Chapter 54: Chapter 54 - Team Fighting Class II: Love is a good shield
[Arthur Leywin POV]
On Professor Glory's signal, the three of us dashed forward. Curtis, who was mounted on top of Grawder, was to my left and Luz was to my right, both a bit ahead of me.
Tess, Clive and Lucas all split up as soon as we charged. Tess circled around the left side as she prepared to take on Curtis, while Clive dashed around to the right, getting his bow to confront Luz before he reached him.
Straight ahead was Lucas, calmly waiting me, his face twisted into a haughty sneer that seemed to say 'I don't need to get ready for you'. Wheter it was at the Dire Tombs or here, even with him knowing that I'm a quadra-elemental, Lucas' arrogance had no limit. I still remembered when he betrayed us by using us as live bait. Even then, he had the same sneer he had now.
Tess was probably going to beat Curtis, even with Luz's advice. And Luz was already using his DC Shield to defend himself against Clive's arrows, while lauching OmegaFlames to counter attack. Wind, Earth, Water and Fire, all them bent to my will as I infused more mana, activating mana rotation as well. Lucas wasn't weak. His mana pool was bigger than mine due to all the elixers he had with his family, but that didn't mean he was stronger than me.
Lucas sensed a bit of the killing presence I purposely let out to shock him out of his pedestal as he began quietly chanting a spell while dashing backwards to get more distance between us.
Soaring up ahead, I felt Professor Glory's keen eyes studying me as I closed the gap between us. I took a deep breath, as far I was concerned, this was a fight between Lucas, Luz and me, as he made that gray ball to use as a surprise device. Narrowing my eyes in utmost concentration, each powerful step I took created small craters in the ground as the wind whistled around me being warm and cold at the same time.
"Inferno's Cage!" Lucas let out a chortle before he release his spell. It reminded me of the Ember Wisp spell that both Lucas and Ex-professor Geist had used, but it was a lot bigger. The orbs scattered and floated in place around the both of us, creating a dome made of fire.
Don't tell me....
With a confident smirk, he snapped his finger and uttered. "Activate."
The orbs glowed in response, before starting to fire countless bullets. If it was on the same level as Ember Wisp, I would be able to dodge the attacks while also reducing the gap even more, but that was insane. Countless blasts of fire coming from all directions, in a constant rate and totally aimed at me. Unable to give myself a chance, I was forced to dodge and block attacks, unable to advance my original idea.
Even so, I managed to hold on well, with my fire and water attributes, cooling me down and decreasing the immense heat I was feeling, as I tried to create a wind barrier, but to no avail.
"Keep running around, monkey. Do you think it's even possible for the peasants of the mages to actually have a chance against someone like me? I can't wait to step on you and your brother to crush whatever speck of confidence you had just because you became DC members and professors. I thought this class would be a waste of time but now I know why I was brought here. It was to crush commoners like you!" His little pretty boy face was wrenched in an ugly expression as he sneered.
"Are you okay, Papa?" Sylvie's concerned voice echoed into my head after feeling how frustated I was at the moment.
"Yeah, I'm fine Sylv. Don't worry about me. How's everyone else doing? I can't see them inside of this hell cage" I send back.
"Mama is winning against Curtis and uncley is also winning against that serious-looking guy... W-wait! Uncley is calling you." She responded.
"What?! Calling me? Wait, he started to count?" I asked in my mind while I was dodging the flame bullets and the occasional streams of fire was easy, but I couldn't get closer to Lucas. I thought that was a good time for the surprise, that way he could get out of focus.
"Yes! Ahn.... 3.....2...-" Sylv was mentally warning me, it was time. I tossed Dawn's ballade up, which made Lucas lose concentration for a second and look at it like I was going to use it.
But no... I wouldn't be the one to attack you with it, blonde brat.
Mentally counting, I slammed my palm down, screaming out loud. It was time to show what the Leywins are capable of.
"BLINK!!!" I could hear Luz saying it at the same time, and after a milisecond, I found myself outside Lucas's fire dome.
I looked around, I could see Professor Glory's face above us, with a look of amazement, Clive in front of me with wide eyes, and directly above me, Luz's DC Shield was falling. That was our surprise, using my brother's teleport rune magic, to switch places.
