You don't really believe they will

The silence from everyone, audience included, is deafening. Mary's personal guard are stoically standing there, the other students are looking at each other trying to figure out what the catch is here. Honestly the only person you expect to actually try you is Asune.

You look over at her and see her shrug and walk forwards. Without a shield or the ability to lift your feet you don't have anyway to stop her aside from magic. She walks over to you and you ready a blast. Nothing dramatic just enough to push her back. She kneels down and picked up the training sword and offers it to you. You take it and she nods, walking back to her line and watching the guard.

This seems to have been a bit of a failure on Stephanie's part. Looking at her you just see her patiently waiting, watching everyone. "I don't think-"

You are cut off by a blast of magic from one of Mary's guards. It doesn't hit hard, mostly just rustling your hair. You look over at whoever that was unsure if that was an attack or an attempt to make a joke. Magic is through most of their bodies. Preparing themselves for a fight. You look at Mary and see her watching her guard but not doing anything to stop them.

You feel another blast approaching. Without even thinking about it you throw up a shield. The blast does nothing to it but it is very obvious what happened.

"Stop." Stephanie said walking over to you. She took out a strip of cloth. "Now you'll be blindfolded." She raises the fabric but doesn't put it on.

"You can't-"

"Or you fail and are removed from this academy." Stephanie said flatly.

That seemed like something of an empty threat at this point. You are kinda sorta, seeing two Princesses and of special note to their mother. Even if Stephanie tried to kick you out of the academy you don't believe it will stick.

"And I will have Edin expelled." Stephanie added.

The words are such a shock you don't respond. She shouldn't be able to do that, there is no way she could do that. Except from what you know of Edin and Aurora's opinion of him, she might be happy for that to stick. You remember how displeased Aurora had been with Ana's relationship with Edin on the few times it had been brought up.

The fabric wraps around your eyes. It isn't an issue your perception is still an option and you can feel everyone magic. Actually there are a lot of people here. Like a lot, it is hard to differentiate every individual person. Even focusing on just Mary's guard doesn't help, their magic is so intune with each other they blend together.

A blast of magic hits you making your foot shift a little. You suffuse your body with magic, readying for any more attacks against you. You are feeling hot were they heating the air around you to make you move?

Another blast hits you and you feel the guard starting to move, they aren't moving on their own but in groups so you can't tell how many there are in each, or who is readying an attack.

You grit your teeth. You were feeling hot and there was a smell, burnt hair and skin. Had you missed an attack had something gotten through.

Your aura breaks out. The pressure that had been holding it in broken as the threat of attack keep building. You feel more, you feel everything. Everyone's excitement, fear, anger, desire, amusement, trust, faith. When the next blast hits you, you are so absorbed trying to understand all the emotions around you that it manages to move you a little. Not much just a fraction, but it meant your suffusion had slipped under the torrent of emotion.

"Stop." You said. You skin was burning, it felt like you on fire or freezing. They must have lit your clothes on fire. You dead zone will solve that, suffocated the flames. But it would also suffocate anyone caught it in. Against Delilah it was fine she crushed the zone with little issue but there were just normal people you could really hurt them.

One of the guard approached you with sword drawn. You lifted yours to block them and felt their sword pass through it and hit your shoulder. You could feel their imbuement clashing with your suffusion.

"I said stop." You felt your magic pushing back, flooding the sword with more magic than it can handle and melting it. The liquid metal tricked down your arm. You could hear it sizzling as it touched your skin.

A magical blast to your other side was meant to push you onto that now melted sword. Your magic lashed out, not even with your intention, sending a blast of magic back that you felt sent the attacker off their feet.

"Stephanie." Mary said.

"Continue." Stephanie ordered.

"I don't want to do this." You couldn't get a deep breath, your heart was racing, you could still smell burnt skin but couldn't feel where you were on fire.

"Then step out of the ring." Stephanie said. "It's only Edin's life at the academy."

You felt magic pooling from a group of guards as they readied a stronger blast. When it hit you it didn't have any affect but you wanted to respond. Wanted to hit back, why were holding back, why did you just hit back. Why'd you let Eve hurt you so badly, you could have stopped her, you could have kept your arm all you had to do was hit back, you lived they would have as well.

