World of Laws and Magic

"Ha, Ha, Ha. Yup, its me babe."

Marsha wore a black ball cap, a zipped up brown leather jacket, a pair of black jeans pants and a pair of leather boots. Marsha ran in tandem with a Young man who wore a red dressed shirt tucked into his black jeans pants and a pair of black leather boots. Nick quickly noticed that Marsha had two holstered guns attached to her waste.

Nick matched their pace and ran to them until they were about a meter apart. Nick spoke in the friendliest tone that he could muster:

"What's going on Marsha? I've been moving around this place for hours and haven't had the chance to do much fighting but you guys seem to be all up in it with those wary dogs. You looking to get top scores, huh?"

With no change of her genial expression, Marsha spoke as if Nick was an old friend:

"Oh, yeah. I joined up with a fairly large group of people for this exam and we were all given a magical tool that helped us find each other when we arrived in this realm so it was pretty easy for us to meet up. The tool also helped us to map out the terrain so we got a good idea of where the wary dogs are concentrated so we lured a large number of them here, thus this battle."

Marsha turned to her male companion and introduced him to Nick.

"Nick this is Greg North and he is the leader of our group. Greg, this is Nick Captiol and he was ranked 4th in our year during the mid-year exams. He and I also have some history of doing business together, in fact, I think that we are going to be the best of friends some day."

Nick internally cringed at Marsha's introduction.

(Best of friends? The last interaction that you and I had started with me walking in on you while you were eating pussy. You think that sets us up to be best friends?)

For a while Nick didn't know what to say.

"..."

Greg North noticed the awkward silence and then spoke to Nick in a genial tone:

"It's nice to meet you Nick, I myself was ranked 12th during the mid-year exams. We saw you running towards our battle with the wary dogs and I thought that you might be trying to take advantage of our current situation to get some of our battle spoils so we ran out to 'meet' you but since you know Marsha, I've no doubt that I was mistaken, right?"

Nick looked at Greg in the eye; he had bright blue eyes and blonde hair. Nick felt momentarily disgusted but only because he just didn't like looking other people directly in their eyes.

(They say that the eyes are the window to the soul...well since I know that from my own experience, most people's souls are corrupt and rotten, it makes me real uncomfortable looking through that window.)

Slade commented:

[That's actually really deep, but inaccurate. Don't sweat it kid, you'll get used to dealing with all sorts of people as time goes on.]

Nick wanted to ask what was so inaccurate about what he just said but he had different priorities right now.

"You're definitely mistaken, I was on my way to somewhere else when I noticed your battle. I only ran towards it to watch and maybe learn some things, that's it. If you'd rather that I didn't, I'll just go my own way..."

Marsha interrupted Nick during his speech:

"Hold on Nick, you don't' have to go anywhere, come and take part in the battle with us. I can't promise that you'll get anything out of it since you're not a part of our group but you can gain some experience from the fight. Am I right?"

Nick put on a polite smile and replied:

"Sure, I don't want any reward by the way, I'd just like to experience what it's like fighting with a group."

Marsha looked to Greg for his approval and Greg nodded his head:

"Since Nick doesn't want a reward for helping, who am I to refuse free help. Since you ranked 4th in the last exam, you must be fairly strong. Show us what you can do."

Nick shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and replied:

"You shouldn't expect too much from me."

Greg put on a polite smile and turned around in order to run back to the battle; Marsha followed suit while also motioning Nick to follow them. They ran together for five minutes before getting to the outer edge of the battle. Marsha proceeded to explain the situation to Nick:

"We have thirty three people that are a part of our group, most of them being rank 2 Apprentice Magicians. Although everyone knows a variety of spells, we have people assigned to various roles like in an role playing game. We have the main attackers, the people responsible for healing, the tanks and other defenders. Greg and I are main attackers but since we mostly lead the group we aren't too physically involved in this battle, we've mostly been spitting out orders since this battle started early this morning."

Nick listened intently, trying to understand the situation better. He could see the various roles Marsha was talking about set up on the battlefield. The healers were at the back, defenders were concentrated in the middle with a few at the front and the main attackers and tanks were mostly positioned at the front. Marsha said nothing about the wary dogs but Nick could see that there had to be at least 50 of them left; there were also a few dozen wary dog carcasses on the ground. Nick could also see that there was a leader among the pack of wary dogs and it was as big as a rhino, about the same size as the last wary dog that Nick had killed. Nick stood in place watching the battle for about five minutes while Marsha and Greg were directing the members of their group. There was nothing complicated about their tactics; The main attackers launched spells from a distance dealing damage to the wary dogs while the supposed tanks would use their own spells to draw the attention of most of the wary dogs that were in front of them while also using other spells and magical tools to defend themselves. The healers mostly focused on casting healing spells on the tanks but would cast them on the main attackers occasionally when a wary dog broke through their formation and if their formation was broken through, the healers had the defenders who waited in reserve, to keep them safe.

Nick looked at the battle and thought:

(It all feels very clean.)

Slade grew curious.

[What do you mean?]

