Tales Of The Mighty Dragonair

Arthur turned to Doaf who just shrugged and said nothing. Before Arthur could ask more, a disciple appeared and handed a number to him.

"Twelve," he muttered before smiling, "a lucky number indeed."

The other teams of the academy received their numbers as well before the man suddenly said:

"Now let the selection start."

Arthur noticed the portals shine brightly before numbers started to appear in big fonts made of white and silver fog just next to each tower.

"We are matched with team number fifty-three," Omar muttered, "it's the same team we learnt about facing them from before, suspicious."

"Don't stir unneeded trouble," Arthur smiled before adding, "this is the best for us."

As the numbers kept appearing in pairs, a master next to the dean was writing them down.

"Now, let me state the rules," the dean said, "we will announce each two competing teams and they have to ascend here on the stage right after. Not showing up means failure. Each team has only to win once to qualify, while the losers from the first round will be matched again to have another chance."

Arthur smiled and shrugged as he stole a silent glance at Doaf. He knew this wasn't made for their benefit, instead to make sure the losing teams wouldn't have the strength to defend themselves later on when leaving the academy.

"What am I thinking about? I'm going to win this," he muttered to himself before the dean waved his hand and all the numbers in the air shook before two moved to stand on top of the stage.

"Wow, we will be the opening teams," Amelia laughed before Arthur said:

"Let's go, we have to do our best," he said before adding, "but also try to hold back some of your powers."

"What if we lost?" Madly asked.

"We won't," Arthur confidently said, "I'm here, and I'll shoulder you all."

His words made everyone pretty confident. They knew how strong their master was, and if he was to use all his powers then none would stand against him.

As they reached the edge of the high up stage, they found a ladder leading to the stage where they ascended to reach there. Arthur was astonished to see the stage wasn't as small as he expected, and he had to pass through a shield to enter it.

"It's like the one back at the Nystic clan," Madly commented and Arthur just nodded.

As they arrived there, he was surprised to see the opposing team was considered of a hundred members. "Impressive, they are going all out for us," he laughed and his comment was meant to be loud to be heard by everyone standing on the stage or watching it.

The dean gave Arthur silent long glance before finally speaking up:

"The rules are the same as the official tournament. We will ask from every team to send five members to compete in the forging, pill and potion making, arrays, and abilities. Then the last will be individual fight then group fight."

The dean said before pausing for a moment as he glanced at the two teams, "as there are many more members in one team than the other then we will follow a new rule. Each member has to be tested, so the other team can send members more than once."

His face changed to be serious as he added, "inside here you won't be able to use your special transformation, but you can use anything that you hold, even summoning the entire army if you wish for. Just don't try to force using your transformations or else you'll be disqualified."

Arthur simply sneered and said nothing. He knew such new rules were induced to tire them up before the final group fight.

"Let the vetting competition start," the dean shouted and in the next instant a group of five masters appeared in the middle between the two teams.

"As you heard the rules, don't try to be funny or smart. Don't try to cheat, and the final winner of each team will be decided upon the highest gear, pill, array, and the most unique and strongest ability any member of your teams have. Now, we will start with the forging competition. The participating members step forward."

One of them spoke and Arthur simply pointed to Agnus as he said, "go and dazzle them."

"What about others?" Amelia asked.

"I will be enough as backup," Arthur said before moving forward with Agnus towards the front.

"Where is the rest of your team?" the master who spoke before coldly asked with much arrogance.

"We are enough," Arthur simply answered with a shrug, "you don't need to destroy the world to kill a fly."

The master glanced at him before looking in the dean direction. And the dean simply nodded.

"Alright, you got your suicidal wish," the master coldly sneered before stepping aside and letting the space for the two teams to compete.

The other team all wore dark cloaks that hid their faces as well. "Let the first round start," the master loudly shouted and the next thing happened was for everyone here to take out their tools except for Arthur.

He simply stood there, cracking a mocking smile over his face while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Won't you start kid?" another master asked in doubt.

"I don't need to," Arthur said then he turned his gaze to watch Agnus using the gloves he made him to start forging. "I should see what they are up to," he moved his glance over the next team and watched their performance.

"They are good," Arthur commented before shaking his head, "unfortunately they met my Agnus, sigh. I thought I could use the chance to make more arrows, but it seems my help isn't needed."

Arthur waited on the side while Agnus made another spear like the one he made for Arthur from before. This seemed to be his highest creation, and Arthur was sure this was going to win.

Until he suddenly saw one of the five started to use a strange aura, an aura he felt strangely familiar.

"Is it allowed to use aura of masters from higher planes?" Arthur pointed to that member as he said these words out loud and in a strong tone.

"He didn't do anything wrong here," the lead master coldly said and gave Arthur a challenging glance.

"Alright," Arthur laughed before he waved his hand and the next thing appeared was his forging tools.

He knew the spear Agnus was making would be enough, but if that was an honest competition.

Using a higher mage's aura to boost the end product made the competition unfair. He knew this would be much appreciated by the masters up above, and so he had to step in.

For him, making arrows was a piece of cake. He had already mastered making large numbers of them in a short time.

So he started working over his arrows in front of the watching gazes of everyone. They wrongly thought he would never finish the gear he was making in time as he was the last one to start.

Yet in less than one hour, he finished making a large number of arrows. This made him the first to finish among everyone here.

And as everyone thought he would stop, he started to make more of these arrows. He started to look like a machine, working non-stop until the master finally announced the end of the round.

"Please provide your makings for the venerable guests to assess," the master said while giving Arthur a side glance. Beside Arthur lied thousands of his arrows of extermination.

Arthur simply picked one arrow and gave it to Agnus who delivered it to the master. The master glanced at the arrow with a mocking smile over his face before he received all the gears made and then handed them to another master.

"Please wait," he said, "shortly the results will be announced."

Arthur didn't care about that as he simply started to pack up his stuff inside his garden. As he finished packing, a rumbling sound appeared in the sky up above.

"The results are out," the master said before he turned to glance at the distant dean.

"The assessment is over," he said before he said, "please venerable masters give us the winning team and the winning gear."

"Do you think we will win?" Agnus whispered while leaning towards Arthur, "or they will try a useless trick?"

"They already pulled their move a while back," Arthur sneered before adding, "they won't be able to beat us."

"I hope," Agnus prayed while he waited for the final winner to be announced impatiently.