Nikolai had completely lost his mind. Nora felt like that thought was a collective between her, Chima, and Hakyun, who had now come to stand beside them. They all watched with blank gazes as the boy squirmed, screaming in what could only be classified as pain as fur grew out of his body at an extremely fast rate, and his muscles contracted and bulged in a rather excruciating way to watch. He became a humanoid beast of brown and black striped fur, his uniform ripping apart as he grew several inches taller, his eyes glowing red with rage, and abysmally long fangs escaping the confines of his mouth.

  It only took an instant for the Nikolai they knew, the one they had shared classes with, to no longer exist.

  Nora swallowed. She could instinctively feel it. The current Nikolai was way above her pay grade.

  “This isn’t good,” noted Chima as sparks of flame blossomed at his fingertips. He was a smart one, and he knew delaying would only put them in trouble because a battle was impossible to avoid.

  Hakyun bit his lower lip. “What exactly is the plan here? Because I don’t think we can knock him out without going for the kill. And I really don’t want to have to fight a battle to the death with my classmate.”

  Nora glanced at Hakyun. “We honestly don’t have the time to be thinking about that. He’s going to—”

  The rest of her words caught in her throat as a puff of air blew upon her from above. Her gaze shifted, shock etched on her face as Nikolai, who had been at least thirty feet away from where she stood, manifested above her, his abnormally large claws slashing through the air as it came for her.

  He was going in for the kill.

  Nora moved quickly. She wove her mana into the air, summoning a powerful upward current of rising air. A visible updraft manifested before her, condensed to form a wall, and Nikolai’s attack struck that instead of her. The beast-boy bounced off, the resulting momentum of his force slamming with that of Nora’s air wall hurling him back.

  Nora didn’t delay a bit and put some further space between her and Nikolai, her breaths heavy and her body still shivering at the fact that her life had just flashed before her eyes.

  “Nora!!” Chima and Hakyun called out in unison, dazed by how quickly the altercation they had just witnessed had happened.

  “I don’t know what’s happened to him, but that’s no longer Nikolai,” Nora voiced as she landed on her knees. “I really would have died just now.”

  Chima frowned. “The steroid has messed with his brain.” He grit his teeth. “So there’s no other way?”

  “A professor should know what to do,” Hakyun noted. “That’s what Merlin went to do, isn’t it? Let’s just try to hold him back until Merlin returns.”

  Nora stood up. “I agree. I don’t think I’d fancy killing my mate.”

  Chima nodded. “Then let’s do this.”

  Nikolai stood up, his breaths visible in the night air as he growled. He hunched over slightly and roared so loud, producing shockwaves that shook the trees of the Open field.

  Then he lunged forward.

  Nora, Chima, and Hakyun had already set up their plan, though.

  Wings made of air burst out of Nora’s back and she took flight, her figure appearing just beneath the bright radiance of the moon in a second. Chima produced chains of fire. While Hakyun took three steps back, and as his Grimoire took flight, so did countless pieces of stones and pebbles lying around.

  Nora had only fought in a team with Chima before, and as such had no idea of Hakyun’s strengths, despite having watched the boy during practical classes. However, Chima had been in teams with both of them; he was well aware of what they could do, at least to some degree, and that was why she had let him come up with the plan as to how they took down Nikolai.

  Hopefully it worked.

  Chima burst forward, sparks of fire emitted under his feet, propelling him forward so quickly that it only took two seconds for him to cover the distance between him and Nikolai. And as soon as he bobbed up before the beast-boy, he clenched his jaw and flung his chains at him.

  However, Nikolai had become something they couldn’t fathom. His figure blurred, and he disappeared from Chima’s line of sight, quickly appearing behind him.

  Claws were raised, ready to descend upon Chima, who could only glance over his shoulder at the oncoming attack, but unable to dodge.

  Although, that was why they were a team.

  “Forgive me, Nikolai,” Hakyun muttered as his rocks burst through the air from all directions, blocking all the paths Nikolai could take to escape from their onslaught. One was left open, though. And Nikolai took the bait. He jumped to the air to escape the rocks, bringing himself before Nora who had been waiting patiently for him.

