The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the Academy Combat Training Grounds, a vast outdoor arena designed to accommodate hundreds of students for large-scale instruction. Tiered stone seating surrounded a central field marked with practice circles and weapon racks, while protective barriers hummed with defensive enchantments strong enough to contain magical combat between advanced practitioners.
Nearly three hundred new students had assembled in nervous clusters, their conversations a mixture of excitement and apprehension following the morning's orientation ceremony. The revelation of assessment rankings had fundamentally altered the academy's social dynamics, leaving everyone uncertain about what would come next.
