"Level One Sky Magic - Voltage Strike!" Li Yi Fei yelled as he unleashed a barrage of lightning bolts towards the unfortunate victim, Feng Mian.

However, Feng Mian stood her ground. She calmly raised her hands up and prepared to cast a spell in return.

"Glacier Form: Wall!" Feng Mian shouted. Immediately, the ground before her split open and a massive screen of ice rose up, and blocked the incoming attack.

The high-speed attack from Li Yi Fei dissipated instantly upon hitting the wall, leaving only a few cracks behind. He growled in frustration.

"Think you're pretty good, huh?" Li Yi Fei taunted. "Let's see you take this then!"

Then, exchanging glances with each of his lackeys in turn, they called out together.

"Level Two Fire Magic - Abomination Flare!"

Technically, none of the three had enough practice nor mana to unleash a Level Two spell like Abomination Flare. However, if they were to pool all their power into one person...

Because all three shared the Fire element (with Li Yi Fei having both Fire and Sky), they were able to perform something like this - known as a Conjoined Release. The person to fire the spell only had to know the instructions on how to cast it. In this case, Li Yi Fei, being from one of the Four Great Families of Shenzhen, has no problem getting his hands on a Level Two spell. His own problem was a lack of mana, which could be supplemented with the use of Conjoined Release.

"What?!" Feng Mian called out in surprise. She hurriedly put up a defense once more.

"Glacier Form - Wall!" Feng Mian yelled hurriedly, summoning all her mana into making this defense as formidable as possible.

However-

Crrrrack.

The ice wall she had put up slowly began to crack from the impact, while the fiery blaze launched by Li Yi Fei and his lackeys is still showing no sign of disappearing.

Crash.

At last, the ice wall broke down and Feng Mian could only watch in horror as the terrifying level two attack came rushing at her. There was no chance of casting another defense spell, much less escaping. And then-

-Everything seemed to slow down. The Abomination Flare crawled slowly towards her at a pace like that of a turtle...well, a flying turtle.

A-Am I about to die?

Ah...I'm sorry, father, mother.

She began to close her eyes.

I wasn't able to save you, in the end...

And...

A shadow appeared in front of her-

...I'm sorry too-

-Xuan Kai.

*****

- 30 minutes earlier -

Class 2-D. The classroom was quiet yet had a impatient feeling in the air.

"Alright - classes are finished for the day. You are free to go now." Mr. Wang announced, clapping his hands together.

"Finally!"

"Yay!"

"Whew!"

Cries of relief and joy immediately filled the classroom, along with the shutting of textbooks. It could be said that this was the one thing our entire class did in complete unity. Other than this, well...the students here at Shenzhen Magic High School don't get along at all. This may be due to the heavy emphasis on competition at the school, but in general - different factions are formed, each revolving around a high-class character, usually an heir of one of the Four Great Families of Shenzhen. Most of these young lords are arrogant and demanding, leading to constant conflict between the different 'factions'.

I checked the clock. 5:00 PM. We were exactly on time today, which was a rarity. Everyday, we have four periods of classes, plus a one hour lunch break. Each period lasted two hours - so we had two periods in the morning and two periods in the afternoon. Our schedule is as follows:

8:00 - School Start, 1st Period

10:00 - 2nd Period

12:00 - Lunch

1:00 - 3rd Period

3:00 - 4th Period

5:00 - School End, After-School Club Activities

Normal high schools have far shorter periods than us, and also end much earlier. However - we have an emphasis on magic lessons in addition to our academic subjects, meaning we have more courses to take and therefore longer class times.

That being said - even two hours is sometimes not enough. Classes often run longer than they are meant to, and we can only leave the school after all classes are finished. If one class is late, it pushes back all the later classes. Thus - the latest we have been let off was 7:00 PM.

I heard a phone call ring from beside me, and looked over to investigate.

As expected, it was Feng Mian. I didn't manage to get a glimpse of the caller, as she immediately walked out of the room with her phone in hand after seeing who it was.

Oh well. Private matters, I suppose. I didn't want to pry into her personal business, so I decided to remain seated and wait for the classroom to empty out (which won't take long - everyone is eager to get out of the school), as usual. However, my calmness was short-lived as I then accidentally saw Li Yi Fei and his two lackeys, Pang Zi and Zhang Zhe Rui, talking together by the door. That wasn't anything to be surprised about - they were close, after all. But...what bothered me was the sinister grin on their faces as Zhang Zhe Rui spoke.

I was too far away to hear anything, but I could tell it was a plan that in some way benefited them through malicious means. That was Zhang Zhe Rui's strong suit, after all. As Li Yi Fei nodded in agreement, Feng Mian opened the door and began walking back towards her desk to retrieve her other items.

However, I noticed Zhang Zhe Rui immediately close his mouth as he saw Feng Mian, which was quite suspicious. I mean - of course, he wouldn't want other people to find out about his devious plans, but-

1. Feng Mian was not the type to care about this kind of thing.

2. Li Yi Fei and his lackeys have never been afraid of other people knowing...they had no conclusive evidence, after all. And...his backing as an heir of the Li Family isn't anything to laugh at either.

This left only one possible conclusion:

The person they were targeting, was none other than Feng Mian herself.

However, before I could inform her of Li Yi Fei's plot-

-Feng Mian was already gone.

"Shit..." I muttered under my breath. I looked around, but to no avail. She had already left the classroom without me even realizing, which wasn't surprising considering her assassin-like movements.

I quickly packed up all my things and began heading towards the door. But then, I felt a light tug on my sleeve.

"Um...Big Brother Xuan Kai, where are you going?"

Ah...I forgot about Qing Yue. Cursing myself, I turned towards her and smiled to the best of my abilities (which wasn't much). "Qing Yue, I just have something to do today. Could you head home by yourself?"

There was no way I was getting my precious little sister (albeit not blood-related) caught up in this mess.

"Hm...okay!" she replied with a slight hesitation. "I don't want to be in the way of Big Brother Xuan Kai, so please don't worry about me! I'll be fine!"

"Good girl." I sighed in relief. I had expected her to inquire further as to my actions, but it seems she has matured a lot since the last time we played together as kids.

"U-Um, if it's not too much to ask..." she began.

"Yes?"

"...Could you pat my head please?"

.

Well, this was unexpected. Much more so then her not asking about my motive. There weren't any cons from doing as she asked, so after thinking about it for a while, I complied.

"Mm..." she smiled giddily with her eyes closed as I patted her head and ruffled her beautiful silver hair.

I was almost reluctant to stop - but then I realized Li Yi Fei and his two lackeys were gone from the classroom as well.

"Okay, Qing Yue. I have to go now." I said hastily.

She nodded happily, satisfied. "Mm...okay."

And so, with Qing Yue waving at me from behind, I ran from the classroom and bolted down the empty halls of the school.