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<02/12/1972 – 08:02 | Eldora Tower Fl. 100, Eldora City, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

The doors opened after a long wait of being lifted about 300 meters above the ground level. Jane didn't feel too disoriented by the major altitude shift, but this section of Eldora Tower was much different already than what she had seen before. The technological advancements in the tower itself were incredible, and she had only seen the elevator system so far. The structural material was easily made out of magic immune metals like most other structures, but she could already sense additional machinery behind the walls of this place. Jane quickly paced herself out of the room before the doors could possibly shut her back inside, and she took her time from there to find where she was.

Jane checked herself again. Her dress sphere wasn't wrinkled or messed up... Her hair was alright... Jane checked both pockets on the side of her skirt with her hands to make sure both of her Rigel Runes were inside. That was still her main choice of physical weaponry, and one of her only hopes to get through the battle. "Battle! Battle! Battle!" Jane coaxed herself over and over to think about fighting. It took her mind off of everything else rather quickly, but the aesthetics of the tower were hard to ignore. Jane had to take a few steps up a small set of metal stairs to get any further. The area she was in now was this massive closed off corridor connecting forward into the most amazing section Jane had seen so far.

The first battle room, the arena pit used for the first level league of elites; this was Jane's first stop and the next battle. The room itself is basically cylindrically shaped, but cornered on several sides to shift the direction of the walls by certain intervals. From a single shape using the entire room itself, it resembled an octagon that had taken a 3-D form spanning upward. The ceiling of the room was so far out of range that it would take about eleven Siriean domes by vertical height to reach there. The floor that kept the same shape as the room around it was sectioned off and away from the wall, except for the only walkway between the back elevator and the room itself where Jane was currently standing. It seemed as if she could run to the edge of the arena and just fall down somewhere, but Jane already recalled something about the designs of certain arena's having protective barrier padding for those who may fall like that. Not that it would be possible; a Siriean dome of maximum size still would not take up the entire floor of the room, that's how big and massive the space is. There is no way in the world a person walking in here with claustrophobia issues would have much of a problem.

Jane was slowed by the elegance of the room itself and the interesting artistic designs on the floor that painted much of the area. The bright white lights appeared to be coming from the translucent walls themselves, rather behind the padding that protected the entire building from Leray damage. By the time Jane got a little closer, the automated speaker system turned on, freaking Jane out in place as the flying cameras approached her. Jane was too surprised at first by how odd the design here was. The cameras were for the most part floating drones, using some kind of special magnetic technology to keep afloat. If not for the use of unknown technology in the cameras, Jane would have assumed this was pure magic in itself. She could feel the deep vibrations penetrating through her skin, the force of the flying drones waving some sort of audible low pitch noise used in the process of keeping them in the air. The lenses were not very big, but the few drones in the room populated some of the airspace in order to get some great viewing angles for the audience, and the speakers in the room are connected to the same system.

"And now for our second battle of the day! Facing off against the unstoppable elite Krysta will be someone young, someone fresh, someone with the tenacity to aim all the way for the top! The challenger this time will be Leray wielder Jane Venn!"

Jane didn't hear an audience around her, so the speakers must only be one-wave. Stepping out and being introduced by the invisible announcer was also a bit unexpected for Jane. The floating cameras all got closer to zoom into her face in order to give all of the viewers a clear description of what Jane Venn really looks like. Using live video feeds that actually have a ten-minute delay back to the crowd, Jane felt somewhat less tense by that fact alone, but nobody said exactly which parts were cut and uncut playback. Jane remained careful not to mess anything up, walking forward towards the center of the field slowly, doing her best to keep her arms from shaking, but her eyes wandered everywhere uncontrollably. Ignoring these flying cameras wasn't going to be possible.

The woman identified earlier as Krysta was standing where Jane was supposed to meet her, her naval-blue hair stood out well enough for Jane to recall immediately. She's the same woman who destroyed her first challenger today on that flat panel on the first floor. As Jane got closer, she passively listened to the voice of the same announcer.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Final Preparations ~ Jeff Broadbent [Planetside 2 OST]

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"You know the rules folks. If Jane Venn manages to defeat the tower's first elite, then she shall move on to the next, generating a battle chain which will be monitored all the way until success or failure prevails. Take your guess at who will be victorious now!"

"I'm pretty sure I've got this wrapped in the bag already," Krysta projected. She was speaking aloud for Jane to hear, despite their incredible distance between each other. Krysta stood tall and proud, examining the nervous looking girl in front of her. She couldn't have even been a real adult yet by the looks of her age. They just let kids in these days? Even so, the dress sphere she chose was rather interesting, white slathered with green lines and designed artwork that somehow reflected the exact same color of her eyes, giving them the glow of a bloom even from this distance. "They're bringing me kids to battle now? This has to be a joke."

Jane could hear Krysta speaking to herself, though her last remark wasn't nearly loud enough for her to make out. As Jane finally managed to walk into the correct position, she stopped just short of the center of the entire stone field and noticed another woman walking towards her from behind Krysta. Jane had no idea who it was, but she wore very fancy dress wear, and walked with elegance towards the right end of the field. Krysta had her own way of introducing herself.

She spoke loudly and clearly for Jane and the audience to hear through the transmitters in all of the floating cameras. "If you don't know who I am, then you might as well start crying back home now. I did warn you that I save the first set of challengers for simple target practice."

Jane clenched her teeth without thinking of any good comeback remarks. Who does Krysta thinks she is anyway? Did people really lose to her that often? It was amazing to see how the perception here changed so quickly. In that elegant black cloak with the matching dress sphere and Krysta's amazing beauty, nobody would know without that mouth of hers how volatile she can be.

Krysta continued while being more serious as to explain some of the rules before the battle. "And if by some lame miracle you do defeat me, don't expect any big credit rewards either. Only the best of the best make it here, and I can already see you are out of place."

She reserves the first set of challengers as target practice? "What did you just call me?"

Quickly sensing Jane's frustration, Krysta continued while ignoring the girl. "The person to your right is my personal referee, Cynthia. Cynthia will determine the victor of the battle. But when I'm through with you, it will be very obvious no matter who sees it."

Cynthia faced Jane and spoke up to point something out. "I will be monitoring the battle from just outside the dome, and will be protected with a smaller, more powerful shield as protocol of protection to what the referee dictates. Jane Venn! If you manage to defeat League Elite Krysta in a singlehanded Leray battle using the grounds you stand on today, you shall receive a battle chain status, granting you permission to move on to the second League Elite in Eldora Tower. Following any victory you may have from that moment on, you shall receive a fifteen-minute break to recharge yourself for the future battle. The rules have already been explained to you, but I shall remind all participants that no dark magic or other funny business is allowed by either contestant. Timeouts can be called by the referee at any time for any reason to determine whether a mistake was made in a battle. Are these rules made clear?"

"Yes ma'am they are." Jane spoke loud, but she wanted to start trash talking Krysta, since that is all Krysta did to her ever since stepping foot into this room. "I enjoy your confidence Krysta, but I'm not here to show off on television. You will surrender this match to me with enough battle time. I'm going to defeat you, and the next person, all the way up to Danton himself!"

"Awh!" Krysta retorted. "How cute! You think you have what it takes to harm me, do ya? I've put down men three times my own size in three spells or less. You're just a hopeful little girl playing around in the big leagues. What makes you think I'm afraid of a pipsqueak like you?"

Gritting her teeth, Jane responded quickly. "Gurrrrr! Why don't we battle so that you can find out for yourself?!" Jane never felt so suddenly angry at someone so fast before. Krysta really had no idea what Jane was capable of. Jane knew she couldn't drop her guard, even if she was being underestimated, but it was about time she got the show on the road. The viewers don't want to see this garbage, and neither does she.

"It seems the challengers are going to start things off with a fiery rivalry. The battle between Jane Venn and Krysta shall begin shortly."

Jane noticed something about the hovering cameras. All of them changed behavior, and were ascending higher up in the air, taking up different aerial angles. In a few more seconds, it soon made sense. A Siriean dome trapping them inside would be drastic for the performance itself. Jane however kept track of everything. She didn't know of Krysta's actual fighting style, but to defeat so many people a day to boost her ego so high meant she was no pushover. All she was waiting on now was for the battle to begin.

Cynthia began the projection of her small shield, despite being out of the effective range for the pending Siriean dome. From there, she began her announcement, proving that her personal aura shield was not sound proof. "This match between Jane Venn and League Elite Krysta is ready to begin. Are both contestants prepared for battle?"

"As always," Krysta responded with joy and vigor.

"You bet! Let's get this show on the road!" Jane kept her hands in her pockets, already prepared to pull out her daggers. The fight would begin as soon as Cynthia says so. Even with the Siriean dome shield down, her word is still final.

As both of them agreed, the Siriean dome formed from the center of the field spawning outward, covering about most of the open space of the hexagonal shaped floor in the room, and as high as more than half the vertical space in the area. It's about three or maybe four times the average size of a Siriean dome between two normal people, and it was done by design to give more factors to the total battle itself. The cameras on the outside of the projected dome field were all watching, equipped with special lenses that rendered the shield invisible to the people in order to enhance the quality of the contestants battling on the screen back on the bottom floor. Jane and Krysta both appeared ready, but Cynthia waited for them both to enable their energy scopes.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/SKcDFHR6/S3-Krysta-N-000.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/T1dbs453/S3-Jane-N-000.png]

The holographic text which normally appears in the middle of the field to announce at the beginning of the battle the reward system - did not show this time. It is assumed only after the battle is over, and it made for a confusing entrance to determine when the fight will actually begin.

"I'm going to have fun with you Jane. Let's see how many hits it takes to get you running back to your mommy crying to everyone."

Jane responded just as impolitely as Krysta was being right now. It surprised her a bit to notice how rude she was allowed to sound on a live network. "And let's see how many times I need to hit you to wipe that cocky smirk off your face."

"Both participants ready!" Cynthia declared. "The battle will now commence!"

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Chapter Theme Shift: Flight to the Cora ~ Morrow Forge [Soundcritters]

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With that - Jane faced Krysta prepared. She was expecting Krysta to deliver the first attack. If she does, Jane could easily use her power shield and deflect it off. Even with everything being recorded live, nobody found it that strange that Jane could master something so intense. As long as that symbol on her hand does not show up, everything will be okay. The white fingerless gloves that Taylor refined covered her hands well, but they used to be darker colored. Hiding an occurrence here may be impossible, and much more difficult should Jane tire herself out by using too much of her energy in her defense. Still, why wasn't Krysta making a move already?

Krysta stood ready with her stance changed to an actual fighting style not known to anybody but herself. As cocky as she was, she was still just as prepared to take everything seriously. She watched as Jane had finally shown her hands. If she had a hidden weapon on her, she wasn't using it right now. Jane's tactics seemed less obvious than what Krysta originally thought. Normally, challengers just rush in with a blade or a mace and start swinging like an idiot. Instead, Jane was waiting on her to make the first move. Patience was prevailing, but seeing as a live audience was watching the scene, it would have been rude to make the others wait, and if Jane is as short tempered as she thinks... "Why so stiff Jane? Afraid I'll destroy any skill you try? I'd be more worried about how fast your reputation will die when I'm through with you."

