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<02/12/1972 – 11:20 | Eldora Tower Fl. 750, Eldora City, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

After being lifted to the next arena from the primary lift Jane was forced to ride in, the automatic doors opened up in front of her. Jane's heart was already racing, as if the fight could begin in the next few seconds. A sudden flash of heat overwhelmed the entire small room Jane was encased in, coming from the area up ahead. After walking to the large corridor before the circular arena room, Jane immediately noticed that the room had gone from really cold to really warm in a matter of seconds. It was too warm to be a normal thing. It felt like the heat of summer on a clear and bright day intensified on her skin, she already began to sweat beneath her clothes. It must be close to one hundred on a thermostat by now, and Jane would have to get over it.

In the center of the open field, the fourth Elite was already standing there waiting on Jane, with another lady of age further to the left side of the field. The entire room was about as large as the last one with all the open space. Only at the edges of the field was there a dramatic loss in floor. Beneath this different floor was the high-powered heat padding Jane did not yet known about, the system responsible for cooking the entire room and the air inside of it. Jane couldn't help but gasp for quicker breaths, immediately uncomfortable and wishing for the cold to return again.

"So this is the young new challenger with skill?" Brock, who appeared to be in his upper thirties holding more than a six-pack visible through his sleeveless dress sphere of a shirt and denim material, questioned the challenger in front of him. His voice was deep and almost raspy. Nothing about his stance or posture indicated that he was uncomfortable in the slightest, proving to Jane by Mainne's description that this person was indeed her next elite warrior.

Knowing the drill by heart already, Jane continued marching forward despite the ninety-degree heat suffocating her in this room. Only when she reached a verbal speaking distance did Jane announce herself and declare her intentions to battle. "I am Jane Venn, Leray wielder representing my home town of Fronas. Elite level four Brock? I'd like to battle you next. You're all that remains standing in my path towards champion Danton." All of the cameras were flying everywhere, obviously resistant to the extreme heat. Jane knew that it would be early to record anything, but then the editing team would just delay playback even further as a result to maintain consistency within their program.

"You seem to have a tough spirit about you," Brock observed. "Make no mistake Jane Venn. I don't underestimate anyone I dare battle, which is what I assume to be the mistakes of the other three comrades. As you should already know by now, I fight direct and with a level of heat to the field." If she is this small up close, then her most likely tactics will be something sneaky or annoying.

The older lady wearing a bright robe began to explain the rules without first announcing her identity. "This room is affected with a heat system that cannot be shut down or overcome by Leray magic in the field. As such, you will be subject to no in-battle breaks, no attempts to sip on fluids, and no declarations of misconduct. The Leray battle between level four Elite warrior Brock and Jane Venn will begin shortly when both participants are ready."

Jane knew she was getting no breaks, but luckily she already had a chance to sip on water during the last elevator ride. That lift was somewhat slower than the other three, indicating a level of safety at this altitude. It's already bad by this heat, but it won't be enough to overwhelm her.

"Jennison is the referee here," Brock introduced. "What she decrees is final. I'm not going to judge right and wrong in this battle, nor am I about to make this job easier for you."

Jane ticked a sound nearly mimicking a laugh. "You better not. I didn't come all this way to mess around."

Just another fiery temper ready to burn out like the rest of them. Who cares how long it has been since a decent challenge? Danton is attracting the wrong kind of crowd right now, and at times like these... Let's just get this over with. "With such confidence and no more rules to state," Brock assumed, "I doubt there is reason for additional chatter. Jennison? Begin match preparations."

Jane tensed all of her muscles, preparing herself for a quick start of battle. It seemed a little early to begin now, but every nerve in her body was begging for a match to begin right at this moment. The battle fought with Mainne left Jane wanting more and more. Brock certainly seemed tough. There wasn't much about him to go on for a strategy. He is obviously powerful both in physical strength and in magical essence, and with that, his fiery spells will be on limitless scales. Jane grinned after a moment, realizing that despite the difficulty here, winning was most defiantly possible.

The heat was already tough on her though. Jane could feel her brain begging for the cold, her body sweating quickly to try and keep up with the need for homeostasis. The room temperature would stay like this for a while. Jane assumed Brock's strategy would be to try and tire out Jane quickly with this intense heat, making her highly uncomfortable and soon to be unfit for battle without even the need to deal any damage, but it wasn't that bad. Jane was still standing, still firm and ready to strike just as Brock was preparing to. She had to wait until the battle officially begins, with both energy scopes on the field lighting up before Jennison's battle announcements.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/0Ns0fbQx/S3-Brock-N-000.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/T1dbs453/S3-Jane-N-000.png]

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Chapter Theme Shift: The Eternal Struggle ~ FFXIII-2 OST

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As the drone cameras began to fly higher to achieve altitude, Jennison declared the start of battle while raising her voice in the echoing room. "The match between Jane Venn and level four elite warrior Brock will now commence!" With that, she enabled a very large Siriean dome that covered the entire field minus the outer most section that didn't have a level floor. At the same time, a smaller version of a Siriean dome shielded was cast to protect Jennison from further harm as she awaited the resulting start of battle.

Jane wasn't used to how quickly this fight was beginning, but she kept herself wary, long enough to notice Brock taking absolutely no chances at all. He was the one enabling his very first attack, charging up visible auric energy into his hands. The move promoted Jane to immediately make a decision to either stand there or protect herself using her own Leray energy.

"Fiery Plume!" His release in Leray energy already had the entire ground of the battlefield quaking violently, but Brock managed to keep the target center to his eyes at the same time, noticing some sort of blue auric field surrounding the girl's body. Just as the method of his magical attack was released to full potential, several large fire balls partially in phase jumped up through the ground near the target, most of them slamming into Jane.

The heat in the specific area rose quickly, but Jane didn't feel a thing. The large fire balls that slammed into her shield from under the solid floor only left small hexagonal sections on her personal aura, deflecting all of the damage around her while protecting her from the additional heat of the spell. Some of the shooting fire balls missed and continued to fly upward until they disintegrated into the Siriean dome shield surrounding both of them. The blowing steam of heat followed in the same area where each fire ball was launched earlier, adding on for extra damage. The streams of fire lifting through the temporary cracks in the ground threatened to eat Jane's shield aura whole, but against Jane's power shield, the damage was still no match. However, just as the spell was over, Jane felt her concentration on the power shield slipping, forcing herself to drop it fast, and she remained lucky that she outlasted the power of Brock's first strike.

Brock clenched his hands into fists, failing to account for hidden tricks such as this abnormal shield Jane used to protect herself. Her health status did not dropped an inch, and her MP levels barely declined either. Fiery Plume has a power level of eight and a large MP cost to use, and Jane made such a spell effectively useless with little effort, but now her secret was already out in the open. The announcer would be reporting this to the audience, not that Brock would care. He too kept such systems in mute mode to not disrupt the battle. Now that Jane was safe and okay, she was using magic to invoke one of her own spells.

After charging enough Leray energy into her hand, Jane chanted, "Tri-Attack!" and unleashed her power to summon three distant glyphrings all forming a specific shape of a triangle. Just then, the elemental glyphrings all fired at Brock, hitting him with Lightning Strike, Fire Bolt, and Ice Bolt within seconds of each other. Instead of dodging the projectiles, Brock stood there helplessly as he could only stay strong and absorb the damage with his skin. Despite the obvious wincing from the electrical attack, all three hits from the spell did minimal damage compared to Jane's own expectations.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/pdJY1Rhj/S3-Brock-N-001.png]

Brock didn't understand Jane's reason for using such a useless and predictable attack, nor did he use such data to form any kind of hypothesis about her battle tactics. Since he retained much training with elemental spells and a natural resistance to fire damage, Jane just wasted her breath. Brock charged up more of his energy into a powerful attack, one designed to use that compressed MP energy at the maximum output. "Eruption!" he yelled. With his right hand glowing with a nearly white aura, he summoned and shot from the white aura - spheres of fire and lava all massive in size, five consecutively launched spheres of fire elemental magic that behaved in midair like falling projectiles. Brock shot his spell angled up slightly, making sure they would get some distance and speed before landing on top of Jane.

