open Salem University

[Buck Testa 5,503]

Druantia could hardly contain her excitement. The fun was finally about to begin. The stadium was filled with onlookers and the air was filled with excitement. Her aura began to flare up with gusto as it permeated the entire stadium. It began to be more visible to the naked eye, appearing like an Aurora borealis had descended upon them and revolved around the girl. When she raised her head to look at her opponent, her expression was almost unnatural

"Let's give them a show, shall we?"

Druantia raised her hands, one after the other, and an unearthly sound followed them. They sounded almost like a cry coming from her aura itself.

And then, all at once, hell broke loose.

The ground violently trembled and cracked beneath the stadium. Audience members that were excited now we're letting out cries of fear as vines as thick as redwood trees errupted from the ground and snakes around the two combatants surrounding cage.

Along the vines were what looked like gigantic engorged peppers, each one aiming themselves straight at the janitor. On the ground, an advanced variety of poison ivy was snaking itself across the ground, covering the stadium floor wherever it sprouted from the ground. While she had made herself immune to it, one touch could inflame a victim to the point of the affected area rupturing. 

She orchestrated it all in a matter of seconds, her aura on fire and her brow sweating as her plants bent any crunched the cage surrounding the both of them. 

She laughed uproariously as she let her peppers fire. Each one was shooting its contents at speeds fast enough to rend through metal, and they were both the hazardous liquid that could make mace look like child's play and seeds that were capable of ripping through people as effective as any bullet. In just that first volley there was enough to incapacite if not kill an entire squadron. 

To anyone familiar with auras however, they could see that such a violent and sudden use of her power like this, with how untrained she was in using it efficiently, they could see that she was dangerously close already to overexertion. Using her magic this wildly could prove fatal if she kept going at this level. 

 

@Duality @dragon4111 @Denim&Venom

Edited July 8, 2018 by Buck Testa

[dragon4111 914]

@Buck Testa@Duality@Arid_Blitz@Khajiit @Denim&Venom

Ghalan sensed something was wrong as he felt the aura as a seed went by his ear. "Crap," Draco muttered as he began to defend against the seeds being fired his way. He then saw Dru's magical aura. No this is not good she will be..he won't allow another to fall. He wiped off his runes that were on his wrists and formed a barrier  of anti gravity to give him some breathing space that is until afew vines were creeping up his legs so he quickly crushed the vines then floated in the barrier the seeds began to pile up.. His magical aura now showed as well that like that black abyss of night. This is not good for Dru he needed to end this but for now he had to focus on defense.  Though he sent a ball of gravity towards Dru quickly. He gritted his teeth slightly to himself. How long would  she beable to keep this up? this wasn't safe for a little one like her.

Edited July 8, 2018 by dragon4111

[Buck Testa 5,503]

Hazardous liquid from the gigantic peppers along with the seeds buffeted against the Janitors barrier as she continued to orchestrate the attack. Her aura continued to scream almost melodically as she pushed it harder and harder, her grin only growing wider and more disturbing as she did so. 

Because the barrier for the fight hadn't been properly put up, the arena wasn't the only place feeling the effects of her magic. Around the campus, gardens and trees became hostile and wild. Students walking to class or hanging out on their spare time were met with flora wildly trying to lash out at them with no rhyme or reason. Dru wasn't guiding these attacks like she was in the arena, they were just a byproduct of her completely unleashing hell on her opponent. 

"Guard against as many seeds as you like, they'll just make more!" 

Sure enough, each seed that landed on the ground would erupt from the ground milliseconds later as fully developed vines thicker than tree trunks. By this point, mere seconds into the fight, the stadium and gymnasium had been ripped apart. The ground was shaking so violently that audience members were fleeing from their seats to safety. All the while the scalding juices of the peppers continued to blast into her opponent from all sides like high powered water cannons. 

Then came the gravity ball. Poison ivy and seeds alike collected into it as it rushed towards her. To the audience members who stayed surprise, she didn't try to move. Instead she grinned on as her plants grasped onto her, instantly wrapping her like a mummy before yanking her deep underground. 

By this time, her vines were towering high in the air, anyone with Windows facing the battle area or were outside could see the fight had quickly gotten out of hand in less than a minute. 

Unfathomably large and thick pumpkins joined the peppers in their onslaught. Their vines grew high into the sky, snaking through it like a swarm of Eastern Dragons while the pumpkins grew larger and larger. 

When the first one fell, the pumpkin landed in an abandoned portion of the audience bleachers. It exploded on contact like a frag grenade, rocking the campus grounds as it's seeds and contents that were under so much pressure erupted out in a sphere. The guts of the pumpkins ate through the metal bleachers instantly like highly corrosive acid. Still more were falling down upon the stadium, carpet bombing it like a military airstrike. 

Deep underground, Druantia was being pulled by her plants and guarded by them, however her body was starting to heat up with a fever. She was shaking in her wrappings as they burrowed through the ground, and her aura likewise was running very hot. She had only used this many constructs a few times in her life, and they were only used for a few seconds. She hoped she could keep it going long enough to secure a win. 

To teachers familiar with aura, this could quickly turn from a duel to a campus wide emergency. Her aura was running too hot, too wild. Across the campus frantic students were fending off grass, flowers and trees that were awaiting a mind of their own. All because the proper barriers weren't put in place. 

@Duality @dragon4111 @Arid_Blitz @Denim&Venom 

[Denim&Venöm 16,451]

@Duality @Buck Testa @dragon4111 @Mentis Soliloquy 

"Does no one in this ass backwards academy know how to run a fking live stream? Seriously, government subsidies alone aren't enough to keep this school running at a competent level. That's why we could seriously use this ad revenue! Like anyone pays to see young adults get educated." Miko ranted over the magically enhanced Imac G3, leaning on the desk, midsection draped over a tilted swivel chair, dressed in an athletic halter and booty shorts. Holding her paws up in place was Miss Mindy Fenris, her opponent for the demonstration who was similarly dressed, was wrapping each one up in athletic tape. 

"We need to find a safer source of income for schools like this. Just because we can use magic doesn't mean we can't go with out the same modern amenities of other first world universities." 

"Have I been thanked once for installing hotel wifi in this building? How about teaching maintenance the art of-"

The ground began to shake over in the locker room offices. Enough to cause Miko's chair to tip over. She would've been chin checked on that computer desk had it not been for the she wolf to hold her above the floor by one paw. 

"Are the geomancers hosting another pep rally? For fks sake, that's not till Friday." 

Both their ears twitched when the heard the building begin to groan and metal start to creek. 

Mindy's fur began to stand on end. "You feel that?"

"The fk...?" was all she mustered before she was dropped with a thud. 

Mindy jogged out of the office, into the locker rooms, before stopping. "Umm, Miko..." 

"Nani?" she said as she ran out, only to stop next to her sparring partner. The door, heck the whole brick and mortar wall, was askew, thanks to the thick roots rowing up from under it. 

"Nani sore!?" Miko exclaimed, but not before Mindy charged forward and tackled the door down. "By Odin's beard..." as she saw the stadium effects faintly flicker and distort over the ruined gymnasium. No more octagon. Only the janitor fighting back monstrous floral growths, some managing to tower through the roof of the arena, and apparently drop both massive explosive gourdes and peppers that would kill Scotch, Bonnet and their precious scale. 

"The fk is this?" Miko said as she peered out. "The fk is that?" as she witnessed the intense aura. "The fk are tho-" Thump! As a pumpkin landed right where she was standing, sinking into the wooden floor. "Oh find me in the alps! If someone is trying to ruin Halloween, they picked a helluva time to do it!" Miko said as she came form behind the pumpkin. "Mindy-chan! Up up!" Mindy did just that as she boosted Miko up, having her stand perfectly balanced on her outstretched hands. 

Her ears twitched, as she listened across the campus. "This is everywhere. Panic about plants coming to life and going on the offensive. Students being eventuated indoors. I'll need to help with that. *ahem*" she cleared her throat.

"Attention students and staff. Salem University is to go on lock down. Please report indoors until the emergency has passed. All students proceed to the interior rooms of the building.  All staff that specialize in pyro or cryomancy, please take up defensive positions near outer doors and windows until the all clear has been given. Repeat.  Salem University campus is to go on lock down." Miko's voice echoed across the campus and the school building as if it were going through the inner coms. "I'm pretty sure this situation qualifies, right?" 

"Hey, I'm not arguing." as the fox fell down int Mindy's arms. " That aura... it's the same as that Druantia girl's. I knew I sensed something wrong with her when we met. But I never fathomed this..."

"Hey, um... do we have a gardening shed?"

"We do. It's called the armory."

"Oh! My second favorite place on the whole campus! BRB!" As Miko vanished. 

"Frizbee!" *Clang!* As Mindy caught a full metal riot shield in her hand. "Danish!" *Clunk!* As she caught a broad Dane Ax in the other. "And would you kindly turn these on?" Mindy bit down on a pair of hand grips. She whipped pulled back, also pulling on the chords they were attached to. And once she let go, the whirring of motors began, and a pair of blades began spinning. The fox turned around, a demo saw in each hand. "Now let's do some fking landscaping!" Before being off in a blur, taking off like a formula one racer around the ruined gym, cackling and slashing away at any and all plant life with tools meant to tear apart cars. 

"My question...is how-" she bashed away a pumpkin with her shield. "This was allowed to happen. Who let them start fighting? Why didn't anyone stop them? Where was the official? And at the very least-" an electrically charged ax began cutting wide smoking swaths of ivy and vines from her path. "Why did the containment runes fail?" 

[Passion 3,478]

IRA

 

Somewhere in the faraway part of the University, Ira was slowly finishing answering all the questions and jokes being thrown at her. To say she disliked working with her students would be a lie. She enjoyed their company as well as the pranks they tried to pull on her. After all, she was pretty easy-going when it came to student body. But unfortunately, this didn’t mean that such interactions didn’t require energy. Quite the contrary, one could have an exhausting session with just one teenager. Let alone a whole horde of them. Thankfully, this time the situation wasn’t as drastic as it might have looked like. Most of the students left already and only a handful was left. In fact, she was by now idly chatting with them.

 

“Yeah, I remember your aunt, Mia! It’s the one you said one day kicked the Secretary of State in his inexpressibles! What about her?”

“Well. She got arrested again.”

“Again? I swear this woman has more guts than I do. What did she do this time?”

“There’s a police station not far away from the place I live. So, one day she took a frying pan, an egg and an enormous amount of sausages and just walked into the precinct. You know, she’s a known figure, so a few policemen instinctively stepped towa- ...what’s that noise?”

 

Ira managed to react before her student however, as she felt an energetic ripple pass under her legs. It was of unknown to her origin and seemed to grow in power by the second. Barely a few of precious seconds have passed, and ripple turned into an energetic tsunami, accompanied by distant rumbling. Shrieks and shouts started appearing randomly around the campus, undoubtedly belonging to the students who inadvertently got caught in whatever was going on. By now, Ira’s face was dead serious and her eyes pointed at the wall beyond which the energetic source was located. It was obvious that whoever the energy belonged to was not one of the University’s staff members, what instantly put Ira into state of high alert.

As if to confirm her concerns, a familiar voice echoed across the halls of the academy. Voice belonging to a faculty member Ira was not very fond of. Truth to be told, she absolutely hated having to deal with Miko on a deeply personal level. However, if there was one positive thing Ira could state about her, is that Miko was painfully honest in everything she said, and her words were not to be underestimated or taken lightly. She did not fool around. That’s why when the announcement came in, Ira was quick to believe the voice behind it.

 

"Attention students and staff. Salem University is to go on lock down. Please report indoors until the emergency has passed. All students proceed to the interior rooms of the building.  All staff that specialize in pyro or cryomancy, please take up defensive positions near outer doors and windows until the all clear has been given. Repeat. Salem University campus is to go on lock down."

 

“Lockdown…?” - a sudden, forgotten for some time memory flashed in front of Ira’s eyes as she felt pins and needles spread across her body slowly.

“Everyone, close your eyes and turn around this instant!” - she swiftly turned towards the students in front of her, who now stared at her in confusion and a little bit of fear in their eyes.

