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Chapter 27: Self-Created Magic Skill… Dynamic Light Wave

The test dummy’s head rolled a long way across the floor before finally coming to a stop.

Ashura was still frozen in his crouched posture, Twin Swords in hand and both arms flung back.

He looked up at the dummy in confusion; hadn’t they said it would change color as long as you dealt damage? Why was it still white after he had even lopped its head off, and why had only the blue runes on its body vanished?

The hall remained eerily silent, and Ashura glanced from the stunned instructors on the dais to the even more stupefied classmates, wondering if anyone would tell him whether that dummy had changed color or not.

While he was still puzzled, the hook-nosed instructor on the platform was the first to recover, his lips trembling as he declared, “Student Ashura, intentionally damaging the test dummy… penalty of 1,000 Academy Points!”

“What?” Ashura could not believe his ears; since entering the academy he had not spent a single credit, planning to save them for cultivation, and he had only accumulated a little more than 800 credits so far.

That hook-nosed guy actually wanted to fine him 1,000 credits?

Ashura immediately retorted, “On what grounds, Instructor? It’s hardly my fault the dummy is so fragile! Didn’t the dean say that whether you’re Magician Stage 1 or Martial Master Stage 1, as long as you make the dummy take effective damage and change color you pass?”

“Does the dean’s word count for nothing, or did you just change the rules on the spot?”

Ashura’s accusation made the hook-nosed instructor slam the table and roar, “Insolence! The Magic School’s test dummies are magic-resistant constructs that do not defend against physical attacks at all; you broke it and still think you’re in the right?”

Ashura scratched his head and said awkwardly, “Instructor, I didn’t know the test dummies had different attributes, and the academy never mentioned it beforehand…”

Before he could finish, the hook-nosed instructor snapped, “In more than 40 years at the Magic School I have never seen a magician student hack at a test dummy with Twin Swords!”

“And you still blame the academy for not explaining? You… you… get out!”

Seeing that the hook-nosed instructor was genuinely furious, Ashura dared not argue further, yet he still asked, “Instructor, does this mean I’ve passed? The blue runes on the dummy disappeared, so that counts as a color change, right?”

The hook-nosed instructor stared at the black-haired youth in disbelief, veins throbbing on his forehead.

He then bellowed, “Pass? In your dreams! Get out first; your punishment will be decided after I report this to the academy!”

Ashura’s heart sank; if this matter reached the academy, he would surely fail the exam and be expelled.

Before he could protest, a pleasant voice sounded behind him: “I object!”

Ashura looked back to see that the one speaking for him was his homeroom instructor, Instructor Ella.

Instructor Ella, her face anxious, strode quickly to Ashura’s side and said to the instructors on the dais, “Instructor Gide, I believe my student did nothing wrong; it is true we failed to specify that the test dummies do not resist physical attacks.”

“My student Ashura is an exceptional mage-warrior; he intended to pass the test through martial techniques and possesses the strength to do so.”

“Because we failed to give clear instructions, this misunderstanding occurred; as homeroom instructor I share responsibility and am willing to compensate the academy for the damaged dummy.”

“But please do not expel my student from the testing ground; that would be unfair to him, and I hope Instructor Gide will grant him another chance!”

Instructor Ella finished her statement with neither humility nor arrogance, and the hook-nosed instructor on the stone platform sat back down.

As a veteran instructor of the Magic School, he could afford to snub Instructor Ella herself, but he dared not disrespect her grandfather, Grand Archmage Aiwei.

The hook-nosed instructor named Gide pondered for a moment after sitting and said, “Very well, do as you propose; settle the compensation among yourselves, but as for his assessment, I will not pass him here.”

“I only have new magic-type test dummies, not ones for martial techniques; let him go to the Martial Arts Academy if he wants… there is no way for me to pass him here!”

Having said this he was about to call the next candidate, and at that point not only Instructor Ella but also Clara and Na Wei felt despair at the outcome.

Yet since Examiner Gide had already compromised, they had no better solution…

Just as everyone was anxiously wracking their brains, they heard Ashura call out, “Hold on, Instructor Gide! If I accept the punishment for the previous matter, can we let bygones be bygones?”

“And if I can strike the dummy with magic and make it change color, will that count as a pass?”

At these words Clara’s eyes lit up but quickly dimmed again, for she knew her deskmate was only at Mage Adept Stage 3, a level far too low to damage the test dummy with magic.

Unless he possessed a powerful family magic skill like Na Wei’s.

Hook-nosed Gide looked once more at the black-haired youth and secretly admired his composure even while cornered.

Yet as chief examiner he had to preserve the fairness of the test, so he nodded to indicate agreement, then took a new dummy from his space ring and placed it at the front corner of the platform.

Instructor Gide said, “I will give you one more chance; show me right here that you have the power to pass the assessment… I have yet to meet a student equally balanced in magic and martial arts!”

Instructor Ella wanted to say more, but Ashura tugged her sleeve, then gave a warm smile and said, “Thank you, Instructor Ella; you really are on my side! Leave the rest to me!”

Instructor Ella was momentarily dazed by his words, suddenly recalling the favor he had asked of her in her office two months earlier.

She had not considered that just now; she had stepped forward purely out of a instructor’s instinct to protect her student.

Watching Ashura step past her and stand tall, Instructor Ella suddenly felt that the youth six years her junior was unexpectedly steady and formidable, as if he could already stand on his own.

She blushed, silently chided herself, glanced at his back, and slowly retreated to the rear of the line.

Facing a dummy identical to the previous one, Ashura’s mind raced; things had gone beyond his expectations, and he wondered how to clear the test now that he knew the dummies differed in resistance under so many watching eyes.

He realized that casting ordinary lightning like the others would most likely fail the assessment, and finding a way out became his biggest challenge.

Suddenly inspiration struck; he remembered the magic skill Fatty Na Wei had used, which Na Wei had mentioned was a family-inherited technique.

Ashura recalled that he too had a self-created lightning-element magic skill; before enrolling he had even blown up his grandfather’s alchemy furnace with it.

He had not attempted it since, because he could barely control the lightning sphere back then.

Privately he had christened the haphazardly devised spell “Dynamic Light Wave.”

He trusted the spell’s power; whatever happened, it was worth a gamble.

He raised his right hand level with his chest, palm toward the dummy, and used his mind to draw the lightning-element magic coursing through his meridians.

By now the lightning element within him was nothing like before; three months of all-night meditation had amassed a vast reservoir.

The lightning rolled through his meridians like a snowball growing ever larger, and just as he was about to lose control…

Ashura shouted, “Watch my ultimate move… Dynamic Light Wave!”

An orb of lightning, as large as an apple, shot from the acupoint in his palm.

It wobbled, swelling and shrinking as it drifted toward the test dummy…

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