I have to do something...
Cyril shook his head and walked towards the professor, leaving confused Myra alone.
"Professor Rendel, may I have permission to leave? I have urgent matters to attend to."
"Of course! If anyone asks, feel free to tell them I let you go!" the professor replied with his booming voice, leading most other students to stare in shock and envy.
Cyril nodded without any surprise, already used to the lax nature of the professor's treatment of him. Without looking back, he walked out of the training hall.
Lead the way.
"Certainly." Rhamn appeared in front of him, and together they went to find the silly snake.
Myra observed his departure with a confused look on her face. Then, as if coming alive, she hastily approached the professor as well.
"I want to go too!"
Rendel smiled widely, waving his hand in dismissal. "Sure, sure! You can do whatever you want! Just show me a good duel next time! Haha!"
"Thank you." Myra nodded and quickly went after Cyril. A particularly nasty feeling of not wanting to be left out urged her feet to hurry.
The other students silently observed this blatant display of favoritism. And finally, one brave soul cautiously approached as well.
"Excuse me, I have something urgent, can-"
"In your dreams!" the professor immediately interrupted with a yell, stunning the student.
"Since you have the energy to ask for foolish things like that, then you clearly have the energy for extra intensive training! Go! Now!"
All color drained from the student's face as a few of his mean friends chuckled at his troubles.
"What did you expect..." Rose muttered from her hidden corner in the distance. She quickly decided against attempting the same.
...
Cyril broke into a run, following after Rhamn. They passed the luxurious corridors, ignoring whoever was in the way.
They changed directions multiple times, making almost random turns sometimes. Atheris was trying to reach their position, however, her path was extremely chaotic.
The reason became clear almost instantly: visions constantly flashed in Cyril's mind. He saw fearful students running away and angry staff members trying to catch the source of his sight.
Some students even became vigilantes, joining the hunt. He saw flashes of light, whips made of fire, water, and air solidifying before him, and countless other spells.
But, on account of the fact that he kept seeing these visions, Atheris was able to dodge each and every one.
"Impressive..." he involuntarily muttered as he ran.
"What's wrong, Cyril?!" a voice called out, quickly catching up to him. Myra ran at his side, her body surrounded by faint winds.
"Atheris is making trouble."
Hearing his words, Myra's face gradually lost its tension, replaced by a certain playful expression. She slowed down her pace to a more casual one, simply observing with interest.
"..."
Her curious eyes gave him a certain perplexed feeling. He almost wished to tell her to go back but prevented himself.
So what? Let her watch.
"In the auditorium to your right!" Rhamn suddenly exclaimed at this moment.
Cyril barged inside the door she was showing, Myra following after.
Inside could only be described as chaos. The whiteboard lay on the floor, tables and chairs were toppled over, and most of the students, their professor mixed among them, were gathered in a single corner curiously observing the 'battle' happening at the center.
A blue snake with particularly fierce eyes was dodging left and right, evading every single spell thrown by the people around her. It seems like she was enjoying herself.
Staff members and some enthusiastic students tried their best to catch the slippery snake yet failed every time. It was like the snake had eyes on the back of her head.
Moreover, their actions would often only obstruct each other instead, and the snake seemed to take part in that, dodging in such a way that the spells would fly past her and hit the others. It made her pursuers only more hesitant in casting any spells.
He briefly observed their faces, finding some of them familiar.
This is class II...
Regina, a scarf covering her face, dashed around with a dagger in her hands. Her face held a mixture of quiet shame and frustration as she failed to reach the snake every time.
Bonzo, a student with a bird's nest for hair, cast a spell with a maniacal face. Suddenly in the place Atheris dodged, a cloud of green smoke erupted.
"Take my poison!"
However, his frenzied face was quickly replaced by befuddlement when the snake completely ignored the cloud, dodged out, and opened her mouth at him, showing her fangs. Suddenly she breathed a cloud of green smoke at him, similar to the spell just now.
Before he could figure out what was happening, Bonzo inhaled some of it and dropped to the ground, unable to move anything but his eyes, which turned incredibly unwilling.
A staff member cast another net made of light, trying to use this opportunity. But the snake, as if expecting that, jumped away, slithering through the legs of the other staff member, trying to circle her.
Just as the people's eyes were becoming desperate, a change finally happened.
Atheris's eyes suddenly lost all their fierceness as she lunged in a particular direction, right into the arms of Cyril, who just entered the room. She made a cute face and quickly coiled herself around him, not noticing or pretending not to notice his frowning face.
Everyone else immediately froze, staring fixedly at Cyril.
"..."
Bonzo's eyes turned even more unwilling for some reason as he gazed at the snake around Cyril's body. Regina sheathed the cold weapon she brought to lessons as her face quickly turned calm, hiding her emotions.
The two staff members stared at him as if at the enemy of the people, their eyes filled with frustration. If gazes could kill, Cyril would be at least beaten very badly.
As Cyril focused on them, he noticed a few peculiar details. Both of them shared the same wound on their faces in the form of two distinct holes as if punctured by a certain someone's fangs.
And there were scratch marks on both of them, as if swiped at with a claw.
"Hahaha! Look at them!" Rhamn laughed with glee, pointing at the bite marks and claw marks on their faces.
"A newly born Atheris was easily able to make fools of them! What morons! Hahaha!"
Stop it.
Wait... claw marks?
The moment he thought about it, from the shadow nearby rolled out a white cat with a guilty expression. He quickly pawed at the snake coiled around Cyril, as if he were a righteous guardsman reporting a caught thief to his captain.
Before Cyril had the time to bask in his cuteness, the staff member in front made another step forward, pointing at him.
"Young man! Come with me to the office!" He looked brimming with anger. It felt like as long as Cyril showed any signs of non-compliance, he would take action immediately.
Cyril silently nodded and picked up the tiger by the scruff of his neck.
Seeing him not resisting, the two staff members took a single breath to calm down, but it didn't seem to help much.
Under the eyes of the curious students in the corner, Cyril followed after the two staff members, taking away the two mischievous magic creatures.
Mixed among the students was Edmund, who openly snickered at the sight of his friend being taken away.
Cyril had a calm face as he followed the other, though internally, he was taking a long, heavy sigh of exhaustion.
This is what happens when you don't educate them.
"I thought this was funny."
Don't encourage this behavior...