Chapter 12: Cha Bao’s First Battle

The Battle Club.

Its full name is the Esron Magic Academy Magic Combat Discussion Club.

Though called a “club,” after years of development, the Battle Club has grown into a massive organization with a thousand members.

Usually led by a few academy instructors, with senior students from grades six and seven as the main fighting force, they bring along third- and fourth-year witches to the front lines for “windfall raids.”

Yes, raids.

The form of warfare among witches is very different from humans — but that’s a story for another time.

In short, after years of development, the Battle Club has become a super club standing alongside the four major subsidiary professional clubs.

“The medical facilities here are quite comprehensive. Even if you accidentally knock a witch out cold, there are healers who can pull your soul back,”

The blonde girl’s whole face lit up as she enthusiastically introduced the club’s safety measures to Jiang Cha — though both Jiang Cha and Heqin thought that managing to accidentally kill someone was already extremely unsafe.

“What if they don’t make it in time?” Jiang Cha asked.

“The club president will lead people to smash open the gates of hell and fish them out of the river Styx,”

Lina answered matter-of-factly, completely ignoring how shocking this casual statement was to Jiang Cha.

‘Alright, doubting the witches’ magic is my mistake,’ Jiang Cha thought.

Witches who can pin down fate lines and even seal the river of time—nothing surprises her anymore.

The Battle Club occupies a large area. From the outside, it looks like an enlarged Roman Colosseum. The complex magical energy flowing in the air immediately overloaded Jiang Cha’s brain.

She could even vaguely see afterimages contained in the magic signals — scenes of witch battles, thrilling and dazzling with countless magical aftereffects nearly blinding her.

The vigorous fighting spirit and bloodthirsty killing intent stirred even her usually calm mind into a heated fervor, and it took a few seconds to suppress the impulse to randomly pick a fight.

“Cha Bao, how high is your mental coefficient? Usually, first-timers here can’t stay this calm,”

Lina said, clearly surprised at how composed Jiang Cha was.

“That probably has nothing to do with my mental coefficient,”

Jiang Cha shrugged. “It’s my innate magic.”

“Oh\~ then I won’t ask. Hahaha! I’m looking forward to battling you!”

“Don’t mess around.”

Heqin frowned and patted Lina’s head.

The overwhelming fighting aura and residual bloodlust made her very uncomfortable. Unlike Jiang Cha, she didn’t have magic to help suppress that impulse and had to rely on sheer willpower.

It was similar to the “knowledge corruption” witches endured; if a weaker species came here, they’d likely lose their minds and go berserk immediately.

Lina, however, seemed unfazed and stuck out her tongue playfully — after all, she frequently ran around here, so the environment no longer affected her.

“Lina, are you bringing classmates here to battle again?”

“Hahaha ~ She doesn’t look like a combat witch, so don’t bully her.”

“I wouldn’t!”

Lina was still well-liked in the Battle Club, greeting many senior students along the way, who all returned her playful teasing with mock scolds.

They walked until they reached the entrance of the Battle Club, where a tall witch in a short outfit gleaming in the sunlight stood.

“Yo~ Little Lina, who are these two?”

“This is my roommate, Senior Casey. I’m bringing a newbie to the Battle Club. Cha Bao, fill out this form.”

Lina casually handed Jiang Cha a surprisingly simple form.

It only had a few lines — name, grade, and other basic info; it didn’t even ask about innate magic.

After hesitating a moment, Jiang Cha wrote down “Close-quarters combat” under preferred fighting style and handed the form back to Casey.

“Is it really this easy?”

“No way. The Battle Club’s assessment is very strict…”

Casey glanced around. At her gaze, the many curious witches nearby all stepped back simultaneously, and then her eyes returned to Lina.

“Fine, just you then. Go fight with your roommate so I can see what you’ve got.”

“Eh—! I’m a newbie! Is this really okay?”

Lina protested loudly. Newbie assessments were a hassle.

“No nonsense. Go when I tell you to.”

Casey kicked Lina’s backside, sending her hurtling from a platform over twenty meters high down onto the battle arena, then looked at Jiang Cha.

“Want me to help you out too?”

“No, no thanks.”

Jiang Cha didn’t want to be kicked twenty meters and then land face-first, so she nimbly jumped onto the battle platform.

The battle arena wasn’t very large—about the size of a soccer field. It would be cramped for senior witches, but for two first-years who had barely learned any magic, it was enough.

“Oh! So smooth! Cha Bao’s got the right stuff for battle!”

“I knew I wasn’t wrong,”

Lina beamed.

“But I’ve barely learned any magic.”

Jiang Cha shrugged helplessly.

