Shannon

What...

What just happened? What did I just see?

Hyde had somehow managed to read my every move. Everything! It was like he was playing with me and just when I though I had him THAT happened.

I looked down at my hand where my sword had been a moment before. My loyal sword that could pierce anything. The one that I had spent all this time honing. It was my spell. Mine! A blade of ice that could slice through and freeze anything it touched. I had boosted my resistances to the max so that I could hold it without it freezing my hand. My resistance was my pride and joy.

Building up your resistance was a side-effect of your mastery. The better I was at the ice part of water magic the less it would hurt if used against me. On top of that, I had trained my speed and swordsmanship so that I could end a match in seconds since the spell to maintain my sword was so costly.

But at this moment, my heartbeat was drowning out the crowd's cheers for me. Hyde had been sent tumbling behind me, but my sword hadn't pierced him. It was only a moment and I'm sure if it hadn't been for luck, I never would have noticed exactly what had happened. The moment my sword should have pierced his outstretched hand, his eyes...

... by the spirits his EYES! HYDE HAD DEMON EYES! And they weren't like anything I'd ever seen or experienced before. Most demon eyes were fairly simple in design even if they had a complex purpose. But Hyde's were unsettlingly complex. Red magic circles spun, grew, and shrunk. They were layered so thickly there must have been hundreds, no thousands of them since they filled up the whites of his eyes. They looked like they stretched beyond that covering his entire eyeball with a sea of swirling blood red circles and symbols.

He only showed them for a moment. The moment right before his hand touched my sword. I replayed the moment in my head of my sword disintegrating before him. Hyde even had the presence of mind to roll in the air so that he wouldn't crash into me. The audience had completely misread the situation. I'd been outplayed, outsmarted, and outmatched.

I... I couldn't touch him with my magic, I couldn't freeze him with my spells, and I couldn't cut him with my sword. His resistance must have been far greater than mine... which could only mean that he was truly the better mage. The moment he had shattered my ice lance with his own I had completely misread the situation.

I had thought he had simply smashed it with his fist... but when he had cast that spell, he was testing our resistances. His spell hadn't shattered it, it had stolen the magic that created it. For someone with a lower resistance than mine it would have never worked so I had brushed it off. But he had wasted nothing. And when I was about to stab him, he had cast my spell and had stolen my sword via the magic that created and maintained it.

I felt my vision blur a little at the fringes as I stared at my empty hand. My heart thundered in my ears and my world spun. Those eyes, that magic, his skill. He... he was a monster... is this what it was like to fight a Warlock? This... fear.

He... he could kill me.

Am I going to die?

Could I even hope to survive this match?

By sheer force of will I turned around to see him stand up. He didn't have a sword in his hand... he had a wand. An ice wand that looked exactly like mine.

No...

He had done everything up to this point without a focus. He had done this much with his bare hands and now he had a wand. My wand, made with my magic. He held it above his head and his sharpened teeth sent shivers through me as he grinned.

"Shannon, he's using the ambient magic!" My master warned.

That snapped me back from my fear-induced stupor. I noticed the distortion in the air behind him and I flicked my wand at it to try and take control of it or at least contest him for control of it. But the moment I locked it, it had just... locked.

"Made you look." Hyde smiled and a water whip from behind me slapped the wand from my hand. A moment later a strange water dragon wrapped itself around my body sealing my movements and the dual heads locked their mouths around my neck so that their fangs just barely pinched. I lost control of the ambient magic behind him and he used it to fuel hundreds of piercingly thin lances aimed right at me.

With a wave of his whole arm they pierced the ground around me forming a glacier of death that had nearly taken my life. Nothing could have prepared me for the way I was overwhelmed. Something, there had to be something I could do!

I searched my mind for a counterspell, a hidden technique, anything!

In the meantime, he made a giant Katana out of ice and aimed it right for me.

Hyde stood poised to strike but suddenly lowered his guard. "You are exceptionally talented. I'm truly sorry about the way we acted. It looks like you won."

"Huh?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Hyde looked at something off in the distance. There wasn't anyone there. But he pointed the wand and the giant sword flew in that direction. I watched as the sword buried itself into an empty portion of the air as a whistling shadow buzzed by my ear. I looked next to me and noticed a black arrow buried in the ice. It had nearly missed me and had come from the same space where the sword had disappeared into.

An explosion happened simultaneously, and my blood ran cold. The only spell I knew of that had the power to attack through a scrying spell was a pool of water inside the security office of the mansion.

As I had that thought I felt the familiar hum as the magical security system engaged locking all of us inside the mansion.

My master's security system locked down the estate and mingled it with a dark world space to create an endless series of corridors that could be monitored from the security room fountain. Meanwhile, the agents in the security room could pick off the intruders through the special scrying pool. But if someone had infiltrated the estate and taken over the security room that meant things were very bad.