Jane invoked another power shield around herself again, hoping to block out all five spheres of fire that were all going to strike her at separate moments and intervals, only a second away from the first hit now. The explosive power and light from the first impact to the shield created quite a spectacle, blocking Jane's ability to see much of anything beyond that brilliance. The hexagons all formed in multiples areas and spread further apart, indicating just how powerful the heat factor is to Brock's unleashed spell.

Jane never saw or heard of Eruption before, but she never could have imagined that it would become this powerful from any particular person. It more closely resembled one of the lava blasts that she remembered taking from the Char Monster back in Alpha Zero, only this time there were five of these spheres at once. The second sphere of burning lava smashed into the top of her shield, shortly afterwards creating a stress on Jane's focus further than she ever felt before. The difficulty was of course keeping the power to her auric shield going, but she never had a chance past one more second. In less time than what Jane was able to fully control, the power shield around her immediately collapsed in the same way Siriean domes do at the end of battle. Afterwards, Jane was left defenseless as she spotted three more large fiery spheres heading her way, guided by gravity only.

Brock let a smirk cross his cheekbone, watching the hopeless person far in front of him choke on her indecisiveness to do anything about the lava spheres in front of her. They all landed on top of her skin, collapsing into an aura of fire so hot that the radiant heat alone could cause second-degree burns with the Leray veil. The liquid material in each sphere was much hotter than ordinary fire, much more painful with a fiery effect that would have been considered illegal if it were not discovered that Eruption is still a form of Leray magic and not dark magic. Despite this little detail, Jane collapsed to the floor on her knees, rubbing her arms, elbows, and stomach in the aftermath that followed from just one hit. With two more fire spheres on its way, Brock could only watch in disappointment as Jane let out a scream that echoed through the room, piercing through the walls themselves until the light from the final two spheres clouded the visual field revealing Jane's physical position.

Jane previously felt incredible burns before in the dark zone from monstrous attacks, but nothing in the entire world compared to this. The pain was immense and quick to fade into a duller sensation of stinging. It was so powerful of an aggressive burn that Jane was dazed long after the light from each hit had faded and gone away. After she was left in her half-conscious state, Jane wanted to move and get back up, but every burn mark hurt so badly that it broke her entire chain of thought every second. Her body trembled in a natural response of shock while every nerve felt like it was still encased in flames.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/N0PftCn0/S3-Jane-N-058.png]

Brock noticed that despite how much it must have hurt his opponent, Jane's energy scope was still not in a red zone. In fact, that spell is most often lethal to anyone who comes into contact with it. Despite the overall magic overwhelming Jane's personal shield, the shield itself protected her from two out of five lava spheres exceeding a power level of nine each. It was impressive in its own right, but Jane relied on her defensive shield far too often. With her body crippled by the pain of several burns, Brock wasn't just going to wait for her to feel any better. "You should have prepared for a strategy involving intense heat!" he hollered. "Now I'll deliver one more blow after the next, with Volley!"

After putting much more emphasis on the name of his spell, Brock's hands lit up with an aura as his released magic quickly began to spawn a massive number of sharp arrows from a high point in the air above him. Each arrow was covered in a hint of fire, indicating they were fire arrows on top of dealing heavy piercing damage. With this ability, his MP levels barely dropped an inch.

Quickly recalling the reason she was here, including the faith and trust given to her by Jane's friends, the thought was more than enough to will herself through the burning sensations all over her body. Jane stood up with her fists and teeth clenched tightly. She noticed that a barrage of arrows spread wide was sure to impact her soon from above, and the power shield trick wasn't going to be enough to fend this guy off. Jane knew of several ideas and techniques to defend herself while attacking; there were numerous new skills and abilities she learned from her previous battles, and all she needed now was to use the right ones. It was hard enough just standing up in this much burning pain, but Jane finally managed to block most of it out from her mind.

By the time Jane came up with an idea, she had more afterwards, as well as immediate initiative to spring into action. Barely set into strategizing and thinking, she became entranced with her natural ability to fight back and analyze every single aspect of any airborne target in the air. It would have been easy to use Inversion right then and there, but Brock was strong enough to handle his own spell. Instead, Jane collected the MP energy all around her, shrouding her into a dark cloudy aura that activated on her command, just a moment before the first falling arrow struck her from above. "Dark Strike!"

Jane managed to pull her daggers out from hiding and infuse them with Leray energy right before disappearing into a teleportation state. As her essence transcended beyond the physical dimension, Jane became capable of turning herself into a solid beam of visible light from the same spectrum. To her, she was flying straight and forward at the speed of light, using her daggers to strike Brock's chest, arms, and back with every chance she got. Jane teleported away before reaching the edge of the dome field, reappearing a distance away at a different angle to score more hits, each time expending more of her own MP energy. After the fourth teleportation, Jane ended up flying downward from above with her daggers out and ready to strike with the additional force of gravity, the blades seeping directly into Brock's shoulders before he was able to react to any of it.

In the same instance, Brock let out a manly yelp of pain, as Jane's retraction of her blades managed to draw just a little blood in the same motion. After landing and getting her blades back, Jane hopped backwards, getting some distance from her opponent before anything else could happen. Brock cringed from the massive damage done to him, while Jennison was left in astonishment to calculate what just transpired in the last three seconds.

The people down in the audience would surely have seen such an amazing maneuver as well, and Brock was left defenseless against such speed and cunning aptitude. Jane managed to invoke a most unusual teleportation attack that exceeded usual power levels, and did so at just the right moment designed to completely neglect the entire existence of Brock's Volley attack he invoked earlier. All of the arrows that were now stuck to the grown quickly began to fade away from the loss of magic, while Brock was left in searing pain from the damage done to him. Jane's own movements were impossible to trace with the naked eye, and with the aerial view from the drone cameras, the audience would be getting an amazing show. The entire exchange was incredible! No wonder Jane has surpassed the other three elites! Jennison focused her field of view on Jane, wanting to know what else to expect from her.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/SsQLB3Cv/S3-Brock-N-002.png]

It didn't take that long for Brock to recover his stance however. By the time Jane retained some of her distance, he immediately put himself to work on another surprising spell, lifting his glowing hand high into the air to use all of it. "Blaze Storm!"

"Blaze Storm?!" Jane winced at the single idea. Why would Brock use Blaze Storm in a room that was already making the both of them sweat?

Brock stamped forward to explain it to her while continuing to release his magic, allowing Jane to happily waste her time she could have been using to stop him. "Blaze Storm will bring this entire room to a staggering one hundred and fifty degrees in temperature! I'm gonna make you boil before you can hope to defeat me in battle!"

With the temperature already rising after Brock put his arm back down, Jane noticed the orange glow at the top of the room, much like the same spell she mastered earlier. Brock was using it to make the already intense conditions more intense, a similar strategy that Mainne tried on her before, but it wouldn't work. Jane bit her lip and decided to go with it anyway. The room wasn't at one fifty yet, and she still had some time before that kind of heat would immobilize everyone. "Charge Attack!" Taking off from her feet, Jane sprinted towards Brock, hoping to find some way to catch him off guard, but only a few seconds had to pass before Jane quickly began to slow down to a crawl.

Brock already expected this pathetic attempt from Jane to simply tough it out. Jane was slowing down fast, her steps becoming irregular and her face dripping in sweat just about as much as his own was doing. Brock just stood there with his arms crossed, waiting for the heat to overtake Jane. What she didn't realize was that Brock had extensive training in this type of heat. He was well used to the conditions of this Blaze Storm by now, despite the fact that it would affect his performance too. Leaving Jane confused because it was only affecting her the most, Brock simply waited for Jane to kneel down onto her legs again in a most predictable manner before pulling out his long bladed sword.

