Highfield Academy - Revenge of The Crows

In two days the friendly Rang match was to be played, only this time it involved a school from Japan, and they were ranked as seventh in the Rang hall of fame. It was therefore looked upon as an easy match and Highfield wrongly thought there was no need to be overly concerned.

It was a friendly match and no points in the ranking table were at risk other than one’s reputation, also the Highfield teachers had been affected by the king Litch and unbeknown to them exposed to an outside influence.

In that time, the Litch had used Turin as a vessel in which he could work through and had taught the students extremely dangerous spells under the disguise as defence against dark arts, and basic attack protection measures to ensure one’s safety.

It had been subtly undertaken and as such other teachers unaffected by the Litch had not realised what was happening. Those teachers who had been affected only reinforced this action and it further strengthened the student’s belief and understanding that nothing was wrong.

When Roger Hogeboom further enforced these spell’s and cast confusion upon the students so that they genuinely thought they were casting one spell, only to be casting a very dangerous dark spell, it further cemented their mind set into using this knowledge during the Rang match.

Merlin had realised something had affected his teachers and through a process of illumination had eventually concluded it was a shade and a form of possession which also then explained the loss of memory when the shade vacated the host transferring into another subject.

Death was summoned and he appeared immediately and as Mr Claws was now in the infirmary through memory loss, Merlin knew the shade had taken on a further subject, sadly it was Roger Hogeboom and Death viewed into the man’s soul recognising immediately the intruder within. Turin had been caught and the Litch realised the danger and immediately terminated both Turin and Roger Hogeboom’s life.

Only Death had for the briefest of moments seen and recognised the Litch but had not been quick enough to have caught him. Immediately the school’s defences had locked down, yet it was too late to save Rogers life.

However, Death took hold of Turin and held him captive, he might have been dead, but Death controlled all forms of death and all that it implied, nothing once within his grasp could pass further until Death released his hold.

No matter how much Turin protested and screamed Death looked at him and started to read the shades previous actions, when Death ascertained what it had been doing the friendly match of Rang had already started, and Roger Hogeboom’s death had not been reported, as to not upset the students.

On realising how Turin had gained entry, Death’s anger grew realising his precious daughter had been duped and was innocently responsible for bringing in this insidious shade during a weekend visit to Highfield Academy.

It was then Merlin and the other teachers were interrupted by screams and a terrified call for help, as some of the Japanese’s students started to die, immediately the teachers responsible for the Japanese students were forced to defend their charges and this in turn evoked Miss Tianna and Miss Catherine to defend the Highfield students, who although they had cast such evil and forbidden spells, were unaware of their actions.

Sadly however, Paula and Jisalder lay dead from retaliatory strikes from the Japanese side before calm could be established. Merlin had to hold the entire academy and all within in a stasis spell preventing further retaliation. And only with the help of Michael was Merlin able to release one subject at a time and separately encase them in a ball of magical energy to prevent further retaliation.

It was a mess on a mega scale, as five students lay dead and at least twenty injured, some seriously, and the Japanese quite rightly believing they had been manipulated and duped, and that Highfield had declared war upon their students.

Although this was far from the truth, until it was explained why this had happened, the Japanese had no reason than to believe that which they had seen. Welcome Hubble bubble and toil these two are trouble became the saying among the Japanese students, referring to both Joshua and Tim, as regardless of how guilty or innocent they were for their actions. It was they who had committed unintentional acts of murder.

The fact that neither student had consciously murdered anyone and be lived they were simply using skills taught to them by Roger Hogeboom, so in their minds they could not understand how these events had unfolded and how the Litch had voluntarily offered its service to the fallen Seraph and brought about a revenge attack and a major international incident which almost brought about another war.

It was only the direct intervention of the Fay Queen, backed by Michael and the testimony given by Turin that eventually brought understanding and calm. Yet by then the damage was done, and the international image of Highfield Academy had been irretrievably damaged.

Also, regardless of their intent, both Joshua and Tim had to be held accountable for their actions and had to face an international Fay Court of wizards to give an account for their actions. And as both students had no knowledge of what had transpired, nor would they have intentionally killed a fellow student in a friendly match of Rang, it was difficult for them to even understand why they were been held prisoners and accountable.

Yet they were and Merlin along with Miss Tianna and Miss Catherine had to explain their actions. It was Merlin who was appointed to defend the students.

“I agree a crime was committed and you have every right to seek retribution on those responsible. That said, it was not as open and closed as you believe. As these two students are innocent of any intentional harm and guilty of only blindly following the teachings of their tutors who unbeknown to them were in fact possessed by a shade under king Litch’s control,” stated Merlin.

The Chinses protested yet the evidence proved conclusively that Merlin’s statement was true, and Merlin further interjected that if they preferred to contest the evidence then they were welcome to call Death a liar and confront him. When Death stood up and walked over to the Chinses delegations’ side, they rather quickly withdrew their comments.

Only Death refused to leave it there as a point of honour and in front of the entire international Royal Court he summoned his prisoner Turin and had him screaming in agony as he once again explained his crimes. Only the Japanese were utterly terrified by the nine-foot tall skeletal figure before them dressed in a black cloak and holding a weapon of death almost as tall as himself.

“Gentlemen you dishonour me and call into question my testimony, I shall remember you when my service are required in the future,” he said and the Japanese delegation backed away knowing not even Lucido the fallen Seraph was brave enough to take on Death in a full confrontation.

Yet to the two students mind, they were bewildered and confused as to what they had done and why they had to under international law be held accountable for their actions. Even then it was only when Michael had appeared and offered to hold the students to ensure no reactionary punishment was inflicted upon them, did the international Courts agree to this for the student’s safety.

Soon the Japanese authorities started to question as to why the Dryads had not realised something was wrong, and it was only then that they realised Lucido had gifted the Litch with abilities to shield the Dryads from understanding in full that something was out of order.

To be fare several of the Dryads had reported unusual behaviour but had not been able to be specific in explaining any immediate danger or anything other than a supposed risk which could simply be put down to over work and stress.

As such these were over looked and not acted upon until it was too late, and by then deaths and serious injuries had accord. The incident had embarrassed the school and even Queen La-Fay felt responsible that this avenue of attack had not been foreseen, as such many were accountable for their actions, yet it was agreed no one other than Lucido and the Litch were directly responsible for the death of innocent lives.

Joshua and Tim seven weeks after the incident were released from custody and allowed to return to their school, only now once out of stasis they had to cope with their own emotional reactions of what they had done and the loss of Paula and Jisalder.