"I'm really starting to lose my patience with you", Zendala growled as she walked around Ten. The Demi-dragon with the brown hair was still chained to a metallic chair, restricting almost every little movement. His head was hanging low and didn't move one muscle while the blue-haired warlock walked around him with an irritated expression on her face.

It has been seven days since Zendala had captured the two Demi-dragons right in front of their leader's face. Despite everything she had already done to Ten and Jaehyung both of them were still alive and kept their mouths shut. It was almost admirable to Zendala. Almost.

Zendala walked towards Jaehyun, who was still chained to the wall. It was a miracle that he was still alive with all his wounds and the amount of blood he must have lost. His whole upper body was covered in bruises and slashes from whips. His breathing was so light you could barely see the rising and falling of his chest, but despite all the torture he had been through he was still alive. He really had proven that Demi-dragons were one of the strongest and toughest supernatural creatures out there.

The female warlock gritted her teeth. She hated the fact that she couldn't break them and get them to talk. She needed to know how she could get NCT out of the way before she could continue with her plan properly. After all, NCT had taken some hunters captive and despite a hunter's determination and loyalty to their own people they were only humans. There were enough supernatural creatures who could easily get a human to blurt out their deepest, darkest secret.

"I'm running out of time here", Zendala thought to herself and looked over her shoulder back to Ten, who had remained unmoving. When the female warlock looked back to Jaehyun she got an idea. A wide, sadistic smile creeped onto her lips while she continued to play around with the idea in her head. Why hasn't she thought of something like that sooner? It was such an easy solution to her problem.

"Ten you should start talking now", she mused and walked over to the brunette, crouching down in front of him, so she could see his face. The Demi-dragon refused to even glance at the female warlock and didn't budge either. His gaze remained focused on his lap. Zendala grinned a bit wider. He would start talking soon.

"You remember that you and your precious partner aren't the only prisoners here, right?", Zendala continued to talk, sounding like she was delivering some happy news. Slowly Ten's eyes began to shimmer with an realization, followed by horror. His head snapped towards Zendala, who was just smiling to herself while still crouching in front of Ten's chair.

"You wouldn't dare", Ten shouted in both anger and fear. The Demi dragon gritted his teeth while his hands were clenched into fists. He was weakly fighting the metallic restraints on his wrists. For a moment Zendala was taken back by his loud tone, but the minute she saw the fear and horror in the Demi-dragon's eyes she knew he just used his anger in an attempt to cover up his fear. He knew what she was capable of and knew all too well, that she would start killing the other captives she didn't need anymore in order to get him to talk.

"I wouldn't? Really?", she questioned in a mocking tone while she stood back up. She snapped her finger, which let the chains that kept Jaehyun up on the wall loosen, causing the other demi-dragon to limply fall onto the floor. Immediately Ten's head snapped towards Jaehyun, who was now laying on the ground completely unmoving. The fear in the Demi-dragon's bronze eyes became a lot more prominent when his gaze focused on his half dead partner. He hadn't shown this amount of fear in a while.

"I admire the both of you for your strength", Zendala said and began strolling over to the unconscious Jaehyun. His lifeless black wings laid on the ground and covered him like a blanket. If his face wasn't bruised and covered with small cuts from knifes, you would think he was just sleeping. It was truly a miracle he was still alive.

"I have given that boy a week. Seven days have passed and he is still breathing and you still aren't talking", Zendala continued and looked over to Ten again. The Demi-dragon's bronze eyes finally had a hopeless glimmer in them, making the warlock internally smile. Zendala put her attention back onto Jaehyun and crouched down next to him.

"I won't change my methods and plans if you start talking now, Ten", Zendala said while she reached out her right hand and let her fingers ghost over Jaehyun's black, leathery wings. They felt strong, despite the amount of abuse they have endured. It would be a shame to destroy them completely.

"Trust me, Ten. My new methods of dealing with the two of you will be more brutal and-", Zendala wanted to continue, but like lighting Jaehyun grabbed her wrist and broke the bone in his hand without hesitation.

The female warlock screamed in pain and tried to rip her hand out of the iron grip. She looked into Jaehyun's determined, golden dragon eyes before she casted a spell that pushed the Demi-dragon away and knocked him unconscious.