  Nora locked eyes with the red ones filled with fury of Nikolai, and realized that there was only one spell she could use to tie the boy down at this point.

  She let her mana connect with the atmosphere, her body releasing all the tension it felt. A large ball made of rotating air surrounded Nikolai’s face at that moment.

  Nora knew full well that she was not yet at the point where she could handle containing all of Nikolai’s figure, which was why she focused on the part that would produce the better result. And briefly after, the blue color that signified her mana pulled out from the swirling ball of air, painting only its outer surface, and the visible spin within the air ball stilled.

  “Air Vacuum,” she mumbled. Nikolai fell to the ground in an instant, spraying dust and debris around.

  Hakyun narrowed his eyes as the boy floundered helplessly, gasping for air within Nora’s air vacuum.

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  “He’s going to die!” he voiced.

  “No, he won’t,” said Nora. “He’s going to faint.”

  “No!” Hakyun roared. “If he keeps thrashing about like that, he’s going to keep expending energy and will die!”

  Nora bit her lower lip and glanced at Chima, but he didn’t provide any input on the matter. It was obvious he had no idea what exactly was going to happen or not. It was up to her to make a decision. Was she to keep Air Vacuum going, or not?

  The thought of someone dying to her spell won, but before she canceled her magic, she turned towards Chima.

  “Tie him down!” she ordered.

  Chima nodded and flung his chains of fire at Nikolai. They wrapped around the boy, burning into his fur as they bound him so tightly no one should be able to move. Nora canceled her magic then, and lowered herself from the sky as Nikolai drew in a sharp gasp of air, his large chest rising and falling rapidly.

  “I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep him bound, though,” said Chima. “For now, he’s still trying to stabilize himself, but once that passes and he starts trying to get free… Well, you can picture what might happen. It doesn’t even feel like my fire is hurting him at all.”

  Nora clicked her tongue. “What’s taking Merlin so long?”

  “I wonder if Professor Dmitri will be able to talk him out of this,” Hakyun said, his eyes fixed on Nikolai. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

  Nora sighed. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure the professors will be able to do something.”

  Hakyun glanced at her. “I hope so.”

  “Uhm… Guys!” Chima called, drawing the attention of Nora and Hakyun his and Nikolai’s way. Nikolai had begun to move, his arms bulging more and more, making known his intentions of shattering Chima’s chains through sheer force alone. “What are we going to—”

  Chima was unable to complete his sentence. Nikolai broke free from his chains like they were made of paper, despite it stinging him.

  Nora cursed under her breath. It had not even taken a minute. Whatever that steroid was, it needed to be taken off the streets. How could it make one so irrationally strong?

  She instantly conjured dozens of air balls and blasted them Nikolai’s way. However, she was too slow. He flashed out of view, escaping every single attack of hers, and appeared in front of her before she could blink.

  Nora’s breath hitched. This time, Nikolai was so close to her that she couldn’t protect herself with Air Shield.

  She tried to pounce back as Nikolai raised his hand, his claws gleaming in the moonlight, but she wouldn’t be able to escape in time. The attack descended, and all she could do was stare at it without blinking.

  However, it stopped just before it could connect. Chains of fire had grabbed onto Nikolai’s arm.

  That action seemed to piss Nikolai off. Thankfully, Nora noticed what was coming on time and wrapped her ears with air vacuum. In the next second, Nikolai let out a roar that was even far louder than his initial one; it shook the ground and would have burst Nora’s eardrums had she not been quick to react. There was no way the Academy hadn’t been woken up by it.

  Keeping Nikolai’s actions under wraps was pointless as it was now.

  “Now, Hakyun!” Chima voiced, still holding on to Nikolai despite his ears bleeding from the roar that had bombarded him.

  Hakyun nodded and got to work, sweat trickling down his forehead, but fairly safe from the prior onslaught as he was way back.

