Even Sidekicks Are Heroes!

**Date Started:** January 8th, 500XR
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Previous Role-Play:** N/A
**Users Involved:** User:Shen Yi, User:Njalm2, User: Kingdoritoz, User:GalaxiaWW, User:Trick G Loki

**Setting**: Clover Kingdom
**Characters Involved:**
* **Coral Peacock Captain: Ezekiel**
* **Magic Knights:** Andreas Agostini, Richard Felix, Lieser Bernkastel, Soros
* **Other:**

To think a week ago, Ezekiel managed to acquire the most rookies from the exams. Not that it was a competition...and plus, it made sense statistically as the broad meaning of the words *Support Division* covered over five different purposes. However, it shocked Ezekiel just how **many** magicians there were who could utilize support based magic. Although Ezekiel didn't acquire everyone he wanted, he still found himself content with who he acquired.

Support magic was often the most overlooked of the three types of magic. Heroes were offensive and defensive mages, capable of protecting the kingdom and spreading the king's vision. But people often overlooked support mages who helped keep the reckless offensive mages alive or pinpoint the threats for the defensive mages. However, Ezekiel also believed that support mages should develop their powers to fit all purposes. The indirect nature of their magics meant they could be like water. Fit to form the situation that surround them. The beauty of his own magic was that it lacked the direct nature of other affinities. And so he moulded it to fit any situation. From manipulating the battlefield, to hindering opponents and even massacring entire armies. He believed that the only useless support mage was one that could not protect themselves and deliver victory to their team should the others fall.

It was up to Ezekiel to help them do so.

It took the captain a little extra alone time to come up with a list of potential ideas for each new Magic Knight. He then brought several books for each rookie. And dropped them off a week prior. Besides Lieser, who needed *special* attention, these books would build a foundation for the skills he hoped to help the rookies develop. One in particular, Richard, meant to propel him well beyond the other rookies with a concept that only the most senior of Magic Knights were introduced to; Mana Zone. If Richard paid attention to the Skeleton portion of the Magic Knight exams, he would've noticed that Ezekiel was able to cast a spell which stemmed not from his being as most magic did. It spontaneously appeared throughout the arena from numerous locations.

Regardless, this task should be an eye opener for Ezekiel to see where they were. He requested some funds from a friend who owed him money and used it to rent out some space on a lord's land. He then hired an wood magic user to create a small mock town which he filled with different skeletons. These skeletons ranged from children to adult. Families in some houses and single elders in another. The perfect example for training would be a mock mission where they would have to team up and stop him from burning down this town.

Ezekiel was on Étoile Filante as he awaited for his new recruits to arrive. The broom hovered slightly above the earth as he sat sideways on its ebony shaft. He turned to Mirei and smiled. The two of them hadn't much time to work together...and he could tell that her heart was heavy with the passing of Adolf. Hell, he couldn't imagine watching Sapphira or Rose die before him. So Ezekiel promised her to become strong enough to carry both his heart and hers on his back.

"Mirei." Ezekiel started. "These recruits are our future. I hope they're ready to become magnificent Magic Knights."

Richard looked down at the supplied tomes with disbelief, Mana Zone was highly advanced, to the point that many seasoned Magic Knights struggled with its concepts – few would ever dare to think a simple commoner like him capable of mastering it, especially considering that he was still a Rookie by every possible metric.

But despite his amazement that seemed to be the case – it was evident that Captain Ezekiel saw potential in him that he himself wasn’t sure he had, but if his Captain commanded him to he supposed he had to at least make a dedicated effort to attempt to rise to the challenge, however unlikely his success seemed.

With this in mind Richard began the ardous process of learning the basics of Mana Zone.

A winged carriage descended upon the streets, touching the ground in a matter of seconds, as Andreas stepped outside alongside his Butler, although he held a number of tomes in hand. The bone mage had dropped these off at the Agostini Manor a week prior for him to study, insisting that he would need them to prepare for their first assignment. The books covered a number of topics contents ranging from reinforcement to curse to something called enemy invocation magic. Confused would not begin to describe what he was feeling.

