My breath came in ragged bursts as I stood over Carlyle’s trembling form.

He lay on his side in the middle of the road, still crying at what remained of his arms wrapped in makeshift bandages, blood soaking through. The surrounding embers glowed like malevolent fireflies, the wreckage of Ash crackling in the background. I forced myself to steady my breathing—this unlocked form of my infusion always left me drained, and every muscle in my body felt like it wanted to lock up. I let the power escape me and transformed back into my fully human body.

Carlyle twitched and shrieked when I bent down, a raw, ugly sound that made me sick of myself. But I couldn’t let pity overwhelm me. My arms ached as I wrestled him into a more secure position, tying him up with rope I’d scavenged from a collapsed cart. He spat curses at me, tears streaking his face. He didn’t seem to remember our fight long ago, he was more concerned with his lack of arms. I shoved a gag into his mouth, muffling the worst of his pained howls.

—‘You know, I should feel great about putting this brat in his place, but…he doesn’t even look sorry, he just looks arrogant. Classic mages,’ Fern said.

—They say that revenge isn’t as sweet as it sounds.

—‘Nah, it’s not that, I just want him to know how bad of a person he is, but he will never get that,' Fern said.

Waelid hovered nearby, breathing just as heavily. “Just finish him,” he muttered, shooting me a sidelong glance. “He’s useless without his arms. Why let him keep breathing?”

I drew in a slow breath, reminding myself that I couldn’t afford to lose all sense of humanity. “We already took his limbs, Waelid. Killing him now… it doesn’t sit right.” My words sounded weary, even to my own ears. “He might have information.”

Waelid exhaled, frustration clear in his posture. “Fine. Your call.” He flicked his gaze to Carlyle and shook his head. He looked over the body of the woman he killed and gave a satisfied nod. He was so quick with the beheading that I hardly registered it. He was as ruthless as ever, although I didn’t blame him this time, I couldn’t.

From a small pouch at my side, I took a pinch of Pillardust. The crystalline specks glowed faintly under the moonlight, like shiny sand. It stung my fingers as I pressed it to Carlyle’s bloody stumps. A sharp hiss escaped his gagged mouth, and he bucked in pain, but the dust settled in and stopped the bleeding almost instantly.

“We’re both at our limit,” Waelid said quietly after a moment. “My wings feel like they’re on fire.”

“I had to get out of the form, need to save my strength. You should do the same.”

I glanced up at the towering pillar on the far horizon. I strained my eyes and drew a bit more strength from Fern and our Twin-Soul connection to see far past my limits. Through the haze of smoke, I spotted two tiny silhouettes making their way down the narrow steps carved into the stone—Major Philip and Laska, no doubt. “We can’t rest yet, though,” I muttered. “They are on their way now, and we need to keep our momentum, we already took out two Magebloods. I’m not sure how many are here, but let’s keep going. First, let’s find Coren. See if he and the villagers are okay.”

“Sure thing, one second,” Waelid said with a grunt. He bent and seized the female Mageblood’s corpse by the collar. He patted down her pockets, pulling free a handful of papers. “Might be something useful here,” he said, grim satisfaction in his tone. Then, in one swift motion, he spread his phoenix wings. Flames burst around him, and the body of the dead Magebloods dissolved into ash within seconds.

“Let’s move,” I said, hoisting Carlyle over my shoulder. He let out a muffled whimper, and I pretended not to notice. Every step made my knees protest, reminding me that whatever new power I’d gained, it came with a price.

Waelid and I trudged across the scorched road, embers crunching underfoot. At the far end of the street loomed a large, half-charred building and in front of it stood Coren and the other villagers. We followed him inside.

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The inside of the building felt like walking into a recently doused furnace. Smoke lingered in the air, prickling my lungs, while newly hung, scattered lanterns cast dancing shadows across the charred walls. Several villagers huddled in groups, clutching makeshift weapons or bandaging each other’s wounds. They all went silent when Waelid and I stepped inside, Carlyle still draped over my shoulder.

