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<02/12/1972 – 08:45 | Eldora Tower Fl. 300, Eldora City, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

After walking out of the elevator doors which had stopped on floor three hundred, Jane carefully observed the surroundings to notice little difference in the actual structure of the area. Right in front of her was the massive corridor leading all the way into the circular room where her next opponent would be waiting. Much of the design here was very similar to the previous arena. Did they not care about the aesthetics until one reaches an arena room? Jane soon wondered exactly what some of the other floors in the tower were like, the floors nobody ever hears about in between the vertical area sections.

She shook the irrelevant thought away, but Jane still paced herself slightly, realizing that she was given a fifteen-minute break from her last battle. The healing orb used on her was more amazing than she thought; Jane felt so full of energy even though she won a tough match minutes ago. That must have been the general idea. Make the challengers battle to the top as fast as they can, in case there are other people that wish to try their luck in the same day. Jane knew there were other people waiting and willing to take her place. None of them would be capable of winning, and none of them would be battling for the same reasons either.

What is the protocol if someone wins though? What happens to the other challengers that didn't get to go yet? If Jane became champion on that same day, does she have to battle against the next in line too? Or is there some sort of ceremony that cancels the match for the others who haven't gone yet? The overall process made less sense the more Jane tried to think about it. Judging by the sound rumor that Danton has remained champion for nearly ten years consecutively, the result would be anyone's best guess. The instructions were not all that clear from the original proposal. Just defeat the champion's minions and then the champion himself huh? That can't be too difficult with the training locked inside her head.

But the reason for winning is what Jane felt pushed her even harder. The thought of Lennith City and everyone she knows there fading away into the dark zone isn't a world acceptable for anyone. Defeating Danton will change that; it will give everyone including herself hope where none previously existed. With a heavy heart, Jane marched forward through the corridor. It would take much time just walking to reach the edge of that field, and Jane took that time to quickly examine herself again. By some amazing miracle, her hair she did this morning retained the same style and form it had before. Her dress wasn't dirty enough to go noticed from the naked eye. The overall color contrasted that of her hair while bringing out the color in her eyes.

As she was expecting to see cameras, Jane casually shifted her head around the place to spot the flying drones, and in doing so, she immediately caught on to the paintings and holy engravings in the walls, ceiling, and floor. All were different from each other, but the drawings resembled the background of some unfamiliar place or setting, toned with colors favoring towards red. Just beyond the center spot on the ground stood Jane's next opponent, a bald man in his early forties wearing a unique full corset outfit, colored mostly with red, while black and brown was the complementary color in the design. Was it a robe, or a manly dress? Somehow, it seemed a cross between the two, with some sort of fuzzy texture to the material.

Cleo was not standing there by himself. His referee, who seemed more refined by his young age and his fancy outfit that resembled French style formal clothing also stood near Cleo. He eyed Jane as much as he could, knowing that the elite warrior may be doing the same, but there was no way to know Cleo's thoughts right now.

Before Jane slowed her pace to a crawl, Cleo brushed his hand to himself, gesturing Jane to come closer. "Interesting creature! You've managed to get the best of Krysta in the first round. That's why you're here, no?"

Jane's heart was already racing. It was hard enough to figure out what the man meant by each of his words. Only one thing made sense to her, giving Jane the chance to respond, but what made this a little more nerve wrecking was the absence of the voice on the megaphone, the announcer that usually butts in with his annoying chants of the obvious. "I did defeat Krysta, so you're going down next." She heard the unstable tone in her own voice, causing Jane to sink her head down slightly.

"Hmm." Cleo suddenly took his own moment of silence, making the space around him more awkward as Jane got close enough to talk to him clearly without having to shout. "Krysta doesn't have many faults within her. Highly energetic, quick as ever, and unpredictable in style, though at the same time, unrefined. I don't suppose you will tell me how you managed to overcome her brutal tactics? Was it her ego getting in the way again?"

Jane glanced all around her, waiting for the punch line. The cameras are recording everything they are actively saying. Won't this show up on television for Krysta to hear too? Something about his words told Jane that Cleo clearly did not get along very well with Krysta, but was he really much better than her? "I... She..."

Cleo studied Jane's facial expressions and the look in her eyes very closely as Jane struggled to piece together a whole sentence. There was something about the moment right now, the girl seemed to be upsetting herself about something, the look of remorse getting stronger.

After being reminded about how horrible it was to so easily defeat champion members just because of the expedited training she was only able to have because of her symbol, Jane felt the same thing she faced last night. Remembering JDT was the only thing that could cheer Jane up right now. It pulled her out of her trance, and once again reminded her of the reason she was standing here right now. Jane tensed before she spoke with newfound confidence in her plan. "Krysta underestimated my abilities. That became her downfall."

Cleo was suddenly more intrigued by this than he was before. The girl so quickly swapped entire emotions and found some way to charge herself up for the battle soon to be, but there was still a few minutes remaining before it would be allowed to start. "I see. That is most understandable. Perhaps you wanted more of a challenge?" Seeing Jane refuse to reply to his question only pushed him to get more information. "I must ask for your name. We elites yet to battle challengers are not allowed to know much about the person winning their way to the top, should it give us an unfair advantage."

"I'm Jane," she announced. Jane knew the hovering cameras were taking in video feeds of their conversation right now, and she might as well make use of it. "Jane Venn!" she projected. "I've come to defeat the champion today, and if I'm lucky, become a Leray master."

"So young and fragile," he commented. "You don't look like the type capable of winning a match against a simple gradyent, though this must have been the reason for which you were underestimated many times. I can assure you miss that this battle will not be so discriminative."

"And just so you know..." The man who had yet to identify himself stepped forward, speaking out to Jane. "The cameras in here are actively recording. The delay factor is higher right now because you are early, and Cleo prefers to have the announcer set on mute like most the elites here. He will talk over everything like in your last match, but not one of us in this room will be able to hear it."

Cleo barely turned his head and eyes to his left direction without actually turning around to look at his referee. "She knows already Dameon." Putting focus back to Jane, Cleo introduced himself and his team. "That over there is my personal referee. Dameon will be the judge of the battle with more weight than I, but I assume you already know this as well."

Jane had to at least commend Cleo for choosing to mute the announcer from this end. Obviously he minded that useless chatter as much as she did, but Cleo was still hinting at something less ordinary. "Was there something I'm not supposed to know?"

"Confident aren't we?" Cleo took a single step back, glanced at Dameon, and nodded his head. Jane obviously would not understand what signal he just reported to his own subordinate, but it was understood quickly enough for Dameon to reach for something in his pocket. In the meantime, Cleo expended a small amount of magic not visible to anyone, until the result posted itself in front of Jane's face. He enabled his energy scope already, causing Jane to tip toe backwards in fear that he may begin attacking her before a battle is even launched. "If that is the case, there is only one more thing for you to know before we begin."

Jane was passively listening to Cleo's words, but her attention shifted to the room around her. After Dameon had pressed a button on some remote switch, some mechanism from below the floors past the edge began to move. The room was similar in that while there was plenty of room to walk on the circular metal field, the very edges had no floor, allowing one to fall down to some degree and possibly get stuck down there if they didn't know what they were doing. Jane now got to see the purpose of this design. The loud noises and moving mechanism turned out to be that missing circular part of the floor rising from below to this level, bringing with it an entire circular field of barbed wire and sharp edges of a fence, spliced and rewired for extra danger. Dameon began pacing to a different location during the transformation, expecting Jane to let this all sink in.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/nVCwRSZL/S3-Cleo-N-000.png]

While Jane was scaring herself by the sudden shift in the field, Cleo made his final announcement, answering to his last hint. "It's that I don't mess around here."

"Are you serious?!" Jane couldn't believe that this was actually legal. This was something she was defiantly not warned about before by anyone. The entire edge of the circular field now had a floor alright, but the edge was also rigged with sharp wire that would probably cut through anything, even capable of damaging magical dress spheres. She took out both of her daggers, the only thing that made her feel safe in the meantime right now.

"That I am," he claimed. "This battle will have the additional factor of a cancel field involved. If you stray too close to the edge, this fence will cut and hurt you. Of course, it won't possibly be as painful as what I am about to do to you Jane. You really thought I would just accept your idea of fate and let you pass? You must prove yourself to me! You must be able to ignore pain no matter how severe it becomes. That is my rule!"

"The match between Jane Venn and Leray Elite Cleo will begin shortly. The Siriean dome will be modified to include the entire room structure within it."

Even Dameon had no problems with this dangerous arrangement, which meant this must be a surprise to everybody who challenges him, right? Wouldn't it be obvious on television though? Jane clearly would have obtained a better advantage just by watching one episode of someone else's battle here. Cleo sure wasn't kidding around. Jane exhaled, trying to remain calm and fearless. All of this was possible because of Danny and Taylor helping her on. That wasn't for nothing, and neither will this journey be wasteful. After the short supportive thought, Jane felt she was ready to battle anyway. Currently standing too close to Cleo, Jane backed away by several paces while engaging her own energy scope. As soon as she retains her own distance, Jane will be ready.

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

Without the voice of the announcer on to tell what is happening, Jane had to completely rely on what was assumed, and what Dameon was going to say about it. Likely, he would be the one to talk in the middle of a battle. Still, with all of these new factors involved, Jane immediately sensed that Cleo's strategy was to disable her with pain inducing attacks early on to have an advantage. Thank the gods for this cool power shield. "Fine! I'm ready to battle."

Dameon took Jane's word to be final, knowing that Cleo was always ready to battle regardless of circumstances. He used his own magic, creating a powerful Siriean dome that spanned through the entire room. The dome shield stopped just short of the walls, even by such distance due to the natural shape. The height of the dome went very close to the ceiling as well, while retaining just enough transparent light properties to allow anyone inside to clearly see all of the artwork anyway. Now that the match was getting underway, it was time to declare the brawl. "The match between Jane Venn and Leray Elite Cleo will now begin!"

