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<12/23/1971 ~ 13:00 | Dakota Training Academy, Fronas, Gulop Region, Sprawn Valley>
Today was a new day, and the morning was as fresh and clear as any other, but there was a larger excitement coming into play, lingering in wait from yesterday. Thursday, a remarkable lecture on all of the parameters involved in Leray battle and strategy. That was the planned lesson for today's class. Even though Jane attended it before, she managed to show up just to hear it all over again. Nobody was missing this, even if they were afflicted with an incurable disease.
It was a long time coming for the other kids, after enduring all of that history and information retainment. Now was as good of a time as any to shift directly into the physical forms of training. Well, after the lesson of course. This would be another memory retainment challenge, but it was said to be super important and incredibly interesting. Danny and Taylor were nearly bouncing in place at their desks, waiting impatiently to be learning as much of the awesome nature of magic battles as they could. They weren't alone in that either, from the looks and sound of things.
After their disputes yesterday, the upsetting feelings Danny and Taylor had for each other simply faded into dust. This was one of the concepts they could focus on together, as could the rest of the class. In fact, nobody was upset or disappointed to go through this as a refresher. The suspense was already growing evidence to this moment.
Eliza wanted to prepare the class to make sure everybody was ready today. After assuring that everybody was properly seated and paying attention, she finally began the lesson, shortly after a bell toll from the school. "Alright class. The moment we've been waiting for. Is everybody ready?"
Over half the class hollered or roared the word "Yes!" in synchronized agreement. It felt like she was giving a speech at a big rally, but this was easy material to get excited about for those who are untrained. "To put things into better perspective, we will begin real combat training as soon as this lesson is over, which should finish before today's total session, but that only makes this all the more important. So if you feel you may forget these things, write them down." Her tone in the last part of her sentence turned into a direct command rather than some optional piece of advice.
The room was silent for a moment, only to show that everybody was ready and sitting at attention. Jane still had some lingering thoughts about things yesterday. It was great that she knew how Danny felt about Taylor, and neither one of them knew it, but now was not the time to break out that kind of stuff. Jane even decided on keeping it a full secret to herself, until one of them asks for her advice about it.
As for now, Jane needed this refresher. It is important for a future Leray master to remember every single rule of thumb on how to fight, and also which elemental properties cancel each other out. Leray matches are not as simple as they seem on television or even in the field. There are so many rules to follow, including virtues to remember while fighting. If violated, that is - the basic strategies of an actual fight, it would lead to immediate failure for that match. Jane knew this much, and she hung on every word while Eliza got started.
Eliza knew that now was the time to totally and officially begin her lesson. She knew that this would end up being a very long thing to get into, but remembered every piece of it by heart. "The first rule of order we will start with, are the rules to an official Leray match." Walking around the classroom, Eliza wanted to give them all sense that she was as into this as the students were, gesturing her body around for extra language.
"In a Leray battle between two registered Leray wielders, before the battle initially can begin, a bet is set between each competitor in order to agree on the reward spoil outcome." Eliza had only begun, but she already stole the entire attention of her class. "Most often, the reward output is decided in a sum of credits. So when you fight in the field, you have something to gain, and something to lose."
"What if you don't have enough to lose," Jane wondered.
Eliza respected the first great question coming from her own top student, even after she had this session before. "Then the losing side is not further penalized, but it is always polite to point out to the other person that you are without the minimum betting funds to begin with. There may be a very new update coming soon that forces 250 credits to be the minimum betting option, even if those credits have yet to exist on a person. Either way, credits are not the only spoils one can win in a battle. Battle related items could be offered up as well, even with a mixture of credits, making for a compound reward. We will get into the items part of the discussion later today. The important thing to remember is that the automatic digital reward-spoil system will reject any bet that is made if one side disagrees with the other. This prevents people from making such high bets for credits they don't simply have, which would be unfair. This digital system follows us through the veil and monitors specific violations during a battle."
Eliza cleared her throat, moving on just a hair. "For now, we will go over the general Leray rules of battling. Just as there are official and technical rules that must be followed for battling, there are also important tips and essential guidelines, ones that really act only as tips everybody needs to remember during a fight, if they want victory.
"Technical rule number one!" Eliza raised her voice so suddenly, making sure nobody falls asleep. "The match only begins when it begins. Fighting in a Leray match is not as simple as agreeing to fight. You can't just ask for a battle and then immediately open fire between each other. Because of the potential spectators that want to watch, and delicate environments around your area of the chosen battlefield, a Siriean Dome must first be established. Siriean domes are the names given to a high-energy protective field, a dome shield that surrounds a particular area around both contestants while allowing them plenty of room for fighting. The dome itself has incredible properties, and reaches nearly between three hundred to five hundred meters in height to give us more room. But it is almost completely invisible to the naked eye."
Danny and Taylor wished they had something to take notes with, but for now, they continued listening to Eliza's lectures. The new terms they were hearing weren't too difficult to pronounce either; Siriean rolls off the tongue as "see-ree-an."
"The shield will completely absorb any kind of damage, any spell, and any attack - no matter how high the power level. It also prevents physical entry or exit inside or outside of the dome until the battle is finished. Without the shield, spectators are all susceptible to damage from stay attacks that get avoided, or large area attacks. Even buildings and structures can be caught in the crossfire. That is why, even without an official judge to determine the turn out of the match, the battle is only to be initiated after the Siriean dome has been established. Otherwise, the battle itself is not counted as an official match, and neither is the spoil system to be engaged."
Walking slowly around the rest of the room, Eliza was giving everybody something to think about. "Before the battle starts, your stats might not be at the levels you want them to be. After you have taken damage from any particular source, your HP damage will not regenerate as quickly as your MP points. HP hardly regenerates at all even after waking up from a direct knock out. But during a match, subtle HP regeneration is cut down further. That is why before agreeing to a battle, you should make sure your health is up to par. Use a med kit or healing orb if you have to - in order to restore HP levels prior to a fight. Because if you get into trouble that way, no side is technically breaking the rules."
Finally finding a black notebook, Danny ripped a sheet out just for Taylor, using pens to write the material he heard onto the paper in summarized versions. The details he was hearing now were priceless to his ears; it explains everything there is to know about how Leray magic is actually used in the field.
"Technical Rule Number two! When one victor is chosen for a battle, the reward system automatically links all afflicted Leray license chips into a digital network. That way, the rewards are immediately transferred to the winner, including all items and other related spoils via transfer through your supply spheres. So you won't have to worry about somebody not paying up; they cannot stop that process. However, if you have won a Leray match, and the other person is either down or has given up, you may not continue to attack them for any reason afterwards. Doing so will result in penalties if reported by the spectators."
"Technical Rule number three! Wild Battles!" She worded. "You may not always get into a fight with a human, or a Leray wielder. Sometimes, as you should know, there will be magic wielding creatures in various areas that are not teeming ordinarily with human activity. These creatures may decide to fight you, Siriean shield or not. In that event, reward systems will not trigger, which would make sense. In these kinds of battles, refusal or running away from such a fight is not an action that will penalize your status as a Leray wielder unless a lawful official deems so and reports you. Such an event may present itself in a contest event, which I don't think we have around here. Even against humans and official Leray wielders, it is semi-rare for anybody to take the role as an official judge. Most often they are not needed, as fairness is usually decided by the laws of nature and automatic detection system monitoring within the Siriean dome, not by someone's greed. But there may be higher-level matches against people who have official referees, and in that event, specific rules are to be followed. That judge determines the victor, even if they happen to be the person who got knocked out."
