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<01/27/1972 – 15:30 | Lennith City Arena, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

That same night, Jane returned to the inn she was previously staying at. After a good night sleep, the next morning went about as poorly as the first. All of her memories from last night flooded her mind so quickly before Jane could make herself breakfast, not that there was much to eat in supply. Playing the scenes back in her head hardly made anything seem believable. The secret she tried so hard to bare for so long, Jane just let it out to her entire class in a flash as if nothing were wrong. Jane held her face for several moments pondering why she would let herself do something like that. Must have been mental exhaustion catching up then, but the damage was already done. In any single moment, the General Army can come for her and try to arrest Jane Venn for being marked. Or, her secret could remain safe, which would be a miracle given how many people know now. The sickening feeling in her stomach twisted further at the thought. How could she do that and still not have told Danny or Taylor? What are those two to her anyway?

Shaking her head out of the pointless thought, Jane was also reminded about the new ability she picked up which would allow her to better protect herself against Alpha Zero, but she still had to follow Claudia's word of honor and train further than that - starting today. This means she will have to face all of them again.

Jane's visit back in class had everybody's head spinning, all eyes focusing on her. It would have felt like old times, but the students were more than likely afraid of her, which wasn't the same as it was in Dakota. The situation was totally different, but perhaps the only reason nobody in authority has come to take her away isn't because Claudia told everyone to keep things secret. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that Jane wanted nothing more than to remove this symbol, proving she was less of a threat while begging the question of how her goal could be achieved. Apparently Jane had become the talk of the class overnight and the center of attention, but there was good reason.

In just a single day before today, Jane earned some trust from her teacher Claudia, and with that trust, she learned much more about what specific effects from the unknown spell bomb were still affecting her. Instead of the illusion of just powering up her magical Leray spells, it turns out that Jane was somehow conserving MP energy, reducing the base cost for all of her magic. On top of that, her ME levels were constantly accelerating, boosted to levels that would have anybody's jaw drop including her own. Claudia then developed an idea about the quick learning effect and the conservation of energy for Jane, thus allowing her to learn a specially modified version of what Jane likes to call the power shield. Using the power of Leray magic, Jane was successfully able to create a powerful aura around her body, capable of generating a force field in the aura that protects her from all incoming damage. Later today, Jane was able to replicate those results.

It wasn't all that eventful though. Everybody learned the truth about her yesterday, and that made everything about her awkward. After the truth was released, there were not very many surprises following that event. Still, everybody except for Claudia kept their distance from Jane, afraid of what that crest could do to them. Jane kept coming back to the Lennith training academy day after day, keeping her word with Claudia to learn as many new abilities and tactics as possible. There were many complications, and learning the new abilities took hours instead of minutes. Keeping her enrollment at Lennith Academy a secret was its own challenge too. With everyone on edge from the publicity stunt Jane pulled earlier, making friends here was just out of the question. Nobody could trust her right now. It was just a saddening feeling that Jane had to quickly get over to continue training, that every person here except for Claudia hates her for this symbol.

Jane momentarily recalled that one of the reasons she revealed her most dangerous secret in the first place had to do with the fact that her symbol was activating on its own power. Though Jane made it appear as if she maintained control of this marking, it really comes and goes on its own, mostly triggered by excessive use of magical energy. Learning how to use this unusual power shield must have been enough. Jane could feel the activation imminent, a sensation that only she became familiar with as a warning sign, giving her just seconds to find some way of hiding it. Without the mercenary outfit there to protect her symbol from view, the class would have found out in either case. Jane simply capitalized on the idea, the least she could do then was delay activation while allowing her to tell the truth. Even so, she protested being delayed to move to Alpha Zero every single time she met up with Claudia. Still, Jane kept to her word for the next few days that moved on. Even between Claudia and herself, their every interaction was as awkward as the next, mostly because Claudia became much more silent than she used to about personal matters.

Alyssa was the one that gave Jane the dirtiest looks as of late. She was still mad at her for what happened on day one. It made more sense then, but after six days passed, it was getting ridiculous. Six days! That is how long it took Jane to finally tell herself and Claudia that she was ready for the big fight. Claudia was more than reluctant to call her ready, but after insisting over and over, Jane finally got her way. Claudia made the call later that afternoon, setting up the official event for tomorrow. Then, Jane would have an official battle against a former elite Leray fighter known as Cadastro, but Jane was far from nervous.

If anything, it were the unexpected problems that bothered her. There were things she was still learning about, and things that forced her to adapt to new situations. For example, a few days ago, a Leray agent was monitoring the status of the school, and almost caught what was going on in room E43. Jane was training with Claudia then. As the moment went, it looked like any other normal training session, only with more advanced powers. The problem however was Jane's cursed symbol appearing whenever she exerts enough Leray energy. It's not something that can be controlled, least she have some experience in the time delay factor after the trigger begins. Luckily, the new mercenary outfit the teacher gave her before that happened - hid the symbol well. It was on the house too. All classmates who are registered (including Jane), were all issued with special training outfits which they can carry even after graduation, but these training outfits have an incredible design for a fashion of battling.

A full materialized suit, made of black and blue stripes and lines was designed to offer a wide variety of multi-purpose damage protection. It was only about 5% resistant to all damage types, but even then, Jane loved how it both looked and felt on the fabric. Because it covered both hands with some sort of half glove extensions, the symbol that kept appearing on top of Jane's right hand was well hidden even during training or fighting. Luckily that symbol does not light up or glow due to random magical infusion or exertion, but it still has a radiant glow of its own which can vary each time the symbol is activated. It's like this mark is just there as a constant reminder that Jane used a dangerous spell bomb on herself. Every time that symbol activates on its own, it gives Jane a physical life threatening feeling, that similar to a rough adrenaline rush.

This wasn't the only challenge Jane faced these passing days. While Claudia taught her how to use new abilities, Jane would also take part in random sessions of evasion therapy. Evasion therapy is a segment of training that involves the best ways to dodge random attacks, and when to block certain attacks. All Claudia did was tell Jane that her strategy for movement in battle was currently terrible. The only thing that worked for Jane was her mobility during close combat attacks with her dagger slashing style. Having Jane dodge attacks didn't go too well, and Claudia told her multiple times that Jane was not supposed to dodge attacks anymore. With her new ability to block all incoming damage at the maximum level, Jane has to get accustomed to activating her power shield any time a powerful spell is coming her way. This wasn't great either, because some attack spells were much weaker than others. Claudia explained further, because she knew that her power shield still has power fluctuations going on. This means using power shield against a weak attack is plain wasteful for her energy, while timing was critical too. Often times Jane would shield herself too late or too soon. The shield still fails if she keeps it up for too long, or if the skill damaging the shield is too powerful. But as luck would have it, the more Jane practiced with this shield, the stronger it was able to withstand certain power levels - to a limit of course.

The atmosphere of the class became less predictable in the passing days as well. Claudia could sense this much, and the reason was obvious. Jane isn't ready for Alpha Zero, and her best chance now would be for Jane to fail in her pending battle with Cadastro. Her idea of buying some time to draw an alternative solution was all in vain after coming up with no new ideas. Having a symbol or being marked whether intentional or not is illegal, and thus all battles won with that symbol are to be declared null and void if discovered by a council member. Jane was really telling the truth when she said that her entire future was in jeopardy; it just happens to be that endurance levels have nothing to do with that reason.

Then, there is Brightworth. Brightworth will not likely help her provided she survives the walk over there. It would just be easier to report this to the council as a special case and have them legalize Jane's symbol, but in all thought, that will never happen given everyone's natural fear of symbol wielders. It surely provided Claudia with one idea for ponder and ridicule. Why is there only one mage in the entire world allowed to reverse spell effects? Who is the backup for that person? Supposedly, since something like this has never happened before, such thought has not yet been executed by the mage council. Go figure!

After those several challenging days, the time eventually came for the final test. Jane learned several incredible useful abilities from Claudia's personal style. It took Jane much less time to learn those skills than what most people were able to learn them in, not because of how many abilities there were to learn that Jane picked up on, but rather because of how powerful each one was, but it wasn't much faster than what Jane hoped for. Jane got to teach herself some abilities on the side too, refusing to use only class time to train herself. Using new abilities in the style of her close combat tactics and her primary choice of weapons, there was nearly nothing Jane couldn't learn on her own. Her skills and her own battle style were both refined evenly. As proven by the nature of her symbol, the passive effects really did allow Jane to have an easier time than normal in learning new spells, still as exhausting though.

Despite everything, something just wasn't right with the way things were. Six days passed in Lennith City, and nothing else changed. The same guards were stationed at the northern gate, blocking access to all civilians. Jane didn't mind this too much, but it's not like any additional GA scouts have shown up either. No special unit or group of soldiers came here to further assess the situation regarding Alpha Zero. It's like the General Army just abandoned their own mission, leaving the danger to haunt everyone here. What are they thinking?

