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<02/10/1972 – 22:59 | Route 787, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

Despite having no tires to use for the bicycles, Jane and her friends managed to push them on roll down the cement road of the deep bridge for over an hour. Though the sky has already darkened, the shade of darkness seemed to be an impossible coat of black that overwhelmed the eyes with the sense of nothingness. Judging by that and the slightly lower air temperature, Jane decided to guess the time to be ten forty P.M. The road on the other hand became a bit more visible than before, all thanks to their own efforts.

Taylor could see it again, the city lights hanging in the distance and spanning into the sky. Eldora is much closer to them now than it was before. The tall vertical towers of structures and outlines were much more visible and abundant now. The color of the sky just above the tall vertical buildings had a dark orange mist and hue in contrast to the rest of the sky, indication of intense street lamps in the city. Taylor couldn't know this without being here before, though she felt as if Eldora City really will be three times the size of Gross City. Jane already said this was the case, but it was unbelievable to imagine the scenario coming to life before her eyes.

The road was more visible because of the extra light in the distance from the ground. It was very faint for a reflection to the pavement, practically useless for making out any detail below them. Though the area wasn't too hard to see with or without this visual support. Jane could even see the end of the road connecting Route 787 and Route J-H. J-H road is the tiny little path that must be walked to reach Eldora City from the end exit of Route 787, even though no Leray wielders hang out there. The rails on the top of the bridge support beams and wires touched down at the ground there, the concrete fading into an earth-composed floor with a few natural trees in the vicinity. They've practically made it!

"Is that what I think it is?"

Judging by the tone, Jane figured that Taylor has already noticed what she could see. "The end of the path less than five minutes away? Of course it is."

Danny sped up his walking to level next to Jane and in front of Taylor, trying to convince his ears. It's true! The bridge comes to an end here. Danny had not noticed that to his right and his left, the ocean water wasn't visible from a direct angle, and that the cliffs of the large and steep continental shelf were blocking the path of the waves. There was nothing to see ahead other than a small section of nature, a grown out walkway path plowed through the earth after the cement, and then the big city further up the road partially concealed by more patches of trees.

Jane felt so relieved now, arriving here after fighting those intense battles with several unworthy mages. Some of which started in her name, but others fights happened against her will. After making out more details about the shapes generally in front of her, she could not remain relaxed. Though it wasn't easy to see, a figure in the shape of a person outlined on the very end of the path populated the space as well. The figure was nearly invisible being outside of the small lamp light on road J-H, but the figure moved too, confirming Jane's suspicion that they were not alone.

"I told you I would be happy to see it." Danny exchanged a few words with Taylor, only focusing on her. While keeping his rolling bike balanced, he reflected on the thoughts he had earlier about Taylor. Where will this end up going in the end? Will there ever be an end to this relationship?

"That's one thing I've loved about Sprawn Valley," Taylor projected. "There are so many cool places to travel, and we have all of this freedom to do as we please. That might leave an open hole for bad guys to do harm, but they have police agents here just for that."

"You two better stay sharp." Danny and Taylor were both immediately attentive from Jane's alert. All three of them could clearly see someone not far away from here. A person in the dark was defiantly moving around, making himself slightly more visible with a flashlight. Jane was carefully lifting her feet forward, making less noise while trying to figure out who was out here.

The shadow of the man seemed to be preoccupied by something, crouching at one side of the last bridge panel, for which Jane had no knowledge on what might actually be there. Jane figured that she has not been seen just yet, and tuned in to the distant echoes of his voice.

"The wire... pathway needs to be... within ten seconds..." Jane could barely make out what the guy was saying. She didn't see anyone else who he could be speaking too yet, nor did his business here make any sense. Obviously, it couldn't be a civilian or a Leray wielder; those people don't go messing around with physical structures. After meeting those Scarlet soldiers, Jane had much of an excuse to be concerned for her own safety. "Generate to E-C, mark three!"

After a buzz and a pop, Jane was totally blind. Bright white light from out of nowhere splashed down on her, carrying the intensity to render her vision useless. Accepting the possibility that she and her team have been spotted by someone dangerous, Jane cursed under her breath while trying to shield her eyes and her body only with the use of her arms. The light was everywhere, only leaving whiteness in her field of view. Jane cringed from the burning pain it left her iris.

"Too much! Too much! Step it down before it blows!"

Danny figured that he wasn't the only one blinded by the lights all around him. They were still standing on the bridge, so the origin of the blinding electrical currents made no sense as to how they came to exist. After a grueling twenty seconds of pain and anticipation, the lights around him got much dimmer, and his eyes quickly began to adjust. Struggling to make out any new details, Danny saw that there were tiny little light bulbs on wires, all wrapped around the left and right upper rails and beams of the entire bridge from the dirt path all the way back by 0.3 miles. It's as if someone wanted to brighten the entire area with flashy ornaments. Individually, those lights put off about nothing in distance. But wrapped around this way, he could see everything close by here, even the very sides of the cliffs off the bridge, and the people in front of him.

After lighting up the entire vicinity with electrical bulbs, the man who was spotted signaled for his assistant and both of them began a jog over towards the strangers. Jane's team was quite powerless at the moment. Even though they could now see what was happening, all of that blinding light left them stunned, while Jane still had both arms covering her damaged eyes. Whoever was over there messing with the system was on approach to Jane's entire team, practically already in speaking distance by how quickly they were on their feet.

"Hey!" Though his baggy cloak-like coat made him appear puffier above his skin, the man rushed towards the group of kids standing in the middle of the road, all of which still seemed startled. Only when he got close enough to speak in a normal volume did he check to see how they were doing. "You folks alright?"

"Yes," Danny concluded. "The hell is with all these lights?"

Sensing his agitation, the man apologized for the inconvenience he caused them, while his female assistant rushed to his side to smoothen things over. "Didn't mean to startle you. I wasn't expecting company around here so soon."

Jane was finally back to normal. With the surprise in her iris gone, she could see clearly with no residing pain, but the section here did not return back to total darkness. Much detail was clearly visible with all of the lights coiled up above them all set to a dimmer setting. Jane clenched her hands in preparation. This guy could be anybody, and it was already time for answers. "Who are you supposed to be?" Jane pointed to the guy with her hands, though she knew using a dagger to threaten him would make her feel even safer.

"What a time for introductions." He lifted his arms up high and turned on his feet slightly, looking up at all of the lights around him. "I suppose first I shall give you, the new light of the century. Welcome to the entrance of J-H road!" He sounded very enthusiastic about showing it off, much pride emanated from his very eyes.

Jane only found it ridiculous, and considered several technical factors into this mysterious forty-two year old man. He was obviously athletic and well in shape. Despite that puffy coat making him appear bigger, Jane could tell the difference in body-mass, and by the fact that he literally ran up to them from that distance with little time without even breathing fast from the rush. The assistant next to him was a girl in her late twenties, well dressed with somewhat short hair. With all of these lights around them, Jane could make out every physical feature about these people, which was shocking considering this hour of the night.

Taylor, failing to sense any danger stepped forward in front of Jane, nearly tripping over her to become interested in their business. After everyone already set down their bikes, it was easy enough to put herself between anyone. "You mean those lights, these are yours?"

He turned towards Taylor, and eyed Danny to figure out who these people might be. None of them seemed familiar with any new installments of the council, and they were facing this direction to begin with. Nevertheless, the man gave Taylor his answer before introducing himself. "Actually, they belong to the city's power company. However, my place in the council managed to enforce this rather useful idea to the knuckleheads. As you can clearly see, Route 787 is much brighter and safer at night when you can see this well."

Jane dropped her guard for a moment, searching and panning all around her. The lights were all connected to Eldora's power grid, which means this was something on the lines of official business. That panel in the back by the bridge support beam must be the control set up for installing the electrical circuits.

"Not that this is the final product," he corrected. "We've only got this section for now, but over the next month or two, the crew will be installing these lights every interval on this bridge to make sure nobody slams into walls at night. Our technician is still back there, making sure they don't blow anything." He pointed behind him, even though the mechanic would barely be visible behind that bar. "He's the one doing the installation. I on the other hand have other applications."

"Such as?" Danny requested.

While pointing his five fingers at himself, he gave away his identity as a good sign of trust. "My name is Rontellov Iseihenghower. Though you can simply call me Rontellov. I'm with the registered Leray infrastructure association, and have a seat on the council there. I don't do any of the installing though, because I also happen to be an official Leray Gradyent."

"A gradyent?" Jane repeated. "A real gradyent?" Jane knew of the terminology from before, but never expected or even planned on meeting the gradyent for Route 787. Uncertain of whether this could be a bad thing, Jane remained silent with her thoughts.

"Yes - of course." Rontellov brought out his wallet from the coat pocket in front of him, opening it to show off his license and registration. He let them read it for themselves, as they were skeptical to believe and trust his own credentials. D. Rontellov | Age: 39 | Graduated facility: Eldora + Guelder Cont. | Last Ev. Score: Exp. | Current Status: Elite Leray Gradyent | Credits: --- Cr.

Despite never seeing one of these special licenses in real life up close and personal, Jane sensed that this guy was for real, including his story. There were several technical things on his recorded license that proved his truthfulness to her friends, one of which is the classified credit report. Real Leray elites, agents, gradyents, and council officials do not keep their credits on their physical card, but rather in a holding account under classified lockdown. People aren't allowed to know their wages, and thus, Rontellov checks out for now.

"The woman behind me is Haily Hue, my trusted referee for Leray battles."

"Hi!" Haily waved at them, to which she was paid little attention afterwards.

