Chapter 57 – Shooting targets

When Nozomu and Taisetsuna exited the building, they turned right to go around the building, and Nozomu signalled to Rampage to follow him.
The white Unicorn wondered what he wanted, and trotted to get to him and walked at his side, gathering a lot of attention from all the applicants that were also walking near them.

Taisetsuna looked at the frowning Unicorn and asked, “Nozo, why did you call him? Do you want to ride him? It’s just a small walk, you know?”

“Well, the Principal said we could use Magic, but he didn’t say we had to use our Magic, did he? I am just going to ask Rampage to hit the targets.”

“Hey, you can’t do that! You are supposed to do it!”

“Suna, you heard him like I did. Hit the targets with Magic, nothing else. If he suddenly changes what he said and makes up some sort of rule against it, I will complain, and I bet everyone will agree that I have all the reason. It’s not my fault if he didn’t explain. Even if the Principal finds some sort of weird rule of the Academy, I have other means to hit the target, remember?”

Taisetsuna saw him disguisedly rubbing his sleeve and remembered the bracelet he had there. She gave a slight grin and didn’t say anything else.
As soon as they reached the enormous open field at the back of the building, with a few scattered trees and ending in small hills at almost one hundred metres, Taisetsuna saw the Principal and the people that were with him at the table inside the main building.

He pointed to a long line three metres away and explained. “Ten at a time, go to that line and shoot the targets that are in front of you. There are several targets, and when needed, a worker will go there to place new targets. Come on, chop-chop! We don’t have all day!”

As the first ten were going to the line, the Principal noticed that Rampage was next to Nozomu, and he asked, with his mouth wide open, “Why, in the name of God Raluth, is a Unicorn doing here? Does he want to enter the Academy or what?”

Nozomu explained with a slight smile. “No, he came with me to hit the targets. You said inside that we had to hit the targets with Magic, so I called him to help me.”

“You… You can’t do that! You are supposed to hit the targets with your Magic!”

“You didn’t say that. You said to hit the target with Magic, but you didn’t say it had to be my Magic, my Unicorn, or a Magical Item. Magic is Magic, no matter where it comes from, right?”

The Principal opened and closed his mouth, unable to refute what Nozomu said, and the Snake-kind Teacher, Ruh the Mills, slithered to get next to the Principal and whispered a few words.

The Principal whispered back with a frown, and he then sighed and faced Nozomu again. “You are right, I didn’t mention it, mostly because I was sure no one would use other means except using his Magic. But why don’t you use your Magic, since it’s you that wants to enter the Academy?”

“Because I don’t need to. Rampage here is more than able to take care of a target, as long as I convince him to do it, and that will be far more difficult to achieve, considering his temper.”

The Principal caressed his beard while staring at Nozomu in silence, and was stared back.
The noise of the targets being hit made him avert his eyes, still thinking that youngster was strange.
Ten applicants at a time, they all tried to hit the targets. In every group, there was always one or two that couldn’t do it, pointing out that it was no easy task like the Principal made it look like.
Taisetsuna, Chujitsuna Hito, and Tresuria joined a group and pointed at the targets. While Taisetsuna threw a small Fireball at the target and made it explode, Chujitsuna put her hands on the ground and focused her Magic while looking at the target in front of her. Suddenly, a Rock Ball emerged from the ground under the target and went straight up, cutting it in half.
Tresuria rubbed her own face, and while looking at the target, she gathered Magic around her, concentrated on her feet, and disappeared into the ground. Then, in front of the target, a leaf emerged, and another right after, and another, turning into a vine that grew five metres into the sky. Tresuria made a quick movement with her right hand, and the whipping of the vine cut the target into tiny pieces, which then wrapped itself around the pole that was once holding the target.
Tresuria smiled and winked at Chujitsuna, who showed her two thumbs up.

When that group finished, Robert and Hinen joined the next one, while Nozomu pointed at the targets and asked the curious Unicorn, “Do you think you can hit one of those with your Magic? I am not sure if I can, but I think that is a simple thing for you. What do you say? Do you want to show these guys how to hit a target?”

Surprisingly, Rampage vigorously nodded and walked to the line with his head held high. He snorted at the two youngsters on either side, for them to give him some space, and gathered an enormous ball of pure Magic on the tip of his horn. He looked back at the Principal and the group of Teachers and frowned.
Without even looking at the targets, he shot the ball into the sky. It went up ten metres high and divided into dozens of lightning strikes that hit all the twenty targets available.
While everyone was complaining because he destroyed their targets, Rampage peacefully walked to get near Nozomu and touched his forehead with his nose, while making a low neigh.

Nozomu hugged his long snout and whispered, “Thanks, Rampage, that was amazing! I just needed one target, but you sure showed them!”

The Principal slowly shook his head in disbelief and waited for the targets to be replaced, so that the other applicants could try.

Chujitsuna Hito slithered to get near the curious Unicorn and hugged his head. “That was so cool! You are awesome! I am so going to make you my friend! I will groom you, I will feed you tonnes of Magic, and I will kiss you every day! You are the most pretty Unicorn I have ever seen!”

Tresuria asked with a big smile, “You seem very at ease with Unicorns! Do you have one as well?”

