Celeste~

....The shard reflected off my shield and back towards Caspian. He didn't intend for this and neither did I. He was again, unprepared for this attack and the shard, now even faster than before came at him at speeds he was unable to dodge. It was going straight for his face but the little demon was quick enough to make an ice shield to soften the blow. It didn't stop it completely, of course, the dagger went halfway through his hand before being released by Caspian. Taking his moment of pain to myself I manifested another whip in my left hand. My energy could move through itself and me so the second whip would have no problem attacking while the first one continued to act as a shield.

Using this moment carefully I began to charge at him, not too fast as this was shaky territory.

I had never done any of this before and definitely have never worked with my powers in such a way. It was hard to both spin one whip in a circle and still keep the other one manifested. I haven't used so much energy at once either so I hoped that this would last long enough.

I picked up the pace a little and was in range to attack him once he had gotten his footing. I attempted to slice his shoulder but was beaten by his agile build. He launched an even faster, smaller ice shard from the palm of his hand that managed to cut its way through my makeshift shield enough for it to slow down, like the predator he was, he took the moment and kept throwing shards of ice. While the individual shards were faster the rate at which he was throwing them was slower. Not detrimentally, but enough for me to know that he wasn't the perfect warrior. We were all here for a reason after all.

Fuck. Another one of his ice shards hit me again, this time was deeper than before and now right in the middle of my chest. Attempting to ignore the burning chill of his ice blade I launched my whip at him once again. This time, managing to create a small line down his chest. We were going toe to toe at this point and I doubted that any scheming or little tricks would even be able to manifest itself out of this impenetrable stand off. There was no room to move, no room to breathe.

Now, my shield was down and I only had the slices of my whip to defend against his weapons.

*Boom!

Suddenly, the ceiling began to collapse and the room began to shake. I looked at Caspian whose eyes were still planted on me, I looked for any signs of the result of this originating from him but couldn't find any. I was looking at him the whole time and he didn't move an inch out of the ordinary.

Finally breaking my stare as more chaos continued around me I looked up to see the mess that was within this room. That was when the screams registered to me and I finally heard the voices of the practitioners shouting for us to exit the room. I looked back at Caspian who had turned and was now looking at me again.

By this point, we had realised that neither one of us was responsible for this mess and that we needed to get out. And fast.

It was a struggle not only because I was in terrible pain from all of the shorts that Caspian threw at me, but because the adrenaline which was once the aid to my wounds was now my biggest enemy, wearing off and rendering me helpless to my torment. In a pathetic attempt, I limped my way towards the exit of the cage.

Caspian, noticing my struggle came from behind me and helped me towards the door. His hand lay on my lower back as he guided my hand around his shoulder to brace on. I could see that he was hurt but was less than me.

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At first, I bristled at the unfamiliar touch but soon began to feel helpless to his warmth. In the fleeting moments of his presence next to my own, he sent shivers down my spine and not in the way he had before. Trying to ignore the desires of my flesh I continued to struggle my way to the exit.

“You okay?” His deep voice was a rumble of concern and desperation to escape this mess.

Practically falling over my words I simply decided to give a firm nod to make up for my silence. We continued on as he brought me towards the practitioner who was awaiting us at the door. He rushed us outside of the gym area where we could see the true essence of what the fuck was going on. Aside from the loud crashing that interrupted the combat between Caspian and me, I didn’t hear any other commotion. That was before we left the gym. I didn’t see Rain anywhere and I assumed that the practitioners made it a necessity to get everyone out before anyone was hurt, if they hadn’t been hurt already.

The paintings that once cascaded the tall walls of the halls were not planted on the floor. The place was now a war zone and I had no idea who was attacking. The practitioner who was once assisting me and Caspian was now desperately listening in on his speakerphone and trying to help the remainder of us to safety. We were all basically helpless chickens in a sea of sharks and we didn’t know where to run to.

Among the series of screams and loud bangs, I heard magic being cast from outside the building. It was too loud to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from but I knew the sound well enough to know that there was a serious battle going on.

It was part of the initial guide for coming here to tell us what to do in times of emergency. The land was not the magic-less place it once was and the scales were unbalanced in an array of different ways. It was known that in times of emergency, the public was to act out of self defence if need be. Knowing that we had the possibility of Angels attacking us at any given point meant that we had to be permitted to use our magic if we needed to without consequences. It was the same here, even more so now that we were basically watched 24/7 by people who wielded magic with the same ease as they breathed. Also because in times of great political distress, people or should I say political extremists tended to shake up things at the most important places to really get their point across.

*All students are permitted and entitled to use their powers in times of self defence during this emergency, I repeat, all students are permitted and entitled to use their powers in times of self defence during this emergency.

Just on cue, the speaker revealed what I already knew, which was that we were in deep fucking waters.

While the world wasn’t all peaches and cakes right now, I didn’t know of any political arguments or agendas that would run so deep that would cause this kind of protest. The Angels were definitely a possibility but they hadn’t attacked like this in hundreds of years and I doubted today would be the day that they decided to awaken from their shadows.

I realised that in the midst of things Caspian’s arm was still sitting nicely on my back. We were not huddled closer than ever and I was again, painfully aware of his touch on mine.

Suddenly, a painting that was hammered into the wall that Caspian and I were leaning against collapsed onto his head as the floor shook once more.

“Fuck, what the fuck is going on I can’t see shit.”

He got out his phone to text who I thought was Judias to see what was happening with him but as I peered over and stole myself a glance, all I saw was an unknown number as he typed profusely.

I did the same, needing to check on Chloe, Rain and Markan to see if they were okay. I went onto the group chat where I saw a series of very concerned texts from Chloe and one text from Markan confirming his safety. He was situated upstairs with a practitioner and some others who were stuck in a room but aside from the obvious issue he was okay. Chloe was with him and okay too but slightly damaged by all of the falling debris.

Celeste-“I’m okay, I’m just glad you're okay, I was fighting when this all happened and I was already damaged enough from that so I don’t need any more injuries.”

Chloe-“Yeah, me and Markan were still with our old friends when this all started, we went upstairs to change and meet you guys to train but then this series of loud crashes happened and suddenly I was on the floor.”