"Please! Help us!" One of the students, aged 13, shrilled in panic as she banged on the misty sphere.
However, despite being made out of mist, the sphere seemed tougher than rocks, unbudging in the slightest at her hits.
"Move," An older student, aged 14, grunted and used Mystic Mist Arts on the mist before him, intending to take control over it.
An Ocean!
Even though his psychokinesis tried to refine the mist into his Spirit Weapon, it felt like trying to control an ocean. The power of psychokinesis infused within the misty sphere dwarfed his by a magnitude he couldn't ever dream of attaining.
"J-Join me!" The student roared upon coming to terms with the situation, "Combined, we'll be able to break through…"
Click! P-Pop!
A distinctive clicking sound resounded, akin to bubbles bursting softly with a rhythm. The 14-year-old student swerved his head nervously, noticing a Troitail at the bottommost section of the stands.
Slowly, as water flooded the stadium section, it reached ankle length across the entirety of the island's surface. Though there was water, it wasn't enough for the Troitail, an aquatic Pranic Beast, to survive.
It had two options here to stay on land. First was to forget about breathing. The issues brought about by this would be taken care of by its Prana, with the expenditure equivalent to the degree of problems ranging across organ failure, lack of oxygen in the blood, etc.
It would remain healthy, able to move without any issues until its Prana was expended. Post that, it would straight up drop dead.
The second option was to create an environment where it could survive without wasting its Prana. This was the option it had chosen.
One of the scales on its body burst, spraying out water like a geyser that descended as rain. The column of water uniformly cascaded upon its body, during which the Troitail absorbed the maximum possible air that had been mixed in the water.
Now prepared, the Troitail rushed towards the closest student. A bluish-purple streak flashed like an arrow from its body, curving around in a helical pattern as it converged upon the 14-year-old student.
"Hiek!" He shrieked for a moment before hurriedly pulling up a film of water to protect himself.
The scale stabbed into the film of water and began to slow down. But a second later, it spun and punctured a way through, "S-Stop it!"
"Hel…" Those were his last words, as the scale stuck to his forehead and exploded, spewing out 800 litres of water. The sheer release of the water pressure caused an impact radius of a couple metres, turning bloody as the student's blood and brainmatter mixed into it.
"AAHHH!"
"INSTRUCTORS!"
"SAVE USSSSSS!" The nearby students screeched in horror, watching the 14-year-old student's head now sporting a caved-in hole, with rough ribbons of his skin dangling across his body, peeled by the water pressure.
His body stood at the spot for a couple seconds as the exploded water poured over. When the water fell on the stands and flowed down, they slammed into his legs, buckling him into the stream that washed him down the stands.
As the student's corpse was carried by the stream of water, falling down one step after another on the stands, the surviving students screamed in horror.
Soon, the 14-year-old student's corpse reached the stadium's floor, where the Troitail–that had killed him–gorped upon his corpse. Once the student's corpse gets digested in its stomach, it would replenish its Prana.
There was silence for thirty seconds, until the Troitail had its fill.
Then, it lifted its head and eyed the rest of the students huddled at the top of the stands. Opening its mouth, it produced clicking sounds, communicating with its brethren.
A few seconds later, over a couple dozen Troitails arrived at the bottom of the stands. Accompanying every Troitail was a scale that flew towards the students.
The scales, each containing 800 litres of compressed water, were treated as their Spirit Weapon. They promptly drilled through the defensive structures raised by the students and exploded upon sticking to their foreheads.
Every explosion killed a student, as a stream of water cascaded down the stands like a waterfall.
The Troitails didn't climb the stands but instead remained at the bottom, using their Spirit Weapons to explode and flush down the students to their mouths.
One of the Troitails used its psychokinesis to carry a scale forward, targeting a student standing at the top of the stands. Thanks to its focus, it failed to notice a student had appeared on its back, placing a hand on one of its scales.
"You know," The student gently brushed his palm on the scale, sensing four scales flying his way, launched by the nearby Troitails. "Contained in these scales is water."
"And we," He grinned, having already gained control over the water within one of the scales. He purposefully skewed the water pressure in a certain direction, concentrating it to a spot the size of a pinhole, until it burst out, "...dominate water."
The water ejected out like a jet and wriggled around once, accurately drawing an arc in the air that purposefully targeted the four scales incoming his way. The scales were swatted away, which disoriented the control of the respective Troitail over it and resulted in their explosions, far away from their target.
"Controlling more than one Spirit Weapon increases Prana consumption exponentially. It's one of the first lessons taught here." The student chuckled as his palms brushed across the Troitail's back, absorbing the moisture content from the contact flesh. "When you're moving a scale through the air, the ones on your back become very…very vulnerable."
The moisture expanded like a blade and ejected over ten scales, which the student grabbed using a water whip.
These scales were lodged across the length of the water whip. And once he lashed it out, they flew out and splashed across the place, promptly exploding moments later. The explosions harmed over six Troitails.
The student rolled to the side and plucked out another scale. Once he refined the water within, he ejected it out in the form of a narrow jet of water, lasering a Troitail's head.
The student was merely 12 years old, but had already amassed over 80 units of Prana. Right as he intended to continue fighting, his skin prickled. Swearing his head, he noticed a horde of Troitails rushing towards the stands, 'That's beyond what I can handle.'
"You're on your own, seniors." He eyed the survivors on the stands and skated across the water-covered floor, quickly heading towards the dorms. He held a scale in his hand, intending to use it to protect himself from Troitail ambushes.
The water under his feet formed a wave and propelled him forward. The wave turned into a gentle geyser and launched him into the air, causing the student to land on the windowsill of a room on the second floor.
He promptly jumped through the window and closed it shut behind him, going into hiding.
At the same time, situated within one of the rooms on the third floor that had the most unfortunate room placement of all was Torq. Seated upon his bed, he closed his eyes and exhaled softly.
A second later, the Boiboi Pet appeared before him, ready to fight. As his senses were fully synchronised with the Boiboi Pet, Torq didn't need to stress much. He controlled the Boiboi Pet to open the door and close it shut behind him.
Arriving in the corridor, the Boiboi Pet surveyed the surroundings, 'Most of the students have locked themselves in their rooms.'
'As for the Troitails?' It expanded its senses, and once its skin prickled in response, the Boiboi Pet revealed a mild smirk and began gathering moisture content from the air. Water condensed on the feet, providing a cushioning space.
The layer of water was a couple centimetre thick, bouncing like jelly as the Boiboi Pet shifted its weight, behaving just like a vehicle's suspension system. "It's working well."
Like how the continuous track of a tank moved, the water forming Boiboi Pet's shoe moved in a circular manner, from toe tips to the ankle, and back to the toes, generating thrust that carried the body forward.
"Now, let's refine some medicine." With that, the Boiboi Pet began to skate through the corridor, making a beeline towards the Troitails that were about to enter the dorm.