"You have your own personal referee?"

Rontellov nodded to Danny's surprise. "I believe that every Leray wielder should have one these days, including the rooks. With Leray referees, there is less chance of possible cheating in the rule system. A referee can see what is going on in battle, and while registered to specific party members, that same person can call a legal time out, in which participants battling illegally are immediately discredited."

Danny judged his words quickly by how high class this seemed. After now realizing how useful an official referee could be, it makes sense now as to why the nation has them. Referees at first seem redundant, but if they can watch the entire situation and declare any action illegal to protect the licenses and reputation of others, then perhaps that is what they need to cure the situation all along. "That's cool. Say, can you remind me what gradyents do again?"

Jane smacked herself in the face, too embarrassed by that question to look back up. It should have been expected though. Jane figured that after her run-in with Belzer, he would have taken a few days off. If Danny and Taylor never found a gradyent before, this question would come automatically. Then again, she couldn't judge, for Jane forgot that gradyents existed before meeting Belzer. As a result, Rontellov began laughing, while Jane was left to resolve the situation. She turned to Danny, making sure he understood forever. "Gradyents are people at the end of major paths on both sides to important routes. They basically patrol the entry or exit points, and battle against newcomers to the next town to determine how ready they are to enter. It's all very religious and annoying at first, but the point is to filter out weak wielders from areas containing generally tougher challengers, keeping the levels balanced."

"I see you have an excellent understanding of these things, miss..."

While he waited on Jane to introduce herself, she quickly turned to face him while holding her modesty as best as she could. Gradyents from Eldora are supposed to be proper and rich. Therefore, behaviors need to be their best in front of these people to get anywhere. Jane bowed for a moment before introducing herself, but her shaky voice gave away how embarrassed she still was. "I'm Jane Venn, and these are my friends traveling the same path with me for now - Danny and Taylor."

Rontellov silently glanced at all of them again, judging their age, their attention spans, and everything he could. No way are they indigenous to the city ahead of them. Still, they seemed like an interesting bunch. "I can understand that you've been on the road for some time now. And with those popped tires slowing you down further..." He paused to let them remind themselves that they were holding onto useless metal vehicles. "I suppose you will all be tired too. On the other hand, you also know as well as I do that gradyents have a protocol which must be followed. If I am to grant you access into Eldora City, I must be defeated by at least one of you in a Leray match before proceeding. Normally it would require all three of you." Rontellov pointed and cycled between them, uncertain of which one was the best fighter. Jane looked slightly older, but it was no guarantee she was better.

"Hold on now," Taylor interrupted. "You seriously want us to battle and win just to get access into Eldora?"

Jane only turned her neck to Taylor, still agreeing with Rontellov's logic. "That's what gradyents do. They test the abilities of Leray wielders before allowing them to pass. Civilians and workers are exempt of course, but actual Leray wielders who build their career off of this stuff need to be tested periodically. Rontellov won't let us into the city unless one of us defeats him in battle. This coming from an elite level warrior means this will not be an easy fight either. He's the best of the best."

"You give me a bit too much credit Jane." Rontellov reminded, "Do not forget that Champion Danton is the best of the best. Though I do enjoy this part of the job. I can feel immense power and skill among someone here right now, and I crave using that in Leray battles. In any case, unless you've declared an official emergency and need some sort of medical attention, I cannot let you pass without testing your skills."

"If he's supposed to be really good," Danny began, "shouldn't we just let Jane mop the floor with him? I don't want to do all that work for nothing you know."

Jane was about to interrupt, but Rontellov beat her to the punch. "None of you stand to lose anything by battling a gradyent. Even time itself is not wasted, as the challenge itself will provide excellent experience for all of you. Though I am surprised to see that your friends throw up such high standards to you, Jane."

Jane couldn't get anything out of her mouth for a few seconds, surprised by the same notion that she would be thrown out like that. Danny and Taylor simply wanted her to do all of the hard work. However, against a man of his skills, Jane really would be the only person capable of defeating Rontellov. Still, risking the exposure of her hidden symbol was yet another downside to the plan. "We're kind of in a hurry to get to Eldora," she pleaded. "You can't simply expect us to turn around and sleep on the floor simply because we're too tired to battle." Jane took another step closer, firming her tone and stance. "Gradyent or no gradyent, I won't let anyone in a position of power threaten the health of my team or myself."

"I understand." Rontellov cleared his throat, explaining how that process would work. "I only try to challenge the people who are not native to Eldora City. People who have permanent residence here are also exempt from gradyent battles specifically with myself, entry or exit. However, because it is such a big city, I don't just let people by to con me into skipping a mandatory battle. So here is what I'll do." After making sure all three of them were paying close attention, Rontellov rehearsed the specific protocols of the nation. "Those who need to defeat me and manage to do so successfully are given a two year pass card. With that card, you have legal access to every facility in Eldora City so long as you are still a wielder. Should you skip the battle even for emergency purposes, entering the city and taking residence at one of the inns is the most you can do, aside from ordering food. Should you fail to rise to my challenge, without receiving the pass card, you will basically be in residence of Eldora without the ability or legality to take part in battles, or shop in Leray specific stores. Simply put, you would not be seen as a welcome person of Eldora, but instead a traveling stranger with temporary access to essential facilities."

"Well we need to take part in battles there," Jane clarified. "Can't we fight you in the morning or something?"

"You defiantly can," Rontellov assured. "Though some of my rules then will have changed. During the day, I get a lot more business, which puts you three on a waiting list. Besides that, I normally challenge all members of traveling teams who are not related via bloodline. If you are say - only friends, I will have to battle all three of you. Though tonight is the exception. I've exhausted much of myself too, so I can accept only one challenger to let all three of you pass. After one more battle, I shall retire for the night and hand over my shift to the next guy in line, who will be full of energy - mind you."

Jane didn't know what to say. Rontellov certainly has a powerful way of motivating people to fight. Everything he just said is specifically designed to make Jane agree to the terms and defeat him right now. Her choices are fight him now with some discomfort and make it easy, or fight him later with rest though with a much tougher and longer duration to defeat the guy. Neither one of them were attractive options, but Jane hated not having the access pass even more. If winning the battle is also the requirement, it meant that Danny and Taylor would both have to win in the morning, something they don't have the skill level for against someone with such high aptitude.

Sensing that they were all in a troublesome conundrum, Rontellov decided to further revise his offering in choices, favoring the immediate battle of course. "Tell you what. Because it will be the end of my shift soon, I will also see what I can do for those two-wheelers you've been pushing around. I know a guy who owns a bike shop. We're well acquainted too, so I can get this fixed with no extra charge, pull them into the building tonight."

Jane didn't detect whether Rontellov meant he would do this favor if she battled him now, or if the favor was already set in stone regardless of what she decided to do. Thinking about it was beginning to make her head hurt, but little time passed at all until she came to the obviously better conclusion. "Listen Rontellov. I think I will choose to defeat you now in battle. I simply can't have restrictions going into Eldora like that. But you fixing our bikes? We could do that ourselves. You're going to have to do better than that if you really want to see me in action."

Rontellov smiled deviously at his underestimation of the young woman in front of him. Despite being smaller and younger than himself, there was a lot of determination and fire in those green eyes, tons of possibilities to see something new for a change, and she was already smart enough to make the bargaining more interesting, wielding more than just magic and valor. Gradyents do not usually bet specific amounts of credits, elsewise it deters challengers, but there isn't a rule that prohibits this function. "I can match a price, though that doesn't mean I will agree to bet on it."

Jane took another step forward until she was almost in the guy's face, emphasizing her seriousness to the cause. "I'm not interested in money. I need a favor, as well as some information." Realizing she had Rontellov's full attention based on his sudden serious expression change, she elaborated on her next phase of the plan. "You're on the council, so I know you've heard several rumors regarding the passing of specific Leray laws and contracts between several corporations around here."

"Curious girl," Rontellov pointed out. He took a step backwards, making the short distance between Jane and him less awkward. "I never thought one of your age would be interested to hear about politics, let alone request so much bargaining power. You certainly don't act like your typical wielder. I can tell that something big has toughened you up." He saw Jane open her mouth to defend her secret, but Rontellov put a hand in front of him to stop her. "I don't want to hear it. Not knowing what exactly made you this strong makes this more interesting for me. Let's discuss these terms right here."

Jane first began to think more about how the battle may turn out. With all of these lights around here, seeing in the dark was not going to be much of a problem. But Rontellov isn't called the elite Gradyent for nothing, and even with a seat on the council, Rontellov has little influence on some things that only concerns her. He might be interested, but he said himself that his specialty was specific to infrastructure and buildings. Jane had to start from how she felt about it. "Are you aware about the several possible ways to breach the rules of a Leray battle? People are literally walking around, forcing others to fight, otherwise forfeit their rights to battle with three immediate strikes. They're exploiting that stupid fifteen minute rule and forcing uneven battles onto the same target."

"Yeah, that's bull crap!"

Rontellov could already tell where this was going, and how angry the thought made both Danny and Jane. Taylor on the other hand seemed to be more exhausted than the other two, as she simply tried to ignore it. "I'm well aware of such things, as I have heard a lot of talk recently. Would you like to know what the council plans to do on this?"

"Yes," Jane firmly answered. That was easier than she thought. The council knows about it? What are they to do then?