Zendala scrabbled to her feet and protectively held her right arms while breathing heavily. She hadn't expected this at all. How did Jaehyun manage to have so much strength, even though she used jade pins and a jade dagger on him?

"What happened", a guard asked hurriedly when he came running into the room, holding a jade spear. Zendala took a breath and looked at Ten. The brunette seemed stressed and seemingly didn't know how to react, but the way he looked at Jaehyun with a mix of worry and bit of hope made the female warlock's blood boil. He shouldn't have hope, he should break and tell her what she wanted.

"Bring me one of the remaining vampires", Zendala growled at the guard. The man looked a bit confused, which set her off even more. Was any hunter this dumb or was this one a special case?

"Just bring me one of the damn vampires", she shouted into his face, which made him immediately turn and run out of the room. Zendala breathed a bit heavily, looking like she had gone completely mad.

The pain in her right wrist was like a dull pulsation right now, even though the bones were shattered. She sharply turned around to the person, who had caused her injury. Jaehyun laid on his side, completely motionless once again while a bit of blood dripped down from his lips.

"You will pay for this, Jung Jaehyun", Zendala said to herself and put her foot onto his side, turning him, so he was laying on his stomach. She looked at the jade dagger between his shoulder blades and then let her gaze wander to Ten, who was looking away with his eyes closed.

"For once I don't care that you aren't looking his way", Zendala stated, sounding cold. It was like her anger had disappeared but it hadn't. With a quick movement of her left hand, Zendala turned the jade dagger in Jaehyun's back so the blade was in a horizontal position and then pulled it out. Blood was dripping down from the jade blade, onto Jaehyun's back.

"I was quite nice when I caught you two. I made your wings useless, but didn't do any kind of permanent damage. A bit stupid right?", Zendala said, like she was talking to herself. Her sky blue eyes were slowly sucking up every bit of emotion she had.

She raised the jade dagger in her hand and aimed at the point where the wings were connected to the spine when suddenly the door of the room was opened by the guard. Zendala's head snapped towards the opened door and the guard, who pushed a young vampire boy into the room. Zendala's cold blue eyes focused on the shivering vampire.

The vampire didn't seemed like he was himself, but when he looked at Zendala his cloudy eyes were filled with nothing but horror and fear. Without a second thought, Zendala dashed towards the vampire and cut his throat open with a quick movement of the jade dagger.

The young vampire stumbled back, crashing into the wall while almost black blood streamed down from his throat. Within seconds, the shirt was soaked with blood. The vampire wanted to scream, but the only thing that came out of his mouth were strangled noises.

Zendala looked at the vampire with emotionless eyes and mumbled a spell, which let a ice spear appear beside her. Without blinking, Zendala let the spear pierced through the young vampire's chest, finally killing him.

The female warlock looked away from the young, unmoving vampire and back to Ten. The Demi-dragon looked at her with nothing but horror and fear. His lips trembled ever so slightly like he had a hard time holding himself back from saying anything. Zendala looked at him and felt nothing for a moment before the pain in her wrist made her look down onto her arm. She could almost see the crushed bones piercing through her skin.

"The next time I'm here. You better start talking Ten, or another one dies", she said and looked Ten into the eyes. Without saying anything else, she turned around and left the room, leaving the body of the young vampire in the room with Jaehyun and Ten.

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It was past midnight and Taeyong was still standing in his office, looking at the magical map in front of him. The map showed the headquarter of the hunters in every detail NCT managed to figure out until now. The little house, which was surrounded by a forest, was located some kilometers outside of Yellow Wood. It was well hidden behind magical barriers that were of an astonishing high magic level and probably have been crafted over a longer period of time. Still, the barrier wasn't the only thing to worry about. The three floors underneath the little wooden house, which was the actual headquarter of the hunters, were well structured, leaving no hiding spots in the corridors which were build like a chess board.

The accuracy of the map was really unbelievable, but Yuta worked wonders on it over the course of the last few days. Still, Taeyong couldn't deny that J.Seph's and Matthew's work helped a lot too. The two other guardians had taken it upon themselves to scout out the surroundings of the hunters' headquarter just yesterday.

