Both the Academy of Magic, and the Warrior Academy was founded by the Kingdom of Almera in order to ready their forces for the next invasion by the Demon army. This was thought up by then Prince Galdrick after witnessing the failure of the previous hero, as a way of raising well trained heroes from a young age

  As such, the batch of warriors and mages were already as advanced as the companions of the hero of yesteryear, even as teenagers, and the future was bright for the students of both academies!

  As the year went on, the teachers formed teams for the students based on their abilities. The more successful they are, the more highly rated their teams are and thus all the top performers naturally were formed into a team

  As the top in their year, Aria, Aimee, Anvi and Roselyn were grouped together to train and accomplish missions, slowly gaining more and more experience

  Asn joined them for a few missions, but was already way more advanced than Aria, Aimee, Roselyn or any of the top students in his year. His achievements were already off the charts, and this he was sent to far more dangerous missions with his seniors

  Asn had joined a group filled with seniors, and as the only mage in the team, his sole role was to be the mage that inflicted major damage during missions

  He was to join a group filled with the best senior students of the year above him up to graduation age. This group comprised of the knights Alicia, Galtar, The Fming Swordsman Thundar, the weapons master Bolo, the ranger Dossinger, the barbarian Asterion and the martial monk Titan

  Alicia was only 18, yet already one of the king's top knights. Her aura ability was matched only by the top knights, and made her a candidate for the next hero. Roselyn and Aimee were also candidates but she was more highly rated due to her success rate and being two years more advanced. Asn was not considered candidates since their primary weapon was not a sword, and the hero would be wielding the Holy Sword!

  Galtar the Golden Knight was an accomplished knight, and was already part of the king's knights. An aura knight in golden armor, even his sword and shield was gold in color. He had a solid, if unspectacur reputation, he was a final year student

  Thundar was a swordsman, who wore a simple leather armor. But he wielded a fming sword, supposedly the sword of Orcrage the feared Red Orc King himself, before he disappeared. It was unknown where he found the sword, but Asn kept an eye on him, trying to determine if the sword was really his father's or not. He too was a final year student

  Arguably, Aimee and Roselyn could take their both their pces, only they currently had more successes in missions, since they were a few years their seniors

  Dossinger the half-elf Ranger was an archer with an array of trick arrows, with many uses. Asn thought he could have been more affective if he used magic, like Aria. But he was a pure warrior and didn't show any signs of magic when he used his bow. Arguably could be repced by Aria as well, only like Thundar and Galtar, he had more successes than Aria since he was three years her senior

  Bolo the weapons master was a final year student and proficient in many weapons. He would have been a hero candidate too, if not for the fact that although he was good with the sword, it was not his only specialization, and thus the Holy Sword would be a waste on him!

  They were also joined by a giant of a man named Asterion. He was as tall and muscur as Asn's father Cage, and was durable to extreme amounts of damage. He carried a rge axe and was stronger than an average orc! He seemed mentally slow as he was silent most of the time, but demonstrated a quiet, contemptive, stoic personality. He wore only a furry leoncloth and boots made from a great beast, and sported a red giant beard and long red unkept hair

  Titan was also as rge as Asterion, only he covered his body with aura and fought with his fists. The complete opposite of Asterion, he was bald and cleanly shaven, and wore a monk's robe and rge beads around his neck. And being the opposite of Asterion, he was loud, boisterous and ughed loudly all the time

  Asn introduced himself to the group, who were still unsure of Asn, seeing that this was his first time with them. They had heard of his achievements, but thought they were exaggerated. And there were many even more impressive missions that he hasn't told the academy yet!

  Bolo in particur wasn't happy that Asn had repced his best friend Charlemagne for the role of mage in their team, and was rather cold towards Asn

  While Aris and the other girls were sent for missions clearing dungeons, this team with Asn in it was sent to the border between Almera and the demon nds

  On Almera's side the border fortress that defended the human side was called Stronghold. On the demon realm side, their fortress was called Carnage, and the nd separating both fortresses was the border nds, a nd with a width of 200 kilometers between them, where neither side controls, yet have regur skirmishes with each other

  Asn's group was sent there to gain experience fighting demons, and get familiar with anti-demon tactics and tactics demons would use in real life battle

