Damien and Sylph sprinted down an alley, a massive creature that resembled a mutated crocodile scrambling after them. It had a single, jagged horn and amusingly tiny wings that had no possible way to lift it. They shot down a hallway and it skidded to the side, slamming into a shop and letting out a snarl as its claws scrabbled to gain purchase on the ground.

“What is this thing?” Sylph yelled.

“Crocodile,” Damien replied, spinning to throw a gravity drill at the monster. It cracked several of the huge crocodile’s scales but did little more than make the creature even angrier. “Panther strategy!”

Sylph nodded, flickering and vanishing as Damien spun on his heel and brought two more gravity spheres to bear. The crocodile roared and lunged towards him, its large jaws snapping at the boy.

Damien tossed both of the spheres forward. One of them sailed harmlessly past its head while the other went straight into its maw. He jumped back as the spells detonated and the crocodile snarled in pain, blood leaking out of its mouth.

He found himself wishing that he’d managed to master Henry’s teleportation spell before Delph had forced them to go through core evolution, but there was no such luck. The crocodile’s sharp eyes focused on him and it snapped forward again, forcing him to scramble out of the way.

A gravity sphere formed at Damien’s feet and he kicked it forward. The crocodile flinched back, all too aware of the painful little balls of magic. He used the time to form two more gravity drills and thrust them at the monster.

The spells struck the creature on the head, shattering more powerful scales and eliciting a cry of pain. Damien could feel his mental energy starting to strain, but it was still far from empty.

As he brought two more gravity spheres to his hands, Sylph blurred into existence above the crocodile’s head, two burning black and green blades in her hands. She drove them downward into the monster’s eyes, twisting the magical weapons as it roared in pain and started to thrash around.

“Get off!” Damien yelled.

Sylph’s eyes widened, but she threw herself to the side. A moment later, the crocodile slammed its body against a thick stone shop wall, sending down a rain of dust and tile. It roared, its head moving around erratically as it tried to locate them.

The two of them exchanged a glance, then nodded. Two gravity spheres formed in Damien’s hands and Sylph’s blades appeared once more. They darted forward together. Sylph jumped onto a wall, vaulting off it to throw herself into the air as Damien lobbed the two gravity spheres below her.

They landed right beside the crocodile’s head and detonated, yanking it downwards and slamming its chin against the ground. Sylph landed on top of it, thrusting her blades into the creature’s ruined eyes once again.

Magical energy flared around her and the blades doubled in length. The crocodile’s screams went silent and it slumped, dead. She let the blades vanish and hopped down from the monster.

“Nice job,” Sylph said.

“You too. How do you think the professors are doing? They’ve let a good number of monsters past them.”

Sylph gave a one shouldered shrug. “No clue. Something tells me that they won’t go down easily, though. There must be a lot of monsters for them to still be busy.”

“Or some really strong ones,” Damien said, frowning. “Do you think we should help?”

“How?” Sylph asked. “We’re Year Ones, Damien. Besides, if you put yourself in a really dangerous situation, we both know what’ll happen – and neither of us want that.”

Damien sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go look for the next one then.”

“Slow down for a second,” Delph’s voice said. Damien and Sylph both turned as Delph materialized behind them. His tattered clothing had a little blood on it, but the man didn’t look too much worse for the wear.

“Hello, Professor Delph,” Sylph said. “Did you enjoy your dinner?”

“Quite,” Delph replied. “It was a little gamey, though. I assume the two of you have actually sought out some enemies and haven’t just been hiding around?”

Damien and Sylph both looked so affronted at the man’s words that he chuckled. “Nevermind. I don’t think I could ever imagine the two of you skipping out on a fight. Regardless, there isn’t much left to do in the campus grounds. Most of the monsters that made it here are already dead.”

A flash of light rose up into the sky from somewhere around the library. Delph cocked his head to the side. “All of them, actually.”

“So it’s over?” Damien asked.

“Not quite,” Delph replied. “It’s close, though. I thought the two of you might like to see what a real fight looks like. Some of the professors are going all out, and it’s not often that you get to see something like that.”

Damien and Sylph exchanged a surprised glance before both nodding simultaneously. Delph smirked. “Thought as much. Come along.”

