A light drizzle fell lazily over London, turning the streets into blurred mirrors of scattered light. The wind was sharp, carrying the scent of smoke and damp metal. People hurried past beneath umbrellas, faces hidden, never meeting each other's eyes.
Adrian Blake moved through the silent rush, his backpack heavier than it should have been. Buried between notebooks and textbooks was a crystal he kept secret — something he'd found weeks ago in the school's storage room, something that now felt far too strange to be just a souvenir.
He adjusted the strap on his shoulder and glanced around. Modern glass towers stood beside old brick buildings, and surveillance drones drifted through the cloudy sky with a faint hum.
It was a world used to the extraordinary: hover bikes skimming above the pavement, weapons forged with both runes and nanotech, enchantments sold like smartphone apps. But Adrian still couldn't shake a sense of wonder. Magic might have been part of daily life, but it never felt ordinary.
He sighed and shoved his hands into his coat pockets.
"Two more blocks," he thought. The school wasn't far now. His final year of high school — exams, magic training, and the relentless pressure to get into the world's most prestigious academy of arcane engineering in the United States.
He wasn't the top of his class, but he wasn't at the bottom either. Always somewhere in the middle. Invisible.
A gust of wind sent a shiver through him. He stopped. The crystal in his backpack was warm. Too warm. It pulsed faintly, like a second heartbeat.
Adrian looked around. The street looked normal — people walking, cars passing, nothing out of place — yet something in his chest tightened. A heavy, creeping instinct whispered that something was about to happen.
And then it did.
A deep, guttural roar split the sky. Heads turned upward. A massive shadow swept across the street, darkening everything for a heartbeat.
Before Adrian could react, the ground shook. A wyvern crashed down from the clouds, crushing cars and shattering pavement. The impact sent shards of glass and chunks of asphalt flying. People screamed, bolting in every direction.
Adrian froze.
The creature was massive, with scales black as coal and eyes glowing like molten embers. Every breath released hot smoke laced with the smell of sulfur. And there, glowing on its neck, was a vivid crimson rune. Ancient. Familiar.
The crystal on his back burned against his skin.
"Adrian!"
He spun around.
Mira was sprinting toward him, her black ponytail whipping behind her as her silver staff glimmered with glowing runes. Her dark jacket was open, revealing light armor underneath, and her golden eyes were wide with alarm.
"Move!" she shouted.
But Adrian couldn't. He was rooted to the spot, staring at the beast.
Another roar shook the street, and instinct finally kicked in. He dove aside as the wyvern's claws tore into the ground where he had been standing, carving a crater into the asphalt.
Heat surged through him, radiating from the crystal like fire. Without thinking, Adrian ripped open his backpack and pulled out a weapon in pieces: a modular spear he had been secretly building for months.
His hands shook, but his movements were automatic. Piece by piece, the spear locked together with sharp metallic clicks. Blue runes lit up along the shaft, pulsing in rhythm with his racing heart.
Mira skidded to his side, her staff crackling with energy. "Are you insane? This isn't a training exercise!"
"I know," he muttered, voice breaking.
The wyvern lunged, its roar rattling windows. Mira raised her staff, a shield of magic flaring to life. Sparks erupted as the beast slammed into it, filling the air with the sharp tang of ozone.
Adrian gripped the spear, feeling its weight settle into his hands. He darted around the creature, heart pounding, and drove the glowing tip into its flank.
Blue light burst across the street, and the wyvern's roar thundered against the buildings, shaking loose dust and glass.
Drones swooped down from above, followed by armored enforcers of the Arcane Guard. Their weapons fired beams of light as glowing nets tangled around the wyvern. The monster struggled but weakened fast.
With one final roar, it was subdued.
The sudden silence felt unreal. Adrian dropped to his knees, gasping for breath. The spear still glowed faintly. The rune on the wyvern's neck pulsed, burning red. Alive.
He knew that symbol. He'd seen it in ancient texts. Seals long forgotten. Forbidden.
Mira strode over, fury blazing in her golden eyes. "What the hell was that, Adrian?" She pointed at the spear. "Since when are you carrying weapons?"
He opened his mouth but no words came out. The only thing he felt was the heat of the crystal and the heavy certainty that this was just the beginning.