Chương 79: Counterspelling

About half of the student body was blinded by the sudden and intense flash of light that blanketed the room. The other half seemed to have reacted in time to shield themselves from that unexpected assault on the senses. I was part of that latter half. And what I saw during those precious few seconds of visual overstimulation was nothing short of remarkable.

The walls that had resembled Mal'tory's dark and dreary office quaked and quivered in place, as if the whole room was a living organism, and we were somehow nestled within its guts. Each of the ornate wooden panels began dislodging from one another, their formerly flush surfaces cracking, revealing seams where there had been none before.

These seams too began expanding, as each of the panels started wobbling, wiggling, then eventually disconnecting from one another entirely; moving independently of one another as if freeing themselves from a long-dormant state. For a moment, they looked almost like a reptile's scales when put under magnification.

Then, and without any warning, they began disappearing, each panel violently pulled back and into some dark anomalous void that existed behind the walls themselves; sending the EVI into another fit of spatial error reports. We were, for a split second, completely wall-less. But not a second after the old walls had been… for lack of a better term — banished to the literal shadow realm, did a set of new walls suddenly take their place. And quite dramatically too.

As an entirely new wall face suddenly emerged darkness of the void, one that was earthy in tones, and reminded me more of those old teak wood heritage buildings back on Earth. There were fewer embellishments to them compared to the previous Victorian-styled walls, less patterns and ostentatious designs, instead simply going with this less is more approach that left vast empty gaps where decorations and patterns were previously present. It was almost as if they were left empty and bare for a reason.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 475% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS Out of nowhere, dozens of pots, planters, and trellises suddenly embedded themselves through the wall, decorating what was no longer a blank canvas. Plantlife soon followed this open invitation for a free home, as hundreds of flowers bloomed all across the wall, carefully trimmed and perfectly appointed to the lattice structures they coiled on, with not a single one of them looking too wild or out of place.

The sudden and abrupt remodeling completely threw me off. At least, until the source of it all suddenly made themselves known.

"Welcome, first years, to Mana-field perception and Light Magic theory." The voice continued, as through the literal haze of change came a female figure that the EVI had little problem assigning a name and identifier to. ENTITY IFF CONFIRMED: A109 Apprentice Larial Essen - NEXUS [CORDIAL] Yet strangely, the metallic footsteps that I'd heard just before she crossed the staff door's threshold didn't seem to follow her. Instead, only the apprentice emerged from the door behind the lectern.

She continued towards the lectern with a forced and somewhat stiff poise and gait, her general demeanor identical to how she carried herself prior to the whole crate saga. Which was of course, stern, tired, and completely unyielding; a fact supported by the impeccable posture she used to walk into class. Though the class' focus certainly wasn't on her demeanor, or her posture, nor even on the room that had completely morphed into a completely different space. No.

It was instead almost squarely focused on the apprentice's cloak, which was most certainly not black. This prompted the entire room to erupt into a frenzy of whispers, tempered only by those daring enough to deploy privacy screens. But before those antics could evolve any further, and before my mind could even catch up with this turn of events, a loud, high-pitched, and unbroken — SHUSH — erupted from the front of the class.

Emerging from a certain gorn-like lizard, who'd stood up to face us rather than the apprentice currently manning her podium.

"ALL STUDENTS RISE!" He commanded. To which the entire class followed, with the only two tentative parties being myself and a certain bull.

"ALL STUDENTS FORWARD AND BOW!" He continued, prompting the whole class to follow suit, and from there, receiving a head-tilt's worth of praise from the apprentice.

"Thank you, Lord Qiv." The apprentice spoke appreciatively, before setting her sights on the rest of the desks and chairs— ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 200% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS —which were subsequently transformed into brighter-toned variants of their formerly dark and depressive selves.

"I understand that there may be quite a few lingering questions amongst the crowd that quite a few of you wish to be addressed. In the spirit of ensuring that these needless thoughts and senseless rumors do not come to cloud your mind throughout the rest of class, thereby rendering these lessons moot, I wish for them to be addressed here and now." Larial announced tacitly, but with a severity that was clearly modeled off of her mentor. The mood of the room quickly changed following that.

But instead of shifting to the deference and submission in Articord's class, or the tentative acceptance of Vanavan's class, there was instead an overarching tone of outright confusion. It was as if the whole class didn't know how best to handle the situation. But whilst the rest of the room remained undecided, with a few shaky hands rising up one by one, a sense of relief quickly washed over me as my emotions finally managed to catch up to the rapidly developing turn of events.

