Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Terra; Imperia; FBC

Tuesday morning, I'm back to the History of The Empire course. Professor Bishop gives an amazing lecture as always, but it slowly becomes obvious that she's very disappointed by our class, as more and more people are missing every week. We're down to 15 students now, which is a shame. Professor Bishop deserves better!

After the course, I decline the usual invitation to Lisa's get together, as I promised Stan and the others to join them during their debriefing. Therefore, I just grab a quick lunch to-go at a food truck on campus and eat while walking toward building 11 where the debrief will take place.

It's a ten minute walk, so I'm already done eating when I catch sight of Caroline waiting before the entrance. "Hi, Caroline," I call out and she turns around.

She waves back. "Sara! Hi, you're right on time, come on, let's get inside. The others are already there."

We enter and she calls an elevator, then we travel all the way to the top and exit into another hallway. Here, lots of doors are next to each other on both sides of the hallway. I read a few plates next to the doors and they all start with Professor or Instructor. It's their offices!

Caroline leads me down the hallway and after a turn to the right at an intersection, we arrive at a plate that reads Instructor Schmidt. She knocks, then opens the door and we enter. Instructor Schmidt sits behind a big desk and the others sit across from him. There are still two empty seats, which we take and sit down.

The door closes behind us and Instructor Schmidt looks up and smiles at us. "Well, well, well, quite the trip you had, huh?"

No one is sure what to reply to this, so we stay silent and continue to look at him. He chuckles and continues to speak. "So how do you think you did?"

I lean back in my chair to watch the proceedings while the other five look at each other. From the faint traces of magic, they are having a silent conversation. Finally, Stan clears his throat and speaks up.

"I think we did quite good… Not perfectly, but well enough. There were a few situations where we could have done better, but we eliminated both threats to our freighter without endangering it too much."

So they did know that they could have done better during the encounters.

Suddenly, Instructor Schmidt looks at me. "Can you confirm this, Miss Green? You saw everything first hand after all. And don't worry, I've already finalized the grade for the assignment, so you can speak freely."

I take a deep breath and look at my former crewmates. "Yeah, they did a solid job defending the freighter. Just two things for the future, guys. You can never ever freeze like you all did when the pirate ship sent out their big Tracer spell and crashed our Shields. If things would have been real, you could have been killed. Also, don't rely on your Space Mage too much. Others get exhausted way earlier than a Master like me. Especially the start of our pirate encounter… We practically wasted four whole jump sequences until you guys came up with a response. A weaker Senior Mage would have been done for at this point."

Instructor Schmidt nods at me with respect in his eyes while the others all blanched a bit. Paul even gulps.

"That was a great summary, Miss Green. I only have a few minor things to add later on. But besides all that, you did well, especially during the surprise assignment. Your ambush attack was superbly executed and was the fastest takedown in FBC history. Now without further ado, let me congratulate you on successfully passing this course. If you want, I can give you further explanation on my reasoning for your final grade."

He stops and looks at me. "But I don't think that's relevant for you, Miss Green, so if you want, you are free to leave."

Yeah, he's right. I don't really want to listen to how he came up with their grade, especially when I'm not graded myself. Getting up, I nod at him, then I turn to the others. "Alright guys, good job! I hope I was a good taxi," I say with a short laugh.

Caroline jumps up and hugs me. "Of course you did! You were the best taxi ever. And don't forget that we still have to collect that drink the pirates are owing us, so you're not getting rid of us just now."

I chuckle and return the hug. She's right, I almost forgot about the drinks. We release each other and I wave at the rest. Then I leave through the door and leave my first taxi assignment behind me.

Nothing special happens during Secondary Utility in the evening and my Leadership course the next morning. After that, it's time for Improvised Combat. It's actually one of my favorite courses, as it's so varied. I mean the course takes place at a different setting each week. And those settings feel so real, like they are just plucked out of a real city. Oh, and the Reinforcement spell is so cool and useful at the same time! It allows me to basically grab whatever I want and make it tough like tristanium in an instant.

Lydia likes the course a lot too – for obvious reasons… *cough* Olivia *cough.* Anyway, the two of us enter today's classroom and take a look around. Looks like it's a park for today. That's going to be interesting because there's not much to hide behind and there's a lot of open space. It's practically the worst case scenario if you can't shield yourself against an A&D Mage. I wonder what's the trick to this.

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Olivia arrives about ten minutes later and she has Rick with her. Rick's an A&D Mage and joins our class from time to time to play the attacker. I gulp, Rick's a little bit more rough with his spells compared to Kevin, our class's A&D Mage. My gaze wanders between the park and a broadly grinning Rick. Yeah, today's gonna suck!

We gather around Olivia in the middle of the small park and she speaks up. "Good afternoon, guys, I hope you're well rested as we're doing something special today." She points at Rick and continues. "You all know Rick, so say hi, he's going to be our big bad A&D Mage today."

A collective groan goes through our group and Olivia chuckles while patting Rick's shoulder. "See, they like you."

His grin gets even wider and he looks at Olivia. "This is going to be fun." Both start cackling and return their predatory looks at us.

"So who wants to start?" Olivia asks and we all take a collective step backward. Well, we all except Kevin who stays where he is. He looks to his side and blanches.

"No!" He exclaims and hastily steps backward too. It's too late though, as Olivia rushes forward and pulls him back out into the open.

"Thanks for volunteering, Kevin. You're actually the perfect man to start. Because once you're done, you can play the second A&D Mage and we can speed things up."

Kevin's eyes widen and his shocked look gives way for a slight grin. "So I suffer first and then I can make the others suffer?"

