Liliana rushed out of the cafeteria as soon as she swallowed the last bite of food on her plate. She only stayed that long because of Alistair’s strong hand planted on her shoulder, where he’d placed it when she tried to escape after eating just enough food to take the edge off her hunger. She’d thrown a rushed explanation of wanting to practice more and a quick promise to Marianne that they’d meet up after dinner for studying before she was gone.
“Professor Rauk?” Liliana called out hesitantly as she opened the door to the class S training room. She’d made a stop at her dorm room to drop off Lelantos, Polaris had requested to come with her, and to change into clothes better suited to combat practice.
“Ms. Rosengarde.” A droll voice responded, and Rauk emerged from where he’d been examining a training dummy. He looked over her with an eyebrow raised and she resisted the urge to avert her eyes and shuffle like a child being scolded.
“Shouldn’t you be exploring the electives?” Rauk asked her.
That was true enough, though not an explicit requirement. The first week first years were encouraged to examine the various electives offered, via exploring the classes where the professors would explain to interested students what each class was about. Liliana had an entire week to delve into the few electives she was interested in, Soul, Telekinesis, Bladed Weapons, and Wind. She would also be looking at the Beastology and Alchemy clubs during the two-day club festival held over the weekend.
“I have a good idea of what I want to choose already, sir. I thought I might better use my time today with some practice.” Liliana said politely, holding the man’s gaze resolutely. Rauk’s lips twitched slightly in what Liliana thought might be a smile.
“So you need me to authorize the use of a personal training room for you?” Rauk asked, and Liliana nodded eagerly.
“I was actually wondering if I could get a scheduled authorization? So I don’t have to bother you constantly for permission?” Liliana ventured. Rauk folded his arms and leaned back, looking over at her for a moment.
“You understand, with first years, we usually wait until the second semester before we do this?” Rauk asked with a raised eyebrow and Liliana valiantly fought down a flush.
“Yes, I understand. And I understand why as well, sir. You don’t want us to get injured in the rooms with no one around to help us. Asking for permission before each use means someone is well aware we’re there, and monitoring our status in case of critical injuries.” Liliana took a deep breath and reminded herself she wasn’t technically asking for special treatment, she was asking for a logical concession based on advantages she had that others didn’t, “However I have something most don’t, a Rank 4 tame that can step in and neutralize any of the training dummies we have as they’re not allowed to go above low Rank 5.” Liliana said confidently. Rauk hummed and Liliana was now almost certain the twitching of his lips was, in fact, a smile.
“You understand this would be special treatment?” Rauk asked finally, and Liliana could help wilting at the comment. It was a no then.
“So while I can’t approve under those circumstances, however, since it’s likely you won’t be the only first year in your class to seek out the training rooms, I can be sure I’m around as a result to be available for any enterprising student seeking to better themselves. Let’s say I’ll be here between second and fifth bell each day.” Rauk offered carefully, and Liliana brightened noticeably. Rauk’s lips continued to fight against his hidden smile, but she thought she detected some amusement in his eyes.
“Thank you sir, that would work for me.” Liliana bowed her head respectfully, though she couldn’t banish the smile from her face.
“With the extra practice, I expect to see a better showing in the coming classes, Ms. Rosengarde.” Rauk warned her, and Liliana’s smile widened as her eyes sparked with fiery blue determination.
“Of course, sir!” Liliana promised. Rauk nodded at her and pulled out his own clear glass device, something similar to a status sheet but larger, a bit bigger than his two hands. He tapped it a few times and nodded.
“Personal training room 1 is open for you today.” Rauk informed her, and Liliana bowed her head once more.
“Thank you, sir!” Her voice was full of glee as she turned and bolted out of the door towards the room she’d been assigned.
Liliana didn’t look back and missed the head shake and Rauk’s loss against the battle to contain his smile as he watched the young girl dart away with a fervor for battle he remembered from his own days in the Academy.
“Room one, room one,” Liliana muttered to herself as she ran down the hallway.
She skidded to a stop in front of the correct door and pressed her ID card against it, letting out a quiet squeal of excitement when the door opened. Liliana darted inside, closing the door behind her, and looked around with eager eyes. She’d been inside the personal training rooms before with Alistair and Emyr, but hadn’t had a chance to be in one by herself yet. Five training dummies sat against a wall covered in training weapons and beside a crystal pillar similar to the one in the class S training room. The room was smaller than the class’ room, but still sizable. Perhaps a hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, more than enough for a singular person, or even a small group of students, to practice in.