“But- what’s go-” - Mia began, but was instantly cut off by Ira again - “Do not question me now, you’ve all heard the announcement. Do as you’re told.” - saying that Ira slumped against the desk in front of her, trying to withstand the sudden, horrible sensation of energy filling her body. The students finally did as they were told.

When she joined, Ira took advantage of University’s offer for faculty who did not wish to have all their power available to them at any given point. It was a form of rune, one that sealed away most of the powers of given person until the seal was released. The release could only happen after gaining permission of appropriate University council, or it was released automatically during extraordinary circumstances. While one could mentally prepare for the former, the latter was problematic, to say the least. The sudden influx of energy without mind and body prepared for its receival required a way of temporarily condensing it outside the body.

 

Ira stood up, spreading her arms, while icy feathers sprung from beneath them. The ice started accumulating at her neck, slowly taking over her head and back, connecting with the icy feathers on her arms. At once, it also started forming on her thighs and around her feet. The dancing crystalline formations reflected and heavily multiplied any light particles caught within them, creating a cascade of colors, working as an elaborate prism. Soon, the entire auditorium was flooded with colorful beams dancing around in every direction. Never yet had anyone been blinded by the sight, but Ira wasn’t going to risk it. Not with the students on the line.

Only once the transformation was complete was Ira able to dull the ice consistency to a point where it stopped reflecting the light particles. She stood tall, with long icy wings spreading from her arms. Her legs, from thighs below, were seemingly imprisoned in thick layer of ice, which formed itself in a way it now resembled a bird of prey’s claws at her feet. Her hairstyle was now trapped under an icy helmet which strongly resembled a hawk’s beak and head. The ice reached as far as the height of her shoulder blades, where it connected itself with the ice-clad arms. Strangely enough, it seemed to be elastic when Ira moved, as if its consistency changed on demand. The particles shifted and danced inside it, responding the every vibration of her body.

The form did not only serve the purpose of controlling the flow of magical energies within her, but was also a strong defensive mechanism as well as measure of how much energy left did Ira have. Each crack or missing element would mean a decline in her powers.

 

By now, the curious students were staring in awe, as they have never had a chance to see the form in front of them. Ira smiled lightly and just reminded them in a quick manner. “Now you know where the ‘Frosthawk’ part comes from.” - with these words she approached the windows as ordered, only to spot a scene from a horror movie. The various plants outside were literally assaulting the few, unfortunate students who got caught between them. The order was simple, stay and protect those indoors. But then again, the ones indoors were safe already, and someone had to help those caught outside.

She swiftly opened the window and jumped out, rushing towards the plants. With a swing of her arms, she sent a wave of magical energy which froze the humidity lingering in the air, and directed it in form of violent, precise blizzard against the aggressive wildlife. It froze within seconds, temporarily trapping some of the students but at least keeping them safe for the moment. Without further delays Ira threw herself into the fray of combat, as the remnants of her group watched her from the window.

 

[reader8363 1,281]

Shadow was walking through the halls when a nearby plant in the room flew at him, He jumped above it and used his cane to keep it on the floor and guessed on where the epicenter of all that's going on.  He rotated his neck and decided that he needed to keep his cane there. Then he started to head to the duel as he cracked his knuckles.

Rose and Sorxir were laughing and joking around when everything went chaotic. They locked arms and tried to keep themselves in their spot. Rose used her hands and a small knife from the cafeteria and Sorxir used her magic to overcook them. It was going at first, but Sorxir wasn't well experienced with combat, It snaked around her foot and pulled her off balance. Rose would have gone with her, if she didn't let her go to be able block more. She flew into the air to be stable while fighting the plants.

[Duality 10,738]

[Spoilered is the collab post between me and @Passion; the unspoilered Duality-only post below follows on from it]

Spoiler

On 6/21/2018 at 12:14 PM, Passion said:

Ley pushed herself off the wall, brushing the back of her 'royal' outfit down. She tried to look as understanding as possible, however in the end she was never used to waiting nor having to force herself to be nice. And it was showing. "It's... fine." - she stumbled - "No harm done." - as if on purpose, her eyes fell on the window in front of her, but Ghalan was no longer there. He probably must have moved beyond her line of sight. She frowned feeling the wave of negative emotions flowing in. Before they managed to overcome her however, Ley shook them off and focused on Wave Particle. "Are you certain it is safe to leave these three alone, Miss Particle?" - she inquired with doubt in her voice "Don't get me wrong here of course, I couldn't care less for these two so called 'staff members'. But the girl..." - her sight fell on Druantia again, further down the hallway - "She's quite an interesting subject, I dare say."

Duality straightened the jog-rumpled hem of her turtleneck self-consciously, glancing back at the motley group she’d left behind. “Miss Druantia should be fine. Our staff are an odd bunch, I admit, but they were hired for reasons including their theoretical competence in regards to maintaining school safety.” - “Purely theoretical…” Ley muttered under her nose as the professor continued her ramblings - “That, and all teachers on campus are kept acutely aware that I do not tolerate students being put at risk and will take all steps available to me as head of hydromancy to ensure that knowing offenders are dealt with as harshly as reasonably possible.” The professor smirked faintly in recollection. “A few years ago, Principal Lilith even approved safety-awareness booklets to be handed out to all members of faculty with my scowling face emblazoned across the front and a mixture of strongly-stated school guidelines and teacher-specific personal threats within. Accident rates dropped something like 37% below average for the next six months, apparently, although I suspect that the drop was primarily due to my scowling face starting to show up in the flesh whenever anyone so much as glanced sideways at a risk without written approval by the University.”

“Though, the fact that I can issue officially-licensed personal threats to each and every teacher on campus by name without anybody suing me just goes to show exactly how independently the school operates,” Duality mused, almost as an afterthought, before switching her train of thought back to a track more in line with with the present flow of events. “Oh, ah, apologies for the prolixity. Shall we be off, then?” She began walking down the corridor with her standard businesslike stride before remembering that not everyone could keep up with such alacrity and slowing her pace to accommodate her younger companion.

Ley moved her feet, glad to finally have an objective and something to look forward to today. She digested all the data received from Miss “Dullity”, one that she never required. It was an unnecessary waste of time. Although the girl was quite certain that the “average” of incidents rose today, whatever the average was. She did have to, least initially, pick up her pace. It was a contrast to Duality’s patient and flowing way of speaking. She moved like somebody who knew what they needed and wanted at this instant. While Ley didn’t have issues to keep up, and could eventually float should she get tired, it seemed the pace eventually slowed down. The Daemoness decided to leave the events and recent developments where they belonged, in the past. “You have recently expressed you wished to talk to me, correct?” - the sentence sounded more like a statement rather than question. There was a subtle hint in the air, as if someone was about to ask “Well?” in tone filled with anticipation. The nonchalant manner of Ley’s walk suggested however she was not going to go to such lengths. “Ooh, yes, that’s right. I knew I had a reason for talking so much about school safety.” Duality exclaimed, visibly pleasantly surprised by the relevance of her rambles. “Let me just get something working” - she veered away from Ley and began poking at the corridor wall as she walked, faint flares of cerulean light emitting from the spirals and curves of the intricate swirling motifs carved into the wood wherever she did so. “Hah! There we go!” She clapped her hands in satisfaction as a particularly pointed prod resulted in the entire section of hall they were in, floor, walls, and ceiling, rippling with a pale azure glow before lapsing back into apparent dormance, with only a nigh-inaudible background hum to show any change in their surroundings. Ley observed the developments with curiosity, as she had not yet seen or heard about a similar effect. “Confidentiality spell,” Duality explained. “Nobody can hear anything from our conversation, nobody can see our lips move, and nobody can even see me flailing my hands around like I usually do to make a point. All they’ll see is a pair of blank blue silhouettes - originally designed jet-black, but the colour was changed when students reported that they were unnerving.” - the Daemoness eyebrows raised upon Duality’s explanation. She absorbed the spells visual effects with her eyes once more, making a mental note to research how complicated it would be to recreate it.

“Now, I’ve already mentioned the whole bureaucratic kerfuffle regarding your affiliation of sorts with the daemon realm, but there’s slightly more to it than just legal wrangling and special invitations. See, despite the school’s considerable autonomy, there is still a government agency we answer directly to on matters relevant to national security, and they are taking particular interest in the ‘daemon princess’, as they call you. You’re a potential political and magical linchpin for an entire race plus the sealed dimension they inhabit, Ms Ley, and neither the school or the agency are taking that lightly.” - the pink haired girl did not like the sound of Wave’s words, and could feel seeds of anger being sown in her heart - “What this means for you, most broadly, is that you have to stay as close as you can to the school guidelines on using magic, as per this booklet, or people in suits are going to start asking us awkward questions.” Duality pulled a bent-double piece of laminated paper out of her back pocket and passed it to Ley, making an unfruitful effort to straighten it up. Ley grabbed it swiftly and dug in into its contents, glancing over them in a quick fashion. “There’s nothing too restrictive in there, just common-sense principles of the sort I described in my opening speech back at the auditorium, if you heard any of it. Bear in mind that if you’re forced to use your magic in ways the rules prohibit, let us know so we can log the incident as ‘justified’, and, if students try to bully you - not that I think most of them would get very far -, the school has Diplomatic Immunity amulets that I can make arrangements to issue to you.”

“None of this is anything new to you, if you’ve read the material in the enrolment package the school sent you, but I haven’t gotten to the core of this conversation yet. While I am quite confident in your capacity to keep your own magic in check, I’m nowhere near as assured that your Mr Jeeves will abide by our regulations. If I remember rightly, you stated that he ‘serves and protects you via any means necessary’. From the way you phrased your explanation, my running assessment is that he’s geas-bound to you, which means that his ‘any means’ are literally any means, including potentially harming people, violating school guidelines, and going against your explicitly-stated will if it means keeping you safe, which he did even the first time you told him to stand down. What is he, how much power does he have, and precisely how much power do you have over him?”

“I don’t know.” - Ley’s voice was calm as she was carefully folding the piece of paper she received. Multiple times. Her blank expression however, connected with visibly disturbed stance, suggested something was, to say the least, bugging her. “Just like many others before you, I suspect you’re making an error of assigning ‘him’ humanoid traits.” - Ley raised her eyes to meet Duality’s ones, and continued in monotone fashion as if she was repeating an old message, told many times before - “Jeeves is a Daemon, that is one thing I am certain of. Pure blood one. I have no real idea how he looks, as he once explained to me, upon my enquiry, that his current looks are dictated to him by my subconsciousness. I always had my butlers, he’s just another servant to me. He would not tell me how he looks in reality… I mean, their reality.” - Ley raised a small box of paper in front of her eyes and started judging it critically, rotating it in fingers - “He may not always be as subordinate as I’d like him to, but in the end he has to submit. I do not know the real extent of his power, but it is directly connected to my own and how much restriction I put on him.” - she lowered the box and continued with the explanation - “He shares in my own power and grows stronger as I do. I do not know how much strength he possesses in his own realm, he’s not even my summon per se. One day he simply… appeared, and remains by my side. I have a few summons at my disposal, but he’s not one of them. He acts more as a… Guardian Devil, I’d say. However, if you truly wonder, then perhaps it is worth asking if Jeeves didn’t stand down on his own, or perhaps I didn’t want him to stand down just yet?” - she let the thought sink in by silencing herself for a moment, before continuing - “Now…” - at this particular second she raised the paper box up and flicked it next to Duality’s head. This time her expression was clearly angered as she spoke in quick succession and in harsh voice, it seemed as if something snapped inside her. She pointed at the bony growths on her face. “I never asked for that. Nor for Jeeves, nor anything related to it. I couldn’t care less about your men in black. Never did I ask the University to protect me in any way. And never have I suspected the University to become a government tool for trying to see me as a tool.” - still with anger in her eyes, Ley leaned back and crossed her arms on her chest - “If the government delegates ever want to meet the ‘Daemon Princess’, tell them where to find her. I’ll show them how a real human looks like, because I will not let them see the Daemon in me just to pursue their own agenda.” Ley stepped forward again, indicating she wishes to continue the march. The venting seemed to calmed her down a bit in end, and some regret appeared in her mind. Naturally, it was not connected with being rude or angry for no reason. More than that she regretted giving in to her emotions and giving Duality hints she should have not received. The confidentiality spell must have lowered her guard a bit too much. “If I’m such a political issue for you, why did you accept me in the first place?” - it was time to hit the nail in its head. Duality examined the origami cube that Ley had flicked in her direction as she continued walking, the paper somehow now in her possession despite the fact that she hadn’t caught it as it flew past her face. “A pureblood daemon. I had a hunch, but baryon, that’s going to be some paperwork. It’s reassuring to hear that he obeys your will, though, regardless of the extent to which it corresponds with your actual words.” She slipped the remains of the booklet into a pocket and continued in a more distant tone. “This university prides itself on accepting people from all walks of life, regardless of their magic, culture, or heritage. When we heard about you, we fought the agency to let you come here.” The words shocked Ley to the point she decided to step in - “Hang on, agency? What agency exactly? Who is foolish enough to stand between the descendant of the Crimson River and her targets? And how come I have not heard of them?” - a mental sigh appeared in Ley’s mind. She hated having to deal with politics, and it seemed some were involved this time.

