Agnisotra: Origin Tails

Greg’s lecture was extremely boring. I had to stay awake till my part. I hate the idea that I have to do this for the coming half year.

“Professor, the Silver Torrent is falling asleep!” I hate students.

Agnis, pay attention! Your part is up now!

Right, this guy here had this complicated word salad but what does this mean for you? See creating a barrier as baking a cake. You check what you need and make a list. Compare this to creating your barrier, you check what you need in it, make a list, which is its magic circle. Now you might not bake it right away. Maybe 20 minutes later, maybe some hours. See baking the cake as forming the barrier. You use the correct ingredients in the correct order.

I made a simple demonstration

Only fools would put the frosting in the batter before baking the cake. Everything has an order. This is how you form your barrier. You extract mana from yourself or the ambient mana in the order that’s the most efficient for each mana rune and hitting everything on your list. And boom your barrier is done.

I created a blank mana circle that already had the barrier template and placed the runes in it as Greg had described. I then formed the barrier in front of us. I had made a barrier that only blocks water so I shot a [waterball] and a very weak [Fireball] at it and only the [Fireball] went through. The students ducked to evade the [Fireball] but seemed to get it.

Right, my work here is done, don’t try to make it too complicated for them Greg.

During the months that followed, I was basically a translator. Greg threw around complicated ideas and technical terms and while some got his explanation, I had to translate it into metaphors, analogies or simplify it for the rest of the group. They were on their own on Thursdays though.

Raishin got into a lot of trouble and got turned into an assistant of those in charge of the spa. Yes, this place had a spa. At first, I had no idea what it was but it's a good facility to have in this stressful environment. Raishin did enjoy being around chicks and massaging them. I just hope he doesn’t turn into a criminal.

My own lessons went well. The first ones of the day was mixed with the water magic students. Their ideas on water magic was so outdated it wasn’t funny; they focused on support and not on offence. How offensive! I took personal offence to that and showed them that water is as qualified in offence as the other elements.

They gained a lot of value from being disruptive. I wanted to teach them something more advanced like hijacking the magic circles and forcing the opponent to use a water skill but I’m not sure how good humans could get at it. A Misha or I would have no problems with that though. Although the students couldn’t destroy the target next to me, each student could cancel their own magic and some slight variations of it. I learned some new skills from this. Stealing magic skills from my students. I’m a genius!

I had introduced combat components because just interrupting or disrupting magic skills is easy, it’s completely different during combat. I told them to keep it at simple magic. They were all aware on when to interrupt, dispel or evade. The ones with poor physical condition had more pressure to interrupt or disrupt while those not great at mana control had the pressure on evading more.

This made the students get more familiar on how they have to approach this. I can’t teach them this. they need to figure this out for themselves, that’s why they have to continuously do mock battles with each other. This worked out for me because that means I don’t have to do anything. Helen was also participating but she didn’t miss her chance to instruct the water magic students.

“Phew, this is quite the workout.” Crissy sat down next to me.

Her skin was shimmering from the sweat. It didn’t take these students long to find out that they would work a sweat here so they had brought the appropriate clothing for it. The guys wore sport pants and t-shirts and most of the chicks were showing off quite some skin with a top and short sport shorts or leggings. Crissy took a big gulp from a water bottle and it made her chest jiggle. I had noticed that Hayley and Crissy were the most popular chicks in my group. Probably for the reasons Raishin got interested in them on the beach.

“Ow! Hey physical augmentations are cheating!” A guy got punched because he wasn’t paying attention.

He was getting cocky after successfully interrupting every attack his opponent threw at him.

He is not cheating, this is a classic example where you have to evade, good job ehhm Nigel was your name?

“It’s Percival but thanks!”

“Still as bad with names as ever, how come you still remember Hayley’s and my name?”

Well, that’s because we had and adventure together. It might sound wrong but the relationship I have with you 2 is different than the other students.

“That’s interesting, hearing that from you.”