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[Professor Glory POV]
That... What was that?
I was flying with my bond when I noticed Luz Leywin and Arthur Leywin, both of them threw their weapons up and shouted a spell I had never heard of in my entire life. But the result of the spell was incredible, they...
"Teleported?!?!" My mind went wild, yes, they had switched places with each other.
"Earth Pillar!!" Arthur said as he took his brother's shield, creating several pillars that prevented Clive from having an ideal direction to shoot his arrows. However, I realized that the pillars weren't just for that, after he took the shield and started throwing it horizontally.
The shield bounced between the pillars and hit Clive, and soon after it returned to the quad-elemental hand and the process repeated itself. I've never seen anyone use a shield for ranged attacks, it was an interesting concept, but it seems it only works with circular shields.
Another thing caught my attention, making me ask the Torch to slowly take me closer to the battle between Lucas and Luz to get a better look at what was going on.
Luz was standing there, with that clear-teal-bladed sword in his hand, and... Was that it? He was taking all of Lucas' attacks, who was yelling in confusion at the way his opponent was suddenly switched.
"Wait, he's not moving and he's taking the damage, but the equipment system didn't beep...." With that thought, I tried to look more closely, that's when I noticed and started clapping my hands, excited. "INSANE BOY!!"
He was using Air Manipulation, a variant technique of wind magic, which is incredibly complex to do. After all, it needed to have absurd knowledge about mana to do something at that level. He used this manipulation to completely destroy all fire shots, making them disappear a few centimeters before touching the equipment.
Lucas seemed to panic and start shooting at a higher frequency, but his opponent was still able to absorb those blows, as he took his brother's beautiful sword and swung it with wind mana inside it. Creating a razor wind that appeared to destroy part of the half-elf's spell.
"GROOOOOAAAAAR!" Turning my attention at the sound, it seemed like Princess Tessia and Prince Glayder's battle was reaching its climax.
Curtis Glayder's uniform was full of small gashes and nicks. I must admit that Curtis had done fairly well against the only disciple of our Director, although it was most likely because of his bond that he was able to last this long.
"You've forced me to do this, Princess Eralith! Please be careful! PHASE ONE! KING'S WRATH!" I heard Prince Glayder roar as his body glowed.
"Oh! He activated the acquire phase of his beast's will... He rarely chose to use this, because he didn't really consider it his own power." I thought.
As he activated his beast will's first phase, a noticable transformation occured in him. While the amount of visible change differed by the person, Prince Glayder's change was visibly apparent. Both his deep red spiky hair and eyebrows became longer and messier while the straps that wrapped around his arms tightened from muscles expanding. His extened canines befame visible as he roared.
When I shifted my gaze to Princess Tessia, though, who was standing on top of a series of vines, her face looked unnaturally pale. That's odd, due to the lack of damage in her.
I was quite a bit away from their battle since I was encircling Luz and Lucas's, but with mana-infused eyes, I could make out even the beads of sweat rolling down the princess' face.
"This is my most powerful attack! If you can take this on, I'll admit my defeat! Please prepare yourself!" Prince Glayder's voice became a lot louder and huskier after activating his beast's will.
"WORLD HOWL!" A serious amount of mana gathered in front of the mouth of the Prince as he invoked his breath attack. The world lion had a powerful move that they used as a last resort against enemies more powerful than them. It was a beam of condensed earth attribute mana that could shred anything in its way if not blocked properly.
A little worried, I looked at Tessia again, and I could see her mumble an incantation when the worst case scenario happened.
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[Luz Leywin POV]
LUCAS! YOU SHIT!!!
That idiot didn't stop trying to hit me after I switched places with Art, so I used Airborn to undo attacks that came too close, in addition to using Ignition to not be affected by the heat itself.
Using my brother's sword, Dawn's Ballad, I delivered a strong wind attack just above, to destroy half of the fire domain created. I had no need to use my first phase to annihilate his fire.
"Flame Guardians!" He shouted, creating flame soldiers that were going against me now, they had flame swords and flame shield with them, but before I could do anything, I heard something.
