The very first school day of the new week was bustling with a crowd of warlock and witch apprentices.
Don't these people ever get tired of coming to these classes?
Couldn't they think to themselves for once... oh, I think I've attended enough classes for the week, let me just miss the ones for today.
A day of absence won't hurt anyone.
That wasn't the case from the crowd that I was seeing as I arrived. Even I had become part of that crowd.
Unlike how I usually felt most of the mornings, today, I felt less pessimistic about today.
Reaching my class, I opened and everyone was already present.
I was hit with a storm of meaningless chats, noises and laughter that I paused for a moment and glanced at the door.
It was Emerald class for sure and I was still at the right place.
For the most part, they were talking about the picnic that happened over the weekend.
"Yo, Greg!" I called to him as I approached.
"I heard you were sick. You missed a lot, man," I said.
Gregory turned around and scanned the class before looking back at me.
"I suppose so."
He wasn't in as much bad shape as Elizabeth told me. I'm sure he was alright now or at least much better.
Gregory adjusted his glasses over his face, carefully moving them to avoid tampering with the plaster on his cheek that covered a healing cut.
I tapped both the plaster and his cheek and smiled.
"You'll be fine."
"Dee!" he yelled, slapping my hand off his cheek, only to realise that my touch wasn't as painful as his brain had anticipated.
It wasn't even painful at all.
I walked over to my seat, hung my bag on my chair and sat down.
I turned to Liz and gave her a high five and she smiled at me with a curious look on her face.
"Hey, Liz."
"You look bright today, Dee," she said, "I'm surprised you haven't absconded from school yet."
I made a face at her. "Hehe, very funny, Liz."
We both laughed.
I inhaled deeply. "It's a beautiful day, Liz. Might as well make the most of it."
She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows like she was thinking about it for a second.
"I guess you're right."
I turned to Jasmine. "Hello, Jas."
She scoffed and ignored me, focusing on whatever it was that she was writing.
"Okay?"
I simply shrugged and without thinking much about it, I turned my attention to other things.
...
...
...
After another half hour passed, Miss Dorian walked in and as she normally did, she garnered all the attention to herself.
Bolzen reflexively whistled out loud and immediately covered his mouth and darted his eyes around.
We all heard it and we all knew it was him. Miss Double D did too but she only chuckled.
"You look beautiful today, Miss Dorian," Bolzen shamelessly followed up with a compliment in a struggle to save face.
Miss Dorian smiled and dropped her bag where she usually did.
It was all cool and nice but I could sense the intensity from Sheila's eyes when she looked at Bolzen.
If she could shoot lasers from her beautiful brown eyes, Bolzen might have been dead already.
"Thank you, Mister Stuchen. But I will only take this one compliment, you know. Don't bother about giving more if you want to continue in my class."
Everyone laughed at her response whereas Bolzen sank into his chair, disarmed, defeated and ashamed.
But damn, what Miss Double D wore today was something else.
I did say before that I hoped I would run into her outside of the Academy because... oh well, you don't need to know why.
She tucked in a small part of her tight white shirt that had come loose into her wine-red colour skirt.
She was a double d and wearing such type of shirt didn't help as her bosoms were bulging in the shirt and the second button of her shirt was barely hanging on for its life.
She turned to write on the board, showing off her curvaceous backside that was perfectly accentuated by the skirt she wore. It wasn't too short and it wasn't too long either.
Her dress today was perfect, as professional as it was seductive. All in equal measures.
"Ahem, I hope we're all getting better with the broomstick riding, yeah?"
"Yes, ma'am!" we chroused.
Even those who hadn't practised their Ascensio spell since the last class chorused alongside us.
"That's good because today we will be learning a new spell... a special kind of spell that's different from Ascensio. We'll be learning a defence spell which most mages, if not all, of the Mage Society practise too."
She looked back at us and pointed to the whiteboard.
"Today and for the next two weeks, we'll be learning the defence spell called Vallo Obstructum."
Vallo Obstructum.
I loved the name of the spell.
It sounded cool to pronounce but for our level as second years, I could guess that it wouldn't be more than a magic wall or a magic shield or maybe a magicked body... no, that last one is too advanced.
Tch!
Per our normal routine, Miss Dorian did a teaching session that lasted a few hours, explaining the mechanism of casting a Vallo Obstructum spell and after that, a quick question and answer session followed before we moved to one of the fields for the real practice.
The field practice mattered most to Miss Dorian Dandelion because with magic, anyone could read the theories and understand them but when it came to actually casting the spells, that was why it got a bit tricky.
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...
GRRR!
Raspy gasps of breath echoed inside a large murky space that was layered with large pipes that were connected one way or another.
The chest of a tall hulking creature with a dark purple armour for skin heaved as he breathed fast.
The creature growled and exhaled hot air.
This place reeked of shit water. A deathly stench that came from the dirty, still water in this place.
It was the underground sewers of the Silver City.
The creature growled as he sunk its sharp claws into the belly of a dead body. The bodies were lined up, about seven of them.
The beast excavated the liver of this corpse, blood soiling its claws as it continued to mutter one name.
'White'.
Then he went for the heart, digging deep into this body.
The beast effortlessly tore through the muscles and crushed the bones of the ribcage that stood in his way until he reached the quiescent heart of the corpse.
'White'.
For every organ the beast savaged, he mentioned White's name.
The eyes.
He gorged out both eyeballs and while they yet bled, the beast tore them right out of their sockets, pulling the optic nerve and a part of the softened, slimy brain matter along with it.
'White'.
The lungs, the kidneys, the testicles and the guts.
The beast went for it all while calling White's name.
Then he started to flay the skin of the corpse.
"I will get you for sure, White," the beast swore.
He peered forward, revealing its raging pearlescent white eyes and a drooling maw.
The beast was a familiar creature — Notsack the Lust Demon.
It was Notsack who lurked in these sewers.
What was he plotting?
What was he creating in such a dark space?