A guy was making a fool out of himself. Probably trying to impress the chicks here.

Hey you! Whatshisface! Balance interrupting and evading better, you’re panting like a tired dog, it means you’re balance is off! Also don’t forget to take breaks in between!

I directed my gaze to Crissy .

Well, the thing is my memory works the best with exposure and impression, if you leave a good impression, I will put in more effort to remember your name, bonus points if it's short

A big guy was completely dominating his opponent. His chunkiness was deceptive as he was quite fast.

Mo! That was a wonderful display! Take a break that was wonderful!

“I see, you remember the short names better indeed. Right, it’s time for me to beat Hayley up. Hayley! It’s time for an ass kicking!” Crissy got up.

Hayley looked as if she had been put through a blender. There were no cuts but she was a mess. “Ugh, give me 2, no 5 more minutes!”

“Let’s go!” Crissy seemed to not care about Hayley’s state and was determined to beat her friend up. What a wonderful friendship.

“You’re a demon!” Crissy ignored Hayley’s complaints and went at it.

I had to think of an exam. All the professors were bragging and showing off what cool or complicated exam they had cooked up and there I was with no clue how to test them. I was happy with the progress of this class but the next one was quite disappointing. Any exam that would get this one to pass will cause the majority of the other class to fail. Any exam that the second class could reliably pass would be extremely easy for this one.

Hmm what if I make them team up? Every person from this class has to team up with one of the other class. With that it depends on which class is stronger. If the first class is skilled enough, they can pull up the second class, if the second class is too lazy, they will drag the first class down. If I then let them face off in 2v2 they will be able to get a better grasp on everything.

Now how to grade this? Instead of 2v2 I have the 2 groups face off against me. I will fire easy, medium, and hard magic spells at them the amount and types they can dispel and interrupt will determine how well they do. Evading is probably out of the question for them because if I miss that means they are being set up for a trap. Blocking attacks is allowed but blocking too often will affect their grade. So, they will have the pressure to do well but also the competition of another group that might do better than them. How this will feed into their competitiveness. I have set a limit on myself. If a group can land 3 hits on me, they instantly pass. I wrote these things down.

I headed toward Helen and asked her what she thought about this idea. She offered to take a look at how the second class was doing. After the second class, I would put pressure on Teppei to merge the two classes together on Thursday so they could form pairs and practice together. The exam would be in 3 weeks. I hope I don’t have to take more exams. It feels like solving an obnoxious puzzle. The second group was at the point the first group was 2 weeks ago. Only 11 were at a similar level of the first group. They were causing trouble again but the mock battles kept them busy so that I could work out this idea more.

 Interrupting or dispelling an easy spell will gain them 1 point but getting hit by them will lose them 3 points.

 Interrupting a medium spell will gain them 3 points and getting hit by one will lose them 2 points.

 Interrupting or dispelling a hard spell will gain them 5 points and getting hit by one will lose them 1 point.

If this is achieved by team effort every interruption or dispel will add 2 points. If I detect sabotage the one responsible will get a 2-point penalty. This only counts for the team members; they can dispel or interrupt the skills of the other pair they’re fighting. My tail will keep track of the amount of points gained. The pairs will inevitably lose points but I’m more interested in how many they gained during the test.

If one of the pair scores high and the other doesn’t but has put in the effort to get to the result that one will pass, anyone who is dead weight will fail. Hitting 21 points or over is an instant pass, hitting me 3 times is also an instant pass. Every set of pairs gets 10 minutes. This feels more like a game now. I made a list of skills I would use and put them in the category weak, medium, or hard. Interrupting a skill of another pair will always be counted as a medium. I beat up 3 troublemakers after finalizing the specifics of my exam.

Next class will be interesting, look forward to it, it will be preparations for the exam I cooked up so better come well prepared. Now go use the rest of the time to freshen up and think about your life choices because this is going to be rough for most of you.

