“Don’t look at me so hopefully,” The Lich scoffed, “I have not and will never sacrifice a student, regardless of how dumb they are in regards to personal preference.”

I flinched at the blow, pouting at the Lich. He was a favored character of mine, though he couldn’t be a favorite seeing as he hardly appeared in the story at all except as a Deus ex Machina.

Just like how Doom Herald—his name literally meaning bad things ahead—was around just to signify that shit was about to get much worse. Just like Doom, The Lich was around just to be a plot device.

I couldn’t even use the defense that I had already told him I was stupid. Because I hadn’t. Sadly, Silas wasn’t the kind of person to warn others ahead of time, either.

“She realizes how poor her life choices are, no need to harp on her,” Story defended, “If you have not heard her mention her own shortcomings by this point, it is your fault.”

My poor heart. She knows she’s stupid, no need to tell her. Ow, Story. Ow. Thank you, but ow.

“We have run out of time to speak, however,” Story mentioned, glancing to the side, eyes unfocused, “The undead have started to infiltrate the building. Do either of you have something that could work as a blindfold?”

Reaching up, I took off my shirt, creating a sword to tear off a strip from the bottom. The world’s first crop-top had been made, and a blindfold also created in the process.

“Here you go!”

I gave him the blindfold that was the same shade of red as my hair. I hesitated, staring at the crop-top, then at my bra. Sighing, I put the red crop-top back on.

Damn. This world wasn’t ready for someone to fight titties-out.

I stared at my toned stomach, chest only just barely covered. I pulled my black pants up a bit more, tightening the ribbon in my hair.

“Cool. Let’s go fight. Don’t worry about casualties outside of death, I can heal those,” I mentioned to the Lich, “It takes all my magic to do so, though, so I’ll probably only heal the dying.”

The Lich stared at me for a few moments, “You are truly lacking. Do you think anything through?”

“Nope. I share a braincell with a brick. And not a magical brick either. Or a bag of bricks. Just one. Made of clay,” I clarified, holding up one finger, “Why, wassup?”

The Lich sighed, “You will not be on the front lines. That is the perfect place to be if you wish to be captured and taken.”

I hesitated, head tilting, “Herald said I was needed there, because I can copy any spell I’ve seen once. Not the element, though. I still haven’t figured out wind or anything like that.”

“Any?” Story asked, looking in my direction.

I stared at the cute snake-man with the blood red blindfold.

“Yep. From complex war spells that Valentine uses to creating swords with magic to Silas’ signature spell that sends him flying through the air,” I agreed, “I don’t remember them, but I can copy them.”

“That will be useful behind the front lines,” The Lich said quietly, mostly to himself, “Let’s go. We don’t have much time.”

Soon the old man with twinkling purple eyes and a long gray beard reappeared, his voice echoing throughout the halls.

“Students who are able-bodied will fight. Those residing in the Rain dormitories will follow Professor Lockheed’s orders and defend the Academy’s underground from breaching into the aboveground. Meet Professor Lockheed in the underground auditorium. To Valentine de Notos, once known as Professor Lance Porter. It is unfortunate that you have decided to endanger the students I hold so dear. Do not expect to be spared, should I find you.”

The Lich lead me and Story to the exit. We all sprinted up the stairs. Lazarus was there with Nocta, carrying various golden vials.

I swallowed, reaching out. So how much would this hurt? Downing the potion, I immediately felt energy flood into me.

My eyes widened. The potion would be wasted! The healing circle appeared instantly, and I shoved all of the still-generating energy into it.

Valentine’s voice boomed over the PA system in a yell, “I am trying to keep her alive! She is too weak to be here! You will hand her over to me so I can keep her SAFE or The Academy will fall.”

I focused, doing the same calculations I did for Valentine’s spell, just taking another potion when I ran out. The pain was equivalent to being soul-scoured. I felt very grateful I’d counted while I dealt with the pain, as it allowed me to continue my calculations, if a bit slower. Soon, eyes the same shade of gray as his braided hair appeared.

