NOVEL WEB Chapter 29: How did you….?
Agatha's POV
She was a prestigious teacher at the academy.
Perhaps she wasn't the best [Witch], but she certainly wasn't the best [Magical Girl] when active.
But right now she was annoyed.
The little spawn of a brat that called herself the daughter of Catherine was in her class, and if that wasn't enough of a reminder of that... Woman.
She also was the first to manage to change into her magical girl outfit.
At least she had the authority to give the prize to that kid instead of her, with her heritage she didn't need the extra resources they would allot for reward anyway.
She did need to tweak the rules to prevent her or her friend from getting the reward for second and third place...
At least they approved the change since they too deemed the advantage of that brat enough already.
And besides, the kid had a nice prospect for an orphan, so they also thought it better use of the material.
So she taught him and did he learned.
He had mastered enough spells to put a third grade to shame, and several levels and styles of shield spells.
So when the bout was deemed to advance she used the change to pit the prodigy the school was raising against that brat.
Her friend wasn't an option since the school wanted to nurture her as a [Healer].
The first exercise of the day was the [Shift], and her protegee did it wonderfully, he waited for the attention to shift to others. And so he cast the spell and changed well enough.
She could feel the [Security Node] she suggested him working trying to erase and tamper her memory.
Of course, a simple flick of her mental defenses was enough to squash that interference. Probably no one else in this arena could recognize who he was.
She would need to advise him in another node to edit his face and presence next.
The problem was that cheeky brat. She not only brought attention to her [Shift], her transformation in itself was the problem.
Her [Magical Outfit] was totally different from her [True One]. This was closer to a pastel outfit of a normal magical girl. If she tried to use the thematic as a guide she was probably trying to pass as an elemental wielder instead of her [Space Affinity].
That was commendable in itself, and she would applaud it if it was another student...In her second or third year.
This brat changed her outfit in a week somehow, not only the outfit, her presence was altered, and her face was somewhat more cute looking. Her hair was shorter...
She did the work all right.
And also the [Security Nodes], she could feel at least two at work, the one that disrupted the [Idea] to alter the perception and the one that changed her appearance.
But that is the problem here.
If she had less power she couldn't be sure that was the cheeky brat of a daughter of Catherine.
It was the feedback from the arena and the school that gave her the answer of who that brat was.
Her mental defenses couldn't resist it...
And if she wasn't paying attention she would probably forget it.
How did she manage to get that level of a [Node]?
That woman probably sneaked in a high-level book or nurtured her in person.
Because of course the limits and rules of the academy were meaningless to that woman.
Ugh...At least she could hope for the kid to pound her into the ground at least once.
She did nurture him personally to that end...
So when they started fighting she got annoyed.
That brat was pulling punches. Unlike the kid that was fighting at his top shape.
He even used complex shields and that backfired him quite greatly.
"This is why you must analyze your opponent, she cast a complex spell with several spells components, so the defense of the [Sage] wasn't the right one." And he indeed suffered, that disorienting feel from the different mana waves would disrupt his casting so he was limited to simpler spells.
And look at that, the brat was already using that chance.
"Now miss [Elemental Weaver] will use this chance to use a heavier spell even if simple to hit him undefended." And she stood in position and...
Didn't do that, she again used an overly complex spell... Stupid prodigies with their overly complex spells.
See?
He used a simpler barrier spell and even stopped the attack in its tracks.
"And that's why you must never be overconfident, miss [Elemental Weaver] missed her chance at an easy win." Never miss a chance to gloat. I always get told to deal with this, but how can I not gloat at this?
That brat of a girl seems to be saying something my way, but who cares?
Probably is asking about getting extra points or something like her Mother. That woman always wanted to get extra points for the overly complex spells that she likes to use.
Huh?
Then that happened...
What?
The kid may have gotten the better by using way too many spells as an attack.
But how did that brat end in that bad of a state?
She is bleeding all over the place, her clothes are even at their limit of defense...
