Siren's Academy of Wind Part 3

"Oliver," I heard a soft and somewhat familiar voice as I struggled to make out what was going on.

"Though for the time being you may forget us, we will always be in your hearts, and we will always be there for you," I heard another low but soothing voice.

I tried looking around, but all I could see was a white blurry space all around me as well as some silhouettes. Who are these people? I tried calling out but I had no voice, I tried reaching out but I had no arms, is this a dream? Or is this a memory?

"We will come back for you Oliver, we promise," they both said as they slowly started to fade away. Why does this always happen, why can't they just stay.

"PLEASE STAY," I yelled as I quickly woke up from what was a dream, "Why does this always happen?" I whispered to myself as I rub my eyes. I noticed after re-orienting myself I noticed I was covered in a blanket while still sitting at the table where Venus was teaching me about translation. The fire on the candle was dim creating big shadows all around the room. I quickly looked around to find Venus and noticed that she was sleeping on the floor with her feathers wrapped around her to keep her warmth.

"Thank you Venus," I say as I let out a warm smile, I slowly and quietly get off my chair and go to pick her up and put her to bed. As I went to pick her up I tried figuring out how I was supposed to pick her up, as her wings were covering almost her entire body. I knew I had to find a way to pick her up as I looked at the discomfort on her face.

I figured out a way to pick her up and not disturb her, she was extremely light and ironically felt like I was just lifting a feather. I slowly placed her on the bed and was glad to see her looking a lot more comfortable.

Though Venus is weird, she has been such an incredible help to me, she has helped me out a lot and I am grateful for her presence. I look at her face as it is lit up by the sapphire blue moon. The more I stared at her face the more she reminded me of Sophia, I cupped my hand around her cheek feeling her silk like hair and her soft skin and again said thank you. She let out a small but genuine smile as I let go of her face.

I quietly walked out the room and closed the door behind me. I wanted to use this chance to explore the campus alone while everyone was sleeping. I walked out of the dormitory and walked towards the entrance to the academy's campus. The dormitory and the campus are around 5 minutes apart from each other and the pathway leading between them was lit up by some type of magical floating lanterns, each places exactly a couple meters from each other. I couldn't help but approach one of them and put my hand under it trying to figure out how it was floating, I noticed a small green run below the lantern, which was most likely giving it its floating property.

On my way to the campus I saw the silhouette of what seemed to be a guard walking around the campus. Out of curiosity I quietly followed behind him to see where he was going.

We got to the back of the building and I noticed the guard walking into the forest. I followed him behind him trying to be as quiet as possible, the forest was full of Avery trees, they were tall trees with an almost space grey bark and light green leaves. The trees were illuminated by the immense amount of moonlight shining upon them.

As I tried to keep my eyes on the guard I noticed I was losing him and I tried speeding up, suddenly I reached an opening in the forest and the guard was gone. I looked around and saw a narrow path to my left with a sign saying "ROMLEYOM," I tried to remember my lesson with Venus but I could only remember the first three letters of the translation. All I could make out was "DUN", but filled with curiosity I walked down the narrow path finding a trapdoor at the end of it.

I looked around to make sure no one was around and opened the trapdoor. It was a small wooden trapdoor made from Avery wood, I struggled to fit in (of course), so I wiggled myself in. Because I was wiggling I suddenly dropped missing the ladder, landing at the bottom creating a crater. The guards alarmed by the loud crash ran towards my direction. I heard them yelling in Harpanian as I heard the shuffling of their panic.

"WHAT WAS THAT," one guard yelled in panic.

"I'll go check it out, stay here and guard the door."

"Oh shit," I said as I scratched my head, disoriented by the fall.

The guard approached me and stood a couple metres in front of me as he stared at me in extreme suspicion. He put his shield in front of him and his spear above his shield and surrounded his blue wings around his body.

"WASAFT AFNEY EOO," he yelled, getting ready to attack me.

"Eermmmmm, O aff rol, waoof," I say the first thing that comes to my mind as I panic after realising what I just said.

