This chapter is shorter then usually. Mostly cuz ya already got one today, so do not complain (I know there was no chappy for 2 month, but shhh), the other reasons are that I didn’t want to start yet another thread and cuz I have responsibilities and shit. Anyway, the chappy of a bit more then 1.6k words.

Edited by: KenChi死

The class was completely silent. No one dared to say a word. Students were even afraid to breath. Professor Hieronymus Kleir was looking like a shadow of his old self. His hair was a mess, he had dark circles under his eyes and he was standing… in his pajamas. And he was looking at the students like a fanatic inquisitor would look at a witch tied to the pyre.

“Some of you may wonder…” he began with voice so quiet yet enraged, that blood within everyone veins froze “… why your lesson of [Studies of magical arts – kinds, affinities and theoretical consideration of modern magic]… is being taught by me today….”

He was walking from one corner of class to another. One could think he was doing so in order to calm himself down… The very same observer could also easily tell, that it was not working, for the professor was shivering. He looked like a volcano than was about to erupt.

“haha… you see… there is extremely funny story attached to my presence here… you see… as you know I was supposed to have a day-off today… This is why I used this wonderful free time of mine to catch up with my studies… that were slowed down because of some annoying brats… but back to the topic… I haven’t slept tonight. Why should I? I could lie down at the morning and I would have a whoooole day to rest… to sleep until afternoon and so on… and so on…”

In that moment he turned to the student and slammed his fist into the desk making students to jump.

“BUT AS I WAS GOING TO SLEEP THE HEAD TEACHER ENTERED MY ROOM AND TOLD ME THAT YOUR TEACHER CAUGHT A COLD AND I HAVE TO…. YES HE ORDERED ME - TO GET OUT OF MY BED AND COME HERE TO TEACH YOU! YOU- UNGRATEFUL BRATS!”

The volcano erupted. The magician was breathing loudly. His eyes bloodshot and both adrenaline mixed with exhaustion kicked in.

“This is why…. We will get into 15-20 minutes discussion… and after our discussion will be over… You will write an essay… 30 pages long… as I will be sleeping in this chair… and I dare you… I double dare you… make any sound as I am sleeping… and I will show you what hell is… Now, any question?”

Last sentence was asked as if he wouldn’t threaten his students just a moment ago.

“No questions? Perfect. So let us start… as I was told… You already know how basic magic is working… You can tell the differences between different magic affinities… And you know, at least theoretically, how to power up you spells with meditations, equipment, and rituals. As the first two kinds have no price attached… rarely anyone knows that rituals are burdened with some kind of risk. Anyone hear know about it?”

A few of the students shook their heads. The rest were simply sitting quietly.

“yeees… I could tell that much. Not many magicians use rituals nowadays… it takes lots of time, lots of resources, lots of concentration to maintain it… and you are never sure of the results… the rituals, you see, is actually a pact. A pact with the source of the magicians powers… if someone would use order-based magic, those would be pure spirits, creature that represent virtues… and angles… The chaos based are of course wicked spirits, powerful undead, creatures representing sins and devils… as for neutral nature spells are elementals, spirits… and the ancients…”

Kleir made an ugly face as he “touched” yet another topic. He prayed to the gods for his students to not ask about the ancients… But after a few seconds he gladly found out that youth were too afraid to ask about anything.

“Rituals are, as I already said, a kind of a deal. It usually is “give me a power [X] and I will perform action [Y]”… those powers could be either powering up certain spell, performing a spell that the caster may not even know, as long as he knows what he want the spell to do… or any other action that may not involve the caster himself…”

Lecturer took a moment for himself to drink a bit of water. After brief moment he continued.

“There are many conditions that have to be fulfilled for the ritual to succeed. First – the spell or action required by caster has to be its origin from the spirits he is making a deal. It is simple. You will not ask water spirits to boost fire magic, and so on… and so on. Another… the spell will be limited in range to the spirits domain. Spirits dwelling inside a forest will have no power in the desert… And of course you have to “give” something in return. Every spirits is different, yet we can generalize for purpose of the studies… the “good spirits” want their power to serve noble purposes… to help someone and so on, and so on… The wicked ones… to cause havoc… or at least to play a trick. In the same wat spirits of nature usually care about balance. And about maintaining this balance within their territory.” “Sir, but what if after casting this spell the magician will refuse to fulfill his part of the agreement?” one of the students asked “Depends on the spirit. But no one likes to be lied to. For this magician it would be advised to leave the territory of spirit. And never. Ever. Return there. Spirits have an excellent memory. But there are cases when agreement can be nullified. Mostly, as powers of spirits would be insufficient to fulfill it, or if the “target” of the agreement would leave the territory of the spirits. If you have an agreement with the undead spirit in the tomb and as the agreement you would be told to kill particular group of people… and one of them would leave the tomb… without your help… then powers of the spirit can no longer “reach” them. So his part of agreement is literally lifted from the person… But look at the time! 15 minutes has passed! What a shame! Go on, take out your papers! I want you to write about…”

The class was going on. The student were writing an impossible essay, the teacher was taking a nap in his chair. And a certain group in certain forest was getting decimated.

Pov change (no fun this time)

The one who ordered forming 4 person squads was an idiot. Even if such formation was more than sufficient to hunt some witch in a town it was completely useless inside the forest. 4 people were not enough to take care of all tasks that were supposed to be made within a camp, especially as the party was made out of people with no idea about camping inside the forest. They were too loud to hunt anything and their food rations were getting thin.

4 hunters were meant to surround the witch. 2 of them would “walk” frontally and force the heretic to run, at the same time other members would cut off escape routes. But to honest, it all was based on element of surprise. The thing that they were supposed to hunt down knew about them. It was fast and it was angry. And for sure it was chasing the 3 witch hunters running through the forest.

“For the god almighty! Did you see it? That freaky monster got Mike! Where did it come from?” “Shut up and run you idiot! We have to find the other parties and join them! Whatever it is, it is not alone! We…”

The sentence was interrupted by scream as arrow hit the side of one of the hunters. The remaining two change the direction of their escape.

“NO! please! Don’t leave me here!” injured was screaming, yet his “companions didn’t even look at him. Soon some dark mass of muscles, teeth and violence in the form of some wolf’s abomination jumped on the wretch finishing his live.

The remaining hunters were losing their breath. From time to time they were sure they saw something on the verge of their vision. It didn’t take much longer for one of them to fall into a masked pit filled with sharpened branches that tore his body.

The last one started picking his paths randomly to reduce odds of falling into a similar pit. After a few more minutes he collapsed under a tree. Catching his breath loudly he tried all his best to determine his location and guess in which direction he should walk in order to join with the remaining forces.

And then it walked out of the shadows. A human-sized beast. Wings instead of hands. Covered in feathers so black that the darkness itself would be jealous. His talons were leaving deep marks in the ground. And within its eyes one could find unlimited cruelty.

So the hunter did the only thing he found reasonable. He pulled out a dagger and stabbed himself. He would die in a few seconds. He was sure, the dagger pierced his liver.

From the monster’s beak a shriek of dissatisfaction could be heard. But there was nothing that beast could do.

After a few more minutes another figure stepped out from the darkness. Covered in a black robe with his face covered by a hood. The figure inspected the body and then he touched his mark on his arm while pouring mana. It was the kind of spell that would send a message to the other creatures. The message was saying: “Body is here. Come to collect it”. Then the hooded person and bird like beast left the scene of the death. They have to little time to celebrate their successful hunt. They barely started.

24 down. 26 to go.