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<02/10/1972 – 19:12 | Route 787, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>
Remembering the exact day of today being February the 10th on a Thursday, Taylor repeated the date over and over in her head, still having no effective way of keeping track of time. She learned of the day after arriving in Lennith, and had to calculate the rest from there to now. Despite the time gap between the Tidal Max and right now, it felt like so much has happened. They continued cycling down the same road for another fifteen minutes or so with little to talk about. Taylor shut her eyes halfway, trying to rest herself on the vehicle as it coasted on the even cement behind her friends. Today was already tiring, and the bone chilling air wasn't helping her feel any more comfortable.
Danny could feel the same changes in the wind, though it didn't bother him at all. The air was cold, though it was equally welcoming and easy to breath. While cycling steadily to the side of her, Danny risked another stare at his new girlfriend. The way Taylor's face was glowing from the yellow tinted sunlight was breath taking. Danny had never given this enough thought to begin with. Asking her out suddenly felt like an impulsive and random thing to do, something that needed more thought ahead of time, but he didn't have the nerve to try and go back on the decision, nor was it easy to determine why he wanted this in the first place. Taylor isn't bad looking at all, but they have been best friends for a long time.
Danny allowed himself to get lost in his own thoughts with his eyes fixed in place. It's not like anything terrible happened between them before. It was much the opposite at all times. Danny could easily coax himself into flirting with pretty women of which he knew nothing of, but Taylor just isn't one of those people. Is that right? No. Perhaps it has something do with how long they've known each other. The relationship alone would be more delicate and sensitive. If Danny does even just one thing out of balance to Taylor, or says the wrong words after tonight, she could really get hurt and upset. Saying something mean or nasty to someone you don't even know is easy, but trying to be good and perfect to a person you've known all your life can be difficult in itself. Danny figured that it could be the reason why his heart rate was still pumped the entire time from the thought of her now.
"Stop cycling!" Danny slammed on the breaks to his bike after his demand, getting the others in front of him to follow along in his immediate decision. The breaks were powerful enough to create the sheering noise of skid marks all over the pavement, the wheels drawing black shavings of rubber like chalk to the floor. Taylor appeared to be slow even in this reaction. Before Jane could turn around and figure out what the fuss was about, Danny got off of his bike and went towards Taylor to inspect her.
"What's this all about?" Jane complained with her hands up in the air.
After everyone stopped including Taylor, Danny dismounted and held Taylor's arm, feeling just how cold her body temperature had gotten. She had on but a T-shirt and a tight thin dress, and was therefore not properly clothed for a cold day with bicycles. He noticed the change in her a moment ago, and stopped everyone to make sure his senses were not off. Taylor wasn't out of it, but it was very obvious that she didn't really want to move anymore. Her body was shivering in the response, struggling to keep itself warm any way it was able to. Danny knew what was going on, and though he didn't try to make such a big deal out of a small issue, his first state of mind was making sure Taylor was safe and warm. "Taylor, your freezing! Didn't you bring a coat or something?"
"I'm f-f-f-fine!"
Denying that she sounded close to fine, Danny reached for his supply sphere, forcing him to invoke a tiny fraction of magic just to pull it out from phase space. The sphere hovered in midair until fully formed, after which Danny caught the device in both hands. He opened the sphere, displaying tiny holographic icons forming the outline shape of whatever object was compressed inside of the magical sphere. Danny chose the large jacket he had not been wearing for the trip, since the cold wasn't nearly enough to bother him. After selecting the coat, the material formed in real space just as the sphere did a moment ago, creating a blue aura around the object until it fully materialized in front of him. Danny caught the jacket in his free hand, allowing the supply sphere to shut and phase out on its own while he opened the fabric up to make it easier to equip. No wonder she is so cold; Taylor is naturally on the skinny side, and there is no chance of her warming up any other way in this open weather.
Taylor didn't get off her bike, but she could see what Danny was up to. Instead of arguing that she was okay for a second time, Taylor put both arms behind her to help Danny get the coat around her. Just as the jacket of fur encased her entire torso with a few more gentle tugs, Taylor felt an amazing rush of warmth now steaming inside of the coat, remembering that all objects trapped inside of supply spheres keep their current thermal energy from the moment before they were placed inside. This means that Danny beamed the object inside just after taking it off in Lennith city, encasing his warmth inside for days afterwards. Taylor quickly used the frontal zipper to close the front of the jacket, and brushed her arms together. It was unbelievable how warm the jacket was in this cold area, but she was still left wanting more every second she stood still.
"I won't need it today, so you can borrow this until we get to Eldora. I'll buy you a better one once there."
"Thank you." Taylor felt so much more comfortable now, and her mind was finally able to focus. The freezing air now failed to affect her except for her legs and face. Danny was still sort of hovering to the side of her, wondering how well she was feeling. That alone brought a warm blush in her cheeks. Danny was never this aware of her before, proving to herself again how much he has changed in the little time just being here. But was that really the case all along? Did this dream world of a magical land contribute to Danny's change into this whole other person, or was he like this towards her all the time? Maybe she was just imagining things.
