Serenity had no trouble leading the way through the training building. He knew it well and it was essentially identical to his time as a student. It wasn’t exactly a complicated layout, once you knew it.
It wasn’t just the entrance that was oddly dark and deserted; all of the hallways were like that. It reminded Serenity of walking around the Academy after dark when he worked to get something done before the next day. It wasn’t the same, though, it was even more deserted than that.
Serenity kept an eye out for anyone else, especially once they got out of the building and Esme took over the lead. Their group of ten people wasn’t enough to take on even a small army like the Viper’s, but it was still large enough to make stealth difficult and stealth wasn’t exactly Serenity’s strongest ability to begin with.
Esme kept them to the trees and had them move individually while the others kept watch; it slowed everything down significantly but it probably made them harder to find, even if there was an enemy nearby who could see in the dark. It wouldn’t do anything about a tool like the Headmaster’s Register, but it was the best they could manage.
They traveled in darkness. Each of them had some way to see, even though there was very little light. Serenity didn’t know what all of them were; he was using Eyeless Sight, while Raz was using some sort of thermal vision that let him know where people were easily but washed out all the other details.
It didn’t seem to matter; they reached the building Esme headed for without seeing anyone. It wasn’t the building Serenity expected; he’d expected it to be in the Administration building. Instead, they were at one of the three dining halls, the small one that was the most expensive and therefore usually limited to teachers and students with family wealth or significant side income.
It wasn’t a building Vengeance spent much time in.
Serenity noticed it first; when he stepped across the threshold of the building, there was a small ripple in the mana surrounding him. He was fairly confident he hadn’t disturbed it; instead, it was rippling because of the people who went before him. He felt the ripple again when another person stepped through.
“There’s a ward of some sort on the building. I can’t tell what it’s doing; it’s very delicate, but it knows we’re here.” He kept his voice soft so it wouldn’t carry far but he doubted it would matter. “I hope it’s just an alert, but it feels like a trap.”
“Ren’shel? Did you notice anything?” Esme turned to one of the people accompanying them. Serenity had heard their names once, and they’d heard his, but that was really all the contact they’d had. Ren’shel was a mage of some sort, but Serenity wasn’t certain which sort.
Ren’shel shook her head. “Nothing clear. There might have been something, but … this is an Academy. Loose magic is to be expected.”
“Hmm.” Esme tried to focus on the air, but it was fairly obvious she didn’t see anything either. “Well, we’ll treat it like we might have tripped something; better to be cautious. Alrin, that means you’re in the lead.”
Alrin was a surprisingly tall, fat draykin. Despite his weight, he was quick on his feet and with his sword; Serenity was certain he used a combat style that took advantage of his mass, even if he hadn’t seen it yet. Serenity wondered if he was in front because he had good defenses or because he was good at spotting things With what he knew about Esme, Serenity wouldn’t bet against both being true; she seemed to know everyone, which meant she should have been able to pick people who were the best for the job.
Alrin gave a quick nod and moved to the front. He took a careful look around and moved forward.
The first sign of trouble came when they had to cross the large dining hall. Alrin made it two steps in before he stopped. “There’s something in here, something moving. I can’t see it but I keep almost seeing something in the shadows.”
“There’s no sign of people; we’re probably looking at something to do with the defenses,” Esme muttered. She continued louder. “There’s no point in continuing in darkness if something’s hiding. Go ahead and let some light on things; not all the way up, we want to keep the light in the building, but enough to actually see.”
Almost everyone pulled out a light source of some sort. Ren’shel simply set a ball of light above her shoulder; it sent light in all directions, but the vast majority was focused ahead of her, wherever her head faced. Raz actually pulled out a flashlight that he strapped to his forearm with a pre-prepared strap; Serenity wished he’d thought to do something similar.
They moved cautiously into the room.
Serenity took his time watching the corners; the shadows were now sharply defined. Despite the light, Serenity couldn’t see anything in the room. There was nothing there to any vision he could use; he didn’t even see the “something in the shadows” that bothered Alrin.
“I don’t like this,” one of the others said. Narin, maybe? Aide had the list of names. He was another draykin, at least; all three other than Raz had names that ended in -rin.
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“Yeah,” Alrin agreed. “The light isn’t helping.”
“Move forward slowly,” Esme directed them. “Whatever it is seems to be afraid of the light. Let’s give it plenty of time to move away.”
Raz leaned over to Serenity and whispered, “Do you see anything? I can’t tell what they’re talking about.”
“Neither can I.” Serenity kept his voice down. There was something creepy about the empty dining area, but it wasn’t monsters in the shadows. It was the fact that the place should be in use and wasn’t.
