"You can measure any spell, right? It doesn't have to be something specific?" She asked, and the Professor nodded, wondering where she was going with this line of thought.
"You can use a spell, or you can simply have your aura tested. Both are fine, depending on your skill level, but demonstrating an actual spell is the only way to get into the top class. Everyone who qualifies for Class A will have at least that much talent." Professor Ashcroft explained.
"Wolfe, can you carve this symbol into something for me? Your writing is better." She asked, handing Wolfe a piece of paper.
It wasn't a circle but a string of runes written vertically. Proper Witch Magic, not something that adapted Elemental Magic to their needs. Just looking at it made Wolfe's skin crawl a little, but it would be easy enough to carve if he had a stick to carve it in.
"Can we stop for a second? I need a stick to do this." Wolfe asked, but the Professor had come prepared and removed a thin wooden branch, bark and all, from her handbag for Wolfe to work with.
"You have thirty minutes if you are going to make a wand. Since Wolfe probably doesn't know, a wand enhances a Witch's innate magic, so it is only usable by the one who created it. We usually have new students make one in the second Semester once they have all learned the technique to stabilize their aura, which allows them to cast innate magic."
"The stronger the aura, the stronger the Witch. You will learn to recognize it in your training." The Guard told Wolfe with a smirk.
Knowing how Cassie responded to his touch and mana flow, Wolfe suspected that this so-called training might be a particularly exhilarating one for both him and the Witches.
"There is more to it, but we will save that for the academy. With your credentials, you will be busy from the moment that you arrive. Just don't let any favourable treatment cause you to forget your predicament." The Guard told him.
A predicament was a rather kind word for it. Though the professor and the guards seemed more than happy to bring him on as a security staff worker, Wolfe was well aware that male magic users were usually killed if they were caught in the city. Their attitude did give him some hope that things might be different out here in the wilderness, though, since they seemed to be adamant that all skilled fighters and witches were needed for whatever it was that they were doing beyond training.
Wolfe carved the nauseating runes into the stick with careful precision, then looked it over, realizing that it wasn't right or complete. The incantation was correct, but the wand needed something else.
The runes weren't a language he knew, but once they were carved, they made sense to him, thanks to the Inheritance. Wolfe read the text in his head [I draw the power around me] and thought about the movies. The main characters always repeated a chant for emphasis.
Carving it more than once shouldn't hurt anything, and the teacher would probably let him get a new stick if he messed it up. She seemed to like Cassie quite a bit.
With three copies written, Wolfe was struggling not to throw the wand away just from the feeling of wrongness and revulsion, but he carefully handed it back to Cassie, who giggled happily and began filling in the runes using a gold paint marker.
It was also a bit rose-coloured, and he suspected that the little Witch had put the remainder of his blood in it that she hadn't used in the silver pen. He would have to be careful about allowing anyone to gain possession of his blood in the future, so others didn't find out.
When she finished, the talkative guard offered her a talisman, much like the mana storage one she was wearing.
"Since it's carved by the Noxus Family, for the Noxus Family, I think it's only right if our talisman completes the process." She told him, then placed her free hand on Wolfe's bare arm.
The man gave Wolfe a sly wink, suggesting that he knew there was something between Wolfe and Cassie, but didn't say anything.
The wand began to glow black, with purple sparks flickering in the darkness, before the spell completed and something around Cassie changed.
The darkness lingered, not as a physical thing, but more of a sense of power, one that Wolfe had come to associate with Professor Ashcroft and Witches in general.
"Oh, not bad at all. Did your grandmother teach you that?" The Professor asked, and Cassie nodded happily.
"But since I couldn't use magic before this week after my birthday, there was so much to do that all I had time to learn was the theories, preparing me for the academy. She said that in her day, the test was done naked to ensure there was no cheating."
The Professor laughed out loud at Cassie's blushing face. "We haven't done it that way in nearly fifty years. Twenty years ago, they began allowing magical devices since everyone would be using them in class anyhow."
"I was as disappointed as you when I found out that nudity was no longer a requirement." The Guard whispered to Wolfe, taking a smack from the Professor for his comment.
"And that's why we changed it. The tests are done in front of the whole school. You are free to work naked if you prefer, I doubt any of the young ladies would object, but I will warn you, the Academy is air-conditioned." She informed Wolfe with a straight face.
