Book 2 - The Usurper from the Wilds: Chapter 12; Territory Breakthrough

The screen turns on as the chapter title plays "Chapter - 12; Territory Breakthrough".

They're still in the courtyard and fast walking away as Deuce shouts "Shoot! They're chasing us!"

Floyd calls out to them "Hey, couldja stop, friends? Just for a second? We just wanna chat!"

Riddle says with full determination "Decidedly, no! Full retreat!" as they start to actually run away, and eventually lose the Leech twins.

At this Floyd complains "Awww… They're gone." But Jade simply chuckles at this as he states "I do so enjoy a brisk midday jog." But then tells Floyd "Alas, we'll have to pick this up another time. Come. We need to prepare the lounge for tonight." Floyd says "Bummer. But all right." as they walk away to do whatever they needed to do with the lounge.

It then switches to the group on Main street after their run away from the Leech twins.

Grim pants as he shouts "...That was terrifying! What is the deal with those guys?!"

Riddle crosses his arms as he says "I'm not the one to ask. Those two have baffled me since we were freshmen together."

Cater seems reminiscent as he tells them "Messing with them seems like a reeeal bad idea."

Ace finally out of his shock says "If I were the culprit, I know I'D steer clear."

But Cater moves on pretty quickly as he tells them "Then it's off to the next name on my list! It's getting late, so let's make this the last one for today, 'kay?" As he waits for their affirmative nods before he then tells them about the next subject "It's Jack Howl: freshman, Savanaclaw Dorm. Rumor has it that he's a great athlete. Scouts from all the major teams are fighting to sign him."

Deuce says "Classes are over, so he should be at the dorm."

Riddle then looks at the time before saying "Oh, is it 5:00 already? Rule 346 says that "croquet must not be played after 5:00 p.m." I should head back to Heartslabyul and make sure that no one is breaking the rules in my absence."

Grim scoffs at that as he says "I thought you'd rounded out some, but nope, you're as square as ever." Riddle gets slightly worried and offended at that as he stutters out "Th-that's not true!"

Before calming down as he tells Grim "I assure you that I've become much more lenient about enforcing the rules." Cater then defends Riddle as he says "He really has. He's way nicer than before. And we all appreciate that Riddle diligence." Riddle smiles as Cater finishes with "So go do what you gotta do, Boss!" as he waves him goodbye.

After Riddle walks away, Ace says "Then I guess the rest of us are headed to Savanaclaw House."

Before they walk away to the Hall of Mirrors and go towards the Savanaclaw mirror.

The walls are one of the first things to attract attention as they had deep scratch marks all along them. Then on the stairs which are rather basic with just a black pathway or carpet leading the way up to the mirror. Then on the first step up there are a tied up bunch of sticks on either side that have the top of the sticks on fire creating a bit of a torch on both sides. Then there are a bunch of bones, some big, some little scattered around the mirror and the walkway up to it.

Then the mirror itself was rather basic as it was just a bunch of stones stacked in a way to make an archway. Then at the top was the dorm emblem.

The mirror swirled and glowed as they walked into it and got teleported to the Savanaclaw dorm.

Inside the dorm it looked just like a more dead savannah. With the little bit of grass that there was, it was all yellow and dead, and most of the other parts of the ground were just dirt paths and some rocks that had been dug up or were low enough to the ground to be counted as the floor. There were a lot more bones and skeletons around similarly to their mirror. There was one large tree with a bit of a boulder behind it.

On one of the large trees was a banner with the dorm emblem sewn onto it.

The banner itself was yellow, while the emblem was in the elegant shield shape with it's own mini banner on the bottom in gold with the dorm name on it. Then on the main part of the emblem in the shield part was a lion head with a silver or iron border around it. The lion had a long face with a scar over their right eye, although both of the eyes were white. Then there were four times in the bottom left that had the border going into the lion making it seem like scratch marks and one on the top right corner. Then on the bottom right in a much more tan or yellow color there were cross scratch marks. And the whole shield itself was made to look worn and torn seemingly used.

Then the main dorm building was carved into a giant stone or mini mountain possibly. The stones were all slightly different in color with a few big changes such as some having a tan color while others are red-ish in coloration. Then on the entrance there was on either side a big carpet of perhaps a type of banner that hung down to two other most likely handmade torches with tied together sticks. Then over the actual entrance was another one although this one didn't hang anywhere near as low. The banners or carpet type things hung up were mostly made in a yellow-brown color with them seeming to be made to look more traditional. The main other thing about the building was that the windows looked almost as though they were hand carved by the students.

The freshman looked around it in wonder at the dorm as Deuce commented "Huh… So this is Savanaclaw."

Grim was floating around looking at almost everything as he commented on it "Whoa, did they carve this place into a mountain? And check out these huge bones! I wouldn't wanna meet whatever animal they're from!" Ace also says "Couldn't be less like Heartslabyul." Cater agrees saying "No kidding. Even the air here feels so…primal. It's like we've left the bounds of civilization."

Now getting back on track Ace asks Cater "So what's this Jack guy look like?"

