Jun dodged back, her shield held forward to foul her opponent's angles of attack. Her opponent's sword bounced off the barrier and Jun reset her stance, eyes peeking over her shield to watch for the next attack. Her opponent, a girl named Melody, was a girl of above average height with long blonde hair and an athletic build. On Earth Jun would have called her a surfer or skater girl, but she wasn't sure either of those things even existed on Merinthia. Melody shifted her feet and shoulders as she glared. Another attack was coming. The blonde swordswoman burst forward in a flurry of quick steps as she began her attack. Jun angled her shield up as she ducked down, deflecting the first thrust up and away. She sprung away and to the side to avoid the obvious follow up she wouldn't see because of her block, and had just enough time to reposition her shield to take a backhanded slash on its face.
Jun backed away from the other girl until her back bumped into the barrier of the ring. "Nowhere left to run," Melody growled as she stalked forward, her blade and shield held ready. "Quit running and hiding behind your shield like a coward!" Roaring, Melody shield charged at Jun, intending to crush her between the blonde's greater strength and the barrier.
Jun counter-charged shield first, using the barrier as a springboard to gain a little more momentum. The two combatants' shields met in a crash of metal and wood that rang around the arena. Melody's greater mass, strength, and leverage won as Jun bounced off her shield and went stumbling to the side, but now it was Melody who pressed against the arena barrier. Catching her balance, Jun moved forward, her shield and blade held ready.
Her opponent sprung forward, her blade angled downward as it snaked for Jun's legs. Instincts screaming, she kept her shield high and moved to parry with her blade, only to meet air. It was a feint. The blonde's thrust transitioned into an upward slash, avoiding her blade entirely. Good thing she was better with a shield than a sword. Catching the slash with her shield, Jun angled the blow away, throwing Melody off balance for the briefest of moments. A moment that Jun capitalized on as she slashed with her sword. Melody turned with her sword, dodging Jun's retaliatory blow and escaping the pin against the barrier wall. Frantically, Jun turned just in time to deflect a swipe at her kidneys, but her back was pressed against the edge of the arena again. The blonde pressed her advantage in a flurry of attacks that ended with Jun's sword sent spinning across the sand filled arena.
"It's over now tramp," Melody chuckled darkly as she moved in for the kill. Melody threw a series of stabs at Jun that she desperately deflected as she tried to move along the barrier's edge to her sword, but Melody kept cutting her off, preventing her from escaping the section of barrier. As good as she was with a shield, Melody was better with a sword. Jun wouldn't beat her by playing to the other girl's strengths. If she were permitted to use magic, things would be far different.
"You talk a lot," Jun wheezed, her arm growing tired.
The other girl was nearly as fast as she was and far stronger, her height also giving her the advantage of leverage. Dodging back along the barrier again, Jun eyed her sword laying in the sand beyond Melody. A desperate idea came to her mind. It was the only option she had left.
Jun waited until Melody committed and blocked the girl's overhead slash with her shield as she moved with the blow, reducing the force but also losing her balance as she fell to the ground. Rolling to the side immediately, she heard a loud thump as Melody's sword slammed into the ground where Jun's head had just been. Not wasting any time, Jun rolled to her feet, her agility and dexterity making the move smooth and graceful as she stood to Melody's side. As the blonde tugged her sword out of the sand, Jun turned and sprinted for her sword. As she bent down to pick it up her instincts told her to dodge and she did, narrowly avoiding Melody's thrown shield as her hand closed around sand instead of the grip of her sword.
Weaponless, Jun spun around with her shield held up just in time to block a furious two-handed blow that sent her stumbling back. "Never turn your back on your enemy, you honorless bitch," Melody hissed.
"Never trust your enemy to fight with honor," Jun retorted, flinging a handful of sand in the girl's face.
With a shriek of pain, Melody stepped back, her sword flailing one handed as she blinked and tried to rub the sand from her eyes.
Charging in, Jun deflected a wild blow as she stepped into the the girl's range. Before Melody could recover, Jun threw a brutal right hook that crashed into the girl's jaw, knocking her back. Dazed and blinded, Melody didn't react in time as Jun punched the rim of her shield into the girl's sword wrist, disarming her and shattering her wrist with the heavy plate of steel rimmed wood. Jun followed up with a shield bash that knocked the girl onto her back, before she mounted Melody and tapped the rim of her shield to the other girl's throat.
