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<12/28/1971 ~ 10:00 | Dakota Training Academy, Fronas, Gulop Region, Sprawn Valley>
The next morning landed into Tuesday, with class beginning at ten A.M. this time. For whatever reason there was, Dakota had a very fluid class schedule that spiraled from early to late in the week, but this wasn't unexpected after how many days Danny and Taylor have been enrolled. After arriving in class once again, the excitement from yesterday was diminished within most of the students. Taylor already took her seat, waiting for the rest of the class to turn up. Whatever lesson plan was supposed to be set for today was currently unknown, and this was one of those times Jane was not early to class.
Danny took his seat too, just as Jane entered the classroom blending in with the other ones. Today, she was wearing her favorite dress sphere, the black and blue material designed in excellent fashion and unity. The outfit went down a long way with another suit underneath to shadow her legs and give further originality to the style. It was both cool and attractive at the same time, which was just enough to make it easy for Taylor to spot her entrance.
Jane noticed that Taylor was still wearing the new white dress sphere she received from her yesterday. After deciding to sit in the desk right next to Taylor, Jane finally let her mind roam more freely. There was a lot that happened yesterday, as well as last night that stuck in her head most often. But with the excitement from a new mystery lesson today, Jane was also thinking about attack types and magical training sequences.
Taylor waited for Jane to sit down next to her and get comfortable before greeting her in this morning. Last night however was too unforgettable. "Hey Jane. I see you decided not to keep your new hair style."
Jane was immediately reminded of the in depth moment when she struck herself with a lightning attack that backfired, shocking her in place and messing up her hair terribly. And Taylor still wasn't letting up on that. To think she could be so rude! Jane couldn't stand the mistake being brought up again, and it made her wary of those who might be listening around her. As bad as it was however, Jane knew Taylor couldn't really have her on anything with her own mistake as well. "Bring it up again, and you'll lose a secret too Taylor. Did you forget about that Cran?"
Taylor trembled discretely. Jane was fair game when it came to this contention. Jane might be serious about telling others about that, even though she was just joking around, and Danny has turned too much into a gentlemen lately to blab Jane's mistake to the school as well. Considering the difference in gravity for both situations, Taylor decided to let it go, even if it did make Jane feel more powerful as a result. It would seem that both of them would be keeping their own secrets, but if Jane so much inches to another word, there will be more than a witty response. Taylor knew how to use magic attacks after all. "On second thought, never mind."
Jane sighed in relief after Taylor didn't say anything back. That's what I thought. Jane was sure that even without promising her anything, Taylor wasn't going to tell anyone else about that Thunderbolt accident, and it went without saying that Danny didn't care enough about it to share it with his peers. He hasn't really connected with anybody else in the class. Jane felt incredibly lucky, having Danny and Taylor as her friends, who could keep secrets for her and support her, and the deal worked both ways as well. There was still no denying the fact that neither one of them were ready to talk to Jane about whatever happened in the woods on Saturday. Whatever it was about must have been sad enough to make Taylor break down in tears, because that's the condition she returned in. If they aren't ready to talk about it, then Jane knew there was no use prying into the touchy subject.
Eliza counted heads, making sure that everybody was here today as usual. Absences within students for Leray training wasn't impossible, but they were still rare considering what there is to miss out on, and naturally, there was no direct penalty for missing class either. The consequences of missing lessons and training is simply automatic. "Yesterday," Eliza backtracked, "we had our fun assessment of the first official Leray training battle between person and creature. And as I am happy to report, more than 93 percent of you passed the test." Eliza wondered how ironic it was that the same proportion of those who passed and failed applied to her class as well as the school as a whole.
One of the other students raised their hand, wanting to know more about those results. He only spoke once called on by his teacher with the pointing of a finger. "Are we allowed to know who else passed and failed?"
Eliza winced at the unintelligent question. Everybody should have known by now how confidentiality on scores plays into teaching protocol. "No Elisha. Only you may know about your own scores, which were determined since yesterday afternoon. It's beyond our control if students voluntarily share their own results among others, but I don't want anybody who failed the test to remain discouraged. That combat situation is much more of a benchmark assessment than a requirement of unit fulfillment."
