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And here's Chapter 12! I'm super sorry if the lateness bothered anyone! Family issues, bad internet, and my laziness held me back.....(especially that new game, curse that new game) But I'm back, and I'll try to turn in these stories earlier now! Read, enjoy, and please comment if you liked it, or see any points to improve on!

Chapter 12: Potion ingredients

A shadow sat in a chair, facing multiple computer screens. The shadow rapidly clicked through the screens, and then came to a stop, on a single figure.

"The last piece..... With him, I'd complete my life's work, and show the world true strength!" the shadow laughed hysterically. Behind the shadow, the walls were bloody, with bodies littered around the floor. In the middle of the room, a red liquid bubbled in a cauldron. The figure clicked rapidly, printing a piece of paper. The figure went over to a wall, where several pins held printed pictures together. When the figure stepped away from the walls, a picture of a white tiger adorned the wall.

When Will woke up, he felt odd. He could've sworn that he had forgotten something important, but he couldn't remember forgetting anything. And he had a continuing headache.

"Hey, you're gonna be late." Jake casually spoke to Will as the wolf packed his bags. Will shook his head, and leaped down from the bed. After all, today's schedule involved swords, something Will was actually good at.

Unknown hours later

"Right. You all are here to be a swordsbeast, instead of magicians. That means that all of you can use Spirit, more than magicians can safely handle. Because of that, we'll be progressing directly to the tougher techniques." a burly tiger spoke in front of a crowd. The crowd numbered somewhere around 30 or so. While most were burly, several, like Will, were on the lean side. Will knew from personal experience that most swordsman varied between hit-and-run types, or the types that relied on armor for defense. Most of them had swords strapped to their waists, or at their back.

"Now then, I assume that you all know the basic Spirit manipulation techniques from last year?" the teacher spoke up, followed my muttered replies of agreement. "Then, we'll first start by going over the basic techniques." At the command, the class picked up their swords(or summoned them, depending on their ability to create Ideas), and started to follow the moves that the teacher showed. To Will's surprise, many of the techniques were actually quite similar to the ones he learned before. Before Will could think any farther, the teacher started to split the students into pairs, for sparring.

"McKnight, you're with Kampbell." the teacher barked out, pointing to a husky standing nearby. Again, he was bigger than Will, wielding a sword almost 4 feet long. He towered over Will, who slowly walked over to the husky.

"Hey. I haven't seen you before. You're new, right? Ever had Spirit manipulation lessons?" the husky's voice was rather rough, but it was kind. When Will nodded, the husky suddenly looked a little mortified. "Damn, am I making you nervous? Sorry. Lots of people act like that."

"No, it's okay. I just felt a bit nervous. I mean, we're going to fight with real weapons. What if we hurt each other?" Will asked nervously. At Will's words, the husky looked rather surprised. "Don't you know how to dull your weapons?"

"No, I've never had to do something like that. So I don't know something like that." Will replied. The husky scratched his chin. "Well, usually we use this." He pointed at the hilt of the sword, where there was a small crystal attached. The crystal gave a faint red glow.

"What's that?" Will asked, taking a closer look.

"It's a crystal infused with mana. It also automatically casts a spell that dulls our weapons, and makes sure that any Spirit attacks disperse as soon as they hit our bodies." the husky explained, taking one from his pocket. Will attached it to his blades. When he pressed the edge against his finger, the edge didn't cut him.

"By the way, Kampbell is a family name, right? What's your name?" Will asked as the two took a stance. Will held his swords in a reverse grip, while the husky held his gigantic sword in a sideways stance.

"Karlson. But everyone calls me Karl. I find that easier as well."

"Begin!" the teacher shouted. Will had a second to notice everyone swinging into motion as Karl leapt forward, dealing a heavy thrust. Will leapt out of his way, and slashed with one of his swords, creating a crescent. Karl switched the thrust into a swinging motion, countering the slash. Will leapt forwards, ferociously swinging the two blades. Karl lashed back with the two swords. Much to Will's surprise, the slash knocked him backwards, before he could do anything. Soon, Will realized the difference between their strengths. Karl used the sword's weight and his strength to their maximum potential, knocking Will away every time the smaller tiger went closer. This forced Will to go on a defense, as he could not get in close enough. In addition, the force of the swings kept on throwing Will off his balance, making him dodge instead of slashing back.

