“Now, let’s get to work.”
Zagan had everyone form up in front of human sized targets. They were using the same dueling building that Professor Kines used the previous semester. As such, the ground was made from earth and there were troughs of water between the dueling rings.
There were even candles set out for the pyrokinetics to use despite fire being the easiest element to conjure. Most fire mages learned to conjure a flame before any other aspect of pyrokinetics.
At his command, the class began slinging their attacks at the dummies.
Five shards of stone split off the floor in front of Juliana. With a flick of her wand, a burst of magic launched all five straight at the target. All sunk a good few inches into the chest area.
More than a few students sent glares her way.
Juliana eased back and lazily flung a single shard or two every now and again.
After about ten minutes of slogging earth around in a way to try to avoid drawing unnecessary attention while Zagan went around lecturing individuals who weren’t her, Juliana decided to switch tactics.
She decided to start with water first–it was her mom’s secondary element, after all. Juliana had a small amount of training in wielding it. Not a fraction of what she had in earth, but enough to get started at least. They’d be choosing a secondary element sometime later in their elemental magic class anyway.
The troughs of water inset into the floors weren’t far away from Juliana. She waved her wand at the nearest grate and drew out a small stream of water.
Launching ice shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It was different enough from earth to make a difference, but not by much.
The real trick was forming the water into spike shapes and then freezing it before it reverted to its more natural globule shape.
Most of her attempts winded up being misshapen blobs of ice. She launched them at her target anyway. Most missed by a wide margin, but it was easier to launch the blobs and try again with fresh water than it was to unfreeze and reform the ice.
Unlike her earth shards, the water blobs missed. They didn’t fly though the air like earth did. Part of it was the aerodynamics, but part of it was also simply the idiosyncrasies of launching a foreign element. Still, she managed to propel them away from her far better than some of her hydroturge classmates.
Every fifth one or so, Juliana managed to form into a more-or-less proper spike of ice. She took care to try to remember every thought pattern she had whenever she managed that. And, every time she managed a spike, Juliana took care aiming.
Most of her spikes at least brushed the target if they did not strike it directly.
“Rivas,” a voice half shouted from behind Juliana just as she formed a proper spike.
The ice dropped to the ground and shattered as her concentration snapped like a twig. She spun around, metal clinging to her already turning to liquid as she activated her ferrokinesis. The sword of metal forming out of her sleeve stopped just inches from Zagan’s face as he leered over her.
He didn’t even flinch.
“You will be serving detention with me on Saturday alongside,” he glanced to one side, “Anderson.”
Juliana followed his gaze to her fellow student.
On the other side of Shelby stood a very blank-faced Jordan. A ball of fire clung to the tip of his wand. He frowned but gave a small nod.
“Detention?” Juliana said as she looked back towards the professor. She wasn’t going to just take it. “For what?”
“You both disobeyed me. I believe I said to use your element. Neither of you are using your element.” A sharp glint grew in his eyes as he spoke. “I will not suffer insolence from the likes of you.”
Juliana snapped her jaw shut. She had a feeling he meant more than just children by his last statement.
“Well,” Zagan said as he pulled himself to his full height, “what are you all staring at? Get back to work unless you want to join them.”
Nobody needed telling twice.
— — —
Every time Zagan walked past, he glared at Eva.
She was trying her best. She didn’t want detention. Her fireballs just weren’t up to snuff.
Arachne helped out. She rearranged herself into a position that couldn’t be comfortable for the poor spider, but she managed to peek out of Eva’s shirt between two buttons. Without speaking to one another, they managed to work out a sort of communication.
If Eva missed, Arachne would tap out a ‘no’ followed by a few taps on Eva’s stomach to the left, right, high, or low. The number of taps indicated by how much Eva missed.
Luckily, Eva wasn’t missing often. It wasn’t like the targets moved.
Ideally, fireballs would either explode with a concussive force on contact or splash burning fire over the target. Eva’s did neither. She could make them hit. She could make them hot. None did anything more than leave a small scorch mark before vanishing.
The score on her exams actually got docked down for that. One aspect of the exam included both concussive force and another had her keep the flames burning in a far more fluid manner than fire had any right to be.
In her defense, it was harder than it sounded.
Eva couldn’t actually see the fire. It burned away any blood she allowed to get close to it. After the first few balls of fire sailed through the air and struck the targets, Eva kept a small vacuum of blood between her and the target. She would end up burning through all of it before class finished otherwise.
Now, the heat warming her hand through her glove was the only real indication she succeeded at conjuring it. Once the fire left her hand, it vanished from her sight.
Still, Zagan glared. He never said a word to her, unlike the words of ‘encouragement’ he had for the other students.
Not that Eva wanted any of his ‘encouragement.’ From what she overheard, none of it seemed all that useful.
His glares were something of a mystery. Eva didn’t think the two of them were on bad terms, even if Eva would be happier never meeting him again. Perhaps he was upset about the demon attacking during Zoe Baxter’s seminar the other week.
Zagan hadn’t spoken with her since before that attack. If he or Martina Turner suspected Eva of having anything to do with it, neither acted on their suspicions.
Towards the end of class, Arachne poked Eva right in the bellybutton.
Eva let out a truncated yelp as a the fireball she held fell and nearly incinerated her pants.
Of course the messed up one splashes all over, Eva thought as she patted down her clothes.
She was about to give Arachne a harsh swat disguised as brushing off her shirt when she felt it.
The hairs on Eva’s neck stood on end as a wave of hot air blew past her head.
Eva mentally cursed herself–she hadn’t lost concentration on her surroundings in a long while. Slowly, she turned to face Zagan.
“Something wrong, Zagan?”
“My office. After class.” With that, he turned and continued stalking around the students.
Arachne repeatedly tapped ‘no’ on Eva’s shoulders as she turned back to the target dummy. Ignoring Zagan, despite Arachne’s repeated tapping, couldn’t have good consequences. “He wouldn’t try something in the middle of school, would he?” Eva whispered to Arachne.
The demon’s ‘no’ taps immediately swapped to Eva’s opposite shoulder.
As the bell chimed for the end of class, Eva found herself hanging back despite Arachne’s increased protests. She waved off her friends and told them that she would catch up afterwards.
The small antechamber to the main dueling gymnasium seemed more like a locker room than an office. The drains on the floors beneath a set of shower heads were a dead giveaway. Zagan didn’t seem to care. He marched in with Eva in tow and plopped down behind a desk that sat on the hard tile floor.
It didn’t look much like it was supposed to be there.