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<02/10/1972 – 18:37 | Route 787, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>
Only seven minutes had to pass before Danny and Taylor became used to the environment around them again, speaking above the silence to learn much more. With the sunny day still affecting the area, everyone on the bikes noticed a major decrease in air temperature in the wind sliding past their faces. Taylor and Danny were both wearing short sleeve shirts for the moment, complete with one of many dress spheres attached before heading out. On the other hand, Jane wore an entire elastic black and blue suit covering almost every feature of her skin except for her face, seeming less fit for a formal area while more so for a battle situation.
Curious about several factors of Jane's previous practice battle, Taylor sped up to synchronize her speed and distance to that of Jane's vehicle. "So how did you pull off that shield trick again?"
Jane never told either one of them yet about her literal abilities coming from her own symbol. It enables many odd features for Jane, giving her the ability to learn new skills quicker than others, and conserving a ton of MP energy in the process of invoking spells. That was the key to the shield all along. "It's originally supposed to be a power shield that takes up a lot of MP energy in order to partially block out damage, as opposed to relying on evasion techniques, but because of my enhancements, all of my skills naturally take up less reference capacities on MP energy than other people do. So I only need to expend about two percent of my energy to project a power shield. Because I can put so much into it with little effort, it blocks all damage completely."
"That sure is one handy trick." Danny had to agree with some of the things Jane was talking about earlier. It didn't make much sense that she could get so good in such a small amount of time, but in truth, the symbol was doing it to her all along. Jane now learns abilities much quicker than others because of the crest in her hand, and now for the same reason, she gets unlimited shielding auras. Hard to believe - seeing how weak she was several days ago. The symbol also lowers her defense completely, but the shield goes to counteract that effect. Who taught it to her in the first place?
"It only works if I have a fair amount of energy in the first place. The moment my aura takes too much damage, or is projected for too long a period of time, I can't hold it up anymore. That power shield became my only defense against the creatures and machinery in the dark zone. I would have died for certain without it."
So the shield does have its own weaknesses. Taylor figured that could be the case, but seeing Jane in action begged to differ on her new skill level. She might be stronger than herself and Danny put together by now. If that power continues to grow... "But if you're the only one who can make that shield, how is the army supposed to handle the dark zone?"
Jane knew Taylor would still pry on the small critical details of this plan. She has been in disbelief that it could even be done at all, but all it takes from here is courage. "It's like I said before. We also have safety in numbers. It's not like I had to make official battles happen in Alpha Zero. It's much more open than the fight I just had with Cass. No dome shield to protect others, but at the same time, no rules that demand even numbers."
"So," Danny recapped. "This symbol, it allows you to lower the cost of your abilities, making them stronger. Normally as we know from before, it cuts your natural endurance defense in half, but with this shield thing you have going on, it makes up the difference on your defense."
Jane replied to deliver a counter-argument. "Something else is strange too. I thought that my endurance was always cut in half after being marked. There wasn't a way to measure any difference until more recently. My endurance is getting better over time, just slightly, without that shield trick I can use. And that leads me to believe that the symbol actually reset the endurance back to the lowest levels, forcing me to grow stronger again with that. I could be wrong, but I'm betting that I'll be able to survive more in the future without that shielding trick."
So it resets the endurance level of the user back to zero? Danny never knew that such a possibility existed. Still, Jane isn't too sure of herself. If she can improve her endurance naturally over time even after becoming marked, she could be capable of so much more, given the time to grow with weaponized signet burned into her hand. Even now, given a poor endurance rating, Jane's shielding powers takes care of the problem. "Looks like Jane found a way to counteract the negative side effects of the crest."
Jane sighed heavily. "I just wish I hadn't been marked in the first place. I wish I would have gotten the normal usual experience with Leray magic, fighting the way battles are meant to be fought. This crest in my hand is just cheating on several levels."
Taylor interjected, "I see what you mean." Jane's argument now seemed silly considering how devastated she was before about losing her first few battles, but Taylor was soon reminded that her emotions of such were just an act. The real panic and depression came from her symbol, and that of hiding the crest from herself and from Danny, more so from everybody. It's funny now how the very same symbol has given Jane more power than what she originally had, just from experimenting with the process. "But as long as you do have it, you can use it do to great things, like what we're doing with Alpha Zero right now."
With a mild chuckle, Jane made another prediction. "I doubt they're going to put that much trust in a single mage with such a delicate skill. Removing symbols isn't a bad thing, but what happens when the sole person who can becomes an enemy?"
"Are you still going to ask this mage at the Den of Purity to remove your symbol?" Danny had asked the question forgetting the name of the professor, despite Jane telling him earlier.
"Name's professor Brightworth," Jane clarified. "And I don't think I can trust him to even do that. It's a detail I have to figure out after we fix the Outback first."
"There's one thing I don't understand."
Calling for Taylor's elaboration, Jane asked, "What's that?" She and the others had to slow their bikes down a little more to hear each other with clarity through the chilling wind as it picked up some speed.
"Why would some random stranger give you a spell bomb and take off?"
Jane still never forgot about it. The memory rang without a vague fog of corruption, her thoughts of that day as clear as crystal, until came the moment just before getting marked by her own contraption. Nobody knew the name of the man or what he was up to. Jane remembered that he did happen to say something to her, just after emerging from the woods in the creepiest formation a person can approach. The spell bomb is incredibly dangerous, more so in dangerous hands. I'm entrusting this device to you. Don't use it! Just keep it safe and protected. Don't tell anyone you have it! It was the only information Jane got out of the guy. Just clear instructions, although they weren't very clear to her at the time.