Liliana tapped her finger against Polaris’ summoning stone as she moved towards the training equipment. Polaris formed next to her, shaking off his stasis as he followed her, his cunning eyes taking in the room with great curiosity.
“Where is this?” Polaris asked, sniffing at the deactivated dummies as Liliana examined the many weapons.
“Personal training room, I want to get a few hours of training in today. A lot of my classmates are strong, scarily so. I don’t want to be caught by surprise in a fight.” Liliana explained as she pulled down several daggers. Unlike the practice weapons at home, these were wickedly sharp. Then again, with the shields that were placed on students in fights, they didn’t need blunt weapons to ensure safety.
“You wouldn’t need to worry if you let me fight with you,” Polaris said imperiously as he finished his investigation of the automatons. “These smell of false life.” He informed her as he moved towards the crystal pillar to sniff at it and promptly devolved into a sneezing fit. He backed away from the pillar with a glare as he rubbed his nose with a paw.
“That smells of many magics, potent and strong magics.” Polaris explained to a bemused Liliana.
“It’s not fair for you to fight with me, not against a bunch of Rank 6s. Especially not in a class where I’m trying to learn, not win in five seconds. I can’t get better if you just do everything for me, dear heart.” Liliana informed Polaris with a tone that was tired of many iterations of the same words. This was an old argument.
Polaris shot her a look that said he didn’t like her argument, no matter how logical it was. Her bonds didn’t enjoy her being in any sort of danger, and no matter how many times she explained she wouldn’t be in danger in the Academy.
“Are the pillars made by the headmistress, do you think? Or an older headteacher? Were they all beasts, I wonder.” Liliana mused as she pressed a hand to the pillar, feeling it hum under her palm.
She felt the magic in it, strong, stronger than anything she’d felt. She reached out a small tendril of Mana and pictured firmly in her mind a sandy, desert like environment. Liliana had never seen one in person, but she’d watched enough movies in her old life to have a multitude of images ready to use. The magic in the pillar seemed to vibrate for a moment and the training room, except a small ten-foot area where the dummies, pillar, and weapons stood, began to transform into an expanse of sandy dunes. The light in the room got stronger and heat filled it. In seconds, the comfortable room had been transformed into a desert.
“You shouldn’t remove all your advantages, else you risk others thinking you are prey.” Polaris cautioned as he watched the transformation with interest, “And perhaps, beast magic and the magic of the mortal races don’t feel all that different in creations. I can say I’m not personally aware of any beasts capable of making such creations, but Mother could change the environment of her territory on a whim.” Polaris explained with a shrug of his shoulders, a distinctly human gesture he’d picked up from Liliana.
“Don’t worry, I have plans for you to join me in the tournaments. No one will think me prey if we win.” Liliana said with a vicious smile. She also mentally added that if anyone in class particularly annoyed her, she wasn’t averse to pulling out Polaris to soundly thrash them if they faced off in a spar.
Liliana focused on the pillar again, first activating the shield function. As the multicolored light surrounded her and Polaris, she focused on the Automatons, activating two of them and setting them to Rank 6, level 124. One close ranged, a polearm user, and a ranged archer. Two of the automatons straightened, their eyes glowing a bright green as they walked to the wall and grabbed their weapons. Liliana watched with fascination. They hadn’t been authorized to use the pillars before classes and she hadn’t even expected this to work, as the automatons stepped onto the sand and moved towards the other end of the room. For all the complicated magic behind the pillars, they were remarkably intuitive to use.
“Good. I won’t permit you to be anything less than the best in this school.” Polaris told her, and Liliana paused, wondering for a moment if that threat was aimed at her, or whoever dared to try and oppose her.
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“Your fate means you have no other choice, Liliana, then to be the best.” Polaris told her, sensing her thoughts as he regarded her with a rare solemnity in his eyes. Liliana broke eye contact first, her hands gripping the borrowed daggers tightly as she looked down.
“I-I know that, Polaris. I know what my fate is. It’s just-.” Liliana cut off, frustrated with the emotions roiling inside of her that she was struggling to vocalize.
She’d been a teenager twice now. Why didn’t she have a better grasp of her emotions? Or was it the inevitable eventuality for every teenager to be emotionally volatile and confused? Gods above and below, she hated puberty the first time around, even if she hadn’t gotten to finish the process entirely. Now she had to undergo the influxes of irrational emotion borne of raging hormones again, on top of the perfectly reasonable emotional reactions one should have when reminded that they were saddled with the fate of an entire damned world.
