Just as Leon was leaning against the wall, mind wandering off into the distance, his whole head busy calculating how much Iri's addition would save the familia so he could bump his development ability point plan up the schedule... Rose, who'd just finished her bout with Kureha, and the Holy Maiden, who had at some point come to stand beside her with a glint of mischief in her eyes, both crooked their fingers at him.
"Dear Mr. Leon, it's your turn to step up."
"..."
"And you wouldn't want Iri thinking her captain is just a guy who's all talk, would you?" The veins on Leon's forehead bulged. He also noticed Laurier behind him covering her mouth as she giggled and whispered something to Iri, and when Iri's "I'm so curious" gaze landed on him, it set his skin crawling, like needles in his back.
Then he looked at Jeanne and Rose in front of him, both wearing those half-smiles, and his face went completely dark.
Jeanne and Rose were getting right in his face like this. How could he stand for it!?
As their evening study teacher, he decided to give these two students a stern lesson.
With that thought, he yanked off his mink-fur padded coat, revealing the gray, close-fitting half-sleeve training gear underneath, grabbed his twisted-braid staff, and strode into the center of the spot they called the "training corner."
"This gentleman hasn't forgotten the rules, has he?"
"There's not much room here at home, and it can't take the beating from those destruction spells of yours. So the rules stand. No destructive magic of any kind." Leon's mouth twitched. He'd been about to make a case on principle, but one glance at the amused looks from the crowd by the wall and he swallowed the thought back down.
The Lv. 4 him now was a different beast from before.
"Hmph, so I just can't use destruction magic, fine. No problem."
"Then... begin!"
The fight kicked off, and the instant Leon went to cast White Art to summon ice clones and throw off his opponents, a Banner Lance came flying straight at his face, its cold light biting!
"The hell!"
"That's a dirty move!"
"White Art!"
The ice clone technique activated on cue, and ten figures identical to him in every way showed into existence. At a flick of his thought, all the clones, with his real body mixed in among them, scattered rapidly, moving to every corner of the yard with no pattern at all.
This little maneuver lit up Rose's and Jeanne's eyes.
"Controlling ten clones at once, this nimbly, and you can already pull it off this well in such a short time!"
"Looks like while we were doing Baptism, you weren't exactly idle holed up in your workshop, huh? You're handling this White Art like a real pro now."
Facing the praise, eleven figures answered in unison:
"Of course. I'm not some CEO naive enough to pour all his energy into a single project."
"Here in Orario, only your fists are the truth!"
The moment he finished, all eleven figures dropped their stances and surged forward at once, closing in on the two women like phantoms.
"Oh? A Mage, not thinking about how to keep his distance from us, and instead closing in of his own accord?"
"Don't tell me you actually want to fight us in close quarters!"
Leon said nothing and just pressed forward in silence.
Watching the eleven figures converge from all directions and instantly form an encircling ring, Jeanne and Rose reined in their smiles, set up a back-to-back defensive formation, and focused intently on analyzing the movement path of each figure.
The next second, the two sides collided!
Under the dumbstruck stares of the surrounding crowd, Leon's eleven figures each made different moves at the same time, coordinating with flawless, masterful tactics to launch a relentless assault on Jeanne and Rose from every angle.
Eleven Lv. 4s attacking in concert. In a single exchange, the two felt a pressure unlike anything before!
"Hah!"
Jeanne braced her lance shaft against a Leon's overhead chopping strike, but before she could put force into it and fling him away, another clone, which had been using the figure in front for cover, suddenly leapt up from behind that front clone. By the time Jeanne snapped back to attention, the second clone's overhead chop was less than a foot from her forehead!
"Not good!"
Rose caught the scene, her expression shifting at once, and cast her magic without hesitation!
"Lament!"
A pure-white energy shield blocked the staff from falling any further, no surprise there.
"Tsk..."
Hidden behind the cluster of clones, working the ice clones with everything he had, Leon saw this wave of attacks get defended against, and regret crossed his eyes.
"Quick reflexes. Shame."
"But... you fell for it anyway!"
The corner of his mouth curled, his thought shifted, and the cold expression on one of the clones pressed up close to the two women suddenly broke into a smile.
"Frost Nova!"
Rose: "?" The two had just blocked a fierce wave and were caught in that gap where the old momentum is spent and the new hasn't come. Even with the ice clone casting practically in their faces, there was no time to interrupt it!
"Hehe!"
But before Leon's smile could fully spread, the next second... that clone unleashing the Ice Ring got hacked to pieces by Rose's abruptly exploding, godlike-speed counterattack. Leon's expression froze, while a smile spread across Jeanne's face.
"Hehe!" ...
Steel Knight
Boosts Strength and Endurance
In close-quarters combat, boosts abilities related to blocking, parrying, deflecting, and evasion
When countering, boosts attack power and attack speed;
...
Thanks to Steel Knight, that god-tier counter skill, the burst of speed Rose unleashed in the instant of her counterattack not only interrupted Leon's control but smashed one of his clones to bits in one stroke.
"Found you!"
In the instant Leon lost focus and his expression management slipped...
Jeanne sharply caught the tiny shift of expression that crossed the face of one figure among the "many Leons," then decisively swept two figures harassing her flank back with her lance, narrowed her eyes, lowered her body, and launched herself off the mark. Like an arrow, she shot straight at the real Leon hiding in the back.
"Crap, I'm made!"
Leon's heart clenched. He immediately moved a clone to shield his front while his real body retreated fast, trying to open up distance and regroup.
But before he could even carry out his escape plan, Jeanne, with God's Resolution and Holy Maiden running at full power, broke through the defensive line like a gale.
Casting a group weakness status on the ice clones while easily knocking aside those increasingly sluggish clones thanks to her current edge in Basic Abilities and reaction speed, she charged straight at Leon!
...
God's Resolution
Greatly boosts resistance to all magic; boosts Strength when responding;
Greatly boosts resistance to negative effects; boosts Endurance when responding;
Targets or groups deemed hostile are slightly weakened
...
"Crap, this group weakness skill is such a goddamn cheat!"
Watching Jeanne barrel through the clones' defensive line like a war chariot, charging in fast with zero regard for reason, a wave of panic crossed Leon's face.
In a flash, Jeanne closed the gap with a sudden leap, her pale little hand clenching into a fist and swinging hard at Leon's handsome face.
"Just kidding!"
He was about to get clobbered!
At that moment Leon's expression abruptly changed, the earlier panic vanishing, replaced instead by the smug look of a scheme paying off.
"Frost Nova!"
A spreading crackle of ice erupted outward, freezing everything in its path.