The students stared at the dark hologram, some in shock and others in wonder, Logan was among the former.
His pupils constricted into a needle point as he pondered his chances of surviving such a devastating attack and naturally, his answer was zero.
Miss Beth tapped the crystal and the black image vanished.
She continued the lesson by answering the questions presented by some students.
"That's it for today. Our next class will be on Casting and its types, " she said as soon as the siren's wail interrupted a student's question.
Students left the class to disperse to their various destinations.
Logan checked his schedule and saw that he had no class at the moment. He decided to spend the time on his mana art.
Logan quickly left and entered his room, he sat and started running his mana art.
The conduit had reached the length of his palm.
His mana hit the end and slowly increased it sending waves of pain across Logan.
About halfway through the mana art, he cancelled it and stood up.
He stretched a bit before letting out a sigh, his figure appeared a bit disheveled but that was only natural for someone doing what he had just been doing.
He left his room and went to the training hall, where he had been spending at least an hour of his free time in this place, he had been familiarizing himself with his new spells.
Logan entered one of the rooms and locked the door from behind.
He leaned forward as a black membrane covered his body.
His figure suddenly burst out with immense speed.
He dashed across the entire training room multiple times in less than a dozen seconds.
His blurred figure stopped and fell on his knees, he held his stomach and fought the nausea just like all the previous times he had come to practice the spell.
He sat down cross-legged as soon as the nausea ceased its torture, his hand flashed and a book appeared.
He looked at it and smiled as a flicker of darkness touched the book causing it to vanish.
He focused on the dark space and could see the book floating in the lightless abyss that was within him.
He summoned the book again and threw it a mere three meters away, space darkened around him, and reached the book and with a thought, it vanished entering back into the dark space.
Logan stood up and stretched before placing his hands together and letting out a large sigh. This was the part he hated the most.
His figure blurred as he dashed around the place, he covered meters in instants but focused on his hands and his casting.
Logan weaved a dark shot and fired it at his imaginary adversary, he started moving haphazardly trying his best to make himself as well as his attack unpredictable.
He cast another dark shot and came to a grinding halt for an instant as he shot it before resuming his previous speed.
Logan continued to dash and cast until…
As Logan weaved a Death Arrow, a pulse of pain surged through him, interrupting his casting and causing him to trip.
He tried to stand but another pulse went through him.
With gritted teeth, he managed to focus on his mana core and could see it trembling from overuse and excessive strain.
Logan cursed in his mind. He hadn't even noticed when his mana core had become empty.
Normally there would be a sinking feeling but for some reason, he felt none of such.
"Might be because my core cracked during the fight with that beast." Logan crinkled his forehead in pain.
"But I'll still get it checked out." He sighed as he laid on the floor, exhaustion filling him as the pain died down.
Logan pulled out his tablet and opened the rules of the academy again and found something interesting.
[A student is permitted to hunt for a beast. The body can be sold to the academy for points and such points can be traded in for spells, mana cultivation techniques of a certain rank, or other benefits. The higher the rank, the greater the points]
'Haha. Just what I was looking for, a means to get new spells.' He smiled faintly as he made plans to hunt.
He placed the tablet back into his pocket and faced the ceiling, "With each passing day I get stronger and closer to reaching the top." He sighed as he raised his hand to the roof.
"There, I can crush whoever might be responsible for that plague." He clasped his palm in fury before laying it by his side.
Logan closed his eyes to rest and fell asleep.
The high-frequency wail of the academy's siren woke him up. He adjusted his position, sitting up before standing.
He had no desire whatsoever to go to lunch today but he couldn't train, not now at least. He had Battle Class after the lunch break.
Logan went to the library and met up with the librarian, "Books on Life force and items that affect them." He requested as he faced the woman.
"Isle five, section C" She replied with a smile.
He headed to the location instructed and found a big book with a title: LIFE FORCE; Properties, Nuances, and Items that Affect.
Hd picked up the book to read and soon got engrossed.
The familiar siren forced him to drop the book, "Still no clue on what happened to me and why my streaks vanished." Logan let out a sigh as he fiddled with his white hair.
He left the library to head to the location of his class but before he got there, his tablet buzzed.
[ALL BATTLE CLASS STUDENTS GO TO THE EDGE OF THE FOREST ADJACENT TO THE ACADEMY!]
Logan read the notification and massaged his temples, 'What had happened?' He groaned mentally.
The stress of the silent threat of Miss Beth, his streakless nature, and the actual written threat he had gotten were starting to slightly weigh on him but it was something he had gotten a bit familiar with after his parents' death.
********
Logan found himself at the edge of the forest with other students most of whom he didn't even know existed.
Orion sadly wasn't in this class so there was no one to keep Logan company and entertained.
As soon as those thoughts appeared in his head, Logan shook them off. What was he thinking?
Logan was getting impatient when a pillar of black flames suddenly sprouted from the ground.
It coalesced into a humanoid form before dispersing to reveal someone Logan had already met.
The eyepatch, katana, windbreaker, everything was the same. It was Aaron.
"Hello students, I am your Battle Teacher." He spoke softly as a smile spread on his face.