Zenith wanted to go to the library. She said she never went to the library over here yet. I’ve been inside the library for quite some time now. I’ve read up lots of book related to my interest. There was one time where I decided to read about dragons. Unfortunate for me, most of it was common knowledge to me. I wanted to know more about them. How they lived and what did they do? The only thing that took my attention was that one book that shares some info about known dragon species.

The first one which is the obvious one is The Western Dragon. They have four thick, powerful legs and claws with the talons of an eagle. They also have scales covering its body, similar to a crocodile, with a barbed, serpentine tail. Their wings are membranous like those of a bat.

Even though this is the most famous one, I haven’t found or met a single dragon like that yet. Both Hosuke’s and Zenith’s dragon was a different species.

Another species are the Hydra. I’ve seen that one before. In fact, my friends and I manage to beat it. Basically a Hydra can have traits of any other dragon species. But the only difference is that it has multiple heads. Some of them even have multiple tails, arms or wings.

Hosuke’s dragon, Leviathan is a Sea Serpent. They range in size drastically, from 9 to 90 metre long with bodies ranging from 1 to 6 metre thick. They range in colour from greyish to chocolate to black. Some of them have a mane down their necks, just like a horse; others have heads shaped like those of a horse and the mane presented resembles seaweed. Some believed that they have a single horn shaped like a marlinspike. While many sightings of sea serpents claim they have serpentine bodies without limbs that end with a long, steering tail, there are just as many reports of sea serpents with webbed limbs, fins or even wing-like appendages, likely used for steering in the water. Leviathan was the latter one. While most of their descriptions vary from each other, there is one particular attribute that remains the same. They all have large eyes, usually blue or pewter in colour.

What about, Zenith’s dragon? Her dragon only shown up to me in a different form. Back then, her dragon became a phoenix because the dragon was cursed by an enemy. Considering that, I believe that Zenith’s dragon is actually an Amphiptere. Or you can also call it, Amphithere or Amphitere. Whichever is fine. They are basically part snake and part bird. The amphiptere has the body of a serpent, from head to tail. It also has a pair of wings behind its neck, where forelimbs might be found on a quadruped, but the amphiptere poessess no hind limbs. As a hybrid of bird and serpent, most of them have feathered wings, but some have membranous wings like those of a bat.

It’s quite fascinating to read up about this dragon. I would explain more if I wanted but there is seem to be a rising problem in front of me right now. It comes in the form of Yumiko and Zenith.

“You…” Zenith fiercely looked at Yumiko.

“Hi there, little girl. I see that you were hanging out with White over here…” Yumiko remained her composure as always.

“Yumiko…” I kindly spoke to her, “Can we please not do this today? I’m trying to show her around the academy.”

“You should have invited me for that. I can help her show the whole academy just with a flick of a trigger.” Yumiko pulled out her gun that looked like a flintlock. Maybe it is a flintlock.

I sighed and said, “That’s not really a good way to get to know the academy though. Don’t you think it is better if we just walk?”

“Walking to a location?” Yumiko belittled me, “Only normal people walk.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“So you’re saying you’re not normal? You’re insane?”

Yumiko was a bit annoyed at that and said, “I am not normal. I am elite. Didn’t you know that I’m ranked S?”

“Oh I do know that…” I nonchalantly responded.

“And do you know the reason I have a rank that high?”

“…No.” I haven’t had any interest in her at all. Why would I know?

“Oh you don’t know?” Yumiko laughed a bit. “Would you like to hear it?”

“Enlighten me, Princess.”

“Did you just call her Princess, Master?” Zenith looked at me disappointingly.

Yumiko chuckled and begins to explain, “It goes like this lads…I happen to have won Witch of The Year for my high school for four years.”

“What happened to that one year?” I asked.

“Shut up. I haven’t finished talking.”

“Fine. Fine.”

Yumiko continued, “Anyway, my face was in the cover of the Witch Hunt fashion magazine issue number 7 and 14. I’ve won three medals of honour for entering the annual Great Wizard War Re-enactment. Two of those were a platinum medal because I became the commander except when I first got in my first year as a recruit.”