"Oh," Elisha responded. "So, it's not the biggest one?" Elisha knew that by asking this, almost everyone here would assume that he was one of the 7% population who failed the test. Elisha knew already that such an assumption wasn't true, but ignored the soon to be born rumors that will spread about him anyway. He only wanted to see who exactly passed or failed, but Eliza just wouldn't have it. Still, the fact that the Cran battle isn't the most important assessment brought music to his ears.
"Negative," Eliza answered. "Though it's still many days off, you all will have to pass what is known as the evaluation test at the very end of this semester. Failing that will have severe consequences on a person's readiness, as this test from yesterday will not."
Though Eliza finally saw that her class had become calm, it was a little upsetting to see how much the atmosphere could change just with a night of sleep. Nobody was excited anymore after realizing that they were no longer going to have battles like this until after graduation. It dragged everyone's spirits to the bottom. "Today, we will be having a very short session about the proper ways to channel MP energy. You all know by now what that means when you invoke skills such as Fire Ball or Radial Stars, but I'm talking about spells that have never been demonstrated to you before. It is both possible and essential that we all learn how to train and master skills that we have not ever actually seen before, or skills we know little about otherwise."
Jane was slightly nodding silently, already aware that this is how one must learn newer abilities. She could think of several abilities off the top of her head that she still did not know how to invoke yet, nor did she have any idea what sensory effects it would have in the process. Not knowing doesn't make it impossible, once the energy is channeled just right in succession.
"Some attacks spells use glyphrings," Eliza continued. "Some attacks don't. And some spells are aura based, meaning they are entirely different in waveform patterns within Leray energy. Dispersion is the key to mastering unlearned spells. As long as you have the general description of the spell you want to learn, the proper practice can allow you to master anything."
Danny had opened his textbook to a random page, realizing that there are many deep descriptions about specific attack spells, mostly illustrated as well. The current page was opened to Fire Blast, which was considered a power-level-eight skill. Danny remembered that his attack spells at the most went up to 2.5 on power levels, particularly with Electro-Ball. It was obvious that learning the skill Fire Blast would be too difficult to start with, and he continued turning back more pages while listening to Eliza's lecture.
"It can be rather hard to describe exactly how it feels to focus energy in particular methods related to the multitude of magical attacks," Eliza admitted. "And that is why today's training session will be focused on overcoming new challenges." Eliza already left off on the short lesson, literally just two minutes long, and was getting into the assignment for today. "Using whatever reference material you may, today will be a free-for-all training exercise. The objective is to learn a new spell of any kind and caliber, as long as that skill is not purely physical in type. One magical skill, and one that is new to you. We will be heading to our dark room for two hours today. Anyone may stay after to continue training until five P.M. as usual."
Jane looked around as everybody else was. Eliza sure was speeding things up already. Right from their first battle ever, into direct intense training with new abilities. Her teacher was known for going this quick with everyone, but evaluations would be coming up sooner or later. Jane then gave a quick glance back to Danny and Taylor, who didn't seem as shocked as they were excited to try mastering more spells. The situation already made her feel the same way, just as usual. Jane was always trying to learn newer and more powerful spells outside of class, but being in or out of school doesn't change how much success she may have. The same must be true for Danny and Taylor as well. They've proven to Eliza that they can learn quickly, and that must be why the sessions are speeding up again.
Danny raised his hand to the teacher, before everybody started standing out of their desks. Eliza called on him briefly. "Um, do you have a book like this that's a little more simplified? Like a list of attacks with summarized descriptions?"
Eliza tilted her head while answering, "Trying to make life more complicated, eh? While guidebooks are the thing you are looking for, it's harder to learn new spells with a simple guide book since the description of spells is much less of that in a textbook." Danny seemed unchanged, determined to get a guidebook from her. Nobody ever wants to use ordinary texts books because of how big and bulky they are. Never mind that supply spheres can hold anything! "But I do have one to satisfy your needs." Eliza turned around, heading for her desk drawer to slide open the container full of junk. She must keep a few Leray guidebooks in there for these moments.
