Night fell over the academy as Magnus Aurelius, president of the student council and top graduate of his class was once again making his way across the courtyard. He was headed towards the abandoned ruins that were located just across the plains——the girl following him knew that very well by now. It was not the first time he went there. This was the first time she would actually follow him all the way, though. She was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Why was he going there? And why has he been acting so strange these past few weeks? Not just weeks. It's been more than three months now!

“Air Bubble,” she whispered, creating a bubble of air around her that blocked out the sound of her footsteps as she followed him across the courtyard, being careful to always walk near walls and objects so she could hide should he happen to turn around. So far, it didn't seem like he was suspecting anything. When he came up to the main gate, he pulled out a big, rusty key and placed it in the lock, but not before looking around if anybody is watching. Arianna was sitting quietly as a mouse, hidden behind a statue of a large lion in the courtyard, covered by her bubble of air. She peeked from behind the corner when she heard him unlock the door and step out, closing and locking it behind himself once more. If it was anyone but him, they wouldn't be able to walk out so casually in the middle of the night. As the student council president, he had the key to the entrance just like the teachers. The girl trailing him didn't have that option. But she had plenty of other ways to get across the high stone walls.

“Transformation: Great White Eagle,” she said and took on her eagle form. She flapped her wings and took to the skies, soaring over the wall and keeping her eyes on the ground, where Magnus was walking along the stony path. She kept flying at high altitude to avoid him noticing her if he happened to look up for some strange reason.

Of course, he didn’t, and the transformed girl watched him veer off the path and make his way across the meadow. Not long after he arrived at the ruins of an old castle or fortress that's been abandoned for over fifty years now. Ever since the end of the great racial war. He went inside through a hole in the wall and the bird trailing him descended down, perching itself on the roof of one of its many towers. Arianna pondered for a bit about how to do this. Should she just transform back and go inside in her human form? No, that's way too risky! But an eagle is too big to follow him unnoticed.

A mockingbird! she suddenly remembered. That's a transformation I can use!

She descended down to the hole in which he disappeared and undid her transformation only to cast a new one immediately after. The girl shrunk down to a tenth of her size and assumed the form of a small bird, flying inside in search of the suspicious young man. She found him just a few corridors in, standing in front of a cell door. He slowly pushed it open and stepped into the room behind them.

What does he have in there? the girl thought and flew after him across the damp hallway.

The only thing illuminating it was the moon that shone through the cracked ceiling. However, the door got slammed into her face and she had to find another way in, lest she gives away her presence. She went back out and flew around the ruins, remembering the location of the room. Sure enough, there was a barred window on the outer side, and the mockingbird perched itself upon the cold stones, peeking its small beak inside. Arianna almost let out a chirp when she saw what was in there. Or more accurately, who was in there. There were two Magnuses in the room, one bound on a rack and stripped naked, numerous cuts and bruises covering his trembling body. The other one——the one she followed——sneered over him and ruffled the boy's hair.

“Magnus, Magnus…” he spoke with a derisive tone. “Why do you insist to keep things hidden from me? Do you enjoy the pain? The suffering? Wouldn't it be easier to just tell me what I want to know and then we could end this farce?”

“I…don't…” the starved and dehydrated shadow of a human mumbled unintelligibly, his eyes tired and the light all but drained from them.

“What was that?” the other Magnus leaned in closer to make out his words. “Speak up!”

He coughed. “I don't…know anything…I swear….”

“Still acting tough, are you?” his interrogator wasn't really buying this. “I guess we have to convince you to talk some more then!”

Saying this, he walked to the edge of the room and picked up a bloodied stick. The fresh stains of blood on it and the boy's bruises made it clear that the two were already familiar with each other. “Last chance! Tell me where the entrance to the academy's treasure chamber is!”

“Please…” the bound young man heaved. “I told you…everything….”

“How could you, the highest ranking student, not know a thing like that?” the Magnus holding the stick cocked his eyebrow in disbelief. “I'm not believing that for a second!”

With that, he raised the stick above his head and struck down against the prisoner’s naked flesh, making him scream in pain. Arianna watched in horror as the boy got beaten for several minutes before the assailant finally felt it was enough. “Ready to talk now?”

“Pleah…” was the only thing he managed to get out before breaking into painful sobs.

“Maybe it's time I just kill you off,” the other Magnus threw away the stick and picked up his next weapon of choice——a short and sharp dagger. “We've been doing this for more than three months now and still you're not telling me anything useful. Maybe you really don't know. I'm just wasting my time coming here to feed you and give you water, keeping you alive. For what purpose? So you can just tell me you don't know anything and cry every time? Useless.”

