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<12/28/1971 ~ 12:19 | Dakota Training Academy, Fronas, Gulop Region, Sprawn Valley>

After the bells tolled for the class to exit from Dakota academy, the students packed their things to head on home for lunch, but it was still early, and Jane didn't want to leave just yet. Taylor and Danny continued watching her try the same attempt of a skill over and over without any success, and it had been going on for more than an hour now! It was as if Jane didn't know the meaning of putting her practice on hold. Her MP levels had to be depleted by now.

"Flying Guillotine!" Jane threw her daggers again, only to have them cling against the wall with no additional visual effects. Her voice somehow remained high strong in her chants after repeating them over the short period, though the constant magic invocations left her breathing quickly, her limbs heavy from fatigue. She was beginning to reek of sweat. Just after realizing for the sixtieth time in a row within minutes that it did not work, her friends had to step in.

"Jane?" Taylor distracted, walking up behind her. "Come on. It's time to get some lunch."

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "Take a break every now and then, okay?" If he and Taylor weren't here to remind her, Danny was certain that Jane would have practiced until collapsing from normal exhaustion. Or is a full loss in MP the same thing?

Jane felt her muscles tense from the stress put on her, and her hair was getting damp from the sweat running down from her scalp. She did everything in her power to master this one single spell, and still nothing! Jane knew that Taylor and Danny were satisfied at mastering their shiny new skills, probably ready to move on by now. "I'm not done yet," she snapped. Jane didn't bother turning around. Her body faced the same metal material, there to absorb the power of her spell if ever done correctly.

Taylor could sense the pride in Jane slipping into frustration. It was written all over her body language, but this just isn't like Jane... Or is it? "Come on. Everybody needs a break. You can't use a new spell getting all mad like that."

Jane shot Taylor a glaring look. "I'm not mad!" Though the tone in her voice had an opposite adjective. Jane took it upon herself to inhale and exhale deep and calmly. As soon as she did, she felt relieved, ready to try it again. "I'll get lunch when I'm done."

What's left to do? Danny admired Jane's inability to give up on her personal challenges. It was true that she wanted to be a Leray master, and naturally, that would make anyone try their hardest, but even she was pushing it over the line. Everyone has their limits. Has she forgotten that? Danny cleared his throat to try it once more, turning his request into a full demand. "I think you've practiced enough for now Jane. You can return to it after we eat lunch together." Jane gave him a sharp unnerving glare, which only calmed Danny's expression slightly. "You really want to run out of MP now?"

Wrapping her hands around her sides, Jane let him have it. "Such talk from a rook. You wouldn't have any idea how hard this spell is."

"That's not my point," Danny protested. "You're the one who said patience and moderation is needed when training. But right now, you're just going crazy." He saw Jane open her mouth again to try and argue, but Danny got himself another line before then. "You really don't think I understand what you're trying to do? After I have done the same to myself with Radial Stars that one night?"

Jane was silent, mostly upon the memory that spell constantly brought back. No matter what anyone thought, Jane knew how long and hard she fought just to be able to use her first magical spell, the Radial Stars skill. She didn't recall Danny training that hard on it before, but even if he didn't, Jane certainly knew she had done so. And all of this fuss was over Jane trying too hard? Why do either one of them care about it?

"I'm just saying that you're overdoing it. You have a tendency to push yourself too hard."

Another reminder! Somehow, Danny had turned into her teacher Eliza in this moment, saying the same exact words. Jane had to hear the same lecture personally from Ms. Eliza a couple times in the past, not that it helped the frustration very much.

"Don't worry," Danny reassured. "I may have learned Fire Bolt, but that doesn't really put me ahead of you or Taylor."

What? When did Jane ever suggest she was worried about that? "I never said that it did."

There it was again; Jane's confident sense of dominance. Even when Danny was getting better compared to her, Jane protested otherwise. But Jane also probably believed that Danny was right to the letter. "Agh, never mind." Danny finally began walking towards the exit, waving his arm and expecting them to follow. "If you skip lunch, you'll owe me one."

Letting out a most distressful exhale, Jane got over herself just enough to take the stupid break. "Fine! But I don't want to sit still for too long."

