The training grounds were a large open space with seats on a raised area. There were twenty smaller stages, each bigger than a small house. Protective bubbles formed of mana surrounded all of them. A few seniors were watching the class from above, likely awaiting my brilliant usage of mana. Professor Pretty Boy stood in front of the class, his voice ringing out. "Today, we'll be practising condensation of Fire Mana. Please enter a Bubble before casting it out. If you do it correctly, there'll be a nice explosion afterwards." With a pretty smile, he earned another group of sighs. Bastard.
Clenching my teeth, I walked up to a bubble, feeling the mana around me. Breathing carefully, I focused on the heat around me, or the origin of the heat, the Sun. That's where the Fire Mana came from, or so it's assumed. With my almost twenty years of experience, I brought the Mana together, forming a small fiery ball in front of me and then pushed it for-
Something cold hit me. I screamed very manly, and opened my eyes to find Professor Pretty Face in front of me, his eyes narrowed to a slit. His mouth was in a thin smile. "What did you do?" he asked me. I blinked.
Looking at my surroundings, I could see a giant crater of fire in front of me, melting the ground around me. Smoke rose around me, buildings tumbling down in the far distance. There was a smell. So sweet my stomach started tearing itself apart, yet meaty. I turned my head around quickly, acid burning my throat from the sight. Bodies. All around me, burnt or burning, with no way to tell who they once were. Then, from the flames, came a tall creature, the flames so tightly wrapped around its own body I couldn't see more than its silhouette. But that smile... It was clear as day. Wiping a blade made of fire, it grinned even wider, and pointed it at me. I tried to breathe. The very air burned, stinging my throat as it entered my lungs. The smoke was so heavy that I couldn't stop coughing. It tilted its head. My heart throbbed. Then my body ignited when it took another step closer, the fire gathering around it becoming even thicker. The crackling of everything around me sounded like laughter.
Blink. An impenetrable darkness for a split second before-
"I asked you a question," the Professor said, his face unchanged and his eyes solely on me. "How did you do that?" The Sun still shone down on everything, though the warmth it gave off seemed deadly.
It felt like I gulped sand as I responded, "Do what?"
He kept eye contact with me. Maybe... Yes, that was it. I must've done something really awesome, to the point that he had to stop me.
His smiling mouth parted. "Meet me in my office after your classes. I'd like to discuss something with you. Do you mind if I bring another?"
I stared at him. He'd never done that with me before, so far as I remember. So much for being a normal kid, Harry. My brilliance shines, no matter what I do to hide it. "Go ahead," I said. With a nod, he left me alone, heading to another bubble.
I tried to concentrate the Mana again, this time making sure not to blink, but there was a pressure weighing me down I didn't understand. It felt like the same being of fire, staring at me with its ever-widening grin, the heat returning as I tried to bunch the Mana up. The smoke entered my lungs again. My breathing worsened. My skin started burning.
I stopped, and the feeling disappeared. What the hell is happening to me?