The thought didn't matter right now, for Taylor was entranced in the warming feeling brought on by the jacket and by the thought that it belongs to Danny. The intense smell of the feathers stained to the fabric belongs to him, as does the heat inside. She kept her eyes shut, hoping this moment could last much longer. Taylor began brushing her face against the side of her long sleeves, feeling for the texture.
If Danny didn't know any better, he would have thought that Taylor lost it by now. "Are you sure you're okay?" Taylor doesn't always do so well in cold weather, and it might be making her delirious.
His question alone caught Taylor off guard, bringing her back to reality. Oh no! Had she really been acting that intense about having Danny's jacket right in front of him? "Uh, yeah! I'm fine!" Barely managing to fake a smile, Taylor tried to dissolve any hints to Danny how crazy she felt about him lately.
Danny shook his head casually. Women. They always have some weird obsession about their boyfriend's jackets. He never took Taylor to be one of those types, but it wasn't much to complain about in comparison to some other negative traits some people have. He never had such great luck hitting on others. Half of them had something big of baggage making the idea not worth getting involved, but Taylor is just a free spirit, someone who wants to live out a good life and avoid the one back home. He still found her history hard to believe, that a royal organization from a kingdom that isn't even supposed to be in charge of their third-world home wants to recruit Taylor to be one of their assistants. To Taylor, the replacement word slave rung louder in both ears, and he had no choice but to believe how fearful she was about it. It has to be true given her reactions!
"You've gotta be kidding me." Jane knew that trying to speed this up wasn't going to be easy, and she rested her face into her hand nodding in the stress. It was the light crowd of people around her that Jane wasn't happy to see. The ones heading back towards Lennith were already past them, walking alone out of range to even think of forcing any one of them to battle. But the people standing behind Jane, thus on the way to Eldora City seemed as suspicious as their usual bunch. None of the civilians there looked like battlers, except for Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Muscles prancing up the road. Both of them were moving very slowly, scanning the nearby area for potential weaklings. Why do strong looking people always pick fights with people that don't look as tough?
With the thought already gone, Jane was getting nervous and impatient. It wasn't that she didn't want to battle at all, but because of how late the day was getting, it already seemed impossible on its own that they were going to locate Eldora before the sun goes down completely. If there was anything she had learned so far, it's that stopping makes her an easy target for hungry challengers. "I don't mean to break up your cute moment, but we need to get moving."
Feeling warm and refreshed so quickly, Taylor soon regained all of her senses, for before she simply got lost in her thoughts while the cold kept them infinite. As Taylor glanced towards Jane to take note of her growing concern, she noticed a big guy walking directly for her from behind. It wasn't clear what it was about, but Taylor jumped off her bike and tried to rush towards Jane in fear that he meant harm!
"You folks lost now?"
Jane stiffened, realizing that there may be a reason why Danny and Taylor looked so nervous suddenly. The impossible deep voice hung in breath just down Jane's neck, and she carefully swept herself around to confront the man who tried to sneak up behind her. "What's it to you?" Jane sounded aggressive on purpose, hinting that she wanted no such trouble. Though much to her surprise, it wasn't just any ordinary man. It was Mr. Muscles, one of the people she classified by nickname while judging the way he looked and dressed. Sherlock didn't seem to be around anymore, but this big guy was. Standing about three times the size of any average male, and holding muscles that shouted in everyone's face how powerful his fitness was, the large man introduced himself with his low voice while Jane dismounted from the bike.
"Ptheh!" he spat. "Nothing but wimpy little children on this bridge. I'm looking for a challenge!" Shouting in his last sentence to hope somebody else nearby could hear him, the man was met with a rather awkward silence for several long seconds. "Is nobody here strong enough to face me?!"
Is everyone on Route 787 a weirdo? Talk about walking clichés. Jane had to consider the facts. First, she fought against a group of people in a multi-battle, then trained someone how to fight, but then there was that Liam guy, who didn't seem like he was even from planet Earth. And now this guy... "Well you won't find one here," Jane stated calmly. "Now if you don't mind, we're on our way to Eldora." If Jane pretends to be a novice, this guy should leave them alone. His demanding attitude said this much.
"It's too bad you weren't any stronger. I grow tired of easy wins."
Jane didn't want to deal with this man right now, but after being called an easy win by some dude who isn't as intimidating as he appears to be, there was nearly no way to stop her from arguing with the facts she was supposed to be hiding in the first place. "You should watch your judgment carefully. The next time you consider someone to be an easy win, it may be your last words."
The man turned towards Jane just as she turned towards him. In his eyes, it was a challenge with words at the least. "Big talk for some small girl."
"I'll have you know I'm sixteen, and I'm not some kind of weakling." Jane knew without checking her back that Danny and Taylor were both standing behind her, giving Jane signals to immediately stop talking before getting involved in another Leray fight, but Jane couldn't help it. There are just too many people in the world who think they can bully others into battles, or make them feel weaker than they really are. She'll have the last word any moment now, and this idiot will learn his place! "If you think that a six pack is good enough to match others in a Leray battle, you're sadly mistaken."
"You want to prove it to my face," he challenged. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves now. I'll need proof upfront that you're even in my own league, because I only bet very high steaks."
