Élan: A Youngblood World

7 | What Is To Come |

       TIME was like the flash before the lightning. Ryeld and Cazzie stood frozen in the hallway, drowning in dread. A drowsy Hiro had come out of the dorm, the bawl hitting his ears.

       "Whu-?" As if the universe braked, fretful jade eyes and startled amber ones were trapped in a static stare.

       An instant sweep of wind brushed past Hiro's neck. The standard time snapped back. Hiro turned around, and his skin quivered. A dark anomaly lay dead before his foot. Kayne passed by, hunching down to snag the silver shiv he lanced into the shadowy creature's eyeholes in midair. Once he tugged the grip, the inanimate being facilely dissolved into clouds of dust, fading in the thin air.

       "I see you haven't lost your reflexes." The indifference in his demeanor returned as quickly as it went.

       "I, too, surprise myself, sometimes." Kayne loosened up his shoulders. "You're gonna owe me for that." He patted the dumbstruck Hiro on the shoulder.

       Once Hiro's full awareness sucked in, ruin was persisting, wrecking anything by the unnamed monstrosities who were the very embodiment of a painter's nightmare manifested into flesh. Each lounging at the next target one after another with beastly jaws and vulture-like claws. Colorful magic was blasting all at the same time to no avail. Battles bathed in red and black blood ensued; human against beast, friend against friend.

       Time had ceased once again, but not for everyone; the creatures cranked their heads up, like a voice was beckoning them from the skies. Drawn to a calling.

       The people also stilled, some grabbing the chance to attack, but their magic was no more than air against transparent bodies. Those under the puppetry merely evaded the incoming assaults, an impossibly attainable feat for a normal human body to achieve. They braced themselves for whatever might come next, conjuring upon shields while others crawled out from pinned positions under claws and fled. No one kept their surveillance off these brutes. Not a muscle moved.

       Like projectiles, the entities abruptly swept into the air, ascending in a synchronized union of black clouds. The corrupted humans leaped over walls, departing through the roof.

       They were retreating.

       Cazzie and Ryeld flinched at the instant a student perched by them with whom his body had yielded to the control. Ryeld had his thunderbolts ready in his palm only for the figure to continue to climb up the balconies.

       Everything went all hushed, save for the few counts of sobs. But one thing was for sure: no one was spared of the witnesses in the account of the undeniable horrors.

       The atmosphere was thicker than winter's bite, sinisterly calm after the storm. Sowed dirt and spilled blood spoiled the inner courtyard. The most disheveled among the destruction befell upon the primary floor as the fountain tore off its former beauty. Water leaked out of its base, and its Corinthian foundation crumbled into chunks of rocks, flooding the grass carpet. Everyone proceeded to tend to the other. Most had been wounded or unconscious. Others might be worse.

       "Students, teachers, and all the attendants of Mahika, it is with my sincerest sympathy that this tragedy has struck our beloved institution. The staff and I are distraught to have known that our Shield Dome has failed us." Head Master Theodeus was a tall, slender old man with a diamond face whose thinning hair was a blend of streaks of white and decreasing black strands that bent backward, revealing a spot of his wrinkled forehead. He stood on the ruined fountain, clearing his roaring voice that betrayed his age.

       "Moreover, I reach my heart out to those whom we have lost." He placed a closed hand over his chest. "The source of the interference behind the obstruction of the shield has not been identified as of now, however, we will ensure that Instructor Korvic along with contacted professionals will be investigating the matter of the disturbance."