That meant that shirtless was an option, even if it wasn't the best idea since any Witch who touched his bare skin would know he had an affinity for magic. Plus, he was still hiding the extent of his abilities, even though he was captured. If whoever they sent to judge him thought he was like the other Elders and relatively harmless, they might let him go with a less severe punishment.
But who could have guessed that strategic nudity was actually an approved tactic to help keep the young Witches in line?
Once Cassie was holding the wand and her aura became noticeable, it seemed to stabilize and soon blended into her presence as if it was always part of her.
Her hand was still on Wolfe's arm, though, and he could feel something between them, not a flow of mana, at least not directly, but it did feel like the contact was helping to balance them out.
The Professor noticed the continued contract. "You catch on quickly. Yes, she can use your power to increase her own. It's a matter of compatibility, though. Even if you have an affinity for mana, as many of the Noxus men do, how well a Witch can manipulate it makes all the difference in how much power is shared."
How well she can manipulate it? For a moment, Wolfe almost forgot that a man who could manipulate magic was so taboo that they hadn't considered his abilities in the equation. But it also meant that since he could, he would be able to work with a Witch's aura to strengthen himself and that they were going to teach him how to do it, but not intentionally.
When their personnel carrier arrived at the academy, the first thing that Wolfe noticed was how empty the place was since they had arrived nearly two days early. The second was the amount of damage to some of the vehicles that were in the parking lot.
Clearly, not everyone had the easy journey that they did through the wastelands.
The moment they stepped out of the vehicle with Professor Ashcroft and the Guards, a wave of gossip started swirling through the assembled students.
The crowd was almost what Wolfe had dreamed of, young ladies everywhere, in the iconic school uniform no less, an above-the-knee length short-sleeved dress with long robes over the top, both in black with either silver or gold trim and badges to mark what class they were assigned to. However, he noticed that a long skirt and blouse with a cardigan were also a uniform option.
What he didn't see was any Familiars. He had expected to see them wherever there were Witches. Rats and cats and newts, or even demonic imps. The movies wouldn't lie to him, and Wolfe was looking forward to seeing all of the small creatures.
"The Familiars are hiding in the school waiting for their Witches. They don't need to be very close for the Witch to benefit, like in the movies. These are just the new students and the ones who wanted to get a head start on putting the newbies in their place." The Guard whispered to Wolfe, guessing what he was thinking.
That made sense. Most of the older Witches likely didn't care about the newbies at this point. Before the tests, they didn't even know which ones were a threat and which were easy targets.
Professor Ashcroft turned to them with what Wolfe recognized as her teacher's face, a stern and blank expression of mild disapproval that she hadn't worn before this moment. "Since we are here and there are no bags to put away, Miss Cassie, I will get your paperwork finished and lead you to your Dorm. Wolfe, I believe you will be busy for a few minutes, but the guards will show you to your room."
Her attitude toward Cassie was suspiciously kind, much different than the Countess had been, and it had only increased after the creation of the wand. If Wolfe didn't know better, he would say that the teacher had chosen a new favourite student.
Once the teacher was gone, Wolfe expected the students' attitudes to change, but they still seemed cautious around the two Guards, and Wolfe realized a bit too late that there hadn't been just one teacher in the personnel carrier. There were some fearful mutters about the hell that was combat class, exchanged in hushed whispers that Wolfe could still clearly hear after the improvements that gathering mana had made to his body.
"So, I am guessing one of you is the combat Instructor?" Wolfe asked.
"Both, actually. We teach the elite classes here at the Academy, and there are four more at the training compound a few kilometres away for the soldiers and squires doing their year-long application." The Guard chuckled.
"You are bringing this commoner straight to the Academy? Even if he's one of yours, he will still need to take the servant's exam." A nasal male voice complained from somewhere in the crowd, disdain for the instructor clear in his tone.
"Wolfe Noxus, meet Luke Abilene, the butler to the Abilene daughters and a duelling champion all through his youth. Luke, please step forward if you wish to challenge the judgement of the Academy. It is the right of the High Noble Houses to challenge staff appointments in the Academy." The instructor ordered, rolling his eyes in annoyance with the rule.
Contrary to his voice, Luke was an outstanding specimen of manhood. 190cm tall, lithe but muscular, clean cut, and with a face Wolfe would almost call pretty.