After waiting on Eliza to walk over to his desk and find the right material, he felt more stressed for having taken on the responsibility. Danny accepted the small flipbook from Eliza's hands while everybody else was heading for the dark room. The cover of the book was neat, impressive with artwork, but after opening up to the pages, there were no pictures to go off of. All there is here are spells and skills with very short descriptions, power level comparisons, and consumption levels. It was still the very thing he wanted to see, so there were no complaints.
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Chapter Theme Shift: Red Hot Choi Polis ~ Motoi Sakuraba (End of Eternity OST)
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Danny and the others got moving to the dark room for Eliza's group of students, with Eliza hanging in the back. With everybody now having training licenses, anybody could now just walk in there and leave the door open. Even with everybody inside of the dark room, people have to get settled into their training areas, and then decide what new spells to try and learn. Free-for-all training means that there is no real limit to what anybody may pull out, igniting creativity.
Taylor had an extra task on her hands this time. After remembering that she had no physical weapon for her to hold on to in her last battle against the Cran, she needed to procure one, even if it was a lower level training weapon. According to what Eliza announced earlier the other week, anybody is free to take and keep one of any weapon from the storage in the dark room, which gets resupplied every month as needed. But there were still so many. What style could she be comfortable with?
While the others began to spread out through the dark room stations, Danny opened the pocket-sized book and flipped through the first few pages. After several abilities he had never heard of before were skipped, he eventually found the ones in particular he was searching for. Right after Fire Ball, Ice Ball, and Electro-Ball, where the evolved spell forms known as Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, and Lightning Strike. Jane described to him earlier that bolts are stronger than balls, as they home in on their target without the need for complete aiming assistance. So there are also lots of spells that have a prerequisite learning requirement from other spells.
"You can keep that thing if you want to."
Danny shivered again, assuming Eliza to constantly have a thing about sneaking up behind people. He turned around to look up to Eliza, who was defiantly the only person nearby speaking directly to him. But processing what she just said, it came to a small surprise that she would just let him have the guidebook. After offering one of her guidebooks to him, Danny held the book tightly, needing a moment to show his gratefulness. "Thank you," he replied. "I think I'll try Fire Bolt today."
Eliza nodded in response, proving that it was a more expected level of learning at his current capacity. "That's good. It shouldn't take you long to master. Just remember what I said about focusing your MP levels into something new and usable."
"I will." After waiting for Eliza to leave and attend to others, it became clear to Danny that she does this to everyone, walking around to oversee the entire class work operation.
Taylor picked up the bow from the back. Though the design of wooden based material mixed with metallic hinges made the bow seem to be an original weapon, Taylor could sense that it was used for much more since MP energy could be infused into it. A bow and arrow... It seems effective alone in thought, then add magic to it somehow...
Taylor had to think long and hard on the decision she would go with. Eliza only said they could choose one weapon from the dark room for training only. Seems like one of those guidebooks would be useful for Taylor right about now, but she already made up her mind right before coming into the room, after hearing about the next skill that would be perfect for this situation.
Jane took in all of her surroundings. The noise, the sights, and the sensation of everybody training hard on magic. Even her friends were at their stations, able to aim anything at the walls in front of them. Jane could already hear so many random chants; it was too much to make out on the dime. The feeling of being in this room with the rest of her class, it was calming, much more relaxing than training all by herself. It's perfect! This will defiantly work for her training session today!
Jane was already standing at her station as well, the same one Taylor used before when trying to learn Fire Ball. There were a lot of abilities already on her mind. She could count more than ten at a time that she had previously tried to learn, but even after all this time, not a single one of them could have been mastered before, other than Magical Blitz. There was Thunderbolt, which Jane was certain she was close to mastering by now. After what happened last night, it would only attract attention from Danny and Taylor to try and practice it again.
No. After last night, it's just too embarrassing to mess that one up again. She cared less about her hair if training by herself, but the dark room is at full capacity now. It was however a bit unusual as to why the spell would totally backfire instead of having no action. Jane also attempted Ice Needles before, but also without success. Backfiring spells however never usually happens to anybody, and with Ice Needles, that rules was the same as it was true. I've got it!
