Allen unsheathed his sword and began readying his blade as well as the magic within him. Both Tom and Cecily both began to quickly ready themselves so they can cast magic at a moments notice.

Allen didn't use that much of the magic within him since he didn't need it all. Even then, he doesn't have that much within him to begin with. He just needed enough to test Thomas and Cecily's strength and how they fight.

"Alright guys, let's see what you got!," Allen told them as he waited for them to make the first move.

Thomas struck first. He summoned a decently sized earth magic circle, which earth magic came out hurling towards Allen. Allen cut through it like it was butter.

Then Cecily stroke next. She summoned a very small water magic circle which a small portion of water magic went after Allen. This magic was nothing compared to Charles' magic in the duel. Allen once again cut through the magic with his sword.

"Is that all you've guys got?," Allen shrugged. "You've guys have battled before, right?".

Both of them didn't say a word. They simply looked at each other, nodded, then looked back at Allen. They were up to something, for sure.

Cecily then began to form her water magic circle again and attack Allen with her water magic once more. This time she was on the move, running in a circle around Allen. It was like she was trying to find a blindspot on him.

Allen kept up with her, slashing away her magic anytime it was hurled at him. She was doing no damage and seemed to be wasting her mana reserves. It was then he realized something was off. In the corner of his eye moments ago, he saw what looked like to be Thomas charging up his magic in some form of way. He didn't pay too much attention to it as he was focused on defending against Cecily's attacks.

In a split second, Allen's magic instincts kicked in and he quickly moved to the side. Thomas had come from his side, sending his fist down at Allen. Thomas was unsuccessful, as Allen had dodged his attack. Thomas had landed on the ground, almost falling over but managed to stop himself from falling.

"What was that?," Allen asked Thomas. "I didn't know you fought with your fists."

"Oh that? It's my way of fighting," Thomas explained. "I am considered an exception in the family. My magic isn't very powerful, but I have an ability where I can harden parts of my body using my earth magic. I harden my fists and fight with them".

Allen had looked over to his fists, where indeed he saw his fists seemed to be hardened. They were now more brown in color, and looked like it could be as hard as stone. Allen was glad he had dodged that attack before it hit him.

"Wow that's pretty cool," Allen grinned. "Wish I could do something like that."

"Well, I can explain more about it later. We have a battle to finish, now don't we?," Thomas said, grinning.

Thomas once again charged at Allen, swinging his fists. Allen kept swiftly dodging his attacks, but finding it harder with each time Thomas attacked. It was like Thomas was adapting to his defensive tactics. Thomas then sent his fist real hard and quick at Allen, which Allen then blocked quickly with his sword. His sword then slid across Thomas' arm, with Thomas' fist going straight for Allen's chest. Allen managed to once again quickly dodge out of the way right before it landed.

"Well aren't you the close quarters type of guy," Allen noted as he took a second to breathe.

"I could say the same for you, Allen," Thomas said as he was taking a breather as well.

Without another word from both, they once again began to strike. Allen managed to put Thomas on the defensive this time, as Allen adjusted his strikes based off of Thomas' fighting style. Right before Allen could put Thomas at swordpoint, his magical instinct kicked in and he quickly veered to the left.

This whole time Cecily had been readying her magic, and managed to somehow conceal her magic and striked at Allen. Allen was so busy defending against Thomas that he had forgotten what Cecily was doing. Her movements and magic were so quiet, he didn't even hear a single noise emit from her.

"How were you able to be so quiet?" Allen asked her.

"Since my magic is so weak, I am considered a failure in my family," Cecily explained. "And since my magic is weak, it tends to be quiet and I can strike from behind without my opponent noticing".

"That's impressive!," Allen exclaimed.

"Thank you," Cecily said, her cheeks red from embarrassment. She was once again being shy.

"Well, both of you can handle yourselves pretty well," Allen complimented them. "But this fight isn't over until I or both of you are defeated!"

Thomas was at the ready to defend against Allen's attack, and Cecily was ready to strike from behind. But instead of charging in, Allen was up to something of his own. He was sensing the mana within him, moving the little he had to his will. He moved what he had to his legs, a trick he had previously used against Charles in the exam duel. Moving his air mana to his legs, he used it to make himself quicker and charged at Thomas.

Thomas was not prepared for how quick Allen had become. Allen moved in quickly, ready to strike Thomas. Thomas put his arms up in defence, but instead of striking forward Allen had quickly moved to the side and pointed his blade at Thomas' neck.

"You've been defeated," Allen announces.

"So I have. I admit defeat." Thomas exclaims. "But you still haven't beaten Cecily."

Right after Thomas spoke, three small waves of Cecily's water magic moved in on Allen to hit him. In a quick flash using his air magic within his legs, Allen had dodged all three attacks. He pinpointed the location of the attack, not finding Cecily there. Once he had finally found out where she was, two more water based attacks went to strike Allen. He cut through the first one and dodged the second one. He then propelled himself towards Cecily and went in for a strike.

"I- I admit defeat." Cecily exclaimed.

