The Hunters Volume Two: War

Chapter Ten: Failure

  They reached the Hunters/witches dorm building after several minutes of trekking across the campus. Most of the courses that the Parapsychology students studied were held in some of the academy's amphitheater-like buildings, all of which were located a fair distance from the dorm areas. The walk was annoying for most students especially when they were in a hurry, but at least it served as a good cardio workout for those who couldn't be bothered to visit a gym. 

  When the two young adults reached the shared common room of the top floor, they were met with the sight of Jade kneeling on the floor at one edge of the room. Most of the furniture and other stuff had been moved to make space for the massive magic circle that had been drawn on the wooden floor with what looked like chalk. The drawer herself was moving around the circle carefully to avoid erasing any portion, while using the chalk-like item in her hand to draw numerous runic symbols within the circle. 

  "Certainly took your sweet time getting here Hanson," Jade muttered in what sounded like annoyance. But Dean knew that was not the case.

  "How will this work?" He asked, his dark eyes scanning the diagram curiously. Runes had never been his study of interest though that did not mean he found them any less fascinating.

  "I think she's going to try and figure just exactly what was used as the base of the sealing spell that was cast on you," Lisa replied before Jade could answer. Surprised by her correctness, the dark haired girl opted to remain silent and let the young witch finish. 

  Lisa pointed to a set of symbols in the left part of the outer layer of the magic circle. "Those runes are diagnosis runes. They're commonly used to determine the magical composition of a spell. Every magic user has an elemental alignment. It doesn't matter how weak or strong it is. A mage's elemental affinity will always remain the same, and it will always show itself in every spell the mage uses although it doesn't necessarily have to be prominent enough to be noticed. Those runes will interact with the lingering ether from the spell and use it to decipher the elemental affinity of the witch that cast the seal."

  Completely oblivious to the strange looks Dean and Jade were giving her and lost in her admiration for runecraft, Lisa continued on her tirade with sparkling eyes and a pleasant smile on her face. "The runes further into the circle are a bit more diverse than the first set. These are [elemental] symbols from the ancient Sumerian civilizations. Although they've been tweaked to function a bit differently now, their primary function is to release a steady stream of elemental magic absorbed from the world's ether." Her finger pointed at two peculiar symbols on both sides of the [elemental] runes. "However with the addition of those two, the whole thing is pretty much turned into the magical equivalent of an antivirus program. Every element is weak against another specific element. By working with the diagnosis runes, the [elemental] runes become primed to send a surge of the opposing elemental magic of the one detected directly into the seal's framework to destabilize and consequently shatter it."

  The spectacled girl finally stopped to inhale some oxygen that her lungs were probably begging for. Her eyes eyes caught the looks she was receiving from the two Hunters and a deep blush flooded her cheeks crimson. She retreated instinctively and tried to make herself as small and insignificant as she could out of embarrassment.

  "Ah... that's uh... I think that's w-what it supposed to do," she stuttered shyly. "I apologize for my thoughtless rambling—"

  "Stop that," Dean cut her off sharply then his voice mellowed down a bit. "Do not put yourself down after such an impressive display of knowledge."

  "Emo Hunter's right kid," Jade chuckled her approval. "You were able to almost completely decipher in seconds, a matrix that took me half an hour to create. If that's not amazing, I don't know what is. You're a really bright girl Lisa."

  Caught entirely off guard by so much praise from the two legendary individuals, Lisa could only nod her thanks. Her embarrassment had mostly disappeared though but she still fidgeted a bit mostly out of habit. 

  Jade just laughed warmly again and patted the girl gently on the shoulder before moving to observe the completed circle for any mistakes or errors. "The truth is, I actually finished this magic circle in about five minutes. It was the barrier runes that took so much time to get right."

  Lisa perked up again as the conversation turned away from her thankfully and to something of far more interest: runecraft. Her eyes trailed along the circle slowly, stopping only at several instances. "Barrier runes?  There were some runes I didn't recognize earlier. Is that what those are?"

  "Mmhmm," Jade affirmed.

  "But they look nothing like any barrier runes I've ever seen before."

  "That's because you couldn't have possibly seen them before," Jade said with a cocky smirk. "After all, I'm the one who created them."

  The awestruck expression that appeared on Lisa's face did wonders for Jade's already massive ego. If the witch girl was as knowledgeable as she seemed about the intricacies of runecraft, then she must have known just how difficult and complex it would be to create even a single low level room, not to talk of something as high tier as a barrier rune.

  She waved a hand at the girl lightly and smiled. "I know you probably have like a million questions to ask, but that's gonna have to be later. Right now I wanna get this over with. I have other things to do with my life."

  Her tone was harsh and her words harsher still, but Dean knew that was just how Jade expressed her care. She clapped her hands and pushed Dean who had been observing the whole thing quietly as he was often wont to do, into the very center of the magic circle. "You get in there and don't you dare smudge my diagram," she warned the slightly taller man. Then she turned to drag the only other person in the room, Lisa all the way to the edge of the room as far away from the circle as possible.

