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<12/27/1971 ~ 12:55 | Hix Ruins, Gulop Region, Sprawn Valley>

Each and every student of Dakota was just as determined to enter the ruins, slay one Cran, and head on back, and all of them split up before reaching the depths of the forest. Even for Jane and those who had to run, it was about a fifteen-minute jog distance from the edge of Fronas to the Hix Ruins. Jane didn't know it yet, but she was already at the edge of the forest connecting to such ruins.

With her spirits high, Jane wanted to get into a fight with a Cran more than anything. She had been training so hard for the moment when she graduates and participates in fights, but this would be a real battle with live fire attacks used against her. Jane knew exactly what to do when that time comes, and she hoped to face the strongest Cran there.

A little after her fifteen minute mark, Jane ended up spotting strange structures in the distance, mostly under-detailed from all of the branches and leaves still in the way. She slowed her pace, carefully stepping over and around stumps while ducking below branches to get in closer. Once Jane finally reached her destination, her mind was filled with distant memory. The place was full of broken down stone rubble that used to populate the houses and structures here, all of which burnt down in the great fire twenty years ago. There was a pile of broken stone for each house, populated randomly over a very large open field. This was not forest territory anymore. Instead, the area known as the Hix Ruins was filled with the physical damage and danger of the tragedy that the Cran now populated.

Jane remembered much of this town's history, but only from reading popular textbooks and published articles to the matter. Though it was a twenty-year-old event, the town was twice or three times the size of Fronas, at least by population and depth. However, these houses were not fire proof, and people died here in that massive blaze that spread rampantly through the town.

The short thought became extended in her mind by itself, giving her the best-guessed imagination of how bad it must have been. All of those houses were burnt to the ground as the fire spread through the forest. Fire fighters got to the scene to put it out, but not before fatalities were reported. Jane still knew it was unusual at the time. How can people die of a simple fire under the Leray protection veil? That question was also on the minds of the investigation teams.

Jane remembered everything she read. At the time, it was just a quick skim of what happened here, but now that she was seeing the remnants of a dead town up close, it gave her the creeps, and reminded her even more about every single letter and word she managed to scan. The investigation team 20 years ago could not determine the cause of the fire, or the reason it was dealing real time damage in the process. To this day, it remains a cold case. It was disproven that the Cran had anything to do with it, since the creatures didn't supposedly exist there at that time. So whatever was responsible must have gotten away from the mess free of charge.

Jane stopped moving with a new set of imaginary driven memories on her mind. Despite not being there to see it, the layout of the ruins gave her plenty of detail to imagine just how horrible it must have been. Though so much crumbled rubble remained here, the slight outlines of houses broke down in such specific patterns; no personal belongings remained. It feels wrong to use the graves of many innocent people and their homes to perform Leray combat training. Did the teachers really expect everybody to be okay with this? Just glaring at the piles of rubble spread out was not really enough respect for her. Jane knew she had to honor the dead here, even though there wasn't a real way of doing that. Is this some attempt to reduce the population of Cran trampling the ruins? No, Cran don't do anything with the remnants of eroded material, and slaying them in the field this way doesn't actually kill them either. Defeating a Cran knocks them out for half an hour just like it would to an ordinary human.

Jane exited from the forest she came from, approaching on one of the piles of rubble. There was nothing there but degrading stone and a weathered spread of ashes, long since burned out. Even after twenty years, all of this damage still remains. While directly facing the pile up close, Jane continued trying to imagine what life was before here in this very spot, the sympathetic despair growing inside. It could have been a whole family of four, living their days until the flames numbered them. Did they get out with the survivors? Why couldn't the veil save them from simple fire-elemental magic? The thoughts overwhelmed her entire concentration, soon to fill her void of boredom.

Rustling noises in a nearby bush on the opposite side snapped Jane right out of her trance. Something was watching her from afar, likely one of those Cran creatures. Jane realized that she was already letting her emotions get the best of her. It was tragic; terrible to say the least, but it was in the past, before she was even born. Nothing I can do about that now...

The moving bush soon revealed a creature, already locked on and approaching Jane's position. Jane had no real cover since the density of the trees here were essentially zero. The fire that burned through this village must have ruined the top soil for many more decades to come, and there was nothing to hide behind, though hiding was Jane's last intentions. After seeing the creature that carefully began walking towards her, she was absolutely certain it was a Cran.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Toward Revival ~ Ace Combat 6

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The description Eliza gave earlier highlighted little details, and so Jane stood still to take a closer look. Like a three-foot child made entirely out of birch wood, the Cran only had connected stumps for arms and legs, making it walk in a strange shifty pattern, but it obviously had eyes in order to see Jane, though they weren't very big or colorful. The Cran's stumps were covered with small cracks, some leaves, and only a few miniature branches spewing out from the body section. The head was basically the same thing as the body stump, only separate and smaller. How the thing was living was a total mystery to science and to Jane, but Leray magical fields can do this sometimes. Not every animal becomes affected by the magical infusion. Though it is said that sea creatures are more susceptible to the changes here, Cran were one of the exceptions to that idea. They populate many places all over Sprawn Valley, but stay far away from civilization areas as well. This specific location is the only section where the density of Cran is high for any regard.

This was her first time seeing a Cran in real life. Jane studied the movements of the Cran as it was now only twenty meters away from her. A small clover on the top of its head marked which side was right up. Despite its cute intentions, Jane almost didn't see the tackle coming her way. With little warning at all, the Cran picked up speed fast, running on its two stumps it used as legs, leaving the other two forearms in the back. Jane only had a second to throw herself out of its path before it slammed into her at full force.

Jane veered quickly to her right, almost losing her balance in the dodge. She was taken by surprise in its ability to use its arms and legs with such great speed being a small stumped tree. After evading the Cran's tackle, it quickly turned back around, staring Jane down like it wanted to attack her again. Jane was still prepared for anything, but this appeared to be her big chance. Right here in this open field, a wild Cran appeared to challenge her directly.

Jane got over all those other feelings quickly, since they were being replaced with her sheer eagerness to fight in a real battle. This is the moment she has been waiting for. After knowing how to use all of these abilities, tactics, and Leray magical skills, Jane knew that this would be her chance to test her own capabilities. The Cran was standing tall, but remained motionless. It must have been waiting for Jane to fight back or run the other way.

"Ha!" Jane coaxed. You're not getting off that easy. A smile synchronized with a determined glint in her eyes. Jane wanted this more than anything, feeling her blood aching for a Leray fight. After staring the Cran down long enough, she prepared her fighting stance, and hollered, "You want a battle? I accept your challenge!"

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Suddenly formed out of nowhere, Jane spotted holographic text appearing in the similar manner of which energy scopes appear. This was a simple set of words enclosed in brackets; the reward/spoil system as it was called. In official Leray battles, this message appears all the time, for one to initiate a real and legitimate battle to be recorded to the cards, and two, to set up the system of rewards based on the bets between two parties. This was Jane's first time seeing it. Such text in the center of the field faded away quickly after she was able to read it, but it told her much already that this battle has already been declared, most likely by her intent to fight.

Jane was at first expecting the creature to attack her immediately, but because she had openly accepted the challenge, a strong Leray force surrounded her all the way up to the Cran. The mystical power of a domical force field (slightly blue in color with hexagonal patterns) suddenly covered Jane and the Cran inside while spreading to include most of the open field, allowing for plenty of room to move around in. Jane remembered this domical formation. It was the same as a Siriean dome, at least at first glance. Eliza said something about it being slightly different this time, allowing stray magic to exit from the field regardless of appearances. The dome was just a way of actively monitoring Jane's every move. If it were a real Siriean dome, the force field would block her physical body from escaping as well as stray magical energy. But even with the visual effects of the force field, this one is only for this exercise, monitoring her progress in battle, thus making it dangerous should anyone walk by and watch.

The Cran obviously didn't mind the formation of the Siriean dome around it. Instead, it was mainly focused on Jane, a standing target proud to be challenging itself. One of the things Jane was not initially expecting was the additional formation of an energy scope, right above the head of the Cran creature. Whether the Cran was actually controlling this energy scope was a question that couldn't be answered, but the stats of the Cran displayed above its head formed in a transparent holographic display of a status box, similar to any other energy scope she had seen before.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/8CBxvRFD/S1-Cran-N-000.png]

Jane didn't know what to expect, but with the idea now on her mind, she might as well get to learn how to use her own energy scope in a fight. With little concentration needed at all, Jane expended less than a fraction of her stored MP energy within her. Without really needing to search for the energy she knew she already stored inside of her body, making the energy scope, as well as performing several levels of attacks would come easy to her. In just short of a second, Jane formed the same type of status box displayed above her, allowing the Cran to realize that this was going to be a battle Jane was refusing to back down from.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/HsDK6vQH/S1-Jane-N-000.png]

The Cran seemed just as determined to stay and fight. Jane found it to be unusual that a wild creature would have such passion for testing its own skills. Cran probably don't get a lot of down time to practice like Jane did, and this fight was already in the bag. With a sure magnitude of her own strategy analyzed by herself, Jane knew exactly when to start. The Cran was waiting for her to do something, waiting for her to strike the first blow in order to try and read her own tactics, which was fine by Jane.

"Knife Toss!" Jane didn't have to use any of her MP energy for this simple attack. She drew both of her daggers into each hand, jumped a little into the air to obtain more physical potential energy, and then threw both of the daggers towards her target. The daggers were spinning and drilling through the air, traveling at a high speed towards the Cran with amazing accuracy. Jane's aim was obviously perfected for throwing her daggers in practice up to now. Before the Cran even realized it, the daggers finally reached their mark, each of them slashing and cutting into the bark of its wooden body. With two deep slashes indented into the Cran, it was sure to cause immediate damage to the creature.