“I don't…I don't want to die…” he spoke through tears.

“Then tell me something useful, damn it!!” the young man questioning him stabbed the knife into the wood right next to his head. Arianna got startled by this and let out a small squeak. Both Magnuses turned their heads towards the small bird on the window.

Just act natural, Arianna, the girl told herself. You're just a mockingbird. They'll never realize I'm actually using a transformation if I don't speak or make strange movements.

The boy pulled out his knife and walked towards her, leaving his twin behind on the rack. A sly grin painted itself across his face when he neared the window and it made her feel uneasy.

“You're a pretty little birdie, aren't you?” Magnus spoke, stopping about a meter away. She decided that now is a good time to fly away. But just before she managed to take off, the boy hurled the knife at her. It just barely missed her and grazed her wing, causing her to tumble down. She flapped her other wing as hard as she could to soften the fall and reverted back to her human form upon landing, holding her bleeding arm. “How did he know?!”

There was no time to think about this, though. Arianna winced in pain and forced herself to get up and start moving.

‘Magnus’ appeared out of the castle to find her running across the ruined castle's courtyard.

“I knew you were following me, silly girl!” he shouted. “But I couldn't exactly kill you at the academy——that would raise suspicion. So thank you for coming out all the way here, where nobody will be able to hear you scream as I tear you apart!”

Arianna stopped running and turned around. “Who are you?! What did you do to Magnus?!”

The boy started laughing as he walked towards her. His appearance began to change. His skin melted off and turned into a black ooze that dripped down to the stony floor. What was left underneath was a pitch-black skin, covered with scales that looked similar to that of a snake. When the skin of the face melted, two bright red eyes were staring at the startled girl and a wide smirk painted itself across the strange creature's face.

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“It'sssss nice to finally meet you face to face…Arianna,” it spoke with a distinct womanly voice, the split tongue hissing on every syllable that included the letter “S”.

“What the…what the hell are you?!” Arianna was completely taken aback by the woman’s new form. She assumed it was a woman because of the voice, but it could have just as well been anything.

“Who I am issss none of your concern, girl,” the lady that looked like she was a snake given human properties replied, unsheathing a long katana-like sword that was sitting on her back.

Arianna held her bleeding arm and realized that the only real option she had left was to fight this thing. Whatever she transformed into right now, her right wing would be damaged and she wouldn't really be able to fly away. And she doubted that she could outrun it on foot.

“Air Blast!” Arianna exclaimed and extended her left hand, unleashing a powerful gust of air.

The mysterious woman simply sidestepped it, however, like she saw it coming ahead of time.

“You think you have an actual chance at fighting me?” she sneered at the girl. After she said this, her right arm and the katana she held in it suddenly lit up with a purple current of magic. Little bolts of magic were running down from her shoulder all the way to the tip of the blade.

“W-what…what is that?!” Arianna instinctively took a step back. She had never seen or read anything like this before. And she read almost every book in the academy library there was right now, just like Velvet.

The reply came in the form of the woman slashing her sword and releasing a blade of magic as she cut the air, sending it travelling forward at Arianna, who threw herself out of its way at the last second. It hit a broken wall behind Arianna, cutting it cleanly in half. That would have been her if she didn't move away!

“What the heck?!” she shouted when she saw this. “Y-you're crazy!!”

Little did she know that this was only the smallest fraction of what this creature could do. Next, the snake-lady disappeared in a flash of purple light and reappeared standing right before her, ready to slash down. She wore a sadistic grin and her shining red eyes glared at her. Arianna quickly placed the palm of her hand on the ground and cast an air spell, propelling herself up into the air before she would become minced meat. But the creature followed her. It braced its legs and imbued them with the same strange magic she did the sword and her arm, launching itself up with an incredible force. In a moment, the scaly-skinned woman was at the same altitude as her, once again trying to cut her apart. The surprised girl cast another air spell to push herself out of the way and fly towards one of the towers. She hit the roof of it, but the wood was old and soggy and collapsed under her feet on impact, causing her to tumble into the room below. Arianna coughed and pushed herself back up, the pain in her right arm reminding her once again of the injury she sustained as the mockingbird.

Her thoughts were racing. What is this thing?! How can it jump so high and teleport around like that!? What is this strange magic it uses?! I can't escape it! But I can't fight it either! Not like this…

There was only one thing she could think of that could maybe give her a fighting chance. She grit her teeth and focused her thoughts. “Transformation: Air Dragon!”