What did she mean about magic wielding creatures? Danny didn't think about it before, but it may be possible for Leray magic to affect the animal population here as well. Though in his memory by the cliffs, he never saw any birds breathing fire. So what was this about magical wielding creatures?
"The chances of running into wild animals with the ability to use magic isn't common," Eliza stated. "The Outback is better known to house such creatures, but they aren't limited to those areas. You'll notice that summons are the better studied animals with the power to invoke Leray spells, but that's a whole other subject to get into for advanced wielders."
Unbelievable! Taylor knew the land here was not ordinary, but the more she heard about Leray magic, the crazier it got. And this is the summarized lesson?
"Technical Rule number four! Unofficial battles..." Eliza's motivational expression shifted a little. "You may often get yourselves into crazy or unusual situations. What I mean by that, is that there are times to battle, and there are times to fight. As unfortunate as it may sound to all of us, not everybody out in the world is going to use Leray magic responsibly. They may decide to break the law, and if they get away with it, will continue to do so. People may try to knock you out in an unofficial, uncalled for match to steal your items. Whatever the case may be, as soon as you have your real licenses and are declared Leray wielders by graduating this facility, please! Protect yourselves and those you love. Protect your belongings, your valuables, and your ideas. You don't have to follow any of the usual rules if you find yourself in a tight spot, against a criminal or a bloodthirsty maniac who will spare you no sympathy. That means no Siriean dome, no reward systems; just fight for the right things."
Danny heard that crime wasn't common around here, but his own teacher went out of her way just now to ensure us wielders defend ourselves. That means it can be used for the wrong reasons... But if it can't actually kill, there wouldn't be much of a point for crime here anyway.
Eliza seemed to shut herself up for a long pause. She was thinking about something, edging on the class to guess what it could be about, but she quickly got over her distractions and moved on. "Now for the easier stuff. Though they are not technical rules of battle, consider them tips you always need to remember when fighting. Number one; focus. You must always focus in a battle no matter what may be happening. If you get overconfident or underestimate your opponent, you will fail. Also, every time you battle someone, despite the number of losses you might encounter, you will get tougher and stronger. By fighting people over and over again, your maximum MP and HP levels will slowly rise higher and higher, making your defense and power that much stronger. You have to learn to develop all of your attributes, and triumph over all of your weaknesses. One cannot expect to win with just speed alone, or sheer power, or an amazing defense. Adaptability is the key to success."
Jane heard Eliza speak about a lot of things, but this last bit was a first. Adaptability is the key to success. This one is going in the notebook.
"Those are a lot of rules," Taylor inputted. Her mild interruption was not looked down on, and Eliza seemed to be able to give the instructions while talking to the class about it as well. This turned out to be more of a big discussion than a formal lesson.
"Officially or not, there are also a lot of elements that must be learned as well, such as specific types of magical attacks, spells, defenses, and evasion therapies. I think first I shall start with damage types."
Eliza let the very word sink into their minds before continuing. "During a Leray match, magical attacks are not the only thing used against opponents to cause damage, and sometimes there are spells that don't damage anybody at all. With the use of personalized weapons, certain physical attacks can be administered to deal some standard physical damage to a person's HP. Though one cannot only rely on those kinds of attacks alone to win, they can be highly effective at varying ranges to interrupt your opponent, deliver speedy combos, and reduce HP at mild levels."
"Wouldn't a gun be incredibly useful?" Danny did not understand yet how all of this immortality stuff fixed in with HP damage. Wouldn't a bullet to the head at least be a clear knockout? Wait, what if that were considered a lethal weapon? Danny swallowed nervously believing he said the wrong thing again.
"No Danny. The use of bullets convert to a specific damage type known as piercing damage, and hardly knock down any HP at all, despite how they are administered. There are various weapons; knives, swords, guns, laser blasters, even an unarmed combination of kicks and punches can be effective to a degree, but they all must be used correctly and with great restraint. Physical damage simply means damage without the specific aid of Leray magic or their associated spells. Because most physical attacks and combinations used with weapons consume no MP levels at all, they are best suited when your MP levels are drained, or if you wish to conserve such levels."
"But," Danny knew he was cutting in to the lesson, but the understanding wasn't matching up. "Wouldn't driving a blade through someone's body be lethal?"
"Not at all." Eliza didn't sound disappointed to answer his question. "If you've ever seen how people absorb Leray damage under this veil, you would notice any physical damaging strike that pierces skin effectively phasing through the body, causing only a fraction of the pain and a reduction of HP at the same time."
Amazing! Danny knew a small bit about handguns from back home, but the fact that bullets to the head have such little effect here was the next most incredible thing he's heard of so far. Why would magic be so bad in a place where you simply can't die?
Eliza was far from finished, and she took a short second in order to breathe. "But there are even certain types of physical damage that vary on specific scales, designed for different levels of defensive parameters. As you know, the use of certain kinds of armor are allowed in battle as well."
"Armor?!" Taylor didn't know they were allowed to wear armor.
"Armor. Any participant may always wear what armor suits them in battle, and there are many types of armor designed for reducing specific types of damage. Some armors just reduce all kinds of damage, at the cost for less effective protection protocols. For example, metallic armor would be completely resistant to slashing damage, however, ineffective and weak against blunt damage."
"What is blunt and slash damage?" Danny asked Eliza what all of that meant, but this time, there was a clear indication that he was not supposed to interrupt yet.
"I'm getting to that part," Eliza nudged. "There are special leather suits designed to withstand fire elemental attacks of all kinds, and even cloaks that shield one from specific magical attacks. It's all very complicated, and there are a lot of combinations of ways to defend yourself using certain suits. Even the most protective suits of all often reduce your mobility significantly. Where you upgrade a weakness, you usually create one that did not exist before. That is why it is critical to understand how to effectively invoke attacks, including physical attacks that are different types."
Eliza reminded, "Now that I'm getting there... Slashing damage. This form of a physical attack can be defined as damage inflicted from any sharp object that slashes through the opponent with any weapon or attack. You may literally cut through a person with a sharp blade, and their body would not dare separate or take any real time damage. But as far as a Leray match is concerned, you have just dealt them a blow of slashing type damage, reducing their HP down by a few points."
Danny's head was spinning. You can really cut someone in half here, and they wouldn't even split in two. It would just feel like a cut to them, on the outside of the impact point. This was more intense than a dream. Danny knew this was a whole new world.
"Depending on the attack power, that is what determines the loss in their HP points. Magical spells can often cause slashing damage as well. There are several ways to administer these kind of attack types. Just remember that slashing damage will do nothing to a person if their armor blocks out those kinds of attacks. Armor made out of metallic materials, or special suits that can deflect physical damage will block out slashing damage completely."
"Next," Eliza continued. "We have piercing damage. Piercing damage is known for its special physical properties dependent on the type of attack used on an opponent. They are effectively known for causing only a slight loss in HP levels, and piercing through most armors to take down that HP. The damage levels are usually incredibly low in battle."
