.
All three gave me dour glances as we once again stood on the travertine pavement with the wind whipping our hair, but I hadn’t lied. I had certainly asked them to fight a dragon before.
We were in the entry screen, before the dragon’s arrival. As when we first arrived the only sounds were the flags snapping as they fluttered and the wind rushing through the empty stands.
“So we have to complete this stage too,” Ryuu concluded.
“If we left now, you would keep the knowledge and spiritual gains you have made, but you would lose your gains in physique and pneuma in the various training stages that you visited, because your real world bodies are suspended in this stage. In order to transfer the gains to them, the scenario that you initially entered must run to completion with a win.”
“Even though you could probably overrule it as an admin?”
He was very proud of his Earthly understanding of things, but I was very proud of this training hall, so he wouldn’t win this round.
“We built very strict processes into the system, so that people couldn’t cheat to obtain the physical rewards without properly completing all the training. In addition to training your physical bodies, our hall trains the intangibles, such as faithfulness, perseverance and integrity. I regard these qualities as paramount, so I won’t compromise them just to make my friends happy.”
He looked unhappy about my answer, but didn’t say more.
A holographic projection of Kanon in full winged Elder form appeared beneath the observer sphere.
“I’ve reviewed their first fight, Commander. May I make some suggestions before we start?”
“I will only shield Chiara and coach the team,” I answered preemptively. “I could solo that dragon in one try, so there’s no point in me participating.”
I wasn’t bragging. The problem was that I knew too much about this scenario, and this opponent, and I had already confirmed that they had made few revisions. They had added a considerable amount to the Dragon Fighting Arena campaign as a whole. It was far more complex than the original ten stages, but the Dragon Stage itself was unchanged. It had such a simple purpose, after all.
Those who actually made it to this small world and our training program were the purest of the cream, the best of the best. But they were just little ants compared to our graduates. To eliminate their smug awareness of their greatness and reacquaint them with the bottom level, we threw a dragon at them.
Once they finally got past this stage, after going through possibly even more loops of side training mini-games than these three had, they were ready for Servant kindergarten.
“Of course, Commander,” she answered with a patient smile and a nod. “But I would recommend allowing Mr. Kowa and Lady Chiara to protect each other from now on, while you restrict yourself to simply coaching. I believe these two have progressed sufficiently for that.”
Half of me wanted to reject it, but I decided to nod. She was probably right.
“Beyond that, I wish to have the party reconsider their weapon choices.”
Even though we were resetting to the beginning (having not yet reached a save point), we had appeared in the scenario with the weapons from our first try.
“Very well,” I nodded. My original choices for them had been fairly ad-hoc, after all.
“Lady Dilorè’s spear is well-suited to her, but…”
She materialized a heater shield and handed it to her.
“I fashioned this shield from magic materials, so you can use it as a focus to project a strong barrier. It should be well-suited to Elder magic.”
“Elder magic?”
“Fairy magic,” I interpreted. “Other than the lack of some Darkness-oriented spells that you think of as Vampire magic, the chantless magic cast by fairies is Elder magic.”
Dilorè had at least some idea how to use a shield. She slipped it onto her arm with familiarity.
“You…” Kanon looked at Chiara, then gave a dismissive flick of her hand. Chiara’s sword belt and fan both disappeared. A full-sized magician’s staff, like Ceria carries, appeared in Kanon’s hand.
“I’ve always used small focuses…” Chiara protested, looking at the heavy thing with some worry.
“Change your thinking,” she ordered as she handed it to her. “You weren’t able to keep up with the dragon’s magic before, nor were you able to hit hard enough. Either preload many spells, or use its capacity to cast harder hitting ones.”
Then she turned to Ryuu, her eyes on that humongous sword.
He frowned, already knowing what she was thinking.
“It can pack more mana if it’s this big!” he told her before she could say anything.
“Can you handle it one-handed?” she asked, materializing a kite shield.
“That thing’s too large,” he objected.
“Your sword is too large,” she answered. “This shield is the size it needs to be. You don’t have Elder magic or advanced spells to project a proper mana shield like Lady Dilorè, but you can cast [Armor] on this. You may either use this, or wear full plate armor, or you may make a side-trip to a training stage for a couple years to acquire level two or three spells so you project a sufficient mana shield to take on a dragon.”
He folded his arms. “I can dodge. I’ve upped my speed.”
Kanon looked at me for backup, but I shook my head and told her, “I agree with you on the other two, but I’m siding with Mr. Kowa on this, Sister.”
“Commander…”
“Review the video of him together with Orho and Ka a few more times,” I told her. “This isn’t the same Ryuu Kowa who faced this dragon the first time. I don’t know if he can solo that dragon yet, but he was a very effective raider whenever he sallied outside Orho’s defensive zone. Lady Chiara should be able to provide him a similar safe zone to attack out of.”
She looked reluctant so I added, “I’m not so much disagreeing with you as willing to give him the chance to prove himself. We’ll do it your way if he can’t do it his way.”
She nodded wordlessly, then noted, “If you have no plan to participate, then you can withdraw to the instructor’s booth.”