Jane's mood immediately lifted with the handles on her daggers rubbing her hands, reminding her of the most recently attempted attack skill she had not learned yet. Jane figured now would be a great time to try it. She pulled the daggers out from under her dress again, holding them carefully while taking the correct stance. Jane remembered using Knife Toss against her Cran yesterday, but tried not to get the two skills confused. Flying Guillotine may look like Knife Toss, but it's much more complicated than that, and she would have to correctly infuse her daggers with magical attack energy before throwing them towards the wall.
Jane took some time to try and block out everything else, only focusing on the spell she wanted to learn. Even though she has never seen Flying Guillotine in action before, she knew what it looked like in a way from its obvious description. By infusing magical energy into throwing both daggers at specific angles, the attack turns into a flying circular disk of spinning aura damage, one that also returns to the user like a boomerang. Jane wasn't sure what it looked like in style, color, or intensity, so it wasn't going to be enough this time to try and imagine the skill working in her mind. This was something that had to be achieved with focus and MP channeling, just as Eliza lectured. Jane knew exactly what that meant and how to properly channel her energy, but talking about it was still not the same as performing the ability. Knowing this wasn't going to be easy anyway, Jane decided to give it several shots.
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After infusing a certain amount of magical energy straight into the daggers she was holding, Jane chanted the name of her spell, throwing her daggers into the air while jumping up slightly to give them more of an edge in speed. "Flying Guillotine!" Upon letting the blades go, the daggers flew towards the wall, even while carrying the energy inside of them. The magical auras around the daggers gave each of them a unique white glow that surrounded the blade and the hilt as well. Because the blades were each spinning with their flight, the added effects of the glow was cool in appearance. But even though they were spinning brilliantly through the air, Jane already could tell that the attack was a complete failure. No spinning disk formed from the two daggers while they traveled. Perhaps they were thrown at incorrect angles again, or perhaps something else was messing the attack up. Jane's daggers ended up crashing into the wall, bouncing off with the clinging sound of metal contact before falling straight down to the ground motionless. Flying Guillotine is also supposed to bounce right off any non-human obstacle and return back to the user, and that is why the wall was not the reason to blame for the attack failing. Jane huffed in the stress, walking over to the wall to reclaim her daggers and try again.
Taylor glanced behind her, realizing that she just heard Jane's voice screaming that attack name. It was something called Flying Guillotine, and Jane was walking towards the wall with her daggers on the floor, obviously unsuccessful by the look of Jane's resentful body language. Taylor returned facing the wall in front of her, but kept more of her thoughts about Jane. Though Jane really never quits training, there must be over a million different attacks and spells that are all very difficult to learn, even for a top student.
Taylor didn't let that discourage her. She needed to believe in herself in order to get anything right today, no matter how hard it gets. Taylor thought of the attack she wanted to use. Even though she'd never seen it in action either, it was much easier to imagine in a scenario just based off the description. Whirlwind; a magical wind based attack that blasts air in every direction from the user, surrounding them in a vortex of wind elemental magic which can also act as a defensive barrier by using the damage aura it creates. Taylor knew she was still no good at dodging attacks just yet, but with Whirlwind on her side, it would be much harder for anybody to damage her at all.
Taylor closed her eyes for a moment, trying to imagine the attack as well as focusing her MP energy to her side. Not certain how much she would need, Taylor simply charged a little more than what was required for Whirlwind. Then, Taylor threw up her arms high, trying to send the energy flying through her hands, spreading that wind all around her. Whirlwind doesn't use a glyphring, so she would have to send the magic outward like Jane did last night with her Magical Blitz attack. In this instance, the energy had to be omnidirectional during the invocation energy release.
"Whirlwind!" Taylor yelled the name of her next spell, certain that something would happen a microsecond later, but there was not even the hint of a draft, or the sound of a breeze anywhere near Taylor. Despite expending MP energy into nothingness, Taylor felt disappointed and lowered her arms in defeat. This sure was going to take some time.