"I don't need to defeat you just to prove my point." Jane hoped that her argument alone would deter the decision for an entire battle, since the man was already bringing one up. "But I don't have sufficient time to challenge you."
"What a pitiful excuse to turn down a challenge. I knew you were weak hearted, but this is expected. Nobody stands up to Gustos."
Jane, Danny, and Taylor all jumped nervously at the name. "Gustos?!" Jane repeated it aloud in a surprised tone.
"I know right," he added. "Sounds worthy of high praise. Building these muscles and abs took hard work after all."
Before saying another word, Jane pulled the daggers from her suit's hidden pockets, changing her stance immediately and aiming her blades towards the man. "You're Gustos? You're the man who attacked Cass back there?"
"Attacked Cass?" Gustos held his chin for a brief moment to try and recall what the name belonged too. "Oh right! You mean that sad excuse for a Leray challenger. Yeah, I didn't go easy on her, but that's doing her a favor. A person who can't fight well enough shouldn't deserve a license so early."
Danny and Taylor both crept up to Jane's sides, prepared to defend each other against Cass's attacker. Taylor was about as furious as Jane was right now, letting out her anger with the reminder of truth. "It's people like you that give legitimacy a tainted description. I get that Cass lost her battle, but you didn't have to force one upon her!"
"Force?"
"Don't play dumb with us!" Jane raised one dagger closer to the man's face, not even fearful that he was nearly twice her size in height and bulk. "You're the one who challenged her over and over until she had no choice but to accept, and despite that, you took a large amount of funds from her card as well."
"Oh give me a break!" Gustos didn't sound apologetic in the least. "She had a choice. That girl could have declined three times every fifteen minutes and taken the suspension she deserved in order to get tougher. Besides, I won those credits fair and square. I doubt you'll be able to turn me in to a single Leray agent with a valid complaint."
Jane knew that with the legal bullshit leaking out everywhere - Gustos really was immune to the law as it may be, but it didn't change the fact that he cheated someone who barely even knew how to battle, and he was about to do it again. "You call out tough challengers looking for something good to fight, and yet you turn around and take from the weak because it's easy. The way I see it," Jane replied, "you're the real weakling here."
"You would dare raise those grasshopper blades to my face and bad talk me?!"
Jane was happy that Gustos was getting this angry, because it gave her the perfect excuse for a battle. It would normally be a waste of time, but this right here is the best chance to teach this guy a lesson, perhaps even get some of that money back. After all, Cass had her funds returned. Jane and her friends were now the ones running on empty because of it. "The strong stand up for the weak in order to help them progress the very same. They don't leach off of others in order to keep them in their place. You want a challenge?" she threatened. "I'll give you a challenge!"
Upon raising her voice with all of that hate and anger, Jane's right hand began to glow with a powerful blue color. Luckily, her suit blocked out much more of that light than anyone realized, and so it helped to completely hide the shape and form of the burning crest on the top of her hand. Just by getting angry, Jane's symbol had activated once again outside of her control, giving her an edge before the battle could even begin to take place. "I'll even give you your high steaks. Nine thousand credits!"
"To beat up some mosquito, it's a deal!" Gustos had agreed, and so the Siriean dome was soon to form around them.
"Get behind me you two!" Jane was talking to Danny and Taylor, making sure they did not get caught up in the battle itself. Gustos was standing right before her, and luckily eager to battle. Jane knew she wasn't going to need her glowing symbol to win, but at least it had restored her stats behind the scenes, healing her even more before getting started. After her friends were out of range, the Siriean dome formed around them with a good radius. Though they questioned why Jane would even consider battling alone and legitimately like this; perhaps she was to prove a point. Jane Venn and Gustos took several steps backwards to begin the fight at long range, after which the holographic reward system showed its text for a brief moment in the center of the field. Following that was the formation of the energy scope over Jane and Gustos.
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Chapter Theme Shift: Overpowered ~ Phantom Power
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image [https://i.postimg.cc/cCzJc9Qj/S3-Jane-N-021.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/Jn9gcjsx/S3-Gustos-N-000.png]
Hyped up by her anger, Jane decided she was going to go first, charging some of her energy to prepare for a long-range spell. Gustos may very well be physically strong, but there was no way his magic could hold up against her own. "Triple Fire!" Jane's glyphring formed just as she began to shoot three Fire Bolts consecutively through her glyphring. The projectiles all flew with amazing speed in the air, prone to slam into Gustos' large body. Instead of dodging or counterattacking, Gustos simply stood there, using both of his mighty arms to guard the front of his body. The fire spheres all slammed into that spot too by coincidence, exploding for damage, but by the looks of it, Gustos wasn't even fazed by the entire attack. He blocked it out very well with a skill of stance and proper form.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/90ZkxzTh/S3-Gustos-N-001.png]
"This will be fun," Gustos taunted. After spinning his arms around in place as a gesture of stretching, Gustos prepared an attack of his own, making sure Jane would not see it coming in time. The target was standing still, just waiting to dodge. Gustos used that to evaluate the effectiveness of his next potential move, and while charging energy into his right fist, he slammed his hand into the concrete of the cement with enough force to slightly crack the road. "Shadow Wave!" he chanted with his ground assault. His method of hitting the ground with his hand was a unique way of distributing the Leray energy into a common spell known as Shadow Wave.
