B4 - Chapter 28 - Rock the Stars

"Is that really the same spell?" Lotte eventually asked, breaking the stunned silence.

Lily nodded proudly. "It is. When my Mana changed, my cloak changed too."

"Wow. I gotta say I wish I could get a power-up by sunbathing," Hana joked.

"If the sun doesn't work, you could try jumping into a tornado," Lotte joked.

"No thank you…" Hana rejected the idea. "So, other than a very impressive visual upgrade, what else can it do?"

"I'm not sure," Lily admitted. "If I had to guess, I'd assume its main function got an improvement, so defense, but that wasn't really my goal when I started. Well, correction, defense was the original thought that was the cause of the inspiration, but it's more of a happy accident in that case."

"Sorry, you've lost me," Lotte replied, with Hana nodding in agreement. "What were you hoping to achieve?"

"I want to draw glyphs with the stars," Lily answered.

"Well… I guess my mom was right," Hana replied. "She said that your aptitude with glyphs had to come from your bloodline, otherwise you wouldn't have come this far without an extremely good teacher."

Lily smiled, not saying anything.

Meanwhile, Lotte moved closer and reached for the cloak, clearly fascinated. "This is really something else. You're really going to draw attention during the interschool competition."

"Yikes. Isn't that going to be a problem?" Hana asked. "I know you prefer to stay in the shadows."

Lily shook her head. "Not this time. There's something I need to do, so I can't keep hiding away."

Hana grinned. "That's my rival. I knew you had a fighting spirit."

"I don't think you can call her a rival anymore. We're literally part of the same dungeon team."

"A momentary truce. We will clash once again at the end-of-year exam. And next year. And the year after that. And so on…"

The girls giggled as Lily put away her cloak, as it had already drawn more attention than she would have liked. It had already been noticeable before the injection of Astral Mana, and now it was completely over the top. Not that Lily disliked that, of course; if anything, she was thrilled that her cloak had become so much more beautiful.

"Well, it's a good thing we got PMC next. You can test out your new cloak," Lotte said.

"That's what I'm hoping to do. My other spells too, although I'll need to be careful."

Hana suddenly froze. "Wait… All your spells have upgraded?"

"I think so. All my Astral spells at least."

Hana gulped. "What about that accursed dark moon?"

Lotte froze up too. "Oh… Oh no."

"Um… Maybe? I haven't cast it since this change," Lily admitted.

"Sounds like this lesson is going to be very interesting," Hana said, punctuated with a nervous chuckle.

Lily wanted to complain but settled for a silent pout. Her Lunar Eclipse wasn't that bad; her friends were just teasing her.

{Will Lunar Radiance and Lunar Eclipse change much?}

[I'm… Honestly not sure. This is very much uncharted territory for me. If we go back to that dice analogy you like, maybe instead of rolling two dice and picking the best, it will roll three?]

If even Arakil had no idea, then only time would tell. She still felt like her friends were overreacting, just because the spell had caused a few unfortunate accidents during their duels. But Lily pushed that to the back of her mind; she was more interested in testing the enchantment and seeing if it could withstand even a boulder from an earth mage.

I just need to be able to do the enchantment mid-battle, but it's pretty simple, as Duncan has already proved. Plus, I can arrange them with my mind, so all I really need to do is trace them.

As Lily took a bite of her food, she couldn't help but smile as she thought about how this would further add to her plan. She hoped that soon, when anyone heard her name, the first thing they would think of was glyphs!

"I don't like that smile…" Hana whispered.

"She's your rival. So good luck with that," Lotte replied, clearly trying to distance herself.

Hana gasped, as if she hadn't expected someone to use the rival card against her, and she clearly couldn't find a way to refute it. Lily sighed, shaking her head. She really wasn't sure why her two friends continued trying to tease her like this.

Besides, I probably can't even use the spell. Professor Elius politely asked me not to.

The rest of lunch was no different, and their conversation eventually drifted back to their usual topics. Eventually it was time to leave, and they headed outdoors to class where the professor was waiting for them.

