The giant black bird that descended from the sky was a native of this particular dimension. The academy staff had tamed a few and their role was to be a hindrance to the students.
This was the first obstacle that students faced if they didn’t pass a certain point within a given time. To clear this obstacle, one needed to cross the checkpoint within a given time or harm the bird until it got killed or escaped. The bird was trained to run away as soon as it felt a certain level of damage so the capture students’ only way out was to fight it.
The students, being in awe of the toppers’ prowess, halted and wasted their time, thereby getting attacked by the bird. The bird captured four more students and the rest flew away in the meantime. The five captured students felt fear but tried to fight the bird and be freed from its clutches.
Lith, Ralph and Dennis had crossed the checkpoint in time due to speeding up earlier and avoided the bird’s attack.
Lith was currently leading with Ralph and Dennis nowhere to be seen near him. It was due to him having top notch flying skills and the boost from wind spells that he was using added to his speed even further.
Lith flew over the heads of many students, crossed many mountains below him, avoided the attack of beasts and halfway through, he surpassed all students in the race and crossed every checkpoint present in the track, at a time much earlier than intended to, thereby avoiding obstacles and finally reached the finish line.
A whistle was heard as he landed on the ground, indicating the winner of the race. Lith retracted his wings and walked towards his teacher who was currently standing a few meters away from him and looking at him with a smile.
Lith reached to where Arya was and she patted his head and said
“Good job! Good job! The results of the test will be announced tomorrow but let me give you a bit of spoilers about it. You’re first!”
Lith raised his head, looked Arya in the eyes and said
“Teacher, are you serious?”
His teacher literally said the most obvious thing to him, how was this a spoiler in any way? Lith had such thoughts and questioned Arya.
“Of course, I am. Do you think I would lie to you?” Arya said with a smile, completely oblivious to Lith’s thoughts.
“No, what I mean is, how is this a spoiler in any form? It’s so obvious. I finished first, therefore won’t I be first?” Lith put out his thoughts.
Arya realised she forgot to mention the important bits and said
“Ah! Oops, hehe. I forgot to say that you are the first person to ever finish the test so quickly in the academy’s history. The previous record was flying 100 kilometres in 17 minutes 22 seconds but you did it in 11 minutes 54 seconds. I don’t think anyone would be able to break this record anytime soon.”
“Oh, I see.” Lith nodded his head in understanding. Though it was nice to know that he was a record breaker, he knew that he could’ve done even better and wasn’t too surprised or happy by it.
He had an all elemental affinity and he only revealed Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Space and Time elements to the academy. This restricted him to use only these six and he knew that if he used the other elements while flying, it would’ve been much faster than this. Thus, he felt no surprise or happiness with his teacher’s comment.
“You don’t seem too happy about it.” Arya said with a smile.
Lith smiled and didn’t reply to it. Arya didn’t speak further either and the two stood in one place, waiting for Ralph and Dennis to arrive.
Ralph and Dennis crossed the finish line and they too broke the academy’s previous record by Ralph completing the race in 16 minutes 27 seconds and Dennis in 17 minutes 3 seconds.
Dennis was a bit slower because of not having any elemental affinity that would help boost his flying skills. Ralph had Wind and Lightning affinity so it gave him an upper hand over him.
The two walked towards Arya and Lith and Arya was about to say a few words to them when a black haired, brown eyed man wearing a black and white business suit with a black mantle arrived in front of them and said suddenly
“Must feel nice to have the heirs of top families as your students, right Arya?”
Arya turned her head and looked at the man interrupting her time with her students. Having a look at him, she smiled and said
“You know, my students haven’t really seen my prowess and it’s so sad that I didn’t have any opportunity to flex in front of them either…”
Arya paused after saying something completely unrelated to what the man was questioning her about. Cracking her neck she continued
“…so try questioning me and calling by my name again and I assure you they’ll see one hell of a show today, Eric.”
The man looked at Arya and said with his brows furrowed
“You want me to call you with respect? You’re threatening me for that? Me, the vice principal?”
“Hahaha…me…” Arya pointed at herself, “…threaten you?” Arya pointed at Eric and questioned.
Not waiting for his reply, she continued, “Do you think you’re worthy to be threatened by me?”
Eric frowned as he heard her. He was an Emperor rank and nobody talked with such disrespect to him, not even the principal.
Arya was lower in hierarchy than him and was just a teacher, he felt offended by getting threatened by a person lower than him. He said frowning and in a serious tone
“Arya, watch your language. I can make you lose your job, making you lose your chance to be on good terms with the Supreme rank and Emperor rank families, whose heirs are currently under you.”
Arya smiled widely after hearing Eric’s words. She stretched her neck, then her body and cracking her fingers, she said
“Thanks, Eric. Because of you, my students will get to know me better and will understand how cool their teacher is, hehehe.”
Vanishing from her spot, she arrived in front of Eric after saying her words and held Eric’s face with her hands and smashed him to the ground.
Eric was not ready for it and got hit but he was an Emperor rank with a lot of battle experience and instantly vanished from his spot with the help of the wind elements in the surrounding.
Gaining a bit of distance from Arya, he yelled
“You bitch! What did I ever say to you to attack me like that?!”
Arya turned deaf ear to his words and teleported in front of him again. She punched him in his guts but Eric zapped to the side with the help of the lightning element and threw a high kick at her.
He understood that cursing won’t have any effect now and the only way to get out of this situation was to defeat Arya or run away.
Running away would hurt his pride as a vice principal and tarnish his reputation, so in the end he had no choice but to fight Arya.
Arya blocked Eric’s kick and with her other hand, she snapped her fingers and created a translucent cuboidal barrier, trapping herself and Eric in it. She didn’t want him to run away and so she took such measures.
Eric frowned hard at this. From the way the water elemental energy around him changed, the instant formation of the barrier and just from looking at it, he understood that the barrier was top grade and breaking it would take at least a few minutes.
If he tried to break it, he would be vulnerable to Arya’s attack; getting severely injured in the end. Thus, escaping wasn’t possible anymore.
He took a deep breath and tried to prepare himself for the battle. Though he was trying to, internally he was questioning himself on where he went wrong and how he offended this madwoman. But soon he shoved those thoughts aside when he realised one fact.
Arya was a dragon—beings well known for their hot blooded nature. He assumed that this stereotype was definitely true and now fighting was the only option for him.
Arya smiled looking at Eric bracing himself for her onslaught. She separated her gaze from Eric to her students and waved at them smilingly and turned back to Eric again.
She then removed her black sunglasses, which she hadn’t done in a long time, revealing her beautiful blue eyes. She stretched once again and muttered
“This should be fun, hehehe!”