Danny watched Taylor's failed attempt of a Whirlwind attack, which he also never even heard of before. He consulted the guidebook again, checking into the wind-elemental section for the possible match-up. It took a few pages of seeking before he could find anything related. There it was! Whirlwind. Attack power registers as a power level 3 attack, same as the Fire Bolt he just finished reading up on. Whirlwind is best in delivering damage in an omnidirectional area, which also integrates slashing damage into the wind that slams into the target over time, and during that close-ranged spell, the user would obviously be protected from projectile magical attacks in the same process, since the wind surrounding them would mess up the direction and velocity of oncoming spells. It sounded much more impressive than a messily little Fire Bolt attack, but also harder to master overall. Danny's Fire Bolt would require a glyphring, but it was not something he was unfamiliar with. After seeing a Fire Bolt in action up close, it couldn't be too difficult.
Danny closed his pocket book and put it away. After taking an aim at the wall, he concentrated on imagining himself shooting a Fire Bolt from his hands. It was supposedly larger in size and in power to a normal Fire Ball, so he simply imagined it being bigger. The glyphring was also bigger, despite being the same color and type. Danny charged up his energy, and immediately released it into the proper forms of spells he wanted to unleash. After lifting his arm up and opening his eyes, Danny noticed the red glyphring form around his wrist, already proving to be halfway successful in his attempt. Danny released the rest of it, hoping to shoot a large ball of fire from his hand better than before. "Fire Bolt!"
Just as the luck would have it, nothing came forth from the glyphring, causing it to fade away shortly after Danny realized that it didn't work that time. It sure wasn't the best thing to see an attack fail miserably, even after knowing how it works and looks, but Danny didn't let it get the best of him. He already managed to correct the glyphring on the first try, and it's not like the Fire Bolt came rushing out to turn around and hit him in the face. That would be Jane's specialty from now on.
Thirty minutes passed, with virtually everybody having similar luck. A few of the other students were only trying to master spells such as Ice Ball or Needle Barrage. They were very easy low-level skills, and learning them would fulfill the minimum requirements for the assignment Eliza set out for them. But for Danny, Taylor, and Jane, that was not going to be good enough. Jane continuously shouted Flying Guillotine, trying to cast a most beautiful magical skill. Taylor was constantly trying to blast a Whirlwind around her, and Danny was hollering Fire Bolt with similar results. The only difference was that Jane's unlearned skill had a slightly higher power level than the other two did. It didn't make things any easier.
Jane turned around after the twenty-sixth failed attempt to use the skill correctly. She noticed that her ears were not deceiving her as much as she thought they were. Danny and Taylor were going at their own pace, trying to learn new skills that were as difficult to learn as the one Jane had trouble with. Only they now slumped over with more depression than Jane was feeling. Everyone is having problems today, not just her. Satisfied with her current efforts for a few minutes, Jane decided to visit her friends, see if they were on the same page in mind as well.
"Hey you two."
Danny and Taylor both looked a little behind them from where Jane was approaching them. Though they were still separate in their stations, the sections were not far away from each other, making it easy to hear them with indoor voices. After turning around to face her, Danny realized this might be a quick pep talk.
"Which abilities are you both going for?"
Taylor cleared her throat after pausing her last attempt for so long. Her voice became a little more hoarse than it was earlier from all the chanting. "I'm learning Whirlwind."
"And I, Fire Bolt." Danny folded his arms again, trying to think of a better way to master the spell than to just stand here shouting something for nothing all day.
"I see..." Jane didn't really have much to say to either of them. It's not like she thought they were doing anything all wrong. It was also harder to focus after having spent so much MP energy post regeneration just learning the skills, thus did this only tire out her mind as well.
Danny noticed that Jane seemed as disappointed as he was for this difficult challenge, perhaps a bit exhausted too. Normally, you wouldn't know it if you saw her first glance, but after spending a week around Jane, it was getting easier to read her emotions as time goes by. It was still a bit surprising to see someone like Jane struggle. "You having trouble too? I've never heard of Flying Guillotine..." He didn't feel like going for the pocket guide again.
Jane was quick to reply, as if she wanted to explain everything about her next skill. Even without getting it right just yet, Jane was still prideful in her own investments. It boarders right between arrogance and confidence, but this was also Jane's thing all of the time. "Flying Guillotine has a nice power level, and I can tell I'm close to getting it right. But it's just so hard! You have to somehow make the daggers spin and create a magical flat circle of aura damage with two elements involved at once. It's actually much like Whirlwind, but with a projectile approach to it as well."