And where the hell are Danny and Taylor? Seven days have passed since her arrival here in the city, and there is still no sign or word from them. Jane expected some delay for those two to show up here thanks to the poor conditions of Route 96. That Belzer guy is supposed to get that route looking good again, keeping bad guys off the road at the same time, but it's been seven days. Jane got here in one night! Was she really that hard to track down? Common sense should have told the bystanders at Tilsit beach that the missing boat could have only arrived in Monoc Port. The only other place in the world Jane could have ended up from the ocean Northside was on a deserted delta stranded at sea, or at Monoc Port. From there, the only place to travel was a mile south, or all the way into Lennith City. They should have found her by now in spite of the difficulty she provided before them.

Those two can fend for themselves just fine, but what was keeping them? Jane wished she could just go and check up on them, but she had no time to retrace Route 96. She was saving her energy for entering the dangerous dark zone to get rid of this horrible symbol on her hand. It wasn't just the symbol though. The fact that her endurance was cut in half no matter what other circumstances were involved bothered Jane completely. It was the only reason she lost the first four battles in a row in the way that she did, and the reason she was still so weak right now. Of course getting this thing reversed will mean the total loss in a lot of ME points, thus removing her ability to create a specially modified power shield, and the ability to conserve MP and use powerful spells. It will be like starting all over, a full regression. But Jane wanted this, a fresh start; a new beginning. There is no reason why one stupid accident should define her whole life. If that means going in without the help from Danny and Taylor, so be it.

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Chapter Theme Shift: The Outbreak of War ~ Star Ocean 3 OST

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As things were now, Jane and Claudia sat together at the current rally. Today was that day where Jane is supposed to fight Cadastro, but there was so many official sessions involved with this. Before it happened, Claudia had to carefully make sure that Jane's name and registration status were affirmed into the system. Then, she had to set up this rally in the first place. A large stage with a microphone was stationed just outside the front of the school, and a path was drawn to the back side of the field, the circular field where Jane found Claudia's class training that time before, also known as the Lennith Stone. The field was going to be the battle ground for this.

Hundreds of people have shown up. Apparently, this is how graduation works here. They make it so public too. Not only did other random students, parents, and random civvies show up, but the prioritized business people and VIPs were here too. At least they looked like VIPs. Dressed only in formal clothing, men and woman belonging to certain positions of the school's governmental program were here to officiallize the rally as well. All of the seating was set to formation stacks of stairs which surrounded the future battle area, perfect for watching the event whole, and then there was the school's own headmaster, Millar.

Millar, or rather Mr. Millar is a sixty year old man who basically runs the foundation of the school, determining the staff rules, graduation announcements, and public awareness. The other people are basically his assistants for other things, like running the business, assembling the staff, advising an entire council, and so on. Today, all of this was set up just for Jane. It would seem odd to do this for just one student, but graduations here happen less often that one would think, officially because a failed battle with an elite warrior would bring down the overall reputation of the school. Teachers choose the readiness time of their students wisely, and mostly bring out more than one potential graduate at a time.

The metal stacked seats were available for everyone, but the VIP seats which sat in front of the stage facing the other direction were all comprised for the staff and Jane herself. It couldn't be any more nerve wrecking than this, but at least Jane had some more time before the event officially began. For now, everyone was still showing up, while Jane and Claudia were seated right next to each other.

"I still can't talk you out of this, can I?"

Jane knew Claudia still had doubts about whether this was remotely a good call, but she was still as willing to go through with this as she was before. "It's too late to opt out now."

People surrounded the area randomly, coming from all sides to take part in the event. The residents here apparently just come to watch the battles, and from what Claudia told Jane before, Cadastro is far from the only person who gets to battle the students. People known as gradyents are also qualified to test the students' readiness. Gradyent... It reminded Jane directly about Belzer. He sure wasn't very nice, but what if he were to show up to this event?

"I knew you were a hard case," Claudia retuned. "You do realize that I can get you a lawyer. We can make your situation legalized. You don't have to remain a potential fugitive forever you know."

This is not the first time Jane has heard this before. Claudia has been trying to change Jane's mind ever since they made this deal. Her teacher was only setting up this event because she knew that the only way to stop Jane from entering Alpha Zero is to change her mind. But that is easier said than done Claudia. "If something else happens to prevent me from going in, I'll think about it."

"And what if you die? What then Jane?"

"Shhhh! Keep it down!" Jane had lowered her voice to a near whisper. Nobody else can know the truth about this pending battle. The state believes this is an official graduation attempt for student designation Jane Venn, but it's nothing more than a formality, a test of strength and endurance to see if Jane is totally ready for something as dangerous as the dark zone. "I won't die, and I won't fail either. You're the one who said that if I can beat this Cadastro guy, then I get to pass."

"I know that Cadastro was the strongest choice out of all candidates when I chose him for this..." Claudia turned her head a few times, making sure no eavesdroppers were nearby. "But even Cadastro is no match for Alpha Zero. If elites had the power to stop Brightworth, they would have all teamed up and done it by now. It's their job!"

"Claudia! I'll handle this!" Even in this state, Jane kept her voice to a whisper, hoping she wasn't going to botch this thing.

"Morning Jane."

Jane saw Alyssa standing a bit out in front of her, walking closer, though her tone wasn't excited or happy either. Alyssa didn't care about wishing her a good morning, she was just pretending to be decent. The proof will reveal itself in three... two...

"Gotta say, quite a crowd you've attracted for this. Nobody graduates in just six days. But of course everyone else thinks you've been here for months."

"Alyssa," Claudia warned. "What did we talk about earlier?"

"I know Claudi. I just want to make sure that Jane understands how dangerous this might be. What if people somehow got a close look at her hand?"

Another threat. Jane wasn't surprised. Alyssa has been acting this way for a while now, threatening to expose her secret to others. Jane didn't let it affect her, but she didn't want to argue with Alyssa either. "I will be fine Alyssa, and I won't overdo anything. Now can you please leave?"

Alyssa's expression became frightening at times, especially when Jane would talk back at her, but a few words from a new voice behind her calmed the girl down fast.

"Come on Alyssa. We should be wishing them good luck. Not bad luck."

It was Connor, the other guy who hangs out with Alyssa's group. Lately they have not been getting along so well. Alyssa, Connor, Jason, and Naea. Those were the four who always hang out together, a group formed during the class formation this semester, and their bonds strengthened since everyone was always ready to help and assist Alyssa with her personal condition, but it would seem from apparent hints that the other three have suddenly taken Jane's side already. Since Alyssa still can't seem to forgive Jane's secrets so easily, they've been fighting a little too.

As if to kick her out of the group all together, their very presence made Alyssa wary, already stepping away from all of them. "Well this is the worst idea in all of history. We shouldn't be letting anybody who isn't qualified past the northern gate. Jane shouldn't be an exception just because she got marked by some odd spell bomb."

"Now ya just sound jealous," Jason accused.

"Ha! Yeah right." Alyssa turned around, walking away with a few more words to show superiority. "When she dies, this whole symbol business isn't going to blow over. You know what I'm talking about!" Her words grew in volume with each step she took away from them.

Naea, the sixteen year old girl reassured Jane right as Alyssa left. "Don't worry about her Jane. I've seen what you can do in training, and there is no way Cadastro will have an easy time. Alyssa cares about you too, even though she won't show it."

Alyssa? Caring about Jane? When was that ever apparent?

"In other words, you'll do great," Connor announced. "I've got three hundred credits that says she'll win within five minutes."

Claudia gave Conner an evil passing glare. Students are not allowed to gamble or make random bets for battles that don't personally involve themselves, yet he sure did get brave enough to let that one slip all the sudden. Claudia let it slide for now, since the group was leaving already. It isn't important today anyway.

Connor, Jason, and Naea all waved to Jane while walking towards the other seating area. Jane continued receiving compliments too as time went by. At first, the class just kept their distance, but after getting used to the crazy truth about her dangerous symbol and seeing her training and style in action, she got popular with the people in the class again. Connor, Naea, and a few others now look up to her as some kind of idol or example. Even Claudia noticed it too, that all of her students have suddenly entered some sort of training frenzy recently, and not without reason. They know that copying what Jane can do is impossible right now, but training hard is the only way to grow, even in Jane's current condition. It was like everybody has finally accepted her by now...

No, it runs deeper than this. All of her students have never practiced so hard in their lives before. Jane's power isn't what inspires them, but rather her motive to make her dreams seem more valid again. Jane is fighting to remove the symbol that will otherwise downfall her, and her classmates know this because they are intelligent. Supporting Jane is also supporting her very ideals at the same time; everyone wants Jane to remove her symbol and be herself again, despite knowing so little about her. Jane? How did you make this happen?

"What is with Alyssa?!" There was still the matter of Jane's mental blindness to cope with. Would Alyssa ever accept her for who she is? Jane wondered if hiding her secret was really the one and only thing that ticked her off.