“Fuck, you’re more beautiful than the stories give you credit for, eh Fiona?” Nocta said, eyes wide.

I shook my head, “Not my body. You’re right, though, she’s pretty as fuck.”

Nocta laughed, “I’m fully healed, gal. You can stop now.”

My magic circle faded. I kept holding the half-drank potion of gold.

“Cool, where am I headed?” I asked, turning. The Lich and Story were both gone, though. I sighed, turning to Nocta, “I can cast a spell I’ve only seen once. Doom wants me on the front-lines, President doesn’t.”

Nocta hummed, staring at me. Then he shrugged, “Hell if I know. Follow me, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

I nodded, and Nocta sprinted, keeping his cane. I watched as magic spread throughout his cane in a snow-blue glow. A magical circle appeared, a golden glow surrounding Nocta.

He grew too fast to follow, so I hurriedly copied his spell, using the easiest equation I knew. Water appeared around me, swirling. After a moment I condensed it into ice, ice-skating after the speedy man, water turning to ice in front of me.

I slowed down once I matched his pace. He glanced over, cackling. His grin was manic, straight but yellowed and sharp teeth making him look insane.

“Ope, would you look at that? I really like you,” He informed me, “You’re a quick thinker.”

I smiled.

At least he didn’t try calling me intelligent. I could accept “quick thinker” as a compliment.

“Thanks.”

Soon we were out on the massive sprawling yard of the Academy. Going away from my dorm, we ended up at a large body of water.

“So how did you get a crazy bastard like that to love you?” Nocta asked.

The large body of water was rippling, several undead walking directly into the water or walking toward us. Their eyes were empty of fire, bodies all giving off the same sickly green glow Valentine’s eyes had.

“Huh?” I asked, creating a sword for myself.

I wanted it to be more lightweight, so I tried only doing a diamond sword. The sword that appeared looked like it was made of glass. I hoped it wouldn’t break.

“Clearly he does. No sane folk would give up their secret in their misguided attempt to save your life otherwise, now would they?” Nocta wondered.

Some students appeared after a few moments, another professor arriving. Looking over, I saw it was Indigo. In his hands was a bow, both his eyes and the bow glowing a fiery orange color.

“How good at math are you, Indigo?” I asked.

Indigo glanced at me, “Very. It’s necessary to calculate the trajectory of arrows.”

“Okay. I’m going to explain the math behind the explosive element. It doesn’t have substance like fire, so adding an extra element to work as shrapnel will be best. It’s called exponents,” I started, glancing at the waters as the undead army marched toward us.

I quickly and hurriedly explained the concept, going so far as to explain exactly how I got my explosive spear spell to work and what my thought process was, as well as how explosions worked in general. The shockwave, and the need for shrapnel.

Soon Indigo’s gaze changed, looking like genuine fire as it flickered, his bow looking like it had spontaneously combusted. His hair fell around his shoulders, gracefully framing his face.

He looked really fucking cool. Man, what a bad-ass. I wish I looked half as cool as that one day.

Then he started speaking, barking out orders, “The close-combat individuals will be instructed by Professor Nocta! Archers and long-distant casters, with me!”

I went to Nocta, who was already ordering the students like they were troops. I stared out at the water, watching as the surface close to us started glowing green as the skeletons started surfacing.

“If I knew a tsunami spell I could freeze the water,” I sighed out, more to myself than to the students around me.

Nocta glanced over. Soon fire was blasting out over the water, a neon orange circle coming from Nocta’s hand. Steam rose, the skeletons unaffected.

My hand rose, and the spell repeated but in blue. Soon ice speared out. I drank a sip of the magic restoration potion as my insides twisted unpleasantly at the feeling of using more magic than I technically had.

Ow. Nocta wasn’t kidding. This hurt like a bitch.

