Chapter 98.
PART 1.
Hatori is confused. By all means, Josh’s body is fine, and there is no sign of injury on him, physically or magically. And yet, he is like a living corpse, with a heartbeat that is slowing every minute. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Hatori thinks about a solution to this problem. Panicking will not help his friend. He idly notices the snake coming out of the underground camp, and then an idea strikes him. Though it is risky, he has no other choice.
‘I need your venom.’ He said, reaching for the head of the snake.
‘Why?’ asked the snake, rising at this sudden movement of Hatori.
‘Because I need to slow down my friend’s body’s system until I can take him to a healer.’ Said Hatori.
‘But my venom won’t do that. It is deadly for humans.’ Said the snake. ‘I do know the other snake who can help you though.’
‘Please call him here; the matter is urgent.’ Said Hatori.
Thankfully, the snake in question is nearby and didn’t mind giving the venom in return for a rat. In an ideal condition, Hatori would have made a potion with this venom. But now, he has no time. So, he asks the snake to bite Josh’s body and inject a small amount of venom into his body, since he lacks the needles here. True, he could conjure up one; but in his current state, the conjuration wouldn’t work properly.
This puts Josh’s body into a sleep state, with a nice helping of Hatori’s magic, and Hatori picks up his friend and goes invisible. ‘Let’s hope no one will find me in this state. I won’t be able to defend myself.’
‘Don’t worry. We’ll keep the pursuers off your back.’ Said the snake, before Hatori left.
‘Looks like that reptile has managed to distract them.’ thought Hatori, as he sneaks inside the Academy, and finds healer Slaughter in the hospital section.
Though it is true that suddenly seeing a massive army of snakes coming at you is scary. the reality is that most of the group surrounding the forest is sitting still ever since they heard the screams of Gulam. Their nerves are shattered.
Healer Slaughter senses someone entering his office. The door opening and closing by itself was a big indicator, and of course, just like any healer, he is good at sensing the magic of others, since it is necessary to sense the fluctuations of magic during any healing process.
“Greetings healer Slaughter.” Said Hatori, saluting with one hand. “I need your help.”
“I can see that.” He responded drily. “Put the patient on the bed.” Hatori does exactly that.
“What happened to him?” he asked, running some diagnostic magic over Josh.
“He stepped into an incomplete symbol of my runes, and suddenly ended up like this, like a living corpse.” Said Hatori.
“You don’t know how write you are, boy. though why do I find this venom in his blood?” he asked, fixing Hatori with a glare.
“Because I needed to slow his reaction. The goons of the student council are after me. I didn’t know whether I could bring Josh to you on time.” said Hatori.
“That was risky. I hope you realized that.” said the healer.
“I know.” Said Hatori, not happy with the choices he had during that time.
“No matter. I can keep him alive, but until you manage to find his soul, you won’t be able to fix him,” said Slaughter. “And I suspect souls are beyond you, no matter how advanced you might be for your age.”
Hatori just sighed. Truth is, he sometimes gets the feeling that he is barely managing to keep up with magic learning, what with people coming at him constantly. Fighting and studying at the same time is not recommended in his opinion.
“I’ll try to find him all the same.” Said Hatori, and he starts to leave.
“Where are you going boy?” asked Slaughter. “You need help as well.”
“But I need to go back.” Said Hatori.
“Sit down, boy, or else I’ll make you.” said the healer.
Hatori has no interest in crossing an adult mage, so he complies with the order.
PART 2.
By this point, Josh has realized what has happened. He howled in sadness. What else could he do? He has changed his body with a dog, more specifically with a puppy. He still cannot believe what has happened to him.
He got angry at Hatori. ‘Couldn’t he have warned me in time?’ But then he remembers that he did try to warn, and he did not look where he was stepping into. He should know better, having lived around Hattori and James for close to four years now.
He hears the stampede of paws coming closer, and before long, a large group of huge, black, furry dogs surrounds him. They bark, looking for danger, before realizing that there is none. Some of them cuff the pup for calling them like that. But Josh is too confused to retaliate. The consciousness at the back of his head takes over then, and the real puppy apologizes for calling them like that here, saving both of them from more beatings.
PART 3.
Shin and Raven come back to their dorms and decide that they won’t go outside today anymore. James is missing, probably with his new girlfriend, but after the day of humiliation they had, they are not in any condition to find him, or think about the solution to that problem.
“When I was a kid, my father told me that I would never experience something like that, how times are changing, and how this class and cast structure will one day disappear. Looks like he was wrong.” Raged Raven.
Shin has never seen him so angry before. “But what can we do? Who is going to listen to us?” He asked, having thought about these topics his entire life. After all, his position is even lower than Raven's.
“People don’t realize that we outnumber them.” He gets a crafty gleam in his eye. “But it is time to remind them.”
An hour later, a meeting of the low-class and students with no family names is called outside of the fourth-year dorms. Surprisingly, more students showed up than Raven expected, and everyone has to stand since there are no seats there. But they do not mind. Maybe this son of a soldier has a solution to their latest problem?
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“tell me. Do you enjoy the day we had today?” he asked, getting an emphatic “No!” for an answer.
“Do you want to have more days like this one, for the entire time you are here?” he asked next, getting another “No!” in answer.