“Wow.” Zenith was amazed.

“You’re not supposed to be in awe for having a role in a re-enactment or having a pretty face.”

“Sorry, Master…”

“It’s okay.”

“As I was saying…” Yumiko went on again with her achievements, “I was crowned the top 5 most talented young wizard by The Wizard Times newspaper.”

I yawned. “Is there anything else I should care about?”

“Oh yes. My team won 1st place in The Magic Duel at my high school. Can’t say the same for you, right?”

To be honest. I was actually amazed to hear that she won The Magic Duel at her school. I also entered The Magic Duel but we lost during the semi-final round. I guess she really deserves that S rank. But still…

Yumiko laughed by herself, “I heard you lost during the semi-final round, White. What happened there? Is it because of you slowing down your team?”

She can talk all she wants. But she can never understand how it is to see your friends and acquaintance being slaughtered by demons during The Seven Month War. Additionally, she’d never even done anything big as defeating a world threatening monster like the Ravenous Hydra. Better yet, I punched my own principal in the face. He was a bad guy. My punch was justified. In a way, at least.

“Still…” Yumiko stopped laughing. “This girl over here should not be hanging out with you. You’re not in the line to get close to him.”

“Who the heck are you? My mother?” I was irritated by what she said about Zenith.

“It’s okay, Master. This is between me and her.” Zenith hold me down.

“No this is not between you two. This is my problem, Zenith.”

“Just stay out of this, Master.” She gave me a serious look.

I sat down and surrendered to her.

“You’re not going to get through my Master. Not until you face me.”

Yumiko smiled, “Yeah, sure I would.”

“Over my dead body!”

“Yeah sure. I’ll just do that.” Yumiko holstered her flintlock to Zenith’s forehead.

Snow started to pick up in the library. Then in an instant a huge blizzard approached to our direction. Unfortunately for Zenith, Yumiko opened up a portal right as it about to reach her. Zenith was surprised about this and it made her a little bit shaken. This makes it easier for Yumiko to pull her trigger…

And that she did…

Did I ever mention that she also uses live bullets? Bullets that can kill a person? Yeah. She has that. In the heat of the moment, time seemed to move in slow motion. I wasn’t able to stop time just in time before Yumiko pulled her trigger. But once that has happened, there’s no going back…

The only thing I managed to do was ‘Blink’ all of us to a more spacious place for them to fight in. We were at the library just a few moments ago but now we were at one of the rooftop of the academy. But what’s the difference anyway? The match was over before it was even getting started.

There was no heat. The temperature dropped even with the sun above us. It wasn’t beating at all. There wasn’t any flow of air. The only thing visible was droppings of liquid that slowly turned into a pool. A pool of blood.

“Yumiko…” I slowly said to Yumiko, “Please leave us.”

Yumiko sighed, “Okay then.”

“Yumiko. You better turn yourself in.”

“…Don’t worry. I’m reporting myself to the academy at once. I know what I did. It's not like I'm going to get in a big trouble for this anyway.”

Yumiko opened up a portal using her flintlock and entered it. Leaving both of us on the rooftop of the academy.

I didn’t cry. I couldn’t. She was just trying to do her duty as my Guardian. But she’s still a small and fragile girl.

“Zenith…”

Her body temperature started to drop quickly. Both of my hands were getting colder. It gets colder and colder…until I felt something hard.

“Zenith…” I looked at the body with disappointment, “This is the 5th time already. You should stop getting yourself killed.”

In an instant, her entire body turned into snow. The sun begins to melt down the snow and in my hands were a hard round object. An egg. A phoenix egg.

I sighed, “This is why I can’t leave you alone…”

I’m not sure if any of you notice it but Zenith’s dragon was cursed into a phoenix. And every time a phoenix dies…they will come back to life.

Once again I sighed, “Clumsy.” I smiled at the egg. “What will I ever do to you to help you…”

I took off my sweater and wrapped the egg with it. I brought the egg back to my room.

TO BE CONTINUED