I went to put pressure on Teppei and my exam got approved. He had been very busy but he would be free next week and that’s when the sword training would start for me.

Thursday came and the second class was confused to why their class started earlier. I had gotten into an argument because I might have said that the lecture, they would normally have at this time, was quite useless. The professor wasn’t happy with that.

Right, slackers and hard workers, from now on we will prepare for the exam. These are the rules. I stuck a pole in the ground which had a board with the rules on it attached.

This will stay here and will still be here during the exam, study them well. If I get bullshit about that you didn’t know the rules, I will send you to Greg’s lectures. Now how this is how it works, team up with someone from the other class to make pairs. I don’t want to hear complaints.

I heard grumbling and while the first class was trying it’s best to follow the rules the second class was resisting.

All right assholes, do you want me to beat you up again?!

“Hah, we got stronger! The rule still stands that we pass if we kick your ass, right? We also have the other class with us now! This should be a piece of cake!” Random delinquent #1 again.

It seems he learned nothing, literally and uhh literally. He didn’t learn his lesson and he didn’t seem to be paying attention in class so he literally learnt nothing in both cases. Lazy students.

“Uhhm, Crissy and I pass on that idea, you guys have fun.” Hayley and Crissy backed off.

The rest of first class also disagreed with beating me up. They haven’t seen me fight but they were fine with the current exam plans. Half of the clown team joined the first group in not wanting to get their asses kicked.

So, it’s just 31 of you. You guys have been clowning around the last 3 months do you seriously think you can beat me now?

“Only one way to find out! You’re the same age as us, you can’t be that much stronger than us!” Delinquent leader was rallying all the delinquents and misfits.

I wonder why they took my class in the first place. Maybe they thought it was an easy path to fame.

I looked over at Hayley and Crissy, hoping they would talk to these clowns. They gave me a thumbs up. Do they seriously want me to beat up their fellow students? How would I make clear that they stand no chance? Just blast them? I will get in trouble with the university. How about I just humiliate them? I haven’t used martial arts a lot lately. I might be a bit rusty in hand-to-hand combat but it should be enough to beat up these jesters. Nothing will humiliate them more than beating them unarmed and without magic.

You see this right Helen?

Helen nodded and attempted to persuade the rebellious students; I mean problematic students.

Only managed to convince 12, eh? That’s more than enough.

“I’m sorry, they somehow feel like you’re treating them as if they’re inferior.”

That is because they are correct. I have way more experience in this than they have, to teach someone means that you are superior in a sense. Anyone who is here to learn should realize that. They are here to get rid of their inferiority. Having this attitude surely will keep them there longer.

This didn’t sit well with the remaining idiots but nobody seems to tell them how things are. I started to stretch a bit.

Right, I see you have opted for humiliation. I want you to remember one thing. See this tail? It signifies that I’m not a human. It would serve you well to remember that. Now with that warning out of the way, come at me.

I gave an intimidating stare and turned my eyes sapphire blue, my favorite color. The 19 clowns hesitated and started to attack me. This specific blue eye color makes me see more detail and makes it as if the world slows down. A lot of information flooded my brain and tail. I interrupted all the magic that they were casting.

I identified the location where I would be in the blind spot of most of the clowns. I used [Blindside] and got to it. It looked like I disappeared to most of them. I closed in to an unaware guy with multi-colored hair, landed a palm strike on his solar plexus and sent him flying. This alerted the other 18 clowns and they came at me with more magic that I interrupted. 3 spells got let through as they were no threat.

A student tripped over my tail and I placed him in between me and the attacks flying at me. I grabbed someone behind me with my tail and flung him at 3 women who were bunched up and preparing to cast magic. I used another [Blindside], I swatted some fire magic back with my tail, and grabbed a bulky guy in front of me. He smiled thinking I was no match for him in a strength contest.

Didn’t I warn them that I’m a beast kin? I might not be physically strong on a mythical tier but I would kick the asses of most humans in physical strength. I easily overpowered him, pivoted, and did an overhead throw, slamming him to the ground. He attempted something but I manually interfered with his magic circle.

