Rising Shards

It was scary having this teacher barreling toward us, screaming and spinning his arms around, but Ana and I both readied ourselves, firing off bolts of our powers. His arm spinning deflected my lightning and Ana's shadow bolt.

"Terrible form, is that seriously how you conjure?" Anastasia said, shouting as she kept blasting.

"He blocked you too!" I said as I did the same.

"I only missed because I was so distracted by your terrible form!" Ana said.

We tried other things than just bolts, with me generating a mini thunderstorm in the hallway that didn't really help at all as the teacher-looking entity just rushed past it. Ana tried to make some kind of shadowy glue trap, but Mr. Sleebo just jumped over it. He was getting closer and closer, and nothing we were doing was working.

"Faleur, stop," Anastasia said. "Do exactly as I say, because we're not winning if you keep acting without thinking like a complete dumbass."

"Instead of that dumb crap you're saying, how about this?" I said.

I conjured a snowstorm next, something I struggled with compared to making thunderstorms, but I wanted to prove Ana wrong. I wasn't sure how me being impulsive was really a win, but my arguments with Stella taught me that a debate between siblings didn't have to be logical, if I was mad enough I'd want to win. I made enough snow that Mr. Sleebo got his foot stuck for a second, allowing Ana and I to fire off more rounds of our elemental powers. The void imp teacher fell, and I thought I won, but he just got back up again, shaking the snow off of him like a dog.

"Ohoho...you students are being bad," Mr. Sleebo shook his head, wagging a finger at us. "And when students are bad, you know what they get? They get the Glump. And what does Glump have? That's right, a gun, and he's gonna shoot your asses! Glump!"

"What kind of after school special is he from?" I asked as Mr. Sleebo kept shouting in alternating deep and shrill tones as he called for Glump.

"Where is Glump?" Mr. Sleebo asked. "Ohhh, Gluuuuuump! We need you, and your gun! To shoot these girls! Don't worry girls, Glump's gun only shoots knowledge bullets. Though because you're being so bad, I may throw a punishment bullet or two in there, hee hee hee. It's an interesting concept, isn't it, Glump? I'm sure you'll explain it to them as they're groveling in pain from getting shot by your knowledge bullets!"

"Now, get him!" I said, gesturing to the teacher wandering around staring up at the ceiling, but Ana grabbed my wrist before I could attack again.

"No, I told you to stop, idiot," Anastasia said.

"Don't call me an idiot," I said.

"I will when you show me a single sliver of intelligence," Ana said.

"I bet my grades are better than yours," I had no idea how Anastasia was doing in class, but I was grabbing at whatever I could in this debate. I was getting angrier each insult, but it felt like that time she chewed me out on the field of flowers a bit ago; it reminded me so much of when Stella and I got into shouting matches.

"Oh don't start that now," Anastasia said. "Just shut up and listen to me. We need to stop and actually strategize, our powers are just making him more pissed."

I thought about arguing more, and really wanted to, but I held my tongue, because she reminded me of Stella.

"Fine, whatever, what should we do?" I said.

"You go hide in the corner and stop interfering, I can handle this," Ana said.

"I'm not strategizing if your strategy is just to shove me away," I said. "You can't beat him alone, I can't beat him alone. We need to do this together."

"Now you sound like you're from an after-school special," Anastasia said. "But sorry, it's going to take more than that to get me to respect you enough to let you do battle even near my side. Don't even think about ever fighting at my side."

Well, that moment of thinking she was like Stella evaporated with the latest insult, for some reason that really sent me over the edge more than calling me an idiot.

"You are so annoying," I snapped. "What were we just doing five seconds ago if that wasn't fighting together?"

"It wasn't that, we were both simultaneously doing battle, but not in unison," Anastasia said.

As we squabbled about what constitutes a fight, Mr. Sleebo finally gave up calling for Glump.

"Tsk, tsk, my slimy friend must be busy," Mr. Sleebo said. "No matter, I'll defeat you two and send you back to detention!"

"You're going to have to come up with a strategy that involves me, or let me do it," I said. "Because I'm starting to think you just say we need a strategy before going back to just randomly blasting like me and my friends."

Ana stood up sharply. "I'll show you a strategy."

I was ready for her to hit me or just keep arguing, but she glanced around. "Stay there. When I say so, make a snowstorm again."

She used her powers to propel herself off the ground, landing on the other side of Mr. Sleebo, getting all his attention.

"Now!" Anastasia said.

I didn't make as smooth of a snowstorm as last time, and the last one was already pretty blotchy, but I still was able to get Sleebo in the snow. Anastasia held her palms up, crackling, shadowy energy propelling from them. It hit the snow, and suddenly, icicles as dark as her shadows shot down around Mr. Sleebo, imprisoning the void imp.

"Whoa," I said.

"Shadows are cold," Anastasia said. "So I figured they might give a boost to anything already icy."

"So...did we actually get him?" I asked. I was stunned, not just for defeating the imp, but that Anastasia and I actually managed to fight together for a second. Granted, it really wasn't that different than what we were doing earlier, and "You know, for all your talk of needing a strategy, your plan was just to use our powers together, but...that's something, right?"

"It wasn't just using our powers together," Anastasia grabbed one of Mr. Sleebo's arms, that was flailing outside of the cage like a noodle. "Look." 

On his wrist was a wristband that looked like one of ours. It had a light that blinked, hitting three beats, two green lights, one red. "I think only attacks that hit precisely on the red light were working. I timed it that way."

"Wow," I said. "I don't really get how you figured that out, but—"

Then with a loud shout, the void imp burst out of the icy cage we put him in, arms spread wide. Anastasia darted back toward me. He ran right for us, and we both suddenly couldn't move. I think I was screaming, and I was pretty sure Ana was too, along with the void imp barreling down on us. The closer he got, the less I knew what to do. I found myself instinctively grabbing Ana by her shoulders, and she did the same, reacting like we were in a horror movie and the slasher was about to get us.

"AaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAH—" Mr. Sleebo stopped mid-scream, a heavy door opening right in front of him that he rammed into, heavy enough that the door didn't budge upon him rushing into it. He stumbled backward, then exploded into void goop.

"Ew..." I said, then realized who opened the door. "Oka!"

My lovely girlfriend saving the day just in time, albeit accidentally. She was with Lillia, Iris, Maia, Sai, and Tay, with Ms. Corinani far in the back.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!