“You’ll be ready. I’ll ensure that, Liliana. And I’ll be there with you, through it all and until the end.” Polaris promised her, reading her emotions through their bond and the words she couldn’t say. Liliana closed her eyes as they began to sting and felt a pinch on her nose that always heralded oncoming tears, even as her throat clogged with emotions.
“Thank you,” Liliana said, quietly, her voice hoarse as she let her body sag for a moment, Polaris’ steady presence was there in a blink as he pressed against her and held her up.
Her closest friend, the other half to her soul, the one being in this entire world that understood everything, understood her and loved her fiercely despite it all. Metal clattered against the stone ground as her fingers twined through silky fur the color of a night sky as Liliana took solace in Polaris’ presence. Taking a shaky breath, Liliana rubbed at her eyes and banished the moisture she found there as she straightened her spine, her troubled eyes once more showing familiar blue fire.
“Come on, I need to train so I can defeat this great evil.” Liliana said as she activated [Threads Of Control] and grabbed the daggers, and an extra two from the wall. Her naginata appeared in her hands, a familiar and comforting weight. Her naginata might have changed much from her first one, but the weapon itself was always familiar to her, feeling like another limb.
“And so you can trounce that horned prick again,” Polaris added, his tone teasing as he took to the sky. He’d monitor the fight but wouldn’t step in unless he thought Liliana was in grave danger.
Liliana snorted before taking a deep breath, shoving her tangled emotions down and forcing a sense of cold clarity on herself. She was still less than stellar at mediation, unless it was the weird unaware state she went into whenever figuring out new spells and skills from scratch, but she could manage a clear head almost consistently now in fights. Emotions of any kind made her sloppy and Silas had begun punishing her ruthlessly whenever she began to show hints of anger or frustration in fights.
Your General Skill [Battle Focus] can evolve into the skill [Battle Clarity], would you like to accept?
Warning! Accepting this skill will mean you cannot accept the skills [Battle Frenzy], [Battle Rage], [Berserker’s Fury], [Wrath] and other such rage based skills.
Liliana paused as she blinked at the box like a stunned rabbit. She hadn’t expected a new skill evolution today, let alone one that restricted access to other skills. Such things weren’t foreign to her. In the game, there were skills and spells that were fundamentally incompatible with others and, therefore, couldn’t be learned by the same character. However, they weren’t exactly common, thankfully.
“Polaris?” Liliana asked as she examined the notification, wanting her Bond’s feedback.
“Take it. Rage based skills are a bad fit for you anyway, since you’ve been working for so long on not being controlled by anger.” Polaris responded almost immediately, and Liliana nodded in agreement as she accepted the skill. She pulled up the skill for more information on it.
Battle Clarity
Clear your mind of stray thoughts and harmful emotions as you step on the battlefield. Narrow your focus on the fight before you, rather than inconsequential worries that may inhibit your abilities. Improve your focus in battle and on your opponents, while dampening emotions for the duration.
Cost: 100 Stamina a minute
Channel
Huh, it’s a good skill, cheap too, though it doesn’t do anything offensively. It’s better than the effects of [Battle Focus] which just helped me subtly. Liliana mused as she activated the skill.
Instantly she felt her mind clear, and the emotions she’d shoved down became distant. They were still there, but they didn’t affect her. It was like she was sensing at them through a thick, opaque glass window. Her mind felt clear, cold. The effects were a startling contrast to [Battle Focus] which had only ever helped her keep intrusive thoughts from invading during fights, rather than doing anything for her oftentimes volatile emotions.
Her eyes flicked across the room, looking for her opponents and noting she couldn’t see them. As she stepped onto the sands and began the exercise, she activated first her Set Up chain, then she draped herself in [Invisibility] before she used [Leap] to get into the air and [Windwalk] to keep her there as she looked around.
Adrenaline flooded her veins as her eyes locked on the two automatons prowling around the far side of the room, looking frighteningly manlike as they moved. The one with a spear spun it, much like a person would, and the archer kept its eyes roving. Liliana felt a smile slip onto her unseen face as she noted that [Battle Clarity] didn’t affect the adrenaline pumping through her and with an experimental tug she noted she could choose to feel specific emotions, like excitement. She shoved the emotion back down. Excitement could make her hasty and likely to make a mistake. Something she was surprised to find herself realizing. She’d never thought that before. But it seemed [Battle Clarity] allowed her an impartial opinion on her emotions, and what effects they could have on her in a fight.
Liliana disregarded the thoughts for later, she had very little time with [Invisibility] and she needed to get to a better position before it ran out, otherwise she’d be forced to close the distance while visible and with a ranged opponent she’d be a sitting duck. She ran across the air, her feet supported the same as if she was on the ground. [Windwalk] allowed her to take to the sky and treat it as if it was the ground, for a price of 600 Mana and 1200 Stamina a minute.
