The next day, I woke up earlier to finish my daily quests. Jeez, yesterday was crazy and chaotic. Finishing my last quest, I took a shower and changed into my uniform.

Quietly, I left my room and made my way to Malia’s, knocking before entering to see a sleeping girl in her bed. Her lips were slightly parted as she lightly snored and her hair was spread out onto her pillow. My heart beat in my throat and I found myself feeling very warm. Shrugging it off, I smiled down at her before falling on top of her.

“Your bed is so comfy…” I sighed in satisfaction.

“Z-Zeref get offffffff! You big baffoon!” she wheezed. Chuckling, I got off and gave her a smile before leaving.

“Wake up Malia.” I said over my shoulder hearing her groan.

Satisfied, I closed the door and stood in front of Mike’s door. I knew better than to enter so instead, I knocked. “Wake up Mike.” I said. He was a light sleeper so he probably heard me; I ran down the stairs to prepare breakfast for Malia and I.

Finishing the scrambled eggs, I turned around to get a plate to see Malia in front of me.

“Oh my God!” I gasped, clutching my heart. “I thought I saw a monster. My life just flashed before my eyes!”

She slapped my arm, offended. “Are you calling me ugly?” she pouted. I walked around her to grab a plate.

“No, you’re just moderately ugly.” I smiled to myself, knowing she was pissed. A swing came for my face but I dodged it in time.

We lapsed into silence as she turned away in a sour mood and poured herself some tea and sat. I brought our plates and placed one in front of her before sitting on the opposite with my plate and kept one to the side for mum.

We had small talk and I obviously teased her about random things before Mike came down.

“Stop the flirtatious chatter now. I am here and I am single.” he walked in, killing the mood with his sad life. Pouring himself some tea and biting into his sandwich, he leaned on the counter and stared at us as if he was studying the scene before him.

“Tsk, we weren’t flirting, idiot.” Malia rolled her eyes and I chuckled.

Just in time, Mum came in, smiling. “Hurry up children. You’ll be late if you keep dilly-dallying!” she rushed us out the kitchen and handed us our bags before pushing us out the door and slamming it in our faces.

“No lunch boxes?…” Mike’s words came out muffled as his mouth was full of sandwich.

I ignored him and walked down the steps, dragging Malia with me.

**

“I could’ve easily won! You should’ve seen me Malia! I beat up like 6 guys by myself and made the others run for their lives.” Jace boasted, swinging both of his arms around Malia and I as we walked down the halls.

“Oh really?” Malia laughed, rolling his hand off her playfully.

“Are you sure you weren’t the one running?” I chuckled, pulling his arm off me as well as he continued his altered story of what really happened.

“Damn, I should have stayed and watched then.” Malia pretended to believe him.

“Yeah, why did you leave? I wanted you to win.” I asked, looking at her red face.

“I didn’t want to compete. I was there for Sara.” she said casually, “So who actually won the boys fight?”

“Zeref of course… but just know that I could have won if I wanted to but Zeref is my friend and I didn’t want to cripple him for the rest of his life, you know? So I ALLOWED some random big guy that I could’ve easily beat, to throw me out of the field.” Jace answered, his eyes gleaming with excitement. For some odd reason Malia looked a bit shocked. Did she not expect me to win or something?

“So thoughtful of you Jace,” I smiled sarcastically at him and Malia giggled.

“Your welcome Zeref,” he patted my back.

“Anyhow, I’ll catch up with you later, I need to attend some training sessions with Sara apparently. See ya!” I waved them goodbye.

“I’m regretting not winning now.” Malia grumbled and Jace snickered next to her.

“You have me.” Jace pointed at himself, making a cringe ‘cute’ face. Grimacing, Malia and I palmed his face away from us at the same time. “Ow!” he whined, causing me to chuckle.

“Good luck with him Malia.” I winked at her and sprinted down the hallway towards the indoor battlegrounds.

**

“You’re late, Zeref Amara.” Sara stood with her arms folded. The meeting was going to be held here on the battle grounds for some reason, I didn’t know why. Probably another test.

“Sorry about that,” I looked around but it looked like we were the only two in the whole area, “So, where’s Mr Xanxus? Didn’t he say he’d meet us here?”

“Look behind you.” she averted her gaze from me in shock.

I turned my head around, but was met with a corkscrew punch directed at my face, I dodged it successfully but was met with a low kick to my shin. I flash stepped behind my opponent and got him in a full rear naked choke hold and wrapped my legs around him.

The man started to choke and tapped on my arms.

“Zeref let him go, that’s your instructor.” I heard Mr Xanxus speak from behind me. I released my grip and jumped to where Sara was standing.

I studied the man in front of me, he wore glasses and wore a grey robe which stretched from his neck to his legs. He was probably a caster type.

“You weren’t kidding Xanxus, the kid is definitely a prodigy. He didn’t even hesitate to fight back, it was almost like he was a master ranker. Kid, where did you learn that weird martial art and what noble household are you from?” the man queried.

“I’m sorry but I can’t tell you that.” I smiled back trying to shut down any more questions as politely as possible.

“Listen up you two, Mr Hale here will be preparing you two for the tournament to come, he will be instructing you starting from today so go change into some better clothing.” Mr Xanxus declared, immediately Sara nodded and walked towards the changing rooms.

“Zeref why aren’t you going and getting changed?” Sara asked.