"Then why use them at all?" Danny had a good point. If bullets and piercing damage attacks hardly do any damage, why go with that to win? Hard to believe a sword would work better than a speeding bullet.
"Because," Eliza answered. "Despite the amount of damage we take in a Leray match, our pain receptors still work as well. Take a cut to the arm, and it will literally feel as if one was trying to slice through your own skin. However, this kind of pain is reduced by 50% due to an effect of the protection veil, known as the pain absorber. Any actual pain you feel from an attack is half of what it should be without the veil, so most damage can be taken like champ from any resilient player. This is where piercing damage comes in."
Danny didn't interrupt, but he was paying attention to what Eliza had meant by that.
"Piercing damage isn't designed to reduce HP levels at a high amount. It is instead designed to break through most defensive armors to inflict their damage type, and most importantly, most of that damage is in the form of physical pain. Piercing damage inflicts the same pain level that is only reduced from Leray protection by 20% instead of fifty. It ignores this aspect of the Leray protection veil more than other ordinary attacks, allowing us to feel the damage from it at a higher intensity as pain absorption is reduced. That means that using a piercing attack will hurt your target a lot more than any other attack type, even though their HP levels will not reflect it. You can feel an incredible amount of pain in a battle, and still keep going fully conscious. That is why piercing damage is often used on purpose to break focus and concentration of their opponent, by making them suffer physical damage by projectile objects. However, piercing damage can only be inflicted by certain projectiles, spells, and weapons. Weapons like guns and bullets as Danny suggested would be an example, inflicting an incredible amount of pain on a target. Their HP would hardly drop down at all, but as a result of taking the hit, the opponent would also feel like metal pellets are bouncing off their flesh and skin. It would momentarily disable and cripple the person in seconds if such attacks hit, making it an effective method and battle tactic."
"Cool," Taylor replied.
Danny folded his arms, thinking about it longer. It was beginning to make more sense to him now, even though there were still a lot of unanswered anomalies in his mind. At least the attack parts made sense in relations to this veil. It wouldn't be possible to cut someone open with a blade, or kill them with a gun in Sprawn Valley. The damage is converted into energy damage instead, though how he couldn't even imagine. That's why Jane wasn't afraid to shove knives so close to his throat. She couldn't really have harmed him much. Then again, feeling a blade entering your throat at just half the intensity didn't sound like a lot of fun. If you can feel physical pain from every attack, then why are people so eager still to take part in battles?
"Shooting a sharp pointy arrow or a barrage of needles at someone, often in the form of a projectile attack is just another example. Piercing damage is effective at delivering pain to disrupt your target's focus. But remember! If their HP levels are high when you attack them with this kind of damage, it might be a useless effort. It is better to use piercing damage when HP is lower, because at that point, your opponent will already be low on stamina, and therefore would be more inclined on giving up in response to added pain."
Jane felt happy that Eliza was giving them the full deal and not any sugar coding of the details. That's showing them.
"So what do we do if we want to bypass heavy metal armor and inflict high HP damage in the process?" Eliza quizzed. After hearing no response, she continued the total lecture. "Blunt damage. Blunt damage can be classified as any damage that forms from striking your opponent with any attack that inflicts a ton of force. In this scenario, that kinetic force is turned into damage, because of the ability to bruise your opponent and wreck their armor to bits. By using weapons such as a heavy mace, or an attack such as Hammer of Might, the damage type is converted from the velocity and weight of the object. If your opponent is wearing slashing resistant armor, then the blunt damage will be amplified against them, but if they are unprotected from slashing damage, then your attack power will be reduced by a fair amount. Luckily, in either scenario, it is also very painful to get hit with a hammer or take a few bruises from attacks like that; very painful. So against unprotected opponents, you can mix pain with damage more often."
"Is it possible to be protected from blunt damage?" Taylor wondered.
"If your opponent is planning to block such an attack, and excels in stats such as evasion or dodging with their speed and responses to such threats, then blunt damage is ineffective for the most part," Eliza detailed. "But there is even such tactics such as unarmed combat attacks. If you are well trained in any form of martial arts or other combination styles, you can effectively deal physical damage to an opponent by simply punching and kicking them around. The beauty of such style is that while the HP damage from that is low overall, it deals physical damage that is in neither slashing, piercing, nor blunting form. That means that despite what armor a person might be wearing, the damage from a regular physical attack without ever using any weapons involved will go through to the opponent's health no matter what. So all you would have to do is get it right, and be too fast for them to dodge your attacks."
"I bet all of that dodging can make it tough." This time, one of Eliza's older students gave their feedback. By that, it meant that Danny, Taylor, and even Jane were not acquainted with him, nor was his name well known.
But Eliza was talking to everyone, not just to a select few. It brought joy to her heart that everybody here was paying such attention. "It certainly can. As far as a good defense goes, there are three ways to effectively make an attack used against you worthless."
Taylor was remembering every single detail, every word. She would be sure to repeat the lesson to herself later today.
"The first method is evasion. Evasion simply means that you plan to dodge an incoming attack, and execute an action that allows you to do that. Sometimes, it is less simple than jumping out of the way, or spinning around with a twist to avoid an incoming projectile attack. There are lots of ways to dodge spells, and it is important to occasionally dodge certain abilities to avoid taking their damage. By dodging an attack from your opponent, the damage is not inflicted on you in any way. You avoid the spell, the attack, the damage, and the pain. But sometimes, this makes you even more vulnerable to either a secondary attack, or a Dualcasting spell, and your opponent will know how to evade some spells as well. The second way to get by an attack against you is blocking techniques."
"How can you just block an attack?" Taylor predictably asked an obvious question, further proving to her own class how new she was to this material.
"Like this." Eliza stood in front of the class, changing her stance by slouching down, bending her knees slightly, and holding her arms in front of her while they bent and pointed in a crisscross direction. Eliza was literally showing them her own stance of how she would try to block an attack. "Using this common stance of blocking methods while tensing up, you can end up taking a direct hit from any attack, and reduce the damage - even the pain level dealt to you. When dodging becomes less convenient, blocking like this is an effective way to get by."
Eliza dropped her stance, getting comfortable again. "In a battle, blocking is not always preferred, but seems to work best for damage reduction from any physical attacks that are not slashing or piercing damage. Slashing damage, if your armor can't protect you, can totally disregard your attempt to block an attack. In some cases, magical damage can do the same."
"So you can actually reduce the damage you take from HP and pain by standing up to an attack like that?" Danny was asking for confirmation again, but this time, he had somehow acquired a second notebook and a pen, likely from someone else behind him since he ran out of the two sheets of paper he already had.
"Correct," Eliza confirmed. She watched Danny as he immediately wrote down more notes related to the situation. "But what I just demonstrated to you was the stance. You still have to tense your muscles and brace your own body to take the attack, or you will fail to reduce the damage you take from such spells anyway."
"What's the third method?" Jane asked.
