Spellcaster series #3: The Adept

Battle of the North Wing

HEIDI

Tristan teleported us to his office in the HQ, at the West Wing. He told me he needed to look for another wand for us each as ours were either lost in the explosion or broken by some maniacal Necromancer.

"You go ahead first. Find the Virtuosos who are stationed at the perimeters of the Academy. I'm sure Wynona has placed them there," he instructed as he handed me a new wand.

"What are you going to do?" I asked. He was foraging through files and papers.

He looked up, ruby eyes glazed and grave. "Finding a way to kill the wench."

I blinked. Cool.

I made my way past the Garden and to the nearest guard post. Ever since Synto's invasion more than a year ago, the three Sages had expanded the Academy which eventually constituted to four main parts of the entire property. They named these four parts as the North, South, East and West wings. The North wing was where the dorms mostly were, the South was the offices, and the HQ, nearest to the portal in the Garden. The East wing was where the Hall was, together with the training grounds and the West wing consisted of lecture halls and classrooms.

Tall electrical fences were erected ten metres around the campus, with guard towers placed some metres from each other. The Adepts and some Virtuosos were to man the grounds when necessary while the selected Virtuosos were stationed at the guard posts atop the guard towers in shifts. These were called the Guardians.

There were a couple of Spellcasters stationed on the grounds and the guard posts by the time I got to the fences.

"Anything yet?" I asked, interrupting their conversation. The blonde girl replied first.

"Negative. It's still pretty quiet."

"Maybe Wynona is wrong," the burly guy shrugged. Then he eyed me before introducing himself. "I'm Johnny."

I shook his hand. "Heidi."

"Germaine," the girl said. "You're an Adept, right?"

"Good guess."

"We heard about you," Germaine explained. "And you...you know, tried to invade the Magic realm with Synto's army and all."

Touché.

"Technically she was possessed by Synto," Johnny corrected her. "And give it a rest, Germie, that was more than a year ago."

"Okay," I said, moving past the conversation, "fill me in."

Germaine nodded. "Well, Freddy up there is manning the post. He'll signal us if he spots anything."

"Got it."

Johnny eyed me head to toe. "You know, you don't look like a Spellcaster."

Germaine agreed. "Yeah, you dress like a Vampire."

I cleared my throat. "Well, can you guys fight?"

"Of course," Germaine chimed. "We're trained by the Duel Master himself."

"Yeah, Sir Tristan's pretty hardcore with our training," Johnny added.

"What I meant is combat fighting," I said, holding up my fists. "Do you know how to use your arms and legs?"

Germaine shook her head while Johnny thought for a moment. "I suppose, I can box?"

That'll do.

"I'm asking in case we need to fight with our hands. Casting spells are great but they are hard to do so when you're up-close with your opponent."

The two stared at me, gaping. Germaine spoke first, "I don't think that would be necessary. We can take them with our spells, no problem."