Claudia was a bit impressed to see how dense Jane could be at times. "Alyssa is only concerned for your safety Jane, just as much as I am."

"Yeah right," Jane corrected. "If Alyssa cared about me at all, she would just back off. I bet the only reason I haven't been ratted out yet is only because she knows that you could take the fall for this too."

"I could take the fall just for letting you into the Dark Zone, possibly just because I was unable to stop you."

Good point Claudia. Jane wanted to say something else, but as the battle was getting closer to starting, Jane wasn't sure she could stop trembling. It's the most unusual set up she has ever experienced before. Everything here is so formal compared to back home.

"But Alyssa looks up to you. You've become an example for everyone to follow."

"No she doesn't. And what have I possibly done that other people think is good?"

Claudia turned in her seat towards Jane some more. It appeared she didn't understand anything so far. "Jane, there was a very good reason I wanted to take you in, to personally train you with no real cost of credits. At first, I wasn't sure what that something was. It turned out that you aren't naturally powerful without that fancy design hidden in your skin, and it's not your quickened ability to learn either that sets you apart from everyone else. I only recognized it after extensive training with you. Whatever you might be trying to do, you've got a lot of drive and determination to get things done. As a plus, you don't ever give up; you won't let anything stand in your way."

"Another pep talk..."

"Seriously. I don't think that giving up even crossed your mind once. That's why I can't seem to change your mind." Claudia paused for a moment to think of a better way to word it, making Jane turn towards her in her seat as well. "It's your best strength. It allows you to train well beyond the usual hours people are comfortable with training with, and everyone can see it. It's why others in my class can relate to you; because that mark on your hand isn't the only thing making you strong. I wanted to personally train you because you have even more guts than I do sometimes. However, being brave isn't enough; it can still get you killed."

"I'm going to the Den of Purity, and that's final," Jane needed to put her foot down here, or Claudia would never shut up with the whole dying thing. "Assuming Mr. Muscles doesn't make a pancake out of me." The reference was only to Cadastro, which Jane had only seen a picture of so far. The guy certainly seemed tough by the six pack showing through his clothes.

"My point is that Alyssa has another reason to be upset. It has nothing to do with you lying to everyone for protection, but she will use that to hide the real reason. I've seen changes in her."

"In Alyssa?" Jane tilted her head. She means to say that Alyssa wasn't always a crazed cynical bitch?

"Ever since I let Alyssa join my class over a year ago, she has always tried very hard to make the most of her capabilities. She physically trains with magic just as much as you do, all the time. Alyssa has always been the smartest one of her class too. She can see through people like thin paper, which is why she was the first one to be suspicious of your background. She even told me that she felt your lie, right to my face, but whether or not she sensed it isn't the point. The point is that she wants to embrace and protect everyone around her who loves magic. I know that you must love Leray magic too, considering the motive behind your actions. For a short while, Alyssa has become slightly less motivated to do anything, but now she's back to her old self again. I don't really know what has made her try to be so different, but ever since you've shown up, it's like she's tried so much harder to be better and stronger." Claudia kept the medical details to herself for Alyssa's sake, but the rest was true. Over the time Jane began training here to improve her personal skills, Alyssa has practiced harder than ever before. That's why, just a moment ago, Alyssa showed no signs of physical weakness, not even a slight limp. Jane's powerful effect to motivate others to try harder even works on Alyssa.

"So she's jealous of me? Big deal."

"Alyssa is the smart one, which makes sense to see why she is the only one who doesn't like your decision to run into the dark zone. She really believes that you won't make it back from there. I promise you, she doesn't hate you. It's far from that."

"And did she tell you this?" Jane pressured.

"I'm her teacher," she emphasized. "I know my students well enough to understand how they feel about certain situations. I think if you can win this battle with flying colors, she might even come around to your way of thinking."

So really, the answer to my question was no. Claudia can kid herself all she wants, but Alyssa has no chance of liking Jane in any sort of way. She wouldn't sacrifice her own friends just to keep that going either. "How about I just give it my all and we stop talking about this?"

"Hmph." Claudia huffed. "Cadastro won't know what hit him. Jane, you better do more than giving it your all. I've taught you a lot of new abilities that I want you to show off when you're out there, and don't be shy about using your shield either. It's a legitimate strategy with or without your symbol. So just do me one favor, and beat this guy."

"Wait. You don't want me to go in the dark zone, but you still want me to win?"

"All I want from you Jane, is not to fail." Claudia knew she said a few inspirational things earlier, but now was the moment where Jane was going to need the best morale boost. Up in the distance, an entire unit of people were firmly marching in a beautiful formation that others haven't noticed from this distance yet. It was defiantly Jane's challenge coming here. "I taught you more than enough to win this fight Jane. So if you lose, then I'll just have to kill you instead."

She couldn't really mean that! Right...? Jane couldn't be too sure. She still didn't know everything about Claudia yet. She might actually be the type that will beat her own students if they embarrass the teacher name. With that, over hundreds of other people get to watch as well. No pressure.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Floaterra Fight ~ Serious Sam 2 OST

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"It's time," Claudia told. "Jane, you start marching towards the field, school side. Go!" She nearly forced Jane out of the seat. The student was too new to all of this. Jane wasn't even told the formation protocols at all, nor was she aware of where to go and what to do.

By the time Jane began marching towards the field, she noticed a lot more people in her surroundings. The class was designated to a certain section in the seating arrangement to her right, and further down that road were a bunch of people in uniforms marching together. Jane didn't know who Cadastro was though, and it was too tough to spot him out from here.

Suddenly, the sound of drum sets and trumpets were growing louder too, emanating from a mobile band following the uniformed people. The people on the left from Jane were all crowding near the stage, while Millar was up at the microphone. Some other woman took Jane's previous seat next to Claudia, and the event was officially starting. This was downright crazy! All they did at Dakota was pat Jane on the back and clap for a few seconds. That was literally it!

Nothing about this ceremony was anything Jane was used to. She just has to keep marching, keeping a normal speed until reaching the end of the field on her side. Once there though, it was unclear what else she was supposed to do, but as she was already dressed in her blue and black battle suit, there was nothing else Jane really needed to prepare for. Luckily, the outfit was stylish for this occasion and not ugly. One single cough could turn out to embarrass her. During the marching, the guy at the stage began to speak, introducing himself and the school.

"The graduation ceremony of Lennith central will now commence. Today we will be celebrating the graduational victory of one student who has shown what it takes to surpass the current level of Leray training. However, in order for the graduational test to be completed, the member must challenge and defeat the high-level ranking elite Leray fighter. Give it up for Cadastro!"

People were already cheering, screaming, and whistling, all just for the guy's name. The entire world might as well have been rooting him on to win the fight as well. Lennith's school is harsh! If you lose a nearly impossible battle in the first place, then your graduation is revoked until another attempt is made. In Dakota, all Jane had to do was learn a couple of ordinary low-level Leray spells.

"Are you certain this one is ready?" Gresham, one of the council members sat next to Claudia, whom apparently were both well acquainted. Gresham kept her voice down a notch, trying not to interrupt the man on the stage right behind her.

"She just has a little bit of stage fright. Believe me," Claudia pleaded. "I wouldn't have called in the best piece of the cavalry if I didn't think Jane could handle it."

"I had no idea your students were so important."

Claudia twitched. It was hard to tell whenever Gresham was being sarcastic about anything, or whether she was serious. Since she has the power to hire and fire any part of the staff she wants to, Claudia couldn't help but feel so nervous already. It was far off the radar as it was, but there was no forgetting the fact that everything about Jane's current training was far from legal. Her paperwork however was verified by yours truly, the required action to make sure nobody grew suspicious of Jane or Claudia. "You really thought I would go this far out of my way to make sure everything was perfect for nothing? I'm only going to say it once Ms. Gresham. We do this a lot for many of our kids, but today's battle won't be the same as all the others. The one thing about Jane Venn you need to remember is this. When she battles against someone for real, the fight won't be boring."

"Good!" Gresham put on her reading glasses to get a better field of view around her. She was nearly seventy years old, and it didn't bother her at all that she couldn't care less about most of the students here - or their silly graduation battles. She did happen to find fights interesting enough if they got really intense. It wasn't like Claudia to call in the best of all challenges for just one student.

Claudia sensed a lot of negativity in the old woman next to her. The battle being interesting was probably the biggest thing she cared about today, that and the quality of her morning coffee. Sitting on the seat of the council gives people lots of power, but it apparently spoils them as well. It's not like Claudia could just say what she was thinking right now. Claudia searched for Jane, who was marching along nicely near the end of the field. Make us proud Jane.