Practical Magical Combat's two most common lesson plans were the two D's: drills and duels. In most cases, both happened together, with the waiting students stuck in drills while they waited their turn in the arena. However, after the festival, and perhaps with the upcoming interschool tournament, there had been less of that happening lately.

Professor Elius instead provided commentary during the duels, explaining to observers what was happening and what should have been done in each situation. So-and-so should have countered there, or dodged there, and so forth, while the actual participants couldn't hear anything outside the arena.

It was an interesting experience, especially since, thanks to the Headmaster's magical items, they could watch their own fight as spectators afterward and receive commentary. The drawn conclusion was inevitable: they were trying to prepare as much as possible for the tournament.

The lesson started with a quick warm-up drill, and then, as expected, they went to the arena. Lily was going to patiently wait her turn, but it seemed her friends had other ideas.

"Professor, you should let Lily go up first; she had a breakthrough with her bloodline!" Hana said excitedly.

"Are you volunteering yourself as her partner?" the professor asked suspiciously.

"Haha… No, I was thinking maybe someone more hotheaded. Maybe Garet, or Wallace?"

The professor was clearly curious, so he turned to Lily. "Is it true?"

"Yes, although I'm not sure of all the changes."

The professor paused for a moment and then turned to Wallace. "Are you willing to go up?"

"Not me?" Garet asked.

"You already couldn't get past her cloak before; you really want to try after she's received a bloodline intuition?" Wallace asked his friend.

"I believe in my fiery spirit!" Garet declared, earning a chuckle from the class.

However, the professor shook his head. "Everyone knows Lily's biggest weakness is earth mages, and Wallace here is one of the best. If anyone is going to give her a proper workout, it's him."

"I'll do it," Wallace answered. "Besides, she's not the only one who's been improving."

A chorus of drawn-out "Oooohs" swept through the class, clearly impressed by the banter. The professor seemed satisfied and told the pair to enter the arena; the barrier came to life shortly after they stepped inside, blocking out the sound and protecting the spectators.

"Sorry if things get rough, I'm still working out the kinks," Wallace said to Lily.

"Oh! Umm… Sorry too, just in case, I'm really not sure about all the changes."

"Wow, so the intuition is still fresh? I'm happy to oblige then," he said, smiling.

Lily smiled back, as honestly, she got along pretty well with Wallace. He reminded her a lot of Theo, except with a lot more backbone, and she could easily imagine the two getting along. Heck, if Theo hadn't been bullied relentlessly by Tim, they'd probably be even more similar.

I hope Tresnia is treating him well…

Lily's idle thoughts were scattered as a loud buzzing noise announced the start of their duel. Instinctively, she called forth her Nebula Veil, and as the billowing cloak forged from the night sky appeared, her opponent was left stunned.

"What the heck is that?" he questioned.

"It's my Nebula Veil. I told you I've gone through some changes."

While the arena shielded the sounds from outside, it did nothing for the sights, and Lily saw similar dumbfounded reactions from the spectators. She wanted to react with embarrassment at having so many eyes glued to her, but she knew she needed to change, since even more would be on her during the interschool tournament, so she couldn't waver. So, she puffed out her chest, trying to channel a bit of Rose's confidence.

"Damnit, I should have let Garet embarrass himself," Wallace grumbled as he cast his own spell.

Lily had expected an attack, but instead it was the Familiar summoning spell. On his shoulder appeared Flint, his magical squirrel, and its cheeks were puffed out as if it had been storing nuts.

"Some rocks, please," Wallace said, and without hesitation the squirrel started vomiting out a backyard's worth of rocks and earth.

Lily had seen Familiars do strange things before, but this was the first time she had seen one with some kind of storage ability in its cheeks. She'd have to ask Arakil about it later, as she needed to focus on the duel even if it was friendly.

Lily had already started moving the stars on her cloak into an arrangement ready for her to trace the enchantment, but Wallace must have noticed the subtle shift and quickly attacked. From the vomit of rubble, a compressed ball of rock and earth formed rapidly and hurtled toward Lily. Everyone knew she struggled with heavy objects, and she could tell from sight alone this one was especially dense.

