Even if you're a bit disappointed by the abrupt ending, you offer your opponent a bow and thank him for the match.
He returns the gesture before exiting the ring.
You're not in completely ideal condition, but you're hardly crippled, either. As long as this guy doesn't take you down with one massive hit or - more likely - a fast combination, you think your skills, (super)natural hardiness, and multi-layered ki-based defenses will help you to stay on your feet long enough to "catch a second wind" via a quick healing spell, or otherwise keep yourself in the fight.
The main acknowledgment your choice to keep fighting draws from your third opponent is a shrug, which your read of his aura suggests is simple indifference. Where your first opponent was unsure about your presence in the Under Eighteens Division due to your age, this one seems not to be bothered by the idea of fighting with a kid - possibly because he's already seen you take down one guy around his age and convince another to yield, possibly because he's just here for the spar and doesn't really care who it's with, or maybe just because he thinks he'll win regardless.
The two of you assume your opening stances-
"Begin!"
!
-and you simultaneously try to squint and widen your eyes in surprise as your active Ki Sight registers a sudden, fairly intense upwelling of energy, which is coming right at you-!
Over the next fifteen or twenty seconds, you learn a number of things.
First, your opponent is stronger than you are, even when you push your Ki Enhancement back up to the highest level you think you can reasonably get away with using in front of the civilian crowd. It's his greater mass more than anything else that is responsible for this, since it allows him to put more force behind a blow or absorb more force via a block, but technique and experience also play their part: his stance is just that little bit better; his movements are slightly more efficient; his aim, a hair more accurate; and so on - little factors that all add up to a considerable difference in performance.
You also note that he's using a variant of Ki Enhancement that's more focused on augmenting the physical side rather than the mental, pretty much the exact opposite of your Brain Enhancement trick. Such a technique is arguably not as useful as the standard form for someone like you, who has access to other types of supernatural ability that benefit from powering up the more cerebral and spiritual aspects of your being, but for a typical martial artist whose only exotic power source is their ki? It might well be worthwhile.
Gained Body Enhancement E
It's certainly pulling its weight in this fight!
Second, you've got a slight edge in speed and a significantly greater one in reaction time. The former is, once again, a consequence of the size difference between you, as while your opponent can hit harder once his larger body gets up to speed, it does take him a little more time and effort to complete any given maneuver than you would. As for the latter, it's your Mind Blank Spell pulling its weight once more and denying your sparring partner a source of information he'd otherwise be able to use to anticipate your movements-
!
-but as one of your strikes is blocked and countered with a force that leaves your arms aching, you have to admit that the arcanely-acquired tactical advantage is not so pronounced as it was with your first opponent. Where that guy spent a good part of your bout on the back foot and trying to play catch-up, this guy has the training and experience to recognize some of your moves even without Ki Perception passing him notes, and come up with counters almost automatically - and with minimal tells, besides!
Not NO tells, but you haven't fought a lot of people who favor reactive combat styles like the one this young man is settling into, and the lack of experience is really throwing your game off.
Gained Counter F (Plus)
At least it's educational!
Still, the aches, stings, and future bruises you're picking up tell you that if you keep going like this, you're probably going to lose this match, and sooner rather than later.
The idea of casting the Greater Spell to Create a Magic Weapon comes to mind again, and is, once again, dismissed due to concerns of overdoing it with the damage output. Maybe you need to think about developing a variation of that spell which doesn't augment the cutting edge or crushing face of a weapon, just its speed and precision?
Still, as much as you don't wish to injure your opponent, you also don't want to lose the spar - and the basic idea of increasing the accuracy and power of your strikes isn't a bad one, per se, it just needs to be a little less powerful, or at least a little better controlled.
You can manage the latter by dialing up your Ki Strike, and as for the former, there IS the Spell of Magic Weapon. Granted, it'll only give you a small edge compared to its bigger brother, but it's rather less likely to cause unintentional harm in the process.
Focusing on evasive maneuvers for a moment, you gather your mana to one hand-
!
-and almost immediately have to block with the arm you were still using to guard, as your opponent sees an opening.
That's the thing about casting spells in melee; between the focus you have to dedicate to gathering the power and the hand(s) needed to shape it, your guard is always weakened. Even if you'd mastered the Spell Combat technique - and you really haven't - it wouldn't prevent someone from taking a shot at you, in and of itself, just make you less likely to lose control and waste your energy.
The problem, you're quickly finding, is especially pronounced in unarmed combat. With a weapon in hand, you'd be able to defend AND keep your opponent at a certain distance; without a weapon, he's free to close the gap and come at you with both hands at once, when you've only got the one that can fully focus on martial matters.
And while your decision to focus on defense managed to stop the first strike, the young man in front of you doesn't give up just because of that. Shifting from that counter-focused stance, he presses his attack, and with one hand tied up making magic, your defense suddenly isn't enough to hold him off. You sidestep one strike, deflect another, lean back from a third, and actually manage to slip in a strike of your own, which connects hard enough to get a flinch, thanks to your elevated Ki Strike-
*Pow!*
-and the next thing you know, you're looking down at your feet and the mat below, gasping for breath and trying not to puke up your lunch.
Part of your mind takes a moment to proudly note that you didn't lose your spell!
Gained Spell Combat E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Another part wonders if this is how your first opponent felt when you hit him in the solar plexus. Your current sparring partner hit you more in the stomach than above it, but the end result seems about the same... ugh...
And a third section of your brain realizes that the ref has called for a halt, and is asking you if you can continue.
With an effort, you straight up and inform the ref that you can continue.
He regards you searchingly for a moment, then nods a touch uncertainly. "If you're sure, then very well. Continue!"
And then your opponent comes at you again with a punch, punch, kick combo that your aching stomach does you no favors in working to defend against.
Not that it slows you down all that much, either, but still.
Even as you deflect the opening strike of the sequence, you find yourself suspecting that the young man has activated his Ki Armor, due to the way his forearm feels when you deflect it with your now-thrice-reinforced palm, before the punch just ahead of it can connect with some other tender spot on your person.
By the second exchange, your suspicion is confirmed, as much from the clearer look you're able to get at the guy with your Ki Sight as from his (somewhat lacking) reaction to your next parry.
And then, as you dodge the kick, you look at a foe with only foot leg under him and see an opening-
!
-which you realize in time may have been what he WANTED you to see, as you half-leap backwards to get your foot out of the way of the incoming stomp just before it touches down.
You're onto him, no-!
!
-oh, you little-!
Your opponent comes forward with what looks like a double palm strike, and though you block it, the force slams your arms back against your chest, and then drags the rest of you along!
The good news is that the blow doesn't hurt: your arms are conditioned for this sort of thing, and currently augmented besides; your layered defense soaked up the Ki Strike; and the underlying (enhanced) muscle power was controlled to the point where it could be considered gentle. Relatively speaking.
The bad news is that, even if you largely neutralized the damaging aspect, the force involved is still pushing you off-balance and in a generally backwards direction. So it's really more of a "shove" than a "strike"...
And the worst news is that the older boy caught you with his attack while you were still backpedaling out of the way of that stomp, meaning your reverse course just sped up - and you can almost see the sparring mats in their entirety, which means the edge is coming up behind you-!
In that moment, as the steps of the fight play flash before your mind's eye, you have to stop and wonder if your opponent had planned to go for a ring-out the entire time, or if he just saw the opportunity and took it.
And then your back foot comes down PARTLY on the edge of the mat-
"Out!"
-but with the heel hitting the gym floor.
And that is the end of your first series of spars.
Sighing, you straighten up and bow to your opponent and then exit the sparring area for the time being.
You SHALL return!
"Thank you for the match," you say. "It was very educational."
Your larger opponent smirks at that - or from the approving nod and the rest of his body language, maybe it was meant to be a smile, and he just has a naturally smirky face?
Whatever the case, you get yourself out of the way of his next bout and rejoin your friends.
"Two out of three," Cordy says in a neutral tone, nodding once. "Not bad."
"Your approval means everything to me," you reply dryly.
She smirks at that - and it's definitely a smirk, this time - and then asks, "So, how bad did that last guy whup you?"
"Pretty solidly," you admit, rubbing your chest. Even held back to competition-level force, that's going to sting for a while. Although... "On that subject, Lu-sensei?"
"Yes?"
"What can you tell me about ki-based healing techniques?"
You could, of course, simply cast a healing spell and be done with it; magical healing is a bit glowy even at the low end, but you can deal with that easily enough by making another quick trip to the bathroom or something. Still, in the spirit of the day, you would like to at least TRY to refrain from using magic for everything, especially if there's a ki-based alternative you could employ.
"There are techniques equivalent to healing spells," your master admits, "although the majority affect only the user. Being able to affect another person's ki in a non-disruptive manner takes natural talent, practice, or some kind of workaround like being their twin or lifelong companion, and even then, working up to actual enhanced healing is difficult when the other person doesn't have trained ki, let alone doing it as quickly as I've seen you or Briar do."
You nod, not surprised by this. Healing is one of the trickier forms of magic, due to the complexity and fragility of living organisms, and unless you've got a Power willing to step in and do the necessary work for you, there is quite a lot of study involved - and not just the expected biology and chemistry, either. Physics and metaphysics are also required, to understand how the body reacts to various forces acting upon it - and to make sure you don't cause certain unwanted reactions when channeling positive energy through it - as is knowledge of the spirit realms, so that you can identify the work of its various denizens and thank, appease, or abjure them as needed.
Ki healers wouldn't have it any easier than anybody else who didn't have a god or the like in their corner, and in fact, they probably have a harder time than most, given their abilities are entirely self-powered, generally self-contained (or at least inwardly focused), and don't usually reach the scale of powers manifested by, oh, sorcerers, to use a handy example.
"I don't know any of those quick healing techniques, myself," your teacher continues, "and even if I did, I am quite certain you wouldn't be able to learn them for some time yet."
Drat.
"However, if you would like, I can certainly show you some of the introductory ki-assisted healing techniques, though we'll need to visit the first aid station for a proper demonstration."
Lu Tze nods and leads you and the rest of your group over to the first aid station, where he speaks briefly with one of the attendants and returns with a kit and an observer.
"Don't mind me," the middle-aged lady says in response to all your curious looks. "I'm just here for legal reasons."
"She's also read in on the existence of ki," Lu-sensei adds, setting the first aid kit down. "Alright, Alex. Open up your top, and let's see how many bruises your latest bout of overeagerness has earned you."
...
Not too many, as it happens, and most of those are on your arms where you had to block hits from the larger and stronger of your opponents. You took a few genuine hits elsewhere, though, with that one hit to your chest in particular standing out and promising to darken nicely (or nastily) over the next couple of days.
Lu-sensei gives your "wounds" a brief look, and then moves aside to let Briar make her own inspection. As your partner is poking you-
"Ow."
-muttering to herself, and (with some effort, you sense) refraining from casting healing spells, your teacher opens up the first aid kit and begins speaking.
As far as the basics of ki-based healing go, he describes two abilities, the first of which was created long ago to support the application of "battlefield medicine," and has been refined down through the centuries. While it does involve elements of Ki Enhancement for focusing the mind and steadying the nerves, it's primarily associated with the field of Ki Infusion because of how optimal field care tends to require tools and materials. Cleaning, dressing, and bandaging wounds, bracing and setting bones, applying antiseptics - if it can be done with first aid, it can be done better with Ki Aid.
One aspect of Ki Aid that your master goes into some detail on involves channeling ki into a bandage, dressing, or wrap so that it fits closer and more naturally to whatever part of the body it's attached to, maintaining a tighter but more comfortable seal and resisting contamination or damage longer than the material alone would be capable of. When applied by expert users, these "ki bandages" can be attuned to the ki of the patient so as to actively soothe pain, fight off infection, and promote healing, but Lu-sensei notes he is not that practiced at the technique.
"An odd downside of being good at not getting hit," he says.
The other skill your master describes is a derivative of Ki Generation, which adjusts the production and flow of one's ki in ways that support the body's natural healing. It doesn't speed up the healing process per se, instead making sure that there are fewer and less serious complications, whether that's while the body is putting itself back together or in the aftermath.
This Ki Healing is not a quick process, by any means, but it's a necessary prerequisite for the advanced, combat-grade ki-based healing techniques, so it bears mentioning, and Lu-sensei will be giving you some pointers shortly.
In the meantime, he applies a bit of cream to your arms and chest, then wraps some bandages around them to keep from making a mess, but also to help shield your arms a bit when the next round of fights comes along.
"No ice pack, I'm afraid," he notes.
"We went through those in the first half hour," the attendant admits wryly.
You lean a little closer to your teacher and ask quietly if the first aid lady is also read in on the existence of magic.
He blinks. "I don't know. Why do you ask?"
Well, she said they'd run out of ice packs; you could conjure some replacement ice pretty easily...
"I think they were actually using gel packs," Lu-sensei notes offhandedly. "But that's not a bad idea."
