You Got Another Thing Coming - Part 3

After we kicked the other grey robe’s asses, we watched Andrus and Yarlo continue to duke it out. Both of them looked kinda tired. Yarlo looked over to my group and laughed.

“Ha, ha. My students were bested by the school’s students. I guess I lost this battle.” Yarlo basically teleported to his students, and grabbed them. After that, he was gone in a flash. So much for interrogation.

“Young Emperors, thank you for protecting my back. You have my eternal thanks. If you need some supplies, I have family members and friends that owe me a favor.” Wow, he adopted Lara and Peter!

Another earthquake happened and the hall was echoing with screams and yelling and all that chaotic stuff. We all ran back to the dining hall to see it empty. What the hell?

“Dad! Mom! Where you guys at?” I yelled as loud as possible with voice art. No one.

Suddenly, something flew at us! It was a pillar from the front of the school, and it hit Peter in the back. He yelled and rolled off. Oh shit, did he die?

“Stand back, Gal! Don’t worry about Peter, he’s still breathing. That plate armor is imbued with magic.”

Peter stood up, coughing like he took a hit from a bong. “Don’t worry Gally, I’m still breathing!” Jeez, that gave me a heart attack.

We looked at the asshole who threw the pillar at us. A floating grey robe? She had red hair, blue eyes, and a wicked smile. She picked up another pillar with telekinesis or something and threw it at us. I ran like a headless chicken, while Peter easily blocked them with his shield, and Lara was sending them back with her staff. Andrus was catching the pillars and batting the other pillars away. The grey robe lady flung back the ones that Lara and Andrus sent back, and they ended up playing ping pong with stone pillars.

Another damn grey robe walked up to us with a huge ice axe and he slammed it between me and Peter. I readied my lute, but Peter casted yet another spell and made his shield way bigger. Like the size of Elki. He used the shield to block the ice axe, and he attacked with punches on his other hand. Dude, these dudes are so badass. Even the grey robes. I just play a damn lute, and I know some karate.

A third grey robe entered the room. Actually, the robe kinda looked more like silver. Holy moly, it was Gretchel.

“Hello, young handsome man. I never introduced myself before you ran away. My name is Gretchel Winchest. Nice to meet you.”

“Yo, it was nice to meet you too. I, uh, totally didn’t mean to leave you hanging like that.”

“I don’t understand your words, but I gather that you didn’t mean to leave so soon. I appreciate that. I’m sorry I lied about my kids and my husband. They’re dead.”

“Oh wow, I’m so sorry. What happened?”

“They died during the Huskite War. We lived in the outer district during the golem attacks. Do you know what the guild did?”

“No, I’m just a kid…”

“They paid mercenaries to block the gates to the inner district. I was the only one that made it inside the inner wall.”

“Oh crap, that really sucks. I’m so sorry to hear.”

“They blocked the gates to everyone. They blocked the gates to citizens, and to their own comrades! My husband and my two kids, they were guild mercenaries! They graduated here, and they were left to die in the outer district!”

“Okay, but why are you attacking the school during graduation? None of the graduates here did anything.”

“That is true, but the professors on the other hand…” I feel like this just got more complicated. I can’t believe we’re talking so much while everyone is fighting their asses off.

“What did the professors do?”

“One professor asked the Guildmaster to close the gate. If she hadn’t done that, Joseph, Marli and Earlen would still be alive. I want to punish her for the way she killed thousands of people!”

“I don’t know what happened there, but killing a bunch of students and professors won’t bring them back. I’m so sorry, Gretchel.”

I pulled my lute, and switched my magic off. I played Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. It was kinda weird, playing the lute without magic during a whole battle scene. But I had a feeling that this would calm her down. She wasn’t thinking straight.

“I tried to remove you from this operation, Gally. I thought that I could seduce you easily and hide you away. You are too powerful for a new graduate, and you seem older than what your physical body suggests. You are quite, anomalus, I should say.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. Just call your grey robes off, and I’ll tell you all about my anomalus body.” I could feel Arg agreeing with my choices. Gally, on the other hand, was not down for it.