"All talk and no show?" Jane teased back. "If you won't go first, then I will." Jane dignified her next action with her words. Krysta was allowing Jane to go first for a reason similar to her own, but if Jane starts being herself on the first go, she will have already lost one good advantage she already has. The solution was quite simple. Jane put her right arm in front of her, expending only little MP energy to create a fiery red glyphring around her arm just behind the wrist line. The glyphring was vibrant and full of its colorful glow, ready to impulse on Jane's own command. "Fire Bolt!" Jane launched her magical spell the moment she chanted the name. Following which, the fiery ball of elemental magic shot forward and homed in on where Krysta was standing, but at this large distance between Krysta and Jane, it would have been easy to avoid a direct hit.

Krysta was much less surprised by the fact that Jane predictably chants the names of her spells. It's not a requirement to do so, but even Krysta does the same thing from time to time. It can help focus the mind on that same ability by verbal memory association and flashback recognition, but of all the abilities to be thrown at her, Fire bolt was probably the weakest form of magic she had seen all month. Still, it didn't mean that damage wasn't imminent. Krysta reacted quickly to the oncoming Fire Bolt. A simple swerve in either direction would not be good enough for a projectile that tracks her movements and homes in on her personal aura. Krysta got more creative in her new stance, jumping slightly to the left, and then bouncing even higher the next time with a total spin to her body. In just less than a second before impact, Krysta managed to begin performing a sideways cartwheel with her hands and feet rotating her around, as the maneuver allowed her to easily avoid any contact with the Fire Bolt attack. After standing on her legs again, the Fire Bolt that rushed by her simply continued on until crashing into the dome shield surrounding them. Krysta didn't react to the rest, as she knew that the narrator was about to do that for them.

"It seems that Jane's first attack is a long-range Fire Bolt, but it was more than underwhelming for our elite warrior."

"You got that right," Krysta applied aloud. She raised her volume level so that it would reach Jane from afar, taking steps forward very slowly. "A Fire Bolt? Is this some kind of a joke to you? I think it's time I show you what a true Leray fighter does to battle. Raaagh!" Krysta rushed in towards Jane at top speed, automatically expending some of her magic in the same moment. While invoking two different spells at the same time, Krysta didn't announce or chant the name for either one of them since it was too easy for her to accomplish at present.

Jane saw Krysta rushing towards her, and at the same time, a massive thick hammer was materializing quickly just above and in front of where Jane was standing. She had seen this particular ability before. Even though no name for it was chanted on purpose, this spell is Magical Hammer, which forms a giant hammer of magic in the air just above the opponent, slamming the ground where they stand to deal a heavy amount of magical blunt damage. Jane wasn't slow or under her game; seeing this thing materialize above her and recognizing the spell from before gave her just enough time to react. Jane jumped backwards with a twist in her stomach, raising her legs all the way up until she had entered a full backflip. An ear-piercing smash crushed cracks into the ground where Jane previously stood just as she landed on her feet again from the quickly performed backflip. Jane narrowly avoided the hit and regained her previous level of caution.

However, the hammer in front of her was so big and massive that it allowed Jane to lose sight of Krysta. In just a moment, the hammer faded from existence, and Krysta was already too close to Jane, flying in midair towards her with her right foot all the way out flashing with a glowing white aura.

A solid smash sound against Jane's jaw deadlocked Krysta's airborne acceleration, as she landed shortly after, only to back away with a few jumps facing Jane. In just the short moment, Krysta performed another classic misdirection tactic against the opponent, distracting Jane with the Magical Hammer and leaving her open for Flash Kick. Jane was on her back, covering her bruised face while trying to ponder what just happened. Krysta had to think about the process too though. She really expected to Flash Kick Jane after she had been hit with the hammer, not after she so easily managed to dodge the thing just a moment before impact. Jane's speed is higher than average, and that spoke volumes about her tactics, but her physical endurance was also something else. Even though a single Flash Kick doesn't contain that much power, nobody can handle it very well. According to the stats on her energy scope, Jane was used to some form of severe punishment. Most of her previous opponents suffered loss in health much worse from attacks like Flash Kick.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/J7sHsZ3g/S3-Jane-N-042.png]

Jane covered her entire face momentarily, which from Krysta's Flash Kick was now in searing pain, but it hurt no more than slamming her face into a wall running at full speed. The pain lasted while subsiding quickly by intensity, and Jane got herself back up before anything worse could happen. Krysta wasn't all that predictable; otherwise that trick wouldn't have worked on her. Jane didn't see a Flash Kick attack coming so soon after evading Magical Hammer. They don't call her elite warrior for nothing. Krysta is more powerful than she looks, and in elite battles, the situation is hardly the same as exchanging magical skills based on what contestants know. It's all about strategy and tactics. Jane needed every ounce of her knowledge and intelligence available in real time just to obtain some leverage against this person.

"Krysta has delivered her first attack, which Jane almost managed to evade in time. But it seems that both challengers have a lot more juice in them. We may see some actual prolonged fighting and exchange of new spells for this round."

The announcer's constant chatter was getting annoying fast, but Jane chose to ignore it and think of a better strategy. First of all, where is Krysta's weapon? Jane let out a gasp after realizing suddenly that Krysta does have a specific specialization. She has no official weapon. That's her secret! Krysta moves like the wind, uses tricks and deceptions just to score in hits. She probably maneuvers at close range just about as well as long range. Krysta's specialty is her high agility and quick invocations of multiple types of spells, and she isn't just going to sit there and wait turns in between exchanging those abilities. Jane knew that she herself was faster at close range. Her physical fighting tactics were not that poor either after so much training with her small blades. Jane took out both of her daggers, allowing Krysta to see which way she preferred to battle.

"A pair of knives?" Krysta giggled in her sentence. "That's your plan B? You would dare test a physical assault on myself?"

"Would you like to see it for yourself, or just stand there and bore us some more?"

Following Jane's challenge, Krysta lifted her arms up, and began running at Jane once more. This time, it was just a method of physical attacking she planned to deal to Jane.

On the other hand, Jane responded to this by holding her blades tightly and running closer to the center of the field too. Jane at least expected this battle to quickly transform into nothing more than a close combat exchange of maneuvers and physical attacks with too much speed to track from the outside, but she only focused on herself and her opponent. Just as she and Krysta were in range of each other to begin harming one another, Jane shifted her shoes to slow herself down a little, as Krysta continued rushing in at top speed.

Just as Krysta prepared to deliver a hard hit to Jane's face using her left arm tensed up for more force, the girl who stood right in front of her managed to duck her head down in the nick of time, raising it back up to lift one of her dagger blades into Krysta's chest during the pass. The sudden gash was painful and defiantly inflicted some harm, but Krysta got over the pain quickly and tried to throw Jane off balance again. With a sweeping kick to Jane's right knee, Krysta tried to disrupt Jane's balance just before winding her other leg to kick Jane's thighs and punch her in the face again.

Jane took all of Krysta's sudden and intense hits to her body, who was fighting only using her bare hands and feet. But Jane knew that with this short range to her own opponent, timing was everything, and so were her reactions to taking damage. She shook off all of the instantaneous pains in her mind and delivered an attack right as Krysta was trying to give Jane something to run from. Jane pushed Krysta away with both of her hands, giving her just enough time to form an ice glyphring around her right hand and shoot two Ice Balls towards Krysta. The transition from one to the other was so fast that it would have been unavoidable even if Krysta was expecting that kind of fighting style. Jane didn't stop there either. Before allowing Krysta to recover her balance from the impact of magical Ice Balls, she leaped closer and began punching Krysta in various areas.

The face, the stomach, the chest... Krysta was being beaten up over the course of a single second, taking the sudden painful gash to her stomach after Jane brought her down by her hair and kneed her straight in the face. Krysta was taken by the surprise of such speed and skill, but she didn't just let it continue to happen to her either. After it seemed that Jane's close combat attacks became less consistent, Krysta stood up taller again despite the new gash on her face, grasping on to Jane's arms just as Jane tried to slash her with the daggers. With Jane in hold, Krysta slammed Jane's face against her own two hands and shoved her forwards - away from Krysta. The pain delivered to Krysta was brutal and lasting, but Jane wasn't much of a heavy mover herself.

Jane however managed to quickly spin around halfway to face her opponent again instead of being shoved into the stone floor, nearly unfazed by the impact. This kind of fighting then continued on for a full minute of time. To the audience and even the referee, it was nearly impossible to track each of their movements. They both exchanged physical attacks with such quick responses and counterattacks. One would trick the other and get the upper hand only to lose it two attacks later. Jane and Krysta had suddenly turned into a physical fighting machine. Jane likely did a little extra damage whenever she managed to get her dagger slices into Krysta's skin, even managing to cut up her back twice in the process. Just whenever it seemed that one of the two were going to finish an amazing combination, the other made some kind of quick and unexpected maneuver to interrupt that combo and change the tide again and again. From an outside perspective, telling who was winning what just wasn't possible. Despite this, it was too interesting to look away from.

After a long fought minute, Jane managed to shove Krysta further back and off balance, as she then proceeded to rush in with her dagger blades charged with Leray energy. Krysta knew she had no effective way to block or evade such a quick attack by someone just as fast as she was, but there was a way to end this stupid charade and obtain the advantage of distance again. Krysta infused energy into her hands as quickly as possible, hoping Jane's incredible speed rushing towards her would not be fast enough. Just as Jane's daggers were about to dig into her chest yet again, Krysta invoked her special skill and even chanted the name of her magic to ensure its quick success. "Push Wave!" The sudden force of invisible energy was quick and severe, shoving Jane backwards an entire foot into the air. Krysta, who isn't supposed to be affected by her own Push Wave also got shoved back because of how incredibly close Jane was and because of how overpowered she charged her simple Push Wave spell to become. Krysta slid back on her feet, skidding against the stone floor with scrapes and squeals while Jane landed on her side, rolling on purpose to speed up her own recovery. After that, Krysta and Jane were both not taking additional damage anymore, and the technique actually worked to end the long combat chain.

Jane got herself back up quickly, realizing how effective Krysta's simple spell managed to put a short end to whatever that fighting style was. Would anybody be able to keep up at this point? Did the cameras have enough power to rerun that in slow motion? One thing was for sure; Jane and Krysta had obtained a bit of distance from how far they both slid or flew from each other by that Push Wave, and in the same process, both of them took some damage due to the exchange of physical attacks. Jane was curious who did more damage to whom, but the results on each energy scope would not reflect an easy answer, since Jane was hit first by an earlier Flash Kick attack, reducing her HP from before. She and Krysta both used some time to take a short breather and discover how well they were doing for themselves. After all of those movements, both of them needed a second to breathe.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/B6sNqNPd/S3-Krysta-N-001.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/J7SDZ0Ph/S3-Jane-N-043.png]

It was clear that both sides were somewhat even. Jane could clearly deal more damage on short moment's notice, but Krysta was just as effective at dodging certain attacks too. With some of the odds appearing to be even based on skill alone, Krysta had to immediately evaluate Jane all over again. She wasn't nearly as inexperienced as she seemed at the core. Was her Fire Bolt just a tease attack, something Jane cooked up in order to trick Krysta into revealing her tactics before Jane could? Or was her specialty something other than deception? "You're fast," Krysta commended. "I guess we'll have to see which one of us is more powerful."