Eliza noticed some sort of surprised looks. It was clear that Jane's question was a lot more sincere than a teasing gesture. She actually did not know the answer to something this time, nor did she recall hearing about this the first time. It surprised Eliza the least, knowing that everybody has to learn the same things, but the other students didn't know that Jane was missing that much information. "A counterattack," she reported. "Of course, you have to be very smart and quick about exactly what way you intend to negate your enemy's attacks. For example, if your opponent launched a narrow field of concentrated ice beams at you, the best defense would be to counterattack with a fire type spell before that beam ends up hitting you. The fire attack would both disrupt their ice beam, and make it through to attacking them as well, if your fire spell is strong enough anyway. Consecutive of making their spell useless, you would also inflict damage on them in the same instance. As another example, you could find a creative way to use their own attack against them."
Jane replied with a pondering sigh. "Hm. I never thought of using that method to get around tight spots."
Danny was again impressed at the sheer thought of Jane's reaction. You didn't know something?! Danny didn't appear to be alone in his assumption. From the reactions and stares others were now giving Jane, it was clear that she didn't usually ask questions that made her look less experienced. Was she that skilled as a Leray fighter already?
"As you may have heard something of it before, there are damage types besides physical attacks. Magical damage provides a tide turner in battles against those who specialize in close combat tactics."
Jane already knew where this was going, but she listened anyway, realizing that she was a close combat specialist herself after all of that training with Mr. Mire for self-defense.
"Magical damage is difficult to explain, because it can take many different forms upon itself, or stay as pure as the MP provided in a magical attack. No matter how great a person's defense is, magical damage has a lot of difficult properties to avoid. In its purist element, magical damage can be highly effective even in the form of projectile attacks. Hardly anybody can defend against it even when blocking that kind of damage out. The reason it is more powerful is because magical damage comes from the use of MP energy invoked into magical spells, which means that power is increased and formatted into various special attacks that have their own characteristics before inflicting damage on the target, and because they use up MP levels, strategy when using them in fights is important."
"Remember," Eliza reminded, "that MP energy is linked to your HP levels. Both provide two different types of stamina. A loss in HP reduces your overall chance to remain conscious after direct attacks. You'll feel lightheaded and faint, but that does not mean you are less energized than before. Your MP capacity without even using it in fights acts as your vital energy to move around, attack, and keep focused on your toes. If you lose your MP without any HP, it puts you at a disadvantage of being tired, worn out, and exhausted. This does not indicate any immediate danger, but could result in slower reflexes, slower reaction time, and more pain induction from taking HP damage. Conversely, if your HP gets down to lower levels while you have a high amount of MP remaining, you will still clearly have an edge to fight, despite how low your health may be. Your energy and stamina reduction is clearly only felt if your MP levels are significantly drained. Once your MP levels and HP levels are both close to zero, you will become very easy to defeat by any opponent. You will feel incredibly tired and unwilling to continue. You will become dizzy, and a little sick to your stomach, aching more all over as if you were beaten up to the point where you are no longer a threat. When this happens, the situation becomes problematic for that victim. Using magical spells is impossible since their MP is drained. Physical attacks require a quick and demanding response on the body, which at this point is already slow and weakened. And of course, many people give up at such a point to avoid being knocked out, which would last for fifteen to thirty minutes of unconsciousness."
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"So what do we do if that happens?" Another random student tested.
Eliza thought for a moment, the best strategy to pull when in that situation. "Well... The best thing to do is not to allow both levels to get that low in the first place. But if they do, and you still wish to win and continue the fight to the finish, you must come up with a solid plan of action what will be so creative, nobody would predict it. Even I must advise extreme caution in that situation. Once your HP levels are critical, if your MP levels are also low enough, there is a possibility for what is known as a vital drain. When your MP points run down all the way to zero, and your HP happens to be at around five percent or lower on scale, your body is no longer able to be fully protected by the Leray veil protection aura. This means that your body suddenly becomes subject to real life physical damage until that MP can regenerate at least up to one percent again. This can be dangerous, especially since your depleted energy becomes more of a physical issue than a Leray property. People have been known with MP levels at absolute zero, and HP levels below five percent, to pass out or faint randomly without even taking another attack. They pass out because their bodies recognize now that without the Leray protection aura affecting them, their energy drain becomes more significant and dangerous to their health. Your state of vital drain leaves you with the inability to remain protected from real time damage and pain of any kind, and prevents rapid stamina recovery; at the very least, the protection is partial and incomplete. It is also known that if damage is inflicted while MP levels are at zero percent, and HP levels are below five percent, that damage will become what is known as real time damage. Rarely does anyone refer this as dark damage. The physical body suffers a real injury, ones that Leray magic cannot just kick in to recover. It is possible for Leray magic to automatically heal damaged areas such as this, but the process can take a lot more time. Additionally, the use of healing items, which are really just power orbs that fully restore HP and MP levels, becomes ineffective at repairing the real time damaged areas, no matter how much time has passed. As a result in Leray terms, your HP and possibly your MP levels are permanently reduced until the real time damage is restored."
Danny understood what that meant after thinking about it further in comparison to events from before. Real time damage just means real damage, like if he were to fall off a skateboard and roll down a hill, scraping up his skin, and possibly breaking a bone. Leray magic won't just up and heal that if it occurs during this vital drain process, or if the injury occurs first while outside of the protection zone. The veil healed Taylor's injury, but then again, she must have had MP energy to begin with right before she fell, and that is why she healed like that. But if what Eliza is saying is true, it means that death could technically occur from battling... Right?
"Therefore, if anybody takes real time damage, they are advised to report themselves to the nearest Leray medical facility. From there, we have real doctors trained to heal real time damages. There are effective drugs known as Starlov Boosters. Starlov Booster injections act the same as a med kit orb, but they specialize in healing real time damage at a more effective rate of time, and in such an event, you could legally claim the need to get to a facility for a medical emergency."
"So..." Danny asserted. "I'm guessing that if one were to lose all of their HP in the specific format of real time damage, they would die? Even with the veil?"
"As scary as it may sound," Eliza implied, "yes. Cases of that are extremely rare, but the possibility remains. With real time damage inflicted on you, the chances of a real death become greater than zero. That is why it is important to take good care of yourselves, and recognize the difference between simple Leray damage, and real time damage. Naturally, anyone with vital drain status is not allowed to battle anymore, but the digital detection system has yet to be capable of stopping an ongoing fight from this."
Danny felt his breath escape him. This was it! This was the evidence he had been searching for all this time. Leray magic can be used to kill people... Then again, if taking damage doesn't deplete that victim's MP reserves, then entering vital drain must be difficult to do even if done so on purpose. So it really is something that can only happen by accident. Now that Eliza mentioned it, it would have to be a rare occurrence.
"I know it's important," Jane impeded. "But weren't we skipping the elemental factors?"
"Ah, yes," Eliza agreed. "I never explained that magical damage can change sub-sation forms. Magical damage can be dealt purely in that form, defaulted as non-elemental magic, or it may be used in what is known as elemental forms. Attacks can become elemental for the purpose of exploiting a weakness, or to reduce the cost of MP consumption. There are a lot of magical attacks out there with several different levels and types, but one constant remains. If you were to compare an elemental magical attack, to a magical attack in a pure, non-elemental form, the pure form magical attack would end up costing you a ton of MP compared to elemental factors. This is because pure magical damage disregards the elemental factors involved in offense and defense parameters. If a person is resistant to ice elemental damage, then it is much better to use a fire elemental attack on them, which also consumes less MP overall, than to use pure magical damage against them. However, non-elemental magical damage does not care about which element that a person is resistant to, which explains the increase in MP power used in such attacks."