She broke every single one of those rules in just a few minutes plus one of the important laws of a Leray wielder. After the man rushed back into the void woods he came from, Jane remembered seeing a few other people wearing some kind of hooded outfits rushing after the guy who tried to help Jane. He was being chased for some reason, by whom still debatable. The dangerous part about the spell bomb must have been the part about getting marked, and Jane could even see why it was dangerous in the wrong hands too. With her incredible powers she doesn't even want to have, another may want to do harm with such power, commit crimes and get away with it, invulnerable to damage once the assimilation digs in deep. Was the spell bomb a special - off the market prototype from a rich corporation? Or was it an illegal fabrication of veritable expensive materials and years of intelligent research? Jane didn't have any new answers. All she realized in the meantime of her thoughts is that she really is considered dangerous, if she chooses to be anyway. "I'm as clueless about it as you are."
Seeing as Jane was face forward in deep thought for over five seconds, Taylor could accept the answer, but she heard a lot of disappointment in Jane's tone, realizing that the heavy uncertainty still bothered her. She immediately tried to change the subject. "So Cass was a good fighter after all, once she gets physical training."
"Yeah..." Jane still sounded like her mind was totally somewhere else, though she did try to stay on Taylor's new topic. "I've never had to coax someone on advice before. I did help you two out in the beginning, but that was different. We didn't battle each other to figure those things out."
"We couldn't battle you mean," Danny corrected. Such a strange law, to forbid battling until one has a license!
Realizing he had a point, Jane reminded herself and Taylor how the rules worked on them back then. "Yeah. Even while I was training you two, I wasn't ready for a full match myself. There was that time training with the Cran, but it was a total walk in the park for me."
Taylor already hated Jane's idea of bringing that memory back up. She won the fight against the Cran as well. Luckily, Jane was there to keep watch, because she nearly got caught into a situation of wearing undesirable damaged clothing that could have been destroyed entirely, nearly witnessed by a few other students including Danny. It's what happens when you have a Leray match against anything without wearing the appropriate armor or dress spheres. Jane helped her out with her spare backups in that supply sphere, and though she was spared explaining herself to others, Taylor always had the brief thought on her mind every now and then. People had to invent damage resistant clothing in order for it to exist now, right? That must have meant that several people back in the day must have had several rough moments, losing their clothes to battle damage in the middle of fights. Or maybe that isn't how it happened? Taylor still kept herself from asking Jane about it all this time, and it's not like Jane would be too sure of the answer either.
"I bet it was." Danny still had plenty of nerve making sure Jane doesn't overestimate herself. "You didn't teach us everything we know."
"But Taylor caught on to the magic a little more quickly than you did," Jane pointed out. As it was true, Taylor mastered her energy scope first, Radial Stars, and several other higher tier spells before Danny did. Danny eventually caught up to her level evenly, but it was impossible to tell which one was ahead of each other right now. Though Taylor also learned to specialize her magic, which isn't something too many people do. "Speaking of which, are you still focusing your magic on ice elemental spells, Taylor?"
"Of course," Taylor replied with enthusiasm. "I can't tell you how many times I've gotten advantages in speed just because I use enough ice spells to literally slow down my own opponents."
Danny added, "Kind of hard to attack or defend yourself when you're shivering too much to move." It's another ingenious design put into Leray magic. Ice elemental magic deals magic type damage that causes the opponent affected to freeze, provided that opponent does not have any suits or dress spheres equipped that resist that specific element.
"What spells do you have now?" Jane probed.
While listing all of the abilities in her mind related to ice elemental magic, Taylor carefully spat out the names of the abilities one after the other. "Ice Bolt, Ice Needles, Icy Wind, Frost Blade, Ice Blast, Ice Beam, Icy Cannon... I'm still working on Icy Cannon, and two new spells I made up called Cold Spin and Ice Shots."
"Cold Spin?" Jane repeated. Jane didn't need elaboration for Ice Shots, having seen Taylor use it once in action. She threw Ninja Stars while simultaneously infusing the physical objects spawned with ice elemental magic auras, which increased the power level with little MP cost. Cold Spin is a new term to Jane entirely.
Danny defined the skill for Taylor to Jane, knowing of the intention as Taylor described the idea to him before. "It's basically one of Taylor's Whirlwind attacks combined with Icy Wind, turning the entire combination into a freezing tornado attack."
"Clever." Jane knew there were more ice abilities in existence, but Taylor must still be learning them all. Of all things, Cold Spin is not actually an official ability, but one Taylor was designing on her own. It's also interesting that Claudia put Blizzard on that list of new spells Jane should learn before the big fight, an ability that brings down the temperature of the entire battlefield to freezing levels for a long duration. Perhaps Taylor would be interested in that spell. Of course, it isn't perfect, since another spell called Blaze Storm can literally counteract Blizzard with the exact opposite effects. They are the opposite spells of each other, thus both sides can use them successively to cancel and reverse their effects.
"I don't think I specialize as much." Danny was still learning new abilities, though even with Taylor's strategy, it can be considered a weakness should she ever combat someone who specializes in fire. Leray battles have so many elements to strategies that isn't easy to think about in a single instant. But without any specialization, Jane can't predict squat. "Still, I do think I can take Jane on."
"Easy does it now," Jane taunted. "Maybe you two should battle each other first to determine who I challenge next. We can turn it into an entire competition if we have to. Taylor? Don't hold back on him just because he's your boyfriend."
"O— oh, I won't." Taylor still felt skittish just from the way Jane said those words. She had considered using that name for Danny before, but hearing it said out loud made her heart skip a beat every time. Already reminded about being asked out by Danny not even an hour ago, Taylor became silent in her thoughts.
Danny felt it odd for Jane to be using such terminology already, though much like her at the same time. Jane will probably milk this as much as she can, knowing that it embarrasses Taylor. Though he still couldn't figure out why Taylor was so shy about this with himself. Taylor never has problems talking to other men. Usually she's just insulting them or talking down to them in some way, but never did Taylor do that towards him. Maybe the relationship scares Taylor, but it's hard to tell. As the silence grew more awkward, he tried to answer for Jane, hoping it would move the subject along. "Nothing wrong with a fair fight. I would be interested to see which one of us wins, but it might be a damn tie."
