Tales Of The Mighty Dragonair

His words made Arthur satisfied, as he already guessed about this. "She seems quite reliable and trustworthy," he commented, without saying more.

"Sure, and it\'s really hard for anyone to join her faction. She had such extravagant conditions that most mages there can\'t rely on. For instance, she prohibited any great family mages to join her faction, I would be the third clan son to join hers, and that\'s a great feat for me."

His tone was really happy, proud of his gain today. Arthur just nodded, and then his attention was shifted to somewhere else.

\'So, you can\'t even wait until we exit your clan?\' he thought to himself, as they were followed by a group of ill intention mages.

He didn\'t glance again at them, as he walked side by side with Rayan who was extremely excited and started to speak, non-stop, about life inside the walls of the academy.

"The students there are divided based on the initial assessments into grades, each comprising the number of inner demons they can control and the potential of their strength. The lowest is grade one, and it\'s the most rank with mages.

The more you go higher, the least number of mages there are. Mages can be considered a graduate and leave the academy once they break through grade two and enter grade three, like your mage, Noura.

The highest grade there is tenth grade, and there are only ten mages there, and they are already considered a legend. Level nine to six had one to two mages in each grade, and grade five had around a hundred."

Arthur just listened and nodded with his head, knowing that his friend was just ecstatic at the moment. He also started to get a general view of the academy inner arrangements. "Do the top ten mages belong to any faction?" he asked.

"Sure, seven of them belonged to the seven big clans, with only our clan left without any representative there, making this as a big embarrassment. The new generation of me and that jerk has no hope to attain that height, making our clan head very anxious about the future of our clan," he replied, with some bitterness in his tone.

"What about the other three?" Arthur asked, ignoring that bitterness his friend was feeling.

"Two belonged to the top two guilds in the academy, and one belonged to lady Cesile," he replied, "that mage helped in shaping her legend, as he is the third mage to reach there in the last decade from her faction."

"Oh, she was a master for ten years?" Arthur asked with astonishment, as this meant she was a master there at the age of twenty five!

"No," Rayan shook his head, "she has been a master for over fifteen years now. she became master in her twenty, making her the fifth youngest master ever in the history of the academy," he added.

Arthur felt speechless, as he never thought the academy had such monsters lurking inside it along its history. He underestimated it for being a mere academy, not worthy for his future, but now he felt he was gravely mistaken.

This academy was the real deal, it seemed.

"How a mage is chosen to be a master?" he asked, as he suddenly felt some attraction to that title.

Rayan showed some hesitation as he took a couple of minutes before answering:

"It\'s really not clear, but I know for sure you need to bypass grade five at the least, then you will be subjected to a series of tests, to assess your real potential and current strength," he paused, before adding, "being a master there isn\'t a joke, as your tasks are many, and your gains are much more than you can imagine!"

Arthur became more interested in this, as if Cesile could manage to accomplish this at the age of twenty, he could aim for that in his current age. \'Only the problem of my transformation should be solved first,\' he thought to himself, as currently this point was really holding him back.

They had already reached the hall where everything started there. Arthur managed to spot his team there, standing with their chests up high, as their eyes carried this proud look and their bodies had this glorious air.

"These punks," he helplessly shook his head, as he knew they were now feeling much excited about his achievements, even much more than Rayan walking by his side.

"Clan head, you are really supreme!"

Amelia was the first to speak up, welcoming him, followed by everyone\'s praising words that were full of much pride. He just nodded to them, hoping they would forget all this when they reach the testing grounds.

After all, he had this vague feeling that things wouldn\'t bypass this easily, and that Tenshi and his father wouldn\'t let what happened here go without retaliation.

"Thanks for the praising words everyone, but let\'s get in shape and mind for the upcoming challenge," he paused, as he felt his words didn\'t manage to shake their fantasy yet, so he added, "this isn\'t something to celebrate wildly before entering the academy successfully. The losers in this challenge won\'t let things pass this easily, so expect fierce battles coming towards us, and even some of us might fall there."

His words finally managed to return them into silence, with doubtful looks over their faces. He glanced at Rayan, who understood his meaning, so he coughed slightly before saying:

"Brother Willy is right, this Tenshi and his father, Forij, are known to be very vengeful. Their loss here today was massive, and I\'m sure they won\'t stop at anything to turn your upcoming trial very nightmarish."

Arthur nodded, as he was satisfied with his friend\'s exaggerations, but he said nothing more for a while, giving his friends time to adapt to this.

"Now, let\'s move outside this place," Arthur said, as he added, while glancing at Rayan, "brother Rayan here will send some mages to accompany us, so we won\'t face any much trouble along the way."

He then paused, before stealing a rapid glance over the hidden mages behind him, spying on him and his team, "but beware, we might bump into trouble anytime. Be prepared for battle from this moment on, as our trial has already started."

Rayan and the others didn\'t get the mages eyeing them, so they thought he was just trying to nail his previous warning.

"We got the point, let\'s go then, clan head," Ron said, as he spoke in the name of everyone here, trying to make Arthur stop his threatening words.

"Wait for a moment, I will send for my personal team to come and accompany you," Rayan said, as he took out one bird\'s wing, wrote something in it, before letting it burn.

They didn\'t wait for longer than ten minutes, during which everyone had summoned their flying pets and waited until a group of fifty mages, dressed in a unified custom came towards them.

Each of them wore a slender helmet made of bronze colored ore, a tight chest plate and armor that looked so majestic with these white writings over its surface, and they held long swords that were curved, and rounded huge shields that looked so heavy.

They were armed forces, a very intimidating one. Just as they arrived, Raya expressed his surprise as he asked:

"What brings the falcon legion to here? where is my private army?"

"Esteemed sprout head, the clan head gave us the order to come and escort our esteemed valuable guests, to make sure nothing wrong would happen along the way."

One of these fifty mages, a one with the greatest body out of them, spoke with extreme respect, as his strong tone reverberated in the whole area, attracting more attention to here.

"Oh, that\'s great," Rayan joyfully said, before turning to Arthur as he added, "with them guarding you, I guarantee nothing would happen to you. Not even Furij can do a thing towards the falcon legion," he added, trying to reassure Arthur, who was already feeling doubtful towards all this.

"Be wary of them," Arthur whispered to his team while the falcon legion was busy summoning their flying, falcon like monsters, "I\'m sure they are the enemy," he added, while his gaze fell upon those who were spying on them, as their faces showed relaxed expression, not anything close to any nervousness from the sudden appearance of the falcon mages.

\'So, this is your machination? Let\'s see how you plan to attack me then,\' he thought to himself, smirking inwardly towards the move his enemy had just pulled, despite acknowledging it was a good move.

"Let\'s go," the leader of the falcon legion spoke to his mages and to Arthur and his group, "we will fly straight towards the academy main gate, and we won\'t rest for a moment along the way, so be ready and endure with us."