Chapter 99.

PART 1.

Josh waits at the very end of the line for the food, while other bigger dogs eat the stomach-churning food. He has found himself at the bottom of the social ladder in this group, which is a new and unwanted experience for him.

While the consciousness of the puppy cowers, Josh decides that he will take the food for himself, whether he has to fight or not. Hatori would do the same. “You have to fight if you want something in this world.” Said the imaginary Hatori in his head.

Attacking the other puppies, and dogs who are just leaving their puppyhood, Josh pushes them aside. A snarling fight breaks out, where Josh has to struggle to hold on to the piece of meat for himself, while others try to push him back and try to steal his food.

But after a lot of fighting and barking, they realize that he won’t give in. so they decide to leave to secure more pieces for themselves, while Josh fades back to the mind of this puppy, letting him eat in peace.

PART 2.

The crows haven’t found any sign of Josh yet, and the forest is still surrounded. Looks like the students who were hidden previously have regained their nerves, and are now prowling in the open, waiting for him to come out of this place. Whereas the snake reports something unusual when Hatori asks about the elephant, whom he has not seen, his return to the wilderness.

‘He has gone mad.’ Said the snake, while Hatori draws some symbols on leaves with magic since he lacks paper. Whatever symbols he can test through the runic system Zeko has taught him, he must draw them on the leaves to preserve them, lest he forgets them.

‘Ever since the season between winter and the warm season, most of the male elephants have gone mad.’ Said the snake.

The snake follows him, as Hatori goes to the sight of the lake to check something. The crocodile comes out to keep a watch; he has been like that ever since Hatori defeated him. Sometimes, Hatori even brings him fish as a gesture of goodwill among them.

A rumbling noise interrupts his examination of the ritual circle and the lake; however, it is followed by a shriek. ‘How dare you come into my fucking territory? I’ll turn you into a blood stain, you hear me?’

“Oh boy.” Said Hatori, as the elephant approached him. The snake was talking about this just a few minutes ago, and now he is charging him. He seems to have acquired new modifications; his joints are better enforced, and he also seems to have learned new tricks. His tusks blaze with fire, something which he could not do before. Hatori senses some scars on his body as well, which are the signs of the battles he has gone through.

The snake quickly disappears into the trees, since he has no interest in getting trampled by this crazy beast. Hatori dodges to the other side, but the elephant does a quick pivot and comes after him. A normal elephant won’t be able to do such a quick turnaround, but since his joints and muscles are stronger than a normal elephant, he can do this.

Hatori tries the Poison Stinger, trying to bring him to his senses by inflicting some pain on him. The poison won’t harm him, since it is not enough to bring down someone like his size. But the elephant is not affected, and the spell is just washed over him, leaving no damage at all.

Hatori then tries the lightning element, since a shock seems to be a better and safer way to disable someone who is raging. Besides, Hatori has not enough raw power to bring down someone like this raging beast. He can duel with mages, but this is out of the range for his abilities.

‘Or is it?’ Thinks Hatori, transmuting the fallen trees into a chain. Manipulating it like a string, Hatori wraps the chain around the elephant, and channels electricity through the transmuted metal. Despite his shrieks of pain, the elephant breaks those chains, actually goes on two hind legs, and comes crashing down with his front two hooves glowing green with earth magic. When he crashes down, the entire area for miles shakes and Hatori is sent popping in the air from the shockwave. When the elephant sees that his enemy has survived, he jumps after Hatori, this time all four hooves glowing with destructive earth magic.

From his position on the ground, Hatori watches his end come towards him. But then, he feels as if he has lost control over his body. He spreads his hands out, gathers electricity around his palm, and brings it all together with a clap. It sounded like thunder from the sky, and the elephant is sent flying right into the lake, flooding the nearby area since the water got displaced by his body, which is still sparked by electricity.

Hatori snaps back into focus, not sure what just happened to him. But he can already sense the magical signatures of the council’s goons coming here, so he runs out of there. By the time they reached the lake, the elephant had recovered completely and snapped out of his lust fog. Together with the snake, he effectively stopped the students from pursuing the fleeing Hatori, while they had an unheard conversation with each other.

‘Truly, you mammals are so inferior. A snake will never lose himself in lust like you do.’ Said the reptile, constricting some students after changing his size, and getting larger.

‘As if. At least we feel a passion. Lust, fighting, fucking, that is all part of it!’ the elephant shrieks in the sky, shaking everything by the sound of his voice.

Hatori sneaks outside of the forest. Most students are looking at what happened at the sight of this battle. Hatori wasn’t hit by the elephant directly, but he did take a pummeling when he was sent flying after the ground itself exploded. If the beast would have hit him directly, he would have died then and there.

However, a second group of students finds him, and they start to pursue him. But they couldn’t chase him for too long, since he disappeared into the ground. By the time they get there, they only see a rusty closed gate.

“Do you think he went inside there?” asked a girl.

“I don’t think so. He wouldn’t be able to open it so quickly.” Said another girl. “Let’s keep looking.”

Inside of the secret ground, Hatori breathes in relief. But he can’t stay here forever. What if they decide to open the door and check this place out? He goes behind the oak tree to hide. He has never been here yet, because he has no interest in exploring this place so deeply. The grassy area was good for sparring, and the rocky platform was good enough to sleep on. As soon as he steps here, the ground collapses under him. ‘Not again!’ he thought.