Sadly, the silence lingered after Jane and Taylor took what he said into consideration. Danny didn't insult Taylor or Jane this time. It was just words said to fill a growing void. Danny didn't want this to be awkward between himself and Taylor, and prayed he did not made some kind of mistake pressuring her into saying yes. As if a prayer was answered by god, life gave them all a new distraction up ahead.
A curved blue line of colored fire blocked the path down the road with a man standing on the other side of it. It was clearly a unique roadblock made out of magic, intimidating all three of them to slow down to a stop before hitting the unusual fiery aura on the cement. Jane was first to stop all the way, but Danny and Taylor got a little further ahead, nearly sliding their wheels into the fiery line of magic. The block was obviously intentional, and the tall black haired man was forcing them to stop and speak with him.
Jane already knew what this was about, even though she had never seen a confrontation like this before. At the very least, this random 33-year-old adult was stopping people heading his way just to ask them for a battle. It was unclear yet how bad his morals were on exploiting the system much like Gustos exploited Cass earlier, but she didn't pretend to have a problem with this. Jane set down her bike again, edging Danny and Taylor to do the same thing. Theoretically, Jane could simply have Danny or Taylor fight this man, but doing so it may take more time. She cannot just ride past while her friends battle an unknown. After walking close enough to the fiery aura, the strange man used his hands through magic to extinguish the flames, letting Jane walk much closer. He wore a dark colored cape with green designs on the front of the coat. An odd dress sphere for a man, but it suited him in the belief that he is some kind of rich classical fighter who may have been a butler before now. Jane had her friends right behind her for assurance.
He got down to the point immediately, sensing much intelligence within the older teen among the group. "Greetings and well met. Care if I challenge thee to a match?" The man carried an interesting blade aiming it at Jane as a gesture to point at her. The long sword was really skinny and shaved down, like something from the older days. "T'was long ago since I fared a worthy adversary."
Is this guy for real? "Drop the talk Shakespeare! I only accept formal challenges that also have a good enough spoil at the end of it for me. And I don't fight anyone without introductions." Jane crossed her arms, waiting for the man to get real and hurry up his claim. It was bad enough she had to be stopped for another Leray battle. If his skills were anywhere as corny has his accent, this won't be hard.
"I am Liam, of the great providence in Eldora, sector E-H. I must know thy name, courageous dame."
While keeping his eyes on the strange man, Danny leaned his head closer to Taylor for an inconspicuous whisper. "Is there something wrong with this guy?"
Taylor held her hand to her mouth, trying her hardest not to laugh out loud. The language the guy was speaking seemed to be skewed to some strange vocabulary, though it sounded hilarious in her head, and Danny sure felt the same way about it was well. Wonder what Jane makes of this?
What a moron. Jane wished he had taken the hint earlier. Nobody speaks like that in Sprawn Valley, not even the rich and prideful. Jane couldn't imagine anything worse than this. Out of all the ways one can get so deep into Leray magic, this guy must be pretending to be some sort of prince in a kingdom, holding his blade as if he were a knight working for a refined segment of the monarch. This is what happens when you don't parent your children enough. "I'm Jane. If it's a fight you want, I'll be the person battling."
Liam immediately held his blade back in a relaxed manner to reply. "The day is young, and thy sword ails for worthiness. Shall we decide on the rewards? How does five hundred credits sound? Good on the ears, aye?"
Jane held her face with the reaction to this cringy person, not even bothering to hide her reaction from the challenger in front. And five hundred credits? Seriously?! "You're going to have to land better game than that."
"I suppose I shall settle in to give thy victor away an MP up spell bomb for good measure? How about a defense spell booster for your friend on top of that?"
Jane considered the thought. Five hundred was basically nothing, but adding an MP boosting spell bomb and a defense spell booster to Jane's friends would dramatically improve their chances of survival should they somehow end up in the dark zone with her. Even though Jane still held her strong belief that they will both be missing home sooner than they realize it, the three-item offer was getting much better for steaks now. "It's still a little cheap, but I'm now agreed."
"Very well then. Places people!" Liam shouted for Jane's friends to take their distance from the designated battle zone. The bridge would be a bit different, since the sections of space between the rails was much less than it was on either end of Route 787. There will still be plenty of room for the dome shield to allow a full battle nonetheless, and this girl seems like a basic wielder with too much bark for her bite.
Jane steered her neck everywhere, searching to see who Liam was speaking to. But nobody else was around; nothing else seemed to change. He must be talking about the preparation to battle, being too much of a dweeb to actually just say it the right way. "Let's start then." With Jane's final word in, Danny and Taylor both realized what they had to do, back as far away as possible. Liam had to take his place distant as well, making sure there would be plenty of room for the battle. At least this time there would be a Siriean dome in place to protect the bridge from damage.
The battle was already soon to begin. The Siriean dome took form the moment Jane and Liam were ready, as did the holographic text for the reward system. Jane engaged her energy scope at the same time Liam did, while assessing how well her physical body healed from the real time damage taken a while ago. Her maximum stats were still capped below one hundred percent, but not very far from that value.
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Chapter Theme Shift: Strength of Steel ~ Q-Factory
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image [https://i.postimg.cc/hGRfw5HR/S3-Jane-N-016.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/vHjz1G67/S3-Liam-N-000.png]
"Let's make this brief, shall we?" Liam didn't mind talking a big game or showing off his flashy rich cloak in front of his opponent. The girl appeared to stand as ready as he was, and Liam immediately took it upon himself to go first with a long-range attack spell. After quickly charging energy into his hand and chanting the name at the top of his lungs, a red glyphring formed rotating around his right wrist, using the left hand to hold his long blade carefully. "Fire Blast!" Liam's open hand fired several fire-based projectiles towards Jane without delay. He wasn't a rookie at using magic it seemed.
