5. A Team Forms

                                    

                                          
Every single day. Every single day we were attacked by a different team of magi. Every time we beat them. Sometimes we would beat them through strategy, like dodging their attacks, sending them at others in their team. Other times, we would square off like the last fight you saw (or read, I'm not sure if your world has vid-book translators). And other times, we would fight them in pairs, teams, or as a whole unit. Sometimes we would do a combination of those or all of them in one battle. 
                          
But there was always something that disconcerted me. Everytime that we faced a team, at some point in every battle they would mention "extra credit.' This may just seem like a coincidence, but if there is one thing that I have learned from my life, coincidence is just fate in a mask. Someone wanted us to be attacked by those teams. The question was, who? 
                          
A month flew by. The eight of us became really good friends. Yuki was wild and fun without being obnoxious. Kanata was a gentleman and a sweetheart without having a stick up his ass. Tala was noble and proper without being a prat. Hikari was clever and cunning without being a son of a bitch. Jessica was smart and sly without being a biggot. Alex was a clown and really fun while not being shallow. Richard was dark and kinds moody, but it was more than that. He was able to find beauty in anything. Beauty in the light, the darkness, life, death, even in something like a mosquito, there is true beauty, and he sees that. 
                          
None of us cared that we didn't have our powers. But it was an unspoken rule for us to count down the days until we could get the bracelets taken off. 
                          
And finally, a month of attacks, a month of hate, a month of kids, trying to use these bracelets to get ahead of us. The month was finally over. We gathered in Mr. Warlont's office. He punched in the activation code, and with a responding 'snap,' they all came off. 
                          
"No don't try casting any spells yet." Mr. Warlont said. 
                          
"And why the hell not?" Yuki asked. 
                          
"You've been storing magical energy for the past month. Any spell that you cast will be ten times stronger than you expect it to be." He said. I 'hmm'ed. I summoned a single spark to my fingertips. What came instead was a whole lightning bolt. 
                          
"Holy son of a French whore." I said. 
                          
"What's French?" Jessica said. 
                          
"I don't really know, I learned it from a transmission from another universe." I said. 
                          
"Cool beans and all, but that means that we are basically still stuck on probation." Richard said. 
                          
"No," Mr. Warlont said. "You just need to be a bit more cautious on the amount of energy that you use in casting. There are only two ways to get rid of the energy: not casting at all and waiting maybe a month for the effects to wear off, or expel it as fast as you can. Your bodies want to expel it because it can go back to normal as soon as possible. But just like the probation period, this is a lesson too. You are going to need to focus more than ever on how much energy you're expelling. If you expel it all at once, you may be swallowed by your element, or abandoned by it." We all sighed. I looked at my tonfa. I 'hmm'ed again. I closed my eyes. I focused carefully on a small stream of electricity running along the main shaft. When it got to one end, I focused on it curving out, around and back to the other end. I focused on keeping this stream going. Once it became easier, I pumped up the speed. Soon enough, I had a lightning chainsaw. Mr. Warlont smirked. 
                          
"Mind if I keep it?" I said. 
                          
"I don't see why not? I don't have much use for it." Soon enough, all of us wanted to keep our weapons. But, we all made a few edits. Yukina replaced the blades with metal rods. Kanata shortened both staffs uptil they were no bigger than his forearm. Tala. replaced her hammer heads with a bar turning it into a "T" shape. Hikari took out the blades of his naginata. Jessica returned her crossbow bolts. Alex cut most of he whips off until the actual whip segment wasn't longer than her arm. Richard took the maces and placed them inside his palms.... yeah, I meant to say that. I went on a rampage of creative energy. I created a way to streamline the process of making the lightning chainsaw by attaching retachable metal rods onto my tonfa. I also invented a brand new pair of boots for Tala. They were fashionable, had a telepathic link to her so she could walk, and had small traces of metal throughout it for extra control. 
                          
This took about half an hour, so we reconvened in Mr. Warlont's office. 
                          
"Well, now that you have done your work, I would recommend that you all get a good night's sleep." Mr. Warlont said. Jessica's eyes widened. 
                          
"You didn't?" She said. 
                          
"What?" I said, not liking being kept out of a conversation. 
                          
"I did." He said. 
                          
"Did what?" Slowly, one by one everyones' eyes widened. "What the fuck did he do?" Jessica looked at me, fear coursing through her veins. 
                          
"He signed us up for The Frozen Maze."