You never do. Taylor found it impressive that Danny's argument didn't branch too far into an illogical spiral of immature responses during his debate. His certainly used to back then, but this was Jane he just handled. Taylor would have argued the same way, but feared she wouldn't have succeeded with the same choice of words. Still, before she turns invisible, Taylor knew she needed to say something important. "I was able to learn Whirlwind by being patient."

"You still have a lot to learn yourself you know." Jane didn't mean that as a torment, though Taylor took it harshly while catching up to the group of lingering students by the hallway exit from the dark room.

Danny and the others took the talk with them outside of the dark room. It was time to leave the school for now, while Jane and Taylor stay close to continue the conversation. "True," Taylor remarked. "But that Fire Bolt Danny used is so cool! It's homing projectile form, which means it can't be dodged."

"Incorrect!" Jane challenged. "Though Fire Bolt has all of those many advantages of increased damage, increased speed, and increased homing capabilities, you still have to remember two things. Fire Bolt naturally has a slightly longer invocation time than Fire Ball until you train hard enough to master that even more. And," Jane emphasized, "Just because it can follow people around doesn't mean it's too quick to dodge. Anybody who can move fast enough and time it right can get past a Fire Bolt attack."

Taylor watched as Danny's expression seemed to take Jane's advice seriously, but Jane held that tone again, as if she knew everything there was to know about magic. Of course, this time she would have to take her word for it. Taylor knew that her new skill was much of something else. After thinking about it more, she realized it could be used to attack and defend at the same time. Jane can't really do much against that, right? "But what about my Whirlwind? Pretty awesome, right?"

Jane nodded and smiled. "Though I am impressed to see you learn Whirlwind so quickly, everything has a disadvantage."

"Like what?!" Taylor demanded. What could possibly overcome such a powerful vortex of wind, especially when combined with wind-elemental magical slashing damage types that accumulate over time?

"Well, let's start with the fact that your attack does wind elemental damage. Even with slashing damage mixed in, the damage level in question is not high for that spell, and you still need to be close to your target in order to use it. Nine meter radius might seem big, but on a real battlefield against another person, that's considered close range."

"I see what you're saying," Danny interjected. "If someone's endurance is high enough, Whirlwind is a bad skill to go with in the long run even if it takes them for a ride."

Jane admitted, "In some cases, yes. But it has cool advantages too. You know that if Whirlwind's power is strong enough with enough training and multiple invocations, it can be used as a defense to disrupt the path of projectile attacks. Even a nice Fire Bolt would be swept away and off track by surrounding yourself with a powerful wind. Needless to say, electrical attacks would be rendered useless if they have to travel through the air, since it would displace too many electrons before reaching point B." Jane didn't know why, but explaining all of this was more relaxing than it was annoying. After having the chance to unwind a little while in the hallway, she began to wonder if her success with Flying Guillotine would change after having a meal after all.

Danny tried to hide his smirk as he came to the same conclusion he did before. Even if Jane is a know it all, she has somehow learned as much as a licensed magic teacher would have in such a short time. In fact, the reason she might be so good may very well be linked to how much she studied the properties of magic in itself before participating in physical training. Jane said something days ago to him about having fun learning about magic before ever being in school, something that would have been considered self-research.

"Wait a minute," Taylor stopped. "Are you saying that by practicing my Whirlwind over and over in succession, its power and wind speeds get stronger?"

"As with every other type of spell." Jane was certain of herself, being advice given to her from Eliza and Mr. Mire. "But Taylor? You really want to be careful where you practice an omnidirectional ranged attack like that."

Taylor was immediately reminded of the moment where she nearly swept the entire class into her own stationary tornado, and messed up everybody's hair except for her own. The event in memory made her blush again, and she felt bad about it like before. "R— right. Sorry about that."

Jane was already feeling much better. After failing to invoke Flying Guillotine so many times, this little walk and talk had immediately restored her faith in herself. There were plenty of other situations and times before this where Jane failed to learn certain skills, skills of which she still to this day cannot use properly. She waited until they were all at the entrance to relax more with her friends. "Let's say we get a good bite to eat, okay?"

"What's that?" "What's going on?!"

The worried voices of other random teenagers right outside stole the attention of Danny, Taylor, and Jane where they stood. Though it was not everybody from the entire school, there was quite a crowd just outside at the front. It looked like some sort of commotion was taking place at the front entrance. Jane immediately came to her senses and rushed to the front of the building. It was unclear whether Taylor and Danny were going to stay close and follow her, but random or interesting things don't just happen in Fronas, being such a small community.