Rontellov cleared his throat before explaining the situation he knew all about. "Mind you, I have little influence in this field, though it should not be necessary. Members of the council are well aware of this deep flaw in the Leray rules designed for battle. Magic is sent through the Leray veil of protection in the form of forth-dimensional digital code, running in real time with the magic as it appears in real space. This data is specific to what allows certain things to exist, things like energy scopes, reward spoils that show up in holographic text that actually transfers funds from license to license automatically - after an official battle has ended, and rules that normally prevent illegal things from happening inside of legitimate battles."

"Well it isn't working out anymore."

Hearing Danny's warning basically told Rontellov that the entire team here encountered more than their fair share of crooks, possibly on this very bridge. "That is why the rules are being updated. It is a process that may take more than a full week to implement. Under the new circumstances, cheating people into battle for their strikes will be made impossible. On top of that, we will make more public service announcements to suggest travel with registered referees in the meantime."

"So they are doing something about it?" Jane tested.

"Indeed. The very thing you are talking about is happening more often every day, which begs for urgency to solve the problem. If you were attacked on this bridge illegally, I must urge you to give me some details on the suspects, as I can inform local Leray agents to patrol this bridge for the rest of tonight and tomorrow."

"That brings me to my second favor," Jane proceeded. "As it turns out, we did meet some people who had problems with others forcing them to battle for credits in high amounts. I'm about to give you important names."

"One second." Rontellov paused to formally pull out a small note pad and a pen, ready to write down the names. He looked just like a Leray agent now, but it wasn't unexpected. Gradyents sometimes have authority to investigate on matters like these. "Go ahead."

Jane could see that he was taking this seriously, which is exactly what they needed right now. "First subject, male, upper thirties and very buff. Name is Gustos. We already kind of took care of him after crossing paths, but I think he might come and try to score again in the future. Classic crook, forcing people to battle him for insane numbers or else give them three strikes as opposed just to one. What's worse is that he targets the weak."

"Okay..." Rontellov literally wrote everything down on the paper, making sure to clearly give detailed instructions from what Jane was saying. Danny and Taylor sort of watched passively.

"Next subject is female, dark hair and a magic resistant cloak, upper twenties I think. Anyway, her name is Kira Sandreas. Kira used to be with some gang on Route 96 ran by Patrissa. After Patrissa and her gang were arrested, Kira somehow evaded the capture, and attacked me on the way over here. She engaged me in an illegal battle, used items illegally, and made several verbal threats to kill me."

"That is more serious. I'll have to rank these priority bells too. We'll need more than one agent to handle this much traffic efficiently."

"I don't even understand how people are using items illegally," Danny concerned. "I thought the system prevents that from happening."

Without writing anything else, Rontellov addressed one of the more likely possibilities while answering Danny's confusion. "In such an instance, was there ever anything different or off about the Siriean dome used in such a battle?" A moment passed, Rontellov using their surprised expressions and their silence as a judgment of answer. "I thought as much. Siriean domes can exist in a few different forms. Es'han Siriean is the mage who invented the process. The veil integrates these kinds of digital rules automatically, but a more skilled mage can use their power to create their own distinct personal dome shield, separate from the normal one. That process itself is illegal, even if it works in many of the same ways. As a result, the veil's rules for anti-item usage can be bypassed, usually on a one-sided level. The council is aware of this problem as well."

So that's why? Siriean domes are not the only kind of domes that can be created for battle. How much more to magic is there that nobody knows about?

Jane moved on to make sure Rontellov would learn about all of the horrible things happening around them. "We tied Kira down about halfway to Eldora after she passed out from battle, but by now, she should be long gone. That thing wasn't going to hold her forever. As long as she is alive, she has motive to kill. And as for the last encounter—"

"I wasn't aware there were this many criminals running around here." Rontellov sounded concerned, and briefly reflected on the meaning of it all. "Come to think of it, we have seen less traffic flow on average in this route lately. I thought it simply had to do with how dark it gets here at night. What you're talking about is nearly a federal case already." Anymore, and the FMCI will have to step in.

"I'm sure it will be with the last suspect I give you." Jane prepared to give the last details, and Rontellov put his pen down, eager to take her report seriously. "Stanley Marx. Don't know who he is, who he works for directly, or if that is even his real name. Slightly older male, probably has several unique alibies. One of those alibies is impersonating Leray agents with fake badges and fake licenses, but he is actually working with the Scarlet organization undercover. We both bumped heads and barely managed to survive that encounter. He traveled with two other men, used dark magic to harm us, and then used teleportation symbols in order to escape after we gained some ground on him."

"That— Unbelievable!" Rontellov spat. "The Scarlet Syndicate working right here under our nose?! Hannon!" Rontellov waited for the technician to rush over to his side. It wasn't much of a distance, but Hannon was quick to assist him in any way he could. Rontellov handed him the entire note pad and pen, instructing him one what to do next while the three teens stood and watched curiously. "I want you to personally hand these notes to the federal investigation office. Tell them I sent you personally, and that I want a full-scale investigation into the Scarlet Syndicate, including all activities on Route 787 and Lennith City. I'll be there to fill them in later this morning, and forward it to the FMCI later."

"Yes sir. Installation is complete by the way." Hannon took the notes the rushed in the other direction towards the city.

After briefly studying their faces one more time, Rontellov was certain he had never seen a single one of them before. "I'm guessing that this was the favor you wanted to ask for?"

It wasn't that surprising for Jane to confirm her slight suspicion that the Scarlet Syndicate ranks as a higher problem than other petty criminals, but it begs the question for how far the conspiracy goes. Jane replied, "That's correct. I didn't want to wait before reporting these guys to the agents. They're very dangerous, not that I actually know what they are up to. All I know about the Scarlet Cult is that they're more organized and dangerous than I once thought."

"I thought they were the Scarlet Syndicate," Taylor interrupted. "Which one is it then?"

Rontellov answered calmly since it was easy to deduce. "The organization is technically a syndicate, but what they stand for makes them appear to support a large occult belief. Whatever their goal is, they usually spout some stuff about nonsense, thinking they are the true justice warriors. So normal folk actually call them a cult, but it's all the same thing in their case."

"Well this place took a dark turn fast." Haily commented on the issue as well, too naive to notice how much Sprawn Valley has changed over a few years.

"I'm very glad to see that all three of you are safe after an encounter with Scarlet soldiers." Even Rontellov knew how dangerous they are. "And we're thankful for the information you've provided us Jane. You've done the right thing by bringing this to my attention."

"Good," Jane set. "Now that that's settled, how about we get to the terms of battle?"

"Yes. I know you are still as eager and willing for a great match as I am. A quick reminder about the rules first. Not all challengers realize that in Leray battles, nobody fights to the death. Mixing adrenaline with the will to win can be a powerful distractor from that fact. Should either one of us call forfeit in the match, the referee here will call and end to the battle, and immediately declare the winner. The referee's judgment for the victor weighs more than the normal digital system that detects such things."

"Really?" Taylor stumbled.

"That's right," Haily answered. "My job is basically to make sure the battle is legal and legitimate. At the same time, I watch for any funny business during the match, in case somebody ever finds a potential loophole for an easy win."

"And she likes to shout out what is happening for some odd reason."

Easily embarrassed by Rontellov's assessment, Haily defended her process. "That's not odd! People watching like to know what's going on."

"That's what a pair of eyes are for. Though I still condone your practices. One day you may be drafted into the elite status at level five."

"What's that mean?" Danny questioned.

Rontellov answered the simple questions again. "It means Haily will be a referee for the battles that officially take place in Eldora Tower with the League of Elites. Being a referee in that situation normally requires battle cry callouts and annotations as to what is going on for the viewers who watch such fights. Being a level five elite referee is something of very high honor and praise, and it pays very well."

"That's why I also like to bring moral support!" Haily swayed slightly, clearly excited by her own job and the suspense from an upcoming Leray match.

Rontellov smiled at how much he enjoys Haily's company, then eyed Jane to determine how the fight may go down. However, this is one of the first times to his memory that he is unable to judge what fighting tactics Jane might try and use against him. Anything could happen. "Jane Venn!" His volume made Jane jump slightly. "As elite Leray gradyent of Eldora City, I challenge you in the name of Eldora's honor and title! Your reward for defeating me shall earn you and your companions a two-year access pass card, while my reward for defeating you shall be positive battle experience. Do you accept these terms to match against me, here on the bridge of seven-eight-seven?"

Does he have to make it weird? Jane changed her stance to better prepare herself for the upcoming fight, waving one hand behind her to tell her team to back away. "I accept your challenge Rontellov. Now let's get started!"

The Siriean dome formed around Jane and Rontellov quickly, taking on the familiar blue transparent design that Jane remembered to be correct, compared to the dome shield used by the Scarlet Cult and Kira. Danny and Taylor were well outside of the field's range, though since they were still battling on the bridge, Jane had to take her environment into account as well. Haily was outside of the dome shield too, while standing close to the edge with trained watchful eyes. Rontellov engaged his energy scope shortly before Jane did, revealing the stats of his body with regards to the match. Jane's stats were not at maximum capacity due to the healing real time damage from before, though it was close enough.

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Chapter Theme Shift: La gis sulva za Celow (Extended) ~ Magia Record OST

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image [https://i.postimg.cc/Pqdd1sgJ/S3-Jane-N-036.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/9QQDj9fJ/S3-Rontellov-N-000.png]

Despite how ready Jane's stance tested her opponent's defensive reaction, Rontellov was the first person to chant the name of a particular spell. "I'll begin with Earth Quake!" While lifting his right hand slightly and fusing the Leray energy into his fist to release it into the environment around them, his MP percentile dropped considerably on the energy scope to indicate that it took some magic to use the spell. Upon releasing the attack, several large chunks of rocks and boulders came shooting from nowhere, spawned by the invisible magic aura used in the earth-based spell. Quake is a medium level earth attack that is as bad as it sounds, violently tremoring the entire floor in the particular location of the target until they become disoriented by the loss in their balance, followed by earth elemental damage caused by the rocks and boulders, among other factors.

