"Tap, tap, tap..."
Hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor. Moments later, the doors opened, bringing with them the peculiar chill of the Black Prison and the roar of dragons. A wizard in black robes hurried past the long tables lining both sides of the room and strode to the foot of the steps at the end of the office.
"Reporting!"
He removed his hood, revealing slightly graying hair and a smooth forehead. He gave a slight bow to the gaunt old wizard seated behind the side table on the left of the platform. "Zhang Yu, acting leader of First University's Teaching Assistant Group, pays his respects to Lord Ruo Yu."
"What is it?" The gaunt old wizard rubbed the wolf-headed cane in his hand, his pitch-black eyes glancing at the young teaching assistant.
With his head lowered, Zhang Yu reported respectfully, "First University's Guardian Formation has activated abnormally. The School Labor Committee requests assistance with its defense."
"Has the Black Tide begun?" Vice Principal Ruo Yu frowned slightly and looked toward a long table half-hidden in the darkness. "Old Yao, didn't you say that Black Tide would appear later?"
Professor Yao's gleaming head emerged from the darkness.
With his arm braced against the table and half his body leaning slightly forward, he answered with a smile, "That was what the reports said. The mist would launch the Black Tide while attacking the Black Prison... but demons often do not act according to plan."
"That little girl was never a well-behaved child, even when she was at school." An old wizard in white robes voiced his opinion from behind another long table.
"It is no longer a little girl... or a child." Beside the old wizard, another wizard in yellow robes corrected him quietly. "Demons. They are all demons."
Zhang Yu