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The spider screamed as it finally fell onto its side Its convex shell made it easy for the crowd to roll it all the way over, and as soon as its belly was exposed, all of the ons attacked at once The force of it split the spider at the sea its innards

I barely had time to cover my face before the felled monster exploded

Chapter Sixteen

Bedraggled but whole, our entire slime-covered student body ons had flown out to clean up any stragglers who may have fled, but I didn’t think there were any We had made paste out of the whole horde

“No, no, don’t even think about it,” Professor Shen called, wrinkling her nose She stood in the doorway, keeping us out “Everybody line up where I can see you”

We did, silent and co blue cloud ofso much that I couldn’t see anyone else around me As I stood stock still, a deliciously clean sh my body Every molecule vibrated with the clean sensation, and even the bloody ies inthat clean feeling to last forever

It disappeared in a flash, but so did the one We all blinked at each other in awe

“You should do that every !” someone called out

Shen smiled tiredly “Trust me, I’ve considered it Coet to the infir”

I caught sight of Toland in the crowd, a little singed and battered but no worse for wear I was a little surprised he’d joined us, though I guessed I shouldn’t have been He’d been reluctant to send us out into the fray, but he probably would’ve faced the monsters alone to protect his school

A sudden surge of wared inside me He was a bit of a stick-in-the-ot the ienuinely cared about this place

We split up as we left the large entryway of the castle Those who needed serious medical attention headed toward the infirmary, while the rest of us headed toward the cafeteria Most of the students ent to see Cassandra were still on their feet, at least I only saw one person being carried by two friends

The cafeteria was more than prepared for our return Piles of food lined the tables, so we didn’t even have to stand in line That was good Looking around at the pale, exhausted faces, I didn’t see how anyone could have ed it As I settled down next toTaylor He smiled at me, obviously proud of hiht and survived

My stomach flipped as I wondered if there were any who hadn’t—everyone who’d made it back to the castle see the bodies strewn outside?

We sat in silence, each recharging however we needed to There was a blissful calm over the whole roo spell or our victory, but it didn’tas it lasted a while