Jane didn't care for judgments right now. She was constantly thinking about which spell or skill she should try next, but nothing in particular came to mind. It was still going to be easier with the advantage of speed and initiative on her side though. Krysta can talk all she wants, but a battle isn't about talking. Still, Jane delivered a one-liner as she had invoked a special skill in front of her, without chanting the name of that spell. "It's pointless to fight me. I'm not losing a single battle in this tower!" After the Frost Blade finished summoning itself into Jane's hands, materialized by the short-lived yellow glyphring, she was thus holding onto a very long and interestingly designed sword made entirely out of ice. The spell was designed to summon a sword into the user's hands while adding heavy ice elemental magical damaging properties into the blade, making the person's slashes much colder than average should the blade strike on contact. Jane gripped the hilt tightly and charged towards Krysta like before. Her teeth clenched with her own determination and faith in her combat effectiveness, assuming Krysta was going to stand there and take this.

Krysta saw the attempt to hit her with Jane's Frost Blade on approach, but found the movement quite predictable from many different opponents she had faced before. Rushing in like this just isn't a good strategy, and she quickly assumed that Jane was possibly losing whatever edge she had before. Krysta stood still, waiting until Jane was danger close just before dodging the heavy slash sideways from Jane. Krysta ducked down once, and back-flipped away before Jane could possibly score in another attempt to slam Krysta with her sword.

As Krysta landed, she stopped Jane's assault just with the realization that it was stupid to openly rush in. Jane simply tossed the long blade onto the ground with a loud clash to discard the material. The blade faded from existence shortly after, as Krysta now had an open chance to attack her. They had to still be standing only three meters apart from each other, but she risked the long duration of invocation, betting on Jane's fear of the unknown. The Leray energy building up in Krysta's hands quickly became visible, but the aura color was very dark and cloudy like, making it hard to see from a distance. The look in Jane's eyes, it's as if she could see a large spell coming, but she's too afraid to do anything. Just as her spell charged energy completely, Krysta invoked the magic while chanting the name of her rare power and unleashing it out into the field through the use of a large glyphring in front of her, the same shadowy color as the buildup of magic on her hands.

"Pulsar!" Krysta hollered the spell into the air while releasing the magic. The spell itself forced her MP levels to take such a massive dive downward in remaining capacity, while the dozens of small little photons came firing rapidly from the glyphring. Forming spheres shaped like comets though as dark as transparent black shadows of magical auras and concentration fields, several photons that were nearly impossible to see came rushing from the glyphring towards where Jane was standing. Jane at least saw that some unknown attack was coming her way, but her time to react was much too little for her to begin charging up enough energy into her hands to try a Leray power shield like before. In her eyes, she saw the dark photons just in front of her only when it was much too late to do anything about it. Suddenly, Jane was being bolted by several photons of energy at once with a high power level, burning her skin while the force of each hit alone was enough to shove her further back against the stance of her feet planted into the stone floor. The last five photons hit Jane from the side with so much force that all combined hitting her though separately in the timing forced Jane to lose her balance and fall while spinning backwards on her side. She hit the floor despite stopping her fall with her arms and knees, but remained there as the pain of the powerful attack stained her very essence and concentration. Jane immediately felt much weaker than before, realizing that the magical attack had a lot of power to it. Her only advantage by stats had been taken away, even though Krysta was left with much less MP than before.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/MKRcDwFm/S3-Jane-N-044.png]

Krysta noticed how much damage Jane suddenly took, and how surprised she was to try and evade the impact. Using Pulsar a second time would drain too much of her energy, but from the looks of how long it took Jane to try and get back up with the exhaustion already in her eyes, the spell was obviously a great choice. Jane might be fast and strong, but it was not going to be enough. It wasn't surprising at all for Pulsar to deal this much damage to anybody. In fact, Krysta was slightly bewildered that Jane didn't collapse right there on the spot. With a power level of nine, Pulsar is a strong spell that consumes almost half a person's entire MP supply in order to create a barrage of photons each dealing non-elemental magical damage on a high scale. The photons also lock onto the opponent's aura, making it impossible to dodge all of them, with the added perk that the spell ordinance is mostly invisible and transparent. The glyphring and photons are both very difficult to see in light or in dark, thus giving an illusion of where each photon is placed during the actual dispersion. It has been some time since Krysta decided to show off such a rare ability that she learned long ago, but Jane was proving to be much more enduring of herself than previously. Yet, even as she struggled to stand back up, her body language emitted so much unspoken confidence that it was easy to feel from here. Given all of that incredible pain from one of her most powerful spells, Jane Venn isn't going to at least rest? Simply amazing!

"It appears that Krysta's amazing spells have given her a momentary advantage against the opponent. But Jane is still hanging in there with enough energy to continue the battle. This scene is turning into quite the spectacle!"

After getting back to her hands and knees, Jane took her surroundings again, realizing that Krysta was just standing by. "Spirit Arrow!" Wasting no time at all, Jane stood up and fused magic again into her summoning glyphring to give herself the bow of magic with a single arrow infused with spirit elemental magic. Jane aimed and fired her arrow quickly and brilliantly, but even though the distance between them was not that intense, Krysta managed to simply slide out of the way of the sharp projectile in time, immediately putting Jane's spell to no use. It would have changed the tides quickly if Krysta was inflicted with the arrow, making her disoriented and confused by the effects of spirit damage on a human combatant. But Jane's attack missed again, and this meant Krysta's next move was going to be with short notice.

Krysta wondered whether Jane was still joking around with weaker spells, or if she was simply out of ideas at the moment, but it was amazing even for her to see how long Jane has lasted up until this point. Jane was only her second opponent of the day out of approximately seventy more people. For that reason, Jane's estimated skill level was supposed to be laughable. Instead of giving Krysta an easy time with target practice on camera, she was turning out to be a nuisance, something that really made her work to inflict enough damage on Jane at all. Somebody somewhere underestimated Jane's talents, though it wasn't anything Krysta had not seen before even from some of the best she has ever faced. Now, it was time to put an end to it all. "Rush Wave!" Krysta immediately got her spell to invoke, sending all of the magic on the ground in front of her until it turned into a form of magical damage very similar to that of Shadow Wave. Rush Wave is a modified version of Shadow wave, designed to carry with itself elemental damage on top of possessing a higher power level for its natural magical slashing damage in comparison to Shadow Wave. It immediately explained why the Shadow Wave aura was very bright and glowing with illuminative essence as it rushed in towards Jane's position while remaining locked into the ground.

Rush Wave did have a particular difference from that of Shadow Wave; the movement speed on the field was slower. The difference was almost insignificant, but it gave Jane more than enough time to react to the new threat heading her way. There wasn't enough time to try and speculate whether Krysta's Rush Wave contained too much power for Jane to adequately block it out with her own magical tactics. Jane had to trust in herself and her own accumulative training so far. She charged the Leray energy into her hands like before, and quickly projected that energy all around herself in the form of a protective aura. The same power shield that protected her before was still applicable in this situation. Jane built the force field around herself just a short moment before the bright version of Rush Wave was to slam and collide into the shielding aura.

Krysta watched the bright intensity of her Rush Wave spell seep over and around where Jane was standing before, and since the moving spell had dramatically dropped in speed so suddenly, it meant that Jane failed to dodge it at all. But as the Rush Wave ended its run by exploding outward in harmless dust fields, she noticed a sight that took her entire stance and froze her. Jane was completely unharmed, at least that is what this looked like. A blue transparent shield surrounded Jane, much like the same kind of shield that protected Cynthia, the referee. The shield dome around Jane wasn't even a dome by shape, rather it formed around Jane's body and used that as its shape and form. The aura was incredibly powerful by defensive capabilities, because based on Jane's energy scope alone, her HP stats didn't even budge at all. It looked and acted as a power shield, but even powerful spells such as that can only block out about half the damage from a powerful spell. For the first time in several years of her training, Krysta witnessed something she has never seen before!

Back in the lower levels of the building in Eldora Tower where the large crowd had already gathered and planted themselves in, Danny and Taylor were among them, watching on the massive display screen just in front of them recording the entire battle between Jane and Krysta. At long last, Jane protected herself using a power shield, her own signature move. From the sudden spurring glares from around the room, it was evident that this happening mid-battle was not really expected. Being as it was Jane's trademark special defensive ability, it was defiantly proof that she was trying her hardest.

"That's showing them Jane!" Taylor didn't care how much she stood out or how much the strangers around her would connect herself as a fan to Jane. The confusion around everyone was more or less just surprise that a person of Jane's own skill level would possess such an amazing defense against one of Krysta's high-level spells. Even the host announcer had a similar impression of what the power shield really was, and nobody else was actually aware that Jane's ultra-high ME levels made her power shield as potent as it is today with a strong molecular conservation of energy.

Jane dropped her shield intentionally after the hostile attack ended, suddenly noticing that Krysta just stood there, looking a little stuck.

"What's this? It appears that the challenger has deflected a powerful attack using a version of power shield! If that doesn't yell style and guts, I don't know what does."

Yeah, yeah, Jane bothered. Using a power shield would be all fine, but the fact that she now had to use one at all proved how difficult of a fighter Krysta really was. It didn't matter that Jane knew she could win if the odds against her were stacked so high. The battle really is as intense as it gets here. If Jane keeps relying on her shield too much, somebody will eventually figure out how to overcome such a shield, much like the way Rontellov did in her last gradyent battle. Or worse, her own MP energy will be down in supply from shielding so much. There were still only so many spells that Jane could rely on at this point before losing the only edge she has. Otherwise, her symbol will come out when she doesn't want it to. Would it really be possible to hide it here?

"So you've gone from dodging attacks to shielding against them huh?" Krysta didn't sound as surprised, but she didn't know what to say about it either. Jane's shield impressively reflected all of the damage done to her aura, which shouldn't have been possible, but perhaps that doesn't mean the battle is over. She'll slip up one way or another.

Feeling a turn ahead of herself, Jane went with her next spell, which she knew wasn't anything that extraordinary. It wasn't a new spell either, but it should buy her more time to think about what to do next. Jane didn't count on coming here without much of a plan. Fighting Krysta using some of her newly learned abilities wouldn't be a bad thing, but most of these abilities takes up so much MP energy, something Jane forgot to consider while learning them earlier. Instead, she lifted both of her hands up in the air, already glowing with a hint of a yellow aura of magic around them from buildup. "Volley!" Jane's invocation immediately began summoning arrow after arrow from the high air just behind where Jane was standing.

