Harwin Academy.

03.

Melrose Faith.

Mel was tired, school was supoosed to be fun, it was anything but that, but the feeling of having accomplished something had been well received, after what happened in the cafeteria students weren't exactly getting close to him in fear of Necmi going on another rampage again, he had slammed one of his own into a table, but that didn't matter to him, he had made a few friends even with being socially awkward, he was also tutoring first years who were slow in grasping concepts at the school, Harry offered to pay him but he wasn't doing it for the money, knowing Harry he would still nag him until he accepted, so he did, circling back to the school, everyone was busy preparing for the Archaic, it was an opportunity to represent their people, change the oppressive ways of the archs, Mel was all for it, aslong as he wasn't needed to participate in any of it.

"You seem tired." Abe mumbled walking over to him, he snickered wondering why that very observation was just a testament to how he felt. "I am, but tomorrow I got no classes, so I'll be fine." Mel replied as he scooted over to make space for the much larger boy on the small park bench he had been sitting on. "That makes it better, listen Laurie and I wanted to thank you for helping us with the mission, the headmaster bumped us up on the rankings for killing a class three demon." Abe exclaimed surprising Mel for a second before his shock turned to a smile. "Oh, that's very good news, I'm happy for you guys." He asserted with a smile that Abe reciprocated, over the small course of being at Harwin, Mel had realized that Abe didn't take easily to new people, and his social skills needed polishing but as a person, he wasn't that bad.

"Thanks, so are you doing anything after you finish your classes, a group of hunters are going to train in the forest clearing, you could join us." The boy offered and Mel was touched by the offer, but punching things wasn't on his mind today. "Thanks for the offer, but punching things, not a good day for me, plus I'm a healer not a fighter." He told Abe who nodded in understanding but then protested. "You are a fighter though, that attack you landed on Cleo, that wasn't just a random outburst of energy, you knocked her out cold." He expressed with a chuckle eliciting a chuckle from Mel aswell. "That was a knee jerk reaction to what those two were doing, they could've easily killed a student or had the whole cafeteria drop on us, it wouldn't have been fun." Mel explained very real possibilities of that situation, they were lucky it didn't continue.

"Call it what you will, but offer stands, you are welcome to joi—." Before  Abe could finish, the ground trembled, and more quakes shook around them as something was digging it's way up to the surface, Mel looked to Abe realizing they were right under whatever it was that was coming, Abe grabbed Mel's hand and leaped away from the bench as the ground burst open and a demon crawled out, screeching with a mouth full of rotting teeth and acidic saliva. "Is that?" Abe questioned frozen in shock. "Flesh burner!" Someone screamed as Mel dragged Abe away before the seven foot creature pounced on him, it's tail swung at Mel but he was quick to raise a shield and protect the two of them. The creature screeched again as it lunged for the two but Abe recovered in time to grab his sterling and draw a glyph in the air, once it was complete he thrust it out and it shot lightning at the demon throwing it away, but the creature was relentless.

It had fallen a distance away from them as others attacked it, what surprised Mel was how it began shooting it's acidic saliva at everything close to it like dragon flames, and once the saliva got in contact with air it ignited into flames, they couldn't get close enough to kill it or risk being incinerated. "How did a demon get on school grounds, it's impossible." Abe grunted out as he stood next to Mel who had no idea how it gotten there either. "That doesn't matter right now because a lot of students are in the park, most of them are first years and they can barely defend themselves against a class three demon, we need to kill it and now." Mel explained as he pulled out a sterling of his own and began writing several glyps and runes in the air then thrust them upward into the sky, once high enough it created a shield, rather a dome over the demon and them. "Mel, you just trapped us in here with it." Abe protests as he pulls out two daggers from his boots.