4:15pm - Academy Grounds; 'Proving Grounds'

@Arya10108909,@Awesomoman64,@baraquiel,@CrabInATree,@Crusader Lord,@Hammerman,@Kalleth,@liferusher,@Pseudo Stygian,@Pyrodash888,@Rabidporcupine,@Raptra,@Regitnui,@RoccanIronclad,@Sailorsadie,@Spriggs27,@Stern Algorithm

More students shuffled in through the underground tunnels, lead by the faculty or even older students all giving encouragement. They had gone through the same feeling of dread and nervousness when first led to this place. The air was cold in the undergrowth, the area was seldom used and thus unfamiliar. Overcoming your unease was all part of the lesson. Though many believed arriving to be the easiest part.



Kanos voice cut through the low chatter among the students as they waited patiently. Most of them had their thoughts written clear as day upon their faces - Fear, Anxiety, some with a look of determination in their eyes at the unknown. All seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. The Headmaster never failed to be impressed by the younger generations bravado.

"Today is a special day for those of us at the Academy. New faculty walk the halls with you, experiencing their time as students from the opposite angle. Many of you come from a family that has spoken of these halls with reverence. The laughter, the mischief, their adventures. Every day you are here is a step towards mastering your own will no matter how you spend your time."

Gesturing to the deep pits lining the floor sporadically he continued,

"The fun must wait from time to time. For today is a time of tradition. No student of these halls has gone without a trial. To prove yourself and the skills developed. For many this will prove daunting; a display of prowess that is otherwise absent. Dash these thoughts."

Glancing back at one of the staff members, they raised their hands to the ceiling and moved the very stones across the ground to reveal dazzling light. In a blink the room was flooded with light and warmth enough to fight off the harshest chill.

"This will be a three part examination. Even if you do not succeed, I ask that you participate to the absolute best of your abilities. Now! First on the agenda is a show of connection. Every student in attendance must display their maximum use of their element in whatever way they choose. The bigger the better! Show us how strong your bond is with your display! But before you begin, please make your way down to the lowered floors. One per square please."

Every student was capable of entering their own secluded area by means of a staircase made from the stonework leading down. In the past there had been students who exceeded expectation and, unfortunately, lost control of their element just an instant too long. Sometimes to just a small laugh, while another had created a dangerous firestorm. Safety precautions had to be taken.

For each student the criteria was rather simple. Draw on as much of your element as possible for a short but powerful display of your connection. Some had created pillars of stone that reached the ceiling, others freezing their areas with over a foot of ice, tornadoes raging, great globes of water held above their heads. Anything that showed potential strength without worrying too much on the actual shaping of their element.
An initial display to set the bar for later expectations. Some would find this quite simple and respond in kind, while others would try to show their strength with destructive force on their surroundings. All were acceptable means of display.

---

Freya never imagined the Avademy to be this serious. Sure, she heard lots of tales from her mom and dad about the fun they had and how great their powers have improved but they never specified anything important. Maybe they thought they'll just tell her vague details to let her discover them on her own.

She went down on one of the lowered platforms via the staircases and proceeded to her area. Okay Freya, she thought to herself. You just have to show everyone whar you can do. Your future relies deeply on what you're gonna do and failure might mean expulsion, but hey, no pressure! Just relax...

Freya closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She put her hands on her chest and concentrated. Immediately, tiny sparks began to leap out from her hands. Freya knows her pipsqueak lightshow is not good enough to for this trial, so she decided to do the "thing".

She layed her hands in front of her, left palm facing downwards on top with the right palm facing upwards, and willed the sparks to concentrate and create a multi-colored sphere. When she finished, the sphere began to glow of rosy pink and orange, shaking with pent-up energy. She threw the sphere upwards and the sphere exploded in a huge firework explosion that illuminates the whole area with the colors of the sunset. It's no ordinary firework as it doesn't create any booming sound; instead, it made a twinkling sound, similar to that of a bell.

But that's not all. Freya willed the firework to explode in slow motion and, using every bit of her concentration, willed the light to again form into a sphere. She willed it to explode again but this time, the explosion of light took the form of a giant dove, its body made up of the colors of the sunset and once again illuminating the area. Each flap of its wings let out multiple sparks that shower everyone they dropped on, but the dove, like her sparkles and firework, was only made in pure light.

Despite this, she still has some trouble making giant light animals such as this dove to fly around and the best thing she could do was to make it fly in place. With one final flap of its wings, Freya willed the giant dove to explode, showering everything in sparkles of light.

Once done, she exhaustingly sat down on the ground, panting and trying to catch her breath. It's been a while since she made something like this. Freya finally laid down facing up at the ceiling. "Ta-da", she said weakly.

Showing off their abilities, really? Well... She really hoped they were not expecting her to show off some kind of traditional water dance, because, oh boy, they were going to be disappointed.
With a sigh, she hopped off her boulder and, as one of the first students, she headed down into her assigned square.

Not even a single sign of tension was visible in either her body or her face as she unhinged her water gun from her back and softly settled it into her hands. She then sat down on the stony ground fiddling with her contraption.

I should have brought something else other than this..., she thought solemnly. Maybe I can adjust this a little bit to give them a bit of a show...

A slightly devious smirk played on her features as she quickly took apart her gun and reassembled it after adjusting some settings. Then, she stood tall... well as tall as she could, which was, admittedly pretty very puny. The gun that now lay in her hands was, compared to her, positively gigantic, a musket, though very primitive looking, that made her look slightly silly, but kind of even fit a bit.

She twirled the musket in her hands, thereby signalling everybody that her show was about to start. Then she opened the central cylinder and turned it upside down, showing that it was, indeed, empty.
With a sweet, but sly smile, she curtsied. Her eyes began to intensely focus.