Liliana slipped above and behind the two automatons and she quickly dropped her height advantage to save her Mana and Stamina as she gently settled on the sand. She frowned when the sand immediately started to shift under her added weight, the small movement and noise drawing the immediate attention of the two automatons. Without hesitation, the archer began to shoot out crackling arrows filled with Lightning. She hadn’t chosen their affinities, so she guessed the pillar had done it for her.
Liliana rolled to the side even as she activated [Gatling Barrage], [Radiant Ignition] and [Wind Blade]. For a moment she mourned the loss of [Wind Bullet], which had merged with [Light Barrage] to create [Gatling Barrage], a fourth ranged spell would be nice right about now, though she’d probably bottom out her Mana if she did. As it was, she was toeing the line between what she was using and what she regenerated per minute. Luckily [War Maiden’s Waltz] had improved with levels. Now it gave her a decent 70% bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom, which made her Mana regen effectively 2,499 per minute and her Mana pool 5,321. As well, all her ranged spells were onetime costs, not channels like most of her dances were.
The sand around the automatons exploded in a geyser of sand as her ranged spells pelted the area, though Liliana noted the automatons were doing a decent job of dodging the attacks, even if the explosion from [Radiant Ignition], the evolved and far more powerful form of [Light Burst], had formed a deep pit in the sands, which was quickly filling back in and creating treacherous footing for her opponents. Thanks to the environment and her opening salvo, far more of her attacks hit than they likely would’ve under different circumstances, but Liliana wouldn’t complain about advantageous situations.
Liliana dodged the returning attacks from the ranged dummy as it targeted her even whilst it struggled with its footing. Half its shots went wide thanks to the shifting sands and her Speed took care of the rest. Liliana noted that even with her high Speed and Dexterity, fighting in the sand made her slower, clumsier, as it tried to suck her feet down.
As her Mana regenerated, filling her pool once more from the hit it’d taken, she activated her Beast’s Dance combo. Her bestial dances activated one after another, each of them were thankfully onetime costs each at 1000 stamina and 500 Mana, which took a sizable chunk out of her pools but it was worth it as the combined bonus of 35% Strength, +25% to all Light spells and an added Light attribute to all her attacks, from [Dance of The Tiger], 75% Speed and +40% dexterity, from a combination of [Dance of The Serpent] and [Dance of The Fox].
Finally [Wind Surge] activated and Liliana shot forward, her feet barely touching the ground as she flew across it at such a fast speed the sand flew up around her still invisible form. Lightning crackled and struck around her, sand blackening and turning to glass from the extreme power and heat of the strikes as Liliana dodged between them. Despite her still invisible state, the automaton was following the ranged automaton was following her movements thanks to the way the sands shifted and blew around her with every move. The scent of ozone filled her nose, stinging it as she moved, but the strikes continued to miss her as she pushed herself to her maximum Speed.
Liliana jumped as she reached the edge of the filling sand pit, twisting in the air, her daggers floating around her as she landed on the ranged automaton, her daggers struck as she drove her naginata down. The automaton had lost sight of her when it could no longer track her movements from the shifting of the sands. Yet even as her weapons mercilessly slashed it, the automaton fought back. A volley of arrows, not born of the bow but appearing in the surrounding air in a circle, fired at Liliana at close range. She jumped into the air once more but she couldn’t escape them all and she hissed as they collided with her shield, causing it to flicker first yellow then orange as it approached red, but not quite getting there. She was ‘injured.’ If she didn’t have the shield, she’d be a pincushion.
It was far less than optimal, and it was quite obvious the automatons were better fighters than the students had been, even when placed at the same Rank. Automatons didn’t freeze, feel pain or fear. Though she was sure any psychic or emotion affecting skills would still have effects, it wouldn’t be smart for the Academy to impede the use of those skills as they were very common. But their lack of reaction to stimuli that would make most humans balk, or hesitate, made them far more deadly opponents than something sentient and fearful of death. Liliana would need to remember that. The automatons wouldn’t hesitate to take her down with them if they got the chance.
The ranged automaton deactivated as its eyes went red. Its attack on her had been a last ditch effort. Liliana frowned as she activated [Wind Surge] to avoid landing in the still shifting sand pit. Her [Invisibility] faded as she landed and she turned to face her last opponent, the spear wielder. Her eyes narrowed in determination as she adjusted her strategy to account for an opponent that wouldn’t hesitate before a killing strike, or balk when faced with imminent death.
Let’s go.