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Chapter Theme Shift: Force of a Dream ~ Dos Brains [Below the Horizon] (Extended Ver.)

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Jane knew the drill by now. After the awkward stand still that happened at the beginning of the last match, she knew that a man like Cleo would not be susceptible to many kinds of tricks. Which damage types is he actually resistant to? It was going to take a lot of spells just to find out. Jane didn't mind going first at the immediate beginning of the match. With her daggers already in her hand, Jane charged up the energy into both of her blades, expending them with the chant of her special magic. "Mako Strike!"

Jane's quick use of a spell paid off when the magical energy charged at the tips of her dagger blades aimed at Cleo with the spheres of blue energy shot forward in the form of high-speed projectiles. Mako Strike was one of Jane's second tier spells related to the magic of Mako Beam, capable of reforming the energy into a condensed form to inflict magical blunt damage with an elevated power level without costing her much MP energy. A low cost but powerful spell would be the best way to start things off. As the spheres zoomed through the air in the center of the field nearly too fast to track their movement, Cleo stood right in the way of the attack, but instead of trying to evade the spell, he crossed his arms over his chest casually and waited. The two spheres of Leray energy collided into Cleo's body, and against what was expected by the power level and force of the attack, Cleo wasn't even fazed. There was no knockback, no sliding from the force of the hit, and no pain visually registering within Cleo. His defensive stance wasn't even interrupted by the clean impact. Despite the power of the spell, he took a small amount of Leray damage without showing any other signs of change. The loss of health on the energy scope didn't seem as accurate when judging how well Cleo took the magical attack.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/J7vY9345/S3-Cleo-N-001.png]

"Humph!" Confident that the match would be over soon, Cleo sped things up starting with one of his signature spells used plenty of times before in matches. He didn't mind that the fight was being shown live back to an excited audience, but he also made his own spells highly attractive to the visual perception and beauty of his style. "Flaming Volley!" His voice didn't project very far, not that it needed to. His spell actually took a fair amount of time to launch with invocation. First, he had to spawn a bow and arrow into his hands using the usual small yellow glyphring, proving he has not chosen a favorite physical weapon. After the bow ended up in his hands, more magic was immediately fused into the single arrow as he began loading it into the bow. As a result, the arrow immediately burst into flames while retaining its shape and form, becoming a flaming arrow.

Jane sensed there was more to this than what Cleo was letting on. His style made this look light a bright and beautiful flaming arrow, but he chanted Flaming Volley. Preparing herself for the worst, Jane wasn't shy this time about gathering the Leray energy into her hands and preparing another power-shielding aura just to be safe. When she was ready, Cleo launched his arrow high into the air instead of taking an aim at Jane. His arrow left at an angle, set to force the arrow coming back down towards the target. As the arrow left the bow, several more arrows suddenly appeared out of phase space high in the air above where Cleo was standing, all following the same general direction and pathway as the one Cleo initially controlled. There had to be at least sixty or more arrows, and every single one of them had tips that were burning with a fiery aura that glimmered light everywhere. Jane simply saw it as several dozens of yellow lights coming down at her from above, which was obviously the manifestation of Flaming Volley.

Before they impacted the ground around her, Jane chanted her own spell of protection as she had prepared to. "Power Shield!" After extending her arms crossed and open, Jane's magic released and shrouded herself in a transparent blue aura formed with the same shape as her body. The area attack that would have inflicted fire elemental piercing damage turned into a solid mess as the arrows that did manage to strike against Jane's shield simply deflected off of the aura, leaving behind a single small hexagon in its place for Jane to see. Each arrow that bounced off left an interesting deflection sound against Jane's shield, and she simply waited out the remainder of the area attack until every arrow had fallen from the sky. After it was over, Jane uncrossed her arms and shut her hands, immediately cutting power to her aura and causing it to collapse with a familiar zapping sound of additional repulsion.

Cleo watched as his entire attack was made useless while Jane's shielding aura trashed the entire field with burnt sticks smoking up in the air. Each burned-out arrow eventually faded with the end of its magical properties that summoned them in the first place, but Cleo now saw the reason why Jane so easily made her way up here; Power Shield. It wasn't a bad idea to deflect attacks like that, but if this was Jane's best strategy, then she will be done for without him having to break a sweat.

"You don't seem that excited," Jane observed. Cleo just stood there like a statue. He didn't care what Jane just did even though everyone she has ever met was alien to this particular shielding aura.

"I'm not impressed," Cleo confide. "Power shield isn't a bad idea, but it won't save you from our skills."

Jane gritted her teeth, hoping that Cleo was just spouting his bluffs to confuse her into making herself more vulnerable than what was necessary. Then again, if Cleo had learned of the skill Dimensional Strike at any time, then he would be right. Rontellov used Dimensional Strike earlier, which bypassed Jane's entire shielding aura. Zero Zone could negate her shield as well, but Jane figured she was the only one who knew this spell so far. It wasn't worth the argument of trying to figure out where Cleo was going with this. Jane decided to go ahead with another attack, one that would do more damage. Even if Cleo is resistant to all damage and pain, he can't be resistant to passing out with no more HP remaining. Jane charged more energy into her hands and released them as soon as the quick spell had been activated. "Laser Rain!" There was almost no way to tell where or how the spell would activate. Jane's glowing hands stopped glowing just as her attack started, but Laser Rain actually summons the lasers from high above the target, which is why it has this kind of name.

In just short of time, Cleo was suddenly bombarded with at least a hundred red colored photonic lasers all in the same instance, shooting down from the tall room. The ceiling stopped nearly eighty meters from the floor, so there was a lot of room to spawn spells in this fight. Cleo grunted with a slight step back from the sudden hit. He didn't even try to dodge or block the attack he already saw coming. Jane's invocation of Laser Rain wasn't that fast; it took about one full second after she chanted the magical spell for the lasers to actually hit their mark. Cleo made it seem like it actually hurt, but he kept his adamant stance as if nothing were wrong.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/X7513ZrS/S3-Cleo-N-002.png]

Cleo quickly retaliated with the immediate formation of a large ice based glyphring spawning in front of him, chanting the magical spell just as it began to invoke under his command with no delay. "Ice Needles!" Cleo used the magic he stored to fire a barrage of unguided projectiles towards Jane in the form of frozen needles only designed to cause the target pain while lowering their body temperature mid-battle.

There was no possible way such a low power level based spell could do that much damage. Jane suspected some kind of trick. If she attempted to evade those needles or even shield against them, Cleo may try something else on the spot, but having her body pierced by a hundred cold chilling needles didn't sound like fun either. To compromise, Jane immediately whipped out one of her new spells currently unused since she had entered the championship battles, one that she managed to modify with a lot of practice while keeping the design quite practical. "Farshield!" Jane's magical usage of the same waveform of her normal power shield combined with the telekinetic properties of Leray magic had given her a new way to invoke an old power with a flawless design.

The shield that Jane wanted to create did not form around herself this time. Instead, Jane's open hands were aimed at the center of the field, straight at the oncoming barrage of Ice Needles as she was in the process of using her stored energy to create a Farshield. As a result, an entire wall made completely of translucent energy in the form of an aura formed from the ground up, going as tall as five meters and as wide as seven. The solid auric wall Jane constructed blocked the path of the oncoming Ice Needles in its entire area of effectiveness, causing every single flying projectile to collide into the shield-based wall. The type of shield was the exact same in design, and required about the same amount of Leray energy as before. Jane simply changed its form and location while keeping its overall power level. All of the needles simply got absorbed into the shield wall, leaving behind very large energy hexagons in their place. Jane kept the shield going just as the last few ice needles became absorbed, watching Cleo's movements to see if that was indeed one of his tricks.

Cleo wasn't expecting something as advanced as this, but he stuck with the simple plan, invoking his next power while the Farshield was still up. "Laser Rain!"

Jane immediately cut power to her Farshield, collapsing the wall of energy down into fading light. Jane knew that the attack she used last time was now coming down on her; there would be no time at all to try and power shield against it the normal way or to use a vertical Farshield. She instinctively dove into the air forward as quickly as she could, leaving behind the sheering sound of lasers all slamming against the solid ground instead of Jane herself. As she rolled forward and determined that her quick evasion to dodge Laser Rain was actually effective, she quickly stood back up before Cleo could get in a third attack.

That was really his plan all along, get two spells in instead of one? Cleo must have expected the damage from Ice Needles and Laser Rain to accumulate enough damage over time to wither her natural shield aura away. Little did he expect this turn of events though. Now it was Jane's turn to try something, when another untested ability came to mind. After charging just a small bit of energy into her hands, Jane needed only to focus. "Dark Lite!" As quickly as Jane chanted the ability, a nearly black colored glyphring facing vertical formed under Cleo's feet spinning rapidly in phase through his body. Just a second afterwards, Cleo was suddenly hit with the mysterious power that only drained his stamina by a small amount. The effects were only noticeable on his energy scope, as his MP levels literally went down by a full ten percent just before the glyphring faded along with Jane's magic.

But Instead of firing back at Jane or trying anything else, Cleo cross his arms again with a different kind of stance and expression on his face. At first, there was a three-second silence. Then, "Stop the match!"

"What?" Jane stood tall again, confused by Cleo's motives of putting the match on pause. The Siriean dome around both of them suddenly collapsed so fast that it created a short burst wind speed inside of the closed space. Cleo didn't move, but his referee Dameon held his right hand high in the air for just a short moment. All of the cameras in the room were fixed on him now.