And if my [Analyze] spell is to be believed those clothes pack quite the defense.
Did...Did she brave her way that barrage only using her body and senses to dodge?
Why didn't she cast a shield?
Was... Wasn't she as talented as her mother?
... Oh...
Could she...
Could she be using the wrong type of spells?
That couldn't be...
Could she be not using her [Affinity] and she tried to fight using others?
I mean...
That would explain why she needed to use that overly complex and missing that punch in her spells...
Why in the nine heavens and four hells is that brat using the wrong affinity?
I will be among the first to admit that I was having trouble parsing what just happened.
At least the barrier detected the state of that brat of a girl and turned off the barrier.
"BOUT END, BOTH CONTESTANTS STOP THE FIGHT!" And so I flew into the arena.
On my right the brat of a cheeky girl... If you knew her mother then it wasn't impossible to not see that woman superimposed in that brat.
That cheeky smile and those eyes that you could perceive how she was looking down on the world.
I don't know how she managed to do it, but she disguised her [Space Affinity] of her previous suit, but you could still see that affinity peaking in her eyes.
And she even had the cheek to ask who the winner was.
Did she think that because her opponent was on the ground it would be her victory?
With those wounds?
Or was this a threat?
"... It's a tie, only because the [Sage] does not look like he can stand, you are lucky girl, that wouldn't work in a seasoned [Mage]. They know better." So that was what I told her.
Her response on the other hand wasn't something I expected.
Did she try to surrender?
When?
Oh...That was what she tried to tell her?
Oops...
Yeah...That might come to bite me later on...
I wonder if I can send her mother a video of her daughter losing the fight...
...And of course, her friend isn't trying to heal the [Sage]... Yeah... Can't blame her on that. He did leave her friend in a mess of wounds...
Undisclosed location.
She was ecstatic about the situation.
"See see! Look at her transformation!" The blonde woman in the overly bright and overly cute outfit was shrieking while jumping in her seat.
"The [Security Nodes] are no joke. I can feel the presence of a few hidden...But I can't see them." Said another woman, this one a white-haired one, she was dressed in a white robe and you couldn't see her eyes since her hood covered half her face. Said hood was decorated with sigils and gems all over the place.
"Did you slip her a book or [Scroll] to your daughter Stardust?" Asked a horned man with dark blue skin and white hair. He was donning a set of overly demonic armor and you could feel malice in his smile.
"Rude!" Answered aghast the blonde woman while grabbing her chest as if terribly wounded and at the same time she was closing her chair to the black-haired and overly muscled body to her right.
"...I tried to stop her from doing it..." That was all the muscle man said.
"She wasn't successful." Said a man in white monk robes and a full body dark body suit. His face was covered by a mask that only had a white circle.
"I can confirm it. I checked the logs and all the books Elizabeth accessed were normal ones. And no tampering was found in her room nor the room of her classmate." Said a man with a suit, if Elizabeth could see him, she would scream 'Arthur' while pointing his fingers at him.
"My wards are intact too, not even Stardust could pierce them without alerting me." Came the final voice of a man dressed in classical Japanese robes with a katana at his side even.
Of course, he wasn't a warrior but a Mage, so why did he use a katana? We will never know.
"The security of the school wasn't breached on the technology side either." Came the quiet voice of a girl she wasn't the youngest-looking one in this weird group, but she was amongst the youngest. She was dressed in an orange bodysuit and had cyan hair that was somewhat messy. Her face donned a weird mask that looked like it was a half-mechanic. And of course, she had headphones with a Fox theme.
"Why can't I get a transformation effect like that?" Asked a little girl with blue hair while licking a giant lollipop, she was dressed in what could only be described as a riot body armor with a police-style uniform.
"We have talked about this several times already." Said another girl with white hair, the only difference is that this one didn't hide her face and was also dressed in an army uniform. She also had a sniper rifle on the back of her chair.
"[We already confirmed that she didn't cheat, this was a meaningless conversation.]" Said the last person in the room.
The man and legend, [Shadow Pact].