Krysta noticed the barrage of sharp arrows coming her way from above quickly, a weak area attack designed to deal heavy piercing damage over anything else. Still, if Jane can use something like that at all, she is no rookie. Despite having little physical defense against these things, Krysta already had a better idea in mind. She reacted quickly to the arrows coming down at her from an arched angle. Krysta lifted her left hand as if to aim at the entire volley of falling arrows. With her hand glowing a white color, Krysta's released magic already managed to manipulate the auras around some of the other arrows prone to strike the ground where she stood first. After taking control of such arrows, Krysta intensified the white-hot aura around the selected arrows, and waited for them to stick into the ground just in front of where she stood.

In the same instance, Krysta leaped quickly onto the bright arrow that she somehow modified. Jumping on top of a small, sharp, fragile arrow would normally not have been possible, but Krysta's magic created an invisible force field around the one she stepped on, which she then used as lift to jump really high into the air. Krysta's jump was also naturally impossible, supported by the same auric magic she infused with one of Jane's arrows. The magic allowed Krysta to easily leap up fifty feet into the air very quickly, using her newfound altitude to automatically dodge all of the other unmodified arrows from Volley while giving herself a new angle of attack to use against Jane.

Perhaps Jane could see what Krysta was up to that fast, because Krysta noticed that Jane was already ducking down a little in response to watching Krysta fly that high above her opponent's head. With no delay, Krysta executed her plan from here, making her magical attack more powerful being used from a height like this. In position, Krysta managed to charge up a lot of her energy really fast, too fast in comparison to how most people could perform this neat trick. "Photon Blast!" The magical build up and release of the spell was nearly instant, which is typically impossible for a full area attack spell such as Photon Blast. From mid-air, Krysta bombarded Jane with hundreds of thick and powerful magical photons capable of high damage per hit she took. The blinding light from all of them combined and hitting Jane at the same time made it impossible again to see the immediate effect on her, but when the light had gone, Krysta was stumped again.

Barely able to keep the shield alive from how powerful the last spell was, Jane degraded her shielding aura she used just before being hit with Photon Blast in order to protect herself. Now that Krysta was about to start free falling to the ground with no way to mentally cope with how strong Jane's shield was, it gave her enough time for a rather interesting counterattack. Using only a tiny fraction of her magic, Jane invoked a support spell that would do a number on Krysta, just as soon as she lands. "Gyrobreak!" Jane's invocation already began to tilt and shake the ground, proving how long she came in her training to be so fast at invoking all of her own spells. After learning everything from her teachers, her friends, and herself, using Leray magic so easily and quickly was second nature for Jane.

Just as the ground began to shift while Gyrobreak took effect, Krysta had a hard time keeping her balance just as she barely managed to land upright on the quaking ground, but Jane's attention was taken away towards the ceiling of the room, which also began to shift in response to the violent seismic activity inside of the tower. The way things were shifting up there made Jane gulp her spit and hope she did not doom everyone in the tower to an uncertain certain tragedy. There were several horizontal support beams up there, all taking damage from Jane's Gyrobreak, despite this happening outside of the dome shield. A large cloud of dust particles floated down from below too.

The problem had worried Krysta as well, since she was focusing on her wonders about the structural integrity of the tower. Making the entire ground shift mid-battle isn't a bad strategy, but most people don't normally do that. Inside the confines of a dome shield, even Gyrobreak shouldn't have the power to affect the area outside of the zone, but this is apparently an exception. Earth Glave is hardly powerful enough to effect the tower like Gyrobreak is, and since Jane just used it 100 floors above ground level, this entire structure could potentially collapse with everyone inside, which would turn into a national disaster. Before she could express her concern, Krysta tripped over a very sudden shift in the ground, falling face first into the stone floor and taking some unexpected damage from the fall, but it did not concern her moreover what had previously been on her mind. It should be fine for now, but perhaps Gyrobreak should be prohibited until the tower is made immune to that spell. Even by theory, it wasn't powerful enough to break down the tower, but seeing Jane's spells bypass an entire dome shield by seismic activity was also something out of the ordinary. "Want to battle normally, or take us all out while we're in this tower?"

"Sorry!" How could Jane have known that Gyrobreak would have done that? They should have prohibited that specific power if it was going to be a problem!

Cynthia announced something while invoking some magic of her own from the distance. Magical build up appeared in her hands, but the spell was practically invisible. "I've enabled a dampening field on Jane's Gyrobreak spell to reduce the power. The fight may continue as is."

Jane didn't know referees could do that, and it worked fast too. The ground shook and tilted as before, but it was less than half the intensity a few seconds ago. Was her Gyrobreak spell really that powerful? Jane glanced at the top of her right hand, making sure there was no alien light there. Nope. No symbols to ruin any of the fun, so what allowed her spell to be so powerful? She only invoked it maybe twelve times total.

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"I guess I'll have a turn. Homing Flare!" Krysta created a very large fiery red glyphring, which quickly formed with new designs and symbols on its ring just before firing six total Fire Bolts separately at Jane. Homing Flare is almost like Fire Blast, which means it shoots out about double the amount of Fire Bolts as Triple Fire does, but Homing Flare is special. The homing properties in each Fire Bolt becomes enhanced with that exact spell, making any attempt to dodge completely impossible. Krysta's Fire Bolts rushed by just in front of her by how close her glyphring was that she could feel the heat from each flare just as it got away from her, the wind draft putting a rush through her hair.

Jane saw these coming as well, and once again shifted her arms out in front of her with a cross full of MP energy to invoke another powerful shielding aura. "Power Shield!" Jane chanted it this time hoping she would enable her aura before being hit. Just as the aura built itself around Jane in an instant, the Fire Bolts slammed into the shielding aura only to be absorbed, but their explosive mark and high damage left a lot of small hexagons in the places of where they hit on Jane's personal shield. After all six had hit Jane, she didn't feel all that tired from the total attack itself. If she could just continue shielding against these attacks, Jane could last a long time in this fight.

Krysta gritted her teeth in frustration. How many times can Jane really afford to use her power shield like that? How is it not taxing on her MP energy? Was this her secret strategy all along? There has to be a way to overcome this issue.

Just after Jane dropped her shield, she invoked more magic in the form of an attack aura around herself, already willing to go with an all-out spell. The ground was still shifting like crazy with the effects of Gyrobreak still in effect though dampened. Krysta had a hard time keeping her balance as it was. With Jane rushing in for another close combat encounter, how could Krysta possibly keep up with her agility with her balance already disrupted by the Gyrobreak spell from earlier? Jane was used to Gyrobreak already, capable of keeping her balance with its effects mapped into her mind. Jane went with the logic, and invoked the same white aura around her body just before sprinting full faced towards her opponent. "Rush Assault!"

As Jane came rushing down the field in her enhanced aura boosting her speed, physical attack power, and concentration level, Krysta really had nothing she could do but defend herself in a similar way. She couldn't think of a good spell in time for this. She could try Push Wave again, but even that may not be enough to stop this. Whatever! Krysta sucked up any doubt in her mind and changed her stance to try and fight Jane like before. Only this time, it didn't go down in her favor.

Jane was already on top of Krysta, kicking her in the face, punching her in the chest after spinning to the side slightly, and performing many more amazing maneuvers on top of those physical hits. Jane was naturally sped up by her Rush Assault aura. Every physical punch or kick she delivered would deal a lot more damage than normal due to the magical properties of her enhanced attacks. Krysta tried to actually dodge these or block what Jane was doing, but her own agility was affected still by Gyrobreak, and thus Jane had an advantage every single time. Even her daggers were infused with similar magic, allowing Jane to get in several slashes with her small blades as they dealt magical damage on top of slashing damage. She hit Krysta in so many places while dodging in between attacks that Jane didn't even take a single hit to her body in the process. Jane remained unharmed, and backed away from Krysta just as her aura began to recede from the end line of the spell. In that moment, Jane tracked the changes on Krysta's energy scope.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/FRZp1cj1/S3-Krysta-N-002.png]

Considering that it did over 20% damage to Krysta in just one attack run, Jane felt that her efforts were well worth the try. Just as she gained some distance again from her opponent, the Gyrobreak spell began to recede completely too. Jane knew she wasn't doing as well when comparing the stats, but she was just as determined to win as always. No way will this witch beat her and take away her only chance to do the right thing.

Krysta was breathing much faster than before, already getting in a workout from this battle. She hadn't had this much trouble from a single challenger in several months, and the last time she did, it was over long before this amount of time, after a man exploited a simple weakness, which she reinforced by now, but Jane wasn't targeting any weaknesses of hers. She was simply kicking Krysta's butt harder than any challenger has ever done so before. It was nearly as bad as fighting sir Danton himself.

Krysta snapped out of a momentary trance. She can't let this end here. Jane can't survive this forever either, and without the ability to invoke that power shield, there was no way Jane could defend herself from certain attacks. Already charging up energy into her hand, Krysta waited for the right moment to make it work. She chanted the name of the spell only in her mind for now, and released the energy on Jane before she could realize what was going on.

Just as Jane heard Krysta holler the name of her spell, "Thunder!" she was immediately zapped with electrical energy coming from above herself. It happened so fast that Jane had no time at all to prepare or release a shield, and her entire body was being electrocuted in that moment for two full seconds of searing pain, the kind that left a burning sensation afterwards. When it was over, Jane felt quite weaker than before, her entire body tingling with a loss of her previous stamina and the painful sensations of something she hated more than any other kind of attack. Still, Thunder takes a minute to invoke, so Krysta had to have tricked her by chanting the name of it during invocation instead of before. An old-fashioned cleaver trick, but it wasn't going to be enough. To Jane's own surprise though, her health stats declined dramatically from that last spell alone.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/Vk8JZTyQ/S3-Jane-N-045.png]

Jane growled with how difficult this was becoming. There has to be another way to wrap this up more quickly. Screw waiting on the new spells! Might as well use them now instead of never. Jane thought first about something she loved about her training yesterday. She managed to touch up and completely refine some of her older spells by accident, and with a new trick discovered, there was no possible way Krysta was dodging this attack. "Dark Strike!" Jane pulled out both of her daggers and began rushing in towards Krysta, who put her fists up in response to being ready for whatever Jane was about to try. Normally, this is the moment in which Jane simply stands still to teleport behind her opponent and strike her from behind with a dagger infused with extra magic, but there was a different way to do this that was quite a spectacle even for herself.

Krysta seemed ready for anything, but just as Jane got closer to her by running, she suddenly leaped into the air a bit early to be able to land near where Krysta was standing. Then, just as Jane went traveling forward by the momentum of her jump supported by the speed of her sprint, all of Jane vanished into an invisible mist. After that, nothing happened next for a good second or two.

Wait a second! Where was Jane? Why didn't Krysta feel anything? Jane went invisible, right? If so, wouldn't she just straight up attack Krysta in the middle of the technique?

From the referee's point of view, Krysta was suddenly being struck over and over with a warped space of pure light with a red aura, a light that was stretched all the way to both edges of the Siriean dome. The light itself seemed to connect Krysta somewhere in between each point like a narrow beam, somehow causing an insane amount of damage to Krysta each time, for a total of three hits. It was an amazing sight, and too quick to track the evanescent light show, so this didn't actually make any sense to Cynthia whatsoever.