He had thought that by now he and the other recruits would be going on their first assignment but just by looking around he could tell that this would not be the case. This was nothing more than mere practice. He alongside his butler made their way towards the others, sitting down on the opposite side of the earth mage, though not before his assistant cleaned the surface of dust.

"This is our first time meeting each other since joining and this" pausing he let out his hand and had his butler hand him one of the tomes before dangling it using a couple of his fingers, "Is seriously what we're going to be doing. I mean I don't mind the reading and all but don't you think it would be a good idea to start introducing us to one another? I mean in that case.. " he trailed off, dropping the tome to his side before turning to face Ezekiel, "We might as well be complete strangers, don't you think?."

Lieser came walking on foot. She carried a basket full of dead animals, from rabbits to does, dripping blood on the entire path that she made from the woods to Coral Peacock's point of meeting. She stopped right in front of Ezekiel, leaving the basket on the ground.

"Captain", she said; her back straightened, right hand near her forehead, saluting Ezekiel.

Ezekiel nodded to Lieser with a slight smile. They had spent the previous week training diligently. He then commanded his broom to approach the rookies. He could read the nervousness upon their faces and decided to explain *why* he chose to have them read as opposed to jump into a mission.

"Well, Andreas, as a support division, you will often be tasked with allying with mages from different squads. You're never going to truly be accustomed with who you work with. And it is up to you, as a support mage, to become the controller of the battle. To learn your allies strengths and weaknesses as quickly as possible and deduct a plan. That is why this task will be done without proper introduction. You'll be introduced under the pressures of battle. And it is up to you three to calmly assess the situation."

"The reason I had you read those books was due to the complexity of being labelled a support based magician." Ezekiel stopped. "The invasive mages of the Golden Dawn are meant to defeat their enemies through powerful magic. The defensive Crimson Lion protects the nation with their nigh-absolute might. But what does it mean to be a support squad? Is that healing? Is that a defensive shield meant to route enemy influences? Its such a vague yet vast field...Support magic is one that comes in all shapes and forms." Ezekiel smiled. He lifted his hand and from it came a skull. The skull's jaws began to move, with Ezekiel's voice floating from its empty maw.

*It is impossible to give support a basic definition. Support could be altering the terrain to grant the other squads an advantage.* Ezekiel looked to Richard. *It could be deciphering one's magic and nullifying its purpose.* He said with a playful smile to Lieser. *It can also be invoking one's magic upon another person or object in order to subdue them long enough for an offensive mage to finish the battle.*

Ezekiel looked for Caitlyn but figured she would skip today's mission. After all, she'd had quite the homework to complete. The skeleton vanished.

"Whether direct or indirect, magic can be used to help turn the tide for our more offensive and defensive brothers and sisters of clover. But it is important that you guys take a piece of this vague definition and focus upon it. Grow it into something far beyond what it once was." Ezekiel smiled.

"Those books were meant to give you a foundation. They are basic leveled books that will impart within you the basics of the category I thought would fit you best. And today, I want to show you guys how important it is to focus on that particular field. Behind me is a artificial bandit attack. Your job is to save as many people, my skeletons, as possible as a team...But I will be there to interrupt and try to counter as much as your efforts as possible."

Ezekiel turned around and fired a blast of mana to a pile of gunpowder. And within a moments notice, the entire makeshift village was lit in a vicious flame. "You have a short amount of time to save who you desire. I'll give you all a ten second head start."

His attention shifted from the bone mage to Lieser, noticing the basket of deceased rabbit Andreas gagged a bit, dropping the tome in his hand to cover his nose with. It was a site that he was unfamiliar with, being a noble he never needed to go hunting himself instead letting his servants do this work. He tried to refrain from doing such acts but the sight of the deceased made him gag a bit, though in this case the witch's beauty helped draw his attention away from the basket, which he assumed to be her dinner. His eyes rested on the strange girl for the longest time, hearing only bits and pieces of the ebony man's response, although he heard enough of it to fathom the reason behind the strange order.

