Two boys falling rapidly.

Through the clouds of dust Minghao managed to trigger an emergency charm before he hit the basement floor. An aura of feathery magic akin to a blanket exploded from his wand and enveloped him within a fraction of a second. Jun fell into the sack of shimmering air that surrounded his friend and was caught by the wizard’s outstretched arms.

They glided down the rest of the way through the dust clouds safely landing in a new area. Minghao glanced affectionately at the boy he held in his arms like a mother might hold a child.

“Minghao?”

“Yes, Junnie?”

“You know I’m a vampire, right?”

“That would never stop me from saving you.”

“Vampires can fly.”

“Oh.”

“Better let me down, before the spell finishes and my weight comes down on your shoulders.”

“Right.”

Back on firm ground, Jun waited for the orb from above to catch up, so he could see what the room held. Already he realized by looking up that the way out was not an easy option anymore. Steel beams and slabs of cement barricaded the path above. Any attempt to blast the rumble away put them in danger of getting a ton of school on their heads. The sooner they left the space right under this deathtrap, the better.

Even before the wizard’s light made it down into the room, Jun heard them. There were multiple beings present, entering from whatever location was nearby. Slowly they came into view. What seemed to be a long abandoned boiler room housed two zombies. More approached like an avalanche. Three, four, a dozen, two dozen. Too many.

They were fully surrounded on all sides.

It was an easy issue for Jun to sidestep. He could always use his natural abilities to escape. A simple 'shadowstride' would make him intangible. But the boy next to him would not be able to cast any appropriate spells fast enough. Fight was the only option Jun considered at all.

Unable to reach the outside of the building via his magic - due to the manastorm - he had to rely on the only weapon bound to his body. The black dadao slid from abstract swordspace into his hand. He waved at the nearest foe and, without feeling more resistance than he would from paper, he hacked right through the neck.

As the undead head rolled to his feet, Minghao came to his senses. Before the beheaded body hit the floor, he was already slashing the air frantically, throwing the generic mid-range attack charm. Like roman candles, spark shooting magic bullets rushed into the crowd. They flew along curved orbits, spiraling uncontrolled past his ally. But his sloppy, untrained aim didn’t matter. With zombies taking up every available space in the room, each hit landed on something.

Jun recognized the smell of ozone and the sight of freely spraying sparks. Stray magic escaped in all directions. Minghao wasn’t used to attacking and so his spells were wasteful. The boy would burn himself out sooner rather than later.

The room lit up with rapid flashes as the attacks smacked into undead body parts. Jun stabbed one more zombie in the chest and kicked it into the oncoming ones. He had to calm the wizard down. “You need to focus more. I’ll ward them off. Just pick off the ones closest. They’re not fast, just numerous.”

Minghao’s relentless attack pattern ceased for a moment and the boy did what he did best: Support Jun. While the vampire kept prodding and poking, walking a tight circle around his friend, he heard the wizard murmur analytics.

“Jun, those aren’t common zombies. This one has the signature of a Regretor. There’s something that binds it to regrets. That is its source-trauma.”

“I can work with that,” said Jun and growled as he attuned himself to the emotion. One slice of his sword could bring down the entire horde if he managed his attunement correctly. He wound up his motion in anticipation, doing his best to harmonize the sword and his mind. One powerful swing at superhuman speed sent a black disturbance around him in an arc, slamming into every zombie in a half circle.

Three of the monsters randomly crumbled into dusty heaps as the dark line sliced their torsos apart. The rest of the hoard was barely knocked back, before advancing again, with unchanged speed.

“What? No, they should all have been destroyed. Minghao, what did I do wrong?”

“I can’t believe it,” yelled the wizard over the increasingly loud groans, “There’s a Griefor. And that one’s an Anguishor. And…and…”

“How can so many zombies coexist? What’s the source?”

Hacking away as fast as he could, Jun kept the circle around his friend clear, but the assault was too strong. More and more thin, frail hands tugged and pulled on Minghao’s dust-covered robes. The boy jumped back and forth as the available space shifted around him, always shrinking. His analysis charms spun dimly glowing, green webs around his upper body.

“Jun! I figured it out. They’re all subclasses of the Forgettor. Their creation-trauma is memory related.”

“Got it!”

The vampire allowed himself a second’s rest to attune his dark soul and the bound weapon anew. He felt the satisfying vibrations in the shaft as the blade resonated with the incredible amount of enemies in front of him – and behind him, and everywhere else.

Minghao yelled in surprise as one of the monsters lashed out and slipped through the unfinished defense charm the boy had been invoking. He stumbled back, the zombie on top, slicing away at his school uniform with surprising strength.

A pitch black darkness, shining bright.

Through the unnatural non-light, Jun turned his head to look away, as he stood his ground, legs firm against the blast emanating from his dadao.

As the zombies littered the floor, their body parts joining the debris, his vision returned to normal.

“Minghao!”

Jun tore the remnants of the zombie – its dismembered hands still clinging to the wizard’s collar – off the younger boy and bent down to see if there were any injuries.

Letting the vampire help him up, Minghao made sure he wasn’t bleeding. “I think I’m okay. It took me by surprise, but I kept it at bay until you saved me. Thank you, hyung.”

“Oh don’t mention it.”

“No really, thank-“

“No, really don’t mention it. Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“I’m okay. My shirt didn’t make it out unharmed, though.”

“Yeah…”

The rags hanging off the wizard framed his incredibly firm abs. Jun had never noticed them. Even though they were always around each other, their species specific lifestyles didn’t ever have them meet up in the dorm’s showers. Maybe it was the soft glow from the orange orb, shining directly from above, but he could have sworn that those abs were cut much deeper than the last time he had seen them, quite a few month ago. Jun had to shake his head to clear his mind – unsuccessfully.

Noises alerted him. More zombies were on their way. He was rather drained for the moment and continued attacks were not sustainable. Seeing the look of worry and mild panic in his friend eyes, the older boy decided to take charge.

“Let’s get out of here.” Jun grabbed Minghao, swinging him into his arms like a small child, and rushed out of the room at vampiric speed, his superior vision allowing him to gracefully avoid all obstacles in the dark.

Finding themselves in a basement corridor, they took a precious moment to gather their orientation.

The wizard realized where the next zombie hoard was coming from and pointed his wand. The doorway wobbled that way no solid substance would and after mere seconds the hole in the wall narrowed as if the walls were warm wax being reformed. When the doorway had melted small enough to disallow any zombies to pass through, Jun moved on, carrying Minghao with him to the exit he had spotted in the meantime.

Once upon a time the stairwell had been the connection to the ground floor. It had collapsed some time ago, but the hole to upstairs was unblocked. That was all Jun needed.

He pushed gently off the ground, as to not startle the boy in his arms. Flying toward the exit, Jun looked down onto the face that stared back with unveiled adoration.

“Hyung?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think we’ll be okay?”

“I promise.”

They landed on the ground floor, their light catching up quickly. With less dust and detritus around and a faint glow through far away windows, the sight was much better. Both boys sighed quietly as they failed to spot any monsters in the immediate surrounding.

The corridor seemed like any other in the institution they were used to, except abandoned. Minghao created more lights that spread out across the hallway. The strange, wind-like manaflux was felt by both of them, causing continuous goosebumps.

“It feels like this storm is pulling magic up and further inward,” mumbled Minghao to himself as he let a few stray shots of magic escape into the air.

As their eyes got used to the dimness well enough to read small letters, things took a confusing turn.

“Well,” Jun said, “this is weird.”