I'm not sure if anything good has ever happened after the words "We have our first targets." but for us this was decidedly a bad beginning. Here in the atrium we were close, painfully so, to one of the emergency exits. It being nearly below our feet and the entrance easily within view, if closed.

This situation was not viable though. There was an approximately zero chance of us getting out of this without a fight, and the chances of us winning said fight were not terribly much better. We did have one advantage though. They were out to capture, but we had no such restrictions.

"Come nicely now girls. I'd really rather not have to get violent if I don't need to." Their apparent leader said as his men began to spread out, closing off several of the exits.

Kala and I both responded at once, her tossing an angry purple beam forwards as I started singing my shields into existence. While she attacked I'd set up. We might be able to manage to hold them back if we could buy enough time.

The leader ducked expertly under the purple beam, though I could tell from here that it had also smashed into whatever shield he'd had up, sapping much of its power. He could probably have survived whatever she's aimed with even passable spell resistance, but taking unnecessary hits was beyond foolish.

His men responded quickly as well. Most of them aimed at Kala, some kind of kinetic restraint spell if I had to guess, but my shield was up by the time it arrived, and well tuned against kinetics. Two aimed at me though, one opting for water, the other for a cold attack. The water splashed away just as any other projectile would have, but the cold grazed my arm sending a harsh chill down it.

Cold was an excellent non-lethal against a bard, and I had to internally compliment the choice. If they hit me right, or enough, I'd be gasping for breath like I'd jumped into a frozen lake. That would end the fighting in a hot second so I needed to do something about it and quickly. With that in mind I tried to add my self-heating magic into my current defenses. It probably wouldn't stop their attack fully, but every bit of help was important.

To be quite frank, we were outmatched. The soldiers that we were up against were all more powerful than us. It was the facts that they wanted us unharmed, and they needed to keep an eye out for other entering combatants that meant that we didn't fall in the first seconds. Without those we'd be either dead or brought low almost instantly.

With that said, we did have a chance. If we could do something distracting enough, or hold out for the teachers who would inevitably arrive, we might get out of this. That in mind I began the process of starting up a storm. The idea was that it might manage to distract them, or I'd get lightning added to our attacks if we could hold on.

Our enemies had other plans though. Even as I started working on the storm they battered my shields. Those that had seen the cold spell pass had already switched and were also becoming a bit of a problem. It had only been about ten seconds, but each brought us closer to being able to do something about this mess.

"Pulse the shields down," their leader said, his voice indicating his irritation at our continued resistance.

His men responded with perfect synchronization. The majority immediately started sending waves of kinetic force at us, slamming into the shield with potent force. Several though, the leader included, had small objects float up from their belts, hovering in the air beside them.

As the concussive magic hit again and again my shield finally began to falter. It was instinctive that it would draw in, pulling closer to me as I struggled to protect myself. As it did so though it passed by Kala leaving her exposed.

It was too late that I realized that she was no longer safe. One of the waves came in and smacked her, sending the young priestess flailing. I watched in horror as she fell and several of the little floating objects sped at her, unable to expand it again quickly enough. Most missed, but two hit home, and I saw that they were small syringes, propelled like darts. One got Kala in the stomach, the other hitting hard in the back of her shoulder.

The pulses refocused on me, leaving her out of their fire as the man closest to her threw another of their restraint spells forward. It hit Kala, expanding over her like a net as she tried, and failed, to stand back up.

My face must have shown how shocked and terrified I was because their leader spoke again. "Merely a sedative. Surrender now and you'll be fine."

I couldn't respond as I needed to keep singing to work on my shields, and the storm growing overhead. I did consider it though, we would probably not be hurt, they'd even said they wanted us all alive. That thought passed quickly though, as Kala turned to me, her eyes struggling to stay open.

"Alana, run," she said as her head fell forward.

That got a visible reaction from the leader of this little group, whose eyes immediately turned sharp. "Primary. Shut. Her. Down."

'Oh, shit.' Was the first thing that flew through my head as two of the men I could see held up fists glowing with a pale blue light. They'd stopped playing it safe and were now all in, and I was out of time. Sound died in the room as the light flowed forth, whatever spell they had killed it dead. This was unlike what I'd done to the other bard during our test, it didn't just block sound in a shield but stopped it completely. My spells began to fail as my song did, sending a trill of pure fear up my spine. This group had come loaded for bard.

I closed my eyes. There was only one gambit I had left to play and it was a long shot at best. I'd only ever gotten the most basic of basic magics to work this way, but there was nothing like panic to inspire you to go above and beyond.