The announcer had more to say, but he was scripted only to speak again as soon as Cadastro heads up to the opposite end of the field behind the school. Because of the building arrangement, the field was totally visible with ease from the position of the stage. "The rules for this Leray battle will be as closely simulated as any other battle between two people. Only the student's challenger will be allowed to call a battle time out, or to forfeit their match title. There will be a referee to judge the quality and effectiveness of specific spells, but he shall only speak upon request. Furthermore, the match will not have any additional reward spoils or real time bets involved. May the student now speak their name and current rank?"

They were talking about her! Jane saw two small pads below her, apparently two speaker systems installed into the ground. This was so weird! She was supposed to say something... Her name and rank! With so much surprise, Jane had already delayed the microphone for more than three seconds. Sweat was already rolling down the back of her neck. "Jane Venn! Current level Basic. Class Advanced!" Her voice projected everywhere, but this time it was the hidden value of electronic equipment that did the trick. It was still surprising even for her. The fact that she had to speak like that in front of so many people had her hands were shaking again, and her face was blushing red. Her heart was pounding inside her chest rapidly. Why did this have to be so big?

Claudia sighed in relief. At least she didn't mess that up. Jane was told ahead of time what she would be asked and how to respond. It didn't take a genius to notice how shy Jane could be though. In front of a class, she was fine. In front of hundreds of watchers and strangers, not so great.

"Student challenger Jane Venn will be facing off against Onix Cadastro!" Upon a few more spoken words from Millar, the crowd of people were all cheering again. By this time, everyone scheduled to arrive was already here. The seats in all rows were filled up with people ready to watch the battle take place, but not all of the formalities and introductions were out of the way yet.

By the time Cadastro finally took his place on the other end of the field, Jane identified him from her distance. They were both standing half an entire football field away from each other, because that was the size of the field. Once Millar was finished speaking, Cadastro took his place, speaking into the mics below him the same way Jane previously did.

Jane wasn't expecting this. Cadastro seemed about 33 years old, but was impressively handsome aside from the photo. His suit looked as if it were the same material of Jane's suit, but was colored and designed differently. He was basically lit up with the red, blue, and white colors of the design, with white being the primary color. The colors might not normally seem to match a formal setting, but Cadastro mastered this outfit!

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"It is in my honor that I humbly accept the challenge and face off to test the abilities of the students before me today. I, Onix Cadastro will test the strengths and styles of my current opponent, Jane Venn, and vow not to hold anything back in this wondrous fight." With just those few spoken words, he got the crowd going again.

Jane tried to learn everything about her opponent, but Cadastro was like some sort of super expert for what he was doing. Even his voice was perfect for a guy that age. It would be impossible to underestimate him, and this only made her more nervous.

Johnathan, the referee for the match checked to see if both challengers were ready. "The match between Jane Venn and Onix Cadastro will begin as soon as both sides are ready."

Cadastro firmly responded to the request. "Onix Cadastro; Ready."

Jane needed an extra second to realize that it was routine to announce her name and being ready. She never even had to battle before with a real referee like this. Everything was so fancy. "Uh— Jane Venn! Ready to battle!" Upon realizing that the mic caught her initial stutter, Jane wanted to weep in silence.

Claudia had to strain herself to not bite her nails while sitting next to Gresham. Jane was so off her game today. To the crowd of strangers though, it might just seem like a normal shy student, but Claudia knew better. Jane was scared out of her wits. She's representing the whole school today, which means if she fails or messes up, the school looks bad. Still, it shouldn't matter to think about this in a Leray match. Luckily Jane is the one battling out there, and not anyone else.

"Level three again huh?" Cadastro's voice didn't project into the audience this time, but he was loud enough for Jane to hear his demeaning sentence.

Despite all of the publicity, Jane felt perfectly ready to battle anything in her way. She couldn't tell if her speakers were off as well, but she decided to risk psyching the guy up. The sensation familiar to her of battle quickly built a wall between her nervousness and the situation. "I'm giving it my all too Cadastro! You better not be too easy!" Jane highly doubted he would be an easy target, but at least by shouting that his way, he would take her more seriously. Her voice failed to project through the speakers as well. It must not work unless scripted dialog is set to take place.

"Then let the battle begin!" The referee screamed into his mic, spreading to the amplifiers placed everywhere. The crowd's cheering got much louder, and at last the formal holographic text starting all Leray battles formed in the center of the field, floating in translucent text that was only large enough to be read by Jane and Cadastro.

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This time, it was the referee himself who ended up creating the Siriean dome, the same familiar transparent shield that managed to surround the entire circular field, cupping just behind where Jane stood and behind where Cadastro stood. With the establishment of the Siriean dome now in place, the battle was nearly ready to begin, but like any other battles, Jane and Cadastro still needed to establish their energy scopes too. That way at least the watchers can detect what is going on through all of the flashing magical lights and the large area attacks. Cadastro's energy scope presented itself first, holographically displaying orange text in a box above his head.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/GmF4dMKF/S2-Onix-N-000.png]

Jane's reaction was again delayed, but once she realized the moment of battle, she tried to pull herself together completely. The only way she was going to be able to focus at all was to totally shut out her other surroundings. He may seem tough, but Claudia really did train her quite well. Now it was time to get things moving for real. Upon engaging her own energy scope, Jane immediately readied her stance, bending her legs slightly and preparing for anything.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/02dvNLgy/S2-Jane-N-000.png]

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Chapter Theme Shift: Amazing Artist ~ Magia Record OST

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"You can have the first move," Jane announced confidently.

"Very well," Cadastro replied. The elite warrior swiftly began to charge and release his MP energy, giving in to Jane's preparations. It was obvious enough that his attack was in the form of some sort of aura, with his body shrouding himself in a red colored outline. It almost seemed similar to that of Jane's power shield aura, but this was different for Cadastro. "Cardiononic-Lithofirey Smashes from Hell!"

Jane juked her leg back, unable to predict what was going to happen next. What was that gibberish he spat out just now? Is that even an official spell chant? Whatever he was up to, Cadastro was already doing something. Jane had to decide on her gut instinct this time and prepare to defend herself. Luckily, Claudia got Jane to better make use and preparation of Jane's own power shield. After more successful invocations in training, she got faster at invoking the ability. More than that, her reflexes and timing to create her special shield have been improved too. Nobody in this entire crowd except for Claudia and her class knew what Jane was really capable of right now, but that was about to change immediately.

"Power Shield!" Jane immediately charged and released the MP energy into each of her hands in a single instant. Because of how little MP it cost her, it was more than simple to create the aura on a dime. Jane threw her arms outward in a cross, lining them up parallel to her opposing shoulders. With the energy being released, Jane's entire body was immediately engulfed in a blue colored personal aura of her own. The full effects of her power shield surrounded her entire body while taking on the same shape as Jane herself, transparent enough to see through the aura. The aura formed quickly, spreading to every inch of her body, and her timing was spot on. Jane managed to invoke her shield just as Cadastro's mysterious power burst from his attack aura. What was a body shaped aura suddenly converted into a wide area horizontal beam of energy, shooting into Jane's shield at a lightning fast rate of speed.

It was hard to see what was going on based on how quickly both the players reacted. Even for Jane, she wasn't sure what sort of attack was affecting her, but the massive red beam of energy was slamming into her, the front of her aura anyway. The entire frontal side of her personal shield became impossible to see through, because the red beam of attack energy was constantly forcing its way against the aura with bright light intensity.

The size of each hexagon was also something Jane learned about in training. They're indicators! The hexagons form at any damage impact site from the interior of the shield, showing the user where the damage is coming from and its intensity. The smaller the hexagons appear, the more damage is being registered as reflected. It can be bad in this case. If the hexagons are smaller, than the damage is much higher, therefore draining the energy out of Jane's power shield faster. The red beam of energy only lasted for a little over a second of time, but just before Jane believed it would end, she suddenly lost her focus, her arms forcing themselves down in exhaustion, and before she knew it, some fiery hot red sensation took over, burning her skin all over. Jane knew at this point that her power shield just failed from taking in too much damage, but that was Cadastro's very first attack. He sure wasn't holding anything back at all.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/CKpb4BPN/S2-Jane-N-048.png]

Down only eight percent? "Huh!" Cadastro announced. "You're tougher than you look." The bright beam of red energy that had long since ended also caused Cadastro's aura to fade as well, ending his attack sequence. In truth, the beam of energy was so opaque and wide that he never actually got to see exactly what it was Jane did to partially protect herself. Her earlier chant of her special ability was drowned out by the sound of his magic and some of the cheering crowd. The adoring fans ensured Cadastro could hear them, despite the sound proof effects of the Siriean dome.

Now it was Jane's turn. She could hear cheering in the background of her environment, but decided to tune it out. Even if her power shield was incredibly unusual, now wasn't the time for cold feet. After assessing how far away Cadastro still was and which effective weapons were at her disposal, Jane came to a quick decision, one that Cadastro would not be able to block. "Dark Strike!"

