Hero's Return 44 Setting The Hierarchy Part 2

So: "Aren't we already?"

Phi was momentarily surprised.

Ph: "Huh? That quickly?"

Phi was obviously from a background of rejection, the 3 quickly remembered this then adapted accordingly.

In: "Yeah, might as well make as much friends as you can right? We're gonna be in the same cla.s.s for quite a while."

Sora and Emphillia nodded in agreement. Phi had definitely met people like Sora, Emphillia and Indy before, but she only met them shortly. The people at the fighters guild were good to her but interaction was limited due to her inability to socialise after her past experiences, only after a long time did she start being able to interact with people but by that time she was strong enough to apply for the school, so she didn't get to stay long enough to actually forge meaningful friends.h.i.+ps.

So: "Besides, I've always wanted to be friends with a Draconian!"

Indy looked towards Sora.

Indy: "You know... You didn't even know they existed a couple minutes ago..."

Sora took a step back as Emphillia held back her laugh.

So: "You didn't have to tell her that!"

Emphillia's hand covering her mouth didn't help as she exploded into laughter. Sora, who was looking at Indy, s.h.i.+fted his gaze towards the girl laughing next to him, before long he too started laughing, followed by a slight chuckle by Indy and Phi.

Sora looked back at the lecture hall, the giant room filled with students in front of him.

So: "Well, we should go."

Indy agreed.

In: "We're taking up the stage, we've only gotten through like... less than 10 people..."

Phi looked at the seats where Sora, Indy and Emphillia had come from and saw that there was no place for her, although they quickly became friends she'd have to wait before she could be closer to them. She didn't mind though as she smiled once more at them.

Ph: "I'll see you all later then."

Phi began walking back to her own seat, followed by the trio going back to theirs.

Xion, who had been waiting patiently for them to leave the stage put the focus back on introductions. More and more people were coming up, some confident, some not so much. It was a colourful display of magic, some could use dual elements of similar essence like water and ice and some were just extremely proefficient with a single element. None could live up to the first few that came onto the stage 50 students in.

So: "Buncha interesting people here huh?"

In: "Yeah, this is exactly what I wanted."

So: "Right?"

Emphillia had already introduced herself when she went up to the stage to heal Phi but she went again shortly after Phi had returned to her seat. She didn't have much to showcase but she was definitely less confident than most, she seemed to be the type of person that would be completely confident to do anything when she was around people she was comfortable with but would crumble almost immediately when she was alone, especially when facing so much strangers.

Em: "I hope I can get more confidence... My introduction was a disaster..."

Sora looked at the girl slumping next to him.

So: "You did fiiiine, besides, it's not like you're the only one who's shy here, plenty of people have went up and were obviously more shy than you were."

Emphillia looked at him with a cute angry glare and pouted.

Em: "That doesn't make me any less shy..."

She sighed as she looked to the floor, for some reason Sora could just sense that she was still pouting.

Looking to Indy the introductions began to grow further and further in his mind as he thought about other things.

So: "Hey Indy."

In: "Hm?"

So: "How do you think the others are doing?"

Indy had already thought about this.

In: "Don't know, probably doing the same as us. Only differences would be people in their cla.s.s, hope they didn't get people like Terrin..."

Sora chuckled.

So: "They probably did, people like that aren't too rare."

Indy thought about it for a second.

In: "Well if they're as strong as we are they should be fine, we should think about ourselves for now. Spend too long thinking about others and they'll leave you behind."

Indy gave a compet.i.tive smile.

In: "They're probably thinking of us too."

So: "Yeah... guess you're right..."

Indy looked back towards the stage where the introductions were happening, with Sora following suit.

So: "Hey... isn't that?"

Looking towards the stage Sora saw a familiar looking girl, she wore a blue dress and was smaller than the average height for humans.

Io: "h.e.l.lo! I'm Iona! Nice to meet you all!!!"

Iona shouted towards all of the students in the room, she didn't even show a hint of shyness. The other students just chalked it off to her having too much confidence or too little knowledge on basic social skills.

Io: "I like to control water!"

Iona displayed a tiny bubble on her hand. Before long whispers began to fill the room.

"Is she serious?"

"I don't think she should be here."

"Hey shut up she'll hear you."

"So? Doesn't look like she could hurt a fly."

"No, trust me man she can, she stopped two powerful animals by herself a while back, I was in the crowd watching it."

"Yeah I was there too! It was that ice cat! The same one that Sora guy has!"

"Really?! Aren't they powerful though?!"

"Yeah! So shut up!"

Sora could hear these whispers and let out a small chuckle.

So: "These people are too distracted by the fact that she looks like a little girl, I know for a fact she's probably one of the strongest here."

In: "I can side with you on that one... The two other guys were insane too..."

So: "You don't have to worry about those two..."

Sora seemed to have been disappointed, Indy was confused by this.

