"What is that knocking?" The headmaster asked as he sat up in bed and woke up his wife, "Do you hear that?"
"Huh? What?" She looked around, "Someone is knocking at our door," She claimed as she stood up and looked out of the window before gasping, "It's Uri," The angel was still carrying the weak mage, "He is hurt," Damia rushed down the steps of their house as the headmaster hurried to follow her. The two of them arrived outside as the silent summon helped Uri stand up, the damage sustained on the angel painted a grim picture, "What happened, Uri?" She made him lean on her shoulder as the headmaster aided her to help him walk.
After a few minutes of sitting in the headmaster's home Uri could finally see clearly and breathe normally, "How are you feeling, Uri?" Damia asked as she checked his numerous bruises and the young mage realized that he had probably passed out from the pain for a few minutes after the battle with Vertigo, "What happened?"
"They, they came."
"They?" The headmaster asked, "The Hand of Reality?"
"The thumb of the Hand of Reality," Uri replied, "Vertigo Orves," The two teachers looked at each other with concern on their face, "He beat me up pretty well."
"You just faced one of the most powerful mages in history, Uri," The headmaster sighed, "He is wanted in every single plane and has more than a few murders to his name."
"I hit him a few times," Uri grinned before wincing in pain, "He wanted the same thing as the last two."
"The magic?" He nodded. The head of the fire school continued to use a textbook from the infirmary as she checked Uri's body, "What were you doing out so late?"
"Practicing my magic," He said before wincing in pain once more as Damia touched his ribs, "I was able to use another spell but then he arrived and ruined my training."
"Ruined is maybe an understatement," Damia commented, "I don't think you have anything broken, you will just have bruises but I will have one of the people on the infirmary list look at you to make sure. The mage nodded and turned to the headmaster.
"Thank you, Mrs. Solven," Uri said, "Vertigo seemed to have this uncanny ability to simply ignore my attacks, he took a few on the chin but some seemed to barely register," The older man sighed, "Is he using a new type of magic?"
"No, not at all," The headmaster pulled out a book that Uri recognized, "Vertigo was an student here, a very powerful fire mage," Uri looked at the page that the headmaster had pointed out, "He is older than I am and I only saw him once as a late 5th year student when I entered this academy."
"Is he using fire magic to accomplish that type of power?"
"I believe it is a mix of magics, old and new, in order to achieve that type of power," The headmaster replied, "He empowers himself, based on what little we know of his crimes, the tattoos on his body are old runes that give his magic more power, well, that is the theory."
"They glow."
"Yes, each with different meanings, but what exactly, I don't believe that information exists."
"Red is power, blue is speed, green is," Uri paused, "I couldn't tell you, he is abnormally fast and strong to begin with, they were purple when he hit me in the end."
"Red, blue, green, purple," The headmaster repeated to himself as he wrote what Uri had mentioned in a thick and well used notebook, "Where did this battle happen?"
"Training area, um, 3?" Uri tried to stand and winced in pain as he did, "I need some sleep I think."
"Do you want me to walk with you?" The headmaster asked, standing up from his chair. Uri shook his head as he began walking, pain written on his face as he did, "Well, be careful," As Damia opened the door for him then closed it behind him, the headmaster sighed, "We need to get to the end of this."
"This is the second time those brutes have gotten past our security," Benjamin nodded, "I know you know but we need to protect our students."
"I will call a meeting tomorrow evening, I have never seen this before," Damia placed her hand on his shoulder.
"I don't think anyone has," The two returned to their bedroom, protecting Uri was now more of an issue than before with history's most dangerous mages targeting him.
Uri sat up from his bed, his body covered in bruises from the previous night's brawl with the thumb of the Hand of Reality. The pain had kept him up during the night and he had only managed a few hours of sleep before the sunlight made him turn to avoid it in his sleep and the pain shot to his brain, forcing him awake. The sun was not completely out from its hiding space behind the hills of Mage Haven. With a groan, Uri stood up and felt how rigid his body felt, everything was sore, everything hurt. Even the small movements like rubbing his eyes made him painfully aware of his body's condition, "I expected worse," He mumbled to himself as he looked in the mirror of his room and tried to see all the bruises and scrapes, "The thumb of the Hand of Reality," He scoffed before wincing in pain, "If I can turn things my way without any magic, I just need to get better and that'll be enough."
"Uri?" He recognized the voice as Henry's, a teacher in training who was one of the infirmary personnel, "I was told to check on you."
"Come in if you want," Uri was half naked, bruises littered on his torso and scraps on his legs and arms, "How have you been, Henry?"
"I am good, but what happened to you?" He asked as Uri turned to face him and revealed the massive bruise on his abdomen, "Did you attack a bull?"
"In a way, yeah," Henry nodded and looked at the cuts on his arms, "Just here to check on me?"
"Mrs. Solven told me that she had looked at your injuries but since she isn't a life mage, she can't heal those wounds," Henry quickly cast a spell with one hand as he continued to look at the bruises, "I won't be able to stop those from hurting, however," As the spell resolved, the scrapes that were not closed and were still open cuts quickly sealed, simply leaving small scars in their place, "There you go."
"Was that mend wounds?" Henry nodded, "Ah, a 4th year spell, not something I am going to get to yet this year."
"I expected you to know these spells already," He joked, "You're dating little miss Solven after all."
"Well, I did get all of my 3rd year spells already," Henry laughed as he headed to the door, "Thank you."
"No problem, if you need anything, I am on infirmary duty for the upcoming weeks," Uri nodded as the older student left his room. He looked at the collection of scars on his arms and legs and sighed. Kelly was certainly going to notice something had happened if her parents hadn't told her already, more things for his girlfriend to worry about.