It only takes a minutes to sort everything out. The attendant does know about the existence of magic - if not specifically YOURS - and when you offer to provide a fresh supply of ice, she's quite happy to show you over to the coolers behind the first aid station, where they were storing those packs.
Judging from the number and size of the coolers, they should have had dozens of ice packs, at least, which is a bit unsettling. There haven't been THAT many people getting injured today, have there?
Then a thought occurs to you, which you voice: "How many of these did you lose yesterday?"
"Quite a few," the lady replies wryly.
Okay, THAT makes more sense. Not only would it increase the number of injured fighters by a factor of three or so, you can see kids and younger teens insisting on getting ice for their bruises even when they didn't really need it, and then either running off without thinking to return the packs, or just losing them at some point.
It must be said that Ice Magic is not one of your more impressive skills - rather the opposite, honestly: you're a Cali boy in this life; you were a desert bandit in the previous lives that you can recall; and while it can certainly get cold in a desert at night, there's usually not enough free water around for ice to form. That's not even getting into those dream-memories of a castle perched over a moat of lava, or your affinity for the Element of Fire in general.
Although you don't know any spells that specifically create ice in a non-weaponized fashion, ice is technically a mineral, meaning the Spell of Major Creation will suffice - does that count as a pun? - and you spend the next ten minutes sitting next to the coolers, holding a bundled-up bit of cloth to your chest with one hand as if icing your bruise, while your other hand shapes and guides the spell.
The casting of a typical fifth-circle spell would be beyond your means to hide, but this is a ritual spell, which makes up some of the difference.
Gained Mana Concealment A (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
You suppose you could have done this faster if you'd just cast the Spell to Create Water and applied some (ant)arctic flair, but there's a decent chance that spell would have filled each cooler with a single solid block of ice, rather than the hundreds of ice cubes that Major Creation allows you to churn out.
Seeing as how the first aid station doesn't have a convenient bunch of towels or small bags around to hold the ice - unless they use some of the bandages, which would be kind of wasteful - you do them a solid and use the Spell of Minor Creation to whip up some bits of cloth.
Call it repayment for medical assistance, and a couple of days' worth of entertainment.
Then you wrap up some of the ice in one of those pieces of fabric, apply it to your injury for real, and go rejoin your companions to watch the ongoing matches while you wait for your next bout.
Although you would like to see how well ki-assisted healing works out on its own, so that you have an idea of what to expect and what NOT to expect as you develop the associated skills in the future, now is not really the best time for it.
Losing by ring-out is one thing, but you would really prefer not to get LITERALLY knocked out of the competition, which isn't entirely unlikely given the performance of your opponents thus far.
You check with Lu-sensei to let him know you're going to make a quick trip to the bathroom for arcane medical purposes.
"If you must," he sighs, with some unnecessary drama. "But keep the bandages on, will you? They'll at least provide a little added protection against future bruises, and maybe help THOSE heal a bit better."
You can agree to that, and go on your way.
...
The nearest bathroom's a little busy when you get there, but not so much that you have to wait in line or anything like that. A few of the guys nod at you as you enter, obviously recognizing you from your matches, and you field some congratulations and questions as a result, but nothing that takes very long or proves bothersome.
Really, most of them are in something of a hurry to get back to the free spar.
Once you're out of sight behind a closed door, you quietly cast a Spell to Cure Light Wounds. Honestly, thinking of your injuries as even THAT serious seems like you might be giving them more credit than they really deserve, whether on an individual level or a collective one. Still, you're mostly after the pain relief aspect of the spell, and you're sore in enough separate places that the plurality of the name is apt, if nothing else.
You channel positive energy through your being-
!
"...did somebody just light a cigarette in here, or something?"
"What?"
"The light, man. You didn't see that?"
-oh, tingly. That feels MUCH better - more than you were expecting, to be honest.
Taking stock of your condition, you decide that you are, if not fully healed of your bruises, then well enough along that the difference is negligible.
Pretty good for a minor healing spell - with a little help from Lady Farore.
Thank you, Lady.
You're welcome!
Exiting your stall, and paying no attention to the two guys who are walking down the row glancing into the empty or just-emptying stalls-
"I know what I saw."
"Are you sure you didn't get hit in the head?"
-looking for evidence of smoking, pyromania, or the like, you make your way back to the gym.
"Feeling better?" Briar greets you upon your return.
"Almost as good as new," you reply.
"Only almost?"
"There was a bit of traffic in the bathroom, and somebody noticed the flare of my spell and started looking for the source." You shrug. "Hanging around to cast another didn't seem like a great idea, particularly since the first casting had such a good result - thanks to Farore."
"Praise be."
Hehe. Praise me more!
Stop that.
"So!" you say then, looking around. "What did I miss, aside from 'fighting'?"
From what your friends have to say, not much - and, thankfully, not your next turn. The odds of that were pretty low, even with your fifteen-minute check-in at the first aid station beforehand, but there COULD have been a rash of forfeitures, resignations, and/or mismatches leading to very short spars in your absence. Or just somebody playing games with the list of competitors, but fortunately, none of that seems to have happened.
Your friends DO mention - and point out - a couple of those young master types that Lu-sensei described for you yesterday. You make a point of committing the faces to memory, just so that you'll be prepared in case somebody starts boasting, ranting about your lack of respect and/or worthiness, or making threats.
In any case, the limits enforced on the event by the presence of so many civilians mean that you didn't mess any genuinely spectacular bouts in your quick trip to the bathroom, so, silver linings?
While you resume your established pattern of observing the fighters with the strongest ki signatures, you don't see anything particularly interesting for the next few rounds of sparring-
"Harris!"
-and then you're called up for your next shot in the ring.
Your opponent is a new one, and you think you've lucked out this time, because not only does she not appear terribly impressive in physical or mystical terms, but she's already fought at least one round immediately before this, and is visibly worn out from it.
For her part, the young lady regards you with the same, "Why is a kid with no presence participating in this Division?" look that you got from your first opponent - but only for a moment, before an expression of guarded realization crosses her face.
She didn't recognize you or your Mind Blanked lack of aura right away, so she likely didn't see your earlier matches, but she DID recognize you eventually, so... she's heard of you?
Hm.
You do a quick check of your suite of enhancements, and determine that unless this fight runs a lot longer than you're expecting, they should all hold out. You may need to renew the techniques after this, though...
"Fighters ready?" the official asks.
You nod.
Your opponent lets out a breath, and then matches your nod.
"Then... fight!"
You advance-
!
-and things start going wrong almost immediately.
The young lady is definitely tired. Her moves lack the swift precision and smooth flow of a rested and ready combatant, and they are also lacking a certain... impact, if you, her fatigue sapping her strength and speed. You're pretty sure she's nursing some bruises of her own as well, particularly on the right side; the way she holds herself wouldn't make sense otherwise, unless she's actually broken something on that side, in which case you would HOPE she'd have better sense than to continue on.
Your opponent also definitely doesn't have a size advantage worth mentioning. She's a bit taller than you, slightly longer in the arms and the legs, but not enough to make a meaningful difference, and the same thing applies when it comes to weight. As far as weight goes, any lead she has on you could probably be measured in single-digit pounds, if not ounces.
And in terms of ki, she's definitely used up a good portion of her reserves, enough for it to be apparent in your read of her aura.
But if her technique is hampered by fatigue and injury, it's still very good.
If she's got no size advantage to speak of over you, she also doesn't have any issues with facing an opponent of comparable size - as opposed to you, for whom it's something of a novelty.
And if her reserves are diminished, they're a long way from drained - and she still has the ki techniques she was using in her last fight ready to go.
The moment you're in reach, she goes on the offensive, hands flying in a punishing combination-
!
-which reminds you of the young lady whose fight you watched in the opening series of spars. The move is the same, the aggressive opening is DEFINITELY the same, and while there are injury-induced limitations and differences in personal preference and ability, once you've accounted for those, the style appears to be the same as well.
With your Ki Enhancement turned down to "polite starting" levels, you aren't fast enough to get out of the way or intercept the onslaught, and though you quickly start speeding yourself up, she keeps pace, doing the same thing while maintaining the pressure.
Strike meets block meets follow-up meets redirection - on and on it goes, and even with your ki-infused bandages and recent bout of magical healing, getting hit by all of these strikes stings.
Thankfully, not as much as your PREVIOUS pounding, but still.
As you weather the assault and look for an opening, you recall that the girl in the first round went for a grapple and ended up claiming a win by pinning her opponent - specificially, by getting the boy into an armbar.
Could you take advantage of that against her apparent schoolmate, somehow? Leave yourself open to being grabbed and/or knocked down, and then...
The mundane offensive component of the Five Elements Style is primarily based on strikes, and it would make sense to interrupt your opponent's attempt to grapple you with a well-timed blow or three. However, it occurs to you that you've been using and been SEEN using that particular approach for three matches straight now, which means it's something that the young lady trying to pummel you into submission would likely expect from whatever she's seen or heard about you.
Grappling, on the other hand, is something you've tried to avoid for most of these matches, with only a brief exception for a part of your first bout, which was just as much about fending off that guy's attempts to get a hold on you as it was to return the favor. If your current opponent knows about that, she's likely to expect you to focus your efforts on getting out of a grapple rather than trying to establish one, meaning you could catch her off-guard by doing the reverse - let alone if she's unaware of that brief bit of not-quite-wrestling altogether.
Not that you expect the surprise to last long against someone with this level of skill, but even half a second's advantage can be a turning point in a fight.
If you're going for a grapple, using Ki Grip to enhance your grasp, even slightly, only makes sense.
You consider channeling your spiritual power and calling upon the Raging Boar to enhance your abilities-
!
-but then, recalling past instances of your Totem's involvement in martial matters, you think better of it.
The Boar is NOT a subtle entity, and you don't want to accidentally invoke an aura or anything like that here.
Ordinary Spiritual Enhancement should be fine, as long as you keep the glow to the point where it just seems like a side-effect of a strong soul putting its effort into something, although you're not entirely sure the technique will have any effect in a grapple with a corporeal opponent.
While you're readying those techniques, you've been blocking what you must, dodging what you can, and maneuvering yourself just so, trying to project a growing image of vulner-
!
-and there are a few seconds in which things happen VERY quickly-
"Wha-ah?!"
-and the next thing you know, you're down on the mat, struggling to restrain what seems more like a snarling wildcat than another person!
Gained Counter F (Plus) (Plus)
"Get off of- ah!"
You think this would be a lot harder if the young lady weren't so worn down, but she is, and whatever damage that she's sustained to her right side makes it an obvious target. In those brief moments when your opponent had committed herself to the expected grapple, only to find you ready and waiting for it, you did your best to drag her down so that she'd land in a way that stressed her already pained flank - not necessarily straight ON it, but anything that could force her to bend or tighten the muscles thereabouts would pull at the damaged areas, distracting her and helping you. And once you had her on the mat, you tried to keep the pressure on, so to speak.
If she weren't injured, you think you might be able to take her like this. It could honestly go either way, given the terms of the spars. As it is-
"I said, let- guh!"
-she is still putting up a heck of a fight, clawing and kicking at whatever part of you she can reach - not the face, although you have to wonder if that's just because you've got her arms restrained enough that she can't reach, or if she's still keeping the "no headshots" rule in mind - and she keeps on struggling until the ref finally reaches a count of ten and declares your third victory of the day.
Only then does the girl pause, sigh, and finally relax - somewhat, anyway.
"Are you going to let me up or what, kid?" she asks.
You get up, and the girl tries to do likewise before stopping with a hiss and just sitting up instead, one hand held to her side.
"Are you injured?" the official asks at once.
"No, sir," comes the reply. "Or at least, nothing's broken, just bruised."
"Hm..."
"They got some fresh ice at the first aid station about twenty minutes ago," you chip in helpfully, as you extend a hand.
"Oh, that sounds just about perfect," the girl says, which seems to appease the ref.
Your defeated opponent accepts your offer of help and thanks you once she's back on her feet.
"Apologies if I aggravated your bruises or whatever," you say.
"I mean, if you're that worried about it, you could have not dropped me on my side."
"I'm not sorry about taking an opportunity to win," you clarify, "just that it might have worsened whatever you've got going wrong there."
"Okay, that's fair." She shakes her head, tied-back dark hair threatening to escape the bonds holding it up. "Definitely can't say I wouldn't have done the same..."
She bows as best she can, and once you've returned the gesture, she's off to the first aid station.
As your next opponent's name is called, you look around at the other matches in progress-
!
-oh, there's Briar, doing-
"HA!"
"Guh!"
-reasonably well against a young man who's got a good half a foot of height on her, but is skinny enough that they probably weigh about the same.
...actually, thinking back, did you see her sparring earlier? You don't think so.
Guess it must have been when you were distracted by your own matches... and you didn't even think to ask how she'd done?
Your next opponent comes forward-
!
-oh ho! It's the guy from your second fight.
He takes one look at you and stops in his tracks, groaning. "Ah, man. What are the odds...?"
