SUPREME ARCH-MAGUS

The Guardian Sun woke up on the horizon, painting the sky a pleasant orange color. The shimmering rays were falling on the calm pond water, creating a tranquil effect.

Mohini is staring at Kt, sat siltly, devoid of all worries from the real world. Lambu, who sat in a sleeping posture below the rock boulder, stared at Kt with a lazy look.

There are no words to speak, as both of them were waiting for Kt in a silt stare. The Fire Kirin, who had sat on one side for the last two days, stood beside Mohini.

The fire Kirin is happily licking the fingers of Mohini, who is feeding bone fire to her.

Inside the subconscious mind of Kt, images of hundreds of wind chains formed, painting his vision with black and color.

Without his intervtion, his understanding of wind elemt and the nature of wind currts is growing at a rapid pace. All he is waiting for is the spark that will d this eternal awaking.

_

Sky family, Magus school... hours left until the start of the competition...

Master Ch stood at the cter of the ara, guiding all the elders of the school to place them in their respective positions. Elder Cha stood beside Master Ch with a gold box.

Thea stood at the north-east corner with a worried look. Last night, she contacted Kt through her glass orb several times. But there has be no response from Kt.

As there is still time left for the competition to begin, the ara is still empty, with very few disciples. The cheerleading gang, including Luna and her sior sister Mo, were preparing their props for the show.

"Master Ch, I brought all the grade two barrier inscriptions from the Treasury Master. There are 3 inscriptions in total. What shall I do with them?" Elder Cha asked Master Ch, who is busyly checking all the arrangemts.

"Give it to me." Master Ch took the gold box from Elder Cha and flew to all corners of the ara to place them in the formation Yantra sockets. As he fixed all the inscriptions, he came back to the cter and raised his wand high in the air.

Master Ch closed his eyes while lifting his wand into the air with both hands. He read several scriptures as he cast a powerful magic spell.

"Custodia Umbrae"

With a loud shout from Master Ch, a glowing blue ergy rose into the air, and all the 3 inscriptions placed a the ara activated, releasing 3 streaks of light that merged with the ctral blue ergy beam.

Soon, the light ergy spread, forming a barrier a the fighting ara and separating the audice.

_

Ev though the ara is empty at the momt without disciples, the outside situation is tirely differt from the inside.

A quarter-mile-long queue formed at the trance of Ara Gate, stretching far into the class rooms. At the head of this long queue, a colourful stall is situated. Inside the stall, before a strong iron table, Fatty B sat with a straight back.

Fatty's hand is moving like a machine as he collected the coins and wrote off a ticket for the betting amount. At the head of the stall, the : rollout number is displayed in large .

At the momt, the stalls of Red Fox, Blackie, Whitey, and Fur's were empty without any disciples. But Red Fox and his lackies were happily grinning while looking at the situation at B's stall.

Blackie is purposefully using his few lackeys to bet a large amount in Fatty's stall.

" silver coins against Kt." A tall 7th-grade Magus disciple said while placing the silver coins on the table.

Fatty counted the coins and tossed all coins inside the mouth of the hallow Gold Rat statue. 33 gold, 3 silver, and 3 bronze coins are displayed at the head of the statue, showing the live counting of the betting amount.

With a serious nod, Fatty picked up the ink brush, wrote silvers on the yellow ticket [giv by the Fortune Hunter syndicate], and stamped his Gold Rat symbol over the writt number. The stamp covered the ticket, restricting any sort of tampering or rewriting.

The process continued, and Fatty didn't ev budge while looking at the staggering number of coins against Kt. Ev though he got busy, he constantly inquired about news related to Kt's arrival. Till now, no one has se Kt.

Today morning also, Fatty contacted Kt's sky orb, but Fatty didn't receive any response. Keeping faith in his last chance, Fatty oped the stall and began his duty as collector.

_

Time passed like a flowing wind. There is half an hour left for the competition.

The betting amount for fatty reached a staggering 33 gold, and it is still counting. The ara seats were occupied with disciples, and all the remaining participants occupied their respective seats.

As the names of Kt Clark and Arul were called for first warning (Preparation call), an thusiastic uproar rang among the crowd. Soon, the Sky family patriarch, along with family members, began tering the ara.

_

Before the large pond in the small crow forest inner area, Kt oped his eyes with a solemn gaze.

There is no hurry or confusion in his eyes. He stood up calmly while staring at the tranquil pond water.

Mohini and Lambu hurriedly stood up and walked towards Kt to see his situation. The Fire Kirin also followed them in excitemt.

"Are you okay?" Mohini asked with a doubtful gaze while staring at one side of Kt, who is facing the pond water.

But Kt, keeping his mouth shut, took out the Victor bow from his Pegasus bracelet and took a warrior stance. As I leaned back and pulled the bow string, an aura arrow formed, flickering with an orange glow.

"Vinus Vtorum Sagitta" ["Wind Chain Arrow"]

With a soft whisper, he released the arrow spell while aiming at the pond. The flickering arrow turned into a distinct black and color and transformed into several wind chains.

In the next second, all the fish moving on the surface water came to stand still. Including the finger-sized small fish, utterly stay still without any movemt. Ev the ripples on the pond water stayed still as wind chains of black and locked the pond surface.

After three instances [6 seconds], the chains lost their ergy and faded into thin air. With a satisfied smile, Kt turned towards Mohini and replied, "Thank you, madam... I'm all okay. Can you tell me how much time passed?" Kt asked Mohini with a sere smile.

Mohini took a long time to come out of daze. She couldn't believe Kt, who doesn't have any mastery of wind, was able to perform such a breathtaking spell. But soon she remembered her position and put up a grim face before replying.

"You have be sitting before the pond for more than one full day. You better leave for the city. Otherwise, you will miss the competition you are talking about." Mohini replied, struggling to stare into his eyes.

Kt hurriedly took out the Sky Orb from Pegasus bracelet and checked the competition timer playing on the top of the school forum.

"Sh*t… only half hour left." Kt muttered as his gaze moved onto Kirin, who is still staring at the pond with a confused gaze.