I couldn't help but to immediately activate the in-armor positional readjustment mode in the suit, allowing myself to just… slouch; as I took in the class with a renewed wave of reprieve. It was that same feeling you get when you arrive on the day of the test, only to find it delayed by a week. Or that feeling you get when a notification arrives in the dead of night, on the eve of a presentation, to inexplicably announce that the whole project was now put on hold due to some unforeseen event.

But unlike those situations where the why of the situation didn't really matter… here, it most certainly did. Which prompted me to listen in, as the questions began flying towards the apprentice.

"If I may be the one so brazen as to offer myself as the voice of the year group, Apprentice Essen?" A certain Auris Ping took the lead, having been chosen by the apprentice amidst a sea of equally inquisitive hands.

"The floor is yours, Lord Ping." The apprentice proclaimed.

"Thank you, Apprentice." The bull responded curtly, eliciting a particularly intense glare from the likes of Thalmin.

"Where is Professor Mal'tory?" The apprentice's features shifted somewhat at that question, as if she wasn't expecting something that blunt and straightforward right out of the gate.

"The professor's whereabouts are the business of the Academy's faculty and staff." She spoke firmly, yet with an authority that she was clearly under equipped to wield.

"If you wish to inquire as to the nature of this class going forward, I will be more than happy to-" A series of hands were raised even before the apprentice had even finished her sentence. Which prompted the overworked and exhausted elf to switch over to another student before she even had time to finish her own thoughts.

"The floor is yours, Lady Ladona."

"Thank you, Apprentice. Now, to clarify, are we to expect you to be teaching us for the rest of this class?" The being, which I could only describe as a butterfly with most of their insectoid-traits toned down, asked politely.

"That is correct, Lady Ladona."

"And is this expected to continue for… the rest of the month?" Ladona continued, her features shifting if only to show her growing sense of confidence."The semester perhaps? Or maybe even the rest of the school year?" She continued at a rapid-fire pace, making a point to catch the apprentice off-guard before she could even respond to that first point.

"The responsibility of tutelage has been deferred to me on the basis of Professor Mal'tory's current inability to fulfill this particular aspect of his responsibilities owing to his current engagements. This will remain so, until the Professor returns from said engagements." The apprentice responded in that same jaded, no-nonsense tone of voice she'd used during our pre-life debt interactions.

It was, however, woefully inadequate in dealing with the likes of a vicious social predator like Ladona, who immediately waded through the tepid waters towards the first sign of weakness.

"So when can we expect his return, Apprentice?" She pushed further, her polite tone of voice acting like a velvet cloth, barely concealing the sharp mandibles beneath it.

"That is something I cannot answer." The apprentice replied sternly, taking a stand against the shark that had now tasted blood in the water.

"Is this because of a lack of correspondence to the faculty?" The butterfly-person shot back quickly with an innocent cock of her head, her antennae swaying as she did so.

"I am not at a privilege to divulge such details, and that is most certainly not the case, Lady Ladona."

"My apologies, Apprentice." Ladona spoke in a calculated show of apologetics.

"In any case, am I to assume then that in addition to the responsibility of tutelage, that the responsibilities of proctorship, examination, and evaluation, have likewise been deferred to you?" She shifted gears once more, this time, her question garnered quite a few murmurs to emerge from the rest of the class. Murmurs which, as the EVI's little picture-in-picture subtitles hinted at, were all in support of Auris Ping's right-hand.

"That's right… are we to assume that an apprentice of all people will be responsible for the evaluation of our performance?"

"I mean, she is an elf, that should count for something right-""Have some dignity! Just because she's an elf, doesn't mean she has any right to be dictating the fate of our academic progress!"

"That's right! This is an insult to our titles! How dare they relegate the tutelage of a class to a mere pitiable apprentice! What do they take us for, the dregs of society?" These hot-takes continued escalating further and further, until finally, and seemingly out of nowhere, several of those voices began dying down seemingly mid-sentence; something had distracted them from their little outbursts.

In fact, as the seconds ticked by, Thacea, Thalmin, and Ilunor turned towards each other knowingly, as if sensing that something was amiss. That something was soon made clear to me by a sudden uptick of mana that rose from two, to three, to four hundred percent above background radiation. At which point, several warnings suddenly slammed my HUD. ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 400% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS CAUTION: Concentrated Heat-Energy Surge Detected!

CAUTION: Localized Temperature Surge Detected! Those caution reticles quickly formed just behind the apprentice, hovering ominously over that void-filled doorway, right before a stream of concentrated flames surged forwards towards her. However, instead of dodging, ducking, or leaping out of the way, she stood firm; her features not even shifting even a little.