The sword's length was as average as any long blade, but the design was more than just unique. Unidentified to people other than himself, Brock wielded in front of him a saber forged with the finest and strongest metals in Sprawn Valley, shining with its reflective glimmer as the saber sent off a glow of red radiant light. The blade seemed like it was on fire, flames the color of blood red like something that would only be seen in an animated cartoon. The aurora effect on the blade wasn't just for show, and neither was it something commonly found in the study of Leray magic.

Jane couldn't help herself from the collapse to the ground. Her body was losing droplets of sweat by the second, her skin beginning to boil like she was stuck inside of some massive oven being baked alive. The heat and radiation around her felt too intense to ignore, and Blaze Storm managed to heat up the room to its maximum potential faster than Jane would have ever imagined. Now Brock was holding a sword like none she has ever seen before.

Brock and his acquaintances knew of the magical process inflicted upon his blade, and so did the referee who witnessed countless battles of this variety. Though he rarely uses this sword, the blade is infused with a rare energy unregulated by Leray magic. The process is known by the few as pure affinity. Pure affinity allows pure unregulated magic to become morphed and infused upon specific objects for specific functions, which can only be done by the natural equipment and mages on Eupharus Island with a rare synthesis. In this case, Brock had his blade infused with the magical essence of fire elemental energy, which permanently bonds to his sword and acts as fire elemental damage for anything or person that dares touch or skims the metal. In this case, he can use magic without using magic, and at the same time, such durability is never expended. To draw detail of that situation, the permanent magical effect on the object creates an aurora effect of light always unique from the usual light and aura emitted from an ability derivative of Leray magic. Despite Brock rarely displaying such devotion on national television, Jane had never seen anything like it before. She didn't know what to think of it, not that the heat burning her skin left much room for distractions.

Lifting his blade above his shoulder in preparation, Brock took aim at Jane, and prepared to move while his target was down and disabled. "I warned you that your weakness would fail you in the end. Crimson Blade!" Brock took off in a sprint with his sword pointed far in front as if it were a spear, controlling the bobbing from his rapid movement. His MP energy didn't drain at all, not that he used an official Leray spell. Crimson Blade is a legitimate name for infusing fire elemental magic into a sword, but Brock only chanted the name to give Jane something to remember, his blade already burning with red flames immune to being extinguished. Just as he came in range to swing at the downed girl, Brock lifted his blade higher and swept from the side over, cutting through Jane's top shoulders. Still following the properties of Leray magical protection, Jane wasn't severed in half despite the blade cutting all the way through her skin the way it did.

Jane left Brock with a loud shrieking scream of intense pain. On top of feeling a sharp blade pierce multiple places on her body, the fire elemental damage left quite a burn in the same wound that was created. In fact, Brock's slash went so deep that it created a sealed wound in the mark of which Jane was hit. Though the cut all together was concealed by her dress entirely, Jane knew it was there. The pain was very familiar to the laser swipe she took in the dark zone, or the similar Leray pain effect from Splice. Her health dropped dramatically just form one hit, though Brock backed off after this sword strike, which he had intended to do so from the start of his attack run. Jane was left in searing pain, still panting from how hot the room became.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/V6rskByW/S3-Jane-N-059.png]

Realizing that Jane's stats were still a bit elevated for the high damage he inflicted, Brock, after having retained his distance from Jane again by a few paces, threw in another attack since she would still remain immobile anyway. Finally using the magic from his own bodily source, Brock chanted and invoked another spell with much speed while holding tightly onto his crimson sword with his right hand. "Shadow Wave!" After sending an advancing wave of darkness and damage energy towards Jane, Brock was sure that the battle turned in his favor.

Jane wanted to shield herself, or dodge, or do something to help herself in this situation. But... Water! Need... Cold... Before she knew it, the force of the Shadow Wave slammed into Jane at full force, sending her backwards and knocking her down in the same blow, dealing additional damage on the side after its explosion. Jane was now on her back, her eyes at the orange glowing ceiling air that roasted her and everything else in the room. She soon realized while powerless to stop this just how vulnerable she was right now, in the exact same situation she was in before when Mainne made it so cold that Jane's entire mind was freezing up with her body on the ground, her willingness to fight quickly fading.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/C13hBBST/S3-Jane-N-060.png]

Brock's eyes shut slightly, his brows angling downward from the surprise. Five percent damage? Only five percent damage from a mastered Shadow Wave attack? How did this girl get her endurance so high? If this were any other challenger, their natural endurance would have been about a third of what this person is at right now. Has Jane Venn really been in countless battles only after leaving home for four weeks? Or is that personal story just a facade?

"Water Blast!"

After hearing a strong female chant take his thought process by surprise, Brock was completely left unable to see anything with an entire beam of cold water splashing into his face. The sudden hit of water was short lived, and he wiped away his face quickly to figure out what just happened.

Standing proud and tall again, Jane kept one hand aimed at Brock and the other at her own face. She had gotten out of a similar tough situation in the last fight against Mainne. Blaze Storm is perfect for ending a blizzard of low temperatures, but in this case, only cool water can remedy her own heat exhaustion, and it costs no MP because of the laughably low power level. Brock nor Jane would take HP damage from getting rained on. Her face and hair were already dripping wet from her own spell. Jane used it on herself was well as Brock. The idea though was to stop Brock from reacting or figuring out Jane's plan in time by blinding his eyes, which apparently worked out in her favor. Jane shot another blast of water from her left hand into her face and angled her palm downwards. Her entire dress was getting soaked, but the fresh stream of water seeping down her skin felt amazing, the coldness going through the dress sphere to her skin. Jane felt rejuvenated and ready to move around again despite the blistering of her skin. At the same time, the orange glow from above was slowly beginning to lose its luster.

"What the?!" Brock had to figure out after Jane had washed herself down with a second spray of water elemental magic what the woman was up to. It didn't matter that he immediately felt twenty degrees cooler from the splash of water since he was used to the heat, but Jane used it to cool herself off too. "Brilliant," he mumbled alone. "I guess the battle will continue then!"

Jane took out both of her daggers from the interior pockets of her dress sphere, holding them out without saying a word. Her attitude spoke its own volumes, calling out to Brock that her fight was far from over. The room temperature suddenly began to drop quickly, with the magical effect from Blaze Storm finally worn out and the glow at the top of the room faded completely.

Brock clenched his muscles tighter in preparation. "Fine. If that's how you want it..." Predictably charging up for another one of his signature spells, Brock collected a lot of his MP energy, which created a mostly transparent bright yellow glyphring in front of him aimed towards Jane. "Solar Beam!" After thrusting his arms and glowing hands into the glyphring, Brock unleashed his powerful magic; a wide beam of light charged with an ultimate power level dealing only fire elemental and pure magical damage in one large blast!

"Mako Speed!" Jane made short work of her quick evasion spell, firing a bright blue narrow beam of energy from the tip of her right blade to the ground. Mako Speed fired a gravity manipulation spell at the same time, which is how she managed to suddenly leap nine meters into the air angled to her left. Jane's jump from Mako Speed immediately allowed her to evade Brock's powerful Solar Beam before it had the chance to reach her, the beam instead hitting the dome shield and losing its power.

