Chapter 81.

PART 1.

Hatori has done a lot in the last month. He worked on his lightning and earth elements, experimented like a mad scientist on the animals, stole a teleporter, dismantled it, built a new one after learning from the old one (as well as several insights from James), and built a factory of sorts to carve runes on the animals.

Usually, the entire process of self-modification goes like this: carve some runes, bathe in some potion solution, rest and recover, and observe the results. At first, Hatori didn’t have the potions. But now, he has a good enough supply of them, enough to create a fountain of sorts, where he converted a large pond into a fountain of solution of potions. It also helps that it is the rainy season, so ponds are easy to come by.

The potion solution is important, for it not only helps in healing and making sure your carving doesn’t turn into fresh infections, but it helps in recovery as well. Otherwise, you will be weak like a freshly born baby after a self-modification ritual.

The ritual doesn’t require any special conditions, like specific places for the sun or moon, or the weather. Those rituals are done for specific purposes, like the ritual for enhancing your ears; it is done during a storm, where the wind matches a specific speed. if the speed gets any lower, the ritual won’t work.

All the animals got these general modifications: increased endurance, an automatic shield of sorts around their bodies, and resistance to magic. The last one does not give them complete immunity from magical spells, though it provides greater protection. A fire spell will only scorch them, for example, whereas it would have burned them previously. All of this combined with shield and endurance, and learning to cast some attacking spells, turned this small force into a terrifying one.

The spellcasting wasn’t taught to them by Hatori. It all came naturally to them. soldiers of the wasps and bees firing Stinger spells in large amounts, the elephant manipulating earth and fire, while some wasps and bees also learned the fire element by themselves.

The snake is the surprising one; not only he learned the element of water (using it with his poison with devastating effect) he also learned to fly. Hatori has no idea of how he did that.

Hatori rebuilt his destroyed camp with his burgeoning skills with the earth element, building an underground camp that is much sturdier than the previous one, where he is discussing the next step of their plan.

“I think I should test the teleporter.” He is saying this. “After all, I built it, didn’t I?”

‘And I think this is a shitty idea.’ Said elephant.

‘I have to agree with this brute on this one.’ Said the snake. ‘You should let those soldiers try it.’

“But…”

‘But nothing!’ the reptile and the mammal shut him down.

Now they were waiting, as some bee soldiers were hovering above the circle, while Hatori tries to put the right coordinates into the magical symbols in front of him. He used Zeko’s runic system, which made the process a lot easier, since the system can understand his intent, and suggests adjustments accordingly, all the while showing him the effects of those adjustments live, without even executing the teleporting process.

The circle is very large, to accommodate the likes of the elephant and his herd , and other large animals. Even now, various animals are showing up to get the modifications, on which his yantras are working hard. He will have to check to make sure they are performing well despite the heavy use.

Once he is done inputting the coordinates to the nearby trees, a window opens right in front of the ten soldiers. Without an ounce of hesitation, they flew through the shimmering window, appearing to be where Hatori wanted to send them.

“Everything is working fine.” He announced too much cheering and buzzing, after testing the portal a few more times.

‘How will you see what’s going on in the Academy, though? if you’re stuck operating this thing here?’ asked the snake.

“There’s a timer on it.” Said Hatori. “I’ll set the timer; the window will open. It also has a duration, and it’ll stay open for that long. You guys can come through it, while I’ll get a front seat to watch everything.”

‘Excellent.’ Said the elephant, swatting a tree nearby in his excitement. ‘I wish to see this in action.’

“Well, let’s do a small-scale test, what do you say?” asked Hatori.

‘Sure, go ahead.’ Said the snake.

“But how will you watch it from here?” asked Hatori, setting up the portal.

‘We’ll pick the images right out of your head.’ Said the elephant.

Hatori stopped in the middle of his work. “That is concerning. I need a way to stop this from happening.” He said, going back to setting up the portal. There won’t be a peaceful dinner this night.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

PART 2.