Jane expelled another small amount of energy, causing her daggers (which now remained motionless on the ground below the hurting Cran) to teleport back into her possession. This was not even an official skill, but one learned in order to recover one's weapons mid-battle without having to run up and obtain them again. Personal weapons automatically teleport back into the user's possession by design, though the process can take time without additional user interaction. While they teleported into Jane's two hands, she studied the drop in HP levels of the Cran, specifically by watching the energy scope above belonging to the Cran.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/V6KTGzBV/S1-Cran-N-001.png]

The Cran had to be capable of feeling pain from taking in attacks, and it was just as affected by the protective veil as Jane was. Regardless of that, the Cran decided to jump in towards Jane, running quickly at her to obtain a much closer range. It was a fast runner, but stopped when it was about twelve meters away from Jane. The Cran must have wanted to make things more interesting by reducing her chances to dodge any attack it wanted to dish out.

Jane could sense that a specific attack skill was coming, but how would she know which one? In a battle between two people, each person yells their spells while invoking them, giving a tiny window that tells one what to at least expect, assuming that skill is familiar with them, but Cran can't speak. It was wondrous to see if there would be any indication that it could tell her which move she was going to be hit by.

Before long, the Cran spread out its two stumps it held as arms, and began spinning them around in circles like it was exercising. The rapid speed of the spinning of its trunks became much faster, picking up velocity every millisecond. Jane didn't even know what to expect, and instead of trying to dodge the attack, she covered her face with her arms, ducking down in the same stance Eliza had shown her in the formation to block an attack.

Jane was peeking in front, wanting to see what attack it was trying to use before it is launched. Surprising to Jane, she had seen something that was forgotten about much earlier on. Just above the energy scope belonging to the Cran, another holographic box appeared, though much smaller and also transparent to a strong extent. Jane recognized this as the Action Display Center; a holographic text box that only appears above non-human creatures capable of wielding magic. The Action Display Center box specifically annotates the name of an imminent spell that such a creature is about to use, specifically because they cannot speak the name aloud. The design is from the veil of protection to assist Leray wielders in battle, since they won't know what attacks are coming their way otherwise. Then again, by the time it normally takes one to read the spell on the ADC, it's usually too late. Jane completely forgot about this detail of battle until it was thrown in her face. In plain holographic text within the action display center, the attack read, Aero Strike!

Jane knew how to use Aero Blast, which hardly does any damage on its own. But Aero Strike? It has to be a bit different. The Cran was far from canceling its own attack, spinning its stumps around in circles as quick as the blades of an electric fan could fly. As soon as the spell name was announced in holographic text, the Cran unleashed its attack, sending a massive wave of high-speed wind, spinning in circles while darker and visible as it traveled. Wind elemental magic generates a visual field for the air used as attack damage, even though this is still difficult to visualize afterwards.

Jane recognized the magnitude and type of this attack. It was a wind elemental magical attack, using the special Leray type of air elements to cause damage to Jane using its high-speed force. Wind damage often carries characteristics of slashing damage too, but not every time. Jane saw the visible wave of wind rushing towards her, made very wide and impossible to dodge if she wanted to. Luckily for her, she at least had the decency to block half of the damage coming in from the attack, closing her eyes until it was over.

Jane had been attacked by spells before, wondering how it felt to take live Leray damage in a battle, so the pain was something she got more used to, but she has never taken a wind type attack like this before. The blasting gust of air almost forced her feet to slide through the dirt, pushing her with potent directional force. At the same time, she felt a little more drained than before. It was only with slight intensity, but Jane could tell she was taking damage right now, even while blocking. The wind damage isn't necessarily as painful as it is draining to the senses and one's HP level, unless of course slashing damage gets involved. Luckily this time, it wasn't.

After the wind finally let up two seconds later, Jane uncovered her stance, standing tall and proud again to face the Cran after taking a direct magical attack. Jane examined herself swiftly; there were no cuts or any indication of real damage. Her short black dress was also just fine. Jane did not expect anything to mess up her wardrobe, since this was a powerful dress sphere designed for Leray fights. After examining her body, Jane glanced at her energy scope, which was still translucent, but not inactive.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/9Q1nFWsF/S1-Jane-N-002.png]

Jane knew that she blocked the attack instinctively, but it was a little surprising to see a wind type spell that was so powerful on its own. Instead of cringing at the fact that she just lost some HP, Jane smiled with the honor of this direction, enjoying the fact that this Cran was not going down without a real fight. Jane's confidence immediately restored, she prepared herself to dish out another attack.

This one would be simple, a magical spell she learned long ago, which is also easy to invoke. Jane knew it wasn't her most powerful attack, but this would test just how much potential her skill level has grown, to determine how much damage she can dump into the Cran. Not only that, but a non-elemental attack would ignore any effects of a fire resistant body such as her opponent's. After quickly charging and releasing the small amount of MP energy within herself, Jane created a magical glyphring in front of her, about the size of half her entire body with a powerful orange glow. Then she lifted her right arm, also glowing with a slight orange aura from withholding magical MP energy inside of it. Jane took aim at the Cran quickly before she unleashed her attack.

"Radial Stars!" Jane shot a barrage of spinning glowing magical stars, all of which zoomed through the air with incredible speed while impaling the Cran without mercy. The Cran was being pushed back a little, just as Jane was before. It was obviously taking damage, and since piercing damage was involved with the Radial Stars, it had to hurt more than Jane's first attack skill of Knife Toss. Deciding not to pay any attention to the slightest drop in her MP capacity, Jane only focused on the Cran. Radial Stars hardly uses enough MP energy to cause concern to herself, and the Cran's reaction at the end of this attack was what Jane wanted to see. After her hand stopped shooting the magical stars, she lowered her arm in response, and the glyphring she created faded away as well.

The Cran was trying to cover itself with its own stumps, unsuccessfully since they are not very flexible for the strange creature. It eventually stopped trying to move around, and faced Jane again. Jane studied everything about the Cran once more, beginning with the status bar above the creature.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/cC6zPPF4/S1-Cran-N-002.png]

It wasn't her best work, but Jane knew that Radial Stars is still only a spell yielding a power level of one. Even so, her own knife toss did less damage than her magical spell did to it. The Cran was eying Jane with a raging vengeance, determined in its stance and body language to strike her back.

Jane was ready for anything, when she suddenly noticed a glyphring forming in front of the Cran. The Cran lifted one of its arm stumps aiming at Jane as it also formed a moderately sized red glyphring. Jane was not entirely certain what spell was about to be thrown her way, since the text did not yet appear to tell her which attack it was about to launch, but the glyphring's center was aimed at her position. The Cran was obviously invoking magical energy into an attack spell. Jane remained motionless for the moment, keeping her reflexes up and her focus on the glyphring of her opponent.

Just before the attack spell was launched, the text finally appeared in the action display center of the Cran, but Jane didn't read it at all. Ignoring the time and energy it took away from her focus, Jane waited for the attack to come right out of that glyphring, which it finally had. A short burst of a Fire Ball was shot, as if from a cannon, and Jane had little time at all to react. Seeing the flaming ball of fire flying her way, she ducked down to the ground, flat on her hands and knees. In high hopes that the Cran's Fire Ball projectile was no longer on a collision course to her face, Jane braced herself in case she was still going to take a hit. After all, it could have been a Fire Bolt. If it was, she would be done for.

With her entire body as low as a snake, Jane eventually heard the rushing sound of something swept overcast her head. Its crushing speed forced some of the wind to play its sound into her ears, but Jane ended up taking no damage after the noise faded. After opening her eyes, she saw that the glyphring of the Cran faded, and that meant that the attack spell was over. Jane had successfully dodged the Fire Ball thrown her way, and used that reality to try and stand back up. Her dress was getting just a little dirty already from playing down in the soil, but she didn't mind this at all. It was an excellent attempt to dodge a Fire Ball, which cannot be controlled once it is launched anyway. Seeing defeat in the Cran's eyes as it missed its magical attack, Jane drew her daggers into her hands, prepared to take her turn to attack again.

Since neither side took any damage from the last turn yet, Jane didn't need to update either status by checking on the energy scopes. Doing so would have wasted a lot of time, and she knew exactly what to do next. With a confident vote of style in her mind, Jane charged at the Cran at top speed, forcing it to tighten in response to her unexpected action. Jane stopped just short of smashing into the Cran, now at close combat range of the animal.

Knowing that this was dangerous for her as well, Jane was still confident that the Cran here did not know how to move like she did at this range. With her daggers already in her hands, Jane started by slashing at the Cran twice with each dagger. Then she swept into a backwards bend, immediately dodging the Cran's stump that it tried to use in order to smack her in the face. With a rushing swing, the Cran's arm missed Jane by a hair, since she instinctively knew to avoid it. Jane then returned to her attack just as swiftly, punching the bark right in the face. Jane then spun around in a full circle, allowing her to pick up speed for a flying kick. Jane landed her kick excellently, causing even more damage to rack up in the combo. Jane then slashed the bark with her dagger again, following that combo up with another punch. Jane then ducked, in case the Cran was about to try and hit her again, and she also performed a low sweeping kick while she was down there.

Jane didn't even have to think about how to fight like this. Her movement, slashes, and style of attacking while dodging at the same time was natural to her after training with her older instructor before in this exact type of fighting style. Her low kick caused the Cran to fall backwards, but it didn't really land on its back either. Knowing that her streak had ended, Jane performed a major backflip to put a little more distance between her and the Cran. While the creature was recovering, and while Jane was still in mid-air from her backflip, she was charging up more MP energy to use. She thought about making her hands incredibly cold while forming the glyphring of her choice around her wrist. The glyphring materialized after Jane landed back on the ground, and she quickly took aim at the Cran while it was trying to get its bearings after Jane landed attack after attack against the creature.

