Remember that ------ means change of scene. Any amount of time could pass when those are used but for now, imagine that the events are taking place around the same time except for this school part which is a little earlier than the others. I'LL MOST LIKELY BE RELEASING ANOTHER CHAPTER OR TWO TONIGHT WHICH ARE SHORTER. STAY TUNED! Not 100% guarantee though.

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"Maverick." Jackal said. "Now."

Maverick, an average sized man with long black hair tied into a ponytail, slumped over onto his knees. His chin met his chest, and his arms went limp, with hands facing the sky as they laid on the ground.

The flame lances, twenty of them with all their fiery glory, vanished into thin air, leaving behind not a single trace of their existence. The headmaster gripped his staff tightly as he put more weight onto it. Narrowing his eyes, the headmaster glared at Jackal, allowing his years to show with every crinkle.

"I expected as much. You don't go down easily at all do you?" Jackal widened his stance, reaching for a dagger by his belt.

"Did you truly think that stopping my magic and sapping some of my mana would stop me?" the headmaster asked, he stopped using the staff as support. Lifting it then pointing it at Jackal, he sent mana coursing through the old wood of the ancient tool. Filling the large crystal ball at the end, the mana swirled around like water being shaken in a bowl.

The blue light started to fade.

"What did you do?" the old man asked the villain in front of him.

Jack shrugged, "Me? I didn't do anything." he pointed over to his ally. "You're lookin for him ol' man. Now, I'm gonna give you a little cut, don't mind me." he waved the sharpened steel like one would a wand. Jackal glanced over at his members, "Don't relax!" he snapped at them.

"B-but, he, he's got no magic." Sence, the girl who almost died, said.

"Hehehehahahaha."

The group turned their attention to the crazed old man in the middle. Their skin began to crawl as he continued to laugh. Certainly, the laugh did not seem like it belonged to the sane of the world. This old man whose wrinkles were as many as there were daisies in a spring field, was laughing when his greatest asset had been taken away. What was he going to do without magic? They all thought.

"I hope that, for your sake, your allies are at least as good in melee combat as our fallen guards over there. Surely, you didn't think I'd be a feeble old man if I didn't have magic."

Two of the members, the other men, inched closer to Maverick to protect him.

"Sence!" Jackal screamed while motioning with his hand. "Use your binding!"

But it was too late. In that split second, when Jackal said her name, the headmaster had already started towards her. Desperately trying to save herself, she threw up a barrier.

*CRACK*

With a single tap of his staff, the headmaster shattered the mana shield. Turning the staff around to its end, the old man pierced her through the side of her stomach. She coughed once before he stopped her. He pulled it out and his free arm shot forth. The monster, with the palm of his hand, closed her jaw and, using his fingers to grip onto her face, threw her onto the ground.

Her world spun as her head rebounded after colliding with the earth. She saw the wrinkled "human" lift his staff with both hands. Aaaah. she thought. I'm going to die.

The staff begun its descent back to earth but was stopped by the binding of its master.

The old man struggled to move his arms. Wrapped around them were long, thick, roots of wood. Like a snake, they curled around his body, constricting his movements. Within the coiled grasp of his enemies, the headmaster looked down at the woman whom he had just recently defeated and was about to end.

"Throwing away your allies?" he asked.

Jackal shrugged, "I wasn't throwing her away. I just mistakenly said her name." he smiled. "You can't fault me for that. I mean, she's the first person who came to mind."

The headmaster snorted, "How heartless."

"I don't want to hear that from you old man." Jackal rushed at him, knife low and pointed. "Keep him pinned! Cast more restriction spells! Send Sence away from there!"

One of the roots broke out from the stone and slowly dragged Sence's unconscious body away from the headmaster.

Halfheartedly, as if Jackal didn't want to kill, he lunged.

A smart decision.

Breaking from his bindings, the headmaster swung the butt of his staff, which had just pierced Sence, at Jackal. Unlike his previous movement, which was slow and uncommitted, Jack stopped himself, just barely out of the staff's range. With a quick twist of his body, Jackal attempted to cut the headmaster. Just need to nick him.

The old man countered, grabbing the intruder's extended arm and tossing him across the room.