"The match has been placed on hold by Leray Elite Cleo. You may state your concerns."

"You don't have to do that Dameon!" Cleo hollered. By refusing to move from where he stood, Cleo had to raise his volume to reach his referee and Jane, whom have been fighting at long range this whole time. "I think this iteration of film should be cut anyway. Jane Venn, do you realize what you have just done?"

Dameon held a strange oracle device in his hands, revealing it to Jane and Cleo both. There was an entire screen facing him, with dim LED lights blinking red in the back. Only he knew what the device was and how to read it. "That last attack is showing confirmed signs of magic negation."

Cleo cleared his throat to translate what it meant for Jane. She didn't seem like the type to get involved with this kind of treachery, nor did she seem bothered by it just now. It only meant one thing. "Dameon's detector just went off on you Jane. That spell you just cast contained similar properties of waveforms consistent only with dark magic. There was no Leray energy put into the spell you just used."

"Wh—what?!" Jane lost her breath just from hearing that. The spell she just used...? Dark Lite; the spell that decreases a person's MP by 10%, though can only be used once per battle. It wasn't something Jane found in any old books, nor was it one of the spells Claudia cooked up for her. Jane didn't remember exactly where she found the spell itself or how to cast it, but Cleo was telling her different, that Dark Lite uses the casting of dark magic. That can't be!

"Dark magic in the field confirmed!" Dameon chanted. "It will be up to Cleo to determine whether to forgive the fault, however it cannot happen again for the remainder of the entire chain."

"But I—" Jane didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to use dark magic. Was it really as simple as learning the wrong spell? Why didn't anyone tell her that Dark Lite was a dark magical spell?

"Very few people I've ever met actually know of the spell even if they know of its nomenclature." Cleo seemed to be giving Jane the lesson on what the spell is and how it works. "Nobody officially created a Leray spell that simply reduces magic in other people, and I already know by heart that Dark Lite is in fact a dark magical spell. I've already assumed you didn't know that."

"How could I possibly have known that?"

It was easy to confirm that Jane wasn't trying to use dark magic, even anything suspicious to get an upper hand. If she were keen on using dark magic, she would have simply used an attack that would deal real time damage in the same instance. Such an act would not so easily be forgivable. Cleo argued, "You must be more careful with yours spells and how you invoke them in training. It is not uncommon to accidentally create your own spell by modification and apply dark magic to it subconsciously. The only spells remotely related to dark magic allowed in this tower is Star of Darkness. I shall relieve you of this official mistake once. If I see you invoke another dark magic spell in front of me again, you will be disqualified from this match including other previously won matches. Am I clear?!"

"Y— yes!" Jane felt so bad about what she had just done. If Cleo wasn't as understanding that it was an accident just now, her entire battle streak would have been for nothing at all. What other spells were dark magic? Nobody told Jane about this at all! "Sorry about that."

"It's quite okay. Dameon?! This iteration that just happened is to be cut from the records. Nobody watching will be able to see anything that just transpired. All film from the last two minutes shall be cut, starting as soon as the battle continues."

"Yes sir," he replied. He fiddled with the device for only a moment, and fiddled with another one to make sure the televised data gets cut. The dark magic detector needed to be reset too in case Jane Venn does try the trick once more. "The match between Jane Venn and Leray Elite Cleo will now continue with no penalties or changes to the field!"

Jane had nearly forgotten that the cameras viewing all of this had a ten-minute delay back to the feed in the lobby on the first floor of the tower, as well as any other device receiving it. The only real time filming went back to the recording and editing room somewhere else in the same tower. They must not allow just anyone to accidentally witness what magical ability belongs to the class of forbidden magic.

When the dome started back up again, Cleo made sure that the girl got at least one more chance to try this again. "We'll talk some more about it after this fight. For all future references, refrain from using illegal magic."

"I won't use dark magic," Jane promised with a new pitch in her tone. She became a little nervous about the fact that her new ability she was about to rely on was suddenly classified as illegal magic. She would just have to forget about that one existing spell and move on. There were still plenty of more abilities Jane had not tested yet, abilities of which she was already certain were official Leray moves, for the most part.

"I will have the next move," Cleo announced. After charging energy into his hands immediately ready to battle, Cleo had to ignore the fact that the MP energy from himself and Jane has probably regenerated completely just from the talk they had about the earlier matter. He continued the battle as if nothing ever happened, and put faith in Jane that she would find another way to win the battle. "Earth Glave!" The ground began quaking and shifting despite the fact that real time damage did not occur to the cement or any other supporting structure around it. The crushing wave of magically spawned earth rocks and boulders rushed in towards Jane, who quickly reacted to the scene.

Jane invoked another one of her power shields, but just as she got the aura around her body, the moving wave of earth elemental damage smashed Jane's shielding aura from below. The hexagons forming there were tiny and highly abundant. Before Jane could register it into her mind that Cleo's Earth Glave attack exceeded ordinary power levels related to the spell, it was already too late. The next hit on Jane's shield completely shattered her aura, breaking right through the collapsing shield and slamming her body from all frontal sides. Jane was lifted about three feet into the air with the force of the hit pushing her backwards too. The damage was incredibly painful and sudden, and Jane could do nothing about it. After being slammed back into the ground while the final part of Earth Glave faded before it could harm Jane anymore, she quickly tried to recover and bare through the intense bruising pain that just crushed her.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/jjqLt7dM/S3-Jane-N-047.png]

Jane had such little time to recover, but after coming back to her senses and standing back up, Cleo didn't seem to be doing anything. Perhaps he wanted her to have another chance to attack? The entire battle was so far kept at long range. Jane knew she could do well at close range, but Cleo may have already developed a counter shield against something of the sort. Keeping in mind that he was quite immune to pain, Jane decided to try and enforce the elements of magic for increased damage instead. As she chanted the name of her next spell, glyphrings formed in various places in mid-air about the height of Jane's body, all forming a triangle shape from an aerial view only the cameras could pull off. Jane controlled a fire glyphring in front of her, while her ice and electrical glyphrings took place elsewhere.

"Tri-Attack!" After expending her magical energy further, Jane managed to launch a Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, and Lightning Strike attack all at once aiming at Cleo. The strikes were all designed to make sure that Lightning Strike hits Cleo first, being as fast as it was. Cleo however made no such attempts to dodge the attack, despite his knowledge that magical damage is designed to decrease HP more so than to inflict physical pain. As the Fire Bolt and Ice Bolt exploded into his body just after a short burst electrical strike, Cleo barely was nudged an inch from his current stance. He didn't even have to block attacks to remain adamant just after taking several hits. After it was over, Jane quickly realized another reason why he remained so comfortable standing to take the attacks.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/9Qj8fW94/S3-Cleo-N-003.png]

The damage was so minimal for something with a high power level. Jane ended up wasting her MP on an attack that barely did anything to him. Did his resistance apply to physical attacks and magical attacks, or was it specific to elemental damage? Did his dress sphere have anything to do with this? Why is he so resistant to damage?

"That was pitiful!" Cleo taunted. "I thought you would have guessed by now that elemental magic is quite useless here, but you're more predictable than you claimed earlier." After getting his evaluations off his chest, Cleo quickly expended a small amount of MP energy to spawn a bow into his hands, refusing to announce the name of his spell. He and Jane didn't need to rely on the name though. The purple glowing aura around the arrow he was loading in made it obvious enough that Cleo was about to shoot off a Spirit Arrow at Jane. Cleo quickly aimed and fired as if he were casually practicing.

Jane knew about Spirit Arrow and its spirit elemental damage effects on humans. If she is hit by that, it will disorient her to no end. As Jane prepared to simply slide out of the way of the oncoming arrow, she had some time to think about what Cleo just mentioned earlier. It has to be true. His suit really is resistant to elemental damage, probably electrical damage by the most amount...

Jane gasped at her own thought and surprise, which was also enough to snap her back into reality. Jane barely got to side step away from the projectile just before it stuck into her skin. The arrow continued on instead, bouncing off the Siriean dome and fading into oblivion. It wasn't hard to dodge the attack, but Jane was now focused on something she had not thought of before until just now, a random epiphany related to Leray battles under all potential situations. There was a way to temporarily lower an elemental resistance, one in particular - Cleo would never see it coming. Jane quickly summoned the magic she needed, which left her stats unchanged by the fact that it only expended less than a full percent of her remaining MP levels.

Her hands were glowing blue immediately, and Jane let her spell loose with the chant of the name in the air. "Water Blast!" An entire wide beam of water came shooting from the aura coming together in her hands as Jane kept them together while aiming at Cleo. Like a massive pipe bursting, Jane's spell created a large amount of gushing water to shoot and splash all over Cleo where he stood, the stream stretching all the way to the other side and continuous for three entire seconds. When Jane was finished, Cleo and his clothes were dripping wet, soaked to the bone. Of course, it wasn't an attack designed to deal any damage or any special effects, which soon explained Cleo's confusion following the event.

It was just a little cold to the touch, and having his clothes soaking wet was a bit unpleasant to deal with. But considering no damage was done in the entire process, and that it was Jane's entire intention, he simply saw the plan going nowhere. Cleo let out an uncontrollable burst of laughter, imagining how embarrassed Jane must be right now for failing to come up with anything useful. His response changed Jane's stance, who must now have realized her mistake. "Is that the best you can do?" Cleo quickly crouched down slightly to invoke his next skill, conserving his magic to try another one of his preferred spells. "Pin Missile!" Cleo created a dark colored glyphring that immediately began to fire a barrage of concentrated glowing needles towards Jane. The attack is designed to deal heavy piercing damage, with the added pain of stinging everywhere.