Expending only a small amount of her MP, Jane released that energy, allowing her to warp elsewhere. Cadastro already lost sight of Jane, but it still took a full second for Jane to rematerialize standing right behind him. With her single dagger already drawn from the pockets in her new mercenary suit, Jane used her dagger and slashed upwards into Cadastro's backside, just after infusing the blade with magical energy coated with a red aura of damage. Cadastro took off from the ground, despite how much he weighted compared to Jane, but he only left about one foot of height before smacking back down into the grassy field. Just before deciding on anything else, Jane backed away quickly, as not to enter close combat range just yet.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/W4sh3MYQ/S2-Onix-N-001.png]

The referee decided to cut in with a visual announcement of what was happening on the field. "We're only two moves into the battle here, and things are already heating up. With Jane surviving the first hit with little damage, she then uses a matter transference attack to get the best of Cadastro!"

Cadastro got back up quickly, surprised by how quick Jane was to respond to danger, but he wasn't about to let her have the floor this easily. "It's time to take you down!" After noticing that Jane was not that far away this time, he began by pulling out his blaster weapon, shooting two plasma bolts towards the target.

Just this once, Jane couldn't react in time. Cadastro was so quick to get back up and counterattack, while the plasma bolts he fired traveled nearly at the speed of bullets without any special magical invocation. Jane's chest was barraged with both of the plasma bolts, packing a ton of force and disrupting her balance. At the same time, she took a fair amount of damage even for a low level attack.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/L81zfBT5/S2-Jane-N-049.png]

Cadastro was backing away before he shot both of those plasma bolts too, and just as Jane was attempting to recover, he sought another opportunity to attack once again. Using skill after spell without giving the opponent a chance to recover is not an illegal strategy, and Cadastro could only hope that this school teaches that to their students. After releasing a bit more energy into his fist, Cadastro created a red glyphring of fire circling his wrist. It was the only sense of forewarning Jane had to defend herself. "Triple Fire!" Cadastro released three separate Fire Bolts from the same glyphring, all of them accelerating while bundled up together. Each Fire Bolt came out of that glyphring at an amazing speed.

Jane had a bit more warning this time, and used that to attempt another aura like before. The time it took to charge and release the necessary MP was faster than Cadastro's invocation of Triple Fire, and as Jane threw her arms and hands outward again, she created another power shield aura around her body. This time, she chanted the name loudly in her head instead of verbally shouting the unofficial name of the magical ability. The moment Jane's shield surrounded her entire body, it was just before the first Fire Bolt slammed into the shield. Jane had another close call. The first Fire Bolt exploded into a fiery mess in the air just in front of Jane's aura, aimed at her chest. The resulting explosion caused a lot of medium sized hexagons to appear inside of the aura, just where the impact sight was. Those hexagons disappeared shortly after it registered the blast, but then the second Fire Bolt hit the shield again, this time aimed at Jane's face. Jane closed her eyes instinctively. Nothing could touch her inside of here, but the fiery light coming that close to her face was still unsettling. The other thing Jane noticed was how firm and still her body was. It was as if the force field could also negate outside forces exerted upon it as well. No matter how powerful, nothing could hit Jane in the right way to mess up her balance or knock her down. Just as long as her arms were straight and her palms were open, Jane was protected with this special aura.

This time, amidst the fiery blasts and the end of the attack sequence, Cadastro could see something surrounding Jane. Above her head, the energy scope reported that Jane's HP remained completely unchanged, which meant she was shielding herself somehow. Without another thought, Cadastro quickly went into another attack, pulling out his blaster weapon again. "Shotgun Blast!" The blaster fired multiple beams of blue energy, all of them immediately striking into Jane's aura without damaging her at all.

Jane kept her shield going. The beams of energy from the Shotgun Blast created clusters of hexagons at each impact site. This power shield thing is amazing! How could she not have known this ahead of time before Claudia showed it to her? Every hexagonal area shows where the damage would have hit Jane should the shield not have been activated. Even now is it repelling damage from another attack, but because of how long she had it up this time, Jane could feel herself losing the connection with the aura. It only had to be about maybe four seconds to far? It sure doesn't last long for each use, but she was only placing about 2% or 3% MP into the ability each time, so that wasn't all surprising.

In training, Jane was somehow unable to surpass 6% of her MP energy into the shielding aura. Doing so would prevent it to take form. This is because a power shield cannot be overcharged with Leray magic. Luckily for her, Jane was unharmed. She decided now, after that Shotgun Blast to lower her arms and close her hands, immediately cutting all running energy to the power shield. The aura collapsed on itself, fading by a strange type of hexagonal disintegration. Given Cadastro's expression, he had to be more surprised than ever.

"How are you nullifying that damage?!" Cadastro changed his stance, now uncertain what was coming next.

Jane pulled out both of her daggers this time, officially her turn to start attacking. She needed to come up with something on the spot, a combination perhaps. Cadastro was already a sitting duck, and Jane now has initiative. "I think you have other things to worry about. Mako Beam!" Releasing the energy from each dagger, Jane turned the tip of each blade into an arc for firing narrow blue beams of energy. She fired only three of them like before, but upon striking Cadastro, it didn't seem to have very much effect for pushing him back. Jane kept her daggers in hand, immediately going into another attack sequence just after the Mako Beam skill ended. She had to release energy again in a quick sort of manner, while twirling her body around at least once to get the magical ability going. "Rotation!" Jane's response ended up creating a powerful tornado of wind and slashing damage, growing rather quickly while drilling through the ground towards Cadastro.

There wasn't really anything he could have done against this kind of spell. The large twister threatened to consume him no matter where he tried to run to, and blocking was out of the question too. Cadastro simply braced himself as the Rotation attack of wind elemental slashing damage swallowed him up and struck his body multiple times in a long combination. Rotation is the top tier evolution level from the Whirlwind spell, thus does it have more power, speed, range, and effect of force.

In this moment, Jane took her time in reading Cadastro's energy scope while changing her position to prepare for his future counterattack.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/KYQ4gRd4/S2-Onix-N-002.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/DzQLpvRK/S2-Jane-N-050.png]

It was still far too early to call the match. Cadastro pulled himself back up with the tornado fading away. Now that Jane was just standing there, not attacking any further, it gave Cadastro some time to decide on another sort of spell. But with that shielding ability Jane keeps on using, will anything cut through? Cadastro punched the grassy floor below him, and returned to his feet in frustration. "Onslaught!" He pulled out a sword from a yellow generation glyphring, and prepared to charge in her direction.

Jane put her daggers away and braced herself. Cadastro was charging at her on foot with a long blade. It could just be a close combat slashing attack, but she needed to time her power shield correctly again, less it fail from running too long. Cadastro was now ten feet away, still sprinting to land solid strikes on Jane with his sword. At this moment, Jane threw out her hands again, shooting energy outward and imagining that energy as an aura surrounding her body. As a result, another successful invocation of the power shield was reborn, shrouding Jane in a powerful protective aura just before Cadastro got in range.

Cadastro then swung his sword, bringing all of his running momentum in with the blade. Just before the blade was about to slice through Jane's left arm, something stopped it right in the air, like an invisible force reflecting the kinetic energy backwards. Cadastro's sword flew back at him, stopping just before causing damage to himself. Seeing as that failed, Cadastro tried again, taking slashes at Jane. He knew there was some kind of energy shield here made more visible given one second of time, but could it really reflect the mighty strength of a physical attack too? Hit after hit after hit, the blade Cadastro held tightly onto kept striking against that aura, creating the sound of some strange, high-pitched photonic burst. It happened each time the sword came into contact with Jane's shield, generating some kind of repulsion sound with each and every collision. The hexagons were not small, but Cadastro just kept up the attacks over and over. Finally, he put all of his might into one big swing, slashing sideways at Jane's thighs. Even then however, the sword bounced right back, pushing against Cadastro's force and knocking him backwards off his feet. Clumsy enough to fight an unbeatable force, Cadastro fell down on his back and let go of the blade.

Jane had to lower the shield at that point. It was getting too hard to hold up any longer, but now Cadastro was down, tiring himself out. Now was her chance to counterattack once again. Since he wants to fight up close, might as well keep the strategy going. "Knight Dance!" Jane pulled out her daggers swiftly, transitioning from the deactivation of a shield aura directly into a charging attack of physical and magical energy. Cadastro already returned to his feet, but the sword finally disappeared, giving Jane the primary advantage right now. As she charged at Cadastro, who was already too close to react to the situation, Jane unleashed her combinations of magically infused physical attacks against the man.