"Elemental damage?" Taylor repeated, clueless to what it all meant. There was already so much being crammed into her mind, Taylor wanted a break just to have time to process it all.
"To start," Eliza continued. "We have a fire elemental attack. Using an attack such as Fire Bolt or Flamethrower invokes magical damage, but also only carries properties of flame-based elements. This means that the damage type has an assigned property to it, making it risky to try against unpredictable opponents. Either by the use of special armors, or by the use of effective defensive techniques, your opponent might not take any damage against fire based elemental attacks. Or, they simply might know of ways to use such attacks for their own benefit. That is why there exists more than one type of element," Eliza assured.
"Ice elemental magic is another kind of sub-element. When one element fails to work properly for almost any reason, you need to learn to switch from that element to another, being less predictable in a fighting scenario. Ice elemental damage has unique properties, because despite having an ice elemental attribute, direct hits from ice attacks on most opponents generally lower their speed. By making your enemy freezing cold where they stand, they will be slower to react, and caught off guard from the loss in body temperature. The down side is that all elemental types of spells are effective against certain elements, and weak against others. Using an ice attack against an opponent who specializes in fire attacks is very unwise, since they can use such spells to melt your own, but if your opponent specializes in ice attacks or ice like defenses, fire damage will double in your favor."
"Cool," Danny awarded.
"Water magic is another kind of element, but no known spell can do very much harm to anybody's HP. Humans in general can withstand water generously, which means that water attacks in theory are not helpful, unless used to put out a fire based spell, or to put out any fire. Many of our firefighters in Sprawn Valley are famous for using high-level Water Blasts to put out flames instead of relying on old technology. There are other standard uses for water attacks in a battle that might give you creative ideas about how to proceed."
"Next, we have electrical properties. There are a number of magic attacks with electrical elemental properties, such as the famous Lightning Strike. Electrical damage in general is not best known to deal a ton of damage on HP, no matter how long it lasts. The beauty of an electrical attack is that they have surprising accuracy against opponents, making them impossible to dodge or block. Additionally, Lightning Strike is an attack spell that deals damage over a period of time, instead of something instantaneous. Though any Lightning Strike will only last about one to two seconds at best, the damage done is about the same as the pain level involved. With Leray protection, you stay conscious no matter how many electrical attacks you endure, and they are quite painful to endure. Administered, you will feel like you are getting burned and electrocuted in place for the entire duration of the spell. After the attack is over, your muscles stop tensing, but you still feel the residual effects; tingling all over, jitteriness, and a jolting heart rate accompanied by the rising temperature of all your muscles. Used against an opponent, it forces them to be more on edge, which is not a comfortable feeling. But as a result, they also become a little more responsive each time. Then again, sometimes the victim of an electrical attack can have the opposite reaction and feel drained, depending on the person."
Eliza was having fun talking about all of this stuff. There was so much to explain, all of the information wonderful to their minds! "Wind elemental attacks are self-explanatory, usually developing properties of slashing damage in the form of a speedy wind, or mostly used to push your opponent away from you when close up. It is always important to keep your distance from the opponent in a fight, unless you are willing to take the chance that they are not prepared to deal with a close combat tactic. Wind based damage is simply not something to rely on, unless you wish to turn its effects to help a physical kind of attack. Additionally, electrical elemental damage appears to be weak against wind based attacks, since the fast moving air displaces many electrons in the process to disrupt the aim or conductivity of moving arcs." Eliza took a long breath to support the weight of her own lesson. "Then we have Earth elemental damage."
"There are a ton of damage types," Danny pointed out.
"Which is why taking notes is a virtue. Earth elemental damage is also very unique, using the ground below you as a special kind of free form obstacle. You can manipulate the ground in many ways, and use such methods as an advantage defense against other electrical attacks. An attack spell called Earth Glave shoots mountain-like pillars from the ground at your opponent, which smacks them with the power of the earth at an erratic force. Such attacks most often deal damage in the form of blunt damage in such a response. But Earth Glave has also been used as a defensive technique as well. One may use Earth Glave to create the same large boulder chunks to form right in front of them. The idea is to use the field they have altered as a natural barrier for attacks that are not aerial, like a Shadow Wave, which sticks closely to the ground. Earth damage can do a lot to an opponent, but there even exist special support skills that uses the earth power to disrupt enemy attacks without even causing damage in return. The possibilities with such spells are high with this one."
"And lastly, there is something called spirit damage, sometimes referred to as ethereal damage. Spirit damage is very rarely known, hardly ever used for any purpose. In a Leray battle between two people, spirit damage serves very little purpose at all, since it was not designed to be an attack used against humans. It's super effective against other creatures that use Leray magic, or against summons called into battle specifically. However, if used on humans, there may be some confusing effects to the intended target involved, making the fight easier on the attacker. Those effects are still understudied however."
"Sounds like a lot to consider," a male teen announced.
"Oh, but we're just getting started." Eliza saw the reaction of many surprised faces. Even the ones who have heard it before likely forget how much went into the design of a Leray battle. "All I've done was list the different types of damages. Now we need to review the different attack formations."
Taylor felt that her head would explode any minute now, and realized that Danny was about to snap his wrist off writing all of it down. He even made tables and charts to try and organize the properties, but now she needed a note taking ability. He only gave her one sheet of paper that was now blacker with ink than it was blank.
Eliza continued with the start of another mini-lesson. "Not all attacks are the same in style, or execute in the same manner. First we will review the most common magical attack spells, known as projectile attacks. Projectile attacks are any sort of spell or an attack that sends some kind of damage inflicting entity towards the target in the form of a projectile. I'm not just talking about projectiles that shoot into the air and fall down on someone. Projectiles take many forms. Even certain weapons such as a machine gun or a cross bow would qualify in the category. Projectile attacks are special for inflicting damage once that projectile or projectiles impacts the opponent in order to inflict damage. However, the obvious downside of this property is that projectile attacks can easily be avoided or evaded by the target. Even the special attacks such as Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, and even an Electro-Ball, all classify as projectile types of attacks. They start from Point A and end up at Point B with a very small radius of accuracy. That means that you must be accurate and quick to hit the target during the magic execution. The specific attacks that I have just mentioned, particularly with elemental bolt attacks have a special property that has homing capabilities. Shooting a Fire Ball attack just launches a blind projectile at a target, laughably easy to avoid, and much lower in damage power. A Fire Bolt on the other hand has increased attack power, travels a little faster in speed, and is attracted to the intended target with homing properties. So running to the left or right will not protect one from such a spell. However, bolt attacks use a little more MP since they are higher level, and they can still be dodged despite their homing capabilities. Of course, additional practice with elemental bolts makes them travel in the air faster and more forceful with mastered usage and success, making it harder to evade each time, but the possibility remains. Any kind of projectile attack can be dodged in some way. That is their overall weakness."