Jane held one arm out in front of her with her fist shut, magic expending through her body. This time, she invoked another power shield that only protected her from the frontal side, similar to the Farshield ability she used earlier. The shield she put up was actually weaker than the last one and smaller by size, but it was still strong enough to stand up to Cleo's low power attack. The needles that manage to hit Jane's shield bounced off and faded, leaving behind only large hexagons without giving Jane much trouble.

After it was over and Jane dropped her shield, she now had the opportunity to take advantage of the new situation she had just created. Cleo might be resilient and tough, but no magic in world would allow him to resist what she had in mind. Jane charged up her energy, giving Cleo a vain hint her specific style and plan being put to use. "I'm glad you thought Water Blast had no official uses. Prepare to feel what real pain is. Thunder Flare!" Jane aimed at Cleo while creating a sky colored glyphring in front of her. The magic was sent to Cleo's position immediately, trapping him inside of a large translucent blue sphere that became more solid each millisecond that passed. Before Cleo could realize what was happening, the sphere he was trapped inside of activated its magic while throwing in all of the electrical energy it had to offer.

Cleo was suddenly being electrocuted with Leray elemental magic that also yielded a high voltage due to Jane's magic. She had learned Thunder Flare earlier as well, knowing for certain that it did not carry any dark magical effects, but the best part about this was that Jane managed to find a way to neglect his elemental resistances. Right now, Thunder Flare was far more potent than it normally would be. Though it was still in effect, Cleo for the first time let out painful groans while his body was stuck in a jolt hold. After being blasted with water soaking his entire body, his ability to conduct electricity would have gone up significantly despite his dress sphere to protect him, and the result was already promising before the Thunder Flare even ended. For about four seconds after the spell started, Cleo was constantly taking damage over the time he had the energy traveling through him in the painful sensation of burning and tingling electricity. It was as if his resistances to damage were not there anymore, and he had to suffer every moment of time until the spell finally ended.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/nhYdj6K3/S3-Cleo-N-004.png]

After the sphere around him faded away, Cleo felt dizzier than he did any previous battle. He shifted his weight to his knees, bending his legs to crouch down and stay conscious. Everything was hurting so suddenly, the last attack leaving him with a massive headache. Even though his limbs were tingling, it was the type of sensation that hurt in a unique way, the sensation of having a million needles stab him over and over in every small place imaginable. At the same time, Cleo found himself drained of energy for a good few seconds. It took him a lot of time to figure out where he just went wrong, and more time to try and stand back up. No matter what he was doing, Jane's last spell managed to keep him hurting on and on. "That was..." Cleo composed himself while standing without a slouch. His physical recovery didn't take that long, but Jane seemed to be in waiting mode, wondering what to do next. "That was excellent!"

"Hm..." Jane knew from before that Cleo was about to give her praise, but that also meant he would try and attack her shortly after his words were complete. She remained ready for it.

"Using a useless spell like Water Blast and turning it into a personal weakness against me... I don't believe I've ever seen anyone try it before, and I've battled against countless elites." Jane wasn't saying anything back, likely expecting a sneaky attack from himself. Cleo immediately understood her urgency to wrap up the battle immediately, and began charging for a different spell. "Very well Jane. We shall continue this fight with no further interruptions. I will show you what it is like to battle in pain. Shadow Force!"

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Here it comes! Jane hadn't heard of the ability before, but one of the first things she noticed was a dark and nearly invisible Shadow Wave coming from where Cleo spawned it from. The Shadow Wave was approaching Jane quickly from her front, and she wanted to make sure her timing was correct, already prepared with the energy to invoke power shield on her command.

Cleo watched as Jane was suddenly shoved forward into the frontal Shadow Wave by the three other waves that slammed her from behind. She obviously didn't know what the spell was capable of, and as Jane failed to raise her personal shield up in time, she took damage from four consecutive hits of smaller, more refined versions of Shadow Wave. Jane was shoved to the ground quickly, but she did her best to recover just as fast as she was pushed down. Shadow Force spawns four different Shadow Waves all at the same time in different angles of each other to make dodging impossible. Jane didn't see the three behind her coming to hit her first, and as a result, she took a significant amount of magical slashing damage. That wasn't even the best part. Cleo didn't even unleash the full version of his attack by adding in the additional dark glyphring that would have fired four dark pulsars at Jane prior to the Shadow Waves hitting her. It would have dealt much more damage, but there was always the chance she would have simply blocked it with her shield, wasting his MP reserves.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/DzCmZwSn/S3-Jane-N-048.png]

Jane could tell that Cleo was a worthy adversary even after taking such a deep and painful hit from an electrical attack. That must have been what Krysta meant from the hint she gave her earlier. Jane needed a game changer, and that meant trying a new spell that had yet to be field tested beyond one time. Jane had to charge up a large amount of MP energy to prepare the invocation. "Blaze Storm!" Jane's spell had a delayed start to cast itself into the field, but the effects would take some time to appear anyway. Blaze Storm is a power level nine spell that affects the entire environment, heating the air of the battlefield to 150oF and holding there for a lengthy period of time. While dealing a small amount of fire elemental damage over a period of time constantly, Blaze Storm is more designed to keep the environment too hot to function in. While the user of the spell is normally not supposed to be affected by the same thing, Jane had no such knowledge of excluding herself from the variables. She too would burn up soon, but at least Cleo would have a rough time battling once the room temperature gets high enough.

The effects of the spell began somewhat slowly. Without the appearance of a glyphring, aura, or a focal point in the environment, it almost seemed as if nothing was going to happen many moments after Jane's cry, but it wasn't long before the air between everything had a noticeable visual effect. The space between everything became wavy in her eyes. Jane could see the distortion of rapid heat coming off the ground and from above, creating a morning mirage as if the two of them were standing in a super-heated desert. Up to the ceiling, the air retained a faint orange bloom, like someone had colored the fog there. The heat was turning up fast, already creating a very small amount of mist everywhere that barely reduced the field of view for Jane's perception. It felt like being stuck out in the hot sun with twice the amount of heat and discomfort. The humidity was very high too. Jane was already beginning to sweat with the bulk of her dress sphere not allowing much of her skin to breathe.

Though the change in temperature going all the way to 150 degrees took ten long seconds, Cleo didn't interrupt any part of it. He knew about Blaze Storm, a very powerful spell that the other elite used in order to bring a fiery advantage in battle. Blaze Storm is only useful for making the opponent suffer from heat exhaustion. At the same time, adding fiery magical attacks and elements onto the same target can really show off just how powerful and overwhelming fire damage is for the people who embrace such styles. But seeing Jane place her hands on her knees and breath a bit faster told him the ability was just completely new to her. Oddly, she has perfected the actual spell so well; it was the same power level as the one he experienced before.

Now that the heat was at full temperature, Cleo should have been kneeling down ready to pass out, his skin burning as if someone intensified the sun with a magnifying glass right under him, but Cleo didn't seem as exhausted. Jane couldn't believe her eyes. Despite how bad she was feeling from this, Cleo was still standing tall and normal as if nothing had happened, but he was at least affected by the damage of the spell. His bald head became shiny from his sweat, and the energy scope above him reported damage being done over time. It had already gone down from 70% HP to 63% HP. He obviously didn't care about pain or battle damage. Now he was resistant to heat as well, which was worse in Jane's case considering this was hot enough to dry his soaked clothes on the spot.

"Impressive power," Cleo allowed. "But I've gotten used to the heat and the cold. Nothing you do can affect me. Nothing you do can exceed the amount of pain I can handle. You're fighting an elite warrior with decades of experience Jane! You show no chance of victory against me or my style of battle."

Jane felt so tired and overcooked already. She chose to ignore the fact that her energy scope may have reported damage to herself as well, and decided to at least stand up for herself against Cleo's terrible attempt to get her backing down from the fight. "You don't even know who I am!" Jane had to pause between her next sentences, gasping for air as the drops of sweat rolled down her face from her hair. Her entire body under the dress became sticky from the adhesive fluid. "You don't know why I'm here, and what I've come to do! I'm capable of much more than you'll ever be! That's what a Leray master's job is!"

"What you're capable of? Are you going to show me after so much child's play?!" Cleo desperately demanded that Jane throw in another spell, anything that made her try harder, but she didn't do very much from panting in place. Cleo waited only one short moment more, then decided to change the way things were going. "You may very well be the real deal, but you are too young and inexperienced for this fight. I'll end it here, Pin Missile!" Invoking the same spell he tried once before, Cleo's magical invocation was slightly faster than the last time, and due to Jane's shared exhaustion, the start of the ability had already caught her by surprise. Cleo let the small glowing needles of power fly from his glyphring in a dense area towards Jane.

Jane didn't want to do anything anymore except to cool herself down. When she saw an entire barrage of flying needles approaching her, all she wanted to do was block it somehow. Before she could even decide to raise her power shield up in time, her skin became penetrated by over a dozen small yet very painful magical needles. Each one felt like a knife entering her skin, the stinging pain exaggerated by the additional input of Cleo's magical energy in the same spell. Since it happened so fast and in multiple areas at once, Jane had no chance of ignoring the accumulation of pain, and sunk to the floor. Jane did her best not to scream or yell, but the needles that stuck into her skin failed to fade away like most magical abilities. Pin missile is designed like this on purpose. The actual damage done isn't very high, but it can be effective in disabling the targets. Jane's hands were at least clean, but she had to keep them off the metal floor less she burn the palms of her skin there as well. "Naaagh! Not good!" Her volume was forced down by the cringe of her entire body trying to reject as much pain as possible. Jane couldn't help that the spell used against her was too powerful, the needles altogether hurt too much!

image [https://i.postimg.cc/PxPJ8nDZ/S3-Jane-N-049.png]

Cleo felt satisfied at where this was going, and at the same time disappointed that Jane didn't provide herself as much more sport for his practice. It was a mystery to him as for how Jane managed to get past Krysta's quick tactics, but perhaps it was something more practical and specific that allowed Jane to overcome it. As of right now, just like any other person, the pain inflicted from Pin Missile was just too much to handle. Jane could at least move her disabled body if she needed to in order to survive, but invoking a spell at the same time even in the event of an adrenaline rush would not be possible. Now that Jane was disabled, exhausted, and sunken in morale by the intense heat she forced upon herself, Cleo charged up his energy for one last spell, chanting the name aloud before beginning due to the difficulty in nature of invoking the high power level ability in Leray magic. "Hyper Beam!"

