Ascension Of The Failed Mage

\'This is bad...\' Ciara gulped

Her day turned out to be bad after all!

"Oi, did you retards not hear us right?" The tall boy beckoned, moving closer to the three students.

Ciara looked all around her. There were a few other students who weren\'t among the ones who obstructed them. They had stopped to get a glimpse of what would occur as a result of challenging Ciara.

In fact, a large portion of the whole campus was curious.

Were the rumors true? How much of it was? The thirty potential assaulters were intent on finding out, and the crowd that slowly formed wanted to get a piece of the action too.

Of course, they weren\'t brazen enough to assault Ciara and her friends. Still, they wanted to see it with their very eyes... Ciara, the \'Exception\', in action!

\'Tch... is there no other way?\' She thought to herself.

The student who closed in on her and her friends didn\'t want to back down, and among them were seniors in her Foundations State, while a few were people she didn\'t recognize.

\'Could they be... from a higher Stage?\'

No matter how hard she thought, there was no way she was going to be able to come up with an answer to the burning questions within her, so Ciara decided to abandon them altogether.

More important matters came first.

The assaulting students slowly began to look impatient since they were ignored, and the tall boy was about to react adversely, until—

"I\'m Ciara!"

As her voice echoed around, the students smiled, their eyes all fixated on her.

"So it\'s you, eh? Then I suppose you already know why we\'re here, don\'t you?" The boy grinned.

It appeared no one was going to stop the fight, and it was going to happen regardless of what she wished, so Ciara had to take the initiative.

"Yeah. And that\'s fine. Just leave my friends out of this!" She responded, having a deep glare in her eyes.

"Hey, do you think you\'re in any position to make demands?!" One of the thirty students yelled in annoyance.

His voice was followed by disgruntled sounds by the others around the group of three.

However, Ciara ignored their words and boldly kept her eyes fixated on their leader, the tall boy.

Her defiant look pierced the boy\'s eyes, causing him to somewhat understand the meaning behind her undaunted demeanor. Although he wasn\'t certain of the depth of her potential, he decided to ignore her tone and accept her wishes.

"Fine. We\'re not interested in those small fries anyway!" He replied dismissively.

"Oi, Charles. Are we just gonna let that girl talk like tha—?!" One of his gang protested, surprised by their leader\'s concession to Ciara\'s wishes.

One look from the boy named Charles, however, was enough to silence his words before they could be completed.

"Zip it. I don\'t know about you, but I don\'t consider myself a bully who assaults the weak. Let\'s not forget the reason we\'re here!"

The students agreed with him, and the protester had no choice but to swallow his words.

"They can leave. But as soon as they\'re gone... I\'ll see what you\'ve got!"

Ciara gulped a little, bracing herself for what was to come.

***************

Noir gazed at the gathering of students from a distant corner and saw Ciara looking nervous and unsure of what actions to take.

His hand twitched, prompting him to interfere.

He used his other hand to hold his twitching one, stopping the irrational movement and calming himself.

He knew what was going to happen. He was well aware of the consequences, however... he would not act.

"This... isn\'t the mission," Noir told himself, turning away from Ciara and vanishing into the shadows.

"Take care of yourself, Ciara" He whispered.

****************

Sam and Serah looked at Ciara with unsure expressions. Even though they both knew their friend was being brave for their sake, they couldn\'t do anything about it.

They would only be a dead weight to Ciara if they tried aiding her, so while the two felt a little guilty that Ciara had to go through the fight alone, there was nothing that could be done about it.

"It\'s fine, guys. Just let me handle it... It\'s my fight anyway!" Ciara told them with resolve.

Sam and Serah excused themselves from the surrounding crowd, but refused to leave the area, ensuring they would at least be of aid to Ciara if things went awry and she needed to flee.

"Be careful..." Serah managed to mutter, before leaving with Sam.

"Hehe, good choice for now trying to run. I have to commend your guts!" The boy said, after watching Sam and Serah move away from the corner of his eyes.

"Why should I run? This harassment will only continue unless I do something about it. Hopefully, by the time I\'m done with you all, no one will bother me again!"

The girl\'s statement caused the intimidating crowd around her to burst out in laughter.

"Girl, while I admire your guts, you\'re just being conceited now. Well, I guess you don\'t realize about twenty of us are Tier 2, while the others are in Tier 1, on the verge of breaking through." The boy grinned.

"No matter how powerful you are... even if the rumors are true... there\'s no way someone of your level can beat all of us."

Ciara gulped. She knew the boy was right to an extent. She couldn\'t handle so many Tier twos and ones at once—that is, without resorting to higher magic.

"Now, now. Don\'t look so nervous. The plan was for me to face you. If you prove too challenging for me, which I doubt, I\'ll let you off the hook. How about that?" The boy smiled.

Ciara couldn\'t tell if the boy was joking or not. While he appeared haughty, his expression didn\'t seem devious, and it appeared he was more of a muscle brain than a schemer.

"Okay. I just have to defeat you, then!" Ciara smiled.

"Hehe, that\'s the spirit. I won\'t hold back, you know? My name is Jerry, and of all the Tier 2s in the Expert Foundation state... I\'m the strongest!"