The sterile smell of antiseptic and crushed healing herbs hung heavy in the air as Thomas helped the medical mages lay Ryan onto an infirmary cot. The blonde youth was completely pale, his breathing shallow but steady as the campus healers injected low-density nutrient fluid into his strained mana circuits. He had completely burned out his core to manifest his last move, but his vitals were stable. He had survived his peak sequence and secured his place in the next bracket.
Leaving Lina and Mina by Ryan’s bedside to watch over his recovery, Thomas turned and quietly walked out of the medical wing. The arena had cleared out, the freezing afternoon fog rolling through the stone corridors of the freshman block as he made the long, solitary trek back toward his shared dormitory.
Thomas rounded the final corner of the quiet corridor and stopped dead in his tracks.
Leaning lazily against the heavy wooden door of his unit was the pale-skinned senior girl. Her raven-black hair was still pulled into that loose, messy bun, and her ebony eyes looked up through her glasses as she heard his boots crunch against the stone floor. She had discarded her heavy spectator scroll, her hands tucked casually into the pockets of her senior uniform jacket.
"You really know how to cause a scene, freshman," she said, her beautiful voice carrying that familiar, slightly raspy drawl as she tilted her head. "Most of your squad managed to survive the first day."
Thomas maintained his completely blank, unreadable farm-boy mask, walking up to the door and stopping a few paces away from her. "Well I am taking your advice seriously and as for the others , well they are all doing what they can I guess."
"Keep it up then," she murmured, a faint, amused smirk playing at the edge of her lips. She stepped away from the doorframe, her posture suddenly straightening as her tone dipped into that quiet, dangerous seriousness. "But don’t let it get to your head. If you carry that arrogant confidence into tomorrow’s roster, you might end up losing everything in the next round."
Thomas narrowed his eyes slightly, sensing the heavy shift in the air. "What do you mean?"
She leaned in closer, the light from the hallway torches catching the sharp edge of her glasses. Up close, her uncanny biological resemblance to Julian was loud and terrifying.
"The preliminaries were just a filter to clear out the weaker ones like Marcus and Roy," she whispered, her voice dropping into a chillingly cold octave. "Tomorrow, the real predators of the first-year block are stepping onto the sand. There are two other freshman with Grade S Talents and I am pretty positive they will make an appearance tomorrow. So go and tell your two friends to forfeit their matches the moment their names hit the board. Lina already had the brains to back out when she was outclassed, but Mina and Ryan stand absolutely no chance in tomorrow’s roster. If they step onto that black sand, the nobles they are paired against will mangle them before Instructor Cross can even think about dropping his flag."
Thomas kept his expression smooth as glass, his adapted muscles remaining completely loose. "Ryan’s core is empty. He can barely stand."
"Exactly. And if he forces himself to channel another breeze, he’ll hurt himself even more," she said carelessly, turning her back to walk down the dark stone corridor. "As for the tracker, her tricks won’t save her from what’s coming. You’re the only one Julian is truly waiting for, Thomas. And to the rest of the academy you are like a wild flame that is threatening to burn down every single thing they know and they will do what it takes to put you out."
With that final, ominous warning dropped, she glided down the hallway, her presence fading into the shadows of the elite towers before Thomas could even demand her name.
Thomas stood alone outside the door of Unit 112, his fingers closing tightly around his brass room key.
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