Jane's glyphring was rather small, though rotating with a bright blue colored glow of Jane's decision. It was the glyphring that responded to charging an ice elemental magical attack, and she knew that now was the time to launch it. "Ice Ball!" Jane aimed and shot a ball of ice at the Cran, still while it was getting reoriented from taking all of those hits like that. The ball of ice traveled quickly through the air, and landed a perfect direct hit on the target, knocking the Cran off its feet completely this time. Jane diffused her glyphring, and instead used her arms and fists to pull them back in a congratulating body gesture. Yes! Jane took that moment to realize the elegance in her attack streak. By beginning with a nicely performed close combat combination attack, she did a backflip that put at least three meters more distance between her and the Cran. Then she shot a ball of ice against the Cran just after landing, making for two types of attacks. Going close combat like that was not officially a move or type of skill, but it did manage to score high on physical damage. Since Jane got in an additional Ice Ball, it was equivalent to taking two turns worth of damage in one go. That wasn't against the rules either. If the Cran somehow managed to shoot Fire Ball after Fire Ball at Jane in just one turn, it would be legal. But this Cran had its work cut out for it, taking all of that damage while being knocked down and bruised up. It was only now when Jane took the time to study the outcome effect of her damage on the target.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/1XTdSMd0/S1-Cran-N-003.png]

Other than realizing the major victory in Jane's score of damage, she also noticed just how slowly MP energy regenerates mid-battle. The Cran must have used 7% of its MP energy to fire that single Fire Ball attack. It wasn't surprising that it took that much when it usually takes one to three percent, seeing as Cran have naturally lower ME points than humans do, including HP stats as well for the most part. The Cran finally managed to get back on its feet, but its stance was proving to Jane that the drop in HP did not go unnoticed. After taking all of that damage, it had to be in pain now, or at the very least, drained of its own stamina.

Unfortunately for her, this dropped Jane's guard slightly, while the Cran suddenly decided to charge back into action. Identifying where Jane was standing, the Cran began its next attack by sprinting. Jane could see this coming by now, and the attack type above the energy scope in the action display bar read Slam. It must be trying to charge into her, mostly to inflict blunt physical damage. Jane prepared herself to dodge at the last second, but she didn't realize exactly how fast this Cran could run until it was too late. Heading up to a speed at about forty-five miles per hour, the Cran let Jane have it, smashing its body into hers just as she tried to jump out of the way. Jane was not nearly quick enough to evade the attack that time, and the massive forceful body slam knocked Jane off her feet while flying backwards.

Even as Jane was about to fall on her back from the forceful attack in mid-air, the Cran had more ideas to its own attack. Swinging its stumps left and right, the Cran punched Jane twice, and then kicked her higher off the air before she landed into the dirt. Jane ended up getting punched, kicked, and then kicked again in a strange combination attack invoked by the Cran. For having stumps as arms and legs, it seemed to pay to its own advantage to inflict damage on Jane when attacking at close range like that, not to mention the unrealistic kinetic force placed into its skinny limbs. As soon as Jane finally hit the ground after taking so many attacks in mid-air, she took her time getting back up. The Cran was already running backwards, regaining its distance from Jane to avoid making any mistakes. For a little feisty creature, this thing sure was smart. Jane naturally checked her stats, after feeling the plowing pain to her face and her stomach. Jane's arms hurt as well as the Cran nearly knocked the wind out of her.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/5tRKLsxh/S1-Jane-N-003.png]

At least her HP was still above 80%. To Jane, that was still good for her first real fight. This Cran sure was not about to just let her have her way though, and this meant her next attack needed to be either high on damage or unexpected. The Cran must have given Jane payback in the form of a close combat attack. That means it might be expecting Jane to try it again.

With her mind made up anyway, Jane drew her daggers again, and began charging at the Cran with top running speed. "Dagger Strike!" Jane wanted to make sure to remember exactly how to execute her plan. Dagger strike is not an official Leray skill, but she did learn that her freeform skill has its benefits if done correctly. Instead of tossing her knives like last time, Jane ran as fast as she could towards the Cran, who was making no attempt to dodge. The thing might be ready to reflect Jane's attack, but she was not stopping one bit. Determined to have her way, Jane finally came close to the Cran. She then gave her legs one final push, making her leap forward with all her might. Jane had her daggers aiming outwards in her hand, and stuck both of them deep into the bark of the Cran's body just before landing her feet into the dirt again.

Jane was not finished yet; despite having scored a nice Dagger Strike right into the Cran, causing massive piercing damage instead of slashing damage from the way she inflicted the attack, Jane regained her distance by running backwards, charging up her MP energy in response as well. Jane didn't take long this time to make her next magical attack take full form. She created the glyphring around her wrist again, as small as the ones used from her earlier Ice Ball, though this time, the glyphring was a darker blue color, with a hint of green mixed into the glow. Jane lifted her hand, carrying the glyphring with it attached to her wrist. After taking aim, she chanted the name of her next attack, and unleashed all of her stored MP energy into the magical skill.

"Electro-Ball!" Jane shot the fast flying projectile of the ball of electricity. The magical projectile slammed into the Cran immediately after it was launched, proving how fast it travels through the air. Jane watched as the Cran took minor damage from the initial impact and force it took on from the electrical projectile. As soon as the impact happened, electrical sparks and zaps of blue color surrounded the Cran's body everywhere, causing further damage and zapping where it stood for several moments to come. While being electrocuted in place for two long seconds, the Cran finally got out of the damage hold, only one and a half-seconds later. Though to Jane while in battle, this was all happening close to slow motion in her perspective. With this much focus, almost everything can be seen coming or going, and the Cran being zapped like that was amazing. Jane did not really have the chance to use an electrical attack against a target before, but now that she had, it felt incredible to perform it with such success.

The Cran, though over the electrocution and recovered enough to face Jane again, had to be surging with pain and humiliation. After taking an electrical attack like that, who knows if the creature was able to sense the same aftereffects that humans do, having its entire body tingling and burning up from electrical damage intake? Jane checked out just how effective her second combination attack became.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/XNDm97vZ/S1-Cran-N-004.png]

It wasn't much, but with her opponent's HP below half with hers above grade-A range, Jane knew that even after taking any more attacks, the winner of this match was already decided. The Cran was obviously planning to attack her again.

Shoot! The word appeared right inside of the Cran's action display box, and Jane braced herself for what was next to come. If this was about to become anything Jane thought it might, there would be no effective way to avoid or block out the damage from this attack.

In just short charge time, the Cran lifted both of its arms and aimed them at Jane. It then formed small barrels at the tips of the center of each stump, which turned the end of its arms into live guns. The scene of its action was much like something out of the North American film of the Transformers movie. Jane was powerless to do anything about this, and the Cran let her have it. Firing a rapid burst of seven bullets from each slot, Jane was immediately pelleted with a barrage of bullets, which did not travel any slower from the Leray veil's protective effects on the world here. They hurt her more than initially expected, almost bad enough to send her down the ground doubled over in pain. Jane felt like a bunch of needles had poked through her skin with enough force to cause bruising as well, but she held her ground despite the damage she took.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/g0JBxCPy/S1-Jane-N-004.png]

Jane knew it could not have been that bad, since it was mostly piercing damage that was done to her. Piercing damage is not designed to be high yield on HP reduction, but it was sure something for pain. Jane had to get over it quickly in order to perform her next attack, but she first needed to hold her breath in order to do just that.

As soon as Jane was ready, she began charging some MP energy directly into both of her hands, and unleashed her attack almost immediately with a rapid invocation trick. "Aero Blast!" Jane swung her hand sideways a little while aiming at the Cran as well. The force caused Jane to throw a confined ball of forceful air, much like the Aero Strike used against her before. It wasn't as wide and massive, nor as damaging in potential, but Jane was not done yet. Though it cost more MP to use attacks like this anyway, Jane threw another Aero Blast towards the Cran, leaving her other hand before the first Aero Blast managed to hit her target. Jane could tell the Cran was powerless to dodge the wind-based attack, and she threw in one final Aero Blast from her hand again, making for three Aero Blasts in one single turn. There was no glyphring involved in the attack, but the Cran was being blasted intensely with high-speed winds. Because it was hit with three consecutively, Jane waited and watched as the damage and struggle counted towards the Cran's HP levels.

The wind surrounded the Cran long after it was hit by the blast, making it hard for the creature to recover, but the winds didn't last forever, and it eventually was freed of the slashes of wind used against it. As soon as the Cran finally regained its normal stance, Jane checked to see its remaining health.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/SN25dFXg/S1-Cran-N-005.png]

Okay, that didn't work out for the best. Jane should have known that wind elemental magic normally has such low power levels, particularly with Aero Blast. That must be why the spell is so easy to use and invoke. So now, the Cran will have its next chance to attack. What is it planning to use this time? Jane didn't ponder the question for too long. It would just be better to dodge whatever is thrown her way. From the sight above the energy scope, Jane saw the text appear for the next Cran attack. Flame Charge. Whatever Flame Charge meant, it must take a while to invoke. The Cran was literally just standing there, doing nothing but standing tall...

Jane then realized that there was a faint glowing aura around the entire body of the Cran. Flame Charge isn't an attack; it's a support aura. The Cran must be charging fire type energy to use against her. This is bad, but that also means it will take time before Jane can be affected. That gives Jane the perfect chance to strike before this is over, and what better move than her strongest learned spell?