Jane saw this coming from far away regardless. Using a ranged attack against her in the form of slow moving projectiles was hardly enough to get the best of her. Jane knew that Fire Bolt spells are often fast, but thanks to all of the real time training and experiences she has had over the weeks, even her reaction timing and heightened reflexes made something as fast as Fire Bolt seem so slow. There were five of them jettisoned from the glyphring one after the next, the familiar spell of Fire Blast already registered into her mind. Jane knew the spell by coincidence. It's the next upgrade from Triple Fire, increasing the number of used projectiles without changing the speed, damage, or other properties. It's simply the same as using five Fire Bolt attacks in one quick moment, difficult to master yet devastating to the amount of damage it may cause. Jane was ready for it, her energy already charged up into her hands. As she threw her arms outward in a cross, she stopped her arms just in front of her with her hands open to project the magic. Instead of holding her arms all the way out to the sides, Jane wanted to try and reduce the maximum projection field to increase the power of her shielding aura.
This surprisingly worked out very well for her. Jane's aura activated very quickly, protecting her entire body in a magical coat that took the same shape and form as her current body position. While keeping her eyes open, Jane was able to track all five of the Fire Bolts melting away into the shield, disintegrating into heat while the hexagons formed at each impact site only to fade away within the milliseconds of time. After watching the last one fail to penetrate her aura, Jane didn't even feel scathed or exhausted by using the shield to block out the damage. The hexagons were normal sized for her, and the lack of exhaustion meant the damage overall was much too light to break through her power shield in the first place. By the time Jane stopped projecting the energy from her hands while lowering her concentration on the power shield, the aura around her collapsed as intended, leaving Liam's eyes wide of surprise and mystery.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Great Lysander's edge! What an interesting defense," he exhaled calmly. Liam didn't know yet how to overcome something as strong as that aura, nor had he been expecting the likes of some girl to hold so much defensive capabilities. Even her timing and reaction speed was legendary. While admiring his opponent's readiness and willingness to fight, Liam was eventually met by her counterattack.
"Ozcom's Razor!" Jane unleashed some more of her MP energy, forming a difficult to see auric glyphring with blue and green colors hovering high overhead her target. Formed from the magical glyphring spawning matter into reality, a massive and thick blade of metal materialized above Liam's position. Before he could react, Jane's spell brought the blade and its hilt crashing down towards the ground at an incredible speed worthy of guessing high damage. The smash of the blade was enough to pierce through Liam's entire physical body in the normal non-lethal way that Leray magic somehow makes certain. The hit on the cement ground carried enough force to quake the entire area even outside of the Siriean dome; Jane could feel its vibration of impact while Liam was left with incredibly painful damages in the spell.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/7Z2N0jgF/S3-Liam-N-001.png]
"Aahhhgh!" Liam's manly cry of pain rang in the echoes of the wind, the blade's force alone pushing him all the way into the cold ground as he struggled through the sensation of pulled muscles and sliced cuts from behind. The attack was already over, but it left a large amount of damage and physical pain in its wake. Liam realized that he could have seen it coming sooner and dodged the attack. Ozcom's Razor is sort of a simple spell to use, dealing a high amount of non-elemental magical slashing damage and piercing damage at the same time, so it can be quite high on a power level. Then again, for those who are prepared, it can be easily evaded too. Liam soon realized that the person he was dealing with was very determined to win, likely holding back a large arsenal of powerful spells in her back.
After pulling himself together and getting back up to his feet, Liam thought of another spell much similar to the after effects of Ozcom's Razor, a spell that would directly counter Jane's last spell. It would be one too quick for her to avoid or block. Before being too hasty about his movements, Liam carefully took aim with his right hand at Jane before chanting the spell. "Your effort behind the spells rings passion, so shall my skills sharpness deepen. Mize!"
Before an attack glyphring could even be noticed around Liam's right wrist, a bright white beam of light immediately shot through Liam's open hand, burning a fiery hole into Jane's left shoulder. The beam was about as evanescent as the time it took for Liam to say the name of his spell after his poetic remark, fading immediately. Despite how quick and relentless it was, Jane couldn't stop herself from hunching down lower, holding her left shoulder in the incredible pain that the attack left behind. It felt almost as potent as the turret's laser swipe from back in Alpha Zero, only more concentrated in this form. Jane had never heard or seen of this spell before, but she knew it was going to be a problem already. Her energy scope warned her of its damaging properties, while her burning flesh of seared nerves warned about the high chance for interruption. The piercing properties of this spell were so high to give her this much muscular pain in the centralized area.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/vm7cdvsg/S3-Jane-N-017.png]
"Touché," Jane recalled. Both of them had a great deal of offensive capabilities, but judging from how the man was just standing in place told a lot about him to Jane. Liam must still be in the early stages of magic wielding, still a rookie without the courage to get up close and personal. Still, Jane could barely move her left arm due to the last attack. It's as if the pain was locking up her muscle in that region, forcing her to make much less use of that arm long after the spell ended. Jane needed a game changer and fast, one that allowed her to recover her stamina. There was only one, and not a very good defense at that in general. Jane however figured she had little choice, and went with the spell to buy herself a little more time to think of a new strategy. "Gyrobreak!" Jane used her right hand as the channel of energy this time, aiming for the ground and infusing her magical spell into the environment everywhere. Though the spell would only manage to affect the persons inside of the dome shield, it was proven effective before.
Liam was immediately thrown for a ride on his feet once the ground began shaking and twisting. The spell in question had already taken full effect, giving Liam the illusion that the entire world around him was tilting in multiple directions, taking the view of the sky and the sun with it. "Forsooth I should have made preparation for a spell prior to this catastrophe!" Liam's voice was uneven as the world around him became twisted and turbulent. Gyrobreak is a rather effective way to get the jump on someone, and Liam assumed Jane was about to pounce. But Liam managed to keep his balance just enough to invoke a spell of his own, hopefully one that would not be disrupted by the Gyrobreak. "I trust this one will overcome this violence of nature before me. Kill Zone!" After immediately expending a ton of his own energy into the field around him, the aerial glyphring spawned above the battlefield, forming bright shimmering lights in the sky behind it.