"Wow. You're really strong, huh? You can swing a sword like that easily, and throw people off their balance just from the impact." Will spoke as he ducked a swing, only to be thrown back by the next one.

"My master always said this; 'Fine techniques and skills are useless against strength! Focus on pure power, and overwhelm your opponents with your strength!'. Or something a little less dramatic than that." Karl replied as he swung his sword. However, this time the results were different. Instead of countering with his swords, Will leapt, using the flat side of the blade to vault forward. Then, kicking the sword away by the hilt, he pressed the edges against the husky's neck. A minute of stunned silence was followed by a clap from Karl.

"Wow. I.... I've never seen something like that. You really are good with swords, aren't you?"

"It... it's just something I thought up at the moment. I was just lucky." Will replied bashfully, fidgeting awkwardly. At the moment, the teacher called the class to a stop. After a brief overview and several individual comments, the class came to an end. After a brief shower at the dorm, Will headed to his next class. The fact that he had to keep on moving around for classes, along with the sheer size of the academy reminded Will of colleges. But then, the whole place was more or less the whole academic system grouped into one large place.

When Will entered the classroom, he was rather surprised. The schedule told him that the class he was supposed to be attending was healing&potion lessons. With the class names, Will expected cauldrons littered around the place, or at the very least, a science lab-like place. Instead, the whole classroom felt like an ordinary classroom. Education with magic was often focused on practical lessons.

'Does this mean that this class is focused more on theories?' Will wondered as he sat down. There were several other students with him, but the class itself was very small, with only about half a dozen other students with him.

"Hello everyone!" Will was shaken out of his thoughts by a cheery voice. The caller was a female cat, slightly small. She had a smile on her face, and was dragging a cart behind her. The cart had several beakers and vials sitting on it.

"Now, professor Heath is ill, so for the time being, I will be teaching you all. My name is Jane Salinda, so just call me professor Salinda or Miss Salinda!"

The professor than launched into a long lecture about potions, and their values in a battlefield. Will got to the part about how potions sometimes required odd ingredients, and how they had powerful effects that could sometimes change the course of history. Then he lost focus and spent the next hour chatting with his friends on the web.

"..... And we'll get around to the practical part of the lesson tomorrow! Oh, could the white tiger over there come over here please?" Professor Salinda exclaimed. Will, now spacing out, jumped up. Hurriedly gathering up his things, Will followed the cat, who went in to the door next to the blackboard.

"Hello. What's your name? Also, would you like something to drink?" the professor amiably chattered as she dragged Will into a chair.

"Umm..... My name is William, but I like the short version better. I'm fine with drinks. But professor, why did you ask me to come?" Will spoke, taking a look around the room.

"I insist!" Professor Salinda spoke up as she thrust a cup, filled with tea, toward Will. Will didn't really like tea, but he took a sip.

"Well, the reason I asked you to come is because..... I want a bit of your blood."

"My blood? Why?" Will blurted out, nearly spilling his drink.

"Well, the blood of powerful or rare beings, such as yourself, is a very powerful ingredient. As a matter of fact, just splashing your blood into a potion can boost the abilities of that said potion!"

"I'm rare?" Will spoke, slightly surprised.

"Well, white tigers aren't really common, you know? Sure, there are a few around, but you don't really meet them that often. So as a potionmaker, I have to take opportunities! If you help out, I'll give you several useful potions I've been keeping around."

Will briefly considered, and relented. After all, it was only a little bit of blood.

"Yes, I'll help, but what do I do?" at Will's words, the cat professor looked very excited, and immediately shoved off everything on the desk. Will managed to snatch his cup away before it fell. Then, the professor found several empty blood packs, and opened them.

"Right. Now, just hold out your arm, but shove up your sleeves." Will complied, watching with interest. As the cat started chanting, Will felt a slight sting on the arm that he held out. Then, a spot of blood appeared, and a flow of blood started to flow out. The flow of blood hovered in the air, and flowed over to the blood packs. As the process continued, Will started to slowly feel dizzy.

