"Think we'll get attacked by an alien this time?" Blake asked.

Jacob walked beside him on the way to Magical Basics, both clad in pants and hoodies. It was windy, and chilly despite the fact it should have been mid-July. If it was a blip in the weather system, whoever was monitoring it had fallen asleep.

Jacob chuckled. "I gotta be honest, I'm not super surprised something like that happened. A zoo with magical creatures can't be that safe."

"I overheard someone say that was the first breakout in nearly ten years," Blake said. He absently rubbed his forearms, which Jacob noticed he was doing a lot since getting his casts off the day before. "Magical anomaly my ass. It was probably some intern falling asleep at the wheel. Oh, I finished The Dynasian Reality last night if you want to give it a read."

"Okay, maybe once I'm knocked out of the tournament. A little too busy right now learning combat stuff."

"Fair enough. You got that Wilkins girl next, next weekend, right?"

Jacob nodded. The contestant pool had been knocked down to thirty-two students from the initial eighty, which meant the training rooms were more consistently available. He'd told himself he was going to take a couple days off to focus on school since his match wasn't for almost two weeks, but ever since waking up that morning he'd felt like that would make him fall behind. He wasn't going to beat Layla Wilkins with just strength, which meant he had a lot of work to do. "I gotta be honest, if this class is useless, I might skip it and Intro for the rest of the week."

"Really?" Blake's eyebrows shot up. "Pulling a Grace?"

"Yeah, I know. I never thought I'd ever voluntarily skip a class when I first got here, but it's for a good reason," At least, he thought it was a good reason. Jacob threw his hands up. "We're just not learning anything useful for fighting."

"Well, if you do, you can copy my notes."

"Thanks."

They walked into the Basics auditorium and took their usual seats and waited for the lecture to start. Ms Sterling was fiddling with something by the lectern, and a man Jacob vaguely recognized leaned against the front wall, grinning out at the class. He looked like he was in his sixties, with a big, bushy grey beard and a head as bald as an egg.

Jacob's phone buzzed. He slid it out of his pocket quickly, thinking it might be Camilla saying she'd be late.

It was her father.

Jacob opened up the message:

Jacob,

Good to hear from you. Firstly, the reason that my book has restricted access is because in covering the three types of magical draining (Production siphoning, vampirism, mageiatophagy) a section of it covers human-human Production siphoning. This is, as I am sure you can guess, a human draining 'power' from other humans by slaying them. This is colloquially called Ritual Magic and has two applications that make it a banned magic. The first being it allows mages to store magical power by using the blood of other slain mages, drastically increasing the power they can draw on, like plugging a sink and filling it up. The second being it facilitates rituals that can summon powerful magical entities from the deepest regions of the magical realm. Most cultures around the world have history with these rituals in the forms of blood sacrifices or mass offerings for summoning 'gods' or 'demons.' Etc.

All three types are closely interlinked. Vampirism is similar to mageiatophagy in that the vampire drains magic and blood from the victim to directly power itself. You could almost call it human-human mageiatophagy, yet it is distinct because the magic directly manifests itself as Consumption magic in the vampire. If a mageiatophagous creature is a pipe, then a vampire is a warped, twisted, dented pipe. Likewise, we can look at it from the other end: A vampire is technically a human using ritual magic on another human by draining their power, and yet the same metaphor of the pipe applies. It isn't quite ritual magic, and it isn't quite mageiatophagy. From a magical signature standpoint, it will feel like a mageiatophagous creature, not a human mage casting a spell. That is to say, you have to know what that signature feels like, and it is very hard to detect unless you are very close, and also doesn't respond to magical searching spells like divining or seeking or even visually sensing magic since it is technically not a 'human magic.' However, yes, sensing a mageiatophagous creature feed may help you detect a vampire close by.

The power vampires drain immediately manifests as Consumption. It slowly degrades over time, like cooked food approaching room temperature. Vampires usually feed once every few weeks to replenish this and they are strongest immediately after feeding.

Hope this helps.