Jane noticed interesting red circles populating the ground throughout the entire field, circles that were even close to Liam himself. The positions seemed to be random, yet not a single one threatened to hold Jane inside of one. Eventually there were thirty-two red circles, each about 2.5 meters in diameter forming on the cement. The circles themselves seemed holographic too, something she couldn't physically touch due to a visual magic formation of some type. When Jane again noticed the lights in the sky getting bigger, she soon realized that they were meteorites falling down from above. Not understanding the difference in the Meteor Strike spell, all Jane could do was wait while struggling to stand up straight. The Gyrobreak had both herself and Liam on the edge of their feet, unable to move less they risk falling flat on their bellies. The meteors began crashing down into the cement, immediately causing minor physical damage to the ground while exploding upon impact with very dangerous forces. Jane figured that the attack seemed random, but the red circles meant something in the end. Each meteor only landed in those red circles, never flailing off the target except for the occasional glitch in the projected direction brought on by the ongoing Gyrobreak's quakes. Jane wasn't surrounded by a circle to begin with, which meant she was luckily safe without having to do anything, but the loud bashing and smashing of the rocks on the cement kept her from thinking clearly about what to do next.
Eventually the meteors stopped coming down, making Liam's Kill Zone area attack effectively useless. It's supposed to be a much more improved version of Meteor Strike, with the cost of giving away the position of each hit to the opponent ahead of time. Because of this cost, damage is improved immensely upon impact. Unfortunately for Liam, he used a lot of MP energy for nothing in the end.
Jane wasn't about to stand there and do nothing, but she didn't have a realistic plan other than trying to go with another physical attack. Her left shoulder still hurt like hell, but it became less stiff in the time it took for the Gyrobreak to end. She would have to ignore the pain and go with it, requiring that arm for other purposes in battle. "Splicing Vengeance!" Jane puled both daggers for each hand out of the hidden pockets in her battle suit, holding them up high to prepare herself for the sprint. While infusing magical energy into each blade and her own two legs, Jane lunged at Liam with a normally impossible speed. With magic supporting her leg movements and speeding up her body movement to match that of an elemental projectile attack, Jane quickly got close range to Liam's position, stopping at the last moment. While putting her force from the sprint into her blades, Jane unleashed the slash, slicing each arm around her front for a double strike against Liam's chest. Because of the magical infusion in the daggers themselves, Jane knew ahead of time the damage would not be too light.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/mrWywVjt/S3-Liam-N-002.png]
Liam felt the stinging burn of dagger slashes protrude just above his stomach, enough to stop him momentarily. He saw Jane jump away and walk backwards to retain her distance from him, while Liam was left with only a high sense of impression on his opponent's random style. Jane doesn't have many weaknesses. She doesn't stick to one type of attack or damage style, and her defense is nearly impenetrable. It was now that Liam realized that he needed a game changer of his own. Immediately driven by the idea of making his target hallucinate and trip out for a good period of time, Liam charged up energy for his next spell, making his hand glow with a very dark blue color before he could chant the name of his attack. "I cast thee down to you! Dark Node!"
Jane sensed something coming her way quickly, and reacted with instinct to put another power shield around her body. In the very moment Jane's shield aura formed around her, she could already see hexagons suddenly spawning from the front without even noticing anything else in particular happening around her.
"Hindered am I by bad luck!" Liam didn't expect that shield trick to happen so fast. Jane must have been protected even from non-damaging spells like this one. Dark Node is hard to learn, harder to land on opponents due to its incredible reputation of low accuracy. Wielders have to be a perfect aim with the spell for it to work, firing a totally invisible beam of energy that disorients the target for several moments. While Jane didn't see the actual light from the spell hit her shield, she was still protected anyway. Liam wasn't fully certain that a power shield could do that until now, and after witnessing the shield drop around her again, Liam realized he was in for an upcoming attack.
Jane lowered her shield again, failing to understand what sort of invisible attack Liam tried to use against her. Keeping to her long-range tactics, Jane infused more energy into herself, creating another glow of magical fluctuation in her hands. With their red radiant glow, Jane's actions released the magic and its light into her next spell. "Star of Darkness!" While immediately creating a red circle on the ground to trap Liam inside of the draining spell attack, Liam glanced around himself in all directions.
Remaining wary of his environment, Liam reacted impulsively to rush his legs in any direction for as far as they could possibly take him. Hoping to avoid getting stuck inside of the circle of a spell he had been familiar with before, Liam tried to evade the attack entirely. Any user of Star of Darkness cannot change the physical location of their Star of Darkness circle after it begins to draw into the ground. In other words, should Liam escape in time, the entire spell would be useless to Jane and a waste of energy.
"Nagh!" Jane flustered. Liam managed to run away in time. By the time the red star formed on the ground inside of its own circle, Liam already exited from the confines of the circle, long before the draining could actually take effect. The spell continued going on, for it was difficult and time consuming just to put an end to her spell as it was. While draining the life force out of nothing, Jane was basically wasting her energy now, trying to shut off the spell early. Simply moving her arms or hands wasn't enough to defuse the total casting of the spell. At the same time, Liam had a great window of opportunity to counterattack.
"Now brigand! You leave yourself vulnerable and open. Succumb to my power! Shotgun Blast!" Liam immediately went with a quick and efficient spell, hoping to hit Jane before she even have a free hand. After using another yellow glyphring to spawn a gun into Liam's right hand, he took aim at Jane and fired three times in a row, not standard for the weaker version of a spell.
After being slammed by several hot photons that acted like the slug round of speeding shotgun bullets, Jane managed to get her hands in front of her and project another shield aura. Only this time the aura did not surround and protect her entire body. By mistake, Jane only formed a small phase wall in front of her, blocking out only the third wave of Shotgun Blast photon shells. The projectiles bounced off the aura, soon to destroy the aura without doing any more damage to Jane.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/3RKWrD8L/S3-Jane-N-018.png]
This time, Jane was almost as surprised as Liam with the way she used her shield. It was then that she remembered that in rare circumstances could Jane sometimes invoke a power shield that isn't actually complete in its usual form, though just as effective in damage cancellation. It costs less MP energy, and invokes faster, but protects for a less amount of time and damage while only blocking attacks in a directional wall formation too. There wasn't much Jane did particularly different to make it happen. All she wanted to do was protect herself by instinct, making that little display a complete accident and mystery.