To be polite, she had only crammed four spell models into her head the previous night from the textbook, two of which were utterly useless in combat: Cleanse and Solidify.

“That’s okay ~ I don’t know many spells either…”

Lina barely finished before Casey impatiently rang the battle start bell. Jiang Cha reacted exceptionally quickly, casting a \[Lightning Bolt] with a flick of her hand.

They were only tens of meters apart; the lightning bolt reached Lina’s face in less than a second.

This lightning-fast speed was thanks to Jiang Cha’s innate magic.

Her spell model construction speed was astonishingly fast, her reflexes almost reaching her body’s limits.

But the sneak attack was still too obvious. The lightning bolt’s speed wasn’t impossible for witches to react to.

“Whoa! That was close!”

Lina tilted her head and dodged the lightning bolt, which hit the ground and left a scorched mark with crackling electricity.

“Now it’s my turn. Watch out, Cha Bao! This is innate magic.”

Before she finished, four fireballs appeared in Lina’s hands, rushing toward Jiang Cha even faster than the lightning bolt. Not done yet—in the fractions of a second, each fireball changed trajectory, sealing off all Jiang Cha’s escape routes, while Lina’s hands conjured another set of four fireballs.

This was the fourth-level spell “Rapid-Fire Fireball.”

With Lina’s magical power at near-grandmaster level and her innate magic’s high efficiency, she was like an endless rocket launcher, bombarding her opponent relentlessly.

‘Not that easy after all.’

Despite the dangerous assault, Jiang Cha even had time to purse her lips in disdain.

Just as the fireballs nearly hit her face, the blazing plasma flames singed her magically protected hair.

Jiang Cha bent backward, almost skimming the ground to avoid the four fireballs suspended in midair.

Four lightning bolts appeared one after another by her side and were fired in quick succession.

The power of a first-level spell couldn’t match a fourth-level one, but if the casting speed was fast enough, rapid-fire with low-level magic wasn’t impossible.

“This kid’s got skills.”

Casey whistled in surprise.

Though she expected the test wouldn’t be difficult for Jiang Cha, she didn’t expect the transfer student to hold her own against Lina, who had been training in the Battle Club for a month.

Lina might look silly, but she was a combat prodigy.

“Are all newcomers monsters now? Hey, did you do this when you first enrolled? The rapid-fire lightning bolt?”

“Of course I could do it!”

“Yeah, but not this smoothly.”

“Enough talk—if you’re so good, fight me.”

The two senior students teased each other, ready to start a fight.

Heqin still looked nervous; assessments didn’t matter much as long as Jiang Cha wasn’t hurt.

“Cha Bao, you’re actually this strong!?”

Even Lina, running and dodging while shooting spells at Jiang Cha, was surprised.

“Innate magic convenience. I’m currently in dual-casting mode.”

Jiang Cha’s voice was somewhat… cold? Detached? Neither. More like mechanical—emotionless and steady.

The indigo glow on her body confirmed her words weren’t empty.

“Dual casting alone is monster-level!”

Lina shouted indignantly, clearly feeling Jiang Cha was bragging. Dual casting means simultaneously running two spell models, while maintaining instant and continuous casting.

What kind of monster-level control was this!?

She’d been enrolled less than 24 hours!

But even so, Lina still had the upper hand. Fourth-level spells were fourth-level spells. Not to mention power, each fireball contained several times the magical power of Jiang Cha’s lightning bolt.

Their sturdiness was also different—Lina’s fireballs could smash lightning bolts head-on and keep flying.

Jiang Cha could only hold the line by using her innate magic’s super-computing ability, cleverly firing lightning bolts from the side to deflect the fireballs’ trajectories, while constantly repositioning to avoid explosions.

“Hey, Jiang… Lina’s roommate,”

Casey on the platform suddenly spoke with a playful expression.

“Enhanced casting is simple: just pour more magical power into the spell model. As long as the model doesn’t collapse, you can keep pouring. How much depends on your control.”

Lina’s instincts screamed trouble. Though she didn’t believe any witch could instantly master enhanced casting on the spot, …

“Damn! Cha Bao, you really can do it!?”

Watching the lightning bolt in Jiang Cha’s palm pause briefly, then shift from azure blue to purple, Lina couldn’t help but swear.

“Then there’s multi-casting, where you just…”

“Senior Casey!!”

Lina shouted anxiously, enlarging her fireball to collide with the enhanced lightning bolt, causing a fierce explosion

.

She was a little slow reacting and got the hem of her mage robe singed.

“Alright, alright”

Casey shrugged, looking helplessly at Jiang Cha.

“I roughly get it.”

Jiang Cha’s voice remained emotionless.

But behind her, the lightning bolt suddenly split into four!