Melody of Mana

The ground flowed under me at speed as I ran towards the dinner building, throwing my protections and stealth back up. If I got spotted so be it, I needed to get to where my students were, and I needed to be there now. I briefly considered teleporting, but held back for now, the mana cost on those might well be spent elsewhere.

Only instants after the flares, clearly some form of warning, had been sent up the city lit like a bulb. Something had struck the city wards hard enough for all of them to go off at once, and whatever it was would soon be to us. There shouldn't be much that should cause that sort of problem, and all of it was bad news.

As I made it to the doors there was a roaring sound, deafening, powerful. The school was outside the city proper, and not protected by the same warding structures that Atal itself had, but possessed protections of its own. Now those lit, seeming to brighten the sky as they defended against whatever was hitting us. The danger soon became apparent as a wall of water flowed up the protective bubble.

My first mentor had been a wizard specializing in the use of water, and I would be a fool if I didn't know the danger here. If nothing else there was a mountain's worth of mass bludgeoning us, trying to sweep this place away. Those outside the protections were likely dead, or soon would be, and if they failed...

The lights inside had already changed, several of the small illuminations changing to a deep red and bathing the building in the color of blood, there was even a chiming sound going off, another warning that something had gone wrong. People were rushing for the inner sections of the building, but a few were coming out.

I noted that the elven headmaster was no coward, himself leading a cadre of their teachers towards the doors, magic spinning around him as he moved. All of them seemed nervous, but it was also clear that they were all ready to face whatever was out there regardless.

“It's a tsunami,” I said, having not gotten my sound wards up quite yet. Both Indir and his staff turned in my general direction, some of the latter looking slightly alarmed.

“Our visitor's chaperone,” he hastily informed his subordinates. “How bad?”

“Quite, it struck the city too. It would be best if we got our students out of the way while it is dealt with.” I didn't want to abandon him, but with both mine and the royal children here I had other priorities. Once they were safe I could stay behind and aid where I could, but until then I wanted them, and my own, far from this disaster.

Indir turned toward one of his fellows, a lithe woman with a tightly coiled bun. “Please take the visiting students back to the portal and begin evacuating them. I hate to cut the visit short, but it appears there's been a bit of an emergency."

Internally I made a note that I owed him. The man could have been angry that I was prioritizing my students over his, but he'd understood, and quickly taken steps. Once I got back home I'd need to immediately approach my brother to get together what we could for aid, should the elves need it.

The other teacher similarly didn't miss a beat, heading back inside and quickly rounding up the human students before leading them back to the room where the gateway awaited. I held back a bit from them, eyes keen to make sure none got separated from the group as they moved.

The campus was in full emergency, few leaving any of the other buildings as the cadre of human passed, everyone knowing that they needed to seek shelter. As the youths entered the building of their destination there was a second wave, the same roaring sound accompanying it as it washed into the school wards. As I watched they began to crack ominously, the protections simply not meant for this level of abuse.

As the last of the kids disappeared inside the building I mounted the steps. This particular part of the school was a bit higher than the rest of it, situated on a small hill overlooking dorms and various classroom buildings. I gave one last turn to look back towards the city, if for nothing else than to see how it fared, I was shocked at what I saw.

Over the tops of the buildings I could see the source of the disaster. It appeared to be a fairly normal crab, save for the size, its shell a mixture of mottled red and deep blue. The monster was attempting to climb atop the city's warding shield, smacking away at the dome and trying its hardest to break it open like an egg.

Figures darted around it and spells flew out from the city's defenders, outlining the pure size. It was bigger than some buildings, a massive crustacean that looked ready to roll into Tokyo and pick a fight with everyone's favorite giant lizard. Most of the spells bouncing off of it looked like little more than angry threads.

As I watched another wave of water stuck the enormous crab, and all around it flowed out some kind of small orangish spheres, catching in the water and spreading like a wave of pollen in a high wind. Perhaps those were the nodes for the water control, or some side-effect. It was hard to tell what the specifics were from this distance.

Seeing the oncoming wave I bolted into the building. There were layers of security that had to be passed, layers of protections that I should have needed to run through. A series of quick gates bypassed most of that, the protections the elves had set up not prepped for someone who could bend space.

There was a brief moment of pride as I arrived in the departure room. Rather than putting themselves first the prince and princess had taken the last place, making sure all of their fellows escaped first. Beside them were my Rodrick and Illa, unwilling to leave their cousins until the last moment, and helping as they could. While clearly rushed, everything was running smoothly, and almost everyone was through. There were only a dozen or so left.

I nearly sighed relief, until I hears a squealing like steel being ripped, and the hissing roar reminiscent of a waterfall. There was a slight panic as the sound of water cascading towards us echoed even through the walls. The children ran, trying to reach the portal as the building shook and cracked, bits of the ceiling beginning to fall as behind me a jet of seawater slammed through the doors.