Cater looks at his phone to double check as he tells them "Apparently he's got wolf ears, silver hair, and a big, bushy tail too."

Grim repeats "A big, bushy tail…" As he looks around before pointing somewhere and asking "Wait, you mean like that guy runnin' laps over there?"

It then shows the person in question.

It's that same boy from the cafeteria that Trey and Cater used to help show what people from Savanaclaw were like.

Although now he's in the gym uniform, his is fitted on properly with at most the chest part being left open, but it's not so strange or really wearing the uniform inappropriately. Although his gym shirt and the accents on his overall gym uniform are more of a golden-yellow color.

They all look over and Cater tells them "Whoa, good eye! There's no way that's not our boy."

Ace then shouts "And I thought those twins were big! This guy's HUGE!"

As it shows off his height of a whooping 6'3 or 192 centimeters.

Cater then says "No wonder all the scouts are after him." Deuce comments "With that build, he'd be an asset on any team." Yuu simply sighs and shrugs her shoulders as she says "Let's just hurry up and talk to him."

As she starts to walk towards him with the others following close behind.

But Cater didn't notice anything else than what she said as he asks her "Gettin' a little nervous there, Yuu?" Before finishing by telling her "Don't worry, hon! Cay-Cay's got your back. I won't let the big bad wolf bite you."

But by now Grim is already up to Jack as he shouts out to him "Hey, you! Mr. Scowls-a-lot!"

Jack then looks over to them with a "...Huh?"

Grim then immediately tells him once close enough and he's got his attention "Just wanted to let ya know somebody's probably gonna try and hurt you. But don't worry–" as he pounds a paw fist to his chest and boasts "Grim the Great will protect you!"

Jack is more annoyed than anything as he tells them "What? Look, don't bother me when I'm training."

Ace sighs at that as Cater pulls Grim by his arm and essentially yells at him "THAT'S your approach, Grim? I can't count all the ways that was terrible. If you were on Magicam, I'd totally unfollow from your feed."

He then puts his hand over Grim's mouth as Grim makes some struggle sounds as Cater apologizes for him "Sooo sorry about that, Jack. Listen, king, could we have just a minute of your time?"

Jack is still kinda annoyed as he asks them "What's all this about? You said you wanna protect me from something?"

Deuce answers "A lot of Spelldrive tournament hopefuls have been hurt in "accidents" on campus lately." As Ace continues "And we're trying to figure out who's behind it."

Jack is seemingly less annoyed now as he tells them "Go on."

Then Cater finishes "To put it bluntly, our plan is to stake out some of the criminal's prospective targets. What do you say? Will you give us a hand in catching this guy?"

Jack is silent for a second before telling them "No. I can take care of myself. I don't need your protection."

Yuu thinks 'Being alone right now could be dangerous though.' as she tries to think of a way to have him agree. Then thinking perhaps he's that tough guy who thinks he can do anything by himself and doesn't want to be taken lightly so she tells him "If something happened, you might want backup." In a way trying to tell him that they'll only be there for when he absolutely needs it and wouldn't just fight for him.

Jack is silent for a second before turning more angry and annoyed as he clearly takes it the wrong way and tells them "I told you, I don't need your help." Before mumbling under his breath mostly "And besides I doubt I'm gonna be a target." Seemingly hoping none of them would hear before he walks off saying "Seeya." To continue his workout.

Cater says as he walks away "Aaaaand he's gone."

Grim is now also annoyed at being brushed off as he states "Well, can't say I didn't warn him."

But Ace rolls his eyes as he tells Grim "Yeah well, you might want to reconsider your approach there, bud." Grim yells at that "Hrmph! You humans are so finicky about every little thing!"

Then a trio of Savanaclaw students spot them. One has red-brown hair, the second has pinky hair, and the last has white hair, all wearing the Savanaclaw dorm uniform.

It consists of a sleeveless, dark-yellow shirt, a black leather vest, worn-out jeans, thick beaded jewelry, and an orange-yellow bandana with black trim and the symbol of Savanaclaw printed on it. The shirt has a deep y-neck, and a black, geometric pattern on the trim. They, like most Savanaclaw students, wear their bandana around their waist.

They walk up to them as the red-brown hair one states as a question "Hey, what are you lot doing here?" The pinky haired one then says "You're a long way from Heartslabyul House." The last white haired one laughs as he says "Probably lackeys sent by Mr. Red Baby!"

The red-brown hair one then asks them "You think you can just barge onto our turf and walk away without payin' the price?"

Deuce then asks "Wow, anyone else having déjá vu…?" Ace then says rather loudly and nervously to them "Fine, we're leaving. Sorry to bother you."

The pinky haired one says "Aww, don't be like that. Play with us first!" The silver haired one then says "Let's play Predator and Prey! Guess who gets to be the prey?" as his voice turns darker at the end.

Leona and Ruggie then walk out of the main dorm building as Leona tells them "Cut it out, you three."

The screen then fades to black as "To be continued" plays on screen before it fully turns off.