Just a second later, without anything moving out of her hands, she aimed upwards and a small fountain of water sprang forth, a couple of feet into the air before cascading down all around her. Suddenly, with a very concentrated look and a bit of a crank on a handle, the water fountain coming out of her gun changed colour. First, dark blue, then purple, then pink, red, yellow, green and finally turquoise to light blue.
She hesitated a bit, seeming to catch her breath for a second while the colour of the water returned to normal.

When she had recovered a little bit, though she tried to make it show that it did not affect her that much, a grin gripped her facial features, which soon gave way for another bout of concentrated-face.

The fountain still springing from her gun started to shimmer, the water again changing colour, but this time, it was different...
instead of all of the water changing colour, only a part of the water in the fountain springing from her gun changed to red. Then another part changed to orange, another to yellow, et cetera, until the whole fountain was one giant rainbow of colours. Then, the colours switched places. First, slowly, then faster and faster until it looked as fluid as an animation movie.

The stream sputtered, then interrupted, but only for a moment before spewing forth again, only to be interrupted a moment later. Each spatter of water had a different colour, the drops chasing each other into the air, then being forced back down by gravity again, but splitting up on the way down to act as a water shield enclosing Thora in a swirling shield of liquid.

She stopped.

Thora lowered her weapon, then marched a bit forwards eyeing her square and picking out a target, before aiming at that once more pointing the musket at her chosen objective, a solid granite stele.
Her stance shifted to something that looked as if she was bracing for somebody to tackle her, her face grimacing in something that could resemble pain...

And then she let loose.

A mighty torrent of water escaped the musket for just one second, crashing into the column in its dead centre eroding away so much of the material, that a very noticeable notch curved the stone inwards.
Thora on the other hand, did not fare much better herself. The water pressure immediately threw her back an entire body-length, which she slid backwards on her feet before toppling over backwards when she slowed down.
She managed to rescue herself by dropping the gun, stretching out her hands and pushing herself off with said hands until she landed, the right way around, back on her feet with a involuntary backflip for style points.

Though she landed safely, her chest heaved and she had her hands on her thighs, her body bent downwards.
She looked up, a soft, but exhausted smile on her lips, now no longer sinister, but genuinely satisfied. The little girl nobody noticed before, had announced that she was here now.

---

Kanako entered the tunnels with the others, wearing her usual school uniform. She was impressed by her surroundings. The place was simply majestic. She knew that there was a lot of history in the walls around her. The place simply reeked with ancient history.

She sat on the stone seats available as she waited for the headmaster, who was already there, talking to Manilow, to make his announcement. She wasn't sure what they were going to do here. Certainly not a normal study class for sure. She huddled a little in her seat. The air was quite cold down there.

She didn't have to wait long before the Headmaster started his speech. To summarize, each of them would have to display their ability to the best that they could in front of all the others. That explained those little segmented arenas down below.

Kanako gulped. She wasn't sure that she was ready for something like this. Sure, her wind control had improved during these three months but she still felt she was far from mastery. She was still a beginner. What if she embarrassed herself in front of everyone? She wouldn't be able to look anyone on the face ever again!

No, Kanako, you can do this! Just like Miss Katherine said, stay calm and you would have mastery over your control of the wind!

She stood up, brushing her skirt from dust before descending down towards one of the lowered platforms via the staircases available. Once she arrived, she took a deep breath to calm herself. Closing her eyes, and letting her arms hang down freely from her shoulders, she began conjuring a whirlwind around her.

Here I go!

She compressed said whirlwind into two smaller ones, before attaching them to each of her legs. And with them down there, she began to slowly float away from the ground.

Careful, careful!

She had to keep constant concentration so the two whirlwind perfectly synced with each other. She also had to take care not to make them too big or small, and that their winds didn't reach her skirt so her modesty would be preserved.

Imagine them as knee-high boots made of wind. Imagine them tightly wrapping your legs, being just the right size like the perfect boots.

Once she had hovered around five meters above ground, she began the next stage.

With her hands, she conjured little tiny whirlwinds in front of her. And once she felt they had stabilized enough, she began to slowly thin them into becoming tiny wind blades. This really took all the concentration she could muster. All her thoughts went into this task. And then, once she shaped them to her satisfaction, she send them flying towards the stone slab in front of her. To her satisfaction, all of her blades managed to stick into the slab without losing their form.

That's it for precision. Now for power.

She dispelled her wind blades. Her next move was to cover her right hand with a whirlwind. And then, bracing herself, she punched the stone slab right on the center with said hand. Punched might be the wrong term however as her fist never really touched the slab. Instead, she stopped just inches before she touched the stone. But that proximity was good enough for her wind punch to shatter the stone slab into pieces.

Haa... haa... haa... I can't believe I'm doing this well. Alright Kanako, just one last demonstration!"

She then took the deepest breath she could muster. Using her wind manipulation, she compressed the air in her lungs, before shooting it all out from her mouth. She dubbed this technique, "The Breath Cannon", and she aimed it right at the ground below her. The high pressure air created a small crater, just as she had expected.

What she didn't expect however was the whirlwinds on her legs suddenly disappearing, sending her straight down with a surprised scream from her mouth.

"Oow!"

She landed right on her butt. That's gonna be sore for a while.

It was too dark down here. And he hadn't been allowed to bring his camera. Zeke was nervous already, and the expectation that he was supposed to do something to impress the suddenly very stern looking teachers. The first few students went forward, and did some things that looked kind of impressive. Eventually, he guessed, it was his turn.

He was startled when someone started a fountain from one of the pits, and he almost tripped into a hole. He caught himself, dropping to all fours, then carefully went down the stairs. At the bottom, he sat down and looked up at the dark walls and the dark ceiling. It was too dark. It flickered from other kids trying to make big things, but Zeke wasn't a big things kind of person. He did little things. Intricate things.