"Probably about a hundred to one," you note.
The ref looks back and forth between the two of you. "Fought each other before, did you?"
"We did," you confirm. "Are there any rules about that...?"
He shakes his head. "Not for this event, at least. As you say, it was... unlikely." Turning to your once-and-future opponent, he continues, "Will you be fighting?"
The older boy sighs, and then nods, resuming his trip to the ring. "May as well," he says. "I've fought him once already, he won't surprise me a second time..."
Missing out on the details of a fight or three, when they had no real stakes on the line, is hardly going to be the end of your friendship.
Sure, if Briar wants to talk about her experiences on the mats - this IS her first time taking part in a competition like this, even if it's largely a casual affair - you'll be happy to listen and offer your thoughts, but there's nothing urgent about it.
"Are you SURE about that...?"
Your grin appears to give your opponent second thoughts about facing you again - or perhaps third ones - but he shakes his head, musters up his determination, and enters the ring.
*One minute later*
"And I'm done. Again."
"Winner, Harris!"
Oh, come on! What happened to that determination?!
Seriously, you know that being able to utilize you ki as extensively as you can means you outclass the guy by a significant margin even when you're holding back on that front - much less everywhere ELSE that you're refraining from going all-out - but come on! That's twice now that you've seen him yield in a match when he COULD have kept going! Speaking as a martial artist, a Dinnite, and a guy who remembers putting in the sort of effort it takes to topple a kingdom - which is, for the record, NOT a casual undertaking even when one has a kingdom of his own and/or the power of a Demon Lord to put to work for the cause - this willingness to throw in the towel at the first sign of serious opposition is just disappointing! Especially when you basically just activated Brain Enhancement for no reason!
Honestly, how does this guy expect to get anywhere in the world of the martial arts without, well, FIGHTING for it? How does he plan to improve his mastery of his ki if he doesn't push himself to his limits?
...
Actually, DOES he expect that? Is he fully aware of what ki is and can really do? As much as your experience at this event and the World Tournament might make it appear otherwise, you are aware that not every school teaches the art of active ki manipulation, and that even in those styles which do include it, not every student advances that far.
Sometimes, it's a simple difference in aptitude. Certain people have a lot more ki to start with, or develop it much faster than others undergoing the same course of training - to say nothing of people like yourself, who are dipping their feet into both pools - but then there are those who have less, who need more time to build up their reserves and skills, or are hindered in both respects.
Then there's the matter of how much time and effort people are willing and able to put into their training. For some people, martial arts is a way of life, or at least a way to MAKE a living - Lu-sensei falls into the latter category, although based on what you've heard and can intuit about his personal history, he may have been a member of the former camp in his younger years - but there are also plenty of people who practice as a hobby, for the exercise, or because it's expected of them rather than something they're personally passionate about.
The young man before you obviously has SOME interest in the martial arts. As you noted earlier, he's fit and a decent fighter, but he's not the sort of powerhouse or savant who'd have gotten to his current level on natural talent alone - he's put in the effort to get where he is, and he HAS managed to break through the threshold of conciously using ki, even if he's not that great at it right now. And from your general read on him, he's never had cause to NEED that ability, or the added power it grants.
If it's just a case of him being a (mostly) normal kid with a (mostly) normal life, then that is fine. Ish. As long as he never runs into any supernatural threats that would need that extra edge to confront.
...
...
It's frustrating to see, but it's not really your business what this guy does or doesn't do with his skills. It's his life, his art, his choice, and you hardly know more about him than his name. Maybe if you were his neighbor or school senior or something, or if you knew he lived in some place like Sunnydale, but you aren't the former, the latter seems not to apply - or else there'd be traces of something weird in his aura - and thus, you probably shouldn't say anything.
And so, you don't.
After exchanging bows with your departing opponent, you let out a short, sharp huff of disappointment and glance in Briar's direction, both to see how she's doing and to give yourself a moment to vent-
!
-and you actually have to stop yourself from taking a step in that direction, as you see Briar crashing down on the mats after taking a kick to the chest. Her opponent - not the skinny guy from before, but a girl closer to the transformed fairy's apparent physical age and overall build - follows that up by springing forward, clearly going for a pin-
!
-but your partner rolls out of the way of the initial landing and then reverses course sharply, half-rolling and half-springing at her surprised sparring partner. They both go down-
!
-and that's the last you have time to watch, as your next opponent is entering the ring... and it's another fairly big guy, if not so large as the one who forced you off the mats in your last series of bouts. Good stance, good aura-
He looks down at you, and sneers.
-maybe not the best attitude, though. You suppose that you had to meet at LEAST one jerk if you stayed in this long enough; statistically speaking, there have to be more than a few of them signed up for the event...
Considering how your last bout with an opponent of approximately this level of ability went, you think slipping in another healing spell at some point might be a good idea - or perhaps it would be better to cast a spell to buffer yourself against impending injury rather than have to deal with it in the aftermath, when you might be too busy or just too unconscious to do so. The Greater Spell of False Life would get you the most bang for your buck, while still being concealable.
One thing does worry you, though, and that's whether or not you can keep the visual manifestations of the spell hidden. It was designed as a self-targeting spell and so is largely internalized, not to mention how its effects are almost wholly internal themselves, so it should be quite possible to conceal with a normal casting, but maybe a little extra effort is merited...?
Almost from the beginning of your magical career in this lifetime, you've tried to keep your magical signature off the radar altogether, or at least sufficiently masked so that the spells you weave can't be traced back to you and the people you care about by unfriendly actors. You've also devoted some time and effort into modifying the manifestations of assorted spells, partly to make it more difficult for observers to identify them even when they're resolving in plain sight, and partly for aesthetic reasons.
...and also so you don't have to conjure what look like flying eyeballs for scouting purposes anymore. Ick.
Where the fields of concealment and modification overlap, there is the potential for, if not outright REMOVAL, then at least the REDUCTION of the non-essential properties of your spellcraft, and you focus on that aspect now to minimize the telltale signs of your magic taking effect.
It really does help that the Greater Spell of False Life is designed to work exclusively on its caster, and that it is a magic whose casting is already within your means to conceal the signature of, even if you didn't have the Spell of Mind Blank providing coverage. Throw in the fact that your overall control of your magical energy is as refined as it is, and you could almost certainly have hidden the external manifestations of the magic from casual observers, but on the off-chance that somebody more experienced is paying attention, it doesn't hurt to take the extra precaution.
Besides, this is a technique you'll have plenty of use for in the future. So why NOT test it out now, when the stakes are minor?
As you did earlier, you perform a quick series of exaggerated stretches and forms to help draw attention away from the motion of your hands, while the words of the spell are largely unheard over the background noise of the gym and the crowd in it.
Your opponent's sneer turns to a frown of suspicion, and his eyes narrow-
!
-looking closely at your hands as a pulse of ki in a familiar yet unfamiliar configuration sweeps towards, over, around, and past you, turned aside in the subtlest of ways by your shroud against Divination effects.
The young man's suspicion doesn't abate, but if he suspects you of something - and judging by how much that ki probe resembled Mage Sense, he definitely suspected magic was in play - he doesn't call you on it.
The ref, meanwhile, doesn't appear to have noticed anything.
...you aren't quite sure how to feel about that.
Gained Subtle Spell Metamagic
"Fighters, ready?" comes the inquiry.
"Ready," you reply, even as you consider the state of your other enhancements. Most of them are alright, but Ki Armor, Ki Aura, and Ki Step are going to lapse after a couple of minutes of combat - assuming the fight lasts that long - and Ki Strike will run out of energy even sooner.
"Let's get this over with," your opponent huffs.
"Then-"
"-fight!"
As the ref's hand comes down, your own arms are wrapped with a fresh charge of ki, replenishing your Ki Strike technique-
!
-just before your latest adversary's Ki Enhanced fist - which glows with a tightly controlled but still bright light in your Ki Sight - slams into your guard! If not for your own Enhancement, plus the Armor, Aura, and Step all helping you to tank the blow, you're pretty sure the force behind it would have sent you staggering backwards.
You're also rather grateful for your Greater Spell of False Life and those ki-infused bandages Lu-sensei wrapped your arms in-
!
-a feeling which only increases each time you're forced to block another hit.
That happens more often than you'd like, and it's not like the other big guy who kept catching you with counters-
Even as you think that, you nearly get caught in a counter!
Gained Counter F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
-okay, it's not ENTIRELY like that. This guy is just fast enough, skilled enough, and with good enough instincts and sufficient combat experience that Mind Blank's interference with the ki-related element of his Battle Awareness is at best limiting the number of opportunities he's finding to attack you. Even without that grasp on your underlaying intent and supernatural tactics, your stance and movement tell a story all their own, and the young man in front of you is clearly not just literate in the language of violence, but also well-read in this particular tale!
Has he fought people using the Five Elements Style before? You think he must have, if he's anticipating your moves this well; the other option that comes to mind is that he just completely outclasses you in speed and sensory awareness, and even with the age gap, that seems a little unlikely, based on your progress to date.
You've cranked your active defensive skills up about as far as you think they can go without risking the veil of normalcy hanging over this match and the rest of the event, and you've got the added, now-somewhat diminished buffer of the Greater Spell of False Life on top of- or maybe, under- no, in ADDITION to that. You're about as capable of taking a hit now as you can be under the terms of the spar, which means this is the time when you can actually AFFORD to be hit - at least within reason.
If you were to shift over to evasive tactics, you could potentially maximize the amount of time your various defenses endure, as well as how long the bout itself lasts, but your offense would tank in the process, ceding the initiative to your sparring partner and making it unlikely that you'd be able to do enough damage to turn the fight in your favor - at least not before your Ki Armor, Ki Aura, and Ki Step gave out, at which point you think you'd be in trouble.
With that in mind, you'd probably be best served by going on the attack, taking what hits you must and relying on your defenses to minimize the damage, so that you can repay your opponent in kind and with interest - hopefully enough to shift the course of the match, but if not, then at least enough to make him work for his win!
In fact, you realize, if you DELIBERATELY took a hit, wouldn't that open your opponent up to a counter...?
Worth a shot!
And worth TAKING a shot!
Probably, anyway!
Taking a moment to set your feet - and half-deflecting, half-blocking the strike your opponent aims at your midsection in the process - you chamber a punch and push forward-
The punch is deflected, and here comes the expected follow-up, but your off-hand is already moving-!
*Pow!*
You take a hit, but because you'd anticipated it, you manage to nudge the attack off-course so that it connects with your upper arm rather than anywhere really sensitive or vulnerable. Such a hit would normally still sting, maybe enough to impede your use of that limb for a bit, but your Greater Spell of False Life absorbs most of the force, leaving only a mild sting. The magic didn't have the best charge to start with, and previous blows have whittled it down some, but you'd say it's got enough left to stand up to two more decent strikes, maybe three - although one clean, solid blow could bring it down altogether.
*Pow!*
Your opponent ALSO takes a hit, and whether it's because he was overconfident in his ability to guard himself, because he underestimated you (which is not quite the same thing, especially given your little magical health boost), or because he just didn't see or hear enough about that previous bout where you hit your opponent in the solar plexus, it's a fairly clean strike.
Gained Counter E
Gained Feint E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Sneak Attack D (Plus) (Plus)
An explosive breath hisses through his suddenly clenched teeth-
!
-but in a display of resilience you put down to Ki Enhanced toughness and sheer determination, he doesn't double over like the first guy you hit this way, or even slow down all that much. There IS a brief delay in his movements as he fights through the pain, and you don't hesitate to deliver a couple of follow-up strikes-
!
-one of which he blocks almost on pure reflex, while the other just doesn't seem to have a meaningful effect, after which the surprise and pain depart the young man's face, leaving behind a hint of embarrassment and a very focused sort of anger.
Even though his arms haven't moved, you can read the intent in his aura well enough to see them coming up to grab you-!
If this were a regular fight, this would be a good point for you to trigger a Body Flicker, and zip out of grabbing range. Sadly, the ban on flashy ki techniques makes that a non-option, and with the other guy's advantages of reach and Ki Enhanced speed, you're not sure you'd be able to get clear before he got at least one hand on you.
Pretty much every other option that springs to mind would leave you within grappling distance as well, assuming that you didn't manage to knock the guy over while staying on your feet - something you can't really be sure of.
All things considered, if you're so likely to end up wrestling in a few seconds' time, it's probably for the best that you go into the scrum with as much of an advantage as you can nab for yourself.
With that in mind, you push yourself forward-
"Hwa-?!"
-grab the guy's top in two different locations-
"Oh, no you don't!" he snaps, grabbing your arms in turn.
-and try to hook one ankle around his-!
And a moment later, down you both go.
The next few seconds are confusing, frustrating, and somewhat painful-
*Wham!*
-especially when your foe manages to get one arm free enough to wind up for a strike, whether with knuckles or elbow-
*Thock!*
"Ugh!"
-not that you don't get in a hit or three of your own.
