Raven hid, listening to the animalistic snarls of her former student. Beside her, Otto, Laura, Shelby and Lucy, armed to the teeth, listened for the telltale Sh-i-ik sound his claws made on the concrete. Lucy peered slightly out from their hiding spot to beckon to two black-clad figures hanging from the rafters. As the smaller of the two lowered himself down to the creature below him, a shadow fell over her, and in a flash of bloody violence, she lost her head. Her body dissolved.

"Shit...shit...shit..." Raven repeated over and over under her breath. It had been completely her fault. The twin half-demons who had just beheaded Lucy snickered and exploded into tiny puffs of black smoke. What with their major assignment, she had completely forgotten about the annoying creatures.

Wait...what? half-demons were only that: annoying. They did not, however, go around beheading people. She realized what they were, and gestured for Otto to lean over. He was her best student when it came to these things, one of the few who actually beleived in these creatures.

"They aren't actual half-demons. These things were created by him." she whispered. His eyes widened, and he nodded, swallowing nervously.

"Not illusions, so...sorcery?"

"Probably."

"All right. Laura and I will deal with them, you guys help out Nigel and Franz with taking him down." the squad all nodded, terrified.

Raven peered around the edge of the bin they were hiding under. Her breath got caught in her throat as she found herself looking into his eyes. She could have sworn he was grinning at her. Wait..he was! That bastard...

She managed one last word before her head was removed from her shoulders.

"Fuck."

The creature bounded over her, claws out and teeth bared. He made short work of the remaining squad members. He stalked toward the last one, Otto. His best friend. Otto raised his gun to shoot. He never got there. Nigel and Franz, who had not even had the time to react to the violence below, to save their squad members, both shot at the creature below. The bullets carved paths in his perfect white skin. He hissed, pain, fury (and maybe a little humiliation?) in his eyes. The duo switched to pure silver bullets, slicked with human blood. They began to shoot again. He screeched with agony, and finally collapsed. The scenario dissolved, and they all found themselves lying on the floor. Lucy and Raven rubbed their necks, while Laura and Shelby both got up, grumbling about the pain. Otto stood, grinning, and walked across the room to help pick Nigel, Franz, and Wing off the floor. Nigel and Franz gave Wing a suspicious look.

"You really seem to like ripping us all up. It sort of creepy, dude."

Wing reddened a bit, embarassed. "I do not enjoy it, as such...but I now understand why my kin joined the Hunt. That kind of bloodlust is..." he struggled with the word for a moment. "Insane. They are all...insane." he was still shaking from the madness that had been forced upon him. Otto looked sympathetically at his best friend.

His friend was not a human. Four weeks ago, on his sixteenth birthday, Wing had come to age. That was all they had been told, because the fact that his family were all dead had assured they did not know what exactly he was. Well, Wing did, but he was not allowed by law of his kind to reveal that information. Raven and Nero decided that hiding from the magical world, (which they had known existed long before they met Wing) was the wrong way to go about dealing with this. So, everyone was taught about magic and common magical creatures-how to deal with the dangerous ones, and how not to offend the rest. Everyone thought that Nero had lost his mind completely when this was revealed. Well, up until the time when the Gryphon got in. Now everyone was a believer.

Laura, Wing, Shelby and Otto started walking to Villainy Studies, still chatting about what each other should have done to stop the mauling, while Wing simply shook his head, laughing at his friends. Otto nearly tripped as his friend's tail wrapped itself around his leg. He flushed as Wing grabbed his hand, smirking. He pulled his hand out of Wing's grip and walked ahead of them, worried his friend might start getting other ideas. He shook the tail off.

All in all, life at the Higher Institute of Villainous Education was starting to get very interesting.