With a deep breath, he stretched out his hands and fingers. Then he brought light into the darkness. Sky blue streamed from his fingertips. As it faded, his fingers passed over it again. Soon he was encased in a cocoon of bright colour. A smile starting to appear on his face, Zeke ran through his light and smeared a rainbow over the walls of the pit, a stream of consciousness mural both abstract and concrete appearing. In the end, he plopped onto his bum and sat in the middle of his brightened walls, shining enough that he could no longer see the dark outside. Outside the pit, the light radiated out as if he'd lit a floodlight at the bottom. Though, people would have to approach to see the mural.

Jeanne d' Luc - Potential

@baraquiel

Idly she watched on as the students went about showing off what they could do. Like a hawk, she waited for light users to appear, and it never seemed to take too long. In a brilliant fireworks show, the first to show her prowess in the pits was a first year students, and her display was enough to get Jeanne to abscond from where she stood.

Ever neatly, she strode across the proving grounds with her hands still neatly folded behind her back in parade rest, with boots barely making a sound on the fresh grass, until she finally stood at the edge of the fresh prospect's pit.

The golden, hawkish gaze of the teacher quickly found the girl at the bottom, and the echo of her gauntlet laden hands applauding slowly in approval. With a light smile across rosy tiers spreading as her voice finally echoed into the depths.

"Well done," she offered. "But not good enough. Good morning, and I believe it is necessary to hopefully push you to your limits."

Pivoting around to climb down the ladder as well, she actually kept her grasp loose and she slid down the length of before landing and turning back to face the girl. Kicking some dust off her boots, her hands neatly folded behind her back once more.

"My name is Professor Jeanne d' Luc," she began, having already taking note of the girl's weariness. "And I am the basic and advanced Light Theory instructor on campus. If you pass this exam, I will be your teacher and mentor." Glimpsing upward at the dove, a slender eyebrow raised upon her gaze's return tp Freya as she then continued.

"You have the power necessary to join the academy," Jeanne stated. "But what of your conviction?" Her head canted to one side, as tresses of gold umfurled to hang close to the ground. "Just one display and you're already at risk of exhaustion. In my classes, you will be subject to rigorous training and discipline alike, and not everyone, not even some third years are worthy of graduation."

Turning back towards the ladder and taking hold of it, she gave one nonchalant glimpse back at Freya over her shoulder. "I will give you reprieve until I step out of the pit, once I have exited, duplicate your display, but with twicefold the brilliance. Once I return after you have accomplished such, if you have not fainted from exhaustion, you will be worthy to join the ranks of my students."

Quickly climbing up, and she strode away from Freya's pit, heading for a second spot where another light user showed potential. She knew all too well that the task she asked of Freya was nigh impossible, but that is what she wanted. The clue was in her wording, she asked to test her mettle, her conviction. Not her power.

All she needed to do was to try what she knew was impossible, even if it briefly cost her consciousness.

@Regitnui

With a dazzling multicolored display coming from the pit she was walking towards, she was soon brought to view Zeke's art. At first a light frown creased her lips, but it did not hold.

"Beautiful." Her voice reached clearly to the boy's ears as she climbed down to greet him. "But you have not shown the necessary raw power to join the academy. While you have wonderful control of your element despite being a first year recruit, it is not enough"

Like the girl before, she would remain absolutely regal in her stance and introduction. "My name is Professor Jeanne d' Luc, and I am the proprietor of both basic and advanced light theory classes." One hand slipped from behind her back and cast itself loosely to her side. Thin lines of light traced through the air, creating a long, pointed shape before filling completely with blinding radiance.

"While behind the walls of the academy, you will learn to harness your element in ways you might not have ever even imagined before." She began steadfastly, "for example, when I was your age, I never imagined I could compress light so tightly, that it would harder than steel." The blade was raised and then thrust into a large nearby stone down to just barely above the hilt, and she headed back towards the ladder.

"Show me you have the strength, the power to remove that sword from the stone...and return it to me." Smoothly she was lifted into the air as she spoke her final words. "Today, it will be heavier than anything you have ever lifted. Pick it up, scale the walls of the pit, and return my blade to me. Show me your strength and discipline. If you accomplish this, you will be worthy to join the ranks of my students."

If the boy would draw near to the sword in stone, he would see that searing heat seemed to radiate off of it. To the touch against bare skin it would be absolutely scalding. Somehow, despite its massive weight and heat, he would have to navigate the blade from where it was dug in, to the teacher who was now slowly returning back towards where she had left Freya with her task.

Just what or who would she in Freya's pit?

@Ennui

Like all the other teachers present it was often the case that they hovered around displays featuring their own element. Judging strength for something familiar ws far easier than making assumotions.
So it was that Kano glanced down at the juvenile efforts of Yelena. The girls heart was in the right place but.. perhaps it was not steady.

"Try again, please. Try drawing from the streams flowing around this place until it creates a pool, maybe that would make it easier to form the desired effect."

Standing at the lip of the sunken area, trying to encourage positivity. Perspective. The objective wasn't to heap challenges on students. They needes to be coaxed, to think of new solutions when their efforts yielded poor results.

Willingness to try.

"There is no failing grade. All we ask is honest display."

With that, Kano turned and viewed the others showing off their strength. Some manifested it with displays of control, or showmanship. While it wasn't what what he'd expected that didn't mean it ws wrong.

@PyroDash888

Multicolore lights drew his attention, the spray of water caught his heart. From down below was a peculiar student. Her control over Water was indeed very weak but a thriving mind was making use of other means.
A challenge that should be difficult, impossible even by the standards of it, was being aced before his widened eyes.
Thoras display of, for lack of a better term, 'military salute' style of showmanship was indeed very impressive. Using her gadget to make pressurized bursts of multicolored streams in the air.