"Damn, I only got one of them. But that should at least stop further attacks for a while." Hyde's attitude had completely changed. He clapped his hand as if brushing off some dirt. He pulled something rectangular out of his back pocket and dropped it on the ground. He said something and it grew into the briefcase he had walked in with. With a kick, it popped open and he stomped in it. A wreath of flame crawled up from the case and wrapped around his torn up clothes replacing them with a fresh tailored suit. "Good thing I also came prepared." He said as he straightened his new shirt.

Julie ran over as Hyde freed me from the icicle prison around me. "So what's the plan?" She asked.

At that moment the entrance doors at the far end of the room burst open and a horde of demon beasts charged into the room. They were led by a manticore, a giant lion with a scorpion-like tail that could shoot poison spines.

Screams erupted from the general crowd and some brave individuals fired magic into the midst of the beasts but for some reason they seemed far too resistant. Sable and the student council members created a barrier and began evacuating people on one of the second story viewing platforms. Julie held out her hand and created her own barrier that protected Hyde and me.

"I summon thee, holy women of the man-eating vine." Julie held up her right arm with the underside up. A black tattoo with five slots appeared on it. Green vines erupted from it and an entangling grove sprouted in front of her. More vines sprouted forth and intercepted the poison barbs the Manticore threw at us.

Three gigantic rosebuds bloomed revealing three green skinned women that wore elaborate shaman-like outfits with flashy headdresses and staffs. "Things are getting exciting, mistress." One of them said.

"The manticore, can you take him?" Julie asked.

"There is something strange about it, we shall try." One of the plant women said and they turned their attention to the manticore.

"Alright, we were only paid to protect the princess. I say we get out of here and meet at the rendezvous." Hyde said.

"Protect me, what are you talking about?" I asked.

Magus Kallit walked up to us holding her elaborate staff. "Go with them, Shannon. I'll buy you some time and then go to the Security room myself." Magus Kallit waved her staff and summoned a tide of water.

"But-" Shannon tried to argue.

"You must go, a few demon beasts will not stop me." She spun her staff around and jets of water reacted in response as beasts made it around the giant vines.

"Magus Kallit, if I blow down that wall what will be on the other side?" Hyde asked.

"The security system has been engaged, normally it would be infirmary, but with the space being warped, it would probably lead to the endless maze of corridors. But the walls are enchanted, especially in here to resist the strength of demi-god level spells." She answered.

"Can you dispel the enchantment on just this closest section of wall? I think I have just the thing, but it's messy." Hyde smiled.

"Only for a second. Shannon, cover me. They are tough, so focus on restraining them or you'll burn through too much magic too fast." Magus Kallit didn't miss a beat, and as she turned from the demon beasts, I picked up my wand and flicked it toward the onrushing beasts. I used the ambient magic and created as many water whips as I could gather to tie up several large cats and trip a handful of boars while the giant wolves started gnawing at the vines and snapped at the water whips. These were no ordinary demon beasts it was like they were working together.

Hyde pulled out a magic wand that looked more like a pointed horn or a stake carved from a stick pulled off the side of the road than a Warlock's wand. Then he used a chant I'd never heard before as he pointed it at a section of wall. "Arming Charlie four, directional explosion, anchor: right palm." He took a deep breath, "Alright stay behind me, don't look at the explosion and cover your ears if you can."

My blood chilled when I felt the magic building in the wand. He let go of it and it hovered an inch away from his palm as he aimed his palm at the wall. The magic inside the wand gathered to the point where the wand could barely contain it. As if trying to escape the wood cracked as yellow light tried to force its way out through the wood grains.

"You'll only have a three second window, on my mark." Magus Kallit began twisting magic circles in the air in front of her. A mirrored set appeared over the portion of wall in question. Then in response to her will both of them shattered like a stain glass window. "Now Warlock."

"Now you see it," Hyde chanted and braced his forearm as he took aim while the wand twisted in the air as more yellow light was drawn into its spiral. "Now you don't, Abracadabra!" He shouted a word I'd never heard before.

When he had finished the strange chant, the wand whistled through the air, and a deafening explosion unlike any fire magic I'd experienced before, erupted from the wall. A shockwave rattled my bones and I nearly lost my footing from the way it shook the ground. I had reflexively shut my eyes and when I opened them a hole the size of a small house had been made in the mansion masonry.

"We need to move, Princess!" Hyde grabbed my hand since I was too dumbfounded by the magic I had just seen. He dragged me through the hole and when I took one last look back, I saw the Manticore and wolves working together to take down the green vine ladies who gave their fiercest war cries in response. My master and a handful of magic knights went to their rescue, but it looked like they were going to be too late since one of the vine women just had her head bitten off and a portion of the vines died.