"And here I thought Whirlwind was hard," Taylor sighed. "I don't think I'm close at all."
Jane knew they could at least use advice, reminders involved or not. "You know, channeling your energy just the right way has a lot to do with learning new attacks. If you don't release it in exactly the right method or without the correct applied physical force, it won't work. Even I have trouble with it sometimes."
Taylor couldn't help but let her mind trail off while staring at Jane. A few days ago, she would have been surprised at the thought that Jane could have any trouble learning a new spell. It was as if Jane was the prodigy of Leray magic, incapable of being anything except for a badass. But after yesterday, it's already becoming clear to her that this Leray stuff is not easy to get down, no matter who you are. There are no helpful cheat codes for abilities and learning. Despite what Danny says, this stuff is not out of a video game, else it would be easy.
"But don't give up," Jane chanted. Her sudden change in tone stole the attention from Taylor and Danny. Jane felt a little childish giving them a quick cheer of encouragement, but even she has felt the same way they currently felt before, useless. "I've only been able to do great things with sheer determination. You can't stop trying to use the abilities, no matter how many times it fails on you. I know you are both capable of what you are trying to do, otherwise, you would not have lasted a minute against those Cran yesterday."
As expected, Danny knew exactly what Jane came here to do, and once again, she was hiding one emotion behind another. It was obvious that Jane was giving herself the same, perhaps even more encouragement than she was giving to him and Taylor. There is no way that Jane can simply sit back and feel as great as before after failing a spell over and over again. She takes Leray magic more seriously than anybody! But she would never-ever admit it, not with that hardhead of hers screwed on too tight.
"So Taylor?" Jane directed. "You keep trying Whirlwind. Danny? You keep trying Fire Bolt. Before you know it, you'll be ready for a real fight in the field. Just don't forget to give your ability as much focus as you have to offer."
"Now that's something I can get behind!" Taylor's mood was obviously affected by Jane's faith in her. Already appearing pumped up and psyched, Taylor looked as if Jane totally renewed her energy. "I'll try it again and again. And once I'm better than Danny, you and I will have a go someday."
Danny couldn't deny that he too felt more inspired than before, after somebody showed him that there was nothing stopping him from success. But unlike Taylor, he wasn't so easily bought on the whole keep-trying trick. It simply wasn't going to work.
Jane could see defeat still stuck in Danny's eyes, unswayed by the encouragement. "The more we practice our skills, the better we get at mastering their first use and the next ones after. Eliza would say something cliché like - believe in yourself first! But everybody knows that already. It's not going to be easy no matter what."
Jane did have a point though. Danny figured she would keep talking until he caved into the same mentality Taylor was already set on. Does that whole believing in yourself thing really work? It could probably help, but Jane didn't seem to buy that virtue as much as physical persistence showed. Or maybe she meant to use them both at once? Either way, Danny realized something else, which soon became motivation enough. Taylor!
If Taylor gets too good before he does, it will be hard to make enough of an impression on Jane to get to battle her first, or at all. He couldn't deny the bubbling passion simmering inside his stomach. As much of an ego as Jane had, it would be so much more satisfying to defeat her in a real Leray match. After all, who is Taylor to believe she can become the better Leray wielder? "If it'll impress the pants off you, then I'll give it my all. Challenge accepted Taylor."
Jane smirked at Danny's remark. "I'll be impressed when you realize you can't get better than me. Only then will ye grow up." Who do Danny and Taylor think they are, that they can even hope to match her own skill level?
Danny shot Jane a playful glance. "And why wouldn't I?"
"Because." Jane meant to say more, but she already sounded so confident, it was giving Danny a noticeable look of disbelief. "While you might be training right now and getting better, I'll be getting better with my own training as well. So we'll always be unevenly matched, with you being below me."
"You just love tormenting Danny, don't you?"
Jane didn't know whether to answer Taylor's question, or to listen to Danny's upcoming response. After remaining silent for three seconds, it seemed like a lost cause already.
Though it was making him angrier, Danny knew that he would one day get better than Jane at this stuff. He had to, with this much practice involved. Jane thinks she knows everything, but people like that can't stay on top forever. "One day Jane, you'll see who's the smarter and more powerful Leray warrior. You'll be put in your place."