"Break!" Cecilia cried as the barrier surrounding the arena fell. Chest heaving, Jun got off the other girl and stepped away, guilt at breaking her wrist starting to eat at her, though it was quickly smothered by the anger she felt at the casual insults hurled her way. A student healer rushed into the arena, the girl shooting Jun a dirty look before she knelt in the sand and grabbed Melody's broken wrist, the amulet around her neck beginning to glow.
"Well done student," the Sergeant said with a nod. "Rack your weapons and rejoin your classmates."
"Yes Sergeant!" Jun saluted the man before glancing at Melody being tended by the healer. Sighing, she stooped over and grabbed the other girl's sword, noticing the Sergeant raise an eyebrow at her but saying nothing. Taking it as permission to liberally interpret the man's orders, Jun turned and retrieved her own sword and Melody's shield before returning both sets of training weapons to the racks around the arena. Task completed, she moved to the set of bleachers, ignoring the glares and dirty looks she got from some of the other girls and the leers from some of the boys.
After a minute, the healer helped Melody up and whispered something into her ears that the blonde swordswoman nodded along to. Grimacing, the girl left the arena while cradling her wrist against her chest and sat in the bleachers with the rest of the students, pointedly ignoring Jun as she did. As the student healer moved to rejoin the other healers and the student assistants, the Sergeant slowly spun in a circle as he eyed the first year combat skills students. "Can anyone explain why the fight turned out the way it did?"
Several students coughed and raised their hands. "You," the Sergeant said, pointing at well-built boy. The student stood up with military precision and saluted the Sergeant, a silver medallion around his neck.
"Sir, student Jun blinded student Melody with sand. Student Melody would have won after disarming student Jun if she hadn't used a dishonorable tactic, sir!" Many of the students nodded and shot dirty looks at Jun or pitying looks at Melody.
"Your name, student?" the Sergeant asked, a single eyebrow raised.
"Carson Ironheart, sir!"
"Related to the Ironheart Knight Order no doubt," the Sergeant said.
Carson nodded. "My father is Order Master Leon Ironheart, sir."
The Sergeant nodded. "I have no doubts that Sir Ironheart taught you about honorable combat and knightly conduct, but your answer is wrong. Among knights and nobles," the Sergeant sneered," 'honorable combat' is just some vain attempt at civilizing the brutality of combat and violence. All of you are in this course to learn how to be soldiers, whether you go on to be a soldier, adventurer, or baker. It is every citizen's duty to be ready to fight should the King demand it, and if we're handing out swords to bakers, then we're far past prettying up combat for noble sensibilities. Honor doesn't matter on the battlefield, only survival. Student Jun did what she needed to do to survive and win. Sit down, student Ironheart." Frowning, the boy sat back down as the class exchanged glances.
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"Student Melody made 3 mistakes. First, she believed her opponent disarmed when student Jun's sword was knocked from her hand, but her opponent was able to fend her off with just her shield. Second, she disarmed herself by throwing her shield away to prevent her opponent from getting her sword. Third, her opponent was still armed." The Sergeant eyed the students as he moved to the rack and picked up one of the shields.
"The shield is often overlooked. It is considered armor for defense and protection, something to be used only to defend yourself and not as valuable as a sword. This was student Melody's mistake, one many a warrior has made in the past, and one that student Jun did not make. A shield lacks a cutting edge. It lacks range, and it can be unwieldy and harder to maneuver. However as student Jun demonstrated, it can still be used as a weapon. What it lacks in range and a cutting edge, it makes up for with the ability to defend and crush. Student Jun shattered student Melody's wrist, and had the fight been real, would have crushed her throat. Yes, student Jun blinded her opponent with sand, which is a valid tactic. She used what tools she had available to win. She used everything she had as a weapon and never stopped fighting, and that is why she beat her opponent." The Sergeant made eye contact with Jun and nodded approvingly.
"Class dismissed."
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Jun hurried back to her dormitory to wash up after her combat skills class. She'd been among the first to leave the bleachers, but hadn't been fast enough to avoid hearing her classmates mutter about her fight with Melody. She'd won and the Sergeant had complimented her performance, but her classmates still insulted her. She heard the word "dishonorable" and "underhanded" several times before she managed to walk out of the training field.
