Luna froze for a moment at the unexpected noble greeting by the girl standing opposite her.
This hybrid girl was the heir apparent to a dukedom?
But…. she was a hybrid. This made no sense!
Hybrids could be granted the last names of certain generous noble families, but no upper-class house would ever make one a heir apparent.
Luna's confusion only lasted for a couple of seconds before her many years of etiquette training soon kicked in.
"I am Luna Valenburn, and it is likewise an honour to meet your acquaintance," Luna bowed and returned the gesture.
Sophie narrowed her eyes and suddenly grabbed Luna's arm to fling the surprised girl away from her.
"What the hell…"
Luna hit the ground with a hard thump and soon tears formed in her eyes.
Why would she do that?
Luna wanted to scold this hybrid girl fiercely but then she saw that a thick green vine was slowly wrapping itself around Sophie's leg and creeping upwards.
The vine resembled a snake and most of its body was resting where Luna was just standing up.
Sophie had flung the noble girl away to safety!
Slash!
Sophie frowned and shot one of her spider appendages at this strange creature. The sharp barb at the end of her appendage easily sliced through its flesh.
She shook her leg a few times to get the remains of the tendril off her leg, but the sliced parts wriggled around and slowly fused back together.
"You are truly kind to save another instead of yourself," a gentle voice whispered in a melodious tone.
"Who?" Sophie bared her fangs and scanned the surrounding area carefully but could not find where the voice was coming from.
Truthfully, the mysterious voice was giving her too much credit, Sophie was not a person to sacrifice herself for a stranger she had just met.
The only reason why she had pushed Luna away was that she sensed that there was no killing intent coming from the tendril poised to strike.
Sophie was curious and wanted to see what goal this creature wanted to accomplish.
She was interrupted from her train of thought by the sounds of the other students protesting about the situation.
Apparently, there were more tendrils present that had attacked the innocent students waiting for class to begin.
"What the hell is this?"
"Ow! It hurts!"
"Bryan did you just grab my ankle?"
"No… no… It's this vine I swear!"
Not everyone was alert as Sophie, so the green tendrils had managed to trap over sixty percent of the class while the others were lucky enough to avoid them entirely.
The combat pets were not spared, and a noisy cacophony of disgruntled whines, snorts and grunts could be hurt.
Moon was currently perched on Sophie's head while staring daggers at the tendril that was holding on to his mommy's leg.
Squeak! Squeak!
(Go away bad thing!)
Moon puffed out his chest and mimicked Sophie by baring his tiny teeth at the green vine.
Unfortunately, this was not very helpful.
Slash!
"Come on you stupid," Sophie grumbled and once again split the tendril into multiple pieces.
Suddenly she thought of an idea to stop this creature from regenerating.
"Moon use your frozen domain," Sophie ordered.
Squeak Squeak!
The temperature dropped rapidly, and frost started to form on Sophie's body. The blue markings on Moon's fur glowed eerily as the temperature continued to plummet.
Bingo.
Sophie grinned as the tendril wriggled on the ground before ceasing all movement and lying still.
A few students noticed her technique for dealing with the vine and soon a variety of cold skills were activated to deal with the problem.
Clap! Clap!
"Nice work," a gentle voice sang in Sophie's ear.
One of the trees in the clearing opened up to reveal a beautiful woman dressed in a skirt made of green leaves.
Her skin was ashen grey with small bumpy scales that ran up her arms and a slender tail almost like a whip that jutted out of her lower back.
What was most noticeable about the woman was her face. She had three eyes that were dark orange in colour with pink pupils and an apparent lack of a noticeable nose.
"Hello class," the woman spoke with an accent.
"My name is Caitlin Ward, and I will be your professor for the rest of the year."
"You may refer to me as Professor Ward."
The remaining green tendrils still active retreated from the legs of the students and slithered along the ground until they reached the professor.
Professor Ward muttered a command which caused the green tendrils to fuse into a large ball and then disappear into her storage ring.
"Sorry about that students. I like to throw a surprise on the first day of class so I can get a better idea of what kind of students you are."
"Now please settle down on one of the mats and we will begin the lecture."
Some students wanted to voice out their complaints, but Professor Ward's aura was very intimidating, so they obediently went to an empty mat to sit down.
Sophie shivered as she still felt some cold from Moon's ability but the warm sun beating down on her body was quickly warming her up.
She sat down on a mat casually and placed Moon on her shoulder while thinking about which alien race was her new professor.
"Um…."
Sophie felt a small poke on her back and turned around to see Luna bashfully staring at her.
"Thank you," Luna's cheeks flushed scarlet as she looked down at the ground.
She moved over and sat directly next to Sophie while her three headed hound Blackie plopped down at her side with a low growl.
"No problem…. that's what friends are for," Sophie replied with a smile.
It was clear that this girl was a bit socially awkward, but Sophie was genuinely interested in getting to know her better.
Cleo and the rest of her friends would be enrolled in different courses during their stay in Zrudread University, so it would be good for her to branch out and meet new people.
Professor Ward gave the class a few moments to settle down before beginning the lecture with great enthusiasm.
"Now who can tell me what exactly the true nature of the blood bond is and why is it necessary to form one?"
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