"PAPA!——— wrong with Mama!—— powerful attack!—— Should I go help—?" It was Sylvie's voice, I was still having this slight problem of, for some reason, being connected to her mental link with Art.
"Wait who's 'Mama'?" I thought, but it didn't take long for me to associate with Tessia, causing me to turn my face in the direction of her fight against Curtis as I watched him begin to gather earth mana in his mouth.
"SHIT!" I said, starting to ignore Lucas and try to run towards Tessia, but in the first second of reaction, my movements started to slow down like time was standing still.
"Wait..... Arthur is using..." I thought, noticing that the only time until this moment in this world, that I saw time stop, was when Arthur used that magic of his, Static Void.
From my peripheral vision, I could see Arthur, with Dragon's Will active, starting to run towards Tessia at that time, while Curtis's mana beam had already started to come out of his mouth.
A thought came to my mind, Arthur couldn't move anything stationary inside the Static Void unless he spent additional mana or was already touching the thing during the spell's activation. And from what I know well about him, he wouldn't last long because of the first phase itself.
I tried to force the corrupt mana around me, to make me move within that stopped time, I managed to make at least the transparent mana follow this logic, and then I started to run towards them too. It was being difficult to do these moves without the second phase, and I knew I couldn't activate it because time was standing still, if I had activated it at the same time as Art's spell was done, I'd even have a chance.
Using every fiber of my will, along with corrupted mana, I forced the transparent mana into my body with everything. My body was in tremendous pain and my veins and arteries started to show with a strong purple glow coming from them. I was literally creating a pseudo version of my second phase, allowing me to move faster within the Static Void.
However, I knew that I couldn't use other spells in this specific situation, so if I was going to use anything, it would have to be within the first possible second after time returned to normal.
I was still a few meters away when Arthur arrived at Tessia, hugging her and using my DC shield to protect them, he could see me approaching and seemed to force the Static Void longer until I arrived.
"Ready...?" His voice was fragile, it sounded like he was low on mana and struggling to keep things that way.
"Of course...." My voice was no different, my body was in extreme and sickening pain, it was as if my limbs were ripped out every second I stayed like this.
Arthur threw the shield at me, slowing it down as it slipped out of his hands, but I managed to catch it and stand still, in a defensive position in front of my brother and sister. Art deactivated the Static Void, while I stopped forcing the transparent mana to flow through my body.
An immense sound of several screams and noises happened simultaneously with the return of time, that mana beam was approaching, much faster, and I let out a loud scream.
"DUO-SHIELD!!!!" My shield reinforced, creating layers of wind and fire that made the area of protection bigger, but I couldn't see this beauty. Everything in my vision went white as if nothing existed, and after a second, everything instantly went black, I had passed out.
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[Claire Bladeheart POV]
"Wh... What? W-What is this...?" I was so confused, with my eyes wide, I saw the three fights taking place simultaneously.
Luz against Clive, Arthur against Lucas and Curtis against Tessia. Or at least that's how I thought, because suddenly I heard the two former adventurers Note/Art and Diamond/Luz, loudly shout a spell and switch places with each other.
"D-doesn't surprise me anymore... They know how to teleport now...." I said softly to myself, with the few other students also seeing that scene, most of them got up from their seats, it was unbelievable.
"H-hey! Something is wrong with the student president!" A female voice next to me said, and I looked in Tessia's direction, it was hard to see, but she seemed to be a little dizzy and falling on top of her vines.
I looked at Curtis and saw him unleashing powerful magic, while his appearance was different. "CURTIS, YOU INCONSEQUENTIAL SICK!!" I screamed when I saw what he was doing.
The mana beam he released from his mouth hit Tessia hard. In response to this, several students, including myself, started to get out of their seats to get a better look at the situation, while at the same time Professor Glory whistled loudly as if to stop the fighting.
I initially looked in the direction of the other fights and strangely saw that Luz and Arthur weren't there, Clive was lying on the floor, slowly getting up, while Lucas for some reason looked towards the accident with a silly face.
"Where... Where are they?" My answer came as I looked at the accident that happened, the dust settled and I could see that both Leywins had somehow gotten to Tessia to protect her.
