"So uh… You okay?" I asked, looking over my shoulder at the black-haired teen who wore a look of anguish on his face. I hadn't seen it on him before, and as to what caused him to have such a scowl… I had no idea.
"Hm?" he sounded, looking down at me with a solemn smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"
He smiled at me. It wasn't a happy smile; it was fake, and it was a shoddy one at that. When he smiled, you'd know he was smiling, but this expression, this fakeness, it was…
"I suppose there wouldn't be…" I laughed awkwardly as I looked away from him and to the false bliss of the courtyard we walked through. "It's just, you seem different…"
You seem sad…
Elijah didn't answer straight away. He just kept walking, hands shoved into his pockets, eyes fixed somewhere past the hedges that lined the courtyard's path.
"I'm fine, Lias."
"Right," I said, letting it go, chalking it up to the sudden busyness of being part of the DC.
I'd learned a long time ago that pushing Elijah rarely got you anywhere except a wall of jokes. Though as he is now, I couldn't imagine him even making as much as a snide comment about a plump noble or a lanky elf or a stout dwarf.
We crossed the last stretch of gravel path in silence, the DC building looming ahead with its ivy-choked stone. The crest, a lance crossed over a shield designed by my self-proclaimed grandmother, was carved above the doorway to the fairly new building.
Elijah nudged the door open with his shoulder as we entered the large multi-purpose hall.
"Is it done yet?" Theo asked, his voice reverberating from a pair of double doors at the back of the room.
"Patience!" Kai snapped back, "I'd like to see you try to set this thing up!"
Theo muttered something that I couldn't quite make out.
The gathered voices grew louder as we edged into the room.
"Oh good, you're both alive," Claire called from where she knelt, tightening the straps on her boots.
"Sorry we're late," I smiled as an arm wrapped itself over my shoulder.
"I was beginning to worry I'd scared you off," Theo smiled as he tensed his arm around my neck, holding me in a headlock. "And don't worry about being late; we're still waiting for Doradrea."
I patted the muscular teen's bicep, as though I were a wrestler tapping out of a fight.
"Sorry, sorry," he laughed, letting me go.
"It's fine…" I massaged my neck. "So what's Blondie doing over there?" I asked, pointing at Kai with my thumb.
"He's busy setting up the training barrier," Curtis said making himself known. "With those cultists lurking about, there's a chance that they might launch a full-scale attack soon. So we need to keep ourselves warmed up and ready for battle."
"Solid reasoning," I nodded towards the former prince as I stood beside the blonde and leaned over his shoulder. "So…"
He swatted me away before I could get a word out.
"Shoo!" he reprimanded, "It'll be done when it's done."
I returned dejectedly as I rejoined the eager group that waited for him to finish.
"Are you sure you don't want to join us?" Clare asked, rolling her shoulder.
Kai laughed as he lifted the crystal device. "I've been out scouting the whole day, so I think any more training will be more harmful than good." He walked the device towards the centre of the hall and set it down without a sound.
"Sorry I'm late!" Doradrea called as she stumbled through the doorway, "I've brought some mana-resistance bands for us to train with!" She tripped over her own momentum, sending the bracers and anklets rolling across the room.
Claire made her way over to the face-planted dwarf and helped her back to her feet as Curtis bent down and inspected a bracer with a frown plastering his face.
"Are you trying to make us waste all our mana?" He asked, shaking the metal band at his colleague. "Training now when a battle might break out any moment it's-"
"You know she meant well," Claire interjected as the dwarf stuck her tongue out at the former prince. "Besides," she patted their junior's back, "These may be useful for training after all this is over."
Over huh…
My eyes narrowed as I looked to my feet.
3 acts of domestic terrorism in as many days; whatever does happen, it won't be pretty.
I focused mana on my dimension ring and withdrew my blade.
Well, on the other hand, this sword certainly is…
I smiled as I admired its length.
Snapping myself out of my haze, I took it in both hands and gave it a light swing.
Curtis thinks there's gonna be a battle… Students fighting students… how barbari-
I continued to dance with my blade, repeating the same light rhythm.
"Right then!" Kai said, standing up and dusting his hands together. "Want me to start the barrier?"
With a nod from Claire, he did as much.