"Shadow Wave!" Jane had no trouble at all pulling the energy out of her MP levels. It took an entire amount of fifteen percent of her MP to invoke the spell that quickly, but it was worth it. Jane released that energy from her right arm flushing downward, and it ended up creating a rushing wave as dark as a black sky, traveling quickly through the ground. Shadow Wave was the same attack she demonstrated to Taylor the first time they met up in the dark room, and it was a power level four attack. Shadow Wave is bound to the ground, so it doesn't fly through the air like a projectile attack would. However, it has the unique properties of dealing heavy magical damage as well as slashing damage in the same ordinance. The wave initially acts as a force traveling in the ground, but upon impact...

Jane watched just to see it happen again. The Cran had no real way to dodge the attack. The wave slammed into the Cran, almost knocking it backwards. It was defiantly enough force to make its stumpy feet slide in the ground. Shortly after the force of the Shadow Wave hit its mark, the height of the wave grew taller, and began attacking the Cran with magical slashing damage, holding it in place for two more seconds to come. Much like an electrical attack, Shadow Wave holds the target in place while they take the damage over time, as long as they are hit in the first place. Jane's Shadow Wave spell was no pushover.

The Cran took on a lot of damage, getting slashed bit by bit with the magical damage being injected into the same exact ordinance. It was rather painful, but not as bad as the drop in its HP levels. The Cran immediately lost a lot of the strength and energy it once had.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/ZKGQD7p4/S1-Cran-N-006.png]

Jane noticed how effective the attack was, and gave herself some praise for being the only one in her class so far to master that spell down. She shook it off after getting shortly distracted; this Cran was not through with her just yet. Its red aura was still blazing and glowing over its entire body, getting brighter and more visible. It must have finished Flame Charge despite being attacked, and Jane had to be quick on her feet now.

Shortly after Jane braced herself, the ADC lit up with new text synchronized with the intent of the Cran. Flamethrower! It did sound like a nasty spell with a higher power level, especially after boosting the power of its fire elemental damage. Jane knew exactly how important it was to dodge this time, and she changed her stance preparing to jump on the fly.

The Cran created another barrel at the tip of its stump, aimed right at Jane. Jane sensed something heading her way before her eyes even caught it, and jumped anyway to try and avoid it early. Just after she jumped in the air, the Cran fired an incredibly long narrow beam of fire, heading right below Jane where she was a second ago. The beam of concentrated flames then swung around to the right and traveled upwards, missing Jane by a hair. The Cran must be trying to scorch the entire area to make it harder for Jane to dodge it. After landing on the ground again, Jane realized she didn't get hit just yet. The beam of fire then swung to the left, threatening to engulf Jane along with it. Jane immediately performed another dodge by rolling right under the stream as it headed her way. Jane rolled just under the blaze as it passed above her too close for comfort.

For the second time now, Jane evaded the same stream of fire used against the whole damn field. As soon as she recovered to her feet again, Jane saw the beam of fire disappear, finally out of fuel to keep the torch going. Jane smiled in her own success, and the barrel that was used to ignite the flamethrower retracted into the stump again. Jane was happy managing to dodge a difficult and accurate attack such as that one. The area around her became much hotter, grass and leaves smoking from the wide ranged attack. But it wasn't over yet.

Jane thought that after the Flamethrower attack, the Cran might at least want to take a short breath, but the massive red glyphring formed right in front of the Cran indicated otherwise. Jane prepared herself to dodge this again, but she wasn't expecting a second spell so soon. And much to her surprise, she forgot to read the text for which spell was coming out on the action display center of the Cran. Triple Fire! Jane was instead expecting a simple Fire Ball attack.

Confusion filled her mind as soon as three large Fire Bolts all rushed out of the glyphring at once, each of them consecutively slamming into Jane with a hot and fiery burst of flame. Jane was forced onto her back, trying to get up when the third Fire Bolt slammed into her again, immediately causing her to feel like she was on fire. The effects of Fire Bolt heat the skin rapidly, creating the sensation of burning everywhere. Luckily, that doesn't happen with as much intensity with Leray protection. It didn't stop Jane's HP from diving down, or her from yelling out in the agony of first-degree burning sensations.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/HnQSGHQm/S1-Jane-N-005.png]

Just like that, Jane took a severe hit, obviously overpowered when the Cran tricked her into thinking that its Flame Charge was used up completely, and talk about attack spells! Triple Fire is specially designed to be severe on a damaging scale. Not only were there three homing projectiles that all hit Jane together, but since they were Fire Bolts instead of Fire Balls, the damage was higher, not to mention the increased power from the earlier Flame Charge doubling the effect. Jane felt so stupid from being tricked like that, and got back up quickly to reclaim her future victory. Her reaction was interrupted somewhat by the painful first-degree burns all over her arms and legs, though the dress protected the rest of her body just fine afterwards. She still had more health than the Cran, but it was already hitting her senses that she felt a little drained, more than before.

Jane then noticed that the Cran was charging at Jane again, for the third attack in a row; it must really want to win against her! Jane however was expecting anything at this point. As soon as the Cran came close to body slamming Jane once again, she managed to dive out of the way this time, making the Cran miss miserably. Jane chose that moment to land back on her feet, and charge attack the Cran instead. Using a similar combination series such as the one before, Jane ran towards the confused Cran with her daggers out and ready.

Once at range, the Cran tried to hit Jane to stop her, but Jane was even faster, dodging the hit and digging the blade into the bulk of the Cran's wooden body. Jane hardly stopped there. She continued by mixing it in with kick after punch after kick, dodging any attempt of close range resistance. Jane used her daggers in the combo sweep as well; scoring several types of damage points the more hits she got in. At the last second, Jane jumped far back from the Cran, an immediately charged up a spell, unleashing it while only a few meters away from the Cran. "Shadow Wave!"

It was another Shadow Wave that Jane unleashed in front of her, this time bound to hit the Cran even harder from taking the hit at a closer range than before. The wave didn't have to go very far before slamming into the Cran again, forcing it to stay in place while slashing it up with slashing and magic damage. Jane simply waited, watching the Cran's HP stats drop dramatically, and just as the Shadow Wave attack was over, the stats for its HP landed down to zero.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/YCQPc6zg/S1-Cran-N-007.png]

With no choice of refusal, the Cran slowly fell over on its frontal face, sinking down into the ground in absolute total defeat. The Cran was knocked out and unconscious, and that means that Jane did it.

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

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Following the defeat of the creature in front of her, Jane noticed the holographic text of the reward/spoil system return to the center of the field, specifically to announce to her the winner of the battle as well as the end of the official match. Jane however never really understood how the automatic digitally based system of magic could properly keep track of such things in the first place, and ignored it while the text soon faded away. She took her own moment to try and catch her breath, going over everything in her mind once more. It only hit her now after all she had done that her breathing rate tripled in speed and doubled in intensity. Jane nearly ran herself out of breath from the exercise.

It took several long moments of just standing there in awe for Jane to finally realize that she had won. Without taking too many close calls, it was over with. Jane had slain her first Cran. Though it was possible for her to get a second kill and show off, Jane was much more interested in something else instead. The Siriean dome around them disappeared in a swelling glint of sparkles, collapsing due to the end of the official battle sequence, and so did the Cran's energy scope. Jane knew that her HP damage was not completely cured yet, but she wanted to take this long moment and make it last forever. The feeling of victory; it was ever so sweet!

Jane quickly took her visual surroundings again. She was still in the middle of the field in the Hix Ruins, but this was just one tiny section of the entire area, which explained why nobody was really around her right now. The day was still very young. Though it was probably only as long as five to ten minutes of battle time, Jane felt like the duration took up a full hour or so. The sunlight overhead was not even indicating that it was far past noon, so there was still plenty of time to locate Danny and Taylor in order to watch how they fight their first fight.

Jane first took out the orb she was carrying in her dress, the med kit orb. It was small, simple, and green in color, and Jane knew already how to use one. It was as simple as it seemed. Jane held the orb in her hands, while she sent a small surge of her own Leray magic into the device. The device was very quick to begin glowing, emanating a powerful essence that lit up her entire body in a bright uncolored aura for several seconds. As soon as it was complete, Jane's stats returned to normal.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/wTpfXypj/S1-Jane-N-006.png]

Jane felt immediately rejuvenated, as if someone used a refresh spell on her. Her MP did not recover, but healing orbs aren't designed for that anyway. The orbs only restore HP immediately, and speed up the recovery rate for MP while outside of battle. Jane made her energy scope fade on its own, no longer needing the scan for the rest of the day. Now all she had to do was walk around the ruins some more until she could locate Danny and Taylor. They have to be having a blast with this awesome training exercise.

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<13:11>

It didn't take very long at all for Taylor to finally get wrapped up in a battle against the Cran of her choice. In the middle of traveling into the Hix Ruins, there were several people nearby her, all trying to achieve their mission first. There appeared to be a shortage of the creatures in the general vicinity, but after everyone dispersed their location more, Taylor found the perfect standalone target, and began to battle it.

Danny set off on his own as well, which meant that Taylor was technically alone in this fight, but she was confident in her capabilities to challenge the tough enemy at hand. Though this was also her first time seeing a Cran capable of walking, fighting, and thinking, Taylor didn't just stop to observe for too long. This was the most unusual thing she had ever faced before in her entire life, but after identifying the creature as a Cran and confirming that this was the assignment, Taylor was quick to focus. The first thing she did was initialize her own energy scope, forcing the Cran in front of her to do the very same thing. Once that happened, the Siriean dome formed around the both of them on its own. The dome and the reward/spoil system of text was also an unusual sight for Taylor's eyes. She didn't understand much about such systems, but maintained her focus on the new enemy in front of her, as other students were waning away from the location. She prepared her nerves as best she could. For Taylor, this would be her first real battle.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Through The Heart Of a Nation ~ Ace Combat 6

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image [https://i.postimg.cc/RFxfktG3/S1-Taylor-N-000.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/8CBxvRFD/S1-Cran-N-000.png]

Evenly matched at the start of the battle, Taylor decided to wait for the first move of the Cran to try and attack her. Dodging could be an option here, but Taylor had no real practice trying to avoid attacks like this, and there was no telling what might come out of that creature. It had some kind of passion to fight against her, evident after she chased it all the way over here.