Kano clapped enthusiastically, forgetting his usual calm analysis in favor of the enjoyment alone.

"Splendid, absolutely splendid!"

As before, the Headmaster angled himself at the lip of the area to call down. If memory served the girl was very shy, or just quiet... mute?

"Masterfully done, Thora. Most impressive given your limitations, but.. I would enjoy seeing more when I return. For now, take a breather. You've earned it."

Still clapping, genuinely pleased by the ingenuity of his students, he continued to patrol the area. Casually looking on as students tried their best to meet the expectations of strength.

Across the ways a golden radiance drew his attentionas Thora had done, but this time it wasn't a trick of he lighting. It was an actual light trick.

@Feisty-Pants@Regitnui

Jeanne d'Luc, the paladin. Angel of the academy. Adopted heir to the late Jax razor, retired again with his injuries flaring up. In his stead was this shining testament to a relentless pursuit of strength.
Maybe a bit too overzealous this time though.
Sitting quietly on the sidelines, Kano simply listened in on her speech and requests. Not even three months and already it felt like she was going to get them ready for war.

Just like Jax.

"Miss D'Luc. I trust you are not pushing the students too hard on the first leg of the test? We don't need anyone getting hurt over a simple test now."

Zeke was a good boy. Timid perhaps, but talented in his own right. As it stood though it was far too early to pile such a strenuous task on the lads shoulders. Others might see the challenge but Kano wasn't so sure now was the best time.

The second leg of the test would be better.

"If it is alright with you, could we postpone the king Arthur trial for a bit? I'd like to see Zeke show us what he can make."

Thora frowned. More? Still more? She groaned silently and plumps her butt onto the ground burying her head in her hands. After that exhausting display of her power, she was tired. Now, though, the principal requested her to continue showing something and she couldn't possibly refuse him.
Well... she could... but...

A smirk played on her face as an idea popped into her head. Her playful, cheeky side had slowly edged to the surface, now that she was away from her parents.
She screwed open her gun, took out the colour crystals she had inserted earlier and then... then she inserted a focusing crystal.

With a mute giggle she put her gun back together. While she couldn't spare that much power at the moment, since she guessed, she would need a lot of it for the next test, Thora could, however, do one little thing, which would not cost her that much energy and could be done while she was still recovering.

She widened the focus and shot a drop towards Headmaster Kano, aiming at where she guessed his nose would be, then she narrowed that focus again.
Like a carving laser, the focus thinned the continuous water stream coming from her gun. She shot it at one of the columns, high enough up to be clearly visible from even outside her pit.
The beam carved into the stone and Thora skillfully etched something into said column.
"Thora", it now said, with a straight line underneath, which did a looping behind her name.

Her tongue stuck out, she cheekily grinned at the headmaster. Even though, this was a small act of miniature defiance, her eyes, for once, weren't dark or distant, but actually showed quite the elation at her practical joke.

He did ask her to do something else after all...

With that, she bounded for a boulder, jumping onto it and making herself as comfortable as she more or less modestly could, awaiting judgement day... She was kind of looking forward to it.

---

Freya can only mentally hold herself back as she struggled to give her new "teacher" a peace of her mind. She was already catching her breath after what she's done. What more could her teacher want from her?

But she's right though. If Freya wants to stay and excel at this academy, she has to push herself harder than ever to come out on top. Like how the famous saying goes: your only enemy is yourself. Letting out an exasperated sigh, she stood up and dusted her dress while trying to come up with an idea. Sparkles and fireworks are Freya's specialty but judging from what that teacher said, she has to do more than that just to impress her. And she has her fair share of dealing with those types of people growing up. Then her eyes lit up. She doesn't know if it's going to work but at least she has an idea.

She willed her sparklers to come to light. Then she willed them to glow brighter, and brighter, and brighter until you can get blind just by looking at it. Freya concentrated really hard until the sparklers winked out, and her whole body lit up instead, illuminating the area once more. Her skin, hair, everything about her glowed with the color of vibrant gold. She herself was shocked about what she did. She never realized she was capable of doing anything such as this. Freya laughed and smiled cheerfully, she just took glowing to whole 'nother level.

She crossed her arms on her chest and forcefully spread out her arms again. The golden light she emitted was dispersed into hundreds of little stars of golden light. Freya raised her left arm up and did a pirouette, the golden stars spinning around her as she did until it formed a ring of impressive size around her. She stopped her pirouette and traced a big infinity loop in the air with her left arm. When she did that, the ring broke and an Eastern dragon emerged from it to form the infinity loop. Freya ran around with her left arm still outstretched while the dragon followed her around and did what figures she wants it to do, similar to that of a rhythmic gymnastic to its ribbon (but only with the running and spinning, not the bending and other complex parts).

Finally, she willed the Eastern dragon to fly up in the air and turn into a sphere that once again exploded into a golden firework. Freya closed her eyes and spread her arms out, letting herself be showered by the light falling to the ground. She was also glad that she didn't felt that exhausted as what she did before, the adrenaline and excitement of her newfound talents outweighing her tiredness.

The moment everything started to begin, and the headmaster arrived to speak with everyone along with the teachers, Kris listened to the hooded man's very words as she slowly walked down the stone stairs, she put a hand on her narrow chin thinking about how she could show off her "bond" with her element. Once her feet met the floor of the little pit area she needed to show off in she was still thinking of what she could do to outdo most of these weaklings here, once her heels touched the bottom of the training pit, she couldn't brainstorm anything.