Antonio

P.S. How is my daughter? Could you ask her to return my messages? I would very much appreciate that.

Jacob only half-remembered texting Camilla's father over a week ago. The tournament had completely flushed it from his mind. Nonetheless, he was grateful D'Angelo had gotten back to him at all. Jacob scanned the message through once, twice, then sent back a thank you and a quick update on how he thought Camilla was doing, with a promise to ask her to return his messages.

"Listen up!" Ms Sterling barked. The class quieted. "Since you have all now gotten a taste of combat with magic this past weekend or the week before, it is time to learn about it in class. Today we are going to have a guest lecture from Mr Rodriguez, who teaches Combat Magics for the second-years. Mr Rodriguez..."

Ms Sterling backed away from the lectern. Mr Rodriguez shoved himself up off the wall, placed one hand casually on the lectern and surveyed the class, which broke out into automatic applause.

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"Hello, hello," He began. "We are going to have a little lecture, and then we are going to the training rooms where we will break up and practice what we have learned here."

The class broke out into whispers.

"About time, eh?" Blake nudged Jacob.

"I see you are all eager," Mr Rodriguez grinned. "but be patient for now. You must work hard, yes, and train a lot, yes, but you must also work smart. So, pay attention here, learn some techniques, and it will save you time down the road."

Mr Rodriguez began pacing back and forth in front of the class. "I want to first talk about magic as a skill you can improve. Magic has two aspects that you can improve at. I like to refer to these aspects as 'levers.'" Mr Rodriguez uncapped a marker and wrote levers down on the whiteboard. "The first lever is your magical output. Your maximum magical output is determined by genetics and manifested in your Strength Chart, but it is up to you to reach that maximum potential through training. Magic puts both physical and mental strain on the body, as I am sure you have all figured out by now. The larger the amount of magic, the more volatile it is, the more focus and physical exertion it requires to handle. You must practice handling larger and larger amounts of magic so that you can cast more powerful spells. And just like with any physical activity, you can train both power and endurance."

"The second lever is technique. I shall use the example of Production magic. With Production magic we imagine what we want to create. The stronger our imagined visualization, the tighter the spell, the less magic it requires," Magic flared out from Rodriguez. The professor opened his palm, and a glowing orb the size of a basketball appeared in it. "I can use x amount of magic to create this orb with a visualization of certain strength, but if I focus very hard, clear my mind and take time to visualize as best I can..." The orb winked out. Rodriguez turned his gaze on his palm and was silent for a moment. An orb the size of a beach ball appeared out of thin air, and Rodriguez lifted it up at the class. "The difference is vast, with the same amount of magic. Those of you who are naturally strong have a tendency to throw magic at poor technique and bull your way through, but that will only benefit you for so long. This is because magic follows an exponential trend: Handling twice as much is more than two times more difficult. When you are training today, I want all of you to focus on both of these levers. Try and increase how much you can output at once. Try and focus on a single spell and improve your visualization.

"Those are the basics of magic as a skill. Keep them in mind when you are training and planning your training. Next we will discuss the spectrum of spells. Why do you feel different colours when certain spells are cast? What trend does the spectrum actually follow? What you may not realize yet is that the colour determines the type, not the other way around. As you already know, we categorize any magic that gives off a wavelength between red and yellow as Production, any magic that gives off a wavelength between blue and violet as Decomposition, and any magic that gives off a green wavelength as Consumption. But does anyone know why Consumption magic is only green?"

A hand shot up a few rows ahead of them. Mr Rodriguez pointed at it.

"It's because Consumption magic is actually only one spell," Victor said.

"Correct, Mr...?"

"Vincent."

"Mr Vincent. What we call Consumption magic is actually one spell split into infinite different parts. It is both one spell affecting the entirety of your physical being, and infinitely fragmented variations of the same spell affecting every different aspect of your being. It can be something as simple as augmenting your perception, to something as odd as speeding up your stomach's digestion, to something as complex as..."