Jane had seen several Shadow Waves before. It's a simple magical attack bound to the floor that deals a fair amount of damage to unarmored targets, and though its dark essence makes it difficult to see with the naked eye, Jane knew its speed and size already. Jane knew she had her own type of protection, and wasted no time at all in exploiting her hidden powers. "Power Shield!" she yelled. Jane rarely needed to ever chant the name of her personal shielding aura, but doing so helped her focus in a pinch. After having charged up the necessary energy in both her hands and crossing her arms out to project the aura, Jane's body once again became coated with a transparent bright-blue aura of protection. The Shadow Wave that slammed into the aura shortly after only left several hundred large hexagons at the base of Jane's aura, generating more of those energy reflection and anti-aura noises from attack damage done to the shield.
Jane was holding up nicely, dropping her aura the moment the hostile spell was already over. Gustos could not believe it. Her health stats did not change at all. He knew what blocking was all about, but this particular method was not familiar to him in the slightest. Jane was just as prepared to immediately send a counterattack his way too, forcing Gustos to try and block again for whatever new spell might be coming his way.
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"Armor Breaker!" Jane's daggers were already glowing with a powerful red outline of damaging auras, her spell already charged up before finishing the name of the ability. Jane tossed her daggers with a lot of force to increase their travel speed. As expected, Gustos naturally reacted to try and block the attack again rather than just avoid it. The interesting thing about Armor Breaker is that the skill works effectively against armored targets and those attempting to physically block attacks. Just as Gustos put his arms in front of him to block the unknown attack again, the slicing daggers spliced through his skin, dropping off a lot of health points in the immediate moment. At the same time, Gustos made a cringy reaction from the inflicted pain that drilled right through his muscular chest, realizing that blocking failed to work this time.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/YqBZvfKq/S3-Gustos-N-002.png]
Even though it took a second to get over that piercing stabbing hit of high damage, Gustos had sufficient time to evaluate his current strategy. The target knows a few powerful skills after all, despite how weak she appears to be, and fighting from long range wasn't the best style as he assumed it to be. Still, he needed to come up with something now to prevent a second attack coming from Jane. Though it took out much of his MP energy on the spot, Gustos prepared an unusual powerful spell, only chanting the name just as the power resonated in his red aura. "Flamewheel!" Being one of the only strong magical powers he knew, Gustos put all of his heart into this, launching the attack just as it began to take form.
Jane was prepared to shield, but she could not believe what happened next. Through the gateway of a single red glyphring, three dozens of separated projectiles of Fire Balls all shot high into the air, spinning on a spiral like path to prevent collisions with each other. Gustos was controlling the direction of the spell wave itself, now turning the entire vortex of Fire Balls on its side, aiming straight for Jane. Reacting quickly, Jane powered up her shielding aura just in time. The fiery vortex became a horizontal vortex, spiraling a total of thirty-six untraceable Fire Balls in random directions aimed in Jane's vicinity. Jane could tell already that the projectiles were not native of Fire Bolts, which explained why the beautiful pathways of each Fire Ball remained random and drunken. They had no direct lock to her or her own shield, but instead spun around in the air with patterns of movements just difficult to predict. Even while standing still in a rushing wave of Fire Balls shooting past her face, several managed to slam into Jane's aura; the fire spheres began disintegrating into the energy field while draining more out of her each time. Though because of the low damage potential for each projectile, Jane was relatively safe from taking too much damage to keep the shield going. After a long few seconds of time passed, Jane kept her shield strong, blocking out about twelve total Fire Balls total just before dropping her shield again.
After spending all of that time and energy trying to super attack the target, Gustos was furious to see Jane undamaged with that impressive shield yet again. "You can't do that!" Gustos pointed his fist at Jane as he spoke, calling bull in the middle of the fight.
"You want to call it quits then? I'll have those credits returned to Cass no matter what!"
Seeing that Jane was still not backing down about that little incident, Gustos still had to weigh the cost of losing nine thousand credits to some annoying wielder just by throwing in a towel. There was no other way to stop the battle or the stakes. "That girl made herself vulnerable to begin with. You'll get this money over my dead body!"
"As you wish!" Jane taunted. She wasn't about to sit there and talk all day either. After quickly charging up for one of her yet to be tested magical spells, Jane cast the magic into her hand while chanting the name, a spell that required a particular motion. "Volley!" Jane's magic all went into an interesting generation spell that wasn't visible in the beginning. In order to use it at all, Jane had to lift her arm high in the air just as the blue spinning glyphring around her wrist formed there. After that, Jane had to slam her arm downwards while releasing all of that magic, without hitting the ground or her body. With that motion and invocation, the Volley spell already took effect, forming a barrage of sharp piercing arrows into the sky, all on an intercept course towards the target.