Eliza took another breath, glancing over the room of still eager students. Taylor was now into the note taking as much as Danny was, but she had some catching up to do being rushed like this. "Lightning Strike is an exception to such an attack. It isn't classified as any particular property of spell, because its speed is completely unavoidable. A Lightning Bolt travels at the speed of light during the payload, and with frightening accuracy, will land a target every single time without fail. Besides projectile attacks, there are better ways to inflict even higher damage while making sure that your opponent cannot dodge your next attack. I'm talking of course about area attacks. Area attacks are just as special. They often contain a ton of power, consume massive loads of one's MP levels, and are designed to be unavoidable due to a different property of attack angles. Such a spell specializes in grazing the entire field with a large radius magical spell, invoked in order to trap the opponent in the damage long before they can effectively escape the attack radius. Some area attacks are aerial based, meaning they strike from above, and some area attacks are not aerial based, but still carry the same incredible effectiveness with them. Some area attacks wind up affecting every single millimeter inside of the battle area, Siriean dome or not."
"These are very high level spells, meaning it takes expert practice to master them just one time. Spells such as Photon Blast make use of an unavoidable, ultra-speedy energy barrage that deals high damage, and in the form of non-elemental magical damage, thus disregarding all armor dependencies too. The downside of course is that its high power level takes a large chunk out of your MP each time one is used. Not only that, but the higher-level area attacks also have lower invocation speeds; that is – it takes much longer to charge and invoke the spell than to invoke an ordinary attack spell. Attacks from the sky such as Air Strike bombard the field around where your opponent is standing, dealing major damage even if no direct hits are scored, due to the properties of explosion blasts. There are even some simple less effective projectile-like attacks that are reformed in a way to strike a large radius, becoming an area attack with lower costs and damage levels. And the best part," Eliza reckoned, "is that Leray magical properties prevent the user of their own area attacks from affecting them in anyway, including damages. Some area attacks might be big enough to raze an entire field in a Siriean dome, while still leaving the user unaffected, but they are only unaffected after mastering their used skill enough times. Area attacks have been known to backfire on their own original users, but that is only because those same people have not put in enough practice with mastering the properties of their spell. Invocation itself is not everything."
It was difficult to summarize what her teacher was talking about. Taylor picked up on some of the details, but knew they were easy to forget.
"You will also notice while battling in the field," Eliza added, "that most projectile magical based attacks rely on magical glyphrings to work. Area attacks and support spells do not normally use glyphrings."
Danny was still learning so much stuff, despite what Bella and Kain tried to explain earlier. He didn't know until now that glyphrings only appear with specific magical spells.
"Mastering a glyphring can be as difficult as the spell itself, but area attacks are even harder, since you suddenly rely on a summoning aura instead. A summoning aura is another way of saying that you must focus on making magical entities appear out of nothingness, using your own MP energy. Instead of obtaining a glyphring, you have to use your own physical body as the node of the connective force. That is why your hands and eyes glow when using different spells. I would take this time to get into a summoning glyphring, but it's just too advanced for you all. Even I can't call a full summon just yet."
"But, what is a summon?" Taylor asked. Summons and summon auras were obviously not the same, but it wasn't easy to understand the difference. It was also strange to hear someone speak of a summon in the form of a noun.
Eliza answered willingly, "It is a special creature, made entirely out of Leray magic that is used in battle to fight alongside with you, based on some default HP and MP status parameters. Your own summon is like an attack dog, only the creature and its abilities are highly dependent on exactly what kind of summon you create. There is some process first of procuring one or attaching one to your personal aura. Summons come out of special yellow glyphrings that are incredibly powerful for anyone to invoke. Such glyphrings take on special properties, one of being massive in size, and always the color of bright yellow. Calling summons are not always the best way to fight. They consume a ton of energy to spawn, incredible practice to master, and your summon is subject to termination during a battle."
"Whoa!" Taylor never thought there could be so many secrets hidden away like this. She immediately returned to her notebook. Summons can be called into battle. This was deeper than she ever could have imagined.
"And finally, there are a number of support spells, which are not actual attacks used in battles, but rather effective methods of raising your defense somehow. Support spells do not use glyphrings either, and are invoked much like the way area attacks are. However, support spells are harder to learn than area attack spells, even though they tend to use up less MP energy and less time for invocation. There are spells that can raise your speed of movement, spells that can temporarily render you invisible, spells that can trick your opponent, spells that can cause you to teleport in a specific radius, and even spells that are designed to help restore your MP and HP levels under the right circumstances. Sometimes, support spells and special attacks take more time than usual to use effectively, and so you would first need to buy yourself much time before using it in the right way. In order to use them, one must build up their MP energy, and then release that energy back into themselves. It sounds simple, but practice with them could be impossible to perform correctly during beginning stages."
Taylor noticed a short pause, giving Eliza much needed time to rest her voice. "I never knew there was so much involved in just one single Leray battle."
Eliza promoted, "But that is what makes Leray magic so fun to get into. Becoming a Leray master is a real challenge, and perhaps if it was not, it would prove to be much less interesting."
"You have a point there," Jane awarded. She knew there was a lot of work ahead of her in the attempt to become a Leray master. Whoever though thought of all these different entities and types of Leray magic was a genius.
Eliza took her time to claim the importance of the purpose too. "But such things like this inspire so many people. Leray battling is a real life strategy kind of deal. You have to be adaptable while learning many new abilities on the sidelines. You learn more abilities by further practicing your skills. Once you become more powerful and used to invoking Leray magic, your capacity for learning more powers becomes higher, and this is important, since you will all only be graduating with low-level attacks. Second year people will practice higher level spells, but most first year graduates prefer the real life world as a training course, due to the experience it gives off that we cannot."
"Eliza?" Danny pleaded. "What did you mean by the level of attacks earlier?"
"Great question. As you know, there exists infinite combinations of Leray spells and styles that can be used in battle, and each spell has its own designated power level. A power level of a spell determines how effective it will be at its capability to knock down an opponent's HP points. I'm talking about points, not about capacity. A Fire Bolt used against a rookie can do some good damage, but against an expertly trained wielder, it would just reflect off their body, making them laugh. The reason for this is the difference in their levels of endurance built up while training. With power levels that are associated with attacks, you also have power levels for defense, referred to as endurance level. General defense gets higher when one gets stronger, and that is because experience slowly increases your total HP and MP points. Fire Ball for example is considered a power level two attack, which is essentially low against any tough opponent. Area attacks usually tend to have higher power levels, which explains their difficulty to learn and master. But in retrospect, even against tough enemies, they deal a lot more damage in HP points. The thing is, every Leray wielder who has ever lived including those not yet trained, always starts with learning low level attacks first in order to get the hang of it. High-level spells take longer to learn and invoke, and are much more difficult to train with. That is why you must start small and slowly grow to get better and better. Nobody starts out trying to learn the most difficult spells; it simply won't work."
"Oh," Danny exhaled. It seemed simple enough after that explanation. None of this was hard to understand, it was just a lot to take in at once.
"For example, an attack such as Meteor Strike, which is considered a power level six spell, can do some serious damage, but it can also take forever to learn while constituting a much higher MP cost requirement. Even if your high powered attack is not an area attack, it will still consume a ton of your MP, which is why it works better to train more, increase your total MP capacity, and then aim higher on new skills you could be learning."
"Sounds difficult," Taylor implied.
