"Well, I finished my business, now we can return to the castle," he thought and began to turn towards the castle.
"Give it back to me, Boy," a voice came from behind Calder.
Without thinking about anything, using only reflexes, driven by fear, the guy rushed to the nearest tree, which turned out to be two meters away. His heart was beating like crazy, the fear was incredibly great.
At the last moment, he somersaulted behind him, the tree, passing the grayish blade of the spell over his head, which flew on without touching him.
"Fuck, how can this be? - Looking at the truly gigantic tree that was half cut off by the spell, Calder thought, pressing his back against the saving trunk of another tree. Drops of cold sweat ran down his forehead. - Fuck, fuck. Why am I so unlucky, huh? One such hit and I'm dead. Neither a magical aura nor metamorphism can save you. No, the latter could save him if he was prepared, but there is absolutely no time for that. Fucking Snape, Fucking Tom. Is that why I don't feel you?"
As soon as he relaxed for a moment, the black claws of a giant hand appeared right in front of him, in his magical vision, inexorably approaching him in an attempt to destroy him. As if in slow motion, Calder watched death approach him, he felt its breath on the back of his neck. The soul shuddered in horror, but there was something else, not entirely clear to the mind, but no less significant.
At the last moment, he managed to pull himself out using telekinesis, straight up, and this saved him. The tree behind which he was hiding shrank in an instant, and then turned gray, as if all the juice had been drained from it.
"Run, you have to run," - only this thought beat in panic in his skull. He did not resist her, but rather followed her. Letting go of the branch he had grabbed after the jerk, he jumped to the ground and began to run rapidly.
A dark figure was running through the forest, seemingly blurring from the speed of movement. His legs were somehow strange, as if deformed, his knees were bent in the opposite direction, but this did not bother him at all, on the contrary, it helped.
Following on her heels was another, larger one, wrapped in a black robe and sparkling with bright red, almost bloody eyes. She emanated a lust for murder, as well as an incredibly ominous mana. All the way this figure "sent" various spells to the smaller one. Multi-colored rays of "light" painted the space in different tones, thereby creating a light show.
Bend down - he will pass the blade above himself, with a wave of his wand he will transfigure the steel shield behind his back, into which a moment later a bright green spell reminiscent of lightning, which is visible even in the normal spectrum, fell. The shield could not withstand this collision, collapsing into ordinary steel chips, but it completed its assigned task with honor. Grab a tree trunk with your clawed paw and sharply change the direction of movement by ninety degrees, passing a kaleidoscope of colors of various spells above you.
"Now he's already throwing avadami," flashed through the guy's head. "If I just run away, sooner or later he will catch up with me."
Hiding behind a tree, he took a short breath, but after a moment he rushed on. The poor tree instantly burst into flames like a match, burning with a bright red flame. It took only two seconds for the century-old tree to burn to the ground.
Will and desire merged in an instant - a whole wave of Psi energy flies towards the pursuing figure. Having hit Tom, she disoriented him for several seconds, although she should have at least put him to sleep.
"Fucking monster."
This is what Calder took advantage of, putting distance between himself and him with the help of a whip grown from his hand. While running, he was able to verify its effectiveness.
- R-r-A! - a roar filled with rage was heard. In an instant, the forest was illuminated by a bright light. The trees burst into flames in an instant, creating a kind of wall that chased the guy. And in the center of this flame there flew a figure that directed this flame. I react to the waves of his hand, the fiery tongues swirled, forming fiery snakes and dragons that rushed in pursuit of Calder. There was no end to them.
"Yes, when will you leave behind!" - he roared in his thoughts.
Having touched the tree, he sharply, as if from a catapult, jerked upward. It was not a flight, no, it was an ordinary jerk using telekinesis.
Stone panels began to appear under the guy's feet, from which he pushed away the moment they appeared. As soon as he pushed away, they disappeared, leaving nothing behind.
Having risen to a sufficient height, he created a thick fog that, with a wave of his hand, flew towards Voldemort. Despite the result, the boy abruptly went back to the ground.
Having jumped to the ground and felt safe, Calder felt a sharp pain in his right side. Looking down, he noticed tongues of flame that took the form of a snake that, having bitten him, began to devour him.
- Get out! — a wave of mana rushed to the sides. The snake disappeared with sparks in the wind, and the guy, already running, spurred on the body's resources to heal the wound.
Running, jumping and somersaults. This went on for about ten minutes. Calder only occasionally cast spells at Tom. Each time, well-aimed spells drove Voldemort to the edge more and more, which was only to the boy's advantage. Tom was losing touch with reality more and more.
The distance increased with every second, but it was clear that the dark magician would not easily leave behind.
"A little more," flashed through the boy's head, looking intently ahead. "A little more and everything will be much simpler."
Trees entwined with cobwebs loomed ahead. Calder rushed into the acramantulas' grounds at full speed, bending down so as not to touch the branches, however, he did not disturb a single cobweb. And after him, like a tank, Tom flew in. Everything in his path burned, it seemed he didn't even notice where he was flying. And no wonder, such a kaleidoscope of emotions was in him now that you wonder how he still thinks? This only plays into the guy's hands; there is a greater chance of escape.
The running became slower, but the path itself became much more confusing. The boys led the dark magician to places with large concentrations of cobwebs, which he destroyed. Soon the owners of this territory should come to the uninvited guest and punish for such an act of vandalism.
*Crunch-crunch* *Crunch-Crunch* Suddenly the forest was filled with the sounds of moving claws. Spiders of various sizes, from a matchbox to a hefty bull, crawled out of all the cracks. There were thousands, tens of thousands of them.
