I loved it.
This was a great start to my time at Loxley Academy!
So,lo and behold, Zayn and I had remained where we were, partnered up.
His Ifrit fire wasn’t elemental in nature, it was more arcane like how a sorcerer’s power worked, mana-based. It was a kind of metaphysicalliving flame, not powered by an elemental affinity.
On my end, as a dragon, I was considered a primal species. But I also possessed dual magic affinity. My physiology and instincts were animal-origin supernatural, and I could unleash frost breath which was elemental in nature, even use a Chill Blast to put out flames, heal with Frost Flame. But I could also teleport, deliver ice blasts and streams, and a magical lightning strike that drew from arcane power—mana-based like Zayn, not from elemental-created storms.
I looked out to see Vaxan working with Christalyn.
She’d been advised to pair with a Light Fae and to have the Light Fae draw on her elemental aspect that involved impactingflora and the earth. The professor had even prepared to take a group outside around nature just beyond the classroom, while Carnis would remain here supervising and assisting hybrids in particular because hybrids not only had to worry about the arcane versus elemental thing, but also their dual makeup. It was technically twice as hard for them.
Anyway, Vaxan had insisted on working with Christalyn.
As I’d observed with him tensing when she sat down next to him, it wasn’t about him taking a shine to her or liking her company. It was something much more calculated.
It seemed he was testing her. Well, testing what his abilities and power could accomplish against Celestial might.
I jolted as a short-range shockwave erupted from him and slammed into the golden wall she was holding against him with one hand, while her other was streaming at him and pushing against his controlled citrine stream.
The shockwave was a sickly green and as it hit her wall, it began… eating it.
It was his Basilisk venom.
“Cool,” I heard her say.
He didn’t seem to like that, his eyes narrowing.Ah,he didn’t want her seeing it as a good thing, but a very real threat.
I choked as I saw his petrification ability working into their dueling streams, turning hers to chalky stone.
He couldn’t make it into actual solid stone, but the fact that he could even manage the chalk aspect was a hell of a thing with him being up against Celestial power.
Carnis strode over as Vaxan pushed harder and Christalyn grunted then spat out the nasty taste of his venom, which had obviously affected her. I thought when he’d sent out that shockwave, it had just rolled off her. I mean, the fact she was spitting it out then seeming fine meant it couldn’t significantly hurt her, but still.
She pushed more power into her stream, and it forced Vaxan’s petrification back.
The wall she had up against his venom surges also grew more vibrant, and then he was the one grunting.
“That’s enough,” Carnis spoke as he reached them and frowned curiously at Vaxan. “Pull it back and merely stabilize now. No more offensiveness, focus on coexistence.”
As I saw Vaxan blink, then a lot of the tension leave him, the two of them beginning to do that, I turned back to my own business—yeah, sometimes my curiosity could get the best of me—only to jolt as fingers were snapped in my face.
I looked to see Zayn glaring at me.
“What is it about him, huh?” he snapped.
Whoa.
“What are you—”
He pointed his finger at me. “Tell me what’s so fascinating about snake boy that all attention goes to him, even when you’re supposed to be doing this exercise with me right now?”
I snatched his wrist and nipped at his fingertip.
He jolted, his eyes shooting wide.
I grinned.