In: "Hm? Why?"

So: "Apparently they're not here anymore, they had stuff to do back in their homeland."

Indy was shocked.

In: "What?! Awwww man! I wanted to challenge them..."

So: "Same..."

Sora looked back towards the girl on the stage who's little bubble had transformed to a giant fountain, followed by outlines of various types of fish swimming around in the fountain, all made of water. She had entranced the audience, even people like Terrin had their eyes glued to the spectacle.

Sora smiled.

So: "Iona will be fine on her own."

Indy looked towards Sora with confusion.

In: "Iona? You already know her name?"

So: "Yeah, she told me."

In: "Oh really? When?"

So: "Oh, back when..."

Sora thought about it.

So: "Actually when did she tell me..."

As Sora was thinking Iona stopped her showcase on stage.

Io: "My name's Iona!"

As Iona called out her name she quickly jumped off stage and ran back to her seat.

Indy looked at Sora.

In: "Well you were right."

So: "Yeah but... Ahhhhh."

Sora grew frustrated.

So: "When did she tell me?"

Eventually Sora gave up and let out a sigh.

So: "Well I'll probably remember it when I'm not thinking about it."

In: "Doesn't really matter, we all know it now."

So: "Yeah I guess."

Sora shrugged it off.

More and more time pa.s.sed by as more and more people introduced themselves, there were some rare spectacles with either spatial or time magic, but even then they weren't as powerful as someone like Indy or Joe.

?: "Yo!"

On the stage now, probably in the 120's was a human girl with white hair that went down to her shoulders, her green eyes s.h.i.+ned as she looked towards all the students. She wore black clothes that resembled a long trench coat and casual clothing. On her waist was a sword that resembled a katana but was a little over the usual size of a conventional one, as she pulled it out she looked around the student hall, as if looking for something.

?: "Oh! Where are my manners!"

The girl, still with her sword in her hand, bowed down on the stage.

?: "My name is Evie!"

As the girl introduced herself she straightened her body and once more started scanning.

Ev: "Ah! You!"

The girl pointed her sword towards a student in the crowd, with them slowly lifting their hand and pointing at themselves.

Te: "Me?!"

The one being pointed at was Terrin.

Ev: "Yes, you! Can you come up here please?"

Terrin was confused.

Te: "Huh?! Why?!"

Ev: "I want to test something!"

Terrin didn't know what was going on but after being called out like this, he knew that he would most likely be looked down upon if he didn't go up, especially after his arrogant introduction.

On the stage Terrin was now standing in front of Evie, a little aggravated.

Te: "So!?"

Evie was startled by this sudden provocation.

Ev: "Hm?"

Feeling even more aggravated.

Te: "Why did you want me up here?!?!"

Evie snapped her fingers like she remembered something.

Ev: "Oh! Yes! Sorry, I'm what you would call an airhead."

Evie readied into a stance, putting one hand on the scabbard of this katanlike sword and the other on the hilt of the blade, her body slowly moved down as her legs began to move downwards, as if preparing to support herself.

With a different tone of voice than before, almost like she was a completely different person.

Ev: "Throw a fireball at me..."

Terrin smiled. Without hesitation he charged up a fireball, they were close enough so that as soon as he shot it out it would reach her in less than a second.

"Is he really gonna shoot from that close?!"

"I don't sense any magical power from her, what do you think she's gonna do?"

"I don't know! I just hope she survives..."

"We knew he was arrogant but isn't this too far?!"

"Calm down man she called him up, she probably has a plan... Right?"

"Well we'll just have to wait and see."

Sora looked at the girl who seemed like a completely different person.

So: "Hey Indy..."

In: "Yeah?"

So: "What do you think she's trying to do?"

Indy was confused too, he had never seen a scene like this.

In: "I... don't know."

So: "From what I'm seeing, it looks like she's gonna try and slice the magic."

In: "Yeah that's what it looks like to all of us, but..."

Indy flipped through his memories.

In: "I've never seen that been done before, I don't even know if it's possible."

Sora paid even closer attention.

So: "Neither do I..."

The flame covering Terrin's hand had grown to the point that it completely covered behind him. Xion was standing at the side watching this and had been paying extreme attention to the girl.

Xi: "I've never seen an aura like this before..."

She scanned her more.

Xi: "Absolutely no magical power... I should probably stop this... But..."

Xion saw that this girl's aura was abnormal to say the least, it didn't seem powerful at all but at the same time she felt as if it held it's own property, unique to the girl in front her only, she had never seen this before.

Xi: "Let's see what this strange aura is..."
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Terrin's ball of flame had grown to almost the size of himself.

Te: "Get ready!!!"

He carried it from behind him to in front of him, as it rested on his palm it shot out extremely fast towards the girl, mere milliseconds and it had been in front of her.

"A slow inhale, a slow exhale."

"Pull the sword from the stone."