Vooom
A faint red bubble grew from the device; it swelled to cover the entire hall, stopping us from accidentally destroying the building with a rogue spell.
"Elias, would you give me the honour of a duel?" Theo asked, turning towards me as he clicked his upper back.
"Of course, I'd be honoured," I smiled back excitedly.
As I moved to stretch my legs, I caught the confused face of Claire in my periphery. "What's the matter?" I asked, the same giddy smile still on my face.
"The barrier's red…" she murmured, eyes scanning over the red walls.
"What's wrong with tha-"
"Hey, Kai, shut this thing down! Something clearly isn't right!" Curtis banged against the plasma trying to get his attention.
"Maybe he can't hear us…" I murmured, eyes scanning the space. It almost seemed too cool around me, the unease of my compatriots biting into me. "I've got a bad feeling about this…"
"Come on!" Theo yelled as his fist bounced off of the force field. He gripped his wrist as he stared at the faint burns that now encased his knuckles.
"Stop being Stupid," Feyrith muttered as he twirled a strand of his hair. He turned away from the hulking augmenter towards his leader. "Isn't there an emergency shutoff or something?" Feyrith finished, already backing away from the shimmering red wall.
"Oh, you beautiful genius!" Doradrea remarked as Claire made her way to a discoloured panel on the floor.
"There, there, there!" Claire dropped to her knees beside the discoloured panel. She pried at its edge with her fingers until it popped free.
Layers of frayed wires sparked against each other. The shutoff switch that should have sat nestled among them was gone entirely, torn loose and missing.
"It's not here," she breathed, fingers hovering over the empty socket like she could will the button back into existence.
"What do you mean it's not there?" Curtis crossed the room in three strides and shoved past her to see for himself.
"I mean it's gone, Curtis, someone's ripped it out!"
"Kai!" Doradrea Yelled, understanding what happened before any of us wanted to think it.
"He set us up," Elijah said quietly.
Half the dome buckled inward with a sound like tearing canvas.
The training hall filled with bodies in the space of a single breath. Cloaked figures dropped from the rafters where they'd been waiting for their mole's signal to attack.
"FORM UP!" Claire screamed, abandoning the ruined panel, rapier already free from her dimension ring.
Doradrea's skin hardened into layered plates of stone as she planted herself at the front, an immovable wall between us and the first wave as she ploughed through their ranks.
Theo's hands came up, and the air around the nearest mage thickened, buckled, and dragged them down onto the floor with a crunch of gravity twisted against itself.
Curtis's blade caught flame as he slammed his shield into an attacker's chest, and Claire moved beside him, her rapier a blur of orange light.
"Elias, help us cover them!" Elijah called as he stood behind an onyx spike.
Since when could he…
I shook off the thought as I threw my palm out before me. Golden flame burned bright against the red light of the room. As though I were breathing, I ignited the robes of three mages before they had noticed the sudden warmth that overwhelmed them.
We continued our uneasy defence. Feyrith and Elijah fired bullets of ice and stone at the encroaching mages whose numbers only seemed to swell.
"There's too many!" Claire shouted, blood streaking her cheek from a graze I hadn't seen land.
"My, my," a voice snarled as though entertained by our struggle, "look at all you little rats scurrying."
"Lucas?" Claire called out through gritted teeth to the blonde elf, "What are you…"
"Lucas!" Elijah growled at my side.
His eyes narrowed and teeth clenched in a look of horror that didn't suit his face.
"Oh, by the way," he smirked, "Kai was the one who trapped you all in here!" Lucas laughed as he stepped over the fallen bodies of his underlings.
Not wasting a moment, he blitzed forward into our midline and released a pulse of crimson fire, sending us all flying back.
I hit the ground hard, air punched from my lungs as I skidded across the Parque flooring, my blade wrenched clean from my grip. Around me, the others fared no better.
As I stumbled back to my feet, Claire ambushed the mage. Though that too failed, as a wraith of flame freed itself from Lucas's shadow. It swung at her, but missed thanks to Doreadrea spearing her out of the way.
The two flew back, colliding hard with the wall of red plasma that halted our escape.
"Shit." I muttered, climbing to my feet as I shakily walked towards them.