As right before the flames made contact, so too did they suddenly stop, as that surge of mana radiation fluctuated wildly— ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 200 - 400% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS —before suddenly disappearing. The room was left stunned. Any remaining conversations were halted mid way, with many of the more chatty students barely even registering what'd just happened.

So for those who lacked situational awareness, and were still very much looking around for the reason why the rest of the class had gone silent, there was a round two to these attacks that erupted as suddenly as the first. ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 650% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS This was signaled at first by the cracking of rock and the quaking of the entire room, followed closely by four distinct sinkholes forming along the floor at the very front of the lecture hall.

A gurgling, churning noise echoed ominously from deep within the newly-formed holes, like an ancient concrete mixer dialed up to eleven. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Eventually, it stopped. And soon after, four humanoid earthen behemoths erupted from those sinkholes. Each of them easily towered over the apprentice, whilst each of their fists were at least a full Ilunor in size.

A tense confrontation followed, and a silence that could be shattered by a pin drop soon descended upon the formerly whisper-filled room. Yet despite it all, the apprentice didn't move a single muscle, and to top it all off her eyes were closed shut as if in deep thought. Seconds passed. Then finally, the four cobblestone golems made their move.

All four moved in sync, their first steps caused the whole hall to shudder, prompting me to instinctively flinch towards my sidearm as the events of the second day hit me harder than a sack of bricks. The first golem was poised to strike her side— ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 300 - 650% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS —but found itself crumbling before our eyes, as local mana radiation spiked and shifted erratically.

The second golem reached down with its fist, poised to grab the apprentice through the lectern— ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 250 - 700% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS —but like the first, it found itself reduced to rubble, falling where it stood; as rock by rock, it collapsed under its own weight.

The third and fourth golems charged forward together, lunging down fast towards the lectern— ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 350 - 725% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS —but like the first and second, they too found themselves victims to the great equalizer that was gravity, as whatever magical glue was holding them together just up and failed, reducing those humanoid forms into harmless piles of rock.

A few stray rocks did reach the lectern, but were effortlessly swatted away by an invisible barrier, leaving the apprentice and her immediate surroundings completely unharmed. Silence once more descended on the entire class. But just like the silence from before, that lull period wasn't destined to last, as a loud, boisterous, and jolly series of bellowing laughs emerged from behind the void of that door. I could tell, with immediate certainty, who that voice belonged to.

I didn't even need the EVI's tag system for this one. ENTITY IFF CONFIRMED: A110 Professor Sorecar Latil Almont Pliska - NEXUS [CORDIAL]"Spectacular work, young apprentice! Spectacular work indeed!" The man came marching through the door, walking up and towards the apprentice.

"Thank you, Professor-Armorer Pliska." The apprentice responded softly, prompting the armorer to reply with a sharp and brisk bow of his own.

"You can reserve your thanks for after class, I have plenty more exercises where that came from, and each and every one is going to be tougher than the last!" The man proclaimed not-so-discreetly, eliciting a worried expression to form on the apprentice's face, highlighting the seriousness of the otherwise lackadaisical tone of his voice.

"Needless to say, I don't think you'll be thanking me much after I'm done with you! The Academy's gotten a bit softer over the years, and I'm about to make up for lost time before they toss old-Sorecar Latil Almont Pliska back into the workshop!" He paused, before shifting his tone towards a more menacing one.

"And that applies to your understudies as well, Apprentice."

"Now!" The armorer quickly shifted his attention from the apprentice, and towards class, his gesticulations wild, as if making for the apprentice's slower, more sluggish demeanor. More specifically, he maintained this sort of "Y" posture, with both arms high above his head as he spoke.

"For those of you wondering exactly what just happened… well, perhaps it would be best for you to leave the class considering this is exactly the sort of thing we'll both be expecting of you following the conclusion of this school year! And for those of you who openly doubt the qualifications of our dear apprentice here… just know that she was hand-picked by Professor Mal'tory himself for a reason."

The man paused, before bringing his arms back down to his sides, if only to emphasize his point, before resuming the posture from before.

"And until I see a single one of you being personally selected by a black, red, blue, or white-robed professor… I don't want to hear a single peep of doubt from you lot. At least as it pertains to the apprentice's ability to teach these classes! And if you need an extra guarantee of such? Well… know that the Academy does not allow an apprentice to teach without supervision from an appointed Professor of the Magical Arts." He paused, as if for dramatic effect, before pointing both hands down towards himself.

