The true infected that was in the training hall with them was different from the true infected that Ray had seen or faced before. This one was able to levitate, shoot out dark energy, and also control the shadows a lot better.

  Ray thought back to how the True infected were created in the first place, the fact that they were made form infected humans who the shadow believed were strong, maybe because Ray was at Avrion all the True infected he had seen came from past Knights, and this one was a mage.

  Mage's were rarer in the first place, so it made sense to see less of them and it also seemed like this one was a lot stronger.

  As the true infected flew past the professor, it had its target in sight. It lifted up its hand and out came a burst of dark energy heading straight for Van.

  The attack was too fast for the professors to react and even if they did, they could feel the strong power coming from the attack.

  Van stood there motionless with nothing to do but wait for the attack to hit him. He closed his eyes and waited but the pain he was expecting never came.

  "Van!" Bliss shouted.

  Everyone turned to see what had happened and stood in front of Van was Ray. He had taken the strike head-on and allowed it to just hit his body. The blow hurt but Ray was strong enough to take something like this.

  The group looked at Ray surprised, he had just received an attack from a true infected yet there wasn't a scratch on him. Even the true infected had paused as this was a first for him.

  Ray grabbed his forearm where the attack had landed, there was the tiniest of marks that had appeared.

  "I was right, it looks like the one they're after is Van."

  The professors turned the head they looked at Ray standing there in disbelief.

  "How were you able to withstand the attack?" Flynn asked.

  "Now is not the time to look away," Springett said as she kept an eye on the true infected.

  "How are we meant to beat this thing?" Flynn asked, "It looks like physical attacks don't work on It, the shadows just reform."

  "Did you not look at the report that had come from Avrion, we need to find the heart."

  *****

  While the professors were busy dealing with the true infected the upper-class students were trying their best to calm down and help the lower-class students. Since the exit was blocked, they tried to move them away from the magic circle and as close to the outside walls as possible.

  One of the upper-class students, had a single earing on his left ear, his hair was swept back in a ponytail and he had fierce eyes. His name was Loot and he was taking charge of the lower-class students for now.

  Once most of the first years were safely away from the true infected and out of the circle, the upper-class students were deciding what to do.

  "Should we help out the professors?" Loot asked.

  "No just leave them be." Blake said, "The exit's blocked and it's not like we can go anywhere, the professors should be able to deal with it soon."

  The group looked at the circle, the crystal in the middle was no longer shining brightly but was now black in colour and shadows were swirling around the whole thing.

  "Yeah, perhaps the best thing to do is not act and just wait." Loot replied.

  But suddenly one of the shadows from the crystal reached out, it took the shape of a hand and came at lightning speed grabbing Blake by the head, then it started to pull him towards the circle.

  More hands started to appear form the crystal, it started to reach out and grab several students around it, pulling them all into the magic circle.

  "It's like it's alive and why does it one us to go in the circle so bad?" As a hand came out to reach for Loot, he started to do a chant and at the last second a circle portal appeared. The hand went into the portal and when it closed, the shadow hand was chopped off and half of it had disappeared into the portal.

  Blake, on the other hand, was struggling against the shadow, he tried his best to resist and bought himself some time, but the shadow continued to drag him in and when he had finally reached the circle part of the magic circle, it lit up and after a few seconds Blake was nowhere to be seen.

  The hand's continued to drag the other lower-class students into the circle and the same thing was happening to them, each of them were being teleported one by one.

  The Professors could no longer take their time dealing with the true infected. Springett drew her sword.

  "Breakthrough."

  As the energy around her got stronger and entered inside her body, a faint outline was seen and her hair had started to move about like a snake.

  She lunged forward and swung her sword out once again, this time when the attack had hit the infected, a large screeching sound was heard with it. When looking closely at the sword, small vibrations could be seen with it.

  The True infected had been completely sliced in half by her sound wave attack.

  "Look the professors did it!" Max shouted.

  "No!" Ray said, "They need to get rid of the heart."

  Just then the shadows started to reform and attach itself. It pulled the two halves of its body together until it was once again whole.

  With the last attack, it seemed like the True infected was filled with anger and at the same time, the shadows surrounding the Crystal reacted. Thousands of large and small black hands came shooting out from the crystal grabbing the remaining students and pulling them in.

  "There too many of them!" Loot said, "Not even my space magic can save me."

  Then before he knew it, he and the rest of the lower class students had been pulled in and teleported to someplace else.