Transported

p r o l o g u e - xiv

“Is this far enough?” Grim inquired, as the three of you four of you stopped.

You three panted from running.

“Ooow! What in the world was that?!” Ace groaned, clutching the part of his stomach that got hit. “The headmaster didn't say anything about that!”

“It didn't seem like any other ghosts we've seen.” Deuce murmured, bringing a hand up to cup his chin.

“Let's just give up and go home. I'd rather get expelled than die from fighting that thing.” Ace voiced out, earning a nod from Grim and a look of shock from Deuce.

“What?! Don't joke with me! I'd rather die than face expulsion!” Deuce reprimanded, his tone close to shouting. “There's a magic crystal right in front of us and you say you wanna go home?”

Ace scoffed. “You talk big for someone who's worse at magic than me. Go alone if you want but me, I'm out.” He turned around to walk away.

“Oh, that's right! Stay right there cowering like a spineless coward you are!” Deuce insulted, stopping the orange head.

‘He did a complete 180.’ You were astonished at the change of behavior of the teal-eyed boy.

“Huh?! Coward? Who are you calling a coward?”

“D-Deuce? Did you switch your character…?” Grim cautiously asked, not wanting to receive an insult from blue haired male.

Deuce's eyes widened slightly and quickly composed himself, clearing his throat. “Oh, my bad. I lost my composure there.”

“Uh-huh. So, what can we do to get that magic crystal…?” You queried, narrowing your eyes at the direction of the cave.

“Like the headmaster said, ‘magic isn't all-powerful’. If you can't imagine it, then it won't happen. Large scale or complicated magic takes a lot of training.” Deuce explained, shrugging in indifference at the end.

“But isn't that why there are schools for magic?” Ace rhetorically asked. “You have to practice a lot to use magic. To put it bluntly, you'll screw up if you lose your cool.”

“Every person in the school has been using it willy nilly.” You vocalised your thoughts.

“Stuff you're good at, you can go off instinct.”

“At this rate, I'm gonna go back in there. I'll figure out how to defeat that thing and come back with the magic crystal.” Deuce declared, his face of determination.

“Hah, judging by the chandelier incident, you're a complete idiot.” That snapped Deuce's attention to the orange haired. “You couldn't even land a single hit earlier, but now you'll ‘figure it out’? Yeah, right.” Ace scoffed.

“What'd you just say!?”

Grim sighed, shaking his head in disappointment. “Here they go again…”

“Can the both of you stop?” You bellowed out, the two boys stopping immediately after hearing the incensed tone of your voice. You turned to Ace first. “If you don't wanna do it, then don't, be a coward as Deuce says, and you,” You then addressed the said blue head. “Don't go declaring that you're gonna beat that monster, we all know that you couldn't. If the two of you don't get along then we're facing this expulsion together!” The two visibly gulped under your glare.

“Why are you shouting all of a sudden?” Grim quipped in shakily.

You ignored the cat and took deep breath, calming down. “The only thing to assure that we can beat that monster is to work together.”