Nathan was woken up by Revar's violent shaking of his shoulder.

“C'mon Nathan, get up already.”

“What? Where? Oh.” Nathan rubbed his eyes. He still felt far too tired, as if he had only lain down for a minute or two. “How long did I sleep?”

“The break was 'bout two and a half hours,” Thomas answered from the opened door.

“Hurry. Our next battle is about to start.” Revar helped Nathan up and handed him the three metal plates Nathan hid in the last round.

“Thank you.”

He stretched his weary body and let out a loud yawn. Then he took the magic tools, put them away and left the room with his friends. While they were walked through the empty preparation hall by the same second-year as the last two times, his tiredness slowly subsided.

“Did you guys plan anything for the next round?” he asked.

“Nope, same plan as last round,” Revar answered.

“Ok, great.”

When they entered the courtyard, the familiar sight of earthen hills and large rocks greeted them. By now they knew the topography of the arena pretty well, and as soon as the start signal was given, they channeled mana into their armor and ran towards the center-area. However, this time things didn't go as smoothly as in their second battle. When Nathan and Thomas arrived, Revar was already working on his second boulder, but shortly after, their opponents appeared between two pillars, leaving them no chance to further prepare. Nathan's team quickly gathered and went into a triangular defensive formation with Revar at the front.

“Oh, hi Markus. “ Thoams greeted a lanky boy with similar brown and messy hair like Revar but who was at least a head higher.

“Hi, Thomas, rare to see you without food between your teeth.” He greeted back.

Thomas whispered to his friends, “This guy is Markus, same craftin' lectures as Terran and I.”

Nathan nodded and switched his attention to their other two opponents. A boy and a girl who were quite obviously related to each other. Both had the same blonde hair and facial features, especially the bump on their nose-bridge gave it away.

“Hi friends,” The blonde boy made a few steps forward, smiled friendly and reached out for a handshake. After raising his arm for a few seconds with neither Thomas nor Nathan or Revar reacting, he shook his head in disappointment.

“Too bad.” He slowly let his arm drop when Nathan saw mana gathering below his sleeve.

“Careful!” Nathan jumped against Revar and both tumbled down to the ground. At the same time a long, finger thick, sharpened metal rod shot out from the boy's sleeve, barely missing both of them.

“Tsk. What bad luck.”

He followed Revar's movement with his arms and even more projectiles shot towards them. Revar, still on the ground, quickly applied an acceleration circuit on his left arm-sleeve and slid across the ground, successfully evading the rods. He pushed with his right arm against the earth, somersaulted into the air and landed back on his feet. Just when he wanted to shot his spheres in retaliation, a glaringly bright light appeared in the boys' location, forcing him to close his eyes.

Thomas reacted immediately when the sneak attack started. He jumped behind the boulder prepared by Revar, took out a can with mana essence and poured it into the carving. With a dim glow the circuit activated and the boulder shot like a meteor towards the boy at the same time as the flash spell completed. A boom thundered across the courtyard.

After Nathan pushed revar aside, he got up from the ground as fast as he could and activated the spiral deflection spell. After realizing that their opponents were focussing on Revar, he took the chance to draw a sharp light circuit in the air. His concentration was nearly broken when the flash spell activated, but he managed to keep the mana under control and finished the patterns. He released the beam targeting the position where he saw the flash circuit.

A ringing sound echoed through the battlefield.

When Nathan could see again, all three opponents were still present. The teenager who sneak-attacked them was hidden behind a crumbled and blackened wall of stone. The girl stood right beside him with her hands on the ground. A few meters further back their third member crouched down with a long, metal barrel in his hand. Revar stood a bit further away, unharmed. But when Nathan looked towards Thomas, he opened his eyes wide in shock. The ground was a mix of bubbling lava and thick smoke burst through its surface. Thomas was hovering a few meters away in the air, carried by a second year that observed the magic tool in Markus's hand in astonishment.

Suddenly the girl jumped towards Markus, put her hands on the ground, and a wall of stone rose. Two of Revar's spheres pierced the wall and hit Markus in the guts. He groaned slightly but the wall dampened the impact too much to deal real damage. Then one of the balls discharged bolts of lightning into Markus's body. A visible quake ran through him, his shield broke and he hit the ground, convulsing heavily. The same moment that his shield broke, the girl turned around and grabbed the magic tool from him. Nathan saw how she took out a can with mana essence to refill it when another flash spell illuminated the area. This time they were more prepared. Revar closed his eyes and used his acceleration spell to shot towards the girl and force her into close combat. Her brother saw it and moved to intercept him. But just when Revar prepared to exchange some blows, his opponent used an acceleration spell on his left body side and shifted his position by a meter. In the next second, he raised his right hand and a sharp light beam hit the ground beside Nathan. Revar used the split second when his opponent was confused that he missed Nathan and rammed him from behind. While they were entangled, Nathan threw his magic tools into their direction and rushed towards the girl which nearly finished filling her tool with mana essence. When he was a few meters away, she lifted the barrel and pointed it at Nathan. He saw how a circuit appeared below her feet and a pillar of rocks grew from the earth, carrying her up. Then she activated the tool. A miniature sun, the size of a head, flew towards Nathan. As soon as he saw her create the rock pillar, he channeled mana into an acceleration circuit on his shoes and shot in the air. The miniature sun sank into the ground without slowing down. For a second nothing happened, then the booming sound blasted across the courtyard again. The earth burst open. Splashes of lava and broken rocks exploded into the air and the small area turned into Armageddon.