Though it may have surprised Brock, Jane didn't give it up there. While falling to the ground with little risk of taking damage from a short drop in distance, Jane quickly charged up a lot of her energy into a best-timed free form spell. Upon stamping her feet back into the hard floor, Jane unleashed the energy in a form that automatically created a grey glyphring high in the air above her. "Return Fire!" The glyphring decided to shoot two lava spheres at Brock, spheres similar to the spell of Eruption used before against Jane. While Brock was too dumbstruck to expect it coming, Jane made sure to get in one more attack spell against him while she had the upper hand. "Flaming Volley!" Sending down a barrage of arrows on fire like Brock tried to before, Jane brought down total destruction on top of Brock, who was powerless to stop the penetrating arrows into his skin and the total burning sensation from the crashing lava spheres. The damage wasn't as high with Brock being resistant to fire, but the pain was very much real to him, more than he would have ever expected from any random attack by Jane. Return Fire is free form, but also halfway automatic when it comes to power level determinations. The stronger the spells are from the last three used by the other challenger, the stronger the spell Return Fire becomes mid-invocation, which makes it a unique Leray skill.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/xCsGn5PT/S3-Brock-N-003.png]

After sliding back on his shoes for two entire inches without leaving the ground, hit by the force of Jane's free form Leray return attack, Brock charged up more of his energy quickly, giving additional focus to the battle where he had not done so before. Jane was just a single stationary grounded target in front of him, and all Brock needed to do was attack with a method powerful enough to bypass any layer of protection. "Blast Wave!" Using his charged aura of Leray energy into another explosive area attack, Brock's spell worked quickly to generate random explosions that localized specifically a few meters in front of Jane, moving upwards each second.

With her patience worn thin, Jane aimed both of her arms and hands at the oncoming chain of blasts sent from Brock's magical attack, and released her own energy on a high scale of expenditure. "Inversion!" Though it took Jane a second longer than she wanted it to, her concentration eventually took full telekinetic control of the entire spell soon to destroy her. The entire time frame of the explosions in reference came to a quick halt, as if the chain of explosive barrage suddenly froze in time, including the light form the last particular blast. As Jane continued to release the rest of her energy and control the flow of Brock's last area attack, she directed the magical energy in the opposite direction just as the speed scale of each explosion sped up again. It all happened too quickly for her opponent to react, granted further by his own surprise to what Jane just pulled off in front of him.

She had done it before with Meteor Strike. Inversion is supposed to work on any hostile area attack spell, reversing the attack pattern back to the sender in order to use the same spell for one's own benefit. That is what Jane came up with anyway. Inversion would never be listed as any Leray skill or spell under any particular book of magical definitions, yet she perfected her ability brilliantly. With the explosions continuing back into the direction of Brock's position, he seemed powerless and too slow to protect himself or evade the sudden barrage of blasts and explosions. Since the area attack still retained the properties of being wide spread, Brock only suffered three explosive blasts of magical energy out of the twenty more that followed Jane's reversal spell.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/nrC4zmdK/S3-Brock-N-004.png]

The cloudy haze of smoke deteriorated his field of view for as long as he was stuck on his back. Brock could feel the pain from the heat of the blast as well as several pinpricks from the shrapnel. After struggling to stand back up and retake his own position, Brock quickly assumed his focus on taking down Jane again. His response of charging for another powerful attack without offering any of his usual one-liners or motivational lectures left him more engaged in the fight than he had felt since the start of the battle, and letting up wasn't part of his plan anymore. "Mega-Flare!" Sending half of his MP down to the limits, Brock created a massive flash of light in front of Jane that was soon to cause a massive amount of magical damage in a pure form, unavoidable and irreversible.

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Just as Jane saw Brock's Mega-Flare burst into a bright solid light expanding almost faster than the eye could see, she spent more of her Leray energy, projecting it around her. Another aura of magic formed around her body at a low radius, soon to be invisible by the all-demanding light screen flashing out in all directions to hold for two long seconds. To Jane it felt like the longest two seconds of her life. Brock has obviously trained with that spell extensively, as her energy concentration dropped rapidly. Jane couldn't see the hexagons forming everywhere, but she could feel every one of them, there were so many. Just as the light faded from view and leaving Jane half-blind, she allowed her shield to collapse by stopping the constant flow of her MP energy to the power shield. Even after successfully blocking out a powerful attack in front of Brock, the drain of her stress caught up with her shortly after. The stress and dehydration to her body intensified from her power shield nearly failing and her stats falling further down. Jane allowed herself to collapse on her knees partway to intentionally take a moment to compose herself, her breathing rate elevated beyond what she was used to.

Brock noticed it as well. After being mortified at how easily Jane blocked out Brock's Mega-Flare attack, it soon became clear that using a power shield drains Jane's physical stamina upon a small amount of her MP levels. That was the true weakness of such a strong spell, finally out in the open for everyone in the audience to see it unfold. Yet somehow, Jane and Brock were still tied by the stats of their health and energy remaining. Even so, Jane was finally tiring out.

Brock knew that the heat in the room was a serious factor. The area in here still felt as though it were elevated to one hundred degrees with high humidity, as with the design plans of Brock's intended strategy. The so-called challenge in front of him couldn't handle the heat anymore. "If I can wear you down that easily, you don't belong in the Eldora championship. You can't win a battle with a bag of tricks Jane!" Brock pulled out his glowing crimson sword from the back holster, preparing himself to deliver a long series of combinations and devastating blows to end this charade.

Jane never did feel any slight hint that her body would adjust to the heat and pressure of this battle, and perhaps she had been worn out from the previous fights before her. Her vision blurred and focused again slightly with every other heart beat slamming inside of her chest. Her entire balance for standing straight up was constantly faltering, Brock was right about her weakness. Jane only ever won many of her battles with unusual skills that others failed to predict or adapt to. Even her own hidden crest would help her out in times of need... "No..." Jane's voice in denial gave the auditorial sensation that she was about to vomit, though her stomach felt fine. It was the buzz bothering her, her entire body began to tingle as if everything was going numb.

Flashbacks about Alpha Zero flooded her memory. Jane had to suffer intense heat just like this, barely with the time to drink, catch her breath, and all while worrying about her very survivability in the dark zone. The place itself was terrifying. Once her entire right arm tingles just enough during a moment of severe stress, Jane's crest would come alive and activate on the top of her hand to save her. But no! Not here! Not now! Jane could feel her head hurting just from putting her focus into denying the automatic activation of her symbol. I don't need it to win... I don't need it to win!

Brock was probably charging at her right now in her broken state of recovery. Jane shut her eyes and fought back the tears. Just a moment later, newer, more recent memories flooded her thoughts to replace the others, Danny and Taylor. Of all the time she spent with them, she never had as much fun with Leray magic until then, and most of the time it was never about magical powers in the first place. Even Alyssa, who only wanted to be Jane's true friend with open honesty strived to become like her, but none of that will matter in the end if this battle ends like this. All of this will be for nothing if the dark zone swallows up Lennith City! All of the homes and structures will disappear into a deadly haze. The lives of all those innocent people will be affected, and the friendship she formed to get here would have been in vain. No! I can't let that happen!

Brock suddenly twitched from the response before him. It appeared as if Jane would remain disabled forever, but she was clenching her fists, struggling as hard as her body would take her to stand straight up despite how fragile and slow she became. To see such a weak challenger struggling to win that badly, Brock was left motionless from the elegant display.

Though everything was hurting now with the tingling sensation fading fast, Jane managed to put enough stress on her throat to speak up and project, while the rest went to her arms and legs to support herself. "We won't let you stop me." With a slight delay, Brock and perhaps the entire audience was momentarily confused until her continuation. Jane was trembling in exhaustion and pain just to even get her words out. "JDT didn't just form because we wanted it to. We didn't come all this way just so I could give up to you!"

Brock had no idea what Jane Venn was ranting on about, but her constant use of a plural tone of herself expressed some concern for others not currently visible to his eye. He at least gave in to the curiosity of what was going on. "You must be fighting for someone other than yourself then. And for reasons I may not understand, you can't have those people express themself here... Or maybe you're referring to some sort of group or team that you've chosen to represent. Ha!" he barked. "It's all sentimental, but willpower doesn't win battles with elite warriors Jane. You should have known that before you set foot into this tower. We've trained for decades to get where we are today, and I'm not about to let your fire burn brighter than mine."