"Well, this is more than plenty! Thank you so much!" the cat beamed at Will.

"So she gave you all these high-class potions?" Jake spoke with surprise while labeling the potions. After the lessons, Will asked Jonas to look over the potions for him. At that moment, Jake barged in, and decided to help with the organization. While he griped about how it was a waste of time, he still helped Will and Jonas.

"Yeah. She said that it was reward for the blood. Apparently it's really expensive or something."

"Yeah, I remember that. I've seen a vial of it go over a hundred dollars easy." Jonas spoke up.

"And how much did she take?" Jake enquired with concern.

"I don't really remember. I was kind of out of it."

"So she took that much? Damn, that's gotta be, I don't know, a thousand dollars or so!" Jonas shouted , nearly dropping a bottle.

"Maybe we should start selling your blood. I have more than enough cups for something like this." Jake spoke, with a evil glint in his eyes.

"Whaat? No way!" I don't want to stagger around forever!" Will shouted, and the two laughed.

"But still, these potions really are something. Instant mana replenish potions, spell boost potions, and even a invisibility potion. These are pretty hard to get." Jake spoke, putting the last label.

"She said that she wanted me to come over again tomorrow." Will spoke, putting all but one into a small safe he bought. It would only open if the mana wavelengths of the user matched the registered one, and he also placed several defensive wards around it with some help from others.

"Well, it's not really a loss for you, so I suggest that you go."

"I suppose......" Will trailed off, yawning.

The next day, Will woke up, again feeling as if he forgot something, something important. He racked his brain, but nothing came up. Sighing in resignation, he leapt out of his bed, ready for the day to begin. The day passed without any incidents, until lunchtime.

Will was cleaning up the remains of his meal when his phone rang. Will checked his phone and found, much to his surprise, that Professor Salinda managed to add her phone number to his phone.

"Will? Are you busy now?"

"No, I'm fine. Are you calling me because of my blood?"

"Well...... yes. Same with yesterday, there are all sorts of rewards for you!"

Will ended the call, and picked up his bag. Seeing that he was free for the remainder of the day, he headed over to the building where the class was held yesterday.

As he entered the building, he saw the professor waving excitedly from a room on the other side of the hall. As he entered the room, he saw professor Salinda bounce over to a desk on the side, where a pot of water was boiling. Humming to herself, she busied herself with preparing drinks, and sat down with a flourish. After a light stir with a spoon, she pushed the drink over to Will, who saw that it was a cup of hot chocolate, which was oddly out of place seeing that summer was approaching soon. However, Will took a sip just to be polite.

"Well, let's get it over with quick!" professor Salinda spoke rather too brightly as she hurriedly put her cup down and cleared the space. Will took another sip, and set the cup down, baring his arm and extending it to the professor. As she began to chant, his blood flowed out again. Suddenly, the chant took a different tone with different word, being much slower and mellow. Suddenly, Will felt sleepy. Despite his struggles, he felt himself slumping forward, and blanked out. Right before he fainted, Will called out for help in his mind, with all available power. He saw a faint glimmer and a hazy shape, and then blacked out.

Jake suddenly turned around, staring back. He could've sworn that he heard someone call him, but he saw no one that he could recognize. Then, he heard it again. It was faint, but Jake could've sworn that it was Will calling out. He looked around, but he couldn't see the white tiger anywhere. He was on the verge of leaving when he felt a faint trace of magic. Grabbing onto the trace, the wolf carefully examined the spell. It was a rather weak and hurriedly made piece of a spell, acting as a cry for help. However, it was too faint to actually make out the origin point, or even to use it to figure out the caster. At that point, Jake recollected Will's voice, which faintly rang. Hurriedly, Jake grabbed his phone and called Will, but got no response. He casted a trace spell, but also got nothing. His worry now bordering panic, Jake ran to the dorm, calling Will multiple times, getting no response again and again.

When Will woke up, he found himself lying on a table. He could look around, but his limbs were immovable, and he could feel straps straining him down. When he looked down, he could see that he was bound with multiple straps. He gave a few halfhearted tugs, but the bindings proved to be too tight. He was on the verge of casting a spell when a voice interrupted him from the other side, which he hadn't looked at yet.

