Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 354: Results

After my exam the teachers restored the training area with some earth magic, then it was Leo's turn. He had two human skeletons and three skeletal wolves with him. During his battle he tried to stay behind his undead while they attacked the teacher. Unfortunately his minions did not have any synergy, they were all melee based. To Leo's credit, he tried to use the wolves to attack while keeping the humans close to defend, but he would have really benefited from some ranged minions. Something I had to work on myself for my tier two.

Leo did pass and it was the twins' turn. Their exam was interesting since they had a joint undead. However, each of them had one bigger undead as well. Tom had brought a zombie boar and Tim had a zombie ram. I had not seen those minions before.

Tom went first, he used his boar as defense while the cat, Miri, attacked. I was rather surprised how much he got out of the small feline minion. Despite being a tier two she seemed rather impressive. Miri used her speed and small size a lot to target weaknesses in the teachers armour. Her enhanced claws gave her bonus points, even though they were not enough to do actual damage. Meanwhile the boar blocked any attacks and protected Tom.

He passed and it was Tim's turn. He had a disadvantage since the teacher knew about Miri's tactics, however the battle turned out to be rather similar. The ram was not quite as good at defending as the boar but it added a bit more offensive pressure. Overall Tim performed decently and passed as well.

I congratulated the twins and then went towards the dorms to freshen up. I had worked up a sweat during the battle and I had a small hole in my uniform from the needle. While I was getting dressed after a shower I heard an explosion outside. I quickly went to the window, it came from the training area!

"I believe Cassie's group has their exams right now." Hatsumi stated, sounding more amused than worried. I was still worried and hurried towards the training area.

When I arrived I found Cassie looking sheepish yet smug while Skadi seemed mildly annoyed.

"What happened?" I asked, as I approached my friends.

"She threw some bombs at the teacher, after he told her it was fine to use her own alchemy." Skadi stated.

"I got a new formula for vampiric nightshade bombs! I can use that to upgrade the Iron Beaks!" Cassie announced, enthusiastically.

"Was anyone hurt?" I asked.

"No, the teacher was a spellblade who reinforced his body. But some of his equipment was singed." Skadi explained. "And they had to fill a small hole in the training area."

"I still passed." Cassie stated. "And I did not explode myself! Did you see my fire shield? It works great against explosions! Well, against the heat, it can also melt smaller debris. It does less against the force…"

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"She was flung back a bit from her own explosion." Skadi explained.

"Worth it." Cassie muttered.

"I see. So what about your exam, Skadi? Have you passed?" I asked.

Skadi nodded.

"She was awesome, clearly the best spellblade we have this year!" Cassie cheered.

"There are not that many." Skadi replied. "But I had a melee fight and my offense and defence were rated pretty good. My mana is developing nicely, I can now fire the occasional earth bolt while coating my weapons in blood and even throw in some body reinforcement on top of the runes."

"She is totally a senior mage by now." Cassie said.

"Oh, right. Is our magic getting tested again this year?" I asked.

"Probably, but I am not sure if they will do it now or at the beginning of the next year." Skadi said.

"We have all passed, that is important. Well, I have not heard from Helena yet but I am convinced she will do good." I said.

"When will she be back? They are testing the artillery students outside the town in the field, right?" Skadi asked.

I nodded. "As a senior mage artillery student she gets to cut loose on a bigger field. She can freeze a rather large area now! And she has a new ice ball that explodes. It's a sphere of ice that detonates and sends a lot of shards in all directions. She can't demonstrate it here though. Maybe she can show off during our trip but such spells can be dangerous for your allies as well."

"So, how was your exam? I have heard about some excitement." Skadi asked.

"They ambushed her with assassins!" Hatsumi said.

"What?" Cassie asked.

"They had a special unit from the royal guard to simulate an assassination because my undead were too strong for the regular exam." I explained.

"A special unit? Wow." Skadi said.

"We should have eaten them." Garm said.

"Meow." Nyx agreed.

"It was just an exam." I pointed out. "And I passed, so everything is good."

"Koyuki was hit with a small needle which caused pain." Rose added.

"They said it is a way to simulate wounds in training and it will be used more during the next year." I said.

"Huh." Cassie pondered that. "I wonder if I can mix something to counter that."

"That would be against the idea of the training. Being able to fight while in pain is important." Skadi pointed out.

"I guess…" Cassie agreed, while still seeming to ponder the alchemical part.

While we still waited for Helena we grabbed some food in the mess hall. There were a lot of happy students and a few distraught ones. Not everyone had passed. Sadly Florence and her group of friends were still around but without Archibald they mostly left us alone. Valeria passed as well and I congratulated her.

While we had our food Helena returned and she seemed happy.

"I passed! My ice sphere was amazing! Although I did grace one of the other students; I have to be a bit more careful. But it was her fault, she was clearly standing too close." Helena said.

I stood up to give her a hug, which ended with a kiss. Then I sat back down while fighting a blush. "I passed too." I said.

"We all did." Cassie added.

"And Koyuki got herself only slightly stabbed in the process." Skadi added.

"What?" Helena asked.

I told her about my battle, while my undead added some mild outrage to the story.

"You did well." Helena praised me. "I like your water idea, maybe we have to train some more joint casting. Do you think you can add necrotic mana to my ice sphere? Actually, what about ice darts filled with necrotic water? We could inject that into enemies! Or use ice balls filled with the stuff to coat enemies!"

"We should practise more joint casting." I agreed. Partially because I really liked how it felt to jointly cast with Helena.

We spent the remaining day celebrating our success with some food and drink. We had made it through another year and now we could enjoy our break and relax for a while. And maybe I could get myself some corpses and expand my undead force. Life was good.