I Sold My Soul for Chocolate

Chapter 9

“Woah!” I yelped, losing my balance due to the drastic change, and I stumbled, barely managing to catch myself by grabbing onto what was closest to me.

Which happened to me Raum.

I let go of him instantly, avoiding his death stare, and muttered a quick apology. Then, I looked around us.

Two things surprised me.

One was the fact that Liney and Jeff were gone.

The other was the fact that we were in some school, standing in an empty classroom, with the sun setting outside.

“It seems that you are with me on the second task,” Raum commented, straightening his suit, which I had managed to wrinkle when I grabbed onto it upon landing.

The calm with which he said that made a chill run up my spine. He was being nice in front of Liney and Jeff. Once he was done correcting his suit, he looked straight at me, and a sinister smile appeared on his face.

“Excellent. It seems that I was wrong about you. You managed to harness my power on your first try. It gives me hope that you may actually be useful to me.”

I gulped and dared to ask a question. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly do you need me for?”

“I suppose I’ll have to tell you sooner or later. You are aware of the rebellion in Hell?”

“I am. The rebels were unsuccessful, but they escaped, right?”

“No,” he said, taking a step towards the board and looking away from me. “They were rather successful. Their goal wasn’t to usurp, they didn’t want to take the throne. Not yet, anyways. They did quite a lot of damage. I managed to catch one of them, which got me promoted to Duke, to give you an idea of just how  much damage they did. The further details have not been released to the public, and they are not necessary for your task. Anyhow, some of the ones responsible were students from this very Academy, or so I believe, based on the evidence collected. Your task will be to help me identify the suspects, and make them confess. I still don’t know who they are, so you will tell me about every suspicious person you meet.”

“Okay, got it. I always manage to end up in a bad crowd, so I’ll probably find them within a week,” I joked. Raum actually chuckled.

“I’ve noticed. You made a pact with a demon when you were still a toddler.”

“It’s a talent.”

“Let’s get down to business,” he said, his friendly tone disappearing. But I felt content - I had made him laugh, I made him realise I’m too good to kill, and I made him tell me more about my task. I walked over to him as he unrolled the scroll. This time, it was in English.

“For this challenge, your team may not use powers. You will be immediately disqualified shall you break this rule. Keep in mind that your opponents might have different rules. Your goal is to exit the building before the other team does.”

“s**t, we already wasted a lot of time,” I said urgently, looking around us frantically. Raum tsked.

“Not to worry. You’re forgetting I’m on your team.” He hurried out of the room, and I ran after him.

“Our opponents get to use magic. It’s just slightly unfair, don’t you think?”

“No, I do not think so. You keep forgetting who I am, human. We still have an advantage, and a large one, at that. Now follow me in silence, we should refrain from letting the whole world know where we are.”

A long hallway stretched before us, ending in doors both left and right. There were doors to other classrooms on both sides of the hallway.

“We’re on the second floor now. We need to get the ground floor,” I whispered.

“Precisely. Jumping from the window wouldn’t work, I sensed enchantments which likely made the windows impossible to open. It’s probably behind either one of these doors. You go left, I’ll go right,” he said, and took off towards the right at a speed of a demon.

I didn’t wait up to admire his speed, but ran towards my side, the sense of urgency flaring up inside of me. My footsteps echoed around the room, and I cringed every time, expecting something to jump at me from a corner.

As I was running, I noticed that a classroom door in front of me on my right was open.

But I noticed it too late.

Two people dashed out of the classroom, blocking my way towards the door at the end of the hallway. I came to a halt, and already took several steps back. I was facing a guy and a girl... and the girl was most definitely a vampire, already in her true form.

Long fangs stretched from her wide-open mouth, along her unnaturally pale skin. Her eyes were bulged and completely red, and she had to be at least six feet tall. She radiated an aura of power, but not nearly as much as Raum did.

Vampires’ powers were like a mini-mage - they had some degree of telekinesis and telepathy. But they were also kind of like very small, inferior demons. They had enhanced strength and speed, as well as other senses, and could use some very basic magic spells, such as minor mind reading in the form of predicting the enemy’s movement, and also had heightened resistance to magic in general.

The guy who stood behind her was moving his hands around and whispering something. A Voxomancer!

I was about to turn around and begin running back towards Raum, knowing that I had absolutely no chance to defeat a mage and a vampire, especially without being able to use the very limited magic I had.

However, before I could even turn around, the vampire dashed towards me at an inhuman speed, claws outstretched. Was she actually going to maul me? Was killing allowed?