“What?! Impossible!”

I did warn you though…

I knocked him out turning this in a 17v1. I didn’t knock the other ones out yet that got hit.

I dodged a [Wind Crane], tanked a [Flare], and swatted some lightning magic down with my tail. Some were working together to pool enough mana for an [Inferno]. I wonder how long it will take them to realize that fire magic doesn’t work on them. I ignored all the fire magic flying around and continued beating up my students.

I redirected some [Lightning bolts] and zapped 3 of the guys who sent them at me. 5 down, 14 more to go.

I used [Blindside] again and used a palm strike on 3 more guys. Only 2 got knocked out. A student sent an augmented kick at me. I blocked it with my right leg and used the force of his kick to send me spinning, fuelling a spinning kick which I landed on his temple. I had to reduce the impact because while he seemed to kick to kill me, I have no intention of doing such.

At this point the clowns started to regret clowning around. The [Inferno] finally went off and hit me full on. They seemed ecstatic that they finally defeated me but I emerged from the fire unharmed and yawning. I knocked out the 3 chicks that were in charge of the [Inferno] with a chop to the back of their necks. It’s harder than it seems. Games and tv make it seem easy.

9v1. I had expected them to put up more of a fight. I showed off my agility by evading a [Barrage]. I have never seen someone use this attack before. It’s quite weak but it sends weak arcane balls over a wide area. Even if they would hit me, it probably wouldn’t hurt. I don’t know what the purpose of it is besides that I can show off my agility. I closed in on this fool, grabbed him with my tail and threw him at a short guy that was charging up a strong lightning attack. This caused him to lose concentration and zap himself and the guy I threw at him.

I deflected a punch and almost got hit by a follow up. This lean guy seemed to know his martial arts. I grabbed his right shoulder. He leaned it backward to deliver a kick with his left leg. But because I am very light, I got pulled in by this movement. He didn’t expect me to be pulled along with his shoulder movement and I used the momentum to close in and flip over him and deliver a chop to the back of his neck.

I have noticed that not many people know what to do if you flip over them. Turning around takes too long and is predictable. I looked at the 6 remaining idiots. One guy seemed to have peed his pants because my sapphire blue eyes seemed to intimidate him to the point where he pissed himself. The other 5 conceded.

So, tell me do you still believe me you stand a chance against me?

They shook their heads. The smart students cheered and clapped. It might not have been intentional but although limited I had shown them how to disrupt and evade. I could have disrupted everything but then I wouldn’t have had time to attack effectively. Maybe I should tell them too that sticking to only disruption will leave very few opportunities for attacks unless they manage to add a damaging component to interrupting. I should look into that actually.

I pulled a big tent out of my dimensional pocket, placed some beds in them and laid the unconscious clowns to rest there. Helen helped me and since she knew some healing spells, she aided them. Most of the damage was inflicted by themselves or their allies.

Right although it was not my intention you guys have seen a demonstration on how to disrupt and evade. As the sharp ones under you have picked up, I did not use magic once.

Someone raised their hand.

Yes?

“So interrupting magic circles is not magic?”

Hmm, that’s a good question. It’s more similar to augmenting yourself. You could consider it magic but you could even perform this in mana free areas. So, it is up to what you would define as magic. Personally, I don’t see it as magic but that might be different for anyone else.

“What was that thing you did with the lightning?”

Oh that, I just redirected it.

“How…”

Long story which isn’t related to magic. Anyways, this was also a demonstration on what to expect during the exam, although I will be using magic during that.

The students started to despair after hearing that.

“I’m never going to pass!”

“I should have practiced more…”

“He is just too strong…”

Hey guys! Focus! Look at the rules I put down! You aren’t supposed to defeat me! 3 hits at best!

