*Neigh*

Half a dozen of red and fiery flamehorses were pulling a grand carriage. The four winged Griffin on the insignia signified that the carriage belonged to the Royal Academy of Nemphis.

The six magical beasts were stronger, bigger and faster than their general counterparts. The intense heat they emitted not only melted the thick frigid snow, it vaporised them; the steamy fog made the sight even more grand and mysterious.

The coach came to a halt at the Academy outpost of Shalborn forest. There was a party ready to welcome them, but not one of them had a smile on their face. The door opened as four figures stepped out. These four were arguably the strongest entities of the Academy, excluding the tower masters of course.

The feminine looking man walked towards the leader of the welcoming group with quickened pace; the thick snow on the ground could hardly slow him down. When he came close, instructor Nat Hemlin took a step back. But before he could take another one, the long haired dean Braveheart held him by his neck and lifted him to the air.

“Dean Braveheart! You don’t have the authority to punish a level 7 instructor!” Braveheart did not need to turn back; he already knew who it was. It was Aston Ragov, the vice principal of the Academy.

“I will just kill him now. Then I will see what the tower masters will do.” He tightened his grip, rendering the level 7 instructor unable to breath.

“You!” The vice principal bellowed.

“Leave it, we did not rush all the way here to punish him. We have more important things to do.” He loosened the grip when he heard the principal’s emotionless voice.

“She is right, dear. We have to find him first.” An old woman’s voice filled with love and care made him completely let off the instructor’s neck.

The instructor fell down; the snow cushioned his fall. He held his neck and gasped for breath.

The dean turned back and bowed. “Sorry mother, I was rash.”

Dean Gistre, the dean of Magic Research Department, smiled.

She then looked at the instructor Hemlin, who was trying to get up; her smile disappeared. “What are you doing? Lead us to the scene.”

******

At a certain location in the forest. Everything in the quiet and snowy scene was normal except the red snow here and there, and frozen corpses.

All of the instructors including the four newcomers entered the scene. They looked at the frozen corpses and the bloody snow. The principal and the male dean looked at the old woman.

The old woman nodded her head before closing her eyes. After a few seconds, she reopened them and shook her head. Both the principal and the combat dean sighed in relief.

“But I detected his blood.” The old woman declared.

“How much?” The principal took a step forward.

“Not much. I’ve heard the story from my son, definitely not enough to kill him.” The dean smiled.

Principal Bell sighed in relief.

Dean Braveheart began to circle around the scene, examining each and every one of the corpses, their wounds and their weapons.

“Brilliant!” He shouted, attracting the attention of everyone.

The dean realised he had just done something he should not have. He simply crouched down to a corpse and acted as if he were examining it thoroughly.

“What happened?” Dean Gistre asked.

“The way these 5 were dealt with, it was genius.” He remarked.

Everyone in the scene peaked their ears; if the one who was arguably the most brilliant combatant of his generation praised a student as a genius, something extraordinary must have had happened.

“How so?” The vice principal squinted.

“Look, that one over there is an archer.” He pointed at the body beside which there was a composite bow. “We know the rules; in such battles, the first priority should be taking out the archer as fast as possible. Even though Adrian is a melee expert, he was able to take him out though a precise dagger throw through the heart. Moreover, that dagger was stolen from this lady over here. But in the process, he was stabbed, as you can infer from the other bloody dagger held by that corpse- most probably the in the abdomen or a thigh.”

“Why the abdomen or thigh?” An instructor asked.

But it was instructor Serene- a dual dagger user- who answered, “Because the lower your target, the closer you have to be. And as you can see from her throat which is bitten off, she was quite close to his mouth.”

“Exactly.” Dean Braveheart remarked.

He continued, “Now that two of the five were dead, that too in a small time frame, the other three were taken by surprise. If I am not wrong, two of them should be casters.” He looked at Dean Gistre.

She nodded.

“Both of them began to cast spells. It is an universal fact that casting spells take time, and that time was enough for him take out one. He chose to go against the caster who was left completely unguarded; the other one had a warrior close to her. Adrian charged towards the exposed caster who happened to have a sheathed sword. He stole the sword and pierced it through his target’s abdomen before the spell was ever casted.” He explained.

Dean Gistre chimed in, “Yes, but that move came at a cost. The other caster, a wind circler, had already completed his offensive spell. Adrian tried to dodge, but the attack grazed him nonetheless.” She pointed at the blood stain on the snow close to the body of the dead caster.

“Now, only two were left. A caster with wind attribute and a swordsman with a…” He looked at Dean Gistre again.

“Earth attribute.” The old woman replied.

The feminine looking dean widened his eyes. All the other instructors gasped. An earth attributed warrior along with a wind attributed mage? That was a dangerous combination; especially if their opponent was alone. So, how was he able to deal with them?

“Phew. Calling him a genius is an understatement. The only possible scenario I can think of is using the combination against themselves. You have to ensure that the swordsman always come in the way of the caster. And against the fastest of circlers, you have to change position fast while duelling. And he was able to pull that off perfectly. Either the swordsman was a newbie at using the sword or Adrian is a sword expert. Not to mention, he was injured and tired.” He was still shocked.

The others gasped. A sword expert at the age of 17? Normally, swordsmen who had honed their art of swordsmanship through decades of training and battles could be termed sword experts.

“He defeated and stabbed through the earth circler, and charged towards the wind circler using the body as shield. The caster panicked and tried to run, but he kicked the body towards her. She barely dodged, but before she could regain her balance, he drove the sword through her.” He finished.

“But wasn’t the swordsman an earth circler? Even circlers of the same level has difficulty killing them, how did he kill a earth circler two level higher than his own?” An instructor asked.

“Simple.” The principal answered. “Just use life force.”

Many of the instructors gulped.

“After he was completely burnt out, the hidden member of the ambushers came out captured him.” She sighed.

“It’s as if they ‘knew’…” Dean Braveheart gave the vice principal and instructor Hemlin a look, “how strong Adrian was. So, they came out with this plan.”

He again paced towards instructor Hemlin and grabbed him by his neck.

“You better hope he is completely safe. Or else, even the tower masters won’t be able to save you.”

“Leave him be. We will go and search for him.” The principal said.

“Why are you so attached to a student, Rastia? He even visited you many times before and you also meet him time to time. Students died in the event before and Shalborn is especially known for its danger. You never acted like this before.” The vice principal snorted.

She looked at the vice principal and said, “He is my apprentice’s only son. What’s wrong with being so attached to him. Besides, all of the students who died before were either killed by magical beasts or succumbed to natural phenomenas. Only that time, two decades ago, when a few nobles joined together to kill a commoner- was the exception.

Dean Braveheart’s eyelids trembled. But nobody noticed.

“Are you implying we should let the culprits who dared to hurt one of our students on our watch go free?” She asked with a threatening tone.

“No, I just-” Aston Ragov, who was getting disgusted looks from many of the instructors, tried to say something.

“Do you have the general direction of where the culprit could have gone?” She looked at the old woman.

“None. I am just sure they did not go deeper into the forest.”

“That’s enough for now. We will be having a meeting in 15 minutes. Dismissed.” She left the scene.

Everyone followed. Only the two deans were left at the scene.

“Mother, did you find out anything?” He asked.

“Yes, Rastia was right. I found traces of property on the earth circler’s wound.” She sighed.

“What were their levels?”

“All five of them are level 6s and the one who escaped is a level 7 wind circler.”

“A level 3 killing five level 6s. He surpasses his mother.” He looked up and sighed.

******

Meanwhile, in a certain inn, Adrian just woke up with a lady in his arms.