His chin rested on both his hands as he admired the beauty that was Lieser, his eyes scanned her from head to toe, finding her mismatched blue hair and red eyes to be both strange but intriguing. He found something about this odd matchup to be utterly enchanting, letting out a soft sigh as his mind numbed. He remained in this state for quite a while before snapping out of this state as their teacher lit the town in a glorious fire. His eyes widened in shock, instructing his butler to ensure that his carriage didn't get caught in the fire. He had spent too much time eyeing his teammate that he didn't notice the man ignite the barrel of gunpowder.

Upon hearing his teacher's instructions Andreas ran his hand through his hair before throwing it to his side. He then manifested a single wing on his outstretched arm and reached out as if he was offering the bone creations a chance to grab unto his hand. In a matter of seconds the wing opened up and as it did he shed a number of feathers from their homes and directed them towards the skeletons, with each one sprouting a pair of wings on each body part his feathers made contact with.

With a mere gesture the wings began flapping, carrying their targets out of the burning buildings to the outer reaches of the makeshift village, where the flames and poisonous fumes would not reach them. He continued doing this, using the ten second window their teacher had given them to clear as many of the bone structures as possible before having to deal with outside interference.

Listening to the instructions of his Captain, the memory of how he’d supported Wesley a couple of months ago came unbidden to his mind – he’d fought against bandits before and experienced lethal combat, but even so he still felt overwhelmed by this task, he had always wanted to be a Magic Knight, but he wondered if he would be able to live up to his Captain’s expectations of him.

Since his Captain had said there would be no time for introductions, Richard simply nodded to his fellow Rookies and decided to take immediate initiative, he was aware of their general abilities, after all, considering that he’d watched them during the Magic Knight Examination.

Focusing his senses, Richard closed his eyes to feel the movement of mana all around him.. he could almost taste it on his tongue, feel it in the earth and smell it in the air. Mana Zone was an extremely difficult skill to master, and while Richard had managed to learn the most rudimentary basics about it, he still knew it would do wonders for him, for he knew that if he ever truly mastered it it would render his status as a commoner entirely irrelevant.

With a gentle flourish, he melded energies from his surroundings into his spell as he cast he Earth Shuffle as the earth crested underneath him and began travelling down the side of the hill towards the village with the earth mage riding on top. It was at least several times larger than the ones he’d produced during the Exams, fed as it was by surrounding mana – and as it travelled it rippled outwards and expanded into a miniature avalanche of sorts before he directed it outwards in two separate locations to gently reach the stationary skeletons inside the two closest buildings and cradle them safely in mounds of hollow earth before slowly pulling them outside.

This required more mana than his common use of the Earth Shuffle but far less than it would have required prior to studying the basics of Mana Zone – Richard was astounded at how much of a difference it made for his spells and he felt galvanized at the thought that with this, he might just become a Senior Magic Knight in time.

But the ten seconds were up. And that meant the real test was meant to began. Starting with Richard, Ezekiel noticed how much of a difference Mana Zone made upon his magic. Whereas he was stuck to relying on other mage's and his own small reservoir, Richard could now cast larger spells without worrying about running low on magic. But that also meant he needed to concentrate more. See, mana existed all throughout the world. And mages, such as Ezekiel and the damned Golden Dawn Captain, rarely exhausted their own. Masters of this skill could continue fighting onwards for days without end. But the extreme reach of this skill meant that, without concentration, one's spells could easily go awry. Thus causing the unconscious destruction of one's allies and goal.

Ezekiel, atop Étoile Filante, flew near Richard with a devious smile. "Great job in forcing the surrounding magic to obey your command. It seems you mastered the basics of Mana Zone. Marvelous! But rare are situations that allow you to have such concentration." He retrieved his silver, jeweled tipped, wand and pointed it at Richard. Suddenly a ball of mana splintered into tens of miniature explosions meant to strike all around the earth mage. He also waved it with a certain twist, causing the mana behind Richard to react violently. Causing more spontaneous explosions of pure energy. This sudden abrupt attack came at a time where the makeshift avalanche could easily spiral out of control and destroy the houses below.