" Maybe I could turn the entire pit into a sheet of ice?" She thought to herself."No, too expected." She put a hand on her chin sighing." What's the use of having power if you don't show any control over it?" An idea then popped into her head. She breathed and exhaled a gust of cold air in the form of a thick mist that enveloped the princess and most of the pit the moment the cold air dissipated; Kris reclined on an ice throne with her legs crossed, in front of her were a dozen set of pillars standing in perfect line in front of her with over a dozen sigils and her family crest resting atop of the pillars, Kris soon kicked her feet up on the arm of her newly made throne wondering if this would be enough before adding something to her latest display.

To show her control over the constructs, Kriss snapped her fingers and caused the pillars to explode into a storm of ice shards around the pit all the while Kris kept a bored look on her face and made sure that none of them even came close to touching her or grazing her or the ice throne that she erected." Maybe next time they won't ask for something that seems so trivial, any dope can have power." She muttered before her thoughts flashed back to the gym, she rubbed her singed eyebrows the princess then had a flood of thoughts of ways she could get back at that girl she shook her head trying to focus on the task at hand." If they only gave me a real challenge." She rested her head on a closed fist.

Bhu Adamina

Bhu barely had time to register Alex beside her as the stands started to fill up with her classmates. Didn't take long for the headmaster to show himself to the group and announce that they would be tested. Sucking in a breath, the girl slowly rose to her feet and made her way over to her designated spot. The thought of bringing her element to her full ability made her insides flip. She looked around at her environment and the feeling of dread only grew. Her element was everywhere, fully encasing everyone in this cave. What would happen if she became too lost within herself? What chaos could she bring?

Her body started to shake lightly as her anxiety blossomed. Squeezing her eyes shut, her hands balled into fists, Bhu slowly began to meditate to calm her nerves. After a few moments, she allowed her eyes to once more open. She looked around and caught sight of her professors above her. [i]No pressure...Only everyone's eyes are on you...We can do this. Get it together, woman![/color]

With a clearing of her throat, she gently released the tension from her hands. Bhu closed her eyes once more as she began to focus. She could smell the filaments of the earth beneath her feet, could feel the energy bouncing in the air around her. A small grin tugged at the corners of her lips as she felt movement above the palms of her hands. Without looking, she could tell that two small funnels of sand had begun to form in each hand. But, this little display wouldn't earn her any credit. It needed to be bigger.

She opened her hands completely, her fingers stretching towards the ground. As the funnels grew larger in size and girth, Bhu's hair started to whip violently around her head. A small tremor at the base of her feet made its presence as the sand funnels combined into a massive tornado a mere foot in front of the girl. Beads of sweat pooled at her temples and the grin quickly turned into a grimace as she tried to maintain control over her element. The struggle only caused the tremor to erupt, breaking the ground at both sides of her feet. Soon the entirety of the ground began to shake in violence. The sand tornado had grown to more than ten feet in height and could swallow her whole.

Bhu was losing control. She could swear that she heard someone screaming- took her several moments for her to realize that the scream came from her own throat. Before she could react, the firm ground at her feet broke open, causing her to fall roughly to her knees. The pain jolted her awake. With a large gasp, her eyes flew open to witness the funnel collapsing, causing the sand to fall all around her. Bhu closed her eyes once more and tried to slow down her rapid heartbeat. Didn't know I could do all that....damn..

Ever since she had arrived at the academy, Vera had found herself constantly being thrown into new intimidating, yet exciting settings. There was no doubt that the school was committed to pushing the students as close to the natural environment as possible, which was understandable, of course, considering the essence of the abilities possessed by everyone at the establishment. She felt no different about where she currently was - the 'Proving Grounds', as it was called. Despite the daunting atmosphere, Vera found comfort in the presence of the school staff and being surrounded by her fellow students.

She paid close attention to the headmaster as he addressed and instructed the cohort, initially unsure of what to do for her own demonstration, though, an idea for a new experiment came to mind once she noticed the dark holes in the ground. Slipping into one, she sighed in relief at getting away from the distraction of the impressive displays of elemental control taking place all around her. So far, she could only perform illusions on individual targets. That trick was not going to work in her current situation. She began to focus, attempting to use the working principle of a projector to test the level of her control.

Drawing from the light that was seeping into the hole she was in, she directed it onto herself. Her body was soon emitting a gentle white glow. Facing the dark wall, she concentrated on converging the light that was coming from herself towards it, beaming with delight when an image of herself started to form on the wall. However, her smile disappeared almost immediately after. The image was upside down. Right, she had forgotten about that. She turned her attention back to the light rays, making them converge once again. Her satisfaction returned when she eventually got it right. Deciding to do a little more, she did the same with the light coming from either side of her, projecting her side profiles onto the walls to her right and left. She giggled to herself, getting the feel like she was in a house of mirrors.

Alex felt a twinge of in his stomach when Bhu walked of without them being able to talk but he let it go. She was probably nervous and feeling the pressure like most of his classmates were. Alex entered his assigned area quietly his eyes flashing around to the displays of power that were already being exhibited. He had some truly talented classmates and some of their shows of strength were dazzling.

Alex took a moment to consider what it was that he was going to do. He could do his ball of lightening again like he had this morning. It had been a little impressive...until he had passed out. But now he knew what his limits were and would be better equipped to handle them. But no... for some reason it didn't feel right to him right now. It took too much concentration for him to shape the ball, and Miss Drow had already seen that particular display. He needed something different, something new. And although he felt a little silly thinking it, he wanted something flashy.

He remembered how Miss Drow had absorbed energy from the electronic devices in the infirmary. It hadn't even seemed like a conscious thought to her, but it had been impressive. Generally, Alex only drew on the electrical energy that flowed through his own body. There was a fair amount of it, but he had seen what drawing on too much of it had done. So, he decided to try and draw on not just his own energy, but the energy around him.