A strange appearance of additional holographic text formed under the Cran's energy scope, an unfamiliar box to Taylor known as an action display center. In pure English, Taylor read the line that formed inside of the additional box. Flame Charge! Though she was unaware of what was going on, Taylor didn't really see the Cran do anything for attacking. There was a faint red glowing aura surrounding its body, but that could mean anything.

Finally taking her own turn to attack out of impatience, Taylor began to charge MP energy into an attack spell that she knew well. It wasn't too easy calling up her MP energy so quickly, but after performing it correctly before, Taylor successfully formed the small red glyphring around her wrist. With further concentration coming from her memory and training of magical spell invocations, Taylor unleashed the energy in the form that she needed to. "Fire Ball!" Calling in a Fire Ball to shoot out of her red glyphring was Taylor's first choice of attack. Fire Ball is supposed to be more powerful than Radial Stars, being up by one unit in the official power level matrix, and one that she knew better than her other skills. Without any close combat training or even a physical weapon, she would have to rely on magical abilities at a long range for now.

The Fire Ball that Taylor shot out of her hand slammed right into the Cran, failing to attempt much of a dodge. The thing must have been a bit slow. But something was wrong! Once the Fire Ball hit the Cran, the impact barely managed to move it an inch. As far as body language and stance was concerned, the creature seemed the least bit bothered by that nice attack.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/xdY49X6Z/S1-Cran-N-008.png]

After studying the change in the status of the Cran's health, Taylor realized that her own Fire Ball barely had an effect, and then winced at a memory she just recalled. Cran are greatly resistant to fire based damage, and are capable of dealing the same type of damage in return. That might not have been the exact choice of words, but that is what Eliza said to all of the students back there, and Taylor just screwed up by choosing the wrong type of spell. She smacked herself in the face with a defeating groan for being so stupid!

Now the Cran was doing something else unusual. A large red glyphring formed at the front of the Cran, shortly before another glint of holographic text appeared above in the ADC. Fire Ball! Either that text represents Taylor's attack used against the Cran, or it represented what attack the Cran was about to use. Taylor didn't understand what all of these rules and entities were about. She has never been in a real battle before. Without being prepared, there was nothing more she could do but flinch in response to a Fire Ball getting launched from the Cran's glyphring.

At least by now, Taylor noticed that her second version of the theory was true. The Cran don't speak at all, so their stats report what skill they are thinking about invoking in that odd neon display above the energy scope. It was too late to do anything either. Fire Balls move incredibly fast, and Taylor was only now realizing it. The blast of fire slammed into her face, knocking Taylor backwards for a ride. Despite feeling a hot burning sensation in her face, which almost caused a bruise, Taylor held on tightly with her balance. Her shoes slightly slid back in the ground, but not enough to cause her to trip and fall backwards. After that short recovery, Taylor checked her own status on the energy scope.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/8PzWgNdb/S1-Taylor-N-004.png]

She was far from done, but it did more damage to her than she did to the enemy. It was surprisingly humiliating, and Taylor finally understood that one spell could counter another with different effects on different people. Being blasted with a Fire Ball outside of the protection zone would have probably killed her, or at least caught her hair on fire. It was a bit of a shock to see and feel fine afterwards.

Cutting through a thick bush using the dagger she was carrying in her right hand, Jane stumbled through to find another battle happening on the other side. Much to her surprise however, the person who was on the inside of the Siriean dome was none other than Taylor, who was not even using a weapon to battle her first and only Cran.

Taylor became shortly distracted by the person to her left who nearly reached the edge of the dome. There's no time to find out who it is; she has to focus.

"Hey Taylor! Keep it up!"

It was Jane's voice! Taylor couldn't help but take a peak, hoping to keep her Cran in the sights at the same time. It was defiantly Jane, who must have shown up to watch her, and that means she must have already defeated the Cran of her choice. That's not very surprising though. This is Jane after all. Oh! The Cran!

Taylor immediately diverted her focus to the target again, who was still standing there, waiting for her to attack. Little guy must be confident in its own victory to not attack twice in one go.

Jane watched the battle, which obviously had only begun by the looks of things. After reading both energy scopes, it was clear to Jane that Taylor was currently losing the lead. Then again, she had an open opportunity to attack. Jane hollered towards Taylor, "Remember! Cran are strong against fire attacks." Jane was not sure if Taylor already tried one before, but it never hurts to send out reminders.

Taylor had her stance strong, almost like Jane's voice didn't even reach her, but it certainly did. Taylor already tried a Fire Ball and miserably failed to land any good damage, but now was her chance to prove herself after that training she did with Jane Saturday. "Ice Ball!" Taylor charged up the magical energy and the blue glyphring around her left wrist with lightning speed, her fastest invocation yet. A ball of ice was chosen this time to shoot out of Taylor's hand, flying at high speed in the air towards the Cran. The Cran had little intentions to dodge the attack at all, and took the hard hit from the ball of ice. Taylor already felt more confidence than before. After all, Jane showed up to cheer her on.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/CKN65wtx/S1-Cran-N-009.png]

The Cran was forced back a bit just like Taylor was after being hit with its Fire Ball. Now that the creature took on some more damage, Taylor and the Cran were evenly tied neck and neck. This time, it was Taylor's turn to receive an incoming attack. Aero Strike! That's what read on the action display center above the Cran's status bar. Taylor still didn't know what to expect, and Jane didn't want to watch this. After receiving the attack herself, she knew it could not be dodged.

The Cran expended just a little more of its own energy, and began whipping up a powerful wind by spinning both of its arm stumps around at an unforeseeable speed. Taylor was already taken by surprise with a rushing wave of wind like that now heading her way. It was also a bit of a shock for her to see wind become visible like that, due to the effects of Leray magical involvement. Taylor wanted to try and dodge the attack, or at least block it out, but there was nothing she knew that would help her with this. The crushing wave of wind blew every part of her back. Despite keeping her stance and balance, the wind began to drain some of her stamina. There was a bit of pain involved too, but she couldn't really describe how it felt. It was happening all over her body, causing certain areas to tingle. Once the powerful burst of wind stopped, Taylor was free, but not without a cost.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/rFZ483Q2/S1-Taylor-N-005.png]

Jane saw that coming, and unfortunately had no advice about how to get over that kind of attack. Now that it was Taylor's turn, she needed to fight back. "Come on Taylor! You can do it!"

Taylor heard Jane loud and clear, and there was plenty of encouragement. The problem of course was that Taylor only knew of two other types of magic attacks left at her disposal she didn't try yet, and they might not be effective against the Cran, at least no more effective than that Ice Ball attack. But something has to be done...

Taylor decided on her next move, charging her MP energy up like before. This time, the invocation was not as rapid, but she didn't have much trouble getting it right anyway. The large orange glyphring formed right in front of her body with her arm firmly placed through the center of the rotating glyphring. After taking aim at the Cran, Taylor unleashed her next spell. "Radial Stars!" Shooting a massive burst of over thirty magical glowing stars one after the next, Taylor's attack was a grand slam into the Cran's body, knocking it for a ride with an added hint of piercing pain as well. The attack lasted for about two long seconds, at least they seemed long in Taylor's perspective. It looked as if almost all of those stars managed to hit the Cran, and its HP dropped again like before.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/zBG2R9ZS/S1-Cran-N-010.png]

The match was far from over, and Taylor braced herself for the next oncoming attack. It was already clear to her that she was not good at dodging. Her reflexes were not trained for this sort of thing, and that meant another mean attack was on its way. Slam! That's the only thing that appeared in text for the action display center, making Taylor anxious about what was about to happen next.

Unfortunately, Jane knew exactly what the problem was. Even a better-trained Leray fighter like herself had a rough time dodging the speed of that skill. If attempted to evade too early, the attack redirects to hit you anyway, and at the last second, the speed of the Cran's fast charge is increased even more. Now it was happening to Taylor. The Cran showed no mercy for her when it charged into her body like that, giving slam a good name for the attack. Taylor was taken off the ground rather quickly, not expecting that kind of malevolence.

Worse than that, Taylor was now able to sense an incredible surge of pain all over her body, multiplied near her waist. It felt like the wind was knocked out of her, and she could not feel the ground under her feet anymore, but it was not over yet. The Cran was just getting warmed up, following its own attack up with a combination strike of close combat punches and kicks using its multiple stumps to hit her. Taylor was hit while already lifted off the ground, kick after punch after kick and so on. The Cran waited until it tired out too much before letting Taylor finally crash into the ground with a hard hit. Backing away from its target, the Cran made its way to a bit of a distance, giving both of them time to recover.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/0y6wrnBM/S1-Taylor-N-006.png]

Jane couldn't believe it! Taylor did take that attack hard, but if that were Jane taking her place, she would not have lost that much health at one time. Taylor really must not be used to taking hits... This isn't looking so good. Taylor is obviously in excruciating pain from being beat up like that in mid-air, hunched over and holding her sides in response. She was still on her hands and knees, trying to recover from that massive attack. "Come on Taylor! Don't give up just yet."

Hearing Jane cheering for her like this was only helpful to a certain degree. The brutal force of those hits to her face and to her sides was just as painful as they would have been back home. Before long, Taylor found the strength to tough it out and stand tall again. The pain only subsided partially, and there was a noticeable loss in her HP. Time to try something new...