Jane heard the man call out another form of magic, soon to hit her. Though the actual ability did not strike her yet, Jane knew it was soon to come. With the difficulty in simple muscle movement, dodging or evading Cleo's powerful spell would not be possible. Only a power shield would save her from whichever spell Hyper Beam was supposed to be made out of. All she would need to do is stand up and cast the shield aura around her... "Come on!" Jane's voice still could only escape through her teeth. She tried her hardest to stand up from kneeling on her knees. Through all of the pain, which intensified more when she moved an inch anywhere inside her, Jane could now see a very large and bright glyphring spawning in front of Cleo, his spell taking longer than most to actually do something. His Hyper Beam must be an ability big and powerful. Jane knew she only had one chance.

Knowing she would regret this very soon, Jane gave herself one big boost of confidence and bravery. Lifting herself to a full stance in a simple shove from her legs that were also riddled with needles, Jane cross her arms again all the way out and sent the charged magic through to form her power shield like before. Only this time something unusual happened as a result. Just before Cleo's Hyper Beam attack was unleashed, Jane horrifyingly felt and watched as all of the needles stuck into her skin were immediately pushed outward from the physical force of her personal shielding aura, all falling to the ground with a slight bounce. Jane could see her own blood, though due to the nature of the Leray protection veil, the wounds were already healed just enough for the punctures in her skin to not bleed. Though they were completely red, only oozing a tiny amount of the drying red fluid that was there from the initial skin penetration. The shielding aura starts from inside of her own body, and since it spanned outward around her to cover a slightly larger external radius, Jane's own power shield expunged anything alien to herself, something she did not think was possible until just now.

Though the process hurt more than before, it only lasted for a split second before everything in her nervous system calmed down. Jane's power shield was running at full capacity, and now with the needles out of her skin, the pain that was there and everywhere became only a third of the intensity it was before. With her mobility restored, the shielding aura protecting her from the intense heat of Blaze Storm, and the morale given to Jane by her will to fight to the very end literally lifted her out of immediate danger from Cleo's first attack designed to disable her for the entire battle. Jane had done it! She enabled the power shield despite the impossible pain she was stuck with. The needles on the ground still were left there, telling Jane the spell was designed to last for a very long time. That cleaver son of a—

After his spell was fully charged, making the total invocation time three seconds long, the center of the glyphring lit up like a bright star. The sphere of light then quickly fired and transformed in the form of a beam spanning only to the direction in which Jane was stationed at. The flash of light from the Hyper Beam only lasted for five hundred milliseconds, the invocation much longer than the actual spell itself. Cleo only noticed Jane's power shield after he fired off his powerful spell. The beam of light became completely absorbed into the glowing aura around Jane, leaving behind small little hexagons in the place where Hyper Beam had hit. Despite everything that happened earlier to potentially surprise him, this little development made him wince with his fists shut.

Jane lowered her hands and disabled her power shield just after the beam of light faded. After the field collapsed around her, Jane felt the sudden blaze of heat upon her again. But overall, the pain she was in before had been reduced to a level so low that she was free to move around again. She could even run around to places like this if she needed to, but if the Blaze Storm ran for a longer time, her stamina would not stick for very long. Jane's eyes opened a little wider when noticing the dramatic change on Cleo's energy scope. The drop in HP was explained by the overall damage from Blaze Storm, but his drop in MP could have only come from his Hyper Beam, which failed to hit her. Such a wasted ability, one that had to be powerful! That beam should have eaten her shield alive, but instead, Jane remained strong... Does power shield's defense get stronger with more uses too?

image [https://i.postimg.cc/8CpZhttN/S3-Cleo-N-005.png]

Before anything else happened, the orange glow effect from the heat on the ceiling suddenly faded to normal colors again. The temperature rapidly declined much faster than it accumulated, leaving behind a blissful sensation to both competitors as the rush of cooler air shrouded their entire bodies. The process still happened over a lengthy period of time, but even Cleo was a bit distracted by the end of Blaze Storm.

Jane on the other hand used that time to charge more energy from herself into another powerful attack spell. "Blast Wave!" Jane lifted her arm up high and threw her fist down while releasing the spell in a quick form of invocation. It was costly to her MP energy levels, but Cleo would have little defensive against the element of explosive damage.

"What?!" Cleo found himself surrounded by random explosions and blasts occurring out of nowhere. He had seen this spell used before as well, normally useless to cause damage to him. Jane was so quickly back on her feet and throwing in such heavy power level abilities, Cleo didn't predict this, and failed to come up with a plan to negate the Blast Wave attack. Several explosions began to populate the field, concentrated in the general vicinity of where Cleo was standing. While trying to block and defend himself, the explosions that chained in range to blast him with destructive Leray energy still got through to him regardless of his defensive stance. Since he was hit from one in front and behind his location, blocking was simply a useless gesture. Though the force of each blast still wasn't enough to carry his heavy body off the ground, the damage level was still significant enough to cause him concern after the explosions ended. Still, only two of them managed to hit out of two dozens of blasts, and Cleo didn't find immediate recovery from the explosions to be that difficult.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/xd6tgM4H/S3-Cleo-N-006.png]

Blaze Storm has ended, and Cleo knew he still had the advantage in fighting experience over Jane, but the battle was already getting more intense by the second. He was breathing heavier from the exhaustion. Though his health was reporting 47% HP, he is legally supposed to cease fighting once it falls below 10%, so he might as well be at 37% looking at the scope. It's not much left to work with, and slightly more than what Jane started with. Jane no longer cared about waiting turns in between attacks, even though she did not throw another ability at him just yet. With as much energy as he has left remaining, it would be senseless at this point to rely on attacks only good at dealing pain instead of damage. Cleo instantly made up his mind by charging for a heavier attack spell while standing tall again aiming for Jane. "I'll end this with Meteor Strike!"

There he goes shouting out the names of his skills again. Jane knew Meteor Strike to take some time before actually coming down to blast the entire field. She was somewhat confident that she had just enough stamina to jump on the rocks again and gain altitude, but after realizing what was coming her way, what better time than now to put one last theory to the test? After fusing her unofficial Return spell with more energy and radial potential mixed with the magic involved with inter-dimensional travel, Jane managed to develop a spell much more refined with a frightening change of action. Jane waited for just the right moment, just as Cleo released his magical energy in order to spawn several numbers of meteors from the ceiling downward. They weren't capable of damaging the building in their form either way, but the meteors were spawning rapidly in the double digits of frequency.

Jane waited until the meteors were done spawning, just as the first was about to slam into the ground in front of her. She already began charging a massive amount of Leray energy into her hands, releasing all of it instantaneously while aiming both open palms towards the oncoming swarm. "Inversion!" she screamed in confidence. Jane knew what she was doing with this spell, despite the fact that it would not show up on any official Leray ability list, and it wasn't dark magic either; she knew of the elements used here. As Jane's magic invoked immediately, the meteors coming to crash down on the floor quickly decelerated, all until the burning rocks stopped moving completely.

"No way!" Cleo's jaw dropped at the sight before him. At first, he thought Jane had just frozen time in a particular place. All of the meteors soon to hit the floor were literally frozen, suspended by movement in midair. Every last rock he formed was no longer changing location despite the burning red fiery aura around each meteorite. But Jane's hands were still glowing, her magic still pushing on the rocks as if there was more to her unidentified spell.

Jane had to push more magical energy into this than she thought, which wasn't impossible considering the levels of energy she still had available to her. With her hands still glowing bright blue, Jane tapped into the rest of her power, forcing the suspended rocks to begin moving again. Only this time, Jane had them traveling in reverse! Continuing to affect the rocks, Jane began to control the flow in which Meteor Strike worked. Now the rocks were falling once again, only now they were flying towards the ceiling instead of the ground, every last one of them. The acceleration wasn't very fast, but it picked up on its own rapidly. Jane managed to control the movement flow and speed of the entire area attack using the telekinetic power she learned in her training for more Leray spells. At the same time, she had modified the dimensional data structure of each rock, phasing them between this dimension and another shared parallel plane to this one, the same process as phasic transference that allows objects to travel through space uninterrupted. The meteors all heading for the ceiling suddenly phased through, causing no damage or collision to the physical structure or the dome shield surrounding the battlefield.

At first, it looked as if Jane simply made the meteor swarm fly away beautifully, but before Cleo knew it, another storm of flying meteors suddenly burst through the ground where he was standing, floating through as if the objects were ghosts. The phasic properties left each rock after leaving from beneath the ground. Suddenly surrounded by several burning meteors flying upwards from beneath the ground at close range, Cleo didn't know what to do or what to think, as he was then smashed by the burning physical force of a meteor to his chin. The blast forced him upwards and off the ground, as several more meteors slammed into the back and sides of his body before he was able to hit the ground again.

Jane watched as the meteors she teleported mid-phase came out of the ground again in a different location, all heading for the ceiling once more. Only this time the relocated meteors were blasting all over where Cleo was stationed, the confusion and damage of his own ability destroying what was left of his remaining stamina and health. By the time Cleo was free of the meteors, Jane finished off the last part of her magic, making all of the meteors fade away into the pure form of Leray energy back into the energy realm as they were meant to after blasting the ground. When it was finally over, Jane felt quite drained from the magic she spent performing her own skill known as Inversion, but she still had more MP magic in reserve.

