
"The point is to see if we are fast enough to react to an attack," Xander said with a smile. "Think of it as a friendly spar with your brother of friend."
"Okay, I get it," he looked at Dagon who was busy stuffing his face with snacks. "Dagon shouldn't join, though, he can't control his fire yet."
"As if a child can actually join this kind of drill!" he heard someone sneaker from behind.
Johan was about to answer back when Dorin placed a hand on his arm.
"So, do we need to make groups?" he asked.
"No, and that's the best part," said Xander. "Let the best man win."
And so the drills began.
"There are a total of 28 balls in this box, for each of the 28 students present here today," Mordecai said while holding up the box of potato chips Dagon just emptied. "If you get the black ball, you will stay on the left, the white ball and you go to the right. Black and white shall fight one by one for the initial fight, until there is only 1 person left standing."
The raffle, though, was rigged, as the sly medic made sure that the whole of the prince's team would have a change to go against Dorin and Johan.
"I got white!" said Johan as he waited for Dorin to pick a ball.
"Also white."
They didn't notice that all of the able looking students were in the black side, including the prince's retinue.
"Aren't you joining the drill?" Johan asked Bennette who stood aside as the rest of the class took their turn on the small box to pick a color.
"I'll pass. I'm not good at fighting."
"Then you can just test your defensive skills," Dorin said by their side.
"I'm not good at that either," he mumbled, turning red.
"You can look after Dagon and watch us, then," Johan said, flexing his arms. "When do we start?"
"Since there are 2 students who are not participating, then both sides should have 13 members each," said Mordecai. "Let the drills begin!"
A large military student immediately approached Dorin. Johan, on the other hand, went straight to Venet who seemed glad to be facing him.
"I've been waiting for a chance to drop you," the wind mage said in his shrill voice.
He immediately called a sharp wind to try and cut Johan down, but it was blocked by a curved wall of earth that rose as Johan stomped his feet. His wind attack swerved to the side, almost blowing away the students beside them.
"Whoa! That's a good one, Johan!" called Xander who had already defeated his opponent. The other student is currently surrounded by fire that rose from his feet. Mordecai quickly put it out and helped cure the student who suffered from minor burns.
"My turn." Johan aimed his index finger at Venet and shot a beam of fire right at him. Venet tried to block it with his wind, but the beam sliced through it and missed him by a hair's length as he dodged.
"I got through. You lose," Johan told the wind mage.
Meanwhile, Dorin faced opponent who took out a grappling gun and loaded it with a rectangular magic cell.
"Let's see if you can block this!"
He adjusted a lever and started shooting Dorin with fire bullets.
Dorin simply stretched out his hands to stop the bullets which seemed to be sucked in and disappeared in thin air.
"What did he do?" the onlookers asked. "Why did the bullets disappear?"
"He created a space between him and the bullets," Mordecai explained as he watched, his opponent lying on the wet ground. "The space he created had no air within it, thus the fire was snuffed out."
"Like a vacuumed..." Xander whispered low.
"I'm not done yet!" Dorin's opponent turned a knob, this time, large ice bullets formed and rushed towards Dorin, passing through the thick wall of air, but it hit a wall of fire this time, melting the bullets completely.
"Did you see that? He can use both air and fire elements!" the other students gasped as they watched, their own drills already over.
"I've got more up my sleeve!" his opponent sneered, pulling out throwing knives imbued with dark miasma. The gloves in his hand withered as he aimed them at Dorin, who simply swiped them away with his wind.
"Are you done?" Dorin asked the man panting in front of him. "My turn!"
Ice suddenly pushed out of the turf beneath him and created a ragged cage that surrounded the older student.
"He can manipulate water and ice as well! Is he an elementer?" the rest of the students whispered as Dorin's opponent admitted defeat.
"So, who's next?" Dorin asked, facing them.
The rest of the students in the black team stepped back involuntarily, leaving Mordecai and Xander where they stood.
"It seems that your team only have four students left," said Mordecai. " May I have this chance to have a drill with you?" he smiled at Dorin.
"And I would love to have a rematch," Xander told Johan.
"Of course!" Dorin looked excitedly at Mordecai. He was curious about the medic himself, since he has never seen him go all out in a fight before.
'He controls the element of water, as well as life, so he could probably control plants as well,' he thought to himself as he watched the medic closely. 'I should anticipate his every more, for he could manipulate me, too.'
It was then that he felt the slight movement of mana near his feet, as the fraying grass on the ground began to move. Dorin quickly jumped up and remained floating in the air. He surrounded himself with his armor made of wind and cut the sharp edged blades of grass from touching him.
"He's floating!" the onlookers gasped.
"How can he keep himself afloat?! A move like that needs a pre-spelled broom or a lot of mana to pull off!"
Dorin heard this and remembered that his aunt kept telling him not to stand out.
He dropped from the air and quickly sent a barrage of sharp wind attacks towards Mordecai. But none of them hit the medic.
He felt another attack coming his way as sharp ice needles materialized in thin air. Quickly, he covered himself with hot air and ignited his surroundings to melt the ice. Some of the needles got through and shattered as they hit the invisible air surrounding Dorin's body.
Mordecai smirked at how impenetrable his enemy's defenses seem to be.
"I commend your skills, Dorin, but how far can you go with your shield?"
Dorin's gaze never left Mordecai, until he noticed movement to his side. He was just in time to dodge two students who suddenly jumped him!