There was no incantation—just a subconscious wave of the wand in the face of danger, driven by the simple desire to kill the Komodo dragon in front of him. It wasn't anything special or calculated, and Rey certainly hadn't planned on using a specific spell. Yet, under those circumstances, a razor-sharp wind blade formed with the wave of his wand.
As the purplish-black wand swung downward, the wind blade followed the motion, slicing through the pouncing lizard. To Rey, the crescent-shaped blade looked like nothing more than a tiny ripple in the air. But that dynamic ripple sliced the fully grown, three-meter-long lizard clean in two. The wind blade vanished immediately after cutting through the body, as if it had never existed.
The surge of magic inside him ceased instantly. Staring at the two bleeding halves of the lizard on the floor, Rey was stunned. "I actually used magic!" Before the shock could fully fade, he immediately tried to sense the magic within him again. He could feel it, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't cast a spell like he just did. That moment just now might have been a one-in-a-million fluke.
---
screams of pain from the rapidly growing lizards filled the room, and the students, unable to withstand the fear any longer, finally opened the classroom door. Doric, looking like a walking corpse, walked in just as he had hoped, scaring the students into a huddled mass in the corner. Doric entered first, with Dorsey following close behind. Since the lizards had fully grown, the two men naturally became targets upon entering. However, Doric didn't even need magic; he took out the pouncing lizards with his bare hands. As for Dorsey, the young Auror, handling a few lizards was a piece of cake.
Rey and Agnes were standing in the aisle, separated from the other students. After entering, Doric walked straight toward them, while the two retreated to the blackboard, wands drawn. "I want you. If you don't want your little girlfriend getting hurt, come with me quietly..." Without wasting any pleasantries, Doric stated his goal directly. Agnes didn't speak, but she glanced at Rey awkwardly.
"You just want my blood, right?" Rey didn't answer directly but countered with a question; he knew Doric's objective all too well. Doric didn't know that Rey couldn't use magic at will right now. Rey's goal was simply to stall for time until other professors arrived. On the surface, he asked calmly, but inside, he was burning with anxiety. For some reason, with so many professors at the school, not a single one was visible, and no one had come to help. Had they conveniently forgotten that there was a Transfiguration classroom full of students here?
"Exactly. I just want your blood. Who told your blood to be the thing that could make me a living vampire..." Doric smiled creepily. His words stunned Dorsey behind him; clearly, the young Auror hadn't expected this outcome. The senior Auror he worshipped had turned out to be one of the dark creatures.
"Do you want revenge, Dorsey? As soon as I get this kid's blood, you can possess the strength of a vampire and the magic of a wizard. You'll naturally get your revenge." Sensing the shift in Dorsey behind him, Doric offered a seductive promise. The words seemed to strike a chord in Dorsey's heart; he paused for a moment, gritted his teeth, and said, "What do you need me to do, sir?" Everyone has a past, and clearly, Dorsey's was being exploited by his superior. "Simple. Get me outside the school grounds, then Side-Along Apparate me away," Doric replied with a smile.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Doric pushed off the ground and launched a sudden attack on Rey. Vampires move fast, and his current speed seemed even faster than a typical vampire's. He must have put in some serious work over the last four months to master that speed.
---
Doric's figure vanished in a blur. Crossing the distance of less than ten meters, Rey saw only a trail of afterimages. Rey was no longer the rookie he was when he first enrolled; his few years of study a millennium ago weren't wasted. Although Doric was fast, Rey could react. He swung his wand hard toward the spot where Doric was preparing to stop. Rey's movement was swift and unexpected, causing Doric to instinctively try to dodge the wand.
Startled, Doric tried to evade, but then forced his body to grab at Rey again because... Rey's spell failed. In Doric's eyes, although he didn't know why Rey's magic fizzled, this was undoubtedly his best chance to capture the boy.
"Stupefy!"
Rey's magic failed, but Agnes could still cast. Even though she couldn't see Doric's figure clearly, her instincts allowed her to aim roughly. However, her reaction was a beat too slow; the spell fired, but it missed. By now, Doric was less than half a meter away, close enough to reach out and grab Rey.
Grab Rey, jump out of the castle window. As long as they got out of Hogwarts, he could have Dorsey use Apparition. A triumphant smirk appeared on Doric's face; although Rey tried to dodge, he wasn't fast enough. Doric's hand touched Rey's clothes, his fingers hooked like claws, reaching with full force for Rey's shoulder. If he grabbed on, he intended to crush Rey's shoulder bone.
However, the moment Doric's fingers made contact, an inexplicable wall of air blasted out from behind Rey. From Doric's perspective, he could clearly see this sudden barrier. The "wall" was dense, compressed air that passed through Rey as if he were nothing, slamming directly into Doric's face. It passed through Rey instantly, knocking away Doric's hand first, then his entire body.
The rebound force of the air wall was massive, and Doric had been charging at high speed. Under this impact, Doric felt his face go numb and his head feel heavy as if bludgeoned, and his body was sent flying backward uncontrollably.
Bang!
Doric slammed into the wall next to the wooden door with a dull, heavy thud. Even though he was a vampire with a body a hundred times stronger than a human's, the heavy impact left him unable to stand up immediately.
---
Doric shook his dizzy, ringing head, completely confused about how that air wall had appeared. He didn't know, and Rey, who watched Doric get blasted away, didn't know either. But one thing Rey was certain of: he didn't cast that wall.
While Rey was still in shock, the air shimmered in the empty space beside him. An invisibility barrier lifted, revealing a figure, and a voice filled with deep disappointment spoke out.
"Doric, my old friend! I didn't expect this to be your final choice."