"It can be." Eliza sounded like she was far from done with the lecture in general. "I almost forgot to include damage mixing as well, but the power levels being explained draw into the same category..." Eliza gave them a moment to get ready for another long write. "Here's what I mean by this. Say you want to inflict more than one type of damage on an opponent with a simultaneous moment. This is clearly possible. Using a low attack power level example, you could use a sword as a weapon, and infuse that blade with a flaming element using some MP power and the appropriate spell. You would then have a sword that if used correctly, can deal both slashing damage and fire elemental damage in the same go. As a result, you end up making your opponent lose more HP points than originally intended with slashes of a sword, and it all happens by mixing magical powers with a physical attack. Shadow Wave for another example, classified as a power level four magical strike, sticks to the ground while moving at the target, but it is a force of non-elemental magical damage that also deals a lot of random slashing damage upon impact. Despite having a low power level, the Shadow Wave attack is therefore more effective in damage than a simple magical spell or a slashing physical attack alone. By combining magical damage with physical damage, you will learn to increase the total damage of your attacks without increasing the proportional power level of the attack, or without increasing your MP consumption in most scenarios."
"What about getting the chance to attack?" another student asked.
"Oh right," Eliza remembered. "In official Leray matches, though it is not a rule or a requirement, both opponents often attack each other by taking turns. They literally agree to give the other person some time to get back up after an attack against them before attacking again. This is done on purpose, in order to help both parties learn how to attack and defend themselves in a fair fight. Turns however are only classified as time, time measured by how long one person is not taking any damage. If I were to be in a match against Jane Venn, and I became stupid enough to invoke a very high power level attack that also happens to take a ton of time charging up, Jane would clearly have the opportunity to attack me in the middle of my invocation, interrupting me and ruining the whole chain I built up. Interrupting a person's powerful attack works against them double, because even if their attack is not used, the MP it cost to try and charge that spell is also lost in the process. So timing is still critical. But if my attack happened to land on Jane for a major direct hit, knocking her to the ground without knocking her out, I could technically attack her again before she is able to recover and get back up. Most times, I would wait in order to prepare myself for a defensive tactic, but if I can tell that Jane is going to take a long time getting back up, then I can push in another spell."
Eliza stopped to breathe, and she could see that Jane had no objections to being used in a fine example. "However, once you all get really tough, to the point where we can consider you experts, then the time for taking turns will be over. You will have to rely on reflexes, changing and choosing tactics, and your knowledge of opponent's movements in order to know when to attack or defend. Taking turns is not really an expectation at any given moment, and is something that only rookies are expected to do before learning how to properly conduct battles. The really tough Leray wielders battle each other vigorously and randomly, showing no mercy by using attack after attack even if their opponent is down or unable to get back up quickly. Know that there is no actual rule for or against such courses of action. It's simply a learning experience."
"As another example may fit," Jane offered. "You could end up getting interrupted while attacking another person if they can shake it off, disrupting your next chance to defend." Jane knew Eliza had no problem helping explain the fine details. She already knew much about this unit, and Eliza always taught the material in the form of discussions anyway.
"Exactly right," Eliza agreed. "That is why combination attacks are incredibly effective. They consist of any type of attack spell at any particular level that strikes the enemy one after the next amount of hits. If you hit your opponent with just one strike, you will lose a few future battles. By developing combination attacks, even if they exist in the most non-magical physical form, your opponent will be unable to counter your move after hitting him over and over again, making it less possible to break free of the combo, and less possible to evade each hit."
Taylor raised her hand high, wishing to know the next great secret. "What's the first spell we get to learn? Is it cool?"
"The first Leray spell you will all learn, if you have not already, is Radial Stars." Eliza remembered the effects of Radial Stars greatly. "Radial Stars is classified as a power level one attack, which is the least powerful skill out of any spell."
"What?" Danny was disappointed. "Why are we learning some kiddy spell then? Shouldn't we aim a little higher for ourselves?"
Eliza huffed at the predicted response of Danny's impatience. "We will all be starting with Radial Stars. Everybody learns that spell as their first one. The reason is simple. Because its power level is so low, and the MP requirement is miniscule, the difficulty of mastering the Radial Stars spell will be effectively manageable for all of you. Radial Stars is the number one stepping stone for all Leray wielders. After you learn Radial Stars, then you will be capable of learning so much more."
Jane added, "It's all because learning any one spell gets you oriented into Leray concentration auras properly, and it makes you much more used to invoking any other spells in general too."
"Since you are all not used to invoking any spells at this time, except Jane, Radial Stars is the starting point."
Taylor knew that Danny was a little disappointed, but she was beyond excited. She had never seen a Radial Stars spell before, but after today, she was going to learn one!
"Danny?" Eliza pointed. "There is something you must also understand, something that applies to all Leray spells of any kind and form."
"What's that," he asked. Why is she picking on me?
"It has been tested and scientifically proven, that when any skill of any power level of a spell is used over and over in succession, whether it be in battle or outside practice, that same spell gets stronger and stronger for the one who continues to use it."
"Really?"
"Yes," Eliza answered. "It is ill advice to always seek new skills while failing to focus on the less powerful ones before it, and here is why. When a person uses any spell at all, one that at least requires a hint of MP usage, their entire body and even their consciousness momentarily connects to what is known as the Leray field; better known as a special dimensional space we can't normally see or feel. Using abilities, especially the same exact one over and over tightens our total connective force with that Leray energy field. Radial Stars is nationally known as the weakest attack ever, but it is so popular because that is what allows new people to step up and learn how to become better themselves. However, this also leaves room for unexpected error. There have been moments where a tough Leray battler would be unpredictable and underestimated. I have heard of Leray Elites winning fights with just two or three Radial Star attacks, and the reason is obvious. They've been using it constantly ever since they started their journey. After invoking it every day for years, the power level of Radial Stars for their connective force is jumped up much higher than it would be for anyone else."
"Amazing!" Taylor and Danny replied. So even if one fails to learn super powerful attack spells, current over-used lower spells get stronger in the process, and the balance is the same between a person's HP stat going up as well.
"Power levels become less relevant when you keep practicing skills you think you have already mastered. The proportional damage of the attack increases slowly over time. If one were to shoot a Fire Bolt for their first time, compared to a person who has successfully shot about four thousand Fire Bolts, it is pretty clear who the winner will be in force, power, and even the speed of the Fire Bolt in action."
Jane felt like giving Eliza a bit of a break here. "Attack power isn't the only thing that improves when you keep practicing a learned skill in succession." The class attention was now on her, including that of Taylor and Danny. It was only natural for them to assume Jane knew almost as much as her own teacher at this rate. "Every single spell has what is called an invocation time; the time it takes to charge up your energy, and release it to trigger the effects of that spell. No one spell shares the same invocation period. Practicing with spells also makes invocation of that very spell happen faster than the time before it. So if I wanted to use an area attack that takes forever to invoke, I can easily be interrupted, or at the very least, my opponent would have plenty of time to figure out how to block the attack or evade it all together. However, if I were to practice with that one single area attack for a very long time, they would not expect that the charging time of my spell would then be significantly reduced, giving them no chance to evade it."
Eliza continued right where Jane left off. "Even a simple Fire Bolt, which is already speedy, homing, and quick to hurl towards an enemy, can be refined moreover until the invocation time is so quick, your opponent would never see it coming. Additionally, that Fire Bolt attack would do more damage than it normally would, and the speed of the bolt in action could become as quick as the speed of light too."
