Rimholm University: Clandestine

Chapter 19

Familiars, they're the creatures that the gods bestowed to every supernatural that they used to govern and adored. From every sacred dragon, nature spirit, majestic monster, the tamed demon from the depths of Deviah, they used to be on shifters, vampires, elves, dwarves, fairies, and mages for thousand of years. Until the supernatural got driven by greed and snatched away from the gods the right to rule that the gods angered the most. Every god and goddess decided to punish them by making the familiars vanished one day.

They decided to show the supernatural their wrath, they showed the world the two great beasts that every sacred dragon, gods and goddess, and every creature feared. The majestic creature that wonders the horizon and manipulates the sun and the beast that bestows the land its unending twilight. Giving them darkness throughout thousands of years, giving way for every wicked creature of Deviah to rise upon its depths to start the bloody war.

The unending nightmare that brings the whole land into chaos and on its close destruction. The war caused the coup d'état of the rest of the creatures against their current rulers that lasts until the last solar eclipse. Vermon, the God of the abyss and devastation together with Cleo, the God of the Air and calamity serves as the judge who decided that the supernatural already learned their lesson. After the last judgment, the majestic bird that wonders the horizon and the beast that bestows them darkness vanished. Familiars went back to the surface hundred years later.

"Hey," Salem called Mattheo and Julius before she grabbed the back of their collar drag them into the bush swiftly when giant shards of ice sprung up from the ground. Both of them hit the bush beside the girl who's touching the edge of the shard.

"What was that for?" Julius asked as he stands up and dusted himself. Mattheo groaned in annoyance before getting rid of the dust on his uniform. Salem stopped from tapping her finger on the sharp edge and looked at him. The vampire silently wished that Salem won't reply to his question with sarcasm.

"Because of this. If you don't watch your back or get alerted next time, you might get stabbed by this." She pulled the thin shard by force and scanned it. Salem throws it in Mattheo and Julius' direction, causing them to lower their heads to prevent the shard to hit them. It pierced to the horned bug and the tree behind it.

"That is what I'm talking about. This forest is the entrance of the Meredith. We got surrounded by Zephyr's magic barrier. It prevents us from entering and leaving this place." Salem explained, "You can use your magic but there's no use. Zephyr cast this magic after the nine of us arrived here." They started to follow paths of ice shards to find the remaining six members of the class

"Lady Selene told me that I need to gather all of you even Hailey who used to lived here," Salem said while glancing at the shards.

"Do you have any clue where this thing came from?" Mattheo asked her but there's no response.

"None of the mages have this kind of ability." Julius is the one who replied. He looked forward at Salem, "By the way Salem, where's the others?"

"Erin found his familiar, Ifrit is escorting the remaining three. The four mages are on the outside with Lady Selene at this moment. I can smell Mira and Zach near here."

"Yeah, they're near." Julius agreed, "I'm also surprised that you talked longer today." Salem didn't respond and continued taking steps. The hybrid shifter is pissed at the moment, one more thing that annoys her and she'll probably berserk at the moment and destroy everything.

"We got surrounded by the barrier cast by the spirit of the air. This dome prevents us from exiting and entering for those who remained outside." Salem looked upon the trees and saw the silhouette that flies above the trees.

"Barrier?"

"Yes. The spirit of the air, Zephyr did it."

On they halfway through the spot where the shards came from, Mattheo covered both of his ears when the screeching sound came back again. It sends him down on his knees while enduring the pain that makes him feel that his ears might bleed. Julius immediately rushed to him and checked his current condition. Salem breaks another thin shard and throws it like a dagger. It passes through the gap of the trees but the shard hits the creature who created the sound.

"Argh! Who dared to throw me that?!"

"Stay away from everything and stay alert," Salem commanded the vampire beside him.

"I'm only doing this just once." She put down his hands and covers his ears using hers. The girl started to whisper something before planting a kiss on his temple while Julius is silently watching them and preparing himself in case there's an attack. The warmth of the sun like it's embracing the shifter makes him stunned and stared at her in awe.

After she's done with Mattheo, Salem is now focusing on Julius and did the same. When a kiss got planted on his temple, Julius feels the same warmth that he had never felt before. Both of them saw the golden thread floating into the air and connected to the girl who's flashing her golden eyes at them. Now, the vampire started to get curious at the girl in front of them.

"What is this?"

"The blessing. Lady Marionette taught me that. I nearly forgot about this, Lady Selene is testing us at this moment."

"There's a harpy and monsters around. We got surrounded by the barrier made by the spirit of the air." Zachary said while scanning the whole surrounding after sensing danger around them, "Please take this dagger and create a wound on your palm when I said so." Mira takes the dagger from his hand without questioning his command.

'It's above us, do it in a count of one to three. Run in a different direction.'

'One.'

Mira tightened her grasp at the dagger's grip as she watched the silhouette of the winged man above the trees, circling them like a predator doing to its prey.

'Two.'

The bush shakes, causing her to point the dagger's sharp edge on her palm.

'Three.'

Both of them run into separate paths when the harpy above them showered them a hundred blades. The wind blew strongly as if it's not just a normal breeze but a storm. Mira rolled on the ground to lessen the impact before standing and creates a deep wound on her palm. She hissed in penetrating pain on her hand. Her blood poured down from the wound and formed into droplets before dripping into the ground.

Everything went into a standstill, from the leaves that got carried away by the brute force of the wind to the blades coming from above.

Tic... Toc... Tic... Toc... Tic... Toc...

She pulled away from the dagger from her wounded and put herself in a fighting stance. Mira feels like the ticking sound that came from is barely touching her ear.

