I don't believe that most of the beast masters at Ghostrun Academy understood how powerful the rewards were for us at any point but I know for a fact that it is the reason why we dominated the team arena for the first years. The battles against other academies wouldn't be till the end of the year tournament where each academy would bring two of each type of arena battles; the six versus six, the three versus three, and the solo battles for each school would be selected by then for each grade.
This happened at the end of the school year every year and would give the academy bragging rights as a whole and then there were individuals that could boast as well. The event would take a month and would be held at either Ghostrun or Muhlhauser academy while the six other schools still hadn't received the funds to create their own arena of similar quality. That was the official narrative around why there were only two major arenas for the academies.
The rules allowed for beast masters to fight in all three of the events in terms of the fact you could be in the solo, triple and six man events. This became Adam's and mine's goal, was to be the two trifectas of the first year. The biggest problem was me and my lack of having a beast to manifest would make my journey to being at least second behind Adam extremely difficult. The ace up my sleeve was chain lightning.
The daily workouts for physical amplification class were really starting to have an effect on my body. Yes all of us were going through this but I felt I was making massive changes. My parents thinking they were raising an intellect like themselves never really taught me to work out thus showing up with no real physique, now I had some bulges showing in all the right places.
The triple team featured Adam myself and we somehow were able to get Maddy to join us. This triple threat of offensive, defensive and support equalled a perfect trio. Adam and I never battled each other so as the semester went on we each went on our tear to beat all of the first years. Each night we would discuss what we learned and how we could get better. Travis, Joey and Abby created a solid trio as well so it made all of our discussions easier.
The first battle we had as a trio was against the triplets. Adam laughed as the triplets recognized him right away and the three of them instantly before the battle started had each other's backs to each other meaning Adam and Dante couldn't blink to their backs. I released an arcane missile, because routine, from my bow this time I had worked on my aim with my spells to the point I hit my target right in the head. The headshot caused the two who weren't hit to react like their foreheads were just hit and they quickly both backed into each other's heads.
Maddy this time was the one to laugh at a melodious tune. Adam and Dante blinked right behind the two bent over triplets grabbing the back of their heads as they had hit each other hard and on the soft point on the crown. The killing blow was swift and we set a record for the quickest victory for a three versus three battle.
We didn't get another piece from the armory but there was a hallway with a board that had the records such as fastest victory. That hallway had statues of legendary beast masters of the past that held the academy records and the section showing the trio team changed their shape into Adam, Maddy and myself in the middle since I don't have a beast to represent. Adam's wyvern had both heads spewing arcane fire while a small faery that I realized I had never seen at that point was sitting on Maddy's shoulder.
It also showed our weapons that we had at the time, the armor which didn't really exist on our statue, it made me wonder if we had different gear would the statue look different. Even Adam's machete that was arcane enhanced was depicted in the statue. My bow which was translucent was depicted in my hands with the statues substance making a clearer material for my bow.
The arena was the main focal point of the academy as its existence was owed to the beast master's ability to be successful as an adult. The world of beast masters was a violent one for most as the world outside of civilized cities was full of dangers. The beasts that we mastered were everywhere in the wild with areas still never explored as groups of hundreds couldn't continue on due to dense amounts of beasts. If one were to look at a map one would see that we are surrounded completely by beasts and the oceans were even more dangerous than the lands.
As first years we spent more time working on teamwork drills and theory than practical usage. The tenth year students in contrast basically would be gone all year on different missions given by various teachers who needed either beast materials for class or beasts captured for training. The more scholarly beast masters in their tenth year help the teachers with their grading, essentially having an internship of desk job positions like my parents.
As for us first years, it felt like our classes ramped up in terms of their intensity for everything. I had more chapters to read, more problems to solve, even more reps to do in physical amplification class. The new bow allowed me to change one of my classes from melee to ranged practice. I was glad to stop putting nicks in my sceptre and was able to work on my accuracy as well as my spells.
The bow required me to fire an attack spell at the time of pulling back the invisible string and letting go. At first it made my spell casting slower but as I figured out the distance to pull back was a motion with my fingers as if i pulled the string really quickly I could now fire spells off in rapid fire including changing the spells by just thinking it. Only until I fired a fireball pulling the string further back did I notice the size difference.
I tested the theory and suddenly realized that I could pull back at full extension to make the most powerful attack or a quick flick of the fingers to make the most basic attack. Wispy theorized that the 25% increase came from pulling back completely as the fireball appeared to be 25% larger than my fireball attacks from my sceptre.
Adam and I had been talking about how to learn blink for me and arcane missiles for him. He had purchased an arcane magic spell book, which is super expensive, when Wispy asked me to keep turning the pages. I started to do so, each page I would turn and waited for a small yup in my head. The moment we made it to the end I heard Wispy in my head 'I see, now lets pass this information to him'.
"Adam, first you want to feel the arcane energy in your palm. Feel the energy form and create in your mind a tube, or missile, like shape that the arcane energy encases itself into and then imagine it expelling out of your hand." I said to Adam but I also grabbed his shoulder and I felt energy flow from my hand into him which I feel was Wispy passing along information. That whole time I was just letting Wispy speak for me, it was the first time I did this and wouldn't be the last.
Wispy had learned the secrets of arcane knowledge by reading the book through my eyes. I wish I had known right then and there that was the case, but it wasn't till years later that I figured it out. I didn't know it at the time but I had learned more than blink, I also learned three offensive spells of orb, explosion, and barrage. My magic missile changed that day as it became a triple missile attack from that point on, which I honestly thought was the extent of what I learned.
Adam of course then was frustrated that I learned a triple missile attack when he was just learning how to do a single missile. I pointed out that I could only blink a few yards while he could blink much further. I also didn't know how to do the arcane flame that he and his wyvern could do. It was a skill known only to dragonkind beasts and I so far hadn't learned it. Nor did I know if I could learn it so he had that on me.
Mr. A while disappointed I no longer used the sceptre he gave me as a primary weapon, he was pleased that I still utilized it on my back. He always seemed to have my back as he informed me one day of a conversation he heard a couple third years have that made his blood boil but since they hadn't done anything to us he could only warn us. Since Adam and I were both now considered two of the toughest first years to beat in the arena, the third years started to resort to other methods.