(
@Eckhart_Von_Musel @emeraldknight @SilverDragonsBlood. I don't think we need a formal posting order as of yet. I suppose I passed the ball to Taig to respond first? Though characters can interject as they see fit for now I suppose.)
It was mid-autumn and not a day for drills or sparring. The wind was brisk so you had to wear a coat, and the sun hot and orange enough to make you sweat. Still, Wyrdwood's courtyard was packed with underclassmen. The young apprentice stood in pairs, some erecting magical barriers and others aiming to break them down. One boy stood triumphant behind a shimmering barrier of antimagic, only to yelp in pain as his partner conjured an ordinary rock atop his head. Meanwhile Meanwhile a tiny girl sat smugly within a sphere of darkness. The wall of shadow had, so far, eaten everything three baffled students could throw at it. Maergath paced up and down the rows of students, barking insults.
"Listen before I banish your ears you sniveling, mouth-breathing, afterbirths! A proper ward gusts outward, banishing bad air and anything on your skin. If you're too stupid to fear death and humiliation, you should be trying to get a moment's rest from the shitstink wafting off you!"
"Killed myself ten Mordecai before they shattered my knee. I drowned a White Lily in quicksand after. And none of you can't find your way past a little girl's shadow trick?!"
"
Mephiportala," the old warmage growled. And suddenly, the girl wreathed in shadow began to shriek and sputter. Her shield collapsed, leaving a wretching apprentice and panicked skunk...
***
The two-headed boy lurched across the courtyard, unable to bend their knees because of a petrification spell that had yet to expire. "We're supposed to figure out how to use magic on people unaffected by it normally. You know, be creative?" Liam, on the left, grumbled.
"Whose gonna expect a punch in a wizard duel? If you'd help put your- our weight into that punch we could have broken it down I bet!" Kana grinned, flexing an arm.
"That's your solution to everything."
Beneath an archway on the far side of the courtyard sat three students, slumped against the wall, and nursing various bruises. "...hey," they chirped in unison, slumping down besides Susie.
Kana was not deterred by the somber mood. "Hey Taig! You wanna have a bout? Think I figured out how to do that thing you do where your hand turns all stony!"
Liam rolled his eyes. "All of us have gotten kicked around the whole afternoon. And we're going to get marked off for not doing wards if you two just wrestle around."