Landing on his feet, Jackal wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. The headmaster had just broken through his ally's ability without needing to cast a single spell. Under the immense pressure of the old man, Jackal's body tensed. With his inability to land the necessary cut to stop the magician on his first try, they were at a disadvantage.

He took a deep breath. He didn't need to win the fight, he just had to wait for his allies to retrieve the item. Right. For Jackal there were two win conditions, stop the headmaster from using his magic and cutting him with the knife, or for his allies to find the object. Since his first strike had failed, all he had to do was keep the old mage busy.

They all stayed still for what seemed like entire minutes, just waiting for the other to make a move.

"Headmaster!"

Jackal's lips spread into a smile. From the stairs, three teachers had come. Revitalized, Jackal became nothing more than a blur. With incredible speed, he dashed towards the three.

Intercepting the intruder's blow, one of the second year sword teachers blocked his path.

"You're good enough." Jackal said. "Get him!"

Underneath the teacher, the roots curled up around his legs and his arms.

*SHIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNG*

The dagger grazed his cheek, and the roots began to return back to the earth.

"[Combustion]!" the air between Jackal and the teacher turned into a mass of fire. "Mr. Haleon!" a tall third year teacher yelled. "Check him for poison!"

The younger male teacher, new this year, rushed to his coworker's aide.

"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" the headmaster's voice boomed across the room.

Assuming that the headmaster was talking about the intruder who had attacked, he continued on his way. "Mr. Conwell, are you alright?" he raised his hands to the cut on Mr. Conwell's face. "Hold still I'll heal you ri-GUK!" his hands began to shake, looking down, he saw his beautiful white robes become soaked in crimson. Falling to his knees he asked, "W-why?"

With glazed eyes, the sword instructor put his boot on the mage's shoulder and pulled his sword out.

Like a discarded doll, the young teacher laid limp on the floor.

Shocked by the sight, the third year teacher, Mr. Halsway, could do nothing as his former comrade approached him. "M-Mr. Conwell?"

The sword instructor raised his weapon as if he still knew how to wield such a thing.

"UUUUU"

The nimble zombie swung down with all of his might.

"Stop." Jackal ordered while holding up the glowing dagger.

The steel stopped inches away from the magician's flesh. Making his own move, Jackal swiped the dagger across the teacher's cheek.

"Damn it." the headmaster muttered to himself. He had tried to rush over but was stopped by Jackal's two comrades. With their short cast spells, he had to focus on dodging and couldn't find an opportunity to attack while the two covered for each other.

"He's not even breaking a sweat." one of the intruders mumbled. He wiped his bloodied nose which was caused by being hit across the face with a staff.

"Jackal's got those two now. We're good."

The two teachers, their minds taken over, made a mad dash towards the headmaster. Like starved mongrels, the two leaped at him, the instructor with his sword and the magician with flaming hands.

"Get Maverick away!" Jackal commanded while looking over Sence.

The intruder with the bloodied nose ran to grab his unconscious friend that they had desperately protected from the headmaster. The other started to chant a spell.

The headmaster, seeing the chant, hurried to end the fight. He did his best not to injure the teachers, easily was the magician taken down but the real trouble in hand to hand combat came with the swords teacher. Still, with quick side steps, he was able to knock out the instructor whose skills were not hindered by his loss of mind. The old man struck out towards the intruder with his staff.

The one chanting let out a sigh as the last word came from his mouth, "[Arcane Tempest]!"

Just a second too late, the headmaster was blown back. Into the air he went, his body was thrashed around like a child playing with their toys. Back and forth he went, thrown around by the spell. Sometimes he seemed weightless as he floated there, just to be violently shaken the next moment.

"Finish him off." Jackal said.

"But don't you want to do it?" the caster responded.

"Fine, I'll do it then." Jackal turned to the one with a bloody nose. "Sence, now that she's somewhat awake, will go with you to look for the object." Jackal grabbed the arcane magic caster and said, "Take Maverick someplace safe for when he wakes up."

"Got it."

After they left the room, Jackal sat there for a few minutes. A certain feeling of joy welled up inside of him as the old man was being tossed around like a toy. To witness the man who shamed him so much, become a powerless bag of meat, there was almost no greater joy.