Coren turned around after reaching a large chair, relief evident on his soot-streaked face. “You’re alive,” he said simply, waving us forward. Behind him, a few of the miners hovered, their expressions torn between fear and hope. “We’ve gathered everyone we could find, and we all made it down safely, minus Agnus taking a shot to his gut. Old sod will be okay though. He is just resting up.” Coren pointed behind him at a small table in the back that held up Agnus, the minder who dove with Coren from the tower and ended up getting shot.

Coren continued. “Most of the old folks made it, some children and women too…but it looks like a lot of our boys and brothers weren’t so lucky.” He lowered his face and a tears formed in his eyes.

I scanned the crowd. They looked equally sad and exhausted—farmers, blacksmiths, seamstresses, many of them too old, too young, or too gentle to be recruits. In their eyes, I saw the weight of survival, and it struck me that without the Academy’s protection, people like them never stood a chance against Magebloods.

Coren gestured to a wide, half-collapsed table. “Lay him there.” I hefted Carlyle onto the table, his muffled groans punctuating the tense silence. Coren glanced at me, then back at the villagers. “These two,” he said, pointing to Waelid and me, “are real fighters. They took down the two Magebloods who were destroying our town.”

A ripple of awe passed through the group, though I caught flashes of distrust, too. I couldn’t blame them. We were half-beasts to some, monstrous forms that belonged to a world they wanted no part of. Luckily, both Waelid and I were out of our monsterous forms, but that didn’t hide the fact that they did see them earlier.

I grabbed Carlyle’s hair and forced his head up, my irritation flaring. “You invaded our sanctuary… used magic to burn homes, kill guards. Be thankful I didn’t leave you for the rats.”

His eyes, bleary with pain, flicked up to me. He tried to speak, but the gag choked his words into a wet rasp. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear him anyway. The anger that I felt for the Villagers surged through me. They were all too tired and heartbroken to be angry right now.

Waelid exhaled beside me, eyes darting to the villagers. “Tell us what happened. How did the Magebloods get here? Why were they able to cross the barrier?”

Coren stepped forward, “I’ll let Wildro tell us what happened. He was left in charge after I left.” He held up his hand to the side and a shorter, hunched back man with white hair and an even whiter beared walked up to the center of the room.

“It went like this…”

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The town elder cleared his throat, stepping forward with the aid of a battered cane. His white beard rustled as he spoke. “It all began about a week ago, the last of the young men went up to go mine with Coren on the second floor. That evening, we saw a streak of light up on the mountaintop—thought it was just a meteor or shooting star and decided to think nothing of it. But when we went to bed that night, the real nightmare arrived.”

He paused, letting the memory come back to him before continuing. “Twelve of ’em. Floating down the mountain like gods. They looked taller than normal folk, but that was just because of their long white and gold robes. We discovered later that the bright light we saw earlier was them slipping through the barrier. When they came to Ash’s gate, the young man who was guarding it at the time tried to fend them off. He transformed into a giant wolf and everything.” Wildro’s wrinkled features hardened. “Didn’t end well for the guard.”

Coren shifted beside him, knuckles whitening as he clenched his fists. “Before we started the mining operation with Major Philip, we were a well-guarded town. After we left, we didn’t think we needed such protection. We left a handful of Cinder enforcers stationed here—basic security. It wasn’t much, but it should have kept the peace. What of them Wildro? Did any survive?”

Wildro shook his head. “The Magebloods cut them down in minutes. The Cinders even in their monsterous forms were slived to pieces. After that, they split up. Two stayed behind—the obnoxious boy here, and the woman.” He looked around Waelid and I. “I assume she is dead yes?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Waelid nodded and held out a thumbs up. “Don’t worry gramps, I avenged your people.”

Wildro sighed and then nodded. “Before you all showed up, it was a quiet few days, or so we thought. The mages demanded food, and bossed us around. They killed anyone who tried to resist. We dared not fight back with the Academy so far away, and the barrier evidently worthless. We thought…we thought that the magebloods had come to finally claim rule over the last bit of land in Stylos they didn’t control. This morning, though…” His gaze swept across the smoky rafters. “That’s when the two went mad. Started burning buildings at random.”