Cleo was hurting in multiple places, the pain registered as blunt damage, a burning painful sensation that mimicked the yet to be bruising on his skin. Cleo wasn't able to believe what just happened, but was forced to contemplate all of it in the short time he took in standing back up. The drain to his stamina was much greater to the pains in his body, as his health took a dramatic dive from Jane's elegant and possibly illegal form of attack. Jane literally cast a spell, reversed the flow of his own area attack, and somehow used it against himself! It can't be possible!

image [https://i.postimg.cc/C1dJ2532/S3-Cleo-N-007.png]

"Dameon!" he yelled. "What did Jane just do? Is that even legal?!"

Cleo looked upset. Of course he was, Jane figured. An entire area attack, an ability sure to hit the target mixed in with a lot of MP energy and damage potential was suddenly used only against the same person who invoked it, all due to a powerful and unfamiliar spell. It seemed sensible for him to ask his own referee about it, though it also made him look as if he were at the brink of defeat. Jane knew her skill was legal. Dark magic doesn't access anything but raw emotion and illegal dimensional data. What Jane just performed was at best a miracle mid-battle. Inversion was something she came up with just after mastering the other unofficial Leray spell known only to Jane as Return.

Return is different in the sense that it only takes control of a single projectile through telekinesis and sends it back to the person who created it. Return cannot be used to control more than one projectile at a time, as this was proven impossible during her training of the skill. Inversion is more advanced. It only works on area attack spells, requiring Jane to take advantage of and use telekinetic magic, teleportation magic, and multi-dimensional magic all at the same time. Inversion can have different effects on attack spells depending on their entire nature. That means it is also a type of Free Form attack, though in this case it would be considered a Reform attack, since Jane is basically creating her own area attack using someone else's hard spawned spell. On the downside however, it ended up costing her thirty percent of her entire MP reserves when it was over with. Return only costs about twenty percent.

Dameon's device failed to register any recent use of dark magical signatures, and he reported to Cleo the answer he sought. "While I can't say I am familiar with the spell Jane has cast called Inversion, the magical energy signature did not register as dark magic. Therefore, her spell was very much legal, however amazing and unexpected it may be."

"Want some more?"

Hearing his opponent speak so loud from afar and so clear with a confident taunting attitude would normally make Cleo angry enough to continue aimlessly battling, but he knew it was a tactic used to lure him in blind. There had to be a better way to fight her. How could someone so young create spells so powerful and clever? With his low HP remaining, Cleo knew he needed an edge, and fast. He thought for a good four seconds to an answer. "Fine. If that's how it is..." The pause to charge up the energy for another one of his spells left suspense in the air before he released it. "Healing Aura!" A coat of light surrounded his entire body in the form of a magical aura colored with a bright green shine. After his MP levels dropped much further down, his HP levels on the energy scope dramatically climbed to higher numbers almost instantly. Cleo was already feeling much better and recharged from the previous damage taken before, the aura fading as soon as the quick use of magic had completely healed himself.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/C1tJpYYx/S3-Cleo-N-008.png]

Jane noticed the effects of the support spell immediately by watching for changes on Cleo's stats. This time he surprised her. All he did was heal, but the amount of health he recovered in a single instant didn't feel fair at all. Then again, her own symbol was capable of such things. How did he do that? "Is that legal?" Jane repeated to Dameon in the distance.

With a swift reply, Dameon took Jane's question to be serious as he answered with the effects of the spell itself. "Healing Aura is a special ability that is legal to use in the field, immediately recovering a large amount of HP for the cost of a heavy amount of Leray energy. The downside to the spell is that it can only be invoked once every few hours."

"We won't be dancing around for that long," Cleo confirmed. If Jane had to ask about Healing Aura, that meant she didn't see it coming. Jane probably didn't know what the spell was until now, and it wouldn't be possible for her to copy such an ability without knowledge of its existence. As he prepared to use another ability, Cleo quickly backed out of it seeing Jane's body glow from her own magical build up. She was about to go first, which put Cleo in an immediate defensive stance and state of mind.

Jane drew her daggers, infusing magic into the blades and into herself while activating a skill that Cleo would not be capable of stopping. "Dark Strike!" With full confidence that her skill was still pure Leray magic, Jane remembered the differences in her refined version of Dark Strike from before, warping the space of herself while teleporting to a different dimension all at the same time. Jane begun first with a simple sprint towards Cleo to build herself some speed just before teleporting into thin air.

Jane had done this before in the very last round, but this was Cleo's first experience with something as sophisticated. Jane disappeared completely, reappearing so fast that it couldn't register in Cleo's eyes as anything but an evanescent beam of light over and over again. Cleo was struck with a painful slice of dagger blades to his chest, then again to his side and other side. The attacks were relentless and sudden, too much for him to handle a simple method of blocking the damage. The pain wasn't bad enough to leave him partially disabled, but with each strike, the damage level was really high. With one last teleportation, Cleo found himself helpless as Jane descended from above, holding her dagger blades out to slice deep into his skin upon impact with her and the ground. Cleo thought fast and tried to duck backwards to evade, and he was only partially successful. Only one of Jane's daggers managed to slash him, and it only cut the very edge of his chest through his clothing to add to all of the red marks on his body underneath. Jane teleported once more to retain her distance from Cleo, but Cleo was left with the inability to track her movements the entire time. He wasn't aware of this, but the show she just put on looked amazing from an aerial view for the cameras, which had a higher frame rate of video capture.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/QCTmXPxk/S3-Cleo-N-009.png]

Jane felt like she could collapse at any second after finishing her last skill sequence, and the reason for it was the obvious picture in front of her.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/B6k6T75z/S3-Jane-N-050.png]

Without taking any damage from the last time she checked her energy scope, Jane's MP levels were nearly dry. It was already tiring her out in the battle. Cleo had less stats available, but he must be used to such situations by now. Jane thought of any way she could increase her potential energy without relying on her symbol again.

Cleo's heart was racing from the intensity of the battle overall. He did not expected Jane to last this long from the start, but he also noticed how tired she seemed right about now. With only ten percent of her magical energy remaining, Jane's capabilities would be limited. Even her power shield would not be able to function once that number drops to zero, and she has to know this. Cleo charged up his energy, deciding to keep things simple incase Jane tries something else in the meantime. "Tri-Attack." Cleo's version of Tri-Attack was about the same as Jane's version. The only difference was how used to invoking the spell he was with the glyphrings and the magic. His invocation of Tri-Attack was so incredibly fast, that the three elemental glyphrings formed at the speed of light, and fired their payloads shortly after.

Jane had insufficient time to react to the situation, already being zapped with the Lightning Strike from the bright glyphring. Just after the strike of electrical energy ended, Jane was then hit with an Ice Bolt and a Fire Bolt before she could blink her eyes and shake the first impact off. Just like that, Cleo's glyphrings faded from view, his Tri-Attack being invoked with the quickest speed Jane has ever seen before. The damage done to her wasn't as bad, but with her lowering health and energy, she needed an immediate solution.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/KjTYJ7J8/S3-Jane-N-051.png]

Now that Jane thought about it, her health was only half-full, which was still considerably high compared to the proportionate health remaining for Cleo. With the low energy amount, she already had one good idea for a quick recovery to her energy. She only felt like her end was nearing because of the low MP levels. There was one more skill Cleo would likely overlook, another ability that he would not be familiar with even though Claudia gave it to her. "Energy Cycle!" Jane's purple aura surrounded her body and remained there for a time long to end. Her MP stats began rising passively at a much quicker rate in response, prompting Cleo to figure this out while choosing his next ability. Though Jane could have thrown in another attack, she knew she would need to intentionally get beat up a bit before it would happen.

"Efreet!" Using all of the remaining power in his arsenal, Cleo created a solid yellow glyphring far out in front of him, forming a giant blazing arm crawling from the center of the airborne ring. The arm of Efreet is a partial summon of an incomplete monster through the use of Leray magic, creating a massive arm made entirely out of molten lava and solidified rocks. The live animated structure looked as though it came from an active volcano merged with a beast one would only expect to see in Alpha Zero.

Jane was suddenly surprised by the spawn of Efreet, and was powerless to stop its amazing crush on the ground, on top of her. Jane was suddenly pushed to the floor with an impossible force that immediately gave her a bruising headache, and immediate burns all over her body from the added fire elemental damage that comes with the same spell. Jane couldn't tell if the summon would remain there or go away, but she didn't want to get up at all after feeling the exhaustion that followed her bruises. The pain alone was bad, but Jane was suddenly feeling weak and lightheaded too. It took her forever to crawl herself back up just to get off her stomach. She felt like she has already lost the match.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/qB6gJ04H/S3-Jane-N-052.png]

Cleo was amazed at himself when he watched Jane's HP down by 39% HP in just one hit. His Efreet spell thus retreated back into the fading glyphring, leaving him with all he had left. Jane took the molten fist smash so hard that Cleo could end this right now if he got in just one more attack spell, but the sudden and immediate increase to Jane's MP allowed him to discover the secret behind another one of Jane's mysterious spells. Energy Cycle must convert damage into MP. She was weak, but also still capable of invoking powerful spells. In contrast, his MP stats were now worthless. Cleo would only be capable of invoking a smaller power level spell. By the time Jane finally got back to her feet, he went with a simple spell that would have still been enough.

