When Thomas rushed into the experimental hall with Hilda, he happened to see Azure Flame more than two meters high blazing beside the testing table. Within the flames stood a black-robed wizard with a blurred figure and a Crow Mask on his face. The wizard turned back and stared deeply at them, the Crow Mask's pale red eyes especially glaring amid the azure flames.
Then the firelight contracted, and the crow vanished from the hall.
The azure flames, over two meters high, condensed into a ball that floated and slowly spun in midair. Several teaching assistants who had burst into the hall had no time to react before they watched helplessly as the ball of fire suddenly exploded, transforming into a rain of flames that came crashing down upon them.
"It's the Flowing Fire Incantation!"
Thomas shouted. Rather than dodging, he charged straight into the rain of fire, raising the spellbook in his hand at the same time. "Wind and rain are bleak, dark as night!"
The already dim laboratory became even darker. Wind and rain howled together, and the temperature suddenly plunged below freezing. Their visible breaths turned into clouds of white mist before their eyes.
Yet to the teaching assistants' surprise, the azure rain of fire was not extinguished by the low temperature and rain. Instead, it was as though oil had been poured onto the flames. The bean-sized sparks abruptly swelled into fist-sized fireballs amid the storm. The laboratory hall darkened for only an instant before being engulfed by an even fiercer heat.
By the light cast off by that blazing heat, the teaching assistants could clearly see that the laboratory was nearly half a kilometer long and wide, with a ceiling over ten meters high. There were no windows, and the only small door had been