The moment the students all found themselves able to move their bodies again they immediately rushed towards the exit where the door once was. Screams and yelling erupted from the class as the smoky-headed man recovered.

"That was impressive." He said with a laboured laugh, "I should remember not to play with my food."

"You come to my class and endanger my students? You made some poor choices today." Orchid said as the room began to shake and the air around her crackled in violet lightning. All of the students had now managed to escape the classroom.

"Please, you really want to risk damaging this school? Think of the students in the other classrooms." The smoky-headed man taunted as more lightning was shot up at him. Bringing his hands up, parts of his smoky face separated from his head and made a barrier that absorbed the shocks.

"I don't need to go all out on trash like you." Orchid said as the light in the room cracked and shot out more electricity that struck the smoky-headed man over the head.

Dropping to one knee momentarily he then rose back up with musical laughter, "Oh~! I like it when they fight back."

The smoky-headed man extended out his arms and once more Orchid felt her body begin to tense up. He followed up by shooting out more wisps of inky black smoke shot out from his head and each pooled into over a dozen different places in and around him. The black smoke became shiny and shrank, forming into long, thin obsidian needles.

As they hurtled towards her, Orchid gave an unimpressed glare as she pointed to the closest one. A purple string attached itself onto the end of it before leading on to attach to the next closet needle. It repeated this until all the needles were connected forming into a circle and spinning around her.

Then like a rotary gun the needles shot off the string and straight back towards the smoky-headed man only to disperse back into smoke before they made contact. In response he raised a hand up and sent more black smoke from his head towards Orchid looking to completely envelop her.

The desk in front of her smashed into pieces as a barrier broke it into pieces. The shadows crashed into her magic barrier like waves on a cliffside. It struck and struck trying to shatter through this barrier to no avail. At the same time something was forming in Orchid's right hand.

Right outside the classroom where the fighting was happening was the class, all running in different directions. Some tried to go get help, calling for teachers in other classes, while others were running somewhere to get out of danger, and a few were trying to corral the chaos.

One of the students stopped running. Anna Cherrywood now out of the immediate danger turned her head around to look back to where Orchid was fighting that monster. She knew that Professor Orchid had instructed the entire class to run, but that just didn't sit right with her.

There was something off with the whole situation. How in the world did something like that break into the school, and so deep without any of the security systems being alerted? None of it made sense. How did he break in? More than that, what if Orchid needed help? If that shadowy man could break in undetected, wouldn't Orchid be in trouble?

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Anna looked back, there would be the answers to her questions back there. As she took a step back towards the fighting someone else barreled past her. A blonde boy who was tall and well-built, he had the body of a warrior more than that of a mage. She recognized him, it would be surprising to hear if anyone in the class didn't. It was Reynard Alvidor.

Reynard Alvidor marched forward with a confidence that seemed foreign to her. After a moment of being in a shocked stupor, she realized that they were the only two facing the direction of the class. In fact the rest of the crowd had moved away from them.

"What are you doing?" Anna said calling out to him, it seemed like he was walking in without a plan.

"Going to help, I feel like she needs help. Isn't that what you're going to do?" Reynard said looking over to her.

"Uh yes. But I was going to be careful, were you going to just rush in?" Anna said as they both began to move towards the classroom.

"Uh… yeah. But I guess not anymore." Reynard said before he paused, "Are we forgetting something?"

"Um." Anna paused as she thought for a moment, Reynard was right. Something else was missing, it felt like she had a thought in her head but suddenly forgot about it. She looked back at where the door once was.

From the opening she could see flashes of violet and the sounds of combat. Her eyes drifted briefly over to the pile of rubble where the doors, along with broken pieces of the wall were piled up. I'm surprised the doors are intact. She thought as she looked back over to the classroom.

"We need to worry about that monster first." Anna said refocusing on the issue.

"Right." They said as they quickly hurried up and made it to the classroom opening. There they got their first full view of the battle currently occurring.

Orchid armed with a vibrant violet lightning was clashing spells with the smoky-headed man as more inky black smoke began to pool across the floor. Watching the fight, they both realized something as the chairs and desks began to corrode upon prolonged contact with the smoke.

Looking at the ground there was a light shimmer of what looked to be violet currents all across the floor. Orchid was trying to contain the damage as best she could, but that also meant that her arms were partially tied.

"What is that thing?" Reynard asked staring at it, "It's not actually human."

Anna studying the creature had to agree, this thing wasn't human, nor was it a monster in the normal sense. It seemed to be completely magic-based, as if it were a spell. Anna thought of what she knew about magic, there were spells in which you create magical constructs. But the way he was sauntering around the room earlier had too much personality behind it.

"It's some sort of puppet… the body itself is just magic being used by someone. But where did it come from?" Anna wondered.

"Can we destroy the puppet?"

"Magical body or not, it still has a physical form." Anna said as they saw Orchid's shield began to flicker slightly. Jumping into action Anna quickly began moving her hands through a series of gestures and a white ball formed between her hands with several rings spinning around it.

One by one the rings separated from the orb shot out and struck the smoky-headed man. Each impact caused the body to unnaturally ripple before reforming back to normal. The smoky-headed man calmly whipped his head around and a black mass came straight towards Anna only for another violet barrier to appear in front of her.

"Eyes on me." Orchid hissed out as she struggled to keep both barriers intact. She was struggling, this monster in front of her seemed to have no shortage of output when it came to this strange corrosive smoke. This stuff was obviously deadly to people and drained so much mana upon contact. She wondered if she was going to hold out long enough for backup.

"Oh, Orchid, don't strain yourself, you'll only get tired earlier." The smoky-headed man giggled before his laughing ceased. Staring at his outstretched arm he noticed his glove fall off. Staring at his arm he saw that the shadowy smoke from his arm looked to liquefy and drip onto the floor. He was melting. Immediately he panicked, moving backwards and the ink trying to consume them shrank back to him.

"Puppet was a good hint." Bryson said holding up a broken clock in his hands as its arms spun counter-clockwise.

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