Upon clearing the brief-lasting dust-screen created by the scraping rock and friction all over the pavement of the bridge floor, Jane was standing perfectly still, arms crossed over each other though aiming outwards. A blue auric shield surrounded her entire body taking about the same shape as herself. For the entire time she was being attacked, Jane was relatively safe inside of her little bubble, finally lowering her arms at the end of Rontellov's sequence to prepare herself for her next turn. She began to think out the plan and strategy in her head, while Rontellov and his assistant were awestruck by the performance.

Haily's mouth dropped, and though she wanted to report what was going on as part of her job, she couldn't entirely understand how Jane Venn managed to block out a complete attack with that much power. As a result, her voice stuttered on the visual description while Danny and Taylor kept to themselves about it. "Uh— I think Quake was made completely useless that round. Jane manages to block it, with what I can only deduce is some sort of modified energy shield. Well played."

Danny and Taylor exchanged quiet confident looks at each other, after which they returned their attention to the battle. Both of them realized just how much work Rontellov has set out for him. Jane is certainly no pushover. After all they have seen with Jane so far, it would surprise either one of them should she lose a fair match against someone. On the other hand, Taylor projected...

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Rontellov bowed to Jane shortly before waiting on her to deliver her next mysterious spell. "That was an excellent block Jane. You've already got me at a clear disadvantage for now."

"That's not all you have to worry about," Jane delivered. While Jane gradually continued the silent charge-up sequence of her MP energy throughout her body, her mind raced through the importance and significance of a swift victory. Rontellov isn't going to be an easy opponent to defeat, and Jane will have to give this challenge everything she has in order to win. Failure is not an option, as it would push back against the available time she has remaining to defeat the champion and storm the Alpha Zero. The only current barrier which stands in her way now is this proud gradyent. As Jane let this mix of emotions flood her mind, she brought in all she felt into the infusion of her energy and her spells, preparing to launch of her feet, while everyone else could feel the anticipation of something bigger on the horizon.

Upon releasing her MP energy in bursts of amounts, Jane activated her next combination of chained sequences while rushing towards Rontellov. "Time for Blitz!" Jane rushed her entire arm from right to left, releasing the magic spell in the form of four separate Shadow Waves activated at the same time at different angles of movement. Before waiting for the hits, Jane rushed in towards Rontellov, drawing the daggers into her hands while her body emanated a green aura.

At first, her rush seemed to be predicable to Rontellov, making him smug enough to drop his guard. Despite understanding how a Blitz combination works, Rontellov wasn't able to see or hear the impending doom sneaking up behind him. Suddenly slammed with the force and slashing magical damage from four Shadow Waves all at once from behind, Rontellov took some immediate Leray damage, as the force itself plunged him forward into Jane's outstretched dagger blades.

Planning for this to happen, Jane got in a multi-magical attack in with a physical jab, though her stored energy for the Blitz spell wasn't expended just yet. She quickly chanted one more skill to enter another magical aura, immediately boosting her speed, her reflexes, and her brilliant light from the bright magical coat. "Rush Assault!" Jane was immediately capable now of delivering several physical hits to Rontellov's body without letting up for a single instance for Rontellov to exploit a weakness. Using magically infused punches and kicks to increase the damage level as the natural effects of Rush Assault call for, Jane made certain to leap around and cut her daggers in for slices too, all until the Rush Assault spell ended with Jane's white aura.

Haily waited for Jane to back away from Rontellov before confirming the effectiveness of Jane's Blitz attack, but Jane was moving so quickly, her actions were nearly impossible to track. Judging however by the change in stats of Rontellov's energy scope and no health changes on Jane's, Haily spoke up again to report it aloud. "It seems Jane has delivered a devastating counterattack, using speed to her advantage. Our gradyent doesn't stand a chance to block or dodge with those movements!"

image [https://i.postimg.cc/0yXb5NMx/S3-Rontellov-N-001.png]

Rontellov could hear his referee speaking through the Siriean dome, as it provided minimal sound resistance to the outside world. Haily's report was accurate too, though defeating for him to hear. He didn't expect such a brilliantly planned out attack such as multiple Shadow Waves slamming him from behind during a Charge Attack sequence. To think that someone so young could learn about so many effective battle dynamics, it was truly inspiring. Just as well though, even Rontellov could determine an immense desperation fueling Jane's energy; it didn't seem as natural as an aspiration to be the best, but instead a struggle to fight for something important. Jane's stern and emotionless expression he witnessed were his only evidence. It's almost scary.

Thinking back on Haily's words however, it reminded Rontellov that Jane can use an unfamiliar power shield of Leray energy to block attacks super effectively, and with such speed, he may have trouble doing the same indeed. Though he knew faintly how a power shield can work, Rontellov knew it wasn't his style. If that truly is Jane's only method of defense, then it needs to be broken right now, and there is only one way to bypass an entire power shield's aura. "All right Jane." Rontellov pulled out his primary weapon of choice after hiding it for so long, a small saber, something shorter in length than a short sword, but much longer than a steak knife. With his saber in hand, it was obvious that his hand motions and the glowing aura around the blade meant he was infusing magical energy into the blade itself. Though at the same time, Rontellov's MP energy dropped much further down than what the other team expected.

While preparing his strike, Rontellov brought up his perfect enchantment for the spell. "It's my turn to show you something new and powerful. Dimensional Strike!" Rontellov put all of his body movements into the hits, slashing his short sword at the empty air. Though Jane was standing pretty far for the sword to blow air at her, Rontellov knew what would happen next. After cutting through the air and releasing the magic, Rontellov created perfect energy waves in the form of sharp lines about the length of two entire meters. The two-dimensional bright lines flew through the air, as Rontellov crossed them over at opposite angles to make it look appealing to the eyes.

Jane recognized this type of attack. She used something just like it before, known as Splice. Splice combines heavy non-elemental magical damage in with severe piercing damage to inflict a very high amount of debilitating pain, possibly creating flesh wounds if not used with Leray magical protection. It's a powerful spell, and though the waves travel fast through the air, Jane still had just enough time and reflexes to enable her energy shield to block the attack again. Forgetting to understand why Rontellov would go with a non-original type of spell, Jane projected her aura around her just a moment before both of the lines were bound to bounce off the power shield.

However, instead of staying safe in her little bubble, Jane was quite surprised to see and feel the Splice energy waves drill straight through her own fully functioning power shield, drilling through the aura and her skin with a burning pain, followed by the same damage amount from the second hit of the other angled moving line. Drilled by both, Jane cringed in agonizing pain, dropping the shield from her loss in focus while hovering closer to the ground with her entire stomach and chest covered to indicate where the pain fluctuated most strongly. Upon taking the deep and painful impact that immediately put Jane in a similar state to the moment she was hit by the Laser Swipe attack in the dark zone, her health decreased by a significant amount as well.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/TPQf9Nx9/S3-Jane-N-037.png]

Taylor was shocked to see Jane fall under perfect shielded protection right before her eyes, and even Danny gasped beside her in the same response. "What happened? Jane shielded, but it didn't work."

Finally understanding what was happening in the fight, Haily allowed the time for Jane to recover herself while explaining to the only two other watchers what was really going on. "Wow! Looks like Rontellov expected Jane to use her shield again, totally corrupting her only method of defense while dealing some major damage in the process. Dimensional Strike has a power level maxing at ten, and is a special ability that uses magic under multiple layers of dimensions. Since Jane's power shield can only work in this physical realm, Dimensional Strike totally trumps the entire energy field put in place to protect her."

Jane didn't believe her ears, but had no choice in understanding what was actually going on. Despite the painful burning on the inside of her skin, she rose up carefully, collecting herself and her thoughts. As Haily explained it, Dimensional Strike is specifically designed to bypass certain types of energy fields and shields, including Siriean domes. Because the magical attack travels through multiple layers of dimensions to deal damage, blocking becomes useless, and though the form of such a spell naturally decreases its attack power, Haily just said it was a power level ten attack. Therefore, the damage will still be high regardless of the spell's effects. For the first time in her entire experience as a trained Leray fighter, someone has finally discovered an effective way to counter Jane's only best defense, the power shield. With her hidden symbol still in a passive effect, Jane's defensive endurance will still be cut into half of its original state. Taking any attack from a powerful mage such as Rontellov can be devastating here.

Noticing how long it was taking for Jane to do anything, Rontellov built on her frustration, forcing her to act upon it. "It appears I can surprise you too Jane. You have much to learn."

Responding immediately to the struggle, Jane released a ton of her energy from both her hands straight into the battlefield. "Try blocking Deep Strike!" The released energy was enough to immediately create several dozens of small explosions everywhere. Though they seemed random at first, they were specifically surrounding where Rontellov was standing, each blast inching closer and closer to his stationary position.