The lake froze, but it wasn’t sustainable. The spell dropped, and I stared at the ten feet of ice that covered the shoreline.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Damn.”

“Worth a try anyway,” Nocta commented as he walked up, “You’ll be with Indigo. It’s too easy to be pulled into the waters and taken, here.”

I nodded, “Oh, okay.”

Glancing over, I saw Indigo still instructing people on top of a small hill that hadn’t been there before. Jogging over, I started listening to what he was saying. As I failed to listen, I used the spear-spell Silas taught me with the explosion element. Skeletons just emerging were blasted apart, their bones turning into shrapnel.

When I saw the shrapnel reached the other people, I changed my spell to a water one, making sure it was shaped like a comet.

Water was the easiest element, after all, hardly requiring any math at all. Four sides of four inches was sixteen inside and sixteen out.

I kept up the blasts of water, hoping my knowledge of surface tension and the like meant the bowling-ball sized comets of water were hitting hard.

My aim was shit, but with how quickly I was able to fire, it didn’t matter. I drank more of the restoration potion.

Soon more spells fired out. Some were close-range like me, Nocta and the others fighting the skeletons that were leaving the water. Arrows and long-range magic were sent across the lake.

It’s quiet.

Unlike the warfare I was used to, it was almost entirely silent outside of people yelling to each other. In the distance, explosions hit the skeletons coming from the woods to go into the water. It smelled like a normal summer day, the scent of grass and the waterfront reaching my nose.

Glancing over, I copied a spell Indigo was using that seemed effective. As I was standing right next to Indigo, he noticed immediately.

“Don’t,” Indigo said the moment my magical circle appeared, “The only reason the spell reaches so far is because I attach it to an arrow.”

I hesitated, “Right. Sorry.”

The spell changed back to the spear one. Glancing down at Nocta and the others, I noted that Nocta was bleeding heavily from one arm, and several students had been dragged away from the frontlines already.

My spear spell gained a light green tint, and I shot healing spears Nocta’s way. Then my healing spears were shot at the students.

They ducked, before looking at me.

“I’m healing you!” I called, “Don’t dodge, I have bad aim!”

Some had to reach out and catch my healing magic, many standing up to go back into the fight.

Once I finished healing, I turned back to the skeletons. Arrows and magic alike were raining down. I took aim and started firing water bolts at the skeletons.

“Strike!” I muttered to myself.

I stared at three skeletons I hit with one spell. Only the one in the center was blasted back, the other two losing an arm and a hand respectively as they continued.

Looking behind me as I aimed another spell, I stared at the skeletons behind us.

“Shit!” I cursed as I turned. The AOE spell Nocta taught me washed the skeletons away, “Behind us!”

“Keep them away, there are too many in front,” Indigo ordered.

“Tell me when someone needs healing, then,” I commented, aiming my spells at the skeletons. My potion was almost completely out.

Where were they coming from? Glancing around, it seemed they came from nowhere. Did they leave the water and go around us?

Shit.

“Dude, I’m fine. I’m really, really fine,” I said, panicked, as the skeletons grew closer, “So you should just—“

I coughed after casting another AOE water spell to keep the skeletons behind the archers away. The skeletons started sprinting forward. I staggered back, wiping at my mouth as my heart hammered. Oh. Blood. Well that doesn’t help my argument.

I drank the rest of the magic potion, an idea coming to me.

“Indigo, focus on covering our backs. I’m almost out of magic, but I have an idea. It’s a bad one. It might not work.”

Indigo scoffed, spinning. The skeletons behind us were all destroyed in seconds, and I focused on my spell.

Damn. I felt incompetent next to him. Never looking down on archers again. The McDonald’s version of Legolas was cool as hell.

“Cylinder, cylinder,” I muttered to myself, “The area of a circle times the height of the cylinder is the area of it. The circumference or perimeter of it is just the area of the two circles plus the…” I continued muttering to myself, the lightning spell engraved into my memory appearing at my fingertips.