  --

  They departed by horseback on a 10 day journey to Stronghold. Normally, Asn would prefer to run the whole way, since he could run as fast as a horse anyway, and arguably had more stamina. But in a new team, he didn't want to stand out and be different, and the half-elf Dossinger was also riding a horse anyway

  "So, I hear you're a fire mage! Maybe ter you can show us what you can do?" Titan asked, riding next to Asn

  "Sure. Maybe I'll set up camp tonight" Asn smiled

  "What kind of staff is that? I've never seen anything like it. Is it some kind of metal?" Galtar asked

  "My original staff was made of oak. But one of my best friends made this out of mithril for me. This is actually my second staff made of mithril" Asn said

  "Why second staff? Did the first one break?" Galtar asked

  "No. Just that I helped her get her hands on pure mithril. So she made me a second one" he said, handing it over to Galtar to examine

  "Oh? Does it have a name?" Galtar asked admiring the lightness of the staff and the strange design

  "It's called also called Cursed, the second in the name" Asn said

  "Cursed?" Titan asked, confused about the name

  "She doesn't believe in curses, so she named it Cursed in defiance" Asn said

  Titan started ughing out loud at the expnation

  "Strange attachment you have. What is this for?" Bolo asked, seeing the strange sling portion of the staff

  "Let me show you" Asn said

  As they were still riding hard, he never stopped, merely bent sideways to pick up a rock from the ground while still sitting on his saddle, then with a quick sling, he flung the pebble at a nearby rock, putting a hole right through the rock and smashing the pebble to smithereens

  The group was amazed, while still riding.

  "And you can use the staff in a melee battle as well?" Alicia asked, joining in

  "Of course! It's not made of mithril for nothing!" Asn said

  "I knew it! The new batch of mages are quite capable. I've seen the juniors, especially that Roselyn and Aimee handle their swords. No wonder they are also candidates for the next Hero!" Alicia said

  "En garde!" Bolo suddenly yelled and sneak attacked Asn with his scimitar

  Asn easily parried with his staff

  He reversed the staff and with the push of a button, a bde was revealed on the other end as he sparred with Bolo several blows

  "You're not a bad swordsman!" Bolo said, after exchanging several blows

  "Oh, you see, I'm not a swordsman" Asn said as a fireball appeared just above Bolo's head

  Bolo was startled by the fireball just above his head. He didn't feel any heat from it. Was it just an illusion?

  "What is this?" Bolo asked as he swung his scimitar at the floating fireball

  "Don't!" Asn said, but it was too te

  Bolo sliced through the fireball, but the fireball didn't react at all as his ssh went right through without any reaction

  It's only then, that the team noticed

  "Bolo! Your scimitar!" Galtar said in astonishment

  Bolo looked at his weapon and was shocked. The sword was completely melted ant only the lower portion of the scimitar was left, as everything that touched the fireball had disintegrated.

  "Sorry about that" Asn said as the fireball vanished

  Bolo was still astonished that he didn't feel any heat from the fireball, that even his horse didn't react to it. Only it was so hot that his sword didn't stand a chance trying to slice it. It was like a fmebreath of a fire breathing dragon!

  "Here. Take this as an apology" Asn suddenly said as he handed a scimitar to Bolo

  "Er.. thanks" Bolo said, still shocked by what had happened

  Asn was just pleased that he had a spare scimitar among the many weapons he has collected over the years, especially from the two dragon's hoards

  Weapons kept by dragons were usually impressive weapons, although he has only barely sorted through them

  Indeed, Bolo was impressed. The scimitar was better than his previous one, and was perfectly banced and made of some metal he didn't recognize

  They continued riding hard the rest of the day. By night, Asn helped as they set up camp, providing levitating torches to light up the area

  "Asn. Perhaps you should only light up a campfire. This much light might attract too many creatures at night" Thundar said

  "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Just walk past that tree and see" Asn said

  Thundar raised his eyebrow, but walked past the tree Asn pointed at

  Suddenly, the pce went dark. Even though it wasn't yet completely night, he couldn't see anything. not even the tents they had pitched

  "Walk back!" he suddenly heard Asn say out of nowhere

  He did and suddenly squinted and covered his eyes from the bright lights that appeared

  All his teammates were looking at him in surprise

  "You.. couldn't see us?" Galtar asked

  Thundar shook his head

  The team was convince about Asn's abilities, be it of fire, light or just illusion. There was no longer any doubt of his abilities!