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Chapter Theme Shift: Vortal Combat ~ Valve

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"You want to bet?!" Finally finding herself and losing herself in all of her desperation, Jane managed to concentrate and pull herself together. The tremoring of her muscles and limbs ceased immediately, her eyes beginning to glow with a red aura from magical infusion. "I'm meeting Danton today! The likes of you won't stop me!" Jane's voice pierced in volume through the entire room and beyond, her projection exceeding the amplitude of passive yelling as it echoed about. Disregarding the sudden thought process of any particular plan, Jane immediately charged and began to release energy into magical attacks, picking and choosing at random as her invocation process was quick to immediate. "Thunder Flare!" The glyphring that formed in front of her solidified before she could even get her arms up to aim at her opponent. By the time the energy was charged, Jane's hands and even her eyes were glowing with a red aura, as opposed to the usual blue. What was more unusual was the difference in coloration of the spell itself.

Upon forming a large sphere of electrical energy encasing Brock inside, the sphere itself quickly gave off a blood red glow of light instead of the usual blue color associated with common Leray magic. Jane made short work of the spell's total damage section, having the sphere electrocute Brock where he stood. Contrary to him consisting of a certain resistance to all elemental magic, it was visibly evident that Jane's red Thunder Flare attack was more painful to Brock that his Eruption attack was to Jane the last time it was used against her. The amount of damage done to Brock was determined to be high before his HP stats began to decline. After the shockwave part of the spell had ended, Brock was left drained halfway on the ground, his very skin smoking from the heat damage involved with electrical damage.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/GtVkspNW/S3-Brock-N-005.png]

Jennison winced at the new development. That was defiantly no ordinary Thunder Flare attack. The power was increased by 200%, and the red coloration more or less resembled the possible presence of dark magical energy. Jennison fumbled for the device in her back pocket, the digital tool still actively scanning for any signs of dark magic signatures in the trace of magical presence. Currently, nothing odd was reported to be illegal just yet, but if that wasn't dark magic, what the hell did Jane just do?

Forget tricks! I'll show him my real power, everything I have! "Magical Blitz!" Giving the man no time to recover, Jane charged up more of her energy into an easy yet potent spell that would involve the use of flying magical unguided projectiles. Magical spheres of solid light in the form of energy appeared in Jane's hands, though oddly giving off a solid red color despite the forced default color of Magical Blitz being of a darker cyan shade in magical auras. Jane didn't question anything though, instead throwing her spheres at Brock while continuing her epic speech mid-way. "You can insult me!" Jane paused to throw another sphere, making sure all of them were hitting her target one after the next. "You can doubt my reason for existing here!" She threw the fourth and last red energy sphere at Brock, watching his HP decline further in just short of time. "But you will never stand in the way of securing the future of my friends! Earth Glave!"

image [https://i.postimg.cc/J4H3CbHM/S3-Brock-N-006.png]

Jane only took a quick mental note of Brock's energy scope stats before lifting her right arm up to unleash the additional power of a third spell, putting all she had into a powerful Earth Glave uplift that sent a powerful seismic shockwave in Brock's direction. As he struggled just to momentarily recover, the speed of Jane's transitions and invocations left him with insufficient time to evade or protect himself from her wrath. Brock was slammed with the force of a powerful Earth Glave that literally launched him three feet off the ground with a powerful slam of blunt damage. With another hard landing to the ground, Brock's stats began falling further into peril while Jane prepared her next sequence of attacks.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/y8qm1k09/S3-Brock-N-007.png]

Jennison couldn't believe how powerful Jane's motivation became so suddenly. She was invoking spells with the ease of her own breath, and keeping Brock unable to try a single thing thus far. Her magical powers for whatever reason gave off red light energy instead of the normal blue color, but the device in front of her face reported nothing about the presence of dark magic or otherworldly energy being used in battle. Jane may be mimicking some sort of power-up aura invisible to the eye, and maybe that is the reason... Jennison quickly had to take her eyes off the device to watch as Jane performed another amazing combination of attacks and spells.

"Blitz!" Fusing a ton of her MP energy into an aura surrounding her body to speed Jane up magically and mentally, she charged at Brock with as much speed as she had, holding out her arms with the invocation of an unannounced spell. The yellow glyphring formed and faded immediately, bringing out from phase two sub machine guns now wielded by Jane. She aimed down the sights while continuing to charge and unloaded the clips of the entire weapons. Bullet Blitz is the official name of the skill, but Jane refused to give it any specific chant, her magic sped up by the aura infused by Blitz. Jane didn't wait to see Brock's stat decrease from the Bullet Blitz after the chambers were emptied. She infused some additional energy to create a secondary aura of light around her body. "Rush Assault!"

Jane managed to cut the time of her sprinting methods to reach Brock in half with the Rush Assault affecting her movement speed upon giving her magical energy for her fists and feet. Jane hunched down upon reaching Brock, lifting him all the way up forcefully just before beginning to beat the crap out of him with her combination of relentless physical attacks. Every punch and kick was enhanced with additional magical damage from the Rush Assault aura, which soon faded. Just as it did though, Jane summoned another weapon into her hand long before Brock had the physical ability just to turn his head in Jane's direction. Forming a shotgun weapon in hand, Jane aimed at her target and fired a slug shot of small magical particles carrying more force than any one of her single hits, the same spell known as Shotgun Blast. Jane refused to stop there, leading in with another physical strike that didn't require the use of any more magical energy, and instead relied more on the use of her sharp daggers she had pulled into both of her hands.

Jennison was at a loss for contemplation. Jane was all over Brock one attack after the next in some of the most amazing movements and combat maneuvers ever seen. Even when Brock battled Krysta did she never experience anything like this before in her entire life. The health stat on Brock's energy scope was getting close to a dangerous level, though Jane's MP energy was closing down to the same interval. The battle itself is what Jennison paid attention to, not the scopes. The drone cameras from above all tried to float downwards just past the dome shield for a better close up, but the dome blocked their entry forcefully.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/SxWWJkGP/S3-Brock-N-008.png]

Jane's aura faded away entirely, giving her the warning and opportunity to back away and retain her distance. She was still so angry at her opponent for getting on her nerves, but such anger was hardly able to support her stamina any longer. Jane's heart rate was still way up there, as was her accumulating exhaustion from using much of her MP energy capacity. After getting some distance from Brock, she finally lost her momentum and passion, only able to focus on the pressing concern of her physical preservation. Brock would attack her eventually.

Never had Brock let any physical pain bother him, let alone hinder his movement or capacity, but this opponent was something else entirely. Jane really was fighting with more than simple spirit and willpower. She was fighting as if her whole life was on the line here and now, so brilliantly and vigorously! Such power only resembled that of Sir Danton's magical strength. After Brock recovered enough to compose himself to stand once again, after stretching his neck and cracking his bones did he realize that Jane was letting up. She must be tiring herself out now, and from the looks if it, this may be permanent... No... Jane was still planning to give this battle every ounce of power she has. Anything less from himself to her now would be an insult to every witness here including his reputation. "Charge Attack!" Quickly regaining his adamant style, Brock held his crimson sword high in front of him, now charging with all his might towards the stationary target.

Jane quickly snapped back into focus upon seeing Brock charge at her position with all his might, his glowing fiery blade high in hand. She charged her energy and projected another power shield just before Brock got into range to physically attack her, and upon releasing her shield aura, she let Brock unleash a series of physical strikes with the sword. Each hit slammed against the shielding aura and emitted a loud sheering sound of damage rejection and anti-aura noise as the hexagons formed in each impact zone. Jane could see every section where Brock's sword hit the shield, and despite the failure to cause damage, he continuously swung the sharp blade around like a maniac.