Gustos wasn't quick enough to see it, thus failing do anything about the pressing situation. With the sight of over 70 arrows raining down on top of him, he was frozen in place by the fear of not being able to perform any other kind of action. As soon as the arrows began to pierce his skin, the attack took over for the rest of the time. "Naaagh!" He groaned. Volley is a spell that is low on power level damage due to its specific damage type and properties belonging to piercing damage. This means it's designed to penetrate tough armor and inflict much more physical pain than health loss. Because of the formation and the amount of arrows used at once, it can be difficult to predict how to dodge the attack, and the piercing damage makes it impossible to try and block normally. Gustos was the perfect target for such an attack, and Jane perfected one of her new untested abilities brilliantly.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/dtRXrkwR/S3-Gustos-N-003.png]
"What's wrong with you?!" he argued. "You can't just charge up here and take all my money! You don't even have nine thousand credits to part with!"
Jane still didn't even think about giving this guy a chance after what he did. Of all things, he actually agreed to bet nine thousand credits without any hint of resistance, and it is also perfectly legal to have an uneven bet so long as both sides agree to that notion, even if agreed on a subconscious level. This is Gustos' mentality. He doesn't care about taking more of what he would be willing to part with, which is why the very ideal of fairness doesn't register into his mind, so it doesn't factor into the reward system either. Therefore, Jane didn't have to try and trick this guy into betting so high. Gustos did that himself, and now he was going to get what he deserves for cheating the system. How does it feel? "Says the one forcing weaker opponents to battle, guilt tripping them into handing over everything they have for an unbalanced fight. How does it feel to have it happen to you Gustos?"
"Why you little... Photon Blast!" Gustos had been storing energy in secret while bickering to Jane about her well-formed strategy to balance offense and defense, but Gustos believed that her power shield would not be effective enough to hold up to his most powerful attack. As soon as the energy was released, Gustos sent about a hundred large translucent photon projectiles all flying towards Jane.
Jane already saw it coming again, after having heard the raging sound of a familiar ability in the wind. She still had plenty of energy left in her to shield several more times for this entire battle, saving much of her own resources. Oddly enough, the symbol lighting on her hand through the suit had faded away a short moment ago before she took notice of it. It didn't matter anyway for now. After putting up her aura again, the photons began raining into the shield, bumping off and failing to cause damage to anything else, but the hexagons were much smaller per hit this time, making it difficult already for Jane to keep her concentration on the shield running. The photons slammed her shield - hit after hit after hit for only three seconds, making it a rough moment of focus and stance. Jane nearly lost the shield just as the attacks had stopped, and tried to drop her aura as quickly as possible before it failed on her. Having the shield collapse around her by automatic failure puts a lot of exhaustion on her body afterwards. Even now, her breathing was rapid and heavy, her heart was racing! The fight isn't nearly over just yet, but already is she getting exhausted just from protecting herself from the last attack spell.
"What the hell! There's no way a person can bring up a shield with that much defense! You played me! You're a cheater!"
Jane was already enjoying this match. She was able to keep her cool against the man who cheated Cass out of six grand. Moreover, he was already losing his temper quickly. Not only was this fun to watch, but it helped to keep him from thinking strategy in terms of the match. Jane was way ahead of the game, and she began to charge up a powerful spell, one contrasting to Gustos' last used skill. "As I recall, you said I was a weakling." Her tone became reflective of personal enjoyment, evidence that she was enjoying making a fool out of him thus far. "Though now I bet you know just how your victims feel. Photon Burst!" As her energy was already charged up, Jane invoked the spell quickly, lifting her arm up and slamming it back down in a swinging motion to properly trigger the spell. Having similar characteristics to Photon Blast and the ordinance of Volley, Jane's spell began to fall down from the sky, giving Gustos no chance at all to counteract the attack.
As he could only stand there in fear and brace himself, Gustos was pounded several times over by the falling photons of energy each damaging his health in high amounts. Jane stood there and watched the show, but she was mindful about her significant drop in MP energy thanks to using the spell in the first place. Just as the attack stopped, Gustos took much more time in standing back up to recover his balance. He too was getting tired quickly. Gustos now had health and energy problems to deal with at the same time, making him much more fatigued than Jane currently was.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/QdXzb8d2/S3-Gustos-N-004.png]
Gustos didn't bother trying to argue with Jane or talk her into going easier on him. He had indeed underestimated the young girl, and it was worse that Jane was looking out for this Cass character. Cass must have ratted on him after the way he engaged in battle. Normally, nothing bad happens with that regardless, though it seemed that this random Leray wielder wanted to get too involved. If he could just win the battle, he could deal with the other two standing behind Jane on the outside of the dome shield. "Lightning Strike!" Gustos wasted no time at all in activating another quick and easy long-range spell. Because of how fast and accurate the lightning bolts are with electrical attacks, Jane was way too slow on her reactions to shield herself. Gustos landed a solid strike on Jane, zapping her with electrical damage in place for two whole seconds of time.
