Tides from the Deep - Blood Devourer

The sun shone brightly on the casting fields.

Fiora had chosen a casting class as one of the three obligatory classes to graduate for the first year at the Academy.

It was a large circular field that could accommodate hundreds of students and twice as many practice targets.

The teacher gave a brief explanation before telling them to find a spot and showcase their abilities.

This would allow the teacher and assistants to rank and distribute them into subgroups accordingly.

Fiora saw this as her opportunity to showcase her skills.

She had been ridiculed by the members of the Moana family, so she decided against taking the entrance test for Elder Krakatoa's school.

She had been humiliated enough, even before Talia had taken pity on her and offered her a chance to embarrass herself in front of those nobles once again.

Fiora's opinion of Talia had changed since they had Initiated themselves, but the old hateful feelings had definitely resurfaced after their roles had been reversed.

Fiora had always been lauded, pursued, and admired.

Never before had she been a pariah – someone excluded from the main social circles.

On Solara, she had been the social circle everyone wanted to be in.

Now, instead, people seemed to give her a wide berth wherever she went.

She moved forward, taking her spot thirty feet from the shooting target.

She glanced at Professor Luana, a stern-faced woman with a few silver strands elegantly woven into her dark braids.

The professor was waiting for the various first-year students to start their practice.

Fiora had noticed a few nobles getting ready, but no one had actually started their practice yet.

Professor Luana had explained that the first test would be with stationary targets and the second would entail the moving ones.

And while everyone else hesitated, Fiora extended her hand.

This was her moment, her time to shine.

She would show Talia and those arrogant brats what she was capable of.

A globe of golden, shimmering water coalesced above her palm.

Unlike normal water, her Sun Water radiated heat and light in golden waves.

It was as if liquid gold swirled through the water magic she wielded.

Fiora's eyes locked on the target – a small disk about 30 feet away.

She shaped the Sun Water orb to be smaller than the ones she had used against the Abyssal Scuttlers.

This was because she needed more precision than power in this test.

Without even moving her hand, she propelled the orb with her Mana.

The projectile struck the dead center of the disk, instantly vaporizing a small hole through its surface.

A satisfied smile blossomed on her face.

She summoned three more orbs, hitting the other three targets at forty, fifty, and even sixty feet away.

Her Primary Mana Channel at Level 8 and her trained Mana control meant that even the average nobles in this class weren't at her level.

But even after nonchalantly hitting all the stationary targets that Professor Luana had arranged for them, an intrusive thought made her grit her teeth.

The only person she thought could rival her expertise and, perhaps, even trump her Mana control was none other than Talia.

But it didn't matter.

Now that she had proven what she was capable of, she waited for the others to finish.

She spectated as the rest of the students started their target practice.

To her left, not too far away, a boy shot jets of steam water that turned into spear-like projectiles.

They blasted the targets much faster than her Sun Water, albeit with less destructive power.

On her right, a girl had summoned what Fiora thought was Coral Water and was trying to pepper her targets with razor-sharp coral shards.

Sadly for this girl, her aim was quite terrible.

Soon, every student had either missed or hit their target, and the professor's assistants escorted some of the students straight out of the classroom while the others were divided into subgroups.

Fiora found herself in a group with two guys and a girl.

The two boys were wearing Elder Kahua's School robes, whereas the girl wore a symbol that Fiora didn't quite recognize.

There were others ranked at the top like them, but the professor was dividing even the best ones into smaller groups for the next round.

“Now,” Professor Luana's voice boomed, “your task is to hit the moving targets before they disappear. You must show finesse in your casting if you want to pass this step.

“You can still graduate if you can't hit these targets now, but you will have to be able to do it by the end of the year.

“Those who manage to hit at least five targets right now will be placed into an advanced class, where we will focus on each individual's skills rather than just target practice and the fundamentals of casting.”

All students frowned in unison when the moving targets appeared.

Even Fiora felt her confidence beginning to waver.

These weren't just simple discs floating in the air – they were erratic, fast-moving spheres that seemed to follow no discernable pattern in their movement.

Fiora had thought they would have had a few discs moving in a straight line and that it would have been rather easy to shoot them down.

Truly, she had imagined it would have been the same as those wooden targets at the festivals on Solara that they moved with a rope and a pulley—the same ones that kids loved to shoot with their slingshots.