For several long seconds, Brock plundered at Jane's shield, hoping to wear down her maximum energy put into the aura. Instead, he wore himself out in the process, failing to faze Jane or her power shield. After glancing at the stats and realizing that Jane was completely undamaged, Brock back-stepped several times and gained his distance again. He knew already that such a broad strategy would need to be further refined, surprised he didn't have it done already at his own skill level and experience in battle.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/hvVS9DtJ/S3-Jane-N-061.png]

Jane could feel her shield failing fast. Brock was managing to get away as usual, but with glowing orange hands in the form of magical buildup of unknown attack energy. It was easily visible from here, and he must have been preparing to use it just after her shield is shut down. Jane had no choice to cut her shield off in the next second to prevent it from collapsing and draining her physical stamina. In that short burst of time involving her shield fading from the cut feed of Leray magic, Brock was already unleashing his energy, oddly aiming his arms at an angle high into the air as if to invoke another Blaze Storm spell.

"Ifrit!" The oversized yellow colored glyphring forming high above him became the conduit of his remaining MP stats as Brock brought forth one of his powerful summons onto the field to even up the score. Spawning from the central base of the glyphring, a large red translucent figure with the face of a dragon and the body of a large eel slithered through the air while defying all gravity and seeking its next prey. Ifrit is the summon of a fire breathing air-based dragon, though with the wingless and clawless body of that resembling a snake. Its face was the most intimidating feature of its entire body, consisting of sharp white fangs and ears made out of red flames. The creature in question was formed of a strong energy aura matrix, which explained its translucent appearance to Jane immediately. After Brock finished his summon to create a powerful dragon type predator onto the open battlefield, he could tell that Jane was now frozen by the details.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/WzG9GCLp/S3-Ifrit-000.png]

Jane wasn't expecting a summon so soon in the battles leading up to Danton. After studying the dragon-eel for just a few moments, Ifrit changed its slivering unpredictable course from upwards into the air towards Jane's direct location as it increased in speed and roared with thunderous amplitude. As she could see Ifrit's teeth now bursting into flames around the mouth while shooting downwards towards the ground, she could tell this was some form of attack. Those fangs of fire coming to bite into her is the most likely scenario, and Jane only has one sure defense.

"Farshield!" Holding her arms in front of her to aim directly at the aura dragon, Jane sent her energy of creating a power shield outward instead of making it her own personal aura. By forming a large shield wall in between herself and the descending Ifrit, Jane managed to time it just well enough for the monster to face slam itself into the shield aura, coming short of breaking through the powerful barrier of magic that collapsed shortly after impact from Jane's request. The dragon was forced into a course correction to get away from the Farshield until it could recalculate a new attack route, and just by the body-slam alone, some damage was taken to the beast.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/MZVrJMMk/S3-Ifrit-001.png]

Jane tried to trace its movements, but failed to come up with any particular type of plan to attack Ifrit. If she shoots magic at the monster, it can leave her open for Brock to hit her at the same time, not that he was currently doing much.

Gritting his teeth at the well-played response, Brock waited for the right moment after Ifrit would eventually score another hit to Jane without the interruption of her Farshield skill. Where did this young girl learn to use such powerful spells like this anyway? And how is she so powerful at her age?

With another roar, Jane anticipated another oncoming attack, predictably followed by Ifrit's shift in direction and speed towards the ground again. This time, nothing in the mouth of the summon was different than before, nothing was bright or glowing. Just as Jane braced herself for the dragon to slam into her as predicted, the slithering monster drifted upwards, leaving its sharp glowing tail now in a direct line towards Jane. It's a tail attack!

"Huawh!" Jane jumped to her side with as much force as she could, barely evading Ifrit's fiery tail attack with little time to react afterwards. The monster still missed Jane as the intended target, leaving Jane to realize how easy it was to evade the monster, but this couldn't go on forever. Brock was sure to figure out a strategy to counter her own sooner or later. When Jane noticed the monster turning around completely while trying to ascend again, her eyes widened with the epiphany. Knowing what to do, Jane wasted no time with her next magical spell, invoking the ability with haste and chanting it after the blue glyphring had formed rotating around her wrist. "Ice Beam!"

Jane's solid beam of energy struck the large summon in the blink of an eye, and held there as Ifrit wailed in terror. Unbelievable to her own idea, Jane witnessed while attacking - the monster coming to a complete halt in midair, forming a thin coat of reflective material around the skin. Ifrit was literally freezing into a solid figure, weakened by the elemental multiplier for ice damage being so high. Instead of damaging the monster, Jane froze the beast outright, stopping all of its movement as soon as her Ice Beam spell wore off and the glyphring faded.

Jane smirked with her teeth showing confidence. Better than she planned any of this, Ifrit was in a direct line between Jane and her opponent Brock, who was already stunned at the sight likely never witnessed before in Leray battles. Jane infused more energy into her right foot and sprinted towards the large mass of ice in front of her. "Flash Kick!" As she jumped high into the air, Jane swept her glowing bright foot aside to drill damage through the solid mass in front of her. By flash kicking the summon in its naturally frozen state, Jane ended up dealing a high amount of blunt damage to the monster on top of regular magical damage. Because Ifrit was a solid block of ice upon other things, her actions immediately transformed the frozen statue into a mess of sharp clusters of broken ice. The ice shattered from the statue that once was, the shards now flying by the redirected force in Brock's direction.

It was much too late to do anything else. Brock saw Jane shatter his summon in just one single hit, a kick with a relatively low power level. Before he could physically react, large ice shards in the form of a wide barrage were shooting past him and into his skin, causing ice elemental piercing damage despite not forming from any particular magical ability. The force of the hits due to the size of some shards was more than enough to knock him down momentarily, upon which he was dealt a high amount of slashing pain from the impairment of his own summon.

Jennison's jaw dropped, her eyes fixed on everything and addicted to the anticipation of Jane's next display of Leray mastery. She knew that the audience downstairs had to be feeling the same way. This wasn't a typical battle in Eldora Tower for any strong challenger, not even something Danton would usually cook up. Until now, it wasn't known that a summon could suffer instantaneous incapacitation from a status condition born by elemental weakness, and to further scale up the atypical display of strength, Jane made sure Brock became damaged by the pieces and shards of his own creation. Had this been a contest of creativity, Jane could have won first prize in the entire nation.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/RVmpSSKW/S3-Ifrit-002.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/3wY2GVSx/S3-Brock-N-009.png]

After the energy scope of Brock's failed summon faded quickly after its defeat, he assumed his position again, standing up to face Jane as though the pain from the last attack was not excruciating. Again and again. More! More! Brock gave his next spell everything he had with energy infusion and invocation time. Jane might be strong, but she can't survive everything with or without that shield. Growing impatient and more desperate to score damage on his enemy, Brock threw his arms out again aiming for the girl, creating a rainbow colored glyphring in front him. "Prism!"

Jane saw the glyphring in front of Brock and responded fast. Prism would have managed to score heavy damage to her, and she knew of it so. Using another power shield wasn't automatic in her mind anymore, since her own energy levels were getting low. Instead, she performed a familiar arm motion and mental invocation of an immediate spell consisting of no time delay. "Gyrobreak!" Getting in her spell before the release of a single bolt left the prism guided glyphring, Jane made the entire room tremor and tilt in various axis angles while quaking violently. The act messed up her own balance as well, but proved immediately effective upon noticing that Brock's first Fire Bolt was flying much higher and off course than it was originally intended for.

Several more ice, fire, and Thunderbolts left Brock's glyphring while he focused to try and better his aim in this earthquake. Jane was now finding creative ways to mess up his every style used against her. The heavy heat and intensity of the room was like a thing of the past, not bothering her in the slightest. Though it would take him long to process after his spell ends, Jane's energy scope did deplete her health stats slightly.

