Chapter 20

"Evacuate now!"

Darkell was soaring through the skies, above Alfea, the magical forest and the wild swamp. His destination: Red Fountain. Just a few minutes ago, Faragonda received an emergency call from Saladin. It seemed he needed another magic user to help him put up magical barriers around the school. So unfortunately, Faragonda thought it was a great idea to send him. This was going to be a pain since him and the old geezer didn't exactly get along.

When Saladin learnt about his partner-to-be for the enchantment, let's just say he wasn't very happy that it was a convicted criminal. But hey, beggars can't be choosers. And on the good side of things, Faragonda had relented on unlocking some of his powers to help him do the enchantment. He felt ten times better now with more magic pulsing through his body.

"Hey you! Down here!" The shout from below stopped him in his tracks. When he turned around to have a view of the voice's owner, he was shocked to see the yellow ogre that worked for the Trix. He was waving his arms around, probably asking him to land. This could be a trap. However he couldn't sense the witches anywhere. And with the amount of power they had now it would probably be impossible not to detect their presence. So he made the decision to softly fly down. And levitated just a few centimeters above the ground. That way he was at eye level with the yellow beast. He was now close enough to notice the small purple duck sitting on its shoulders.

"What do you want?" he inquired while wearing an emotionless mask.

The ogre started playing with his fingers and looking at his feet. He seemed almost shy and unsure of himself. Completely different from the angry and aggressive monster Darkell met a few months ago.

"You see sir, me and the little guy, who chose to leave our old mistresses. We didn't feel right there. So… we were wondering…"

"I see, you are an ogre so you are looking for a new master and that's me right?" he finished for the guy. He had to admit the idea appealed to him, having a big strong ogre as an ally was always good. Even though he wasn't the smartest thing in the world…

"I agree, as long as you follow only my orders and no one else's without my permission, got it?" The young man held out his hand to the big guy, and they sealed the deal.

"So where are we going?" the big guy asked his new master while they were walking through the woods.

"Red fountain. The headmaster asked me to help him protect the school with my magic."

The big guy nodded in understanding and just kept on following his boss in silence. But the latter suddenly stopped and turned around.

"I forgot to ask you…What's your name?"

"It's Nut, sir." He answered surprised by the question.

"Okay Nut, lets go lend a hand to those stupid specialists."

Nut chuckled at his Master's choice of words.

It only took them ten minutes to reach the school's gates. There waiting for them was Saladin and a few of his students. And all of them instantly took out their weapons and surrounded them when they caught sight of the ogre.

One of the boys, that Darkell recognized as Stella's boyfriend, yelled at them.

"That ogre, I know him, he works for the Trix!"

"Yeah, well now the big guy works for me so stand down!" Darkell answered back, irritated by their reaction. Did they really think that he couldn't take care of a simple ogre? If Nut truly was here to attack the school Darkell would have easily killed him on the spot.

" Are you stupid or what? He is the enemy…" the guy didn't know when to quit. And now Darkell was seriously pissed off. He swiftly waved his hand in the air, which led to all their weapons jumping out of their hands and landing a dozen meters away from them.

"That's not the way you should talk to a teacher and I said STAND DOWN! If you just lay one finger on the ogre or his duck I WILL send you flying to the next dimension!"

All the boys and Nut were looking at him with wide eyes. Nut, because no one had ever defended him like that before and the specialists, because they were quite shocked to learn that the young guy in front of them was a teacher.

Saladin caught everyone's attention by knocking his big stick against the floor.

"You heard him boys, the ogre is on our side, now go get your weapons and go back to your positions, we never know when the witches will attack again, we must be prepared."

Darkell was pretty glad that the old farts that decided his sentence a few hundred years ago hadn't sent him here of all places, his sanity wouldn't last in the middle of all these alpha males with muscles for brains. Just the thought made him shiver in disgust.

"I have to admit that I would have liked someone a bit more trustworthy to help me protect my school. But I trust Faragonda's judgement. Now come on I'll show you where we should start the spell." Saladin said calmly without ever looking at him.

The old man led them up some stairs. It seems they would be doing it from Red Fountain's highest tower. A magical circle had already been drawn on the floor. After telling Nut to wait for him on the stairs, Darkell went to join Saladin in the circle. From that position they had a perfect view on the courtyard and all the specialists in formation for battle. Saladin lifted both his arms in the air, one of them was holding his staff. Darkell followed suit. A vibrant red light started rising on Darkell's side and quickly joined the blue light from Saladin's. Both expanded above their heads creating an enormous dome around the school.

As the bicolored light finished covering every tower and wall, a war yell sounded from the forest. They were here. It didn't take long for the courtyard to become a raging battle field. Darkell decided he would be more useful there than on top of a tower so he flew down. He half noticed Nut climbing down the stairs after him.

Darkell chose to use immobilizing curses against the dark monsters and let some of the specialists, including the guy that had called him stupid earlier, make the final blow. But while they were taking care of that they didn't notice a bigger than average monster approaching them from behind. But before the thing could land a hit on one of the guys, Nut came out of nowhere and knocked the monster over.

"Wow, thanks big guy!" one of the specialists thanked him.

"Good job Nut." Darkell congratulated him. The big guy grinned proud of himself.

But out of nowhere an explosion sounded behind them, the stables were on fire. The dragons were able to escape their burning home and were now flying in circles. And what happened next made Darkell stop and stare wide eyed. The magical barrier shattered into little pieces. The instigators of all this were the three Trix's flying a few feet above them. They were cackling their heads off, feeling joy and pride in front of all the chaos they had created.

Their laugh was hurting his poor ears so he chose to put a stop to it now. He ran to the stables. He lifted his hands in front of him. He placed his finger in a complicated pattern and ordered the fire to come to him. And that's what it did. The fire was slowly absorbed by his spell. It would have been much faster if he had his full power. But it was better than nothing. When all the fire was completely gone from the stables and in his fist he turned to the three teenage witches. He placed his fist in front of his lips and blew in it, targeting the flying girls. An enormous blast of fire flew out from his mouth. But the witches avoided it with ease. They were even able to stop all of Saladin's spells. Their cackling grew even louder. An evil smirk appeared on Icy's face. With her new and improved powers she froze over half of Red Fountain's towers. Some of them started crumbling down.

"Evacuate now!" Saladin yelled to his student.

"Climb on the ships and head for Alfea!"

Everybody followed his orders. By group of ten they entered the flying things and blasted off out of the school. Nut seemed lost not knowing where to go until Brandon called him.

"Hey Nut, you can come on our ship!" the ogre smiled in thanks and hoped on. He turned around to his master in confusion when he saw the man wasn't entering any ship.

"Aren't you coming sir?"

"No thanks, I can't stand these hunk of metal, you go on I'll follow by my own means." He explained calmly. He looked behind him and watched in awe the last towers falling to the ground. Things just started to become serious.