The lone dragon 13 The girl with the blue eyes

It was finally the end of two years and early morning before sunrise all students had assembled in the grand hall to prepare for the travel to the blood academy. The grand hall was huge with beautiful sculptures engraved in the ceiling. The complex glass work allowed light to scatter all over the hall in different patterns. Students were asked to stand in the circle at the center of the hall.

This is the teleportation array prepared for unexpected calamities, attacks on academy and mass transportation. Soon, four cloaked combat experts arrived and they all wore the royal symbols. You could tell from the pressure they exuded that these were extremely powerful experts and you don't even want to exhale or inhale in front of them.

Initially, Eluraa had huge expectations of sixty students riding in a gigantic mythical magical creature. She even hoped it would be a sky dragon beast or a flame phoenix bird. She had learnt a lot more about the magical creatures existing in the current world from the books and reports in the academy library.

Though she was a little disappointed, this is the first time Eluraa would be witnessing large scale magic spells in person in both her lifetimes combined. These combat experts were specialized in using spells and they were called mages. One needs to have natural red affinity towards magical energy sources in order to become a mage.

The students silently assembled in the center of the hall and the mages stood in the outer circle forming a square energy loop and started casting their teleportation spell. Any mage spell required good amount of time for casting. The more powerful ones required even more time.

After what seemed like an hour, bright light globules were formed in the center floor area and enveloped each student individually. Eluraa was simply mesmerized by the whole process and her desire to practically apply her self-created spells grew more and more.

Once every last student was covered, the scene began to grow blurry and the students found themselves standing in a garden surrounded by huge trees with pale blue flowers. Blood academy chief instructor Lingtian welcomed all the students from the Ashenville academy and asked them to assemble in the blood academy meeting hall along with the students from the other academies.

The assistant instructor handed out the academy map to all the students and instructed them sternly not to step outside the main academy gates, "Doing so will only result in your premature deaths! So, students please stay inside the academy at all times."

Mages need an energy rich environment for their training, nourishment and soul development. And these energy rich environments are all found in the midst of dangerous contested territories. Hence, the blood academy was located under heavy concealment magic and strong protection spells. Stepping outside would remove all the illusions and students would be exposed.

Nearly three hundred students from the various academies had assembled. Each academy had a unique emblem woven into the common robe and was used to distinguish students from different academies. The blood red robes of the red affinity students were extremely eye catching. There were only twenty-five students for this batch and all were trained elites.

The blood academy students gave a completely different vibe than the remaining students. Shi Meng, the fifth prince of Alexandria, in particular, stood out. He had a lean muscular chiseled body with an angular face and charming elegant smile. His eyes were deep and dark. There was an air of nobility and arrogance ingrained in his features. His attractive aura was only magnified by his cool and composed nature. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

His best friend Jian Tan nudged him, "Hey Meng. Check this out. Literally all the girls here have their eyes glued on you. See anybody you fancy?". Shi Meng smirked, "Jian you should look at the royal mages finishing up casting the teleportation spell. We won't get a chance to observe that spell for a while. After all, though we are red affinity students, all we have been doing is physical and combat training". Jian Tan laughed "As you wish, your highness".

The students then had to step in an activity monitor one by one to screen for any hidden destructive spells. The whole process took about four hours with all three hundred students going through the process individually. Most students were bored and were discussing about their competition and gossiping about the other academy students.

Shi Meng and Jian Tan were observing the magical spell involved in the activity monitor. One can never get bored of watching it. As soon as the student steps in, there is a bright light and it turns red, if any malicious energy is detected. By the time, the two hundredth student stepped in, even Shi Meng and Jian Tan were bored and started discussing about the possible strategy for the activity monitor spell.

Eluraa was silently taking in the whole atmosphere and was appreciating the complexity of this place. She was going over the map carefully and was resolved not to let the starting day fiasco happen again here. When it was Eluraa's turn to step in on the activity monitor, she almost forgot about the disfigurement spell she had cast and only remembered it in the last minute.

"oh no!" Eluraa hurriedly undid the disfigurement spell just in time and the activity monitor only showed the same bright yellow glow as other students. Eluraa breathed a sigh of relief, kept her head down and silently muttered the spell cast for disfigurement again. But in that split second, Shi Meng, who was intermittently observing the activity monitor caught a glimpse of her and her deep blue eyes. This was the first time he had even glanced a girl twice. She looked like an angel descended from the heavens and there was an untold amount of sorrow in her eyes.

But before he could see who she was, Eluraa had already blended in the crowd and recast her disfigurement spell. No matter how much he looked for her in the crowd, Shi Meng couldn't find the girl with the blue eyes again. She had completely disappeared. This intrigued him even more. All he knew was that she wore the Ashenville academy robes and probably had yellow or orange affinity towards magical energy.

Chapter end