By pure luck, I managed to throw myself backwards and fall on my butt, therefore dodging the strike, and making the vampire herself stumble from the force of her blow. The adrenaline in my body didn’t allow me to process the fact that I had just dodged almost-certain death.

I leapt to my feet and started running away, towards Raum. I saw him at the opposite end of the hallway, running towards me very fast.

But not fast enough.

I heard the wizard had finish casting his spell, and I was hit by something that felt like a truck, or possibly a bout of force, since wizards mostly turned energy from the air into physical barriers as the simplest form of spells.

My hands managed to block my face from hitting the ground, but the hit still managed to stun me. All breath was knocked out of me, and my senses had stopped working completely.

Through the pain, I managed to roll to the side in attempt to see my attackers and give myself a chance to dodge their assault.

The wizard seemed to be muttering spells again, and the vampire was reaching for my ankle with her claws. I swiped my leg away and tried to get up, but the vampire swung herself onto me, bringing me back onto the ground with both her hands squeezing my neck.

I couldn’t breathe, and all I could see was her awful grin as she choked me. My heartbeat was going insane, and I felt completely helpless. I was kicking out and clawing at her hands, but there was nothing I could do to harm a vampire. I considered using magic to save myself, but I couldn’t calm down enough to that. I was dying, and my vision progressively got overcome with black spots, until I couldn’t see anything.

Suddenly, her weight was gone, and so were the hands which had been choking me.

I opened my eyes with a start and took a few hungry breaths, clutching my throat when I realised that breathing hurt more than not breathing. I forced myself to breathe through the nose, and then redirected my attention towards the battlefield. All of my senses started working at once, and the sound of cursing and thumping was the first thing I registered.

Raum had just kicked the wizard square in the jaw, and sent him to the ground. Now, he was fighting the vampire. But it seemed to be an impossible task. Raum kept dodging her blows with ease, but no matter how much he punched her and kicked her, she wouldn’t go down. Because Raum couldn’t use magic. And he likely used magic to enhance his own abilities. And vampires were infamous for their endurance and regeneration. Without magic, they would only be harmed with silver, and sunlight would force them out of their true forms back into human form, which was a lot weaker. But the sun had already set, and there was no stopping the vampire now.

I slowly got up to my feet, now able to feel the pain all over my body, since the adrenaline had worn off now that I was out of the fight.

Raum kicked the vampire in the knees, and the vampire fell onto the ground. But Raum didn’t linger. Instead, he turned around towards me, and without a word, simply swooped me off my feet and threw me over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes, and once again, my breath was knocked out of me.

I could see the vampire dash after us, but Raum was quicker, even with me on his shoulder. I was clutching his suit like my life depended on it, although he was holding my ankles pretty securely.

“There’s no use fighting them. The mage managed to cast a weakening spell on me. I’m not sure how long it will last, but I can’t break it, as it would be against the rules,” Raum spoke as he dashed through a door, and then ran down the spiral staircase. “The vampire is consumed by her own power. She was going to kill you. That is against the rules, naturally, but she is completely unaware.”

“They’re not following us,” I said after we stopped descending and instead reached a hallway identical to the one above us. We were on the ground floor. Raum swung me back and carefully placed me onto the ground. I was grateful to be able to breathe normally after having his shoulder jab my gut with every step.

“Thanks for -“

“We don’t have time to chit-chat. We’re on the ground floor, let’s find the exit.”

I barely contained a sigh of annoyance as I followed him into the hallway, ignoring the dull pain that shot through my body with every step. I was listening for the other two following us, but there was no sign of them.

“I think they got disqualified,” I commented.

“I haven’t thought of that. It makes sense,” he replied without slowing down. I was feeling suspiciously calm and relaxed. I was probably worn out from almost dying.

“I’m not an i***t, you know.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

Ouch.

“Well, it’s true. You’ll realise it soon.”

“Hmph. I’m looking forward to seeing you try.” He stopped by a large door which definitely looked like an exit.

“That’s it, let’s go,” I said, reaching for it, but Raum slapped my wrist away.

“Wait,” he said, giving me a pointed look. “Once we pass through this door, the final part of the trial will commence. You will be alone.”

I sneered. “I’m capable of taking care of myself.”

“Don’t be so full of yourself, human. The future of my investigation depends on you passing the entrance exam. If you fail, I will not only kill you, but I will make you suffer first.”

The way he said that made me genuinely terrified. I had actually thought that he was beginning to be friendly towards me, but to be able to threaten me so seriously proved otherwise.

“I won’t fail,” I said as confidently as I could, but my anxiety was through the roof. A lot was at stake here.

Raum opened the door, and once I stepped outside, I was alone.