"Which just so happens to be the only Professor otherwise free from the burdens of stringent schedules — yours truly!" To Sorecar's credit, the murmurs born of inflated egos, and the whispers of dissidence did not once dare to interrupt, or follow-up on the man's proclamations. If anything, that entire… display was enough to keep the critics at bay, and the ones on the fence to fully hop back on the side of respect. At least, until one group decided to tempt fate, deploying a privacy screen.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 350% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS If only for that privacy screen to suffer the same effects as the rest of the spells casted throughout class thus far. ALERT: VARIABLE FREQUENCY FLUCTUATION OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED 100 - 350% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS"Bold! Brash! And indeed, cheeky, if that word still holds true in this era's vernacular!" Sorecar announced with a laugh that radiated deep from within his armor.

"Unlike other classes that prohibit the casting of magic save for practice or demonstrative purposes, I fully allow it, nay, I say, I encourage it! You youths should be free to cast magic whenever and however you like!" The man paused soon after, and once again shifted gears towards a more severe timbre, yet never once losing that lackadaisical personality I knew him for.

"But just remember, while you may freely practice these magical gifts you have and hold so highly, doing such in this class is to be considered a direct challenge by yours truly! This is the study of Light Magic and Mana-field Perception, after all! And thus, in the spirit of scholarly competition, I shall take every spell cast as a chance to prove what's what!" The man paused, before gesturing towards the apprentice.

"Now, for those of you still quite confused with the definition of Light Magic as it pertains to the Nexian vernacular, I shall defer the right of tutelage back to that of our dear Apprentice. The floor is yours, my lady." A brief exchange of bows between the teaching duo was had, before the apprentice finally started, now with all doubts and concerns fully addressed not just by words alone, but through action as well.

"As all of you may have already discerned, the demonstration Professor Pliska had so graciously provided, was an attempt to illustrate the most visible effects of Light Magic — that being the detection and subsequent dispelling of active and pre-active spells. The subject of Light magic, thus refers to the study of the detection, dispelling, counterspelling, and disarming of all forms of other magics."

"And by that definition, it is the single most combative field of magic there is." Sorecar promptly chimed in with a nod towards the apprentice, almost like he was tag-teaming this opening statement with her; establishing a precedent for the dynamics of the class.

"For in order to practice Light Magic, one must be in the presence of an active spell. And in order to truly practice Light Magic, one must be in the presence of active danger, as unlike most forms of magic, unevenness and intensity in casting is key to the successful destabilization of an offending spell."" So THAT'S what the fluctuations were." I thought to myself outloud inside my helmet.

"Moreover—" Sorecar continued, raising his arms into the air once again as if to emphasize his points.

"—to the seasoned and the wise, Light Magic as a field is known to be the single most versatile field in existence. For if implemented correctly, it has the capacity to bring all other forms of magic to its knees."

"Versatility and adaptability are core elements of Light Magic, so while not capable of much harm by itself, it is capable of incredible feats of defense if used correctly." To say that I was pleasantly surprised would've been an understatement by this point. Because not only was Mal'tory completely out for the count, and not only was he replaced by two of my only cordial relations within the Academy thus far, but the class itself was refreshingly straightforward.

There was no mincing around words like Vanavan's class of lectures, there was also no overt signs of blatant propaganda and indoctrination like in Articord's class. Instead, this whole class started out with a practical demo of all things, followed up essentially with a breakdown of exactly what we were studying.

"What you observed during the start of class, were just two out of a near-infinite set of examples demonstrating counterspell and dispelling measures, a rather dramatic one I might add but one that you may very well one day use." The apprentice continued following yet another exchange of nods with Sorecar.

"And indeed, while they may have seemed trivial to the keen-eyed observer, the execution of their dispelling is anything but. Because despite what most misinformed minds may believe regarding counterspelling — dispelling isn't simply a matter of overpowering an offending spell with a burst of mana, but instead, more akin to the unwinding of a knot, or the picking of a lock. You must act to untangle a spell, until the spell itself falls apart at the seams."

Sorecar continued, before once again swapping the baton with Larial through an exchange of nods.

"Which is exactly why Light Magic continues to be a field forever expanding in its domain." The apprentice continued.

"Because as every other field develops more and more convoluted forms of spells and artificing, so too does Light Magic have to adapt, improvise, and overcome these advanced and oftentimes eclectic means of casting." So an arms race… I thought to myself.

"It is, in essence, a pure magic field. Yet it is applied as if it were an applied magical field of study." Sorecar surmised, prompting me to actually listen in with genuine intent, this marking the first moment I was truly engaged with a class with none of its politics.

"And as for the Mana-Field Perception class?" The apprentice continued with an inquisitive tone of voice.