Responding to the familiar threat he faced before, Rontellov put up his arms to his face, standing differently to block the attack by natural means. Staying strong and enduring the attack would lower the damage taken in the end. By the time the final few blasts were on top of him however, the blast and damage levels were incredibly high. With the final trademark explosion at the very end known as the deep strike of Deep Strike, Rontellov was shoved to the side, totally taken for a ride in midair while the massive blast bruised his entire frontal body.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/CKZdRVk8/S3-Rontellov-N-002.png]

"Ooh!" Haily emphasized to the others how much of a hard blast that was. That final explosion totally annihilated Rontellov's attempt to stand and defend himself. It was a bad choice to make for the gradyent too. Deep Strike is especially unique, because the explosion chains increase in damage over the time of the attack, making the last explosion the one carrying the strongest payload of magical damage. It's designed to increase in attack power by an exponential climb. However, Haily had seen Rontellov block this attack before with great success, unlike this time. It must mean that Jane's practice with the spell has increased the damage level tremendously, something Rontellov didn't want to see until it was too late. "Jane Venn gets another solid hit, now in the lead of the battle. Only two entire skills were exchanged on each side so far, yet the match is almost halfway over."

"Oh we're just getting started," Jane corrected.

Rontellov stood back up, preparing himself to get as serious as he possibly can. For once, he had to agree with Jane's fighting spirit. She didn't want to defeat him this easily or quickly, an honorable trait for an excellent fighter. "That's something we can agree upon." Rontellov paused, inhaling as much air as he could, since his current charging spell took a lot out of him in the process. "Power Shift!" The invocation time was not immediate because of how the spell is used and how much energy it takes to make it happen, but Rontellov knew this was one of his ultra-powerful spells. Upon engaging the Power Shift aura, his entire body began to glow with colors, shifting between those colors every 0.1 seconds, thus making it an interesting light show for the moment. His body aura color changed in the order from green to blue to purple to white. Just after it happened, Rontellov managed to quickly launch four separate energy spheres from his hands without the use of a single glyphring.

Jane reacted fast enough to shield herself again, assuming the attack would not be powerful enough to bypass her personal aura. However, the energy spheres that Rontellov threw at her were small and fast, about five times the travel speed of elemental bolt attacks. It was amazing that she projected her shield in time for the attack. Upon each sphere slamming her shield and dissolving into several tiny little hexagons, Jane noticed just before the impact that all four of the sphere were different colors, but they were colors that matched the odd color shift in Rontellov's personal aura shortly before throwing the attack. She was curious about the nature of Power Shift and what it was supposed to do, but her shield prevented her from finding out.

Rontellov didn't expect Jane's shield to hold up to such a powerful attack. After all four of the spheres hit, Jane's power shield was still up, and the cost to her MP reserves was minimal. He knew all about the spell. Though impossible to master, Power Shift is an auric-based magical ability that builds different auras, and reforms their energies into separate projectile spheres. The green sphere is full of electrical blunt based magical damage upon impact. The blue sphere deals ice elemental magical damage on a high scale. The purple sphere deals heavy spirit damage with a high effect of drain on a person's stamina. Then the white sphere deals pure magical damage on a very high scale of power level. Each sphere inflicts devastating HP damage, but a foe hit with all four at once will lose more than half of their entire maximum HP level. It's very difficult to invoke, very expensive on the MP, and very effective on damage level. Yet Jane managed to block the entire attack without a problem.

That's what Rontellov believed anyway. Just after the last white energy sphere landed against Jane's power shield, she felt incredibly exhausted, losing her focus on the spot. She dropped the shield as quickly as she could, realizing it was about to fail on her from the damage taken alone. Jane managed to block the entire aura attack, but it was a very close call, which worried her in the moment.

Noticing the potential of Jane's unique shield, Haily commented on it further. "It seems that even Rontellov's powerful spells are no match for Jane Venn's aura shield. He'll have to stick with Dimensional Strike if he wants to win this."

Rontellov shook his head left and right gently. There's no way he will continuously spam Dimensional Strike. Even though it would ensure himself a victory, it's just not something advanced fighters do to their opponents. Battle spells are supposed to be exchanged based on variety, skill, and strategy, regardless of the overall effectiveness. That is how one learns. Refusing the very idea of Haily's useless suggestion, he recovered himself, waiting on Jane to deliver her next attack. "You have a very unique and effective style Jane. Please continue where we left off."

Jane was a bit confused by the fact that Rontellov was basically asking to be attacked again and again, but she was also reminded that this battle is an honorary Leray match. To give such praise to Jane while both of them were on even ground made her feel great just being in the battle alone. Suddenly, the thought of losing the fight haunted Jane much less than it did before, but that didn't mean she wanted to go down without trying her absolute hardest. If Rontellov wants to know everything she can do, then he will learn everything, down to the last ability she has trained with since day one. "Flying Guillotine!" Drawing her daggers for the attack, Jane threw them at Rontellov and created the familiar spinning circle of magical slashing damage in between the spinning blades, the motion taking the directional effect as a Frisbee-like boomerang.

Rontellov tried to block the attack again like before, and this time, the damage done to him was totally minimal, despite the attack drilling straight through his skin as it was designed to do. Standing as inert as a statue, Rontellov's health barely faltered as the circular arc of Jane's Flying Guillotine attack circled all the way back to her hands, giving her back the daggers just as the attack cycle ended. Jane was immediately aware that her choice wasn't one of the best, but she had no good ideas at the current moment. Using Redemption again would be incredibly risky.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/Dzt0sYPM/S3-Rontellov-N-003.png]

After stepping forward to Jane, only to get a few feet closer, Rontellov released his next combination of Leray magical spells, showing Jane just how intelligent his style has become over many years of intense fights such as this. "Dualcast!" Quickly creating a dark green aura to shape his body, Rontellov's spell quickly sped up his invocations behind the scenes, allowing him to quickly chain two additional spells right after. His chants were rapid, as were the invocations of the next two spells. "Calling of Light!" With another fast hand gesture, Rontellov coated himself with a secondary cyan aura that had no immediate noticeable effect. It wasn't an attack going Jane's direction either, but Jane stood very prepared to take anything. Still unfinished in his chain, Rontellov began the next cycle. "Explosion!" Charging up a large dark grey glyphring, Rontellov began the summoning of another ultra-powerful spell with the same attack power as it sounded. His invocation of a long charging spell however was sped up by the existing Dualcasting effect he chanted earlier, soon to fade after releasing the magic one last time.

Jane didn't know exactly what to expect with the Calling of Light spell, but after hearing another chant with the name explosion in the ability itself, it was rather obvious that now was the only time to defend against it. "Power Shield!" Jane didn't always need to chant the name of her defensive shield, but she was expecting heavy resistance this time around. After Rontellov's spell activated, a blinding light in the center of the field lit up, receded, and then exploded all in a near instance, blasting the entire battlefield with a fiery burst of pure force and shrapnel from the ground. Jane's shield collected hexagons at every angle, immediately draining much of her power and concentration yet again. By the time the light faded, Jane lost control of her shield rather than getting the chance to drop it normally, forcing her down, gasping for her breath. Having the power shield fail to project drains much more out of Jane than it does to simply block a lot of damage, and thus left her slightly vulnerable despite taking no damage from that massive explosion.

"And Jane shields it again, an unstoppable method to defend against a massive explosive attack." Haily had minor difficulty keeping track of everything. The battlefield was lit up well, though the only real source of light is still the bright bulbs shinning from the top of the bridge structure, only spanning out further down the road for less than 0.2 miles. In the pure night sky, their battling in this instance was hard to see because of the additional light show happening inside of the dome sphere. However, judging by all of these powerful solid blasts Rontellov was putting out, Haily's assumption was proven right with one quick glance at his energy scope. Jane had been conserving some of her MP energy, while Rontellov used the very last of it in the explosion spell.

With this unusual cyan aura surrounding Rontellov's body, he and Jane both noticed an immediate change happening on Rontellov's energy scope regarding his MP reserves. The value was rapidly increasing over time. It was a clear indication that Rontellov's MP levels were in rapid regeneration mode. Instead of using an item, which is supposedly illegal in Leray battles, Rontellov cleverly went with the spell known as Calling of Light. Calling of Light is a Leray spell that uses a support aura to quickly regenerate a very high amount of lost MP energy. More than that, it can only be used once per hour during clear skies while no sunlight is present, making Rontellov's weather conditions convenient to his favor. After having used up all of his MP values, this spell was about to be very helpful to his cause.

Contrary to the change in rules, Jane didn't just stand back and watch it happen. She kept her daggers in hand, and charged some more energy into the blades while thinking of what to try for her next spell, but for the moment, she was still out of good ideas. "Mako Strike!" Firing small spheres of pure Leray energy instead of beams in her previous unrefined version of the Mako spell, Rontellov was still quick to react to the incoming magic against him.

He did not however expect an attack such as this. It was formed much like a Magical Blitz attack spell, though the spheres were three times faster to travel, and half the size despite their radiant cyan glow. Jane launched only two spheres at her opponent, who immediately took evasive action in the form of a backflip. Rontellov was secretly more athletic than he appeared to be, attempting an entire backflip to jump over the Mako Strike spheres. However, instead of jumping over the spheres, he landed just where the projectile's path was going to hit anyway, making his jump appear to happen much too soon. The first impact to the gut upon landing from Jane's attack was only half as powerful as the following strike, carrying enough force to knock him back while Rontellov struggled not to trip backwards. For a simple attack, the Mako Strike of which he had never heard about before carried a lot of blunt force, six times as much as Magical Blitz spheres did. Though the damage was not heavy, Rontellov knew in his mind that it was still a good call.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/d1r19mWt/S3-Rontellov-N-004.png]

"Jane is delivering attacks in rebuttal, but none as powerful as Rontellov's expertly designed spells. What will come next in this even grounded match up for Eldora's honor?"