Instead of concentrating on a ball or any real shape this time, he concentrated on his arms. He breathed steadily, feeling the natural energy that flowed around him. He pulled it into himself letting the power build up in his arms. It was way harder then ALex would have imagined. Controlling energy that was outside of your body took a lot it seemed, and in a place like this didn't supply much, but his arms did begin to crackle and spark with small electrical impulses. After a few seconds he had gathered as much as he could from around him and instead drew on the power that resided within himself.

He did what he had done before, letting the energy flow quickly, pushing as much of it as he could into his arms. He didn't care about the shape of it this time, he just let it flow. When he felt as though he was near the edge of what he could produce, he let it take shape.

His arms became beacons of lightening, glowing an eerie an entrancing blueish white. The lightening flowed around them crackling and dancing with raw energy. It felt amazing! It felt like he was holding raw power in his arms. He thought it might hurt but it didn't, his arms felt alive! But it wasn't long before he realized he wouldn't be able to hold this much lightening for long without something going wrong. He needed to release it. He was understanding more and more that lightening demanded freedom. It required a task or a place to be aimed or else it would either dissipate or turn on its wielder. So, Alex turned it upwards.

Alex thrust his arms into the air, and unleashed the pent up energy. Two large bolts of lightening shot from his arms and flew straight upwards, slamming into the dirt ceiling above with a thunderous crack. It took most of his concentration to make sure that the lightening flew straight up, and the force of the impact caused some of the ceiling to crumble and fall, but nothing to large came down. He held the bolts for a whole five seconds. And they were some of the most intense and exhilarating seconds of his life. For those five seconds, his lightening stood like a beacon, both dazzling and harsh to look at at the same time.

As quickly as it had began the lightening dissipated. All of the energy Alex had stored up was gone. Alex stood staring straight up as the light faded. He felt like that had gone pretty well, and then his legs tried to give out. His body wasn't accustomed to using that much energy at once, but he would be damned if he passed out this time.

He quickly drew on what energy he could around him, the last remnants of his lightening bolts still hung in the air. He managed to pull in just enough in so that his vision only got a little blurry and he managed to catch himself on the wall this time. Okay, maybe he still wasn't so great at telling what the limits of his ability were.

---

While he did an excellent job hiding it outwardly, Ethan’s mind was panicking like crazy about what he was about to do. While he had been practicing with his powers everyday since he arrived, he still wasn't confident in showing them off to anyone, let alone teachers. And seeing the displays of his fellow students didn't help either. Beautiful creations of light, stunning shows of waterfalls. He wasn't sure he could do anything like that.

Walking towards his pit, Ethan couldn't help but think it’s impressive size paled in comparison to the one in his stomach. With each step towards the center of the pit he had to remind himself to breathe. In. Out. In. Out. Out. Out. Wait, no. Ethan took a large gulp of air realizing he had forgotten the “in”. Hopefully the others would be too busy to notice him almost suffocating from nothing.

Finally he reached the center of the pit. Surveying the stone around him, his anxiety slowly faded as he realized no one was around him. With the teachers watching the other students there was no one presently watching. This absolute solitude he had was the picture he needed in his mind.

Closing his eyes, Ethan let the cool cavern breeze wash over him as he mentally reached out to the earth. He could feel it all around him down here. It was solid. Unmoving. Stone did not bend to the will of the weak or feeble. Much like headmaster Kano, it demanded your all.

For a moment, Ethan stood in silence. The sound of the students slowly fading away. He wouldn't even notice if any came to observe him yet. In that time there was only him, and the earth. Slowly as he lifted his arms the ground beneath him started to crack and break. Tucking his arms in towards his chest, the broken rocks tumbled around him before floating up.

More and more the ground trembled as rocks continued to take flight. Ethan too began to shake, but he held his ground while bits of stone spiraled around him. In time Ethan had a storm of rocks and pebbles orbiting him. Gritting his teeth, his energy and will were pushed as faster and faster their speed grew. Once he had reached ten seconds, Ethan felt he could hold no more. Letting out a powerful shout he threw his arms apart and launched every bit of debris in the air at incredible speeds in all directions.

With his display over, Ethan’s posture slouched as he tried to catch his breath. It was taxing, but he felt he had done the job. Lifting his head to observe his work, Ethan noticed the once smooth walls were now embedded with chunks of stone. The ground around him had been torn up leaving only the spot he stood intact. He did not envy whoever was supposed to clean up after this.

@Zelosse@Kalleth

Amelia Lycrosse

Time:4:15pm

Amelia glanced around. This was, apparently, some test of skills. People were shooting colored water into the air, among other things. She reached into herself and slowly tugged on her cord of power. Her little well in the ground was cozy. Perfect book spot, she thought. The walls were thick and smelled of freshly turned dirt- no surprise there. There were notches in the earth, but that wasn't worrying.

She reached into the net of threads all around her and began braiding them together, creating a giant rope. When she felt she had enough, she knotted both ends, held them and pulled. BOOM. The blast blew Amelia's hair in several directions, splattering her face with dirt from the walls and knocking her to the ground, winding her. Suddenly, the threads whooshed out of her grasp, leaving her vision blurry. Amelia could just barely see the dent in the wall she'd made it was sizeable, but at that moment, she was too drained to even manage a feeble 'Woohoo'. And then, she passed out.

----------------------------
3 minutes later

Amelia blinked and sat up. She could feel a few wispy threads, but the most she'd be able to managewould be meling a small icicle. Her head throbbed. Ouch. I hope Jideh has some Advil or something. In hindsight, I shoulda brought some myself. She stood up, brushing dirt off of her clothes.

---

ShiZhen left Gym feeling pretty down. A conflict had broken out, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Not only that, she felt pretty awful for what she had down to Mr. Manilow. If her contribution to making him come down had actually resulted in success, it would have been a different matter, but it was the fight between the two other students that ended the class, so ShiZhen just felt like an ass for making him wet and uncomfortable. Having older siblings, ShiZhen was often witness to arguments that she had no power to stop, but had to prevent the toxicity from spilling down to her younger siblings. This felt like one of those situations.

