*Xiaona*

"Good luck you two," I said, waving as Ning and I walked away.

"Bye," Shu said, waving. He seemed a tad sad. Fighting a friend in the early rounds was usually tough. It was a lot better to face off in the semi-finals or the actual thing. Well, for some, it was tough in general.

"Hey!" I said as I spotted Ling and Lady Adela. They were with my classmates and their own. Come to think of it, we hadn't really made friends with the native students.

"Ona," Li said as I sat next to her.

"Standing on one side of the ring is the pretty boy who makes the hearts of girls and boys alike swoon, Liu Renshu! And on the other side, holy maiden and returnee to this academy, Lin Changying!"

I smiled slightly. "Who are you betting will win, Li?"

Li shrugged. "I don't gamble. For I am too young. Besides, it's not good for my wallet."

I laughed. "As literal minded as always."

"Eh? Is Li like Huo and me?" Cart exclaimed, blinking.

"I don't think so. Think it's just that she's anti-social so her skills aren't as polished as they otherwise would be."

"Especially with those around her age. She can talk just fine with adults," Adela said.

Li shrugged. "Adults have more interesting things to talk about than people my age did growing up."

"Such as?" Kanja asked, leaning toward her.

"Politics," Ling said.

"Politics?" Carter asked, scrunching his nose.

"You never had an interest in them while living at the palace?"

Carter shook his head. "Papa took care of the stuffy stuff. Plus, I was a little kid. Sister was more involved in it than I ever was, even when I was named the heir after her exile."

"I knew a few things since young," Aurelius said, smiling.

Li chuckled. "You'll probably make a better Magus Maximus than Carter then. You're friendly and smart."

Aurelius blushed slightly.

"Oh? Ling's complimenting people? That's a rare sight," I said, chuckling slightly.

Li shot me daggers.

"Complimenting Au while insulting me," Carter said, grumbling as he crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, you have to admit, Aurelius seems more level headed than you," Kanja said, patting his shoulder.

He pouted. "On whose side are you on, Kan?"

Lei laughed. "I have to agree. Not that any of you kids will become Magus Maximus."

Carter narrowed his eyes at him. "I really wanna fight you one day..."

Hikaru sighed. "Don't let Aurelius fool you, he can drift off as well as you two can."

"Hey!" Lei said, grumbling.

Hikaru snickered. "You can be rather eccentric at times. I'm not even sure if Yen would get you and Kun if you weren't triplets."

"Nor am I," Yen said, patting Lei's head.

Lei smiled slightly.

Yuzuki giggled. "That 'eccentricity' is what makes the triplet boys who they are."

Kun swung his arms behind his head. "Frankly, I enjoy being weird!"

"That alone makes you weird," Yen said, chuckling as she nudged Kun.

Kun nodded.

Sarah covered her mouth.

"And people call me weird," An mumbled.

"Your oddness is due to your lack of knowledge of the world outside the little village we were born in," Ning said.

An's shoulders slumped. "You're right."

"Eh? Don't feel down. I didn't meant it like that."

"Yeah, but I still don't get the customs of this place."

"Well, you were in a coma for half a year," Vermeil said, putting both hands on his slumped shoulders.

An looked down. "Yeah. It's disorienting. Like I'm out of the right space and time I should be in."

Sarah poked him from behind. She gave him a mighty scowl.

He smiled slightly. "Guess I am being a little overly melancholic."

I returned my gaze to the battlefield. Renshu smirked as his plants absorbed Changying's light needle barrage.

Changying jumped back as several sparsely thorned vines shot out of the oversized rose shrub. Her movements had improved since our first year.

Renshu smirked and snapped his finger, causing roots to shoot out of the ground. Changying leaned back, narrowly avoiding getting hit by them head on.

Chang brought her hands close. The space between them glowed a brilliant yellow like that of a clear midday.

Shu gritted his teeth.

Li gasped. "Since when could she use such a spell?"

"What's she doing?" Nyima asked.

"It's a level three spell, stronger than the likes of the angel modeled spells," I said.

"Level three?" Kanja asked, gasping.

"Level three? Is that strong?" Carter asked.

Li facepalmed. "You plan to become Magus Maximus yet don't have a clue about level rankings?"

Carter scratched his face. "Well, I know what basic spells and rank one spells are, but I've never wondered what that meant."

She shook her head. "Truly..."

"The higher rank a spell has, the more energy and time it takes to cast. But in turn, one gets a spell with a lot more umph," Kun said.

"Woah," Carter said.

"You got that?" Kanja asked, raising a brow.

Carter nodded. "Umph!"