Olivia nods. "I wouldn't call it that way, but essentially, yes."

Kevin pumps a fist. "Yeah! So what do I have to do?"

Olivia grins. "Well, remember our very first lesson and what I told you?" When he doesn't answer immediately, she looks at the whole group. "Anyone else?"

I lift my arm and she nods at me. "You run the fuck away if you face an A&D Mage?"

That earns me a thumbs-up from both Olivia and Rick. "Exactly! But we never really practiced that, right? Well, today's the day because this park here offers absolutely nothing to improvise with. No weapons, no place to hide, so your best bet is to run. So Kevin, whenever you're ready…"

"Oh shit!" He cries out when his gaze falls onto Rick who's already balancing a fireball and icicle above his hands. Then he starts running in an erratic pattern.

He actually does quite a good job, as Rick misses his first two shots. But before long, the inevitable happens and one of Rick's icicles hits Kevin in the back. The shield around him flashes red and his body locks up so he falls over like a felled tree. Yep, that's the additional function those rings have… They can lock up "hurt" body parts.

A few seconds later, we hear Kevin groaning. Then he slowly gets back up. "I'm dead, can I now reincarnate as an attacker?" He asks with a pained smile.

Olivia nods. "Yeah, go for it. Now the remainder of you, please divide yourselves equally between Rick and Kevin and don't worry, you all get to run twice, so that you all get to enjoy Rick's magic!" She gives us a rather sadistic smile at the end. Oh boy, that's a side of her, we never experienced.

I decide to get the worst behind me first and line up next to Rick. A few others obviously had the same idea, and so we manage to do an equal split on first try. Lydia is the first one on Kevin's side and rushes ahead at Olivia's sign.

Surprisingly, she makes it without getting hit. Is Kevin just a worse Mage or is Lydia the better runner? My money is on Lydia, as I felt at least one spell being cast by her. I have to ask her what she did later! But first, Rick's next victim gets to run. It's Hector, Kevin's best friend.

He gets the worst result so far, as the first spell is an immediate hit and he tumbles head over heels to the ground. Groaning, he gets back up and joins the line behind Kevin and Rick's next victim gets ready.

Meanwhile, I wave down Olivia and ask her to join me. "What's wrong?" She asks after coming over.

"Nothing… I just have an idea, but I'm not sure if it works as you'd have to modify my shield ring."

Her eyebrows raise to her hairline and she asks with curiosity underlying her voice. "Oh? What do you have in mind?"

"Well, you said the Reinforcement spell could be used for everything, right?" When she nods, I continue. "So this got me thinking… What if I reinforce my clothes right before Rick's spells hit? I should be able to time it perfectly with the awareness my Space Sense gives me. Just a quick Reinforcement when the attack impacts, then dismiss the spell again so that my stiff clothes don't hinder me."

Olivia tilts her head and scratches her nose in thought. "You're in a unique position, you know? You could ace the run through the park by just teleporting, but here you come up with such a ridiculous idea. And the craziest part is that this might actually work… So if you want, we can try it… I should be able to configure your shield to react only at the last moment. Just one more question. Are you wearing clothes that you don't mind getting destroyed? Just in case you mess up."

I look down at myself and see just a bland light purple shirt and a pair of black pants. Yeah, nothing to worry about… Those things can be easily replaced. I turn my head back to Olivia. "I'm good, can you please adjust the shield?"

"Of course, I'm quite curious how things play out, you know," she says while tapping her interface. "There, all done. Have fun, I'll make sure to record Rick's face when his spells are completely ineffective."

I flash her a quick smile, then return to my place in the queue. Just one more student, then it's my turn.

Barely a minute later, I stand before Rick who has his two attacks already floating above his hands. I give him a short nod, then turn around and rush forward.

It only takes a second until my Space Sense basically screams at me to do something. I don't have time to turn around, but I'm pretty sure it's the fireball.

Any moment now…

I have the Reinforcement spell already precast, I just need to trigger it. Just one more moment.

Now!

I trigger the spell and feel my shirt harden, suddenly my upper torso is locked up, and I stumble slightly. But it was enough! The fireball hits and does a whole lot of nothing. I inwardly cheer and dismiss the spell. Then I dodge two steps to the left and continue to run.

I vaguely hear some surprised gasps from behind me but I block them out as I'm already precasting the Reinforcement spell again. Seconds later, my Space Sense screams at me again and this time I try to dodge. I almost make it, but still have to trigger a last second Reinforcement of my pants as the icicle was about to graze my left thigh.

The rhythm continues for two more spells. I manage to dodge the first one by ducking and catch the second one with a timely Reinforcement of my shirt. But of course, all good things come to an end…

Right before I cross the finish line, my Space Sense screams bloody murder at me. Rick adapted his technique and sent two spells at once… Dang it, he also changed them into something more wide ranged, so dodging is out. Sly bastard!

An arch of flame closes in on my back, while a spread of icicles homes in on my butt. Dammit, that's two pieces of clothing at the same time and I've only got one Reinforcement precast. I should have enough time to switch to a quick teleportation, but that feels like cheating. I know I'm silly, but I'd rather fall down proudly. So which spell gets to hit me?

After a quick deliberation, I settle on the icicle. Better block the flames before I'm left topless! So I wait for the last moment and Reinforce my shirt to block the flames. I jump up at the same time because better let my thighs being hit than my butt, right?

In hindsight, that was a bad idea… The icicle impacts with more force than I thought and spins me around. I almost do a complete rotation before gravity latches onto me and drags me down. Right on my face…

I've never been so grateful for the shield ring that saved me from eating grass.

Still, oww!

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