That wouldn't be fair and I knew we could easily beat these guys if we worked together.
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, feeling for the temporary wand in my pocket.
The school curriculum had changed and we wouldn't need our own wands until next semester, so we once again went through the long process of picking up temporary ones from the machine.
Again, I was blessed with the same red wand with gold sunflowers at the bottom half, which garnered a fair amount of gasps and whispers.
I didn't get why they thought it was so special — Brax and Maximus both obtained the same red wand.
The only difference this time around was Zane received silver instead of gold, which may have been why he looked nervous.
"We'll be fine, Zane. You don't need to look so concerned," I reassured him.
He simply nodded, giving me a small smile but my attempt to reassure him hadn't done anything to ease his worried expression.
I glanced at Maximus who had his arms crossed as he stared at the both of us. His eyes met mine before he gave me a small nod and shifted his gaze to the six-person crowd on the benches to my left.
I looked over to see Brax sitting there, his arms crossed over his chest like Maximus with a stern look on his face. He didn't look concerned but maybe a little troubled; his eyes lingered on Zane.
He must be worried about his brother.
No familiars were allowed for this test so I left Alice at home.
She was happy to stay behind, especially since Kage had summoned Koa earlier during our Tuesday class, and decided to let him linger for a while. I was impressed and thankful that Kage was willing to spend a little more mana so Alice had company.
They actually got along rather nicely and Kage admitted it was the first time Koa had seemed interested in a familiar in years.
"The goal of this test is to knock your opponents out of the arena. It can be done by any means. You should work together as teammates, just as you would if you had a partner as a mage warrior. Even though this is a combined test, you will be scored individually. The partner sitting out will be judged on their support and assistance with battle tactics," Ms. Landsford explained through the speaker.
I wiggled my fingers and smiled, ready to have some fun fighting in my male form like I had during the exam.
I'd still been training during the weekdays, even if only for fifteen minutes, since the week-ends were declared no magic days, and I had a few spells I wanted to test out.
"BEGIN!"
Our opponents didn't delay, attempting to charge forward but I flicked my hand, creating a clear wall of magic that rose from the ground and caused the two guys to screech to a stop.
"You made a wall?" Zane seemed surprised.
Maximus smiled, calling out, "Building a wall makes it so they can only do long range attacks. Long range costs more mana usage and will take longer to summon. Close range would only make this battle longer and none of us want that."
I nodded in agreement, watching Eric and Andrew grit their teeth in frustration.
"I want this to end quickly. Also, I'm better at long range magic," I shrugged and gestured to Zane, who readied his wand. "I'm gonna need you to back me up, Zane. My plan is to create enough power to push them out of the ring but we'll be deflected as well. I need you to make a net."
I was, thankful for the distance so that only Maximus and Zane could hear my plans.
"Um..." Zane began but then we both noticed the incoming balls of water and fire.
We dodged to the ground to escape the attack.
"Um what, Zane?! Make a net and let Jinn do the high intense magic explosion. It's not difficult," Maximus complained, looking a little irritated.
I bet he understood we didn't have time to linger. In the real battlefield, you would have to kill the enemy as quick as possible. The longer the battle went on, the greater the risk of injury .
"I just...it's gonna take me a bit to do a net,” he hesitated.
I jumped back up from our crouched position, taking advantage of the gap between attacks.