“The agency who makes sure we don’t do anything more dangerous than we already do,” snapped Duality, a rare hint of irritation in her voice at the brusque interruption of both her train of thought and the first few sentences of a speech she was clearly emotionally invested in. Provided she was calm and collected all this time, Ley could not figure out what was the cause of annoyance of Duality’s voice. It caught the girl off-guard and had her momentarily stare at the prof in confusion for a second as the latter resumed her distrait exposition, oblivious to the response her momentary flare of pique prompted from Ley. “They wanted us to decline your offer on grounds of safety concerns, but we wanted to take a stance on inclusivity, that we allowed absolutely anyone to learn about magic - and we also wanted to learn as much as we could about daemons in the process. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about using insider knowledge to gain power over them, it’s just - they’re an entire sapient race, inhabiting dimensions beyond the four we’re so accustomed to, with culture and language and history all their own, and yet we know next to nothing about them. We don’t know anything about daemon art, daemon family structure, daemon philosophy, daemon mathematics, or if they even have any of those things, and you’re our only hope for beginning to learn.”

“Do not put your faith in me.” - Ley interrupted once more, her initially soft and silent voice picked up her regular tempo with time. The words sounded as if they were being dropped by somebody with a weight on their heart - “No matter how much of a Daemon I am now, I used to be a human. And I still am. Just… the border seems blurry, even to me. I do not know answers to these questions, my interactions with them are based purely on subduing most of them to do my bidding. And then there’s Jeeves, who is an enigma even to myself.” - for a flash, Ley attempted to recollect the knowledge she had about the Daemons themselves. That knowledge seemed to be… chaotic. She never truly considered her summons to have any kind of… will. Not to mention all the activities Dr Particle just suggested. Somewhere deep inside, her conscience let out a silent yelp for help as she instantly shrugged these issues off. Her summons were there to serve her, and that was the end of this conversation. She didn’t have time nor energy for moral philosophies on whether what she was doing was right or wrong. They would most certainly lead to self-annihilation over time, or she’d become one of those mad summoners.

“Regardless, you’re the next-closest thing to an unbound daemon there is in this set of dimensions,” the professor replied, more calmly now that she’d said her part. “I can, without a shadow of doubt or dishonesty, assert that the University does not see you as a tool, and the agency has shown no signs of trying to use you as one. We are not trying to stifle you with protection, nor are we a tool for the government ourselves. We just want to teach, we just want to learn, and the only way the agency will let us do that is if they’re sufficiently sure that you’re not unhinged or an unnecessary danger to the general populace. All that we ask is that you work with us to help assuage their paranoia.”

“That is one thing you should not be worried about.” - Daemoness voice suddenly became prideful and pompous, to a point one could wonder if she is putting up a satire - “I, Ley of the Crimson River, have no intentions on putting shame on the name of my family.” - her sweeping gesticulation during the speech, complete with closed eyelids and solemn expression, indicated her mind had jumped a few eras away. Or, perhaps, realities. “Au contraire, the honor this University has in being graced with my presence shall be known across the borders, shall I find my stay to my liking.” - in spite of all the odds of this world, everything indicated that Ley was indeed serious in her speech.

“Brilliant. Brilliant.” declared the professor, with no little amount of relief. “Follow school magic etiquette. Good to hear we’re approximately on the same page. Speaking of pages -” Duality stopped abruptly in front of a set of double doors open to reveal a large room, filled with bookcases and books stacked as high the mezzanine in places and prevented from seeming cramped almost solely through its well-organised layout. “We’re here,” she proclaimed. “The confidentiality thingy doesn’t work in there, though, just so you know; the library’s runetime environment doesn’t support it.”

The library itself, in Ley’s eyes, was initially unsatisfying. It did not stand tall as she expected, with only two-story room presenting itself to her. Some movement could be seen around, yet she paid next to none attention to its visitors. It took her a moment to notice the legend and signs, which clearly indicated there were at least six floors available. This was more to Leys liking. Libraries had a distinctive aura to them. One could nearly feel the energies swirling inside them, the grander the library, the more power flowing through the books. She wondered if they had a section for forbidden publications. Volumes filled with words so powerful, they needed to be isolated from general population for both sides safety. Ley had access to only a few of them back home, and only because she read them in secrecy. She could never read more than a few pages at once however. The books had tendencies to warp their users. Or bite their hands off, depending on the topics they covered. It seemed that powerful words turned the sentences inside into reality. Opening a forbidden book on the pages dealing with flooding spells cost Ley a few precious entries from her personal library. As well as many carpets.

Then again, it is said that Knowledge is Power. And, following a really simple, conclusive formula… Books equaled knowledge equaled power equaled energy equaled mass equaled matter. And since matter, as widely known, bent space… “Have you ever heard of rumours surrounding the mythical L-space?” - she asked absent-mindedly, while she focused the energies inside her Ultima. Soon after, a small portal opened behind her and a peculiar creature flew out of it. It looked like somebody took an old, tarnished bunny marionette, outfitted it with a witch costume and afterwards turned it into a stereotypical ghost. It was also carrying a small, golden lantern in both, fingerless hands. A tiny, pinkish flame was sizzling inside it, hermetically imprisoned inside the glass surrounding it. “Haunt, fetch.” - as on command, the ghost burst towards the shelves and began the search for the books Ley had always repeated it to find.

Duality, poking intently at the mural in the corridor again, looked up in surprise at the mention of L-space, but her eyes were too quickly drawn to Ley’s summoning and the resultant ‘Haunt’ for her to formulate an immediate response. A few seconds of silent observation ensued until the wall spat out an indignant aqua spark at her lapse in concentration, stinging her finger and shocking her into uttering an undignified yelp. She pouted in faux-resentment at the unrepentant engravings and aimed a kick at the skirting board, causing the pervasive drone characteristic of the confidentiality spell to cut out and leaving a silence far louder than the hum had been. “It’s certainly not common for first-year students to ask me about it, but absolutely. There are legends about it going right back to the Library of Alexandria, the ‘world between the words’ that allows one to cross planes of reality just by wandering impossibly far down the path between dusty bookshelves.”

Ley was busy inspecting the library’s layout during the explanation, but she turned her head around, staring at Duality over the shoulder. Her voice was filled with uncertainty and disbelief, but also a solid pinch of curiosity. “What? You mean it really exists? I always thought it a myth! Does it exist here then?” “No library known today has enough information density to actually tunnel through spacetime, let alone ours...” “Oh…” - at this point Ley’s upper body was already half turned towards Dr Particle, however upon hearing the disappointing news her interest plummeted. “...but a group of researchers with some extremely expensive equipment has apparently found reliable evidence of above-expected spatiotemporal warpage in places like the Library of Congress,” continued Duality. “The unification of general relativity and QM is still too far off for anyone to scientifically speculate about results like that, though, despite some significant mathematical advances in promisingly correlated areas of quantum information theory recently.” While Ley would love to admit she had no idea what was this all about, she couldn’t. Any self-respecting and sane summoner had to familiarize themselves with fundamentals of quantum mechanics. The whole job relied on dimension warping, which often led to disturbances in the immediate area’s atomic structural integrity. Left unchecked, it could and did in the past lead to catastrophic incidents. An unstable portal was endlessly more dangerous than the inhabitants it brought to the world. For everyone around. Needless to say, as a person dealing with alternate dimensions, Ley was more than interested in L-space, especially should it occur as a natural phenomenon.

Duality wandered past Ley towards the nonfiction section nearby and began idly perusing the contents of a bookcase labelled ‘Botany’, keeping an eye on the industriously searching Haunt. “As for us, we’ve had occasional reports of alleged anomalies from students studying late into the night, but we don’t have the equipment or the budget to get a formal analysis done and our records don’t show any confirmed glitches in the Matrix yet.” She yanked a large tome free from the shelf and turned back towards Ley with an almost comically conspiratorial expression on her face. “Just between you and me, though, I’ve done some measurements and I’m almost certain that the sociology aisle is a half-centimeter longer internally than it is from the outside.”

“You should perform an inventory.” - Ley pushed herself off of the ground gently with the toetips of her feet. She crossed her legs in air and settled over the ground, as if she was sitting on an invisible stool. She carefully removed a single claw of her Ultima from the ring finger and reached into the folds of her skirt, elaborately tied around her waist. A second later nail file appeared in her other hand and she proceeded in removing any imperfections she could find, in deep focus. The issue with Ultima was that it had to fit like a glove. Untended nails were an absolute nightmare and torture for Ley, rendering her Ultima nearly useless due to absolute discomfort they created. She continued her speech all in the time she was performing these activities. “It is probably a single additional book which causes the dimensional alteration. Should you find it, we could all study the anomaly. After all, who knows which time period and world it comes from?”

The moment she finished speaking, Haunt bolted past her leaving a single book on the table nearby. She dismissively peered over her hand just to acknowledge its title. It read: “Charm, temptation and lust: Mesmerize and control the world by J. M. Tennington”. The cover itself was only slightly suggestive, but the title made Ley freeze and hold breath instantly. Four years ago, after realizing her transformation gave her, considered by some, ‘killer looks’, she realized she could use those to her advantage. She must have absolutely forgotten that she ordered Haunt to find it, and so far no libraries had it. But she could not understand why of all the book storages she visited, it was University library which had it and it had to be the first one Haunt brought. In an instant she turned to Duality, letting out a little cough. “I… I think you should go attend the duel.” - Ley spat out, there was just a tiny vibration in her voice pitch, and her face turned just a slightly darker shade of red. She normally wouldn’t be ashamed of such trivial matter, but to say the situation caught her off-guard would be a major understatement. “I can handle from here, I’m sure.” - the words were instantly followed by a nervous laughter as she turned her eyes away from her guide and refocused her attention on the nail, as if it was the only thing that existed in the world.

Duality looked up from the large herbal in her hands, then glanced back at it rapidly, almost nervously, before snapping it shut, slipping it under her arm and returning her full attention to Ley. “Ah? You wouldn’t like me helping? Even if not, I’d quite like to get a first impression of how advanced your skill with enchan - wait a moment, where did that book... oh. I see.” Her shrewd gaze indicated she did indeed see, sweeping across from the boldly-titled treatise lying in the centre of an otherwise glaringly bare table to the oblivious still-searching Haunt and Ley’s subtly evident discomfort. “I take it you didn’t intend for the daemon to bring you that particular piece of literature at this particular juncture?” Ley exhaled in resignation, bowing her head a bit at the notion of Wave taking interest in THAT particular idea. The professor moved to the table in a few short strides without waiting for a response and picked up the book, scanning the cover text front and back. She gave Ley no chance to react properly at all. “Not the best Machiavellian how-to guide I’ve read, I must say. Lust works fine as a basic tool for controlling people, but its major downside is that it often makes them do impulsive and thus unpredictable things. True manipulation is all about predicting people.” She returned the manual gently to its place next to Ley and strolled to an automatic book checkout machine near the door, swiping her teacher ID and her botanical tome in quick succession before returning within seconds.