Nathan panicked. He had no time to think of a plan. With all mental strength he could muster, he channeled the mana from every magic tool that he carried to create dozens of micro acceleration circuits. Strong winds blew against the debris, causing it to slow down and change its trajectory slightly. However, it wasn't enough. Dozens of rocks hit his shield and the familiar ringing sound signaled his elimination.

Anther second-year student dropped down from the air, grabbed him and flew a few meters higher. Nathan saw how the girl was once again refilling the magic tool while Revar was still occupied with her brother. The fight between Revar and his opponent seemed even, but Nathan could see that he was intentionally leading him to one of the tools he threw out earlier. A few moments later Revar succeeded and the boy stepped on the plate. His clothes fluttered wildly as a short but strong gush of wind rose to the sky. The instant Revar saw that he succeeded, he jumped back a good distance. His opponent had a panicked look on his reddening face as he gasped for air. He walked a few more steps, trying to leave the influence of the tool but collapsed before he could do so. Another second-year appeared to take care of him when a third miniature sun passed their location and hit the ground near Revar. Similarly to Nathan, he tried to escape by catapulting himself into the air, but the following explosion was just too strong. Hit by a large number of rocks and lava, his shield emitted the sound of defeat. It was over.

Back in their preparation room, Revar was cursing about their last battle.

“What was this damn weapon? No way they built it in their prep time!”

“This was the new solar gun from Magister Mandos.” Thomas said, “ It was designed as a fast assembly weapon for tool magicians.”

“You know it? Do you have the schematics?” Nathan asked him.

“Nah, 'nly the guys in Mandos's research group have it. I didn't manage to join it. Damn high-class thing. We were 'nlucky though, normally it would've fallen apart after the first or second shot.”

Nathan was pondering. He felt like diving a bit into magical engineering, but time was limited and there was nothing he could drop for it. Sighing, he put this idea aside. The magisters were correct when they told them, that one couldn't major in more than a few categories.

“But Nathan, your plates worked surprisingly well, too bad that they are triggered by stepping on it.”

Nathan remembered the last few moments of the battle.

“Yeah. I don't know what happened there. I thought if I remove all the air in the vicinity they'd have problems breathing, which would give you the chance for a surprise attack. I'd never imagined he'd collapse after a few seconds. Dunno why he couldn't just hold his breath longer.”

Revar shrugged.

“I don't really care why it worked, but it was great. Maybe you could apply this to a sphere for me Thomas?”

“Dunno. I will be testin' it.” Thomas answered,

“Great.” Revar rubbed his hands, “would be great, and nobody expects such a thing.”

Nathan silently agreed. He was also surprised by its effectiveness and decided for the future to see if he could improve the spell. After continuously training the light spell, he significantly increased his mana control and was able to channel mana and form circuits in a meter distance from his body. If he could create an airless zone a few meters away from him, then it would be a real advantage in combat. He couldn't wait to get home and practice.

“Does anyone know what happens next?” Nathan asked.

Thomas shook his head.

“We'll probably wait till the last battles are done and be called to the courtyard for the analysis of the battles,” Revar said. Then he added with a grin.” And then the big magician's slave market begins and every magister and officer will try to recruit their favorites.”

“Meh. I'm already in Magister Duskvale's research group, so nothing in it for me.” Nathan said.

“Who knows, maybe one of the faculty heads is interested in you, that would be an upgrade.”

“We only won two battles, I doubt it.” Nathan directly denied this possibility.”

“The last battle doesn't count, all they did was blasting us with their stupid tool. No skill involved at all.”

“Well, they did block a full round of attacks from us, so they got some skill.”

“I don't care. Without their tool, they'd been nothing compared to us.” Revar said.

Thomas, chewing on some dried meat, interjected, “That boy would've gotten ye in the beginning if Nathan didn't push ye 'way.”

Revar threw him an annoyed glance but didn't answer. This side of Revar was new to Nathan, normally he was rather quiet and reasonable. It seemed that losing in a battle hit a nerve with him.

“Don't be bothered by it, everyone can lose a fight once in a while.”

“I won my fight. Whatever that girl was doing can't be considered a fight.”

Nathan looked helplessly to Thomas, who just raised his eyebrows but didn't comment it. He decided to let it go and his thoughts wandered back to the micro-acceleration circuit he used on the magic tools. It became quite in the room until an hour later the door was knocked open.