Jien's muscles relaxed, his breathing steadied and his eyes looked at Julie with her shield covering half her face, the simple wood construct showing the wear of long term use by the students of the academy. Her eyes were fierce as she watched both him and the coin falling toward the sandy ground of the arena. His shoulders slumped, the hold on his rapier lightening to the point that it could almost fall from his fingers at any moment. He had decided to show Julie that he wasn't only about being a back row commander. He would show her some of his gains from those atrocious years of training.
As his body relaxed to the utmost he could allow it, his breaths steadying to a degree that didn't seem like a readiness for combat so much as a nap. His heart rate calmed and his vision began to change. At first his vision swam, blurring like someone had poured water in front of the scene in front of him, obscuring it from his sight. The coin was at his knee height now, he couldn't see it but he knew it was in his gut. His stomach wanted to knot up, his muscles wanted to firm and hold his weapon confidently but he smothered these instinctual reactions, focusing on the fight ahead.
His vision cleared as the coin touched the ground, he saw Julie rocket toward him like an arrow loosed from a bow. No, it was a wolf charging at him, it's wild eyes bearing down on his mind. Then a serpent lunging from the fog covered branches, then his own mentor Mark blood wielding his blade and moving with a swift but confident stride. They raced at him, their tempos matching, their eyes staring right at him with seriousness, madness, malice, confidence.
Of these images only Julie had true physical form, her body corporeal and the sand she kicked up in her push forward spraying behind her and her spear form expanding in his view. The others were merely illusions, constructs made of small points of golden light in his vision. They overlapped with Julie's rushing form, showing the similarities and differences in form. Soon she was upon him, her spear thrusting for his throat, no, the wolfs maw reaching to rip it to pieces, perhaps the serpents' fangs moving to deliver its venom, and of course Mark's sword singing down with the same calm confidence that he always carried.
As he spear soared toward his neck a simple string of mana reached down his arm, pulling it at drastic speed and yet controlled precision to clash shortly with the spearhead, parrying it to the side just enough. Another thread reached down his arm and like a pulley drew it along the shaft of her spear, aiming to impale her through the eye. Of course he wouldn't actually do so, but he made sure that his intention was truly transmitted to his opponent.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
As Julie withdrew with a short burst the image of the wold was pierced through. The image of the serpent struck in the eye by not one but two arrows, dropping toward the ground lifeless. Mark's image smirked as his sword flipped in his palm, redirecting for a second strike before they all faded away like mirages. Standing a short distance away was Julie, or perhaps a large bear they had faced off the shore where their coastal fort was. The image of Johnathan, Rosalind's mentors; hulking form smashing his fists together with a broad smile.
This was the combination of a few different interesting things he had learned over those years. Each was a valuable lesson that saved his life on many occasions, and also became the reason that the others felt he had gained more than them throughout the experience. The most important of these was the fact that Personal Library was not restricted to books.
Jien had never expected that the spell he felt so useful had such a use but when he was in the middle of reading one day their mentors had attacked. He hadn't had time to stop the spell at the time as he watched Iris advance on him with a calm poster, a dagger in her hand and the other behind her back. His spell stopped shortly after that point given his lack of concentration, however, to his surprise after they had found the time stop settle once again he had found the image of the ever elegant mentor floating within his personal library, her steps the same as if she were really standing before him.
This find was an unprecedented boon to him in so many ways. Rather than just reading about fighting styles or trying to learn them right as he was being trained in them, or even practicing with what he was taught over and over again until it was burned into his muscle memory. What if he could just record it and use it as a reference? He immediately wished to put everything into this new application of the spell but it wasn't so easy.
The spell Personal Library wasn't like others. It was filtered through the eyes and required unprecedented focus to keep going. The focus wasn't all that bad as long as one learned to deal with the strain on the mind, something that Jien learned to handle not long after initially learning about the use of the spell. The troubles were that in combat his vision wasn't exactly clear when using the spell in full, nor was it easy to use the spell and fight at the same time.
He poured many days and several very tough fights into learning how to use this skill well even while fighting alongside his friends. That however was only a part of the overall path that led to the results shown here against Julie.