The time between the end of gym class and the start of the aptitude test went by in a confused blur. Milling through the crowd of students, ShiZhen was unable to track down her classmates in the sea of bodies and soon found herself descending to her own little testing square. ShiZhen had never really tried to do anything forceful with her powers. The uncertainty and nervousness mounted, as the moisture around her began to condense, coalescing around her to provide her comfort. Realizing what was happening, ShiZhen recalled her training for the past three months and controlled the rising mist enough to not have it drench her like it would in the past. She instead directed it all into Kracko, who grew in size and began lifting up towards the cavern ceiling. This was it, ShiZhen thought to herself, as she rememebred everything she had learned about weather in her spare time, and focused more and more moisture into the growing cloud. Soon the cloud collected enough moisture and filled the air above the proving grounds. ShiZhen smiled until a bolt of lightning shot up from another student demonstrating his prowess. For moment, nothing happened, but suddenly, Kracko arced, sending a bolt of lightning out as well, triggering a massive downpour from the cloud. A few more arcs of lightning shot out indiscriminately from the cloud as it released all of its collected moisture on the students, before shrinking back down to its normal size and returning next to ShiZhen's shoulder. ShiZhen was drenched and exhausted, having never made Kracko that large before. She only hoped no one had been hurt.

@CrabInATree

---

---

Catherine watched with interest along with the other teachers as the first years demonstrated the results of their first season of training. in particular, Kanako Nagasaki's demonstration caught her eye. What surprised her was how Kanako chose to harness one of the most difficult to control aspects of air, cyclones, to perform a task that required incredible precision, hovering. Yet the girl had succeeded, not only that, she was able to concentrate enough to conjure a couple more whirlwinds. Catherine hovered over to Kanako after her demonstration. "Bravo," she clapped, applauding not only the girl's aptitude, but her seemingly contradictory insistence on taking the more difficult path to achieve an equivalent result, all to prove to herself that she can. Like, she could just not wear a skirt, she could fly without using cyclones. But she was straightforward, almost naive and unaware that she was doing this to herself. And Catherine respected that purity. But more importantly, Catherine was beginning to surmise that the rotation of air was Kanako's personal specialty, fitting her personality in how contradictory and roundabout the girl could be at times. Some of the most devastating weather phenomena also relied on the rotation of air, and if harnessed properly, Kanako had the potential to become a great and terrifying wielder of the element. "As far as I'm concerned, you've passed."

@Hammerman

@Zelosse@Kalleth@Feisty-Pants[Any other professors who care to see/watch]

---

As the headmaster announced that this test would be a maximum=use burst of their powers put to the test, rather than a more technical application of things, a hearty grin came onto the German girl's face. Ah, to be able to "let loose", as it were, and show off. Though considering that this was naught but the first part of a three-part test, overextending one's self was something Diana felt was perhaps silently discouraged. Unless someone here was a masochist who felt better to just go ham until they passed out, or if one of the professors here was a similar type who'd push a student until they gave out of exhaustion. Heh. Those little thoughts aside, it would be nice to let loose with her powers, to some extent at least to show off to the teachers and headmaster and others.

Going down her own set of stairs, like the others would do, Diana walked to the middle of her own little secluded area for testing. However, unlike those who stood or made a grandstand of appeal, she instead sat on the ground with crossed legs. It was her usual stance for focusing whilst training after a morning swim or other swim during the day for that matter. Closing her eyes as she rested her hands on her crossed legs, Diana began to focus.



The German-originated elementalist began drawing on her core, within herself, pulling at the heat there, stoking the fire within that burned bright for ever living thing. The heat within her body began to rise, up and up, and she could feel the burning feeling of heat move into every part of her body, seeping into every pore, even muscle, every bone, every fiber of her being. Where most would have already begun to sweat or worse, her body remained untouched by sweat or burn, but even so the heat continued to swell and swell within her.



Ripples of heat began to rise more and more from the fire-user's body from all parts, like watching a hot car on a scalding 100-degree day. The stone began to sizzle where moisture from the environment was exposed to intense heat, lapped at by the growing temperature in the room that at the moment was only showing minor but distinct signs that something was building, growing, emanating into the world around the fire user.



Flame. Finally flames began to form more and more around the fire user, surrounding her on the ground, climbing, crawling to the walls and licking the stone with its intense aura. Some began to coat her form, surround her hair, sit upon her clothes, saturating the air around it with licking tongues of desperate wanting and desire for more. More, if it could get the chance to take it. However, this all did not seem to disturb the fire user herself, whose controlled breathing and focus was continuing to build whilst their effects continued to snowball the more time went on, eyes still closed.



Suddenly, the flames would all expand greatly, roaring to life as if unleashed as they were let loose upon the world. A great and mighty pillar of fire, a mixture of reds and orange and yellow and blues, consumed the small room Diana was in without warning, shooting straight up towards the sky in a fervent rush as if seeking to challenge the very sun itself. A bright column indeed that glowed with a primal sort of might, though only briefly made it debut in all of its unrestrained glory, bursting onto the scene in a rampant and crackling chorus whose sound rang against the walls without challenge!

And then as soon as it appeared, it lasted only long enough to take it in before fading once more, as if the valve to its fuel had been shut off all one once, suddenly, without warning. Scorched stone lined the floor and walls of Diana's room, the scorch and burn even reaching somewhat back up the steps Diana had taken down here as well to boot. Indeed, what the sudden blaze had lacked in any control save for avoiding burning herself, it made up for in a temporary buildup that peaked in a great and sudden inferno of power that was her spectacle to show.