After getting outside, Jane realized that the crowd of people were not circling around anybody. They were all standing apart, watching something further ahead in the less dense forest in front of them. After Jane got a more comfortable and broad view of the area lit by the sunlight, she noticed that Eliza was right next to her, as keen to figure out who was making the noise up there. It sounded like somebody was yelling at another person, but from the pitch and voice type, it had to be an eleven year old boy.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Enemy Attack ~ Ace Combat 4 OST

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Taylor and Danny caught up to Jane, eager to figure out what was going on. The scene soon caught their eyes. Coming far from the right bend, there was some other man in a puffy dark red jacket, running through the woods and twigs, jumping over the jagged rocks. He seemed to be rushing on his feet in a hurry, but there was a smaller boy following him. It looked a lot more like he was chasing the older man as quickly as possible, without the speed needed to gain on the guy.

"You two! Stop!" Eliza's voice echoed through the entire area of Fronas, but it had no effect on either of them. The younger kid was defiantly chasing the older male for an unknown reason, and they both were getting pretty close to the frontal area of Dakota, much too far away however to make out any of their faces.

Taylor and Danny heard one of them yelling back in the distance. Based on his higher pitched voice, it had to be the younger kid. "Give it back! That man stole my credits! I won that money fair and square!" Because he was exhaling to try and pick up attention to himself, it caused the kid to slow down a little, thus allowing the man to gain more ground. Both of them were now heading to the open field of Fronas, but the older male was now further ahead. Did he say something about stealing?

Eliza took off and began running down towards the man, using her hands to holler her breath towards the village. "Someone stop that thief!"

Jane winced at what now finally made more sense, but it was a shock on its own. Fronas never had a problem like this before. A thief?! Here?! What sicko on the world would steal somebody's credits? And how could he be able to bypass the Leray license of security in order to steal credits in the first place? It must have been taken from a source other than battling, but the point was clear. The older male who was running away towards town had to be guilty of something. Jane couldn't be certain what it was about, but she decided to trust Eliza's instincts. "Wait up!" Jane took off in a full sprint to catch up to Eliza, and ultimately the accused adult running away.

Taylor and Danny had no idea what was going on, but they decided to chase down Jane in response. Unfortunately for the both of them, she had to have been practicing her speed as well to go so fast into the woods. Eliza was even faster than Jane by a hair, but Taylor and Danny would not be able to keep up unless everybody stops to wait.

Danny couldn't believe what was happening right in front of him. He heard before the potential of people committing crimes using Leray magic, but with the agents running around, it made such activities seem futile. Why would someone try to get away with stealing credits from some kid, and continue trying to evade? He wasn't sure yet if that is what was really happening, but the guy sure seemed guilty of stealing. Was this the dangers of magic Nyar warned about? Regardless of such, if the suspect runs into Fronas, that means he'll end up encountering the Leray agents there too, right?

Jane was already breathing a little quicker than before in her sprint, trying to catch up to assist Eliza, but the rugged terrain was harder to dash through without stumbling over the small rocks or roots in the ground. From the distance in front of her, the man was now completely out of the woods, rushing towards one of the other exits in Fronas. Eliza was still not close enough to the man yet to get him, but things suddenly changed when Kain and Bella popped out in front of the thief. It surprised him too much for comfort, and he stopped dead in his tracks while preparing to be surrounded. From here, Jane could not entirely make out the voices of Kain and Bella, but it was obvious that they wanted to stop and interrogate the guilty man.

"Stop running!" Kain demanded. The guy in the coat didn't want to run into him, and nearly tripped in the dirt as a result.

Bella reaffirmed the demand of her partner, "If you stole something, you better give it back right now!" Bella seemed prepared to fight this guy, but the situation was soon to go both directions.

The adult finally let his concealing hood fall down, revealing crazy orange hair that stood out especially in bright daylight. Whomever he was, nobody seemed to recognize him. "Out of my way!" he screamed. "It's only three hundred!"

Eliza gasped loudly, now only seventy more meters from the suspect. "So he is a thief," she muttered. He must have taken three hundred credits from that poor child and tried to run away with it by the time he was founded out. Didn't he realize that the Leray agents would capture and arrest him by running into town? What kind of idiot would dare try this?

