Beast Taming? Nah, Dragon Herding is Way Better!

"Students, particularly the ones who are currently standing in the arena..." as the academy staff finishes clearing his throat, he once again steals the attention of everyone with his thundering voice spreading all across the entirety of the Alpharion Arena, the eyes of the freshmen in particular being more focused on him more than to anything else.

"Once again, we welcome you into the Flammenherz Academy and do your best when this trial starts" the man said as he waved his hands, the arena underneath the young freshmen, whether they are men or women, starts changing form as some places rise while some falls, the once flat arena transforming into an impressive landscape of tall, heaven-scraping spires with at least one student on each of them, while some of the remaining students stands just slightly above the previous flat grounds.

"Just a bit of a reminder to everyone, the spires will eventually go lower and lower as time goes by, and once you fall into the ground, you will be eliminated, so do everything you can to prevent yourself from doing so" as a last reminder to the freshmen, the academy staff said with a clearly taunting smile on his face as he looks at the ones who are unfortunate enough to get the lower level places compared to the others.

One among the people who are unfortunate enough to receive such place is Diluc, who is currently looking up to the skies, with the area around him being blocked from the light of the sun by the other spires reaching the skies.

"Even the goddess of luck seems to think that my life had been going way too easy lately..." mocking himself with a wry smile on his face, the emperor-like young man muttered as he starts channeling the fire elemental mana out from his core to his legs, intending to create an explosion with this that will help him in rising up from his current spot.

Meanwhile, on other higher spires, there are students who are raised on one spire with other fellow freshmen, each of those places having students who has different kind of expressions on their faces, some filled with vigilance, while the remaining others filled with relief.

Those who are filled with vigilance are the ones who are not a single bit familiar with the fellow freshmen they are sharing their location with, while those that are filled with relief are the ones who are mostly familiar with each other already.

"That's a nice change from the usual Primaria Class trials..."

"Well, the principal is someone who really likes changes like this after all"

"Who do you think will enter the one on one duels though?"

As the older students watches the trials, they start discussing among themselves, speculating the strength of the new students who replaces the one that already graduates, most of them wondering who could possibly the most impressive among all of this new addition in the academy.

While some of them do have the opinion of the one placing first in the entrance exams being the one who will come out on top of this trials, there are also a lot of other opinions in the crowd, something that is normal within the academy as those of the older years, particularly the senior students, has already seen their fair share of top entrance exam students who failed to even just claim a spot for the Primaria Class.

"Will that guy be different from that disgrace of that generation?"

"Who knows, but if he wants to be different from that one, he needs to work himself quite a bit since he's already in a disadvantageous position to begin with"

"Hahaha!! no need to speculate too much about all this things... if he's really as impressive as the entrance exams shows, then he's bound to shine whatever he do in this trial"

While the discussion among the older students continues, they also start thinking of ways to deal with opponents should they become the one on the shoes of these young freshmen, most of them thinking that those who managed to get grouped with other people in a single spire, particularly those on the higher ones, are quite lucky, since they can team up to defend themselves from attackers

That is of course, only if they can trust each other with their backs, something really hard especially for those who barely knows each other since all of the students knows that eliminating one fellow freshman means that they are a single step closer to being a part of the greatest class of their year, an opportunity that not a single one of them, even the pompous noble and even royal children, will refuse to just let past their way.

"Hey, he's moving!!!"

"What... what sort of magic is that?!"

"You ask me, who the hell do you think should I ask then?"

Looking at the emperor-like young man soaring from his previous position with an absurd speed, the onlookers couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed as they never expected that someone will immediately show something so flashy just from the start of the trials, with the flames continuously exploding from the young man's feet pushing him up from the ground.

'Need to regulate it with some more wind elemental mana... yes, I also need to conceal that with some flame elemental mana...' while the spectators, as well as some particularly leisure participants watches the young man soaring from his previous position, the emperor-like young man himself is quite focused with controlling the fire elemental mana as a propulsion, his mind adapting to the ever so miniscule changes that is happening within the spell he is currently casting using wind and fire element at the same time, while also simultaneously creating mana circle in order to deceive the vision of the people watching.

Looking at Diluc immediately pulling everyone's attention on him the moment that the trial starts, his three companions previously just standing with him couldn't help but start shaking their heads as the previous plan of theirs will definitely fall apart due to the sudden changes of the expected terrain they are supposed to fight on, from the previous completely flat, balanced arena to this mess of a place where they can barely stand properly.

"He's definitely going to pull the aggresion on him with that spell..." one of Diluc's companion, the usually cheeky, young elven duchess said with a hint of anticipation on her face as she starts wondering just what kind of chaos will the emperor-like young man bring the moment that other genius freshmen takes notice of him.

Whatever kind of havoc he will wreak though, she knows for sure that it will be large enough for her to enjoy, and possibly even join when opportunity presents itself.

"W-why is that, Miss Alfia?" standing on the same spire as her asking her question is a frail, timid-looking young man who appears to be of quite the smaller frame compared to the usual men of his age, his figure making the young elven duchess wonder whether he really is a man.

Realizing the naivete of this young man, Alfia shakes her head for a bit before she starts explaining the reason why she said those words, starting with lifting up one of her fair hands and pointing towards spires with lower elevation than them, a particular one with a freshman holding a shining speak directly aimed at the ascending Diluc.

"See those people over there, they are aiming directly for our mister number one examinee" the young elven duchess starts explaining, her words prompting the young man to follow her pointing finger, seeing the person who is aiming for who he considers a friend, such hostility making him curious of the reason as he knows that there is nothing that Diluc did to trigger the ire of that young man.

"Why is he..." still extremely curious to the reason of this action, Michael didn't even managed to finish his question before Alfia starts explaining once again, the answer to his questions being addressed by her next words.

"I don't know what sort of innocent and carefree life you lived before entering this academy nor do I want to know, but there are people who are born and act that way just because they are, little mister, and one of those people is that guy over there, trying to take our Diluc down just because he think he can, for the sake of glory or fame, I don't really care..."

As she explains to the timid young man, the elven duchess' face starts forming an amused smile as she lets out a soft snort while trying to hold her laughter back after seeing the expression on the emperor-like young man's face.

"Looks like we don't really need to worry about him though..." she added finally with a mysterious glow from beneath her eyes directed towards Diluc, said young man clearly moving on the offensives as not one or two, but three large magic circles appears around him, gathering fire elemental mana from the surrounding in a terrfying speed.