"Aero Blast!" Taylor learned this last weekend with ease, since it requires no glyphring to invoke. The magic was sent and released straight from her hand, after throwing the blast of air towards her target. Again, the Cran didn't even try to dodge it. Perhaps it really was just a little slow when it wasn't its turn to attack, but Taylor soon regretted her decision. The quick blast of air surrounded and attacked the Cran, but it was only short lived for just one second of time. The air was then pushed back by the Cran's stumps, breaking out of the attack with minimal damage taken.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/63bjVYBs/S1-Cran-N-011.png]

It was even more resistant to wind attacks than it was to fire based attacks. Taylor wasn't expecting that, and she knew that Jane was already a bit disappointed. But with all of her options exhausted, what else was there to do but spam Radial Stars or Ice Ball? The Cran was now on the offensive too given its stance. Taylor knew she had to expect something.

Flamethrower! "Oh no!" Jane responded. She didn't see the Cran use Flame Charge, which would have been required to be able to use a flamethrower attack. Though Jane managed to dodge it in her battle, that didn't discourage the fact that it was a powerful move on itself. Taylor had no idea! It must have been charged up since the beginning of the fight, before Jane got to see much of it.

Taylor was expecting to take another fire attack, but not one like this. The Cran turned the tip of its stump into a barrel, and then shot a steady stream of fire though it. Without having the brains or the reflexes to dodge it, Taylor was a sitting duck taking the attack head on. She screeched in response to the immediate burning pain all over her skin, like her entire body had been trapped inside of an oven and boiling water was splashed on her as well. To make matters worse, the stream of fire was ongoing, spraying heat on her for as long as it lasted.

Jane tensed in response to the change in situation. Taylor was bound to lose her first battle like this. She was taking on way too much fire damage in just one attack, standing there while taking all of the pain of Leray magic. Finally, the stream of fire ended, and Taylor felt her head spinning to the response that that actually just happened.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/zG9Rhhsd/S1-Taylor-N-007.png]

Taylor didn't know that one could take this much heat and pain mid-battle and still keep on ticking, but that was the least of her concern now. Just as her vision was restored in the absence of the stream of fire that blinded her seconds ago, she then caught on to the fact that her entire dress was on fire! Taylor didn't care about the match anymore. Leray protection or not, there were active burning flames all over her velvet purple dress, putting holes through the lining and stitches where there shouldn't be any. Taylor's entire wardrobe was creating a bit of a smokescreen from this as well.

Jane didn't believe what was happening in front of her eyes. Taylor's dress had caught flame from several embers, and she was trying desperately to put them out by patting her clothes all over where she could. But that's not supposed to happen, not even from the most powerful fire based attacks in all of Sprawn Valley. How was this possible?

Taylor finished patting down her clothes, but not before realizing that some permanent damage had already been done. Several holes and rips of varying size populated areas all over her dress, with black colored burnt borders around each hole. Even after putting down the fire, random spots and patches of her camisole became visible without the protection of her over-dress. At least in this case, there was no actual threat or hint of indecency for Taylor. The long skirt Taylor chose to wear luckily had several additional layers used for warmth, few of which were also undamaged. From the frontal region where Taylor could examine her clothes, there was almost tiny sections of damage only visible from the angle she was staring down at, further concealed by a final layer left unscathed.

This situation however was unbelievable! Taylor didn't know if this was supposed to happen, but her brand new dress was ruined, and if it took any more damage, it would land her in a terrible situation. Jane was watching as well, at least taking notice of what was happening. Taylor only hoped that Jane would be able to help her if she needed it. Thank god - the other students including Danny were far from this visual range. There was nobody else in sight except for Jane and the Cran in front of her. Quickly getting over the close call, Taylor charged for her next attack, trying to bring down her enemy in one blow before anything worse could happen.

After using some MP energy, Taylor created another big orange glyphring in front of her, aiming her arm through the center to target the Cran. "Radial Stars!" she screamed. Another familiar barrage of orange glowing stars impaled the Cran right where it stood, causing considerable pain and damage at the same time. Jane watched the stats of the Cran decrease in response to Taylor's magical attack, which was brilliant since it was easy to invoke and non-elemental.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/cCKDFwJv/S1-Cran-N-012.png]

Taylor was glad to see her target take the hard hit again, and she diffused her glyphring when every last star finished shooting from her left hand. Now it would be up to her to dodge the next attack. She still risked a glance down again, examining the front and back of her dress carefully to make sure that not too much was exposed. There were small sections and glints of the white undergarments showing through the holes created by that fire, and it caused Taylor to shiver at the sheer thought of how worse this could have been.

Jane was stuck pondering the odd situation as well. She could not really understand why this was allowed to happen. Attacks and spells don't damage clothes and armor, unless...

Slam! Taylor exhaled nervously upon reading the next line in the action display center as the Cran prepared to use a familiar skill. Though she was afraid of taking any other fire based attack that would have possibly worsened the condition to her dress, she remembered taking a hit from this attack before. It was incredibly painful, and devastating to her own health in battle. But what could she do against that kind of power and speed?

Jane was taken off guard by watching the Cran fly towards Taylor, almost at light speed as it charged into her at full force. Even while Taylor was attempting to block the attack, it didn't work against the force put into it. Once again, her entire body was lifted off the ground. The Cran used that very moment afterwards to pitch in several more punches and kicks, exactly like its last performance of the slam attack. Taking a brutal beating in mid-air, Taylor felt the incredible, most painful force of the powerful attack used against her. After being knocked around like that, hitting the ground at the end was hardly the thing of her worries. That time, it was even more painful than the first, despite having experienced it before.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/8CMfm5DT/S1-Taylor-N-008.png]

This is bad! Jane saw the whole situation up front, and was unable to help her. It would be against the rules to interfere, but Taylor was losing this fight with little hope of winning, and her only effective attacks were Ice Ball and Radial Stars. Worse than that, her HP levels have dropped into dangerous areas. Even if she did manage to get back up, Taylor had to be wiped by now.

Taylor fought her way through every ounce of residual pain, pushing her body up slowly with the muscles of her arms, her will to win passing the test showing. She also wanted some payback for its last fire attack. Every part of her body was beginning to hurt badly, and a new sensation was beginning to take over. Taylor felt weaker, slower, and even a little lightheaded. It felt like she had the entire life force drained out of her, not in the same sense of feeling exhaustion from working hard on something without end. Taylor in all summary felt faint, like she was prone to collapsing cold any minute now. It has to be from her dropping HP levels, and that stupid Cran still has so much energy left in it.

It was a long way there, but Taylor eventually managed to pump her way back on her legs, hoping not to lose her balance and fall. It was still her turn to attack, and the fight was not over yet. Taylor charged in some more energy for the next attack, making it a little different this time. "Ice Ball!" With her voice not as loud as before, Taylor still managed to begin invocation on the correct skill. After charging up the small glyphring around her wrist, it was the only effective attack spell that she could invoke quickly, even after feeling as weak as she did. The ball of ice that swept out of her hand had no problems slamming into the Cran, knocking it backwards again. The creature almost lost its own balance from that attack, nearly falling down on its back. In all fairness, Taylor could see that she at least did it some damage.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/ZKd738gg/S1-Cran-N-013.png]

It sure was not very refreshing to see that the Cran was still high alert and kicking. Taylor knew she was losing, but what could she do?

Fire Ball! This was the text appearing again on the action display center. Another large red glyphring formed in front of the Cran. Even without the visual aid of the text near the creature's status bar, Taylor and Jane both recognized exactly what this spell looked like. Another fire attack, the thing Taylor feared most at this point. Would her dress ignite like last time?

Too late to worry about it now, because the Fire Ball launched from the Cran's glyphring almost immediately. Taylor was already weakened as well, and there was nothing she could do against a spell like that. Jane could only watch hopelessly, as Taylor was knocked down on her back after taking the Fire Ball projectile straight to her chest. It hit her hard and ended with a pulse of heat, forcing her backwards and pushing her off balance completely.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/Kzbkq2vB/S1-Taylor-N-009.png]

Taylor recognized the sensation that was becoming overwhelming for her, the same sensation of being physically drained of all her energy. It didn't feel like she needed a nap. Instead, it was a lot more like she was about to just fade away, pass out right here and now. The stats didn't report a total loss in her health, and that inspired Taylor to get back up again. Her dress was perfectly unharmed from that last hit, and the pain from that Fire Ball was not nearly as bad as the slam attack she had to endure earlier.

Jane was happy to see Taylor standing back up again. Now it was her turn to attack. Taylor charged another bit of energy into herself and her hands. This time, the glyphring around her wrist was of the smaller kind, and completely red in color as it rotated in place. "Fire Ball!" Being unshy about the obvious indication that it wasn't the best idea, Taylor decided to fight fire with fire, blasting the ball of flaming heat towards the foe. The Cran could only stand there as it took the Fire Ball attack. But this time, it still was only as effective as it was the first time Taylor tried it.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/gc5tnSM8/S1-Cran-N-014.png]

"What are you doing?!" Jane yelled. "You can't use fire attacks against Cran!" Jane was furious that Taylor didn't know that, even after the reminder Jane had given her at the beginning of her battle. Was she trying to lose?