Jane felt every nerve in her body panic and lock up at once, her every limb shivering just after the attack ended, and at the same time, she felt more drained than she was previously. Though she hated electrical attacks for that reason, Jane didn't decide to lose her cool from the health loss. It was best to just keep on going with the fight.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/mZphRD0w/S3-Jane-N-022.png]
"Dark Strike!" Just after invoking her next ability, Jane teleported out of sight again from the slight usage in her MP energy, reappearing covertly behind Gustos. After infusing more magical energy into her right blade on the dagger, Jane sliced upwards with as much force as she could to deal the damage in her attack. While backing away shortly after, Jane noticed that even all of that weight failed to actually lift Gustos off of his feat. Though he did take damage, his body was too heavy to move off the ground from a magically assisted uppercut, giving a slight advantage to Gustos. Jane would be attacked shortly after probably, but at least her attack in question dealt damage to his health without any risk of interruptions.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/bw3BV7Gs/S3-Gustos-N-005.png]
"You're not stronger than me Jane!" Gustos refused to back down even with much lower stats, and he continued using ranged abilities, keeping Jane at a distance even though he had a great chance to do physical harm in the battle. His thoughts right now were a in a form of healing. "Drainga!" Invoking his spell, Gustos cast energy towards Jane, hoping she would not have the time to dodge the attack.
Jane didn't have the time to process what the ability does or how it works, so she jumped and rolled to the left hoping to avoid the unknown spell. It wasn't hard to forget with an easy name though. Drain is a spell that literally steals health from the enemy, healing the user in the process of causing damage. Drainga is more powerful with a better effective range, but costs more MP energy to use at the same time. The aura which is created around the target to steal their health is literally quick and invisible, making it nearly impossible to dodge in the first place, but Jane did as much without noticing the difficulty of evading such a spell. Being unaffected by the powerful Drainga, Jane pulled herself back up for a counterattack, refusing to think back on how lucky she was for not giving Gustos a chance to heal.
"Hmph!" Jane smiled in her own random success. She was doing well, and only needed to keep this up a little longer. At the same time, there was another powerful ability that needed to be tested out on someone random. If done right, it could put Mr. Gustos in a very bad position. On the plus side, Jane would master a new spell for sure, even though she had used it once before training back in Lennith City. With quick invocation and high-energy expenditure, Jane chanted "Blaze Storm!" while creating the conditions to literally change the weather of the entire battlefield. It didn't happen too quickly, but the air temperature only inside of the Siriean dome began to rise rapidly into the triple digits. Creating a thermal vortex powerful enough to distort all vision from the rising radiation, both Jane and Gustos were suddenly suffering from very intense heat all around. The spell would affect Gustos more than it would Jane, but because of how new Jane is to use the skill, she isn't immune to the full area attack either. At least she was ready for it.
Blaze Storm is a powerful heat wave spell, rising the temperature of the air in the entire battlefield to a crisping 150oF, rising even further to the user's will. The spell itself lasts for a little over one full minute on average, while the heat is assisted by a low pitch booming sound similar to that of radiation spurs, much like what Jane witnessed in the dark zone. In that time, fire elemental damage is slowly dealt to the target over duration. Because of its properties, it makes everyone sweat to physical exhaustion. Gustos may be out of the match as soon as this ends. On the other hand, Jane was heating up rapidly as well, wondering if this was such a good idea in hindsight. Needless to say, it had Gustos by surprise, as his health began draining quickly with the intense fiery heat of air around them.
Gustos was already panting from the inferno Jane caused on both of them. He immediately became less confident in any particular movement. He only wanted to lay down and rest, or find a nice cold shelter. Gustos could see the health loss happening in real-time with nothing to do about it. He had much less MP energy as well, since he used most of it trying to steal health away from Jane, but the Blaze Storm did not distort the color of the field completely. Rising the air to a temperature high enough to make the Siriean dome begin to glow orange, Gustos realized that the sun was still up, however distant in the horizon to the west. There was still another way to try and heal lost HP.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/Dz0Y9xs5/S3-Gustos-N-006.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/J4y0h88W/S3-Jane-N-023.png]
Jane's skin felt like it was on fire too. After the Blaze Storm spell ended only thirty seconds after due to having the cast be so new to Jane, the air temperature declined much more rapidly, cooling off both of them in a sensation that felt most wonderful. The Siriean dome around both contestants returned to its original color again, revealing the world outside its translucent boundaries. Jane had expected that to be the end of it, but Gustos still had some fight left in him, despite how tired he looked. Jane on the other hand suffered some damage too from her own attack, as she knew it from checking both energy scopes on the battlefield.
"Solar Regen!" Just after Gustos released the rest of his MP energy, his body became coated with a nice green aura of energy, immediately absorbing in the sunlight from above to regenerate his lost health. It's an ability that can only be used once per battle, and is effective at health regeneration using solar energy. However, the spell is even more effective during mid-day once the sun is right overhead. Because of the sun's current position and the time of day, Gustos knew that his regeneration spell would only be at half power for the time being.
