The Welcome Gift

Jacki carefully watched the patrol move passed the window and continue on their route.

"They're gone! We have five minutes to do this!"

Aayla gripped the bow in her hands and stepped out from her hiding spot. They had slowly snuck closer to the library. Now, Aayla was just barely in range for their plan. If the duo was lucky, the system's own mana signature would eclipse their own.

The intruders had set up their detection system in a back room on the third floor of the library, which happened to have a very large window. Jacki watched the library for a while, and eventually found the core of the system.

Those idiots believed that everything was under control. They didn't bother to set up the library's defenses again after they took it down. Their overconfidence would be their downfall. Jacki and Aayla were more than happy to help them whittle down their arrogance.

Some of the guards would leave in between uses for a few seconds. The duo didn't exactly know why, but they also didn't exactly care. They only cared that they had a few seconds of increased vulnerability. The remaining ones would hastily repair any damage to the magic formation etched into the ground.

Jacki had a hunch that the magic formation was highly unstable. If something bad happened to the core, then the intruders would be out of luck. So would Aayla and Jacki if they didn't run fast enough after Aayla fired. They would only have one shot.

Aayla took a deep breath and pulled back the string. She diverted most of her stored mana to form a mana arrow. Her hands began to freeze as she used all of the ice element mana from the Havrevel River trip. Jacki quickly stepped back and looked for any guards.

The shriek of an alarm pierced the monotonous work of the hooded wizards. The door of the back room slammed open. Before they could react, Aayla focused on the third-floor window and released the string. With a sharp twang, the mana arrow shattered the glass and pierced the core.

A frigid aura emerged from the back room as ice began to coat the back wall. Then a strong light emitted from the core as a gust of wind pushed the duo back. Once again, the heavy pressure descended on Aayla and Jacki.

"Yes! The core is destabilizing now, and judging from that initial loss of mana it's got a lot more energy than expected. Let's move!"

Aayla switched her bow for the classic shield and ran as fast as she could behind Jacki. Their cover was already blown, so her little trick with the New Moon Bracelet wouldn't work anymore. The guards were behind them in seconds.

"What the heck happened to the core?!"

"Catch those brats alive! We need to know what they did!"

Before the guards could grab the duo, the strong light turned blinding and engulfed the entire library and the area around it. An icy blast struck Aayla's back before she turned around with her shield in front of her.

The next thing that Aayla knew she was face first on the ground tens of meters away. Blood dripped down from her nose and her clothes were in tatters. Her ears wouldn't stop ringing. Her vision blurred in and out as her head pounded. Aayla felt like she was run over by a truck then thrown out into the Arctic.

As she stumbled to her feet a hand grabbed her and began pulling her away. Someone should be saying something to her, but Aayla had no idea what they were trying to say. So, she just kept running and let the person pull her along. Angry, stifled voices roared behind them.

Her vision slowly returned and she recognized Jacki pulling her forward. They ran through several alleys and streets. The system could no longer track them, but the intruders had their own methods. The duo had to get far enough away to hide before the intruders caught up.

That blast was basically throwing a stone at a hornets' nest. Some very angry and very powerful wizards would start chasing after them soon. Hopefully, they could find a good place to hide or at least a deputy headmaster. If not… well, at least their day wouldn't be boring.

Finally, Jacki ducked into a medical building on the outskirts of campus and dragged Aayla inside with her. She locked the doors and stuffed Aayla into one of the wards before going back outside. Jacki disguised their last moves before sneaking back inside.

"Okay, we should have a bit of time. I made a fake trail to a different building that's next to the woods. No one should have seen me come back, but its best to stay away from the windows and main doors. How are you feeling?"

Aayla pinched her nose with her shaking hand and leaned forward as she tried to stop the bleeding.

"Horrible. I feel like I just got out of fighting with that northern glacial boar again. You know that mana poisoning thing that the healer mentioned? Well, my symptoms are twice as bad now and I'm really cold."

"Yeah, that was a bit more explosive than I expected. Hopefully none of the students were inside. I'll get some medical supplies from the cabinets. Don't move from here."

Aayla waved her hand to shoo Jacki away. Her headache was getting worse. The bleeding had slowed down several minutes later, but it still continued. Aayla realized that the blood was also coming from a large gash on her forehead.

When she looked down, most of her was covered in ice. Several parts were died red. Her frozen cocoon had broken apart in several places, but Aayla still looked like a snow monster. More ice kept forming as she tried to scrape it off. Fortunately, her vision mostly recovered and the ringing slowly faded.

When Jacki returned, the room was covered in snow and ice. Aayla giggled when she saw Jacki, thankful that she wasn't the only snow monster. Jacki held up some nurse uniforms.

"Don't bother trying to scrape off all of the ice. I found us a change of clothes. We need to get out of our current clothes since their heavily contaminated with ice element mana. That should really help, though we still need some serious medical attention before the ice element mana seeps any further into our bodies."

Aayla quickly grabbed her set of nurse clothes and changed. Ice still formed on her body, but mostly around her lower legs and the back of her neck and head. She cut off most of her hair to get rid of the ice source trying to freeze her brain. Fortunately, Aayla's shield had reduced the impact on her upper body.

Jacki wasn't so lucky in that regard. The mana contamination was much worse on her. With her own mana, Jacki held the icy mana at bay, but she would need an actual healer to help. The New Moon Bracelet greedily absorbed the ice element mana, but it would still take a while to show some effect. Then they would still need other medical treatment.

The girls burned their old clothes and Aayla's chopped off hair, then hid in another room after grabbing some more blankets.

"What now Jacki?"

"Now, we wait. Keep your artifact working. It should help us avoid detection, though if the intruders search hard enough then my fake trail and your artifact won't be enough. The difference in power is just too big, like that between a puddle and the ocean."

**********

The hooded wizard slammed his hand against the frozen wall. Even with his skills, ice slowly formed on robe and lower legs. Protecting himself from the explosion took up most of his energy, and he still couldn't fully defend himself. His minions fared no better.

"WHAT ON TELLUS HAPPENED?! WHY DID THE CORE EXPLODE?!"

"We – we're not exactly sure, sir."

Lighting instantly struck the poor minion, who was instantly turned into ash. The other hooded wizards trembled at their leader's fury.

"Who else doesn't know anything?!"

The remaining minions pushed one another until an unlucky sacrifice was pushed forward. The unwilling sacrifice pulled another pawn out with him. There was no way that he was going to take on the brunt of the leader's fury alone.

"What he meant, sir, was that condensed mana with a strong ice element affinity pierced the core. The surge caused the core to lose control and overload."

"One of the patrols reported seeing two people flee the scene from the rear of the library. They looked like two young ladies. That's all that they reported before the explosion. The patrols haven't found their remains, so they probably escaped after the first patrol inadvertently took the brunt of the impact for them."

The leader's mouth twitched.

"Let me get this straight. Two little rats somehow managed to EVADE OUR DETECTION then INFILTRATE OUR BASE and DESTROY OUR OWN DEFENSE SYSTEM?! Which idiot is responsible for this blunder?!"

The minions cast heavy glances at each other. The leader himself ordered them to ignore resetting the library's own defense system to save time and then to focus on stealing after all of the students were rounded up. How exactly should they tell him this? They didn't want to die, okay?!