With chaos around Richard, Ezekiel raised his hand towards Andreas. A skull materialized before the winged boy.

*Well done! Well done!* His voice rang from the maw of the skull. It floated nearby Andreas as if attached to the wind itself. *Use your magic to influence others. But you have to be extra careful.* Andreas was in the process of carrying a small family worth of skeletons out of town. They were floating above the flame covered ground, in a particular area above a blazing inferno. They're pretty high in the air right?

Suddenly blades made of what could be compared to a human's ribs pierced through the sky. They were meant to shred the wings apart and send the family plummeting in a matter of seconds. *Support magic means preparation. It means responsibility.* His voice boomed from the skull. *We are not murderers. It is far easier to kill a person than it is to keep them alive.*

"Looks like I'm late again." A young-looking man said while looking down at the burning village. Making his way towards Ezekiel, was Soros an average looking man with short dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Wearing a long sand-colored coat over a black vest over a striped dress shirt, and dark brown shoes and pants. With various bandages wrapped around his forearms.

"Hello captain, how are the Rookies doing?" He said as he began to analyze the field in search of the formers.

"They've progressed much faster than I thought they would!" Ezekiel said with a joyous smile. His eyes gleaming with ecstatic energy. "But life is often more chaotic than a controlled simulation. The only true experience is through battle. Once they have the foundation built, we will continue building them. But for now, lets make this as hard as possible without killing them. Do me a favor and send something to intercept Andreas." Ezekiel said with a cheeky grin as he continued his barrage of mana blast at Richard.

"The wing mage, let's make things a little more interesting for you." Soros said with a smile on his face as the wind begins to rapidly flow around him. As he moved his hands slightly the air began to concentrate in front of him creating the shape of a large book. As the pages began to flow in front of him Soros silently said "Wind Creation, come forth, my little friend, Eve" As the words leave Soros mouth one of the many pages of his book separates itself from the others and begins to move towards Andreas.

And in the midst of all the chaos created by Ezekiel, a calm breeze of wind could be seen flowing around Andreas, as a tall female figure began to form right in front of him. On the eyes of others, it would look like a calm spirit that wishes to help, but in this situation, the spirit began to force the wind around it to move violently difficulting both his fight and becoming harder to hold on to the skeletons.

Andreas nodded at his teacher before returning his attention to the airborne family as he gestured using his hands, commanding the sprouted wings to decrease in size as to reduce the likelihood of them being shredded, which he figured was the intention of the floating head. With another gesture, as if leading an orchestra of sorts, the feathered wings alongside hosts began darting from side to side as he guided them past the incoming bone projectiles. Just as a conductor leads an orchestra to perform as synchronized unit he directed the airborne figures out of the path of danger in a coordinated fashion. As their teacher had said support magic meant preparation, it meant responsibility. It meant that he needed to do everything in his power to support the family, inanimate or not, until they safely made it out of the town.

Memorising this quote he flipped through his grimoire before landing on a certain page. "Please help correct me here. What you're trying to say is that if I'm to get them out of here in time then I cannot perform this half-heartedly then. It needs to be all or nothing right? In that case.. " he paused before clasping his hands together as if in a sort of prayer, as he lifted his head to face the figures "Let the **Embrace of God** be your shield and armour against all that opposes you." He remained silent for a couple of seconds before a number of feathers projected from the wings of the bone figures and began circling around their hosts. This curtain of feathers would go on to act as a sort of barrier consisting of tens of feathers, each one sharp enough to pierce through solid stone. If any outside force tried to breach the circles confines, be it a foe, a simple projectile or a mere insect, curtain of feathers would go on to swarm and impale that object without mercy.