Watching Gustos regenerate his health from a different spell, Jane sprang into action to try and stop it. The plan of action didn't matter too much, as long as she could do more damage faster than he could heal. "Fire Bolt!" After seeing Jane shoot a predictable Fire Bolt from a red glyphring, Gustos changed his stance to block the projectile with his arms again, while the green aura kept its radiance around his body the entire time. As the Fire Bolt blew up on his arm, Gustos suffered some health loss, but it was only minor thanks to his quick reaction to try and block it out.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/GpfSdvxR/S3-Gustos-N-007.png]
Jane had a new worried look on her face. Gustos was currently resilient to taking damage right now, as he was determined to heal as much as he could before finally finishing Jane off. In another attempt to interrupt his healing cycle, Jane tried another skill as quickly as she could. "Flying Guillotine!" She threw her daggers infused with energy, being that this was one of her quickest invocations for that ability yet. The daggers flew in perfect formation, creating that familiar spinning circle of damage.
Gustos took another precaution to this sudden attack as well, pulling out the sword he had on his hilt behind him. Since he had not used the sword yet, Jane did not even notice that Gustos had the weapon until just now. Instead of performing a counterattack, Gustos took his sword and shoved it into the ground in front of him, landing the metal so hard that it cracked an entire two inches deep in the stone road. The Flying Guillotine circle then slammed into the blade instead of Gustos, dealing damage to an inanimate object too powerful to cut through. Without too much effort, Gustos managed to completely turn Jane's attack useless on itself. Since it failed to get through, the Flying Guillotine quit working halfway, as the blades spun aimlessly on the ground in front of her opponent.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/pTncTysF/S3-Gustos-N-008.png]
Jane was sunk. Gustos completely healed after his aura ejected from his body in a bright radiant light spiraling away from him into the sky. Gustos knew that he was beginning to take advantage in the battle, and he planned out his next random attack from afar, keeping his sword in hand in the event he may need it again. "Magical Blitz!" Gustos formed the spheres of energy one at a time in his left hand, but put his entire body's force into launching the projectiles at Jane, all three of them. However, it was a slow movement overall just to throw energy balls that could so easily be seen.
Jane went on the defensive for now, waiting on her daggers to return to her again. She ducked down to dodge the first energy ball, and leaped to the left to avoid the next. Gustos simply had terrible aim on the last one, making Jane lucky for not having to do anything else. After evading a bad attack, Jane simply thought of another powerful spell that would get Gustos no matter what, one that was not the same as Redemption.
"Radial Blast!" Though it expended much of her energy status, Jane's spell came to life quickly, blasting the entire battlefield with randomized explosions excluding her own particular zone. It wasn't one of her most powerful skills, but Gustos might have had a plan to diffuse other powerful area attacks that use projectiles instead of explosions, and Jane was already getting a little desperate to win by now. After several explosions marked the spot where Gustos was standing, they simply knocked him onto the ground with their powerful force. Though Jane did not expect such a heavy decrease on the health stats to appear in such heavy weight. It's still not a very high power level for an attack compared to others. Nevertheless, Gustos was down in a fight he was not about to get up from.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/KjSqgFWs/S3-Gustos-VT-001.png]
Jane tried to calm herself down. She felt so nervous and was breathing so heavily from the workout. Though much to her surprise, the symbol down on her hand was glowing through her battle suit once again, something that would explain how a less powerful ability was somehow overcharged with energy. Jane did not mean for that to happen a second time, and didn't realize that it was there until now. That's twice in less than an hour that her symbol activated again without her consent, being as dangerous as it was, but at least the battle was over, with Gustos proving to be a formidable opponent to say the most.
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Chapter Theme Shift: Bleak Worlds ~ Christian Telford & Matthew St. Laurent & Galileo Seven & Koichi Sanchez-Imahashi & Nigel William Graham
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The Siriean dome faded quickly, revealing a slightly darker sky, and a clear view of the world around her. Jane's friends got close quickly to make sure she was okay, but not before her crest died down once again. Just like that, her uncontrollable symbol was there and then it was gone. If she can't find a better way to hide her own symbol come the elite battles, Jane could wind up in a lot of trouble.
"You good Jane?" She looked like she was about to faint or pass out, prompting a possible concern that the symbol on her hand is giving her problems of their own. Danny could see the residual glow on Jane's right hand, but not make out the symbol itself, meaning it wasn't fully visible through the material in her suit, this time anyway. Danny offered her one of the healing orbs he had in his pocket, never letting Jane treat herself. She was the supply manager for the team after all, and what luck too with scoring so many credits! She didn't have to fight Gustos all by herself, but in doing so, the win was both legitimate and fair, an honorable thing to do fighting for Cass the way she did. "That was one awesome battle!"
Jane sensed the excitement in Danny from watching the match, but it was his and Taylor's voices alone that helped her senses blend back into reality. It's one of the downsides of getting into an intense Leray battle. There are two modes for most individuals. During the match, the only focus is the target and yourself. The world around suddenly doesn't exist anymore. It's difficult to adjust between the two, and terrible for battles that are not contained by a Siriean dome.
Accepting Danny's healing orbs, Jane took her time to cool off, still exhausted and sweating from it all. Using Blaze Storm in the middle must have contributed too much of that exhaustion. Jane felt like she could have had a heat stroke if that lasted any longer, but at least they say that the user of Blaze Storm and Blizzard are much less affected by their own spells the more times the same spells are invoked. Not only did Jane defeat Cass's enemy, she also managed to put some effective use and field-testing to the last of her other known abilities. "I know it wasn't a traditional way to teach someone a lesson, but thanks all the same."