“No, I was never near one, are you nuts? These Magical Beings are mean! If my mother saw me hugging him, she would kill me! Then she would probably want to hug him as well! You are so pretty, Rampage! And powerful! Oh! Nozomu, he and his red partner will be a powerful addition to our Party! With them around, we don’t need to worry about any Monster!”

Rampage made a loud neigh and followed Nozomu while frowning at the dumbfounded Principal, who rubbed the cold sweat off his forehead.

Ruh the Mills approached and asked in a low tone, “What’s the matter? You seem like you have seen a ghost.”

“I… am not sure… but I think that Unicorn doesn’t like me… I wonder… It’s not possible, right? No… you don’t know, you were not here… It was many years ago…”

“What are you saying, Principal Innar?”

“It’s that white Unicorn… When I applied to enter the Academy, one of my try-outs was to capture a Magical Being, and I found a young white Unicorn sleeping in the forest. My Party and me… We were foolish enough to try to capture that Unicorn… I hit him with my Magic, but he knocked us out and escaped. I never knew why he didn’t kill us. Maybe because he was also young at that time. It would be a weird coincidence if he was here after all these years, but the way he looked at me was as if he knew me, and truly hated me...”

While the Principal and Ruh the Mills were speaking, Hinen Sukemoru and Robert Keskula were gathering their Magic. Hinen mumbled something in a whisper and shot an enormous Water Spear that pierced his target and cut it in half. As for Robert, he smiled and pointed one finger at his target. A tiny Fireball went straight ahead, and pierced the circular target right in the centre, making a small hole.

He smiled at the surprised Cat-kind boy and explained, “Control, my friend. Control is way better than wasting such a large amount of Magic like you did. If you had more targets to shoot at, you wouldn’t have Magic for them, while I could do this the entire day and not exhaust my Magic. Are you sure you want to rival me for Taisetsuna’s heart and be defeated like the tiny insect you are near me?”

Hinen grinned and shot ten enormous Water Spears at the pieces of his target that were on the floor, and answered, “Don’t worry about the amount of Magic I spent. I have a lot to use. Who is the insect now, Viscount Robert?”

Robert smiled and shook the hand of the surprised boy. “I see you have some tricks up your sleeve! This will be interesting. It has been a while since I had a worthy opponent! Still, I won’t lose! Bring your best game to this fight, because like that, my victory will taste better and Taisetsuna will forever be my beloved prize!”

“Victory, you say? Let’s see if you smile like that when I defeat you! I bet you will cry like a little girl, all snot and tears!”

Taisetsuna overheard them and asked in a loud voice, making the grinning boys freeze in their place. “What are you talking about, dumbasses? I am a prize now? You sure make a nice pair together, so don’t mind me! I don’t want to have anything to do with you two lovebirds!”

Robert and Hinen rushed to explain that they didn’t like each other, and they were in fact enemies, and they would never think of her as a prize because her opinion was all that mattered to them.

She looked at Nozomu and said while pointing back with her right thumb. “Can you believe these guys? Now I am a prize! Really, I have no idea what is up with kids these days!”

“Well, it could be worse, you know? That Lion-kind boy could also be next to them, fighting for you as well!”

A loud laughter interrupted them. “Ahahah! As if I would waste my time with a lousy Cat-kind such as her!”

Nozomu looked to his right side and faced the mocking Lion-kind boy. “For you, it’s Dame Taisetsuna, kid. You will address her with the respect her Knighthood grants her, or you won’t address her at all.”

“And who are you, her boyfriend? If you are not, what the ‘yuuu’ you have to do with the way I talk to her? Get lost, weirdo!”

Taisetsuna answered in between growls, “Grrr… It’s Sir Nozomu to you, dumbass… The Princess made him a Knight… grrr… Stupid dumbass… Why don’t you go die in a dark place somewhere?”

The moment he took one step forward, Tresuria, Draiky, Chujitsuna Hito, Hinen Sukemoru, and Robert Keskula stood in front of him, with Rampage next to them and already pointing his horn at the surprised Lion-kind boy.

Robert was the first to speak, explaining his options. “Now, you apologise, or you won’t need to worry about the next try-outs, because in the next minute, you will be lying on a bed, recovering from your injuries.”

The Lion-kind boy jumped back and did a somersault to escape, avoiding in the last split second an electric ball that Rampage threw at him.

Taisetsuna cracked her fingers as she said, “That stupid won’t escape me next time… And why the heck were you all in front of me? I could handle him easily!”

Robert shrugged and answered. “I know you could, but you don’t need to. A Leader leads, and a fighter fights. It’s our job to make sure you are ready to make plans and help in case we need it. Against that boy, any of us could knock him out. Well, Tresuria would probably put him to sleep with one of her flowers, but she would still take care of him.”

The nervous Gailie tapped her chest while taking deep breaths. “That… was scary! Don’t let this one do these kinds of things ever again! This one doesn’t know why she did it! This one saw Chuji moving, and her body followed her without even thinking! Draiky is the one that fights, not this one!”

At her feet, the pet plant nodded and clacked its teeth, while Chujitsuna Hito made a big smile with her face all red. “That was nice of you, Tresuria! I know Gailies don’t like violence, but it’s nice to hear that you wanted to protect and help me! And our Leader, of course! It’s probably better if we take a deep breath and forget that strange boy because he won’t last long if he continues like that, and we don’t need to be dragged into his madness!”