Andreas bowed using one hand as the other housed a single open wing which he could not bend at the moment, for mere comfort issues. "I honestly hope that was up to standard, helping people is not something that us nobles are that familiar–" he paused mid sentence, raising his head to scan his surroundings as he felt an unsettling chill go down his spine. His eyes widened as a mysterious female figure formed from thin air right before his eyes, though judging from how the figure was composed of air he could tell that this was the work of magic. He remained silent for a bit before rising back up as the surrounding wind seemed to turn on him and the winged skeletons.

He grunted as the wind pelted his body holding his previously outstretched arm to his face as he looked up to see how his passengers were doing. The skeletons flailed in the air as the sprouted wings struggled to fight the opposing current and feather curtain began to come undone, feeding the wings some more of his mana the sprouted wings returned to their original size, despite doing this he didn't find it any easier to navigate the skeletons through the gale. He needed to put a stop to this. Andreas performed a side flip, using it to put some distance between them, before switching hands to shield his face as he lifted his winged arm into the air before swinging it in an arch motion. This one motion generated a **Venti Paradisíaco** more reminiscent of an air slash than any sort of tornado, though it still did possess the latter's long reach.

The target? The female wind creation standing in front of him. "*First thing's first, I need to disable this gale inpeding my progress and threatening my assets, though it seems that the only way to do so is to disperse this obstruction.*" his eyes rested on the female figure as his spell neared her, "*Another priority should be regaining control of those wings before those skeletons start plummeting to their undeaths I guess.*"

As the wind slashed made its way towards the wind spirit, no immediate reaction seemed to happen in the eyes of those observing. And with no visible reaction from it, the slashed slammed onto something creating a cloud of dust from the impact. But to the surprise of those attempting to stop this "attacker" the wind what was rapidly flowing, did not slow but instead got faster, as within the smoke a greenish colored barrier was seen protecting the spirit.

Looking from a distance, Soros began to thoughtfully analyze Andreas actions, getting ready to adjust his tactics according to how fast he is able to learn. "Show me your best kid." He mutter to himself.

"Hmph. Now that that's out of the way it's time to regain control of–" Andreas changed his tune after witnessing his Venti Paradisíaco had not made contact with its target but instead made contact with a simple barrier. Adding to his long list of problems he noticed the gale had not dissipated nor remained as stagnant as he had hoped but instead it had grown much stronger. Feeling the fatigue of the prolonged casting of the two spells he had cast earlier and the looming failure of being unable to defend the bone puppets, Andreas decided to dismiss his immediate failure and focus on the end goal. Clearing the town of all civilians. Focusing on this, he swung his winged arm to his side in an ascending arch motion, performing a small spin in the process, scattering several feathers in the process lined up in a single diagonal line.

"That barrier of yours is quite steady, if I may so myself, defending against such a focused spell but let us see just how well it can defend against something coming from all sides." As he said a strong burst of air propelled the arch of feathers through the air at blinding speeds and with incredible force towards the female figure. He hoped that something with more substance would be able to breach the shield and what better to accomplish this than his own mana infused feathers. As the quills neared the creation they scattered, curving outwards as they crushed any hope of shielding against the quills as a group. Regathering behind the female the quills curved inwards as they shot at multiple parts of its body hoping to pierce through both it and the barrier.

"Hmm, not a bad decision but you still lack on the mana." As Soros finishes saying these words with a grim on his face. The small shield that previously protected the spirit suddenly expanded, becoming a full circle providing all directions protection. And as the attack from the Wing mage attempt to break through, they were met with the walls made of pure concentrated wind.

"Let's see what you learn from this." Soros said as he raised his right hand towards the spirit that was conjured by him, commanding it to use the air enveloping her to shake the surrounding flow even more, not only Andreas but anything surrounding him would feel the pressure.

