Chapter 197.

PART 1.

James comes out of the hospital area, only to hear a bell ringing. He still has not found Slaughter yet, and students and professors alike are lost at this new sound. None of them heard this before, so the importance of this bell was lost on them.

Of course, someone decides to clear the confusion. “Attention Magecraft and Sorcery Academy. I am Aarna Chatterjee, here to invade and capture this institute. Surrender and you will be spared. Resist, and you will die. Thank you.”

‘Well, that is one way to clear the confusion.’ Thinks James. He doubts anyone will surrender though. not as long as they got Corvus with them.

He is proven right, as the professors and researchers who are always at each other’s throats unite behind Corvus, and prepare to fight this invasion. A new chapter in the history of the Academy is about to be written today.

PART 2.

The team plus their coach stop at a port to get some supplies. It is important to have enough food and water during their travel, for it is hard or outright impossible to acquire both of these things in the middle of the ocean.

Rather than anchor the ship, Hatori tests the completed array, and the ship disappears into his sleeve in a beam of light. “Excellent.” He declared.

Of course, he also set up a summoning array on the ship, so they could summon it to their location if they needed to. power is still an issue when it comes to that, but given how strong Hatori is compared to the average mage, it would not present a problem much. besides, he can always pool his power with someone else to pull the ship to them if need be.

As they all walk around the island, while Avinash and Dimitri bargain for the supplies, they are observed by another group of people. Once they got their supplies and left for the sea, this group also piled up in their own ship and chased after them from some distance.

PART 3.

Corvus pointed and laughed at the retreating forces.

He, of course, has a big reason for this.

When the invasion began, the invaders had a grand old time. they destroyed things as they pleased, and younger students were fleeing from them. but soon enough, the tables are turned on them, when the professors and the older students begin to fight back.

The wards of the school did not help any. There were so many of them that it would have taken months to remove all the layers, breaking these wards and fighting the students and professors at the same time proved to be impossible.

One squad went into the forest to capture the animals, specifically elephants to use in future invasions. But the only thing they got was a horrific death for their trouble. When the animals came out of the forest, the invading forces broke and started to run. During this chaos, Aarna is killed, and Corvus is happy because he does not have to lift a single finger to break this force.

“Haw. Haw.” He laughed and pointed. “Better luck, next time!”

“Headmaster!” chided Dhiraj. “We do not want another invasion!”

“Ah, but that is where you are wrong, boy,” said Corvus. “There will be a next time. and it wouldn’t be an incompetent force like this one.”

“I’ll get the wards ready.” Said Dhiraj, and left.

“You do that,” he grumbled. “While I get the students to get used to their new reality.”

PART 4.

After leaving the port, the team and their coach just started to relax, but suddenly, they saw the ship pursuing them. “Pirates.” Said Dimitri, recognizing the ship with a scratched-out flag.

“What do we do?” asked Avinash. “We don’t have any weapons, and I doubt conventional dueling will be any useful in fighting on the ocean surface.”

“You are correct.” Said Dimitri. “We have to wait and see.”

The pirates are not interested in negotiation. They use grapple hooks to attach their ship, and through the ropes, quickly board their ship. Avinash cursed, maybe he should have asked Hatori and Josh to build some wards to protect from that. but for now, it is too late. He will do that if they get out of this alive.

“Pretty young bunch here.” said one of the pirates. “Search the ship.”

Five minutes later, the leader gets the report. He is not pleased; the ship has nothing valuable at all. “Fine!” he snarled, “Take them with us. The captain will be pleased at least.”

After blindfolding them, they take their captives to their ship. They disengage the grapple hooks from the empty ship and present their captives to their captain. “Hmm. those lads are quite useless, though I suppose I can sell them as slaves.”

“What about the girls, captain?” asked one of the crew.

“We’ll keep them, of course! Now collar one of those boys. start with that one,” he points to Hatori. “I don’t like the way he is standing. He is defying my authority.”

As the collar is brought to Hatori, he sees the runes on it. all of them are concerned with complete mental and physical domination. Hatori knew that he would never be free if this was put on him. rather than live such an existence, he prefers death.

So, he flipped out. the crew member who was about to collar him is blown to pieces, while the captain is thrown from his chair. Hatori then attacked the other crew members, fighting like a berserk, using fire and lightning liberally on the ship.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Now free, Avinash and others take anything valuable they can find, and store them in the rune arrays on their wrists. These valuables will come in handy for trading supplies in the future, as they are kind of running out of money they carry with them.