No time to trace; let's see if my cloak is any better in its default state!

Lily's usual strategy against this was to throw all of her cloak at these and try to divert them, or better yet, dodge them. She usually needed to summon forth all of her cloak to pull it off, leaving very little still clinging to her body, something Professor Elius had pointed out as a notable weakness.

Yet that was before her Astral Mana Core, and when Lily summoned more cloak, it seemed to just keep coming. Lily was honestly stunned, not really able to sense where her new limit was, as she practically threw the bundle of magical cloth at the hurtling projectile. As soon as they made contact, Lily knew her cloak wasn't physically stronger from the upgrade, but the extra material made up for it, enough to divert the rock from striking her Ward.

"Damn, that's a lot more cloak than before. I was going to try sneak attacking you with pebbles, but those wouldn't even phase you," Wallace admitted.

Lily finally noticed that during the attack Wallace had actually scattered rocky shrapnel across the arena, providing him with the ability to attack from all angles. It was a devious plan, especially since all you needed to do was trigger a Ward, not actually incapacitate your opponent to win, and if not for her seemingly endless cloak, Wallace could have forced a victory.

"But! You'll need more than a bit more cloak to stop this," Wallace added, now having all of the rock and rubble come together.

That's so… so... Stupid! Lily thought with a sigh.

Wallace's secret plan was to throw a boulder so massive she couldn't dodge or divert it. It was stupid and nothing but brute force to show for it, but it had a genuine shot at working. Lily's instinctual reaction was to cast Starburst, to blow up the rock or seal her victory before the giant rock hit her, and that would have likely worked, but she had other plans.

Come on, enchantment constellations! I believe in you!

Lily's cloak rose in front of her, like a scroll or parchment she was examining. No doubt this confused the spectators and her opponent, but she ignored them while staying aware of any impending danger.

She raised her finger, putting on a bit of a show since Wallace was still forming his ultimate bolder, and then traced the enchantment. With her finger making the brushstrokes, she completed the enchantment in a flash; magic rippled through the entire cloak, and she didn't need Arakil to confirm its success.

I don't know if this will be enough, but I'm willing to take a loss on the gamble.

"I don't know what you did, but let's see if you can handle my fist!" Wallace declared proudly.

Yes, Lily hadn't misheard him; he had indeed said fist, and when she saw the massive boulder he had made was now shaped into one, she felt like she owed Theo an apology.

I think Wallace has spent too much time with Garet…

With an overly dramatic gesture, he sent the fist-shaped boulder at her, and she very nearly went back to her original plan of blowing it up with Starburst, as she was that offended by it, but managed to hold back at the last moment. No, she wanted to show off the power of glyphs, or, well, enchantments in this case, and she wasn't going to waver.

With her own less dramatic gesture, she sent her cloak forward; its physical makeup visibly different as it no longer flowed smoothly, yet still obeyed her command. A hardened wall of space itself now stood between her and the rock-fist, and the two spells collided.

At first Lily thought she might have made a mistake in her judgment, but the constellation that made up the enchantment shone even brighter, as if declaring its existence, and the Nebula Veil held. A deep impact echoed from their forceful contact, followed by a sharp, explosive crack as the rock-fist was not only halted but seemed to have lost the exchange, with visible fractures in its form.

"You stopped it!?" Wallace cried out in shock.

Lily sighed in relief. Yes, she had stopped it, but it hadn't been without cost, as she now realized the enchantment was definitely not free. Stopping that massive attack required a powerful enchantment, but this was just a basic one, so the difference had been made up for in its cost.

As Arakil had pointed out when she first accidentally activated it, the Nebula Veil was a construct of pure Mana, linked directly to her Core; when the enchantment needed more fuel, she had to provide it. It was more than she could have expected, but manageable, especially now that her Core was denser after the change from big moon to tiny star. Plus, any cost was worth it if it saved her life, and she felt this enchantment could do that.

"Now it's my turn," Lily declared, a tiny mischievous smirk curling at the edges of her lips.