"Okay, I'll be waiting." Jane turned around, heading back to her training spot. Predictably, her uncaring tone seemed to get to Danny even more, with his muscles tensing up like that.
Taylor saw that Danny was about to twist into a knot, beside himself at Jane. "Hey Danny? Let's get back to training, okay?" Jane was usually the more explosive one, but even Danny was capable of getting fired up to the maximum settings when trying to prove someone else wrong about anything. It happened quite often back in their normal school in Kalamo.
Danny shot Taylor a quick look, determined to successfully train better than Jane this time. "Good! Let's!" Danny immediately returned his focus to the wall, building up MP energy to master the spell he needed to learn. Though it still took some time to begin invoking the spell, Danny had the skill in his mind down as a solid set of steps he was already following.
Taylor watched as Danny's next attempt at a Fire Bolt failed completely, only creating a phased glyphring that was short lived. He then got angrier, which only lasted for a few seconds before he suddenly grew calm. At least that is what it looked like. I guess wanting to master something even more doesn't make it literally easier to get right...
Taylor gave her skill-cast some focus this time, trying to channel her MP energy into her hands while imagining its release to be all around her. This time however, Taylor was thinking more about the twister that should surround her - spinning in a circular direction, not just the energy itself. It took some time to even think about how she should release it from her hands, but once she did, Taylor gave it another loud chant. "Whirlwind!"
"Fire Bolt!" Danny was too focused on his skill to hear Taylor yell Whirlwind. He had to be even more focused on channeling his energy, meaning he had to stay concentrated as well. This time, like a few of the others, Danny released his energy from his hand at the end of the glyphring spinning around his wrist with the solid belief that the attack will fire itself out this time. Whether it was his lucky break, or his increased determination levels, Danny managed to launch a massive sphere of fire, which traveled from his hand so quickly, it was over at the wall with an outward burst of flames in less than half a second.
When Taylor released her energy to try Whirlwind, it actually worked! The attack form was even more beautiful than Taylor ever imagined it to be. The rapid movement of air in her ability was translucently visible, while the gushing wind sounds drained out the rest of the noise from the room. Taylor's body became trapped inside of the eye of a massive vortex of a spinning twister rushing around counter-clockwise direction. Because it was not a projectile like attack, the windy slashes of air spanned out in a circular direction from Taylor's body, just as her hands lifted into the air with a powerful gray glowing aura around each hand.
Though the miniature twister was visible and fast, it managed to spread out as far as nine meters in all directions. The massive area like attack managed to engulf Danny and another student in the middle of the Whirlwind spell, just a quick moment after he succeeded in shooting off a Fire Bolt attack. Though it was accidental, Taylor was totally unaware that this was even happening. Danny was taking on damage over time with the air slashes affecting him right in the middle of his spot, clouding all of his senses with nothing but ultra-speed gusts of wind. The gusts of wind almost managed to be in range to damage other students as well, but Taylor was too amazed in her own ability to realize how wide-ranged it was, and she couldn't really see much through the visible air once it grew to full power anyway. Her own hair was blowing heavily in the winds surrounding her, but she was unaffected by the Whirlwind as far as Leray damage was concerned.
Danny could only stand there, helpless against the crushing wind that began cutting him in various places again and again for as long as it lasted. It felt like sharp knives slit the edge of his skin in various sections, though they weren't deep cuts, nor did they draw any blood. Taylor's Whirlwind was deceptively powerful for a lower level of attack. The long twister lasted for about four and a half seconds since she started it before it finally subsided.
Taylor felt amazing during the entire event, slowly depleting her charged MP energy to keep the twister going. It was easy to keep it alive after first invoked, but the rushing waves of wind on her face felt so incredible and powerful; it was nearly breath taking. Once it was finally over, Taylor noticed that more than half of the entire class were stopped, staring directly at her. One of the girls behind her was folding her arms with a scowl and tapping her foot.
Fearing that she might have hurt everybody by mistake, Taylor's face immediately began mixing towards the color of her blood while she tried to see if anybody took damage from it. A few of the girls around her got their hair styles totally messed up, as they top were tapping their feet and folding in their arms at her too. Then there was Danny, who still had that look, like he was trying to hold on for dear life to the ground using only his shoes. He was bracing himself as if Taylor's Whirlwind was still affecting him.
