Mezia

The class was held in the exact same place as the previous, giving everyone a dark foreboding. At least the instructor began with a proper introduction.

"My name is Mezian and we will have much fun together." The tall black man let his bare feet dangle from the wall as he looked down on the bruised and exhausted students.

"Let me guess your fitness trainer is Mencía?" His furrowed browns saw a few weak nods. "I believe she is overcompensating for her lack of height." He was whispering loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Don't worry I will give you a little break."

He jumped down, his white toga fluttering in the wind. His black hair was bound back in long braids.

"Good. Before we begin, you should show me your offensive spells." His hand did a small gesture and a tall concrete like rock shot out of the ground in the middle of the arena."Use them like you would in a real battle."

"You there, with the white hair, begin."

The arrogant but quiet youth nodded and stood up.

"I will need a sword to perform my magic." His voice was precise and confident.

'Now that I think about it, it is the first time he spoke this day.' Vincent watched with interest. He had talked with the others and mande some quiet inquierys.

Other than him having a mysterius bloodline Vincent found out that his father was an influencial roman senator. It was only a matter of days before the letter he send to Arminius would come back.

"A wooden one should be enough."

Mezian pointed his finger at a rack in the corner of the training ground. It was filled with wooden weapons from all around the world.

The tall kid walked over and grabbed a longsword. The design was sleek and distinctly not roman. Probatly from the lands of the northern lords.

A white aura formed around it, almost invisible in the burnig sun. Vincent could feel the mana move in destinct paths. Slashing the sword against the stone left a cut, at least a centimetre deep, jet not a single scratch was on the weapon.

Mezian whistled, his eyebrows raised.

"That's some impressive power. I take you are also adapt at body reinforcement?"

The boy nodded. "My name is, Wilhelm."

"I didn't ask you that." The instructor just shoot him away. "Anyway, your art is destructive, jet useless if you are unable to get near your enemy. I think it would be better for you to use a bow." He pointed at the impressive muscles Wilhelm had despite his age.

"If you want to get the most out of this power, there are many good artificers in Rome."

Wilhelm widened his eyes, as if someone murdered his mother. "That's a COWARD'S way of fighting." His tone was agrassive, unfriendly.

"There is no way I am gonna accept it. Besides." His eyes flared as a small sheen of mana covered his whole body.

"I am a duel element user."

Mezian only shook his head, unable to believe the stupidity. That had nothing to do with the point. "Hey you with the blue eyes, you are next." Wilhelm walked away, as quiet as always.

Vincent pointed at himself, and the teacher gave him a small nod.

"Should I conserve energy, or go all out." Mezian shrugged his shoulder and remained silent.

'Let's go with medium power.'

With a single fluid movement, one of the steel rings shrunk in half and formed a pointy, bullet like projectile spinning in Vincent's hand.

Then, with a wave of his hand, it shot forward. A small dust cloud immediately shot out of the impact zone, chipped of pieces of the rock hit the ground.

The projectile was to fast to see with the naked eye and far too fast to doge.

When it settled, a hole with the size of a fist was left, the steel sticking out of the centre.

The whole class was quiet. Who was this boy?

"Wow, that was something." Mezian nodded in approval and raised his head to the chin. "How much mana do you have left.

"It took me a fourth." Vincent said emotionless. Surpressing the nausea was no easy task, jet he did not even bat an eye.

"I am surprised you managed to get such a power out of a manipulation tiype spell. Your purety and control must be out of the world." Mezian steped near, towering over Vincent. Then he looked him in the eyes, streight. "Not a sign of struggle, keep it like this. Hiding your exhaustion is essential. Just like they said."

'As expected he already read through our files. Maybe they even watched the test.'

Mezia raised his hand to his chin and contemplated for a moment.

"You should be aware, that experienced mages are able to read the mana signatures of their enemy's and act accordingly?"

Vincent nodded his head. It was different from the technique he used, it instead was about the aura. Like svened tought him, a more or less expirienced mage would know how to surpress their mana, so that it may not beat when not in use.

He looked around, about half of the students were at this stage.

Jet no one, absulutly no one, could hide their aura when casting. A keen mage knew when a spell was coming from miles away.

"They may not be able to block your projectile, nor doge it when it fly towards them, but they can read your mana and move out of the way moments before you finish casting."

He moved a few steps to the left, with a speed far faster than any normal human.

"And with your mana you only have a couple try's to finish, not talking about fighting multible enemy's. And then there are srange and mysterius defensive spells that trick your senses, or nullify your physical attacks completly."

Vincent gritted his teeth and raised his arms in defeat. "Then tell me, what should I do."

Mezia had a small smile on his lips.

"I guess you were trained by a powerful mage, who has survived more than one battle. Sadly the man did not have the experience of teaching anyone nor much knowledge about your element."

He raised a hand, stopping Vincent in motion.

"Before you protest, your spell is useful and extremly powerful, it is just that you need something else. I would propose using metal strings."

'Strings, who in their right mind would use strings to battel?'

Vincent almost wanted to strangle the man in front of him, jet different than that idiot Wilhelm, he stood still and listened.

"So normaly that would be an insane idea, jet it is perfect to get the best out of your control."

He threw Vincent a small wooden stick.

" Mages are able to transmit their mana through an object they are familiar with, just like what the white haired kid did. People in the east call it sword aura or spear aura and so on. We simply call it mana extension.

Try it and then think about my proposal again."

He pointed at another kid and started watching his spells and giving suggestions. Vincent already stopped listening.