Still, her classmates' criticisms didn't bother her like they used to. A month had passed since the start of term, a full 35 days. Five weeks of training had changed her, hardened her. Her frame was still slim, but her muscles were toned and hard as steel. Her increased stats from leveling, training, and cultivation left her in better shape than she had ever been. The extra time she had to rest and train with her friends in the mornings combined with [Fast Learner] had seen her skills explode with progress. Holding a sword was uncomfortable for her, but she'd managed to gain some basic proficiency with it. It was when Gareth had started teaching her how to weave a shield into attacks that something clicked. Her skill with shields soon outpaced her skill with the sword, and she'd found herself thinking of her [Barrier] spell as another form of shield.
Her status showed impressive growth from her first day at the Academy and had grown so unwieldy that she'd hidden many of the things she didn't need to track, such as her karma and titles.
Name: Jun Titles: [COLLAPSED] Level: 26 (+7) (37/100%) Race: Human (Balance) Gender: Female Mana: 210/210 Core Status: (HIDDEN) Stable (Tier 1) Stats: MIND - 42 (+4) CON - 46 (+5) STR - 40 (+4) AGI - 48 (+3) DEX - 50 (+2) CHA - 58 (+7) SPR - 53 (+5) Traits: (5/5) [COLLAPSED] Skills: [Body Cleansing] (Novice 15) (+1) [Mental Resistance] (Novice 4) (+3) [Piercing Missile] (Apprentice 25) [Evolve? Y/N] [Barrier] (Apprentice 18) (+14) [Multi Casting] (Apprentice 15) (+3) [Pain Resistance] (Novice 8) (+3) [Unarmed Combat] (Novice 3) (+1) [Basic Sword] (Novice 6) (+5) [Basic Shield] (Novice 14) (+11) [Mana Shift] (Novice 11) (+11)
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After a quick bath and changing into a clean uniform from her training clothes, Jun met up with her friends in the cafeteria. Aya had joined the group regularly after their celebration, and her classmate had hit it off with Lane almost immediately. Jun wasn't surprised to find out that Aya was fascinated with offensive magic, and it turned out that Lane had similar affinities as the first year. Aya soon joined Jun and Lane in their Arcana Theory lessons, and Gareth had even arranged for the 3 of them to use one of the Academy's spell ranges on the last Seventh Day of the month.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise to find out that both Lane and Aya were pyromaniacs, but Jun hadn't expected to walk into a range filled with flames as the two cackled maniacally. Somehow just based on Jun and Aya's descriptions of Jun's mana shifted spell, Lane had figured out his own version of the spell that was far more powerful. The sight of the room covered in flames as 2 of her friends laughed like demons had been disturbing, but the discomfort quickly passed as they did a version of the offense and defense drill.
Since Jun's [Barrier] had proven itself already, with only Stephanie having broken her shield spell in class, Jun volunteered to be on defense first. This proved to be a mistake. Jun's barrier spells had become notorious in their Practical Spellcasting class, and when Lane had watched Aya's mana layered spells break against Jun's barrier, his competitive side came out. Aya and Lane had begun alternating increasingly powerful spells against Jun's barrier Jun got in on the fun, experimenting with different types of barriers as she refined her use of the spell. Aya had been able to break a few of her weaker experiments, but Lane was the true threat as his extra years of training allowed him far more flexibility than Jun expected, even if the older student quickly learned that fire spells were especially bad against any barrier that glowed even slightly pink.
As the game between the three progressed, Jun started adding barriers to the other dummies in the room, stretching her mana and attention to the limits while her friends competed to break her barriers using wider range attacks. The 3 only stopped their practice when Cecilia, Sara, and Shiori showed up with food and stayed to watch the mages continue their game. After a quick meal the game continued, with Jun making substantial progress as Shiori made quiet suggestions for improvement. Shiori even gave Jun's friends some pointers using Jun as a medium, and both Lane and Aya improved as well, keeping the pressure on her.
By the end of the day, Lane managed to shatter no less than 30 of Jun's [Barrier]s, while Aya had managed a respectable 12, and Jun had managed to keep just under 50 of her barriers up.
[Barrier] (Apprentice 23) (+5)
An upgraded variant of the basic [Shield] spell.
This spell is composed of the aspects for Endurance, Adaptation, Redirection, and Negation.
Blocks, absorbs, and redirects force.
May be further modified through application of additional aspects.
Mana cost: varies