Punch after kick after strike, Jane delivered a devastating combination of hits all over Cadastro's body, each hit carrying extra energy for extra damage. Jane performed a few side steps in between to prevent being interrupted in the middle of her combination attack. Then, she ran towards the guy, kicked up off his chest, and then booted Cadastro right in the face. Both of them were flying upwards now, but Cadastro was heading backwards from the force of getting knocked back by Jane's powerful kick, while Jane landed on her feet from the backflip.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/QttCgj3m/S2-Onix-N-003.png]

Jane wasn't finished yet. While keeping her daggers in each hand, she charged a Magical Blitz energy ball while Cadastro was still getting up. He was currently facing away from Jane, and it allowed her to target him from behind. Jane didn't chant the name of any specific spells; she only charged a single energy sphere, throwing it at Cadastro. The energy bolt landed on his back, knocking him down again. Despite the HP he had left, Jane could tell her opponent was getting ready to give up already.

"Flying Guillotine!" While the target was down again, Jane launched another attack, infusing magical energy into her daggers and then throwing them crisscross formation. The same red spinning circle of light and energy formed in between the spinning daggers, creating a damage aura which drilled its way through Cadastro, slashing him multiple times in a single instance. Cadastro attempted to get up again, but the circle wrapped around to return to Jane, striking him again just before the aura disappeared and Jane got her daggers back. It wasn't her favorite thing to do - hitting people while they were down, but Cadastro tried it against her once before, and if Jane showed even a moment of mercy, winning like that may not be enough to convince Claudia that she is ready for Alpha Zero.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/50R0nD9V/S2-Onix-N-004.png]

"I must say," Gresham squinted. "You're student seems quite capable. Did you teach her that shield trick?"

Claudia knew Gresham was speaking to her. Jane's shield aura is unique, and therefore technically has nothing to do with Claudia. This was the one thing that made it okay to lie to the council again. If Claudia can teach invulnerable shields so to speak, that will just dig a big inescapable hole for her. Everyone would expect to learn the same trick from her, not realizing that Jane's shield in particular draws power by taking full advantage of her symbol even in its inactive state. "No, Jane picked that up from somewhere else I think. But that Rotation spell, that defiantly came from me."

Everyone watching the battle knew. They knew that Jane's unusual power shield was somehow protecting her more than it should, but they seemed to be enjoying the match too. It's not every day an elite soldier gets knocked around by a young girl. "She certainly is something else. Cadastro can barely get a grip," Gresham followed.

With the crowd of people still roaring, the referee tried to remain silent, waiting for the battle to reach its end. Cadastro still found enough courage and strength left in him to get up, but from all of the battle damage Jane already induced against him, Cadastro could feel several cuts and a few bruises in random places all over his body, hidden by his battle suit. Jane backed away even more now that he has shown persistence. She was right to think defensively. Cadastro had never in his life found a young student throw out such weaker attacks in a quick efficient way. She was fast. Jane is a fast moving wielder who also has some sort of secret shielding aura on her side. So speed and standard shielding is her special tactics, but shields can't hold up against damage too high and severe.

Cadastro began charging up a lot of his energy, creating a bright green aura around his body. "We'll see if you can hold up against Ethereal Blast." Ethereal Blast is a very rare known special magical ability, known for being one of the most powerful aura attacks ever recorded in history, but he was used to using the ability. While charging more of that energy, the others could see a major decrease in Cadastro's MP levels, draining bit by bit while the aura was trying to fully charge itself. Ethereal Blast is also known for taking a long time to charge and invoke, which is why it remains so powerful.

Jane had two choices right now. She could attempt to interrupt Cadastro's charging sequence against some spell she didn't even know about, or try to shield against the attack, but with as long as it was taking Cadastro to even release his energy, it might be too powerful even for a shield to withstand. Cadastro made a sudden move, shifting his arms outward to open up his aura. Jane immediately decided to try and use her power shield anyway upon running out of time. Shortly after she threw the aura around her body like before, Jane became cloaked in the same blue power shield, hoping to stay protected against the unknown attack. Ethereal Blast... It was a new term to her altogether.

"Nagh!" Cadastro made a grunt of exerting full power upon releasing the massive amount of stored energy, turning his green aura into a green blast of energy. The energy formed a beam that had the diameter of twice Cadastro's own size, as it blasted from his body onto Jane's at an enormous speed. The loud sound of strange pitches followed from the aura beam that swallowed Jane's entire body and shield. It was impossible to see from this position if Jane's shield was holding up to the attack, but he would soon find out. Surprisingly, Cadastro lost a ton of his MP energy after using that spell on Jane, but with a power level of ten, it was to be expected.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/d3Z0XnDT/S2-Onix-N-005.png]

Jane couldn't see anything other than a blinding green and white light block her entire field of view. The aura she was encased in changed in texture from all directions, forming tiny hexagons in every location possible, meaning the Ethereal Blast was dealing damage to Jane all around her at the same time. In just less than half a second, Jane felt herself strain too much, and the shield around her dissolved on its own without her consent. Despite doing her best to keep her power shield up, the Ethereal Blast broke right through in no time, dealing far too much damage for Jane's energy to block it out. There wasn't much time in between that shield failure and the blast of energy beaming through her body before Jane could even think to react. Instead, the green auric blast forced her back and threw a lot of weight against her chest. At the same time, it felt like a burning sensation on her skin mixed in with a massive drain to her stamina. Once it was finally over, Jane wanted to drop to the ground and not get back up, but she steadied herself as best as she could.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/vBQ9JRdx/S2-Jane-N-051.png]

Jane was still in the fight, but that last hit dealt a lot of damage despite her attempt to shield the attack. Even then, she shielded the blast partially, and it still did a lot of damage. At least with Cadastro's drop in MP energy, he wouldn't be doing that a second time.

Cadastro's jaw dropped in an aggressive expression. "How did she survive that? Nobody walks from one of my Ethereal Blasts!"

"It looks like Jane Venn is able to withstand some powerful attacks from Cadastro himself. This fight may go on for longer than it appears."

Jane didn't mind the referee's random cut in announcements to the watchers. Right now she needed to counterattack before Cadastro tries something. That shielding trick really isn't always reliable after all. Guess that's what people mean by never sticking only to defense. Cadastro seemed to be a bit delayed. With his best attack not being enough, his hesitations grew wider, but Jane was already with a new plan of action. Cadastro still has a lot of stamina and life energy left; now would be the best time to change that. "Star of Darkness!" Jane's holler was followed by aiming her left hand at the ground where Cadastro was standing. Following the chant and magical energy depletion from her body, a massive red star formed where the guy was standing, then a red circle drew itself around that star.

Cadastro suddenly found himself standing in the center of the magical star holographically painted on the ground under him, and by the time he realized what the spell was all about, it was too late. Jane had to keep aiming her hand towards the same spot, slowly depleting her MP just to keep it going. The circular area then had a red fogged sort of light float up, and Cadastro suddenly sunk to his knees, struggling to stay confident.

Claudia was already impressed with Jane's major improvements on fighting, but Star of Darkness was also one of the newer abilities she taught to Jane. Star of Darkness is a unique skill in every sense of the word. It creates a circle with a star signet in the center of that circle below the opponent's feet. A second later, the signet activates, draining a lot of HP gradually over time so long as the target is within the boundaries of the circle, and so long as the user is not interrupted through the full effects of the invocation. With the diameter on the ground spreading to a distance of six or twelve meters, escaping that in time is difficult to do. But HP isn't the only thing being drained from Cadastro right now. His very essence of stamina and physical energy is dropping as well, making him weaker and more exhausted than before. It's one of the special effects from Star of Darkness, with a surprising twist at the end.

To top it all off, the damage type is actually a derivative of dark magic. Dark magic deals real time damage and kills usually on contact, making it illegal to use no matter what. Star of Darkness however is the one and only exception to the rule. While retaining its dark magical type of energy, it doesn't actually deal real time damage so easily, and has never once caused any health related side effects afterwards, even if it was used to knock people out in a fight. On top of that, no adverse effects occur physically or psychologically within those who have been tested to use it over the years. It might as well just be an over-charged Leray spell that has a powerful effect. Therefore, Star of Darkness is also the only dark magical ability in Sprawn Valley that has long since been legal and effective to use. Most would claim it doesn't belong in the classification at all.

After every second of time went by, Cadastro's HP level was dropping points, and so was his physical energy. Jane continued keeping an eye on Cadastro and his declining HP reference: 49%... 48%... 47%... By the time the magical spell was about to be used up, Jane finished the signature move with a jolt of red colored lightning from above, striking Cadastro where he stood to deal additional lightning damage. The bolt of lightning lasted only for a second long, but its unusual red coloration made it look really cool, and thus charging the audience with more audible energy. By the time the lightning bolt finished running its damage through Cadastro's body, Jane could finally let go, leaving the star and the circle under the man's feet to fade away by itself. Jane knew that did a lot to Cadastro's health, but it also drained a bit of her MP energy as well, so she checked both energy scopes.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/t70gHPVv/S2-Onix-N-006.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/HxB5HSpZ/S2-Jane-N-052.png]

Jane was technically winning so far, but Cadastro wasn't about to give up so soon. He felt so drained and weak compared to before. That's what Star of Darkness is designed to do. The fact that a third year student could learn all of these impressive spells so quickly was amazing. But now wasn't the time to be impressed.

