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28 years after the death of Himmel the Hero, at the Northern Plateau Border Checkpoint, located in the Nachricht Region
Senken was pissed.
He had overextended, literally, in trying to meet Genau in combat. He had shown a level of maneuverability with his metal wings that he hadn't been prepared for, and it cost him his spear.
The spear his mother had gifted him, which he hadn't realized he was attached to until he heard it snap and a tiny spike of irritation lanced his heart.
He wasn't so irritated, however, as to not use his defensive magic, still unoptimized, to thwart Genau's attempt to flank him. Needing a moment to strategize, Senken removed his cloak, and by the vocal response from outside the barrier. He tucked his cracked spear into the shadow it made, and turned to look at Genau, who had a pensive look on his face, as if he was trying to garner the will to breathe.
At that moment, Senken finished the process of strategizing. Step one; demoralize.
He folded his upper arms over his chest, his lower arms, resting their fists on his hips, and he gave his most cocksure smirk he could.
"Catch your breath?" He asked, inflecting his voice as much as possible to draw Genau's ire.
Senken almost didn't see the beginning of the swings, those metal wings slicing down on him in an X formation. Senken was faster, however, flooding and saturating his blood with mana as the sharp feathers cut like blades into his skin, blood splattering out from the wounds.
Yet Senken could still sense the blood, as infused as it was, drifting through the air. He had experience with such effects; the birds made of smoke one such example.
So, when he mentally commanded the blood to stop, it did. Every last drop hung in the air.
"[Herzloc]"
Senken let his grin grow, seeing the look of surprise dominate Genau's face.
As if gravity had changed, the blood flew through the air back to where it came from, tucking itself into the cuts on his arms, leaving them as just dark red lines. Senken made a show of pulling his arms back, winding up a punch, and Genau took the bait perfectly, lifting a wing to block the blow.
The wing was diced into pieces as Senken's fists delivered a double cleave to the construct.
To Genau's credit, the broken wing was reformed quickly as Senken followed up the blows, and they began what could only be equated to a magical taijutsu fight. Each had four limbs to fight with, Genau's metal wings sending sparks flying as they impacted his upper hands, which he had flattened and held a spell within them.
By not letting go of cleave, his hands could parry even the sharpest of swords, blocking and parrying the two wings as his lower arms and Genau's striked and blocked each other in the classic way men ought to do.
Even in this brief exchange, it was obvious Senken held the advantage. He had the size, the weight, the reach, and to Genau's horror, the mana. Even as contained as it was, Senken was keeping his arm wounds from bleeding while holding a spell that allowed his bare hands to hold their own against his wings.
A quick move from Senken gave Genau a chance to pin one of his upper arms lower in his guard. Senken moved his other upper arm to free it, which Genau planned to use as a larger opening to destabilize his magics, only for the wound on Senken's arm to fire from it a lance of blood, nearly hitting Genau in the throat as his knees bent and dropped, letting him bend out of the way, causing the pin to be let go.
When Senken lifted his now free hand in a chop, the blood from the lance sinking back into his arm like a retractable blade, Genau engaged his wings and made distance. In a rush of wind, He rose up the pillar of the testing area, looking down at Senken. He doubted he could hold three spells at once, so flying would give him the necessary room to strategize.
Genau watched as Senken gazed up at him, likely evaluating his choices. Pursuing would leave him at the disadvantage. Ranged combat was far more viable at this distance, but so was Genau's ability to outmaneuver such attacks. Senken's best move was to simply be defensive, let Genau catch his breath, and wait for the Proctor to re-engage.
Senken spread his arms out, and Genau could see the shadow he cast in the early morning light begin pitching deeper in color until it was a darkness like the moonless night.
Genau deduced this was how Senken stored his items, unlike the usual extraspacial spells most mages used.
What he couldn't have predicted, however, was what came next.
Darkening into a bubbling pitch, the puddle cast beneath Senken let loose a flock of winged silhouettes sculpted from liquid shadow, set forth in a fury towards Genau.
The Proctor intercepted the various birds with more metal feathers, but the sheer amount of them, in various sizes, made it impossible. As they were hit, they would pop like overripe melons, the liquid shadow they were made of spraying out before dissipating.
Yet the temporary cover meant that the shadow birds got closer and closer until they were swarming Genau. He could feel the shadows hitting him like water without substance, either from where his wings caught their flights or where they impacted him. It was in this furious maelstrom of black wings that his attention was drawn beneath him, to the test taker, Senken.
Whose mana had just swelled, saturating the air within the barrier.
"[Furnace]"
Through the mire of birds, Genau saw the pinprick of light come from Senken, as if he were holding a sun in the palm of his hand.
"Open."
As the light grew, Genau's body shifted, pushing against the crowd of false avians around him. As a first class mage, he was one of the few who had gained the highest echelon of standing in the magic world. Something that one cannot have without a heavy amount of awareness of one's own capabilities.
For instance, he knew that if he ever raised a hand to Serie, he would lose.
And now, he knew, if he did not leave the barrier, he would die.
With a great thrust of his niello wings, Genau rocketed through the barrier, the shadowed viscera of the birds following after him as if he had broken the surface of a lake of ink, before the barrier was engulfed in flame.
It started at the top, an impact where fire rolled down the sides, and as it hit the various shadow birds, they seemed to fuel it, igniting and furthering the destructive firestorm. It rolled down to the ground, blocking Senken from view. Sparing a glance to Spitz showed her braced, grip firm on her staff, biting her lip in concentration as she dedicated more of her willpower to keeping the barrier from falling and burning the other applicants to charcoal.
Just as Genau was about to say something, the firestorm stopped. As if blowing out a candle, the barrier was no longer stressed. The ground of it was burnt, except for a small circle around Senken, who had returned to that position of crossing his upper arms and resting his lower arms on his hips.
Genau drifted to the ground, outside the barrier, and dismissed his niello wings.
"You pass."
Senken gave Genau a look, before he left the barrier, picked up his cloak, and slapped at it with his hand, dusting it off. The other test takers were in a quiet shock as he dawned the cloak, and began walking out of the courtyard.
"Where are you going?" Genau asked, having Senken stop and look over his shoulder at the first class mage.
"You made me work up an appetite." Senken said simply, as if it were obvious. "I'm going to go have a meal."