"It isn't meaningless! It's about Eli-Eli!" Said the blonde woman while pouting and crossing her arms.
"Also we needed to check the new harvest either way." Came the voice of the black-haired man to the left of Stardust Explorer.
"She does have talent, even if her spells look somewhat... Lacking." Said Arthur examining the fight as it advanced.
They all were watching different fights in real time, but for some reason, the one with Elizabeth was the only one with sound and also the only one projected on a big screen.
"Oh...That kid noticed the girl was using weaker spells." Said the little girl with blue hair.
"Oof, that will hurt." Added the white-haired girl with the sniper rifle.
They all were even eating snacks and drinking sodas like this was an entertaining match.
The ones who provided said snacks were the parents of Elizabeth, so they didn't complain either.
"What?" Or they were till the final stretch of that very short match arrived.
"A rewind please?" Said the Japanese-robed man.
"Sure." Answered Arthur while pressing a button in his seat. "And here, slow motion as a freebie." And so they watched it again in the last instants of the match.
There they saw how Elizabeth weaved her spells one by one.
"Ooooh, sneaky girl, she hid it well, but she also chanteless casted [Body Of Mana] to mitigate the side effects of the backslash." Said the demon-looking man.
"Also look at that weave of mana. How did she achieve that mastery? Didn't she just awaken?" Asked the Monk.
"That she did, she hadn't used mana before coming to school." Said the white-haired woman with the hood.
"Well, talent can't explain that." Said Arthur. "I can't sense mana but her powered talent shouldn't help her, it felt like it was elementally attuned with a sprinkle of info gathering. Probably closer to an [Rogue]/[Thief] variation" Finished the suited man.
"Of course, it isn't only talent, she is my little girl!" Said the blonde woman while proclaiming with her chest puffed in pride.
"Do you think she formed a covenant with something?" Came the voice of the white-haired sniper.
"[No entities have violated the plane in these last weeks.]" That was all [Shadow Pact] said before continuing to watch the match.
There Elizabeth had finished casting her self-buff and was now running in between the rain of attacks.
She had very little space to move around.
"Also, if she made a covenant, they didn't give that good of a [Gift], no self strength, no advanced healing..." Said the little girl with blue hair.
"She seems to have advanced cognizance since she can move at that kind of speed without problems." Said the white-haired sniper.
"If you think not having problems is taking that much damage then of course." Came in the voice of the other white-haired woman.
"[Gentleman, we are going in a tangent. Is she worthy of notice?]" Asked [Shadow Pact].
"Of course she is! Look how she defeats the bad guy!" Said the blonde woman while pointing at the screen where the battered form of Elizabeth stood in front of the blue-haired [Sage].
And then in one swift motion, she kicked him in his groin.
Most of the man grimaced at that, the only one that looked unaffected was [Shadow Pact]. But then again, he is built differently.
"So will you use your vote on her?" Asked the demonic-looking man.
"Of course not! Eli-Eli doesn't need my help." Answered the blonde woman smiling. "My vote is for the [Sage]." Finished with a smile.
"He left your daughter quite wounded... You sure?" Asked in confirmation the Japanese robbed man.
"Eli - Eli can survive that, also she earned those wounds, if she had used her [Original Magic] then she wouldn't be like that." And on that note, they carried on talking about other topics.
Security and new threats for the world.
New possible heroes being nurtured in the different schools.
New possible villains raising among the populace.
All important stuff they had to deal with.
For they were the ones to defend and fight the problems.
They were [The Twelve].
Of course, some were thinking about other things too.
A woman thinking about if she could nab the pink-haired girl that was healing her friend with a worried face.
Another one smiling at the idea of how her daughter had managed to create such complicated spells that soon.
A man thinking about if he could make contact with that [Sage] kid.
A man shrouded in shadows wondering what was the true affinity of Elizabeth.
And then Arthur, wondering why no one questioned how that girl had gotten the type of [Security Nodes] that needed neutralization from their network to be bypassed.