He reached out, grabbing each of them by the back of their shirt. His cloak rippled outwards, expanding to cover them all before condensing into a small dot, vanishing.

Damien blinked. He was standing on a hill overlooking what appeared to be soup that had once been monsters. He gagged as the smell of offal, sweat, and all sorts of things that he didn’t want to think about rose up and forced its way into his nose.

Flashes of magic danced across the sky and the ground rumbled with energy as the professors pressed through the lines of monsters, carving through them.

Sylph’s lip curled in distaste. “I hate the smell of a battlefield.”

“Not used to it?” Delph asked, raising an eyebrow as he walked to stand beside them.

“You never get used to it,” Sylph replied. “Do we know why the monsters attacked the school in the first place?”

“Not yet,” Delph replied. “But it wasn’t particularly organized. This is far from what the normal monster incursions look like. They were considerably weaker and less organized than what we expect.”

He pulled out a small medallion and turned it over in his hand. Then he smirked and put it back, shrugging. “It doesn’t matter. Blackmist took a little damage, but the mages at the frontline are about to catch a lot of flak from the Queen. Things like this aren’t supposed to happen. If the monsters had headed for a city instead of the college, who knows how much damage they might have done.”

Damien squinted at the professors. He could just barely make out Auntie as she swung her massive sword, carving apart a huge orc in her path. The woman was positively terrifying, even from this distance.

“Monsters aren’t that stupid,” Damien said. “Most aren’t as intelligent as humans, but they wouldn’t just attack for no reason. There has to be something they wanted, although I don’t know why they didn’t bring anything strong along with them.”

“Perhaps we’ll learn once the battle is over,” Delph said. “But, more importantly, the two of you got a good training session in. Some real life scenarios are vital to improvement, and it would have been a waste to wait until the next quest week.”

The sky crackled with purple energy. They all glanced up as a large shadow passed over the hill. A thick bank of clouds blocked out exactly what the shadow belonged to, but occasional flashes of brilliant lightning lit it up.

Whatever the shadow belonged to – it was big. Easily the size of the library, with massive wings and what appeared to be multiple long necks.

“Would you look at that,” Delph said, not particularly bothered by the monster’s arrival. “That’s a big one.”

“What is that?” Sylph whispered in awe.

“I think it’s a Great Hydra,” Damien replied in a similar tone. “That’s incredible. And also terrifying. Those are incredibly dangerous.”

“I couldn’t tell,” Sylph said dryly. “Delph, shouldn’t you go do something about it?”

“Meh.” Delph shrugged. “Whisp is up there. She can deal with it.”

No sooner that Delph had spoken, a small form punched through the clouds and sailed through the air. Damien squinted at it. “It’s Whisp!”

“And boy does she know how to fly,” Delph said. They tracked her as she shot downwards and crashed into the ground several hills away. Damien and Sylph gaped as Delph chuckled.

“She just died!” Damien exclaimed. “Why are you laughing?”

“Died? She’ll be fine,” Delph said, scoffing. “What, do you really think a fall like that is going to kill a trained professor? Look, she’ll fly up in a few moments.”

They watched the spot where Whisp had fallen. Nothing happened.

“Huh,” Delph said. “That sucks.”

Henry cackled within Damien’s mind. “Agreed.”

Damien mentally shooed him back. Without Whisp’s magic, it was impossible to tell where the massive creature was in the cloudy sky above them.

“Shouldn’t you do something, Professor?” Damien asked. “The other professors are busy, and if that thing ends up at the school, it’ll get demolished!”

“Oh, I doubt it’s going for the school,” Delph replied, watching the sky. “And, to be honest, I don’t think I can fight that thing. I don’t have any way to fly around, and even if it was on land, I know my limits. If Whisp couldn’t handle it, neither can I.”

“So what do we do?” Sylph asked.

“Dodge, probably,” Delph said, squinting upwards. “It’s heading straight for us.”

A massive roar shook the earth, forcing Damien and Sylph to clap their hands over their ears as four massive draconic heads emerged from the clouds. Each of them was looking straight at their group.

Delph grabbed his students and he vanished, reappearing several hills to the side as a pillar of fire shot out from one of the monster’s heads, searing the hill and burning a hole straight through it.