"It's useless. The materials holding you down are also suppressing your magic abilities. Spirit manipulation is also impossible by the same logic." a voice chirped from the darker side of the room. When Will took a glance, he saw a figure that he recognized all too well.

"Professor? Are you the one behind this?" Will questioned, knowing the answer. The cat gave a small laugh.

"Of course. I thought that it was too obvious."

"Why? Is it about my blood?" Will asked. Then the professor began to laugh, until tears came out of her eyes. Wiping them away, she walked over to Will.

"Partially yes, but for the most part? No. I need something else from you." she crooned, running her paws over Will until it came to a stop at the place where his heart was supposed to be. "You remember what I said before about the blood of rare or powerful being like yours having positive effects on potions? Well, this gets a little more extreme."

"How extreme?" Will nervously asked. When he took a look at the wall next to him, he nearly shouted and threw up. Against the wall was a corpse of a lion white like himself.

"Yes, it's unpleasant, isn't it?" the professor laughed softly as she poked a needle into Will's arm. Drops of blood came out into the tube attached to the needle, and slowly dropped into the basin at the bottom, or that's what Will supposed since he couldn't see that far. "He was a very nice young man, rather like you."

Professor Salinda then moved away, and Will could see several other werebeasts, all white like him, dead. All of them had their hearts removed from their bodies.

"So, back to what I was saying. Several years ago, I've found an ancient potion recipe that could boost a magician's magic levels to levels never reached before, a potion that could make a ordinary magician like me equal to the strongest angel! But the potion had many requirements, such as the hearts of the white furred werebeasts like you." she spoke, rummaging around and whipping a knife into view. The knife was elegantly designed, more for show than actual cutting or stabbing. However, the blade was sharpened, and the blood visible on the handle showed that the blade could kill if needed.

"But that doesn't mean you'll be completely invincible! I hate to sound cliché, but you'll never get away with this!" Will shouted and struggled again.

"And that's where the energy boost comes in, dear. I've already prepared several spells that are more than capable of ensuring my safety, and to destroy my enemies!"

Will desperately racked his brain to think of a plan to stall for time. Seizing upon a wild idea, he shouted to the cat. "Why do you want all that power? I mean, what's your purpose with it?"

"To fulfill my part of the contract, of course," came the dismissive reply. "I've promised the Bound One who gave me the power."

"You've established a contract with the Bound Ones?" Will shouted, stunned. He knew that there still were several magicians that made deals with demons, but he never expected a teacher to be one.

"Yes. I was on the verge of death, from which no one lived. I was a very talented potionmaker, and even I could only hold it back for a little while. That's when I had dreams, dreams that told me how I could live longer, possibly for all eternity, maybe even as one of the rulers of the world! So I accepted a contract from them, and got this potion recipe. It will give me enough strength to hold my part of the bargain, which is to destroy the barriers that prevent demons entering this world, and also to destroy seals that hold the Bound Ones."

"But I thought that they couldn't get out of the human world! And if they were bound, then how did they manage to contact you?" Will asked, partially to buy for time, and partially because of genuine curiosity.

"Did you ever have dreams? A wizard is more open to the world than normal mortals. When we use mana, we are directly communicating with the essence of the universe itself. Because of this, some wizards can visit the streams of time while they sleep, which shows them the possible future, the past, or even the events that are happening right now. They might be bound for now, but their minds are active as ever. They secretly sent out their minds, and wore a hole in the defenses set long ago. From there, they would approach magicians such as myself, and give strength in exchange for their freedom."

"But doing so would mean that millions, maybe billions of people would die! If you do that, then people will be nothing but snacks and entertainments for demons!" Will shouted back, stunned.

After a slight moment of silence, the cat spoke "And what?" dismissively.

Will couldn't believe his ears. Did the cat before him not care about what might happen to other people?

"And? Aren't you aware of the consequences of you actions? I'm asking how you could do something like that!" he shouted back, but the cat shrugged.

"I don't care. Since when was I best friends with the rest of the world? I get to live, and that's more important than anything else out there. Besides," here the cat turned away her head. "I've already went too far. If I've come all this way, than I might as well as go all the way. If I don't they assured me that I'll burn in Hell for the rest of my life."

