April 26, 1:18 pm, Canberra, Australia

Gadiel understood the words coming out of the professor's mouth, but he had no idea what she was saying. Something about dialects and languages, and the difference between them...probably.

He had decided to take Socio-linguistics as an elective because he heard it was easy. Whoever told him that had been a big, fat liar. This course had more readings than all of Gadiel's other courses combined. And those courses were all languages courses. All they did in them was read. And talk. And argue. But mostly read.

The point was, this course had too much reading. Although, that itself wouldn't be too bad. It was just that the reading had the gall to be boring as all h.e.l.l.

No. Gadiel needed to focus. He wasn't doing well in this cla.s.s; he needed to pay attention.

He thought that maybe the smaller sized lecture hall would help with his focus, but it turned out that it only made it essier for him to focus on other students. Like the girl in front of him who was watching anime on her MacBook instead of listening. Or the boy a couple rows ahead who kept running his hand through his green hair, spiking it up before it inevitably fell again. Or the person next to him who-

No. Bad Gadiel. Focus on the whiteboard.

He forced his eyes away from the interesting people and towards the whiteboard filled with blue words. For a moment, he was stunned. When did all those words appear? How long had he been in the cla.s.s?

He checked the clock, and almost had a heart attack. One minute? It had been only one minute since he last checked the clock? And the whiteboard was already full of words?

He really should be writing these down. He took out his notebook and started writing, but before he could write down the words, the cla.s.s had already moved onto the next slide. Gadiel began to panic. How was he supposed to get this done if he didn't have the slides?

Wait. Waiiiit a second.

How would they switch slides on a whiteboard?

Was there even supposed to be a whiteboard here?

Why was he writing in a notebook? He had a laptop for this. There was no way he would forget it.

And also...why couldn't he see the face of the professor?

"Took you long enough to notice," giggled a certain feminine voice. Immediately, Gadiel's mood soured as he realized what was happening.

This was a dream. Which meant it was probably all...her doing.

"Awwww don't look so glum!" Said Ai, stepping up in front of the cla.s.s. "You'll ruin that pretty face of yours! It's your only good quality. Don't go wasting it!"

Gadiel scowled. She was exactly the same as she had been in his previous dream; smug, pretentious, and utterly insufferable. She was wearing the same silver dress, still barefoot, and still twirling around like someone cosplaying a fairy.

"What do you want?" He said flatly. "I'm in cla.s.s."

"Not my fault you fell asleep," she said, stepping over an examining his cla.s.smates. "Though, from what that lady was saying, I can see why."

She jerked her head back towards the professor while studying the student with green hair. Gadiel was torn. On the one hand, she was right about the professor being boring. On the other hand, Gadiel just didn't want to agree with Ai about anything on princ.i.p.al.

"Why are you here?" He finally managed to say.

"What, I can't visit your dreams anymore?" Said Ai, mock-playfully. She had moved on to look at the anime the girl was watching.

"No," said Gadiel. "Get out."

"Fine, fine," Au sighed, straightening up and walking lightly to the back of the lecture room. "I thought you'd want to know about the monsters I sent Tarik, but if you're that sure, I guess I'll just leave. Bye!"

"Wait, monsters? After Tarik?" Gadirl got up from his seat.

Ai turned her face, looking at Gafiel from the corner of her eye. She smiled.

"Well, there's one after him, and the other one will be at the Baldessin Precinct Building," she said casually. "You probably have time to only save one. What a dilemma! I wonder what you'll do."

"You son of "

"Bye!"

With that, Gadiel snapped awake.

"-b****!"

The entire cla.s.s turned to look at him. The professor raised an eyebrow.

"Not you!" he yelled apologetically, scrambling to get all his stuff in his bag. "Sorry Prof, gotta go!"

With that, Gadiel rushed out of the room, slinging his bag over his shoulder. Once outside, he dug his phone out his pocket, and called Tarik. He couldn't feel that weird feeling in his stomach like the last time Tarik was attacked, but that didn't mean anything. Probably.

"Come on, pick up, pick up," Gadiel muttered, looking nervously around the courtyard. This area was called the Haydon-Allen building, and was actually a series of small cla.s.srooms connected in the shape of a 'U', with a large courtyard in the middle. There were a couple of people lazing about in the gra.s.s, enjoying the warm weather while it lasted.

Not that Gadiel cared. He glanced over to his left, the direction towards the Baldessin Precinct Building. That was where Ai said the other person was, right? She could be lying about it, but Gadiel had a feeling she wasn't the type to lie. No, she was the type that would much rather tell a truth with a secret hidden inside. Or at least, that was the type of person she wanted to look like in front of Gadiel.

"Ouais?" Tarik finally picked up the phone.

"Tarik, there is a monster coming to you, can you take care of it?" Gadiel rattled off in rapid French.