Without a proper stance behind them, the blows you take lack a lot of the force they could otherwise have held, but your opponent is still a fairly big, strong guy with a good level of Ki Enhancement running, so they're not exactly feather-light, either. Your False Life does its job, soaking up more and more of the punishment-
"What are you MADE of, you little-?!"
-and doing a bit of psychological damage as well, and it's still got energy to spare, whereas all the damage you do is coming out of this guy's hide.
Unfortunately, it seems that he's got a pretty thick skin and a lot of solid padding underneath that, because he is just not slowing down. Indeed, for all that you managed to make HIM hit the mats first, you couldn't hold him there longer than about three seconds, and there have been several starts and stops from the ref as an attempt at pinning one side of the bout is broken and subsequently reversed.
If this guy was stronger or bigger, you think you'd have been done by the second, maybe the third exchange. If he was as good at grappling as you are, you might not have managed to pin him the first time at all, and almost certainly wouldn't have managed to free yourself from his first hold.
But he's not as good in the clinch as you are, something you can only assume is due to him relying a bit too much on his natural size and strength, or else a failure somewhere in his education - maybe of the student, possibly of the teacher, perhaps even in the style itself. That gives you *ahem* room to maneuver, and you take that edge for all it's worth.
Yet with each trick you borrow from Lu-sensei's handbook or the grand televised spectacle, you have one less surprise you can spring on this guy - and the way he keeps managing to break out of them tells you he's not IGNORANT of grappling techniques, by any means, nor even simply inexperienced, just not up to par in that field when compared to his usual defense and offense.
It's been proven that, as things stand, you can't pin this guy long enough to end the match, but you have managed to hold him in place for a few seconds at a stretch a few times now. If you can do that one more time, you might have the handful of seconds - not to mention the free arm - that you need to line up and deliver another shot to a sensitive area. Even if it seems unlikely to knock all the fight out of him, a sudden burst of pain might be enough to distract this guy from his attempts to free himself and/or trap you, and from there...
...well, you'll have to wait and see what you can do from there. First order of business is actually regaining control of the grapple.
Using another of your dwindling supply of wrestling tricks-
"Stop DOING that!"
-you half-roll and half-flip your opponent off of you and onto his back, the combined force of his landing on the mats and YOUR landing on top of him once again knocking most of the air from his lungs. While readjusting your "seat" so that most of your weight is on his legs, you move to pin the young man's arms, trying to trap them both so that you can maintain the hold with just one hand. That will give you the-
!
-your train of thought is briefly derailed as your opponent twists about in a bid for freedom, but either he landed on a sore spot or is just getting worn down from the match, because it's not a great effort.
That it almost WORKS is kind of embarrassing, although not nearly as bad as it would be if he'd succeeded...
Anyway, you manage to get your sparring partner into a pin that undoubtedly isn't going to last long once you pull your second hand away, but you do that anyhow, readying a body blow-
*Wham!*
-and then delivering it with just the right amount of force to make him flinch.
That's not enough to finish things, so you prepare for another-
!
-and promptly lose the opportunity as, yet again, your opponent manages to at least partly free himself from your hold, wrenching one arm loose of your one-handed grip, moving it out to one side for leverage, and pushing off the mat to send the two of you into a sideways roll-
"Mister Harris is out!"
-oh, of all the-!
Half-sighing, half-grumbling, you relax your grip and allow your opponent to separate from you and start picking himself up. As you do similarly, you note that the older guy doesn't seem much more pleased about his win than you are about losing by ring-out.
Do you have anything to say beyond the standard pleasantries?
You bow to your opponent, thank him for the match, and see yourself out of the ring.
He doesn't say anything, just sort of jerks his head in a token gesture of politeness while frowning and rubbing the spot on his chest you hit a moment ago.
You feel that same probe of ki he directed at you at the start of the match following you to the edge of the audience, but once again, whatever the young man suspects, he says nothing - no doubt stymied by your Mind Blank Spell.
"How many fresh bruises are you nursing now?" Lu-sensei greets you upon your return.
"Not as many as I could have been," you admit. The pool of energy provided by your Greater Spell of False Life isn't completely drained, but it's probably not going to survive more than one good hit.
"Hurrah for magic," Briar notes.
"Hurrah," you agree.
"Hm," your teacher says neutrally. "And what's the state of your bandages?"
That takes a little more investigation, and some adjustment where the wraps have bunched up or come loose. Overall, though the ki-infused material held up pretty well, with nothing torn or too seriously stretched.
Lu-sensei notes that it's not unusual for materials imbued with ki to get ripped to pieces when subjected to Ki Strikes, particularly high-end ones. Some of that is down to advanced Strikes being able to overcome or outright bypass the reinforcement effect of the Ki Infusion, but more is because of how a given item can only hold so much energy before it starts experiencing internal stress. Take a strip of fabric that's already been charged up to near its limit and dump a bunch of extra energy into it, especially if that energy is charged and shaped with the aggressive intent of a Ki Strike, and the results are generally destructive.
The fact that your bandages are as intact as they are is down to Lu-sensei being a master, and your opponents not using their respective Ki Strikes at full force.
"So, that puts you at four wins and two losses," Cordelia says then. "Looking at the board..."
Everybody stops to do that.
Your name is not in the top ten, or even the top twenty. To be fair, you're also not in the BOTTOM ten or twenty, but you're closer to that end of the scoreboard than you are to the other.
"...I gotta say, Alex, I don't think you're going to place this time."
Your decision not to get seriously involved in the wider world of martial arts means you don't get a lot of chances to spar with new opponents, much less so many of them at one time. As much fun as your friendly fights with your existing circle of acquaintances are, there is definitely something to be said for facing unknown challengers, particularly ones who have their own advantages over you - even if you have to face people over half again your age (and sometimes your size as well), with one proverbial arm tied behind your back to keep within the rules of the event, in order for those "advantages" to actually be meaningful.
The point is, even if you're almost certainly not going to win this event or even end it with your name in the upper ranks, you're still having a good time and learning some things that will help you become a better fighter. So why would you stop now?
Your statement draws looks of completely lacking surprise from the people that know you. Really, Lily Blaisdell is the only one who is caught so much as a little off-guard by it, and even her reaction is limited to a brief blink.
Then again, she HAS had a couple of days to hear stories being carried around the School of Five Elements, on top of whatever she's already been able to glean from your occasional meetings with her and whatever Larry and Lu-sensei have told her about you when you weren't around to confirm, deny, or clarify the details.
You shake your head and put that aside.
Comparing the progress of the Under Eighteens Division to the previous day's events, it seems that fewer contestants have withdrawn at this point in the proceedings. Some of that is undoubtedly the age difference at work, although you chalk some of it up to the difference in average skill levels on display as well - getting to the disciple rank requires a certain amount of dedication (varying according to natural talent and the skill of one's teacher), and anybody who's gone that far down the path of the martial artist is unlikely to be the sort who gives up or gets bored easily. At least not by stuff like this.
There is also the fact that teenagers are generally more capable of taking care of themselves than younger kids, and more prone to desiring independence besides - at least, that's your takeaway from television, observations around Sunnydale, and some of Ganondorf's memories of life with the Gerudo - so there are fewer of them getting dragged off by their parents or other caretakers for whatever reason.
All of this means that the wait until your next round of fights is probably going to be on the longer end, so if there are any further magical preparations you want to make - like renewing that largely-drained Greater Spell of False Life - you've got time to do so, potentially even in ritual format. You might want to duck back into the bathroom in the process, though, as while your Subtle Spell Metamagic can conceal a fair amount, it isn't a perfect cover.
Also, Lu-sensei might be less than impressed.
Although you are rather tempted to renew your Greater Spell of False Life and apply some additional spells, you ultimately find yourself choosing not to.
You reach this decision in part due to Lu-sensei's repeated displays of mild disapproval on the matter of your using magic for this event, and your wish to not get Enlightened be the sort of dutiful student that heeds the instructions and broad hints offered by the master, but there is also something to be said for your own desire to see just how well you can hold up when facing opponents of this level with nothing but your martial prowess - and a couple of spells here and there.
Besides, if you duck out to the bathroom again, you'll miss another round of spars. Granted, you apparently didn't miss anything noteworthy the last time, but that was then and this is now - who knows what could happen?
...
About seven minutes pass without anything out of the ordinary happening. You observe a couple of decent fights, pieces and pieces of a few more which seem alright, and a forfeit or three scattered in-
!
-and then your attention is drawn to an ongoing match that feels a bit concerning.
Both participants are older boys - young men, really, given the age bracket - and both of them show signs of having fought before, be it in the diminished states of their auras and the slightly ragged edge to their control of their ki techniques, the degraded precision and timing of their movements, or the bruises and bandages peeking out from beneath their uniforms, which are themselves stained with sweat.
It's not just fatigue that you sense from these two, however. One of them is visibly angry, a deep frown giving way to a silent snarl and his ki signature radiating a level of intent that goes beyond the simple aggression of a friendly match and into outright hostility, a feeling that burns steadily hotter and sharper with each exchange of blows. That anger is making him sloppy, allowing his opponent to land a couple hits you're quite sure would have been avoidable if the target were in a better frame of mind - but he's not, and after the strikes have connected, the angry guy gets even more so.
His opponent is clearly aware of the emotional pressure building up in front of him, but he also doesn't seem to know what exactly touched it off or what to do about it. His blows don't seem to be registering as much as they should, at least not at the level of minimal force he's using to keep within the rules.
Whatever is going on there, you are pleased to see that the ref is well aware of it and has already signaled for a couple of his peers to unobtrusively move into position around the mats, just in case they're needed to intervene.
Under other circumstances, you'd keep one eye on that fight and otherwise let the officials handle it, but there's something else that catches your mystic eye: the guy with the temper has a supernatural effect on him that ISN'T derived from ki. It's a work of Enchantment Magic, a straightforward derivative of the Spell of Rage, albeit with a nasty overtone that makes it feel more like a curse than the relatively neutral application you know. The signature of the spell is unfamiliar to you, but given the guy under its effects has no meaningful magical talent, you can clearly conclude he didn't cast it himself - at least not without help.
"Uh, Sensei?" you begin.
"Yes, Alex?"
You nod at the mats where the concerning fight is unfolding. "The angry guy is under some kind of Rage Spell, and I don't think he cast it himself."
"Wait, what?" Amy asks with sudden concern.
Your teacher blinks at you, quickly turns back to the bout in progress, and peers at the fighters, eyes glowing with a more refined form of that Detect Magic analogue your last opponent was using, while Briar and Amy do likewise from the magical side.
"...damn," your master mutters.
"What he said," Briar adds.
"If you'd like me to dispel it or try tracking down the caster..." you offer.
"Hold that thought," your teacher says quickly, looking around, "and come with me."
You nod, signal Briar not to follow you just yet, and then fall in with your master as he heads towards the nearest of the tournament officials, signalling for attention. He gets it easily enough and begins talking, quickly and quietly laying things out. The rep in question doesn't try to use that detection technique himself - does he not know it? - instead asking you and Lu-sensei to wait a moment before hurrying over to the referee.
Another short discussion ensues, followed by the man overseeing the fight using that ki-based Mage Sight analogue himself-
"Hold!"
-and quickly calling for a halt to the proceedings.
The young man who doesn't currently have his faculties compromised by an arcane force is clearly caught off-guard by the interruption to the fight, but heeds the official's order. His opponent-
!
-takes slightly longer to come to a complete stop, and sends a mostly-furious glare of inquiry at the ref in the process, but he DOES stop himself in good order.
Strong will, a good teacher, or a bit of both? Whatever the case, you're glad to see it.
As the referee steps onto the mat to speak with both participants, the other official rejoins you and Lu-sensei.
"Young man," he says to you quietly, "your teacher says you are willing to attempt to break the spell?"
"If I'm allowed, sir," you reply.
"As long as you can keep it unobtrusive," he answers.
The fact that the spell has elements of a curse does complicate the issue slightly, since it requires you to use the Spell to Remove Curses rather than the Spell to Dispel Magic. Normally, the former is a touch-range effect, meaning you'd have to enter the ring and actually lay one hand on the afflicted individual - which would be pretty blatantly obvious to the crowd, even absent any kind of light show.
Fortunately, you know the Reach Spell Metamagic, and can increase the range of the curse-breaking effect just enough to reach your target while still keeping the magic at the fifth-circle limit you've been trying to honor since the masters of the School of Five Elements requested it of you.
Granted, you're off the School grounds and far outside the wards, but it's almost within your means to suppress the signature of a fifth-circle spell via Mana Concealment, so holding to that limit is still a good idea. You would prefer if there was time to make the spell a ritual as well, but needs must - and your Mind Blank will at least keep anybody who notices the spell going off from immediately tracing it back to you.
As a further precaution, you apply the Subtle Spell Metamagic. The fact that this "Curse of Rage" is a work of Enchantment and thus exists entirely in the mind of its victim means there's little if any chance of a "light show" resulting from your breaking of it, but the added layer of secrecy and security makes you more comfortable.