"It's effectively an extension, or rather, a foundational element of Light Magic depending on how one wishes to view it. Because in order to become proficient in Light Magic, you have to first understand and hone your abilities in order to detect the nuances within mana-streams and mana-fields. It is only through the detection of disruptions and the accurate understanding of a spell being cast, that you are able to apply more advanced abjurations in an attempt to counter these spells.

Sometimes even before they're cast if you're so inclined to."

"Now, how many of you can genuinely say you noticed the shift in the room's aura prior to the casting of that Firestream?" Sorecar asked the crowd, prompting almost every hand to be raised.

"Well that's just a blatant lie now, isn't it?" The man retorted bluntly.

"I can tell by your reactions just before the Flamespear hit, you know. So please, honestly now, I'm giving you one more chance to answer." About three quarters of the class lowered their hands, leaving only the gang, Auris Ping and Qiv's group, as well as a few other scattered students to maintain their raised hands.

"Alright, that's about exactly the number I counted from behind the veil! Rightio then!" Sorecar proclaimed through what I could only imagine would've been a grin if it wasn't for his armor.

"This is exactly why mana-field perception is necessary. Because to most mages, it is a learned skill rather than an inherent trait. Which, of course, is by no means a demerit! But moreso, a wonderful little oddity in the grander tapestry that is the magical arts and pedagogue!" The apprentice quickly followed that up with a series of talks once more summarizing the expectations of the class. Mana-field perception was, unsurprisingly, divided into practical and theoretical assessments.

Which, at first, seemed to be a potential roadblock, until I realized one fundamental way this class could actually benefit my aims.

"EVI?" I spoke inwardly, as Larial started her lectures on mana-field perception.

"Yes, Cadet Booker?"

"Is there any chance you can maybe interpolate and extrapolate on the Apprentice's points? As in, is it possible to… visualize magic, as opposed to just alerting me to bursts of it?"

"The mana-radiation visualization project, or MRVP, has been in development for some time, Cadet Booker. The research and development teams however, were unable to create a reliable model for field-use that wouldn't have been a liability to operations."

"So it wasn't field-deployable because of the variance and accuracy issue."

"Correct, Cadet Booker."

"Alright, and you said all they needed was more data to create a better model for it, right?"

"Correct, Cadet Booker."

"Could you… do that with this? Is that within your mission parameters to do so?"

"It is indeed one of the many ongoing projects taking up the bulk of my processing capacity, Cadet Booker. However, proper implementation of this will require additional hardware to be developed, tested, and then field-deployed for testing. The success rate of which is yet to be determined. I cannot guarantee this operation will yield the desired results inferred, Cadet Booker."

"Alright, that's good enough for me." I acknowledged, before turning back to class with a renewed sense of invigoration. The lecture continued, only stopping about midway as the apprentice realized she'd yet to elaborate on the whole Light Magic class side of things. Which, it turns out, was more or less similar to Mana-field perception in its assessment criteria — that being a mix of practical and theory assessments.

A combination of written exams and practical counterspelling would be expected in tests, midterms, and finals. This would mark my first true hurdle… but then again, perhaps I could balance out the rest of my grades against the practicals which was more or less an impossibility given my obvious human limitations…

"As with most of the classes in the first year, I will treat both periods as one. As both subjects are intertwined, we may see glimpses of both within the same period." The apprentice continued, before shifting gears towards something else.

"And on the topic of periods, since we're nearing the conclusion of the first, with lunch quickly coming upon us, I believe it to be necessary to inform everyone now of what awaits at the end of this second period." The apprentice spoke ominously, as she made the effort of meeting every one of the students' gazes.

"By day's end, I intend for a pair of you to perform a practical demonstration of the fundamentals of light magic. So I expect everyone to pay close attention after lunch." A small pause punctuated the room yet again, before Sorecar, after several hours of silence, came to complete the apprentice's thoughts; his faceplate squeaked to form a shape that just barely gave off the feeling of a smirk.

"Be prepared, and be ready, for your first real brush with magical dueling."" First being the operative word here, I must add." The apprentice quickly clarified.

"Within the bounds of demonstrative purposes." I could just about hear the band rounding out the corner outside the hall, and I could just about see a few students ready to pack up their things for lunch. However, before the band could arrive, Thalmin unexpectedly stood up, raising his hand in the process.

"Yes, Prince Thalmin Havenbrock?" The apprentice acknowledged.

"I wish to volunteer as the issuer of this duel, and to designate the other party for this duel as well." The apprentice paused, considering this carefully, before nodding.

"Granted, though I warn you Prince Havenbrock, this is an introductory demonstration, and will be treated as such. In any case, who would you wish to designate as the other party?"

"Lord Auris Ping."