“This is how Abyssal Creatures move! Unpredictably!” The Professor thundered. “Get in a queue and start shooting! Stop wasting my time!”

As Fiora watched, the two young men from Elder Kahua's School, who looked identical, stepped up to take their turns.

“Come on, Akoni, brother,” one said. “Do your best.”

They were both tall with close-cropped hair and broad shoulders.

Are they twins? Fiora briefly wondered before stepping back and making space for Akoni to prepare his shots.

His face was scrunched in concentration as he raised his hands, fingers splayed wide.

The air around his digits began to shimmer and distort with heat.

Steam Water? Fiora wondered.

With a deep breath, Akoni summoned his magic.

A swirling vortex of superheated vapor formed at his fingertips, growing rapidly in size and intensity.

This guy is much stronger than the other practitioner of Steam Water from before, Fiora reasoned.

The other guy had barely been able to summon streaks of Steam Water, while Akoni seemed to be able to conjure much more at once.

The nearby students instinctively took a step back, feeling the waves of heat emanating from his position.

Akoni's eyes darted across the field, tracking the wildly moving targets.

Suddenly, he sent a jet of pressurized steam hurtling toward one of the targets around the twenty-foot line.

The steam condensed mid-flight, forming a needle-thin projectile that cut through the air with a high-pitched whistle.

It struck the edge of a sphere just before it zipped out of view, leaving a scorch mark on its surface.

Akoni quickly followed up with two more shots in rapid succession.

One missed entirely, disappearing into the distance, but the other clipped another target at the twenty-foot line, sending it spinning wildly.

Akoni kept shooting, missing more and more as he started taking on the ones forty feet away.

When it came to the sixty-foot ones, he only managed to graze one.

“Not bad,” Professor Luana nodded approvingly. “But work on your reaction time. In a real fight, you won't have the luxury of hesitating nor taking your time to aim.”

Akoni bowed his head respectfully, sweaty from the effort.

“Yes, Professor,” he said before turning to his alleged twin brother, “Keone, it’s all yours now.”

Keone had harsher eyes than Akoni and cracked his neck before starting to shoot.

While Akoni had radiated heat, the air around Keone began to chill noticeably.

Frost patterns formed on the ground at his feet.

Ice Water? Fiora frowned.

She found it ironic, considering his brother’s Affinity.

Keone's approach was different from Akoni's.

Rather than forming a single powerful attack, he began to crystallize multiple ice shards in the air around him.

Soon, he was surrounded by a swirling cloud of jagged projectiles.

With quick, precise movements of his hands, Keone began to launch his icy volley.

The shards shot out in rapid succession, each one aimed at a different target.

He didn’t miss any targets at the twenty-foot line.

How is he doing this? Fiora swore internally.

He soon moved to the forty-foot line.

Two of his ice shards found their marks immediately, shattering against the targets with a satisfying crack.

Another one came close, grazing the sphere it was aimed at.

He roughly managed to hit three out of four targets at the forty-foot line and one in three at the sixty-foot line.

“Good prediction,” the professor commented, her eyes narrowed as she assessed his performance.

“Your reaction and aim are impressive. But mind your Mana efficiency. In a prolonged engagement, that approach will drain you fast in a real battle.”

Keone nodded, his chest heaving slightly from the effort.

As the two young men stepped back, there was a murmur of appreciation from the other students.

While neither had mastered the exercise, their performance was impressive, especially given the difficulty.

It was clear why they had earned their places in Elder Kahua's School.

Fiora stepped forward without wasting another glance for either of them.

Now, it was her turn.

Immediately, she summoned a globe of Sun Water.

She took aim at one of the nearest targets – a small orb zig-zagging about twenty feet away.

Using her hand to aim, she gently flicked her wrist and launched the attack.

The first disc shot out, with Fiora holding her breath until the target was hit.

She sighed in relief.

The targets were fast, but not too fast.

She was so slow to continue that the Professor shouted at her.

“Abyssal Creatures don’t wait for your lazy ass to take your sweet time! Chop-chop! Get to casting!”

Fiora felt her cheeks burn as the other students behind her laughed.

Focus. Show them.

The Sun Water projectiles sizzled through the air one after another, striking all the spheres at the twenty-foot line.

She could hear the voices drop to whispers and then to complete silence with each target she managed to hit.

When she passed the forty-foot line, however, she felt her casting arm tremble.