School's Blessing

Chapter 29 - Poison

I could feel my nerves on edge. This was a mere training exercise, but things didn't feel right... I felt goose bumps running up the length of my arms, and my hair stuck up on end.

"Begin!" Professor Glory shouted, causing us to start moving forward.

The first few opponents we would be facing up against were a Part of Team Squadshot, Curtis' team. We began our formation as Tess and Elliot held up barriers to protect us from the casters. Having these barriers up whilst in motion would be extremely costly when it came to mana consumption, so we needed to act quickly.

Myself, Nathan and Lois began to head forwards whilst still protected, taking Curtis and his teammates head-on.

The prince wore a fun yet sadistic grin on his face as we began exchanging blows, the sound of metal clinking ringing in my ears, but considering his handicap, the fight spar didn't last long as I landed a solid hit to his ribs, triggering the suit alarm.

"Ahahah, well played Captain." He laughed, picking himself up off of the floor. I gave him a sideways nod without breaking focus from our opponents.

Nathan had taken a small injury during his exchange, but ultimately came out on top as we began to head forward once more.

Looking back, I could see both of our casters sweating profusely as they maintained the barriers. If we wanted this to succeed, we would need to pick up the pace.

"Let's move everyone! We gotta finish this quickly!" I shouted, earning me a few understanding glares and nods.

We came into contact with the last Augmenter from Curtis' team alongside Richard, who wore the same maniacal smile as earlier.

Taking my command a little too literally, Lois shot out to try and challenge the both of them, ultimately getting herself knocked out. I cursed under my breath as I took another stance.

We engaged in the two-on-two fight before I heard a groan of pain from behind me.

Elliot had expended all his mana, and the backlash had hit him, knocking him out by default. Tess maintained her, but her expression told me she was about to end up in the same state.

But she's far stronger than Elliot...She should still be fine for a while longer...?

Realization hit me at that exact moment. Lucas' casters were using prohibited spells and disguising them as regular ones, or using the basic spells, but with far more intensity than assigned.

So that's why they were smiling...

"Tess, switch with me! Take the front." I shouted. The two of us had trained our swordsmanship as kids, and knowing how dedicated my fiancé is, I bet she could easily beat any of the people here in a one on one.

She gave me a hesitant nod before drawing her elven sword-staff, jumping ahead of me. I fell back and casted a large wind barrier to protect the three of us, but we would have to rush this from now onwards.

Despite now being a silver core mage, my air affinity still needed work, and I was far less than adequate at casting large range protective shields. Due to this, I could feel my mana leaving me far faster than what was viable.

Feeling the impact from the spells on the shield, my suspicions were correct. The 'basic spells' rule the defending casters had been assigned was being broken by the likes of Lucas' cheating ass and his friends. Looking over to him, his evil, yet smug grin was plastered all over his face.

We began to push forward for the final stretch, only one more augmenter standing in our way. But just as they began fighting, I felt the barrier begin to flicker as my reserves reached their end.