In short, he hated him the moment he saw him.
"Do you have a training weapon handy, or should we bring some? " The instructor asked.
Someone handed Luke a two-handed wooden sword, and the tall man smirked at Wolfe, who was clearly a commoner and would have no sword skills.
Every courier carried weapons, but none of Wolfe's were training weapons, and they were all tucked away in his bags, so he turned to the instructor for a sparring weapon.
"Do you have a baton or rattan sticks with you? That shouldn't cause any more damage than a training sword."
The quiet instructor took a collapsible baton from his belt and tossed it to Wolfe, who extended it with a flip of his wrist. Not his preferred weapon in a street brawl, but it was an easy-to-use one.
His opponent was a sword-fighting champion, but Wolfe was sure that pretty face had never seen a real fight, at least nothing like the street kids of the lower levels fought.
"The fight is until concession or until I call it. No groin attacks, no biting or poking of the eyes. Fighters, are you ready?" The instructor asked.
Luke took a fighting stance with his sword tip down and his knees crouched but parallel. Wolfe took this as a sign that he would be taking advantage of his reach to try to dominate the fight without getting hit.
Wolfe stripped off his shirt so it couldn't be grabbed and took a crouched stance, holding his baton in front of him like a dagger.
His opponent looked at him with the same disdain he had spoken to the instructor, and Wolfe nodded his readiness.
"Begin."
Luke stepped forward and swung his sword high, but Wolfe went low, not swinging the baton but tackling his opponent.
Luke hit the ground with a solid thud, his sword sliding to the edge of the circle of students, and Wolfe immediately laid into the side of his head with the baton.
He hadn't expected it to feel so good to get a chance to beat the pretentiousness out of a Noble brat who had been demoted to a servant. But it did. It felt really good, in a way that Wolfe was a bit ashamed to admit.
He got three solid hits in before Luke got both hands under his chest and threw Wolfe away, much harder than Wolfe had expected a human to be able to.
That was one of the advantages of being a servant to a Noble Family. He had a strength amulet with him.
Luke took a martial arts stance and motioned Wolfe forward, ignoring the blood streaming down from his temple and his nose. The baton was a liability in a grappling fight, so Wolfe discarded it and smirked at the battered face of the pretty boy.
"You will pay for that," Luke growled, his voice no longer nasal and annoying.
"I did you a favour. You sound better this way." Wolfe quipped before dodging a flurry of fists.
Luke was fast now that he had discarded that oversized sword. He must have chosen it expecting to humiliate an unskilled rookie.
Wolfe's strikes were all blocked, but Luke wasn't quite fast enough to catch Wolfe in return. To the students, it looked like a stalemate until Wolfe's foot appeared to slip on the grass.
Sliding Step, a technique from the Kung Fu master at his local fighting gym, looked like a trip, but was actually the start of a spinning kick.
Luke stepped forward to tackle his opponent and return the favour of a broken nose, only to find Wolfe spinning away before a sharp pain made the back of his head pound, and the world went blurry.
Wolfe pulled Luke's shirt over his head after kicking him, trapping his arms above his shoulders and blinding him before following it up with more punches to the face until the young noble finally got out of his shirt entirely.
He roared and charged Wolfe, who tried for a headlock, taking them both to the ground again.
"Break it up. He's proven he has the qualifications." The instructor called, pulling them apart just as a spell flew into the arena, knocking Wolfe to his knees.
"Christa, you know that attacking during a duel is prohibited, even if your twin brother is losing." Someone in the crowd laughed.
A small blonde Witch ran into the ring, hugging the battered form of Luke Abilene before feeding him a healing potion and glaring at Wolfe.
"Anyone who dares to give this commoner healing will answer to me." She insisted, making many of the students flinch back.
By her aura, she was no stronger than Cassie, so it must be her family influence scaring them, Wolfe decided.
"I appreciate the thought Miss, but I will be fine with a little rest. Most of this blood isn't mine." Wolfe told her in his most polite business tone, finely tuned for dealing with rude customers who didn't want to sign for packages.
From what Wolfe had learned on the way over today, the students didn't get to keep their own servants at school this year, and Luke had been introduced as a servant of her family, not the Academy. He likely wouldn't have to see him again, though Christa might be an issue in the future. She looked really mad about the broken nose, though her potion had set back to its original perfection.
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