Straf feels the wraith sizing him up. The presence grows larger, stronger, but then tapers off down to its previous potence.
「Oh shit!」
A panicked voice exclaims from the entrance to the cafeteria. A group of students is standing frozen in the open doorway, staring at the dark shape across the foyer.
「Tsk. Get into the fucking sunlight, idiots!」
Straf commands, and a blue orb appears in front of him. A split second later, a beam of blue light the thickness of an arm shoots towards the wispy form. Being nigh-instantaneous, the beam impacts it right in its center, roughly where the sternum would be on a human. It appears to impact it, at least, as the wraith contorts around the light, and when it dissipates, a gap in the interior of its silhouette quickly merges shut.
「Tsk…」
《Did that do damage?… Or was it just a reflex?》
Straf clicks his tongue, looking at the being with a sharp gaze. The crowd of students unfreezes, and flees for the entry door with screams of panic.
「Ghost!」「Wraith! It's a wraith!」
Multiple people scream at random, though mostly repeating themselves and each other as they run outside. Straf feels the focus of the wraith return to him, and the presence once again grows larger.
「Well, since you're just ominously standing there, I'll say that you're skipping your turn…」
Straf shrugs, and reaches into his [Portable Storage] with two hands. He pulls out the ballot counter, and opens its power source compartment. He takes the gem within, and throws the container back in.
「Now that those hindrances are out of the way…『Democracy』!」
Crack!
He shouts, and flings the small red gem across the foyer towards the wraith with a bullet-like supersonic crack.
BOOM!
It explodes on impact like a hand grenade, wrapping the general area around it in a thick, grayish smoke. The magic lamps above drift away, slightly displaced by the disturbed air before settling into their new positions. Straf smirks, placing his hands back into his pockets as he looks at the cloud.
「Did that do it?-」
He says, but then notices a faint silhouette darker than the smoke within the cloud.
「Tsk… Of course, that fucking cliche… Can't one thing go my fucking way?-」
Straf spreads his arms in frustration, and the wraith shoots out of the smoke, sliding towards him at a blinding speed. It charges in with its pointy arm outstretched towards his heart.
With his ability briefly activating, he side-steps, but then its arm takes on a blade-like shape. The wraith quickly follows up with another strike, slashing for his throat. The dark blade swipes a finger's length away from his face, making no sound whatsoever despite the immense speed. Another blue orb appears in front of Straf, right in the narrow gap between them, and fires a beam of light at the wraith. Its entire form shifts and uncannily bends around the beam, seemingly dodging it with only hundredths of a second to react.
《He dodged that!?…》
Straf takes this brief moment of reprieve to leap back, but the wall directly behind him limits the distance he can gain. More panicked student screaming starts. Straf casts another energy ray, and just as the orb is about to fire at the wraith, a student runs out from the library, heading straight for the door. The orb shoots the beam, almost hitting the running student in the face. He stumbles, dazzled and panicked by the light that almost killed him.
「Fucking idiot! If you want to die, I'll strangle the life out of you right now! Get out of my way!」
Straf screams angrily at the student, clenching his fist. He looks at Straf over his shoulder, briefly blinking in wide-eyed shock before he continues running towards the door. Straf feels [Contextual Time Perception] activate again. The wraith took his moment of inattention to its advantage, and is sliding towards Straf with its blade-like arms spread, as if rushing in for a deadly hug.
《Agh! All those fucking handicaps!》
He clenches his teeth, and leaps into the air, pirouetting while inverted. The wraith's arms slash through thin air, and carve through the decorative wooden paneling on the wall. A completely destroyed fragment comes off, revealing the Academy's main construction material of large, pale stone bricks, and the gigantic slash upon them. Straf deftly lands with catlike grace, touching the ground with his fingertips.
「How long is this bearded asshole going to take!?」
Straf exclaims in frustration as he takes a quick peek over his shoulder towards the Cursefire. He senses the dark being turn, despite there being no visible indication of it doing so, and the presence grows even more powerful. Straf scoffs, grinning at it as he straightens out.
「What, getting pissed off? Me too. If this is the best you've got, then this was a waste of fucking time!-」
He shouts, spreadiing his arms. [Contextual Time Perception] activates before he can even feel surprised, and the wraith's spike-like arm is already partway to his face.
With his teeth tightly clenched, he pirouettes sideways, dodging the stab.
《…Hold on, what the fuck is going on?》
Straf thinks, as he continues feeling the specific sensation of his ability still being active. The wraith is right in front of him, recovering from the missed blow, but also sinking into the floor.