Jackal shook his head, this wasn't the reason why he was here. Taking another moment to admire the scene, finally satisfied, he sent mana into his arm, forming a large fireball. His left hand gripped the dagger tightly, "Not worth it." he said to himself.

"Jack- UGH!"

Jackal turned around to see Sence executed. Jackal quickly let loose his fireball, in a hurry to confront the new enemy.

"Barrier." the other man said calmly.

The fireball crashed against the barrier, sending vibrations strong enough to be felt from outside the building. When the smoke cleared, the barrier was still up and the headmaster was still being thrown around.

"Couldn't quite find the one who cast the spell so you'll have to wait up there for a while master." the man said again.

Jackal's lips curled into a grin, "Master you say?" he thumbed his dagger. "Could you be that little boy? Carlos was it?"

The man ignored Jackal's provocation, "It's Carlyle. Why don't we take this outside hmm?"

"Hah! And what? Leave that old man there by himself? I do-"

He was cut off by Carlyle's sudden movement. In less than a second, the distance was closed. Jackal felt a massive force hit his body, almost like an invisible wall, and flew back. Landing on his feet, he stared at the man once again.

"Not up for some fun are you? Just like the old man you're too serious at times." Jackal lowered his stance and held his dagger out in front. "Bring it."

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Rainen stopped himself immediately after making his choice. His stomach was churning, did he make the right decision? He can't be so fickle, is he going to help Henry or Anne? Unsure of his previous choice, Rainen took a coin out of his pouch.

"Heads, I go to Henry. Tails is for Anne."

One easy flick of the wrist and the coin spun in the air.

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Henry hid behind the endless stacks of boxes as he waited to catch his breath. The burns he had on his arms were incredible, any normal person by now would've been nothing but bones, or ashes. But, he wasn't quite out of trouble yet. The two pursuing him, Ben the fighter and the explosive mage gave him a hard time.

While he continued to rest up, he remained on constant alert for any of the suicidal rats that could, and would, blow up upon seeing him. Each breath he took was of cold air, it made him want to cough. Where is Rainen? Why isn't he here already?

Though Henry had been busy with staying alive, he was more than sure that the message was sent more than twenty minutes ago, more than enough time for someone as quick as the Thirteenth to get there. He rubbed his eyes which were red and watery, not because he was crying but because of the smoke that came with every explosion.

He felt around his chest. Surely more than one or two ribs were a broken. As he leaned against the wall behind the cover of the boxes, he cursed himself for not dropping off the bracelet. I should've left it someplace safe.

"Found you."

Henry's heart sank as the two pushed away the boxes and he heard a dreadful high pitched sound.

*squeak squeak*

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Anne's beasts had been whittling away at the gorilla man for minutes. Even after the beastman had gotten free of their pin, they continued their endless attacks. They clawed, bit, shocked, and hit the beastman. Further back from the circle of bodies that laid in the middle of the room, closer towards the large pathways that lead to other parts of the water system, the gorilla fought against the beastman.

Yalsal, after being almost ripped to shreds by the demon's claws, he was forced onto the defensive.

Anne, after casting her spell which allowed her demon to succeed in such an attack, sat on the ground. She too was tired from the fighting. Summoning such beasts and then going on to use advanced level magic greatly exhausted her. Though the summoning she did was different than contracting with spirits and beasts, which took more mana, still drained her.

She moved her hand up to her chest, I should be ready to fight now.

Anne stood up, feeling much better than she had before. With over ten minutes of rest, Anne no longer saw the world spin. While she leaned back against the wall, seemingly fresher than before, the two men who had to constantly be on the move for over those ten minutes were basically drowning in their own sweat. Gravity seemed to be harsher on them, seeing as how their shoulders slumped and their arms hanged, just waiting for one of the beasts to cut it off and fall to to the ground.

Anne, more confident than before and full of a strange vigor, started towards her enemies. The fire spell which she sparked in her hand felt more powerful, it felt more ravenous, more... impatient. Anne's dark thoughts returned to her once again. The people whom she wanted to kill most were in front of her. They hung onto a single, thin, thread and Anne held the scissors.

Revenge was in her grasp.

Using the same spell that caused her pet, her friend to sacrifice himself, Anne aimed it at Yalsal.

"[Greater Fireball]."