The orange haired adult began walking in a sideways direction, trying to outflank Kain and Bella. This only caused Kain and Bella to spread out in opposite directions as a result, both of them further surrounding his position. It was clear that he had no intention of surrendering to either one of them.

"That's it!" Kain whisked his arm as a threatening gesture. "You asked for it!" Though he noticed Eliza, Jane, and half the other school kids approaching from Dakota to watch, he focused on the issue at hand. Since he has been in battles many times before, the first thing Kain did was spool up his energy scope. There was really no effort to making one appear after so many times before. Kain's status box hovered over his head at half transparency, giving everybody the serious idea that he was about to attack the thief. Bella had the same intentions in mind.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/fLY7yCkj/S1-Kain-N-000.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/J76VK5pz/S1-Bella-N-000.png]

As a natural response to the danger, the orange haired man spooled up his energy scope as well. Though energy scopes are designed to show name and stats, the identity can intentionally be blocked by the same person using it, proven at this very moment. So when the thief made his energy scope appear in the phased light, it didn't really help to identify himself. The guy simply opposed every move the agents tried to make against him, and by using his energy scope, it proved he was a possible magic user too.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/Y9t0Nzbx/S1-Unknown-N-000.png]

It should have named him thief, because at this point, fighting back like this was going to prove that he was as guilty as he was charged. Jane and Eliza nearly caught up now, but this effort wasn't quick enough to do anything about the unofficial battle about to happen. Normally, in a Leray match between people, reward systems are established, and then the Siriean dome forms around them, but this wasn't that kind of situation. It was two Leray agents trying to fight a criminal suspect, and that just means none of the normal rules are followed. None of the automatic digital based systems integrated into the magical field trigger. That included the absence of the Siriean dome, which only added to the level of danger for anyone watching.

Kain charged his energy in hand, preparing the attack he used to target at the thief. Though the target seemed ready to dodge the attack, Kain was not holding back any longer. "Fire Bolt!" In little effort, the bolt of fire blasted from the center of the red glyphring formed with a spinning red holographic disk around his wrist. It was amazing how quick his invocation time and speed was, as well as the quick pace of the airborne Fire Bolt. In literally a matter of 0.4 seconds, that Fire Bolt made it halfway towards the thief.

But something was not right. The guy who was about to be hit with an obvious Fire Bolt spell made no attempt to block the attack or to dodge it. He just stood there, like he wanted to get hit by the attack.

While Eliza and Jane finally got much closer to the scene of the event, they both saw the guy take a direct Fire Bolt attack, slamming right into his chest and lighting up his body with a quick radial release of outbursts of fire, though the shock to his body was nonexistent. He wasn't even pushed backwards an inch, and he showed no signs or indication that he was damaged. Even the energy scope above him did not change in any stats of his MP or his HP. He just stood there, completely undamaged and unharmed by the spell.

"You sure you wanna try that again?" The thief now seemed confident in himself, yet his stance was still retained the same threatening mode of obliteration. He was not backing down from an outnumbered fight, something even more unusual. Most criminals would run at a time like this.

Eliza decided that even at this range, it should be possible to attack him from here using ranged spells. After taking aim at the guy who only had his eyes on Bella and Kain, she made her move, despite Jane being danger close for potential friendly fire. "Wind Slash!" Eliza immediately invoked a spell in such speed and beauty; it looked as if she didn't even charge energy into the spell. Eliza simply rushed her hand upward while aiming at the thief, which forced out a visible flat wave of air, now rushing its way towards the guy. With incredible speed, cutting right through the little foliage in the way, Eliza's wind based attack was on a crash course towards the thief, who now turned his head to realize that he was being targeted from all sides now. Just before the visible slash attack of air nearly slammed into the guy, he side-kicked himself out of the way without losing his balance or orientation, dodging the spell right before it impacted on him. The rushing wave of air drilled on past him, not stopping for anything.

With Eliza's attack missed leaving his stats totally unchanged, Bella watched his next move. The thief suddenly shifted in his feet, fleeing to his right, which led down the north exit of town. Bella unleashed her power to stop him where he was. After releasing some of her energy with an incredible speed and practically no invocation time, Bella threw her fists into the air, aimed in the thief's direction again. "Tri-Fire!" Bella's glowing red hand immediately shot out a burst round of three separated Fire Bolts through a barely visible glyphring. All three blazing Fire Bolts were rushing in towards the thief with their own homing capabilities, locked-on to the target.

