Students went up to the dummies one by one. Dorian stood back, arms crossed.
"Another waste of time." he muttered.
"Come on, maybe it'll be fun." Ezekiel tried.
"Half these kids never cast a spell in their lives. What are they gonna show?"
"You don't know that. Maybe someone surprises us."
"Nobody's gonna surprise anyone."
"You surprised everyone in the arena."
"That's different."
"How?"
"Cuz I'm me." Dorian said flat.
Ezekiel opened his mouth, closed it, then just shook his head. "You know, you could at least pretend to enjoy this. We're getting into a magic academy. This is supposed to be exciting."
"Exciting." Dorian repeated. "A kid just tried casting a water spell and soaked himself."
Ezekiel looked. Yeah, some boy was standing there drenched head to toe, red as a tomato.
"...okay that was sad." Ezekiel admitted.
"This whole thing is sad."
"You're sad."
"Thanks."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"Still taking it as one."
Line kept moving. Few nobles showed decent results. Fire spells, ice spells, one even shot a lightning bolt that left a small crack on the dummy surface. After each hit, numbers appeared above dummy's head showing damage dealt.
First noble kid hit with a fireball. Number popped up.
[Damage: 340]
Crowd reacted. Not bad for a student.
Next one used ice lance. Clean throw, solid hit.
[Damage: 410]
"Ohhh." from the crowd.
Then came a girl with a two handed staff. She slammed it into the dummy, the staff glowing with enhancement magic. Physical hit boosted by mana.
[Damage: 520]
Teachers nodded at each other. That was above average.
One noble pulled out a sword covered in fire runes. Charged at the dummy, slashed across the chest. Enhancement magic plus fire element.
[Damage: 680]
Crowd went loud. Someone whistled.
"Now THAT'S power." Ezekiel said.
"That's daddy's sword and daddy's runes." Dorian said without looking.
"Still 680 though."
"With borrowed gear. Take the sword away and he's a 200 at best."
Ezekiel didn't argue. Probably true.
Few more went. Most averaged between 100 and 300. The ones without any training barely cracked double digits. One kid punched the dummy with bare fists.
[Damage: 12]
"Oof." Ezekiel said, face scrunching up like he felt that one himself. Sucked air through his teeth and looked away.
"Respect." Dorian said. First positive thing all day.
Dorian's turn came. He stood in front of a dummy. Big thing, almost two meters tall, shaped like a human but with no face. Just smooth gray metal where the head should be. Chest wide, arms thick, bolted into the ground so it wouldn't fly back from hits. Surface covered in tiny runes, barely visible, all anti-magic. Every type. Fire, ice, lightning, earth, wind. These things were built to take a beating and not care.
Dorian looked at it. Looked at his hands. Raised one.
Small flame popped out his palm. Weak. Like a candle. It touched dummy surface and died.
[Damage: 3]
Silence.
Someone laughed. Then another. Then another.
Students who saw his fight in the arena looked confused. They watched this kid leave Whitmore half dead on the floor. And now his fire couldn't even scratch a dummy.
"That's the same guy?" someone asked quiet.
"Maybe he just got lucky in the fight." another answered.
"Lucky? Against a Whitmore?"
"I dunno man, look at that fireball. My little sister hits harder than that."
"Your little sister is nine."
"Exactly."
Dorian lowered his hand. Didn't care. He knew his fireball was weak, he wasn't trying on purpose. Didn't need more attention.
Turned to leave.
"Hey!" Voice from behind. Loud, full of itself.
Dorian stopped but didn't turn.
"So you're the one who supposedly beat Whitmore?"
Dorian finally turned around.
Three of them. In the middle, Sebastian Von Mercury. Dark short hair, combed back. Sharp face, chin up, blue eyes looking at Dorian like he was a stain on the floor. Silver chain around neck with Mercury family crest, a crane against a water drop. Light armor, dark blue, fitted perfectly to his body. Expensive. Glove on his left hand with water runes, though Dorian noticed it looked almost unused.
Left of Sebastian stood a thick kid, short neck, face red like he was permanently angry. Full heavy armor, breathing louder than he should cuz of the weight. On the right, thin, tall, long blond hair tied in a ponytail. This one looked calmer, but had the kind of smile that said "I'm better than you."
"Heard you won." Sebastian said. "But looking at your magic..." he pointed at the dummy. "Hard to believe."
His friends laughed.
"Maybe Whitmore just had a bad day." the thick one added.
"Or this one just cheated." the thin one.
Dorian looked at them. Said nothing.
"What, forgot how to talk?" Sebastian stepped closer, too close. "With forty seven mana you should be sitting at home and..."
Dorian pushed him with his hand. Not hard. Just moved him away.
Sebastian froze. His friends too. Nobody from lower class does that to a noble.
Someone in the crowd whispered "Did he just..."
"He's dead." another said. "Mercury family will bury him."
"Wait is he actually gonna..."
But Dorian wasn't looking at them anymore. He was looking at the dummies. All of them.
He snapped. Really snapped. Not cuz of these kids. Cuz of everything. The mana measurement, these stupid tests, having to deal with clowns.
SNAP
Dorian snapped his fingers.
Air around every dummy compressed. One second of silence. Then the air ignited. Everything blew up at once. Fire and shockwave together. Metal pieces, burning, flew in every direction.
Miraaz reacted in a split second. Her pink hair rose again, this time not from anger but from raw mana. Eyes lit up green, hands went up and a green barrier wrapped around every student. Burning metal shards bounced off like hitting a wall. Few students dropped to the ground from shock, others just froze.
Arena silent.
Dorian stood there. Breathing heavy. Eyes empty.
'You idiot.' he thought. 'You just burned ten years of your life cuz some nobody pissed you off.'
His hands shook. Not from anger. From exhaustion. Lifeforce at that scale had a price and Dorian felt it. Body suddenly aged, joints hurt, head spinning.
'Ten years.' thought kept repeating. 'Ten fucking years.'
Ezekiel stood in the back. Face white.
Sebastian, who was talking shit a second ago, was on the ground, hands over his head, shaking.
Nobody moved. Nobody talked.
"What the fuck was that..." someone finally said, voice shaking.
"All of them. He blew up all of them. At once."
"That's not normal. That's not... that's not student level magic."
"Is he even a student?"
"He had forty seven mana. FORTY SEVEN."
Silence again.
Miraaz lowered the barrier. Pink hair slowly fell back onto her shoulders, green glow in her eyes fading. She looked at the destroyed dummies. Then at Dorian. Her face wasn't angry. It was something else. Concern maybe. Or curiosity. Hard to tell with her.
"Everyone okay?" she asked, but her eyes were only on Dorian.
Dorian turned and walked away. Nobody stopped him this time.
Or so he thought.
"You." Miraaz's voice from behind. Cold. "You're coming with me."
Dorian stopped. Didn't turn around.
'Great.' he thought.