Surprise was the first thing that all the guard's felt. The robed figure only sounded about eighteen at most. However no matter the age, the fact that he had the seal of the King was undeniable proof of his identity.

After a few minutes had passed, the Knight Captain gathered enough courage to speak.

"Of course not, esteemed guest. These are just the ramblings of a boy and should be treated as such. If I knew he would have said such things I would sliced his tongue off myself."

Willem released his magical grip on the boys tongue as the squire looked on in bewilderment at his Master.

Willem looked at the boy and recognized him right away. He knew that once he saw Sir Gehrig he would be seeing his protégé. Even during his apprenticeship, the fact that the number one fighter was under the protection of Sir Gehrig was common knowledge. Now the respective position of Willem and this boy named Edwin Forrest were reversed.

"Your squire raises a good point, if fighters are just here to protect mages then why are we here? I want all of your fighters, even your higher ranking knights to see a fight between your squire and I. Prepare us a stage, and I will demonstrate our worth against your squire. Naturally I will not be using any magical spells so as to make it a fair fight."

Sir Gehrig dared not object and ordered a squadron of apprentices to prepare a suitable arena. He gathered everyone within the training grounds to bear witness. Everyone was told exactly what was happening, especially the truth that the squire had openly insulted all the mages in the kingdom without knowing the identity of the guest.

The arena was quickly packed with onlookers, and the young protégé entered the ring first. He had been told he could use his speed augmenting magic and a weapon without restraint and he intended to, now that he already spoke he could not take his words back.

The mage entered the ring and the surrounding onlookers stopped talking. The aura that the mage exuded was one of malice and killing intent and it forced the weaker apprentices to look down for fear of death. Edwin took a defensive stance just as Willem had in their first fight.

"Do you remember your apprenticeship test, boy? Do you remember breaking the arms of a young talented boy out of misplaced anger?" Willem looked beyond his robes into the eyes of the youth and let out a cold killing intent.

"Yes, Sir, I do." Edwin gulped back a response before the cold sweat down his back made his voice waver. He brandished his iron sword before nodding his head in acknowledgement.

"Good... Good. He remembers it too. He thinks about it everyday. Though he will not be thinking about it much longer." Willem removes the heavy robes covering his face. Underneath the robes was a fresh faced eighteen year old boy with sharp eyes, a frown, and an unfathomable amount of power behind him.

Edwin recognized the boy immediately as the one who he broke the arms of during the apprenticeship test, though his arms were much bigger than they were before and showed no signs of being broken. Sir Rowan who was standing with Eli and Mark also recognize the boy standing in the middle of the ring. Some of the other apprentices noticed who he was but said nothing. Four years ago he was a waste and now he was a Grand Mage of the magic academy, if anything could see said about it, it would be 'miracle'.

Willem decided to wear a simple combat robe with hex-leather leggings this time around, so as not to constrain his movements when he went out to hunt magical cores. He wore black iron arm guards with a flame pattern running along the sides of them. His leather boots had some simple patterns of clouds on them and his two rings each had a symbol of a large bear's claw.

A Knight came forward and waved at both competitors to come to the middle of the ring.

"This will be a simple one versus one, first to completely subdue the other wins. No forfeiting or running out of the ring." He specifically looked at Edwin as he spoke the last words as if he was looking into the boy's heart.

The two boys nodded and took their respective corners.

Edwin circulated his magical force around his body, infusing his arms and legs with it. Though it was only a temporary buff, he thought it would not be inferior in any way to what a mage could do.

Willem stood in an offensive stance, as Edwin took a defensive pose. The scene looked exactly the same as it did four years ago, except the fighters were in the opposite positions.

The officiator for the match raised his hand and quickly slammed it towards the ground, forcing a gust of wind to slice through the arena. This was still the signal to fight.

Willem launched forward faster than Edwin could react to even with his augmented body and placed himself behind the boy. He launched a swift leg kick toward the back of Edwin's left knee and as it struck, a loud snapping could be heard from within the arena.

Before Edwin had time to react to the pain, Willem sent another kick to the right knee and another painfully loud snap rang out from the boy's body.

Before the officiator could call the match, Willem flung his knee into the back of Edwin and as the boy fell he spewed out blood from deep within his body. The crowd looked on in horror at the massacre that had not even lasted a second.

As his final act of vengeance, Willem threw his arms forward, crashing into Edwin's arms crushing the bones and tearing the muscle fiber.

