RAFEL COULD SEE THE GEEK BOY squirm around in the monster''s throat. The sight of it was disturbing. Rafel had seen Moloch''s pythons swallow whole aurochs in the Hel Amphitheater for the pleasure of the demon crowd; many devils would grab onto their horns in awe and cheer—just as the Romans did with the lions and Judeans, but a living, breathing boy?


    It was altogether a different matter.


    Rafel knew he had just seconds before the boy stopped his struggling and died from suffocation.


    He didn''t know if his Mana Core was yet potent enough and released from the curse of the [Dark Spectre] dagger to pull from, but he did. The alive boy inside the basilisk''s throat didn''t have the time to spare a system''s check. Rafel tried first to conjure a ball of [Helfire]. His n was to st the damn serpent''s throat open.


    Nothing happened in his open palm. Not even a spark.


    Shite.


    ''System! What the fuck just happened?'' Rafel addressed his infernal covenant telepathically.


    [Ding!]


    [Apollyon cannot source from Mana Core due to an inactivation hex present in the revenant globe.]


    Rafel blinked at his system''s response. Of course the Coach Tanaka had ced a magic restriction on the Guild—because it wasn''t enough to tell a bunch of supernaturally abled students not to use their powers. Some kid would still try to outsmart the other with a ndestine word of sorcery.


    He could just keep the basilisk busy, wait out for the guards to arrive. . .if a boy wasn''t in the damned serpent''s throat, on his way to a belly full of juicies so venomous it would liquefy him to rare elements in seconds.


    ''Shit. Time to go old-fashioned then.''


    The creature seemed to know exactly what Rafel was thinking because it hissed and leveled its puke green eyes on him. Basilisks were mythical snake-like, dragon-like beasts with a deadly stare. They could kill with a look strong enough. They were that venomous. A scale off a basilisk''s body could fell a Nubian mammoth.


    Rafel didn''t move under the creature''s stare, and those behind feared it had conquered him.


    But then Rafel blinked. Just like that.


    The basilisk did a doubletake that was almostical to Rafel. ''Oi vay! This ain''t my first rodeo, bitch!'' He smiled thinly in the smelly creature''s face. At the basilisk''s distraction, Rafel dived for one of the brass sculptures. The scaly serpent lunged as he tried to retrieve a longsword out from one of the armored guardians.


    Rafel had to forfeit the sword to dodge the snake''s bite.


    He could survive a basilisk''s deadly stare, but not it''s fangs. Even he knew that.


    Luckily, what the Guildcked in magic it made up for in weapons. It was a throne of arsenals. The nearest silver guardian: a stoically ced full armor ced on a caricature body of wood, meant only for disy and not actualbat; had an axe in its grip.


    "This will do." Rafel pulled it out with a screening noise. It gleamed like a dagger cleaned with lime.


    Rafel had a n. He turned back to the emerging serpent and his gold eyes shimmered. Defense first, then offense. The basilisk screeched and lurched. Thirty seconds before the swallowed boy hit the creature''s belly and it was over. Rafel swiped out of the serpent''s reached.


    He was lightning quick on his feet. He had to be, to parry the strikes of a slitherer.


    The basilisk lunged again.


    Rafel dived under its belly, the top of his head almost scraping the green scales.


    "25 seconds. That was close."


    The monster snake writhed in fury and whipped around. Itshed out with its tail. Rafel jumped over it. Just as Rafel wasnding, it swooped in on him from above. Rafel had to ttened himself on the floor and roll away fast to escape the open mouth full of horrifying teeth and a forked tongue nearly a foot long. He barely missed the second time the basilisk flogged at him with its tail.


    A swift backflip saved him.


    "10 seconds."


    By now, the creature was aggravated enough to thrash the Guild floors with its tail in ire. Your journey continues at m v|l-e''-NovelBin


    "5."


    Putting everything into its body, it curled like a cobra and shot forward, mouth open, fangs dripping ck, straight for Rafel—whom it thought was facing away, and this tired out.


    "Time for offense."


    Rafel grabbed the axe hard. Just as it felt the basilisk''s hot, poison breath on the back of his neck, Rafel swept around so fast he was a blur. He shed out with the axe, putting all of his super strength into the strike. The de cut right through the long fangs.


    The basilisk''s momentum did the rest.


    With the force and velocity in which the serpent had attacked, the axe went right through it, shing from mouth all the way to the tip of its tails. Rafel was bathed in a sludge of shit and stink, drowned in who the fuck knows how much shit water. He stood in a puddle of sewer mess, as the two halves of the divided, slithering serpent body crashed to the floor before him.


    Rafel dropped his axe and caught the boy who fell out the basilisk''s throat.


    Gently, he lowered him. The geek''s sses were already broken. He had fainted. Rafel pumped his belly. He slowly opened his eyes, hurling more bile into Rafel''s face and shirt, but his savior didn''t mind. He already smelled like shit.


    Literally.


    All the [First Years] were pping, rising out from their hiding ces as Rafel stood with the dork kid still in his arms. He didn''t know it yet, but he had made a liegeman for life.


    Coach Tanaka walked to him, equally sharing his brown stench, and collected the pudgy student from his arms. "Thank you, Master Blüdth?rste," she said. "You are no more a runt. I don''t think anyone has proved himself this good in my ss," she added to make him smile.


    The next second, two dozen guards and the Headmistress came barreling in, eyes sharp on the crater and the smelly mess about.


    Fifteen minutester, Rafel was stepping out his shower in a bathrobe. He smelled no longer of shit, but ofvender and shampoo—courtesy of Aya. The subus, Rosa, and Ravenna—who had left her Sophomore ss when she''d heard—sat on his bed. Percival was seated in the chair opposite them.


    As Rafel dried his hair, his friends admired him.


    "You didn''t have to save that boy, but you did," said Ravenna, "this wouldn''t be long forgotten by the institute."


    In the solitude of his dorm room, Rosa said, "I don''t think that was thest we''ll see of sudden attacks. You think it''s mere coincidence that a great snake just pops out an ancient pipe system in the only ce without magic in the entire campus? No, I don''t think so. Basilisks are not that intelligent. Someonemanded the creature on just where to burst out."


    Rafel dropped the towel and fell to the bed, beside his friends. "I agree. Basilisks, beyond mythical creatures are also heralds. Someone did put the creature up to it. The question is, who?"