Sen fell through the treeline with his magic artifact still extended toward his foe. The wolf dove after him, its jaws snapping as gravity lured them toward an inevitable meeting. The others jumped away out of fear, survival instinct, and common sense. Mana Protection protected him from the worst of the impact as his back smashed into the ground. A stone block landed on top of him, and his world went black.
He opened his eyes in his temporal world. He couldn’t stay here long; it still wasn’t stable, and if the world fully shattered with him in it, there wouldn’t be any going back. Sen would float in nothingness forever. Still, he was grateful for the emergency ward. He checked the small band of paint around his wrist. It faded away. A physical ward designed to pull him into his temporal world in the event of an emergency. That paint was rare, and he didn’t have a source for it in this time yet. Still, it was better than testing the power of Mana Protection under duress. Either it worked, or he’d be a Sen pancake.
[Look on the bright side, at least you don’t have an excuse not to wash that wrist anymore.]
Sen didn’t want to reveal his temporal world just yet. So he willed a one-inch opening back to the real world to form so he could peek out. He saw the body of a wolf in a dark place. “Huh.” He realized the creature was trapped within his tomb. As soon as the portal opened, the magic artifact began buzzing.
[Black Wolf Pack Leader’s power consumed.]
[Spell: Black Wolf Howl - Summon the pack of the Black Wolf and its leader to terrorize your enemies.]
Sen blinked. This is what the artifact meant when it said he could absorb powers? No, it likely varied from opponent to opponent. But still, this power was wonderful. He needed to analyze the specifics, but it felt like a creation magic spell. He was familiar with creation magic, and in the old days he’d created so many random guardians for friendly kingdoms and people that might still be lingering in the world even today. The last beings he’d created had been the Tomeseekers, but he hadn’t seen any sign of them since coming to this world, and of course Xanadrell, whose presence was muted to him. He still needed to look into both accounts. But for now, he wanted to examine this power further.
“Tutor, how exactly does this work?”
[The spell is a hybrid spell. A mix between summoning magic and creation. You summon the spirits of the wolf pack into bodies created temporarily for the fight. The bodies can be destroyed, but not the spirit unless specifically targeted.]
“So, we have an endless supply of them, as long as I provide the magic to make physical bodies?”
[You’ll be limited by the number of wolf spirits within the spell, but otherwise, yes.]
Sen nodded. He split the portal open further and stepped fully inside the tomb. It was cramped with the giant wolf in there, but at least it wasn’t breathing. He closed the portal behind him and released the power in his magic artifact. The tomb dissipated; the body of the pack leader went with it. When light returned, he saw four giant golden hands working alongside Girch. They’d been trying to lift the rock off him.
The hands turned to look at one another. Girch scratched his head. “You were in it?”
He turned to see where everyone else was, and a blur of pink rushed him. Milim. She hugged him. “I thought you died trying to save me!”
Snake scoffed from another side of the room. He was standing where the large tree had blocked their exit before. “The runes would’ve saved him. You’re all way too worried. We’d be better off if he were back outside by now,” he spat.
[Master, I have a brilliant suggestion. We could—]
We’re not testing the wolves out on Snake.
Sen noticed Joseia and Susanna standing not far away. “Hey, thanks for the help back there,” Joseia said. “As soon as you took out the big one, the others ran back into those holes. Guess they realized it was over now that you were back in the fight!”
Snake tsked and walked out of the room, moving further into the dungeon. Sen started after him before realizing Milim was still holding onto him. She realized it too and blushed, backing away. “We should hurry after him. It would look pretty bad on us if we let our team captain get eliminated.”
Sen nodded a silent thank you to Girch and Susanna for trying to help him.
Girch shrugged. Susanna nodded back. She was an interesting character. He wanted to learn more about her powers, and he made a mental note to analyze her in combat the next time he got the chance. They hurried after Snake, moving deeper into the dungeon.
“You handled that well, Milim. Thanks for the assistance back there,” Sen commented.
“I don’t know if I would call a wolf rodeo handling it well,” she said.
Susanna stifled a laugh. “For what it’s worth, I’d pay to see that again, minus the danger, of course.”
Snake looked back. “Fire Kite would cruise right through enemies like those. We need to pick up our pace if we’re going to beat them to the boss.”
Though he wasn’t the most popular, everyone agreed with his general sentiment. They hurried through the dungeon.
They fought more monsters as they moved through the dungeon and encountered two more rooms full of creatures. But they were quickly getting the hang of fighting alongside one another. Joseia stayed close to Susanna during combat, guarding her so her light constructs could eviscerate foes from afar. Girch and Snake fought on the front-lines with devastating power. Sen and Milim moved quickly through the battlefield, sharing Encapsulation. Milim would incapacitate their foes with her quickly improving dream spell, and Sen would finish them off. Compared to the first fight, each subsequent one was faster than the last. They moved like a well-modified spell, and their confidence only grew with each battle and encounter they faced. Things were going well.