The battle raged on behind me as Curtis and Theo entertained the monster.
"Hey!" I called as I almost fell over myself, "You two okay-"
I tripped over a loose tile, causing me to fall forwards.
My body landed flat on the cold floor. With a grunt, I lifted my head, finding myself lying eye level with a bracer that rested within the barrier.
I pointed at it, making sounds of enthusiasm instead of using words.
Catching what I was alluding to, the red-headed's eyes snapped to where I was pointing, and her eyes went wide with a mix of understanding and relief.
She looked to her side at the straining dwarf who knelt as she readied herself to return to the fray.
"Doradrea…" she said, pointing to the bracer with a flick of her head.
"Do you think you can make an opening big enough for us all to escape through?"
With the creaking of my joints, I forced myself to sit back up right.
"Easier said than done…" She groaned, climbing back to her feet. "I don't know what's going on with that guy, but he's way too strong…"
"I see…" Claire climbed back to her feet using her rapier as leverage. "Feyrith! Theo!" she yelled, "Use a defensive spell! We have a way to get out of here!"
Without missing a beat, the two obeyed; Theo raised a wall of Stone nearly 7 feet high and stretched nearly to the roof of the dome, as Feyrith did the same, creating a wall of translucent blue ice that acted as a second layer in case the first was breached.
"Go! Go! Go!" Doradrea called as she slammed her fist into the tiles.
A spike of stone rose where the brace once lay as it ruptured a segment of the dome nearly 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide.
"MOVE, NOW!" Claire bellowed, already hauling me up by the collar.
I didn't argue. My legs found their footing somewhere beneath me, and I threw myself towards the jagged gap Doradrea had torn open. Curtis, Elijah and Theo followed behind us, charging through the wall of red as we all pushed on into the empty corridor.
---
I stopped and pressed a hand against the wall as my breath struggled to catch up with my body.
"What the hell is going on!" I exhaled as I looked up at the four before me
"I- I-" Curtis breathed just ahead of me.
"What happened?" Theo asked as he placed a hand on his leader's shoulder. "Why is it so loud?"
"Ohh…" he breathed as he took in the sight before him.
I straightened up with a groan as I made my way towards the window they seemed so transfixed on.
"What could possibly be so-"
The words died in my throat as my mind processed the horror before me.
Beyond the glass, the courtyard I'd walked through not even an hour ago had become something else entirely. Smoke curled black against a sky burning crimson.
Students ran in every direction, screaming, and weaving between the most horrorsome beasts
"That's not possible," Curtis said, barely above a whisper. "There's no way that many beasts could've gotten in, not without-"
"Without someone letting them in," Elijah finished for him.
Claire tensed at my side as she smashed the window, sending clear shards scattering out onto the ground beyond us.
She withdrew her rapier as, without another word, she vaulted through the frame.
"Claire, wait!" Theo called, already following after her.
The two crashed to the ground and, without wasting a moment, began to carve through the beasts.
"Look at them go…" I said with a smirk.
At my side, Curtis' breath hitched as his eyes widened and all colour drained from his already pale face. "Kat," Curtis breathed as his head swivelled to face me, "Elias, Kat's on campus!"
"Shit!" I ran a hand down my face as I paced around the small space. "She's probably in the training room, so she's fine," I reassured both of us.
"How do you even know that?!" he roared, turning to face me. "She could be-"
"She isn't!" I shouted back as I looked him square in the eyes, "She can't be!"
"I'll go over the-"
"No!" I snatched his wrist as he began to stride away.
He looked at me with a scowl, "What!"
"You have a bond, and you and Grawder, as well as Elijah," I nodded towards my black-haired friend who watched with one eye whilst his other flickered at the horror before him. "Having more people out here able to fight is more pressing, even if she is more important to us."
"I know, Lias, it's just-"
"I know, I have a sister too, Curtis… Do you trust me?"
He let out a heavy breath as he resolved himself. "I do," he nodded, withdrawing his sword and shield from his dimension ring.
"Then please leave finding her to me."
He smiled at me as he vaulted himself through the window, joining Claire and Theo in the chaos that continued on below us.
"Good luck," I said towards Elijah.
He nodded in kind as he followed the others into fire and blood.