《What? Is it melting?-》
He looks at the ground just behind him on a hunch. A wispy oval-shaped shadow is lingering behind him, and just as he looks at it, a pointy spike emerges from its not-quite-flat surface.
《For fuck's sake!-》
Straf jumps away towards the entry door when he notices the sharp spike elongating towards his leg from the floor.
「Agh!…」
Despite his quick reaction and best effort, the wraith still manages nick the side of his shin. Straf's pant leg is slightly torn and the pain from the injury lingers, but the wound heals nigh-instantly.
With a discomforted grunt, he lands and slides with his back towards the open doors. Just as the sunlight slowly begins to warm his blazer's back, his leg begins to feel uncomfortably cold.
「Have you tried anger management classes!? It's never too late!」
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Straf smugly smirks at the dark figure, once again spreading his hands, but his smirk quickly grows smaller.
《Man… How the fuck do I actually kill this thing? Did it even take any damage?》
He thinks, and focuses his eyes on the wraith as it moves in front of the wide stairs, directly opposite of Straf.
Wraith
[|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||] Lv. 128
Strength: 10 Perception: 10
Agility: 12 Endurance: 10
Dexterity: 11 Willpower: 10
Luck: 10 Intelligence: 25
Charisma: 987 Wisdom: 10
《What the fuck is that charisma score!? What does a dead guy need charisma for, anyway!?》
Straf double-takes when he looks at the large number, blinking with his eyes narrowed in disbelief.
《…High intelligence, but other than that, it's pretty average across the board for a wraith, huh?… I guess they really are just not something you want to fuck with.》
He thinks, rubbing his chin.
《But most importantly…》
「…No damage, huh? Me too. I can do this all day.」
Straf grins, and notices Cycelia and Tisha run in from the Cursefire hallway.
Corvus arrives just after them, breathing heavily as he looks down at the wraith. Suddenly, Straf feels the presence disappear, despite the wraith being right in front of him.
「What are you looking at?」
Loud and clear, coherent, and sounding exactly like a normal person looking for trouble, a growl of a male voice comes from the wraith.
Corvus blinks at it in shock, while the two girls instinctively run aside. Straf looks at the wraith and the headmaster, seemingly staring at each other.
《…I have a bad feeling about this.》
Straf thinks, and turns his eyes to Cycelia and Tisha.
「Lia! Get out of the building!」
He shouts, and activates [Contextual Time Perception]. He takes slow, cautious steps towards the stairs.
《…I better take it slow and steady. If I stub my toe at these speeds, it might be bad for the planet.》
[Contextual Time Perception]
[Active]
Perception acceleration factor: 9317%
He looks at the icon of his ability, and glances at its tooltip before returning his eyes to the stairs. The wraith begins to move, sliding up the stairs towards Corvus while he's frozen in time, though now its uncanny movements are significantly slower and more manageable. Straf outruns it with a leisurely step, climbing the stairwell. He pauses briefly to take a peek at Cycelia, and she's frozen in time clutching onto Tisha's wrist, appearing to be in a mad sprint for the Academy's rarely used side entrance.
As he walks up to Corvus, he feels the presence behind himself, just barely. He looks at the wraith, and can sense it tracking him with the eyes it does not have. He grins, lowers the acceleration factor to previous levels, and grabs onto the headmaster's robe.
「Hang tight.」
Straf says as time returns to normal, and Corvus barely has the time to turn his eyes to him.
BOOM!
A thunderous noise resounds outside the Academy's doors as Straf and Corvus suddenly appear at the door, startling as well as confusing the students sheltering outside.
「Wha-? Straf? How did you-?…」
The headmaster mumbles out in confusion, and briefly looks around before turning his greatly confused eyes back to him.
「…Your ability.」
His bushy brows rise as he realizes what happened. Straf nudges him forward, deeper towards the open plaza full of panicked students.
「Headmaster! What the fuck is going on!?」「That's a wraith, isn't it!?」「I knew the rumors were true!」
The students shout, forming a half-circle around him.
「Calm!… Calm yourselves!… Khakh!… Khakhh!…」
The headmaster spreads and raises his hands, commanding the students. A brief coughing fit takes him, but he quickly recovers.
「…Ahem. The situation is under control! We have the finest agents of the Redwing government here, and their full support! For now, everyone clear the building! Get into the sunlight!」
Corvus guides the students, pointing deeper towards the open space away from the doorway. Straf looks back into the foyer, and the wraith is still standing on top of the stairs. He can feel its unmistakable glare.
「You took your sweet fucking time, old man… Well? Is it behind the barrier?」
Straf asks, glancing at the old mage with serious eyes.
