The battle started with a chilling silence.

  Thin lines of geometric shapes formed soundlessly all across the Academy campus.

  A bustling campus weekend descended into an eerie stillness. Where students stood just moments ago only lay the quickly fading mystical geometric shapes.

  The mana around the campus stifled within itself, as a barrier between the spirit realm and the plane of reality erected themself.

  Countless runes glowed simultaneously across the walls of the once mighty castle, sealing its structure from the brawl that was to commence.

  The commission Sage, Yvette Yeltz teleported onto its roof, supporting the barriers and seals erected about the circumference of the Academy by the several truckloads of commission personnel.

  With a flick of her wrist, an ivory wand materialised from thin air. It was densely carved with cryptic geometric shapes, topped off with a small blue crystal.

  A simple fluid motion left a crater within the surface of the nearby lake. Their contents now materialised itself in around 30 large balls of liquid all around the building, glistening in the fading sunlight.

  She deftly flicked her wrist once more, an action that excavated a second volume of water from the lake, which had yet to finish filling its crater back into itself. The liquid quickly materialised itself above her head.

  A terrifying slicing motion, one that carried the weight of oceans, and yet almost imperceptible, fell down with a casual wave of her hand.

  The large globule of water instantly evaporated into a thin mist, immediately spreading itself into a wispy fog around the area.

  She then closed her eyes, tilting her head subtly as if listening to something inaudible. Her wand stood at the ready, as if she was a conductor, waiting for a crescendo of her orchestral performance.

  Just as the tendrils of ghostly vapours faded into nothing all around her, her tightly shut eyes flew open, revealing the deep brown eyes filled with a deathly coldness.

  The reason became apparent, as the thin, nearly invisible icicles flew with deadly precision towards her head, each at supersonic speeds.

  The battle-hardened mage instantly materialised tentacles of water from the air itself around her head, defending against her assailant.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The bullets of ice dissolved immediately upon contact.

  The sage snapped her fingers, causing the bubbles of water around the campus to shoot out similar thin icicles in pursuit of an invisible assailant.

  The ground shook from each volley, leaving small, yet deep craters everywhere that these icicles hit.

  A translucent figure started to materialise themselves, as the air itself clung to them like skin.

  It was the mist that had just been deployed. It clung itself to the invisible man, attracted by the scent of his mind.

  Noticing his figure becoming more and more visible, the man dispelled the concealment cast on himself.

  He was known as Dr. Varian, the dean of the Academy of Athernalis. Or former Duke Greenwich, the lich.

  He held a brown staff, one adorned pearls and a large blue orb delicately fixed on its tip. He was still dressed in his Academy robes, one that fluttered furiously as it clung to his skin.

  His feet didn’t touch the ground, rather, he glided smoothly, situated on a thin ice sheet that gracefully glided over the grass with the blessings of the wind.

  He stopped evading the icicles. His expression remained cold and unexpressive as he gave the subtlest tilt of his staff.

  The fearsome ice bullets evaporated in puffs of smoke, surrounding the lich in thin, menacing fog.

  The barrage of icicles intensified. The sage stood calmly on her rooftop, surveying the robed man with a testing gaze.

  She swung her arms along with the wand, and 10 of her water balls exploded at once, evaporating into a dense mist that obscured vision all around the sage, puffing up into fearsome volume as it coiled itself to her will, striking at the lich.

  The lich was hardly phased, not even bothering to attempt to locate the concealed sage. He didn’t even look up as the fog descended upon him. In fact, he almost seemed distracted as he focused on something entirely different.

  However, his situation did not call for distraction in the slightest.

  All the mist around the sage suddenly dematerialised as dozens of horrifying spears of ice appeared in their place.

  The spears were constantly dissolving against an invisible barrier set up by the lich, yet they replenished themselves endlessly, fueled by a sage with unblinking eyes and her dozen liquid orbs.

  They exerted themselves endlessly against the barrier, causing a small flicker of frown to dash across the lich’s face.

  He turned to face the sage with cold, dead eyes, as he tapped his staff to the ground nonchalantly, sending the spears up into puffs of vapour.

  Without a clear medium to continue supplying the water, the sage once again snapped her fingers, bursting another 5 water bubbles into mist as she obscured herself against the lich.

  However, the lich had just about enough of the nuisance that she was causing him.

  With a deft leap, the lich travelled at supersonic speeds to the rooftop, leaving a deafening boom and crater in his wake. To a bystander, this movement would have seemed almost instantaneous, one faster than a bullet.

  His two hands gripped the staff with force, as its beautiful ornaments jingled softly in their taking aim at the middle of the dense fog.

  The orb glowed an insane blue, as a tiny globule of water pulled itself out of the misty atmosphere. It spun within itself, creating a depth of blue that seemed akin to the fiercest deep ocean storms.

  The air itself bent to its knees at the force of the suction that the tiny bullet of liquid created, creating a trailing sonic boom behind its terrifying trajectory.

  It shot with incredible force, where the sage had been just moments prior.

  In their place, however, was not the sage.

  In her place stood a woman. The pinnacle of modern mages. A pillar of the world themself. A warrior, one who had the power to level kingdoms alone.

  It was the Arch Sage. Arch Sage Livia Ignis.