The sound of the old grandfather's clock is continuously ringing on her ears, enough to break out goosebumps on her skin and looked on her front and only found Zachary who's on his wolf form, creating a fainting growl. Mira can feel the bothering presence behind her but didn't dare to look behind.

"The time won't stop and it keeps moving forward." Mira looked behind her. She meets the creature with almost have the same height as the trees. It's a tall man holding an hourglass. He got dark skin, hair, and purple eyes that everyone failed to makes his looks and charisma steal everyone else's gazes. He's wearing white and black formal attire with two small watches attached to his front pocket using a golden chain.

"Look who's the one who called me." He smiled and held Mira's wounded hand using his wounded hand to create a bond between the both of them. Mira stared at their glowing hands and the sound of the ticking sound of the grandfather's clock that she often heard on their home at the human world stopped.

"I'm the premodial spirit that keeps the time, is now having a deal with you as my master that I'll serve with loyalty until I die." Mira closed her eyes and held both of his hands like what she read on fantasy books to close the deal with the familiar.

"Elistal."

Elistal is about to touch her face delicately when Zachary growled that results in him to grinned and slipped his hands on his pocket before making everything back to normal.

"Focus on your opponent!" The harpy yelled before showering them another batch of blades and glided down towards Mira. He hasn't reached her when the wolf bites his foot then throws him away from Mira and Ellistal.

"We'll go to fight without using our magic, Ellistal. Things will get difficult when we got caught." The spirit nodded, "As you wished, Lady Mira."

Both of them were are about to help the wolf but they got halted by the masked monkey-like creatures standing tall as Mira, holding their weapons, and also Julius and Mattheo that accidentally bumped into two creatures surrounding them.

"Mattheo? Julius?"

"Salem told us to get here since you're outnumbered," Julius replied before pulling out his sword. Mattheo shifted into a lion and let out a loud growl. The birds lurking from the tree flew away by the sound.

"It's still a shame for you to show up here, shifter." Zachary got pressed on the ground while stopping the harpy in top of him who's holding the wooden bow on both edges to choke him. He's back on human form and now fully clothed.

"Isn't it still a shame for a harpy to attack a student like me who's not doing anything to him? No wonder why that merman hated your guts, Kellion." Zachary chuckled before bashing his head against the harpy and changed their positions, "You lost to him, right? Such a weakling." The harsh breeze came back again. It makes Zachary sent away flying.

Mira jumped when the creature's axe almost hits her before she used the dagger to make a wound on its neck. Mattheo pounced at the two of its comrades while Julius used his strength to fight them. Ellistial fights them like the vampire.

"Who's the weakling now?" Kelliom placed his arrow on his bow and pulled its string.

"I'm not gonna wonder why Aldreus wants to rip off your wings." He stopped when Salem speaks from behind while touching his wings and tightened her grip as she scanned his back, "Ah, you must be guessing how I entered this dome." Kellion almost got rooted in his position, he can hear his heartbeat and the blood dripping out of his wounds that Zachary created, "I did one thing..."

Zachary stood up and used his magic to create a sword made up of ice. Kellion pulled away his arrow from his bow then aimed it at Salem's neck. He smirked in mischief before flapping his wings to make him float to the air and prevent Zachary's attack.

"You're both shifters and both have an intimidating presence but it doesn't mean that I'm afraid." Kellion released his arrow. The arrow creates a sharp sound towards Zachary but the shifter runs in a different direction before shooting icicles on him.

"Is that what you can get?" His smile fades when the whole surrounding stopped and other icicles burst into his direction. This time, he managed to dodge it yet it creates wounds on his arms and legs.

A bird flew in his direction and stopped when it almost gets past the top of the trees before shifting into a human form. It only takes a second before Salem got fully clothed and lets herself fall.

"Destroy it," Salem speaks from behind she stepped on his shoulders and grabbed one of his wings.

Crack!

"Argh!" She jumped when Zachary throws the sword he's holding on Kellion. The sword hits his broken wing and made him fall to the ground. Everything in his surrounding went back to normal after he fell on the forest floor.

"Kellion!" Zachary and Salem looked at the woman with the pearl as white hair and a pair of eyes like her skin running in the harpy's direction.

"What did you do to my master?!" She threatened the two shifters in front of them with her magic but the duo gives her their neutral and unbothered looks.

"Zephyr, destroy the barrier now," Kellion said while grasping his broken wing.

"As you wish." She stood up and aimed her palm at the sky. The mist got vanished at the animals in distress earlier are now starting to get calm.

"This one is Zephyr?" Julius asked while looking at the girl.

"Yes, that one is Zephyr, Mister," Ellistial replied.

"Don't look down at me!"

Freddy got accidentally wounded by the small insect with sharp stings on its legs. The elf hissed in pain and immediately wiped the blood coming out from his wound after the thick, crimson liquid drops on the ground. A huge vine sprung out from the ground and made the three of them got separated from each other.

"You came!"

"What?" The elf scanned the surrounding while tightening his grip on his bow and arrow. He almost released his arrow when the two and horned cats with the size of fox jumped in front of him. The first's head has growing flora on its horns while the second one got small glowing butterflies resting on it.

"You and Your friends helped us from getting stuck here." Both of their eyes darted at Freddy's bleeding hand. They nodded and each other before pressing their heads at his bleeding palm,

"Florantine and Fauna."

"Guys!" Erin shouted. The dwarf stopped from running and the demon beside him help him when he got nearly passed out. They got tailed by Keiro and the others with their familiars.

"What happened?" Freddy asked while scanning the surrounding.

"Long story."