The first day of class was a rather boring one for Bryson. He simply sat in his seat and listened to his homeroom teacher, Orchid Falls, go over the course outline and the key basic things that all the students at The Academy need to take away. Bryson glanced through the rubric, periodically looking up at the clock above the doorframe. Most of his classes at least for the first few weeks will be focusing on review.

At least I should have it easy for the first month or so. Bryson mused as he glanced around at his classmates. This class was large, numbering in the hundreds of students that were a real hodgepodge of different students. There were the classic nobles, Bryson could vaguely recognize a few faces, but it was the posture that they had. Tall, proper, dignified, and following the teachings of etiquette.

There were others who definitely fit the cliché of U class. Covered in expensive jewelry trying to make themselves stand out, not paying much attention to what Orchid was saying. Even more so than Bryson that is. Then there were the others standing attentively in the class, jotting down every single word that she was saying, even if it was already on the handout they were given.

Bryson getting a bit bored raised a hand up as there was a brief pause between Orchid's lecturing. Orchid looking over to Bryson gave him a sweet smile.

"Yes Mister Coldwater?"

"Can I use the bathroom?" Bryson said.

"Go ahead." She replied with a smile and Bryson slinked his way out of the large double doors.

As Orchid refocused her lecture she was only able to get through her first point on the nuance of magic before she felt something was wrong. Taking pause she quickly scanned the room looking for something. The students themselves began noticing Orchid's concern and a few began to turn their heads around.

Orchid went to open her mouth to speak, only to find that she could no longer move it, nor the rest of her body. Only her eyes seemed to still have movement and she began to look around the room more frantically. There she found that she wasn't the only one stuck in place.

The students of the class were experiencing the exact same phenomenon. Students all found themselves stuck in place, hands halfway through scratching themselves, others stuck mid-writing. Some unfortunate ones were stuck in place while blinking, or their bodies were arched at an angle from the middle of stretching.

Orchid recognized what was going on, she understood the magic. The spell being cast was a massive paralysis spell that held everyone in the room in place. The only question now was who cast it and where.

But before she could answer the question she needed to take care of the issue at hand. Almost immediately once she realized a spell was cast on her and the class she began to formulate a dispelling magic. Formulations and sequences whizzed through her head as the spell began to dissipate.

However a second later she had to change her formula. Phasing through a bookshelf came a man in a grey suit. Even through the suit, his bulky muscular frame could be seen. He wore large brown gardening gloves but the most striking aspect of this newcomer's appearance was that his head was covered in black smoke.

Orchid had no idea who this intruder was, only that they were the cause of this paralysis spell and that she needed to free herself. Originally the dispel was focused on the entire class, but now she knew she needed to focus it on herself to stop this thing. But she was scared that she couldn't, this thing was oozing magical power.

The shadow-headed man began to sing, his voice was deep and that of the pitch of an opera singer. He sauntered around the classroom looking, or at least it looked like he was. It was hard to tell with no actual visual cues for where the head was, no eyes to follow which made reading it hard. But the way he leered over students and changed his tune as he sang indicated amusement.

As Orchid began to get some feeling into the tips of her fingers again the shadow man turned his attention towards Orchid. The man in the suit began to sing even louder, full opera singing as he practically pranced his way over to her. Orchid was nearly finished the dispel, but she feared that it wasn't going to be fast enough.

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"Ah, Orchid beautiful as ever." The man teased, voice full of mockery and still having an opera-like melody behind it, "It is so nice to see you teaching the young ones."

Orchid could give no response except glare as she tried to hide the movement in her hand, she could feel that she had full control over her hand now, still it wouldn't be enough.

The shadow man now stood in front of her with only a desk in between the two. Orchid could sense the abomination in front of her smile, "So pretty, I just want to pluck you out of existence." He spat out as he reached out with a gloved hand towards her.

***

Bryson Coldwater stared at the washroom mirror as he washed his face with water from the faucet. Well I am now supposed to be self-reliant now. Bryson thought to himself as he turned off the tap and snapped his fingers drying his face instantly.

Right, I'm supposed to be a villain or something. At school though? What am I supposed to do? Steal lunch money or something? Break curfew? Bryson wondered as he walked out of the bathroom. Who even are these heroes anyways? I haven't met anyone overly righteous. Bryson thought as he traversed the vast halls of the school.

The place was large, the halls were huge with their massive archways and intricately marbled pillars and architecture. There were several paintings alongside the walls, some to show off affluence, others to show the pride of the school.

Bryson perused around as he finally made it back to his classroom, noting the designs of the place. The class itself was basically the only room available in this entire hallway, the next class over took a few minutes to get to. Over the top to say the least, but definitely impressive was Bryson's conclusion as his hand wrapped around the door handle of one of the doors to push it open.

As the door barely began to move Bryson suddenly froze on the spot. A chill ran down his spine as he suddenly sensed it. Mana, enough of it that it felt like a tidal wave had washed over him. So much mana that it confused him why he was only feeling this now. Something was very wrong.

Cracking open the door ever so slightly Bryson peeked in and there he saw him. A strange man with gardening gloves and a tailored suit whose head was completely engulfed with black charcoal smoke looming over his homeroom teacher Orchid Falls.

Bryson immediately came up with a few conclusions. First was that this smoke man did something to freeze everyone in place. He didn't need his magical eyes to figure that one out, he could clearly see without them.

Second was that this intruder did something to mask his presence so that his mana output could only be felt in this one room. Which meant that there was more than one spell currently active. In fact the black smoke seemed to indicate that this wasn't even his real body. That also meant that this invasion was meant to be secretive and focused on Class U, Bryson's class.

Was this thing here because of him? Because the third thing Bryson knew about this thing was that it was planning on killing everyone inside. Bryson gritted his teeth as he tried to control his heart rate. He could slip away, get help. But that would take at least a few minutes and at least Orchid won't make it.

Taking a deep breath, Bryson gave a shake of his head as he swung the doors open. A magic circle appeared on the smoky-headed man's arm right at the elbow joint. The head area of the man tilted slightly as he looked at his arm in curiosity.

A moment later the circle glowed and the smoky-headed man's arm inverted on itself with a sickening pop like a paper bag bursting open. The elbow then rocked back and forth, and the sound of something softly crumbling to dust could be heard with every movement.

The smoky-headed man made no noise instead, he calmly turned to face Bryson and lifted his other hand up. Bryson's magic circle vanished and suddenly Bryson saw a massive mana, invisible to the naked eye but very visible to Bryson surge towards him.

This wall of force was going to break whatever gets in the way of it. Bryson wide-eyed, slammed the door closed again. With nothing but a door in the way of impending doom, Bryson currently out of sight of everyone activated his eyes, giving himself a boost of mana control as he cast the strongest reinforcement spell he had.

After completing the enchantment on the doors, they were hit by the wall of force and were broken off the hinges. They, along with Bryson, part of the wall, and the clock all went flying into the other side of the hallway turning into a pile of rubble. At least the doors didn't break apart.

The smoky-headed man gave a satisfied sniff as his arm snapped itself back into place and turned his attention back to Orchid, "Now where did we leave off?" He asked as his body was suddenly shot through with thousands of volts.

Orchid now had full control of her arm and raised it at the smoky-headed man and launched more lightning at him. The force of it lifted him into the air and slammed him into the wall at the other side of the classroom. This broke his concentration on Orchid and she in response quickly cast a dispel magic on everyone else in the class.

"Everyone run!" Orchid ordered loudly as the class now erupted with screams and confusion, "I'll take care of this." She growled out eyes turning a bright shade of purple.

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