Jane could see charring marks appear on her dress sphere, and hoped they would come off in the wash, but she felt more concerned by how close the battle was becoming now. Cleo still has so much health, and Jane would need every advantage to win. Cleo already seemed to be using magic, and Jane attempted to interrupt his spell before he could get in his hit. "Spirit Bolt!" A more simplified spell Jane learned in her training last night is something she could use here too. The glyphring that formed immediately in front of her had the interesting blend of color between pink and purple with a bright radiance of light. From the center of her glyphring, Jane fired something known as a Spirit Bolt, a glowing magical projectile with the same color as its glyphring with interesting elemental properties. Spirit elemental damage is useless for reducing HP on humans, but carries a profound effect of confusion and disorientation to the same species.

Cleo was suddenly slammed with a Spirit Bolt long before he could try and put his unique spell into action. The projectile hit him right in the face and interrupted his entire routine. The blast wasn't painful at all, but it left him feeling dizzy and disoriented in seconds.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/gcC4MYNM/S3-Cleo-N-010.png]

One thing Jane probably did not realize is that Spirit Bolt can also occasionally recharge one's own MP energy when hit by its effects, at least for human targets. Cleo still wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing as he tried once more to invoke the spell from before. "Ice Cannon!" While aiming his arm at Jane and creating an ice elemental glyphring around his wrist, Jane took a defensive stance just before Cleo launched his spell. Just as he attempted to release his own energy into the glyphring, Cleo's spell simply refused to invoke itself, the glyphring already fading away. To his own surprise, Cleo didn't understand why his own ability failed to invoke, but he felt more confused than ever now. The strong sensation of passing out coming to him became twice more powerful than a moment ago.

Jane didn't want to lose the battle, but she felt sadly curious about what type of spell Ice Cannon was capable of. It didn't seem as if Cleo was able to invoke one of his own spells, which more than likely came from the distortion effects of the Spirit Bolt she casted on him before. Jane ignored the need for any specific strategy so far, and started using abilities that went far in damage dealing potential. "Star of Darkness." Her hands were glowing with a red auric color, reminding Jane that the spell itself is a signature dark magical ability. At the same time, it was the only legal dark magic spell allowed in all of Sprawn Valley. Even if Dameon's device goes off again, it would be for nothing since this is a legitimate ability designed to drain the energy and HP out of the victims.

Jane's spell began to draw a red circle with a star inside of it on the ground where Cleo was standing, the radius going to a wide area of which he had no time to run away from. As the spell activated, Cleo was suddenly being sunk down from the draining effect on his stamina. Oddly, he didn't try to dodge, but it also did not seem like Cleo was trying to take it like a man either. He seemed more confused than ever, obviously vulnerable to the effects of Spirit Bolt. Jane suddenly found this to be a bit too easy, but it would only take one more clean hit from Cleo to completely knock her out. With his health, Jane knew already that this would not be the end for her opponent by a long shot.

As Cleo's HP declined by the seconds over time, he seemed helpless to break the cycle. By the time the star began to fade, a red glyphring above him spawned a deep red lightning bolt down on top of him, immediately knocking down his HP even further. His HP dropped to 34% capacity from the spell alone, and then more from the last-second Lightning Strike at the end of the spell. As soon as it was over, Cleo felt himself become ever more weak and helpless. His end was near, his judgments compromised by other elements. It was going to be over soon.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/y6gvXJXg/S3-Cleo-N-011.png]

Jane took a defensive stance after her spell ended. She wasn't entirely sure of what to do next, but Jane knew of several ideas she wanted to try, including one of her new spells that would be costly to her battle should she fail to properly invoke the ability.

"Prism!" Cleo snapped out of his momentary trance long enough to form a colorful glyphring around his arm again. Only this time the glyphring would be capable of much more. If Jane fails to shield against it or interrupt Cleo this time, her fight would be over. As he prepared the energy, Cleo started with a Fire Bolt in his head, cycling between the elements firing from the center of the ring.

"Light Strike!" Jane wasn't certain how well this would work, but with the energy already charged up, her MP stats declined by an entire handful of 30% just to invoke the amazing spell. This one wasn't something she made up on her own, though it was legendary in very rare scriptures Claudia managed to find for her. Consisting of a power level of ten, Jane begun her defense aura, which was only the first part of the spell. Her entire body became shrouded with a very bright and colorless aura of light that immediately lifted her off the ground. Jane literally began to levitate upwards slowly, the gravity-defying aura surrounding her intensifying just as the elemental bolts from Cleo's Prism attack came to deliver their damage. Jane knew of its properties, but was only able to observe the real effect for the first time. It amazed her already that she managed to invoke the spell again with such elegance and perfection, but continued to concentrate on her imagination of the spell happening in real time to prevent her loss of focus.

As the elemental bolts began striking against Jane's new aura, the shield reflected all of the damage without struggle whatsoever. The process was similar to one of her power shields, but contained more of a solid defensive potential against all damage types disregarding all circumstances. Jane was now floating six feet off the metal floor like an angle, her arms spread apart and locked in place while the second half of her spell began charging up. Light Strike's first amazing effects mimics an invulnerable power shield for the entire moment the spell is lasting, absorbing all damage taken for more potential energy to use against the target in the second phase. By the time Cleo realized that Jane wasn't taking any damage, he simply let go of his focus on Prism, ending his spell early to gawk at another miracle before his eyes. He had obviously never seen such an amazing power before, and was clueless about how to defend himself should there be an attack part of the spell.

Jane finally unleashed the power within her aura towards Cleo's position, sending twenty solid photons of light in the form of quick moving projectiles with homing properties on the target. The photons of light were even brighter and more reflective than her auric shield around her. Jane's photons carried with them more than just magical damage. It's considered a form of light-elemental magic, which means it combines all of the elements together into one solid form of energy that rejects all potential resistances to the target upon impact, said to be much more powerful than non-elemental magic. Jane sent twenty small yet powerful photons of light shooting towards Cleo during her levitation, her shield running at the same time while giving power to the Light Strike attack spell. All of the photons of light drilled into Cleo's skin effortlessly, draining his health rapidly while he sank to the ground in defeat. This was something Jane had only dreamed of doing so successfully, and without realizing it yet, she performed something incredible on television, as well as the spell that would give her an immediate victory. As soon as the wave of photons stopped firing from her shield, Jane began to slowly and gently descend back to the ground, her aura calmly fading just as her feet softly planted themselves back onto the metal floor. Jane had a hard time controlling the entire process, and it took a ton of concentration to properly diffuse the shield made out of light magic. By the time Jane was back to herself again, as tired and exhausted as she was, she noticed that Cleo suddenly became incapacitated.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/8PL49qYT/S3-Cleo-N-012.png]

Jane oddly had a struggle to remember what she just did. The process of her magic a few seconds ago was nearly automatic and vague to her memory, but it obviously worked considering how broken Cleo was by all of the damage to his body. He was clenched down, holding the right side of his hip and alternating the arm to his stomach. Somehow, the spell caused him a lot of pain and suffering, but the thing he suffered from the most was the overwhelming desire to pass unconscious from the combination of low health and MP energy. Jane declared this as a miracle that his energy scope did not turn red from the damages of the entire battle. With some energy left in herself, she took a stance again, preparing herself for anything more he would try and throw at her.

Cleo hummed a muffled groan of pain, and desperately tried to stand up with failure due to his fatigue. His entire vision was becoming blurred and delayed, and Jane was still standing in the distance, ready to take even more punishment. This is it, he told himself. It's over! "I can't take any more! I give up." His last decision came with a cough from his lungs, his body barely capable of keeping up with the incredible exhaustion and physical stress he strained himself with.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Vassari 6 ~ Solar Empire OST

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Dameon lifted his arms up, diffusing the tiny shield around himself, and then collapsing the entire Siriean dome that took up most of the room. With that following, he announced the results. "Cleo is unable to battle. I hereby announce the victory of this match to Jane Venn!" Dameon knew the announcer and audience were picking this up with a ten-minute delay, but it still didn't change the importance of protocol while making everything official for the show. His next duties would be to immediately help Cleo recover with an advanced healing orb, but his response was delayed from everything that just replayed itself in his mind. That fight was the most amazing thing he had ever seen before. Jane's level of spells were all unique and powerful, well beyond the average skill level of any elite combatant, and now she would be moving on to the third round after this.

Jane sat herself down on the floor to try and catch her breath. Her entire body was sticky and soaked with the sweat from her own spell that did so little against her opponent. Even though the Blaze Storm ended long ago, the room was still relatively warm and uncomfortable. Jane could feel her rapid heartbeat banging through her skull as the sensation made her feel lightheaded. Finally getting the chance to relax was something Jane embraced while she fiddled with her knives to make sure they were safely tucked away into her white and green dress sphere redesigned by Taylor.

Dameon gave the healing orb to Cleo, who was actually conscious and sane enough to take it from him and use it himself. The bruises and stabbing pain from Jane's last attack left the most amount of damage on him. Cleo could only wait and recover before delivering his evaluation to Jane. It was already obvious to him that he has lost the battle at hand, as unexpected as it was since he first began the fight against her. To think that all of the spikes and blades pointing out at the edge of the circular field were totally useless because nobody got near the edge. What a waste for the purpose of the show.

Jane had some time to think while Dameon made sure the light of the orb totally replenished Cleo's stats, already rising higher on his energy scope. Dameon simultaneously had to reach Jane's position and hand her a healing orb as well, which she was more than capable of using all by herself. Jane considered the way in which the fight went down the entire time while holding a blinding ball in her hands degrading itself to give her its energy. In the same instance, Jane deactivated her energy scope stats, trusting that the orb was going to do its job regardless of double-checking it. Everything about that battle was rough. Jane knew most of her spells were experimental when used against Cleo, who did know of a few countermeasures to use against her, but his best strength was his incredible endurance to hold up against such attacks. Yet Jane's power level was more than enough to overcome it. She still didn't rely on her symbol to win the fight for her, coaxing it to stay hidden with only her willpower.

