Once Mathias saw the first training field, he was genuinely surprised at its scale. In the center-most region, there was a circular outcropping of white stone in the dirt, some twenty meters across, with four others at even intervals to its side.

And at each corner of the field itself, a tall rocky outcropping appeared, with one burnt black, another in front of a small pond, and two others covered in dust and debris.

And there were three more such fields in the distance.

"... You're late by two minutes. Two laps," Mr. Shields said immediately to the six students who just arrived, Mathias included.

No one wanted to question their teacher right now.

It gave him a better appreciation for the scale of the field, the facilities the Academy offered, and there was even few stone buildings that seemed to be opened up. Weapons, dummies, and even strange artifacts were placed inside in a wanton fashion.

After their laps, they lined up beside the four others that beat them there.

It took another ten minutes for the rest to arrive.

They were forced to do twenty laps while Mr. Shields introduced an older woman. "This is Jenna. Don't piss her off and things'll go well. Since this is in part an evaluation of what I need to clarify in class, I will be assisting her, but her word is law in this area. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm intending on thinking of a suitable punishment for those that dawdled a little too excessively."

Jenna waved off the young man disinterestedly. She pointed at a first student to arrive, a rather spirited boy, and simply said, "attack me."

"Uh, but-"

"If you're concerned about my well-being," she said grasping a wooden sword on her hip. "You'd best not. Attack. If it is too weak you'll fail and join in whatever punishment he's planning."

"Okay...? Then... Rock Bullet!"

A first sized boulder wrenched itself from the ground, it was supplemented with sediment, but it flew quickly towards the older woman.

She raised her sword, not moving it a single inch once it was in position, and took the mass of rock and sediment directly.

"Fail. Stand to the side. You." She pointed at Lisanna who scowled at the previous display.

"Fire Lance!"

An arm-shaped mass of flames warmed everyone in line and burst towards the older woman.

It erupted the moment it hit her sword, but no damage from the lingering embers could be seen on her, despite a blackened outline in the soil. "Pass. Don't fear keeping your control tight. You'll choke out some flames, but the effect will be more significant. You."

The third passed, the fourth failed, and fifth, Erik, grinned as he roared, "Wind Blade!"

Without seeing the attack itself, only the effects, a deep gash cut into the soil, its trajectory perfectly in line with Jenna's stance, but it dispersed like all other attacks the moment it hit her sword.

"Pass. The formation was weak. Tighten it up. You."

Mathias sighed and said, "my abilities aren't really suited for this-"

"Your point being? Attack."

It seemed like he couldn't get out of it. He sighed dramatically, earning her ire in the form of an impatient glare, but calmed him.

Drawing upon as much water as he could, whilst keeping his eyes open, he solidified it into ice, broke it into countless shards, and gave her a slight nod.

"Don't warn me. Attack."

Three volleys of ice erratically shot forward, some clearly missing her, but it took a lot of effort to control so many discontinuous streams. However, dozens more impacted the sword that flashed back and forth, shattering the ice into countless shards - and she even found the time and reached out to grab the very last shard of ice that flew directly towards her neck.

She stared at it questioningly. "You mixed this inside?"

"Is that bad? I use that as a base for my sword when my sister wants to spare."

"It can survive a blow from steel, can it not?"

"... My father and sister specialize in that, after all."

"... I see. It is interesting, if nothing else. Pass. You."

He half-expected for there to be another denouncement of his inexperience in using chants. At this point, it bordered on inability, so he was unable to mimic the effects of things he did not understand; he was told by his mother he could train out of it, but it seemed tiresome to yell out chants, even simplified ones like 'water bullet'.

In the end, only six passed her preliminary test. So, naturally, her next words were, "pair up and fight. We have healers so don't worry about holding back. The uniform will also give you some protection."

"Hey, I thought it would be weaker than it was," Erik whispered once she stepped away. "I mean, it was slow, but it did have to make her move more than once."

Mathias shrugged. "I'm not really focused on combat anyways. It isn't that interesting to me."

"Really? No wonder they think you're secretly a girl-"

"What?! Don't start!"

Erik laughed at Mathias' misfortune. "Since there is a lot of space, let's use one of the rings. Anything goes that doesn't kill someone?"

"... What?" Mathias muttered, still reeling from the accusation.

"It's settled!" Erik shouted as he dragged Mathias into a white ring.

They originally angled themselves so that other attacks wouldn't exit the arena, but for some reason, a translucent shield the moment the two stepped in. They could still step in and out, but Mathias found he could not pull any water from outside the large arena.