A guy adjusted his glasses, oh it was Francis. “I know that this is to encourage us but you just fought off 17 individuals who are of a similar skill level as us without breaking a sweat. Every hit you took was deliberate, do you have a high fire resistance perchance?”

Thank you! Finally, someone who pays attention, if I could I would instantly pass you right here since paying attention is also important in being disruptive but I can’t do that unfortunately. I believe in you Francis!

“Uhh, thanks I guess?”

The students seemed to put in a lot of effort in practicing with their partner. Those who didn’t have a partner, because they were knocked out, teamed up with Helen and me to practice. We would swap regularly to keep it fair. It wouldn’t help them much because they will need to get used to their partner but at least they become a bit familiar with the rules. I had to use a shadow clone for this.

The weeks passed and everyone took the practice seriously.

My lessons with Teppei had started. He said that the only thing he can teach me is by sparring a lot. My basics were good it was just to polish my skills. I had a whopping 20%-win rate against him. The only reason I could win was because of my speed. Now that he didn’t have extra factors to consider and had a grasp on my style, he could abuse it. I picked up some cool tricks from him and got some useful advise to polish my style even more.

The day of the exam came and everyone seemed exhausted before it even started.

Did you guys come from Greg’s lecture? You all look like zombies.

“We practiced before coming here, also we don’t have many lectures during this exam period so that we can revise.” Crissy sat down, she was all sweaty and it looked like she was sleep deprived. Most of the other students seemed the same.

“You’re not planning to fail all of us, are you?” Hayley sat next to me also sweaty and tired.

If you guys clown around, I will fail you. I have to run around and face off against 20 sets of pairs.

“I thought it would be 30 sets of pairs you will be fighting?”

Well yes but 300 minutes is insane, 200 minutes is more manageable. I don’t need a break because I can let a shadow clone do this when push comes to shove so we can just start and keep going till everyone has finished. I have prepared food for you guys. I pointed to a table I had set up with a buffet. I may or may not have stolen half from the canteen. I hope they won’t mind.

“Oh wow, you’re the best!”

I know. I got up after confirming everyone was here.

Right, as you can see on this sign with the rules there is a slight change in rules, this won’t affect you much, just the amount of time you guys will be here. 3 pairs will be facing off against me instead of 2 to make this not take longer than it has to. Each pair has gotten a number from 1 till 20. This is not complex magic circle synthesis, if you’re number 1 you’re up first, if you’re number 2 you’re up in the second round etc. Now for those who want to grab a bite, there is food there, you can do whatever you want, just be in time for when your turn is up, if you’re 5 minutes late you and your partner fail. Don’t waste other’s time. Now let’s start

The majority of the students started to watch or do some light practice. Some left, which was fine as long as they were back on time. Now this exam was quite boring for me so It will just be a brief summary of results.

Out of the 60 pairs, 2 were too late and instantly failed. 42 pairs passed. And 9 were in an uncertain range. This didn’t mean that they did bad. These 9 were from round 5, 9 and 17. Their competitiveness was so fierce that not much got done that round but those were actually the most enjoyable. They were successfully sabotaging the other pairs which didn’t net them many points. Interestingly enough most of these pairs contained students I expected to pass easily.

In theory, the smartest approach was to ignore me and evade my attacks and mess with the opponents. I didn’t foresee this outcome but it was quite interesting to watch and I’m not planning to fail them. I had decided to give them a small extra test. If they could interrupt or dispel one of their own skills that I had modified then they would pass. Luckily all of them passed.

I sat down on the bed in my room. It was late at night. Today was exhausting. Who knew that holding an exam was so tiring. I also had practice with Teppei after that. The students that had failed of the second class had decided to drop out of my course. Failing my course doesn’t affect them academically like other subjects might but I assume this wasn’t for them.

I wonder what to teach them the next 3 months.

I brushed my tail while pondering. They had learned a quite passive form of disruption, maybe a more active form now. Like how I normally fight. Not by interrupting skills but disrupting movement. I will go with that!