"Naagh!" Cleo let out an aggravating groan. "I can't believe I lost this time! I wasn't surprised that Krysta failed to own someone so fast and talented at any given moment. But then for me to lose..."

Jane realized Cleo was really talking to himself or to Dameon. He wasn't looking directly at her. In the meantime, Jane thought more about some of the specific skills and abilities she had not cast just yet, already close to dry on surprising spells. Then again, despite all of this live recording, the other elites are not allowed to view the footage yet, as it would give them an unfair advantage of Jane's own fighting style. Still, the fight between herself and Cleo was a close call. She was more moved by the thought that she just won the second battle in a row, while Danny and Taylor were downstairs watching the whole thing and cheering her on. It might be confusing though, since that little glitch Jane caused earlier will show up on the broadcast as a cut to nothing.

Cleo finally stood up after Jane did, staring into her determined green eyes from a distance. "You are certainly something else young lady."

"The fifteen minute break will begin as soon as Elite Cleo discusses with you the potential for your next opponent."

Cleo lifted his hand in Dameon's face as a distraction. "That's fine. I've got it from here." Silencing his referee, Cleo stumbled closer to approach Jane, where he would not have to raise his raspy voice. With the healing orb used up, the battle damage was gone, but the pain from it all was lasting still. Jane stood up just as well; evidence of pain inflicted on her lasting the same way it was for him. "That was some battling Ms. Venn. I must say that as an elite, you've managed to surprise me every step of the way."

Jane quickly bowed in front of Cleo to show her respect. "Thank you. It wasn't easy, but I had fun trying to figure out what to do next."

"What was that spell you used to change the properties of my Meteor Strike? Inversion, you said?"

Jane knew this question was coming. If she keeps on surprising everybody like this, she may have her own secret fan club soon. "It's a spell I came up with on my own by manipulating several properties of Leray magic all at the same time, and it took forever to master." Technically, it took Jane hours to master, but the usage of the spell relied on other properties that she knew of before going for this, so her lie had some truth to it just now.

If Jane can manipulate the flow of entire area attacks at will, Danton will have is work cut out for him, unless the others are trained enough to handle this. Cleo glanced all around him, noticing the edge of the field without the Siriean dome. "I must say I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get to use the barbed wire this time, but our long-ranged tactics seemed to remain for the entire time of battle."

"I wasn't sure if close combat would have left much of a mark on you."

Cleo praised Jane's own ability by his memory of the match as his posture became more solid from feeling better. "You've demonstrated your powerful magic while enduring several of my attacks, and even a bit of your own. While I sense you do have much to learn from this match, I think it possible that you may have what it takes to make it all the way to the top. By passing my standards, and with Dameon's official announcement of the victor of the battle, thirteen thousand credits have been transferred directly to your license card on top of the previous bonus reward you obtained from defeating Krysta. As a result, you have accumulated your own battle chain, allowing you to move on to the third elite."

"Are you about to give me a hint about the next challenge?" Jane questioned.

Cleo cleared his throat and prepared to phrase the information Jane needed to prepare for. "Just as Krysta specializes in high agility trick attacks, and just as I specialize in the arts of inflicting and enduring a heavy amount of physical pain, your third opponent will also have a very unique yet trivial area of specialization. Next, you will fight our third elite known to us as Mainne. Mainne very clearly specializes in the magical arts and fighting style all based around very low temperature. That is to say that she relies on ice and wind elemental spells and tactics to bring her opponents to their knees by making it too cold to fight."

"I think I can handle a little cold." Jane sounded so reassuring about it, giving Cleo a weird smile that could have meant more things than what Jane was currently able to imagine.

"Since you've already defeated me, and we cannot have another contestant until you clear or fail the tower, I will be able to watch your next battle with Mainne. I must see how it unfolds, because I can already feel a growing level of uncertainty here."

"Thanks?" Jane wasn't certain of he was complimenting her confidence again, or if Cleo was more sadistic as to wish for Mainne to chew Jane up in the next arena.

Dameon began to chatter again about less important specifics. "The next area will be on the fifth hundred floor of the tower, bringing some more elevation to what is already here. I did receive some interesting word about one of your spells in the first battle causing potential structural damage to the tower, and shall advise you and others not to try it again."

"I'm sorry. I won't let it happen again."

Jane's face got red from remembering the incident, but Cleo had no idea what the two of them were talking about. He wasn't allowed to know about Jane's abilities outside of battle until after their fight, which is why he was left in the dark, but it did give him an interesting reminder about one of several more potential spells Jane may cast out there. "One more thing before you go?"

Jane perked up, wondering in curiosity what else there could be to the scenario. She was still so nervous about the entire process so far, but it became quickly repetitive and routine. The way the elite battles work here is simple as it is difficult. Beat up the elite, move on to the next. One single defeat on her part would end her streak and invalidate her only chance to get an audience with Danton.

"Don't forget what we talked about earlier," he warned. "Dark Lite is just one of many more potential forms of dark magical energy. Dark magic can come in forms of specific spells which call that channel, but there are other ways of converting Leray energy into the opposite force too. If you are not careful, you may even be capable of accidentally converting normal Leray spells into casting the same magic under a different form through the same medium."

"I meant to ask a little about that," Jane confessed. "I don't understand how I accidentally caused that to happen in the first place. I thought dark magic was something you have to know in order to use it."

Cleo exchanged his knowledge on the matter without any fear in his heart. Jane was truly innocent about the incident earlier, and deserves to know about it for the safety of herself and others. "Dark magic is just a reformation of the energy wave patterns in Leray magic designed to reject the same energy signature that supports that magic through the Leray protection veil. Even without the presence of the veil, the similar energy pattern invokes normal and harmless Leray magic. But by changing the energy signature to a different type of waveform, you neglect the ability of your own magic to take into the use of the protection veil, amplifying that power significantly by its effects, while causing real time damage to others in the process. Luckily, you only know of a spell that steals MP from someone else effortlessly. As a result, I suffered no real harm, but you should check your sources about learning recent spells in the future."

Jane nodded, "I will."

"Furthermore," Cleo continued, "It becomes less difficult to learn how to change this form of energy into dark magic as your natural talents improve by battling experience. Meaning, you are most defiantly as prone to this as I am. We can both easily convert Leray magic into dark magic on a subconscious level without knowing about it until it is too late. Becoming highly emotional in a rage or fury during magical casting may have a correlation to this, but just so that you don't forget it later, there is a most useful hint. Dark magical energy leaves visual traces in the same spell you choose to invoke. Auras that form around the buildup of magic have a lot of interesting colors, but almost never will those colors become red in the form of Leray magic. Though there are a few exceptions, such as the Armor of Darkness spell, which is its own form of legal Leray magic. Say for instance that I wanted to shoot a Fire Bolt at you followed by a Thunder Flare. The aura of light building up in my hands for each spell would glow with a red radiance rather than a blue radiance of light assuming I use dark magic, and the difference can be quite subtle to everyone at first, but the spell invoked in itself will also have different visual properties. The Fire Bolt will be a blinding aura of red instead of the normal yellow or orange fiery glow that it contains. The Thunder Flare sphere surrounding a target which is normally all blue in color will be red instead, using red colored electrical bolts that are visually appealing, but also different enough to detect with the naked eye. I warn you about this in the event you ever accidentally begin to invoke such magic without realizing it at first, since you seem like the type to get mixed up in quickly learning magic simply by the feel of things, which can be a dangerous technique."

Jane had learned much more than she thought she would just now. Not only are there spells dedicated to tapping into illegal magic, but it is apparently just as easy as she now knows to pick any magical spell at random and use it in the form of dark magic, giving a familiar Leray spell different properties. Jane wanted to ask how Cleo knew about this, but something about his expression in the moment warded off her question quickly. It was all very new and interesting to her. It's worse that it could at any time happen automatically. Now she would have to worry about accidental invocation of dark magic on top of invocation of her symbol mid-battle. Either accident happening for a singular moment would disqualify her immediately.

"Anyway, I was just trying to warn you about it so that you can take steps in the future to avoid using it again. Your fifteen minutes has already begun, and you should get going to the next arena if you are to make it to the destination on time."

"Will the announcer be muted there as well?" Jane wondered.

Dameon was the one to answer, his tone clearly indicating that he personally knew all of the other elites well. "Normally, only Krysta has her volume on that unmuted, but there have been occasional moments and battles in which Mainne and Brock have all left their speaker systems running at full power."

Jane heard another new name to her mind. Brock? That must have been the fourth elite warrior? Dameon wasn't completely clear about it; it could have been someone who used to work here as an elite, since they can be replaced at any moment's notice. Jane quickly shrugged the thought off, deciding to go and see it for herself. Just like before, she needed to walk to the side of the room behind Cleo, opposite of the area in which she entered the first time. Cleo already had Daemon lower the wall of barbed wire, which initially failed to block the path to the elevators in the first place.

On her way there, Jane could here Cleo and his referee talking with a quiet tone behind her, most likely about herself. She thought about everything she was doing again, and the entire process seemed impossible by her standards. But Jane has defeated two elites in a row so far, bettering her skills in the entire process, and now she was supposed to battle with someone else, someone who apparently likes the cold environment. As the automatic doors shut behind her, Jane prepared herself mentally for the next fight, waiting for the electronic lift to pull her all the way up to the 500th floor of Eldora Tower. There wasn't going to be that much time before she would be in another heated fight, forced to constantly assess all of her options in the time a few short seconds. The third fight would have to be more difficult than the last two. Otherwise, Mainne would be the first contestant, right?