Every Witch Has Her Limits

The entire class bursts into laughter.

My punch does nothing.

Coldheart smirks. “Looks like you're breaking more than one record today, Littleroot—not sure anyone's ever thrown out at an attack so weak it didn’t even register.”

My face burns with embarrassment. “Yeah, well, at least I’m not alone! What’s it like being the first professor who let a student’s attack through?”

“Back in line. Now.”

I shuffle back over to Lucas.

“I thought you said you were a warrior.”

“I tried to tell you I wasn’t! But—ah, nevermind.”

“Incantations are just for spells, by the way. You don’t need them to use martial aura.”

“…And how do people, uh—”

Lucas sighs. “There are four martial schools each with their own motto: Fire—Pressure, Earth—Endure, Wind—Control, and Water—Exploit.

“Fire style uses mana to enhance physical strength and focuses on overwhelming opponents with brute force.

“Earth style uses mana to enhance physical durability and focuses on outlasting opponents in battles of attrition.

“Wind style uses mana to enhance speed and focuses on controlling the flow of battle by outmaneuvering opponents.

“Water style uses mana to enhance one’s senses and focuses on exploiting an opponent’s mistakes to unleash precise counterattacks.

“Fire and Wind are more offensive, while Earth and Water are more defensive.

“I’d say from most practiced to least practiced it probably goes Fire, Earth, Wind, then Water. And that applies to both the martial schools and the magical schools.

“Progressing two primary martial schools at once is even harder and rarer than with spellcasting. But once you get good enough at one martial school, something clicks, and progressing through the lower Orders of the others becomes much more intuitive. So it’s for, say, a 4th Order Fire Warrior to be 2nd Order in the other three schools.”

“Do the Orders work any differently for warriors?” I ask.

“Nah, they’re basically the same. Like a 3rd Order warrior is generally as formidable as a 3rd Order mage. All you really need to know is that achieving 1st Order means grasping a school’s combat philosophy, learning to apply it with various weapons, and maybe developing some unconscious use of martial aura. At 2nd Order, you’ve learned how to use that aura consciously. From there, it’s mostly about improving your control over it. By 4th Order, you’ve started using it to surpass the normal limits of the human body.

“And beyond that, well, warriors get quite scary.”

“Nettle Wolfsbane,” Coldheart calls.

I turn to Lucas. “Do you think she—”

“At this point, nothing would surprise me,” he replies.

Nettle falters. “But, Miss Boldheart—”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

Nettle hesitates… then takes a deep breath—

“Aaaaaa—oof!”

After letting out the quietest, cutest, least threatening battle cry I’ve ever heard, she trips and faceplants into the ground.

The rest of the class laughs.

Lucas leans over. “Guess we found your soulmate.”

Rude.

Coldheart looks ready to let Nettle have it, but holds back. “...Start putting more time into your martial training.”

Nettle gets back up and timidly nods. “...Yes ma’am.”

Then comes Lucas’s turn—

“Pass.”

…probably a smart move.

Arthur, of course, impresses when his turn comes around. He charges at the orb with great speed and swings his sword in a tremendous slash, its blade glowing brightly with mana. The crystal lights up pale red, glows brighter than any of the monsters managed.

More interesting, however, is the girl who harassed Lucas in the store. Taller and more powerfully built than even most of the guys, she has sharp amber eyes and a wild mane of fiery-red hair tinged with orange, tied into a ponytail so enormous that it nearly touches the ground.

She steps forward wielding a large spiked metal club and unleashes an attack just as powerful as Arthur’s.

In fact, the crystal might have even glowed a little brighter.

“Petra Redgrave… do you know her?” I ask Lucas.

“No, that encounter in the store was our first time, uh… meeting. Her family isn’t of noble lineage, but they’re respected warriors. Many have served high up in the army and city guard. While gifted, she’s rumored to be a bit of a… problem child. And in a family known to be as eccentric as hers, that’s saying something.”

Huh.

Once everyone’s been called, staff wheel away the assessment crystal and bring out a rack with a huge assortment of weapons, many I’ve never even seen before.

Coldheart addresses us. “For the final exam, you’ll be demonstrating your mastery in each martial school you’re versed in. Don’t spend more than a minute per school. Grab whatever weapons you need and rotate through each combat style against our instructor. He’ll match your moves and—”

A staff member runs up to Coldheart and whispers something to her.

“What?! That good-for-nothing—ugh! Vincent! You’re up!”

He stares blankly. “...Excuse me?”

“Sub in.”

“Uh, last time I’m here for security. Plus, I’m a wizard. I wouldn’t even know what to—”

“Cut the act. Just lightly spar with them.”

He sighs. “Fine.”

“Vincent? I’ve never seen him use anything other than magic.”

Lucas tilts his head. “It’s not uncommon for high Order wizards to have training in defensive aura, sometimes even speed or perception—so they’re not so frail on the battlefield. But being qualified enough to proctor this exam? That goes far beyond basic training.”

I’m left more and more impressed as each student spars against Vincent. He swaps between combat styles, weapons, and auras like it’s nothing. Even Arthur does nothing to faze him.

I smile.

I really do have an amazing mentor.

After a while, Petra steps up. Vincent handles her just as easily, but her performance catches Lucas’s attention.

“Remarkable,” he says.

He watches in awe as Petra weaves between auras and tactics. “Wow, she’s honestly not that different from you, Nora. Though, it seems like she’s managed to reach 3rd Order in at least the Fire School.”

After Petra’s exam, Nettle, Lucas, and I all get called, but pass on participating.

Once the final student finishes—

“And with that, testing has concluded. Now, please follow me to the auditorium for the next stage of orientation.”

***

This… this is brutal. The training I endured under Vincent doesn’t even compare. My energy steadily drains away as I feel my consciousness start to fade. Coldheart… She truly is a fearsome opponent.

“You gotta stay with me, Nora! Please! I can’t do this alone!”

“I’m so sorry, Lucas. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

My spirit is on the verge of breaking. It’s taking all I’ve got to resist—

—the urge to fall asleep.

Coldheart continues to prattle on about academy expectations, culture, rules, and every other excruciatingly boring subject imaginable. I’ve lost track of how many hours—perhaps even days—it’s been.

“Next up… library reshelving protocol.”

The students all cry out in horror. I’m pretty sure I even hear someone nearby pray for death.

A staff member walks up to Coldheart and whispers.

“…I’ve just been informed the first-year student rankings have been posted. We can end the lecture here. Anything we failed to cover will be in your student guidebook. I ask that you all follow me to the ranking board.”

The auditorium bursts into celebration.

Students cheer, hug, even cry tears of joy.

I’ve never seen such pure unadulterated happiness—it’s truly a beautiful sight.

***

I pop out of the bathroom, having covertly summoned Pudding and snuck him under my hat so I can take him with me around the school.

“Uh, Nora?” Lucas asks. “Why is the belt around your hat purple all of a sudden? The underside too.”

Huh? When did—

“Squee!”

Pudding pops out from underneath my hat, sending it flying. The purple fades the moment the hat loses contact with him.

Weird—oops!

I quickly grab my hat and place it back on my head.

Lucas raises an eyebrow, staring judgmentally.

I nervously laugh. “...Uh, let’s um, keep moving along with the group.”

“Uh huh,” he says.

Eventually, we make our way up to a massive board covered in small wooden plates, one for each of us, with a number beside every plate.

I take a deep breath.

Please let me have done well…

…for Vincent’s sake.