The morning sun spilled golden light through the dorm windows, warming the wooden floors and casting long beams across the room. Birds chirped outside as the village slowly came to life.
Rei sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. Kajala was already awake, hanging upside down from the edge of his bunk with his scarf dangling and his orange hair a chaotic mess.
"Morning, grumpy," Kajala chirped.
Rei groaned. "How are you this energetic after three hours of sleep?"
"Magic," Kajala said with a smug grin, flipping upright and landing with a bounce. "Enhance magic is everything, Rei. You're gonna love today's lesson well, not you specifically, but y'know, everyone else."
They dressed, grabbed some dry bread and apples from the dining hall, and joined the others in the open training field behind the academy.
Elrya stood to the side with her staff, radiant as always in her polished robes. Rika twirled a dagger in one hand, humming some eerie tune under her breath. Regulus was already sweating, swinging his massive axe in wide arcs like he was at war with the air itself.
Instructor Vahn, an older knight with a heavy cloak and a booming voice, stood before them.
"Today," he announced, "we begin your formal training in basic enhancement magic. As most of you already know, this type of magic focuses on channeling your mana into your physical body. Enhancing strength, speed, endurance everything you'll need to survive in combat."
Rei stood quietly at the edge of the group.
"Everyone has a natural affinity. Even those with low elemental power can enhance. If you've made it here, you've all got something."
The class began with simple demonstrations.
Elrya glowed faintly with light-blue magic as she stepped forward. Her speed doubled in an instant, her movements graceful like flowing water.
Rika's body shimmered with a crimson sheen. Her speed was sharp, twitchy, every step like a dancer dodging invisible wires. She grinned wildly as she spun past the others.
Regulus let out a laugh and punched the air, the ground cracking under his feet as a silvery light coiled around his armor.
Then it was Kajala's turn. His body lit up with golden-orange threads of mana, dancing like foxfire around his limbs.
"Watch this," he whispered to Rei before disappearing in a blur, reappearing on top of the fence twenty feet away, perfectly balanced. "Boom!"
Everyone clapped.
Then Instructor Vahn looked at Rei.
"You. Step forward."
Rei's hands clenched. He stepped out, heart pounding.
"Try the basic flow," Vahn said. "Picture the mana inside you. Channel it outward. Let it coat your body."
Rei closed his eyes.
He pictured a flame, a current, a surge of light—anything.
Nothing happened.
Silence stretched.
No glow. No flicker. No hum.
Vahn frowned. "Again."
Rei tried harder. Focused until his jaw clenched.
Still—nothing.
Kajala watched, his teasing grin replaced with concern. Rika tilted her head, muttering something under her breath. Regulus scratched his chin, clearly unsure what was happening.
Finally, Vahn spoke. "You have no output. No channel. You're… completely empty."
Rei didn't react.
"Sit down," the instructor said gruffly. "We'll have to evaluate your potential later."
Rei returned to the group in silence.
Kajala leaned close. "You okay?"
"I'm used to it," Rei said. "Go do your magic show."
Kajala frowned, but nodded and bounded away.
As the others practiced, Rei sat alone in the sun, watching them become stronger, faster, untouchable.
And inside, that quiet ember of frustration burned a little brighter.
He didn't have magic. He couldn't enhance. He couldn't fly across rooftops or lift stone pillars with a touch.
But he had fists. He had skill. He had a power he didn't even know about yet.
He didn't need magic to be a warrior.
The training session was winding down when a sharp voice cut across the field like a blade through silence.
"Hey! Fox-boy's stray!"
Everyone turned.
A tall student strode forward from the upper class group that had been training nearby. Broad-shouldered, smug, and surrounded by a few snickering lackeys, he cracked his knuckles as he walked, eyes locked on Rei.
His name was Varin Draxel, a second-year known for his brutal enhancement magic and bigger ego. His blond hair was slicked back like a noble's, and a red rune tattoo pulsed on the side of his neck.
"Didn't realize they were letting magicless trash into the academy now," Varin sneered. "Did Kajala drag you in out of pity?"
Kajala started forward. "Back off, Varin—"
"I'm not talking to you, furball. I'm talking to him."
Rei said nothing. He stood, eyes flat and calm.
"What's wrong?" Varin jeered. "Cat got your courage? Or maybe you just realized you don't belong here."
Rei stepped forward. "You want something?"
Varin grinned. "A duel. Right here, right now. Let's see what you're made of, Zero-Magic."
"Rei—" Kajala started.
"I accept," Rei said quietly.
The class gathered in a circle. Some instructors noticed but didn't stop it—duels were part of knight training, after all.
Rei drew his wooden blade, calm and grounded.
Varin cracked his neck. "Try not to die too fast."
They clashed in an instant—Varin's strikes were heavy, enhanced with a dull red glow. Each swing cracked the air like thunder, forcing Rei to parry and dodge on pure reflex.
The strength gap was obvious.
Varin was faster, stronger, burning with enhancement magic as he charged like a bull. He landed a hit to Rei's side—hard enough to bruise bone. Rei grunted, barely blocking the next.
Kajala shouted from the sidelines. "Rei! Back off—he's too enhanced!"
But Rei wasn't thinking about magic.
He was watching Varin's footing.
His overreach.
His center of gravity.
He didn't need power.
He needed physics.
Varin lunged again—sloppy, wide arc. Rei shifted sideways, twisted his hip, and used Varin's own momentum against him—grabbing his arm, pivoting, and slamming him into the dirt with a shoulder throw that would've made any martial master proud.
Gasps echoed around the field.
Varin scrambled up, stunned—but Rei was already there. He used his smaller frame and experience, slamming Varin's wrist down, trapping the rune arm with a brutal lock. A technique from another world, another life.
With a sickening crack, Rei drove the heel of his hand into Varin's elbow, sending the blade flying.
Varin screamed.
Rei's right hand throbbed. Broken.
He gritted his teeth, sweat dripping from his chin as he backed away.
Varin lay gasping in the dirt, dazed, humiliated.
The field was silent.
Until Kajala burst into wild applause. "Holy hell, Rei!"
Rika blinked. "That was… weirdly efficient."
Regulus slipped and faceplanted in the grass, mumbling, "Ow… worth it…"
Instructor Vahn finally stepped in, eyes narrowed. "Enough. Duel's over."
Rei breathed through the pain in his broken hand.
He had no magic. No enhancement.
But in that moment, standing over the academy's most arrogant student—
He didn't need any magic.