After few seconds of calmly spoken arcane commands, you point a finger and declare-
"Chill out."
Anger proverbially runs hot more often than it does cold, after all.
Your spell triggers-
!
-and to your general lack of surprise, ploughs through the Curse of Rage like a tractor-trailer hitting a couple of parked police cars at sixty miles an hour.
Television gives you access to such vivid imagery.
As expected, there's no visible flash of magic, nor a shadow. Someone with keen magical senses might have detected the sudden passage of your Abjuration Magic, and you're quite sure that anybody monitoring the angry guy with those Detect Magic equivalents just saw his aura shift, but anybody looking at him with the naked eye would have only seen a sudden start and an abrupt shiver.
You inspect the older boy's aura for a moment longer, and then nod to yourself. "It's done. The spell is broken, and his system is starting to clear out the traces. His temper should be entirely back to normal shortly... as long as nobody does anything that would legitimately enrage him in the meantime," you add.
Breaking the curse just began the process of returning him to his NORMAL temperament, after all. It won't change any natural proclivity for wrath or pre-existing dislike of his current opponent.
"Thank you for your assistance," the official says, nodding in gratitude.
"You're welcome."
"You mentioned tracking the culprit," Lu-sensei says then.
"I got a decent look at the signature of the curse before I tried to break it," you respond. "I could try scanning for someone whose magic matches that."
Even as you say that, you're looking around with your Mage Sight again, checking the members of the crowd gathered around the mats where the cursed fight was taking place - and is now resuming, curse-free - but it takes a couple of seconds to investigate someone's aura to that extent, and there are enough people within even this relatively small part of the gym that it's slow going. You've picked up a handful of untrained potentials, the auras of a number of ki adepts - which look somewhat different when viewed through an arcane medium than via Ki Sight - and thus far, only one trained spellcaster other than Amy and Briar, and that one a minor talent that doesn't match the strength or expected signature of the curse-caller.
You haven't actually seen this magic-user yet, at least not that you're aware of, so you couldn't call on some of your more powerful Divination Magic, even if using them wouldn't mean breaking your promise to the Masters of the Five Elements. That said, you might be able to get something out of the Spell to Locate a Creature; it'd be a little iffy, but you think you've got a good enough handle on the essence of the curse to identify nearby magic-users capable of casting it.
Probably, anyway.
Another option would be to cast the Spell to Know the Enemy, and try to get a better idea of who and what you might be dealing with. Again, this isn't guaranteed to work.
Asking Briar and Amy to help is also an option. They both saw the curse themselves and have means of scanning for magic, and if you split up, they could cover the gym doors - with Lu-sensei or one of the officials accompanying each of them, just in case - while you sweep the interior and try to smoke out the culprit. That does presume the caster is actually IN the gym, and didn't already take off.
A quick glance in the direction of each doorway doesn't show anybody in an obvious hurry to leave, or even anyone who looks like they're UN-obviously making their way out...
Or perhaps there's another option? Invoking a random ritual probably isn't the best idea, those take a while and tend to be showy due to their incomplete nature, but you've got a very extensive spell list; there could be a less obvious solution you didn't initially consider.
"Sensei," you say then, as you project a line of thought down the familiar bond to Briar, "would you and this gentleman mind meeting up with Amy and Briar, and then splitting up to cover the doors?"
"...you're thinking your spell will spook them into running?" your teacher guesses.
"That, or they might just walk out before I finish scanning the room," you reply.
It's not a question of range, only of whether or not there are multiple spellcasters capable of casting that curse inside the gym. Assuming it works with the limited information you have, the Spell to Locate a Creature will react to the nearest creature that matches its established search parameters, and ignore any others farther away than that - unless or until you or the creatures in question move in such a way that one of them ends up closer to you than the original "target."
It'll make the search trickier and more time-consuming than you'd like, but it's still the superior option to spending a full minute engaged in a minor ritual.
Your master nods, signals for the exhibition official to follow him, and goes to join the girls. Briar has already informed Amy of your plan, and she seems to be on-board with the idea, if the way in which the four of them quickly pair off and move for the different entrances is any indication.
You wait for your companions and plus one to get into position, moving yourself away from the door where Amy stations herself - because your witchy student is skilled enough that she could cast a curse on someone, meaning she could trip your Divination Spell - and then make with the magic. You go ahead and throw in the Subtle Spell Metamagic again, as while the Spell to Locate a Creature has no manifestations that a mundane person would notice, magically sensitive individuals CAN potentially pick up the magical energy involved. Muffling that signal gives you a chance to avoid spooking your quarry.
As the spell activates a moment later, you notice one or two of the ki-users around you shift slightly, as if feeling a momentary discomfort, while that one low-end magic-user you spotted earlier suddenly looks around as if having heard something. The majority of the crowd notice nothing, however, and are in turn ignored by the spell, which expands outward towards the walls of the gym-
*Ping*
-is that-? No, you realize, turning and looking in what proves to be the direction of one of the doors, that's Amy. And she'd thoughtfully stepped out into the hall, putting enough space between the two of you to ensure that your spell would be able to scan the entire gym before reaching her.
Well, then. Either the caster is under one of the magical effects that can block the Spell to Locate a Creature - Nondetection is your bet, being the only one you know for sure would be within the curse-caller's means - or they're not in this room at all. And since you can't really use your more powerful Divination Magic under these circumstances...
If your sole concern was catching the curse-caller, it would make good tactical sense to put Amy with the tournament official, and Briar with Lu-sensei. Lu-sensei is unquestionably the most capable fighter of the four, and Amy the best spellcaster - even if she's not THAT far ahead of Briar - and splitting them up so that each party has a relative "heavy" in case of trouble would minimize the chances of the source of said trouble getting away.
But with that having been said, you'd much prefer that your helpers organize themselves the other way around. Amy's age and inexperience would put her at a disadvantage against any adult spellcaster, leaving her effectiveness as a deterrent in question. This is not even getting into how it would be putting her into harm's way - granted, you'd be doing a bit of that regardless, but if she's with Lu-sensei, he can cover her better than Briar or the attendant could.
That's what you suggest to Briar, if not in so many words, and she seems to agree with the gist of it, taking the guy whose name you haven't caught yet and heading for the front door while Amy and Lu-sensei go off to the side entrance.
There are actually a few more doors in the gym, but most of them are shut and probably locked. The only other route that might be open leads to the locker rooms, and you have your doubts that an upper low-tier spellcaster trying to flee from a magical probe would go that way.
You keep an eye on that door, though, just in case, because you COULD be wrong about that.
In theory.
Deciding that removing one source of "interference" from your search is a reasonable use of your time and energy, you head over to where Amy and the official are standing, while silently signalling your results to Briar.
As you move, you cast a modified and Subtle Spell of Grand Destiny, shorting the range and the duration to make it readily concealable.
"Any luck?" Amy greets you.
"They're either not in the gym or well-warded enough that I can't find them," you answer.
"So they're probably not here," she concludes.
"Probably not," you agree, "but I'd like to be sure. Do you mind if I cast the Spell of Nondetection on you?"
"Sure, go ahead," she says without hesitation.
It is a good feeling to have such trust from your student. You can only hope that future pupils will share that.
With the slightly puzzled-looking official watching on, you quickly cast the spell on Amy, once again using Subtle Spell Metamagic to conceal the external manifestations - and this time it's probably at least a LITTLE needed, as Nondetection does have some visible properties while it's settling in, the whole "dully glowing transparent spherical barrier that forms around the target before fading from view" bit.
As Amy's presence vanishes from the extrasensory awareness bestowed upon you by the Locate Creature spell, you focus ahead of the next outgoing pulse of magic, invoking one of the charges from your Spell of Grand Destiny to enhance the scan.
This won't do anything if your intended target isn't in range, but if they merely managed to deflect your initial scan-
!
-and you've got a result! From the feel of things, the target is about sixty, maybe seventy feet away, down THAT hall and around at least one corner. Whoever you're picking up doesn't seem to be moving around, or at least not enough to register to the spell, which admittedly isn't the most precise.
Although you really don't want to miss your next set of spars, you have to admit that a few more matches in an event with no real prizes - and which it was already clear you weren't going to place in anyway - is kind of unimportant next to making sure somebody running around casting curses on (presumably) innocent martial artists doesn't get away with their misdeed.
As you quickly recount your findings to the official who's with you and Amy, you open up the familiar bond again, letting Briar follow your discussion and pass on the pertinent information to Lu-sensei, as well as a request for him to join you.
The attendant, for his part, does not seem exactly pleased with your expressed intent of pursuing the mystery spellcaster, but there isn't much he can really do about it. You're the one with the magical compass in your head pointing this person out, after all.
Lu-sensei's approach does seem to reassure the guy a bit, and as soon as your teacher and partner have rejoined your group, the three of you and the official head out, leaving Amy to return to Cordy and the Blaisdells and let them know what's going on - and also to speak up on your behalf if your name gets called while you're out chasing down malicious magic-users.
"Have fun hunting down the bad guy," she says with a wave.
A second member of the event staff joins up with your party as you move through the halls towards the presence you've locked onto. The spellcaster in question has moved a bit since you started tracking them, but only at a walking pace, and from what you saw of the community center's layout yesterday, they're not heading for any of the exits.
Have they not noticed that there's a Divination Spell pinging off of their aura, or are they trying to play it cool?
Guess you'll find out in a minute...
Down the hall, take the first right, then a left, and then look over the crowd ahead of you-
!
-and there they are.
You weren't really expecting to see somebody done up in the local version of arcane formalwear, and you aren't disappointed on that account. Given the nature of the event, you were betting on either a martial arts uniform, athletic wear, or just casual clothing, and the last of those is probably accurate, although the quality of the blouse and skirt worn by your target is such that Cordy would probably ask after the source, and whether or not they did things in kids' sizes.
The lady wearing the nice threads is somewhere around twenty and fairly pretty, if not a dazzling beauty, with a few pieces of modest jewelry besides, but if not for the fact that your magic was indicating her as your target, you probably wouldn't give her a second glance - not unless you had your Mage Sight running at the time, at least, which you do now. This reveals the magical aura that you'd adjusted your Locate Creature Spell to check for, as well as the auras emanating from every bit of jewelry that's in plain sight. Concentrating for a moment, you determine that the young lady is a witch of some sort, one with access to fourth-circle spells, and who has enough mana at her disposal to cast at least one such spell.
Whether she missed your original Divination or was just ignoring it, when your Arcane Sight lingers on her for several seconds, the woman turns your way, frowning, as she reaches out with her own magical awareness - and then, thanks to your Spell of Mind Blank, largely ignores you and Briar in favor of focusing on the three older, unwarded martial artists around you.
She doesn't SEEM particularly upset at the sight of a couple of the tournament officials coming towards her...
"The young lady in the nice outfit," you state as your group approaches at a walk. Your words are just loud enough for the others to hear, without carrying to the crowd.
"Is she the culprit for certain?" Lu-sensei inquires.
"She was the closest magic-user other than myself or Amy CAPABLE of casting that curse," you reply.
"Ah. Did you want to speak with her, or...?"
"I thought that I'd leave it to the adults," you reply innocently. "Besides, this way I can have a counterspell ready to go if she tries to cast at any of you."
"That's reassuring," one of the officials notes. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Can I help you, gentlemen?" the young lady asks, politely enough, once your group has come close enough for it to be clear that you're interested in her.
"Possibly, Miss," the attendant that Lu-sensei first talked to about the curse speaking up now. "There's been a case of outside interference in one of the sparring matches going on right now, and it had the potential to be dangerous. We're trying to track down the culprit."
She blinks at that, appearing genuinely surprised. "And you think that I had something to do with it?"
"You are actually the third person that I've spoken to who might have been involved," the man says, showing both an ability to creatively represent the truth, and also that he's been paying attention to what you've said.
"What exactly happened, and what led you to me?" she asks, folding her arms.
"One of the competitors was essentially drugged," the official says. "Possibly with a stimulant, or something else capable of inducing rage."
The lady frowns slightly, looking thoughtful and a bit suspicious.
"As to what led us to you..." And here there is a pause, as the official finally runs into something he can't seem to find a good way to say differently. Finally, he shrugs and turns to you. "It was this boy, actually."
The woman looks at you, honestly baffled. "Did you see me near the victim?"
"I saw something that LOOKED like it might have been yours," you reply, while taking advantage of the living wall formed by the adult figures around you to raise your left hand and ignite a mote of ki on the tip. It's a small, pale light, something that would hardly register in the well-lit halls, but its sudden appearance is clearly supernatural.
The lady does a double-take at this, and you can SEE the aura of her own equivalent of Mage Sight intensifying, her dark brown eyes glowing faintly green as she tries to get a read on you again.
"...uh, Miss?" the other attendant says.
"Just a minute," she replies absently, narrowing her gaze.