Wow. He was an oddball.

"Dōu Xiāohàozhe Chìrè de Guāngmáng!" Chang chanted. A burst of intense light sprung from her hands like a laser. The rose shrub, which previously had no difficulty absorbing light magic, burst into flames. The light streamed out of the plant surreally, condensing to form a nebula-like mist.

"Woah! That's a whole lot of umph!" Lei said.

"So this is the magic of a third-year," Lidia said, biting her thumb. "Glad I'm not the one on the receiving end of that."

"This an elite school," Huo said. "The gulf between us and the upperclassmen should be great."

Cart grinned. "Can't wait to get stronger!"

"You've already improved a lot," Kanja said.

Ling leaned back on her seat and snickered. "Changying isn't just any third-year, but a third-year Xianian female. She had a year off, so this growth you see before you is from having self taught via scrolls back home."

Not that anybody could just access them. Certain scrolls in the library of ancient arts required one to reach a minimum level of spiritual, mental, physical, and prana to even open them.

"Can a guy her age not perform a spell like that?" Carter asked.

"It's possible, but he would be in a worse shape than Chang is. Boys were blessed with stronger bodies. But we girls were blessed with larger magical chambers. It's why in other realms, magic is more often associated with women rather than men."

"True," Nat said. "The witch is more well known than the warlock."

Kanja furrowed her brow. "They see us magic users as bad? Witches and warlocks are those who use forbidden magic."

"You could say that," Adela said, watching as Renshu tried to contain the mist with his plants. Sadly, they caught on fire, creating a denser nebula of light.

Renshu clapped his hands as he flew into the air."So, brother's been pushed to use his familiar," Li said, smirking.The first and second years gasped collectively as blue silver grass-like vines shot out of a seal that appeared in front of Shu.

"Isn't that blue silver grass?" Hal asked.

"I didn't know a plant could be made into a familiar," Arima said, leaning forward.

Au smiled. "Grandma a plant familiar too! Everweed."

"The healing herb?" Lei asked, blinking.

Aurelius nodded. "Although, it has uses other than potion making."

"It can be used to make homunculus or explosives," Hal said.

Adela hummed. "Ren did that during our first day in Mr. Suzuran's class last year."

"Renshu did?" Cart asked.

She laughed. "A different guy." She looked down.

Adela hadn't gotten over the betrayal, had she? It was one thing getting bullied, but to have had someone pretend to be a friend so they could later backstab you was far worse. Trust issues could've easily resulted from such treachery.

The blue silver grass burned as the flames continued to spread closer. Shu had slowed them down a bit using his flame magic, but given they were made via light magic they weren't easy for him to take control of in the first place.

"Doesn't Renshu have another element?" Huoyin asked.

"Oh, yeah! Ling has three!" Carter said.

"He has wind," I said, watching as Renshu flew higher.

"Why hasn't he used it yet?"

"Wind can make flames worse," Nat said.

"Does he think a familiar that weak can stop those flames? He's literally just adding more fuel to the fire," Ayawamat asked, scoffing.

"Don't underestimate blue silver grass, cousin. It's weak at the beginning, but it has a large growing curve," Tahoma said.

Ling nodded. "I don't think brother's shown us all that his familiar can do." She smirked. "I want to see how well he cultivated it."

Aurelius grinned. Seemed he was even more excited than Ling to see what Renshu's familiar could do.

"Advanced Blue Silver Grass Magic! Flame Absorption!" Renshu shouted and multiple strands of long grass stabbed the ring.

Nat gasped. "It's like my dad's technique!"

His dad could do something similar? Was he a blue silver grass user too?

"Why didn't he use it earlier?" Arima asked as Renshu's grass absorbed the glistening flames and smoke.

"The blue silver grass had to acclimate first," Tahoma said as he turned to look at Aya. "It's why he kept feeding the fire, to let it grow accustomed to them. It wasn't some useless quixotic struggle."

Ayawamat smirked. "I see. Seems I did underestimate your classmates."

"Blue silver grass might be regarded as something one sees growing at the side of any road, but it only managed to become so prolific due to how hardy and adaptable it is. That's why the Space Commission uses it to terraform planets," Ling said.

"Terraform planets, huh?" Alex said, glancing at Sir Elliot.

Elliot looked down and hummed. Were they thinking of using blue silver grass to revive their friends' planet? Well, thankfully there were plenty of animals that loved eating the stuff. Else, it would've been nothing but a noxious weed.

Changying smiled as she readied her next spell. Renshu, he wasn't planning to have his silver grass try to absorb it, was he? That was too much for its current level of cultivation.

Renshu held a hand toward her and smiled.

Li's eyes widened. "Wait, is Shu planning to..."

"Seems like it," Shuai said as he and Enkai joined us.

"Eh? Who said you can sit next to me?" Ling asked.

Shuai smiled. "Come on, we're family. I came here to support Shu." His smile vanished and he turned his attention back to his older cousin. "Although, he might be a little over his head."

Li watched as wind spun around her brother's palm. "Yeah... I don't think Shu's had enough practice to handle that kind of power."

I crossed my arms and smiled. "I wouldn't be so sure."

"Why do you say that? Shu hasn't had time to practice his own magic," Ling said.

Lei grinned. "I think I get it. His tutoring of Cart and Huo is the key, right?"

Alto gasped. "It's like when you helped me and I helped out Cart, isn't it?"

"I think so!"

I nodded. "You two are correct. Prana control is what Shu's been teaching those fire boys all of this time."

"Tiānkōng Dǎodàn!" Renshu chanted at the top of his lungs. A blast of wind flew out of his palm. 

Changying smirked. "Guāng Léngjìng Píngzhàng!" The prana in her hands shot out and fell back down just as fast, forming a barrier of glistening golden light around her.

"She wasn't planning another round of that light blast?" Huo said as Shu's attack struck the shield.

I couldn't help but smile. Changying really had grown a lot. By fending off this attack, victory was within her grasp. If not, then it was Shu's for the taking.

Shu snapped his fingers, causing seven small air missiles to fly off of the initial attack. They snapped the sides of the golden barrier. Now all sides but below were being pressed against. Chang, how was she going to get out of this bind?

Chang and I both gasped. The ring and the prism barrier trembled. Shu's blue silver grass dotted the ring. What had hit the barrier had to have been the collective root system of all that grass. Wait! Was Renshu planning to suck out the energy from it?

Chang looked around as thin roots creeped out of the ground.

"Eat up!" Renshu shouted, spreading his arms out.

"Oh, he's a real performer alright," Kun said, snickering.

Indeed. Chang thought a step ahead, but Shu thought a step beyond that.

The barrier shimmered. Chang tapped one of the panels and vanished. The next moment, the various parts of the barrier flung out in multiple directions, causing the wind spell to hit the ground, destroying the blue silver grass's roots.

Shu looked around as a dense dust cloud filled the battlefield. His breathing was heavy. He might've managed that rank three spell, but it came at a high prana cost. One Changying could afford, but not him.

"Oh no, Shu's in trouble now!" the twins mumbled, squirming from their seats in front of mine.

"Does that spell Shu use have any other effects?" Carter asked, more quietly than usual.

I shook my head. "That spell's main gimmick is its duplicates, which pack the same power as the original at no additional cost."

"You said main, so it has to to have more effects, right?" Huo said.

Was he worried about Shu?

"It has another, but not sure if Shu can use it yet," Ling said.

"What would that be?" the triplets asked in unison.

"Energy retrieval," Adela said. "By gathering the dispersed air prana, he can regain most of the energy he used up. But the chances of Chang allowing him to do so are nil."

Renshu took a deep breath and blew away the dust to one side of the battlefield. He removed his shoes, throwing them outside of the ring. Forming a fist, he flew into the dust cloud. Flames erupted from his ankles and wrists, lighting up the darkness within the cloud.

"Hey! That's my technique!" Carter exclaimed, standing up.

I snickered. "Makes sense he would try to use it. You fight using ignis, a base fire spell which takes up little prana."

Huo rubbed his right ear. "Seems our tutoring wasn't one sided."

"Watch your master closely, you two. I get a feeling you'll learn something if you haven't already," Sir Elliot said, grinning.

Cart sat back down and leaned forward.

Renshu sent flames in multiple directions, but they were reflected back at him. The strands of blue silver grass tangled around his arm reabsorbed them, although he could've done so himself. Absorption of flames came easy to him. It's probably why Lady Adela was counting on him to take care of things should they have gone wrong during her phoenix hatching ritual. That she didn't ask me and Chang to help did make me a little sad. Chang had earth and I had water, so if a fire bloke out, we would've been helpful in putting it out. Instead, she asked the Zionian siblings for help. Maybe we were just that unreliable to her.

"Chang," Orichalcum said, nudging me from behind. "Are you alright?"

I blinked and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure?" Lady Adela asked.

I looked ahead as Renshu zipped around, kicking the mirrors. "I am." Musing about what happened wasn't going to help. In the next match, I planned to show her how much I had grown. That I was as dependable as Renshu and Ling.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts? Theories? Predictions?**