Chapter 34: Testing Troubles - Page 4
"Kir Gale," Professor Lee announced, and above him, Kir heard more than a few concerned or frankly hostile comments.
He decided to start with the barrel of stones and earth.
"I just need to take out the target, right?" Kir asked.
"Yes indeed, young man," Professor Lee said, wiping off the strange green glasses before replacing them. "Now you may start."
Kir started by generating an electromagnetic field intense enough to pull iron from the stones. Once he had a decently sized chunk, he pointed his finger through it and "fired," compressing the magnetic field and spinning the iron bullet for accuracy as he sent the round through the head of the illusion dummy.
The round continued all the way across the bridge until it almost impacted the door on the other side. It was stopped when a massive wall of blue-white light appeared, etched with circle upon circle of protective spells.
Professor Lee's jaw dropped. "A-an original spell... do you have a name for it?"
Kir shrugged. It was far from his most powerful attack. "I guess I could call it Gauss Cannon."
"Amazing... full marks..." Lee said, noting Kir's performance down.
"It's not over yet," Chancellor Lumin's voice suddenly said in Kir's ear, and he saw that a similar orb to earlier had appeared next to Professor Lee as well.
Kir took that to mean he should proceed with the other "elements" and so he stepped up to the barrel of water as Lee generated another dummy.
Most people Kir had seen using magic used it to control substances. They took matter in one state or another but didn't control its properties so much as moved it around for effect. Fire seemed to be the common exception to this, since it was considered the only "generated element," which also meant that fire was typically the most difficult element for most people to master.
Kir viewed his use of magic not through the lens of substance, but through the creation of effects.
The world had magnetism, he used his mana to bend it.
The air had water in it, he used his mana to pull it into a sphere rather than rely on the barrel before him.
The world had pressure, he used his mana to amplify it.
What emitted from the compressed sphere of water was a jet so powerful it sliced through the dummy and struck the tower across the bridge once again, this time flaring a different set of shields in yellow.
"So efficient..." Professor Lee said, his voice a little giddy as he wrote notes on Kir's performance.
"It's just a water blade," Kir said. The water itself wasn't magical, which meant Kir could keep this one as a backup against foes protected against magic.
"Water Blade..." the Professor noted.
Fire came next, and for this one Kir simply gathered pure oxygen and carbon around the target dummy and detonated it with a small spark of magical electricity that visibly travelled the distance to the invisible mass. This time, it was protective wards on the bridge that flared to life.
"F-fire from lightning... how?!" Professor Lee said, shocked.
"Sure, call it that," Kir said, not wanting to go through the process of explaining what a fuel-air bomb was.
Air magic was, for Kir, the most annoying conceptually. People in this world thought of it as creating wind but all they really did was shove air around with mana. Kir decided to use the same approach he had with water, only this time he added a bit of flair to his spell.
Raising a fist, he isolated a patch of air around the target dummy and started to compress it, showing off with his fist as a visual aid for others to understand what he was doing as he shrank the pocket of air further and further.
Nothing seemed to happen, and then suddenly the dummy began to crumple, break, and finally disappear. The bridge wards, this time, didn't go off until Kir released the spell.
Under that much compression, the sudden release caused the air to rapidly cool as it expanded, and it left a coating of ice in a circle centered on where the dummy had been.
"Call that one 'Air Crusher,'" Kir said.
Everyone on the bridges above had remained silent, some staring at Kir with fear painted all over their faces. He'd cast spells powerful enough for their school to defend itself and had used no words nor given any hints as to how they were made.
"Excellent. Excellent," Chancellor Lumis said, her voice booming to the crowd. "Now, dear boy, I have it from your mother that you developed a spell named Nova Blast. I would very much like to see this spell."
Kir frowned. He tried to signal with his hand that he wanted to talk, by pointing at his mouth, and shortly Lumis split the ball of light in front of her and sent its companion down to Kir.
"Madam Chancellor... I'm afraid that spell is far too dangerous for casual use... the byproducts alone are-"
"Nonsense, child. There's an entire lake below us. Just launch your spell as powerfully as you can," Lumis cut him off.
Kir flinched. At full power, casting into the lake would produce a tsunami capable of destroying the city, even if it was cleaner than hitting land.
"Ma'am, I've produced four original spells already. Is that not satisfactory?" Kir argued back, causing a murmur to spread throughout the crowd on the bridges.
"Satisfactory for the elemental tests, but satisfy this old woman's curiosity as to what an ultimate spell looks like coming from you." Lumis chuckled.
Kir knew he had no more room to argue. He would just have to try to use as little power as possible while satisfying Lumis. The fundamental problem with Nova Blast was that it relied on the power of fission and fusion reactions. The moon of Hell and an entire mountain had already suffered for the hubris of showing such a spell to his moms.
"Madame Chancellor," Kir spoke into the magic mic, "If I cast that spell at full power this close to the city, people will suffer. With respect, I decline to show you Nova Blast by those terms." Kir's voice was firm.
"Even if it means you have to spend an extra year learning?" Lumis challenge.
"Even if it means I have to quit the school," Kir replied. "But I'll offer you this. I will show you the spell at one-tenth of its power."
"Oh?" Lumis chuckled. "It better be an impressive tenth. I don't take kindly to being talked back to."
Kir prayed he wouldn't regret this.
He walked to the edge of the bridge, and saw his fellow candidates take up positions to watch on the same side.
Pointing his palm toward the lake, he gathered the spell and its components, splitting hydrogen and separating it, confining the nuclear reaction in a tight magnetic field before opening it just enough to let the proton-electron beam fly toward the open water, as far from any boats as he could place it.
Claud was the first one to break the silence. "Hm, looks like your spell didn't-"
A blast of air made the entire school flare under its protective wards, and Kir watched as a similar but more diffused dome of magic appeared around the city shortly thereafter.
The Nova Blast produced a massive explosion in the lake, with waves pushing away boats and slamming against the wards just beyond the docks. Vapor began rising into a mushroom-shaped cloud at the epicenter of the blast. A few moments later, the water cast into the air came down all across the school, wetting its bottom third and the Knight Academy below it.
The silence that followed felt to Kir as though it cemented his status as an outcast in the eyes of all the students gathered.
Claud's next word confirmed it.
"Monster..." he whispered, all bravado gone.
Kir looked down at him, before turning away and walking back toward the main tower.
If such a label got people to leave him alone while he got stronger... maybe he could live with that.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone