Shadow Magus - Chapter 6 Duel

Freya and the others soon finished packing and went down stairs. When everyone had gathered, Logan showed up and lead them to their destination. As they walked in the streets they eventually spotted two airships. Although they were not big, in this world which lacked effective modes of transport, airships were perhaps the fastest and definitely the most luxurious option. Even if everyone here came from wealthy family’s no one had ever travelled by the sky before.

Freya could clearly tell that everyone was feeling excited about traveling in a magic powered airship. When they approached one of the airships Logan lead them onboard without even glancing at the gourds. They seemed to know who Logan was and did not stop him. Just when the last person walked onboard someone approached them. It was a man in his thirties and surprisingly he was a talented magus.

“Logan how are you doing my friend?” Logan turned around and revealed a smile “very good, we got some talents this year. If it is not too much trouble could you get us some rooms, the Dark forest academy will foot the bill.”

“Yes of course today the academies have priority a per our agreement. As the captain, you can leave everything to me. Why not join me for tea?” Logan was in a good mood and decided to join his friend, letting the servant’s lead the students to their rooms.

Freya got room number one while Layla got number two meaning that their rooms were right in front of each other. As Freya entered her room the first thing she noticed was the small amount of space that was available. In the small airship space was very costly, someone like her was already lucky to a room for herself. The room only had a bed, a table and two chairs. Luckily everything was top quality and the room was sparkling clean.

Freya left her room and went to the living room where she noticed that several people where already talking to each other. Layla waving at her “Freya come over here there is plenty of space for you.” Freya revealed a smile and walked over and decided to sit next to Layla on the sofa.

“It feels so exiting to be joining an academy, especially the Dark forest academy who has a good reputation. In this harsh world, it is hard to find a safe place to study magic without being constantly exploited. We are lucky that the Dark forest academy have few in numbers and values quality over quantity.”

Freya nodded and showed her agreement. As they were about to continue their conversation they noticed two groups of people separately taking a seat in the same room. She secretly whispered to Layla “do you know who those people are?”

Layla whispered back “The smaller group should be from Ocean academy, they are a medium sized academy with many people talented in water magic.” She then took a glance at the other group with a look filled with distain.

“As for the bigger group, they should be from Bone academy. One of the smallest medium sized academies. They are filled with evil necromancers and likes to exploit their apprentices. They accept a large amount of people with poor talents each year. They promise great futures but new apprentices would be lucky to survive five years at that place. Of course, some of them still manages to become a magus from time to time, but the price they pay for it is often higher than what they gain.”

Freya could not help feeling lucky that see she had some talent and had the opportunity to join a good academy. She could clearly see the solemn looks on the people from Bone academy, none of them had any happy expressions. She also noticed some people from Bone academy looking in their direction from time to time. They were filled with different emotions, some had looks of envy while others showed fear there was also other feelings but none of them was anything that could be described as a positive emotion.

It was normal for talented individuals such as Layla to look down on people who had no future. The people from Ocean academy and Dark forest academy slowly lost interest in those who might as well be considered as having one foot in the grave already.

Instead they grew interested in each other’s groups. Before long the person who acted like the leader from Ocean academy walked over with two people behind him. Freya looked at them curiously, trying to figure out their intentions.

“My name is Alastair and this is Alec and Ale” Alec and Ale seemed to be brothers based on their similar appearances. “We from Ocean academy came to exchange pointers with the talented people from Dark forest academy.” Although Alastair said so in a friendly manner, Freya got the feeling that he was here to cause trouble.

Layla answered full of confidence “My name is Layla and I would be more than happy to exchange pointers with you.” Although she might have too much confidence for her own good, she did not underestimate her opponents and looked serious.

“Great in that case let’s not waste any time and start our duel.” Alastair smirked and with a scheming look in his eyes started casting a spell without any warning. Layla reacted quickly and fallowed with a spell of her own.

Alastair finished his spell first. Water gathered quickly into a spear like object and soon shot towards Layla. She in turn created a shield of darkness to block the incoming attack. Although the spell was focused more on casting speed then a strong defense, it was good enough to get the job done and allowed her to gain more time to cast her offensive oriented spell. This showed her great combat experience and her precise control she had over her spells.

However, at this moment Alastair finished his second spell. In moments, the water spear turned into solid ice and started to rotate very quickly. Layla’s expression changed as she quickly jumped to the side to dodge. She did not expect Alastair to be capable of combining spells and was not prepared for it. The ice spear soon came in contact with the shield, it slowed down for a second before passing right through just missing Layla in the last second.

It was at this moment that the unexpected happened. The floor started to shake as the airship took off. As Layla had just jumped she instantly lost her balance. When casting spells one needed to be able to concentrate or else one would lose control of the spell and that is just what happened to Layla. The spell she had almost finished collapsed and she was unable to control it. She suffered from backlash and was unable to immediately cast a new spell to protect herself. She found herself unable to prevent her fall. As she looked up she saw an icicle coming at a great speed towards where her head was about to land.