"SOMEONE HAND ME MY SCROLL!" Professor Glory yelled as one of her trusted students handed her a communication scroll, apparently to call nurses.
Getting closer to the situation, I noticed how confused Curtis was by what just happened, Tessia was on the floor with Arthur hugging her tight, and Luz was standing in the same spot, his shield up. The three had their clothes torn from the attack and appeared to have passed out.
We tried to get closer to help them, but the Art's bond, seemed to come running quickly and prevented us from doing anything, in fact, for some reason, it only allowed me to approach. It was so bizarre that small and cute mana beast, having an aura that made Professor Glory afraid to approach, even her Flame Hawk walked away from it.
I went to Luz first, since he was the one who apparently received the most damage, it was just me touching him that his body fell, but luckily I held him and managed to leave him lying on the lawn. The visible parts of his skin were marked with several lilac lines, his eyes were completely white and it looked like he suffered multiple injuries to his arms and legs.
The nurses arrived quickly, and next to them was Director Cynthia, who was running towards us, seeing that scene. Her eyes were tired and amazed at the same time, as she started talking to Glory to understand what happened there. I, along with Curtis and Clive, assisted the nurses, and so the three of them were taken off the field.
Clive started to argue with Curtis about what happened there, even Goodsky went to them to understand the situation. Apparently Tessia was fighting Curtis with will, but the fact that she was suddenly extremely weak, which was what caused this accident, was something impossible to predict.
"Oh my god, I'm sorry director... I-I didn't know how this was going to happen." Curtis said, feeling bad for what he'd done.
"No problem... It was really unlikely to happen. In the warm-up training she always has in the morning, she was doing really well. This dizziness followed by fainting was something that even I wouldn't have believed she would suffer." Director Goodsky said, putting a hand on Curtis's shoulder.
"Director, I wanted to ask you a question... Where did these two boys come from? They seem to be a pure miracle. They are first-years, they are teachers and now, I just witnessed them teleporting twice, once during the fight and the other to protect the princess." Glory asked curiously, but still kept the look of concern for those students. Cynthia didn't answer, she just sighed and walked away, making a gesture with her hands as if to let it go.
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It was 7:30pm, I was in the halls of the school. My classes had ended thirty minutes ago, and during that time, I went to the disciplinary committee room, to talk to the other members, everyone noticed the absence of the two boys, making me have to give the report of what happened, while Curtis couldn't even meet their eyes.
Elijah Knight was the most emotional of all the boys, wanting to beat Curtis for it. Doradrea and Theodore tried to calm him down, explaining how it really was an unlikely accident, and so he understood the situation, but it looks like it will take a few days before he can look at the prince again, without feeling angry.
Kathyln was also very emotional when reacting to that, even with her reputation as someone who doesn't show emotions very well, she started crying right there in the room, even Curtis didn't know how to react to that. When he went to try to calm her down, she slapped him on the cheek and ran to her bedroom.
Finally, and still strangely enough, Kai was the least emotional, just saying that there was no point in complaining about it. Strangely, he kept asking for details of what had happened, which made Curtis leave the room soon after. We decided that we would not comment on the accident between us.
I left the student area of Xyrus Academy and went to the small shopping area inside the school. It didn't take more than 20 minutes, and I was already on my way to the infirmary, I had bought some flowers, and I wanted to pay them a visit if possible. It was too early for that, but I felt responsible, after all, two of the injured were members of the group I lead.
"Oh, good night, Miss Bladeheart. What brings you here?" the emmiter who handled the front desk asked.
"I know it's too early for that, but I was wondering if I could visit three colleagues... Princess Tessia, and the two Leywin brothers, Luz and Arthur." I spoke calmly, trying to look good.
"Okay, just a moment." He seemed to pick up a list and then check some parchments. "Okay, Principal Goodsky has personally made a list of people who can visit these students. You're not on Princess Tessia Eralith's visiting list, but you can visit the other two. Arthur Leywin's condition is good enough for sometimes wake up and then pass out again, so there's a chance you were able to talk to him. Luz Leywin's state is still pretty bad, not having woken up, but nothing a steady flow of mana can't fix."