“Are you tired of getting crushed by someone else’s heels?” he asked, getting a positive “Yes!” in answer.
“Then it is time to rebel.” He said, making eye contact with as many students as he could.
“Rebel? Is that why you called us here? We skipped our dinner for this?” asked one female student.
“Well, if you want to wash their feet, sit and sleep on the floor, leave a path for them, and always keep your gaze lower, then you are free to go to your precious dinner. But I’m not. I'd rather die than live a life like this. Are you with me?” Raven expected more angry responses, resisting the idea of rebellion. But the students are fired up with his speech, and they respond with an energetic “Yes!”
“Then listen. Many students have not shown up here today. Try to turn them on our side discretely. If they cannot be persuaded, then consider them hostile.” With a woosh, Raven is covered head-to-toe in flames. “And if any of you betray me, I swear I’ll burn you alive.”
“Was that threat necessary?” asked Shin after everyone leaves.
“Yes, it was. Many of them will be tempted to sell us out. Then they should know the consequences of that.” he said.
“Never thought your connections were so large. I’m impressed.” Said Shin.
“I never thought that either. I just kept in contact with most low-class students. I never thought it would pay off like this. Let’s hope we can keep the momentum going, and teach the council a lesson.” Said Raven, already waiting for the next day.
Tomorrow is going to be a chaotic and interesting day.
PART 4.
Hatori got his aches and burns healed by Slaughter. Though the healer wanted to keep him inside to monitor him for a while, he let him go since he knew that the student council wouldn’t hesitate in invading the hospital, and he could not put other patients there in danger. Now back to his full strength, Hatori sneaks inside the forbidden forest and tries to sense any sign of Josh, but finds nothing.
Also, the forbidden forest is such a corny name in this narrator’s opinion. It just goes to show how unimaginative the author is. Why are you even reading this story again?
Hatori goes to the lake, where he sees the yantra modifying itself. Whatever parts it lacked, it was created from the resources available in the area, and Hatori, during his hour-long observation, sees the yantra performing some conjuration. Not just any conjuration, but permanent ones, judging by the energy it is putting into those conjurations.
‘It is behaving like a living organism.’ Hatori gets a confirmation of it, as the yantra consumes some soil, and extracts some minerals. ‘Not even I know half of the things it is doing.’
‘I need to modify the circle, and the modifications it can do. I need to refine the water to use it for humans.’ He thinks, but before he can go and take the sample of the water and take it in the circle, a crocodile interrupts him.
‘Humans are not welcome. This is my area.’
“What is up with creatures claiming my creations as their own? First the camp. and now this?” Complains Hatori. This is just like back in his home dimension, where an inventor creates some new and great thing, and some asshole takes credit for it.
And no, he is not sorry for the word “asshole.” Credit stealers are the worst people humanity has to offer; in Hatori’s opinion, they should be eliminated like the parasites they are.
‘Humans are not welcome!’ hissed the crocodile, and lunged at Hatori, and Hatori responded with a blasting spell right on his face.
The spell doesn’t do anything beyond dazing the reptile, so Hatori resorts to Fire Blast. ‘Ah, what a wonderful feeling.’ Sighed the crocodile, like he was relaxing in some spring or something. ‘I mean, you’re dead, human!’ He remembers what he is supposed to do.
The fire has increased his speed. Hatori decides to take advantage of the water present here, and a watery beast in the shape of a crocodile comes out of the lake, hammering the real crocodile. It barely managed to avoid getting swept away in the flow of water, once the crocodile-shaped water exploded, a trick which Hatori recently picked up from Josh.
“Fine, just know that you are in for a lot of pain.” Said Hatori in a low tone, as his hands started to spark.
It should be noted that this entire battle is being fought without foci since his staff is still underground in his camp. Maybe walking around without a focus is a bad idea when goons are after you, but in Hatori’s case, he does not rely on it so much. So, he doesn’t need it.
‘If I continue like this, I probably will never need it in the future.’ Thought Hatori, though, keeping his thoughts protected. No point in letting the opponent who can use telepathy what is going on in his head during a battle.
The crocodile is confused. It is proving to be hard to predict the movements of this human. The crocodile has no worries, though, because the human rather foolishly jumps into the water of the lake. ‘You shouldn’t pick a fight with a crocodile in the water!’
The crocodile prepares to drown Hatori, preparing a large amount of destructive water magic in his mouth. But the magic fizzles out, and the reptile ends up coughing out a lot of water, as it gets electrocuted. First, it was a simple shock. But then, it turned into a rain of electricity, as bolts of current fell on his body repeatedly. Then Hatori sends the crocodile flying with a blasting spell, not using any elements this time.
“Have enough yet?” he asked.
‘What are these shiny things I see?’ asked the dazed reptile, clearly out of it.
Leaving the dazed reptile to his ramblings, Hatori observes the circle, bringing out its runes in front of him with a motion. ‘I will need to think of a peaceful place to perfect everything.’ He thought. ‘Also, the list of modifications. I will add even those which I am not planning to do for now. They will come in handy in the future.’
Hatori calls some crows and tells them to look out for anything unusual, and he leaves to find another place to find a circle for humans. The current circle is specifically designed for animals; it won’t work for humans. Though the lake itself is fine, it will work for anyone.
(End.)