"Whirlwind!" Rontellov's invocation was immediate, though his opponent was momentarily surprised that he went with an ability naturally having such a low power level. Whirlwind alone is a basic beginner's spell.

Because Jane underestimated the style of her attacker, she was surprised by the fact that Rontellov's Whirlwind spawned on top of where Jane was standing, giving her no time to react, no time to shield herself, and no time to brace herself for the powerful gusts of winds that blew her hair far back from her scalp. Jane could feel herself being dragged off the ground, barely hanging on due to the gravity of her physical weight, but the several dozens of cuts and slashes from the additional wind elemental damage did her no good either. Despite the Whirlwind being low power proportionally, Jane forgot that because an expert was using the spell, its general power level will still be much higher.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/MTTxr0K8/S3-Jane-N-038.png]

By the time the Whirlwind attack ended, Jane could do nothing about the damage she had already taken, other than to quickly try and retaliate, but after such a rush of air slamming down on her, Jane felt slightly dizzy from the change in oxygen concentration. Her reaction wasn't as quick as it could have been, and Haily got another chance to comment on the battle before executing her next attack.

"Eldora's gradyent fights back with a well-placed wind attack, giving Jane the slip for now."

Danny knew just how annoying the referee thing was by now, but he said nothing of it, considering that this is Haily's job. It seemed for now that Jane was performing better already, but he kept in mind that Rontellov's MP levels were rapidly climbing from that aura which was still lasting from before. This guy is taking all of Jane's advantages away from her, and using it for himself, and if Jane's crest activates on its own as a result, all of them are going to be finished. This entire quest to Eldora will have been for nothing.

"Median Flare!" Jane blasted magical light at Rontellov, despite having a range at him with a low angle of effectiveness and a moderate power level for damage.

Rontellov could do nothing, but he really didn't need to. Despite taking on the damage and slight pain of the hit, he came out of it just fine afterwards, judging that Jane was losing her fast momentum and ideas quickly. With that judgment, now was the time to act upon it.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/tJbgvZfd/S3-Rontellov-N-005.png]

"Dimensional Strike!" he cast. After pulling his short blade and releasing the magic into the saber, Jane predictably shielded herself, too quick in her reaction to fully remember the effect of the attack spell by its name. Rontellov slashed through the air twice at opposing angles like before, creating two crossed line waves of inter-dimensional magical formations. Upon realizing the mistake that shielding was totally pointless, Jane braced herself for the inevitable pain of Dimensional Strike, which has the same general effect as Splice. As the waves drilled straight through Jane's personal shield and thus her entire body, the pain following the drilling slashes were more than enough to make her lose all concentration on the shield, Jane dropping it to deal with the new situation.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/xC4YrkcN/S3-Jane-N-039.png]

Jane's breathing became rapid again, having been exhausted long before beginning this fight. She could feel her adrenaline pumping all the way to the maximum allowed levels. The pain still held her down, immobile at the clenched reaction of the burning piercing sensation of the left over damage from Rontellov's repeated spell.

Though he gave Jane much time after that to recover, it wasn't enough time for her to fight back immediately, which is what he played on next. After aiming his hand up to the sky, he began invoking a large spell, getting his concentration for the magic just right. "Meteor Strike!" Just as Rontellov spawned the massive red vertical glyphring in the sky just at the top base of the dome shield, the formation of red glowing meteorites began descending and spawning from the sky far above the dome shield.

Jane was frozen for the moment, unable to think of a way out of this situation. The Meteor Strike was clearly meant for her, and using power shields just won't cut her slack against this expert fighter, but as she was caught staring at the mass barrage of falling space rocks, Jane managed to analyze an entire pattern out of all of them. In an obvious design to make the attack longer, Meteor Strike doesn't drop all of their rocks at the same time, and therefore spawns all of the rocks at different drop points and heights. She couldn't tell if the adrenaline finally took her over completely, or if her coordination skills had improved automatically, but Jane began reacting to the situation before her, well without thinking about an actual plan.

It was impulsive of her, totally unnatural in responding to a falling swarm of meteorites, but Jane followed her gut anyway, trusting in her instincts to try and wiggle her way out of a deadly area attack. She began by infusing a lot of magical energy into her legs, giving her a very high boost in her abilities to negate gravitational acceleration and jump really high. Using that sort of magic, Jane performed a jump that would naturally be impossible even by movie standards. Her jump soared her thirty entire meters into the air, as she angled her projection just towards one of the first falling meteors. Jane successfully landed her feet on the top of the free falling rock with some assistance of her digging dagger, and struggled briefly to keep her balance. Realizing she had but one more second before the meteor hits the ground taking her with it, Jane searched for another meteor to jump to, one higher than the falling hot projectile she was standing on. Using the same magic as before, Jane jumped off the top of the falling meteor, and flew up to another falling meteor that was initially higher than the first one due to the timing and the pattern of the spell.

Rontellov, Danny, Taylor, Haily, and even Jane were not fully aware of what she was trying to accomplish, or what she was up to specifically. But Jane knew by now that her instincts were leading her on - to vertically evade the entire attack while climbing a very high altitude until reaching the end of Rontellov's area attack chain. Not only was this highly unusual for everyone here, Jane continued her pattern of jumps and leaps again and again before reaching the meteor with the highest point. By the end of all these jumps from one meteor to the next from all angles in random clusters, Jane nearly bumped into the very top edge of the Siriean dome. Knowing she could not jump much higher, this final jump would ultimately make her immune to the meteors already crashing into the pavement below her.

Jane leaped off the last meteor, now 95 meters above the ground, right above where Rontellov was standing. Just before beginning to free fall, Jane's entire frontal body was facing the ground below her, she felt like she had been flying despite the impossible scenarios. Though it took another moment to figure out what to do next, Jane finally got the idea on her own, not relying on random response to decide for her. Just as she began to free fall again, Jane charged and released a spell, forcing her glyphring and attack angle to aim directly for Rontellov. "Quantum Beam!" The glyphring formed bigger than Jane remembered happening before, after which the device merged its magic with Jane's personal aura. Once the process completed, her aura expanded in the form of a wide magical beam which slammed into Rontellov's position. What Jane did not realize at first was due to her free falling speed, angle, and gravitational support of the Quantum Beam spell she just invoked, the speed and power of her attack was naturally doubled in ways it was not designed to be doubled. After the beam slammed the ground where Rontellov stood, putting entire cracks in the pavement while knocking the man off his feet, Jane now had to worry about landing from this high of a fall.

Seeing the ground approaching her this quickly had Jane freaked out beyond the capacity for rational thought, so she invoked a magical spell at random, trying to imagine anything about opposing a force in a directional wave. Without thinking or chanting any kind of spell name, Jane instinctively simulated the effects of Shining Bracer, a spell which is an omnidirectional Push Wave. Used just before smacking into the ground, Jane did managed to soften her descent and landing, but the change in falling speed was not great, and she ended up thwacking into the concrete anyway, crushing her chest, arms, legs, and even her face.

"Agh!" Haily couldn't come up with the appropriate words to try and summarize what just happened, starting from Rontellov's Meteor Strike. Even Jane's friends to the side were slanting down, trying to observe every angle, but they looked just as confused. There wasn't any possible way Jane could have done what she just did. It's a type of evasion never before performed in all the battles of history. That had to have been staged!

Taylor and Danny both noticed how glued to the battle they were right now, and didn't try to disrupt their incredible focus on the amazing scene that developed before their eyes. Neither one of them was certain of what exactly just happened. Though their eyes had seen some incredible evasions, jumps, and flips coming from Jane high up in the air, they believed it had to have been some sort of mind trick. Both Jane and Rontellov were down though, Rontellov hit from the Quantum Beam, and Jane damaged from a high fall to the floor.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/6q4KB9vj/S3-Jane-N-040.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/wMkjCx8C/S3-Rontellov-N-006.png]

Rontellov's cyan aura also disappeared, a minor detail he noticed long after recovering from that massive hit from the sky. Or was it really from Jane herself? That couldn't have been possible. For whatever odd reason, Jane was hurt getting up as well, though not nearly as far in danger as he was right now. How could someone several years younger than him be doing so well in a gradyent battle? Rontellov didn't think he was actually holding back, not after taking the first hit from Jane. Her magical attacks carry so much power despite her time of experience; it's just so unusual. And yet...

Jane pulled herself back up steadily, trying to ignore all of her physical pains and fatigue. Rontellov was standing first, so he would likely get the first attack. Still, Jane wasn't certain if she could pull off another power shield yet. Everything hurt so much that focusing on it was impossible for the moment.

And yet... Rontellov analyzed the way Jane looked at him, her stance, her expression, her motive, her bravery. That must explain everything. Jane's power is simply drawn by how driven she is to win. It isn't just this one battle she is trying to dominate. Jane is trying to accomplish much more than winning one gradyent battle. The way she fights, her style, her reactions, her reflexes, and that inspiring determination to get back up and keep drilling... That is the will to survive! It's the desire to win all battles. Jane has a mindset to fighting for her own life right now, even knowing that this isn't a battle to the death. What a fascinating person!

Jane saw the entire area tilting around. Her vision was slightly blurring due to her fatigue. She could pass out at any moment despite her high stats. Without having a good night's rest in nearly a full day, her stamina was well drawn out.

"Quantum Beam!" Rontellov screeched! Hoping to achieve the same results as Jane, Rontellov tried Quantum Beam on Jane to counter, lighting up his body with a bright blue glowing aura that quickly transformed itself into a wide area beam. Rontellov released his attack towards Jane, wondering how she would react next.

