The professors started the group practice with the Mock battles. The tournament part of the exam was considered one of the hardest parts, as many young mages never learn to adapt their magic to the point of combat and others get lucky to have a naturally offensive affinity. Ms. Nez wanted to prepare the three for the combat exams, so she started with an example of a mock battle against Professor Slims. They both walked to opposite sides of the rooms, Kael was excited to see the space affinity in action and had never seen Professor Slims use any magic. Kael asked Draven and Jera who they thought would win and Jera answered first, "Ms. Nez has the advantage at the start. If you paid attention, you would know that." Draven answered next saying " I don't know, Professor Slims is a lot stronger than he looks. If it moves into close range, he will have the advantage." Kael was shocked by their answers because he couldn't scope who would win at a glance and both of them had answered so quickly. Professor Slims said, "Pay close attention, this will be over quick." He finished with a grin on his face. Ms. Nez stayed silent, she activated the battle zone in the training room and a countdown started. Three. Two. One. As soon as the timer ended both Professors jumped into a battle stance, Ms. Nez's eyes glowed purple and out of thin air she had 6 daggers appear floating around her and Professor Slim's hands started to glow green, he activated his magic and when he did thick green vines burst out of the ground running towards Ms. Nez, the vines tried wrapping around her legs but just as they reached her she vanished and reappeared right behind the professor with the daggers nowhere in sight she landed a solid elbow right on Slims back. He immediately jumped forward throwing both his hands up as he did a huge vine wall shot out in front of him, blocking Ms. Nez but he didn't realize the daggers she had summoned were floating above him and each one moved like it had a mind of its own. The daggers darted around Slims as he through vines at each one while Ms. Nez stood behind the wall of vines glancing over at the kids shooting Kael a quick wink. Kael smiled saying "This fight is over." Jera and Draven looked confused when they turned to look at Kael the barrier dropped and a noise rang over the intercom that had counted down at the beginning of the battle. It rang "Mock battle over first-blood drawn." As the two swung their heads back over the arena they saw Professor Slims wiping his face as he had a small cut on his right cheek. He immediately burst out in rage, "I thought this was a demonstration Nezafear!" she chuckled "It was until you said it would be over quick so I couldn't make you out to be a liar." The tall Professor huffed as he grabbed a towel to whip his face and pulled a small vile out of his pocket, he drank the contents, and the kids noticed the cut disappeared. Kael was amazed by the fast-acting healing potion he had used for a cut to disappear instantly.
The Professors then explained how the Mock Battle System worked, When the timer was activated, the barrier would shoot up around the people participating. The barrier blocks all attacks from the inside and outside so no one could interfere or anyone watching would be harmed by wild magic. The battle would end when a severe attack is landed or if the system detects blood drawn. The three kids felt a sense of severity when the professors mentioned blood drawn, As the seriousness of this training was sitting in with them. Ms. Nez explained that this would be how they trained for the next week until the exam. Draven threw his hand up to ask a question, but Jera spoke first, "Who will we be practicing against? we're not fighting you two, are we?" Professor Slims Laughed saying "Y'all are going to fight each other of course. We will be watching for the next week and giving each of you pointers on what you could have done better." Draven then asked, "What if we hurt each other during training and can't take the exam?" Draven looked over at his brother when he finished asking his question worried about what might happen if they fought. The two boys had never fought each other their whole life and always got along. Ms. Nez told the three not to worry that the Mock Battle System was designed for training and that two Nexus professors were with them. Kael stayed quiet as he was the most nervous out of them, He hadn't adapted his magic to combat at all the most he could do was displace an item across the room but seeing Ms. Nez gave him some ideas.
Professor Slims Instructed Jera and Draven to enter the MBS, they both looked at each other nervously. Draven said, "Good luck." As they both walked out to the field. Professor Slims said, "Show these space users, how hard you've trained this past week." he then activated the barrier and the battle began. The Young magicians both activated their magic. Draven began throwing jabs from each hand as he did fist-shaped fireballs shot towards Jera, she dodged them by freezing the bottom of her feet as she began to skate around the arena dodging the balls of fire. Kael was shocked by how quick they both were with using their magic already he knew if he went against either one of them, he would lose. Jera skated fast and as she drew in closer to Draven, she stomped her foot, as she did a column of ice shot towards his foot freezing him in place and began to conjure ice sickles all around her she began to shoot them towards the boy. Draven made a fatal flaw trying to melt his foot away from the ice and wasn't able to dodge the ice sickles, several of them brushed past him cutting his arms and legs as they did the barrier dropped and the two heard the MBS ring out "Mock Battle over first blood drawn." Jera jumped up and down shouting "I won! I won!" The two professors walked up to the two, Mr. Slims shook his head with approval toward Jera and turned and told Draven "I thought I told you not to stand in one place while conjuring your fire it leaves you wide open." Draven hung his head low feeling the pressure from the defeat. Kael knew the last week hadn't been easy for Draven and Jera with Mr. Slims as a teacher. Ms. Nez spoke to Jera about working on the speed and shape of her ice sickles and complimented her on her movement with the conjured ice skates. She turned to Draven telling him he needed to be quick on his feet if he was going to win. she explained that he needed to work on transferring magic to more areas than his hands, fire was an extremely versatile affinity and could be used for more than just pure offense, work on a defense and movement skill." She ended her assessment of Draven with that and turned to Kael and said it was his turn to battle Jera since she was the winner. Kaels brain was racing trying to think of what to do during the fight he knew he could escape the foot trap she did on his brother but was worried about how he would get close enough to land a blow on her before she got him with the same spikes she won with earlier. Ms. Nez prompted him to hurry into the MBS. The two got to their sides of the arena and Ms. Nez activated the MBS one more time. Three. Two. One. Mock Battle Began.