Chapter 43: James Baldwin (I)

  It was already late in the afternoon when Damon departed from the Legacy Hall. The muggy air and the murky skies continued to drape over the atmosphere in a dark and dreary tone.

  Damon had arrived in front of his dormitory building when he sensed something was off. He paused for a bit as he focused on what was causing this feeling. He could hear very faint sounds of explosions. However, this was not a strange thing at the Academy, as many people practiced their spellcraft daily. As he continued to listen, he realized he could also hear shrill screams off in the distance.

  Are those screams? What’s going on? Should I go and have a look? Damon turned in the direction of the noises when a different sense began firing warning signals in his brain. It was his sense of smell. He breathed in deeply through his nose, immediately discovering a sharp metallic scent cutting through the thick, humid air. It was a smell he was all too familiar with, even though he would prefer he wasn’t. It was blood, and it came from within the dorms.

  Damon immediately changed his mind about his destination. He withdrew and tossed his kite shield artifact in front of him, where it remained airborne as it slowly rotated around his body. He also cast a full barrier spell, causing a spherical ball of blue light to form around him. Afterward, he cautiously entered the building.

  As Damon walked through the first floor, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. He climbed several more floors without noticing any issues, reaching the sixth floor when he finally found the origin of the bloody smell.

  Numerous bodies of the Academy students littered the hallway. Some were lying in a pool of blood, bleeding profusely from lacerations covering their entire bodies. Others were charred to a crisp, a trail of smoke still rising from their blackened corpses. There were even some who had been crushed to death, their contorted limbs sticking out at unnatural angles. A lucky few had intact bodies, though their skin was a pale blue as though they had been asphyxiated.

  Many of the room doors remained open, as though the students had rushed out due to a commotion, before being killed on the spot.

  Damon quietly crept forward, making his way past the bodies on the ground while observing the area with his Mindsense. He couldn’t see the presence of any survivors or ambushers. However, the putrid smell of burning flesh overpowered the pungent scent of blood, engulfing his nose in the noxious fumes.

  The smell caused Damon to have a brief flash of memory, envisioning the burning bandits once more. However, it faded just as quickly. He exhaled a smooth breath, surprised by the lack of tightness in his chest. He felt calm and composed, continuing forward with steady steps.

  When Damon made it to his room, he found that the door had been blasted off its hinges and his belongings had been thrown into a chaotic mess. The furniture had been torn apart, and all his inscription materials were destroyed and scattered around the room.

  What’s going on? Who or what is attacking the Academy? It doesn’t matter. I need to go find Dylan and protect him. Damon set his priority and glanced at the messy room once more before deciding to leave.

  Suddenly, Damon felt a heavy sense of foreboding. He hesitated and focused on trying to determine what caused this feeling, as he didn’t immediately understand where it was coming from. Wait. Now that I think about it… None of the other rooms had been broken into.

  At this moment, Damon felt strong fluctuations in the hallway through his Mindsense and quickly turned around. He was met with the sight of a large sphere of molten rock hurtling towards him.

  It crashed into the barrier first, immediately tearing it apart before coming into contact with the kite shield. It didn’t damage the artifact, but the force of the impact shoved it back, causing it to collide with Damon’s body. He was thrown backward, bursting through the wall of his room and tumbled through the air in a free fall.

  As he was falling, Damon grabbed his shield that had thrown aside the ball of molten rock, using his telekinesis to make it fly upwards against the pull of gravity. This slowed his descent down enough for him to land on the ground safely, though his palms and fingers had been seared due to the heat remaining on his shield artifact. His back and chest ached slightly, possibly due to some broken ribs. However, he did not have the time to worry about such a thing.

  Damon cast a first-tier heal spell on his hands. The scorched flesh repaired itself rapidly before returning to normal. He then looked up at the dormitory building, seeing the large jagged hole he had created when he crashed through it. Standing at the edge of that hole was a tall man wearing Academy robes, with numerous golden runes embroidered into his collar. He was a dark-skinned middle-aged man with short gray hair and a peppery beard. He was holding a large black scepter, topped by what looked like a large diamond.

