To Villin it wasn’t that hard to find where he was on the mental map, he recalled the steps he took and could get a pretty accurate feel of it.

As far as he knew a part of the hallways had been transfigurated in one way or another. This meant that as it was the map he had seen when preparing for the attack was mostly useless. That being said, there was still something Villin could do.

“Marvin, hold back any attackers, I’ll focus on getting us out of here!” Villin said to the boy that had come with him.

The boy called Marvin nodded. The thin hallway made it easy to defend, he didn’t even have to show his face to attack most of the time. The only problem he would face is that his magic power would continue to be used up, at that point he would generally have to force a push, once he got out he would then be attacked from all sides, easily getting killed.

Obviously, Villin wouldn’t be doing this though. He instead counted his steps until he stood at a specific spot. He looked at the wall in front of him a few meters to the left, from this distance if he would attack it he wouldn’t get harmed himself.

Even though the hallways on the map became useless, it didn’t mean the classrooms did too.

With the hallways transfigurating the vast majority of the enchantments protecting them were destroyed, all that was left was the sturdiness of the material itself. 

The closest classroom was two meters away from the mini-maze they were trapped in, Villin was confident he would be able to get through this if he was given some time.

Yet when he pointed his wand at the wall, ready to cast ‘Bombardo’, he hesitated.

To get through the wall he would probably need around twenty minutes. At this point, Marvin would probably have no magic power left and most of his team would already be killed or captured.

Villin had no plan to save his team at this point in time, he had no ability to do so. That being said, they could still keep some of the enemies busy while he tried to escape, if he made his way through the normal way, they would already be mostly dead and nearly all of the enemies would be focused on himself. 

Furthermore, there was no way to do this silently. Villin and Marvin didn’t have any of the spells used to disrupt sound, this meant that the sound of the explosions would most certainly reach their opponents, after a few minutes they would probably realize what was going on.

With this in mind, Villin lowered his wand and reached into his backpack taking out the disk he had gotten a while ago.

He placed the disk on the ground next to the wall he wanted to break and began supplying one of the runes on the disk with magic power. 

The disk had five clearly visible runes on it. Each of them were locks stopping the power in different sections of the disk from spilling out. The one he supplied was the one used for offense. When the magic power properly reached it, the rune faded away, a few moments after this happened a deafening explosion sounded out.

Villin, who was standing thirty meters away from the disk was still thrown back onto the floor and his ears were bleeding, a loud beeping noise overtaking his senses.

A crater had appeared at the place the disk was set and the walls around it were entirely broken, up to fifteen meters away from the center of the impact, no walls were left standing.

Once Villin managed to clear his mind he walked through the dust to the center of the small crater, he had to use ‘Vococito’ a few times to get rid of some rocks burying the disk before he could retrieve the item. Even after that explosion and the rocks falling atop of it, it was entirely unharmed.

By the time he retrieved the disk, Marvin had also pulled back to where he was, Villin could see Marvin’s mouth moving but he was still deaf for the time being. He simply pointed at the massive hole in the wall and both of them moved through.

Once they got through the dusty area they found themselves inside of one of the Decorus classrooms. This one had a large number of desks in it but a number of them were toppled over.

As soon as they got in Villin turned around and vines began sprouting out of th ground blocking the hole they had come through.

Villin and Marvin quickly left the room, through the main door that got blasted through using a ‘Bombardo’. With the door open they quickly ran through and found themselves in a somewhat familiar corridor. The ceiling was five meters high and the passage was wide as well, the shine of enchantments were clear to see as well. It seemed the transfiguration that trapped them earlier only affected a small area of the school. It probably consumed a massive amount of resources as well.

Villin didn’t hesitate and immediately turned to the right. At this point, professor Crumb should’ve already reached what was now a dead-end, once he got there Villin had no idea what he would do.

Because of this Villin opted to head towards the entrance they came through as soon as possible. It was where he might be able to meet up with other survivors and probably also one of the places the professor would look for them at.

Yet, when they were in the middle of running through one of the wide corridors, Marvin suddenly stopped moving, turned around, and pointed his wand to the area they had just come from.

Knowing that this probably meant the boy heard people chasing after them, Villin didn’t hesitate to take out the disk once more. This time his magic power eroded the rune that locked the invisibility effect of the disk.

He pushed Marvin to the very side of the corridor and put the disk on the floor, only putting a small amount of magic power into it, making it so that an invisible dome of only two meters wide appeared.

Only three seconds passed before the people pursuing them appeared. First came half a dozen hounds that ran through the corridor looking for them. Even though they lost the smell halfway through they continued to run since there was no other place their targets could’ve gone.

Half a minute after the hounds passed two people appeared. At the end of the hallway, leisurely following the hounds at their own tempo. The ringing in Villin’s ears began to decrease just in time to be able to understand their conversation.

“That hole was caused by powerful magic. This is no work of a student, it seems that one of their teachers must’ve been in disguise.” the speaker was an old woman in a green robe, she seemed slightly upset.

“No, it was caused by a student and I believe I know which one. The explosion was caused by an artifact, a new invention of the white tower. There are two students holding the artifact, both of which study in The Academy. I believe we have the honor to be chasing one of the two youngest runemasters to ever exist. Either Villin Grey or Ruby Von Hauser.” Villin immediately recognized the second figure. The man had no hair but a curly mustache and a long white beard that reached the ground, he was Granolf Mafoli.

“Ah Villin Grey, is that the boy that spied on you? Oh my, that boy truly is lacking manners now isn’t he!” the woman replied as she passed the hiding spot of Villin and Marvin.

Granolf laughed coldly pausing in his steps after passing by the area the duo was hiding.

“We should keep moving professor Mafoli, otherwise they might just get away.” the old woman said casually.

Granolf snorted as he scanned the walls around him “You know I have a peculiar bloodline miss Cassio. Among other things I am able to easily feel a person’s emotions.”

The woman looked confused as she looked as the bearded man next to her “Yes, I realize, why is that of importance?”

The man smiled brightly as he turned, looking straight at Villin and Marvin’s hiding place. The artifact I mentioned. It is capable of making one invisible, even hiding one’s smell and magic power. But emotions, those can never be hidden, especially fear. An emotion so powerful, it is impossible I’d ever miss it.

At this point, the woman caught on to what was happening, and so she pointed her wand at the location Granolf was looking at. 

Knowing they had been found out, a red streak came out of Marvin’s wand aimed at the old lady. As soon as the spell went through the dome protecting them, the invisibility ward wore off and the duo was revealed.

The old lady simply pointed at the red streak and it disappeared turning into nothing.

Seeing Villin, Granolf let out a wicked smile “My, my, it truly is my lucky day. If it isn’t Villin my dearest boy. How I have looked forward to properly meeting you.”