Taeyong couldn't deny that having other guardians at the headquarter was a huge relief for him and Taeil, but the GOT7 group had become essential to the rescue mission too. Jaebum, Jackson and Mark were the three legendary barrier mages of Yellow Wood, after all. If something went seriously wrong and it came down to a fight, those three would probably keep the majority of the rescue parties from being killed with their strong shields. Still, the problem with the mysterious hunters' crystals remained. No one had been able to figure them out until now.

Yuta has been working on the issue ever since Taeyong brought him Emily's crystal despite having a lot of other things to do. The warlock was basically multitasking all the time. Taeyong had to admit that, even though Yuta hadn't been happy with the plan of the rescue mission from the start he was the one, who was working for it the hardest. He probably hasn't slept much in the last days, because he was so busy working on more than one thing at the same time.

Even though there were so many skilled creatures working on the plan for the rescue mission, there were still some things that remained unknown. For example, no one knew what the inside of the hunters' headquarter truly looked like and there was also a possibility that Jaehyun and Ten were the only creatures that were held captive on the third floor of the hunters' underground system. According to the information, which has been gather, it was very unlikely, but still a possibility.

The rescue mission needed to have enough backup plans to react to such a situation, which was why Taeyong wouldn't stop going over the plans and maps until he was certain that everything was perfect. He would make sure that everyone would come out of the rescue mission alive and be able to return to their loved ones and families.

Taeyong let a sigh escape his lips. He wanted to zoom in to the third floor of the hunters's headquarter to looked at the maze of corridors again when he suddenly got the feeling someone was hammering against his skull from the inside. It created a dull, but strong pain, that pulsed through his head mercilessly. The guardian gripped the edge of the table, which was standing in front of him, a bit harder and waited for the pain to pass. This type of pain wasn't new to him anymore. He took some deep breaths, trying hard to not think about the reason for his headache.

Slowly his legs became a little wobbly, forcing him to lean more onto the table, so he wouldn't fall to the ground. His heart speed up, making it hard for him to keep his breathing calm. A sudden sharp pain in his back, knocked the air out of the guardian's lungs while his eyes slowly filled themselves with tears. He could hear a scream echo in his pulsing head, even though no one was in the room with him. Still, he knew whose scream it was, making the guardian bite his tongue in order to not call him.

"Please just hold out a little longer. Please", Taeyong whimpered. His grip on the edge of the table became harder, letting his knuckles turn white while hot tears ran down the guardian's cheeks. "I'm coming for you. I promise", the red-haired male thought to himself, hoping that Jaehyun and Ten could maybe even hear him.

Slowly the pain became numb, leaving Taeyong without even a little cut. The guardian let out a breath and carefully moved his shoulder, testing if he still felt the pain in his back. There was nothing now. The guardian gulped and straightened his back, carefully putting weight onto his legs. They weren't wobbly anymore and had resumed to their previous strength. His head felt okay too, but Taeyong couldn't be relieved at all, knowing that Jaehyun and Ten were in much more pain than he could feel.

"Just hold on a little longer", Taeyong internally repeated, focusing his attention back onto the map. He wiped his tears away with the sleeves of his shirt and reminded himself of the things he could do now. The plan for the rescue mission needed have at least a thousands backup plans, so everyone would come out of it alive.

When Taeyong attempted to let the map zoom into the third floor of the hunters headquarter again, he heard a knock on the door. The guardian couldn't even open his mouth to say "Come in" before the door was opened by Johnny, wearing pajamas.

"Why did I know you would be here?", the harpy sighed, entering the room and closing the door behind him. Taeyong focused back onto the map and let it zoom into the third floor of the hunters' headquarter. He didn't have the strength to look Johnny into the eyes right now.

"Are you going over the plan again?", Johnny asked, joining Taeyong's side almost naturally. The guardian could feel the harpy's presence beside him and it calmed a bit of him, but also reminded him of the people, who were missing right now.

"I figured going over the plan again wouldn't hurt. After all, there are so many little things we still don't know about the hunters' headquarter that every little detail we notice could be game changing. We need to be prepared for everything that could possibly go wrong. Otherwise, would I betray the trust the others gave me", the red-haired guardian answered, briefly glancing at the tall brunette. Johnny looked at the map for a short while and then focused on the guardian beside him.