Cyan glowed fiercely at my fingertips as I muttered under my breath, doing the calculations. Sideways cylinder, aimed at the skeletons in the water. Aimed at the water.

Lightning would travel through the water pretty effectively, right? If I put in enough energy would I manage to destroy the magic holding the undead together?

Before I cast, I hesitated, “Is there anything in the lake we would like to keep alive, Professor Indigo?” I called out.

The Professor glanced over, “No.”

“Cool! Pikachu! Use lightning bolt!” I cried out.

My imagination ran wild, a Pikachu crying out it’s name as it leapt into the air.

A giant bolt of golden lightning escaped my hands, slamming into and through the skeletons slowly emerging in the water. The entire lake lit up in a cyan glow for a long moment.

“Kaugh.”

I threw up, blood spilling to the ground as I stumbled. Steep. The hill we were on was a lot steeper than I’d realized. My foot didn’t find land where it expected to, and I found myself falling.

Grass and earth met me roughly. I landed next to the other injured students, coughing and gagging as blood escaped me. The world twisted.

“Uagh,” I managed, more blood spilling from my lips.

If only I could get this blood to the vampires somehow, I mused. I’m sure they’d find it useful.

The sound of distant explosions continued. Slowly, I shoved myself to my feet. Glancing at the water, no skeletons seemed to be coming from the waters. Nocta was regrouping with the still standing students.

Swallowing, I looked around, “Are there, is there a first aid kit here?” I asked.

“Here!” Someone called, “I don’t know how to use it, but Professor Indigo brought it.”

I wandered over, glancing at the person who had spoken. He had brown hair and green eyes, and his arm was cut at the shoulder.

Grabbing the first aid kit, I opened it. The bandages were pulled out. I started doing what I could to bandage and wrap the other students’ wounds. Some wounds looked necrotic. I left those to the open air.

Necrosis… that had to be either poison or magic to happen that quickly, right?

“Who here has magic? You don’t need to be able to use it,” I asked.

Several people in the injured area, some I’d already gotten to, and one of the ones hit by some necrosis poison or something raised their hands.

“Okay. I’m going to use your magic to heal others, I’m out. One of the ones I’ve wrapped, come here, tell me when you run low.”

The guy who called out to me got up. I took his free hand.

“This is going to hurt,” I muttered with a sigh, using what little magic I had to heal the students whose wounds were blackened and festering.

Black ooze came out of them, and magic struggled against the students’ as I carefully guided it to do what I wanted.

“It doesn’t hurt at all,” The student I was using the magic of said after I finished.

I shook my head as I coughed, more blood spilling from my lips. I covered my mouth, gesturing at myself. I couldn’t speak with how hard I was coughing, moving to the next person.

Soon the ones hit with some sort of necrosis spell or poison or whatever went back to the front lines, which weren’t doing anything at the moment.

Did my lightning spell work like I’d hoped? Or, well, did Valentine’s spell work as planned?

The only sound was me, coughing, as I healed the disabled next, starting with the person I was using as a magic battery.

“I’m low,” The person said.

I released them. Another with black hair and hazel eyes that rose her hand stood up. I healed her leg injury using her magic, then we went around healing the rest of the people.

In the end, I was the only one left in the area the wounded were taken to. My coughing had only gotten worse, and it was getting harder to breathe.

I was wheezing on my hands and knees, my coughs all wet. Every time I coughed, my vision grew darker, blood spilling from my lips.

Breathing roughly, I swallowed many times. Trying to get up, I collapsed to the ground. My vision blurred as shouting echoed out. Looking up, I saw skeletons coming out of the water again.

Something was different, though. They weren’t coming out in small bursts, anymore. More and more kept appearing out of the water, and soon the twenty or so students were outnumbered five to one.