From Jane's point of view, it was like flying at the speed of sound all around the Siriean dome. She knew exactly what was going on despite being unable to explain the scientific details even to herself. Basically, she modified her teleportation with a fraction of her natural ability to distort time using Zero Zone, and a fraction to affect her displacement each time with the natural ability to manipulate data without even touching or interacting with such data respectively, similar to her newfound telekinetic powers that she picked up from part of Claudia's list. This was just the tip of the knowledge she had used in her single refined version of Dark Strike.

Using both of her dagger blades while infused with damaging magical auras, Jane managed to leap through space and time itself using additional magic, warping the space in which she is positioned while teleporting herself to different areas within the dome field and accelerating her speed through air tenfold. Jane basically became a speeding bullet herself, using her daggers extended in front of her to become the point of impact. For the first teleportation, Jane ended up at one side of the dome shield, flying at Krysta with tunnel vision as if she were a solid line of light. It happened so fast for everyone else, but to her perspective from using the time distortion magic, it happened slower for Jane so that she could aim, calculate, and understand what was happening in the flash itself. Jane literally flew without gliding - downward towards Krysta's left side, slashing her with both daggers just as Jane passed over her shoulders and behind her head. Just before Jane was going to impact the other end of the Siriean dome, she teleported again for a second time.

Jane ended up under the same circumstances, only this time she came from Krysta's front side. There was no way Krysta would see Jane coming from her entire spatial density being warped as it was. As Jane was again flying towards Krysta, she was still recovering from the force and pain of that hard hit to her back and shoulders in real time as Jane once again approached Krysta in the form of a flying line of light. Jane held her daggers out again in preparation to slam them into Krysta's chest, her blades glowing with a red aura trailing all the way behind her from the additional magical damage with it. Jane didn't miss her mark the second time around, and the force alone knocked Krysta so far back that she came very close to tripping on the pushed muscles of her legs. Jane still kept her daggers in hand, about to smash into the Siriean dome again. Before it happened, she teleported herself for the third time.

Jane continued the same process from another side angle towards Krysta, who was left completely vulnerable to this kind of attack. Jane loved every second of her newest strategy, though it was very difficult to master it last night. After all, her version of Dark Strike was never an official skill before and after its modification. Nobody would be able to copy her anyway, since it would practically be invisible even for the processor of the cameras to capture. They could spot Jane's movements only as well as the naked eye, seeing Jane flying through the air as a momentary flash of red trailing light in the form of a solid line, fading and reappearing multiple times.

On Jane's fourth and final attempt to teleport herself away from danger, she ended up warping her spatial field and density back to the way it was originally, while phasing the flow of time back to normal again. This time, she ended up reappearing about fifteen meters high in the air just above where Krysta was standing. Jane was already in free fall, keeping the speed she had on her before, but her daggers were out and ready in her hands, hot with the red glow of auric energy she fused into them multiple times over the entire duration of her attack sequence. Krysta was much too slow and taken off guard to see it coming, but Jane basically crash-landed straight in front of Krysta, holding her daggers all out and aiming for her shoulders on each side as Jane's final signature strike. The landing hurt Jane's feet and legs from the momentum of her landing on the ground at such a speed and height, but at the same time, that same momentum was also channeled into both daggers as they managed to draw all the way into Krysta's skin. Against what normally happens in a Leray battle, the force of impact and magical damage total was actually enough to break through Krysta's skin, drawing a small amount of blood while Jane's daggers stuck there momentarily, soon to fade away into phase and reappear into her hands as soon as she was ready for them to. Just after finishing her amazing attack however, Jane had to get some distance from Krysta in case she could try anything at this breath sharing range, not that Krysta would be in a position to try it.

"Naaahh!" Krysta's pain became very real too fast, as she let out a cry of hurt that sent her to her knees. Her hands shifted around her chests and the top of her arms. She didn't even know where the attack hurt her the most, but her skin was all cut up underneath her own dress sphere. The daggers that disappeared from her shoulders revealed more closely the hint of her own blood seeping through two open wounds, which is supposedly not possible under standard Leray conditions. The only way it could have been possible is if Jane's Dark Strike used actual dark magic. On the contrary, Dark Strike is still a known auto-modifying attack spell that is just a Leray spell no matter what one does to it. Krysta had absolutely no idea what just happened. Jane disappeared, reappeared several feet above her with much more speed than she had before, and somehow slashed in multiple places with just two hits in others. It made no sense to Krysta since her senses couldn't keep up with what was happening.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/MHpDBTD5/S3-Krysta-N-003.png]

Cynthia wanted to protest in several different ways, but didn't know where to begin. First of all, she had never seen a skill like this one before? Never in her life had she witnessed something as sophisticated as that coming from just ordinary or basic spells, from a teenage girl no less. What about that blood? It was defiantly real time damage on one level or another, right? But then why wasn't Krysta's energy scope red and reporting as much? The amount of blood on Krysta's shoulders was somehow visible even from here, but it didn't exceed the level it did before. Did her shoulder wounds heal up that quickly, that the broken skin was sealed by the veil of protection so fast? It isn't possible for Leray magic to be able to inflict real time damage in the veil mode, so what the hell was that? Cynthia showed an expression of concern on her face, but she couldn't say anything. The color of Krysta's energy scope basically is the sensor involved in detecting hidden dark magic tricks. On top of that, there are other hidden sensors for dark magic in this very room. Is it possible for the sensors to show a false negative?

"Nice try!" Krysta expressed with an aggressive emotion. "I'm not through with you yet!" Despite the fact that her shoulders hurt badly enough to partially restrict her arm movements, Krysta put her heart and soul into her very next magical attack. By infusing magic into a new forming glyphring, the size of the glyphring Krysta created was quite massive on scale, and the color of the glyphring was a solid grey color, which was unusual to see in most magic. Krysta didn't chant the name of her ability until she was ready to release that magic, but it took so long to charge it up, Jane might actually shield against it again. Even if she does, it would not be possible to resist such incredible power. The spell in question is a power level ten, or an eleven with as much training as Krysta has had with the spell. Just as she released the magic, Krysta yelled "Mega Bolt!" while shooting a white-hot unknown bolt of magic through the center of the glyphring.

Jane panicked momentarily, as this was certainly new to her. Mega Bolt could be anything. Based on the charge time alone, it had to be powerful. Being a single bolt had to leave in its hint that it was homing and strong enough to potentially crack her own power shield... But it's also taking the form of a projectile. Jane smiled in response to having a split second idea, born from the last style change she had about using some of her new skills. She charged the necessary energy into both of her hands, turning their auric color to a similar white instead of the ordinary blue. If this actually works correctly, Krysta will likely not survive this.

Krysta noticed Jane's hands glowing again. She will probably try and power shield again, which would be good in her case. It didn't matter how good Jane's shield is, nothing can resist a spell with an ultimate power level. She knew all about Mega Bolt too. Krysta's used spell combines all of the elemental magic into one particular kind of element known as Light Magic. Light Magic is the form of magic used when all elemental magical forms get together in one output element. The beauty of the spell itself in Mega Bolt is that the bolt of Light Magic also ignores all elemental resistances no matter what. Jane could be wearing a robe or dress sphere that completely blocks out all elemental damage, and this would still affect her as if she were completely wearing nothing at all. In other words, the damage is amplified for several reasons. Mega Bolt is incredibly powerful! Not just anybody could use it, let alone know of the spell in the first place.

Totally going against what many expected Jane to do in this situation, she instead threw her hands out as if to reach and catch this Mega Bolt coming from in front of her, aiming at its radiance. "Return!" Jane didn't need to really chant the name of a non-existent unofficial spell that she alone created using the elements of telekinetic magic. As she reached out her hands, just less than a second now before being slammed by this Mega Bolt, Jane suddenly created a capture or control aura around the bolt itself, which wasn't really visible given it was already bright with glowing radiance. Jane could feel her magic working, and immediately swerved her arms and hands to shift to her left side. In response, the flying Mega Bolt itself shifted in course midair, as if following Jane's own commands. Jane continued her newest spell, using a telekinetic aura around the bolt to actually control the projectile and change its course, but Jane wasn't trying to avoid taking a hit and be done with it. Continuing to swerve the bolt away from Jane's path, she swung her arms sideways even more, standing on her heels only to shift her own balance and spin all the way around. As Jane spun, the bolt of multiple elements followed her movements as if to resolute around Jane's body. The bolt's position was the same as where Jane had aimed it in her arms, but she didn't stop shifting her aim for a second, thus allowing the bolt to naturally increase in speed even as it was being shifted. By the time Jane performed a full three sixty spin, she then put a lot of force into her winding arms, and let go of the telekinetic link between herself and the Mega Bolt still flying in the air. With the angle of release met perfectly to realign with a new target, Jane basically took control of the Mega Bolt and turned the direction around with a nice spin, thus doubling the speed of the system at the same time. Before Krysta could even figure out what was going on, her own Mega Bolt was now on a collision course for herself.

"What?!" No way in the world could Krysta predict something like this. Even Danton never fought using such tactics against her before. Before her own eyes, the Mega Bolt that hit Krysta just below her face exploded in a massive surge of unidentifiable energy that spanned outward in a mystifying kind of light that phased out over a short moment. The force alone pushed Krysta two feet back into the air, as her shoes lost contact with the ground. The blast even forced her to partially spin around slightly in midair, allowing her to land on her front side instead, which was painful in itself. The impact of force alone hurt so badly in multiple ways that Krysta was completely stunned even after she finished landing on the floor.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/J0YQ5LYL/S3-Krysta-N-004.png]

Jane jumped up in a joyous victory pose. She knew the battle can still go on from here, but that was her very first successful invocation of Return she has ever come up with. Again, using the idea from a similar ability yet to be presented, Jane took advantage of a specific kind of magic allowing her to control the flow of specific variables of space such as stationary or moving projectiles, no matter what they are made of. She can then control such variables using a telekinetic force of magic, and from there, do whatever she wants to. Though, stopping Mega Bolt in its tracks would not have been as effective, because then, Krysta would not have been able to receive a taste of her own medicine. That hit looked like it hurt by the way. By doubling down on the speed of Mega Bolt and using the attack against the one using the spell, the power level must have been increased before the bolt even hit a target, due to the increased speed and effects of additional magical buildup being used on it. All of that telekinetic energy infuses itself back into whatever Jane controls upon release, so she naturally increased Mega Bolt's power by about a factor of 1.7, should she estimate. It didn't matter though. Krysta, who tried to get back up did so very slowly, her pains all very intense right now. Finally, Jane found a way to beat the first elite warrior. This is proof that none of these people are immune to the things she is capable of even without her handy symbol to help her out in a bind.

"An amazing display by our challenger Jane, who managed to send Krysta's Mega Bolt right back at her. I've never seen such will to win in all my years of coaching. Things may heat up from here more."

"Coaching..." Jane tusked at the remark from the announcer. All that guy does is tell people what they can already see with their own eyes to make it sound exciting. The people are probably glued to their screens with or without that voice in their ear. Speaking of which... "How about now Krysta? Give up yet?" Jane had to holler, being of a great distance between Krysta from before. She didn't want to get too close.

