Several days had passed since Lupos' conversation with Mervyn and Lucio, and tomorrow, at three pm Lupos would finally have the chance to fight Mervyn alone while he was only using one spirit. And so it was the night before the fight was to take place that Lupos, Fenrir, Jormugand, Hugin, Munin and Sleipnir (still in Shetland pony form) snuck over to the area that Mervyn had agreed to fight him in.

"Ok," said Lupos in mindspeak, although there was no one out there and Lupos could have spoken aloud, there was no point taking such a stupid risk when he had mindspeak as an ability. "This is where Mervyn will fight us, but, it should also be near where Mervyn has agreed to fight Lucio. So we want to set up traps that can help in our fight, but won't go off until then, so as to not make Mervyn suspicious. Any ideas?"

The spirits were silent till Fenrir responded. "How about a magic activation trap, so you set it up using magic but not enough for the trap to set off. So it'll only go off once you inject more of your magic into the trap." Lupos grinned. "Good idea, ok let's get started." Half the night later and Lupos finally returned to his bed, preparations complete. He smiles, tomorrow was the day he would finally kill Mervyn Oakshield.

The next day Lupos woke up early and briefed his spirits on his plan and their positions before attending his regular lessons. Although he felt impatient, he had waited over two years for this revenge, and he didn't mind waiting longer. However, eventually the wait was over and Lupos finally made his way back to the clearing where Mervyn and his fire spirit Homā was waiting.

Seeing Lupos Mervyn let out a small smile. "Right then, let's begin." No sooner had the words left Mervyn's mouth, than Lupos sent down a low concentration of dark magical power activating an earthen pit trap that closed over Mervyn's head and trapped his spirit which had dived for him the second he saw Mervyn in trouble. "Gale.." started Mervyn irritably, before Lupos let out a cry of his own. "Headmaster...he.lp...me..." Lupos let out a savage grin, let the show begin.

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Mervyn's POV

Mervyn looked at the boy standing in front of him, obviously ready to fight and let out a small smile. Ready to start, Mervyn called out the starting words. "Right then, let's begin." No sooner had the words left his mouth and Mervyn felt the earth disappeared beneath him as he tumbled into a pit of darkness, vaguely aware of Homā following him.

Landing on the bottom Mervyn huffed out irritably, the whole point of this training was to stop Gale's reliance on petty tricks and traps. "Gale..." said Mervyn in both disappoinment and annoyance, when he heard Gale cry out. "Headmaster...he.lp...me..." Suddenly Mervyn felt something was very very wrong.

Attempting to use light magic to break out the trap, Mervyn was struck with the realisation that the trap he was in had been activated by dark magic. Something Gale was incapable of doing. Mervyn's blood ran cold, this was a trap, only the target wasn't him but his apprentice.

Wasting no time Mervyn motioned for Homā to use fire magic to blast out the trap. Using wind magic to fly through the hole Homā had created Mervyn desperately looked round the surface looking for Gale. Finally finding him Mervyn stared in shock as he saw Gale laid unconscious on the ground, blood trickling down his face, as his wolf spirit defended against two attacking birds that bore the appearance of ravens one white one black.

Rushing over to Gale's side, Homā immediately helped the wolf face off against the two birds while Mervyn checked Gale's pulse. He was relieved, to find it still going strong. He used a combination of light and water magic to temporarily heal Gale's wounds. Taking advantage of the fact Gale was healed Mervyn quickly moved to Homā's side to defend against the ravens, noting how Gale's wolf fell back to defend his summoner.

Suddenly another dark magic activated trap sprung, wrapping Homā in an earthen case. Momentarily distracted, Mervyn did not notice the jade green snake until it was already too late. Feeling a sudden pain in his ankle, Mervyn looked down to see the snake clamping on to his ankle as he began to feel numb. Realising what had happened, Mervyn desperately attempted to use light and water magic to heal the poison within him.

However the magic could only slow the flow, not stop it entirely. But, due to the extreme concentration that was required to maintain the magic, Mervyn could do nothing but watch as a jet black, eight legged stallion calmly walked into the clearing towards Mervyn. With each step closer towards Mervyn, Mervyn felt weaker, it was absorbing his magic power.

Now usually, this was something Mervyn would easily be able to fight against, but, due to a mix of tiredness, poison and depleted Magic, Mervyn was powerless to resist. Falling to the ground, Mervyn could do nothing but stare in horror as Gale's wolf moved slowly towards the still trapped Homa, and tore his throat out.

"Noooooooooooooooo." screamed Mervyn as finally images began to connect in his head. Small things that had never seemed quite right finally coming together to present a bigger picture in his head.

The creatures that attacked and killed his niece matched perfectly to the spirits in front of him. The summoning magic that had occurred only several days after the new students arrived, the highly talented boy who always conveniently lost to Lucio, the young girl, Maria, who had vanished after talking to Gale and the silhouette, the one that had appeared after Gale's summoning, the one he himself had dismissed.

Even older images appeared, the young boy raised by wolves whose family had been killed in front of him, who not only had a high proficiency in dark magic, but was raised in the same forest Gale claimed to be raised in, the odd request for the daggers made from a shadow wolf's claws despite the incompatibility with his earth magic.

The flawless attacks of the spirits despite the fact no commands were given....aloud at least. but them again for a boy raised by magic beasts using mindspeak would be second nature for him wouldn't it? Mervyn realised.

Just as he drew this conclusion, Mervyn felt the dagger enter his heart, looking down at his chest Mervyn recognised the dagger. After all he had given the dagger to Gale himself for coming second in the new student competition, the daggers made from a shadow wolf's claws, the boys mother he supposed now.

Mervyn felt panicked for a minute denying the inevitable conclusion that his own choices had led him to. "You killed my niece." He said in a calmer voice, trying to buy time for help to come. But, he knew no hope was coming, no one knew he was here and no one would ever suspect Gale even after the deed was done.

"I did." replied Gale coldly, a savage grin on his face. Mervyn's blood splattered on his body. Mervyn opened his mouth to try and make one more desperate cry for help. However, the opportunity never came, as Gale drove the matching dagger made from his mother's claws into Mervyn's head. Mervyn's last view was the small bloodstained boy smiling at him with more malice than any man should ever possess. "That was for my family." And so it was on that night that Mervyn Oakshield headmaster of the first academy of magic, died.

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Author's note

Hi everyone sorry for the late chapter I was stuck on holiday again, but the real reason for the wait is that I was unsure how to go about this chapter and after a couple of drafts I finally felt happy with this one so I hoped you enjoyed it! I will be starting a second arc shortly so I hope you stay tuned and enjoy, thanks alot Autumn12 :)