After taking a direct hit from a Lightning Strike and an Ice Bolt from the Prism sequence, Jane only suffered minor damage, though was impressed that something so random still managed to affect her. The Ice Bolt however improved her focus and concentration further than it would have otherwise. With the room temperature set to one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, being blasted with a wave of freezing gusts of magic felt relaxing, and helped to reduce her own fatigue.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/sfWDFc4V/S3-Jane-N-062.png]

With Gyrobreak still constantly active however, there was no reason for either one of them to try and use any additional spell at this time, less it mess up their aim, though Brock didn't care about aim anymore. If Jane was going to wait out her own environmental spell, then so be it. "Volcanic Rockets!" After creating a yellow glyphring form on top of his back, the spell summoned an entire backpack around his chest angled in the back, and attached to the material were several unguided warheads capable of launching with a high speed and general accuracy, being of an area attack he specifically designed. The explosive material shoots out molten lava mesh to burn all foes after the initial explosion damage softens up any defensive barrier or armor, increasing the pain level in the same process while conserving a ton of MP reserves by making the spell powerful by design of physical material instead of average power level.

Brock launched all six of his warheads, disregarding how the currently active quakes may affect the orientation or aim of the devices. The missiles used some familiar source of spawned fuel material to fly, which had the design of artillery projectiles. Seeing the bright flashing missiles approach her position, Jane acted fast and created another power shield. It was hard to maintain one with all of the quakes happening around her. Jane noticed that five of the six missiles lost their original destination path quickly, interfered with by the shift in constant factors in the nearby magnetic field. Before witnessing the explosion from the other missiles off course though, Jane had to brace herself and her shield for one more that didn't seem deterred by her Gyrobreak spell, slamming just in the frontal section of her power shield.

Following a bright flash previously underestimated by the warhead's small size, hexagons formed everywhere on Jane's power shield. When the flash was over, a bright glowing yellow material emitting a lot of smoke somehow splattered in all directions, much of it landing in larger puddle splatters on the exterior of Jane's shielding aura. Somehow, the material stuck to the shield and refused to degrade as fast as Jane wanted it to. Whether it was lava or some sort of corrosive acid, the hexagons on the inside of the sections with such liquid splatters deteriorated the strength of Jane's shield rapidly, her concentration to keep it going faltering. Instead of waiting it out, Jane dropped her power shield intentionally, jumping back to avoid anything spilling or falling on her in the same process.

Here! Right now! Brock will defiantly try and use this very opportunity to hit Jane after realizing the shield isn't adequate enough to protect her. With Gyrobreak already died down entirely, she would expect nothing less than immediate retaliation. Instead, Jane pulled her daggers, infusing them with enough magical energy before she had the time to pull them completely out of her pockets and chanting her next spell just before releasing it to her opponent. "Splice!" Cutting through the air to create a traveling two-dimensional wave of magical slashes powerful enough to pierce through any defensive stance, Jane made sure to keep Brock too busy to try and double-attack her.

Seeing the approaching wave of Splice daunting on him, Brock took evasive action and performed a backflip in an attempt to jump over the crisscrossed magical X Jane had formed with her slashes. In the same process, he managed to ascend quite far into the air with his single jump, almost reaching above the height line of the advancing cutting wave of pure energy relentlessly spawned by Jane Venn. But instead of clearing the opening left by height, Brock was just two inches short of getting completely out of its path. The very edge of one of the glowing solid lines of piercing energy cut right into Brock's left shoulder while upside-down before he managed to begin falling back to the ground, drilling through his skin and disabling that section of his limbs through damage and pain alone. With the immediate twist of damage he expected to dodge, Brock's sudden reaction and painful holler had him falling to the ground face first from his loss of focus.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/d06rj6pm/S3-Brock-N-010.png]

Despite how successful Jane was unexpectedly, she continued with her short-chained plan. Splice wasn't expected to hit Brock even by her own standards. It was only her method of creating the perfect distraction for a much more intense spell, one she had just enough MP energy for. Nevertheless, Jane already finished charging the energy needed for her area attack, and unleashed its full power onto the battlefield while Brock was left helpless holding his shoulder, still on the ground. "Deep Strike!"

With her glowing blue eyes reacting to the excess MP energy Jane just used most of, she released the auric build up to the spell that created several explosions all around the field. The explosions were random and away from the target zone by design, but quickly intensified by strength and accuracy. By the time there were only a few blasts left, Brock still had insufficient plan or stamina to try and avoid the hits. The blasts all singled to a fixed point, which happened to be where he was stuck in the ground, three entire explosions all affecting him moreover each blast.

Jane wanted to cover her ears and eyes from the large smoke cloud the blast created at the end of the sequence, but her spell left a high amount of damage behind, leaving Brock on the floor as he still struggled to get back up. His clothes appeared to be burnt or charred from the black mesh in the air from the intense explosive attack magic, while Jane was left to assess the situation.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/cHJY9YNq/S3-Brock-N-011.png]

His arms and legs were shaky on movement; Brock could feel his life energy nearly depleted. If he took just any more damage from now, he would surely collapse and pass out in a traditional form of defeat. His HP was at ten percent, which was bad considering he started with ten percent extra than usual. At ten percent health or less remaining, the elite is supposed to be required to surrender the match to the victor regardless of circumstances.

No! Brock refused in his mind and heart. He wasn't down just yet. Jane can't be that good or powerful, not as long as he still had the energy left to fight. Brock pushed himself up, struggling for balance as the last hit caused physical damage to his left knee. With low HP and minimal MP, there was little he could to do continue fighting Jane, but the match wasn't over yet. "I'm not giving up!"

"Sir Brock!" Jennison barked. This was well out of character for Brock, let alone any particular elite warrior of Eldora Tower. If he faints here, Jane will have no choice but to use a time extension between her last battle and the next. It will take time to revive Brock, as he must be awake in order to officially see Jane off to the next challenge. Why is he refusing to give up now, after officially losing? What is he thinking?

Brock glanced at Jennison momentarily and snared, "We made it this far. Might as well go all out." Brock charged up his last remaining amount of MP, which wasn't much, but he wouldn't need much for his last spell. "Firewall!" After swooshing his arm out in front of him while releasing his magic, Brock created a solid line of fire that was only half a meter high, but over thirty meters in width. As the wall of fire quickly advanced forward in a motion similar to that of a Shadow Wave spell, he waited out the moment for Jane to take damage from the unavoidable heat.

"All out huh?" Jane smirked with confidence and comfort that her own opponent was making sure to give it everything he had. Whatever his spell was, it followed a highly predictable pattern. It seems like an advancing wall of fire, probably of low power level designed only to burn foes with fire damage and intense pain as it passes over. This means it will be easy to block out. Jane threw her arms around her and created another momentary power shield just as the Firewall got closer to her body. As predictable thoughts followed, the wall of fire passed over the shield, phasing through and around the aura of repulsion energy while the rest of the line carried on to the edge of the dome shield behind Jane's position. While the damage to her shield was extensive enough to form a lot of medium sized hexagons near the floor base of the area, Jane wasn't fazed in the slightest by the attempt to block Brock's attack.

With Jane cutting power to her shield, a look of defeat crossed Brock's face. Jane took her turn by keeping her daggers in hand while infusing all of the energy she had left in them. It wasn't much, but enough Leray power to make the blades glow red in color. Jane wanted to try her signature throw again, the one that has no official name, yet became easy to use in order to score a critical hit of damage. "The only one who gets to walk upstairs is me. The match belongs to my objective!" Jane threw her daggers, creating nothing more than a spinning arc of light from the visual effects of the glowing blades, but even as they were quick and unguided with a low amount of energy infusion, Brock didn't duck down or dodge the attack. One blade cut through his chest while the other went through his face. In the same singular instance, the health status on his energy scope jumped down to zero percent, leaving Brock to fall on his back unconscious.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/K8L5BnmJ/S3-Brock-Crit-001.png]

Jennison didn't believe it. In one single strike of low MP energy, Jane did over ten percent HP damage to Brock, knocking him out just like that. Jane was already the winner officially before this attack, but she still took it a step further and displayed unrelenting strength. Additionally, Jane's own health never dropped below half its original level. She had to call the match and project her voice to make sure even the drone cameras could hear what was going on.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Unidentified Track ScT ~ (X3 Reunion?)

