Chapter 79 - Defense

"Alright, can this cloak do anything else utility-wise besides stealth, or shall we move on to the defensive testing?" Delila asked.

"I can sort of use it to grab things," Lily explained.

To demonstrate, she raised her right hand and sent the cloak billowing outward, mimicking her arm movements as if it were alive. She made the extended cloak and made a clutching gesture with her hand, causing it to latch onto one of the unoccupied chairs and gingerly lift it.

"Remarkable," James said as he watched the demonstration. "While it doesn't seem to have that much strength behind it right now, I could imagine countless applications for it. Assuming it can support your own body weight, you could drag yourself out of harm's way. Not to mention if you can improve on it and raise its strength…"

Lily was really glad that this was the spell she had decided to spend the most time mastering—literally sleeping wrapped up in it and keeping it active for extended periods.

Arakil had wanted it purely for its defensive reasons so that Lily would theoretically always be safe or be able to call it at a moment's notice. However, it had rapidly grown beyond that, thanks to it resonating with her Astral Mana Core.

"Or potentially disarm an assailant or blind them by wrapping it around their eyes," Stuart said in an almost praising manner. "An extremely versatile spell. I wish you had led with this rather than those little lights."

"Depending on the finesse, you could also multitask," James added. "Imagine drawing multiple glyphs at once or doing other mundane tasks? There are often days I'd love to have an extra set of limbs."

Wow, these are some good ideas. I guess they are teachers at their schools for a reason. Although I bet, Arakil would be upset at them rushing to new things before mastering what I have already. I'm sure he already had these ideas and would've eventually revealed them to me.

The possibility of Arakil not having such ideas as he had written off Astral magic initially didn't even cross her mind. If Arakil hadn't taught her something yet, he was either saving it for later, or he wanted her to innovate.

I can't do more than keep it in this clothy-fluid shape, but I feel like it can eventually do better. I don't know if I'll ever get it down to something complex like actual hands, but at least some form of gripper should be possible!

After returning the chair to the ground, Lily wrapped her entire body for the "stealth mode" and ended the utility demonstration there. They asked her a few more questions about the spell, and she did her best to provide answers.

Thankfully, she also remembered at the last minute to add that the cloak seemed to keep her body at a neutral temperature as it resisted extreme cold, heat, and even rain.

"I want one…" Delila said enviously. "Even if it wasn't fashionable, I'd just keep it wrapped underneath my garments."

"You can't walk around draped in celestial bodies," Stuart snorted. "Unless you want to be the center of far too much attention. But, the undergarment idea is worth exploring."

"Shall we move on?" James asked.

Lily nodded, and the other two stopped their almost confrontation about fashion advice.

"So, defense? How good are we talking?" James continued.

"I haven't fully tested its limits. But it's better at blocking magic than physical things," Lily explained. "My friend Theo has earth magic, and I sometimes struggle to block rocks if they are too large. But fire, water, air, stuff like that seems easy."

"Well, that's very useful for a mage," Delila responded. "Usually, you have to watch out for other mages and not physical brutes, as if you're in a group, then you have others to do that for you."

"Or metal and earth mages," James added. "They're quite good at stopping anything physical."

"Right, shall we get onto the test?" Stuart asked. "I feel like throwing a fireball today…"

Lily gulped nervously, and Delila caught it, giving her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Lily, we have something exactly for this," she explained as she pulled out a golden piece of jewelry resembling an elaborate choker. Adorned in the center was a green gem.

Lily's eyes widened as she stared in wonder at the presumably magical artifact.

"Never seen a Ward before?" James asked.

Lily shook her head.

"Hmm, I thought for sure Richardus would've used one for his teachings," James muttered while scratching his head.

"I doubt he lets the children go that far in his lessons," Stuart interjected. "There's a reason he isn't at an actual school or academy and merely giving a rudimentary foundation."

Delila cleared her throat, "Moving on… This is a Ward, and while it was originally created as a teaching and experimentation aid, it also has gained popularity in tournaments and dueling. When worn, it prevents a single near-fatal magical blow, causing it to release and fling itself into the air to discharge the attack. Thereafter, it is useless until recharged."

"Woah…" Lily gasped in surprise.

It's almost like my shield talismans. But in a renewable form.

"In duels and tournaments, the winner is determined by whose Ward is triggered first," Stuart further explained.

"And in lessons, they will sometimes be given out if the subject matter is potentially harmful," James added.

Delila walked toward Lily, unclasped the choker, and placed it around her neck. Lily would've thought it might be too big for her, but it seemed to oddly fit perfectly on her, and she found herself unconsciously touching it and her throat.

"One size fits all," Delila said with a wink.

Lily giggled and nodded, quite happy with the explanation.

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"Any questions before we get started?" Delila asked.

"You said magical attack, so it doesn't work on swords and stuff?" Lily asked.

"If it has Mana, it stops it," James answered.

"It absorbs the Mana," Stuart clarified. "That's why it ejects itself from your person after doing so; that way, it can release the Mana without causing the wearer harm."

I wonder if I could absorb the Mana released? Lily pondered.

"So no, it won't stop a sword swing," James explained. "But a magically conjured sword, or a sword propelled by Mana, would be halted. A good thing too, otherwise earth mages would be banned from competing."

"Thanks for the explanation. Does that mean I score higher the longer I keep the Ward from triggering?" Lily asked.

