Annah didn't buy the insult and withdrew the Petri-dish from the drawer and placed it above the desk. Tying up her hair into a messy bun, her brows furrowed while she tried to find something.
"Where is it?"
"Make it quick, slowpoke," Ricco demanded.
"I can't find the knife in here." Annah kept looking for it since it was needed to cut her flesh and draw some blood for the manipulation.
"Oh for heaven's sake." Ricco grabbed her hand, hovered it above the Petri-dish.
"What are you, ah!" Annah slightly jolted in pain when Ricco's nail protruded rather longer than usual and had his thumb cut on her palm in an inch diagonal direction.
"Stay still will you?" Ricco snapped while concentrating on collecting her blood into the dish while she did blink in an uncomfortable manner, feeling the throbbing pain of the wound his nail created to her flesh.
As they collected enough blood on the dish, Ricco let go of her hand as she immediately covered it with a handkerchief. She then watched Ricco draw ancient spells in a flat board provided for such spell, referring to the book for caution. One wrong stroke of the spell, disaster was likely.
Annah once again jolted in fright when there was a couple of loud explosion across their table. It was Basik and Rex as well as Nevi and Sebastian's tables. Their spells failed and they lost their consciousness right there.
"Morons." Professor Toc dismissively said, sending the four students in the infirmary using the manipulation spells for transport. The Evanesce.
"Eyes on here, nitwit." Ricco snarled at her and Annah can't help to notice how he got serious over the activity. Well, it was her first time sitting beside the jerk ass and she didn't know that he could be this serious about his study. She always had thought he was flippant over every class, acting so privileged since he's the prince.
"I was frightened, alright?" Annah defended.
"And we'll be exploded like them if we dare make one mistake. I won't allow it, you mongrel." Ricco snapped while referring to the book and continued to draw the spells around the flat board. Annah tried her best to ignore the explosions around the class until she didn't notice that they were the only pair left inside the classroom since all of the students had been transported into the infirmary.
"Now, read it carefully and slowly," Ricco said after he had written all the spells on the board.
Annah began to concentrate reading it out loud in a language of an Aryan until she made it to the last word and had her finger dipped to the dish. She then wrote her name carefully on the board with her blood, making all the symbols around her name lighted up in scarlet, every symbol disintegrated into fine dust gradually ascending up above them.
The professor stood up from his seat and went to the table of Ricco and Annah.
The dust danced in the winds above them as if it had its own mind.
"Very good, Ricco and Annah." Professor Toc said while Annah was grinning from ear to ear as she looked at the professor then to the dust. "Now kill it, Ricco."
Ricco held up his hand and muttered a simple annihilation spell before snapping his palm close, making the scarlet dust drop down to the flat board. His attention went to his side when Annah suddenly dropped to her side into unconsciousness.
"Weak hybrid." Professor Toc only muttered before going back to his table, gathering his things, and going to the door. "Bring her to the infirmary and make her drink dark chocolate shake."
Ricco only grimaced to the professor before he looked to his side again." Wake up, mixed blood." he shook her but she won't even budge. Got no choice, he then looked at his book again and read about the precaution in casting the spell. Where the only blood of a human was needed in the said activity and the only creature that can conjure such magic. But in exchange, a life was needed for it. Looking at the symbol again, he knew that professor Toc noticed that he didn't include the death spell.
Annah groaned under her breath, making him look at her side. "Kwon you jerk..."
With a smirk written on his face, he reached out on the dish with a few of her blood left in there and brought it to his lips. He tipped it to his mouth's opening and down the remaining liquid. "Filthy blood." he muttered in the silence of the empty classroom, looking down to Annah again while licking the blood staining on his lips.
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Annah woke up in the darkness of her room while she hugged her pillow. She looked around and saw through the window that it was already dark.
"Oh gosh, my head." She groaned when her vision was spinning. She turned her head to the desk to see what time was it. A flask was placed beside the clock with a note written in it. She frowned since the handwriting certainly didn't belong to Maine at all.
Drink this to rid of the headache
-J-
"J? Jason?" She muttered and reached over the flask and opened it. A dark chocolate shake wafted her nose with its pleasant scent. A smile then appeared on her lips as she brought it to her mouth and drank from it. Its gentle warmness filled her inside with comfort that her headache actually dissipated.
After emptying the flask, she stretched widely and reached to turn on the light inside the room. The clock showed seven in the evening and yet Maine wasn't still in the dorm.
Then she remembered what happened in the manipulation subject where the whole class except her and Ricco were sent into infirmary after a series of explosions of failed activities. She frowned on why she suddenly felt a tingling sensation in there before she lost her consciousness. Remembering it, Ricco must have had a time of his life making fun of how she passed out during the activity.
"That jerk." She murmured. She went to her wardrobe to change her academy's uniform into her casual one, planning on checking her friend. She washed the flask first, planning on returning it to Jason who bothered to drop her something to drink despite his busy schedules around the academy.