“I’ll pass. I don’t need training from someone weaker than me, thanks for the offer but I’ll have to humbly decline. I have other important lessons to attend to.” I replied to Mr Xanxus, on his left the instructor, I could see the instructor’s face turn red in anger.

“A Bit cocky, don’t you think?” Sara tilted her head to the side, studying me.

“Who the hell do you think you are?!” he advanced forward and grabbed my collar, “I don’t care what noble family you’re from but a little pest like you shouldn’t be talking so big against a seasoned veteran like me!”

“I suggest you let go of my collar, otherwise you’ll be going home with one less arm. Plus, why act so high when I had you in a chokehold just a second ago? It’s embarrassing.” I glared at the man with an expressionless face.

“Is that a threat?”

“Personally, Mr instructor, I wouldn’t have that…” Sara now stood next to Mr Xanxus, amused. She really wanted to see another fight.

“Hale! Let him go, otherwise even I won’t be able to stop him if he gets angry.” Mr Xanxus warned, but the instructor showed no signs of backing down.

“I don’t care who he is! No one walks away after disrespecting me like that!” The fool boasted, gripping my collar tighter.

“Your breath stinks!” I fanned my nose in disgust and flicked his arm off my collar..

“Now kneel!” My gravity magic made him fall down to his knees and he struggled to even look up.

I looked at Mr Xanxus, he looked unphased but in real terms he was covering his and Sara’s whole body with Ice mana to oppose the gravity. Sara on the other hand, looked terrified, as if she had just witnessed a murder.

“I will never for- forgive you for this!” his voice came out broken. I released the pressure and casually walked away. So much for rehearsals. I’ll crush the kids there anyways.

**

I swung the doors wide open and took long strides out into the hallway.

In the halls, many students whispered.

“That wolf girl won, when actually her friend fought for her and then forfeited and the guy cheated.” a girl behind me snickered.

The hallway was packed with students yet, all eyes were subtly on me.

“This year’s tournaments will suck.”

“Our school will come last instead of 5th this year.”

“The two representers aren’t even that strong.”

“It was all luck,” a guy sneered and at that, I snapped.

My calm, unbothered mask slipped as my anger started to shake the whole building. All the students screamed and I quickly gathered myself back into control, leaving the students shaken out of their pants.

To my surprise, a group of boys stood in front of me, blocking my path. Normally I never got that much attention except for the fact that I looked older than I really was. That was what I was known for, but now, kids think of me now as the cheater who will attend the tournaments. Sara was a princess so understandably, no one could say anything to her but I wasn’t a royal, making me an easy target. Even in this world, there was discrimination in the class system. How pitiful!

“Yo Zeref, teach us the trick you used to cheat.” the blonde boy standing in the middle smirked at me.

“I didn’t cheat.” I grumbled, trying to get past but one of his friends blocked me, making me sigh.

“Oh I’ve never heard of a power like that. What’s it called?” his voice dripped in sarcasm as he mocked me, thinking he was so cool.

“Godspeed.” I said, lifting my head to meet his beady eyes.

“What element is it related to then?” he furrowed his eyebrows, intrigued.

“Lightning.”

The whole hall fell into a dead silence. Having a branched lightning element was rare in their eyes. How would they react if I said I had the pure lightning element? I smirked at the thought. Having a pure element was super rare and only royals had them and some special noble families. Having a branched power from the lightning element was extremely rare to come by.

“I mean it makes sense.” one of his friends whispered.

“Shut up. He’s lying.” the blonde boy shoved me but I didn’t budge.

“Believe what you want. I don’t care as long as you leave my friends and I alone.” I walked around the blonde and his friends timidly moved out of my way.

The students behind me busted into a loud wave of chatter and people started moving to their locations again. Sara walked behind me embarrassed, I could hear her rapid heart’s beating, since my senses were heightened.

“Don’t listen to what they said, just train and get strong enough for the tournament.” she rubbed my back but I dodged it off.

“Whatever,” I grumbled.

**

“How was rehearsal?” Naz asked, sitting down next to Malia.

“Horrible.” Sara said, on the other side of Malia. “Zeref decided to beat up our coach”. She tried to glare at me but it ended up looking like a hungry kitten.

“What? For real? And you didn’t tell me?” Jace whacked my arm, playfully.

“He was weak.” rolling my eyes, I took another bite of my sandwich.

Malia picked up her fork and pointed it at me, “You’re too cocky”. She shook her head in disapproval before stabbing into her pasta.

“Na, I think he’s cool!” Naz winked at me causing me to smirk at her.

“Nice to know someone agrees with me.” I had another bite.

The conversation moved forwards but my mind zoned out, blurring out the chatter around me. My eyes wondered until it found Malia’s hand. It was covered with silver rings on her right hand. Two thin ones on her index finger, a chunky one in the middle, and 2 thin lines with a chunk of bold silver on the ring finger. Her pinkie had a snake wrapping around it. Wow, a lot of rings.

“Hey Mali, when did you get those silver rings?” I pointed towards her hand and everyone’s eyes shifted to Malia’s rings.

“Oh, Jace and I skipped class and there was a sale at the market.” she smiled, twisting the thick ring with a skull pattern on it. “Cool, right?” she smirked at Jace.

Jace chuckled in return, “She was feeling off so I agreed to pay.”

“They’re so hot!” Naz touched Malia’s hand and so did Sara.

Malia took two of her rings off and gave it to Sara and Naz causing them to gasp.

“Omg I literally LOVE you!” Naz admired the silver snake wrapping around her ring finger.

“Okay. I regret asking.” I spat, annoyed.