“Ouch,” Delph said. “I liked that hill.”

“You don’t seem very concerned,” Sylph said. She brought a magical blade to her hand, but dismissed it a moment later. Damien didn’t blame her. The thought of trying to stab the huge monster with what was equivalent to a toothpick was laughable.

“Oh, I’m not. The cavalry is on the way. He just likes dramatic entrances.”

“He?” Damien asked.

Henry abruptly shrunk inwards, drawing every mote of his presence back without even giving Damien a warning. Delph, unaware of the void creature’s reaction, nodded up at the sky.

“There he is now. Waiting for the perfect moment to arrive. Moron.”

The fighting suddenly stopped. For an instant, the world seemed to hold its breath as the air grew electrically charged. Something significant changed in the atmosphere. Damien gasped as a stream of Ether rushed out of his body and rose up into the sky.

It wasn’t just him. Thousands of lines of Ether rose up from the battlefield and into a single spot in the sky. Then the clouds vanished. It wasn’t that they’d been blown away – they just ceased to exist.

A tall man floated in the sky across from the huge hydra. He held a large warhammer in a single hand, but it was impossible to make out any detail beyond that. The silence was broken as the hydra’s heads let out four synchronized roars and simultaneously blasted the man with fire.

Damien winced, but the flame never reached its target. It vanished a short distance in front of him, transforming into streamers of Ether and simply flooding into the man. Then, almost lazily, the man raised a hand. A thin beam shot out, shooting past the hydra and disappearing into the sunset.

A violent explosion shook the world. The sky lit up with brilliant red energy and Damien was momentarily blinded. When his vision returned, his ears were still ringing from the force of the blast.

Of the hydra, nothing remained but smoldering flakes of burnt scales fluttering down. His mouth dropped open.

“What was that? How is so much power even possible?”

“That,” Delph said, pulling out a small candy and popping it into his mouth, “was the Dean. The real one, mind you.”

As soon as the hydra fell, the remainder of the monsters quailed. They tried to fall back, but the professors were merciless. They hounded after them, tearing any stragglers apart. Within minutes, it was over.

The Dean floated down from the sky, heading straight for Delph and the students. Now that he was closer, Damien could make out the man’s features. He wore a wide shouldered coat with metal studs and his dark hair was spikier than Damien had ever seen.

He gave them a cocky smile as he touched down. He leaned on his spiked warhammer and raised an eyebrow. “Slacking off again, Delph?”

“I knew you were coming,” Delph replied. “There was no reason for me to bother trying to fight that thing when you’ll do it for me. Besides, shouldn’t you be worried about Whisp?”

“Whisp is fine,” the Dean said, rolling his eyes. “She’s just pouting that she got slapped out of the sky. Who are the munchkins?”

He turned his eyes on Damien, who was startled to realize they were bright red. Delph yawned.

“My students,” Delph said. “They just went through core evolution and got stuck on campus during the attack, so I had them help out by wiping up a few of the ones that got to campus.”

“Typical,” the Dean said. “Well, how are you two enjoying Blackmist so far?”

Damien blinked. The man’s small talk seemed so out of place amongst the battlefield surrounding them, but he didn’t seem to be one that would take silence for an answer.

“It’s been interesting,” Damien answered honestly.

“We’ve learned a lot,” Sylph added.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. Learning is important and all that stuff,” the Dean said. “Delph, do you know if the monsters got to the mess hall?”

“I don’t believe they did.”

“Good. I’m hungry,” the Dean said, rocketing up into the sky and vanishing into the clouds. They all watched him go. Once Damien was certain the man had vanished, he snuck a glance at Sylph. She looked just as confused as he felt.

“What’s up with him?” Sylph asked. “He looks like a moron.”

“Tell me about it,” Delph snorted. “Don’t tell anyone, but his red eyes are actually fake. They’re little pieces of colored film. His eyes are actually brown.”

“What’s the point of that?”

“Don’t ask me,” Delph said with a shrug. “He’s strong, and that’s all that matters. That’s generally how life works. He isn’t around the campus much since he’s almost always looking for something to fight or some new magical artifact.”