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Jennison shifted her arm with her hand open, immediately diffusing and collapsing the dome around the two challengers and that of herself. The view in her perspective became much clearer and easier to see. "Brock is unable to battle. I hereby announce the victory of this match to Jane Venn by total knockout!" After her announcement, Jennison sped walked to Brock with a healing orb in hand. Jane kept her distance, gradually relaxing herself from the fatigue now affecting the victor.

Jane sat down comfortably and tried to catch her breath. The daggers reappeared in her hands from the Leray form of magic that prevented one from losing their weapons mid-battle, but now she had to wait for Jennison to revive Brock before giving her the next hint on the champion himself. Jane knew there wasn't going to be an easy break in between here and now, but there is a thirty-minute intermission between now and the final battle. Jane knew this from one of the explanation of the battle rules. All breaks are only fifteen minutes long except for the final break. The time is extended to allow proper rest and preparation.

After activating the orb on top of Brock, the lit up device took its time in trying to revive him back to consciousness. "He'll be back up in a minute."

"Sorry for that." Jane rubbed the back of her neck in patience, standing back up to try and regain her lost buzz from the battle. Her constant breathing was all noticeable, but her physical fatigue wasn't as intense.

"Don't be," Jennison replied. "It's his fault for trying too hard. You only stood there and continued to fight as expected. Still, I've never seen a battle that intense before."

"N— sure you have." Jane blushed, remaining faithful that she wasn't really stronger than Danton by much. Their difference in power would only have to be slight, right? Jane didn't even use her symbol in all of the battles so far, but this fight was a close call. It almost triggered in a tingling sensation she was familiar with, so close to early activation. Surely that means Danton will be even more dangerous in a fight.

"Brock has never fought that hard before under televised supervision, and to be honest, I haven't seen him lose a fight before to somebody outside of our own ranks during the championship and official matches. There was one close call, but that was only three months ago." After handing Jane a healing orb for herself, she paused before doing anything else, her exhaustion written on her entire body.

Jane never felt so worn out before, outside of fighting inside of Alpha Zero. The air around her felt cooler despite the heater still running the room at around ninety degrees. As she began using the orb to feel somewhat better, she noticed Brock waking up after the glow above him disappeared from his orb. With both energy scope stats in the orange, Jennison relaxed her muscles and explained the next set of rules to apply for Jane.

"For winning the match, you've been rewarded with an additional set of 56,000 credits on top of your previous earnings. And now, you've advanced to the final status level in this tower."

"Danton," Jane concluded.

"You'll be ascended to floor 949, from which you will have to ascend up a set of stairs. At the top connects a bridge of light energy that allows you to walk to the champion battle arena on floor 950, where Sir Danton will be waiting. As discussed in the rules, your break will be thirty minutes long for extended recovery and preparation."

"So what are my tips for battling him?"

Jennison hesitated to answer. Jane seemed too eager to get it on already, but her wish was fueled with too much haste. "Tips? There are no tips for Danton. He is the most powerful Leray wielder for a reason. Don't fight fairly, but still fight legally. Don't be afraid of his skills and spells, but be cautious of everything he does. Have as many backup plans as possible."

"What?" That's the best hint these people can give her? Danton can't be so perfect as to have no physical weakness!

"Danton doesn't specialize or strategize in any particular fashion. He's more like yourself in a sense, battling while adapting to every possible factor he can. His stats will start out with only one hundred percent health like you. The elite five all battle officially with ten percent extra health, but Danton does not. Additionally, he does not have any official referee, as it is not needed. Instead, Danton has his own personal team of bodyguards and security regiment. So the only way for you to win is to have him forfeit the match when his health is below ten percent, or to knock him out like you did to Brock just now."

"I know," Brock channeled. He slowly got himself up and waited for his referee to explain the important part of the battle.

"On top of all that," Jennison continued, "be on your best behavior and watch what you say. The champion floor does not have a ten-minute capture delay to the audience. The feed is kept totally live for security reasons."

"Oh," Jane replied trying to sound surprised. It's just like in the plans. The feed there is fully live; the floor is floor 950. There are three elevators there instead of two. The one connecting this floor to floor 949, and two lifts on 950. One lift ascends to the top of the tower at floor 1,050 to the system of the source of all Leray energy. The other elevator is kept a secret to the public, but is used for security to make it to any floor from any floor, known as the turbo lift. Jennison wasn't going to say any of that, but Jane already knew what she needed to know about the security detail from her previous studies.

"I wouldn't be so nervous if I were you."

"Brock?" Jane noticed how collective her opponent suddenly was, after trying so hard to defeat her.

"I really enjoyed that match. Never was I expecting you to become worthy of challenging Sir Danton. Even if you don't win tonight, you'll already be this year's celebrity."

Jane panned her face upward towards the flying drones. They were the cameras transmitting everything to the world about her every action and word. Brock was right. Jane would be a celebrity, just not in the way people would be expecting, unless of course Danton hears the reason she's come to this tower.

"Danton is tough, but you've got what it takes, since you don't always rely on a single strategy to win."

Jane winced slightly at the realization. Brock had been wrong for a long time about his words just now, but Jane remembered this match well. She was losing, her power shield effective only against particular spells and blasts of magic. Even Rontellov managed to bypass her power shield that one time. On top of that, Jane's speed and skills alone were also not enough to ensure victory anymore. These people don't fight by exploiting stat differences and elemental weaknesses. They adapt to every situation just as Jane has been doing. But this battle right here, it was a test of strength and courage. Jane knew it in her heart, she could feel all of her power and effort going into each and every skill used, something she felt incomplete with in the past. Brock was only right about not relying on strategy. Jane and Brock fought this battle with power alone, because it was the only way to win; not power in magical level and skill, but by determination itself. Surely, Danton wouldn't leave himself vulnerable to that. Only this time, Jane knew she would have the backing of Danny and Taylor. Winning or losing isn't part of the system, not anymore. Danton? The time has come.

"I wanted nothing more than to beat you Jane," Brock confessed. "I can't believe I let myself become so irrational. You got stronger with every ability we exchanged, and my desire to win got stronger as you did yourself. But whatever is driving you, it's currently more powerful than my own will."

"You really mean that?" Jennison tested.

Brock turned to face Jennison, who was curious in the face. "I do. It's more than inspiring. I need to figure out something worth fighting for, something more important than what I already have. I need to remind myself what is truly important. Once I do..." Brock stared Jane in the face again, "Jane and I will meet again, and I won't lose."

Jane smiled at the thought, remembering just what Leray battling is all about. "Yeah. We'll meet again, but the next time we battle, you better have gotten better yourself, cause there's no way I'm letting you dent my winning streak."

"That's the spirit I want to see! Now go to Danton and kick his ass! Give him my regards while you're there as well. If he underestimates you even for a moment, then victory will surely be your own." She gets too fired up for her own good sometimes, but with Jane in such a state of mind, everything will fall into place soon enough.

"Jane is to be champion and in charge of things?" Jennison wallowed. "And still so young! What is this world trying to tell us?"

Jane bowed to the two and disabled her energy scope for now. She tried to ignore Jennison's comment, but failed to do so entirely. They had a point for concern. These people are probably freaking out somewhere inside, because Jane wouldn't know very much about commanding an army or being in charge of an entire nation. Contrary to everyone's knowledge, she doesn't have to be, not for more than a single day. Jane turned to the ascending lift like the others before, and prepared herself for the final fight. The adrenaline was already flowing to her again, her heart racing while her limbs were secretly trembling. It's finally now where Jane will be able to complete her original mission for coming here in the first place, all the way on floor 950.