Taeyong could feel his soulmate's gaze on him, but he refused to look at the harpy, knowing that he wouldn't be able to withstand the other's concerned look. The guardian was aware that Johnny was here because the harpy wanted to coax him to sleep, but it was the last thing Taeyong wanted to do. He would only dream about Jaehyun and Ten and the pain they have to endure while he was here making plans.

"Please rest for a little while. You seem exhausted", Johnny mumbled while he put an arm around the red-haired guardian. The harpy sounded like he didn't really try to coax his leader, but rather voiced his concern. Still, there was no way Taeyong could allow himself to rest.

"I can't", the guardian answered, letting his shoulders slump while his eyes remained focused on the map. He was looking at the room where Ten and Jaehyun were held captive, where they were tortured.

"You need to sleep, Taeyong. You can't help anyone if you are exhausted. Trust me", Johnny said in a soft voice. The harpy laid his head onto the guardian's shoulder and secured the smaller male in his arms. Taeyong sighed, knowing that the harpy was right, but he just couldn't bring himself to sleep.

Before the red-haired male could formulate a probably not very logical response, the door of Taeyong's office was ripped open by no one other than Yuta. The warlock with the lilac hair was panting, but the wide smile on his face was promising.

"I finally figured that stupid hunter crystal out", Yuta declared, still panting a little. Taeyong instinctively looked up to Johnny, who had raised his head from the guardian's shoulder the minute Yuta busted into the room. Seeing that the harpy looked as surprised as Taeyong felt, confirmed that the guardian wasn't dreaming.

Yuta entered the room with quick steps and walked over to the magical map, leaving the door wide open. The warlock with the lilac hair only needed to make some little gestures with his hands to let the maps transform into something entirely different. In the air above the table was now a magical hologram of a crystal. The crystal, which was worn by the hunters.

"It took me quite a while to figure this little thing out, but it truly is so much more than we thought. It's basically an ancient magical artifact with the power to cancel any magic it's holder comes into contact with, but we already knew that when we first encountered it", Yuta began, looking at his leader and Johnny. "Now why is it an ancient, magical artifact you may think? The answer is so simple I should have known it sooner", the warlock continued and with just the flick of his wrist did the hologram zoom into the inside of the crystal. There seemed to be two types of streams. One was lighter than the other one and Taeyong noticed how they behaved similar to the symbol of Yin and Yang.

"Those crystals are the result of pure light magic crashing together with pure dark magic. I believe they were created in the ancient war between the angels, demons, supernaturals and humans. In those ancient times, no supernatural creature created through either dark or light magic was able to touch those stones, because they would slowly be killed by it. This was why the humans, creatures of no magic, began to use them", the warlock continued and gestured at the light and dark stream, circling in the crystal.

"Those crystals are the reason we supernaturals had to hide from the humans, because not only were the crystals able to cancel magic, they made the hunters generally harder to spot for supernaturals. They make their holder's steps lighter, so they can't be heard and covers their scent, so no creature with a good nose can properly sniff them out", Yuta went on, letting the hologram resume to it's previous view, where you could see the whole thing.

Taeyong looked at the crystal for a moment before his gaze focused on Yuta, but in the corner of his eye the guardian noticed a movement. The red-haired male automatically focused on the movement only to realize that Sicheng had entered the room. The warlock with the blond hair probably had joined them at some point in Yuta's explanation. He had even closed the door of the office, which had been left opened by Yuta, without Taeyong really noticing.

"Is there any supernatural creature that could hold those crystals without being hurt?", Johnny asked Yuta, letting Taeyong focus back onto the current conversation. Yuta was drumming his fingers onto the table, thinking for a moment.

"I don't think there is a supernatural, which could hold these crystals without being injured. The combination of pure light and pure dark energy is dangerous to every supernatural with a bit of magic in them. After all, every creature has a mixture of both types of magic. Depending on their species it's more light magic or more dark magic. Only a creature, who had both types of magic in a perfect balance while also keeping them separated and pure in their body would be immune to the crystal's abilities", Yuta answered while lightly shaking his head a little.

