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Half an hour into the cleanup, the students finally understood why the academy had locked its gates.
Those with high wind affinity swept the fallen leaves into piles with strong gusts. Those with fire affinity called up fire dragons to ignite them.
The leaf pile exploded with a boom. Long tongues of flame shot skyward. The wind hadn't even died down before it hurled the burning leaves straight into the air.
Countless flaming butterflies swirled down, spiraling past the tips of their noses.
Flames caught the hem of one student's robe. Then another student's hair.
"Ow! My sleeve!"
"Pat it, pat it! Quick, someone help me — my back is on fire!"
"Ahhh, my eyebrows!"
"Water! Someone cast the Water Dragon spell!"
"Can someone give me a water ball? My water affinity is too low, I can't cast it myself..."
More flame-flowers drifted down onto skirts and robes. Fire spread across the square, and the students running in panic carried the flames from person to person.
Drifting ash blurred everything. The sky filled with white flakes of burnt leaf , a heavy snowfall made of cinders.
"Kiyelolifeixiyexi!"
Students frantically hurled Water Ball spells. Fist-sized spheres sailed through the air like sandbags, and the square erupted in tall plumes of water.
Fire and water tangled across the entire courtyard. The junior division's magic apprentices composed a raucous battle hymn out of pure screaming.
"Who?! Who did that?"
"You bastard, you blew the flames right onto me!"
"Damn selfish jerk! Fine. You blow, I blow. See how you like it."
"Oh, that's how we're doing this? Then I'm throwing manure water!"
"Please, please stop throwing water balls — manure just splashed into my eyes!"
"Bleh! Ptoo, ptoo — don't open your mouth!"
"Throw more over here, hurry! Rinse me off , I just rolled through the manure pile trying to put myself out."
Some students couldn't manage a proper water ball, so they improvised: redirect the flames with a wind spell. The circle of students around each of them immediately suffered for it.
What started as an accident became a full-on manure-water war. Retribution followed retribution, and the fighting refused to stop.
Some people ended up bald. Some lost most of their clothes. Some hit the ground face-first in a pile of horse manure.
The enraged launched indiscriminate attacks. The unlucky bystanders chose to join in rather than suffer for free.
Luo Wei had dragged Qin behind a large tree at the edge of the square, but it wasn't enough. A water ball came sailing in from across the courtyard and hit her square on the head.
Qin's carefully curled hair was soaked and plastered flat against her face in limp, pathetic strands.
She wiped her face. Her gold-powder eyeshadow had smeared beyond recognition. She tilted her head back and roared, a sound that shook the air.
"Damn it all, I will kill you!"
She charged toward the boy who'd thrown the water ball. Luo Wei grabbed for her and couldn't hold on , there was a sharp tearing sound, and Qin's sleeve came off in her hand.
On the upper floor of the church on the square's east side, intermediate and senior apprentices had packed every window to watch the carnage.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. This is so much better than our year."
"Horse manure, though? I give it a bad review. Our year used live maggots."
"Please. Raising maggots in winter takes real effort, and it wastes academy funds. Horse manure isn't exciting enough for you?"
"It's exciting, it just smells. I'm finding the whole thing a bit revolting."
"It is revolting. Poor things , fighting like that. They won't get seriously hurt, will they?"
"Who didn't go through exactly this? They're young. What's a little injury?"
"Ha! I remember you stuffed maggots in someone's mouth last year and got your leg broken for it."
"He blew maggots into my collar first!"
The melee lasted a full hour and a half. It ended only because everyone ran out of energy at the same time.
Students collapsed to the ground wherever they stood, too tired to care how filthy it was. They heaved for breath, drenched in sweat, as if they'd just staggered through an eighty-kilometer run.
The moment they stopped moving, sweat pulled the heat from their skin. Their robes were scorched through with holes, and the wind cut straight to the bone.
The cold brought their senses back. They looked at the ruined, reeking square around them.
Silence.
No magic reserves left. No tools. They were going to have to clean this up with their bare hands.
This great battle had no winners.
Still, while most of them were singed, soaked, and thoroughly humiliated, a smaller group now emerged from the corners where they'd been hiding since the chaos began.
Luo Wei was one of them.
The square had been too far gone to clean during the fighting , there was no point putting herself at risk. She'd made the sensible call and stayed out of it.
The moment fire started raining from the sky, she'd doused herself in a water ball. After that, flames could land on her all they liked. They had nothing to catch.
Her clothes were a little wet, a little dirty. But not a drop of manure water had touched her.
Foresight. Always pay it forward.
Once most of the class had burned through their strength, Luo Wei and the handful of others who'd preserved theirs finally stepped forward. With a few well-placed spells, they cleared the manure water and ash from the ground in short order.
More hands don't always mean more progress. Sometimes they just mean more chaos.
Cleaning the square didn't require a crowd. The courtyard was flat, wide, and forgiving , it didn't demand precise magical control, which actually made it excellent practice for junior apprentices.
Luo Wei pushed dirty water away with wind magic while quietly watching the students working alongside her.
Anyone still standing at this point was either sharper than average or had real talent. Either way, they were worth knowing.
She was still sizing them up when she felt it , a cold gaze pressing against the side of her face.
She turned.
Athena stood nearby, her expression sharp with something that looked unmistakably like envy.
Envy?
What exactly did she have to be envious of?
The moment Athena saw she'd been noticed, she looked away. She tightened her grip on her magic wand and walked toward the far end of the square without a word.
"Luo Wei, let me help!"
A hand linked through her arm. Qin pressed close to her side, waving her wand with enthusiasm. "Latawus Suolaqi..."
The incantation went on a while. At the end of it, Qin produced a soft, gentle breeze.
Her magical talent wasn't anything remarkable. Her affinity across all five elements was just about equal , a little of everything, a lot of nothing in particular.
"Qin, that was great!" Luo Wei told her.
Another half hour, and the square was finally clean. Professor Moses rode back in on her horse.
She surveyed the courtyard, brows drawn tight. "Assemble."
The students dragged themselves upright and shuffled toward her on unsteady legs.
Professor Moses pulled a sheet of parchment from behind her back. Her expression was flat and severe. "Your entrance examination took over three hours to conclude. I did not expect your magic to be this appallingly poor."
"What?" "Entrance examination?"
The crowd erupted. The professor had never said anything about an entrance exam. This was supposed to be a cleanup!
Professor Moses didn't bother explaining. She looked down at the parchment.
"Those whose names are called have failed and will sit a make-up examination in seven days."
"Jack. Rose. Bob. Carolie..."
From the moment the cleanup began, the junior division professors had been stationed on the church roof, watching every student without interruption.
Who cast spells, how many times, what they chose to do , the professors had seen all of it.
The failing students were, almost without exception, the ones who'd barely used any magic and thrown themselves into causing trouble with great enthusiasm.
The opening cleanup was indeed a cleanup. It was also, quietly, a test: had any of these students actually practiced over the holiday?
The answer, for most of them, appeared to be no. The junior division had apparently spent the break having a wonderful time and forgetting they attended a magic academy.
"Headmaster Morrison." On the church roof, Professor Burns turned. "Which of the new students do you think we should put forward for this year's defense challenge?"
➤ Next: Who Sent the Spy?
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