Everyone is enjoying their dinner. Within the hubbub of conversation and clinking cutlery, tons of schemes are being hatched. Just a normal end to a normal day in the Academy. By this time, everyone has forgotten the banishment scene from two and a half months ago, but some people still do remember it.

This is why you find Raven, Josh, James, and Shin sitting quietly at their table. Ever since their friend was banished, things haven’t been the same. It is not helped by the fact that they have all different classes now, and they don’t have the time to hang out with each other as much as they used to.

However, the buzz of conversation doesn’t last long, as a buzz of an entirely different nature replaces it slowly. Bees appear in the mess hall out of nowhere, rampaging among the students. They avoided the professors, swerving in the air whenever they were about to get in contact with them, but students are mercilessly targeted.

The professors observe how the bees are unaffected by magic, and, much to their horror, are using magic themselves. They are firing Stingers in such large amounts that it is not possible to defend against them. A few students got hit each time. When the professors get up from their tables to investigate, the bees disappear just as quickly as they come.

However, the shrieks of the stung students replaced the silence left by the bees, as their stings started to feel like they were on fire.

Someone was observing the events in the mess hall from outside. Hatori found a perch where he sat during the entire run, sensing what was going on in the hall. It is not as perfect as seeing the mayhem through your eyes, but it is the next best thing. The use of magic inside told him everything which he wanted to know.

But when students and professors came outside to see what was going on, hoping to find the bees to study them, he escaped from the crowd. they were in no condition to find him anyway, panicked as they were.

Animals using magic in the wild is nothing new to professors, but never have they seen the use of magic on such a large scale, and with such polish. The bees were like an army that drilled a lot for this operation. They wanted to find out whether this was a natural development, or if someone was behind it.

Getting back to the forest, he observes the teleporter and the soldiers. He programmed the teleporter to pull the soldiers immediately back when the professors got into action. Everyone who got teleported from this circle, had a magical rope of sorts attached to them. This can be used to teleport them out of there immediately, or if certain conditions are met. All of this is designed by the runic system which Zeko taught Hatori, which is proving to be invaluable over and over again. Hatori feels he might hit the limits of the system, before he might need to modify it and add certain things for himself, personalizing it in the process.

While he worked on the teleporter and checked on the soldiers, the elephant, and the snake watched the memories. ‘I do think it was a success, wouldn’t you say?’

‘It fucking was.’ Said the elephant. ‘They weren't ready at all.’

“They might prepare for the future, though,” said Hatori.

‘I doubt it.’ Said the snake. ‘Your species seems to drop their guard if they feel secure.’

Hatori would like to defend humanity, but he couldn’t find a counter-argument to the snake.

PART 3.

Avinash calls a meeting of selected students from their year. Most of Hatori’s classmates attend this meeting, including both male and female twins, Daphne along with Ravina, and of course, Hatori and his friends.

“So, you all saw what happened today. What do you think it was?” he asked.

“A freak occurrence?” offered Shin.

“Hmm. possible.” Said Avinash.

“Maybe an experiment has gone wrong?” offered Josh, while looking at James.

James glairs back in response. His experiments do not go wrong; they just take time to adjust and get the actual result.

“Maybe someone brought in bees as a part of some elaborate plot?” asked Daphne.

“There was a plot, but no one from the school brought these bees.” Said Avinash. “Hatori was the one who was behind the chaos.”

“Any proof?” asked Raven.

“This.” He shows them one dead soldier. “This thing is modified. Look at the carvings on his body.”

They all got close; they had to use the microscopes for observing the runes on the body of this bee. “Is that even possible?” asked Josh and James.

“Certainly.” Said James. “There’s no reason why other creatures cannot be modified with magic as humans modify themselves.”

“So, what does this mean, anyway?” asked Ravina.

“We can look forward to more attacks,” said Raven.

(End.)