After realizing that it was all over, Danny let go of his shoes and stood up, dazed from the entire incident. Danny didn't say much else, realizing that Taylor was only trying to get something right. He only needed to say one thing to Taylor to let her know. "Ow!"
"I'm sorry Danny! I didn't mean to do that!" Taylor rushed to his side, already trying to help him get over that friendly-fire damage. He didn't really appear to be hurt physically, so it must not have been a real big deal to his lowered HP levels. But Taylor wasn't certain, and she felt so sorry for using such a wide ranged attack on nearly the whole field. Whirlwind has a much higher range of effect than it seemed in the description, and this dark room wasn't really all that large compared to the range of a Siriean dome. Really makes one wonder how to practice area attacks in a cramped dark room with others present.
"It..." Danny's voice was slow to the response. He was surprised to have taken an attack like that from Taylor. Compared to his Fire Bolt, Whirlwind seemed like it could cause much more of a problem for him if he couldn't come up with anything better afterwards. "It's okay. Really!"
"No, I shouldn't have done that. Don't be passive about it!" Danny seemed a bit fazed by the entire incident, more so than the other students around her, who were still totally silent and staring at her in scrutiny.
Danny didn't expect Taylor to be more caught up than he was with magic spells, but he really was okay with the friendly-fire incident. If he had known, Danny would have just practiced in a different location. It was still an accident after all. "I just learned Fire Bolt... So I'm great."
"Tisk!" Jane chuckled. Of course, she knew from the start that Danny was fine. An embarrassing friendly-fire like that may have looked and felt powerful, but Whirlwind only has a power level of three, with wind elements added. It can't hurt that bad anyway; the sensations of high-speed wind can only confuse or whiplash the weak ones. But it was Danny's response that was typical. He didn't care about taking an attack in the middle of training. As long as he mastered his Fire Bolt attack, it was all good. Jane saw the whole thing too. He shot a bolt of fire just before Taylor's Whirlwind took effect, even though both of them shouted their moves at exactly the same time. Too bad for Danny, a Fire Bolt would be swallowed and thrown off course against a Whirlwind spell, even if the aim were perfect.
Anyway, Taylor seemed to realize that certain area attacks are not best used in cramped up rooms like this one, proving the ineffectiveness of a dark room on many occasions. Now that the situation was out of the way, it was time that she get in some more practice. Jane was happy for Danny and Taylor for learning their new attacks like that, but it was also a bit humorous the way Taylor went about it. Now that the whole class was giving her mean looks, Taylor would stop teasing Jane about the lightning bolt incident for sure. Using Whirlwind on your peers has to be equally as embarrassing to yourself. And if she didn't let it go, Jane still had her on the Cran incident.
Jane faced the wall again, daggers in her hands and ready to toss them. She charged the energy into her daggers very quickly. After trying to get it right so many times before, her magical infusion into the blades was almost immediate now. "Flying Guillotine!" Jane threw her daggers with all her might, trying to make the supposed guillotine effect show up. But once again, it failed. The white glowing daggers simply traveled through the air as if she used knife toss instead, bouncing right off the metal wall on impact and crashing to the ground with such a loud cling that echoed through the entire room.
"Jane?" Jane looked back at her teacher, who was trying to get her attention for something. "Flying Guillotine is an advanced level skill even for where we are now. Since that is the one you are trying to go with, I'll let you have an extra day to complete the assignment."
"Thanks," Jane replied casually. She didn't sound grateful, but that was only coming from the disappointment in herself for not getting it right sooner. It seems that her talk with Danny and Taylor paid off in full, but not for her, not yet anyway. It didn't surprise her at all that Eliza was making this exception. It wouldn't be the first time, and defiantly not only for her either. Any person who tries to go above and beyond the policy requirements is a person Eliza develops a soft spot for. Giving a person an extra day to learn a super-advanced skill was totally like her own teacher. Still, Jane returned to her normal stance, ready to try it again. First, she would have to recover her daggers from the ground again, but after that, it's back to the additional training time.