Jake ran frantically, constantly calling Will. After the faint message, Jake tried to track down the message, but it was futile. After a visit to the dormitory, he got hold of Will's schedule, and went around each classes. After confirming that Will hadn't attended any of the classes after the message, Jake came to a conclusion that Will was missing for some reason. He began to think of reasons why, and came to two possibilities. One, he was kidnapped , or disabled by someone. Two, he ran away on his own. When it came to those two choices, Jake thought that it was much more likely that someone disabled Will. He casted a trace spell again, and found nothing. It was as if Will couldn't be found. Suddenly, Jake turned around and dashed away, to the one place he could think of that could stop a spell like that.

Will struggled with the bindings, but they were still as tight as it was before. It didn't help that he was feeling really lightheaded as blood kept flowing out of his body.

"It's really no use, Will. I think you know that. Why don't you just give up? I promise you that it won't hurt at all." spoke the professor from the seat, looking at the computer, occasionally referencing an ancient book.

"Why are you leaving me alone?" Will questioned, falling limp. While he hadn't given up yet, he knew that escape was impossible for now.

"The potion can only be completed at midnight, and when there is no moon. You have hours, really."

At that point, the professor suddenly turned around, staring at the screen intently. She then got up, leaving the room. Will strained his eyes, trying to see what the professor was trying to see. However, the image was too faint for him to make out.

Jake quietly went inside the building that held potion lessons, trying to keep quite. From what he remembered, a part of the building had its flooring done with stones that canceled out magic. It was, from what he remembered, the only building with such a structure. The trace spells were constantly unable to track down Will's presence, which would mean that either an extremely strong magician was keeping Will hidden, or Will was in a place that couldn't be accessed by spells.

Jake jumped as a voice chirped behind him. "And what are you doing here?" spoke a short cat. Jake could recognize the cat, who Will told Jake about.

"I'm looking for Will. Have you seen him?" the professor shook her head.

"No. I haven't seen him ever since yesterday. Is he missing?"

Jake was about to answer "yes", but he suddenly narrowed his eyes. Will told them that he would be coming over today. If that was the case, then why would the professor not say anything? And why would she immediately think that Will would be missing?

"No. It's just that he and I were supposed to meet up today, and he said that he was around here. So I thought that he might be around?" Jake improvised wildly, slowly inching away.

"Oh really? Why not wait around, then?" the cat spoke, inching forward. Jake threw up a shield at the same moment the professor lunged toward Jake, stabbing with a bloody knife. Jake immediately casted three spells simultaneously, and the professor fell to the ground, unconscious and paralyzed.

"Geez. For a teacher you're really weak." muttered Jake as he started casting more spells that bound her magic abilities. After floating her with a weak levitation spell, he went into the door that the professor came out of. Just as he expected, the carpet hid a locked trapdoor. A quick search of the professor later, he came down into a dark room. His heart gave out in relief when he found Will unconscious, strapped to a table. After slashing the straps, he checked Will. Aside from a loss of blood, he seemed to be okay.

"Will, are you okay? Did she do anything to you?" Jake shouted as Will slowly woke.

"No, I'm okay.... But how did you find me? Where is professor Salinda?" Will questioned as he tried to sit up.

"You fool!" shouted a voice from the other end of the room. When Jake whirled around, she was standing up.

"Wait, how did you get out of my spells?" Jake shouted, stunned.

"Idiot. Have you forgotten that the stones in this room cancel out magic! Now, Dark flame!" the cat professor shouted, making a dramatic gesture. A silence followed the gesture and the Will leapt, kicking her head.

"Wait, why didn't the spell work?" Jake questioned as Will slumped down again.

"The stones, remember? They cancel out magic. It also canceled out any magic that she was about to cast." Will spoke as he weakly gestured to the stones. Jake stared at the stones for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

"What now?" Will asked as he looked at the unconscious body of his former professor.

"I'll call the securities. They are more than capable of dealing with dark wizards like her." Jake spoke as he headed out. Will slumped down, exhausted. When Jake came in, Will was sleeping.