NOVEL NEXT Chapter XXII (22)- Blood Disposal
CHAPTER XXII (22)- Blood Disposal
Arclight reassured Kizu and Harvey that she took no requests for fights. She matched people up based on skill level, and nothing else. But still, they were both shaken when they eventually separated from the professor.
When Kizu reached his room, he immediately used his orb to look up their stats. They were surprisingly low in the combat standings. But even the lowest one was still above him by a good 100 people. However, they weren’t far off from Harvey. But Harvey hadn’t signed up to fight next week. So, he, at least, had nothing to worry about. They were safe. The fifth year probably just wanted to scare them as pay back for Harvey embarrassing his brother. Nothing more than that.
Mort must have felt his distress, because he hopped down from his little nest and onto Kizu’s shoulder. He didn’t even bite or pull Kizu’s hair. Instead, he curled up into a ball there.
They just chilled while Kizu focused on reading. Needing a distraction from the divination book, he looked flipped through his actual textbooks. Most dealt nearly exclusively in theory. Due to the low-level nature of his classes, the books didn’t depict and spell formulas. While he studied through the astronomy book, he wrote next to each constellation the name the crone had called it. He needed to get better at associating one with the other. He noticed several really idiotic and untrue shortcuts written in his brewing textbook’s margins (like- “Mash toad fingers with the wartroot at the same time with two stones instead of a mortar and pestle for more potency in the salve.” A statement so blatantly false that it actually angered him), so he figured it must be fine to write in the books.
When he turned to his textbook about elemental magic, he decided it was time to try to get ahead of the class. He looked in it, searching out any sort of offensive ability. He settled on fire. Again, this book also gave no clear instructions on how to form the spells, but applying what he learned already he thought he might be able to pull it off.
While Harvey might not need to compete next week, Kizu was not so lucky. Fire might not be exactly what he needed in a first blood match, but it still seemed like a relatively easy spell to start out with.
He focused on the air in the palm of his hand. Willing it to combust. Nothing happened.
“Mort,” he said to the monkey. “Can you help me with this spell?”
He felt his bond with the owl monkey strengthen as a response. The monkey smiled at him.
This time, when Kizu willed the fire, a ball the size of a grape appeared floating in his palm. He grinned. With progress like this, the combat test might not go as poorly as it first though.
Feeling pretty proud of himself, he continued practicing, eventually managing to finally get the fire to come to life without Mort’s direct assistance.
Exhausted from the effort. He decided to get in a quick nap before he needed to go meet with Roba for the blood disposal. He hardly felt rested when his orb woke him up, but he still rolled out of bed and started on his way.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he found a note tacked to the sack of blood vials.
Mr. Kaga,
Please dispose of these as demonstrated last week. Remove all enchanted devices and do not cast any spells while in the tunnels. You’ll find a spare key in the robes located in the same spot as last week. Please lock the door behind you. Stay on the main route.
Roba
Kizu felt a bit annoyed as he read the note a second time. What if someone else had stumbled on this sack of vials? It seemed so irresponsible to leave such easily abused materials lying around. The last thing he needed was one of Harvey’s new rivals finding something like this and setting up a tracking golem to strangle his friend in his sleep or cast a long-distance hex to boil the Tainted boy’s blood.
Behind the stairs, he changed into the robes and set his orb on top of his folded uniform. After a moment’s hesitation, he took off his iron necklace. The note said any enchanted devices, which probably included the necklace. As he dressed, he felt the key’s weight in the inside pocket of the robes.
He heaved the sack over one shoulder and picked up the lantern with the other. Then he started making his way down the tunnels. The sack wasn’t as heavy as the previous week, but that didn’t make it light either. The tunnel felt longer than before too. As if it somehow extended its length since last week. And honestly Kizu wouldn’t be surprised if it actually had too. The tunnel felt incredibly eerie and that feeling multiplied now that he walked through it alone. The offshoot paths and turns as the path winded downward definitely seemed a bit altered at the very least. But Kizu kept to the main path, just as he had the previous week.
When he finally reached the edge of the cliff, he peered over at the flowing river of liquid fire. The fire looked almost mud-like as it slowly churned below, completely unique to anything he had ever previously witnessed. And he could feel the heat of it even from his distance. It reminded him of the heat emanating from a massive bonfire. Kizu wondered what kind of magic it was and what sort of properties the liquid fire might be useful in brewing.
“Hello, little mage,” someone said behind him. Kizu whirled around to see a heavily cloaked person approaching. No part of the person’s physical body showed. Just layers and layers of wrapped cloth under the cloak.
“Hello,” Kizu said nervously. He shuffled backward, but that put him right on the cliff’s edge. The heat of the flames below scalded the back of his robes.
“Ding, dong, ding. The bells called to me. Soft but clear. And I followed them to find you here with a sack of presents. For me?”
“Nope,” Kizu said. And he promptly back kicked the sack over the edge. But as the back of his heel made contact, a dozen vials slid from the bag before the sack crashed into the fire below.
The person hissed at him, but still appeared transfixed on the few remaining vials at Kizu’s feet.
They stood as if in a standoff. Kizu wanted to snatch up the leftover vials and toss them after the sack, but he knew the moment he moved, the figure would do the same. In a slight attempt to move away from the person, he knocked a few pebbles over the edge of the cliff. He wished fervently he knew a spell to allow him to levitate. Then he remembered he had been warned not to use magic down here. He should have asked why. What would be the consequences? Would he explode or something? Throughout his childhood he had gotten so used to just blindly obeying the crone without question. He needed to learn to ask why. But he banished the thought for now.
The person flexed its heavily bandaged hands. Kizu could tell its patience was ebbing. So, he did the only thing he could think of, he kicked the vials away from himself and dived in the opposite direction.
As the thing lunged for the vials, its mouth opened wider than anything natural, its jaw unhinged. In that split second, the creature exposed jagged teeth like what belonged on a piranha’s mouth.
Kizu didn’t wait around to see what the thing did with the blood. He scrambled and booked it as fast as possible away from the monster and the cliff edge.
That didn’t stop him from hearing the monster’s noise of ecstasy alongside the tinkle of breaking glass. Kizu thought the thing might actually be eating the entire vials, glass and all.
Only after several minutes of running did he wonder how he had managed to understand the words. Was it a monster from Hon? He had never heard of something like that before.
Then, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, he touched his earring. His enchanted earring. He was so stupid. Roba had bluntly instructed him to discard all enchanted items.
When he finally reached the door, his hands fumbled for the key. He dropped it twice before he managed to get it in the keyhole and turn it. He slammed the door shut behind him and locked it.
Then he collapsed on the stone floor and humorlessly laughed in terror and relief.