Her clothes turned into scales and her body started growing in size. Her teeth became fangs and the pupils of her eyes changed their shape from round to oval. The snake-lady came crashing into the tower only to see her opponent take on the form of a dragon.

“Hoo!” she exclaimed in surprise, her smirk widening. “Now thisss you don't see every day!”

Arianna's large dragon wings were not damaged now. Instead, her front leg was injured. But she couldn't care less about that while in this form. Her dragon body was far more resistant to pain than her human one. She flapped her wings and took to the skies, breaking the roof that stood between her and freedom, creating monstrous winds in the process.

“Awh,” the woman seemed visibly disappointed. “And here I thought thissss would get interesting now. Yet you decide to be a coward and resort to running away again! Pathetic!”

I'm taking this to Argus! Arianna thought as she was gaining altitude. If I die here then whatever this thing is planning and doing at our academy will never get revealed!

She felt something latch onto her tail and looked down to see the creature clinging to her. Looks like it jumped after her once again, determined not to let her get away.

“Where do you think you're going!” the woman exclaimed, plunging her magic-infused blade into her tail. The dragon winced and shook its tail violently, trying to get her off.

“Get off me, you vile creature!!” the girl growled, turning around and plummeting towards the ground. Her plan was to smash her into some wall or fly herself through a tower in hopes that she lets go while being slammed against the stones. But the woman had other plans. She climbed further up her back and continued stabbing through her scales with relative ease during the entire duration of their descent, which thankfully only took a couple of seconds. Arianna was really starting to feel the pain now and she ran face-first into the first tower she saw to rid herself of the trespasser on her back.

“GET OFF ME!!” the dragon roared.

“You'll have to do better than that!” she heard a voice from behind even after smashing the tower apart with her skull. “You're not getting away from me, girl! Say your prayerssss!”

With a powerful slash, she cut apart one of the dragon's wings and they both tumbled to the ground, where their fight continued. The air mage didn't hold anything back as she knew this could be the end if she doesn't give it her absolute all. While she was in her dragon form, the winds obeyed her perfectly and she commanded them to the absolute best of her ability.

“I didn't expect a student to be thissss strong,” the snake-lady admitted after a few minutes of back and forth between them. She landed a few cuts here and there and released many blades of magic at the beast, but Arianna still stood strong, despite the damage she was dealt. She knew time was running out, though. Under such pressure, her transformation wouldn't last for much longer. Her wings were now severed and she could fly no more. There was no escaping for her. And once she reverts back to her feeble human form, she was done for.

“You are realizing it, aren't you?” the woman grinned as if she read her mind. “Your time isss running out! This place will be your grave, foolish girl! That'sss what you get for poking your nose into thingssss far greater than yourself!”

“What are you doing at our academy?!” the dragon roared. As if she would get an answer.

Another blade of magic slashed her thick hide and she growled in pain. She felt the first droplets of rain hitting her bloodied body and soon it started to pour pretty heavily. Their battle raged on, the skies being lit up every few seconds by the purple magic from her opponent and the lightning that struck not far away on occasion. It was not long before her transformation finally gave way and Arianna fell down to her knees panting, human once more. The woman pointed her sparkling blade at her and spoke with a mocking tone.

“Not a bad fight you gave me. But I shall be taking your head now. Goodbye, Arianna…”

A gust of wind knocked the creature away just when she was about to land the killing blow on her. It didn't come from the girl herself, however.

“Just what do you think you are doing to my students!” old Argus yelled, drenched from head to toe, the heavy rain bashing his face. Ralph and a bunch of other teachers were with him.

“Crap!” the snake-lady, picked herself up and teleported away, seeing that she has been uncovered. Miss Wormroot crouched down next to the bleeding girl that shivered both from the rain, the pain, and the exhaustion.

“Oh my,” she shook her head. “Don't worry, sweetie, we will get you all patched up…”

Arianna lifted her head up. “Magnus…you need to help Magnus…he's hurt badly…”

“Search the area!” the headmaster ordered. “Find that thing and don't let it get away!”

“Yes, Sir!” his assistant exclaimed and gestured to the other teachers to fan out.

Thank you for reading this part of the story! May your pumpkins grow big!

[https://img.wattpad.com/11822a2328414eedff0e1860ed9e3b2542906492/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f774a744835692d39566a527536513d3d2d313238383835333132362e313732613061336266646162366561623338383833373939353930342e6a7067]

What was the strange creature searching for? Find out next time!