Krysta could barely level her breathing. She could already feel her throat getting raspy from all of the damage she has taken for the entire battle. Jane can't possibly be better than her. With as much determination as she could, Krysta pushed herself up, but it didn't happen fast at all. That last landing to the ground injured her left leg to some extent. It looked okay, but felt as if someone had twisted her entire muscle there. In the process of getting up, Jane shouted the name of another spell, possibly concluding that Krysta did not choose to give up.

"Stalagmite!" Jane released the energy from her hands aiming at the ceiling. Knowing this would not potentially damage the roof structure, Jane went with another unique attack that actually did register as an official Leray ability, though it was still something amazing in itself, and of course required an indoor condition or setting to work. Jane's spell quickly began forming ice on the ceiling of the entire room, which quickly transformed into hanging stalagmites of frozen water. These were not the kind of stalagmites one might find in a random cave. These were about the size of large automobiles, some of them three times such a size. The size of each frozen object had some variance, though every one of them was huge in perspective. That is the idea anyway. Shortly after her invocation, the stalagmites began falling from the ceiling one by one, creating a very dangerous kind of rain.

Krysta saw this happening above her, and though all of her limbs hurt, it wasn't going to be enough to stop her. She knew that now. She had seen this spell used before, not that Jane would know about it. "Alright then." With confidence, Krysta planned out where to go from here. It was already knowledge that despite these large chunks of sharp icicles falling from above the boundaries of the Siriean dome, they would simply phase through with unchanged properties and continue down to the ground within the same field. It's how certain area attacks are designed, much like Meteor Strike or Asteroid. Krysta knew of this already, so as soon as the very first falling Stalagmite only about seven meters in front of her and several more in height above her phased through the shield of the dome, Krysta fused very little magic into her legs and began sprinting towards the falling chunk of ice.

The intense pain in her left leg was obviously something she could ignore right now. Krysta seemed as if she were trying to run under the place where the stalagmites were about to hit. Instead, she jumped really high up at the last second and landed on the very top of the still falling stalagmite. Then from there, she wasted no time at all to jump to another one much higher than her current position, leaving the first one to fall and smash into the ground where she no longer stood.

It took Jane a moment to realize this, but Krysta was performing the same exact kind of maneuver that Jane had once tried in her very last battle. It was surprising to her that Jane came up with the idea first without even thinking about it, as if driven by instinct against Rontellov's crazy spell of Meteor Strike. Since Jane did it before, that meant Krysta was capable of the same thing, and she has likely tried this at least once before herself. Jane knew what would come next. As soon as Krysta gets high enough, it will be an aerial attack of some sort, leaving Jane defenseless against a simple magical attack that ordinary would not carry much damage, though amplified by the force of it coming down from above with the additional speed of Krysta's free fall towards the end of this insane maneuver. She has to intervene! Jane began sprinting forward into her own danger, disregarding the fact that she was about to rush into the area under all of the falling stalagmites herself.

Krysta didn't know that Jane was going to actually move as she herself tried an interesting maneuver rarely performed, but it gave her a great opportunity. Already high enough to finish this in just two quick spells, Krysta quickly fused magic into her right foot, and power kicked the falling stalagmite that she was currently standing on. She did so with such precise and well-calculated aim, so that the large chunk of ice would break apart into millions of pieces and fly directly towards where Jane was running to.

Jane suddenly noticed the chunk of ice in midair crumble with a loud smash from Krysta's unannounced power kick, with several sharp pieces of frozen ice shards coming down directly towards Jane. It was so fast and unexpected that Jane crouched down and cringed with her arms alone protecting her. Jane wasn't even blocking against the attack, she was just bracing herself for the soon to be painful hit of piercing shards, but after another second passed, Jane felt indifferent after hearing many tiny pieces of glass cringle up around her, followed by a very loud clunk of another stalagmite slamming into the floor elsewhere and breaking apart some more. After Jane removed her arms and opened her eyes, she saw all of this watery glass around her.

Amazing! By complete luck, Krysta's attempt to kick ice into Jane's face missed somehow, even though they were coming straight for Jane. What were the odds of so many chunks of ice missing Jane while she was a stationary target? Wait!

Krysta failed to damage Jane just now, but it was only a distractor anyway. Already falling from the air, she charged up the energy for her second and more powerful attack. Krysta released it as soon as Jane's curious eyes spotted what she was up to, and by then it was already too late. "Quantum Beam!" Krysta fired a wide area beam of bright cyan energy towards the ground where Jane was standing, sure this would end her battle right here.

Jane had seen the glyphring and the chant of magic before knowing what it was; Quantum Beam. Krysta not only stole her style of multi-object evasion, but also her very own spell like the one she used before. From experience, Jane knew the power of Quantum Beam being used from the air like that would double or even triplicate the magical damage factor. Shielding would be useless! Before being hit by a terrifying beam of energy, Jane quickly pulled out her dagger while simultaneously fusing some Leray energy into the blade to save her more time. Then she invoked her very quick and easy access spell while aiming the tip of the dagger towards the ground at a 45-degree angle, jumping up just before releasing her energy at the same time. "Mako Speed!" Jane's magic fired a short-lived brightly colored beam of magic from the tip of her dagger straight at the ground just after her feet left the floor. It seemed similar in form to her Mako Beam attack, but this was different. Instead of experiencing a normal jump by about less than a foot off the ground, the beam Jane fired carried an incredible amount of gravitational defying force that sent her flying much higher into the air. It happened at the same time Krysta's Quantum Beam fired at the ground. Normally, Jane would have just flown up into the beam anyway, but her 45-degree angular shift allowed her to fly up and sideways, thus narrowly avoiding contact with the beam just a split second too late. The distance Jane flew up was defiantly abnormal to see from anybody's perspective. Even Jane still had trouble believing that her trick worked so well, but this one was not difficult to practice at all, since it required no other factors in order to work.

Jane's modified Mako Beam magic once again allowed her to transform the laws of physics and gravity, using a narrow beam of magic to negate a Push Wave for Jane and lifting her high into the air at any angle she chose to fire the beam from. Somehow, it only worked through the blade of her dagger, but she didn't question the specifics now.

Krysta gasped with a sudden surprise, after which gritting her teeth, for all she could do now was watch as Jane soared into the air above her. Krysta fell to the ground at an average speed, negating the damage done to her by adding a Shining Bracer push wave spell to break her fall and land softly. What will Jane do from up there?

While Jane was gaining altitude, she already began to charge energy into herself once again. She came up with her next spell rather quickly, since she would not have that much time until she goes from flying up to falling down. She didn't have a lot of magic left to use on self-levitation either, and instead went with the natural laws of physics while invoking her next attack spell. It was exhausting overall that neither one of them had scored a single hit on each other with so many counteractions, but now, Jane was defiantly in the right position and timing to counterattack again. "Prism!" Jane's multi-colored glyphring appeared in front of her with such little delay, and it was immediately ready for her to use. Jane split up the elemental damage randomly in her mind, already shooting the attacks from her hands with the support of the glyphring while beginning to shift the direction of her acceleration due to gravity.

Jane begun her aerial prism attack with two separate Thunderbolts, followed by a Fire Bolt, Thunderbolt, two Ice Bolts, another Thunderbolt, three Fire Bolts before the next Lightning Strike, Ice Bolt, Fire Bolt, Thunderbolt, and the final Ice Bolt. As usual, Jane split up the order of each elemental bolt sent out this way, making it more effective and random. She launched each bolt through the glyphring so quickly and elegantly that there was plenty of time afterwards to prepare herself for the fall downwards. Jane had slightly miscalculated her own timing, having at least five more seconds before she would actually get to land on the floor, which would hurt at this height and acceleration without something soft to land on. Jane didn't expect her Mako Speed spell to negate gravity in a way that was this effective.

Krysta finally ran out of ideas in which to try and counteract Jane's multicasting spell. The bolts slammed into the front of her body from above one after the other, too randomly to block it out and too quickly to evade a single one of them. Between the electrical sensations being zapped, the freezing sensations of being hit with Ice Bolts, and the burning sensation of getting bombarded by Fire Bolts, Krysta still managed to endure the entire attack including its pain. What Jane failed to realize was that Krysta's own dark colored robe has one effect in particular; cutting all elemental magic damage such as the attacks she just took in half. There was no need to even announce it, for the health remaining on her energy scope was proof of that enough. She ended up in half the pain she was supposed to be in from taking a Prism attack, and the damage level was low overall too.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/L4xvpt9b/S3-Krysta-N-005.png]

Despite taking damage, Krysta was still left mostly unfazed by the entire barrage of elemental damage due to her suit's resistances. With the low amount of stamina remaining within her, Jane was now wide open for an attack. Free falling to the ground in front of her, Jane would have no way in which she could defend herself or attack yet again before hitting the ground. With a quick levied decision, Krysta quickly summoned two small dagger blades into her own hands to have as temporary weapons, while infusing the rest of her own magic into the spell she had prepared. The tricky part was only the aiming. Jane was falling, so she would have to land her ranged attack right where she would land in the correct moment. With the practice she already had, doing this kind of calculation in her head was second nature to Krysta. "Splice!"

Jane was about to invoke a spell that would lighten her descent to the ground, when she suddenly noticed Krysta sending a Splice wave towards her. Of all the powerful spells, Jane had to face this one with no method of defending herself. A magical line of heavy slashing and piercing damage in the form of a bright flat light rushed its way upward. Jane even saw that Krysta aimed below where Jane was about to fall, effectively allowing the Spice wave to take advantage of the positional situation and drill itself through Jane's chest during her fall. The attack went through her so quickly before she even knew it, but it left a much longer lasting sensation of pain that was almost comparable to the same moment in which she was hit with similar attacks in the dark zone. Jane's immediate reaction to cringe and hold her hands in the spot where it hurt the most left her more vulnerable to slamming into the ground on her side, failing to even land properly on her legs. The impact to ground hurt half as badly as the Splice that went through her skin, dealing a lot of damage. Jane let out a painful groan just before the wind was knocked out of her. Now stuck on her stomach, she struggled endlessly to try and stand back up while Krysta approached her as if she was casually walking with nothing to fear.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/RZLNkR93/S3-Jane-N-046.png]

Even after Jane had obtained her advantage, one could look at both sides as currently even, but Krysta felt more confident in this moment now than she ever did before. She simply allowed Jane to struggle to recover from all of that damage dealt to her in the last few seconds. Krysta was still hurting badly as well, but she overcame this minutes ago. With her pace walking towards Jane remaining the same, she continued using that time to store up just enough energy to grant herself the power to unleash one final magical attack against Jane. Even from here, the cameras and the referee knew how this was about to play out. "I will say that you've given me enough sport for today. I haven't had this much of a hassle from a single battle in a while, and I may even be tired out for the rest of tonight." She let it all sink in. There was no point in giving Jane the credit where it was due. Jane was fast, powerful, and even a bit tricky from time to time. She almost fought with the same style or technique Krysta was used to, but Jane never remained consistent enough for the claim of that to compare to her own tactics so firmly. Somewhere along the line, Jane failed. With more training, she would be very close to beating Krysta, this she was sure of. "But it's not good enough. You'll have to try again next year."

