Assassination Training

Finally, Johannes pulled back his staff and made a quick jab towards Sebastian, upon which a thin, blue beam of moderate speed was created at the tip of his staff. When it reached Sebastian, he closed his eyes for a moment as if to concentrate on something, before finally asking.

"Which course would you like to do next?"

"Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap,", the professors and researchers clapped loudly, many of them smiling.

"I think, congratulations are in order. Well done! This is a great spell. By far not perfect, but it is a great idea and is going to be is massive help in the future!", the headmistress congratulated them. "Normally, you would just be put in another course. We are running like 25 of them constantly at the same time. But now, you are going to have the privilege of choosing one for yourself, along with a few bonuses you will get later on. And for your information. Those courses are far above the recent school curriculum, as we had to step up our game. Just tell me your wishes."

After a few seconds of deep thoughts, Nadine answered first in a shy tone, "I would like to enter a course on defensive spells used to counterattack. The focus should still be on defence, though."

Headmistress Vogel nodded in thought, before looking at one of the present professors who nodded in return.

"That is a good idea, and we hadn't thought about that before. One of our professors just agreed to take over the teaching role, but as most courses still go on for a while, it would only be able to start in about ten days.", the headmistress said, and Nadine nodded content with this information.

After Theo and Sabine had both chosen a course on offensive wind magic, while throwing each other hasty looks, Johannes settled on a course about War Warding. It wasn't just offensive warding, used to protect manors, their school and even old tombs, but actual warding used in war. From what Sebastian could gleam, they weren't particularly strong, but nasty and quickly deployable if you could hold a position for a bit over three minutes.

"I'd like to join the research on molecular and atomic transfiguration, if possible.", Andreas said in a tone which let Sebastian know, that Andreas knew about a particular research group.

The headmistress's face hardened, and she said, "You should know, that this is a bit much for a new and useful spell, Andreas. I am going to offer you a deal: Participate in the course 'Basic molecular transfigurations and advanced chemical reactions'. If you can impress the professor or another professor from this particular research group with your skill, they may take you as a research discipline. But the one of the first few challenges is going to be turning vinegar to wine by yourself. Before we reopened, the charm created for this was taught to sixth year students. Now, you must do it by yourself."

"I fully believe in my capabilities and talent. While I might have a superior talent in transfiguration, I know that it isn't everything at that level and I also have a fitting zeal and I'd do a lot for this chance.", Andreas answered confidently, although he knew that to make this jump difficulty, he would need to put in night and day, maybe even call in a favour to get private training for a few days. It was going to be very hard.

"Now for you, Sebastian. Is there any course or topic you fancy.", the headmistress asked while turning to Sebastian and ignoring Andreas.

Steadying himself, Sebastian thought everything through again, but the result stayed the same. If he wanted to go out and do missions, this would be the most optimal choice as long as he wasn't in the higher echelons of power. He did not like it and it disgusted it a bit, but he stayed firm. It would also benefit him in the long run.

"I would like to participate in a full course on assassination. Not the bits we would have gotten in the normal curriculum, but the real deal.", Sebastian said, set on going through with this.

The headmistress gave him a toothy grin and replied, "I think I have just the right person for you. Although he left that milieu long behind him and only concerns himself with research, I can assure you that he still retained most of his skills. You would do well to expect hell."

-HP-

Three days later, Sebastian stood together with six more, male students, with the youngest being three years older than himself. Opposite them stood their Japanese instructor, Haruto Kageyama. In terms of spells, he was an Elite Hit Wizard, but a few old curse injuries, supposedly sustained from infiltrating into a highly secured harbour in the USA, physically restricted him, which was why he was only considered a Hit Wizard. Unluckily, he did not want to tell them what his mission was, but Sebastian already had a guess.

"Welcome.", the man grunted, clearly not happy to be here. "You see, I was just out, chilling with a few girls and our dear headmistress had to pop up and remind me of a deal we had made for allowing me to seek refuge here. I just did not expect this particular case to actually come to be. Heh."

"Well, bad for you. You certainly are up for hell. This course is going to take around three weeks, with several weeks afterwards for you to ingrain the knowledge and deepen the learned skills. I know that you already did at least one ritual to enhance your body and work out, but now you will have to show up at four o'clock and do the plan that will be shown on that board over there.", the professor said while pointing towards a blackboard in a corner of the large room, housing a lot of training equipment, a classroom, combat stages and several physical simulation houses and parts of a street with the associated houses.

"There are only going to be few purely theoretical lessons, but they are very important nonetheless.", their professor began their first lesson on 'Assassination, Infiltration, and Close-Quarter Magical Combat'.

On the first day, they mostly learned about past known assassinations. Both committed by muggles and magical people. They also learned about their consequences, how they influenced laws, groups, or the world. It was pretty interesting, but after the twentieth assassination/attempt they wanted something different, which they got.

"HOW do you think you can be tracked?", the professor suddenly asked aloud.

One of the older students raised his hand, but the professor dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "Just tell me. I don't have all day.", he said harshly.

The 7th year student, Simon, swallowed hard, and said, "Firstly, tracking wards, recording you appearance. Secondly, there are ways to record someone's magical signature, which is a bit like a fingerprint, unique. With this, they could potentially find you."

"Yeah, yeah. Basics. But that isn't really tracking, is it? But I also meant while doing the infiltration, not only afterwards. There are lots of mundane and magical ways; Sound, smell, magical disturbance through your spells, you can be seen, you can be felt, and you could be found through scrying.", the professor said, as he waved his wand, and a large diagram appeared on a board he transfigured from the ground, illustrating the various ways one could be tracked.

"Let's start with the fundamentals you would have learned in your normal classes anyway. Hiding magical disturbances is for later. - You are often tracked through charms, enchanted objects, scrying, and wards. Understanding these methods is the first step in countering them.", Professor Kageyama said wisely, while smirking like he had practiced this before.

He turned them and demonstrated the 'Homenum Revelio' spell, causing several students to glow faintly. "This reveals nearby humans. How do we counter this?"

One student raised his hand, lowering it after he realized his mistake, and said, "Finite Incantatem?"

"Correct," the professor replied. "However, timing is crucial. You must be able to sense the charm before it senses you."

He moved on to discuss the Disillusionment Charm, casting it on himself and blending into the background. "Notice the subtle shimmer?" he asked, becoming visible again. "While effective, it's not foolproof."

He then explained how to enhance their stealth. "Combine basic charms with environmental manipulation. Use fog spells to obscure vision, and camouflage transfiguration to blend into your surroundings."

For practical exercises, the students paired up in teams of two, leaving one of them with the professor. One of them cast tracking spells, while the other used stealth techniques to evade detection. All fine and easy until now.

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Please comment of errors or loopholes.

There will be chapters on Saturday/Sunday, depending on the power stones from now on.

50 = 1 Chapter on Saturday

100 = 1 Chapter on Sunday

200 = Additional bonus chapter