“Unfortunately, this operation was not my choice. In fact, everyone in the grey robes has a selfish purpose united by this one event. I sense that your party had routed Yarlo earlier. Yarlo is very powerful and very earnest. His goal was to destroy the guild’s power over young minds, and he believed that the death of Principal Barren would save the children. Barren is a powerful guild member, and he invented those diplomas to keep the students attuned to the guild’s causes.”

“Wait, you’re saying that the guild really is mind controlling kids? That’s wack, dude.”

“Indeed, it is ‘wack dude’. No matter. We were here to complete an operation, even if some of the objectives contradict some of our beliefs.”

“Yo, if it contradicts you, don’t do it! I don’t think you really wanna punish everyone, just that one professor, right?”

Gretchel stared at me, and it was pretty obvious that she was thinking hard. Suddenly, a portal opened and Professor Schmutzal walked through. Gretchel turned her eyes towards Prof and frowned harder than I’ve ever seen anyone frown.

“You. I waited for this moment to give you your punishment.”

“Gretchel, I-”

“Don’t speak!” A haze of green and purple covered the air. Just the two colors I would have loved to see in my other life. I started choking though. Was this poison? Yes, it is, Arg said in my mind. Oh crap, I need to stop her.

“Gretchel, stop! You’re hurting a student! If you want to take revenge, fight me!”

The haze was sucked out of my lungs, and it flew right at Prof instead.

“Lamget Schmutzal, you killed my family!” The haze was pouring into Prof’s hands, which had a portal in her hand.

“Gretchel, I know! I made a huge mistake. I’m sorry!”

“You can apologize when you’re frying in Hell. Ars Venoma!” A bunch of spiky tentacles made of plants broke from the floor and circled around the beam of haze. They surrounded Prof’s arms and tore her graduation gown. Her cuts were bleeding hard, and she started getting pale. Damn, I had to do something.

I played Iron Man by Black Sabbath. Prof’s skin started healing, and then the skin began looking like iron scales. The plant spikes broke, and the haze didn’t do anything to her anymore.

“Nice one, Gally. I’ll take it from here. Ars Gravitas!” Several portals opened up in front of her, and they started pulling Gretchel in.

“Of course you’d use your student to win. All you knew how to do was use them and lock them out, right? Commander?”

“Don’t call me that. I was just a pawn they screamed at when they didn’t couldn’t do lift their own weight. They called me the ‘useless girl’ when I disobeyed!”

“Useless girl? You were awfully useful in killing your own comrades.”

“Shut up! I didn’t mean to do it! They told me everyone was safe!”

“They died because of you.”

“You’re making the same mistake as I am! Most of these kids have families waiting for them! Are you going to shut the gate in front of them too? Just to spite me?”

Gretchel froze. She retracted her plants and her haze quickly.

“I-”

“Dude, I literally told you earlier! Why’d you wait until your ass got kicked to listen?”

“It’s different when your target yells at you, Gally. I made the biggest mistake of my life. I promised to never do what the guild wanted me to.” Prof closed her portals. She looked at Gretchel with a sad face. Gretchel looked like a wreck.

“Gretchel, I am living a life to atone for my mistake. Your letter and your visit those years ago had impacted me. I changed the way I viewed the guild from then on. I no longer trust them the way the kingdom or the world does. You changed my life. I promised to myself that as a professor, I aimed to teach my students the right way. I want to teach everyone that they are free to choose their destiny, not the guild.”

“Lamget, what about the diplomas?”

“I knew about the diplomas. I secretly disarmed them for years.”

Gretchel laid there, sighing in relief, and crying. I think Gretchel and Yarlo had the same beliefs or something. If that’s the case, then why did they try to kill the school? That made no sense.

I looked around after the fight. Peter won his fight easily, and Lara and Andrus kicked Carrie’s ass too. You know, like the movie? Arg sighed with his palm on his face.

Prof opened a huge portal from the side, and all of the students and parents flooded back in. My parents, Artium, Scott, and Elki walked in after.

“We missed the party! What in blazes happened here?” My dad was scanning the room like a news camera.

Lara ran to the party. “We managed to kick their ass! Oh, I’m starting to sound like Gally.”

Everyone laughed at that. Even Gretchel.