"Julie! We are going to need something with quick feet this time!" Hyde called. Once we were through the hole there was a loud cacophony of roars down the left hallway. Hyde let go and reached into the pockets of his jacket. With his left hand he slapped a bracelet onto his right wrist. It snapped into place and runes began glowing on it. With his right hand he pulled out five crudely made wooden wands. He began his mysterious chanting style. "Arming foxtrot one through five, red shell formation, anchor: right wrist."

The wood of the wands crackled as red glowing power filled them with energy. They then began floating in an orbit around his right wrist while pointed forward. "Program start. Fire bullet: shotgun mode. Output: three percent rapid fire. Initiate Program: This is my BOOMSTICK!" Hyde finished his chant just as the first boars were barreling down on us.

He pointed two fingers at the oncoming enemies with his thumb pointed straight up. The wands began spinning counterclockwise and then when he was starting down the open maw of the boar, he twitched his thumb and there was a loud crack of magic as the boar was flung backwards from being filled with tiny smoking holes. Hyde braced his forearm with his free hand and fired at any boar and wolf that came too close.

"I'm on it!" Julie said as she rolled her shoulders and a giant white fox leapt from a tattoo, I could have sworn she didn't have. She also held out her left arm and began a new chant.

"I know you aren't dead weight, Princess. I need you to plug up that hole and this hallway, I can't keep this up all day!" Hyde ordered.

Everything was just happening so fast. I'd been in many duels, but I've never fought demon beasts that were so large or numerous. How did so many show up, we were supposed to have protection from demon beast outbreaks. This wasn't possible there was no way this could be happening!

"Move it or lose it, Lady!" Hyde shouted.

"Sing thou lonely woman of the ice, thy tears bring the blizzard, thy will freezes the guilty." Julie pushed me aside and a storm of ice was released from her arm. It coalesced into a pale woman dressed in a long flowing kimono. The very ground beneath her feet began to freeze and it seemed as if she instinctively knew Julie's will. The pale lady flicked open two ornate fans and waved them at the mountain of stampeding foes.

"Fly, my lady! I will hold them off as long as I am able." The pale lady urged as every wave of her fans sent out a storm of magic that froze everything they touched.

Hyde took the cue to turn around together he and Julie hoisted me up on the back of something large and fluffy.

"I'm not a sack of luggage!" I protested as I tried to right myself on the fox that began sprinting away from the frozen hallway.

"Then stop acting like one!" Hyde admonished as he followed behind us on a four-legged Peryton. An animal like a griffon but replaced the eagle part with a stag. However, he didn't even look at me as he carefully inspected the charred and smoldering remains of what was left of the five wands circling his wrist.

The notable cry of a large cat caught our attention. Back in the crowd of monsters one large feline jumped and used its hind legs to double kick one of the frozen statues that was formally it's ally. In doing so it snapped off the head and sent it sailing at the pale lady smashing her to pieces like a glass statue.

"Those aren't normal demon beasts!" Julie called.

"I've only ever seen familiars and high ranked kings move like that." Hyde shouted then he looked panicked as the others caught on and started kicking ice projectiles at us. "We've got incoming!" He said as he pulled to the side and dodged the lower half of a frozen boar that flew by us.

"Inari's pits!" Julie cursed as we dodged chunks of ice. "I've neither known either to do things like this!"

"They are conscripts! That's the only reason they'd run over each other like that!" Hyde exclaimed. "Take this right!" He ordered.

"You can't be serious! How are their so many of them!" Julie followed Hyde as he turned down one of the hallways.

"I'll let you know when it's my job to figure it out!" Hyde growled. "As much as I like running through an endless maze until we kill everyone or get eaten, I'm open to other, preferably better, ideas!" Hyde aimed his wands back toward the corner. "Now you see it, now you don't. Abracadabra!" The stubs of the wands flew as if they had been fired from a crossbow. They struck a demon beast as it rounded the corner and exploded.

"Um, how many of those do you have left." Julie asked as demon beasts jumped through the smoke of the explosion.

"I'm armed to the teeth, but they weren't going to let me in with enough to take on an army by myself." Hyde answered.

"Can you guide us to the security room?" Julie asked me.

"The Layout is randomized." I confessed.

"Hyde are we still being watched?" She asked, and I looked to see Hyde scanning the upper corners of the room.

"Yep, but it's weak it seems like their attention is split." He said as his eyes followed a spot until we had to turn another corner.

"Can you guide us there based on how anxious they get as we get closer?" Julie asked.

Hyde beamed. "You're a genius, Julie." He pulled out a wand and aimed it ahead of us. "Let's get their attention!"