They hurried through the dungeon, everyone sensing that the boss room couldn’t be much further ahead. If they kept up this pace, surely they’d be the first to find it.
Snake held a hand up. “Stop.”
Girch glanced over at him. “More enemies?” he asked.
“No. I taste blood in the air,” Snake said. He sounded confused. But he had a good reason to be.
[Taste?]
“Blood? Do you think the monsters are attacking each other?” Milim asked.
Sen shook his head. “They don’t do that, generally. Besides, I have a feeling Snake’s not talking about the blood of monsters, are you?” he asked.
“Human. Humans are bleeding ahead,” Snake confirmed. He took a step forward.
“Wait…does that mean someone beat us to the boss room?” Susannah asked. “How’s that possible? Even Alari couldn’t be that much further than us.”
Sen agreed. The problem was there shouldn’t be any other people in here. The only possible explanation was that one of the two other academies had beaten them to the boss and started fighting already. “If you can smell it, they can’t be far. If we hurry and catch up, we can still earn points here,” he pointed out.
Snake nodded. “Yeah. We can’t let them steal victory from us now. Let’s move. If you fall behind, catch up when you can. There’s no time to wait.”
Snake took off. Girch jogged after him; the large man certainly wasn’t keeping pace with Snake, and he was under no illusions about the fact. Susanna put her hair up and settled into a jog of her own. Mana Encapsulation covered Sen and Milim, and he nodded at Joseia to keep pace with Snake. At least that way he wouldn’t be totally alone. Susanna was a core part of their fighting strategy, and as effective as Snake was in combat, Sen wasn’t risking Susanna for him. He’d keep her close. Besides, he wanted to study those constructs some more.
He’d thought Snake would reach the fighting long before the rest of them caught up, but it turned out Sen was wrong. Snake hadn’t reached the fighting. But he had reached the source of the blood.
There was a massive hole in what should have been the linear dungeon tunnel that led to the boss. On its other side, it led to another tunnel completely identical to their own. But the most concerning thing was the blood splatter. It absolutely covered the wall, as if someone had been sent flying through the adjacent tunnel and smashed into the wall of this one. There was no one around, though, so if that was the case, the student had likely been sent back to the opening. Whatever they’d been fighting had struck a fatal blow.
Joseia swallowed, looking at it.
“What could do this? We haven’t fought anything capable of making holes in the dungeon,” Girch said.
He was right. Demon chickens, wolves, giant lizards, none of them were capable of this.
“Um, maybe their route was a little harder than ours,” Milim suggested. “Or instead of a bunch of monsters, they had to fight one really strong one, to keep things balanced, you know?” she said.
Snake shook his head. “They don’t leave these things to chance. All routes will be equal. This doesn’t make sense.” He stared down the path, the way they were intended to go, and then he turned to look into the crater leading to the adjacent tunnel.
“It could be a test. Maybe there are secret points to be earned if we investigate something that seems out of the ordinary. We’re at the academy to learn how to be great magicians, right? Maybe this is a test of character. We earn points for defeating the boss, but we can earn some extra points by investigating the disturbance before the boss. If we’re ahead of everyone else, it would allow us to seal our victory,” Susanna said.
Sen wasn’t sure if Snake thought her theory was plausible, or if curiosity was simply getting the better of him, but reluctantly he nodded. “We’ll check it out. Let’s go. Keep it tight though, let’s not lose anyone before the boss fight.”
[Oh, now he’s suddenly concerned about not losing anyone. Earlier he seemed almost happy to get rid of us.]
Sen followed the others, giving one last look at the blood spatter on the wall. He frowned at that. “You know, an impact like that should’ve transported the student immediately. I don’t see how they survived the initial impact to bleed at all.” The thought lingered in his mind. Maybe Susanna was right. Maybe there was some extra test involved, but he was getting a bad feeling. Something felt off.
Susanna screamed.
Encapsulation exploded, and he shot after his companions. He didn’t need to go far. They’d hardly made it into the adjacent tunnel when they’d run into the source of Susanna’s scream.
The Fire Kite student had thick eye bags and long blue hair that parted to either side of her face. It no longer rippled as it had on the day of the first trial. It no longer resembled a gentle wave moving up and down the strands of her hair. Whatever protections were in place to keep them from getting hurt had failed. The proof was right in front of them, and it threatened to change everything about how the rest of the Academy War would play out.
Lakin Smen, a fourth-year at Fire Kite Academy, was dead.
Sen looked up at the resurrection runes above them and realized they’d been altered. Recently.
“From this point forward, act as if your life is on the line,” Sen said.
“Act like it, because it is.”