Allen had stopped right next to Cecily after he heard her. The mock battle was over.

"Well good fight guys!," Thomas exclaimed, channeling his magic away from his arms and then proceeding to do various stretches. "That got me fired up quite a bit!".

Allen had sheathed his sword and dispersed the magic from his legs. He then felt the slight exhaustion afterwards. Perhaps he had used a bit more than he had expected? When he uses a bit too much, it takes a small toll on his body.

"Good job both of you. I think I have a handle on both of your fighting styles now", Allen stated.

"Oh, is that so? What do you think, then?," Thomas asked, smirking.

"While both of you may not have the best mana reserves, you do make up for that in various ways. For Thomas, it is his unique hardening ability. He can of course use this in a duel to put his opponent on the defense, similar to me," Allen explained. "For Cecily, it is her natural stealth ability. Having low mana reserves means it's harder to track her general location, as well as her magic cast. For whatever reason, her magic casting is quiet to very quiet. I had a hard time determining where she was"

"Thank you," Cecily said, her face still red with embarrassment.

"Yeah, you pretty much got it down. By the way, how are you able to detect magic like that?," Thomas asked, his face with bewilderment.  As far as I am aware, no one I know can do that. I mean you can obviously hear magic being cast and you have your natural instincts, but you were able to like actually detect it somehow".

"Oh that? I learned it from William. Although I'm not quite at his level yet. I can just barely detect it, sort of like a sixth sense. More closer to instinct," Allen explained.

"Woah, that's so cool! Can you teach us how to do that?," Thomas asked, grinning.

"I- I would like to learn it as well," Cecily shyly asked.

"Yeah I don't mind. I may not be good at teaching it though as I don't fully understand it myself," Allen stated.

"Awe this is gonna be so great!," Thomas said, almost jumping from excitement and anticipation.

Thomas and Cecily waited for Allen to begin teaching them his skill. But before Allen could start, a voice interrupted.

"Well, well, well what do we have here?," the voice came from behind them.

All 3 of them turned to see none other than Charles Rivertide, the student Allen had dueled in the Entrance exam. He stood there with the same arrogant look on his face he once had, like he still was top of his class.

"Charles?," Allen asked in confusion.

"That's right Allen. It's me, Charles. The guy who was unfortunately defeated by you in the entrance exam," he responded.

"Ah right. I remember winning against you in the entrance exam duel," Allen noted. You could see the look of slight annoyance in Charles face after Allen spoke.

  "And I, Charles, will not forget that insult, you see," Charles rambled on. "I was put into the B rank instead of the great A ranking because of you! Surely if I had won, they would've seen my great potential I hol-" Thomas and Cecily had remained quiet this whole time, but finally Thomas spoke.

"So what do you want, blondie?," he said with a nonchalant look on his face, although you could see a slight smirk on his face.

"B- Blondie?," Charles respond in utter confusion, immediately stopping what he was saying earlier. "How dare you insult a Riverti-"

"I don't want to hear anything from you Charles," Cecily had intervened. "You can leave, you know".

Allen was in utter shock at Cecily's sudden change of tone and manner. She was almost a completely different person, now that Charles was here.

"Now now, Lily. You don't have to so rude to your cousin, you know," Charles said while trying to get Cecily's attention. But it wasn't working as Cecily wouldn't even look at him as she pointed her nose up in disgust.

"I have nothing more to say to you," Cecily shrugged him off. Charles just stood there, wondering what to say. It's like he forgot why he was even here after that engagement with Cecily.

"Ok, mind telling us why you are here Charles?," Allen asked him while Charles was still looking over at Cecily.

"Ah, that's right," Charles noted, as he turned back to face Allen. "I wanted to make something perfectly clear for you, Allen."

"And? That is?"

"I promise that the next time we face each other, I shall win!," Charles pointed at Allen, with a look of arrogant determination on his face.

"Ok, looking forward to it Charles," Allen said with a smirk on his face.

"I- I wasn't expecting you to say that. Anyways, the next time we duel Allen, I will make sure you lose!," he told Allen.

"So what you are saying is, you want to be Allen's 'Rival'?," Thomas asked Charles.

"Rival? No, Allen isn't worthy to be a Rivertide's rival! He is simply an opponent that needs to be put in his proper place!," Charles kept rambling on.

"But, telling him that the 'next time we duel' and that 'you'll win' sounds a lot like what a 'Rival' would say," Thomas was smirking at him.

"I- nevermind. Just know Allen you will lose! I promise you!," he shouted as he began to walk away.

"Ok, have fun with that!," Allen shouted back at him.

Charles was about to walk back to his part of the training room, when it seemed like he forgot to say something to Allen.

"Oh, and by the way Allen," Charles began to say. "Your 'victory' against a Rivertide will not go unnoticed. My older brother seems to have taken a fun little interest in you. Hope you are looking forward to that!".

As Charles finally walked away, Allen stood there in confusion. Older brother? Just who is he talking about?, Allen thought.

(Continued in Part 2 of Chapter 7 due to 15,000 Character Limit on Chapters!)