“I need to be with them in order to follow them to the later stages.”
“So we’re still doing more stages after this dragon?” Ryuu asked with a frown.
“Not immediately,” I answered. “When you beat this guy, we’ll take a break outside so your real body can assimilate your gains. But we’ll be back later, yes.”
The dragon was incoming. Kanon bowed and disappeared.
I won’t write down the whole start sequence, although they had to go through it. Let’s just say we’re skipping the cut scene. While all that pageantry transpired, Ryuu, Chiara and Dilorè held a quick planning meeting.
With the crowd now present and roaring its approval, the colorful mounted soldiers riding their dinosaurian beasts lined up on the sidelines, and the magnificent Gugrenar, the King of the Crystal Marble Range, calling out his war cry, the trio advanced and I retreated, skimming the ground while flying backwards.
Ryuu had Chiara stop and hold her position once she reached far enough for attack magic. She was to advance no farther. She would send ranged attacks rather than attempt to shield Ryuu long-distance.
“I’m going!” Dilorè told him, and took off, skimming the travertine pavement as she dashed to the side, intending to circle around behind him. But she was caught in the air less than half-way, and had to land to defend herself. As the dragon concentrated on her, Ryuu made an attack run toward the opposite side, pointing his sword at the dragon and using it as a magic focus to cast [Earth Bullet].
The dragon turned toward Ryuu and opened his mouth.
“Fire attack!” Dilorè warned him as Fire mana accumulated. As it fired, he made a bounding leap forward, toward the quarter opposite Dilorè. He really did manage to dodge.
Meanwhile Chiara chanted a second-level magic spell, [Water Spear] and pointed her staff at the creature.
I watched the progress of the battle and smiled. They needed a better strategy, but they had made a lot of progress.
# # #
Naturally, they didn’t beat it on the first try, although they came close. Once Dilorè was caught by a wing while flying, flipping her skyward out of bounds, the dragon overwhelmed Ryuu and Chiara with a charge that broke through her [Wind Wall].
They woke up depressed in the Recovery Room, but I was amped at how well they had done.
“That was only your second time facing him, too!” I exclaimed, trying to pump some life into them as they lay on their sleeping benches and sulked.
“Your Highness,” Dilorè answered, “I was just thrown out of bounds, but those two were killed. Give them a moment.”
I took a breath and understood I was going overboard. This place was a Huade simulation, with Huade levels of spiritual energy, and I was back to being mostly Tiana, with only dim memories of previous lives to help me. I was letting my inner fifteen-year-old out a bit too much at the moment.
The thoughts of wise Fan Li and Kwelabi were not instantly on tap in this place. I could remember now how to do immortal deduction, the heavenly equivalent of divination, but in this sparse spiritual environment, with my tiny spiritual vessel, it was probably less effective than Allia on an average day.
“So, I suppose we go off for another round of training now?” Ryuu asked with a dark voice.
“No,” I replied. “You discuss, plan and go again. You should be able to do this stage until you win, now.”
I left the two mortals and went over to take a seat. A very familiar serving girl poured me tea.
Ryuu noticed her and asked, “Ka?”
She bowed. “Hello again, Master Kowa.”
“You know her?” Chiara asked.
“I am Master Kowa’s team member,” Ka stated quietly, bowing. “Greetings, Lady Chiara.”
Looking back at him, she wondered, “Team member?”
“I did a bunch of training. Tiana had me work with a couple spirit beasts.”
“However, I cannot transform in this environment, as I must use this mortal simulation here,” she told Chiara. “Spirit beasts cannot survive in this environment in their natural form.”
Dilorè had taken a seat at the table– I had made them install a proper table and chairs in this place, as I found the ancient furniture a little annoying– and Ka poured her tea as well. Yes, it was proper tea and not their not-quite-coffee ancient beverage. I knew I was breaking the scenario, but frankly, I didn’t care.
“Come over here and sit down, you two,” I directed. “Ka is here to help you plan a better fight. We also have one other guest.”
I sent an inner voice command, and a large screen appeared on the wall, replacing the stucco. The background was the Garden Pavilion. The foreground was Orho.
“Lady Orho, this is Lady Chiara, Mr. Kowa’s other companion. They just returned from a failed battle with the dragon. Chiara, Lady Orho is the other spirit beast helping Mr. Kowa.”
I have just finished reviewing the fight, Mr. Kowa, she responded. I suppose it was an adequate first try for mortals.
Orho does not give praise easily.
“It was a dragon, you know?” Ryuu shot back as he sat at the table. Chiara was taking her place next to him. Ka swiftly provided them tea as well.
Your victory condition was to force him to leave the pavement and go out of bounds. Why are you trying to kill him?
Ryuu’s face grew sour. I deduced from that look that he hadn’t considered that.
Chiara and Dilorè looked at each other with eyes that told me they hadn’t, either.
“I remember Her Highness saying that, now,” Dilorè mused. “It could make a difference how we go about our fight.”
“But how should we make him leave the ground?” Chiara wondered.
You make standing upon it impossible, Orho replied.