A woman nearby took over, scowling at Carlyle’s limp body twitching on the table. “They got word that whatever they’d been waiting on at the Academy was done—some infiltration or takeover. ‘You can do what you want now,’ a voice from a small box they held said. So the two of them torched Ash. If not for you and the miracle of the divine gods, they’d have slaughtered us all in their last hurrah.”

I exchanged a glance with Waelid, a mix of fury and dread churning in my gut. “So the rest of them are up at the Academy, possibly causing more death and destruction… we need to get there. Now.”

Waelid gave a curt nod. “If they think they can waltz in uninvited, and just take over, they have another thing coming. But, what about their power? The damn Magelord is with them.”

“We will find a way.”

“How? Half of the Academy is dead, or probably close to it.”

“We don’t know that for sure, do you really think so little of our classmates and teachers?”

Waelid stood for a moment pondering my question.

“What about Fan, do you think she would get so easily killed?”

Waelid shifted his feet. “No, she would have planned something.”

Suddenly, a tremor shook the half-collapsed building. A distant rumble boomed, like a cannon firing in the hills. I felt my pulse leap. “That’s coming from the Academy, isn’t it?”

Wildro’s face paled. “It’s been like that on and off all day since the voice told the other two magebloods to do what they want.”

Without a word, I hefted Carlyle off the table and dumped him on the floor, leaving the ropes in place. “He’s all yours,” I told Coren. “Keep him alive—he might still be useful. But we can’t lose any more time.”

“Good luck boys,” Coren stood up and gave a quick salute. Around the large smokey building, the other villagers also gave a salute to us. One little girl walked up from the crowd past Coren. I figured this must be Luci, his daughter whom Waelid helped get medicine for.

“Take this, mister,” she said to Waelid. Luci held out her hand and gave Waelid a small pendant. He held it up in the light cracking through the burnt ceiling. It was a silver pendant of a bird.

“How did you know I was a Pheonix?”

“I didn’t, but when I saw you flying above us and saving us from the bad people, I thought maybe the spirits want me to give this to you! It was my Mom’s she said it would always protect me. So now it will protect you! Please save our town. I want to stay free.” She gave him huge sad eyes, it was almost like she was a paid actor to tug at his heart strings. Waelid nodded furiously and stood up, shoving the pendant into a pocket inside his clothes.

We turned and headed out the door, smoke and adrenaline fueling our every step.

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Waelid and I sprinted toward the long land bridge road that stretched from Ash to the Academy’s outer walls. My legs still ached, and the lingering fatigue from my transformations tugged at me with every step. Despite that, a tense energy roiled in my gut, urging me onward.

“I’m not sure how many times we can keep shifting into our full forms,” I murmured. “If we overdo it, we’ll be useless in a real fight.”

Waelid gave me a sideways glance and groaned. “That would be nice if we actually had time to stay out of fights and rest, but every fight we enter now seems like it is a real fight.”

The sun hung low over the mountains behind us, painting the sky in hues of orange and purple. From this vantage, the Academy grounds spread out like a war-torn tapestry. Columns of smoke rose from multiple spots, staining the sky with black smudges. The whole peninsula was like a battleground. There was a thick wall of smoke and haze but through it all, flickers of movement soared above—Magebloods, or maybe illusions they’d conjured. In the direction of House Anu I noticed smoke was rising high into the sky.

I swallowed hard, remembering the barrier that should have kept the Magebloods out. Something was deeply wrong if they could wander in and start a massacre. My pulse quickened as a fresh explosion shook the horizon, rattling through the landbridge under our feet.

Waelid stiffened. “That’s close.”

I narrowed my eyes. The Academy’s pale spires looked battered, charred in places where fires must have raged. Far in the haze on the eastern coast of the Peninsula, I saw more flashes lof light. Then I heard it—the unmistakable clang of weapons and the sharp crack of magic.

“House Anu is under attack,” I said, recognizing the silhouette of the mansion half-hidden by smoke. Voices rose in panic, accompanied by more magical blasts.