Andreas dropped to one leg as the surrounding gale grew in intensity. A drop of sweat ran down the side of his face as he struggled to get up and maintain his mana connection with the airborne skeletons. Not only was the air barrier protecting the figure sturdy but it could change its shape to defend the female from all directions. This made dispersing the obstruction all the more difficult. Standing up once more to his full height he formed a secondary wing on his other arm. He needed to use more force to not only breach the sphere but to push his spell through the strong winds but he had to use his mana sparingly as to retain his other spells. It was quite the predicament but Andreas believed that he could do it after all Sig. Ezekiel believed in him so he would need to do the same.

Clasping both his hands together the two wings flapped forward in unison, generating a multitude of concentrated air streams which immediately went on to form a vicious tornado that he shot forward at blinding speeds, aimed at a single point of the foe's shield. As the tornado drew closer the air streams composing it wrapped themselves even more tightly around each other as the tornado tore through the ground gathering some dust and earth in its wake as it approached the wind menace.

"**Mana Zone**" Bursting open, Soros grimoire just started to violently flick trough pages on its own. "**Garden of Eden**" As those words left Soros mouth the air that was previously surrounding his lonely female spirit began to slow down and concentrate on two separate points on each side of it. "Come help your mother Cain, Abel." As two masculine-looking figure start forming from the surrounded air, together with the former one they all form a bigger and even tougher barrier. And as Andreas attack finally makes contact with the new reinforced barrier it would meet its end, and dissipate together with the wind itself.

With attack being stopped, for the time being, Soros began to make his way towards Andreas.

Witnessing his spell fail once more and the creation of two more wind creatures, the angel child cursed before turning around and flying away while fighting against the turbulence. In an attempt to flee the town alongside the bone family Andreas let out a number of sharp feathers aimed at not only blinding the foe but immobilising them too, after all getting the family to safety was his number one priority engaging the enemy would have to wait. The enchanted feathers danced in the wind before sending a sudden burst of mana into them, causing them to flash a bright colour as they scattered across the field, creating a sort of flash bomb blinding all those within its path.

This sudden surge was not without meaning as his grimoire opened up on a specific page as this light engulfed the area "**Succour of Hypnos.**" Those were the sole words which escaped his lips as the quills took heart of that chant and transformed their properties to match those of the spell. Despite having the power to blind and tire the foe Andreas knew deep in his heart that his attempt was futile but at the same time he needed to buy enough time for his wings carry the bone figures out of harm's way.

Andreas halted his flight as he let them get ahead of him before focusing a fair amount of mana into his wings and forming a strong but gentle burst of wind to propel them through the air and more importantly out of torched town at great speeds.

As Andreas made his way further from the spirits, Soros reaches the former location. "Analyzing the situation and retreating, not a bad train of thoughts." Looking at the fleeing rookie Soros gently gestures towards his Grimoire ordering it to close, causing the figure to disappear with it. "Let's see what else he can do." Beginning to make his more towards Andreas location, Soros now with a slight grin on his face speed up in hopes of catching up with the former.

The closer the man got the more Andreas couldn't help but smile at his actions. After all his opponent had made the foolish mistake of coming out into the open and by doing so threw away their element of surprise. Seeing that the family of bone figures had made their way to the edge of the town at staggering speeds, he felt that he could now concentrate on other matters he turned his head around to face his pursuer.

"Hm. This is intriguing it seems as though the puppeteer has finally come out of hiding to play." He then gestured his trail of feathers to spread out more as to limit Soros' path. Though his blinding curtain of feathers would probably deter him from getting any closer and even if he did he would most likely be stricken with the tiring effects of the feathers, he had to remain vigilant.

As Soros witnessed Andreas's attempt at stopping him, he was only able to respond with a small grin on his face as the grimoire previously close once again opened, and wind violently began to circle Soros, taking the shape of a low enclosed barrier surrounding his entire body. "Still too fresh from breaking my defense." He said as he continued his charge towards the Rookie. But even though he sounded confidente on his defense, Soros who was this moment not utilizing Mana Zone began to feel the burden of being born with a low affinity with mana as sweat began to drip down his face.