With incredible speed, the Fire Bolts all smashed into the guy from behind at the same time, creating a fiery blast that nearly engulfed his whole body. Soon after the fire cleared, he was still on the run, sprinting away towards the north exit of Fronas at the other end of the field, and his stats were once again unchanged.

Bella stomped her foot down into the grass in frustration, soon figuring out one of his strategies. "He has a fireproof cloak on!" Bella's warning chimed towards Kain and the others behind them. Eliza and Jane noticed that the crowd of students were now behind them as well, caught up to the commotion while still at the edge of the forest, but the fireproof thief was now getting away!

This time, it was Jane who rushed in at full speed, passing Eliza quick on her feet. Eliza saw Jane rush past her with incredible speed. Eliza didn't want Jane to get involved since it would be putting her in real danger. "Jane!" She reached out, already far out of range to tug her dress and catch her, but with Jane's determination, there was no stopping her at this point, regardless of what she could do or say.

Jane rushed in following the thief in the field, and simultaneously, she triggered her energy scope to activate as well. While the status box followed Jane floating above her head, it showed everyone behind her that she was just as serious about catching that crook before he got away.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/ncGd0FFY/S1-Jane-N-007.png]

Nobody including Jane was sure what she was going to do, but she slowly gained ground, inching ever closer toward the man with her legs shifting so fast through the flat field. It was easier to run on this terrain anyway, and Jane was still catching up to the thief since he was just a tad bit slower. Jane couldn't deny how tired out she already was though. While physical exercise doesn't use up MP, it still tires one out in the same way, and she had already used up MP from practicing guillotine so much today. Jane began to think of what attacks would get the guy from this range. He was immune to fire elemental damage with that cloak on, and perhaps even more. Plus, he wasn't some rookie. He managed to dodge attacks even while on the run. Whether or not he could use magical attack spells, Jane was certain he was hiding that talent.

Jane looked up more, overhead the thief she was chasing. There was a jeep parked right in the middle of the northern path just waiting there. That was where the thief was directly running to. Jane had never seen a jeep before with her own two eyes, since it was more than just rare to own one inside of Sprawn Valley, though she never considered this situation impossible. The thought of motorized electronics rushed into Jane's mind. She still knew a thing or two about electronic equipment from what she heard outside of the valley, and she had seen plenty of pictures of such vehicles from that research, allowing her to identify the current intent and escape plan for the criminal. Any automobile has to use some sort of electrical energy, and that means it might be possible to overload the machine's power capacity in that same way. If not, then perhaps she could wreck the internal components in the same process.

Jane forced herself to stop right in her tracks, catching her breath. She already had an idea, and decided to go with it after confirming that the thief was indeed trying to use his jeep to escape. Jane calculated the angle and range of where the jeep stood. It was quite a distance away from her on foot, and in just twenty more seconds, the thief would be inside of that car of his as well. Luckily, the jeep was still in range of one specific attack spell.

Jane began charging an enormous amount of energy while she stood stationary. It was a spell she never successfully used before, but with this much energy prepared, and with the knowledge already in her head, Jane figured it was an all or nothing attempt. She has to get this right just one time, or else the thief will escape with stolen funds. In retrospect, 300 credits is not that much, but it could have been a lot to that kid back there. Jane was sure of herself this time, still charging up her MP energy into both her hands and into the glyphring now forming on her right wrist. It was a large glyphring, with slightly darker color than jade blue with small circular symbols going around from the inside shape of the ring. After lifting her arm, charging even more energy, and then releasing it all at once, Jane chanted the spell to invoke it with all her might. "Lightning Strike!"

Jane unleashed her attack, forming a massive horizontal beam of electricity that traveled at the speed of light from her hand towards the jeep. The bolt of lightning swept right passed the thief's head and struck the automobile even from this distance. While Jane's energy was being sucked up big time, she focused on keeping that beam of electricity alive and locked onto the car, sending high amounts of voltage into the conductive metals. It was only two short seconds afterwards when the front of the car literally exploded into bursts of smoke and flying shrapnel. Jane let off on the attack spell, immediately feeling lightheaded and dizzy. The explosion on the jeep was not fairly large, nor was there any combustion of fire involved.

