21. To New School IX

With the party of four, Mattheia, followed by Kashia, Dia and Sherkhan, was walking through a narrow corridor, leading further into the maze created by school officials for the purpose of testing the new students.

As per what they agreed, those with the highest magical sense were up front in order to look for any potential traps that could be waiting for them.

Mattheia was able to pick up magical traces being left by someone using magic, while Kashia could sense living beings that have magical energy. Among the two, the angel girl had much better feel of magic circulation, but unusual interference in this specific spot was basically rendering her useless for long-term picking of signals, therefore the main task ended up being with Kabanos, who - though not as sensible towards living creatures, could easily trace magic trails.

"Everyone, stop!" mixed blood lad signaled other three, and crouched by one of the walls on the side of the corridor "This spot here, I'm sure someone was using magic in this part of the passage. Not sure what exactly though."

"What's the plan then?" Sherkhan, who was not really a specialist when it comes to magic, asked his friend.

"We either try to figure out what kind of spell it was, and then I can dispell it, or we can go with usage of a barrier, though latter can be a problem if it is a spell that triggers upon activation of a barrier."

"What about activating a barrier with a stronger layer on the side and just breaking thorugh?" Dia suggested "We should be safe that way."

Mattheia was scratching his head, while trying to focus to not let the magical interference break his magical sense.

"We could, but this magical interference is worrying me. It can affect the strength of our barrier. Moreover, it won't defend us fully against physical damage that will surely accompany any attack spell activation. I say, we vote."

Following a short discussion and addressing concerns anyone could have, they all agreed to use brute force in order to break through as they managed to reach halfway through the route - having checked whatever he could up to the point his magical sense could reach, Mattheia told others how many potential obstructions there are in front of them, and given the distance, they bet on barrier.

"Remember, we activate multi-layered barrier" Kabanos started instructing others "Kashia creates the base layer, I'll put the middle layer and top one will be up to Dia." he looked at dragon-kin girl "I know you can make a strong one, but in case anything breaks, you can use partial transformation to minimize physical impact."

Draekia nodded, and said:

"I'll do my best, but I'd rather not rely on my transformation too much. If I miscalculate, I can create more harm than actually help you guys out."

"In case of anything, I can shield you guys" Sher informed, while hitting his chestplate with a punch "It may look light, but it's quite sturdy."

"I'd rather have the barrier shielding us all than to rely on some backup plans" Kashia pointed out "So let us focus on getting through as fast as possible, and keep the barrier up all the time."

They squeezed close enough to each other to create as dense barrier as they could, and be able to run after each other without issues.

In such setup, all four of them started running through spots where there were traces of magic.

First spot did not cause anything to happen - nothing immediately noticeable at least. The second and the third triggered elemental magics that eavily affected the barrier, destroying the outer layer.

"I cannot put it back up!" Dia immediately told others "My body energy circuits are hurting when I try!"

"Just drop it and focus on running!" Mattheia shouted back, and - at the same time - another trap activated, resulting in corridor starting to fall apart.

As the elements of walls and ceiling were falling, they kept pushing forward, but several meters before reaching the exit, a loud, cracking sound echoed, and they could see large portion of ceiling detaching, ready to fall in front of them.

Seeing that, Draekia called to others:

"Grit your teeth everyone!"

Once she did, the girl followed with some words in a language unknown to others. In split second, other three could see shining scales and leather wing that spread above them, before being launched up in the air and landing on the grass just outside the corridor.

One look back and the could notice the path got completely blocked.

"We should've looked for some safer path" Gerhan was the first one to pull himself together, and currently stood at the top of a huge boulder that rolled out from within the passage "All I can see are plants everywhere, and something that looks like a ladder to climb the encompassing wall."

"Anything dangerous around?" Kabanos, who was still sitting on the ground, asked him "We could use a moment to rest, if possible."

"I see nothing worrying, for now at least" Sherkhan told others "Where is Dia though?"

Mattheia and Kashia started looking around.

"I cannot see her, but will try to sense" angel girl said, and closed her eyes to focus better "I can feel energy over there" she pointed towards a huge tree a dozen or so meters away "Please, don't go and look there, give her a moment" she added quickly, but other two already took several steps towards the tree.

"No, don't look!" Dia, who was hanging from the tree upside down, did not finish her transformation and her breasts fully exposed, while the rest was fortunately hidden by the leaves "Be decent, okay!?" she threw some fruits at them to make the turn away "So embarrassing..."

She joined others moments later, her cheeks visibly having a shade of red.

"You two, forget what you saw, got it?" Draekia scolded the two boys first thing after joining the group "No matter where you are, men are all the same" she was obviously fuming.

Apologies from Mattheia and Sherkhan made her calm down a bit, but she was still giving an aura which suggested it was better to watch out for what they say for a longer while.

"So what's about this area?" she changed the topic in a matter of seconds "From the tree, I saw this section is quite big, but there didn't seem to be anything dangerous."

"Yes, that's exactly what we were discussing before we started looking for you" Kashia replied to her "Though, it's suspicious that nothing happened so far."

"Should we get a moment of rest here then?" Dia suggested "Personally, I could use a moment of rest. I used so much energy today that I couldn't properly swap my form before, and that resulted in this unsightly..." her cheeks got red yet again once she mentioned the situation.

Ultimately, others agreed to have a moment of rest, but decided to select a more suitable spot where they could set their defenses better - the area had a circular center, but four, rectangular sections were located on each side of the circle. Based on their current location, the group went through eastern section and chose north-eastern corner as a spot to stay at for the meantime.

The girls got the chance to rest first, though Mattheia, Kashia and Sherkhan agreed together to let Dia be free from any additional duties for now, therefore it was only between those three to take turns being on the lookout.

The place was surely unusual compared to other sections they went through until now with all the greenery, pretty plants and this warm atmosphere it was giving. However, as Mattheia and Sherkhan were standing guard, they suddenly heard the girls screaming so they rushed back just to see another awkward situation.

The two girls were hanging in the air, caught by some kind of huge cripper plant, its vines wrapping our the girls' bodies. This whole situation could be considered something naughty, given the way these were wrapping around parts of their bodies, and how the clothes were getting damaged, if it was not for the fact there was a number of thorns hurting them.

"It's no time to lose, we need to free them!" Kabanos was the first to get his act together "You take Dia's side and I will focus on Kashia!"

They started cutting the vines with their swords, but the longer they were doing that, vines seemed to be multiplying even more.

"Stop, you are worsening the situation" Mattheia heard Ardbolg's voice in his head "Look closely, each vine splits in two with each cut. We need to find a different method."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, maybe some magic? Still, first stop cutting these, because we are making things worse."

"Sher, stop, we are just making these grow more!"

Exactly as he said, there were more vines and these were getting thicker in front of their eyes. If that was not enough, it seemed as if the vines were aiming to enter the girls bodies.

"What do we do?" Sher was close to panicking in front of the enemy his sword had no proper effect on "Should we notify the teachers?"

"We'll have to if we don't find the way" Kabanos replied "However, we should try with magic."

He tried with fire, but instead of being burnt, the plant seemed to be growing even more. Then, he went with ice magic and vines started retracting.

"Look at the ones that split, they are breaking!" Ardbolgs voice echoed in Mattheia's head again "Maybe, if we cut and then use the ice magic..."

Kabanos did not need any further instructions. He told Gerhan what to do, and both started making progress in cutting the vines, ultimately freeing the two girls.

Once they did, both Kashia and Dia sat on the ground, shaking from cold - it was not only because of the magic Mattheia just used, both girls' clothing was severely damaged, exposing lots of skin.

"You guys don't dare ogling us!" Draekia warned Kabanos and Gerhan "Anyone has a piece of clothing they are not using?"

Boys gave her couple of accessories, which she put all in one place.

"Not much, but I'll figure something out."

She started using the same unknown language as before, and - moments after - both her and Kashia's clothing were fixed now.

"That's surely a handy skill" others commented.

Dia smiled slightly and shook her head.

"Sadly, it's not as nice as you think" she started explaining "I require materials, pretty much as if I was sewing the clothes with a needle. It is a part of my transformation ability, but in order to move between forms I need enough material. Losing scales in dragon form means I need to give away parts of the external layer of clothing. That's why I usually carry additional material. The problem is, I used all the spare resources, so I won't be able to fix anymore."

After being ambushed by the vile plant, they set some additional safeties around the spot they were using for rest, making the subsequent time spent in this place much calmer for everyone.

Still, as they already spent quite some time on this trial so far, there was no point in taking too long time on a break, therefore about one thirty or fourty minutes later, everyone was back on feet and planning the further way forward.

The calm feeling of nature around made them a bit careless, and almost forced the group to call the teachers and not finish the trial. Since it was something no one among the four students wanted, everyone readied their weapons and were walking carefully towards the place were previously noticed ladder was located.

Nothing was happening for most of the way towards their destination - until they reached the middle of area, where the biggest tree in the area was located.