Delila nodded, "That's correct."

"And since you said it doesn't work as well against physical attacks, we won't start there," James said, smiling. "Wouldn't want to break your Ward with the very first spell."

"Thank you," Lily said, giving a polite little bow.

Sadly, despite what James had said, it looked like Stuart would be the first to test her defenses. Lily was distraught that he would be over the top from the start and cause her to fail. She silently prayed that her training was enough.

Stuart began a chant, which Lily recognized as a fire spell, before hurling a small fireball at her. Relief flooded her as he didn't appear to go all out, but she was honestly expecting something around firebolt level.

Responding to her will, her Nebula Veil surged forward and engulfed the incoming fireball, snuffing it out with a satisfying sizzle sound.

Seriously, what kind of adult throws a fireball at a young lady? Even if he did keep it to a smaller size…

"A reactive defense… I have to admit I didn't expect that," Stuart said.

"It certainly devoured your spell," James teased. "But I'm glad she didn't just stand there and take it."

"I can…" Lily admitted. "But not for a spell I'm unfamiliar with. I'd rather keep my cloak close to me if it was multiple firebolts, but this works better for a single spell."

"Hmm… I recall shadow magic has something similar," Delila mused. "It's stronger when coalesced and gets weaker the more you stretch it out."

"Let's test that," James said excitedly and moved into position.

He quickly began a chant, moving through it much faster than Stuart did before half a dozen firebolts formed. Lily quickly retracted her cloak around herself moments before the firebolts went hurtling towards her.

Each one struck against the Nebula Veil ineffectually, causing James to cheer and clap.

"That's an outstanding result in my book," James said. "I'm used to defensive tests being giant walls of earth. So seeing something so lightweight and mobile is refreshing."

"It is good to see something new," Stuart admitted. "It's a pity you never saw the Garuda who joined our school; he creates a sphere of wind around himself that reflects most attacks back at the source."

Wow. Does that count as being positive? He didn't say anything bad about my cloak or disparage James' opinion, but he did boast about that Garuda.

There was a sound like a crack of thunder, and something struck Lily. She uttered a surprised cry as her thoughts were interrupted and turned toward the source—Delila. She stood there nodding in satisfaction.

"Looks like it works even if she's caught by surprise," Delila informed the group. "Either that or she reacted so fast that it didn't matter."

"I can't believe you shot lightning at a kid," James blurted out. "And I thought Stuart was being mean with the fireball."

"I kept it relatively weak," Delila admitted. "And she's wearing the Ward; she would've been fine."

"Gods, I'm glad our school is not in the top five if this is what it does to its students," James sighed, shaking his head.

Lily caught her breath as she tried to calm down. She praised Arakil's name, as his insistence on always being on guard had been proven right.

I think I'll have to explore the undergarments idea… If I can keep it contained under my clothes, that would work on my control, and having it active for extended periods during the day will strengthen my longevity at the same time! I'll ask Arakil if that's a good training idea.

They all cast a few more spells at her from different schools before they were satisfied. To Lily's relief, she had still not expended her Ward, so she hoped she would get an excellent evaluation.

"All that's left is physical," Delila stated.

Stuart immediately threw a rock at Lily; it hit the cloak with a thud before landing on the floor.

"With magic…" Delila sighed.

"I was just curious," Stuart admitted.

"Seriously? You two are crazy," James complained.

They began, one by one, conjuring bigger and bigger rocks to throw at her. At first, Lily didn't have to do much, as thanks to all her time with Theo she had ample understanding of what was reasonable within her limits.

When the rocks grew in size, Lily had to resort to preemptive blocking by controlling the magical cloak directly. Things went well until James conjured a dark grayish-black rock and threw it toward her. It wasn't as big as some of the other magical stones thrown at her, but she decided to be cautious.

Lily immediately went to intercept it with her cloak but, to her horror, found it almost impossible to stop. She didn't panic and tried to reinforce her spell but to no avail. Lily clutched her eyes tight, imagining the impact when it struck. There was an echoing sound, and she felt a slight burning around her neck before she heard a loud clicking noise.

Lily opened her eyes to witness the choker flinging itself into the air. It proceeded to vent something, and there was a hissing sound in the air. She noticed the green gem was a dazzling red, but as it released whatever it had stored, it transitioned to a lifeless gray color.

"After all your rantings about us, and then it was you who broke the girl's safety," Stuart snorted.

"Ah…" James muttered, looking slightly sheepish. "I figured out that her cloak struggles with physical objects due to their weight. It's amazing for magical apparated effects like fire or lightning, but when I formed some gabbro, it was too heavy for her to repel."

Lily pouted, not being too happy at having her defense finally broken. She was even tempted to say it wouldn't have happened if she had also used her shield glyph, but she held her tongue.

"Still a remarkably impressive result," Delila pointed out. "I presume not many earth mages can form such a dense rock at the drop of a hat?"

James nodded, "Earth magic is my focus, so it's definitely not too common. Still, it's good to know that weight is the thing you need to watch out for. Maybe work on some mobility? Assuming you get involved in tournaments and duels at all."

"It's considered mandatory for the top five schools except in the rarest of circumstances," Stuart explained.

"All the more reason to join a nice, quiet school like Tresnia and get your craft on!" James energetically replied.

Did he really use that for a sales pitch? I think Miss Camilla would like him…