"They are here!" - the boys exclaimed while watching a particularly large spider. Gigantic paws ending in sharp "blades". A shaggy belly, a wide shell and bloody eyes.
Without waiting any longer, Calder disappeared behind the nearest tree trunk, along the way, using blades instead of hands, fighting off several dozen arthropods that decided to feed on them. The boy was completely oblivious to the bites and blows of other spiders, all his attention was focused on escaping.
Having climbed to the very top of the tree with the help of his claws, he sharply jerked upward, using all his mental forces. His leap was incredible, after a moment he found himself at a height exceeding the tallest trees and even higher. Without being confused, Calder, with a wave of his wand, created something like a hang glider around himself. Firmly grasping the hang glider, he smoothly flew over the treetops.
The gliding over the trees didn't last long. A couple of minutes and he had to get down from his vehicle. The hang glider itself crashed into a tree, breaking off the top a little. Well, Calder didn't know how to control a hang glider sufficiently. But this was enough; in just a couple of minutes he was able to fly almost half a mile to the side.
Hiding behind a tree, the boy calmed Manu down and canceled all the metamorphic transformations that had been excited after all these races. After a couple of seconds he succeeded. Having renewed the Hidden spell once again, he went back to the castle, carefully looking around.
Half an hour later, Calder entered his classroom and tiredly slid his back against the door. He was silent, but gradually a small trembling began to beat him. First a limb, then the whole body. But then he raised his head to the ceiling and...
- Ha-ha-ha-ha! — a bright, emotion-filled laugh escaped from his mouth. He was filled with some kind of crazy joy. A couple of tears fell from his eyes. The whole body trembled to match the laughter. And the bluish light in the eyes pulsated to the sounds of this crazy laughter. - I did it! I survived! Ha ha ha! It was fucking scary, but I did it!
For about five minutes the young man walked away from this adventure. Having calmed down, he carefully took out a bottle of silver liquid.
"And it turned out to be an incredibly fun activity." Perhaps even when we don't repeat it, Tom," Calder said into the void, watching the glare of light that fell on the blood. Now his thoughts were oh so far away, but still his eyes did not stop watching the dance of the rays of light.
He survived and that's the most important thing.
*****
Fifth of April, Hogwarts Castle, Room of Help, Calder.
For several minutes now I have been looking at the books and see nothing in it. The thick Talmud was full of knowledge on mentalism, but at the moment I had no time for it, far from it. All this time that I sat in prostration, I was digesting the information that I managed to read in the same book. This information was finally able to explain many things to me, and allowed me to look at even more from a different perspective.
I finally managed to find an explanation for my rash actions, as well as understand my empathy. This has been bothering me for several months now.
According to the textbook, I am a newly awakened empant, not the strongest, but not the weakest either. Not every psionicist can become an empant, at least at the beginning of training; over time, it opens up for everyone. But there are individuals like me who were able to discover it at the beginning of their studies, but this is not entirely true. Those who discovered it at the very beginning are simply aware of it, not discovering it. They had it open for a long time, they just couldn't understand it, if you believe the textbook, of course.
I used to think that I was simply good at understanding emotions, but in fact it was the work of empathy. The unconscious use of empathy has both advantages and, as one might guess, disadvantages. Significant disadvantages.
Well, apart from the accelerated development of the brain, as well as the development of the gift itself, there is one more advantage. The ability to better understand people, which can help me more than once in life.
At first I wondered, how does empathy help the brain develop? Although I had a theory. Her answer confirmed that mentalism is a manifestation of the shell of the soul through the brain. Therefore, all actions using mentalism pump up your brain, including empathy.
But in a barrel of honey, there is also a fly in the ointment. The most important is the empant's exposure to other people's emotions. Every young empath is exposed to other people's emotions for just one reason - they unconsciously pass other people's emotions through themselves, fully experiencing them on themselves. The same thing happened to me, especially to me.
Closing the book with a bang and putting it back in its place, I went to my room. It's almost time for lights out. After the incident in the forest, the teachers tightened control in the castle.
By the way, yes, the chase in the forest did not go unnoticed. True, all the actions were attributed to some particularly dangerous dark magical Creature. In this regard, they increased patrols in the castle and called for caution.
"Heh," my lips broke into a grin. Well, no wonder the teachers got so scared. There was so much dark mana in the forest, thanks to Tom, that it began to attract other animals, to Hagrid's delight.
The sound of my steps helped me to concentrate on thinking about my problem and finding a solution. What problem? Oh, it's quite simple. I have empathy, I am in a closed school, it is full of children who are simply hungry for anything, just to relieve boredom. And this, in turn, affects me. Due to my lack of emotionality, other people's emotions affect me much more strongly, and I myself feel them much more vividly. This is where the problem lies - it was the emotions of other people that pushed me to many rash actions. Well, how rash, partially rash.
There is a way out of this, two ways. The first is to cut off empathy, which is not acceptable, the advantages and benefits are too great to abandon it, and this will entail a number of other problems, including an even greater fading of emotions. The second is to develop mentality to at least the journeyman level. With it, I will already learn to partially muffle other people's emotions, and at the master level I will be able to feel everything, but not let it pass through myself.
Oh, dreams, dreams. If I'm not that far from the journeyman level, then I'm already at least four years from the master level at this rate. And this is already very fast; others spend decades, if not more.
"Eh," I sighed again. We will have to live with this fact further, but not forget about it.
Well, okay, we'll survive. Now the plan is Sleep, but tomorrow is training with Neville. It's time to move to the next level.