School resumed as if we had never left. In truth it felt like we were only observing when we did go to class. The professors always seemed to stutter when we were in the room. I guess the realization they were teaching monarchs would get to them. Maddy and Abby's secret was no longer.
The buzz about how the school's new mascot came about was all the rage. Like always we just let all the rumors fester, never correcting them if they were right or wrong. I finally started to understand how you grow accustomed to the eyes on you that Maddy kept telling me.
Even that strange feeling of being watched while it was still there didn't feel as powerful. In the afternoon while working with Mr Jackson I could feel that sensation of being watched intensified like it was coming from Mr Jackson. I wasn't sure if it was something I should bring up with the teachers or not.
"Do you feel like we are being watched when we are working in the afternoon. I can't shake the feeling that we are being watched." I asked Adam when it was just the two of us walking to dinner.
"I have felt something is off, but it could be that the school is watching us more intensely now. It hasn't gone away since we got here so I am not sure what it is. But yes, to answer your question, I can feel something or someone watching us more when we are training in the afternoon." Adam agreed.
"Who do you think we could ask to figure out what this feeling is?" I couldn't get it out of my head but wasn't sure who we could trust. Something told me it was Ghaston but also it wasn't felt when he was with us during the training so it confused me.
The building we passed while talking had an alley where a group of students were surrounding someone or something. I felt compelled to say something as I had an eerie feeling that something bad was happening. The group turned and saw the two of us were about to say something when one grabbed them and whispered something and they all fled.
There was a girl standing in the center of what used to be a mass of boys. The girl had a small cat on her shoulder who looked more terrified than the girl. She appeared to be a first year and suddenly the realization that they were bullying her hit me. I calmly walked up to the girl to see if she was ok. I had my hand open and wide to show I was no threat as I approached the girl who suddenly got the courage to say something "Thank you, bubye!" With that she ran off after the boys that just fled.
Adam grabbed my shoulder, "Forgot about it, who knows what was happening." I could feel myself wanting to follow but then again follow to where? I am not sure what was going on but I kept feeling strange urges that I hadn't felt before. Adam could tell I had tensed up and tried to give me a reassuring pat on the back but it didn't help at all.
Sitting down at dinner the girls joined us and I told them about the girl that was being bullied. Then how she just left and ran after her attackers if that is what they were. Maddy agreed with me that bullying needs to stop and we should be the ones to stop it if we see it, Adam and Abby didn't seem to be interested in it. Just one of the many things that Maddy and I seemed to agree on where the other two didn't.
When we left dinner the four of us were walking together this time and passing the same building there was once again a group of boys surrounding someone or something. "This is what you said happened earlier? Why is it happening again?" Maddy asked quietly observing the scene in front of us. We didn't say anything but even Adam and Abby were now intrigued to see what was going on.
It was as if the scene was on repeat and it sounded like they were saying the same things as before which made the hair on my neck stand up. Adam felt the same thing and we both instinctively grabbed the girls and moved them behind us. The group of kids suddenly stopped talking and a deep voice was heard.
"Figured it out did you, clever kids. I was told you four would be an impossible target but my pay will let me live an eternity in fame and glory." The voice was coming from the group but none of us could tell who was actually saying it. We discussed this many times and not one of us saw anything other than the following. The group of boys instead of running all walked into each other and the little girl in the middle was the focal point. Each boy that connected to the girl would cause it to grow larger and larger till it was ten feet tall.
"A kinimini, we need to run!" Abby exclaimed. I later found out that although beyond rare, they were assassins who fed off of mana rich crystals preferably and weren't known to attack kids randomly. However they had a level of intelligence that could be tamed into an assassin and those were known to be brutal. The one thing we didn't know at that moment was that none of them were ever known to be higher than silver and with our armor it needed to be platinum to do anything to us.
"Ha, please run, that makes it more fun when I drain your life essence. Lightning is one of my favorite snacks." That comment from the kinimini caused Adam to summon his armor set which the rest of us followed suit. We didn't have two of our teammates but the four of us had enough time together between us to create havoc for this demon. I pulled out my bow and started my support chant.
"Wisp flame, fire weapon, electric aura, iceskin, barkskin, holy prism, sacred weapon, knowledge, arcane reflexes, pyranha's teeth." I thought to myself it would be awesome if I could cast one spell that casts all of those. Wispy chimed in 'not now but we can figure it out'.
The kinimini seeing the display of spells being casted and not affecting him took a step back and looked around confused on what was happening. It had never experienced someone prepping to fight him the way we were prepping. The speech he gave suddenly made him doubt himself as maybe the words were true.
"That is a demon that uses shadow magic and we need light magic to fight it!" Abby screamed not knowing that I had light spells.
"Behind me!" I shouted as they all moved behind me as I stepped forward. They knew me saying that was to get in a line behind me as we had practiced so many times. The kinimini laughed seeing us line up thinking that it was making it easier for him to get all of us not understanding what we were doing.
I started firing blades of light arrows that transformed into two swords that made it harder for the demon to dodge my shots. He was instantly shocked to see two swords being launched at him as I had a bow without a string on it. I changed it up to a blind arrow that stayed as a small arrow compared to the blades but I kept up the attacks of blades only causing a slight delay between the attacks of blades.
The kinimini didn't see what I did and dodged right into my blind arrow forcing him to scream in rage. The look on the face of this demon went from scary to scared at that moment. It had never experienced the blind spell so it had no idea what was going on but it was stumbling backwards barely keeping its balance. I held back nothing and told Wispy to join in and twenty plus swords pierced the demon causing it to scream a crazy noise that I hope I never have to hear again.
A huge puff of grey smoke suddenly replaced the body of the demon and now nothing was there. If there weren't a few dozen students that hadn't seen us all of a sudden get into our armor then witness our fight from a distance no one would have believed us. There was nothing left of this demon and that constant feeling of being watched evaporated with that smoke.
I dropped to a knee as I was exhausted having shot probably thirty plus spells in less than a minute. I had been on rapid fire and then Wispy's attacks drew from my mana pool which is why it is so large compared to other beast masters. I could have kept going but the drop in my overall mana pool gave me a weary sensation and sometimes made me dizzy when it happened in quick succession like what I just accomplished. Maddy's hand touched my shoulder and the life mend spell spread through me, recovering my energy quickly.
Mr G as it seemed to be a now common occurrence came running up to us slightly out of breath as the scream was heard throughout the academy. The growing crowd to see what happened now intrigued to see what was told to the principal. Abby was shaking and something told me that a kinimini was in her past. Adam was focused on the fact that Abby was shaking so I turned to Mr G and retold everything. I told from what happened between Adam and I discussing the sensation of being watched to now it being gone and everything in between.