It didn't take too long for Dirin and Vale to get separated. A puppet arrived half an hour after Mr. Till left and broke through the makeshift barricade they had set up. They went through multiple shields quickly, and even after she contacted Mr. Till for more, he never came.
They both looked at each other when they saw that they were on their last one. "We should leave now," Vale said as she started to read the puppet as well as she could. The hits on the shield. How its arms were moving. Everything she could gather. "I'll take the path behind it. You should take the exit in the back."
She pointed towards the back towards a door that seemed partially hidden except for the big exit sign above it.
He nodded. He knew he was the weaker one of the two, especially as he saw that she was reading the puppet, already trying to get its rhythm.
She probably won't be touched by that thing. Is thing the right word? It technically still is human. Dirin studied the puppet for a bit before deciding that it wasn't important.
Bracing himself to run towards the exit away from it, he started to look at the artifact that was producing the shield to time his escape. Its blue runes were fading with each hit the puppet landed on it.
The glow went down until it was barely visible to them before the shield cracked, and they rushed towards their exits. Dirin didn't have any trouble other than opening and closing the door. Vale rushed to the side of the puppet.
It turned towards her with quick speed and was about to touch her shoulder, but she already had its rhythm down and jumped farther away and made it out. The puppet looked at her and shrugged off before sprinting after her.
It was a chase that was almost too easy for her. Now that she had the rhythm, she only needed to keep watching it to get more and more from it. Every note was a movement that was easily read by her. The longer it went on, the more assured she became of her standing.
She kept her eyes open as she paid half attention to the puppet and started to look for even more in the distance. If another one joined in, she would practically be done since she would need to add another rhythm, and she didn't know how well she could handle that just yet.
Various thoughts went through her mind as she danced around the puppet. It was slower than some of the other puppets she saw in the distance, and the bright explosions in the distance were probably a battle between multiple Rank 4s and maybe a couple of Rank 3s.
Since part of her studying was looking at fights between two Rank 4s, she had some understanding of which direction she should head now.
Away.
Staying in the same place as them would only result in her being a casualty. She quickly abandoned the puppet and started to sprint away from there. She pondered trying to find Dirin to take him away as well, but she figured that someone who spent a couple of weeks studying everything would have enough sense to also run away.
She was constantly messaging any staff she could, telling them that she needed help and to get away, but she never got a response. The battle in the distance also kept getting bigger. The puppet left her a while ago and headed towards the battle.
That didn't stop her from running away, though.
***
Dirin, after heading out of the music room, had to run through multiple hallways that he wasn't familiar with at all. He kept running through the building and found himself lost in the maze of hallways.
He was starting to feel dizzy and tired as he kept running around. The halls seemed to never end, and he was starting to suspect that they didn't. "Is someone distorting the halls?"
Out of breath, he started to walk around and noticed a lack of anything. The maze just kept on extending the more he walked. He went into any room he could, but he was just met with more halls and a bigger maze.
The pace he was walking became slower the longer he was here. He hadn't seen or heard anything the whole time he was here. "Why would a hallway become a giant maze?" Dirin was lost in thought as he kept on walking.
There is no way Vale knew this was here since she comes to the music room often, so this must've happened recently. With the recent attacks of the cultists and the increase in security, they must've suspected someone from the inside. Dirin drew in a deep breath as he stopped walking. Something important is hiding in this maze. Could it be the person controlling all of the puppets?
Dirin started to regret entering this giant maze, but he kept on moving forward. He wished he had something to defend himself, at least since he was in here alone. Vale would've known what to do in this situation. Even Keith would! At least he has some abilities!
He contemplated staying still. He was definitely not strong enough for whatever this was, or whatever was hiding here. He was already lost and had no way of knowing how things were going outside.
The teachers are definitely winning. It's just a bunch of students, so that shouldn't be a problem. If they work together, everything should be fine. Dirin kept on walking through the halls of the maze. He was aimlessly wandering now as he kept a lookout for anything. He decided that whatever was here would be too focused on dealing with everything and wouldn't notice him. Hopefully.
He went to another door and opened it, expecting to be met with another set of halls, but to his luck, he found a person sitting down cross-legged with his eyes closed and breathing in deeply. He was dressed in casual clothes with the blazer on, but his star pin was off and nowhere to be found.
He opened his eyes and looked at Dirin before jumping in place and yelping in fright.
Dirin scared him.