Invisible hands ripped asunder the air where Rainer had been standing. The void that was formed instantly sucked up anything nearby, Rainer included. The man screamed in horror until it abruptly silenced him.

It looked like a portal, similar to what Nadrina had seen the summoner use previously. This one, however, gave off a sense of... wrongness. Like the world was reacting badly to this thing’s existence. The surrounding air seemed to warp and shift unnaturally, and it oozed an odd, luminescent light around its edges.

That was all the time Nadrina had to observe it before creatures straight out of a nightmare started pouring out of the gate. They were only a few feet tall, with thin limbs and bulbous heads without eyes. Their heads were split down the middle from top to bottom, revealing a vertical mouth filled with row upon row of finely pointed and honed teeth. They made a horrible shrieking noise as they crawled out of the nothingness, radiating hatred and violence. The sound alone triggered some primitive part of Nadrina’s psyche, demanding that she run as fast and as far away as possible.

Rainer’s former students were screaming and running in every direction. Even the rest of the school staff and the judges were panicking, trying to control the students and get them to safety. Nadrina finally noticed that she and her classmates were underneath a translucent barrier. She saw the familiar shield amulet in Lilianna’s hands, probably given to her by the professor.

She also saw the professor. He wasn’t in the barrier with them.

“Stay put!” he yelled over the awful screeching, then turned and sprinted for the center of the field.

~~~

ALDRIC DASHED TOWARDS the portal that vomited forth creatures that shouldn’t walk this plane. Both of his friends had just barely made it out in time, and Zasia was fighting with the void beasts to protect Kedrin. Kedrin looked like he was about to help, but Aldric reached him first.

“You need to help the kids!” Thankfully, Rainer’s class and the other staff members had been far enough away to get out safely, so Aldric pointed towards his own students cowering behind Lilianna’s shielding amulet. “That amulet won’t hold forever! Give Lilianna whatever you can spare!”

“What about you?” Kedrin asked, and Aldric could barely hear him over the screeching of the creatures swarming the training yard.

“I’m busy!” Aldric replied shortly, then dashed off towards Zasia.

He tried to review what he knew about runaway portals as he ran. A portal became unstable when it became too “hungry”, such as when idiot summoners overtaxed their mana pool and opened a gate far bigger than they should. If a gate became too big, it would devour the ambient magic around it, and that sudden influx of power would attract... things that didn’t belong on this side.