"Well, at least we know what we are up to now", Taeyong sighed, looking at the hologram once more. He was leaning a bit more onto the table. They would need to call in a meeting tomorrow to tell everyone about Yuta's discovery and start to prepare everyone for fighting against someone with such a thing.

"Hyungs", Sicheng spoke up, gaining everyone's attention in the room. The blond warlock now stood next to Yuta and looked a little worried. He may be the youngest in the room right now, but Taeyong grew to rely on Sicheng's opinion more and more over the last month.

"We should all get some sleep now. I don't want to take care of someone, who collapsed because of exhaustion", the blond warlock voiced his concern and Taeyong noted how the younger looked especially at him and Yuta. It made the guardian feel a bit bad, knowing that the young warlock was their primary healer together with Taeil. He was treating a lot of creatures, which were wounded in the fights with the hunters and surely didn't want to see one of his hyungs in his office, because they overworked themselves.

"I agree with Sicheng on this", Johnny sided with the warlock and Taeyong could feel the harpy's gaze on him. The guardian sighed and finally gave up. He couldn't talk against Johnny and one of NCT's primary healers. Yuta seemed to have given up too since he didn't even try to talk against his boyfriend.

"Alright", Taeyong sighed, letting himself finally lean onto Johnny a little bit. The harpy let his grip on the guardian tighten a little bit to secure him better. Sicheng let out a relieved breath and then made it his personal mission to usher everyone out of the room and to their beds.

—————————————

The next day arrived quicker than Changbin wished. The annoying beeping of multiple alarms ripped the vampire out of his dreamland. He wanted to groan and complain in hopes of continuing to sleep a little, but when he slowly opened his eyes his morning became a bit sweeter instantly. The first face the vampire saw after waking up was the one of a certain siren. A small smile raised the corner's of the black-haired male's lips lightly when he saw Hyunjin sleep soundly beside him. He looked simply adorable and peaceful; it made Changbin want to poke his cheek.

"Hey you two. Get up. We have training", Changbin heard Jisung say from the lower bunk bed. Since they came a little too late on their first day, everyone had set their own alarm for the following days. Multiple alarms going off at the same time was effective enough to wake up everyone including Jisung, who slept like a stone.

The vampire sighed and carefully sat up, stretching a little bit until he felt a dull pain in his right shoulder. He grimaced a little bit while testing how that pain would influence him. Did he hurt himself while training with Changkyun? No, he would have felt that when he climbed onto the bunk bed after Hyunjin yesterday. Maybe it was just a sore muscle.

"Did you hurt yourself, hyung?", Felix spoke up, looking up to the vampire from his place on the opposite lower bunk bed. Beside the ginger cat hybrid was Jeongin. The kitsune looked like he didn't want to get up, which Changbin could understand. Poor Ms. Hwang, who had a room all to herself, because her nephew and son preferred to stay with their group members.

"No, it doesn't really hurt. Maybe I just pulled something yesterday. It will pass though, so don't worry", Changbin replied. Felix seemed to think for a short moment before nodding.

"Alright, hyung, but don't overdo it", the ginger added and stood up from his bed despite Jeongin quietly complaining about it. Usually, Jeongin wasn't much of a hugger, but he naturally gravitated towards Felix whenever the ginger was nearby. Felix seemed to like the kitsune's affection a lot more than he admitted.

It was funny how they had three pairs of mates in their group, but Changbin was the last one to complain about that. He had developed a crush on two members of Stray Kids, after all. To be fair, he had those crushes before Stray Kids was formed, but it was still a huge coincidence. Maybe it was somehow fate?

Changbin lightly shook his head at the thought of Stray Kids being destined to be together, even though it sounded kind of nice. The vampire turned his attention back onto the siren, who was still asleep despite the noises of the others getting ready for the training.

"He really can sleep in any environment", Changbin chuckled silently to himself, thinking back to the time where the siren had fallen asleep on his thigh while everyone else had been loudly talking. Despite the siren looking adorable while sleeping, the vampire had to wake the other up.

"Hyunjin, wake up", the vampire coax, lightly shaking the siren's shoulder. Hyunjin grumbled a little bit about wanting to sleep for five more minutes and then just doze off again, making Changbin laugh lightly.