"...perhaps we should take this elsewhere?" Lu-sensei suggests mildly, glancing around at the crowd. No one's tried to interfere or obviously eavesdrop as yet, but it's pretty clear that you're going to have to have a frank discussion of magical matters to get anywhere.
You end up relocating to a nearby room that isn't being used, the young witch trying to bore a hole through your Mind Blank Spell with her eyes the entire time. Once the door has closed behind you, she shakes her head.
"Alright, what's going on?" she demands of the room at large. "What's this about drugs, and how is a boy not old enough to shave calling up cantrips while registering as completely non-magical?"
The three men in the room turn to you, clearly satisfied to let YOU answer the questions.
"Thanks, guys. Really." Sighing, you turn to the witch. "Okay, in reverse order..."
You keep your explanation simple, stating that you're using Abjuration Magic to hide your aura and spellcasting signature, that you noticed a Curse of Rage afflicting one of the other competitors in free spar, and that after alerting the officials and breaking the curse, you used the Spell to Locate a Creature to track down the nearest spellcaster capable of working that sort of magic.
The well-dressed witch's reaction to your initial statement is the sort of look that says, "Well, obviously," but when you bring up the curse, she just dons that faint, suspicious frown you saw earlier.
Mentioning your use of Divination Magic clearly startles her, though. "I hadn't realized Locate Creature could be used quite that specifically," she muses. "At least not without having met the individual in question beforehand."
She IS skilled enough to cast the spell herself - and knowing how difficult it is to cast, relatively speaking, as well as how much trouble breaking a curse can be, she's visibly reconsidering her initial opinion of you.
"It helps that I'm good at Divination in general, and have met quite a few different kinds of magic-users," you admit. "Anyway, about that curse..."
"I didn't cast it," the lady says, hands half-raised, "but I think I might have an idea who did. Was the victim a young man of seventeen, about so tall" - she indicates a height that just about matches the guy with the magically enhanced anger issues - "black hair, brown eyes, well-built, not bad looking, answers to the name of Jun?"
Most of that matches, although you have to check with the officials about the name.
Once it's confirmed, the witch sighs and explains that she came to the exhibition with the other members of her coven, one of whom was dating the young man in question.
"'Was'?" Briar asks.
"Mei caught him trying to hit on me about half an hour ago," the lady says wryly.
"And she took that personally," your partner concludes, nodding.
"Actually, I think it was our other sister taking offense on Mei's behalf." The witch shakes her head. "Or at least talking her into it."
You run that through your head, just to be sure you've got it.
Martial arts guy Jun was dating a witch, Mei.
Mei came to the exhibition, presumably to show support for one of her boyfriend's interests, and brought two members of her coven along.
Jun flirted with one of the other witches where his girlfriend could see it.
Jun was probably dumped on the spot.
Jun was ALSO probably cursed on the spot, or shortly thereafter, either by his now-ex girlfriend or one of her companions.
...
...
"Why a Curse of Rage?" you wonder aloud.
"Does seem a little odd, doesn't it?" Briar agrees.
"Among other failings, yeah."
"How's that?" one of the attendants asks.
"Well, to the first part, ironic punishments are kind of traditional for this sort of curse-calling," you explain. "I'd expect somebody who stole food to get cursed to always feel hungry, to taste everything as if it was rotten, or to have their own food stolen or lost in turn. For a guy who flirted with another woman in front of his girlfriend, some kind of bad luck in relationships would be my guess."
"Like always making a bad first impression, being compelled to flirt with people he WASN'T interested in, or just being hit with an impotence curse," the witch-lady offers helpfully.
Both of the officials shift uncomfortably at that. Lu-sensei just looks amused.
"Yeah, stuff like that," you reply absently, still puzzling disapprovingly over the curse that was actually cast. "A curse meant to cause rage doesn't really fit with that, which makes me wonder what this girl was thinking - or if she even WAS. I mean, did she just not consider the potential consequences, the risk she was putting not only her target at, but also everybody AROUND him? An ordinary person with their judgment messed up by supernatural anger would have been dangerous enough, but a ki adept could have seriously hurt people even WITH the ref and the other attendants ready to move in like they were - to say nothing of blowing the secrecy they've had going right out of the water."
The woman winces at that. "For what little it's worth, Ling-Ling may not have INTENDED to cast a Curse of Anger."
You and Briar trade glances before looking at the older girl.
"Is she bad at curses?" your partner guesses.
"Or is she TOO good at them?" you conclude with a certain weariness.
"A little of both," comes the admission, in company with an odd look for your tone. "She and Mei haven't been practicing for as long as I have, and they're both still working on fine control - plus, we don't exactly have a lot of experience with curse-calling. On top of that, Ling-Ling has a habit of putting her heart into her spells. It's usually helpful for a little extra power, but..."
...but in this case, because of her lack of control, her inexperience with curses and how they can resonate with negative emotions, and her natural enthusiasm, she might have inadvertently put the anger she was feeling on her coven-sister's behalf into the spell as more than just a power-boost, altering the curse from its intended form to the rage-inducer that you saw at work.
That still doesn't paint a great picture of this girl - or these girls; their senior coven-sister did mention they might have worked on it together - but it's possible she's less callously indifferent or actively malevolent, and more just... kind of dumb.
Anyway.
You feel that it would be best if you had a face-to-face meeting with the other two members of this coven (assuming there aren't more of them), in order to confirm their (lack of) involvement in and attitude(s) towards the curse, before making any further decisions about how to proceed. And while you could use your Spell to Locate a Creature to track the witches, there's a potentially easier method at hand.
You ask the lady with you if she can get in touch with her cohorts and arrange a meeting.
She agrees easily enough, and performs the dark witchcraft of taking a slim, stylish cellphone out of her purse.
*Ring*
...
*Ring*
...
"Come on, Ling-Ling," the woman mutters at the third ring. "I can understand if Mei blocked my number, but-"
*Ri-*
You can just make out a, "Hello?" on the other end.
"We have a problem, Ling-Ling," the older girl says without preamble.
There is a response you don't catch all the words of. The tone, on the other hand, is fairly obviously that of someone who's been caught at a bad time, could you maybe call back-?
"I am standing in a room with a few of the exhibition officials," the witch in the room continues firmly, ignoring the request, "as well as a magic-user at least as good as I am-"
Heh.
"-and they've been telling me that someone whose magic felt similar to mine cast a curse on that lunkhead, Jun. Specifically, a Curse of Rage-"
There is a sound of surprise, approximately, "Eh?!"
"-that could have gotten a number of people hurt if it hadn't been detected and broken."
"EH?!"
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you, little sister?"
There is a rapid barrage of Taiwanese, the words running together but the overall tone of rather confused but mostly frantic denial coming through loud and clear.
The lady frowns. "Ling... Ling, calm down and slow- what do you mean-? You didn't? Wait, is that Mei- wait, stop. LING! Stop. Take a deep breath, let it out, and do it again until you've calmed down. And pass the phone to Mei."
There is a pause, after which the lady talks to her other coven-sister, repeating most of what she said about the curse and then telling Mei that the three of them need to meet somewhere that they can discuss mystical matters out of earshot of the crowd.
"Oh, you are? That should be just fine, then. I'll see you there shortly." Closing her phone, the witch informs you, "They're up on the roof. Shall we?"
You suppose you shall.
Do you have any quick questions while you're headed up?
You're hardly incurious about what was said over the phone, but you think you can live without knowing the answers for, oh, all of the five minutes it'll take to get up to the roof and meet the other two-thirds of this coven in person.
"Did we have access to the roof?" one of the officials inquires of the other, as your slightly increased party exits the room.
"There aren't any exhibits or the like up there," comes the answer, "but it does have the usual viewing spot and that little garden, and we WERE given a couple of sets of keys for most of the doors. I'm pretty sure I heard somebody suggesting we open the place up, so unless the rooftop access is using completely different locks..." He trails off with a shrug.
"Even then," you note, "there are several spells for unlocking doors, or just bypassing them."
The two attendants regard you for a moment, and then turn to the witch in your midst.
She gives an elegant shrug, but otherwise offers no response.
The nearest staircase is only a minute away even with the crowd, and it happens to go all the way to the roof. This access door proves to be locked, so you just break out the Spell of Knocking-
"Knock, knock."
*Click*
"Sorcery, then?" the witch guesses, as she finally gets a chance to observe your magic affecting something that doesn't have the Spell of Mind Blank wrapped around it.
The other two witches are in plain sight, sitting side-by-side on a bench that's been placed in front of a large patch of greenery which covers a stretch of the rooftop. They're both several years younger than their coven-sister, probably sixteen or seventeen to her twenty-ish, which explains her earlier remark about their relative inexperience; with that said, your Mage Sight quickly determines that they're both capable of casting third-circle spells, even if the one who looks like she's been crying recently would probably need a ritual to muster that much power. The other one, whose signature is a better match for the curse you broke than either of her compatriots, has the reserves and talent to pull off a spell of that magnitude all on her own, an accomplishment that would be more impressive if she'd been more careful with that power...
Anyway, aside from being younger than their fellow witch, both girls are a bit less elegant in manner and attire than she is, though there are signs of her influence in their outfits. The one who you're assuming is Mei is a cute, sporty-looking sort who wouldn't look too out of place among the Under Eighteens participants, even if she doesn't have the ki signature of a fighter of that level. That might explain how she met her now-ex boyfriend, come to think of it.
As for Ling-Ling, she's the smallest of the trio, if perhaps not the youngest, and at first glance seems like the most traditionally dressed, with her hair up in ox horns and a knee-length qipao in dark green. But then you notice the makeup-induced pallor and deep eyeshadow, all the plain metal jewelry she's wearing - earrings, necklace, multiple bangles about each forearm, a double-handful of rings, plus the little chains wrapped about and through her hairstyle - the faded-out grey and black images on her dress that turn into ghostly figures when the light hits them right, and the green streaks in her otherwise black hair, and the aesthetic becomes something else entirely.
If not for her ki signature - modest and untrained, but otherwise clear and steady - you might be tempted to take her for some kind of undead, or at least a necromancer.
Then she opens her mouth and starts speaking in the sort of nervous near-panic only found in beings with heartbeats: "Big Sis, I SWEAR I didn't try to drive the jerk crazy, I just wanted him to have bad luck with girls for a while, that's ALL, really, I don't know HOW-"
...this could take a minute.
While the other two witches start calming down their sister-in-magical arms, you consider how to approach the issue.
"Among other talents."
The lady nods approvingly at that - if you're reading her expression right, both for the implication that you have other abilities of a supernatural bent AND for your lack of elaboration on what they might be.
Given how much witches deal in information, as well as the fact that this one has had to reveal a bit about her coven to you, showing her that you know how to practice information security is probably reassuring.
Although it's the less powerful of your readily available spells for enforcing truthfulness and thus easier for a would-be liar to resist, the fact that the Spell to Create a Zone of Truth has an obvious impact on everybody in its area of effect makes it more useful in this situation than the Spell to Discern Lies, which would only allow YOU to tell if somebody was being dishonest - and even then, only if you were focusing on them while they spoke.
Compelling everybody within twenty feet to speak honestly can be a hassle, but it provides evidence that can be confirmed by anyone in earshot.
Before casting the spell, however, you wait for the two calmer witches to settle their sister's nerves, and then inform everyone on the roof of your intentions.
"Yes!" Ling-Ling bursts out. "Sure, yes, absolutely!"
Nobody else is so... effusive... in their agreement, but there is general consent to your using the magic, and once you have the spell up and running, everybody spends a minute or so testing the effects by trying to tell simple, obvious falsehoods.
"My hair is bloooack," Ling-Ling struggles. As soon as it's clear your spell is working on her, she quickly adds, "And I really didn't mean to cast a Rage Curse on the idiot!"
There is not a hint of strain in her follow-up statement, but rather a great deal of relief - and also a brief, slightly mean look of pleased surprise when she gets away with insulting Jun.
Okay, then.
You decide to start with the most easily assessed aspects of the miscast curse: the framework of the actual spell; and the exact phrasing used to trigger it.
Calmer now, both for the efforts of her sisters and for having been able to state her innocence with magical support, Ling-Ling takes another, shallower breath, and starts talking technicalities. She loses the two attendants almost immediately, Lu-sensei only manages to follow along in a very general sense, but you, Briar, and the other two witches are able to follow along readily enough.
What Ling-Ling describes is a pretty standard Spell to Bestow a Curse, modified to impose a compulsion for a specific form of behavior, which would only activate under certain circumstances.
Or, as Ling-Ling put(s) it, "'May charm abandon you, and silver tongue tarnish, when you seek to court another.'" She shrugs. "In plain language, any time the creep opened his mouth to flirt with a girl, he'd say the least attractive thing he could think of."
"And that WOULD have been the sort of ironic punishment expected of a witch," you note with a nod, before adding, "although, making it permanent..."