「…I do not believe so.」
「Believe so? You mean it's still a fucking chance, and you're crossing your fingers!?」
Outraged, Straf exclaims.
「If it is behind the subversion, then the barrier is not life-linked to it, at least. It makes sense, given that it has no life to link…」
Corvus replies, looking at the wraith as well.
「…He was a normal student like anyone else, Straf. I can tell. Something terrible must have happened to bring this about.」
「Yeah, no shit! Tell me how can I kill it dead! I tried energy ray, and it didn't do shit!」
Straf exclaims, spreading his arms in frustration.
「No wonder energy ray didn't work. It is only partially mana, Straf… For now… Just keep the students safe. I will think of something.」
Corvus replies, and heads towards the group of students. At the same time, Tisha and Cycelia emerge from behind the corner of the building, and run towards Straf. She finally lets go of Tisha's wrist.
「Straf!… Haah… Haaa…. Straf…」
She shouts as she runs up, out of breath and gasping for air. Tisha arrives just after her, slowing down.
「Haaaah… Are you okay? Your pants are ripped-」
「I'm fine, Lia, it's just a scratch. If he got my knee, it'd probably be fashion…」
Straf smirks, and shrugs his shoulders. He turns his eyes to the group of students, including Selafina and the disgraced blonde noble. They return the gaze with surprised expressions on their faces.
「…The bigger problem is, we can't really keep it secret anymore. If we don't find a way to fix it soon, panic will spread-」
「Straf!」
Corvus shouts, and points at the doorway. The wraith is outside, in the sunlight. Thick, dark smoke-like substance trails behind it as it speeds for Tisha, though much slower than normal.
「Oh shit.」
《It'll be like 15 minutes before I can use [Translocation] again! That damn fucking old man!》
Straf clenches his teeth. Tisha is mostly frozen in panic, and only manages to take a single frightened step back.
「Fucking shit-」
Straf utters out, and activates [Contextual Time Perception]. He begins powerwalking towards Tisha at a steady pace, but the wraith is much closer than he is.
《Fuck, fuck, fuck… Don't you fucking dare kill Lia's new friend. That's worse than not making any.》
He thinks, clenching his teeth. Though he's edging the universe's speed limit, the chances of him making it before the wraith are growing slimmer with each frozen second.
《…Do I just say fuck it and go all out? It might turn out worse than if I'd just let it happen-》
Straf stares at the wraith close in, with Tisha almost in its arm's reach.
《Ah.》
He blinks in surprise as a golden lightning bolt coming from the corner of his vision zaps to Tisha's side, and morphs into Cycelia with a large branch in her dainty hands. Her eyes are glowing golden with a wispy trail behind them, like a pair of shining comets. Just before the wraith can get within stabbing distance, Cycelia swings her club-like stick. Tisha stands frozen in time, Straf stands frozen in shock, and Cycelia clobbers the humanoid shade in slow motion. Its form practically disintegrates from the blow, dispersing into black dust as the whole wraith loses its shape.
ZZZZAP-CRACK!
The stick shatters in Cyclia's hands. The cloud of black dust swirls in the air, and flies back towards the Academy building as if it was sucked in by a vacuum. Everyone including Corvus stares at Cycelia as her golden glow fades from her eyes. She and Tisha stare at each other for a few seconds, before Cycelia drops the stub of her stick down onto the floor, and hugs into her.
「Tiiiiiiishaaaaaaa!… I was so scared!…」
「…Eh?」
Cycelia bawls, hugging her face into Tisha's decently large chest. Perhaps still shocked, Tisha is extremely slow to react.
「I thought you were going to die! Huuuuuu!…」
Cycelia adds, clutching onto Tisha's blazer, and lets out a crying howl into her chest.
「…Yeah, to be honest, me too…」
Tisha nods, and pats Cycelia's shoulders to comfort her, grinning nervously. She looks over her shoulder at Straf, and Straf looks over his shoulder at Corvus and the rest of the students.
Corvus shrugs his hands, and approaches him. The students begin to mutter and mumble amongst themselves, looking at Tisha and Cycelia.
「…Did that fix the curse, old man?」
Straf asks as the headmaster approaches his side and looks at the two.
「…I don't believe so, Straf.」
He replies, and sighs. His old face looks relieved, but gravely serious at the same time.
「What, you mean the wraith wasn't it?」
「I believe it's not the last we've seen of it, Straf. I have to notify the professors. Come to my office in the evening.」
Corvus says, and heads for the Academy's door, passing by Tisha and Cycelia, and leaving everyone else behind…