Dragon Necromancer: Starting With First Dragon Bloodline-Chapter 42: Wasted Potential
Lightning arcs followed the cat’s limbs.
The girl might not have learned spells from her tutor, but her mind and body moved in perfect sync. Closing the distance between Noa and her, she moved without a single wasted breath.
Even the air that her lungs let go blinked.
But it did so with a flicker, like lightning in a night sky.
Noa, meanwhile, was still clutching his sword.
Yes, he had resolved to follow the path of the mind and the body at the same time, but the situation didn’t allow him to be a mage.
Not only did he appear to have no elemental affinity, but he couldn’t just do something no other human was capable of. So he would be a warrior at Arcane Academy and learn magic in secret.
Every fight he would go through would help him advance on his stagnant threshold.
That’s why Noa let Ashe help him from afar.
Anine, on the other hand, was a mage, and the augmentation from her beast doubled her mana capacity, granted a 50% physical boost, and tripled her speed.
’Disturbing her mana patterns would be impossible,’ Noa realized.
She would just not give him even a single opening, especially for something as slow as mana manipulation.
So the ancient knowledge of how to render her abilities useless couldn’t be used this time.
But Noa didn’t intend to rely on it alone.
He didn’t blink when the girl surged forward and vanished from his vision.
Her form blurred right in front of him, yet thanks to the shadow particles moving as well, Noa’s eyes followed her anyway.
And the moment she was close enough, Anine cracked her middle finger.
As a result, lightning scattered across the ground, threatening to electrocute Noa.
It might not have been a proper spell, but more like an instinctual casting she had learned from the Thunder Monk, it still worked, forcing Noa to jump back.
Barely avoiding the arcs that burst where he had stood only moments ago, Noa sighed in relief.
’This is going to be hard, huh,’ he lamented, a grin forming on his lips.
Just then—
As the excitement made him more thrilled, another blink and she was gone again.
This time, she appeared on his left.
Noa swung his sword in a straight line, halting her advance before she sent one more wave of thunder in his direction.
However, despite his successful strike, the cat flashed beside her like a black voltage.
Shadows alerted Noa just in time for him to react.
Ashe supported his senses, but didn’t veil herself in shadows, not wanting to alarm the spectators.
He spun.
Then he stepped sideways, letting the blade swing wide without falling.
Still—
All he could do was evade it just barely.
The lightning struck his side, leaving his skin and shirt scorched.
The battle went on, and shadows hovered around the hall like threads to help him feel her presence before seeing it.
He was fighting as if he were solving a puzzle.
And piece by piece, he was getting closer as the girl would go lower on mana sooner rather than later.
He couldn’t parry her blasts, yet he used his sword for offense.
Keeping her just close enough to have time to dodge her deadly attacks and build momentum for a counter, Noa didn’t suffer much.
That’s when the instructor noticed something strange—something that shouldn’t have been the case. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
’The way he fights. It’s close to instinct, but they came for mental fortitude. The quick thinking and strategic movement as if he had an entire arena mapped out in his head...’ she thought, her eyes narrowing.
"Second Threshold," she muttered aloud.
Selaira, still watching from the sidelines, tilted her head. "I noticed that too. What a waste, huh? Even I needed a whole month after awakening, and he did it in three weeks."
"Indeed," the instructor nodded, her tail wiggling. "If it weren’t for the Graveworm, he could have been a great mage."
"But," the young girl added, her expression unreadable, "his warrior talent doesn’t look too bad either. His senses and body, and eye coordination are higher than every other first-year student."
She sighed, watching Noa with pity. "Still, you are right. Fate can be so cruel sometimes."
A mind that could grasp the battlefield like a seasoned mage and a body that could react faster than a forged warrior were wasted because of the weakest beast.
A prodigy who can never become truly strong.
But he was winning—winning against one of the strongest and most talented mages with immense potential.
Noa also had confidence, as if he refused to accept his destiny.
His resolve was one of a kind, and after crossing her arms, the instructor continued watching the fight.
Anine’s lack of spell knowledge became apparent with each second.
Her movement turned less fluid, she was spending too much mana on a single burst of damage, and her already poor aim became even worse.
The cat, once an infinite source of mana, panted heavily.
It could no longer provide her with energy, so she could throw everything at Noa.
She went for a last strike.
It was her final attempt to secure victory in her first combat practice, and flickering forward while holding her breath, she threw an arc of lightning.
Noa was already moving before she had even finished the movement.
The longer he fought against her, the more obvious her patterns became, and, excluding the fact that she grew tired as well, shadows deepened, teaching him her techniques.
He ducked.
The massive blob of energy exploded behind him.
Then he closed the remaining distance and tapped his sword against her chest.
Everyone froze.
Students gasped.
They couldn’t hear the instructor and Selaira’s conversation and missed their evaluation of him.
Anine dropped her head low.
Not because she was angry or embarrassed, but because she was exhausted.
Slowly, the lightning fizzled out, and Obsidian Cat dissolved into the light and returned to her mind palace.
She gave Noa a slow nod and turned around.
He, however, clenched his fist, still drunk on the thrill the battle gave him.
"We have a winner," the instructor announced loudly. "As for his expulsion..." she started and paused, glancing over the crowd.