Taylor tensed her muscles, stressed that her plan didn't even hope to work. The Cran was made out of firewood, and it didn't catch fire? As if the fates were again teasing her on, the Cran created another red glyphring in front of itself, as large as its own body size. The soon to follow Fire Ball came out of the rotating disk shortly after, heading straight for Taylor. This time, Taylor tried to brace herself for the attack, trying not to get knocked over again from the thing. That's when she realized that it would be better to dodge. Even though her reflexes were getting a little better at calculating moments of grace periods mid-battle, her logic was flawed. Right after trying to block the attack by bracing herself, Taylor turned her body around at the last second, trying to get out of the way of the Fire Ball by spinning towards her right. Instead, the Fire Ball slammed into the backside of Taylor's left leg, immediately burning her skin on contact, and once again igniting the bottom section of her dress from the burst.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/9MB4snrS/S1-Taylor-N-010.png]

Jane winced in sympathy to Taylor, but much more with additional surprise. It happened again! Despite Taylor's bad timing and flawed attempt to dodge the Fire Ball, the back of her dress right above her behind caught on fire again, forming a great big flame that she was not even aware of yet. Taylor at least managed to prevent herself from getting knocked down like before, but the fire at the back of her dress quickly spread a little more to the side and frontal area as well. This isn't supposed to happen!

Taylor felt incredibly weak, as if passing out was only imminent, but she soon snapped out of it momentarily to notice that her dress caught fire again! Even though it was not burning her skin badly due to Leray protection effects, it wasn't stopping the fire from putting bigger holes in her clothes. Taylor immediately rushed in to pat the fire out place by place. She started in the front, and after realizing it was in the back as well on a much larger scale, Taylor intentionally dropped on her back to smother the fire with the ground, followed by rolling around in the dirty field. It was a reaction that worked out faster than expected given a quick roll in the grass.

After standing back up moments later, the sight of the damage was absolutely horrible! The underclothes of her camisole were now showing more through the new holes in the back of her dress, and a little more in the front as well. The left side of her dress was in bad condition as it was, and in total, it was a complete mess. From a distance, anyone passing by may not notice, but as close as Jane was, it would be devastatingly obvious that Taylor was in trouble with an unexpected wardrobe malfunction. Did this always happen in battles?

What Jane saw was both unbelievable and impossible. Taylor's wardrobe was not protecting itself or Taylor from damage, and that could only mean one thing. Sections of skin on Taylor's arms and lower legs as well as more of the white fabric underneath were now visible through the holes burnt into the dress, a situation that would make Taylor lose all of her health from sheer embarrassment if anybody else saw her like this, and there was still a battle going on as well. Have to fix both problems, but how?

Taylor felt the heat of blood rushing to her face. She knew her cheeks were glowing more from the fear of being seen having clothing damage like this. It wasn't as if her dress damage was obviously revealing, though the thought of how worse it could get from here is what bothered her the most. Taylor never expected this problem to become a possibility in a battle, and now she didn't know what to do.

"Taylor?!" Jane hollered. "You have to use combination attacks!" If Taylor can just win this battle right here and now while getting over her ruined dress just for a moment, she would be able to help her with the other problem. Jane can't directly interfere, or else this would all be for nothing. If Taylor ends up passing out like that, it would cause a massive scene. In fact, if any other student happens to be crossing by here, they would see more than what Taylor would be okay with. Jane promised herself she would ensure that doesn’t happen, though she currently lacked the imagination that Taylor could lose this battle.

Taylor managed to focus, assuming Jane would be the lookout for anyone potentially passing by. Luckily, she and Jane were the only ones in visual sight with how large the ruins were. Taylor then got an idea to use a combination of attacks from Jane just now, but what combination would actually work? "I got it!" It didn't take long since she only knew four skills. Taylor began charging a lot of energy in a different pattern. She would need to use one spell after the other very quickly, and imagined using each attack right as she began to invoke them. Releasing some small amounts of MP, Taylor yelled, "Aero Blast!" and shot the blast of air from her hand towards the Cran. Before even waiting for the blast to hit the target, Taylor unleashed the rest of her energy, using another attack in sync and immediately shifting the glyphring into full effect. "Ice Ball!" Taylor formed a glyphring around her wrist, and immediately shot an Ice Ball from her hand shortly after.

At that moment, the blast of wind surrounded the Cran while dealing minor amounts of damage. That's when the Ice Ball slammed into Taylor's target at the same time. As soon as the ball of ice hit and caused a rushing wave of cold air to explode from the impact site on the Cran's body, the rushing wave of wind surrounding the Cran stopped still. In the most amazing thing Jane had ever seen before, the Aero Blast spell became a solid pillar of ice partially entombing the Cran. Taylor's Ice Ball literally froze the Aero Blast mid-attack, just as it surrounded the Cran at close range. A large tomb of ice now encased the Cran, freezing it in place along with the frozen air, and the stats of the Cran took a huge dive.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/4xR81KR3/S1-Cran-N-015.png]

Jane decided to take this opportunity to help Taylor out. "Now Taylor! You have to finish it with a physical attack!"

Taylor heard every word. Though she had no weapons on her, and she was still incredibly weak from taking all of the damage she had, there was still another way left. The Cran was frozen solid from that attack, and likely hurting bad from Taylor's amazing combination. She didn't even expect that to happen in the way that it did, but a new opportunity presented itself. Instead of charging any energy, Taylor just took off on her feet and ran for it. Charging at the frozen Cran at top speed, Taylor ran as fast as she could towards the target. When only one meter away in distance, Taylor jumped into the air, and rearranged her left foot in position for an excellent jump kick.

Jane saw Taylor run for it, charging at the Cran with a last second jump kick attack. Taylor's shoe impacted the ice, and cracked all the way through to the frozen Cran at full force. Taylor landed on the ground just after kicking the Cran with as much force as possible. At the same time it took damage, the ice around the creature broke into tiny little fragments, immediately defrosting the thing. The Cran was far from making a recovery. After taking an ice attack with that much power, by which Taylor kicked the ice to shatter as it was integrated into the bark of the Cran, the physical damage was made super effective. The Cran immediately fell to the ground unconscious before it could fully defrost, declaring this status on its energy scope.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/y8hLpV7y/S1-Cran-N-016.png]

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

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"You did it!" Jane cheered. The dome around Taylor and the Cran immediately collapsed into nothingness, though it was an amazing display on its own. The reward system only showed up momentarily to declare Taylor as the legal victor of the match, and Jane ran up to Taylor, helping her immediately with the dangerous wardrobe malfunction.

Taylor never felt this excited before. "I won!" Taylor actually beat the enemy, and not just by using normal attack styles either. This was a victorious method of outsmarting the opponent. Oh no! "What do I do about this?" Taylor came back to the haunting realization that her dress was ruined. Still with the damage already there, it wasn't as bad as it seemed if a person were to stand directly in front of her from several yards away, which provided some minor comfort for Taylor. But she can't go back to the facility like this!

Jane was unexpectedly prepared to help Taylor with the dress issue. First, she needed to figure out what happened to begin with. Jane fiddled with her supply sphere while getting the details. The damage to Taylor's clothes wasn't as bad as she initially thought, but still more than enough for concern. "Taylor? Did you use a dress sphere before this battle?"

"Wh— what's a dress sphere?" Taylor shrieked.

Jane replied with a sad grunt. "Well that answers that question. I'll take that as a big no." After looking around in all directions, Jane offered real assistance to Taylor. "Okay. Take this." Jane handed Taylor a strange looking orb. "It's the orb that contains my backup dress sphere. You can borrow it this once. Put it on now and I'll help repair the original set later."

"How do I use this?" Taylor looked at the orb in confusion. She had never seen or used anything like this before, but she did recognize the design from the healing orb that was given to her before. This one had a different color and luster to the device.

Jane saw Taylor's expression turn desperate, praying not to be seen before it is too late. She brushed her hand over the orb Taylor was holding to activate it. "Like this." Jane activated the orb by using less than a percentage of her own MP magic, and the orb lit up. Shortly after that, the glowing aura around the device triggered and died out, the small sphere of energy completely transformed into a long dark dress with an over-skirt right into Taylor's outstretched arms. It had a nice sparkly glow of fine glitter, and was neatly colored with an onyx tint, obviously expensive. Just like that, Jane handed Taylor a dress to change into - in the most unusual way yet.

But Taylor felt like passing out even more now that she realized what Jane meant by putting it on. "Wait! Now?! You want me to change right here?"

"Relax," Jane assured with her hand on Taylor's shoulder. "I'll be your look-out and make sure nobody comes near us. Just change into that outfit quickly before somebody does come by."

"Okay." Taylor immediately felt so much calmer already. With a good and dependable friend like Jane helping her out in a situation, it was like everything was destined to work out. Taylor took now as her only opportunity to change out of her damaged clothes into the new ones Jane was letting her borrow.

Jane looked around in all directions, making sure nobody was close by at all. If anyone did try to come now, she would be prepared to use her own force to make sure they don't barge into this opportunity caused by Taylor's own mistake. Still, Jane somehow felt that Taylor was overreacting just a little to the situation. She's the one who didn't use a dress sphere, and it's not like the damages to her outfit were as brutally intense as she thought. It only took less than twenty seconds for Taylor to change, obviously in a rush not to be caught out in the open like this.

"I'm done." Taylor held her damaged close in her hands, now wearing a most beautiful dress designed for gothic fashion.

Jane looked back at Taylor, now relaxed that she would be out of any immediately danger of being caught with burnt clothes by any other students. It seemed that Taylor calmed down as well. Jane took the burned dress into her own hands from Taylor, still warm from the commotion a moment ago. Jane immediately saw how well Taylor fit the outfit, particularly the style set on her. "That was a close call," Jane announced, for your dignity and the battle.

"I know..." Taylor held her head, feeling as dizzy as before.

Jane noticed Taylor's sudden fatigue as it caught up to her, and realized that her low HP count was causing issues quickly. "Quick! Use your healing orb."

"Huh?"