"You are doing it wrong", Jeongin chimed in. For a second, Changbin was confused where the kitsune's voice came from, but then the younger's head popped up beside the bed shortly afterwards. The blond didn't pay Changbin much attention and focused on his sleeping cousin.

"Hyung, you're late for school", the kitsune suddenly yelled and like lighting Hyunjin shot up into a sitting position. He frantically looked around until he probably realized where he was and that he wasn't late for school. Jeongin had almost fallen to ground when he stumbled backwards, because he was laughing so hard at the look on his cousin's face. Changbin had a hard time to seem absolutely unbothered by the current situation, because it was indeed very funny and he wanted to laugh, but he also felt a little sorry for Hyunjin.

"I swear to the gods Yang Jeongin. At some point karma will kick your ass for jokes like that", Hyunjin cursed, angrily looking down at the still laughing kitsune. Jeongin ignored his cousin and just laughed his heart out.

"Honestly, I will have a hearing loss at some point because of all of you", Minho, who was the only one that already wore his trainings cloths, complained. Jisung, who stood beside the older cat hybrid, patted his boyfriend's shoulder. "If that happens I will probably have a heart attack", Jisung added. Changbin knew the warlock would have laughed at Hyunjin too, if Jeongin's yell hadn't scared him.

Without further delay, everyone got ready. Hyunjin and Jeongin went over to their room to change and met up with the rest of the group again when they left their room. Chan joined them not long after that, informing them about the Kim brothers already being down in the trainings hall. They were early this time, but Changbin really hoped that he would be able see Seungmin today.

The last four days of training he wasn't able to see the redhead at all. He just occasionally heard his name while he was training or from Chan when the wolf hybrid talked about the Kim brothers in general. He just had been so busy training with his vampire hyungs - mostly Changkyun - that he somehow always missed Seungmin.

When the group arrived at the trainings halls they were lead to the main hall by Doyoung, who said that there was an announcement before the start of the training. It made Changbin a bit more hopeful about meeting Seungmin, but the more important question was what was the announcement all about? Did NCT figure something out?

The group had to split up since Hyunjin and Jeongin had to walk over to Ms. Hwang and the others, who weren't participating in the rescue mission. The rest of Stray Kids walked over to their usual spot on the hall despite not having seats this time.

Changbin looked around a little bit in hope of seeing Seungmin's red hair, but he was a little bit too short for that, which annoyed him beyond imagination. In the distance he heard the redhead's voice between the noises of other people talking. The vampire looked around, but still couldn't see the redhead until he caught a glimpse of red hair.

"Seungmin", Changbin called out to the redhead almost automatically. Finally Seungmin came into sight closely followed by Byungho, Wonpil and a male with white hair Changbin was pretty sure he had never seen before.

"There you are", Seungmin said when he joined the group. "You were harder to find than I thought", the redhead commented with a little smirk on his lips. "If you make a joke about height now. I will kick you", Jisung threatened jokingly, making Seungmin grin a little wider. "You know me too well", the redhead teased and then barely dodged a kick from the blue-haired warlock.

Just seeing Seungmin grin made Changbin's heart do a little jump. Normally, it wasn't that bad, but ever since he talked to Hyunjin and finally admitted to another person that he had a crush on two people it became a little bit worse.

The vampire could feel someone lightly elbowing his rips and turned his head towards Felix, who had an amused smile on his face. "Missed him, huh?", the ginger cat hybrid teased and that was the moment Changbin wanted gods to just bury him alive. Had he become obvious now, too?

"I have no clue what you are talking about", Changbin mumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to act as natural as possible. Felix only chuckled. He had definitely become obvious. Great.

"Could I have everyone's attention, please?", you could hear Doyoung's voice echo through the hall. Everyone quieted down and looked into the direction of the little stage where Doyoung was standing along with Taeyong and Yuta. Both males stood on the stage with a straight back and their hands put together, letting Changbin suggest that whatever would be announced was pretty important.

"Thank you all for coming so quickly, even though this meeting was set up pretty quickly, but we have important news", Taeyong began and then looked over to Yuta, who step forward, and just with the movement of his right hand let a magical hologram appear in mid air.