“No, please, spare me. Get away from me, you monster!” said the captain, fearing this empty-eyeless boy who had just murdered all of his crew, and destroyed his ship.

“Too late.” Hatori stomps on his head, crushing it beneath his boot. “Ghar!” he roared as if challenging anyone to try and enslave him.

“Easy now,” said Daphne and Josh, putting their hands on his shoulder, and calming Hatori down.

“Summon the ship.” Said Avinash, “Or else we’re going to drown with these pathetic sacks of meats.”

“Fine.” Said Hatori.

He summons their ship to their location, and after moving to it by using grappling hooks once again, they leave the burning pirate vessel behind, leaving its dead crew to drown in the sea.

PART 5.

The noble faction meets once again, called by Jeevan Reddy. If it weren’t for the throne being still out of their control, they would have tried to overthrow him. They are getting sick of his control already.

“So, I assume you all have heard the news?” he asked, once they were all seated.

“It is what we predicted.” Said the Sharma representative.

“Yes, we told her it was a bad idea.” Said another noble. “Too bad she did not listen.”

“True.” Said Jeevan. “Do you have any will to try this again?”

“Not any of us.” said the Sharma representative. “I still have to pacify my clan. That Surendra is proving to be a thorn in my side.”

“Same here.” said the other noble. “Though I hear a most interesting news.”

“Indeed?” asked Jeevan, leaning forward in interest.

“I hear that Durjan is making an attempt.” Said the noble, and delighted in the shocked expression.

Jeevan composes himself after this latest news. “I suppose we can say goodbye to a nomad hoard then. I don’t think they will succeed either.”

“That is true.” Said Sharma's representative. “But they can weaken the Academy for us.”

“Now, that is an idea.” Clapped Jeevan, and the discussion began about how to deal with a weakened institute of magecraft.

PART 6.

Raven returns from his scouting mission. “Yep, no changes.” He reported. “The blockade is still strong.”

“Very well. Tell Bajrang that he has the watch. You can go rest.” Said Sundar.

“Yessir!” said Raven, saluting the general, and leaving to perform his final orders.

They are trapped in the castle with the wards up. no one can get in, but they don’t have any control over the city. They have enough food and water to survive for years. the supply is enough that they are likely to die before it will run out.

But all of that is useless when Sundar is unable to exert his influence in the city and drive away the enemy. If he could launch attacks, then they would be trapped between him and the reinforcements outside, and then they could clean them up. but he cannot do that, because he cannot leave this castle unprotected. The throne must be kept safe, after all.

This inactivity and lack of resources are eating the general, and he is not certain how long he can maintain his calm. But he must refrain from making a rash move. If he did that, he would lose the lives of the young men, who all trust him to make the right decisions.

PART 7.

Walking down to this underground dungeon, Shakuntala goes to one specific cell. “Look at you now,” she said to the skinny figure on the floor. “How the mighty have fallen. The most handsome boy of the school is now reduced to this.”

“We haven’t been to school for almost 20 years,” said Jimmy. His voice is croaking, a sign that he has not given any water for a long time now.

Shakuntala’s face twists in fury, and she resists the urge to lash out. despite all the torments, those words have proven that Jimmy has not lost his spirit. “Maybe I will take your son from the Academy, and then you will be willing to tell me where the research is, hm?”

“Research, research, research. You think nothing else. Maybe if you had tried to do something on your own, you wouldn’t have to scramble for your sister’s legacy like a starved dog.” Said Jimmy, not afraid at all. “And besides, you can’t touch James. Because if you could, you would have already brought him here.”

Opening the cell door, she slaps him, and Jimmy rolls on the ground, having an imprint of Shakuntala’s hand on his cheek. “Where is the research, you damn cur? Where is it!”

“It is useless now.” he laughed, unconcerned with the pain. “The boy already cracked it.”

“Who?” asked Shakuntala.

“Hatori.”

Shakuntala snarls in rage, and with a blasting spell, reduces Jimmy’s head into a paste. All that effort of capturing him, imprisoning him, torturing him, it all went to waste. Shakuntala thought that as the regime changed, she would be able to get that research, as she had lost the case against Jimmy.

But one crippled boy got in her way again. At first, he filled James’s head with confidence, and now he even cracked something that she thought was impossible and something that she wanted for herself.

“No matter. No blind boy is going to get in my way. if he has cracked it, then I will pull it out of his mind, and then kill him!” she snarled at Jimmy’s corpse and left the dungeon.

She has to call the cleaning crew and send the body to her nephew. That is the least she can do to be his aunt.