Next year? Didn't these battles happen every week? Maybe this is some sort of hidden rule of punishment for those who have failed in these championships. Jane struggled with her beat up body while running through the situation in her mind. Krysta was indeed powerful, but Jane was only a single action or two away from a total victory. Still, Krysta wants her to give up and come back next year? Lennith City is about to be swallowed up by the growth patterns of Alpha Zero. It doesn't have a year! The entire nation may be doomed by then. Just delaying this for a single week of time wasn't acceptable for that reason. Jane made it all the way here with more than her training. She had actual combat experience, and friends that she could count on for anything in the world. Getting to Danton is the only reason Jane was fighting in the championship this week anyway. It isn't about winning the battle, but rather winning the reinforcements she needed to take Brightworth out of the picture and Alpha Zero with it. Jane wanted to express this concern to Krysta right now, but in doing so, it would only confuse her opponent and the listening crowd around her as well.

Jane knew she didn't have to say anything. Krysta was going down one way or another. Jane just needed a new strategy, anything she could suddenly use to wrap the battle up here and now. Screw Krysta's battle, and screw those stupid lectures! Jane allowed her determination to fuel the last of her pending spells, starting with one in particular that took up much of her energy and concentration levels. After managing to stand up, just before it seemed that Krysta was about to try something else, Jane didn't bother her with the semantics of the situation, choosing to summarize the reason for her imminent demise. "You're the one who's lost already. You forgot the reason I came here today, and you forgot that I have plenty more spells on my side."

"Shit!" Krysta swore. She didn't expect Jane to be as confident after being so weakened by the last hit to her health, and worse, Krysta just swore in front of the cameras again. Normally it comes with a slight deduction, but muttering it under her breath would easily allow the crew to censor the moment out completely. As Krysta began to charge her energy before Jane could, the holler of a less known spell from in front of her beat her to the race.

"Zero Zone!" In just the single instant that Jane's energy was released, the same time distortion field she was used to spanned all around from the center of where she was standing, trapping Krysta and everything else in the entire universe in the same field. That's right, even the referee and the audience watching would not be able to determine what happens from here, as the distortion affects the entire universe, not just everything inside of the dome. Jane could actually do whatever she wants to right now and never get caught, but with her distortion field up, Jane had limited time to herself before it dissipates and leaves her vulnerable to the normal flow of time once again.

The color from everything was gone, as things got harder to see from the reduced flow level of light itself. With only grey and black gradients of color available to her, Jane still had no trouble figuring out where to go from here. Using much more of her energy in a strange form of her next spell, Jane cast the one she usually did so just after entering a Zero Zone aura. "Blitz!" After being shrouded with an aura that sped up her invocation timing and reduced the time taken to charge up all other attacks, Jane began her combination against Krysta with a simple Magical Blitz attack, shooting blue spheres of energy at the woman frozen in time. Jane's magic and projectiles retained their natural colors even in the field she was in. Only objects frozen in time were colorless.

Jane didn't stop there. She rushed in towards Krysta as if to Charge Attack her, and whipped out two sub machine guns to unload each clip before getting into range, following the skill of Bullet Blitz. Jane tossed the guns after emptying both clips as soon as she was in range to attack the stationary Krysta. She began with a few simple kicks and punches to her face and her jaw, with daggers slashing at her stomach in a non-magical attack combination which Jane had performed several times before. At the end of her combination sequence, Jane slid backwards and formed an arrow in her hand, using the spell of Crystal Arrow to fire a hard stone object into Krysta's skin to deal blunt damage on top of everything else she had taken so far. Jane then went with an additional combination attack afterwards, using the remaining magic to charge up a Knight Dance spell, giving Jane's hands and feet blue auric glows of light to enhance the damage level of each physical hit within her combination.

Jane sensed her Zero Zone would be over soon, and it was hard to detect whether the damage done to Krysta so far was adequate enough to send her health all the way down to zero. Though they asked her not to drain all of the elite's HP since it takes more time to revive them, Jane decided to ignore that rule right about now. After a short glance to Jane's own energy scope which was prone to change since she wasn't affected by the time distortion, it seemed that she only had about ten percent of her remaining MP left, which was amazing compared to all of her other actions thus far. It explained why Jane felt so tired just now, running her stats down like that, but it wasn't over yet. Jane knew of a few more things she could try before the Zero Zone aura ends. "Frost Blade!" Jane formed another frozen sword into her hands using most of her only remaining magic, and prepared to swing it at Krysta. Just in the process of slashing her frozen sword through the air, Jane was momentarily slowed down by a fractional force due to the sudden effects of Zero Zone ending. Color had quickly been restored to the world, and with it the normal flow of time. Krysta would be feeling sudden and unexpected pain right about now, and Jane was literally about to add onto that long before anybody could do anything about it. Jane only wanted just one clean hit with this thing, so after slamming the blade into Krysta's left hip, she let go of her own sword, now realizing that the damage level from Frost Blade alone would be minimal due to Krysta having her resistance to elemental damage already high. Still, after watching the change on her energy scope, it was surprising to see how much of her survived all of these hits. Jane was certain Krysta would have given up here, but backed away a bit just to be on the safe side.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/BQtpQjtQ/S3-Krysta-N-006.png]

"Aaagh!" Krysta still had enough health and stamina to go on longer, but technically this was the moment in which she should just give up. She felt random pains everywhere so suddenly, and then remembered Jane yelling out the name of a spell... Zero Zone! Krysta knew of such a spell, despite not having the ability to learn it herself. How was it possible that someone of Jane's caliber could learn such an amazing ability? And where was Jane anyway? To the left!

Jane kept her distance, exhausted by running down all of her magical points so quickly. Krysta was in even worse shape than her, but that didn't make this any easier. As Jane realized that Krysta noticed her, Krysta quickly attempted to get over all of that sudden damage and stand up to face her. She was still trying to battle!

"You are not getting past me! Star of Darkness!" Krysta used up the very last of her remaining magic against Jane, releasing her charged energy in the form of a dark magical draining spell which began to slowly but surely draw the signature red circle around where she stood.

Jane didn't wait on Krysta's lengthy invocation of another spell to get the best of her, and trying to run out of the circle in time could just be another distractor. Instead, Jane used the last ounce of her own energy and put it into another one of her new spells, one that was very quick, easy, and cheap to invoke while dealing adequate damage for this level. "Laser Rain!" Jane's invocation was immediate, the spell that required no glyphring and only a slight aura around her hands to spawn a barrage of red colored photonic beams of light to shoot down from above, forming out of nowhere. Krysta was suddenly hit with several dozens of these lasers all in a very short period of time, degrading her health so far downward that it caused her to collapse to her knees, dropping all of her concentration on the spell that she currently had running. The loud sound of clashing lasers left a slight ringing in Jane's ears, making her wonder how Krysta felt for being hit with all of them directly. The red circle belonging to the Star of Darkness spell surrounding Jane suddenly faded away, incomplete due to Jane's quick interruptions.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/SxBDPmSQ/S3-Krysta-Crit-001.png]

No longer could Krysta figure out what was happening anymore. It felt to her like she had already lost, but somehow she was still conscious. This wouldn't last for long. Sleep became her next desire, a nice long rest. Forget about whatever happened today; rest would be nice. Being stuck in the trance that she was due to severe battle damage left everything around her to question.

Jane ceased her own actions. It would be hard enough as it is to try and attack Krysta right now with her own magic drained completely, but Krysta was just down on her knees, her face staring at the floor as if she was completely out of it. Jane knew what that sensation looked like, and Krysta's energy scope becoming red like that proved the theory true. Krysta was done now, her battle over. Being put in a critical condition is supposed to mark the end of any particular battle, and she had a feeling that the referee was about to declare the match for her.

Cynthia noticed quickly how that all turned around. Krysta was simply stuck, very close to passing out. Of course, she could still be saved with the advanced healing orbs they have available. After seeing all of the amazing things Jane has done today, as well as the difference in both energy scopes, the winner of the battle was as clear as day. "I declare the match between Jane Venn and League Elite Krysta to be over!" With that short-spoken declaration announced with her voice projected, the Siriean dome around the entire field immediately faded downward and shut down by collapsing in on itself. Shortly after, there was a moment of silence, all placed specifically upon her. Cynthia was supposed to announce the winner just now, but she wanted to get close to Krysta first. By the time she rushed in to Krysta's proximity, Cynthia turned around facing Jane's direction, knowing that the hovering cameras have already caught up to her angle. "I - referee of the first elite battle hereby declare a victory to this match in the name of Jane Venn! She will now be eligible to move on to the next round!"

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Chapter Theme Shift: Calm ~ Aleksander Randjelovic (Genesis Rising OST)

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Just as the crowd around her was whipped into a frenzy of cheering and screaming out to their excitement, Taylor joined them by jumping up and throwing her fist into the air with her leap. "Yes! Jane did it! I knew she would!" Danny would probably have his own comment about it too, though he sure wasn't the kind to get as excited as Taylor was right now and express it so openly. Some parts of the battle were confusing even for her to watch on that screen, but all of it ended up making sense in the end. Jane didn't give up for a second, and she managed to show Krysta who's the boss around here after all.

Back in the battle room, Cynthia was in the process of healing Krysta using both the advanced healing orb and herself through the use of a powerful spell, which sped up the process at the same time. Like all usual healing orbs, the physical effects of its activation and lighting were all the same. Cynthia uses her magic to activate the device, then places it on top of Krysta as it begins to work. In just a short matter of seconds, Krysta's HP stats jumped up, continuously regenerating while the color of the holographic text box changed from red to orange, and before the process was finished, the box faded away in just short of another quick second. Krysta was hardly back to herself that quickly, but she was already showing signs of recovery, capable of taking in her surroundings, snapping out of whatever trance she was in previously.

Cynthia then tossed another one of the orbs in Jane's direction, hoping she would know to catch the sphere and use it on herself. Even as Jane had to go through the process of healing herself, Cynthia focused more on Krysta, who had overdone herself this time. It was amazing that Jane's last attack failed to completely knock her out right then and there. Some of the battle wounds and scars from earlier lingered despite the healing, such as the scars on both Krysta's shoulders from when Jane shoved her daggers inside. It made little sense as to how a physical attack managed to deal real time damage just from the power level alone, but Krysta would likely have something to say about it in just a minute. Cynthia could only conclude that some of Jane's attacks must have exceeded the power level safety limiter system by sheer luck alone, which isn't against any rules.

Just after Jane healed all of her stats using the orb, she felt an immediate rejuvenation to her stamina and energy. It was like coming right out of a runner's high and feeling great because of how quickly she's recovered. The healing orbs here worked almost immediately, which seemed too good to be true. Jane took it all in, the victory, the downed Siriean dome, the floating cameras trying to pick up a story... Jane still had some trouble believing now that she alone made all of this possible. Yet just a few moments ago, she had no choice but to believe in herself just to keep going. Jane believed at first that Krysta would have something to say right now, but then the announcer cut in again and disrupted the moment she wanted to last forever.