This left Ley staring into the void blindly, her face expressionless as she tried to process the fact she was being lectured in THAT topic, of all the topics, by her senior. Her eye twitched a little while her eyebrows desperately tried to break free and fly away, judging by the height they were at. This was definitely not the time, place, situation and, most of all, relationship level to be discussing things like these. Everyone in here seemed to come off as… too friendly, for Ley’s tastes. Of course, assuming that Wave had no experience in this field would be deprecating, but this changed nothing… Ley cleared her throat and got a grip of herself again. “Right.” - it was the most conclusive ‘Right’ she had ever said in her life - “I have severe doubts we have enough time for a presentation of enchanting abilities, as I am assuming you wanted to suggest before that little… incident.” - Ley didn’t move an inch from her original position - “Besides, first and foremost I need to return the shine to my current wardrobe. These clothes look absolutely horrendous the way they are now. This would be nothing interesting to wat-” - Ley interrupted as she felt a familiar presence passing by again. With tremendous speed her Ultima shot in the air, grabbing the passing by Haunt by the end of its tail. It stopped in its tracks, losing its hat in the process.

“Haunt…?” - it was as if she had undergone a massive metamorphosis. Her voice, while sweet, had hidden blades in it. There was an untold menace in the pitch. A shadow was drawing on her face, probably a byproduct of her current emotions mixed with her magical energies. Her eyes were closed, but she opened them now and looked directly at the minion from under her hair. These were the eyes of a person silently fighting the urge of committing a murder. Even the air around Ley could probably be seen waving ever so slightly, for a keen eye. “...you will return this piece of literature to wherever you have found it this instant. It would bring me much joy should you do so, much less than if I’d have to send you to Taurus’ dimension and give it 3 hours of playing with you in a locked space. And you know how much it loves playing.” - Haunt grew pale, as pale as a creature resembling a bunny doll can get, as it stared at Ley terrified. When Ley let go of it, it slowly picked the book up not letting its artificial eyes to wander off of her. The Daemoness responded with tracing it with her own piercing sight. Very slowly Haunt flew off, and like with a touch of magic wand everything went back to normal. The grim aura surrounding Ley dispersed in an instant and she returned to her previous activity of tending her fingernails. “As I was saying, there would be nothing of interest to witness initially. We can postpone this activity until later, or some other day even.”

“Uh, yes, I see your point. We can talk about enchanting another time.” The professor gratefully broke the exquisitely tactful silence she’d lapsed into as Ley threatened her hapless summon with implicit torture. “Don’t worry about the book, though. If you actually had experience in what it teaches you how to do, or indeed any true intent to gain such abilities, you would’ve been less, ah, embarrassed by me noticing it. As things stand you were just expressing curiosity, and curiosity is not generally considered a negative trait, least of all by a teacher like myself. I would, however, advise that you check your daemon’s auto-search book list for any other potentially inappropriate tomes, as this is a university, and thus, courtesy of our students, one is likely to stumble across many such volumes in various dark corners of the library.” Duality paused as she realised she was starting to sound vaguely patronising and Ley already clearly wanted her gone. “Right. I should be off, then. Miss Druantia’s duel isn’t going to administer itself. Hope your enchanting goes well. ‘Bye.” She waved awkwardly and left quickly, only doubling back into a staff stairwell near the exit when her paranoia was absolutely assured that Ley had no magical or mundane means employed to track her steps.

“Edna. Edna Edna Edna. I’ve heard that name before, I’m sure of it. Stupid aging mind. At the rate I’m going I’ll end up forgetting my own name one of these days. Come to think of it, that’s happened a few times already. Only when meeting someone exceptionally important for the first time, though. Not that that’s much of an upside.” Duality strode briskly up the narrow library steps, only stopping when they ended in front of a plain white door, labelled simply with the matt-black outline of a heptagon. Tucking her book on botany under her arm, she pulled a sleek metallic Stylus out of her pocket, featureless but for the tapered point constituting one end and the fingertip-diameter hemisphere that formed the other, and began to swipe the rounded tip across the interior surface of the empty shape in an intricate series of strokes, the door responding to her touch with lingering trails of cobalt light that began to take shape into an impossibly complex pass-rune as she continued her meticulous limning. The rune flashed faintly with understated power as the professor completed its final line with a flourish, rotating and meshing through itself like a clockwork sculpture as its core aligned to form a palm-sized rectangle of luminosity, into which she placed her encrypted teacher ID card to complete the door’s unlock sequence.

Duality cracked the door ajar and quietly slipped through its opening, shutting it firmly behind her before turning to face the room she’d entered. All was calm within the unconventional but heavily reinforced half-pentagram she stood within, centred on the doorway she’d entered through, but outside it was a scene from a bibliophile’s nightmare. Rows and rows of bookcases stretched away across the entire breadth of the library’s seventh and topmost storey, spellbooks chained to their shelves shifting and vibrating and struggling against their restraints with an arcane, animalistic life all their own. She stepped carefully out of the humming runes etched deeply into the floor and began walking slowly and deliberately down one of the aisles, steering well clear of the feral tomes around her, not a few of which made futile snaps at her as she passed. After several long minutes of painstakingly paced steps, the professor arrived at her target: a particularly savage-looking volume bound in suspiciously supple leather, jagged blood runes inscribed across it that seemed to squirm under scrutiny and an unrelenting, piercing shriek emanating from it as it convulsed beneath its shackles. She gently placed the bulky herbal she was carrying onto the ground and exhaled a long, slow breath, steeling her nerves, before bringing down the pointy end of the Stylus onto the book with as much force as she could muster. The grimoire redoubled its rasping screams, writhing in grotesque agony as the razor-sharp nib penetrated centimeters into its fleshy cover and lodged there, buzzing with warring energies as she forced her consciousness through the enchanted pen and into the book beyond.

What I wouldn’t give for a well-behaved book of magic, uttered Duality’s mind as it floated within a sphere of pure intent, buffeted on all sides by the enraged concepts confined within the eldritch tome as the last vengeful act of a man whose sanity they had devoured. The Precept Codex is quite pleasant to work with, I admit, but then again I contributed to its final design. Wait, no ramblings here. Can’t afford it. Focus. Edna. I know that name. Where is that name. Find it. Find it. There. Her thoughts brushed aside a swarm of psyche-sundering impossibilities to grasp a single shard of knowledge from the primeval tumult surrounding them. The instant she touched it, her mind was yanked back into herself and a pulse of power threw her bodily across the library aisle into the bookcase opposite, the inhabitants of which came to regret attempting to bite her in retaliation at about the same instant as they discovered that her turtleneck had defensive spells woven into it that rivalled them for viciousness.  The professor stumbled upright, grimly brushing off the jaws of the more tenacious books, and glared at the still-screeching grimoire as she picked up the botanical tome she’d set aside, relaxing her white-knuckled grip on her stylus and slipping it back into her pocket.

Edna: a powerful daemon who reportedly manifested somewhere in northwest Asia about five hundred years ago. According to records, she performed over a dozen significant magical feats within a handful of weeks and then vanished just as mysteriously as she arrived. No details regarding Edna’s visitation were preserved outside an unnamed cult of non-mages based in central Muscovy, who, upon formation, apparently killed everyone with any knowledge of her who refused to join their ranks. The cult worshipped her in secret for almost a century before dissolving sometime during the Time of Troubles (early 1600s) as the political upheavals of the era and a lack of extant evidence for Edna’s existence combined to cause skepticism among the few remaining cult members regarding whether their religion was valid enough to justify the increased risk they were taking by ritualistically convening during a period when covert meetings could be easily mistaken for a conspiracy against the Russian government and punished with death. The former cult’s sacred texts were hidden in a disused cellar and subsequently forgotten about until the cellar’s rediscovery in 1883 beneath a small Catholic chapel, when the flooring near the altar caved in under the weight of an occupied coffin midway through a funeral. Despite the doubts of the last generation of adherents, the cult’s records of Edna were described as “undeniably authentic” and “the most extensive report of a single daemon’s manifestation known to magekind” [L. Avilova, 1899], but all copies of their sacred documents were lost in the Syzran Fire (1906), which leaves this claim a debated matter among academia. All that is known of Edna and her devotees is found in Avilova’s discussions of the contents of these records, and the only piece of the original texts that survives verbatim is a single fragment quoted directly in one of her analyses: “‘...to her contentment. For the Lady beyond the veil shall gratify her devotees aplenty. To her our lives and souls. And so, lo and behold, the chosen faithful grow in power beyond measure. Yet none are strong. Each one adequate to shape the future. Yet none almighty. For our omnipotent Matriarch’s machinations shall bear fruit in due time. And when that day comes, she shall bend the knees of the unfaithful and force them into submission. For the Lady is devious and her cunning knows no bounds. Withal, woe be to those who shall greedily seek...’” Avilova ends the quotation there with a note that the adjacent handwriting had been rendered illegible by moisture damage. “Tch,” tutted Duality, as she made her way gingerly out of the labyrinth of shelves, “One could wish that all the entries in that book were as reasonable and informative. More about the cult than the daemon, but at least it doesn’t shred one’s sanity to even begin to comprehend.”

As the professor painstakingly approached the exit, a crimson warning rune flickered on in the centre of its lintel. A single instant of seeming normalcy passed before the tomes surrounding her abruptly went absolutely berserk. Even the ordinarily passive and peaceful among them started straining at their chains and emitting crazed squawks and whines, startling Duality into jumping nearly an inch off the ground and racing out of the room as fast as decorum allowed for, slamming the door soundly shut behind her. Safely outside the restricted archives, she calmed down enough to mentally chide herself for her momentary panic, leaning against the wall and fanning herself with the herbal she still clung onto to cool off her embarrassed flush, but soon tensed up again as she realised that the alert rune and the books’ aggravation had both been triggered by a massive flux of magic currently flowing through the entire library. Now that she was outside the soundproofing spells of the seventh floor, she could even hear a distant whine reminiscent of a tortured violin, underlaid by an ominous rumble that shuddered through the very ground beneath her feet. As she hurried down the stairs she’d come up, fingers twitching frantically as her magic-sense kicked into overdrive, a familiar voice resonated through the building:

On 7/10/2018 at 2:01 PM, Denim&Venom said:

"Attention students and staff. Salem University is to go on lock down. Please report indoors until the emergency has passed. All students proceed to the interior rooms of the building.  All staff that specialize in pyro or cryomancy, please take up defensive positions near outer doors and windows until the all clear has been given. Repeat.  Salem University campus is to go on lock down."

“Oh, no,” groaned Duality as her mind forged through the torrent of unmistakable plant-magic surrounding her to discover the location of the disturbance. “Miss Druantia, what are you doing?” She hurriedly dug into her pocket, her hand delving deep past the boundaries of physical fabric to pull out a utilitarian grey amulet forged from tempered steel. A focussed mental image of her intended destination and brief pressure applied to the sprawling rune etched across the metal was all that was needed to bring her to what remained of the duelling hall in a subdued flicker of shifted spacetime. “Muon,” Duality breathed as she craned her neck trying to see the tops of the colossal vines crushing the fated building, the wailing scream and accompanying basso profundo ground-shudders now almost unbearably loud. “Someone is responsible for this and I am going to take great pleasure from enacting proportionate retribution on them.” As she leaned back to take in the scope of destruction, her free hand all but vibrating at her side as she set about determining the precise locations and identities of the handful of people still in the hall, her smarterphone (patent pending) fell to the ground with a clatter, slipping from the now-disarrayed pocket that she had rummaged through to find her teleportation amulet. She bent to retrieve it, still preoccupied by the events of the situation unfolding in front of her, and checked its screen almost by reflex to see a notification icon flashing. Distractedly pressing it with a finger of the hand awkwardly half-occupied holding onto her botanical guidebook, she cursorily glanced over the contents of the three unread emails accumulated in her inbox, which she figured she must have missed during the ruckus in the restricted archives:

Hey, the duel’s through admin. ~DDah

Hey, the duel’s starting now. ~DDah

Hey, the duel’s gone nigh-apocalyptic since one of the participants went deranged. ~DDah

As she frowned at the irritatingly succinct messages, still mostly focussed on the events transpiring in front of her, another one materialised on her screen with an electronic chime.