Nick thought a little more before answering:

(Everyone has their designated roles and they all carry them out, eventually bringing the result of one more dead wary dog but no one really seems to be getting their hands dirty in this whole battle. Even the tanks who are supposed to be drawing attention are just taking hits and waiting for the main attackers to target and kill the wary dog, none of the tanks are really attacking the beasts themselves. The battle seems so orderly and mundane; how does anyone learn how real individual combat works in a situation like this where they don't have to do the hard part themselves and if they are doing the hard part, they're either positioned at a distance and/or restrained by commands?)

Slade acted like he did not know what Nick was talking about.

[He, he. Kid, did you somehow forget that this is an exam. Your fellow students are doing what they think they have to in order to get a good score and pass the exam. Who can blame them?]

Nick scoffed without thinking.

(Hmph, exam? The rules are that if you survive the five day duration, you've passed the exam. As for the score, what's more important, learning how to handle yourself in the field or a superficial ranking?)

[Ha, ha. Kid, you have a really interesting thought process. Now, what will you do?]

(I've already seen enough. This turned out to be a waste of my time because everyone is acting so robotic, I can't learn anything here. I'm leaving but before that...)

Nick moved from his spot beside Marsha and made his way to the front line. Greg saw Nick's movements and asked Marsha:

"Marsha, what is your friend doing? He's already gone past the main attackers, going to where the tanks and the front line defenders are, does he have the skills to defend himself against the wary dogs' bites and scratches? He is still a rank 1 Apprentice Magician and I only treated him with such respect because you vouched for him. If he messes up our formation, it's on you."

Marsha shrugged her shoulders and replied:

"Let's just see what happens."

Nick moved to the area with the tanks and defenders where he also picked up a mug sized rock. The Apprentice Magicians saw this new comer but since their leaders said nothing, they thought that he was just another addition to their team. The unofficial leader of the tanks shouted at Nick, thinking that he was a new tank sent to work with them:

"Listen up new guy! Just use your spells to draw some attention and keep out of our way. We've got some tacit teamwork going on here and I don't want you to ruin that!"

Nick ignored the burly young man screaming at the side and activated his spell while keeping his eyes on the leader of the wary dog pack; the rhino sized wary dog looked menacing and its stature also reflected it status among the wary dogs, the wary dogs surrounded their leader going forward or retreating based on its howls and growls.

(Big.)

Nick's activation of his spell caused the magic sea within his mindscape to decrease at a visible rate, his magic energy flowing into the rock in his right hand. The leader of the tanks looked at Nick and wandered:

(What spell is he casting and why is he casting it on a rock?)

Two seconds later Nick threw the rock 12 meters ahead of him towards the rhino sized wary dog which wasn't difficult considering his well developed arm muscles. The wary dogs have keen eye sight so the rhino sized wary dog saw the rock coming its way the moment it became airborne but ignored it since a flying rock could never even destroy one of its hairs much less harm it.

(Slade, you said that these low level magical beasts don't have very precise control of their magic energy, right? I wonder how good they are at sensing magic energy coming from an inanimate object.)

"Hey, tanks and front line defenders, you should all step back unless you want to get caught up in my spell and die!"

The other Apprentice Magicians on the front line looked at Nick as if he was crazy.

"Who is this nobody talking to. Stay quiet and get out of our way."

The next moment as the rock that Nick threw fell from its high point towards the leader of the wary dog pack, the rock expanded in size within an instant. The rock's length had become roughly twenty meters and its width and depth became roughly the same as it length, making the rock seemed like a misshaped cube. The tanks and defenders saw the change and did not hesitate to run; they were at the edge of where the transformation took place so they did not have to put too much effort into getting out of the way of the falling rock, however, the rhino sized wary dog who was at the center of the transformation and its closest pack members were not so lucky.

BOOOOOOOOOM! SPPPPLLLLAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!

The wary dogs were crushed under the weight of Nick's rock without having the time to run or retaliate. The wary dogs that did get out of the way in time saw what had happened to their leader and were enraged, their savage nature taking over and without their leader to direct them, they ran towards the Apprentice Magicians in a disorderly frenzy. The Apprentice Magicians ignored Nick's actions for the moment and focused on killing the wary dogs which was now easier than before; they took only 10 more minutes to kill the remaining wary dogs.

After he had cast his spell, Nick had already retreated to where the healers were stationed so that he would not get caught up in anymore of the group fighting. At the end of the fight, Marsha ran to Nick and screamed while hugging him:

"Everybody, this is my best friend, Nick! Since he was the one responsible for our quick victory, it should be me who decides how the spoils are divided."

While Marsha was politicking, Nick pushed her off of himself and said:

"Marsha, I didn't do that much. Now, since the battle is over, I'm leaving to go do my own business, goodbye."

Nick turned to leave but Marsha grabbed his shoulders from behind, insisting:

"Best friend, don't embarrass me like this. Since we battled together, we should at least share a meal and discuss some things before parting."

Greg then walked up to Nick and Marsha and chimed in:

"I second Marsha's suggestion."

Nick looked at Greg for a moment.

(Who asked you? Sigh, here comes the political bullshit.)