"Unbelievable! Pinned against one of Eldora's finest elites, Jane has emerged victorious in a battle that could not have been predicted at any point in time! And it looks like our fans are excited by the sudden development! What a spectacle put on here today! I've never seen an excessive exchange of spells like this before."

"Neither have I..."

"Huh?" Cynthia heard Krysta whisper something, either to herself or to her referee.

Krysta was still breathing pretty quickly, and her weakened state was lingering after the healing orb stopped glistening, but she was finally conscious of what was going on. The Siriean dome was gone, and her loss of track in the battle could only mean one thing. After struggling to stand up, Krysta thought about what she should say to Jane, if only John would shut up with the announcements.

"Leray fighter Jane Venn will now move up to the second round, where she will battle against our level two elite warrior. Will Jane be able to advance further beyond that round? Stay tuned after our fifteen minute break period to find out." A sonic pop left after the speaker systems indicated that John was taking an interval break, and he was saying things that Jane wasn't entirely aware of. It gave Krysta plenty of time to stand up more firmly, as she struggled to walk closer to Jane.

Jane stood still after realizing Krysta wanted to speak to her. All of the cameras in the entire room suddenly hovered over to specific slots on the walls of which Jane was not familiar with before. It seems that the cameras in the entire room were actually shutting themselves down for the period. They must not want to record the rest until the next battle begins.

"It looks like you won Jane."

Following her admission to Krysta's loss, Jane used Krysta's own words earlier to rub it in her face. "What was that about using me as target practice?" The comment put an embarrassed smile on Cynthia's face, since she too knew what Jane was referring to; the little argumentative choice of words they had right before beginning the battle. Krysta sure was confident, but she was busted all in the same day.

"I know," Krysta allowed. "You made me eat my own words. I've now seen some of the finest skills and maneuvers compared to a few years ago, perhaps longer than that." Krysta noticed that Jane seemed a little quiet. Perhaps she was in a bit of shock that Krysta wasn't serious about more than half of her previous insults. It was just a tactic she used to fire people up at the start of battle. At the same time, that anger can make people lose their place and plans before anything even starts. "You've amazed me today in more ways I can even count. Your determination to win was by far brought out to you the entire time you fight in a Leray match. I must say I'm impressed that you refused to give up even when things looked bad for you."

"Giving up is not in my plan."

Krysta wondered what Jane meant by her plan, but it seemed obvious enough that she was simply talking about the same dream many young people have about Eldora Tower: to defeat the champion and become a Leray master. That is what Jane fights for, at least that's what it felt like anyway. Still, the rest of the team won't just let Jane win. "You will go far with such an attitude, dare I predict you may even make it to Sir Danton himself if you don't give up fighting even for a moment, but you are much more special than I ever would have guessed. Your endurance for example was amazing."

Jane winced slightly without letting Krysta see it. Was she being serious? One of Jane's passive effects from being marked was the opposite of what Krysta had just announced. Without that power shield, Jane takes on three times more damage than anybody else, right? Or have things changed once again? Is it possible that all of Jane's training had finally perked up her maximum HP endurance to the point where the reset endurance from her symbol was no longer a problem? Could it be that all of the training and buffs she was using over the month naturally boosted her endurance to a more survivable level without enhancements? And if there was a way to remove this marking, would any of that change afterwards? At least one part of the theory remains clear. The mark must reset endurance levels rather than lowering them with a negative or fractional factor. Whomever this spell bomb was meant for really could have become powerful in a short period of time.

"And your mobility. I haven't seen someone move like you in ages, let alone give me trouble in a close combat situation. You even invoked skills I never thought possible. What was that thing you did earlier, sending my own Mega Bolt back towards me? What is your secret to battling Jane?"

Cynthia giggled at her level of response. "I think you have a new fan of your own already Jane. Krysta never asks to learn anything from her opponent, unless it's Danton of course."

"Oh don't start with the semantics gramps!" Quickly did Krysta's average behavior resume its original state. She has always been tempered with her voice, but thanks to this battle, everything felt so weird and different. Right now, it doesn't matter if Jane realizes that all of her previous insults used against her were just bluffs.

"Learning is a never-ending experience," Jane reminded. She knew that herself, after all she has been through, there were plenty of skills as well as battle tactics that she just learned about in this very same fight. Nobody should forget that, but Krysta asked a less direct question, and Jane had to come up with something that didn't involve including information about her friends or her hidden symbol, while at the same time keeping it true to her own experiences. "But so is hard work. I've learned all I could in such a short time because training is all I've ever done, longer before I ever even got my own license to battle. The secret is as simple as trying your best all the time, upon many other things to consider."

Krysta seemed a bit frozen for a moment, as if she really did take Jane's words seriously. "Wow! You almost sounded like Cleo for a second there. He gives lectures sometimes, but they mostly go about as well as the one you just did."

"I would very much like to meet this Cleo," Jane hinted. When will she get to fight the next guy? She sure didn't feel completely recovered, but her patience for getting to Danton was already fading a bit thin.

"I hope you do Jane," Krysta replied. "But always remain cautious. I never take it easy on the weaklings that challenge me. It's against our policy to lower our abilities and difficulty to match the others. But when I fought against you today, I never would have imagined I would become overwhelmed by your quick ability to adapt to any situation. It's like you suddenly got better and better the further we went into it, and it wasn't long until I really gave it everything I got."

"What are you saying?" Jane heard of these words before, but why was Krysta so soft on her now?

"I'm saying that I had a lot of fun today!" Krysta confirmed her claim with the excited tone in her voice, which almost seemed to scare Jane. "I've not had a battle like that before, even with Danton. Of course, his fighting style is different, but I enjoyed battling you today Jane. Whether you win or lose the championship, I'm going to find you after the chain is over, and when I do, I'll pay you back for the way you defeated me."

A few shivers were sent down Jane's spine given the odd glaring tone in Krysta's last statement. It was more like a promised grudge, but it goes without saying that Krysta simply loves to battle too. She must not get to have that kind of fun though given the severe difference in experience levels that most people have against this specific fighter and her strategy. Jane initially believed that this was a side of Krysta that never existed before battling her, but she's really a nice person once she warms up to people. Otherwise, one would think the opposite. Jane remembered Krysta saying something about Danton's tactics, and grew a curious ear for more. "What kind of tactics does Danton use anyway?"

"Hmph," Krysta huffed. "I'm not allowed to tell you that right now. The rules here work as follows. You've defeated me, so that means that against your next opponent, I am allowed to reveal only a hint to you about Cleo."

"Cleo?" Jane repeated.

Krysta continued with an explanation of who Cleo is. "Cleo is your next opponent, the level two elite warrior of Eldora Tower. And before you get it into your mind that Cleo is some hot woman, I should tell you now that he is just a man already in his late forties."

"So Cleo is a man..." Jane figured Krysta found it significant that the name Cleo isn't really suitable for someone who is male, but was that really the hint? Why is that important? Was she sharing an inside joke?

"After you beat Cleo, he has to give you a hint about how to beat the next opponent, and so on..." Krysta's facial expression turned serious and troublesome quickly in her explanation. "Cleo doesn't have any real weaknesses that I know of. I personally don't think his fighting technique is enough to get the best of me or someone of yourself, but I should warn you about one thing." Krysta, who already had fully recovered in her healing remained hush for a second to make sure Jane was paying close attention. "Cleo likes to specialize in his attacks by using anything and everything that inflicts a very heavy amount of physical pain. He believes that the key to victory is to debilitate his enemies only using attacks that are designed to inflict pain so great that it becomes impossible for his targets to battle under those conditions. So he mostly specializes in piercing types of attacks, whether they be magical or physical. This naturally means that Cleo has a very high pain tolerance too in his own practice. If you think you can give him a taste of his own medicine, you might want to conjure up a better strategy. And that's all. There really isn't much more to that guy. He won't care about how much discomfort you are in, so don't be shy about handing the match to him if pain is something you cannot handle."

Jane sighed with a stressful notion. Great! As if this wasn't hard enough. Jane figured Cleo will deliver attacks that may feel similar to the physical pains she suffered back in the dark zone. There were not a ton of attacks that dealt searing pain, but she felt the ones that were there. Cleo must have his own way of making it so real without bringing in the potential to inflict real time damage. That would be illegal after all. Too bad they don't make some kind of in-battle painkiller orb for situations like these.

Why would someone specialize in something like that anyway? Was Jane being tested on multiple levels? Maybe Danton thinks that only those who are capable of overcoming any challenge or debilitating factor are to make one worthy just to get to speak to him. Who are these people anyway? Have these elites really been here so long now as to understand each other's tactics?

"With that out of the way," Krysta continued. "I think you should get going. After you win each battle, you are entitled to a fifteen-minute break to recover and compose yourself, but it takes a bit of time itself just to get to the next floor in which your second battle begins, and we've probably wasted about three of those minutes."

Jane nearly forgot that she and Krysta were on camera for that whole battle, and that the same circumstances will apply in all of her future battles too. "I guess I'll go to the next floor huh?"

Cynthia took the liberty of allowing Jane to know some rather uninteresting information. "He'll be on floor three hundred, which elevates you to about 850 meters in altitude. If you have a history of altitude sickness or asthma, you should let us know now—"

"I'm good," Jane ended. That wouldn't be a problem. Plus the special air conditioning units running on all floors of Eldora Tower have specialized mixers in the air density to make it seem normal to breathe even on the highest floor. But for some reason, nobody else was sharing that aloud.

Krysta turned towards Jane as she already begun to walk herself to the elevators. "By the way," Krysta caught Jane's attention for the last time regarding the reward. "Your funds will be transferred to your card after the break is up. For defeating me though, you've only gained 2600 credits so far. If you beat Cleo, that number will dramatically climb. I'm sure money isn't your motive, but it's a nice bonus to have if you defeat him."

"Thanks." Jane took her time in getting to the elevator. She had to walk to the side of the room she had not been to before. When she first came out of the elevator, it was from the south side of the room sector. The one she was being directed to now was the corridor on the north side of the arena. Apparently, the elevators alternate in places within the tower, which made security even more impressive to maintain. But aside from that, Jane knew that this elevator would take her to floor 300, 850 meters high. In thought, Jane knew that was incredibly high off the ground. It would be terrible if the tower collapsed, something else that reminded Jane about the use of her Gyrobreak spell in the last fight. She nearly caused structural damage outside of the Siriean dome just from how powerful that spell became. It might be best to try and restrain herself from using that skill a second time.

Jane got inside of the shaft, the doors shutting behind her automatically as the system prepared to take her up. In just short of time, Jane will have to do the same thing over again, but against a different and probably tougher opponent. Jane wondered if her experience was adequate enough to give it all she had. There were still a few abilities in which Jane hasn't tried just yet, but her Return spell was probably the most useful of them all. Whatever happens up there, Jane knew of one thing. Giving up is not an option. She has to get to Danton tonight!