Hey, the duel’s basically destroying the entire campus and the plants are taking over everything and this really creepy mutant rutabaga that grew out of the sandwich I was going to have for lunch is sitting on my desk and staring at me even though it doesn’t technically have eyes and I think it’s trying to decide whether to bite me to see what I taste like and it’s freaking me out please fix things pronto and also I might not eat vegetables for a few weeks after this. ~DDah

Duality let out a hissing breath between her teeth and shoved the phone forcefully back into her pocket, mentally transferring her frustration from the earlier emails to the as-yet unidentified individual who had brought her adoptive niece into the crossfire of a duel that should never have gone beyond a pentagram. “Great pleasure indeed,” she growled, over the air-filling rumble-reinforced shriek surrounding her. “There isn’t an umbrella in the world that can save them from -” Her head jerked up abruptly, exasperated monologue dying on her lips, as her seventh sense finally pinpointed Dru among the raging currents of power still blasting through the debris of the duelling hall. The young girl was several feet underground, wrapped in plant matter mutated beyond recognition, and pouring out energy at a terrifying rate - well in excess of anything Duality had ever seen safely emitted by a single student. The professor had until now taken for granted that Druantia was capable of uncontrolled magical feats as vast as the campus-wide disturbance around her, especially since she had earlier witnessed the girl burn a hole through solid rock with her condensed aura, but she now realised, blood chilling in her veins, that Dru was massively overexerting herself and coming dangerously close to burning up her entire body with the power she was channelling through it. Cursing her initially laid-back approach and the precious time it had wasted, she dropped her herbal where she stood and lunged forwards into the fray.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Duality
posts this large sometimes glitch for whatever reason

[dragon4111 914]

@Buck Testa@Duality@Arid_Blitz@Khajiit @Denim&Venom @Mentis Soliloquy

Ghalan started to pant as he felt his barrier then shatter. He felt a seeds tear through his shoulder like a shotgun blast. Blood splattering the vines. He began to dodge the more targeted of the sprays and carpet bombing with in the dueling pentagram. He needed to save the little one before she burns herself out. Come on Ghalan think. No a blackhole won't do it too dangerous if he kept it open for too long. a graviton blast would be way to much. Hell  a rail gun shot would be too over kill No he would not consider a bolt from Zeus(an orbiting long rod in space). that would cause too much damage. He could hear the two teachers outside of this dome of vines. Yeah Miko and Fenris were is so much trouble for this mishap. Crap not good not good. He was periodically checking on Dru's aura. dwindling and burning hotter. "No," He muttered slightly to himself as he needed to get her out from under ground and to safety. Then when he would have her  then he could use his full power.

[Buck Testa 5,503]

@dragon4111 @Duality @Denim&Venom @Arid_Blitz @Mentis Soliloquy

Throughout the campus, the rumbling and explosions of the intense battle could be heard. However they were being drowned out by a new sound. As Dru's aura burned hotter, its own individual voice grew louder and more crazed. Before when it had started it had sounded almost melodic. Now however it resembles an unearthly and deranged laugh, filled with as much despair as there was mirth. It echoed in the halls, across the outside campus, and especially loud where the Janitor was. An ever present cackle of insanity echoing from Dru's magic itself. It seemed to almost possess a will all its own as it conducted more and harder attacks around campus, buffeting windows and doors with whatever was available. 

Meanwhile, beneath Ghalan, the ground was buckling. Something large was coming out to greet him.

The thing could only be described as a beautiful abomination. Though it clearly once came from the seed of a tree, it had been warped far beyond that. It's bark was albino with a hint of pink, taking the form of the head and torso of a woman. Two branches extended from the torso like trunk, forming regal and delecate looking arms, though they exuded power. The head was featureless in the face, but it was adorned with a multitude of branches, each bearing on them enough pink and red flowers to simulate a mane of hair going all the way down its back. It towered above all as it emerged from the ground, testing its limbs as it rose like an elevator, destroying the last of the gymnasium in the process. The vines had yeilded to the abominations presence, moving out of the way as it floated upwards, the cackling laughter still audible. 

The real object of interest was in the stomach of the godlike construct. Druantia was partially submerged in the trunk, suspended upside down while her limbs remained inside of the construct. Her face looked like it was in horrible pain, and both her eyes and mouth were glowing bright with wild magic. Fear was in her features. The way she writhed and struggled indicated that she had lost control at some point during the match. Her magic was operating of its own accord now. 

Painfully Dru laughed on, though her face made it seem more of a wail than anything. 

Without warning the Eldritch horror launched a frightfully fast punch at the Janitor, faster than something that size should be capable.

It was hell bent on achieving victory, even as Dru showed visible signs of fading fast. 

Edited July 12, 2018 by Buck Testa

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,024]

@Buck Testa @Denim&Venom 

Kat had honestly enough of the teacher's attitude and was not going to make the mistake of talking to her again anytime in the next few centuries if she could help it as she was beyond insulted by how she was acting. Nevertheless, she kept her mouth shut and was almost dragged along to see the duel though she wanted to watch anyway really. 

What transpired though was... nuts! In a word. "Je sais que le premier jour du trimestre est normalement amusant ... Mais c'est plus que fou!" (just some info Katarina is French) She exclaimed as she felt the ground beneath her paws tremble and shudder at the movement of some awe powerful magic that was for sure and the call out for people to basically high tail it was really all the reason she needed to do the same making sure she took sure steps as she tried to get away from this 'dual' and back to her dorms at least those might stand better against this magical onslaught.

[Duality 10,738]

@Buck Testa @Denim&Venom

Duality sprinted into view of the disruption's epicentre just in time to witness the monster bloom from the earth, as exquisite as it was terrible. The formerly near-musical shriek of Dru's aura had segued into a sickeningly hybridised scream of anguish and power-crazed megalomania, locked in a unnatural clash for dominance just as the girl was with her psychologically dissonant magic. No no no no no. She's going to kill herself at the rate she's going. Except that's not her. That's her magic. Linked to her emotions more than her mind, and by the looks of it splintered off from her main psyche to boot. Worst case I've ever seen. What can I do? What can anyone do? If I fight her magic it'll just consume her quicker. She has to defeat it herself. But she's clearly not winning at the moment, so I have to help her get the upper hand. Align her emotions with her mind instead of her magic. How? How? How? The professor stopped herself and exhaled slowly, centring and focussing her racing thoughts as she breathed. Okay. The pebble from earlier. That let her control her magic for a while, quite successfully according to her. She also appears to have an emotional attachment to me. That - well, that could be used as well, if need be. Relatively despicable, but if nothing else works... "Hey!" she hollered at the abomination, gesturing at Miko to amplify her voice. "Miss Druantia! I know you're in there! Remember that pebble I gave you earlier? Remember how I told you to focus your magic onto it to help you control it? I drew a rune on it, but that rune was just felt-tip! I didn't put any magic into the rune - you put all your magic into it all by yourself! Your mind can win over your magic - all you have to do is focus! Just like you did before, but this time, you are your own pebble! Focus your magic into yourself, into your control; it will be hard and it will hurt, but your magic will obey, just like it did before!"

Edited August 17, 2018 by Duality

[Buck Testa 5,503]

@Duality @dragon4111 @Denim&Venom @Arid_Blitz @Mentis Soliloquy

 

The abomination turned its faceless head upon Duality and sped forward towards her. It's bark grew spiny and agrivated at her interfering with the match, the branches along its back bristling with rage as the laughter took on a different, angrier edge to it. 

Dru however, was listening. The teachers voice had reached her ears, and her magic was angry that it's fun might end. It was so thrilled to finally cut loose. It didn't want to calm down. 

Though she was tired, and her body felt like it was on fire with how much magic had been cording through her, she struggled to lift her upside down head and concentrate. 

The abomination looked down upon itself at its chest as a symbol began to glow on its chest. It was feint at first, but soon it shone as bright as anything, that very symbol that Duality had drawn on the pebble earlier. 

Dru spoke out, her voice carrying in her aura as she said these next words. 

"I am... The Druantia... No construct... Shall have dominion over me... In my name... PERISH!" 

As the words raggedly came from her glowing mouth, her aura condensed on the abomination, slowly at first, then faster and faster, pulling magic out of all of the plants off the Campus. They ceased their assault on the campus, the plants froze where they were, some stopping in mid attack on students and teachers. 

The abomination clawed at its chest, trying to destroy the glyph. It was already too late.

"BEGONE!"

All of a sudden, the moisture was sucked out off the Abomination as well as the surrounding vines. For a moment they hovered in the air, frozen, before they began to crumble. One of the Abominations arms began to fall from its shoulder when Dru released the magic, letting it blow it into a cloud of dust. Dru lost consciousness at that point, entirely exhausted and falling to the ground as her towering vines crumbled to dust around her, creating plumbs of ash in their wake. Anyone who'd check her would be alarmed at how high her fever is, and how weak she looked in that state. Her magic had done a number on her from bruises from being trapped in the Abomination to general fatigue. Hopefully someone would catch her before she hit the ground, lest more complications arise.  

[Denim&Venöm 16,451]

@Buck Testa @Duality @dragon4111

A pair of saw blades sputtered to a halt, gummed up by plant matter. "Dammit!" Miko exclaimed as she threw the tools down. "Imma have to fetch the chainsaw now." she was about to bolt before the ground began to shake, and the abomination rose from the depths. 

"... Well st. That is the second biggest plant monster I've ever seen. Any ideas how to turn it to compost?"

"Not without killing the girl." as Mindy threw aside what was left of her acid scarred shield. "Why? Don't you?"

"As a matter o fact I do." she vanished in a blur. A few seconds later she reappeared, with a very long, thick heavy chain trailing behind her.

"Okay first, take this." as she handed the chain to Mindy. "Kay, now yank on that really fking hard!"

Mindy did as asked. She turned around. Yanked her arm forward, and sent the chain flying past. A crash could be heard in the distance. The chain kept going, and going and going until-"

*clang!*

something big, heavy and metal crashed next to them. Mindy looked. It was the cast iron school bell. 

"Alright next!" she zipped on over to it. "Did you ever watch Kung Fu Hustle?"

Before Mindy could answer, they both sensed Duality enter the battle. Miko looked on, and did as requested and bolstered the speech. 

Lo and behold, it worked. The creature began to crumble and collapse as the plants froze around them. As the dust was clearing, Druantia would be seen in what was left of the plant goddess. Which wasn't for much longer, as the hollowed husk collapsed.

"Uhh..." Mindy quickly looked around for a solution. And found it. First she grabbed Miko. "Nani?"

Then chucked her through the air. 

"Wahhhhhhhhh!"

Right into Durantia, as the collision turned that plummet into a balistic arc. Straight onto the arms of the vixen did the Floramancer landed.

"Ohmph! Fk!" as said vixen landed on the concerete foundation of the former gym, bouncing, skipping, and tumbling like a stone on a pond, eventually rolling to a stop, and with it, angry Anime poison ivy rolled off of her, gently falling to the ground like autumn leaf. 

[Passion 3,478]

LEY

On 7/11/2018 at 10:06 AM, Duality said:

If you actually had experience in what it teaches you how to do, or indeed any true intent to gain such abilities, you would’ve been less, ah, embarrassed by me noticing it.

Ley had to make sure she was not facing Wave Particle upon hearing these words, as she was clenching her teeth and fighting the urge of tilting her head in the process of being indignated. It was awfully presumptuous of the teacher to instantly assume she had no experience in the field. Whether it be true or not. Of course, as a next-in-line to family's titles, riches and influence, Ley naturally had a number of suitors. A number which drastically dwindled after her little 'accident'. However odd it might have been though, it also attracted a few braver ones who somehow found her new appearance... unique. They were mostly creepy and shady. But most importantly, not only Ley had currently no interest in anything stable, they also had little of value to bring into her family. Besides, all those weird 'feelings' associated with all of this were just unnecessary distractions from her own goals, right? Right. Yes, definitely. It was something she didn't need in her life.

She was eventually left alone. As Duality walked off, the girl only waved her hand broodily without even turning around. Reason being, Haunt found first book which Ley desired. The one that she would make use of the soonest, dealing with enchanting. She hid the nail file and put on the missing claw of her Ultima again. Ley reached for the book, levitated back to the ground and made her way to a nearby armchair, conviniently hidden in the corner of the room. Falling heavily onto it, she opened the book and began skimming through its pages.