Seeing others were standing around, Erik asked one of the nearest girls, "hey, mind giving us a countdown? On 'go'"

"Okay!" She was the last to arrive in their group and the last to pass. "Ha-ha! Duelists: on your mark! Get set! And - just kidding! On go - not go... but on go!"

"Three." Mathias and Erik got into their stance.

"Two." Mathias reached for as much water in the air as he could.

"One." A wrist-sized band ran across his arms and chest.

"Go!"

"Wind Blade!"

Mathias stepped to the side and jumped back to his original position. Erik read his dominant leg, predicted his dodge, and fired to include there.

Not seeing but sensing danger on his left ankle, Mathias jumped further away as he heard, "Wind Blade! Wind Blade!"

The water on his arms surged forward, hardened into an icy shield, and he tucked his knees close. His arm screamed in pain as the force cut into his wrist, but the ice held its basic shape just as a gust appeared beneath him.

Once he landed on unsteady feet, the shield constricted in certain areas, and burst in countless shards and flew forward. It was a complete scattershot, but Erik's calm demeanour was unbroken as he shouted, "Gust!"

Many loose shards were scattered, but four clear shards were completely unaffected. Two scrapped his outstretched limbs, one knicked his cheek, and the last missed completely.

Erik felt the blood run down his face and his expression dropped. "Wind Blade! Wind Blade! Wind Blade!"

Mathias ran around, dodging the seemingly endless blades of wind, each extending at least a foot in a given direction, and felt cuts and bruises began to grow on his limbs. He retaliated with shards, hailstones, and even more malicious looking icicles, but in the end both collapsed, exhausted.

It was an anti-climatic fight, but neither were really expecting combat on the first day. Admittedly, it was long and drawn out.

"Ugh... I'm beat," Erik groaned, holding his bleeding head - as he felt all the eyes on him.

"... Hah... me too," Mathias murmured, no less bloodied, but with each bearing only shallow cuts on his already long-since marred skin.

"Okay, next challenger in the ring is... da, da, da! Lisanna and Eldrich! Previous contestants, please leave the arena!" Snickering, she added, "we'll do boys versus girls first - which includes you!"

"H-hey?!"

The girl took her informally-appointed position quite seriously, it seemed. And cheerfully, too.

Both boys wearily left the transparent veil and looked around - one laughing wearily and the other highly indignant.

The other boy seemed to have given up on getting her to take sparring seriously, so they waited for their turn in the arena again. Whereas, it seemed the first few stragglers finished in twenty laps.

Those four that failed were climbing the jagged peaks in each formation, some thirty meters high, but he saw once one finished they ran to the next.

They probably had to do all four.

"... I guess this isn't so bad," Mathias said.

"Yeah. Anyways, look." Erik was pointing to both Jasmine and Kira who were struggling with their last few laps. Of course, it was not a glance of unspoken support; he was trying to see how predictable the physical gyrations in their bodies were, to put it one way.

Mathias glanced, nodded his actual unspoken support, and turned in time to see Eldrich, Lisanna's opponent, scream as fire engulfed his body.

While it completely encased him at one point, it dimmed to nothingness. Even the training uniform was only a little singed as he felt his hands, face, and hair.

All tender, but not turned to char. Which was always nice.

"Annnnnd, the winner is: Lisanna! Eldrich, Lisanna, please get out of the arena as we have our next contestants: Me, Alya, and James! Now, in keeping with the spirit of fairness, Erik, please count us down!"

Erik's gaze shifted long-before as if sensing there prying eyes might be headed his way. It was a sixth sense of sorts and he already was walking back as he stretched his arms out dramatically, watching the finale. Granted, seeing someone being burnt alive (for however short a time period and with minimal consequences) did even take a teenage boy's eyes off of some seemingly important scenes.

"Got it!"

Erik shouted from the sidelines, not taking as active of a commenting role Alya had previously. However, as their match came to a close, with James nearly pulling off a victory, Alya closed the distance and punched in him in the stomach - with a sonic boom of wind ripping through the air after the first contact.

James collapsed. Dry heaving on the ground.

It still counted since the original rules were 'anything that doesn't kill you.' However, it was uncertain if she was aware of that part. If nothing else, the 'on zero' tradition held which was fine.

Jenna, who appeared from the sidelines, nodded accordingly. "The four have returned from their punishment. We'll have them fight first and then we'll switch up the pairings."

She was interested in seeing the arena-style training as well, it seemed.