“Everyone it's now time to test your shield spell,” Mage Malacoda said.

We'd spent most of magic class learning the finer details of shielding, which according to our instructor was one of the most important spells we could know. Something I wholeheartedly agreed with. I'd written down everything he'd said, double checked it with Calci and Garth, asked questions to make sure I knew all the little details, and watched Calci and Garth cast their own shields.

I was as ready as I'd ever be.

Gods I wished I was able to drop out of magic.

“All right, Petra, you'll be my partner today,” Garth said. “I know a lot about the shield spell and I have a nice gentle spell that won't hurt if it breaks through your shield.”

“What type of spell is it?” I asked.

“It's a wind spell, we use it to knock out brownies when they get too excited and start becoming a nuisance. To anyone who isn't six inches tall it's like getting slapped.”

“OK, lets do this.”

I copied his hand motions and words exactly. I thought I looked like a cat having a fit, which was an improvement over how I usually looked when trying to cast a spell. When I did it by myself, I resembled a chicken having a seizure.

A tingling sensation came over me. It was barely noticeable and unlike anything I'd felt before when I tried to cast a shield spell. “I think it worked,” I said, grinning like an idiot.

“OK, brace yourself,” Garth said, raising his hand.

He snapped his fingers and it felt like a stiff breeze hit me in the face. It didn't hurt in the slightest, and actually felt kind of refreshing.

My delight at successfully making a shield didn't last long however. All around the room students were hitting each other with fireballs, lightning, beams of light, and other things. Blood Wing had summoned a horde of shadowy creatures which were unsuccessfully trying to tear her partner apart, while she seemed to be surrounded by a small sun that was making the nearby wall melt. Even Calci was manifesting small boulders that threw themselves at her partner while a floating mace smashed her on the head.

And there I was happy that I could stop a hard breeze.

“All right, now hit me,” Garth said.

Picking up my magic text book, I flipped to the orb of force spell. It was simple and not too dangerous. Whispering the words, I pretended I was throwing a ball as hard as I could. A small glowing orb zipped  towards Garth.

It bounced off of him with a weak little 'boop', and instead of disappearing it headed for the ceiling. It hit the ceiling and bounced off of that going a little faster, hitting another student and ricocheting off her head without her even noticing. It looked like it was picking up speed. It hit an altar, then a second one, the 'boop' kept getting louder with each hit. Now other students were noticing the errant ball of magic, and I was desperately trying to think of a way to stop it.

When it hit a third student, he was actually shoved backwards a few feet, seemingly unharmed. It hit the wall again and was moving almost too fast to follow. The next student it hit was knocked on her butt with a scream of shock. It hit the ceiling again, leaving a small crack in it.

At that point students started ducking for cover.

Blood Wing who was still surrounded by super hot flames started laughing. “You weak fools! You're afraid of that!”

At that point fate decided it would be funny to have the out of control orb of force break the sound barrier. The now dangerously fast ball of chaos thundered across the room and hit Blood Wing head on. She was slammed into the wall, seemingly stunned. The orb bounced off of her glowing like a miniature sun.

At this point Mage Malacoda snapped his fingers and the flaming orb vanished completely. He looked at me with a look that somehow combined resignation and shock at the same time.

Turning away from him, I looked at Blood Wing who was peeling herself out of the fairy shaped imprint she had left on the wall. She looked down at herself, running her hands over her body, then looked at me in astonishment.

“How in the name of all the demons of hell did you manage that?!” she shouted.

Rather than answering her, I ducked down behind my altar again.

Leaving subterfuge class, I was feeling a little better. Nothing insane, horrifying or embarrassing had happened there. We'd just gotten put into groups and had to talk about something unusual that happened to us in the past, it could be a lie or the truth. Then the listeners had to guess which it was.

That had actually been kind of fun, and no one had believed that I had gotten into a few fist fights, played a children's version of Head Break Rock, or other rough and tumble things that had been pretty typical for me. They didn't seem to think that a pretty girl would be interested in those types of things.

That could very well be true. Despite being turned into a girl, I hadn't talked to many other girls about what they did before coming to Doom Valley.

Now I was walking through the old short cut, all alone, clutching a small carved stick in my hand ready to break it if anything happened. I wasn't sure if I wanted things to go smoothly so I could safely get to class, or if I wanted to deal with Micheal once and for all.

The exit was straight ahead, breathing a sigh of relief that I would get to class safely I allowed my self to smile. It was probably best that I didn't see Micheal, Blood Wing probably wasn't very happy me after what happened in magic class.

Glass smashed at my feet.

Before I could do anything black tar covered my feet. Trying to walk or even twist my feet was impossible. The tar creeped up my legs, uncomfortably wet and warm. It stopped at my knees and hardened.

Looking behind me I saw Micheal step out of the shadows. The creep was grinning, looking like a dragon that had just eaten a sheep. If I could have moved my feet I'd have kicked him as hard as I could. Instead I had to be satisfied with glaring at him, and I broke the carved stick.

“What do you want Micheal?” I snapped.

“Nothing at all now. I'm just enjoying the moment,” he replied.