Time passed slowly, minute after minute. A few stories above, Duality was finishing the research on her little guest of honor, to Ley's obliviousness. The book itself was... average. She skipped the basics and moved onto advanced techniques to brush up her memory. Most of them were known to the enchantress, but the piece of literature proved its worth by having at least three topics Ley did not have a chance to delve into just yet. A pile of cellulose covered in leather and various other materials was slowly growing bigger on the table next to her. Demonology, dimensional rifts, stabilization of flow of magical energies, catalogue of enchantments, physics vs magic: gravity chapter, known demonic entities across the years... But also two, generic drama/romance novels she had not yet read. Her focus was ultimately disturbed as she spotted a tiniest movement with the corner of her eyes.

A stoic blade fern. Was it the wind? "Wind in the library... have I suddenly become dumb?" - that mystery would have to wait for later.

It looked innocent, and the longer Ley stared at it, the more all-overish she felt. It was a familiar feeling, unique. Very rarely had she ever felt it, and the last time was... "Druantia..." - the moment this thought appeared in her mind, the fern suddenly started swinging its leaves around violently, attacking the nearby shelves and wall. Ley observed the event from safe distance, constatly keeping the book in front of her face opened on a particularly interesting topic. "Uh-huh." - a sound of acknowledgment of new situation she found herself in slipped past her lips, as she calmly stared at the plant with slight inquisitiveness. "The duel must have began, but wasn't the duelling hall supposed to be magic proofed to no limits? Why is thi-" - Ley picked up a trace of unfamiliar force. Faint, diluted by library's protective layers of spells. But it was there. As she focused and reached for it, she frowned. It definitely belonged to the child, but it was... different. Primal. Violent. Impulsive. It was wild. And wild meant uncontrollable. The Daemoness broke her focus, as a distant rumble could be heard, clearly indicating something must have gone not necessarily as planned. The muffled shrieks and screams also served that indication. "That Ghalan man must be having a lot of fun. I swear, I nearly envy them both." - Ley contemplated the situation for a moment, before reaching the final conclusion, which sounded - "Peculiar." - after stating this, she paid the events no further attention as she dove back into the words on white pages.

The fern in the corner was helplessly reaching its stems towards her after running out of targets, but it was too far away to be of any real threat. Probably for its own good, as otherwise it would face complete obliteration. It was a bit sad sight to witness, as the amount of ignorance Ley was throwing at the weed would certainly heavily damage its self-esteem, had it had one. After a minute or two, maybe three, the subtle energies disappeared. Something was missing now, it disturbed the girl. Ley violently closed the book with a loud snap while simultaneously calling her trustworthy, daemonic butler. Her curiosity was piqued, but she couldn't give in to such naive feeling. She needed to do something, anything, to keep her mind busy. "Jeeves." - the blade fern was frozen in place, in position which resembled a powerless plant facing a hurricane - "Grab the tomes, we're leaving." - she stood up and passed the publication to her tall servant. Afterwards she slowly strolled towards the exit of the library, taking lead and allowing Jeeves to leisurely follow.

@Duality@Denim&Venom@dragon4111@Buck Testa@reader8363

IRA

The calm meadow outside the University's windows, located between its walls and perimeter fences, turned into a battlefield. The grass itself was quite successfully turning into blades, therefore Ira had to freeze it completely, ultimately creating a field of ice around her. At least a few plants somehow developed a way of using their, suddenly seemingly infinite, seeds as ballistic projectiles, shot under high pressure. Another group developed steel-like blades from the leaves. But the effects of magic turning them into tools of destruction seemed to be completely chaotic. A field of tiny chamomiles, angrily barking at her from further away, seemed to prove this point. Yet she was certain they would bite her fingers off should she get closer to them. Although she could feel the magic's ominous presence and the general direction of source it was coming from, she couldn't sense its power. A definite flaw of her training, to say the least.

The combat which she went through was nasty, to say the least. The plants attacked relentlessly, forcing her to time after time form ice barriers to shield herself. She couldn't find an opening easily, and she had to find one as her powers' area of effect was sometimes hard to control, therefore she couldn't use it freely. She had to be precise. Yet, her bow would be of little to no use, unless she had her enchanted arrows with her. A courtesy she wasn't allowed. The hits fell on her time after time as she also danced trying to evade and block all of them at once. Training sessions with Rouen were bearing fruit, as she was able to move swiftly and predict where hits would land. Eventually, a few seeds fired in rapid succession hit her leg and broke off a chunk of ice from it. That's when she lost her patience.

Ira jumped back, putting the tiniest amount of distance between the melee plants and slamming her palms against each other with great force. She afterwards kneeled and touched the ice under her feet using both hands. An enormous wall of ice rose in front of group of ranged foes, blocking their attacks and buying Ira much needed time. The outer feathers, next to her palms, fell out and she grabbed them mid-flight. Their structure changed, so did their shape. They now resembled a finely crafted, curved swords, and their edges seemed to shine with light, reflecting the particles at odd angles. Ira focused on remembering the white weapons training sessions she had in her life and launched herself at the close-ranged plants, slicing and slashing with exquisite finesse and elegance. Eventually, most of the weeds were cut down, as their movements seemed mighty predictable. The last two were blasted away with flames, as a nearby group of pyromancy adepts rushed to Ira's aid. Although the effort put a little bit of strain on Ira's physical capabilities, as she had to exert more strenght at once than usual, she turned towards the wall of ice still standing firm behind her. With a swift strike she crushed it into pieces and...

...found the plants frozen solid. Not by the means of her magic, per se, but they were completely immobilized. She kept her guard and approached slowly, expecting them to come alive at any moment. Poking one with her blade however revealed they indeed seemed to be... somewhat dead. She straightened up, the blades dissipated from her hands. Two of the helpful pyromancy students were running up to her, trying to keep their balance on slippery ice she created all around.

"What were those things?"

"I don't know, but I'll get to know sooner or later." - she observed the plants for a little while longer before turning around. Her eyes were cold. "Why are you outside? You were told not to leave the building."

"We saw you through the door and decided to help." - the two explained rapidly, suddenly not certain if they didn't get themselves into trouble.

"I had the situation under control. You unneccesarily risked your health or even lives should anything happen, and I would be held responsible." - the students clearly didn't know how to react. It was obvious to them her words were unjust. "Head back into the University until lockdown is lifted at once, no objections accepted. I'm heading towards the source."

Ira turned around and focused on the ice under her legs. She formed a thin, but solid layer and afterwards bent its back side under her heel. As a result, a tiny ramp formed under her feet, making her start sliding forward. She kept repeating the process indefinitely, gaining speed slowly. The motion resembled skiing a lot, and left a trail of broken ice behind her. She turned around, spotting the back of the two students heading towards the University in disheartened state. "Forgot to mention, you did great! Good job you two, thanks for help!" - they stopped and stared at her, and as she looked in front of herself again, she could have sworn she caught a glimpse of smiles appearing on their faces just before she lost sight of them.

Now, she should reach the source of all this madness in probably less than a minute. There were questions to be asked and answers to be given.

[dragon4111 914]

@Buck Testa@Duality@Arid_Blitz@Khajiit @Denim&Venom @Mentis Soliloquy

Ghalan felt the large thing punch him hard sending him flying into the bleachers then through a wall.  Yeah he could feel quite afew cracked ribs and broken ones as well making it rather hard to breath.That was a weakness to his levitation it made him rather light so if there was a force exerted onto him. Though he ignored the pain as he flew back into the stadium. "If little Dru alright?" Ghalan asked with concern to his voice as he could barely breath without causing himself pain.He was quick to hover over to Dru and place a gentle glowing hand upon her forehead. Fever, check signs of near death? check...Magical aura depletion. cripes. Alright then.  He needed to take her to the infirmary quickly for now all he can do it alleviate the fever with his healing magic ignoring his own injuries and bleeding shoulder. "You damn little fool," he muttered slightly to himself He then looked at Duality "Duality take her to the infirmary," he stated simply.

[reader8363 1,281]

@dragon4111 @Duality @Buck Testa @Denim&Venom
Shadow threw open the door and said with a stern look at everyone, "I know the reason for the plants has been stopped, but why did it get out of hand in the first place?" His shadow was growing longer up the wall and across the door behind him. He was annoyed that he had to leave his cane behind to keep the plant from trying to take a bite out of him and the students that pass by.

Rose chopped one up and looked around to see that the plants have stopped. She sighed and said to Sorxir as she dropped the knife on the petals, "Sorxir, you can stop with the sunlight and open your eyes." She had patches that were sunburned from Sorxir flailling about.

Sorxir heard Rose say that it was over and opened her eyes as she stopped the magic. She grew embarrassed that she was upside down and yelled, "Well, don't just stand there, get me down from here."

[Buck Testa 5,503]

@Duality @dragon4111 @Mentis Soliloquy @reader8363 @Arid_Blitz @Denim&Venom @Passion

Now that the bedlam had subsided, the grounds of Salem U were unnaturally calm. The kind of calm that only comes from a battlefield after all of the bullets had flown and bodies had fallen. Ash drifted across the campus like snow from the crumbling vines and Abomination. 

All around the campus, all the plants that had ceased their attacks now stood unmoving like eerie lawn orinaments. Grass and plants were still quite sharp and dangerous to the touch, but they were not actively moving anymore. Who knows what other ramifications Dru's magic had on the flora around campus. It would take a lot of research to find out. Or help from Dru.

At the site where the duel took place, the damage was much more severe. The massive vines had rooted themselves deep underground before they had turned to Ash. The result was massive unstable tunnels burrowed deep underground, all surrounding an even larger crater. The place where the Abomination had risen. There didn't seem to be a bottom to the hole it had come from. It was very clear that the ruins of the gymnasium were on vastly unstable ground, and as the ash shifted in their tunnels it only became more so. Ground shifted and buckled at the slightest provocation. Who knows how far down those Vines actually burrowed before they were stopped.

It's hard to believe that all of that destruction had happened in such a short period of time, caused by the magic inside of the raggedly breathing unconscious girl in Miko's arm.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Buck Testa

[Duality 10,738]

@dragon4111 @Passion @Buck Testa @Denim&Venom @reader8363

"I can't believe that worked," Duality mumbled faintly as she hurried towards Miko, who'd caught Dru a scant few instants before she hit the ground. Movement caught her eye as she drew close - Ghalan rising painfully out of the crater that the Abomination had punched him into and flying towards the vixen and her charge. He set down next to them just before the professor arrived at the scene and began to apply healing magic to the apparently comatose child in spite of the blood trickling down his arm and several severe-looking contusions across his face and body.

On 7/14/2018 at 12:51 PM, dragon4111 said:

He then looked at Duality "Duality take her to the infirmary," he stated simply.

"You're coming with me or I'm dragging you there unconscious," countered the professor tartly, tossing him her teleportation amulet. "You okay, Ms Miko? I can take Miss Druantia from here if you're fit enough to stay to get this write-off of a hall plus the surrounding unstable ground cleared and cordoned off ASAP. If anyone comes asking what happened, tell them a duel got out of control and to talk to me or admin if they have anything worth talking about. Ms Fenris!" She beckoned at the slender metawolf. "Please help Ms Miko if she needs it, and, if she doesn't or when you're done, could you check in with admin and tell them everything they want to know? They'll need all the info you've got." Duality began moving to take Dru off Miko's paws before stopping dead, a horrible thought striking her, as the adjustment of her stance sent a thin stratum of plant-ash into a flurry. She rapidly searched her pockets before yanking out a pair of dust masks and handing them swiftly to Miko and Mindy. "Put these on, make sure nobody breathes in any of that ash, and try to disturb the already-settled layers as little as possible. Forget what I said earlier about cordoning off the area, this place needs to be hermetically sealed; find someone who can do it and get it done before the wind picks up. This stuff is the supposedly dead remnant of some seriously unstable organics-altering hostile magic, and I want no chances taken with its quarantining."

On 7/14/2018 at 4:30 PM, reader8363 said:

Shadow threw open the door and said with a stern look at everyone, "I know the reason for the plants has been stopped, but why did it get out of hand in the first place?" His shadow was growing longer up the wall and across the door behind him. He was annoyed that he had to leave his cane behind to keep the plant from trying to take a bite out of him and the students that pass by.