"No you don't." Vataire's voice refocused your perception thinking she was going to try and attack you as well. Instead you felt her attacking two of the guards who'd had to focus on her instead of you since one of them was not face down in the sand.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie asked her. "The guards are not your opponent."

"Anyone fighting Christopher is my opponent." Vatarie responded. A third guard attempted to intervene only to freeze. Asune's wire coiled around the guards body then threw her out of the ring.

She didn't say anything but her involvement shifted things dramatically. The guard had to focus on her and Vatarie and since you were only defending they didn't need to keep you tie you up to prevent attack. Eight guards attacked at once. Moving in sync they must have trained to fight stronger opponents. Makes sense, they were guarding Mary, anyone having a go at her would have to be strong.

Asune and Vatarie tried to fight but the numbers were against them. While they excelled at one or three on one eight was too many. They didn't have the time to knock one out of the fight before having to defend against a different attack.

You heard a grunt from Vatarie and felt in her aura that an imbued sword had made it past her protection and broken skin, not deep but feeling that made you hand curl into a fist.

You'd been defending because you didn't want to attack. But you could. End it now, just like you should have done with Eve. You pooled your magic, even with just your perception and the vague idea of where the guards were it wouldn't matter. You were going to make your dead zone, **** them until they weren't a threat.

You were stopped by the sound of more fighting. The other students had joined the fray, freeing Vatarie and Asune from their situation. "Fight one of us, fight all of us." Nika said as the last of the eight guards was disarmed and thrown clear.

There was a bit of cheer from the audience as all Stephanie's students decided to help you. Weirdly you didn't think they thought of you all that much but feeling their auras with your own, there was camaraderie there. You might not be the same as them but each of them felt righteous at defending you.

"I agree." Delilah said. You felt her and Clare walking down the stands to come to a stop inside the arena. The guards were caught between the student and the two of them. "Sorry Christopher, Eve didn't want to fight."

The guards looked around. The odds had never really been in their favour but now that was painfully obvious. You expected either surrender or one last push against you. You were not expecting the applause.

Each guard had sheathed their swords and dropped their magic. Stephanie walked over and pulled the blindfold from your eyes. She didn't say anything, she was just looking at her other students. "Coming to the aid of a fellow, even against odds you might not defeat matters. If you are unwilling to defend your companion you'll be left to die while they flee."

The rest of the arena burst into applause. While the students seemed have the realisation that this was Stephanie's Friday test you were left ... You think the terms would be, aggravated.

"What-" You were cut off by Mary.

"Thank you for your assistance Christopher, normally the lowest rank is picked for this moment." She shot a glare at Stephanie. "And my guard are not involved." She touched your hand and looked at your arm. You looked as well and saw a bit of liquid metal was slowly cooling. Mary picked it off easily, your skin bearing no witness of damage from it or the blade it had once been. She nodded at you and assembled her guard, running off a series of comment about their actions and the errors they'd made.

"Christopher, you ok?" Clare asked, she looked very serious.

"Oh yeah, fine." You pulled your aura back inside you, around there were subconsciousness relaxations as the oppression was withdrawn. Clare raised her eyebrow. You swallowed and smiled back. "Really." Your nose still tickled a little but you couldn't smell burnt skin anymore.

Everyone else approached. All checking in on. Vatarie and Asune shot the occasional glance at any guard that looked over. The other students were asking about how you'd stood through all the blasts and if you had any tips. When they settled down Nika approached. "Thanks." You told her.

"Maybe you should learn to fight back so we don't have to save you next time." She answered. "And no worries." How about that, you think she might be coming around to you.

As the celebrations started to die down and everyone went to get dinner Stephanie approached. "Christopher wait here."

"Sure." She wanted a word with you and certainly wanted a word with her. You shuffled everyone on, confirming that you wouldn't be long and would meet them for a victory dinner, you think there was a mention of **** but you couldn't be sure. When you and Stephanie were alone you waited for her to talk first.

She didn't, she just stood there waiting for you.

"Ok fine. What the fuck was that?" You asked, finally letting your aggravation out.