“Let’s go,” Waelid hissed, breaking into a run.

My heart pounded louder than the distant explosions. If House Anu was already fighting, then maybe not all was lost. I trusted my classmates to survive.

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My heart lurched as Waelid and I skidded to a stop behind a half-toppled garden wall. The courtyard of House Anu was in chaos—flames danced on shattered stone tiles, and thick plumes of smoke curled into the dusky sky. Two Magebloods, one a rotund young man and the other a painfully thin girl, soared a few feet above the ground. The looked like angelic nightmares. They had heavy golden armor, different from Carlyle and the woman from earlier’s appearance. Underneath their armor, their matching gold-and-white robes flowed dramatically as they hurled barrages of magic at my classmates below.

I recognized Fan instantly. She stood at the courtyard’s center, her hybrid scorpion form on full display—thick chitin covering her arms and torso, her face hidden behind the pale, unmoving mask of a second-stage infusion. Her tail twitched with each blow she attempted to deflect. Despite the white mask, I could sense her fierce determination. Around her, other House Anu classmates darted in and out of cover, returning fire with improvised weapons: arrows, slings, or raw physical strikes. Some of the upperclassmen were transformed as well, one was like a porcupine hybrid form, hurling sharp quills at the two flying magebloods. Another was in the form of some sort of horse who was kicking up rocks and sending them flying towards the mages in the air. Each time someone tried to attack the magebloods, they would either dodge it, of reflect it back with their magic.

“The other students are in stage-one or stage-two forms,” Waelid whispered, peering through a crack in the wall. “They can’t stay transformed too long without serious backlash. And we both know their control isn’t perfect—these are still trainees.”

I nodded. “But they’re doing something. Look.” I pointed toward a corner of the courtyard where Rinka crouched with a small bow, sending arrows at the fat Mageblood whenever he drifted too low. Meanwhile, Sora lobbed stones from a sling, aiming for the skinny girl’s face. Neither attack did much damage—armor spells flared around the Magebloods like shimmering barriers—but at least they drew attention away from Fan and the others.

Waelid held up a hand. “She’s got something planned. Keep an eye out for any openings that the Magebloods could exploit. We will then exploit that.”

I nodded and watched Fan.

—‘How does he know she has a plan?’ Fern said.

I looked more intently at Fan and noticed she kept eyeing a certain area on the ground in the courtyard. She kept positioning herself at an anfle so that the mages would then adjust themselves.

They hurled more bolts of fire and ice at Fan who arched her tail and then swatted the spells away.

Rinka and Sora both launched another round of arrows and stones, this time the arrow had a small explosive on the tip of it. As the arrow flew close to the round flying mage, Sora twitched her arm. From here, thanks to my enchanced vision I saw that she had slung a rock with a long thin string on it, similar to the ropedart weapon that Hopsander uses.

When she pulled it, the rock exploaded as did the arrow next to it. A huge cloud of black smoke expanded and enveloped the two mages.

Fan let out a roar. “Now!”

Then the essence of Fan’s plan revealed itself: Silas, Ruriel, Zenobia and Mel all burst from underground. The erupted in a pile of dirt. I saw their veins were all pulsating, their faces were red, and they all had grappling gauntlets on their arms. They sat up in the dirt and aimed our at the black cloud above them. They triggered their grappling hooks which pierced into the dark cloud, snaring one of the Magebloods’ ankles. The big guy yowled in surprise, staggering in midair, only to break free a second later with a burst of golden energy.

“Pathetic devils!” the fat Mageblood bellowed, voice echoing. “Is that all you can do?” The skinny girl next to him snickered, flicking a golden whip to clear away the cloud. She looked down at Silas who stood below her covered in dirt and snarling. She swung her whip again and swiped him across the face. He cried out in pain as the lash tore a gash in his skin.

“Waelid,” I breathed, “They need help.”

His face remained unphase. “Wait for it…”

I flexed my fingers, testing my energy reserves.

—‘Our power is returning quick, we could just jump in now and take care of them.’

—We don’t know that just yet, need to wait for the right moment.