Cadastro lifted himself up and aimed his arm towards Jane. In no time flat, he managed to generate a jade color glyphring around his wrist, prompting Jane to immediately exert energy, throw her arms out, and create another power shield around her. Cadastro still chanted the name of his spell quickly and let loose on the attack. "Lightning Strike!" A normal blue-colored lightning bolt fired horizontally from his glyphring, zapping Jane's power shield as it reflected all of the damage.

Jane's entire shield became surrounded in hexagons again from the inside, but the hexagonal sizes were much bigger, indicating less damage. It was a lot to push off, Jane could already feel herself losing control of her shield, but in just another second, the lightning blast ended with her shield still up. Unfortunately for her, Cadastro didn't seem too happy about that, and charged at her with another sword spawn. Because of how close he already was, Jane decided to stick with her current shield. It takes more time to shut it down and activate a new one.

Cadastro didn't stick with any fancy chants or names this time. He simply went in like before and started slashing relentlessly into Jane's aura with his long blade. For the first few slashes, the sword simply bounced off like before, but after how long Jane had her shield up in total, it was getting to hard to keep it up. She could feel now what it is like once it begins to fail. Jane simply let her arms down, knowing it would have happened without her anyway, but as soon as her shield dropped, she was slashed with the guy's blade. There wasn't any way to continue blocking or dodging the physical attacks. Cadastro soon realized that he now had an opening, and took many more hits towards Jane.

Slashing over and over from different angles, Jane eventually pulled out her daggers and tried to deflect the hits, but her attempt didn't go too well. Cadastro continued his combination, slashing the blade through Jane's body while she simply took damage and got pushed back each time. Once the time on his sword was up however, the blade vanished in his hand. Since it isn't his primary weapon, he can't just keep on using it forever.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/vTTnmWTQ/S2-Jane-N-053.png]

Jane understood what happened quicker than Cadastro did. Sticking with weapons that someone isn't meant to have in the first place, that's a soon made mistake. Now with his lost momentum and their close range to each other, Jane quickly counterattacked, coming up with the next choice of magic on the spot. "Blast Wave!" Her invocation timing was almost instant, and her energy level dropped more significantly than before. Blast Wave is an area attack that improves from Radial Blast, designed to be more precise and higher on a damage level than the other forms of the spell. Just before the first explosion erupted, Jane jumped far backwards more than once. Blast Wave is one of the few area attacks that can damage the same user as well, but Jane used it against Cadastro at just a meter away from the guy. Luckily, she got out of the way just in time.

Cadastro was subject to multiple blasts erupting from the ground, explosions which sent him flying back and dealing a lot of instant damage. The blast hurt more than his ears too. Adding to his previous damages and bruises, this just made everything much worse. He was lucky enough to somehow land back on his feet without falling over, but his HP took another large decline. After the several explosions subsided, no additional damage had been done.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/qBNX4T32/S2-Onix-N-007.png]

Despite his health being much lower, Cadastro felt like he could still fight until the bitter end. Since Jane was so fond of area attacks, it was time he tried one out. "Ion Smash!" His hands were glowing for the first few seconds, indicating a lot of magical release for another unknown ability. As a precaution, Jane threw up another power shield to try and protect herself.

She didn't know what spell Ion Smash was, but today she wasn't going to forget about it any longer. A massive bright shining meteor from the sky was approaching fast, much quicker than the speed of the meteors involved in Meteor Strike. Designed to be a wide area attack that deals heavy fire elemental and non-elemental magical damage, the Ion which was supposedly the size of half the battlefield came smashing down right in front of Jane. Even with her aura up, it was incredibly scary once it hit the ground at that speed. The force from the blast threw chunks from the ground and fire towards Jane just afterwards, while the earthquake managed to leak through the dome shield towards the audience. Her shield aura was forming hexes everywhere on the front side, and worst of all, hexes of very small sizes. Jane already had trouble keeping the shield running just after the hexes disappeared, it felt like she was about to lose it for good. Then she did, but there wasn't anything left in front of her but a big large cloud of smoke and flying dirt. The ground below her was damaged more than she was, creating an unstable crater where the falling object impacted. Luckily, Jane's shield failed just after rejecting all of the damage she would have taken, but after all of the shields she put up before combined with her lowering MP level, she was already getting completely exhausted!

As soon as the smoke cleared, Jane was ready to use the next attack. Cadastro would not have expected her to be able to make that fast of a recovery, and probably thought that her shield would not hold out long enough. It almost didn't! After she was clear for another run, Jane began dashing towards Cadastro for a close range attack, knowing from her rushing heart rate that this would be the last dash of the day. "Rush Assault!"

Cadastro didn't even have the capacity to analyze how Jane was still in the fight after that hard hit into the earth, and now she was charging at him with a glowing yellow aura around her body. Rush Assault is sort of a free-form close combat combination attack, but gives the user the advantage of speed ahead of time while they dash in for the first hit. The user of Rush Assault is always able to run at incredible speeds they normally are not capable of, and then the barrage of punches and kicks they deliver are also infused with extra magical damage as well. The combination itself isn't fixed, so MP consumption can vary a lot.

Jane was already in range, landing punches to Cadastro's face and kicks against his legs, interrupting his overall balance. Then she shifted and started again from the side.

Claudia couldn't take her eyes off the battlefield for even a moment. She saw Jane's expert fighting style in training, but this must be her best so far. Even if Jane somehow ended up losing due to her naturally low endurance level, it would be amazing already with how well she has done today. The way she moves in battle, and how fast her reflexes have become as well! Jane was at this point unstoppable. Beating an elite fighter in a battle was one thing, but this is Cadastro she's beating!

During her next punch, Jane accidentally held her arm too close to herself, and she missed the chance to score another hit. Cadastro now had a dangerous opening against Jane, and like any good warrior, he extorted that temporary weakness to the fullest. It happened so fast, his reaction time and invocation ability saved himself from taking on the rest of Jane's crazy combination. "Earth Glave!" The ground underneath Jane began to quake violently already, and as a precaution, Jane jumped backwards to try and evade whatever Cadastro was trying, but her attempt to evade it was the wrong approach.

Expecting a close combat come back from Cadastro, he used Earth Glave instead, shaking the ground below Jane as she landed, which suddenly shot up and forced the ground and upwards into her face for a lot of earth elemental damage. There was no way to get out of it; Cadastro played his next card brilliantly, and Jane paid a price for that.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/hvYdQfQV/S2-Jane-N-054.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/FFwbKBy8/S2-Onix-N-008.png]

Jane was lucky that Cadastro was getting as tired as she was at this point. He didn't respond to the situation with another counterattack, and simply let Jane rise back to her feet. The last blast hurt her limbs in almost every way possible, not to mention that she was physically exhausted from moving around so much. Seeing as it was her chance to try something else, Jane gave it her best shot. "Crystal Arrow!" Jane summoned a bow and arrow from a yellow generation glyphring, then quickly loaded the arrow into the device. Crystal Arrow is an ability Jane had experienced once before back on Route 96, which is why she had to ask Claudia to teach it to her. Seeing as people usually send two normal arrows and then a crystal arrow which is a waste of time, Jane only spawned the arrow with a crystallized tip at the end of it. A single crystal arrow was all she wanted. The problem was that while dealing low piercing damage and moderate blunt damage, it was a wonder if this would even do any real damage to an unarmored target. Jane went with it for now, pulling back and the string and then letting go after taking her aim.

Cadastro for once didn't seem to mind an arrow heading straight for him, and that was because his concern for its damage was much less than Jane's was. After the crystal arrow stuck into the man's skin and faded shortly after, it didn't even make him budge an inch. The sting defiantly hurt, but the damage level was low, thus allowing Cadastro to skip the recovery of a non-devastating attack.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/65Rr4fz3/S2-Onix-N-009.png]

"Shit," Jane muttered to herself. Now she was going to need a shield aura for sure. Her energy was already running low, and with the cost it requires to run the aura, it might not work at this pace.

Cadastro stretched his head around, showing off his endurance while he charged a lot of his remaining energy into another big kind of attack spell. Jane was already preparing herself for another defensive strategy. While he charged his MP into a powerful spell however, he didn't hint at giving away his answer until it was time to release that energy. "Hellfire!" Cadastro's large fire glyphring formed on the ground in front of him this time, forcing a dozen of Fire Balls upward as if to shoot from the ground itself. The amount of Fire Balls increased immensely, turning into about thirty separate projectiles. After gaining much altitude, Cadastro turned his arm, controlling the projectiles to send them all crashing towards Jane.