Duality followed the door Shadow had thrown open with her eyes as it swung clean off its hinges and clattered to the ground. "That's something I'd like to know myself, but this girl needs the infirmary stat. Interrogations and investigations can wait until all staff and students are accounted for and their injuries tended to. Would you mind assisting Mses Miko and Mindy here to get the remains of this hall on airtight lockdown? I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who'd be able to quickly and effectively seal away all this dust so nobody inhales any of it, but it is of gravest importance that a suitable spell be deployed to do so before air currents spread the ash anywhere across campus. Take a dust mask for yourself, and a couple more in case someone else shows up who can help." She pushed the protective filters into Shadow's hands and swiftly turned back to Miko, sweeping out from her seemingly bottomless pockets another dimension-shifting amulet, identical to the one she'd lent the janitor. "Come along, Ghalan," the professor said as she gently scooped Druantia's prone form up from the kitsune, cradling the child in her arms with immeasurable care before activating her teleportation rune and vanishing.

The infirmary was in an uproar. Healers and orderlies scurried frantically from room to room, checking in on resting patients and settling in new ones, as the already-bustling waiting area continued to fill with the distressed and injured. Duality strode through the chaos without her gaze so much as veering an inch from the doctors' station at the end of the hallway leading off the reception area, and well before she'd even arrived she was flanked by a pair of concerned nurses who efficiently and rapidly slipped Dru onto a stretcher, interrogating the professor about what had happened to cause such symptoms as they swept the unconscious child to the intensive ward. "Don't worry, we'll do everything we can for her," one of them reassured as they closed the 'Doctors Only'-marked doors behind them, firmly shutting out Duality. Now alone with her jittering nerves, she moved at a reduced pace back in the direction of the infirmary reception, trying to remember whether Ghalan had teleported with her or not while considering where she could make herself most useful for incident cleanup beyond the immediate aftermath at the duelling hall; she figured Miko, Mindy, and Shadow put together should be more than capable of dealing with the ash without her micromanaging them. Only four seconds passed before all the thinking and talking and running and stress and magic of the day caught up to her in a single instant of cataclysmic exhaustion and she crumpled in a dead faint, saved from hitting the ground only by the dive of a quick-thinking bystander.

Edited August 17, 2018 by Duality

[dragon4111 914]

@Buck Testa@Duality@Arid_Blitz@Khajiit @Denim&Venom @Mentis Soliloquy

Ghalan sighed as he caught the amulet in his bloodied left hand. He hummed as he walked out of the gym . He needed to check on Druantia as he walked out he looked at the carnage. He sighed at the mess as he spotted ira. He raised an eyebrow slightly. This had gotten out of hand the whole university was in carnage. Something told him it was Miko's fault. But for now he had to get healed up. He spoke the amulet's rune and he teleported into the infirmary. Bustling with activity as he sat down into a chair and waited. Ghalan used his none bloodied hand to  bring out a book for him to read and waited for his name to be called up. He was used to this while he was a good man his temper always got him into trouble especially with the doctor's and nurses. He couldn't help but worry about the little girl. So he had decided to walk around after using some of his own medical magic on himself to keep numbing his pain.

[Buck Testa 5,503]

MINUTES EARLIER

Given the strange and enigmatic presence of Druantia taking most people's attention, it would be forgiven if they had forgotten that she had shown up with a caravan of her "grandpa's friends." 

Walking through the halls of the school in an quasi orderly fashion was a group of at least fourty rough looking men in suits and fancy hats, each carrying Druantia's luggage up to her room. These men were in all sizes, some tall and broad, some thin as twigs with reedy sunken eyes, others short and scrappy, scowling at students who stared too much. 

"Vinnie, you think any of this crap is even gonna fit in this room of hers? I told you she packed too much crap." Grumbled a short man, barely five feet who was lugging a particularly large suitcase. 

"If it don't fit we'll make it fit. Why do ya always gotta whine Frankie, it gets on my nerves." 

A set of twins leaned into the conversation, carrying a chest in between them. The only way you could tell them apart was that their faces were scarred up in different ways. 

"Hey you guys watch how you talk." The one holding the back of the chest said in a hushed tone.

"She might be listening through the wood." The other hissed, walking backwards while keeping a firm grip on the underside of the chest.

"She can't listen through wood, don't be stupid." Frankie was always annoyed with how superstitious the mob was about Dru's abilities. There were so many rumors about what she could do it was hard to sift fact from fiction. 

"She can, she took out Joey a few weeks back just for talking crap about her man." 

Frankie put down his luggage and brought the whole cavalcade of mobsters to a halt. He pushed his way over to a newer grunt holing a large sunflower in a pot and snagged it from him. 

"GIMME THAT! NOW WATCH YOU KNOBS, SHE CAN'T HEAR A WORD IM SAYING."

He looked into the center of the flower as if it were a face and said his next words. 

"You're a spoiled, unpleasant, bratty, psychopathic little twerp. Ya hear me ya little hellspawn?" 

He turned to face the others, turning the flower pot to have it face them as well. 

"See? Can't hear a thing."

There was an akward moment of silence as they all stood there, staring at the flower. Frankie's heart was beating a mile a minute. If he was wrong he'd definitely be dead. However nothing seemed to happen, the large sunflower remained unmoved. 

They started to laugh nervously, most of them waiting for the other shoe to drop. Frankie sighed in relief. He was going to be just fine. 

Then all hell broke loose. The campus started to shake, that distinct feeling of Drus presence could be felt by even the non magical mobsters...

And the Sunflower turned towards Frankie. He screamed in such a high pitch that you would swear it came out of a little girl as he dropped the pot and started running full sprint down the hall. The Sunflower's pot crashed into the ground, and it began to grow and use its roots as legs and chase after Frankie, who was profusely apologizing in a shrieking voice. 

The other mobsters started moving double time to get her room set up, even as trees and other plants banged on the windows outside. 

Frankie fruitlessly pulled out his gun and tried shooting the ever growing sunflower, but no matter what his bullets ripped through it never seemed to do lasting damage. Non magical attacks rarely did. 

"Hey, come on, you didn't think I meant that right? Come on, let's talk this out!" 

He fled into a restroom and slammed the door shut, locking it forcibly to try to keep the sunflower away. Through the air, he could hear a strange ungodly laughter surrounding him on all sides. She was enjoying this! The monster! 

"Hey! I tell you what! I'll get you a stuffed animal!"

A leaf hacked through the door, splintering it a bit. 

"Two! I'll get you two!" 

He hugged the wall as the sun flowers leaves hacked through the door. With each hack he upped his ante, growing more frantic as he did so. 

"A thousand! I'll get you a thousand stuffed animals!" 

And then the flower stopped. Frankie was shaking, sliding to the ground as he shakily took out his phone. 

"Hey honey... Yeah listen, could you please go to the store and buy a thousand stuffed animals... DONT ARGUE WITH ME WOMAN JUST GET THE GODDAMN STUFFED ANIMALS!" 

@Duality @dragon4111 @Arid_Blitz @Denim&Venom @reader8363

Edited July 19, 2018 by Buck Testa

[reader8363 1,281]

Shadow sighed and walked into the area as he pulled a vacuum out of a hole of the stage. He was a little annoyed that his shadow was still stuck in the plant. He looked around at the place, duality was talking about some hazardous dust. He could seal the entire place in its shadow, but he swore to himself that he wouldn't go overboard with his magic unless it was an emergency. He started cleaning up some of the rubble and dust.

Rose sighed at Sorxir's yelling, then she grabbed the knife and quickly sliced through the vine holding her up. Sorxir screamed as she fell and landed on her arm. Rose quickly ran over and check if she was alright, then started to help her towards the infirmary to get a professional look at the arm to see if there was any breakage.

When Sorxir landed on her arm, she bit her tongue to not cry out in pain and wanted to pass out from it, but she didn't want to show any weakness

[Passion 3,478]

IRA

@dragon4111@Denim&Venom@reader8363

The distinctive feature of the duelling hall was the fact it was larger than most other locations within University's borders. Its walls dominated the structure of the University, with their magically reinforced foundations and bricks. This is something that could have been said about them a few minutes back. Now, what was remaining of them was mainly a giant hole and a pile of rubble. Ira could hardly believe her eyes as she approached the remnants of once well-protected hall. Whatever force was behind the destruction, it must have been enormous. The cryomancer had no chances of knowing that the security measures were not set up correctly at this point, so to imagine a force that must have been behind the destruction was reaching near impossibility.

She jumped off her slide and switched to sprinting initially, but soon she slowed down to a jog and eventually carefully entered the hall, grabing the edges of once proudly standing wall and carefully stepping over the bricks. The air above her was filled with gray, unknown in origin particles. Yet, she was further unprepared for the sight inside. The hall was... to say accurately, gone. Not only the wall did disappear, it seems that both the ceiling and the floor in particular have gone missing. A giant, gaping hole was in a middle of the room, filled with gray matter, similar to dust or ash. In fact, the matter was settling all around her. There were cracks in the ground, some wide, some thin. All leading towards the hole. Far in the corner, she could see her colleagues, Mindy and Miko, pulling themselves together after whatever has transpired here. Only afterwards once she had scanned the room, she caught a glimpse of Ghalan in the duelling hall's entryway, just before he disappeared. A frown of concern flashed on her face as she had just enough time to spot how tarnished and beaten he looked like. Although she was too far away to spot the bleeding, he certainly did not seem to be at his best condition. She had also caught glimpse of Sorxir and Rose around, however they seemed to be dealing with the aftermatch of the events and it seemed they weren't doing so well. Before she managed to gather her thoughts, she witnessed Sorxir lose the fight with gravity and suffered a painfully looking fall. It seemed however that the two were doing just fine as they left. This left Ira with only two witnesses to question about the events.

As she stepped through the ash, Ira shed her armor, which seemed to no longer be of any use for her. The ice started falling apart, dropping to the ground piece by piece with obnoxiously loud effect as it crashed against the floor and bursted into thousands of glimmering pieces. Part by part, she finally rid herself of her wings, helmet and boots, as she slowly walked absorbing the new layout of the hall. Her steps were leading her towards the remaining two on the scene. Sure, there were a few random silhouettes gathering themselves up on the seats up above her, but she preferred to learn on what in the world happened in here from someone who actually was in the thick of it. As she was walking around the giant hole, she couldn't help but notice it was filled with omnipresent ash to brim. Her feet encountered one of many cracks, what made her trip. Ira waved her hands ridiculously and stumbled forward, barely keeping her balance as a surprised shriek escaped her mouth. Regaining her composure, she breathed in and out heavily. She wasn't really keen on discovering what would happen should she fall inside the new addition to the hall.

By the time she reached them, Miko and Mindy seemed to be back on their feet. Neither of them looked particularly calm, especially Miko. Ira wasn't very surprised. The scale of whatever happened here must have been massive, considering it sent echoes across the entire campus.

"Are you two fine?" - she begun, but it was obvious at first glance that even though they seemed to have gone through some rough times, they were holding up better than they looked - "What in the world happened here? I've been fending off University's hedghes and our beloved cherry tree a few minutes back, before they froze in their tracks. And I could swear a field of mutated chamomiles would start insulting my very existance could it speak. Who's behind all this mess?" - she asked as she took time to observe the fallout, as well as assess the accurate level of destruction the facility suffered.

 

Ley

@Buck Testa

The uproar just outside the library walls was enormous. Dozens of students were running around seemingly pointlessly, some were glued to the occassional windows, being pulled away by an occassional teacher or the like. Others were culling in the corners in fear. And amidst all this chaos was Ley, calmly making her way through the corridors. To say the least, majority of the student body was not currently very happy with her presence, or rather with the presence of "a beast", "that monster", "DEMON!" and a few other creative names Jeeves had gathered over time. A handful of higher grade students she met did not really care about the events that much however, going on with their lives as she did. "Weaklings." - a thought jumped into her mind as she compared the confused part of University with the ones who maintained their calm. Although the daemoness was not allowed to perceive the full force Dru unleashed, her effects could be seen on each step. As Ley walked, she couldn't fail to notice that literally every single plant had undergone mutation of some sort, and was now left frozen in weird position. Plants in classes, decoratory plants in the corridors, weird hanging gardens in a room she was passing... Ley couldn't help but to pay some attention to the thought as to what must have been going in the botanical section of the University and its greenhouse.