Mr Rodriguez reached his hand up, and suddenly his skin gleamed silver. His hand melted like wax, morphing in on itself, lengthening into a scythe blade that gleamed in the overhead lights.

The class collectively gasped.

Jacob looked over at Blake. "Did you know that was possible?"

Blake shook his head, eyes wide in disbelief.

Mr Rodriguez's hand morphed back into itself, and he shook it out. "The closer to yellow the green gets, the more the spell affects your 'mental' being. The closer to blue the spell gets, the more it affects your physical being. With Production, the closer to red it gets, the less tangible the creation, the closer to green, the more tangible. With Decomposition, the closer to violet it gets the less tangible the change, the closer to green, the more tangible."

Mr Rodriguez looked over at Ms Sterling. "Well, I believe that's enough theory for today. Let's go train!"

----------------------------------------

The class had split up into groups of five to six and had practiced various spells while Mr Rodriguez and Ms Sterling came around and checked on their progress. Their group had spent most of the time focusing on trying to cast Production since they all seemed to have a handle on it to varying degrees. First they tested who could generate the largest orb of light with a certain amount of magic. To the shock of no one, Camilla trounced them all. They tried doing the same for Decomposition, but neither Jacob nor Blake could really get anything going. Blake had almost no natural strength in Decomp, so it was expected, but despite Jacob's relative strength he just couldn't seem to get a handle on it, even after Archie, Grace, and Camilla all helped him.

"That was good," Blake said as the five of them emerged from the training room. "Can't believe we were waffling on about how boring classes were this morning."

Jacob nodded. "Speak of the Devil. Oh, by the way, Camilla, your dad got back to me."

"Oh, good," Camilla said.

Jacob opened his mouth to ask if she would return his messages, then figured that it was probably best to leave that alone, regardless that a god had asked him.

"Was that about that vampire stuff?" Grace asked.

"Yeah."

"Jacob van Helsing?" Archie chuckled. "Or so I hear."

"Very funny."

"OMG, that reminds me!" Grace said. "Sophia told me she saw a Brotherhood priest yesterday."

"Really?" Camilla asked.

"Yes! Creepy, right?"

Camilla nudged Jacob. "Told you they'd bring one in."

"Wait, what?" Jacob asked. "This was on campus?"

"Yes. Sophia? The tall girl? Ranked 4th?"

"Oh her," Jacob said. "Where did she see one?"

"She picks up the occasional shift at the guest residence, because she's poor," Grace said, shaking her head. "Saw him come in the other day. Apparently he was in disguise. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but, oopsie!"

"So you think he's been brought in to hunt the vampire?" Jacob asked Camilla.

"What else?"

That settled his mind a little bit. The faculty had brought in a professional, which meant Jacob didn't have to spend time chasing his tail. But the vampire was still around. Would the priest know about Laura Tannehill's body being moved from where she was slain? Should Jacob tell him?

"Why haven't they told us?" Jacob asked. "Would have made me less nervous."

"Probably trying to keep his presence a secret," Camilla said. "You know, because, the vampire and all."

Jacob supposed that made sense. If everyone knew the priest was here, the vampire would too. Hunter might become hunted. But, clearly the priest couldn't stay on campus and keep his presence a total secret. How many people knew now? How many people had Sophia leaked to? One tipped domino tips the rest.

Jacob blew a breath out. The right thing would be to tell the priest what he'd found out, even if it didn't help much, right? He wasn't exactly a huge fan of crime dramas, but if you knew something that you thought would help the police, you told them, right? Then, at least, he could wash his hands with his whole misguided investigation, get it off his mind, and focus on school and the tournament.

But what about Tanaka? The transfer student wouldn't want him to tell the priest, no matter what. After all, Jacob hadn't told Ishaan about what they'd found out on the weekend for that reason.

But no, this was different. The priest was a professional vampire hunter. And he wasn't a mage, so he didn't have to know the details of how Jacob found about Laura Tannehill's body being moved. If he asked, Jacob would just make something up.

"Alright," Jacob said, his mind set. "I'm gonna go study. I'll catch you guys later."