"There is nothing invincible."

"Nothing intangible."

"Nothing uncuttable."

Xion, Sora and Iona heard this before the stage was completely covered and engulfed in flame. As they were all shocked another voice similar to Evie's but somewhat distorted came from inside the ball of fire on stage.

"Cut it all down and take it for yourself!"

"Take the power ahead and use it!"

"Rule the world from a throne!"

"Never exhausting yourself!"

"Only those beneath you!"

The ball of fire began to enclose in on itself, as if it were being absorbed into a single point. The flames all slowly began to infuse themselves into the katanlike sword that Evie had, who's eyes were closed and had been holding her sword in front of her with both hands. The flames turned the silver blade a slight tinge of yellow and a more prominent red, as if the blade had been super-heated.

As Evie opened her eyes her green eyes were replaced with yellow ones that were much more prominent, as if the colour had been replaced with the same flames Terrin fired at her, her black clothes had small inscriptions on them that turned yellow, making multiple lines on her black clothing glow with a yellow hue.

Ev: "Prepare yourself..."

She jumped forward with her blade lowered, going for an upward slash. Terrin quickly reacted by covering himself in flame and preparing another fireball, but the time he had was much smaller than before, and Evie made it first with her upward slash. Terrin had not fully prepared the fireball but he no longer had a choice, as both clashed the fireball was completely split in half and the blade hit his side, only Terrin could see it but the yellow colours and red hot blade all completely disappeared as soon as the blade made contact with him, Evie had returned to her normal look. With an instinctive reaction his free hand had come from behind him and fired a condensed fireball which exploded almost immediately.

As this happened, the same explosion that everyone thought had hit Evie seconds ago, had reappeared where Terrin was, but at a much more condensed and powerful way.

A mixture of pure red and pure yellow fire filled the stage as two separate impacts were heard.

Terrin had been blown back by the impact and cracked the wall near the stage whilst Evie had been blasted back onto the opposite wall that she only slightly damaged as she rebalanced herself and landed on the floor, Terrin did the same.

Xion was shocked.

Xi: "She took his magic and..."

So: "Doubled it's power?!"

Xion saw it, she saw everything. In that instant where she absorbed the magic, her aura completely fluctuated to one of Terrin's arrogance and power, whilst still keeping her own aura intact.

Te: "Well... this is interesting..."

Everyone had their eyes on Evie but as they all looked towards the voice they saw a separate fireball streaking towards Evie which she effortlessly sliced in half, as she did the two halves infused themselves into her sword, giving her the form she had previously but the colours weren't as bright.

Terrin walked towards her, cracking his knuckles and adjusting his neck.

Te: "Let's fight for real then."

In an instant, Terrin disappeared and appeared directly in front of Evie. The calm composure that Evie had held for this entire fight had been slightly cracked, Terrin was completely different now, instead of using just magic he had never fought this close!

Ev: "You can fight close distance too?!"

Terrin punched down as Evie blocked his fist with her sword.

Te: "Of course! I use aura too!"

Terrin disappeared from his position above her and reappeared behind her, sweeping her legs leaving her vulnerable in midair and kicking her back onto the stage, following behind her quickly.

Te: "Let's go!"

As she was kicked back onto the stage she used one of her hands to quickly rebalance herself and flip back onto the stage, smiling she ran towards him.

Ev: "Agreed!"

Evie jumped towards Terrin holding her sword with both hands, the aura that she had absorbed and the aura she initially had seemed to merge into one.

As both parties ran towards each other they scanned every small detail they could to give them an advantage, the distance between them closed extremely quickly but to them it felt like time had slowed to a crawl as they put every fibre of their beings into the battle.

With another clash, another explosion of flame, with no break, another explosion of flame, more and more as they chased each other throughout the stage.

Xion watched the fight in what seemed to be slow motion, whilst multiple people couldn't keep up she could see every single movement.

Xi: "Technically these are introductions... and I did say that we needed to set the heirarchy..."

Sora, Indy and Emphillia were watching much more calmly than the others who were going insane with excitement.

So: "First day..."

Emphillia looked back at him, smiling.

Em: "Well at least we know it won't be boring!"

So: "Yeah, I can't wait to fight em both."

Indy looked towards Sora.

In: "I'll beat you to it."

Sora chuckled.

So: "Oh really? Just watch me then!"

All of them looked back towards the fight which was not calming down at all, it was surprising to most people that the explosions of fire didn't grow weaker over time, it was like these two had infinite stamina.

"Okay, that's enough."

As the explosions of fire raged on one streak of purple lightning split through the middle of the stage, reforming as Xion.

With the streak of lightning both Evie, in her normal form, and Terrin had been pushed to the ground and were both exhausted.

Xi: "Any more than that and we won't be able to get through the rest."

Xion looked at both of them with a smile.

Xi: "You both performed admirably."