"I think it fits perfectly," Taylor vouched. "He won't bother anyone else ever again. Nor will he underestimate us."
Jane agreed with Taylor's remark silently, for she had some trouble still getting used to the new look. Taylor was wearing Danny's dark jacket tightly, and it actually fits Taylor well. She looks so cute!
Danny stated with a defying gesture, "I still think I could have taken him," to which Jane and Taylor both replied, "You always think that!" Danny simply waited for Jane to heal herself. There was certainly no doubting Jane's amazing abilities. With or without her symbol, she had picked up on some sick magical skills in his absence.
"Did your mark activate again?"
Jane had honestly answer to Taylor. There wasn't a point in lying to someone who already knows the truth. It felt great that there were a few people in the world who are okay with hanging out with a marked person, seeing as they used to be the bringers of destruction. "You mean after it faded from the start of that battle, yes. It did activate again, though I didn't get that much effect from it, other than pure power put into a single attack."
"You need to learn to control it." Taylor sounded concerned, and she had several rights to be. "What if the elite fighters detect the presence of a symbol? Will they let you use your suit to conceal it?"
"I know about those concerns." She couldn't help but sound a little frustrated. Jane believed earlier that she did have some control of her own symbol. The truth is, she can invoke it any time that she want, but it can also invoke itself without warning during intense fighting. So there really is no control to regards of hiding her own mark. With this suit on, the activation is only made to seem to others like Jane is charging up for a magical attack in her right hand, and then again only from a distance, but there have been two instances before now in which the symbol projected holographically through her own suit. Taylor might be right. All it takes to get discovered is to have the symbol activate when someone is at close range. Even with the suit, the elites would be able to clearly see that the glowing is coming from the top of her hand, not from her palm. If that happens, it's cats out of the bag, and goodbye operation: shutdown Alpha Zero. "It'll be fine," Jane sounded reassuring to Taylor anyway. It wasn't really for her friends to figure it out. Luck was what she needed on her side for that battle.
"Let's hope it will be." Danny glanced around, finding a few people in the distance. The daytime was still fleeting, with no other good way to tell exactly what time it was. The ability to see in the darkening skies was dwindling away quickly, but at least there was a nice change of pace. After standing to face the way they needed to be going, Danny was barely able to make out the fogged outline of something in the distance. It may be the resemblance to a large city they have been searching for. Either way, there wasn't any more point sticking around here, only to be stopped by some other lunatic. "Should we ride out now?"
"Hold on just a sec." Jane stopped the two of them in order to pull out her Leray license card. "I want to check how much credits we have now." Holding up her license to the opposite side of the sun to read her status, the system had already rewarded Jane and tallied up the total amount for her. Jane Venn | Age: 16 | Graduated facility: Dakota + Lennith | Last Ev. Score: 10 | Current Status: Advanced Leray wielder | Credits: 12600 Cr.
Jane had already attained her very first five-digit number, all without spending a ton of it on specific items in order to boost her odds in battle. Then again, 8900 of those credits still belongs to Fredric Spence, the man who was supposed to be a sea mechanic for the boat that dragged her all the way to Monoc Port while somehow adrift. It was a detail she could not forget, something that had to be paid back sooner or later, no matter the means. Tallying up the totals last seen from Danny and Taylor after their victories with Mayza's henchmen, this would mean that the current total - including debt is 17,570 credits. Still failing to tell them about her little problem owing some guy she has never met, Jane used the tally without debt for the report in total. "We have 26,670 credits altogether. If we keep this up, we'll be able to stock up on amazing things for our trip to Alpha Zero."
"Maybe I'll even buy a souvenir." Danny was already proud enough to hear such high numbers, even after rescuing Cass from her own nightmare. Gustos was now out of the picture, and the only thing left to worry about was getting to Eldora.
Jane put her license away again, preparing herself to head out. With Gustos knocked out on the floor behind her, Jane didn't even want to turn around. "Let's keep going then."
Hearing that now was the time to move, Taylor followed behind Danny and Jane, hugging Danny's jacket to her skin tightly. The air had actually gotten cooler around them, though Jane must not have noticed very much after her intense fight. Taylor on the other hand had to stand there and watch in the cold, which wasn't too bad. Watching two people battle with magic is never a bore. Normally with bigger spells, you get some amazing special effects that can clearly be seen despite the Siriean dome. But when someone else and Jane battles, there is never a dull moment, even without those special effects. It's almost like watching sets of fireworks battle against each other for dominance, one side physically exchanging more light over the other. With how dark it was starting to get, it was going to be interesting to see how that works at nighttime.
Jane and the others mounted on their bikes. She first took notice of how comfortable everyone was right now. Even Taylor was smug, secretly enjoying basking herself inside of Danny's warm jacket. It made her wonder how he was managing to stay so warm without such heavy clothes. The air did feel a little cooler than it was before her battle, but at the same time, the strong winds and breezes have died down for now. With the strong and radiant yellow glow of the sun set at such an angle turning the sky a partial pink, Jane and her comrades rode off.