Jane tried to get a hold of herself and invoke her power shield again. She managed to get the minimum amount of Leray energy charged into her power shield, though she unsuccessfully completed that charge, making her shield naturally weaker against damage levels. Though Quantum Beam isn't normally a super powerful attack, Jane's shield failed the moment she was hit by Rontellov's beam, taking the full magical damage of the ray until the beam faded.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/7bvk6p1x/S3-Jane-N-041.png]

Despite her exhaustions, Jane made it her mission to see this battle through to the end, no matter how tired and hurt she was from the fight. The thought of being drained also gave her the next idea for her magical attack, one Rontellov may not see coming early. "Star of Darkness!" Jane's hands were already glowing with a red magical color, while the red circle with a red star inside of it formed as its symbol on the ground where Rontellov was standing.

This was a spell he had seen many times before. He knew how to get out of this. Simply run from the effective radius and he's home free, but Rontellov didn't feel like running out of the circle. It wasn't worth going through all of the motions to evade an easy attack when he could just stand there and fight back regardless of such. Intentionally remaining still to take the damage head on, Rontellov allowed Jane's Star of Darkness to begin draining his stamina and life energy as his health.

Jane couldn't understand why Rontellov simply let the draining spell affect him to such lengths, but she didn't stop her process. Rontellov's health was quickly draining away from him, and by the looks if it, so was his physical energy. Jane figured he was waiting for a good moment to counterattack, but she kept him at bay, ending the sequence with a low powered red Lightning Strike from above, fading the Star of Darkness and the aura around her hands.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/3rjN414t/S3-Rontellov-N-007.png]

No matter how exhausted he was feeling from the drain of Jane's last attack, Rontellov was now just as determined to give it his all. Even his referee was silent, capable of sensing just how intense this has become. Rontellov drew his short sword and prepared for a close combat session with Jane. Jane's Rush Assault earlier was excellent, but it wasn't going to be enough alone...

"Prism!" Jane noticed Rontellov's blade long before he began accelerating towards her. Rontellov must have been slowing down now from his low stats and the disorientation brought on by Star of Darkness. Jane could see from a facial expression that her opponent did not expect such a swift transition into another long-range attack utilizing magic. Jane's rainbow colored glyphring was already prepared, and she began firing elemental combo one after the other. Rontellov tried to lift his blade up to block, but that only managed to work for the first two hits of the entire Prism chain.

Jane's combination was chosen in such an order that kept Rontellov off guard while dealing damage successively until the end. Following two Fire Bolts, Jaen launched a Lightning Strike, followed by an Ice Bolt, then a Fire Bolt, two Thunderbolts, two Ice Bolts, a Fire Bolt, two more Thunderbolts, another Fire Bolt, a Thunderbolt, and an Ice Bolt to finish the combination. Rontellov's health declined quickly after each impact, despite the bolts holding a very weak chance to knock him back by force. After the attack sequence was over, Rontellov was on his knees, suffering from stats so low that he was barely responsive even to himself.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/kXn4xSW-q/S3-Rontellov-N-008.png]

Jane waited for a good five seconds until launching one more attack. Since Rontellov did not call quits, it wasn't bad to keep hitting him while he was down. Jane knew by now that she was obviously the better fighter, and didn't even need to invoke her hidden crest one single time. "Lightning Strike!" Though Jane meant to create a jade colored glyphring to form a simple Lightning Strike attack, the glyphring failed to form at all. Instead, Jane's hands began sparking up with small arcs of electrical energy. Her panic followed shortly after, upon realizing the familiar scene this was when she fell ill in Fronas long ago. Shortly after, Jane's lightheadedness caught up with her, causing her balance issues immediately after. Was that the reason for her failure in invoking another magical skill? Jane noticed that her MP stats were only at 9% capacity, which wasn't good. Lightning Strike takes an average person about 7% of their MP to invoke, so something else was the cause.

"It backfired!" Haily hollered. "Come on Rontellov! Get up and keep trying! You can win this!"

"Whose side is she really on anyway?" Taylor muttered.

Following the sound of his referee, Rontellov came to his senses momentarily, understanding the major difference in their statuses. Knowing he had only one real chance to destroy Jane here and now, Rontellov inhaled a deep breath after standing and facing Jane with a determined look. "Multi-Cast!"

Jane was confused by his efforts. With only 5% health, what more could this gradyent really do to her?

"Spirit Arrow!" After glowing again with a powerful Multi-casting aura speeding up all of his invocations, Rontellov began charging one ability after another to end Jane right here in one single sequence. He began with the summoning and shooting of a single Spirit Arrow to try and keep Jane off balance.

Jane couldn't react in time before being pierced by a Spirit Arrow that only knocked down 2% of her health. Though the design was supposed to make her disoriented and confused, she was already in that state from her earlier exhaustion. Jane took a wild guess to assume more attacks were coming her way, and did her best to create a powerful shield aura around herself. Despite being disoriented, despite having low energy, and despite being afflicted with a Spirit Arrow, Jane still managed to project a fully functional shield around her body, while Rontellov continued attacking from range.

"Bullet Blitz!" Rontellov spawned two machine guns in his hands, unloading both rapid-fire clips into the shield aura, but the bullets simply bounced off the aura, leaving Jane totally unharmed. Rontellov switched spells quickly, with his quick invocation time aura still in effect. Multi-Cast acts like Dualcast in many situations, though it lasts longer and speeds up spells even faster. "Rocketry!" After instantly forming an odd yellow colored glyphring in front of him, Rontellov's spell fired a barrage of six warheads, set to explode with shrapnel on impact.

Jane braced herself and held her shield up strong while the missiles all began impacting on her shield, dissolving the explosions into hexagons again.

"Triple Fire!" Before even waiting to see if Jane's shield has cracked yet, Rontellov fired three more Fire Bolts at Jane before all missiles managed to explode, further stressing Jane's entire shield aura.

The trick had been working against her too. The second to last Fire Bolt deteriorated Jane's power shield entirely, allowing the last one to slam into her arm and give her the sensation that her skin was burning in that spot, while simultaneously being heavily drained and worn down from all of the shielding to the damage. Her low MP reserves were not helping her either, but she still had enough to try one more thing. After accepting the damage from Rontellov's last brutal combination, Jane immediately got him back with another simple spell, hoping it will end him one way or the other. "Lightning Strike!" This time, the glyphring formed around her wrist, as did the blue bolt of electrical energy coursing through Rontellov's veins. After a quick zap to his body, Rontellov slumped to the ground, as weak as ever. His was still technically conscious, though his energy scope was finally spooling a warning system.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/15JzMzK6/S3-Rontellov-VT-001.png]

Rontellov's life was in critical condition, his energy scope's holographic color changing to red to indicate how close to severe injury he has come to so far. It took him a lot of time to realize how bad his condition became, and it took a lengthy moment of Jane performing no additional action to discover her reason.

Assuming Rontellov was who he said he was, and assuming he was in his right mind, Jane was certain that a real Leray gradyent would never risk his own life just to give it everything when the winner of the match is blindingly obvious by now. Even Haily was getting worried.

"That's enough Rontellov! You need to call it off now!"

He didn't want this to end, but the results were too striking. Jane still has so much more health right now, and there is nothing he can do. "Very well," he croaked. Rontellov was so weak that his voice barely managed to get anything out clearly. "I surrender the victory of the match to you - Jane Venn. I have lost this battle."

Jane could never get over the amazing method that the Leray rule system could somehow analyze a person's motives enough to recognize when somebody is giving up a normal battle. The moment Rontellov announced Jane as the victor was also the same moment that the Siriean dome collapsed. The holographic text and reward system formed in the center of the battlefield, while Rontellov was left in a lot of pain, trying to recover.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Magic ~ Green Sun

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The collapse of the dome gave Haily a chance to rush in with healing orbs to help Rontellov recover. At the same time, Danny and Taylor rushed towards Jane, who was too exhausted to break out of a temporary phase of her mind drifting on itself.

"Mr. Iseihenghower! Rontellov!" Haily was overexcited, too worried about the health of her warrior to give him any space. After placing the healing orb into the guy's hands, Haily shook him around over and over to ensure he remains conscious. The orb lit up and activated, but the response was quite delayed, which is what nearly tipped Haily over the edge. Passing out while Vital Drain status is present can dangerous for a person's health.

"You're gonna be okay Jane." Accepting the healing orb from Taylor, Jane did her best to focus on its activation. She was tired and exhausted for reasons other than having lower stats. At the same time though, she was much more coherent than Rontellov, who battled his very best until the end.

Jane's recovery was naturally four times as quick as it was for Rontellov, but in the end, Jane was still much more drained and exhausted than the gradyent turned out to be. Her fatigue was long term. She and her entire team needed a good place to rest, right up in the Eldora inn. Though coming from an expensive city, it will likely only have hotels instead. Once the stats on each energy scope were arranged back to their normal state, Jane and Rontellov both calmed down enough to speak to each other again, just after ridding themselves of the annoying holographic text boxes.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/9QQDj9fJ/S3-Rontellov-N-000.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/T1dbs453/S3-Jane-N-000.png]

Danny calmed his nerves, but his thoughts returned to the very scene moments ago. Just by watching that intense fight did he learn so much. Jane's shield has weak points, gradyents are really strong warriors, and Jane can do impossible things if motivated enough. How did Jane manage a victory?

Looking both exhausted and impressed, Rontellov looked Jane in the eyes and declared his honor to her. "Jane Venn? That was the finest battle I think I've ever had in over five years."