The officiator held a dazed view for a few seconds too late and when he came to, the match had already ended. He immediately ran to separate the two boys but found that Willem had already moved to the opposite side of the other. A medical team was sent in to retrieve the squire. Though he was not dead, he would definitely be held up in recovery for the next half a year at best.

In the last moments of clarity before he passed out, Edwin cried softly while apologizing. The apology fell on deaf ears, as Willem had already left the stage to return to the guard's office to speak again with the Knight Captain, uninterrupted.

When the Knight Captain arrived back at the guard's office, he had already heard the story of the feud between the two from Sir Rowan. He now understood why the Grand Mage did things the way he did, and although he was unhappy with the results he could say nothing about it.

This interaction between Sir Rowan and Sir Gehrig did not go unnoticed by Willem, as he was sitting quietly in the guard's office he could hear a multitude of rumors floating around the training grounds outside. Mostly idle chatter, some people were correct in their assumptions and just did not know it. There were a few who felt pity for the squire, but it was only the knights who had minimal contact with the boy and did not know his true nature.

Willem felt the energy in the training ground, and noticed that they all had a familiar color. Even with predominantly red, green or blue colors, everything single one of them at their core showed the color yellow. The color of fear. They feared the power of a mage who could destroy the number one squire within a second without using any magical abilities. Even the knights had a tinge of yellow in their core, and with reason.

Sir Gehrig apologized profusely for the rude behavior of his squire, but the Grand Mage showed no signs of even remembering he had a feud with the boy. As if the entire event just now with the squire did not exist at all, Willem never mentioned it or bothered about it again. He merely repaid a debt that he owed, and that was that.

Willem got down to the point at last, he wanted two Knights and two apprentices to take into the nearby hunting ground for a level four white tiger core.

The Knight Captain considered the matter for a long time before asking the Grand Mage if he had any knights in mind for the subjugation. Normally a level four subjugation would require forty level four Knights, but he dared not object to anything the Grand Mage said.

Willem, not missing a beat, produced two knights names: Sir Rowan and Sir Kris. Their squires will be the apprentices that will be taken for this subjugation. The Knight Captain quickly caught on that he intended to speak with the brothers together, as Sir Kris was the one who Eli was the squire of.

Sir Gehrig quickly called the two knights with their apprentices and told them of the subjugation request they were to undertake. The only one who looked fearfully at the Grand Mage and the request was Sir Kris who was a level three Knight, as the others including Sir Rowan looked at Willem in wonderment. The boys looked at Willem sheepishly until they noticed he had a huge grin on his face, just like he had when they helped each other out during the training. As soon as he smiled, all of their fatigue and restlessness fell away and all that was left was happiness. Not only did their brother-in-arms not become a waste or a thief, but he was now a Grand Mage of the Magic Academy. They could not wait to ask him all about what happened.

Everyone who was a part of the subjugation left the guard's office quickly. The two Knights saluted their captain who had begun to walk away and told the apprentices to pack the provisions for the journey. Willem interrupted the knights and said that it was not necessary as they would not be gone longer than a day. The Knights involuntarily saluted Willem as if out of habit and looked at each other confused. All five of them left toward the hunting grounds with just the basic provisions and their weapons.

After ten minutes of walking and talking among the boys, Willem told them it was time for the fun part. He quickly drew an array for honing his magical force and began chanting to empower the array.

Before they were about to leave, Sir Kris suggested they set up a formation to ensure no one gets hurt. Sir Rowan nodded and they all looked at Willem at the same time. He sighed and took out three potions for each of them.

Quizzically, they took the elixirs and asked him what they were. Willem looked around, a large grin on his face and said "this is our formation." He pointed at the potions jokingly and said nothing more. A cold sweat broke out over everyone's foreheads but they did not dare say anything else about it. They all stepped into the magical array and Willem focused his magic. They all slipped into the darkness and landed outside a cave near the slope of a small hill far into the hunting grounds.

A massive roar sounded out and Willem did the motion for everyone to drink their potions. With nothing to lose, they swallowed down the elixirs and felt their bodies brimming with magical energy. This boost was not like anything they had ever felt before. Not only did their vision increase, but every fiber of their being felt like it could unleash its maximum capabilities. The affects were nothing compared to the level two elixirs they had incrementally gotten during their time as Knights.

With their new strength, the knights and squires climbed down into the cave of the White Tiger with Willem following behind.