Chapter 803 803 Casualties
”How many were lost in the attack before you could get yourselves into the panic room?” Wolfe asked as Professor Ashcroft came out among the students.
“Far too many. What is left fits in just this one panic room, out of the six that were designed for the purpose. There might be students hidden in the others, but nobody ever activated the protective wards on them.” She replied, not bothering to hide her tears of mingled rage and relief.
“You can check the other rooms once I have decided what to do with these people. I’m open to suggestions, if you have any.” Wolfe informed her.
The old witch smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
“I think that you know what you need to do. There is still an entire invading army out there somewhere, and you will need to be the one that deals with them. We certainly don’t have the power, even with the Fae that came to help guard the Academy.
Oh, I do hope that they’re still alive. The last I saw, they were fighting out in the grounds by the gate.” The Professor explained.
Wolfe cast his mind out across the grounds of the Academy, looking for signs of a more powerful Fae life, or even the lingering mana on a recently deceased body.
He didn’t find what he was looking for, but what he did find was a large dead zone, the magical equivalent of a Faraday cage, where no mana would be able to pass in or out. The entire gymnasium had been turned over to that treatment, leading Wolfe to suspect that there were more survivors.
“I think that I might know where the rest of the survivors are being held. There is a barrier over the gymnasium, and it is blocking all magic flow in and out. That should be where the others are being kept, but if it was cast by the man I just killed here, then it shouldn’t be a problem for me to break it.” Wolfe informed the elderly Professor.
“I will come with you, and the rest can wait here in the safety of the panic room.” She insisted, then turned to the students behind her.
“We will be back within an hour, and if we’re not, you know what to do.”
Wolfe strolled casually through the school, while Professor Ashcroft tried not to stare at him in horror.
“How do stay so calm while you’re in danger?” She whispered as they turned toward the stairs that would take them to the second floor and into the Gym through the backstage dressing room where Wolfe had waited during the Moon Festival just after school started.
They could hear the fake students in the classrooms, and Professor Ashcroft was about to go check on them, but Wolfe shook his head. “Unless you started issuing uniforms to grown men and having them sit in classes with the girls, then those are not the students of the Academy.
Of course, the fact that they aren’t witches and can’t use magic would be a good indication, but it is possible that they are human magic users and just haven’t cast a spell in a while, so I can’t sense the flow of mana around them.
Their technique is strange, and it is harder to pick up their aptitude than a Magi’s cores, or a Witch’s aura.”
They locked the door to the room behind them and waited a moment to make certain that nobody had followed them up here, then opened the door to the stairwell down. The exit to this staircase was hidden in a flush panel behind a curtain on the stage. It was well back of anywhere that people would think to look, but if nobody had tried to leave this way, there must be something restraining them.
It might be nearly impossible for an outsider to find, but it was no secret to the drama club, they used it every class.
“Are you ready for what might come next? It could be messy.” Wolfe whispered to the aging Professor.
“I’m not that decrepit yet, it’s only been one year since you met me.” She whispered back, reminding Wolfe of how she had taken him out with a spell during his attempt to flee the Morgana Fortress City when he realized that the Witches were aware of his existence as a Magi.
Wolfe paused as he reached the door and felt the barrier that had been placed on the other side. As expected, it blocked the flow of mana in and out of the room, which incapacitated the witches, as they only had a limited amount in their aura and channelled mana to cast their spells, the same as the humans did.
But the effect wouldn’t block his mana cores, and it wouldn’t stop him from using mana freely.
So, he opened the door and walked onto the backstage area, where he could hear many frightened voices, as well as a number of gruff ones telling them to shut up and behave.
“Now that is no way to talk to a lady. If your mother were here, she would wash your mouth out with soap.” Wolfe reprimanded the soldier with the foul mouth, and the whole group turned to him with evil smiles.
“The barrier doesn’t work here, hero boy. Now come and sit pretty with the witches if you don’t want anyone getting killed today.” The soldier warned him.
With a dramatic flick of his fingers, Wolfe brought up a barrier over each of the witches individually, and then smiled at the soldiers.
“It wouldn’t matter if the barrier was up, I created it. Now, I will give you two options, do you die fast, or do you die slow?” Wolfe replied.
The soldier was about to speak, but one of the witches beat him to it.
“Slow!” she shouted.
The soldier beside her raised his rifle and slammed it into the invisible barrier that Wolfe had created, and the Witch flinched, not knowing that it was there, then smirked when she realized that she would not be taking a beating for her insult.
“You’re all boned now.” She laughed, while the soldiers began to panic.