"Ah? Monster?"

"Ai came to me in a dream in cl it doesn't matter! Can you handle a monster by yourself?"

"Yeah, sure. Where are you going?" asked Tarik.

"She said she's also attacking Baldessin Precinct," said Gadiel. "Someone's gotta stop her."

Tarik hummed in agreement.

"I'll come over when I'm done," he said in English.

"Not if I finish first!"

Gadiel grinned as Tarik hung up, then sprinted towards the Baldessin Precinct building. Normally, it would be about a ten minute walk. Maybe a five minute sprint. But Gadiel worked out.

And he never missed leg day.

He was at the building in three minutes, panting slightly. He had almost knocked over an old lady, and had to jump over someone's dog to do it, but the sooner he got here, the more time he had to check to see if Ai had been telling the truth.

He walked through the building's automatic doors, past the bathrooms, and down a hall of doors. Each door on his right lead to a small, elevated lecture room, and each on his left lead to just a regular cla.s.sroom.

Most of the doors were open, with no one inside. The last one on Gadiel's right was closed, so he opened it. Inside, a bespectacled girl on her laptop looked up.

The first thing Gadiel noticed about her was her bright, orange hair, contrasted with her brown skin and green eyes. That, and her amazingly arched eyebrows, one of which was arching up at him.

"Sorry, I think I...got the wrong room," he said. He glanced at the room just to be sure; yep just a regular lecture room, no one else inside, just this girl, probably early for her cla.s.s. Windows on the other side of the wall, showing just a wall, and something moving past. He closed the door.

Wait a second. What was that thing moving past the window?

Was that-

Gadiel opened the door once more-

CRAs.h.!.+

-just as a monster broke through the window.

Gadiel and the monster locked eyes for a moment. Gadiel took in the monster's appearance; it was a lion headed man with the legs of a goat and claws of a something with really big claws. It stared at it for just a second before it's yellow eyes darted over to the girl.

They moved at the same time, the monster instantly leaping towards the girl, who had frozen in shock. Gadiel adjusted his aim accordingly, waiting for the right moment and throwing an ice spear.

The ice spear pierced the monster's claw just before it reached the girl's face, forcing the monster back and pinning it to the wall.

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!"

The monster's voice was just like a lion's.

"RUN!" Gadiel yelled, leaping forward as the monster tore it's claw off the spear, leaving a b.l.o.o.d.y hole in the middle of its palm.

Thankfully, the girl didn't need to be told twice. She didn't even take her stuff; she just legged it. The monster tried to follow, but Gadiel threw an ice spear in its way.

"You're fighting me, big guy," he said, unable to keep a grin from spreading across his face. He couldn't help it. He had always wanted to say something cool like that.

The monster roared once more. Gadiel threw another ice spear at it to shut it up. Then, the monster leaped at him.

Gadiel dodged for a while, his reflexes quick and his body responsive. Now that he was prepared for battle, he found that his body was actually quite good for it. At least, his body was very good at responding the way he wanted it to, which made it easy to dodge attacks. Maybe it was his dancing skill translating over somehow.

They danced for some time, Gadiel jumping on and weaving between the seats while the monster tore through them with its claws. Gadiel was trying to get his rhythm back; he had spent too much time at the beginning just grabbing its attention, and now that he had it, it was hard to get a good attack in. The monster way just too fast.

Thanks to his reflexes however, Gadiel was starting to get a feel for how the monster moved. He was staring to react quicker, able to almost predict where the monster would swipe. He found that it wasn't that hard; the monster only seemed to know how to swipe madly.

"Hah!"

Gadiel threw an ice spear, grazing its arm. He tutted; he'd meant for it to spear the monster's arm to the wall. He dodged another swipe, leaning back, then coming back in for a punch while the monster recovered.

WHAM!

His fist connected solidly with the monster's upper arm, knocking it back a little. Immediately, Gadiel raised a hand, and focused.

One shot. He had less than a second to make sure to get a clean hit in. He steeled himself, knowing that he would have to go...there.

But instead, he thought about Tarik.

A feeling of warmth suddenly blossomed from within, reaching his back and spreading out. His upper back seemed to become a nexus of some sort of energy.

"ROOO-"

FWWOOOOM!

A blast of fire erupted from Gadiel's hand, immediately burning the monster's face off. It's mane curled up, blackened, until even its skull disintegrated into ashes.

Gadiel blinked, surprised as the monster's body fell to the floor. He looked at his hand, curious.

He had used fire one time before too, back in the library. It seemed like that wasn't just a one-time thing.

That last time, he had been thinking about saving Tarik. This time, he had been thinking about Tarik saving him.

Interesting.

But that could all wait. Gadiel could feel the connection in his stomach pulling him toward where Tarik was, pleading him to go to him.

"I'm on my way," he muttered, and set off.