Of course, now it was her turn to attack again. Jane thought of all the amazing spells out there she could choose from. Not all of the high damaging powerful magic skills needed to be area attacks. One in particular had an amazing effect to one single glyphring, and made for very fun practice on her part. Preparing herself by stepping forward a little more and aiming carefully using only her eyes, Jane unleashed a massive amount of MP energy in a single instant, creating a colorful glyphring in front of her body, not bound to her physical presence at all. "Time to attack with Prism!" Getting it right more than once before, Jane had confidence that Liam would struggle with this spell too. As the multi-colored holographic disk slowly rotated in front of Jane horizontally aiming its center towards the intended target, Jane begun the long Prism combination barrage with a Fire Bolt. Jane's arm movements enabled her to literally throw the Fire Bolt with a swinging toss to the other side, right through the center of the special glyphring. Jane threw another Fire Bolt at Liam from the left arm, and continued this wave of arm movements for the rest of the combination while mixing up the elemental attacks.
Liam was unable to dodge the wave of elemental bolts slamming into him, and the sight of several more to come had Liam too terrified and shocked to react defensively. Jane's third throw was an Ice Bolt, after which she shot a short lived Thunderbolt from her hand, striking Liam's body with electricity long before the Ice Bolt exploded in the same place. Jane then followed up the rest of the long combination with Thunderbolt, Fire Bolt, two Thunderbolts, Ice Bolt, Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Thunderbolt, Fire Bolt, and Thunderbolt in that particular order. Jane's execution of each attack in the way she used them looked absolutely amazing from the passive observers on the outside. Danny and Taylor were stunned by the spell Jane just invoked, and how incredibly effective it was for the use of one single glyphring. Putting that spell alone together with some of Jane's other previously used attacks, they both came to one immediate conclusion. Jane is a badass in battle.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/QMgkn5YS/S3-Liam-N-003.png]
It had been a long time for Liam since any single attack used against him caused more than 30% health loss in one match. Liam however was hurting too badly to admire Jane's potential. The Fire Bolts all had his skin burning, while the Ice Bolts chilled his body too much for comfort, and the Thunderbolt all had his skin tingling in a sensation that was painful instead of numbing. Sensing that he had already bitten off more than he could chew, Liam desperately tried to recover from the devastating attack that plundered him. He had a few more ideas left to try, but Jane would need to be tied up in order to land a single hit with anything. Finally lifting his sword for some real use, Liam prepared to slash the open air with the invocation of more magical energy. The fight isn't over yet.
"So you've chosen to fight the hard way. Rotation!" he bellowed. Liam used his blade in order to create the swirling wind that soon turned into a full sized Whirlwind attack. Though forming in front of him in a mobile form, Liam made certain that Jane saw the Rotation twister heading her way before charging up additional MP energy.
Jane witnessed this spell before in the battle against Mayza not too long ago. This is Whirlwind upgraded in form twice, in that the spell Twister is the second tier of the spell. With Liam out of sight, the high speed swirling winds, which had more visibility that what would normally be seen outside of a Leray zone, formed into a large twister threatening to swallow Jane up whole. As quickly as she could, Jane invoked another power shield around her entire body, realizing that the slashing attacks kept in the Rotation field could hit her body from any direction or location. With the field around herself in the nick of time, Jane had to wait out the lengthy tornado attack of wind elemental slashing damage until it finally disappeared. Because of how long it took to fade away, Jane had no choice but to put down her shielding aura due to time, dropping her projection and her arms with it.
With Jane now visible again and vulnerable, Liam knew what happened, as well as what would happen next. He didn't let up the attacks, expecting the exact moment to play out in his head the way he had predicted. "Tri-Attack!" Liam immediately forced a sub machine gun to form in his right hand, already prepared to fire the weapon. Liam emptied his entire clip aimed at Jane, and all she could do is take it by surprise. Because of the Rotation attack blocking the view of Liam's next action, Jane wasn't going to expect another spell just after Rotation ended. Liam was counting on it, and Jane played right into that hand. Realizing he now held an upper hand, Liam continued his random combination while Jane was taking slight damage from the bullets and rounds that shot from the gun. Liam dropped the gun immediately in order to swap to his next combination.
Like a few others, Liam was one to use Tri-Attack in the form of a Tri-Cast spell combination, making the spells invoked less predictable and confusing for the opponent. "Magical Blitz!" Without slowing down for a moment, Liam launched two energy balls from his hand towards Jane, just as the bullet barrage towards her ended, and before the projectiles were even prone to slam her in the face, Liam charged up more energy in an additional chant for the final attack spell. "Flamethrower!"
Jane could hear the type of attacks being used against her, and though the barrage of painful bullets got the best of her, the recovery from the painful bruising afterwards was just as instant. Jane bounced back just as two quick flying blue energy balls from a Magical Blitz spell were on their way to hit her. Shielding would take too long and use up too much energy. Liam was adapting to use her own shield already. Reacting on speed and natural skill, Jane managed to turn this around yet again. Pulling both daggers in less than a split-second, Jane slashed upwards at the air, aiming for the projected path of each energy sphere. She had to time this a bit early, since the projectiles move at a speed nearly untraceable to most. Though she was sworn to hit nothing with her blade, Jane's dagger ended up cutting the Magical Blitz projectile in half, effectively canceling the attack altogether. Jane had to slash the other projectile with her other free dagger just a micro-moment after, since the Magical Blitz attack was used in consecutive movements.