The orange haired thief stopped in shock. With his jeep suddenly out of order, there wasn't much point in running towards Blue Port Town. Jane was smart to electrocute the car, overvolting the capacitor and alternator to make it inoperable. Now he could only escape on foot. After a short glance behind him, he saw some girl, the only one close enough to be the person who used that ranged attack, and then there were the other two he took hits from earlier now catching up.

"Stop right there!" Bella warned. As she passed Jane, Kain stopped where he was to help attend to Jane's new problem.

Jane used up a ton of her energy invoking that powerful attack, which was way above her normal skill level. The MP stats on her status box dropped so fast after using that spell, her breathing became much more rapid, and she was already tired out. Jane slowly sank to her hands and knees from how intense the rapid drain became to her, but Kain was suddenly there to keep watch.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/VksKhx5y/S1-Jane-N-008.png]

While Kain was helping Jane, Eliza and Bella took over, rushing in towards the thief, but after realizing that his jeep was destroyed, the guy finally stopped running. It looked like he was now giving up.

Bella held her hand aimed at the guy, who now had his hands holding the back of his neck. "Hold it right there. You're under arrest for thievery and attempted escape from Leray agents stationed in Fronas."

The guy finally seemed to be complying. After kneeling down to his knees, he was still holding the back of his head to prove he was no longer a threat. Bella kept his hand aimed at the guy, prepared to use an attack that had no fire elements involved. The thief must have figured out there was no longer an escape for him this time. Eliza had her hands aimed at him too, just as prepared to attack. Bella then pulled out a pair of handcuffs pulsing bright with unusual lighting, and strapped them onto his arms to procure and capture the prisoner.

Kain was hunched down over at Jane, since she was having a rough time recovering. "Take it easy Jane. That Lightning Strike of yours drained over sixty percent of your MP in one go. That proves you weren't ready to use it yet."

"But— it worked," Jane puffed, barely able to breathe while her entire body tingled and buzzed with confusing signals of mixed pain. "He can't use— his car thing now."

Despite how reckless it was, the result did end in a favorable capture. Still, Jane didn't need to do that much over a few credits. "Yes. That was very brilliant of you. And now we've got him. You can relax now." Kain checked on Bella, who was already taking the man into custody. From the other side, all of the other kids finally caught up with him and Jane, making immediate concerns for their favorite idol struggling on the grassy field, coughing in rapid breaths as though she just finished running one of the longest marathons in the world.

Bella finished the cuffs, and got Eliza's help hauling him off to the processing center in Blue Port Town. It was a ways to walk to, but he wasn't going to be able to get out of this one. Especially with the Light Lock cuffs on his wrists now, the thief cannot use any Leray magic, so running away now would be pointless for him.

Taylor caught up to Jane with Danny by her side, and she watched Bella and Eliza walking north towards Blue Port, where the thief was heading towards anyway. That must be where their prison facility is located, since Fronas is just too small a place to have one here. But Jane... "Jane! She's okay right?"

Jane was still panting quickly, still out of breath from all of that running around, all from the sign that her last attack threw her MP down into critical levels. Jane felt the sensation of low MP before, even low HP just as a test. But following up an exercise like that with a powerful spell was beyond a sense of exhaustion she had ever felt before. Despite her voice barely letting out hints of air at a time, Jane replied, "I'm fine."

"Here." Kain reached in his back pocket, pulling out some strange looking bottle shaped object. He then handed it to Jane. "It's a restoration drink. Have a chug of this."

Jane took the drink from Kain, trusting what he was saying. Not all battle items are in the form of magical orbs. Sometimes, certain types of food and even processed drinks are made to instantly restore health or energy. Jane took several sips, feeling thirsty from the running she did. The drink had a unique flavor that involved a lot of sugar and blue berry surprises. As soon as Jane finished the drink, her MP stats on her energy scope automatically began climbing. It was not instantaneous, but that one drink almost fully restored her MP energy over the course of a full minute.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/vZP0w064/S1-Jane-N-009.png]

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Chapter Theme Shift: Bleak Worlds ~ (Christian Telford & Matthew St. Laurent & Galileo Seven & Koichi Sanchez-Imahashi & Nigel William Graham)

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Jane felt a lot better, like she had recovered from all of the hard work on the spot, but she was still breathing fast and panting for air, her pulse elevated. Jane still felt the tingling sensation all over her body, though now less intense still had her struggling with physical movement. Taylor and Danny were hovering close to Jane, along with the rest of their classmates, who only wanted to find out what happened next in the commotion.