A number of the little syringes hit my disintegrating shields, being stopped for the last time as I stepped forward and began to dance. I had to abandon defense and focus everything upward. My storm could hardly be called ready, but it would have to do. As I brought my hands up and into position I pushed all the mana I could in, releasing it in the form of a widely splitting thunderbolt.

The world shook as it fell, splitting over me like an umbrella and flying towards my attackers. Even through my tightly closed eyes I could see the bright flash of the point blank lightning arcing towards them. I doubted it would do any lasting damage, but sincerely hoped it would be enough.

As soon as it passed I opened my eyes, bolting forward to grab Kala from where she lay insensate on the floor and running with all my might for the girls' dormitories. The spell binding her fell away as I scooped her up, all of the men momentarily disoriented from the brilliant flash and strike of my attack.

I had no time to gloat at that working as I pumped my legs faster and faster, driving myself forward towards what would almost certainly be safety. At the very least the others there could help in the fight. I wanted to put up some invisibility or illusions, but I was on the last dregs of my mana. I was also struggling to carry Kala. She was just slightly taller than I was and while my adrenal gland had been smashing the 'go' button for the last couple of minutes there was only so much that it could push from my body.

As I was nearly there something blurred past me, stopping just ahead of where I was. One of the men in their assault team must have been a physical magic user and he now stood before me. He'd opened his arms wide, planning to catch me in a hug rather than risk hurting me by tackling me from behind. That was at least a small kindness.

I had no chance to dodge, already going full tilt as I was momentum would push me into him. There were only a couple of seconds before his arms would wrap around me and that would be it. I had no mana, and my body was pushed to its limits. There he stood though, just over the line that denoted the girls only area of the school, standing in the big oak door like a goalie.

As said line began to glow an angry blood red it occurred to both of us that he'd fucked up. A small bolt issued forth from the ward, pounding into the lower part of his abdomen. The man blurred again as he doubled over in pain, falling forward. It was just barely enough for me to jump as I approached, clearing his prone form by the slimmest of margins, my feet grazing it.

From there it was a clean shot into the dorms proper. It was only about twenty feet into the entry, but it felt like a mile. As I passed into the open space at the bottom of our tower I saw Professor Sasha, the Etiquette teacher speaking to a group of assembled students.

"ATTACK!" I screamed, hoping to get aid before I collapsed.

The professor only took a moment to process, her eyebrows climbing up her head. After only a beat she sped forward taking something from around her neck and pushing it into the tower entry. The panel where we added mana to the wards was there, and the small opening was sealed instantly by a formidable looking barrier, opaque and sizzling with energy.

I lay on the cold stone floor, sucking in air as hard as I could. My lungs burned from the efforts of the last few minutes. My arms and legs spasmed painfully every few seconds, their objections to my run while carrying another being made clear. I could even feel the beginnings of tears in my eyes as I tried to catch up.

"Are you hurt? What happened to Miss Kala?" It was Professor Sasha who made it to me first, and she'd knelt down to check us out.

"Okay... drug... sedative... trying to capture us." I answered as I gulped down more air. The group of steadily more panicked looking girls was gathered around.

"They were after you two?" She looked confused for a moment.

I was pretty sure they were definitely after me since their apparent leader had identified me as 'Primary'. They'd also stopped holding back at that point, which was some real supporting evidence. Of course I was nowhere near stupid enough to admit that though.

"All... of... us... many men." The air almost froze as the panic attacks began among my classmates.

The professor on the other hand kept herself well together. "Everyone, prepare for evacuation. Get to the emergency exits. If we're not contacted quickly, or if the ward shows any sign of issue we will move."

Pinea and another girl helped me towards the exit, while Kala was being carried by several more. One priestess was working hurriedly on her, trying to neutralize the drug that had put her out. As we got there Pinea looked over at me.

"How did you escape?" she asked.

"Lightning bolt to blind them, then ran. One almost got me, but he crossed the line into the girls' area and something hit him."

She almost smiled, "I can't believe that actually worked. I've never seen it go off before."

"What was it?"

I knew that there was something there, but like her I'd never seen it. The male students avoided the whole area like it was cursed or something, never straying more than ten or fifteen feed towards the mark on the floor.

"Couple of decades ago some of the girls got tired of boys breaking into our dorms for pranks and the like," the other girl helping me answered. "So a handful of the fourth years put in a ward there, any boy who crosses it, with a few exceptions, gets hit with several years worth of cramps. It stopped the male students from bugging us, and made the dean laugh his ass off, so they left it."

Now it was my turn to try and not smile. To think that I'd be saved by the frustrations of classmates long past.