"I could have broken it when I felt he'd suffered enough," Ling-Ling states, not untruthfully. "Mei dated the jerk for two months, so I figured half a year of datelessness in return would be fair."
"...but WOULD you have lifted the curse then?" you ask, not having missed the specific language she just used.
Ling-Ling looks away, slightly abashed. "I mean, EVENTUALLY...?"
Mei looks like she's simultaneously touched by her coven-sister's loyalty, and inclined to scold her.
Since it doesn't appear to have been the terms of the curse that warped things, you next ask about the circumstances: where Ling-Ling was at the time, and what was going on around her; what she felt; and so on.
"Well, I was definitely ticked at the guy," she admits. "And yeah, I drew on that for some extra punch to the curse. Mei was helping, too."
Attention turns to the other witch, who quietly says, "I did the same as Ling-Ling."
As for where they were, the younger witches admit to having been downstairs when they invoked the curse, specifically in one of the bathrooms. Given the range limitations and power requirements of the Spell to Bestow a Curse, that fact causes you a moment's consternation, until Ling-Ling explains that Jun was standing right outside the washroom trying to explain himself.
"Actually, the creep tried to barge in on us," Ling-Ling spits out. "Fortunately, there were a few other girls there who didn't mind telling him to get the hell out, and none of them were so tall that we didn't have a clear line of sight to the punk's face - which I slapped," she adds.
Thus delivering the curse AND getting to express her personal displeasure in a more primal fashion.
"Yeah, two for one!" She grins. "Plus, everybody else in the room was too distracted by what was going on at the door to really notice what Mei and I were actually doing."
That part seems to be a concession for the officials.
"And nothing felt out of place?" Briar asks. "No sudden twist to the curse, no unexplained power surge?"
"No, nothing like that. Not unless feeling really satisfied when I hit his uuuughhh, come on, why can't I call the guy 'ugly'?"
"Some of his BEHAVIOR is certainly less than attractive," Big Sis observes clinically. "But there isn't anything wrong with the shape of his face, even if we all DO want to slap it."
Ling-Ling huffs something about "annoying truth spells."
Going over what the ladies have said, the location and timing of their curse-calling doesn't appear to have been a contributing factor to the miscast, either.
You were already planning to ask Ling-Ling if she's ever had a magical malfunction like this before, and since Mei has admitted to taking part in the curse, you'll include her in that. But can you think of some other possible cause to ask about?
Considering that a curse was invoked in that bathroom and somehow went awry, somebody with some experience in dealing with the darker strains of magic really ought to go take a look to make sure that it wasn't the environment somehow affecting the spell, and conversely, that the malformed malediction didn't have any nasty side-effects.
And since the three witches at hand are all kind of suspect due to their involvement in the matter, and Briar isn't really powerful enough to DO anything about curses...
"I'm going to have to go downstairs and take a look at that bathroom, aren't I?" you grumble.
Most of the other people on the roof give you Looks at that.
"I know, I know," you say emphatically, "but we've got a curse acting strangely for reasons unknown; checking the site where it was cast to rule out interference and/or aftereffects is kind of needed."
"I mean, we could-" Ling-Ling begins.
"We're the ones that made the mess, Ling-Ling," Mei says.
"But shouldn't we be the ones to clean it up, then?"
"But can they TRUST us to clean it up?"
Ling-Ling opens her mouth to reply, then pauses, closes her mouth, and snorts. "Yeah, we... kind of blew the trust thing already, didn't we?"
Mei smiles weakly. "Just a bit."
"So, what would be the least intrusive manner for me to check for curse issues?" you ask. "I think I can rule out scrying out of hand, that would just be spying, and invisibility is just, no - but would turning into a girl and just walking in openly be any better? Or should we borrow the power of the authorities and spin some believable cover story to empty the bathroom for a few minutes?"
"You'd turn yourself into a girl?" Ling-Ling asks curiously.
"It's just the Spell to Alter One's Self, it's really not that hard..."
"Technically, no, but I can't think of a lot of people who'd be comfortable just up and switching their sex like that, even temporarily."
At that, you can only shrug.
"I've turned into weirder things."
"Ever danced as a fire elemental before?" you ask.
You know it's something of a rhetorical question, as the Spell of the Elemental Body is not normally available to witches, and even its weakest iteration would be too powerful for Ling-Ling to cast on her own, besides.
Thus, you are not surprised when she blinks and slowly replies, "No, I have not."
"I have."
Nobody seems to know how to respond to that, and instead, the conversation gets back to the matters at hand.
The witches are unanimous in their agreement that getting the officials to temporarily close and clear out the bathroom in question would be the better approach, and the two attendants with you don't argue the point, just asking which bathroom the curse was cast in and then calling it in.
While you're waiting for that to get sorted out, you have a few other lines of inquiry you might as well take care of.
You start by asking the witches if their coven is in conflict with another magical group that would have cause - if only in their own minds - and the ability to mess with their spells. They're able to name a few possibilities: twin sorcerous sisters who consider themselves rivals to the trio, and have caused problems for them in the past; a much older and more experienced witch who doesn't really approve of ANY of the younger girls and periodically drops little surprises on all of them, to keep them on their toes; and a wizard who the witches honestly wouldn't have any problems with, if he didn't keep working for a certain wealthy, well-connected young businessman who alternately seems to want to hire "Big Sis" Xiulan, marry her, and/or make her life difficult.
There is a story there, but Xiulan shuts down Ling-Ling's attempts to talk about it, saying instead that none of their "usual suspects" seem likely for this incident. Quite aside from the fact that the trio are well outside their and their regular adversaries' usual stomping grounds, the twin sorceresses' powers don't relate to curses, the wizard makes a point of not meddling with such magic unless it's to identify and ultimately break it, and the old witch would have made it clear that she was involved by now.
Taking your initial question in a different direction, you ask the ladies if they might have recently offend a Power in some manner - or for that matter, done one a favor that might have been repaid in an unexpected and unfortunately unhelpful manner, like boosting a curse.
Nothing comes to mind for any of the trio, although Xiulan starts looking thoughtful and wonders if JUN might not have somehow offended a Power, opening himself up to greater retribution when it was called for.
None of you can really speak to that, although given the guy was willing to flirt with a witch while already dating one of her coven-sisters - and with the third member also present to find out about it - you have to admit that you can certainly envision the POSSIBILITY of him angering some spirit or higher being.
"Probably not DIRECTLY," you add. "That would imply that the guy bumped into a god while they were walking around, or that he has access to other planes, either of which are... fairly improbable. A proxy encounter, though? Much more likely."
"How so?" Ling-Ling wonders.
"Flirting with a priestess, maybe?" you offer with a shrug-
!
-only to pause mid-way as both Ling-Ling and Mei freeze up.
"Didn't you mention visiting a shrine with him a couple of weeks ago?" the punky witch begins, turning to her friend.
"We did," the cute one agrees, her tone somewhere between dismay and satisfaction. "And there WAS a rather pretty attendant..."
...
Seriously?
"Let's not jump to conclusions," you say firmly. "After all, the only thing we have right now is speculation."
The two younger witches trade glances, sigh, and reluctantly nod.
"Now," you continue, "if I find traces of divine involvement at the site of the curse-calling, then that could be another story - although since I don't know who the god of the shrine you mentioned is or what their power feels like, it still wouldn't be definitive proof. At the very least, though, I think it'd be reasonable grounds for you to go back to that shrine and talk to the priestess about whatever happened, and maybe get her deity's input on the matter."
Another look is exchanged, this time of an anticipatory nature.
Xiulan shakes her head. "On that note," she declares, rising elegantly from the spot she took on the bench next to her sisters, "we should probably head downstairs."
Yeah, there's not a lot else you can really do from up here, and between the time that's passed since the officials checked in with their counterparts and the time it'll take you to reach the bathroom in question, the place should be completely cleared out and closed off when you arrive. Plus, the sooner you get down there and sweep the place for residual curse energy, the sooner it can be re-opened and the nuisance factor of having it closed on such a busy day eliminated.
One thing before you go, however: did you want to use the Spell of Alter Self to turn into a girl anyway?
Although Ling-Ling seemed to find the idea interesting, you end up deciding just to stay as you are.
Honestly, there are some practical reasons for it, one of which is that you might turn into a young Gerudo girl, which would be kind of ridiculously eye-catching in this predominantly Taiwanese crowd. The nose ALONE would have people staring, much less the typical coloration or height, and you would rather not have to double-cast the spell to correct the "mistake" in front of your current companions.
After all, the whole reason you're talking to these ladies is because one of them had a magical mishap; having one of your own, particularly with a relatively minor spell, feels like it would undermine your position somewhat.
You let the witches lead the way downstairs and to the bathroom in question, and as expected, when you arrive, it's got an "Out of Order" sign set up just outside, with a female exhibition attendant standing by. She speaks briefly with her two counterparts and then ushers the witches, Briar, and you inside.
"Why are they taking a boy into the ladies' room?" somebody your age or younger wonders from the crowd.
"We need him to identify something," one of the officials remaining outside replies, as if it were perfectly normal.
As the door swings shut behind you, Ling-Ling walks over to one corner near the sinks, and you focus your attention in that general direction. Thanks to your fading but still-active Mage Sight, the area lights up with a residual aura dim enough that you know it wouldn't have been detectable by most.
Bestow Curse is only a third- or fourth-circle spell, depending on the method used to cast it, and even at the upper end, the excess energies would only linger in an obvious state for a few minutes. It's been a fair bit longer than that, but fortunately, your eyes are keener than most.
"We were here," the small, punky witch states, gesturing at a patch of floor while keeping a reasonable distance from it. "The jerk was over at the door, and there were three other girls in his way, plus two more in the room. One was over here" - Ling moves down to the next sink - "turned to glare at the creep, and the other was by that stall, digging for something in her purse. I think she had a can of Mace, but after I slapped the twit, he backed off before she could use it." She shrugs. "Eh, missed opportunities."
...leaving that aside, your read of the auras turns up the expected signature of Necromantic witchcraft, cut with Enchantment and that little bit of darkness present in even the least malignant or most deserved of curses. There's also a touch of Fire in there, for some reason...? Granted, Fire and anger are popularly associated, but with the pure Enchantment angle, the Elemental should have been redundant, so why is it there?
A quick glance around at the rest of the bathroom turns up no untoward traces of other magical activity, either. Not that you were expecting any, but it's just as well to be sure that neither the room itself nor anyone in it interfered with Ling-Ling and Mei's curse-calling.
As for the possibility of divine involvement, your Mage Sight doesn't turn anything up, but that may simply be because it's scanning the wrong wavelengths. You need a more spiritual approach, and with that in mind, you take a few minutes to combine the basic framework of the Spell of Aura Sight with the segments of the Greater Spell to Detect Magic that allow the latter to reach back over several days.
As you're working on that ritual, the witches collectively frown and peer at you with magically aided sight, unable to see what exactly you're doing. Briar has to intervene to stop them from actually casting spells to try and find out, noting that it could interfere with your readings, and wouldn't work against your "anti-Divination ward" anyway.
"It might," Ling-Ling protests.
"It really wouldn't," your partner replies.
Casting your completed spell-
!
-you blink in bemusement at the readings that start coming back, NOT from the spot where the two witches cast their curse, but from the spot just inside the door where Jun was standing when he got curse-slapped.
"...that's a weird feeling," Briar notes, giving you a curious look.
"I got weird results," you state. "So, there's one spiritual signature which has enough similarities to the three of you" - you nod at the coven - "that I'm pretty sure it must belong to your primary patron."
They nod, neither asking questions nor offering information on the subject.
"There's also a spiritual signature that crosses into the territory of proper divinity, and a Lawful one, at that, though otherwise Neutral." You look at Mei. "Would that tally with the patron of the shrine you visited?"
She nods slowly.
This doesn't CONFIRM the involvement of that deity, but it does suggest it.
"The THIRD spiritual signature," you continue, to startled glances from your audience, "reads like it belongs to a nature spirit of some sort, probably an elemental." Which would explain the Fire reading you got earlier. "And the FOURTH is clearly demonic."
...
"Just how many people has that idiot managed to offend?" Ling-Ling demands of the room and the universe at large. "And how is he not DEAD yet, if he pissed off a demon?"
Because if witches will throw curses at people who anger them, demons tend to favor more direct and violent forms of retribution.
"Actually, I don't think he offended any of them quite that seriously," you declare. "It's more like... he was close enough and annoying enough to these other entities that their energies were disturbed, and some of that 'annoyed energy' leaked onto him, but even with three different supernatural entities contributing to it, the built-up power wasn't strong enough on its own to have any kind of obvious impact. It would have gone away on its own, eventually-"
Actually, the hint of divinity is so faint that you think you wouldn't be able to detect it after a few more days, a week at the outside. If it really is from that shrine Mei said she and her ex visited two weeks ago, that would track.
"-and it could have been removed outright if Jun ever got himself properly purified-"
Which, obviously, he didn't.