The hologram seemed like one gigantic crystal, but it somehow felt familiar to Changbin. Had he seen such a crystal before or was he just imagining things? Suddenly the image of a masked man flashed before his inner eye. It was the man Changbin had ran away from at the Sky Clan territory. He had worn such a crystal around his neck.

"This crystal right here might be familiar to some of you. It's something every hunters wears around their neck and just yesterday I could figure out why", Yuta began, making another smooth gesture with his hand. The hologram zoomed into the crystal revealing what was going on inside it. Changbin would see two streams swirling around. One was very light while the other was almost black.

"These crystals can be described as magical artifacts. Why? Because they were created thousands of years ago in the ancient war where pure light magic crashed onto pure dark magic", the warlock explained.

When Changbin heard pure dark magic his gaze involuntarily flickered over to Seungmin. The redhead's gaze was focused onto the hologram. His dark eyes seemed to follow each stream of magic within the crystal like he was trying to figure them out just by staring.

"This combination of two opposites creates an invisible force that is able to absorb any kind of magic, which is why no supernatural being can touch it without being harmed or feeling some sort of after effect. The hunters use those crystals to cancel out magical attacks that touch them, but also use the crystal's secondary effects", Yuta went on, letting Changbin rip his gaze away from the demon beside him and focus back on the things that were said.

"The secondary effects boost the hunters' stealth, meaning even for supernaturals with enhanced senses they aren't easy to spot. This explains why they have been able to perform sneak attacks on our kind so easily. Keep it in mind while being on the rescue mission", Yuta ended, letting the hologram disappear again while he stepped back, letting Taeyong come forward once more.

"Please remember these information while you are training to prepare yourselves better. Even though we do not want to encounter any hunters on our mission, we have to be prepared for the worst case scenario", the red-haired guardian announced, looking through the hall.

"That would be it. I wish everyone luck with their training and if there are still questions please don't be afraid to ask", Taeyong dismissed the meeting. Changbin let a breath escape his lips while he processed the information he had just received. He knew the hunters were using special weapons and had those crystals, but he had never imagined that a simple necklace could be that powerful.

The vampire looked over to Seungmin just to check his reaction. The redhead had lowered his head a little and seemed to be deep in thought. It wasn't an unusual sight since Seungmin was more of a thinker than a fighter, but Changbin had this gut feeling that told him the redhead was thinking about pure light and pure dark magic. The reason for that was quite obvious.

'Normal' supernatural beings had a mixture of light and dark magic in their body, but it was never exactly half and half or kept separate and pure. It was a mix with either more dark or more light magic, depending on the species. Seungmin, on the other hand, wasn't a 'normal' supernatural creature. He was a demon, a creature of pure dark magic as far as the books were concerned.

"We should get going", Chan, who was suddenly standing beside Changbin, said. The vampire was startled by the wolf hybrid's sudden appearance and turned around to face the wolf hybrid a bit too fast. Chan didn't seem to have noticed since he was head counting everyone of the group, who was already heading towards the exit of the hall. Changbin was basically the last one to start moving along with Seungmin.

"Stop sleeping, you two", Minho called over his shoulder back to Changbin and Seungmin. It was a very Minho thing to do, but the most annoying part was Jisung, who was supporting his boyfriend by agreeing with him.

"Next time those two stupidly smile at each other, I will call them out", Seungmin mumbled to himself, making Changbin chuckle a little bit. Chan proceeded to get the two moving. Outside of the main hall the whole Stray Kids group met up along with Wonpil and the white-haired male Changbin still didn't know how to call.

"Alright does everyone know where they need to go?", Chan asked looking around. Everyone from his group gave him a little nod. "Alright, good. After training is finished I want to meet up to maybe talk through some strategies if that is alright with the two of you", the wolf hybrid said and then looked at Jeongin and Hyunjin.

"Don't worry about us, hyung", Jeongin answered this with a little smile and Hyunjin nodded in agreement. "It's settled then. We are meeting up in the common room on the fifth floor after training", Chan concluded, getting everyone's verbal agreement before they spilt up.

If today's training went well they were an huge step closer to the rescue mission.