Rather than being under the belief that the best fire was something that erupted without warning or reason or rhyme, but rather fire to her was a thing that grew and grew, feeding, and swelling until it reached its "bursting" point where it hit its ultimate climax. This was perhaps much like how in life people and animals and plants needed to build up and grow in order to attain their "best", and indeed between the sun and such it could be said that fire was something interwoven with "life" in a sense. So Diana had simply taken the approach of allowing the power to build similarly in a manner simply focused on power, to allow it to grow naturally and then soar to its peak without exploding in her face, a similar vein to her personal practice albeit without focus on fine control in this situation.

On closer inspection, it might be seen that certain bits of stone closest to Diana, a liquid shimmer or perhaps a molten glow was visible as a few small patches on the floor had actually begun to melt or become reduced to a liquid state under the heat Diana had produced only moments ago. Steam rose from these small puddles of molten stone as they began to cool, though unless another element was used to do so it would perhaps take some time for these things to cool again. However, the girl's clothes, for lack of a better word, had also seemingly been consumed in the flames of the fire, only her sworn red bikini swimsuit underneath still clad on her body along with her unburned fiery hair.

That loss of attire, however, had not been intentional on her part.

Opening her eyes once more, Diana stood up on the not-melted scalding-hot stone beneath her feet as if it was nothing, an excited grin coming onto her face as she looked up at the teachers.

However, it took only a moment later and the first feeling as colder air tried to seep into the room amidst the scorching stone to notice that her clothes had been....well, burnt off save for her swimsuit underneath. That was when a look of sudden surprise came onto the girl's face, half from the shocked of not having made sure to avoid burning her clothes off in all that, and partly due to being thankful her swimsuit had not been scorched in the process too.

"Eh, could one of you bring me a new set of clothes before everyone else is done? Please?" the redhead said in a somewhat sheepish manner, a light blush contrasting her proud grin that came back even as she looked up and spoke to the teachers and Headmaster above without hesitation.

Though for the record, even whilst just in a swimsuit, Diana herself had to admit she was actually....pretty hot, all things considered. This how, though? She didn't know she had it in her, to be frank.

Trials Day. It was something every First Year had to go through, and one most of them would likely remember for at least the rest of their time at school, if not the rest of their lives. Marshall still remembered his, in any case; he'd tried to raise himself up on an ice pillar, and to his credit he had- before losing his footing trying to stand up, slipping back into the pit, and banged his head. Not his most fantastic moment, to say the least. Still, he was grateful for it happening; it was what caught Claudia's attention all those years ago, and here he was following her footsteps.

He watched intently as a variety show of the elemental spectrum began. Some students had gone for the grand scale, eschewing finesse in favor of showing just how much earth they could move or fire they could conjure. Others had opted to try and stand out with their unique talents and spins on the idea. One in particular had chosen to show off a multicolored water fountain, done using a rifle no less. Still more instead chose to try a middle of the road approach, to show that they had a basic level of command over their gift and that they were willing to try. Those were the ones Marshall was always most interested in. They might not be able to show off the grandiose extents that the upper end chose, but they consistently showed a willingness to try, and from where he sat that was far more important than raw ability.

@Ennui

One in particular that caught his eye, as well as the Headmaster's it seemed, was Yelena. She'd chosen to go for a simple water bubble, which she maintained and grew for several seconds before it burst in her hand. Kano had taken a moment to offer her some tips and a bit of consolation before moving on to Thora, who had produced the multicolored fountain. Marshall sighed to himself. Sometimes the Headmaster could be so... insensitive. But then that wasn't really anything new, was it? Marshall shook his head as he made his way over.

He stepped down into the enclosure with the pink haired girl, crouched down on his heels, and gestured for her attention. "That was nicely done!" he told her reassuringly, "Making water hold a still shape like that is way harder than people give credit for, especially a sphere like that. Let's see..."

He raised his own palm, focused for a bit, and formed a water bubble of his own, about the same size Yelena had started with and held it out toward her. "The key thing is to take it at your own pace. Start small, like this, and hold it as long as you can. Don't worry about size, once you have stability size will come easy as breathing. And if you ever want some exercises for this sort of thing I'd be happy to help you. So don't be so hard on yourself, alright?"

(OOC: If Yelena would like to take the sphere from him and take over sustaining it, she absolutely can. I'll also carry a conversation if you want, we can just say it all resolved before he went over to Kris)

@Spriggs27

A short while later Marshall found his attention drawn to the exact opposite issue. Where Yelena had tried something small but determined and came down on herself for a perceived failure, another student was flaunting her abilities in a way that showed prior training and almost seemed full of herself. Kris Sterling-Silva, the princess from the north, he recalled, as he watched her conjure a dozen sculptures of ice, seat herself atop a frozen throne, and then shatter her constructs on a whim. It was impressive, to be sure, but the way she carried herself while doing it suggested she was bored, or even insulted by the whole scenario.

"Well, you're not wrong," he said in response to her comment on power, "But what sets people apart is what they do with the power they have, now isn't it?" He crouched again, this time on the edge of the pit looking down into it.

"I do wonder why you'd shatter your creations so callously," he noted with a tilt of his head, "Did they truly mean so little to you?"

---

Kanako rose up and dusted her skirt after her demonstration. Her bottom was still sore after her failed landing but she was happy on the result nonetheless. She only messed up a little near the end and that was more than enough for her.

When she saw Catherine float down towards her however, she couldn't help but to feel nervous. What if she didn't like her demonstration? She was sure she did well but the thought simply couldn't get out of her mind.

However, the moment she saw her teacher clapped, that doubt disappeared from her mind.

"T-thank you, Miss Catherine!" she said in return, bowing towards her. She was so happy to hear those words from her. She felt as if she could float away with happiness at any moment!

@Stern Algorithm