But he didn’t fall too far. He stumbles from the fall and finds himself in a tunnel. Thinking this is better than waiting for his chasers, he goes inside of that tunnel. Judging from the smell of this place, no one has come here in ages. Hatori refrains from touching anything, even the walls. ‘There might be traps here.’ He thinks.

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The tunnel ends in a room, where Hatori jumps in surprise, for as soon as he stepped inside, he heard a voice. “Welcome. You have found one of my labs; this one is located at Magecraft Institute. I am Samay, the sorcerer who researched about time.”

“Okay?” said Hatori.

“By the time you may find this place, I am likely dead, or not in this world. There are some features that you can use for yourself. After all, this lab is not useful for me anymore, but it might serve you well.” said the voice.

Hatori thinks of what possible uses this place could be for someone like him, a mage in training. “While this room itself is good enough, there is another room, which you will find after walking in the tunnel through which you found this room. That room has features allowing you to subvert the time itself. You can go inside that room, and if someone from outside sees you, they will see you coming inside and coming outside in just barely a second. Whereas you can spend days inside.” Said the recording.

Hatori thinks this will be a wonderful place for completing his rune work in peace. He then realizes that he lost his leaves in the forest. ‘But no matter. Even if I age inside, I can get an advantage through this.’ He thinks.

As if reading his mind, the recording continues. “The room does not affect the aging process. Surprisingly, time is not responsible for aging. If you are a mage worth your magic, you will know that time is not the same on our planet, let alone on other planets. If a human is put on another planet, they will age just like they would on Earth. So if you think that you will age inside of the room, turning into an old man before the world even realizes it, then forget it. The flow of time does not work inside that room. You will not understand the specifics without knowing more about time, though, for it is a very hard subject. I should know, I have spent my entire life researching it.”

Hatori’s face has a large smile breaking out on his face. ‘Looks like I have found a treasure.’ He thought.

PART 3.

Today is a strange day for the professors. For the students fought more than listening to their lectures.

When the low-class students without a family name refused to comply with the orders of the council, the highborn students retaliated with violence. This resulted in organized retaliation by the low-class students, who banded together, and the high-class students realized how badly outnumbered they were.

The fighting stopped after the professors interfered, but only for some time, as the tensions flared up quickly. the professors ended up playing the mediators all day long as a result.

The council, furious by this display of resistance, has gathered the low-class students outside of the event hall, and after making them do push-ups, squats, and various other humiliating tasks, is now ordering them to remove their clothes, and parade naked to the mess hall.

Raven motions to attack the crowd; it is now time to make their move. The council, having dropped their guard since the rabble was cooperating so far, was unable to deal with this sudden violence, especially since the older students led the attack, and students who support Avinash also got involved.

Though the council itself managed to avoid any injury, some of their aids and supporters were wounded and dead after this brutal war.

In the mess hall, Raven stands up on a table. “This isn’t over yet, do not relax. They will come back to fight us; they will not take this lying down.” He declared from his makeshift stage.

“Get down already. I want to eat. And no one uses that table.” Said one student, and everyone laughed, flushed from their victory.

Getting down from the table, Raven looks around at the students who are for the first time, feeling free. ‘If only I could get all of my friends here, I could celebrate with them, then.’

PART 4.

As Neha touches his body, which would be inappropriate in any other situation, James smiles and does not mind. After all, she is his love.

Or is she? If you were to look inside of the world created by the brain of James, you will find the real personality being trapped in a room, while this phony personality is in the driver’s seat. All the while this girl who is clearly out to manipulate him, gets bolder and bolder every day. One of these days, James won’t be surprised if he ends up in bed with her. The sheer thought is horrifying, but it is not enough to break him out of this room where he is trapped.

‘Stop fawning over her, can’t you see she is not in love with you?’ He tries to say with his fake personality. But of course, these words which are communicated at the speed of thought, fail to reach the said fake personality. How can you talk with someone who has ears, but refuses to listen?

James should have thought of this. He lives with a perpetually paranoid Hatori, he should have been more vigilant when this unknown girl suddenly showed up with sweets for him as if she knew him for years. But he fails to see the trap coming, and he is paying the price for that now.

He notices the problems of lower-class students, with which Raven and Shin are no doubt involved in his lucid moments before the potion is pushed down his throat, and he gets his connection with the outside world severed once again. He would like to help them, but he can’t do anything from here.

‘Raven, Josh, Hatori, someone, please help me!’ He screams, but no one listens, for the words never get passed the area of his brain which controls his speech.

PART 5.

The alpha of Josh’s dog group observes the young puppy. His youngest has recently shown some feistiness in him. Which is good, for he will need it in this cruel world. Willingness to fight means better chances of survival and more chances of potential revenge against the humans who abandoned them so cruelly.

If you’re wondering what kind of dog breed this is, then it is what you would call a Tibetan hound in the normal dimension. These dogs were brought into this country because rich people liked them. But once the fad ran out, and they grew too big to handle, they were all left on the streets to fend for themselves. A few of them were brought into the Academy by the students of the noble families, but they were abandoned in the forest. This breed is known for their loyalty, and needless to say, they did not take this abandonment very well.

The alpha is one of the last ones who remembers how it was to live with a human, to show his loyalty to the two-legged traitors. But these young ones do not know this. He has made sure that the only loyalty they would ever have is with each other, and not to a human.

And it looks like the future is in the right paws, especially if even the youngest pups are showing such potential to grow. He howled in happiness, imagining humans running away from them in fear in the darkness of the night.

(End.)