"Thank you." I then took their door number and walked through the white corridors of that part of the academy.
First, I decided to go check on Arthur. He was fully covered, with some visible bandages on his arms, his eyes were half open, not letting me know if he was unconscious or not. I approached a bench that was next to him to put some of the flowers I bought and then I was startled when I felt something touching my waist.
"Cla-claire.....? H-hi.... How are you?..." He said in a weak voice, while touching my clothes to get my attention.
"Arthur, I'm fine... I hope you are too." I said, looking at him.
"Ha... Ha... I'll be fine... I've suffered worse in my life... I don't even know how I would be if I didn't have his help..." he replied with a huge sigh.
"I was a... Idiot... It was my fault... I was..." He spoke looking at the ceiling.
"No. It wasn't your fault or Curtis's or Tessia's. It was an accident." I said caressing his hand, but he didn't answer me, he seemed to have fainted again.
I looked around and noticed that on top of a nearby chair was Art's Bond, who was sleeping hugging his torn uniform. I was glad that I was at least able to talk to Arthur, but now was the time to see how my mentor was doing.
I went to the side room and opened the door carefully, there was an emmitter who seemed to finish doing a healing spell on Luz. He looked scared at me, as he didn't seem to have expected anyone to visit the boy so soon.
"Oh. Sorry, but you can't come in here." The emmitter said.
"I got permission from the receptionist, apparently I'm on a list that Cynthia Goodsky made." I said, holding tight the flowers I had with me.
"Oh, that's fine. I was already done using my magic on him besides changing the potion bag, you can stay here." he said and then left me alone there.
Luz had his body completely covered in bandages, only from the head up he was without them. His face showed some light scratches and faint purple lines on his skin near his left eye.
Next to him was a device that injected a potion directly into his blood through two thin tubes in his left arm. And a chair, which had his torn uniform on, along with the shield he'd won for joining the committee and his rings.
I took the things out of there and left them on a nearby table, along with the flowers I brought him. I took the identification paper from that very little table and used the chair to sit next to him while I read the report on how he was doing.
Through that, I knew that his whole body was full of bandages because the attack he received made his skin open in several parts, causing exposed wounds and bleeding, the minimum amount of healing magic for this to recover is for round ten in total. Those lilac lines on his body were apparently marking his mana channels and veins, apparently they had expanded quite a bit as if they were about to explode.
There were some extra notes of theories as to why that happened, and the one the healers seemed to have accepted the most, was that he tried to force the attack's mana into him, and because it was an earth spell, and he was a duo- elemental fire and wind, clearly did not work as expected.
The last thing in that report left me confused, it said that somehow, a glowing stone had stuck to one of the fingers of his right hand, and even then, it didn't seem to affect his body in any way. There was no way to get the stone out without them having to amputate the finger, so they would wait for him to wake up to question him about this situation.
"Uh... What?" I lifted his blanket a little, and took his right hand, on his ring finger there was a dark red and purple stone, the colors moved in it as if they were liquids that did not mix.
That was actually a little weird, but also mesmerizing. Without even realizing it, I was already caressing his hand, while looking again at his face. Even with those bruises, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully, clean and serene.
I remembered how we trained around 2 years ago, he was thoughtful, kind, always trying to make me do my best and worried when I overreacted. He decided to stay at my uncle's house with me so we could have as much time together as possible, he even spent his hours of sleep to inject mana into me so he could make me stronger, even though I wasn't doing anything.
And all this why? He initially said it was because he owed my uncle a big favor, and that training me would be the perfect way to do it, but then he told me that I had potential, that he was there with me because he knew I could become better than any Class-AA Adventurer.
I owed him a lot, especially for the sweets he made for me as a reward for doing well. There were very few days, but they were the ones I felt I was improving the most.
Tears started to fall down my face as I remembered his words, that it was more likely a farmer living in a simple place would die first than him venturing into the dungeons. I want these words to be true, I want it so badly.
"Please don't disappear, okay?...." I said while doing something I never thought I'd do in my life, I gave him a kiss on the cheek and took a deep breath, thinking about staying here a little longer, but it went more than that, and I slept there without noticing.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone