(Well. That went well.)
Seventeen shook his head and he's pretty sure he heard rattling inside. 'Please enlighten me by how things went well?', he asked Prime.
(You have reached the dreadful coffee table having the enchanted rings. But who knew Zephyrus would put up a barrier around it?)
After getting blown away by Alice's Photoshock, he crashed into a barrier that was put up around the coffee table.
'Probably to prevent it from getting destroyed by our fighting.', Seventeen replied as he stood up and examined himself. The Dragon Knight armor was no longer invisible.
(It looks like the invisibility enchantment is susceptible to high-intensity magia attacks.)
'Looks like more tinkering in the future.'
He can feel the combined presence of Ruth and Jade getting closer. Meanwhile, Alice's presence suddenly spiked.
Seventeen looked behind and whistled, "What do we have here?"
The enchanted rings on the dreadful coffee table radiated strong magia energy even when they are behind a multilayered barrier.
He reached out his hand only to be stopped by the barrier. "Hmm.", he looked at his hand and then at the rings. The barrier is probably a CAT 1 enchantment.
He wished he had a way to look up information about things and people in front of him. He then enhanced his armored hand with magia, flattened his palm, and penetrated the barrier.
This caused him to jump to CAT 0 for a moment. "I should stop playing around.", he murmured as he broke through the final layer like it was paper.
He felt Alice's presence approaching and in a split second she was at him, her glowing sword aimed at him.
But Seventeen just casually caught the sword with his other armored hand, and a powerful shockwave rippled from the contact.
He can feel her glowing eyes widen behind her helm. He picked up the rings and looked at Alice. She was covered in beautiful white armor with massive wings and she had an otherwordly glow around her.
He smiled, forgetting the fact that she cannot see his face, "You look wonderful."
At that moment Alice didn't see the friendly and confident instructor Seventeen. She found herself in an endless white space. When she looked above she saw two massive rifts in the white space that burned blue like suns.
No. Those were not rifts. They were eyes raging with power and looking down on her.
She remembers this feeling, back when she recklessly challenged the Headmaster when she became a captain. But this is beyond a Cardinal.
She snapped back to reality and immediately flew back. She noticed that her sword was still in her hand. Seventeen didn't hold onto it. Alice just did something out of instinct and a chill ran down her spine when she thought about it.
She cannot see his face behind the helm but is pretty sure he is smiling.
Seventeen held out his hand and Nyx flew back into it. He noticed that the limiter chain on the sword was eaten away leaving only a single link remaining.
'The limiter will break soon. I have to end this quickly.'
He faced Alice who looked like an armored angel ready for a heavenly war and casually swung his sword in the air.
A powerful gust of wind flattened the trees closest to the clearing and shook the remaining ones.
Two pairs of wings formed behind him, one made of golden red flames and the other of pure darkness.
The air became heavy with the two attributes co-existing at the same time and the surroundings became hot one minute and bitter cold the next as the wings shifted.
*******
Back in the beach house, Zephyrus didn't take his eyes off Seventeen, "He is gradually revealing his cards."
He turned to Vanessa, "I must thank you for erecting a secondary barrier around this place. The combined presence of four strong warlocks is not healthy for them.", he said, glancing at the students intently watching the battle.
All of them were surprised to see Seventeen use Darkness.
"I thought Jason was the only one I know to have the Darkness attribute.", Kate remarked. "I even saw traces of Air magia too.", Minerva noted, her sharp eyes not missing a single moment.
'Just who is our instructor?", the young Raven wondered.
Vanessa smiled at the Cardinal's gaze, "Your barrier is not bad either."
She didn't take her eyes off the man sitting beside her whose full attention is on the magia screen.
'Many people are wondering just who Seventeen is but to me, the question should be directed at you, Leonard Zephyrus. You are such an enigmatic person.'
*******
Seventeen lifted off the ground using his wings, A slot opened in his armored palm and the rings were stored inside.
"First objective is done. Now for the second.", he took a stance and faced Alice.
Both of them moved at the same time and the ensuing clash produced a powerful burst of magia that almost blew away the wind spirits of Zephyrus.
Seventeen quickly changed his stance and swung upward, 'Seventeen Style fourth form: Equinox.'
He controlled the magia output from his attack. But even with that, the attack managed to slice one of Alice's wings into two pieces when she dodged but also split the forest and sky.
Alice quickly regenerated her destroyed wing, 'I must be more careful.', she can feel her Reserve depleting as she retreated a few meters away.
Vestment of Luminosity has a huge magia requirement.
An Original Code like this will last only a minute when used by an ordinary warlock but with Alice's Reserve, she can last for 15 minutes.
If she can completely master a Magia Loop, her Original Code will last indefinitely.
{Light Code: Lumine Swords.}
Many light swords materialized around her and she directed them toward Seventeen.
He streamed magia into Nyx and did two cross slashes, 'Seventeen Style third form: Cross Strike'.
The crossed magia waves obliterated the incoming swords and he swiftly deflected the remaining ones.
He then saw a flurry of light and blocked as Alice slashed at him with her wings. The light feathers making the wing were very sharp and sparked against his armor.
She then followed the slashes with a wing thrust. Seventeen quickly dodged to the right. And after retracting Nyx, landed a powerful blow to her exposed side with Volcanic Fist.
Alice grunted in pain and forced him to get back with another slash of her wings. Her armor was cracked and small pieces are falling off the smoking and blackened spot but it held its integrity.
But the pain was tremendous and she is sure that her side is heavily bruised. The white armor automatically repaired itself but it required more magia from her Reserve.
Now she has 8 minutes left.
Just then the crashing of trees took their attention and they turned around just as the trees on the other side of the clearing disintegrated into splinters and leaves.
Ruth and Jade have joined the wild party.
The former looked impressive in her new and improved Dance Of Swords form, complete with the ice wings.
But among the four of them. Jade was the most impressive one.
She was clad in a scarlet armored dress well designed for a swordmaster. A crown of blood-red runes adorned her long flowing white hair, now streaked with crimson highlights. Her eyes glowed with power and a rose symbol glowed on her left cheek.
Her forearms are crimson as if she had dipped them in blood, and emerging from there are polygonal lines that ran along her deathly white skin.
A pair of enormous wings made of hundreds of blood swords floated above her shoulder blades and three orbs surrounded by concentric discs of blood spinning like gyroscopes surrounded her.
Seventeen can see that his partner had done some damage to her opponent. One of the orbs was crumbling and a few swords were missing from Jade's wings. Her armored dress also looks frozen in many places.
That doesn't mean Ruth has come out unscathed.
Two of the satellite snowflakes around the bigger snowflake were gone and one of her wings looks like it is regenerating. There were scrapes and cuts all over her body and the number of swords under her control had become less.
She first glanced at the empty table and locked eyes with Seventeen who gave a small nod. She understood the meaning and nodded back with a small smile.
Seemingly invigorated by the sight of their partners, the instructors and captains increased the intensity of their attacks, decimating the middle portion of the island.
(This is going to make some environmentalists unhappy. Other than that, this is pretty much like a battle between angels.)
'Thanks for the comment. Definitely not helping at all, Prime!', Seventeen replied as he overpowered Alice with his relentless attacks. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Ruth holding her own against the Sword Princess.
He used Magia Vision and saw that Alice's magia started to flicker. He can see the same about Jade but not as much as his opponent.
He released a magia pulse, momentarily garnering the attention of the three young women. He locked eyes with Ruth and nodded twice. She understood the signal and proceeded to lead Jade closer to Seventeen and Alice.
But it appears that their opponents figured out the plan. Seventeen saw movement at the corner of his eyes and quickly moved.
He deflected four blood daggers that were thrown at him, exposing him to Alice's attack. He quickly used wing slashes to counter her but the Luminous Knight used Flashbang.
The contact between the light explosion and his wings of darkness created a shock wave that disoriented him slightly but it was not enough as he quickly summoned a dagger in his other hand and countered Alice's following sword strike.
The energy released from the contact blew them back, with Seventeen on a collision course toward Ruth. But he took it as an opportunity.
"Popsicle! Switch!", he yelled in that small time gap.
Ruth was surprised. But she pushed her opponent back with a barrage of ice swords and quickly flew toward him.
She smacked him with the flat of her sword to correct his position in the air and went after Alice.
"Hey there!", Seventeen greeted Jade as he crossed blades with her. The Sword Princess grinned vampirically.
"Let's dance, shall we?"