That's when Francine, the Fronas nurse showed up too, also concerned for Jane's health. "Is this the one?"

"Yes," Kain responded. He stood up to greet the nurse again, explaining the whole situation. "We had a tough time chasing the thief down, but Jane stopped him in his tracks, using an over-charged Lightning Strike." Kain paused, giving Francine plenty of time to study Jane, make sure she was fine. "Since Jane didn't officially learn Lightning Strike yet, it was quite a shock to her body. But she'll be alright."

Danny heard it himself, but couldn't properly process all of this. Jane had trouble using that spell before, but Kain was talking about over-charging the spell, which he had not understood or heard of before. And for some reason, Jane's condition seemed less stable after destroying that vehicle in the distance. As impressive as it was, there was defiantly something he missed earlier about how dangerous it is to use Leray magic. If it were safe, then how could this happen to Jane of all people?!

"That's good to hear," Francine concluded. "Jane? Good job! You've just helped us arrest that man. He's being taken in now. You will also be fine."

"What about the stolen credits?" Jane pondered.

The kid who was chasing the thief to begin with was there in the crowd, now drawing attention to himself to ask the same thing. Not to their surprise, it was the same boy who had his money taken. "Yeah! I'm now three hundred short. Didn't you get it from that guy?"

Kain hovered down to the young boy, still too young to understand how money transfers work in these situations. "Don't worry son. We know what happened. We'll transfer the credits back on your card before we even get them back from the crook. We pay you, and the bad guy will pay us back."

"Awesome!" The kid was excited and grateful from Kain's calming explanation, though he had little regard for the situation around the girl halfway collapsed on the ground. He was only ten or eleven years old, so Kain found it normal behavior coming from the boy. As for everything else, the tension in the entire area diluted fast.

Taylor was able to see the entire thing once Jane got going after the guy, but it was so unexpected. Jane wasn't a Leray agent, but she sure acted like one a few minutes ago, and that Thunderbolt attack was something else. Not only did Jane get it right, she also used her brain by disabling the car like that. Taylor never thought she would see a car in Sprawn Valley after the things she heard about them, but watching a Leray attack disable the car's engine and battery was impressive. "That was so cool!"

Danny was beside Taylor, in as much amazement as she was, but he was much more speechless. What Jane did; he never got to see that side of her before. Jane was so determined to stop the thief, it was like her own life didn't count for concern. All this trouble for 300 credits? If he remembered correctly, three hundred isn't much in this country, barely enough to buy a decent meal. Regarding the thief, where the hell did he get an automobile from? Forget that. How did he even smuggle it into the country? Danny knew what automobiles look like along with their general function from reading a small summary of them with online articles. On top of that, the rich untouchables in Kalamo drove around in them from time to time, though he only ever saw just one in real life. This makes two, not that it was functional now, but none of this explains why Jane was damaged by what she had just done.

Jane finally slowed her breathing, relieved that this was all over. The restoration of MP energy Kain supported did help her recovery, though it was a very slow process. Whoever that guy was, he wasn't going to bother anybody now. It may have only been three hundred lousy credits, but it was the thought that counted. Jane hated people like that, anybody who would dare use Leray magic to do bad things, and then have the audacity to rush into her hometown. Jane could already feel her blood boiling like before, angry once again that he even existed to steal money from anyone. If it were not for Kain, Bella, and Eliza taking care of him as well, Jane would rush in right now and number his days.

After getting a hold of herself, Kain helped Jane up on her feet again. Kain knew Jane needed to take it easy after doing something as stupid as that. Jane never once before used an ability above her skill level from the looks of it, even if she did know how to. She only heard of rumors that such rules could only become bypassed under extreme conditions or emergency settings, but even then, it was a rare thing to do.

Danny tilted his head towards Taylor's, whispering over the crowd. "What do they mean by, above her level?"

Kain was much louder than Danny was, but he still didn't speak loudly enough for Jane to hear what she learned earlier. "It has something to do with the point capacity in our MP and HP. Having too low of a level means that you're maximum ME points are so low, that you just don't have the capacity to learn a specific new skill with a very high power level, no matter how much you train for it. All Leray spells have specific power levels that sort of define a minimum amount of ME energy needed for its activation. And if you lack that amount of ME due to insufficient stats of growth, learning that skill with practice is not possible. Jane probably couldn't learn Thunderbolt or Flying Guillotine before for the same reasons. She hasn't trained under general settings enough for those spells to become successful."

