Endangered: The Demons of Monstrum Academy Pt. 6
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© 2025 S. Round. All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author. All sexually active characters in this work are eighteen (18) years of age or older.
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Ch. 50
The rest of the week went by quickly for Evan. His time was occupied by working on his research project, attempting to avoid his night terrors, and his magic vision training. The paper was coming along nicely. He had most of it done, and he was really just trying to find a way to wrap it up. As for the nightmares, they still came, but it wasn't a nightly event. It seemed that he only had a bad night when something ruined his mood during the day. Ms. May's explanation about how his mental state played a big factor in when his nightmare manifested turned out to be accurate. He did his best to meditate and focus on good thoughts before bed, and it was having decent results. However, there had been less progress with his magic vision training.
Evan had managed to see a very faint glow while looking at the artifacts in the hidden library. It was barely noticeable, but it was enough to let him know his method was on the right track. However, it was clear he was still missing a final piece somewhere. He had been reading any book he could find that might have a clue to completing basic spells, and he felt he had found the source of his troubles.
From what he could tell, he needed to more fully integrate his desired function into his intent. Right now, he was layering his desired function onto his base intent, and it only provided a miniscule amount of power. He needed to meld the function into his base intent used to activate his magic so they seamlessly worked as one. One mental image from the get-go instead of two put on top of each other. Something like that. The issue was that he had no real blueprint for doing this, and the book only reiterated that this process was different for each magician. He had spent much of the last week trying a number of different ideas.
Evan was lying in bed Friday night when he came up with a new idea to try. His intent when cycling his magic was to protect and shield what he held dear. Well, what if all he needed to strengthen his spell was to focus on how the desired effect would achieve that basic goal? He was exhausted and ready for sleep by that time, so he decided to give it a try on Saturday. There was another search expedition planned, so he figured he would be able to practice in the air like last time.
There was an unpleasant wind blowing Saturday morning, and the sun was hidden behind clouds. The forecast did not call for rain though, so the search was allowed to continue. He arrived at the normal meetup spot at the security force headquarters to find that not everyone was there this time. The only first year students present were Mary, Emersyn, and Evan. Aquila showed up to speak to their group shortly after he arrived.
"I'm sure you've noticed Alex isn't here today," she said. "She wasn't feeling well this morning, so she opted to stay in."
"Mary," she continued. "We'll need to have you assist a ground unit."
"Ok, fine," Mary said.
"Alright, I'll let you know who you're assigned to before we head out."
Aquila was about to walk away when Mary called out to her.
"Hey, wait!" she said. "What if the three of us went out as a group together? That should be ok, right?"
Aquila thought to herself for a moment before responding.
"That would probably work," she said. "What do you two think?"
"I should be able to shield us all," Evan said shrugging. "But I'll leave it up to Emersyn."
They all looked at the quiet devil girl to see what she had to say on the arrangement. Evan thought she probably wouldn't want to spend the day with Mary, but he wanted to give her a chance to say so for herself. However, that's not how things ended up going.
"Should be fine," Emersyn said.
"Ok," Aquila said. "You three stick together and comb the skies like usual. Be sure not to travel too far from the rest of the group, got it?"
The three first years nodded in agreement and Aquila left to do her announcements. They were told the section of the forest directly south of the town was that day's search zone. Aquila told them recent tracks had been sighted indicating Derek had gone in this direction. As soon as she finished speaking, the gathering headed south. They reached the edge of the forest, and the first issue of the day arose.
"Why don't you fly with me today, Evan?" Mary said as Evan was getting into position with Emersyn.
"Oh, uhh, I thought you would probably want to be free to fly alone?"
"Nah, it's cool," she said. "I'd like to try flying with you since it's our first time on a team together."
"..."
Evan looked at Emersyn, but she was just standing by silently watching.
"Well... I don't think it would be fair for one person to have to carry me all day," he said. "How about Emersyn carries me this morning, and I'll fly with you after lunch."
"Fine," she said, accepting it easily enough.
She unfurled her wings and readied to take off.
"Just make sure you don't drop him," she said to Emersyn. "I'll be watching in case I have to save him from your clumsiness."
She flew off after that remark leaving the two of them alone at the edge of the forest. Evan was not looking forward to a day mediating between these two.
"Don't let her bother you," he said. "She's just talking shit."
Emersyn nodded and put her arms around his chest. They soon caught up with Mary in the air and started towards their assigned search zone. Evan began practicing his magic vision, but the cold air was making it difficult to concentrate. It also didn't help that Mary kept finding ways to distract him.
It was clear she wasn't taking the search very seriously. Shortly after they took to the air, she started showing off her flying skills. Mary started zooming around Emersyn at top speed and laughing at Emersyn as if she were slow. She also rolled over and flew upside down. She did this while flying below Emersyn, so Evan had no choice but to look right at her. He doubted she did this with Alex. It was obviously for his benefit.
After a while, the air tricks weren't enough for her. She started to pester Evan in different ways, making it even more difficult for him to concentrate. He was working on his training when he felt something soft tickle his nose. He brushed it away only to discover it was actually the tip of Mary's wing. She had glided in from behind and reached out to tickle him.
"Knock it off," he said scratching his nose.
Mary just giggled and flew away again.
They did not manage to find any signs of Derek that morning. They came across a small clearing and decided to land since it was close to noon. Evan was hungry, but he was wary about the prospect of flying with Mary. He didn't know that he trusted her to be serious about the search. She most likely just planned to use the time to get closer to him. He paled thinking about what she might do if he wasn't as open to her advances as she wanted him to be while they were in the air together. Falling from the sky was not on his list of preferred ways to die.
There hadn't been any convenient places to sit in the small clearing they landed in, so they were eating lunch on the ground. Fortunately, Evan had brought a thin blanket along just in case something like this happened. The three sat huddled up on the blanket as they ate. Evan thought it looked like they were having a nice picnic in the countryside. Evan sat in between the two girls. He tried to engage them both in conversation, but Mary seemed determined to keep him focused on her.
"What do you have?" Mary said.
"A turkey sub from the mini-mart," he said.
"Is that all? Want one of my brownies? My mom made them for me. They're delish."