“You're not going to give me even bigger breasts or try to make me fall madly in love with someone just to embarrass me?”

He shook his head. “That was Victor's idea. He likes playing mind games. I'm not going to do anything except have you smell a little concoction I made. It will make you forget the last five minutes.”

“That's it?”

“Yes. You'll also be stuck here for a day or two until the tar dries up. I hope you don't need to go to the bathroom.”

“Someone will come by soon,” I said.

Micheal's grin got bigger. “Not when I lock the exits. You'll be trapped here in the dark, missing class and out of your dormitory after lights out. That's going to be a pretty big detention.”

My heart dropped, that was actually a pretty good plan. “And since you'll wipe my mind, I won't be able to tell them you did it. Even if they cared.”

“Exactly. Good luck surviving your detention,” he said, pulling a small spray bottle from his pocket.

At that moment Blood Wing popped into existence beside me. Despite being all of six inches tall, her angry expression was pretty terrifying.

“HA! You are trying to hurt my good friend Pe-Pre- uh. The roommate of my good friend Ella! I Princess Blood Wing will stop you!” the half-fairy shouted. Black lightning bolts erupted from her fingertips, heading straight for Micheal's crotch.

I winced as they connected, but there was no scream of pain and anguish from the creep. Micheal just jumped back, his pants smoking, although he did look scared and very surprised at the change of plans.

“Where did you come from?” he demanded, dropping his spray bottle.

“As Pa- um, as Ella's roommate will tell the teachers, we were merely walking to class when you attacked for no reason. I'm defending her to help my good friend Ella. NOW DIE!” Blood Wing shouted.

Micheal tossed something to the ground, filling the hall with a nasty smelling blue smoke. He shouted a spell and fire erupted all around us. Hastily I cast my shield spell hoping it would be enough to keep me alive, while Blood Wing blindly threw lightning bolts at anything that seemed to move.

A vial smashed against the ceiling showering me in broken glass. Long green tentacles erupted from the rock. One of them wrapped around me, it's suckers clutching my shirt as it tightened uncomfortably. Bashing the thing as hard as I could I wished I had a knife.

The half-fairy shrieked something and black figures rose from the ground, wailing and crying. They brushed past me, making me shiver as my entire body seemed to freeze. More flames rose up, burning away the blue smoke, the apparitions, and fortunately for my ribs, the tentacles.

“You're good,” Blood Wing said. She was moving her hands, weaving together a spell.

“You're not,” Micheal replied, pulling a spray bottle from his belt.

I crouched down, covering my head, praying to every god I knew of that I would survive the next minute.

Blood Wing screeched in rage, the spell she'd been working on forgotten. Instead a wave of force filled the hallway. Bricks flew from the crumbling walls, shattering as they hit the floor, the walls, and Micheal. Fortunately Blood Wing and Micheal were in front of me, so I was only hit by a the back draft. I was still knocked over, landing very awkwardly with my lower legs held in place and my head hitting the stone floor with a painful thud.

Micheal picked himself up, his clothes were wrecked, and he had a nasty gash across his forehead. He quickly shouted out the shield spell I'd learned that morning, and drank a potion. His cut healed and he grew over a foot in size, with a lot more muscles. Clapping his hands together there as an ear popping crack.

Blood Wing went flying down the hall from the wind, and if I hadn't had my feet literally glued to the floor I'd have gone with her. She came flying back sending a serpent made of purple fire at Micheal, it was tackled by a misty figure with glowing eyes.

Covering my head again, I didn't see what happened for the next few moments. There were demonic screaming, waves of heat, explosions, and things that felt like they were straight from my nightmares.

Then Blood Wing shouted at me. “Minion! Cast that spell you did in magic class!”

Was she crazy? I couldn't control the spell and it took a while to build up. Even if I cast it properly it would probably just end up flying down the hall and kill someone who wasn't Micheal.

There was another explosion and a black hole opened up for a few seconds sucking in everything that wasn't connected to the ground. Blood Wing was being pulled into it, until she shouted something and made it close up.

Hoping she knew what she was doing, I did my best to cast the orb of force exactly like I had before, which wasn't easy with me being stuck on my back.

The orb left my hand heading for the ceiling. It hit a shimmering barrier and bounced back only to bounce off another barrier. It began bouncing faster and faster along a shimmering tube that was about as long as my arm.

Micheal saw what was happening and started throwing spells and potions at it. Blood Wing cast her own spells blocking all of his attacks. While that was going on the orb was going faster and faster, until it was virtually invisible.

Blood Wing pointed  the thing at Micheal and the tube opened up. The orb shot towards the creep hitting him in the chest, sending him flying through the air, smashing through the door and hitting the stone wall of the regular hallway.

I couldn't see much from my position, but I heard a door open and footsteps coming towards us. Lady Plague came into view. She looked at Micheal who was groaning on the ground, Blood Wing who looked a little battered and was sweating hard, and then at me.

“You had best have a very good explanation for fighting during class time,” she said.

___

Doom Valley Prep School will be updated every Monday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned will be updated every Sunday night.

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