“Retreat!” Nocta yelled instantly, “Indigo and I will buy some time! Take the injured student and go regroup! Find another professor and tell him the lakeside’s been lost!”

The skeletons started sprinting as Indigo’s aim changed to the skeletons coming out of the water, instead of going in.

A student put away his sword, reaching out. I found myself in his arms. My automatic struggles were weak as tears came out of my eyes.

Soon I was clinging to the student instead of trying to get away from him. I whimpered, though, fear making me shiver.

“Professor Silas!” One of the other students called out, “The lakeside has been lost! Professors Nocta and Indigo are holding them off alone!”

“It’s fine. Bring the injured to the—tch,“ Silas gave me an annoyed look, “—put her next to the other injured. Casters go up on the walls and everyone else stay here and fight off the hoard!” Silas ordered.

I found myself set down. The moment I was on the ground, I stopped whimpering, crying still. Trying to push myself up, I didn’t manage to.

Magic not my own reached out. I shook my head.

“I’m not injured, I’m out of magic. Heal the others,” I ordered, trying to get up.

Instead of listening, I was pulled up by the healer. I met the blue eyes of Lazarus. A golden potion was held to my lips.

Swallowing, my coughing faded slightly. Reaching out, I took the vial, struggling to stand.

“Do you got the others? Anyone you need me to heal?” I asked once I got to my feet.

“You need to—“

“Lazarus,” I interrupted, giving him a sharp look.

Lazarus looked annoyed, “There are two people I can’t handle. They have a black rope tied around their arms.”

I nodded, looking at the fifty or so injured students.

“Over here!” Someone called.

I staggered over, coughing violently in a manner that shook my entire body. I stared at the two people. They both had black corrupting their wounds. My magic reached out, and soon they were healed.

Looking around, I healed some of the injured put off to the side with white rope around them, too, their wounds all seeming pretty serious.

It was a lot less magic-intensive to heal someone’s missing arm if you could just reattach it, I mused.

Soon everyone who looked like they were in immediate danger was healed. The lack of noise bothered me. The sound of swords smacking into metal and bone was there, and the quiet whoosh of fire and other spells, with some yelling happening, but… It was so quiet.

Before I could focus too heavily on the silence, explosions started slamming into the opposing side.

Looking up at the stone walls surrounding the Academy, I saw Indigo there, his bow aimed out and his eyes focused on the enemy.

Blood covered him.

Damn. Impressive.

Looking around, I stared at a bloody figure collapsed some fifty feet away. Skeletons were sprinting toward us from that side.

Nocta.

I sprinted toward him, my healing spell slamming out. The kid wasn’t moving.

I didn’t slow down, my momentum staying as I slid, taking the kid into my arms. His eyes were closed.

Turning, I sprinted, Nocta’s movement spell being used in full effect as I ran from the skeletons.

A skeletal hand grabbed my shirt. Before I could be captured, an arrow slammed into the skeleton, a small explosion blasting me away as the skeleton exploded.

Thank you Indigo!

I turned, sprinting toward the front lines. They parted, and I darted past as they closed behind me. I slid to a stop once I reached the medical area. Setting Nocta down, I observed his wounds.

He had several cuts and necrosis all along his chest and arms. He wasn’t breathing.

Shit.

My healing spell blossomed into life. Was his heart beating? I felt for a pulse.

No.

My magic fought the necrotic magic corrupting his form as my lips met his. Blowing air into his mouth after plugging his nose, I pumped his chest.

“Dun, dun, dun, dun,” I muttered, pumping his heart to the only chords of “Staying Alive” that I knew. My entire body shuddered as I tried suppressing my coughing.

Finally the necrosis was fought off as I kept giving Nocta air and manually pumping his heart. He looked better and better. A few minutes later, I could feel a pulse, and he was breathing again.

Sweat soaked my form, my healing spell doing the rest. Nocta’s eyes fluttered, opening.

“Are you an angel?” Nocta wondered hazily.