Still huffing air, Jane assumed his intentions mid-battle from her referenced memory of the entire event. "You don't give your challengers everything you've got until you need to, isn't that right?"

Rontellov's quick and smug exhale gave Jane the immediate answer. "Guilty as charged. I do hold back sometimes depending on the skill level of the challenger, but I noticed that both our styles were stress tested after the battle became more demanding. I did my absolute best this time just after the first hit, and you still bested me with so much health and stamina remaining afterwards."

"That thing you did with the asteroids was so awesome!" Haily held Jane's arm, hoping to somehow get her autograph. "What was that anyway?"

"I..." Jane didn't recall planning that to happen. She just played most of that fight by ear this time. "I just did what I had to at the time. Learning how to use your opponent's attack against them is one of the best strategies available, but I was really just going along with what was given to me."

Rontellov nodded, "Impressive I see. Well you should keep it up Jane. I've personally never met someone as young as you performing at this capacity. Perhaps you even have what it takes to challenge Danton after all."

"Thank you," Jane appreciated.

Rontellov regressed, "No, thank you. It's because of you that I've felt the incredible exciting sensation born from a well-coordinated legitimate Leray match. Though your skills are more refined than my own, I want to face more battles in which I lose for real, as opposed to faking my true difficulty with the amateurs around."

"It's not too late to aim for the top you know." Jane didn't realize why she was saying her inspiring words. But what Rontellov was talking about is something she could relate to, even as a small child. "I'm trying to become a Leray master. Traveling everywhere and hard training can get you those heated battles you seek. Of course that would mean stepping down as Eldora's gradyent."

"You continue to intrigue me Jane." Rontellov's face shifted direction, and he really was giving the matter much thought. "I'll have to think on that proposition. It's not a terrible idea. I may be getting old, but I've once seen an eighty year old man come close to wiping the floor with Mainne."

"Who's Mainne?" Taylor asked.

Rontellov addressed all of them in his apologetic answer. "My apologies. Mainne is one of the members of the current League of Elites. You will meet her should you actually try to challenge the champion this year." Rontellov was silent for a moment, giving Jane a reason to doubt his mental state.

"You okay?" Jane checked.

"Yes," he answered. "I'm just still in shock by your stunning performance with my Meteor Strike. I've never seen something like that before, not even in those fake action movies for kids. Just wait till I tell my boys. None of them will believe a word I say. Which reminds me..." Rontellov reached for his supply sphere, pulling out three small slip cards that were mostly blank except for a particular logo on the front of it. "These are your Eldora pass cards. With these, you can access any magic-related service native to Eldora City, and obtain some discounts on some of those services. Meanwhile, I have to change shifts with the Leray guard on this bridge, make sure nobody messes with the electrical system."

"Right," Jane confirmed. "We should really get going ourselves, rest up for tomorrow."

"Perhaps it would not do harm to travel together?" Rontellov requested. "What you told me about Scarlet agents hanging around still has me quite bothered. I will need to inform Danton the next chance I get, though Leray agents should already be on the case."

"I wonder what's going on with that cult." Danny crossed his arms somewhat to give it more thought, now walking along with Rontellov towards the edge of the route to Eldora City. He and Taylor had to keep rolling their busted bikes to the city with them, which brought up an interesting topic from Rontellov's experiences.

"You know, I haven't received the upgrade just yet, and the patent isn't valid until tomorrow, but there is a new upgrade to all supply spheres coming so soon, one that is specifically designed to increase storage amount and multi-dimensional compression ratios. In other words, with such upgrades, those bikes can literally fit in your back pocket."

"That's a relief," Jane daunted.

Thinking about a change to supply spheres brought up another memory for Taylor to question during their walk. "That reminds me. How exactly will the Leray rules change again? You said something about getting into the details later."

"I did huh?" Agreeing to explain as much as he knew, Rontellov gave Jane and Taylor the details they wanted to know while shoveling their legs forward in sync. "Well it isn't too complicated, and there will be national announcements regarding the changes too. In order to reduce any chances of being cheated for forced battles, the system will now make a new ruling. Battle offers that are both legitimate and belonging to the same particular person can be made only once per hour. That way, if that person refuses to battle, a strike will be placed on their card, but if the same person makes a second offer within that hour to the same target, acceptance or refusal won't even be allowed to trigger any sort of digital ruling between those two licenses. On top of that, the same kind of person will be allowed to implement a different tier of emergency mode, specific to blocking further strikes from hagglers should they bother people too much. It simply prevents the problem altogether. This means that people hassling others will have no choice but to get their hands dirty, fighting illegally or illegitimately. When that happens, the lack of a dome shield actually makes this obvious to nearby agents, and they can step in to take action immediately."

"That's really good," Danny emphasized. "And the solution to fix that is simple while effective."

Rontellov continued. "Furthermore, I said it was good to travel with a referee for a reason. As it has always been, a referee can automatically deny a battle offer in progress if that offer is unfair, or stop existing battles if people are cheating in the dome somehow. But now referees who are registered will actually have the ability to remove existing strikes on cards should they happen for any reason. However, that very first strike is normally going to be too robust to remove, because first strikes are normally legal and legitimate to take in the first place. The council has basically taken some drastic measures lately to fix the issues without hindering the entire system used by Leray wielders during battles."

"Sounds like the job market for referee just got bigger."

"Indeed." Rontellov continued pacing normally, escorting the three youngsters into Eldora City. Now off the bridge itself, the path to the city was only thing standing in their way.

There wasn't much else to talk about regarding the rule changes and Jane's performance, but Haily insisted on exchanging some of the details of her past in order to get to know Danny and Taylor better. "I wonder if I'll be promoted to the League of Elites like Rontellov said."

"Why wouldn't you?" he asked. "All you need is more experience and a few more recommendations from my reports."

"Yeah, but I'm talking about getting promoted before these three challenge the champion."

"Actually," Danny intercepted. "Only Jane is planning on challenging them this year. Taylor and I still lack the training for it."

Rontellov glanced behind himself to Jane, who was only half-awake by now. "Well I don't have any doubts that Jane will succeed in going far. You keep fighting like that, and you should at least make it to Danton."

"Has Danton really been the champion for a long time?" Jane questioned.

Rontellov answered, "I only knew him since he was twenty-six years old, but his challenging history is much longer than that. Danton worked his way up since turning twenty-three with our help, and put Lawrence out of his position. I haven't seen the former champion these days, but Danton has been in there since nine years ago, now heading on ten. So he is most certainly a tough costumer."

"I want to know more about where these three came from." Haily sounded just as eager to know, but she failed to see that it was a very long story in the first place.

At this point, Taylor was slightly more awake than Jane was, and explained as much as she could on her behalf while remaining cautious. "We're from the Gulop region. It took us some time to make it all the way from there to Lennith and then to Eldora."

"Well I don't doubt your expertise," Rontellov replied. "And I'm very proud to hear that there are still a few people in the world that are aiming to become a Leray master. Those with that exact dream always tend to be the strongest in battle, and never by pure strength alone."

Danny could already sense the urgency for secrets. Taylor knew that only Jane was native to Sprawn Valley out of the three of them. Plus, Taylor didn't say which exact town or facility they were hailing from in the beginning. It made sense too. If either Haily Hue or Rontellov discover that Jane has a hidden symbol under her hand, bad things would happen to her. With Eliza capable of giving some sort of testimony about the insane blast of moonlight from the sky above Blue Port Town and Jane's injury on the same day, people like Rontellov will grow more suspicious. But one question still remained unanswered about Jane's symbol.

Actually that isn't true, Danny figured. There are a lot more mysteries about the symbol. Danny in particular didn't know exactly how Leray magic works, or if the symbol itself uses the exact same signature of magic in the first place. Nobody has ever gotten to the bottom of who gave her the dangerous spell bomb to begin with, or why such a device existed, and since the symbol is a prototype, there are more possible details that even Jane doesn't know about. Perhaps the biggest clue of all was the design of the symbol. After reading into some of the research while back at Tilsit Port after Jane disappeared, Danny remembered seeing that all crests, marks, and symbols are as visible as constant tattoos, and that hiding them is simply not a possible feat, but Jane's symbol on her hand only appears when it wants to. Her battle suit conceals this crest when activated for the most part, but the actual tattoo somehow turns completely invisible when not in use... There was nothing on disappearing or reappearing symbols in any known database. Danny knew he didn't search for this specific thing at the time, since it was only now that he knew what Jane's crest was all about. If only he had access to a computer...

Taking note of Danny's wide yawn, Rontellov calmed his assistant down and promised to take the rest from here. "I trust you can find the hotel with this detailed map of the area?" Rontellov handed the map to Jane while they were still walking. Jane managed to put the paper into her pocket while pushing the bike, but Rontellov took the bike from her to help. He also got Haily to take the other two bikes as well. "We'll take care of these two-wheelers for you, and they should be ready in the morning. Greene Hotel is just a corner block from the first road intersection," he pointed.

Rontellov already led the team into the first part of the city where the grass and dirt turns into more pavement easier to walk on. From here, everything was well lit by the street and building lights of Eldora. Standing before them were several hundred buildings all spread down in various areas that did in fact look like an advanced version of Gross City. Even with the black sky over them, it was going to be easy to get lost in a place like this.

"I would say I'll see you around," Rontellov offered, "but I have a long shift next morning. I shall be getting my rest too. No need to worry about anything."

Jane nodded and waited for Rontellov to walk the other way from them, into a different path of the city where other hotels and facilities were. "Okay team. Let's go clock ourselves in."

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To be continued...

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