Jane wasn't reacting by plan anymore, simply playing this by ear and instinct. She became much better at quick decisions and reactions, but after disarming the Magical Blitz attack, Jane had to quickly come up with a way to counter the upcoming Flamethrower spell. Just as the beam of fire made its way through Liam's glyphring, Jane did the same with a counterattack. "Ice Beam!" Ice beam is a rare ice attack with moderate damage dealing potential, but is designed to function in a beam, much the same way of Flamethrower. Instead, Jane aimed for the ground in front of her, spraying a concentrated gush of air from her hands to quickly form a freezing wall in front of her.
In the instant Liam noticed Jane's random intervention with the Magical Blitz and the Flamethrower attack, there were not even words he could use to fully comprehend how it was even possible. Jane used the freezing winds of a fully concentrated ice beam to cool down the oncoming Flamethrower towards her. It barely worked at all, but Liam's beam of fire suddenly extinguished in midair just before it came to pour on Jane's body. Just like that, his entire Tri-Attack was made effectively useless. Though it did seem as if Jane's MP energy was well spent already, and her health did go down just a tiny bit from the bullet barrage at the beginning of his Tri-Attack. The strategy was not flawed, but Jane was too quick for it anyway. How is she doing that?!
image [https://i.postimg.cc/rmQsDFzq/S3-Jane-N-019.png]
Still, without the time to plan a good skill run, Jane simply went with anything that felt right or complemented by excessive magical potential. Using the daggers already in her hands, she tired an attack that would actually reach Liam. Jane was already amazed! His magical power wasn't bad for a beginner, but he still lacked firsthand experience, and that spoke volumes about the rest of this entire battle for her. "Armor Breaker!" Jane infused magic into her daggers in an instant, spinning after a jump to throw the blades with as much force as she could. The spinning blades managed to reach Liam in no time, too quick for him to even duck down his head. Surprisingly, the slice barely touched his health, and the pain level was too low to make him flinch for more than half a second.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/V6YBy63w/S3-Liam-N-004.png]
The attack stung for but a second, the blades now fading behind him to return to Jane. It really didn't hurt at all, and Liam suddenly began to wonder if the fault belonged to Jane alone. "That's all you've got mage? Powering down are we?"
Jane understood the mistake shortly after the insult, realizing that Armor Breaker is a spell that only works correctly against armored targets. Liam and Jane are both wearing suits and cloaks that don't have any slashing or blunt damage protection attached to them. Armor Breaker deals a low amount of damage if used against unarmored targets. Jane should have known! But the usage only drained a tiny fraction of her remaining MP reserves with plenty more to spare. "I wouldn't underestimate me if I were you. Had enough yet?"
Declining the polite offer to give up and back down, Liam returned his confident vigor back to Jane while charging up a ton of his remaining energy into his personal aura. It wasn't invisible to anybody else, for his MP was draining quickly on the energy scope hovering above him. "Nay! I think it is you who has underestimated me. You're mistake shall bare punishment! It is time to share your wealth! Mega-Flare!" Invoking one of the most common powerful spells known around Sprawn Valley, Liam fired his light screen attack into the field, producing a blinding light that hid everything in sight from outside of the dome shield. As soon as the light screen began to run its course of intense heat and damage upon Jane, Liam felt himself weaken immensely, using up most of his remaining energy reserves to throw in such a powerful attack.
Jane's eyes hurt, though her body hurt much more with the intense burning sensations everywhere on her skin. Unable to shield herself in time due to the quick invocation of Liam's Mega-Flare attack, Jane was hit by the full force of the area attack, remembering once again how powerful something so simple and common can be. As soon as the light faded, Jane's damage was tallied into the results of her energy scope. She tried to recover her strength and wits as she read back to herself the results.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/8cc5MQrM/S3-Jane-N-020.png]
Still faring better statistically against Liam, Jane didn't let her own determined confidence falter, and after realizing how okay she still was to battle, it wasn't long at all when Liam realized the error of his mistake. He had poured all of his magical energy into one single attack, hoping to do a full blow on Jane's health. Despite her natural defense being lowered by her hidden mark, even a full blast of Mega-Flare wasn't going to drop her health from 65% to zero in one hit, especially with all of the new training under her belt. Jane had been preparing for moments like these, making sure to account for every detail about herself and her enemy before making a calculated decision. Much of her choices have been random up until now. With Jane withholding much remaining health and energy, Liam was at a severe disadvantage now, and likely unwilling to give up the match.
Jane smirked in her smug new plan to defeat Liam with an honorable test of strength. "Brilliant!" she cast. "You spent all your energy hoping to get me on one try? And you made sure I wasn't going to have a good time dodging."
Liam gulped before his response. He knew of his own disadvantage by now, but was proud that Jane recognized his true power. The error alone was on him now. "It's good to know my skills are recognized before I pay for my own mistakes."
"Now it's my turn," Jane announced. If Liam wants to try one hit knockout spells, then she might as well indulge the behavior. "Good luck dodging this. Redemption!" While immediately throwing every tick of energy she had out from her own aura, Jane cast a beautiful beam of vertical shining light from above, a beam that moved in towards Liam. The beam then split up into five smaller vertical beams of itself, making an incredible winding up sound while spiraling all over the field in Liam's direction. The pitch in the noise continued to climb, the energy enough to cause anyone's ears to miss no single moment. Jane nearly forgot that her friends have never seen a Redemption attack used before. Jane didn't like the spell too much, since it was a risky move for using up all of a person's MP to make it happen, but the end result is strikingly powerful. Jane always loved the odd pitch in the noise of the spell increase quickly while the spirals of light drilled through the battlefield. Liam was doomed to a terrible fate. The beams of light have no homing properties locked-on him, but due to their spiraling motions and fixed movements, tracking their destination paths is an impossible task. Before Liam could deem himself safe, the beam of light from his left side and another from behind him happened to intersect together in the exact spot he was standing. The beams of light carried an odd sense of physical force, pushing him in a single direction while dealing so much damage at once that he began to weaken to nothing in less than a conscious moment. Liam was suddenly out of it just like that, falling to the ground due to his immediate incapacitation to the battle. The beams of light faded shortly after, but according to the invisible Leray system tracking the results of the battle, it was decided rather quickly that Liam was the loser of the battle.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/XJQKnWbC/S3-Liam-N-005.png]
After hearing Liam's insult, Jane planned to use Redemption. It has the same sense of risk that his Mega-Flare had in that particular use. Jane expended all of her remaining energy, hoping to wipe Liam out in one single spell. It was a direct opposition of magical strength by type and spell power level, as well as the skill it took just to learn the skill. Jane came out victorious, realizing that with or without this crest on her hand, she was literally more powerful than Liam by her own default standards. As she had been monitoring her own crest the entire time battling on Route 787, Jane hadn't noticed the light from her hand glowing one single time, nor did she feel the familiar sensation. She didn't need to call for her crest, nor did it think to call itself in for the fear of Jane's own life. Without having to power up even once using that mark, Jane was victorious in two normal battles in a row.