Despite their caution, the attack came without further warning. It started when they were about halfway into the room, carefully well away from the walls and anything that could cast shadows.
The first sign Serenity had that something was wrong was a shout from Alrin; he flinched away from nothing and the nothing left a bleeding graze on his arm that ripped through his armor and his scales.
A series of wounds started appearing on the other people, as well. They were all relatively minor but they all clearly showed that they could have been far worse. The group collapsed into a ball and tried to guard each other. It didn’t seem to have much effect; the mysterious injuries kept appearing.
Neither he nor Raz were hurt. It was odd; they certainly could have been. Neither of them could see the attackers, not even the vague shadowy forms the others saw. That had to be related to the lack of injury, but Serenity didn’t think that having the others close their eyes would be a sufficient defense.
“Can you find them?” Esme didn’t seem to know where to attack.
“No! They hide from the light but can move through it somehow.” Ren’shel threw balls of light into the shadows, but it didn’t look like she was having any great success.
“If we leave, maybe they’ll leave us alone?” Narin yelped as another injury appeared on his leg. “I don’t think I can take this any longer!”
Serenity looked around the room; he still couldn’t see what was attacking. He pulled out his crystal hilt and energized the manablade, but there wasn’t really much he could do if he couldn’t find whatever was attacking. All it had to do was avoid him and it wouldn’t be hurt.
He watched the others fight with nothing and felt powerless. There wasn’t anything there!
There had to be something there. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be getting injured. It didn’t have to be monsters, though; what if they just thought it was monsters?
Serenity let the manablade dissipate and concentrated on his Magesight. It wasn’t at all easy to see, but eventually he started to see vague ripples in the mana. They reminded him of the ripples he’d felt at the entrance.
“Very, very fine control,” Serenity muttered. “Almost no waste so there’s nothing to sense. Of course.” He turned towards the walls and saw it. The walls glowed faintly; each time someone was injured, he saw a spot on the wall glow just a little brighter for a moment. “That’s not a monster, that’s an enchantment. Get out of here, it won’t follow us!”
This time, Esme didn’t have to repeat the instruction for everyone to follow it; Narin ran first but everyone else followed him, with Serenity and Raz in the rear. Narin didn’t stop in the hallway; he ran all the way out of the building before he came to a halt.
Serenity couldn’t blame him. He was bleeding from a dozen different slashes and had no way to fight back. Even personal shields didn’t seem to stop the enchantment from slicing people up; it looked like it had been designed to handle both shields and armor.
No one was injured further after they left the room, but since Esme followed Narin out of the building, everyone followed. Once they were outside, several people pulled out bandages and started binding the injuries. They had a healer, but he seemed to be happy to bind the shallow injuries instead of healing them. It made sense if he was expecting more trouble; he should save his mana for something that couldn’t be handled with supplies they could carry.
“You two weren’t hurt. Did I hear you correctly, you never even saw the shadow-monsters?” Esme stared at Raz, but it was clear she was talking to Serenity as well.
“There wasn’t anything to see,” Raz agreed. “I didn’t see the enchantment Serenity mentioned either, though. If it was a trap, I should have.”
“I don’t think it was a trap,” Serenity stated. “No one took anything other than deep scratches even though it went right through armor. It could have done a lot worse than what it did. I think it was meant to discourage people from going where they shouldn’t, a warning system instead of a trap. Warning people not to go there.”
Serenity was fairly confident Raz had a literal trapfinding Skill. That sort of Skill could be defeated by Intent; if it wasn’t intended as a trap, even if it sort of worked like one, the Skill wouldn’t trigger. Warning systems were different from traps, though it was likely that they’d find actual traps if they continued.
“If that’s a warning system I never want to see another one,” Narin spat. “I thought it was going to kill me with blood loss.”
That probably was the biggest danger with that system; the second one would have been running forward instead of back.
“We still need to get the Register,” Esme stated. “I can understand why Raz was allowed in, he has that key and is related to the First Headmaster, but why were you?”
Serenity tried to find an answer. He suspected it was his Ghost in the System title but he really wasn’t sure. It definitely wasn’t the fact that he’d once been a student here in a future that would never be; so had the people who were attacked.
“No, never mind, you don’t have to tell me your secrets. I can guess.” Esme waved a hand at Serenity. “I won’t tell you mine, why should you tell me yours? Still, that means the two of you can enter. Neither of you knows where the Headmaster’s office is, do you?”
Both Serenity and Raz shook their heads.
“Then I’ll have to give directions. Oh, and everyone - dim those lights. We’re still trying not to be seen.”