  He had levitated all the debris that had formed from Nikolai plunging to the ground earlier and compressed them to form a large ball of earth. It was obvious that he was expending almost all the mana he had, and Nora knew that she couldn’t let his attack go to waste.

  She didn’t have any spells that were similar to Chima’s fire chains, so she resolved to do the only thing she could. She swerved on her feet and grabbed Nikolai’s second arm. It was so large that her hands couldn’t cover it all, but that wasn’t her plan. A gust of wind blasted in front of her, pushing her body in the opposite direction of where she was facing, and that act of hers kept Nikolai in place.

  “Hurry up!” she added.

  Hakyun took a deep breath as his black eyes glowed blue for a moment. The large swaths of rock he had bound together were wrapped with his mana and the air bristled with life the more they rose up.

  Nora’s eyebrows twitched. Mana attunement… She realized. Hakyun had successfully attuned with his mana, and as a result, his spells had become two times stronger. She was certain that the attack Hakyun was about to unleash would do well to knock Nikolai out. But, afterwards, he would be out of commission. That was the downside of using a spell on such a scale. And that was why he couldn't miss.

  “Great Earth Boulder,” Hakyun mumbled. He pointed his hand at Nikolai's direction and the spell shot forward at a blistering pace.

  Chima and Nora, noticing that they wouldn’t be safe from the attack once it hit, readied themselves. And just when the boulder was an inch away from them, they dispersed. Nora blasted herself away with a burst of air, and Chima did the same with his flames, charring his wear as he did.

  Nikolai roared loudly as the boulder connected with him, and Nora and Chima covered their ears as they turned away from the blast that followed.

  It was only after the smell of dust in the air simmered down did they turn their gazes around to see the result of the shockwave that had followed Hakyun’s attack. The ground had a trail that had been dug into it, and the path where Nikolai had been blasted into had its trees snapped in half, forming a clearing of stumps.

  “For someone who was complaining about me killing him, you sure went all out,” Nora said to Hakyun as she rose to her feet, dusting off her tracksuit.

  Hakyun huffed, falling to his knees as he tried to catch his breath. “I didn’t know it would be that strong.”

  Chima smiled. “Good job.”

  Hakyun shrugged. “Hopefully, I didn’t injure him too badly.” He heaved out an exhale and pushed himself to his feet. “Let’s find him and make sure to keep him down this time.”

  Nora began her approach to at least offer him a hand, when she froze, her blood going cold.

  A figure zoomed into view behind Hakyun, and every single one of them had their voice caught in their throat. Nikolai was unhurt, and, worse, he was about to slice Hakyun in half.

  Nora’s lips quivered. She was too far away. There was no way she could make it in time, and her mana was no different. It needed to travel the same distance as her after all, and link with the air before she could use any spell. Chima was no doubt the same as her. They couldn’t do anything but watch with their eyes widened. They were going to watch Hakyun die.

  Hakyun’s breath stilled as Nikolai’s claws descended, his eyes sinking into his forehead, thoughts of his life visibly flashing before his eyes. The world slowed.

  However, before his body could be torn in half, whips made of nothing but pure mana wrapped themselves around his waist and pulled him away. Nikolai’s claws tore the ground apart instead.

  By the time Hakyun could register what was going on he was seated just beside his third roommate.

  “Are you all right?” Merlin asked, his chest rising and falling as he wiped off the sweat on his forehead.

  Hakyun heaved out a deep exhale. “Sure took you long enough.”

  “My bad; I had a change of heart about our plan,” said Merlin as he narrowed his gaze upon Nikolai before shifting it in Nora’s and Chima’s direction. Nora sighed in relief then.

  “A change of heart?” Hakyun asked, brows furrowed.

  “Yeah.” Merlin rolled his shoulders and stretched forth his hands. “We’ll have to hold out a bit longer before help arrives.” He took a deep breath. “Nora! Chima! Cover me! I’m going to end this at once.”

  Nora smiled, taking a step forward. “Of course. We’ll buy you all the time you need.”

  Merlin nodded and put his gaze back on Nikolai. His brows arched. “Activate Reader Mage…”