Claudia had to think back. Hellfire is a rare yet ancient ability that allows the user to add homing properties to normal Fire Balls, which are less effective than Fire Bolts, but with so many different Fire Balls all being controlled and striking the target at different times, it might as well become an area attack that isn't possible to dodge, all while conserving some MP energy. Cadastro knew all sorts of tricks.

Jane threw another shield aura around herself again, blocking out every single Fire Ball to explode against the aura. The hexagons formed everywhere from the front side, more and more as the impacts continued happening. Cadastro already grew frustrated. That's all Jane does, isn't it? She just blocks out all of that damage with some sort of magical shielding aura. This shouldn't even be possible - for a shield aura to become that effective at a cheap MP cost. As soon as all thirty Fire Balls were done crashing into Jane's aura, she and the shield were still up and running.

Jane cut the shield off just after the last Fire Ball stuck. The aura already nearly failed on her again from damage intake, but now it was her turn to strike back again. Jane pulled out both of her daggers once more, and initiated her next attack without delay. "Splicing Vengeance!" Jane's entire body began to glow with a crimson color, and then she dashed towards Cadastro again, but in that very moment, her body disappeared again.

At first, Cadastro expected another teleportation attack. He turned sideways to check his surroundings, not seeing Jane anywhere. Just like that, Jane reappeared, standing right in front of Cadastro's face. Before he knew it, Jane slashed in a cross formation, both daggers digging through Cadastro's stomach. After the double hit, Jane jumped back and tried to gain some more distance. Splicing Vengeance has a lot more going on than it seems, and that's why she loves the ability so much. Only costing her 4% of her MP level, Jane ended up speeding her run to about the same speed as light. After charging at Cadastro, she disappeared only for a split showing up at close range. Then she stopped right in front of him and slashed her daggers into him at the same time. By infusing her daggers with some magical energy ahead of time, and then putting all of that speed into her double hit, the damage dealt was quite high for a low costing attack. Cadastro's health had to agree with the tactic too.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/kgmxQRhy/S2-Onix-N-010.png]

Cadastro looked as if he was going to drop from all of the damage taken, but he still continued standing up, his MP stats slowly regenerating. There was still fight left in him, and it made Jane wary. He stood there for a few more seconds, waiting for the timing to be right while Jane braced herself for the unknown.

Okay. Okay. Jane was breathing heavily from her lower MP stats. They weren't anything as bad as her opponent was, but she was already so tired. The shielding aura sure has some heavy draw backs. The lower her MP stats are prior to invocation, the harder it is to run the shielding ability, which also makes the shield weaker as well. It's worse than that. If the shield fails on her for any reason, it drains her stamina three times as much as it would to cut out the shield early. So it really isn't the most reliable trick in the book. This time, no shield. No shield...

After what seemed like an awkward pause, Cadastro made his move, throwing his arm high up in the air while releasing the rest of his MP energy. "Drain!" A strange blue auric circle formed underneath Jane's legs, making her stamp in surprise. Then all the sudden, a green light forced its way out of Jane's body, and zoomed towards Cadastro. The green sphere of light then became absorbed by him, immediately changing the stats for Jane and Cadastro.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/sg45wfkC/S2-Onix-N-011.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/mZpM56ph/S2-Jane-N-055.png]

It took Jane a moment to figure it out. He shouted the word Drain. Drain is an actual ability that consumes MP for the user, allowing them to mysteriously steal HP from their opponents by draining their life energy. Pain and damage is something not felt by the victim. Instead, it makes them feel weaker if the target's health is already low, and then regenerates the user's HP immediately with the amount of HP stolen. That means Cadastro was still good for another moment or so. He really wasn't giving up, despite Jane's obvious advantage, but he won't be so tough with her next attack.

Jane decided to keep her daggers in her hand for this next part to be certain. She had to basically use up all of her MP energy for this one, which immediately made her feel so much weaker and fatigued. "I'm finishing this now! Redemption!" The vertical green beam of light casted from above surrounded Jane, and then split into five narrower beams of light energy. The beams then spanned outward in a spiral formation, tricking Cadastro to try and dodge them while blocking the vertical beams of light.

Cadastro was suddenly hit by one of the beams, knocking him straight to the ground in searing pain despite his current dexterity. Jane sunk down too, but not all the way to the ground. What surprised her was that even though one beam came into contact with Cadastro, he was still technically in the fight. With all of Jane's energy totally drained, and Cadastro in a tight spot, anything could still happen. Despite the low MP energy Jane had prior to using the skill, it was still much higher compared to when she had to fight Patrissa. Having more ME points did actually give her more freedom room in that skill, but it was already having effects on her total stamina afterwards.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/wBxLP8zy/S2-Onix-N-012.png]

Cadastro literally balanced only on his hands and knees, but he still wasn't calling it out just yet. He wanted to get back up and fight. This was the most fun challenge he has ever faced in a whole year. It can't be over yet!

Jane could tell that Cadastro wasn't giving up, but by the looks of it, his massive drain of life energy was disagreeing with him. His heart and breathing rate had to be high at this point. Jane knew she was already fatigued to her own limits. Using Redemption with just over 20% MP is not a smart idea, but her health was yet to be in critical ranges, so it was technically considered safe to try. Guess now is the time to set the record straight. Jane had her daggers in hand for a reason. She would not be able to use magic this time, but she didn't need to. "I'll show you how strong I've become," she softly spoke. Jane tossed her daggers in crisscross again, the blades flying swiftly through the air without magic. Cadastro was now done for. He could only stand there and await his total defeat.

Right as Jane's daggers dug into Cadastro's body while he was done, the following damage forced him to fall flat on his stomach and face, his health reaching the end of its capacity from the successful critical hit.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/nLdBfRVd/S2-Onix-N-013.png]

Claudia couldn't believe it. Jane managed to do it again, to use the rarest of abilities known as Redemption, and she was still standing in the end. Not only that, but with Cadastro now defeated, Jane's health range didn't even drop into the critical levels either. Soon after the man fell to the floor unconscious, the referee made the announcement official.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Take Off From Home ~ Star Ocean 3 OST

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"And that's it folks! That concludes the end of the graduation match made between Jane Venn and Cadastro! What a stunning finish to an exemplary battle. It's a total knock out, leaving Jane the victor of the incredible Leray battle!" He sounded as excited as the rest of the audience, now blaring in roars and cheers of victory, but they were really excited about the battle in general.

The Siriean dome around them shut down, fading into nothingness. Jane could barely control her breathing. Her heart felt like it was about to break through her chest, but she actually won! She won the battle after fighting for so long and hard. "Yes!"

"I can't believe it!" Gresham blurted. "She beat Cadastro!"

Claudia turned to Gresham with the sense of victory in her mind. "I told you she would surprise us. That's how Jane battles."

"I need to offer her a scholarship for this."

Claudia wasn't expecting that much gratitude from Gresham. She usually doesn't care at all about anyone's future but her own. Did she really see Jane containing that much potential? It's not like she was being serious, was she?

Jane kneeled down again, too tired to stand up straight. Cadastro's team made their way to the unconscious man, using a special healing orb on him. Maybe it works faster? Whatever the case, they had the right idea. Jane quickly fumbled for a healing orb of her own. After charging the crystal inside of the sphere and activating the magical device on herself, Jane's stats quickly returned to optimal conditions, filling her body back up with energy immediately.

"That's the way it works at Lennith's training facility." It was Millar speaking into the microphone now. "By defeating the tough challenger in a grueling exciting Leray battle, we hereby formally announce that Jane Venn has completed level three training from Lennith academy. We now ask the student to please step up to the stage to receive their license update status, and the graduation certificate in hand."

Given they could at least wait for Jane to catch her breath! At least the healing orbs worked quicker today than usual. Shortly after Jane responded to the command, a lot more formal things happened to celebrate her own graduation. Millar gave Jane the upgraded Leray license after stepping onto the stage, which now showed in textual letters on the front of the card, Jane Venn | Age: 16 | Graduated facility: Dakota + Lennith | Last Ev. Score: 10 | Current Status: Advanced Leray wielder | Credits: 5100 Cr.

This moment was more beautiful than Jane could ever imagine. Claudia said the graduation wouldn't be legitimate, but it actually was. It had to be in order to defuse any suspicions about her real story. Everybody then congratulated her. One of the council members even offered her a free scholarship into Lennith's fourth level of training, but it only has a one year expiration date. Jane certainly could not afford to go into school right now. Even if she could learn all sorts of new things, the Den of Purity was still the biggest priority, with reuniting with Danny and Taylor being the next priority. Perhaps afterwards though, she can accept it. Gresham really treated Jane like gold for the way she fought today.

Cadastro was shortly revived, and he prepared to leave the place. He didn't do so however without parting Jane with some really impressive commemorations. The whole event seemed to drag on for three long hours, drawing out the sunset of the evening, but it won't be long now until Claudia secretly sends her off. There is only one back route into Alpha Zero, and Jane has finally earned that privilege.