"Our little friend really did a number on this place, didn't she?" - she threw at the servant behind her - "I wonder who ended up winning. I am nearly starting to regret not watching their performance." - the silence which answered her was nearly deafening, if the constant buzz in the University was to be ignored. "Jeeves, you could sometimes talk to me, you know." -  she noticed with a little hint of irritation in her voice.

"Milady must forgive, but milady always tells me to, quote, 'Shut up' when milady is speaking." - the answer was devoid of emotion. It sounded as if it was the simpliest and most obvious rule of the universe the way Jeeves said it.

"I swear, I sometimes don't know why I even keep you around. That's only for when you're interfering in my conversations with others unasked!"

"Naturally." - was it sarcasm she sensed? Ley wasn't certain as she scanned Jeeves critically. It wasn't soon before she gave up however. Trying to read something out of her Daemon was like trying to get daub to express emotion.

The way to the dorms lead through open field, as the buildings were separated from the campus. Probably for a good reason, who knows the shenaningans that were going on in student dorms. They would most certainly interrupt many'a'classess if they were situated too close to the University. She stepped outside. The area was absolutely devoid of any humanoid life and flora around it was frozen in twisted shapes. She managed to take only a few steps before she heard a voice coming from behind. "HEY! What do you think you're doing, haven't you heard the announcement?" - Ley stopped in her tracks, with her and Jeeves' backs to the speaker. Seeing their silhouettes from behind might have not been giving them full credit as to who they were, even with Jeeve's characteristic wings. After all, she couldn't have been the only summoner in the world, could she? "All students are to remain inside, get back here this instant!" - at this point Ley frowned in anger. Who was that little worm to tell HER what to do? Her pink, transparent wings sprouted from her back as she turned her head halfway back, looking at the person behind these words with a single eye. Jeeves did the same, doubling the effect. Her gaze was certainly unsettling for anybody who'd first spot her face. Even more if we add to the fact the person tried to order her around. At first glance, and at second as well, she must have been an intern. She was young, too young to be a full fledged teacher. And she was already stepping back in surprise upon seeing their faces and general appearance. Ley flapped her wings once, to underline the effect. "Jeeves, teach that odd tree to your right some etiquette." - at once she pointed her ultima to the left, aiming at the deformed hedge. Almost at the same time Ley's ultima launched a faint ball of misty energies which dematerializated the plant, while Jeeves borrowing some of Ley's energies snapped the ominous tree in half like a twig. After the demonstration, she addressed the intern. "Keep protecting your little weaklings, fool, but mind your tongue. If you believe we cannot handle ourselves, come out and try to stop us." - not wishing to waste even more time on such meaningless characters, Ley proceeded to continue her trip towards the dormitories and hid her wings.

The journey continued unhindered and she finally reached her target. The dorms themselves seemed to be... quite standard. And brimming with life, seeing how the classes were not yet running. But even here the aftermatch of the duel could be seen, in form of aggressively twisted vines and roots, as well as certain unease between the students. Clear directions to her dorm room were one of rare things that Ley had been given, and she turned her steps precisely to this location. It took her another moment to reach it, and she found a group of students leaning behind the corner just before the last turn. They seemed to be exchanging a number of comments about something they were spying on and was behind the turn. Ley bothered not with what they were doing and took the turn, only to face a horde of black-clad ... gangsters, probably the best description, frantically moving luggage and items into one of the rooms. The speed they were working with was outstanding, although they were all sweating like pigs. What was more annoying, they were moving all the junk into a room just before her own. Ley sighed, wondering how else can this day get any worse, and confidently moved on. She passed by another plant, stuck with its blades in the girls' restroom doors. One of the men was trying to figure out how to get out, but it was obvious he was scared to even get close to the plant. "Pervert." - she threw at him absent-mindedly as she walked past. It was a girl's restroom, after all.

Getting through the mob proved to be... easier than she thought. It seems that they were ignoring her, too focused on their work. It was as if they couldn't care less what happens around them and the job of moving things was a matter of death or life. Ley stood in front of her door, searching for her ID card to unlock it and observing their hustle. Whoever her neighbour was, they must have been quite influential and rich. And who knew? Maybe if they turned out to be a handsome, young man as well... She could get to know him a bit better with time and- The Daemoness shook her head violently. What was she even thinking? She didn't come here to gallivant around. Besides, before she could learn anything of who they were, she needed to change. Badly. She was getting tired of wearing her over-the-top costume for today already.

[Denim&Venöm 16,451]

@Buck Testa @Passion @reader8363 @dragon4111 @Duality 

On 7/15/2018 at 6:51 AM, Duality said:

"You okay, Ms Miko? I can take Miss Druantia from here if you're fit enough to stay to get this write-off of a hall plus the surrounding unstable ground cleared and cordoned off ASAP. If anyone comes asking what happened, tell them a duel got out of control and to talk to me or admin if they have anything worth talking about. Ms Fenris!" She beckoned at the slender metawolf. "Please help Ms Miko if she needs it, and, if she doesn't or when you're done, could you check in with admin and tell them everything they want to know? They'll need all the info you've got." Duality began moving to take Dru off Miko's paws before stopping dead, a horrible thought striking her, as the adjustment of her stance sent a thin stratum of plant-ash into a flurry. She rapidly searched her pockets before yanking out a pair of dust masks and handing them swiftly to Miko and Mindy. "Put these on, make sure nobody breathes in any of that ash, and try to disturb the already-settled layers as little as possible. Forget what I said earlier about cordoning off the area, this place needs to be hermetically sealed; find someone who can do it and get it done before the wind picks up. This stuff is the supposedly dead remnant of some seriously unstable organics-altering hostile magic, and I want no chances taken with its quarantining."

 

Mindy walked over to her now childless ballistic missile of a friend. "I'm pretty sure that was a bane."

"No st..." the fox groaned. 

"And we are currently standing in it's ashes. Can't believe we're now hosting students strong enough and unstable to conjure banes. We're used to seeing those around toxic waste dumps and nuclear testing sites "

"...oh st." as she began holding her breath, finally noticing the ashen fall out from the abomination. 

"Yeah, and Miss Duality wants us to quarantine the area. No clue what Bane remnants will do to one that doesn't know how to guard against them." as she handed a  dust mask to Miko. 

Miko slapped the dust mask to her muzzle. "And how the fk are we supposed to do that?" 

On 7/21/2018 at 7:17 AM, Passion said:

"Are you two fine?" - she begun, but it was obvious at first glance that even though they seemed to have gone through some rough times, they were holding up better than they looked - "What in the world happened here? I've been fending off University's hedghes and our beloved cherry tree a few minutes back, before they froze in their tracks. And I could swear a field of mutated chamomiles would start insulting my very existance could it speak. Who's behind all this mess?" - she asked as she took time to observe the fallout, as well as assess the accurate level of destruction the facility suffered.

 

"Ummm, oh where to even start..." Mindy muffled through her dust mask, looking across the ruins of the gymnasium. 

"How about with that 'duel' between that child of the corn and our ass clown of a janitor? That seems like an easy enough place to begin our bitching. Those two couldn't wait to tear into one another and nobody bothered to stop them! " As Miko began dusting ash off her shoulders. "I'm gonna need my full Hakama set for this mess. And I can't get back to the apartment without trailing Bane fall out all over the place. Great." she muttered. 

[Buck Testa 5,503]

SEVEN YEARS AGO

"Now listen and listen good you little witch. You are going to show them your powers and you're going to make all daddies problems go away." 

Walking down the halls of a luxurious mansion, a man in rugged clothes dragged a little girl by the wrist. She made no effort to fight him, but because she was so short in comparison to her agitated father she had to jog to keep up with him. Her wrist hurt from how hard he was gripping it, and a few times she had felt her shoulder tug in an unusual way. 

She turned 5 today. Not that it mattered. Her daddy always was busy on her birthday. Only time he wasn't was when he was home drinking. She stared ahead of her as she ran as hard as she could to keep up with his pace down that hall, her face expressionless and almost dead. She just wanted to get this over with so her daddy could leave her alone again. 

Next thing she knew he burst through the door. Inside were goons of all shapes and sizes rising to attention and reaching for their weapons, and one older gentleman sitting in an expensive chair with a passive yet imposing expression in the middle behind a intricately engraved desk.

The look in the old man's eye was enough to rob her father of his steam. Suddenly he remembered that his life was on the line and that him barging in like this didn't help his chances. 

"When you had called me on the phone, you spoke of a way you could pay off all your debt with me. Your disrespect makes me think this is a waste of our time."

"Its not!"

Dru's father yanked her roughly by the arm off of the ground and dropped her by his side, making her wince in pain at how hard her wrist was held.

"You want to get in on the drug trade in ways no one else has right? This is how you do it!" He emphasized this by shaking her like a toy from her wrist that he held slightly higher than she could comfortably stand. The Don was growing increasingly irritated by the rough treatment of the child, sucking his cheeks in and twitching his eye as he said his next words.

" You are trying my patience. Get to the point. "

"She's a Witch! A Warper! Whatever the hell you call em. She has this demonic power over plants. I saw it with my own eyes. Show them!" 

He shoved seeds into her face and screamed at her. It was a marvel she wasn't crying, but that was probably out of fear of getting hit. 

"DO IT!"

She closed her eyes, and the next thing they knew the air shifted. Within seconds, their drug plants were growing right out of his hand from the seeds. Not sub quality plants either, but healthy plants that looked well cared for. Everyone in the room could see the immediate benefits this could bring. 

"See? You can use her however you like, make her work night and day if you want. And then we can call this little debt off right? You get a money making witch here, and I can just go about my business."

The Don sat back in his chair and looked pensively from him to the clearly abused child. It was clear to him from the look in her eyes that she deserved far better. 

"Well... I think we should ask her what she wants."

"What?"

The father, if you could call him that, clearly hadn't taken this into account. He thought selling her would fix his problems. This wasn't supposed to happen.

"Family is very important to me." The Don continued calmly, "I have grand nieces and nephews around her age. It... upsets me greatly to see a little one mistreated."

He gestured for his men to separate the child from her father, and they got her a chair for her to sit down in. She subconsciously rubbed her wrist from where he was gripping it. It was already showing signs of bruising. 

"Tell me little one. Slaving all night and day just so your father, who beats you, can get away from us without paying what he owes doesn't sound right, does it?"

Dru silently shook her head no, looking into the Don's eyes

"You bitc... "

Guns were drawn and all pointed directly at his head, promptly shutting him up.

"What if instead... I adopted you. You would live a good life, get a nice education. You would... never have to see him again."

"This wasn't the deal!"

Guns cocked, making the father go silent again, especially as a few goons pressed their guns right into his face.

"We. Are talking." The Don said curtly in his direction before making his face calmer for Dru.

"What's your name?"

"Dru..."

"Dru. That's a very pretty name." He leaned back and rested his hands on his chest  "It reminds me of a story an Irishman once told me. The ancient Gaelics, they had this Goddess of the trees and plants called Druantia. She was a feared and loved being, said to be the goddess of Druids."

"It sounds pretty" She said softly 

"It does doesn't it. So what do you say? Do you want to live with me,  as my Druantia?"

"Yes... as long... " She looked up at the Don's face, her eyes stoney and angry as she breathed out her next words "as I never see HIM again."

Genuine fear was in her father's eyes now, and it made her feel glad.  

"Consider it done my dear"

Edited August 9, 2018 by Buck Testa

[reader8363 1,281]

@Denim&Venom @Passion
Shadow stopped cleaning and said as he started to head towards the doors, "Let's let the dust disperse before picking up the room." He left a hole in the barrier for the other's to be able to exit and leaned against the wall for the others to exit, so he could seal it off temporarily.

Rose had Sorxir's other arm over her shoulder since she was stumbling around the hall. Once they got to the infirmary, Rose sighed at the number of people there and helped her lean against the wall in the corner, and sat down next to her.

Sorxir's vision was a bit blurry from the pain, so she was glad that Rose had her good arm to steady herself. She lost track of the walk due to her trying to think of the reason for the plants to go crazy until she was set down on the floor. She leaned her head on the wall and closed her eyes to dull the pain.