  “It’s you!” Damon yelled, his eyes opening wide. It was Senior Apprentice James Baldwin. Now it made sense as to why his room was the only one that had been broken into and searched. James had specifically asked about his place of residence when he had encountered him at the Verdant Sigil Pavilion.

  Why didn’t I see him with my Mindsense? Why is he attacking me? Has he been after me since that day at the Pavilion? Or even longer? Is he behind the deaths of all those other Initiates? Why hasn’t the Academy responded to his attacks yet? Numerous questions ran through Damon’s mind.

  “Indeed, it is me. I no longer have the patience to slowly feel you out.” James stepped off from the sixth floor and floated into the air above Damon, showing no inclination to come down. “I must obtain your secrets today, even if I must die trying.”

  Damon observed the levitating James closely. He noticed a small detail he didn’t see at first glance. James seemed to be crying tears of blood. In fact, his eyes were completely red, with only his black pupils visible in the center. His face was set in a malicious expression, his furrowed brows and a fierce snarl aimed at Damon.

  James pointed his scepter toward Damon, chanting a spell. It was Rockfall. Clumps of dirt and stone began gathering in front of him, forming multiple balls of earth high up in the air. At the same time, he was drawing something in the air with the index finger of his right hand. Crimson blood seeped out of his finger, being suspended in the air as it strobed with red light. As he finished his chant, he also finished drawing in the air. It was a rune, formed by using his own blood essence as a catalyst.

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  The glowing rune split into numerous smaller figures before merging into all the floating clumps of dirt and stone. The moment they landed, the spherical objects began radiating heat as veins of molten rock began oozing out from within, before dripping down to the ground below. The glowing red droplets sizzled as they fell through the air, slowly turning darker as they cooled, before landing on the ground as small lumps of coal. An acrid burnt smell lingered in the air.

  While James was preparing his attack, Damon did not remain still. He stacked numerous mini barriers of various colours. One by one, they joined his shield in slowly rotating around him. He also withdrew and tossed Dawn’s Edge into the air directly toward James. After creating around 20 barriers, he stopped and began casting Ice Spear instead. He cast the same spell numerous times, causing multiple spears of ice to form and hover over his head, all spinning rapidly.

  James watched Damon’s actions with a bemused smile. “An early stage Initiate trying to take on a Disciple?” With a cold chuckle, he continued, “Enough with the paltry resistance. Do you truly believe you can survive if I decide to take your life right now? If you hand over your secrets, I may consider letting you live.”

  At this moment, Dawn’s Edge arrived in front of James, attempting to pierce through his chest. He reached out with his empty hand as five rings, one on each finger, glowed with a dazzling brass-colored light. Dawn’s Edge suddenly stopped midair and hovered in place as the light from the rings covered it.

  “Is this your trump card? It’s a nice little sword. How do you control it? Using wind? Or is it a metal manipulation technique? I’ll have to test it out later. Now, are you ready to open your mouth, or do you still need a bit more convincing?”

  Damon gasped as his eyes bulged and his pupils constricted. He attempted to move the sword through his mental connection, yet it did not budge. However, the fact that he could still feel the connection reassured him. He closed his wide-open mouth and squinted his eyes as he focused his concentration on the Ice Spears hovering above his head. He pointed his right hand at James, causing them to shoot forward at high speed.

  From up above, James frowned as he saw the incoming spell. He did not expect Damon to attack immediately, without even saying a single word. He lowered the head of his scepter to point at Damon, causing the spheres of molten rock to descend to meet the spears of ice.

  Boom! The two spells collided in the air, causing them to explode into fragments of rock and ice. The melting ice met the hot lava and caused a secondary explosion of steam, overrunning the area with a thick white gas. James continued to look down, but the area was obscured. However, he didn’t hear the sound of his Rockfall hitting the ground, meaning they had all been intercepted and broken apart by the Ice Spears. He was surprised by this realization. He lifted his scepter back up and began casting a barrier immediately.

  The cloud of steam encompassing the area suddenly split in the middle as a large ball of swirling water made its way toward James. Right behind the Hydrosphere, Damon was also flying up, standing on a large flat stone. In his hand, he held a shimmering green translucent crystal, slightly larger than his palm. It was a second-tier nature elemental essence stone.

