We Need A Plan

The moment he stopped concentrating on the flames, they vanished. No smoke. No char. It was gone as if it had never existed in the first place.

Gian turned to look at her, then at his hands. 'Power.' 

That was the greatest feat of magic he had ever performed, in this life or his last.

The girl was still looking at him, waiting for an answer. But Gian was lost in the magnificence of his own potential. He had to cast it again, to remind himself... to burn this feeling into memory.

'I can cast magic again.'

He closed his eyes and tried to go over the steps one more time.

However, a sudden wave of fatigue washed over him.

His knees buckled, and he started breathed loudly as if he had the wind knocked out of him.

"What's going on?"

He collapsed.

The girl caught him just before his head hit the floor, a confused expression on her face. "You just cast an evolved fire spell," she replied, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Wait, was this the first time you ever did that?"

The realisation seemed to confuse her even more. She dropped him, and his head hit the floor. 

"You're kidding, there's no way—"

A set of footsteps interrupted her. She zipped around, stumbling back in fear.

"Heavens, you look like you've seen a ghost, small tits." It was the potion girl, and she had come with several survivors. Four guys, three girls. Five of them had injuries, though at a glance, they just seemed like surface-level burn wounds.

"Found these guys hauled up in some of the cabins," she explained, before plopping down next to Gian. "Well, you give up trying to learn the spell?" she asked.

Gian took a moment to collect himself. His mouth was dry, and he felt that if he stood up now, he'd faint.

"Oi." the girl hollered, turning to look at one of the survivors she had come with. "Tell him what you told me."

It was a boy, black hair, black eyes, and the same blue robes that marked him as a false-breed.

The boy looked confused. "Who's he? He looks young to be an upperclassman," he said, staring down at Gian.

"I don't know," the girl shrugged, staring at him for a moment. "Someone interesting? Regardless, I think he'll be able to lead us out safely."

Gian was surprised. 'Just where did she get that idea?' 

The boy shook his head. "I don't see how he's any more capable than I am. He's a false-breed just like us," he said. "Besides, we'll be safe if we stay here."

Gian finally recovered, slowly getting back to his feet. 

"Only sheep hide at the back of a slaughterhouse and think they'll be safe," he whispered, holding his head. He had a terrible headache.

The boy sighed. "If this guy is so special, how come he hasn't noticed it yet?" The boy turned to look at the potion girl. She looked at Gian, shrugging.

The boy sighed again. "Everyone here is wearing a blue robe," he explained, gesturing to all the other survivors. They were indeed all wearing blue robes.

Gian gave the boy a sceptical look. "He's wearing red," he replied, nodding to the potion girl's thrall.

"Well, they must've made a mistake with him," the boy responded, shrugging dismissively. "My point is, the attackers are only targeting the true-breeds." The word "true-breeds" was spat out instead of said, a disgust that Gian could not quite understand.

"Serves them right, anyway," one of the other girls in the survivor group added.

Gian considered things for a moment. It was an interesting hypothesis, but it was also quite flawed. Several blue-robed students lay dead on the ground as they spoke; were they just collateral?

There was just too little information to make conclusions like this. And quite frankly, Gian suspected that the boy had just come up with this idea to justify why he had survived where others died. 

"Well?" the potion girl asked. She was chewing something and playing with a splinter of charred wood on her robes.

"Let me put it this way," Gian began. "We could believe what he's saying, and stay here, maybe they don't come to do a second sweep," he said.

Half the survivors nodded their heads at this.

"Or, we could move in behind them. Now. When they least expect it. And while the number of useful students is still high," he continued. 

The survivor boy scoffed at that. "Even if the entire first-year class grouped together, what could we possibly do against magebreakers?"

Gian's brows furrowed. "Magebreakers?"

The survivor boy sighed. "He doesn't even know what we're up against," he said, turning towards the group of survivors. "I say we stay here and wait it out. Whoever wants to follow this idiot to their death can stay here," he added, before looking towards the cabins. "I'm going to look for food."

3 survivors moved to join him, two looked at Gian hesitantly before joining the others as well.

"What about the rest of you?" the survivor boy asked, looking to the potion girl. She just waved her finger. No.

The boy sighed. "What about you?" he turned to look at the girl with glasses. She hesitated for a moment, then looked at Gian. "No, thank you. I think I'll try and save the others," she whispered with a weak smile.

The guy shrugged and led his people towards the cabins.

Gian didn't try to stop them. He wasn't going to beg them to follow him. There'd be more survivors... if they hurried. He just needed a plan.

Those of the survivors who remained were all injured, some of them still sobbing and shaking from the traumatic event.

'I need more information first.'

"Can someone explain to me what a magebreaker is?"