"AHHHHHHH," the guard yelled as he charged at me, I could see he was incredibly confused and straining almost like he was holding in a laugh.

"Ugh great," I say with annoyance and I nonchalantly punch the guard into the wall as he faints in the crater he created.

What is this place? I looked around it. It almost looked like the sewers you would see on Earth, it smelled like iron and rust and the hallway I was in was narrow and very dirty. It was lighten up by dim candles and I followed the candles until I found another guard looking around in panic while attempting to guard to what seemed like a large iron door.

As he didn't see me I wanted to test something. If I remember correctly whenever I use mana punch it imbues my arm with magic and when I make contact with something that magic is what does most of the damage and my fist making contact is just to get the magic on my target. So what if I try holding something while imbuing magic on it.

I went back and took a piece of the wall that was broken off when I punched the guard into the wall, I went back to where the guard was stationed and behind the wall I tried my experiment.

[Mana Punch, 50 mana]

The sky blue magic surrounded my hand as well as surrounding the piece of concrete in my hand, but when the concrete was fully surrounded in the magic I noticed it got significantly heavier. I walked out where the guard could see me.

"YO, WASSUP," I yelled purposely trying to grab his attention.

""W-WASAFT A-AFNEY E-EOO," he said as he closed his eyes and slowly approached me.

"Bro, if you are this scared why did you sign up for this job," I tried holding in my laughter as he still tried to approach me. He then opened his eyes and looked at me with confusion, could he not understand what I was saying? I spoke in Harpanian before cause I panicked, but maybe these guards don't speak Humanian.

"Umm, Saftss Tsos!" I yelled as I threw the piece of concrete imbued with the magic. He clumsily dropped his weapon and went to catch it. Right when he caught the piece of concrete he was sent flying back and crashed into the wall behind him passing out, he hung in place due to the deep crater he created.

I stare at him in shock and excitement, "YES IT WORKED, HAHAH." After I flail my arms around in excitement I approach the iron door he was guarding.

[Mana Punch, 50 mana]

*Thunk* "OWWWWWWW," I pull my fist off the door and shake my arm trying to get rid of the pain. The door didn't break, in fact there wasn't even a dent. Though the door looked like iron it definitely wasn't iron.

[Mana Punch, 300 mana]

*THUNK* "MOTHER FUC- OWWW," I fell back breaking 2 of my fingers, the metallic noise I made when I hit the door echoed and bounced around the room. What the fuck was this door, a 300 mana punch only dented it, but broke 2 of my fingers. As I contemplated how strong the door was, I also started to realize something. How does the recoil of mana punch work? Mana punch seems to imbue some type of magic depending on how much mana is used, when I imbued the concrete with the magic it got significantly heavier, is that why it hurts my hand or get damaged more when I use more mana with a punch.

300 mana punches usually don't hurt me at all, but I am guessing because the door is absorbing the impact. It is just like if I punched an iron wall with all my strength. I had a lot of questions, but I was still determined on breaking this door open.

Seeing as how 300 mana was enough to dent the door, I decided to just use an abundance of mana to be safe and break the door.

[Mana Punch, 2000 mana]

The dark purple mana surrounded my left fist. I approached the door, this time I wanted to see what happens if I just touch the door. The magic should still affect the door but reduce the recoil on my arm immensely. I very softly touched the door, the metal door instantly shattered creating a giant gust of wind blowing me off my feet.

"AHHHHHHHH," I yell as I look at my completely disfigured and broken left arm.

"Yep, that didn't work," I strained and struggled to get up as I whispered to myself. As I slowly walked through the hole where the metal door used to be I felt immense pain and disappointment, there was no way to cheat my way out of avoiding recoil.

"WHOS THERE," I heard a familiar voice as I coughed and struggled to see through the dust.

"OLIVER!?, IS THAT YOU?"

As the smoke cleared I was dumbfounded, I saw a harpy battered and beaten and their feathers lay on the floor of what seemed to be a prison.

"AVEM?!"