As it Breathes

My mind, my body, my entire being feels complete. I feel a colossal power surge, my aura has quadrupled...I feel, hear, and see everything in such detail. Each of the small grains of dirt under the grass, the birds perched upon the trees on the distant mountain, the sounds of ants crawling beneath me. It's overwhelming, I have to try my hardest to focus on what's happening.

Black flame is partially covering my animal like form, though the flame isn't hot, in fact I can still feel the cold night air where the flames are.

I study myself, finding that I've got small bits of armor on me that I didn't before, and each piece of armor has small bits of flame coming off of them.

My claws are covered with metal. I look down at my paws and see that they're also covered in metal.

My joints have small bits of decorative metal around the too. My chest has two sets of bars that surround it.

I look for a mirror but can't find one, and instead look at myself through the reflection of a water fountain.

There's a metal circlet on my head, but it's different. The circlet climbs down my face and covers my nose, with flame like patterns. My ears now have cuffs on them.

My eyes however, are a deep red, which completely throws me off. It doesn't match the look at all.

*SLAM!!* *SLAM!!* *SLAM!!*

Suddenly a bunch of loud slams erupt from behind me and I fall into the fountain face first.

I raise my head above the fountain and see 3 people in fancy suits with wary looks on their faces. One of them I recognize as the school principal.

She starts to relax once she sess my face but the other two are still tense. She notices this and places her hands on their shoulders to reassure everything is fine.

She looks towards me and smiles, "You're causing quite a fuss for me you know. Once we figured out you were the stranger that came to the front gates awhile back things got hectic. You should be grateful we haven't thrown you out I suggest you stop being so...loud, okay?"

I get confused. "Loud? What do you mean by that?"

She points at me, and then waves her finger in a circle around me. "Your aura, you haven't concealed it at all. You may be strong but striking fear into others with that strength isn't gonna fly here."

I stare at her blankly, "How do you expect me to hide it when people use aura sight?"

She looks a bit surprised and then laughs to herself. "I guess you ARE attending this academy for a reason. You don't know how to conceal your aura yet huh? Let me teach you then, I can't have you going to classes and scaring your classmates can I?"

I continue to stare at her, 'She's very carefree for a principal. Kara's principal would always hound me for going near his academy, even if I was her personal knight.'

I sigh. "That would help thank you."

She walks up to me and simply places her hands on the side of my head. I sudden flush of aura flowes through me, It's very condensed and I can barely sense it but it's there, very faintly.

She removes her hands and stares at me expectantly.

'All throughout my past life I've never thought about condensing my aura to such a small flow.

I start to condense my aura and In a couple seconds my aura is almost fully hidden. I couldn't condense it enough to make it invisible because my aura is so huge at the moment.

The principal claps her hand together and smiles, "Perfect, seems we have a powerful genius in the academy! Best not cause to much of a ruckus!"

She starts to walk away but turns around for a second, "I won't question you or your power for now but I would like you to know that we're watching you closely so don't do anything stupid."

She and the other two vanish. My eyes widen, 'What kind of magic is that?'

I shake my head, 'Forget that...something feels off. Talking to these people, their actions, they don't feel...real?'

I shake my head again and laugh to myself, 'What am I thinking?'

A sudden wave of terror strikes me, I begin to shake violently and I start crying blood. I collapse to the ground and start choking on my own breath. I clutch my throat and start coughing blood violently. My blood feels cold, my vision starts to fade to black, and then...

...same as it suddenly appeared it dissapears.

I start to hyperventilate, scared and confused. My mind blanks and I fall unconscious.

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My eyes shoot open, and I immediately think about what happened to me earlier. I start to hyperventilate again but someone wraps their arms around me and hugs me, calming me down a little.

"It's okay Seiran, I'm right here." I immediately recognize the voice, "Mom..". My voice is trembling and I wrap my arms around her tightly. I start to cry uncontrollably.

Mother holds me in her arms until I finally stop crying. Mom, dad, and my brother are looking at me worriedly. I raise my arm to wave them off but I notice I'm shivering.

I look down at my lap, 'That was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced. I felt like I was in hell, what was that?'

Thinking about it again sends chills down my spine, I shake my head trying to forget about the whole thing and look up towards my family again.

'I must be in a hospital.' Mother has her hands on mine to reassure me.

A nurse walks into the room. She looks at my family then me and gives me a worried look. "So what happened to him?" Father asks eagerly.

The nurse frowns, "He suffered from some kind of mental attack. We couldn't find anyone in the area that could make such a powerfull mental attack but we're still looking for the attacker." She bows a little bit as a sorry.

I grit my teeth, "What about the principal?"

Everyone looks at me a bit surprised at what I'm suggesting. "N-no...not even the principal herself could produce such a powerfull mental attack."

Everyone including me look at her in even more surprise. 'It doesn't seem like she's lying...but...what kind of person did I manage to anger? I don't think I've met someone powerfull enough to strike that much fear into me..."

I shiver at the thought again.

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After an hour of questions about what happened and my family hugging me (mostly my mother) I was allowed to rest in my dorm.

I lay in bed, mind blank. My body feels numb and my head is throbbing.

I get up from my bedroom and look outside my dorm window. The unease in my back of my mind is growing stronger.