  James let out a small exclamation upon seeing Damon fly. Even though his ability to fly was linked to the stone he was standing atop, it was not an ability a Node Awakening Initiate should be able to possess. Earth elemental spells could not be used in such a manner, either. Furthermore, he had just cast a Hydrosphere, so to cast an additional spell would require dual casting, which was something only an Adept could do.

  “What is your true identity? Are you hiding your prowess? Are you actually a Disciple?” James yelled as a spherical green barrier formed around him. “But that doesn’t make sense… Wait… Your abilities… You are a Psion!”

  Below, Damon’s narrowed eyes blazed with an increased fervor. He had hoped James did not know about the existence of the mind path. However, his hope had been shattered when he heard those words. There was no longer any option other than to silence James through death.

  The Hydrosphere collided with James’s barrier, dealing no significant damage, but instead enveloping the entire barrier with a layer of water. James yelped as he quickly ascertained Damon’s plan. He raised his staff and channeled his arcane power into a Fireball spell. However, it was too late.

  The water surrounding the barrier froze, encasing it in ice. This caused it to tremble as cracks formed in numerous locations. James could no longer see past the distorted layer of ice. At this moment, a spinning Ice Spear broke through both the ice and the barrier, stabbing him directly in the chest. It pushed him back, and he crashed through the other side of the ice barrier. He flew backward for a few dozen feet, his arms and legs extended forward due to the force of the impact. However, the momentum of the attack slowly decreased until he managed to stop, and then he straightened himself again.

  The Ice spear had pierced through his outer robes, but had not managed to impale James through his inner armor. The skintight armor slowly scintillated with a bright prismatic light, especially noticeable at the point of impact. He grasped the spear and squeezed, causing it to break apart into shards before falling to the ground below. He then grinned at Damon, who was floating atop a stone in the distance.

  “That was an impressive display of strategy and control. You almost defeated me. However, the gap in our realms isn’t that easily overcome.” James continued to smile at Damon, a stark contrast to the streaks of red tears that continued to drip down from his blood-soaked eyes. It made him look even more sinister and frightening. “It looks like I’ll have to take you a bit more seriously.”

  James withdrew a scroll from his storage pouch, grasping it in his left hand. He had lost control over Dawn’s Edge when he had been pushed back by the combination attack orchestrated by Damon. He unfurled the scroll, revealing a large rune shining with a blinding purple light.

  “Do you know what this is? It’s a third-tier scroll. Meaning it is capable of unleashing an attack with the full strength of an Adept.” James roared with manic laughter as his bloody eyes radiated with intense red light.

  Hovering in the air below, Damon had retrieved and was inspecting his Dawn’s Edge. He inhaled sharply when he heard James’s conceited blustering. An Adept’s attack was too much for him to handle with his own barriers. Depending on the spell, his shield might not be able to withstand the force either. He cast Fog as he shoved his hands forward, releasing large streams of white gas from the center of his palms. It was steam caused by generating water and heating it at the same time.

  The white vapor quickly encompassed the entire area around Damon, covering him from sight. As it cooled from the atmosphere, it condensed into a dense, opaque fog. James used his arcane sight and spotted a small crouching figure glowing with arcane power fluctuations hidden within the thickening fog. His lips stretched into a twisted smile as he activated the third-tier scroll.

  The scroll immediately began wildly draining power from James, but slowed down as soon as he touched it with the tip of his scepter. The diamond atop the scepter quickly lost its luster before cracking and then shattering into pieces.

  An arcane circle filled with numerous runes formed in front of James. Just as the diamond shattered, the large runic circle, the size of a waterwheel, was completed. Instantaneously, a ray of concentrated energy shot toward the massive cloud of fog. It was directed at the figure that remained hidden within the fog. The light beam reached the small figure in only a second, before fully inundating him. It continued to shoot past the fog and plowed into the earth down below. When the spell dissipated, all that could be seen was a large cylindrical section missing from the fog, along with a deep, dark hole in the ground beneath it. There was no sign of Damon.

  Oh no! The Academy is in chaos!

  We need a hero to save the day!

  Is that a bird? Is that a plane?

  No! It's Damon, flying on a stone!

  Have no fear, because Damon is here!

  Comment below if you saw this coming when you read The Calm and The Storm!