  "I created those barrier runes to contain Dean's magic in the event that something goes sideways," Jade explained to the girl. "Of all the Hunters, Dean is regarded as the most dangerous for a reason. Not only is his Magic insanely powerful, but it is also extremely volatile and unpredictable. It doesn't matter who you are. One direct hit from his Magic and that's the end."

  Her words sent an involuntary chill down Lisa's back but she forced it down and nodded in understanding. She knew what Jade had meant. She was fairly certain that she had spent the most time around the broody Hunter out of all other witches and every single time they had been close enough, she would feel that eerie bone chilling cold that seemed to permeate her very soul the longer she stayed around him. And if she could feel it there was no doubt the Hunter himself knew hence why he was always trying to moderate the time spent together.

  Lisa frowned unconsciously and crossed her arms. That didn't seem right neither was it fair. Something had to be done about that. 

  Dean watched Lisa's face as it flickered through several emotions into it finally settled on a small frown. It didn't surprise him that she would be unhappy with the way his power worked. Her kind heart was probably feeling bad for him. 

  He sighed quietly. Someone like her really was too good for someone like him. He would not let her be dragged down by his own problems. 

  Lisa watched as Jade activated the matrix. Unlike other branches of magic, runecraft was the only one that did not necessarily require one to be insanely proficient or skilled to utilize to its full potency. Runes were mysterious magic symbols, each with a meaning of its own that was built upon the foundation of reality. In simpler terms, a rune was basically an already casted spell locked in a diagram or symbol. All that was needed to actualize the effect of a well drawn rune was only a mere trickle of energy, no matter what the source was.

  Jade placed a hand on the diamond shaped rune at the outer edge of the magic circle. Her dark eyes flashed purple and the rune glowed with a similar color. The lilac glow soon spread like controlled wildfire throughout the circle, illuminating every line and symbol till the entire floor shone brightly. Dean stiffened slightly when one of the purple rays of light shot into him like a harpoon straight into his torso. Three more corporal light beams repeated the action until a dark smoke began to emanate from the center of his chest. His body had begun to heat up, Dean noticed. But the piercing pain that lanced through his system had him wincing through his poker face. It felt like something was being ripped out of his chest forcefully and it definitely didn't want to leave.

  Jade observed the whole thing with curiosity in her eyes. "Interesting," she mumbled.

  "What's interesting?" Lisa asked.

  "Well it seems I'll have to give credit to our mystery enemy for being such a genius."

  "Genius? How?"

  Jade pointed her well manicured finger directly at the diagnosis runes which were pulsing periodically with a deep purple light. "See that? That means that whoever this person was, she had enough knowledge about seals to fix in so many traps layer by layer throughout the seal. Each of the traps have an elemental origin and do you know what that means?"

  Lisa's eyes widened in realization. "She just have expected us to use this exact spell to attempt to break her seal."

  "Exactly," Jade said and clicked her tongue in an impressed manner. "And taking into account that she had only touched Dean for all of three seconds and was still able to do all this immediately, and it looks like we're dealing with a master mage here. I'm pushing this person to Elimination Target Class 3."

  "Class 3? Is that high or low?"

  Jade shrugged her shoulders beneath the white cotton blouse she wore. "Somewhere in the middle. It doesn't look like she's actively seeking to kill people otherwise I would have given her a much higher designation."

  Lisa was about to open her mouth to ask another question but was interrupted when a loud grunt came from the Hunter inside the magic circle. Both girls were alarmed to at the pained look on Dean's face. Before they could ask him what was wrong, Jade noticed the erratic fluctuation of the [elemental] runes as well as cracks that had begun to appear on the barrier runes.

  "Oh shit!" She cursed and moved to stand in front of Lisa who could not understand what was happening. She threw her hands out made a gesture as if she was tightening an imaginary rope. The space around Dean and the magic circle suddenly warped and and twisted in obedience to her will. It was just in time too, as a second later, Dean exploded in a blast of fire, steam and lightning. The blast was contained thankfully within the secluded area Jade had created, but the shockwave of the concentrated explosion shattered the floor of the common room within the circle and left Dean lying on the broken floor. His shirt had been ripped to pieces and his pants had barely fared slightly better. Burns and cuts littered his skin, although his werewolf regenerative factor quickly took care of those. Smoke still wafted up from his body and the destroyed area even after Jade had dropped the containment barrier. 

  Both girls approached the unconscious male and Jade knelt beside him worriedly. Her hand reached down to feel his pulse. It was there, steady and strong under his hot skin. Jade frowned and returned to her feet.

  Fearing the worst, Lisa was almost too afraid to ask. "I-is he...?

  "No," Jade answered before she could finish, drawing a sigh of relief from the other girl. "But his body is still warm."

  Lisa stiffened with shock. "T-then that means..."

  "Yep," Jade sighed in annoyance. "His magic is still sealed."