It was clear to Jane that Taylor knew nothing about using orbs or items despite the situation. Honestly! What is Eliza thinking by having an entire lesson on item usage without demonstrating how they work? "Hold the healing orb in your hand." Jane needed not to explain what that was about, since Taylor and the others were all given the same device by their instructor. She saw Taylor grab for the orb she had stored in the pocket of the burned dress, still perfectly fine. "Good. Now invoke only the slightest bit of energy into the sphere, and feel its response."

It was almost an instantaneous sensation for Taylor. After activating the healing orb in her hand, the ball of glowing energy suddenly surged a colorless aura around her entire body before disappearing another moment after. In response, Taylor immediately felt like she was recharged and ready to fight again, physically anyway.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/d3t7FjC0/S1-Taylor-N-011.png]

Taylor noticed the change on her energy scope, forgetting it was still active in the first place. Since there was not a need for it anymore, she diffused her status box into nothingness after learning how to since before the battle. Taylor felt immediately refreshed, coaxing Jane to confront her about something.

"Now," Jane pondered. "How in the hell did you not know about dress spheres?"

"I'm sorry," Taylor apologized. "I don't understand what happened." How did I mess up?

"Well, it's okay now, but the next time you take damage without wearing a dress sphere, you'll defiantly regret it. If you want to end up butt naked outside with nowhere to hide and let everybody see, just repeat what you did without having one equipped."

Taylor shivered at the thought that such a possibility existed for her, but the things Jane was saying weren't making any sense. What is a dress sphere supposed to do anyway? Is the overdress she's wearing now one of them?

"Anyway," Jane calmed herself. "A dress sphere is a type of armor or material of clothing used in Leray matches. Mostly without having any specific damage resistances, dress spheres are infused with a special magical coat of effect from synthesis that lasts forever, protecting that entire wardrobe from ripping, tearing, melting, or burning. Because normal clothing is susceptible to damages even with Leray attacks, you have to wear specially designed outfits in battle to avoid losing your clothes in the fight. It would be really embarrassing if that happened to anybody."

"A dress sphere does all that?" Taylor looked down, once again feeling so foolish. How was she supposed to know that? None of the other students made any mistake like this before? And why didn't Kain or Bella mention such things?

"Well it's okay," Jane forgave. "You're brand new to this, so I should have caught onto that a little sooner."

Don't blame yourself Jane. You're hardly the first person to forget mentioning that. "So..." Taylor wondered. "With a dress sphere, nothing can take out the clothes you wear no matter the attack?"

"That's right. The Leray veil of protection only works for living creatures, not physical matter. Therefore, magic can damage structures, destroy vegetation, and it can destroy clothing as well. That's why nobody here wears normal clothing. Dress spheres were specifically made a long time ago to have the veil of protection applied to their essence as well as people, a process called item synthesis. But as you can clearly tell, there isn't much of a visual difference to determine if one is wearing a dress sphere or normal clothes." Hopefully this was making sense for Taylor. "Dress spheres are specifically designed to withstand all damage without any risk of degradation, and they're called dress spheres for a reason. Easy to store in activated orbs, they also look fashionable on anybody, especially you."

"Thanks." Taylor looked around again, examining her own wardrobe. Well, it was Jane's wardrobe, but it really did look nice on her from this perspective, and it felt so relaxing to suddenly stop worrying about how she looked.

"But keep in mind," Jane warned. "That while there are other armors you can wear to reduce damage in battle, which by the way are also protected from ripping apart or getting torn up, ordinary dress spheres specifically don't give you any damage resistances that higher level armors would, like a metal suit or a merc suit. Simply put, there are better dress spheres out there with specific elemental resistant properties."

"Got it," Taylor agreed.

"Now all we have to do is find Danny, and hope he doesn't have the same problem you did." Taylor's reaction was expected. There was no possible way Danny could have known the same. But of course, if he were having good luck in his match against a Cran, he wouldn't even come near the same crisis Taylor nearly had. "So let's head out."

Taylor thought for a moment, wondering how he would react if he did have such a similar situation. Danny defiantly had no knowledge about this before, but perhaps it would be best if Jane delivered him such info. The problem is, if he isn't doing well against the Cran, then that must mean...

"Hey guys!"

Taylor and Jane both looked around for that deep voice in the distance. Sure enough, Taylor spotted Danny heading her way. Thankfully, he was late, or else that would have been horrifying for Taylor to endure. She quivered at the thought, how close he was to approaching them at the most awkward time. Seems like Danny ended up finding them instead. Taylor simply waited for Danny to catch up to them, and Jane did her best to hide Taylor's destroyed clothes behind her back.

Danny was breathing heavily and quickly from running all the way over here. He had no idea where Jane or Taylor were, but wanted to go and find them after his own match. "I did it." Danny huffed and puffed each breath, holding his upper body on the weight of his knees to help him recover. "I beat my Cran. What about you?" Danny was even more breathless upon realizing that Taylor was suddenly wearing a totally different dress than before, not that he wanted to complain. It was a total upgrade to the pack of clothes Kain gave to them both. It had to be something she borrowed for the moment.

The question was obviously meant for Taylor. Danny would have already expected Jane to conquer the entire battlefield by now. Taylor thought about her entire battle the way it happened, keeping it all in memory. There was no way she would speak the truth to this guy. "I've already just defeated mine."

"Good," Jane interrupted. "Danny? I thought you were going to have some trouble. Yet you made it out okay?"

"Yup," he replied. "I had to use a lot of Electro-Balls..." He hunched down with his hands to his knees, struggling to recover his breath. "Man! Using all of that MP wore me out."

Jane smiled at the awesome victory in all of them. Danny apparently had no trouble with his clothes. The denim material he was wearing was perfectly intact. Jane knew it could not have been a dress sphere, though they do make them for guys too, many that look like the clothes he has on now. Danny was instead wearing a long-sleeve shirt with a blue jacket, and black baggy pants. There was a tiny slit cut below his left knee, but that could have happened from tripping over a rock on the side of the hills. "Come on." Jane took point, walking casually back towards the forest to the west after concealing the broken material Taylor gave her. "Let's be getting back to Dakota. I bet Eliza will be pleased to see our results."

Taylor felt so nervous, but pondered further what Jane meant. Nobody actually bothered to explain how such results were recorded. Taylor prayed there was no recording equipment transmitting from out here. After another thought, Taylor figured it had to be more of something related to the reward/spoil system Jane mentioned earlier. It must somehow tell if anyone wins or loses, when people cheat, and so on. There shouldn't be any possible way of knowing that Taylor had to exchange suits due to battling with the wrong gear, and she further had to grasp the reality that this was a virtue for everyone.

Danny and Taylor reluctantly followed her, trying to imagine what it meant. How would anybody see the results of a battle when they aren't there for it? It didn't even fit into logic how anybody would be able to analyze data like that.

On their way back, Danny and Taylor had a long talk about their overall skills with fighting Cran. Turns out that both Danny and Taylor had a lot of fun today, and that was no facade. Jane was still her usual energetic talkative self as well, making sure to give them both the details of her battle as it went. Jane told them all of the abilities she had to use, including the close combat fighting style, and the use of her Shadow Waves in combination.

Taylor was proud to reveal her win as well, since she managed to freeze an entire Aero Blast attack in contact with the Cran. Then, after freezing the target in place, Taylor jump kicked the ice until all of it shattered outwards, which destroyed the stats on the Cran. Danny was impressed with the description, and since Jane was confirming it, it had to be true.

"Still," Taylor pressured. "There's something you should know from now on when training with magic." Taylor knew what it was about, but had trouble explaining this to Danny without accidentally revealing that she made such a mistake. "It's about dress spheres."

"I'll explain it to him Taylor. Don't worry about it." Jane saw Taylor glance back to her since she was walking in front, mouthing the words "Thank you" as to not be suspicious. Danny had no idea before and now that he came close to making a similar mistake. He would have to learn from someone that battling without an official dress sphere is a terrible idea. If he hears it from Taylor, he'll only begin to wonder how she figured it out firsthand. If Jane explains it, it will automatically seem normal.

After reaching the Dakota facility again, there were still about twelve students that managed to beat them there, getting their wins in before the rest. Jane wondered if they were just impatient, or deceptively powerful like her. Eliza took everyone's training licenses from them as they returned, scanning the back of them with some kind of digital reader. Jane knew what this was, but Taylor and Danny were still in amazement.

"It's a result scanner," Jane explained. After receiving the attention of her friends, it was predictable that they needed to hear the whole thing. "They scan your license card to see the results of your very last official battle. If you win or lose, that is reported on your license until overwritten by the next battle. It can tell if someone cheated, or messed with the dome too, but only in this instance."

Eliza then finished scanning Danny's card, and returned it to his hands. Then she took Taylor's card, scanning it as well. It was a fast scanner to read-out system. With all three reported as official victories, Eliza had what she needed. Satisfied, Eliza handed Taylor her card, after which realizing so far, that was it. "You three did as well as I expected you to."

"Thank you," Taylor responded. Jane was responsible for most of that anyway. Being back at the Dakota facility was a nice change of scenery from those Hix Ruins. They didn't look anything less than creepy for all it was worth, and the sun was now completely overhead. An hour or maybe even two could have passed by since they went into the ruins and returned, but Taylor was not certain at this point.

They all passed the test with flying colors; that is what was important. It made them wonder exactly how many people total would have the same luck. Jane however was already busy with another task, returning home without much of another word. Taylor knew what it was about, after remembering what dress she was wearing. Not many people really cared about how Taylor managed to change into such beautiful clothing, or they just didn't care to notice. Danny noticed for sure, but he never asked what happened to the old one, which worked out in her favor. With everything all worked out, things could only get better.