His smile faded as he witnessed the man easily repel the flurry of feathers, and as he did Andreas turned the rest of his body around to face him. "It seems that you dear sir have made a terrible error in judgement. How disappointing." Confidence radiated from his being as he began drawing an invisible circle in the air using his hands, and as he did a circle of feathers began forming around Soros. In response to this Andreas snapped his fingers as his wings flapped forward generating a multitude of air streams to enhance the circulation of the halo of feathers. This would create a near impenetrable prison made of violently gushing airstreams and bars of sharpened feather blades.

"Hm, have I now?" Slowing down his approach as Andreas once again attempts to stop the wind mage, Soros grinning let out. "Mana Zone: Adam's Apple" as a small sphere made of pure wind appears on his hand it just began to pulsate until it suddenly "burst". Increasing rapidly in size and beginning to envelop Soros the small sphere turned into a giant spherical shield all around him, but instead of destroying the incoming feathers, it just simply stopped their movement and got the stuck to the surface of this barrier. "Not bad kid, but with the number of spells you have already used on me, I would say that your mana is running low."

"Not quite, but I suppose that you are right about one thing–" Andreas paused for a moment, and as he did his wings began to disintergrate, forcing him into a descent before continuing his sentence "I am almost out of mana. The logical thing for me to do in this situation would be to give myself up, correct? But tell me, how could I possibly do such a thing, give up that is, if I have already won?" His feet touched the ground as he turned his head to face the same direction that the winged skeletons escaped in. "This may not be an ideal victory but the fact remains, I succeeded in clearing those dummies out of the town meaning that I passed this little training exercise. Correct?"

"Hm, right the Captains exercise." Dropping his wind barrier, Soros began to slowly drop down from the skies. "I would say you half passed since my goal was to make your job harder, but I wasn't really worried about the skeletons, which you did react quite well." Placing his right hand on his chin, Soros began rubbing it as he attempts to come up with a proper explanation for his actions. "On a situation of high risk, you made the decision of protecting other while using yourself as bait, not a bad train of thoughts." Begining to walk in circles around Andreas, Soros continued. "BUT, you made one crucial error, we are the support division, not the suicide division. The moment an enemy noticed your mana was getting low he wouldn't hesitate to take you down and go after the innocent people you just saved."

His eyes rested on the man circling him and as he did Andreas cocked a brow before responding to the mage's comment, "But is such a thing not inevitable? Besides, if this were an actual assault I doubt that mere bandits would possess as much mana as you, my senior." In his mind, he knew that there was no way that mere bandits could be this strong so the chances of him running out of mana in an actual rescue scenario were dismal. "Regardless, I would still appreciate input from my senior on what I could have done differently to avoid such a thing."

"Oh, right I forgot you're still new to this." Stoping on his movements Soros just locked eyes with Andreas. "Since Captain trusts you it should be fine. Even with your mana currently being low, it is in fact still higher than my max capacity." Bringing forth his grimoire, the wind suddenly started to flow violently around him as the three-figure that formerly were seen "facing" Andreas came back. "The only reason I'm capable of creating and controlling this level of magic is thanks to Mana Zone."

Andreas rested his hand on his chin as he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds. "I see.. then you must be a commoner.", a smirk formed on his face as his waved his right hand to the side "Although there is nothing wrong with that. To be honest I am more surprised that you are able to use such a thing, Mana Zone that is, not because of your status but for the mere fact that you don't look much older I. It's impressive really." In less than a second his entire attitude as his eyes filled with wonder and he began circling the man.

"Can you teach me how to use that?! Please?! Please?! Please?!" As he did this another thought came int his mind, though it was more like a painful reminder. A memory of the pile of books Signore Ezekiel had handed him flashed in mind as the boy dropped to the ground, his face flushed white as trails of sweat began to run down along the sides. It was not because of the surrounding heat but fear of the workload he still had to finish reading. "O-Oh y-yeah.. I still have that ridiculous workload Signore Ezekiel gave me to study.. "