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Chapter Theme Shift: The Night Air of Umma ~ Aquascape
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In the same instant the Siriean dome disappeared automatically, Jane came to the conclusion on her own. "I won!" She sounded more shocked than excited. Her arms and hands were shaking nervously from the physical stress and suspense of the battle. This battle wasn't as difficult as the first one on this bridge, though it was much more demanding of her attention, much more stressful for her mind. "I actually won!"
"That was amazing Jane!" Taylor praised. They both ignored Liam as he was unconscious on the ground behind Jane, since that was a normal result for after a battle. "But I'm not surprised you won with that cool spell." Watching Jane fight like that was in itself an incredible moment. Taylor witnessed a few battles on her way to Lennith City, and only momentarily. Just like it used to be before Jane was marked, she still finds such creative ways of fighting in unpredictable actions. The scene itself nearly had her frozen by awe.
Jane turned around quickly, realizing that Danny and Taylor were still here. They must not have any real idea yet. "I didn't even have to use my symbol. I'm naturally better than Liam, and that girl from before; Mayza."
"That's... Good?" Danny paused in confusion, unable to read Jane's current emotion. Jane was quick to spell it out for him.
"Are you kidding? I'm already on the right track now. If I can fight like that without relying on this stupid tattoo," Jane raised the top of her right hand to gesture what she meant by the mark, "then beating the champion is in the realm of possibility."
Taylor comforted Jane's confidence while it was lasting, and she didn't believe her to be wrong either. "Nobody's doubting you Jane." Taylor tried to read Danny's thought about it now, realizing he was already distracted by something else.
"Man," Danny emphasized. "That Liam guy got destroyed!" Liam just laid there unconscious, his energy scope soon to disperse on its own. Jane was already fiddling with her supply sphere to pull out another healing orb.
The new items she just won were transferred automatically into her personal supply sphere by design. Jane realized that she could take the new MP and Defense Booster and give it to her friends, which is what she did while addressing Danny's evaluation of her own skill level. "I wonder if you still think you alone can beat me."
Jane did have a point. Danny hadn't realized Jane was this powerful with Leray magic already, and to think that before they left Tilsit Port, Jane's magical capabilities seemed to remain limited. She was right about her defense being lowered all along, and not one of them listened to her until it was too late. One thing was for sure; Jane was going to be the victor against Danny should they have a battle right now. "I'm afraid I'll need more training first," he applied. "But one of these days Jane, symbol or no symbol, I'll beat you in a match at least once."
Jane giggled at the thought. Danny is still so hell bent on officially defeating her in a Leray match. It's even driving him to want to train further, a friendly rivalry that was meant to exist in Sprawn Valley amongst many Leray wielders. Trying to limit her giggling response, Jane replied, "I won't make it easy just because we're friends." Jane allowed her comment to sink in while creating an unfamiliar blue beam from the energy sphere to the spell bomb boosters she obtained, then giving them to Danny and Taylor evenly.
Danny acknowledged, "I wouldn't bet on it." He accepted the orb in hand with Taylor from Jane, after which he turned towards the bikes they had all parked at the side of the rail, noticing virtually nobody else around except for one or two people in the far distance. Danny held out the defense orb Jane gave to him, and tried to use it. Unfortunately for him, nothing was happening with the device.
Jane noticed Danny's failed attempt to activate the orb, but did not judge him for failing to understand. "It probably needs to be activated in a battle. Not all the booster orbs are like that, but it seems this one is. It's a type of spell bomb."
"Mine's like that too," Taylor announced behind them. Jane gave her the MP boosting spell bomb, as it too requires activation during a legitimate battle. It's one of the more interesting ways in which criminals cannot profit off of most stolen property. If a known spell bomb or orb is activated in battle, it registers on a digital trace to hunters who track down the stolen goods. This is why if somebody reports their loot stolen, and another uses that item, hunters can be on the scene in no time. Then again, not all security systems like this are perfect, and there is still the apparent matter of forcing battles upon others to consider.
"What a shame." Danny put the orb into his pocket, not even caring for the use of his supply sphere. Jane uses that device too often, a mess since she cannot always bring out the supply sphere during a legal battle most of the time. Though it seemed to him that Jane was getting all of the action lately.
"You'll get your chance to battle again soon." Jane sounded so reassuring, faithful that everything is going to work out. "Even if we don't get into another multi-battle, there is always people in Eldora looking to spar with others."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Then that settles it," Jane called. After briefly looking all around her to estimate the time of day, it still seemed to be early, but the sun was much further down on the horizon. It wouldn't be more than two hours before sundown. They had to at least be getting closer to Eldora. "Let's get going. It will be sunset soon."
Following her lead, Danny and Taylor mounted back onto their bikes, leaving Liam to his pitiful fate. Taylor prepared to embark on the path again, trusting Jane's sense of direction and time, but it was already getting much colder in the air. She already began to regret forgetting to buy a jacket while in Lennith City, but it has been a warm winter thus far. The wind was already picking up before she thought about pedaling forward, brushing all of that breeze in her face. It still felt amazing, the smell of ocean water bringing the area to life, but it was also giving her goose bumps. Taylor didn't want to complain right now, for it was still going to be a long ride.