"Then how did she do that? How could she use Thunderbolt just because she knew she needed to badly enough?"

Taylor chanced what she knew from Kain, who only explained it to her before while Danny wasn't around. "Just because Thunderbolt is a higher power level attack, Jane's MP must still be capable of taking it only under extreme conditions... But even now, using that Thunderbolt spell has probably made her skill level exponentially higher. She should have no problem using it again with much less MP consumption after another day or two. The same might even go for Flying Guillotine."

Danny was having a hard time following this on. It's somewhat daunting that Taylor understood this so easily. "So you're saying, that no matter how much I train, I couldn't learn a power level seven attack if my MP is just not generally high enough?"

"That's the idea." Taylor's knowledge became a bit fettered after what Jane just did. Overcoming an obstacle like that, it wasn't an established rule of fact. Leray magic has all sorts of natural effects that cannot be bypassed, such as causing enough physical damage to a human in the protection zone to cause death. But then there was that whole thing with dark magic, which also has a way of bypassing that very same process. And then to overcome enough energy and focus to bypass the energy rule? Jane sure is strong when it comes to Leray magic. There is just no denying it. She shouldn't have tried it though!

"I'm glad that's over with," Jane told to Taylor. "I think that's enough for me today anyway." Jane was at least sitting up on her own, but she was still clearly too exhausted to move.

Taylor nodded, glad that Jane was feeling better and safe from that. People who use Leray magic for bad things, it must not be common, but it did remind Taylor a lot of the stuff Eliza said to them earlier. It was all of that talk about learning to protect yourself in real world situations, and more about the role of Leray agents and their job as security officers in Leray magic styles. She had not seen what Leray agents actually do until today, but this proves that crime can exist anywhere, in any form. "Hey Jane? You can use Lightning Strike now! That's so cool."

"True," Danny added. Jane's ME levels must have barely been high enough to support that spell, according to Kain's testimony of the situation. "And now you don't have to worry about officially completing your end of the assignment." Even though you nearly killed yourself trying to complete it.

Jane was still caught exhaling faster than usual, still winded from the use of her first Thunderbolt, but she finally managed to stand up on her own power, while Francine was hovering over to monitor her every move. "Lightning Strike isn't the skill I want to learn," she admitted. "My assignment isn't complete. I'm still only going to focus on learning Flying Guillotine. Thunderbolt is just an added bonus."

Taylor blinked in surprise. That sure was Jane's personality to the letter. Even in complete exhaustion and in need of a long rest, she's still trying to act tough.

"If you aren't going to the medical facility, then I'll have to escort you home and inform your family. And you'll have to rest without using any magic for the remainder of today."

Jane glanced back towards the official Fronas nurse, who seemed overly concerned by Jane's standards. "That won't be a problem," she agreed. Jane knew her parents were fairly understanding. Besides, it wasn't every day that she had to try and stop a thief from escaping. But the words of Francine's warning were not to be taken lightly. Now that the commotion was over with, the rest of the audience began to disperse and retire for the evening. This gave the others plenty of space.

"Hey Jane," Danny called. "You sure you'll be alright?"

"Of course. I'll just sit this one out for today." With the personal assistance of Francine by her side, Jane walked carefully all the way to her house. The tingling sensation in her body finally subsided, and she was given a large container of water to drink from Francine, who already assumed that this particular symptom was a possibility of rapid dehydration. From the feel of things, Jane would be just fine in several hours.

Danny and Taylor followed her just to chat on her way back, mostly about what happens tomorrow. From the view behind them, Kain went over to the destroyed jeep to move it off the path, since it is probably a stolen vehicle anyway. The crowd of students that already dispersed went back to their own activities in the town, though it was now certain that Jane was going to be the talk of the class tonight. Nobody has ever shown so much courage and tenacity before - just to stop someone. It wasn't apparent in Fronas anyway. It was clear enough to Danny and Taylor that Jane must feel the same way to some extent. Today is still early, but everybody probably had enough after that excitement. There was still plenty of hours left until tomorrow, which would likely reset the atmosphere for everybody in this current setting anyway.