The class remained silent, in total awe of the strategic mess they had to absorb. "Patience is a virtue with this, and so is hard work. That is why starting today and tomorrow, we will be trying to learn the spell of Radial Stars."
Danny couldn't believe his luck. Already he was given an assignment to not only learn, but also use and invoke a magical spell. Was he really so capable?
"You missed one." The class and Eliza fell silent, trying to pinpoint the origin of the person who spoke. All eyes fell on Jane, who was calmly sitting where she was.
"I'm sorry?" Eliza requested. She didn't know what Jane meant.
"A damage type," Jane replied. "You missed one. You listed all of the elements and types of attacks, but you forgot to mention the element of dark magic."
"That's because it's not to be discussed any further than rumor. I won't have people raising this discussion in class."
Jane knew Eliza would act like this, but it was related to the topic right now. "I think it's important for us to know what to stay away from—"
Eliza cut Jane off mid-sentence, her voice filling with anger. "Jane! That is not an appropriate topic. You know that dark magic is forbidden."
What? What is this about dark magic? Danny didn't write it down in front of Eliza, but he paid direct attention. Was dark magic its own side element? Why was it forbidden?
"I never said it wasn't," Jane implied. The classroom of kids looked quite confused. "It's dangerous, and it's scary." Jane was only talking directly to Eliza, who was already upset that she would bring the subject up. "But it's necessary to stay informed, at least as much as to stay away from the concept."
Eliza grumbled, but gave in to the logic behind what Jane was saying. She did have a good point. If her students ever learned the very name of dark magic form anybody else, their curiosity could drive them to criminal activities, or worse. Still, how dare Jane bring it up so suddenly! "Class?" Eliza paused, taking her time with great caution. "There is one more type of magic I did not mention. It is a highly dangerous and volatile form of energy that is forbidden to use no matter what."
"Forbidden magic?" Taylor questioned. "I had no idea—"
"That such evil forces could exist?" Eliza finished. "I'll only summarize. Dark magic is known for being a special derivative of unfiltered lunar magic of a different format. It is not in any form the same as Leray magic. If anything, it opposes such a force directly. Increased attack power, aggressive behaviors... There are people in this world, though most of them have already been dealt with, that use forbidden magic to do great harm."
"It is really that dangerous?" Danny wanted every detail, but he was already not liking the sound of this. He already learned that Leray magic wasn't dangerous with the exception of vital drain status, but this news put a new record to his claim.
"Highly. You see... Dark magic is a form of energy that can be applied to any kind of attack, even spells that derive of Leray magic, but the properties are different. Dark magic inflicts real time damage on anybody it strikes, regardless of the Leray protection veil and regardless of everything else. The energy signature itself forcefully declines the properties of the veil when striking people or protected objects, which naturally rejects your protection from death or injury during that moment. If you lose your HP to zero by taking enough hits of dark magical attacks, you will not live to survive it. Such an evil practice is popular among the worst criminals who wish to use it to get whatever they want, and any person who dares try and practice it will be prosecuted by law and tried as an adult under maximum penalty - with no exceptions."
Forget vital drain! Danny had just discovered the true force behind everyone's fears. If dark magic can be used to reject Leray protection and kill anybody it strikes, doesn't that make the Leray veil irrelevant among criminals? If magic can be used to kill after all, it proves his theory all along - that magic is in itself dangerous! Still, there was another problem on its own...
Eliza was obviously uncomfortable with the total subject. "Our country is in a time of peace. I want none of you to worry. There has not been a confirmed report of a dark magical user in Sprawn Valley for years. The ones before have already been locked away or killed by their own experiments. But it's a force that totally defies and ignores any Leray magical effects, period! Which is why, if any of you have the rare misfortune to come into contact with someone who uses dark magic, I want you to run away and report it. Whatever you do, do not fight them..." Eliza gave Jane a strange look. "I mean it Jane!"
"Okay! Okay." Jane knew it would never work out for her anyway, but Eliza must have gotten the wrong idea.
Who does she think she is, bringing up a dark topic like that? Eliza shook her head, continuing her warnings. "And if I ever, ever find out that any one of you ends up using dark magic, even by accident, I'll lock you up and torture you myself!" Despite being rash, everybody else sunk down in their desks, suddenly afraid of the teacher. She made things very clear about what not to do. Why wouldn't she? Eliza remembered seeing once upon a time how the concept of dark magic twisted the mind of a student people used to know, and much others that followed him.
"I'm not in any disagreement," Jane handled. "None of you should even think about getting involved with that stuff. It's wrong and evil, just like Eliza said."
"And," Eliza added, "clearly against one of the technical Leray rules of battling, but that's less important. Anybody who is known to have the skill of dark magic learned is subject to being arrested and tried as an adult. It's one of our few yet very strict laws in Sprawn Valley."
At least it means it was less likely to occur, but Danny had an eerie feeling in the back of his throat now. Whether he decided to get involved with Leray magic or not, others who use dark magic to kill could easily threaten him or Taylor on their way to Junon. In fact, it made a little more sense now to practice just a little portion of magic, for self-protection and self-defense before departing. Is this the topic that Nyar was afraid of?
With the end of her warning, the bell rang in the school indicating that they had run out of time. It felt like over an hour had passed, probably much longer since the lesson was just so long.
Eliza spoke over the increasing volume level of the kids trapped inside of the room, already packing their things. "Remember! Your assignment for tonight and tomorrow is learning how to invoke Radial Stars. Use the text book page 343 as the guide mark!"
Eliza waited for the students to walk out, but a few of them were trapped in their seats, unable to move due to how much information they had learned in such little time. They probably felt like their brains were beginning to overload. Among the few who were taking forever just to get up, Danny, Taylor, and Jane were part of them. Jane was only slow because she was waiting on Danny and Taylor, but now they were beginning to get their things together. Jane moved in to try and talk to them, but Eliza wanted a word first. "Danny! Taylor! Let's have a talk. You too Jane!"
Danny lowered his head a bit, feeling like this was some kind of trouble based on how aggressive his teacher's tone became. Was this about what Jane just said? Were they actually in trouble because of it? And why involve him and Taylor if Jane's mouth was the one involved?
Jane stopped in her tracks, turning to glance at Eliza. She was serious about wanting to speak to each of them. She was not certain if what she just said was the cause, but it was clear that her teacher had something specific on her mind. Jane didn't expect Eliza to get so upset just by raising the topic.
While waiting for some kind of punishment, Danny couldn't shake the darkening thoughts from his mind. Leray magic, and dark magic. There are two formats that exist side-by-side. Dark magic must be the reason so many people hate Sprawn Valley. As peaceful as this place seems, it couldn't have always been that way. What happens if more people try to take up the dark arts? What happens if some crazy conspiracy breaks out? Dark magic can't be opposed with protective effects of the veil. Eliza just said so herself.
This sensation of darkness, of mystery, it could swallow their plans whole. Magic must be more dangerous than others are making it to be. Nyar has to be right! He has to know all about dark magic, enough to realize how terrible this place is. Clearly, some of the people here are hiding things. The next question to answer is, what does it take to learn or use dark magic? If anyone could learn it, none are safe from the grips of doom. Eliza, Kain... Somebody is going to give the answers everyone deserves!
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To be continued...
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