Arcane Heir: History's Strongest Mage

Jakob had faded into obscurity after the initial bet in combat class at the start of the semester. After that incident, he seemingly cut his ties with Braydon and Randolph.

Michael's gaze moved to Braydon on the other side of the classroom and could see the guy's chin raised, clearly looking down on the guy.

Was it Braydon who kicked him out of their group? He thought curiously.

"Your two minutes begins now." Charles stated, bringing Michael's attention back to the front of the class.

Jakob nodded, bringing his hand up. Orange mana began to flow from his body towards his index finger. The flow appeared much less controlled than Charles, but it was to be expected since the former was only a first-year student.

The guy calmly began to draw the runes in the outer layers, constructing the magic circle bit by bit. While the runes looked a bit clumsy, they were at least stable—and somewhat legible.

Michael could see that the spell was the wind element, but the inner layer was too convoluted to decipher, at least from his vantage point.

"Twenty seconds left." Charles reminded the boy, his expression impassive.

Hearing this, a slight panic crept onto Jakob's face as he began to hasten his movements. A few moments later, he sent a surge of mana into the magic circle, gritting his teeth.

The magic circle shined, though it lacked the same resplendence that Charles had demonstrated earlier.

It vibrated briefly before an imperceptible wind blade was fired from the center of the circle, its target the crowd of students. Braydon and Craig stood up in horror as the wayward attack approached them—almost as if singling them out.

However, before it could even cross the threshold, an invisible barrier appeared, casting prismatic light as it withstood the wind blade with ease.

Only after seeing the display did the rest of the class let out a sigh of relief. Braydon however, shot an angry glare at Jakob—his eyes shining with malice.

Oof, is there trouble in paradise? Michael remarked in his heart, feeling some glee.

While he hadn't experienced the same level of bullying from Braydon in the past few months, they still held an obvious dislike for each other. They would wordlessly compete in class, battling for a better score.

The guy had also toned down his advances towards Melody, seemingly giving up. Michael believed it was a result of the expulsion of Randolph and his older brother Troy.

They had been the perfect example to remind students like Braydon that violence would not be tolerated in the academy.

"Not bad," Charles remarked, nodding his head. "Return to your seat, we have quite a few people to get through today."

The students were given no time to relax as Charles called the next examinee. With almost a hundred students and two minutes each to showcase their magic circle's, the class was already scheduled to go for at least three hours.

From the way his old tutor was calling out the names, Michael realized that it was in alphabetical order. His eyes moved to Melody Winterborne and gave her a pitying gaze.

She would likely be one of the final students who were tested.

"Michael Ellis, you're up." Charles called after about twenty minutes, causing him to stiffen slightly.

"You got this bro," he felt a soft punch on his arm from Rudy beside him who flashed him a grin.

Michael sent him a nod and pushed down his nervousness. He descended the stairs, feeling a hundred sets of eyes locked onto him at that moment, watching him intently.

As he stood in front of Charles, the man gave him a small smile, "Let's see what you've got," he prompted, a warmth in his eyes.

Michael breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth, calming himself. He had been studying furiously over the past two weeks, burning the steps of his magic spell into his mind.

Most students would choose a wind element spell because the outer layer was far easier to formulate. However, Michael was more partial to ice magic for some reason.

He visualized his mana flowing like a steady stream through his meridians and towards his index finger. His eyes seemed to harden with concentration as he lifted his hand and began to draw the elemental runes in the outer layer.

A brief look of surprise crept onto his old tutor's face before the guy's smile grew wider. However, Michael didn't notice—his attention locked onto the process of creating his magic circle.

The runes were numerous and tricky, he had to be careful not to overlap them otherwise the structure of the circle would collapse before he could even complete it.

Not until a full minute had passed did Michael complete the outer layer. Compared to the others, this was much slower. Though much more impressive, it would mean nothing if he was not able to finish the spell in the alloted time.

With the outer layer finished, he moved onto the inner layer, picking up his pace. Each of these runes would dictate the structure and actions of his mana once it changed into the specified element.

A bead of sweat rolled down his brow as he consciously made every stroke in the air.

"Twenty seconds remaining." Charles reminded him.

Shit, will I finish in time? Michael felt a rise of panic, almost causing him to mess up one of the runes.

Just a few more…

Things came down to the wire. Just as he drew the last piece of the final rune in the center of his magic circle, Charles opened his mouth.

"Hurry, activate the spell." He instructed with urgency.

Michael didn't need to be told twice. He lifted his arm, sending a wave of mana towards the center of the magic circle, gritting his teeth. Somehow, he managed to control the speed and density of his mana to an acceptable level—despite the time crunch.

"And… Time." Charles stated, flourishing his hand.

At the action, the mana was abruptly cut off from Michael, leaving the crimson magic circle floating in the air silently.