Waelid held up his hand. “Wait for it…”

He looked over towards Fan who looked panicked.

“Why do the Magebloods attack us?”

“Do we really need to? Let’s just say it was time to come collect on a debt.” The round mage flying above said with a laugh.

Fan walked towards the Magebloods holding up her hands. “Please take me as prisoners, let them escape.”

The skinny girl flew down lowering herself. Her face was hidden behind a large hood but he aura gave off an evil flare. She didn’t lower herself to the ground instead to eye level with Fan.

“Sorry girl, orders are orders, the pests must be exterminated. You wouldn’t negotiate with termites would you?” She raised her hands up and light sparked between her finger tips.

Fan clicked her mouth and then slammed her tail on the ground. Another burst of dust came up temporarily blinding the skinny mage.

“Morosa stop fooling around!” The fat mage above yelled.

Then more dirt exploaded around us. And this time, not just four, not eight, but twenty other House Anu members burst up from the ground and simultaneously shot their grappling hooks at the two mages. Like flies caught in a web, the two mages became entangeld.

The skinny girl screamed and scrambled to move her arms.

“Incapacitate them! Now!” Fan yelled.

Waelid and I shared a quick nod, then moved. Waelid kicked off the rubble, transforming immediately, spreading his phoenix wings as fiery plumes flickered around his arms. I slunk around the rear of the courtyard, creeping closer to the scattering of dust and broken statues. My heart pounded as I summoned my chimera form again: hooves, horns, scaled wings, and Fern’s serpentine tail coiling behind me. Pain lanced through my limbs—a harsh reminder of how little rest I’d gotten since the last transformation.

Fan spotted Waelid taking flight and directed the House Anu attackers to press forward. The two mages panicked and sparks of energy melted the current ropes around them helping them free themselves. I seized the moment, racing along the rubble, hooves thundering on broken stone. A swirl of dust blew up as a third fresh wave of grappling hooks and small explosives triggered around the two mages. Perfect.

Waelid swooped in, letting out a fierce cry. The fat Mageblood twisted to see a phoenix-like figure streaking from above, he raised his hands to attack but it was too late.

“Jorinmo! Look out!” The skinny woman said from the ground.

Fern, controlling my snake tail, brandished the cursed blade. In a blink, I slammed into the Mageblood’s chest, driving the sword through the protective wards and into flesh. His eyes went wide before he dropped, blood staining his gilded robes.

The skinny girl screamed, whipping her arms free from the ropes, and dislocating them. She slung them up to cast some final, desperate spell. She raised herself high in the air and aimed a massive concentration of energy at me. But Waelid’s flaming talons raked across her back, shattering her focus. Grappling hooks from Fan’s squad spiraled around her ankles, yanking her to the ground. I took one last slash, severing her hands to ensure she couldn’t cast again. She wailed, pinned beneath a tangle of chains and ropes.

For a heartbeat, silence hung in the courtyard. Then a ragged cheer rose from House Anu’s defenders. Several of them seemed stunned at how swiftly the tide had turned. The battered upperclassmen approached cautiously, a mix of awe and fear gleaming in their eyes. More than one stared in shock at my fully formed chimera shape, or the fierce phoenix wings Waelid still sported.

Fan, still in her scorpion form, limped toward us. Her mask hid her expression, but I could hear the relief in her voice. “Erik… Waelid… thank the gods. We thought we were alone.”

I let the power drain away, returning to my human shape. My breath came in quick gasps, and every fiber of my body screamed for rest. “We’re here now,” I managed. “What’s the current situation?”

“Not even a proper hello first?” Silas said, stepping up. The fresh wound on his face has stopped bleeding thanks to the Pillardust he applied.

I turned towards him and held out my hand to shake his. “Good to see you are all still alive. I was worried.”

“Of course, we are still alive. I still have a full report on the investigation to give ya, not like it matters now. We sort of have bigger problems now.”

“You mean you know who the spy is?” I asked excitedly.

“You bet we do, and we’ve got him tied up back there.” Ruriel stepped up and pointed with this thumb back towards House Anu.