"-but when an actual CURSE was added in, the accumulated negativity basically fed it and allowed it to... well, grow."
"That can happen?" the attendant asks with surprise.
"It's a fairly well-known phenomenon," Xiulan says. "Curses, poisons, demons - mix enough of them together the right way, and you can create something stronger and nastier than its component parts."
"So... we didn't screw up the curse?" Ling-Ling asks hopefully.
"A better controlled curse could have been kept from twisting its intended function like this one did," you inform her. "As far as the actual CASTING goes, though... as far as I can tell, no, you didn't."
Gained Investigation E
Is there anything else you want to do while you're at the scene of the not-actually-a-crime?
"Whatever the circumstances that led up to it, I think we can all agree that this incident is a good example of why casually throwing curses at people you don't intend actual harm to is generally a bad idea," you state. "Especially with a curse improvised on the spot, or with a lack of experience in curse-calling."
"Yeah, yeah," Ling-Ling sighs. "I hear- wait. If I'm not supposed to curse people, then how the heck do I practice?"
"Anyway," you continue, reaching into your pocket while the witches and the attendant are still wrapping their heads around your words, "if you think of any follow-up questions or could use a consult on future magical matters, or if you just want to talk arcane shop, I can be reached at the following address and number."
You hand one of your business cards over to Xiulan, who, by dint of being the only member of the coven not to have taken part in the curse-calling, has proven herself the most responsible member of the trio pretty much by default.
"How's your English, by the way?" you ask the eldest witch.
"Mine is conversational," she replies, in a slightly formal but perfectly clear accent. "My sisters'... not so much."
Fortunately, a quick spell is all it takes to add the Chinese transliteration of your name, address, and number to the card.
"You should be advised that I live on a Hellmouth-"
"A what?" every native Taiwanese woman in the room exclaims.
Old exposition ensues.
"-and as I was saying, because of the mystical environment where I live, some of my acquaintances prefer not to contact me by phone, due to concerns about curses, evil spirits, and other nastiness potentially getting at them over the lines," you eventually say, as you get back on track. "If you do decide to call, please keep the eight-hour difference in time zones in mind."
"And the international rates, good grief," Xiulan adds, wincing.
"And now, if you'll excuse me," you continue, turning for the door, "I think I have to track down Jun and talk to him about what happened."
Ling-Ling frowns and Mei looks away.
"Getting his side of the story?" Xiulan ventures in as close to a neutral tone as you can reasonably expect, given her ties to the whole business.
"A bit of that, and a bit of figuring out just how the heck he managed to offend so many different beings in a relatively short span of time - and whether or not it's likely to happen again..."
"The trick is finding acceptable targets."
The lady official isn't the only one visibly surprised by your remark.
"Let me guess," you say. "You thought I was going to discourage you from using curses at all?"
Ling-Ling shrugs. "Well, yeah. After all this fuss, why wouldn't you?"
"Two reasons, mainly. The first is that casting a curse gives you a better understanding of what they are, what they feel like, and how dangerous they can be, which in turn makes it easier for you to detect and break them - and hopefully, safer. And all of that is useful knowledge to have."
The witch nods. "And the other reason?"
"Well, I'd be a hypocrite for telling you not to cast curses at all when I've used them myself."
Also, between Ganondorf's memories and your personal dealings with the Madisons, you have a bit of a soft spot for witches, and aren't about to deny one group of them use of a potent tool in their kit - at least, not over a single misuse that ended up without anyone even being injured.
"...really, now?" Ling-Ling drawls, looking interested.
"Really."
"So, what would you say was an 'acceptable target'?"
"Oh, you know. Things like giant demonic spiders intent on eating you, or giant sorcerous serpents that want to eat you."
The ladies collectively blink.
"Just as random examples, of course."
After handing over your card and giving the coven (plus one) a final nod, you exit the bathroom to collect Lu-sensei and rejoin your other companions.
"Hey, mister!" that kid from before calls. "What were you looking for in the girls' room?"
Heads turn, people who didn't see you go in there a few minutes ago now looking your way with surprise, disapproval, and some outrage, although most of the latter quickly fades when they catch sight of the "Out of Order" sign and the officials who are pointedly not moving to do anything to do.
You glance at the brat, whose wide grin tells you he knows EXACTLY what he just did, or at least tried to do, and is entirely unrepentant about it.
With no further delays, you return to the gym, where the Under Eighteens Division spars are still ongoing, although from the look of the scoreboard - both in terms of points and the number of people who've dropped out since you left - they must be getting close to the end.
"Welcome back," Cordy says, as you approach the group. "You got cut, by the way."
Yeah, you kind of figured that would happen. One could argue that you were doing the organizers a favor and could have easily been repaid by them keeping a spot open for you in the matches, but that likely would have led to questions from the other participants and the crowd about why you were being exempted from disqualification when others who'd missed their turns weren't. Given the officials' desire to keep the supernatural stuff quiet, as well as the general uncertainty about how long you'd be occupied with the curse investigation, you can understand why they'd prefer to just keep things running normally.
"How'd it go?" Amy asks.
"Found the casters, found out it was kind of an accident," you reply, looking for Jun. He's not on any of the mats at the moment, but there is a "Jun" still on the board, due for another fight at some point.
"Someone cursed a guy to go berserk by ACCIDENT?" the little witch wonders, with a certain amount of professional curiosity and just a little witchy wickedness. "How'd that happen?"
Yeah, no; you're not getting into something like this.
What's the saying? "The only way to win is not to play?"
Regardless, you look away-
"Huh?"
-trade speaking glances with your teacher, and then make for the gym.
"Hey, don't ignore me!"
You hear nothing.
"Come on!"
Not. A. Thing.
You're not terribly fussed either way, but you figure it's probably better to be proactive about tracking down the guy with a demonstrated talent for drawing the irritation of supernatural beings upon himself, before he manages to get himself into more trouble.
One curse is enough for the day.
Leaving Briar to catch up Larry and the girls, you dismiss the current Spell to Locate a Creature and begin re-casting it. In the process, you reflect that it's unfortunate that you couldn't simply adjust the matrix of the existing spell to look for a new target, but alas, the magic doesn't have that kind of flexibility built into it. You can designate any one of a truly staggering range of potential targets into it, but once a signature HAS been selected, there's no adjusting it.
It occurs to you that developing a more versatile Location Spell would be doable, although you might want to start with the Spell to Locate an Object - at least that way, you'd have a reasonable chance of the results being usable without exceeding your skills at mana concealment...
Well, that's a project for another time. At the moment, just being able to find one person is plenty.
Shortening the spell's duration by a couple of steps - because really, given Jun is probably still in the gym, it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to get to him - you cast-
*Ping*
-and almost immediately, your head turns to the left. You can't SEE your target, but the spell has clearly locked on to him.
Heading over - and with Lu-sensei tagging along - you find the not-bad-looking young man standing with a group of four other guys and three girls, most of whom look like they're between fifteen and seventeen, though the oldest guy and girl are obviously in their early twenties. Judging by ki signatures, they're all martial artists, although most seem like they'd fall into the category of students - albeit advanced ones - rather than disciples. Good enough to compete at this level, but not likely to win.
Taking a closer look at Jun in particular with your still-active Ki Sight, you see that his aura looks clearer than it did when you left the gym, the "shadow" of the curse having lifted with its breaking and subsequent dissipation. A quick flip through your Mage Sight and Spiritual Sight shows supporting evidence for that, and also suggests that the older boy hasn't managed to offend any gods in your absence - and the fact that you have cause to be concerned about such a thing even being a POSSIBILITY says a lot.
"Excuse me," you say, as you come up to the group. "My name is Alex Harris. You are... Zhou Jun?"
"I am," he replies, frowning in slight puzzlement. "What did you want to speak about?"
"I was helping the officials track down the cause of your earlier induced rage," you answer. "I thought we should discuss my findings."
From the way his initial expression of surprise suddenly turns to one of keen interest, Jun very much wants to hear what you have to say.
"Why did the officials ask you for help?" one of his friends asks.
"I was the one who brought the cause of the matter to their attention in the first place," you reply, before giving Jun a questioning glance. He doesn't seem to be about to ask you to go somewhere quiet or otherwise avoid speaking plainly, which suggests that his companions are read in on the supernatural, and their ki auras are strong enough to support that notion.
Then again, there IS the rest of the crowd to think about...
"And what I found out involves some things we should probably discuss in private," you add, looking to one side at the crowd of regular folks.
Jun and his companions catch your meaning at once, and he excuses himself from the rest of the group before joining you and Lu-sensei as you head for the nearest unlocked door - which does indeed prove to be the way to the locker room, as you'd guessed earlier. You don't go too far down the corridor, though; once the door has closed behind you, it's just the three of you in a relatively quiet spot.
"Alright," Jun says. "From what the referee said, the reason I was so angry in my earlier fights was because someone put a spell on me?"
"That's right," you agree. "I have some experience with magic" - you light up your fingertip again - "and when I noticed that you were under a curse, I told my teacher and offered to break it, which the officials accepted."
"Thank you for that," Jun says.
"You're welcome. Anyway, I'd gotten a good look at the spell in the process of breaking it, so I was able to use a tracking spell to search for similar magical auras. The first person it led me to wasn't the actual caster, but was a member of the same coven of witches-"
You're watching closely for a reaction, but it's hardly necessary, as the emotions that spread across Jun's face at the mention of witchcraft would be obvious to anyone so much as glancing in his direction. There is recognition and anger, but also chagrin and something that looks like grudging acceptance.
"-and this isn't news to you," you conclude.
"Not really, no," the young man agrees wryly. "I know Mei's into witchcraft - the real thing, I mean. I've seen her cast a few spells."
You stare at him.
"You knew she was a witch, and you still thought it was fine to flirt with another woman?" Lu-sensei asks flatly, voicing the gist of your thoughts.
"I didn't know she was there-"
"Not the point, lad."
"-and I didn't think Mei would curse me over it. She never gets mad at people!"
"If she'd been by herself, she might not have," you note. "But not only did you flirt with another member of her coven in front of her-"
Jun starts at that. "Wait, what?"
"-but a THIRD member of the group got angry enough on your ex's behalf to cast the curse and convince Miss Mei to help out."
"There were THREE of-?"
NOW Jun is starting to look worried.
"There were, although only two of the ladies actually cursed you," you reply. "The thing is, from what they said when the officials and I questioned them, they weren't trying to drop a Rage Curse on you."
"...what WERE they going for?" Jun wonders, with a certain morbid curiosity.
"As Miss Ling-Ling put it" - the name doesn't appear to be familiar to him, incidentally - "she was trying to give you bad luck with girls for a while."
"...how bad, and how long?"
"Apparently, you would have spent the next six months saying the least attractive thing possible every time you tried to flirt with a girl."
...
"...for flirting with one woman?" Jun asks in disbelief.
"For flirting with one of your ex's coven-sisters right in front of her," you say a bit sharply - though not undeservedly, you think. "WHILE knowing that your ex was a member of a group of people who are, collectively, not exactly famous for proportionate retribution."
You manage not to EXPLICITLY call him an idiot to his face, even if he probably deserves it, but the message is implicit in your tone.
Jun sputters indignantly, but doesn't seem to be able to come up with a good retort for what you just said.
Sighing, you continue. "Anyway, the reason the curse warped from its intended function was partly because Miss Ling-Ling and Miss Mei don't have a lot of practice with that sort of magic, but ALSO because there were several other negative influences on your person already."
"You mean I was ALREADY cursed?!"
"Not quite."
You take a minute to explain the distinction between the somewhat unfocused and low-key ill-will of supernatural creatures that you picked up on, and the structured and empowered Intent of a proper curse.
Jun looks appropriately concerned.
"All of which leads me to ask, what have you been DOING to get so many different parties to dislike you in just a few weeks?"
"I don't know! I mean, there WAS that girl with the horns who dumped a can of pop on me at the club-"
"And WHY did she do that?" you interrupt suspiciously, while wondering if said girl was the demonic signature you picked up, the elemental one, or someone else entirely.
"She said something about not being into dogs, and that I wasn't worth wasting any of her booze on, which, rude much?"
Idly, you think Akkiko would approve of that girl's reasoning. ...actually, aren't oni supposed to have horns? Maybe that was a rather distant cousin of the Arisawa line, through their inhuman ancestor?
"But I swear, I've never met any gods-"
"Don't forget the priestess," you advise dryly.
"-what priest... oh. Ohhhh... uh, Mei kne- I mean, she mentioned that shrine visit to you, huh?"
"Yes," you reply, with a patience you don't really feel. "Yes, she did. And in hindsight, considering that the attendant was apparently pretty cute-"
"She was," Jun agrees, rubbing the back of his neck while smiling awkwardly.
"-she guessed that you might have flirted with HER, too."
"Uh, yeah. And... that upset the god?"
"It would depend on the god and the terms of the lady's service, but unless you've been to another holy place recently-"
"No."
"-then yes, it's a safe bet that you upset the god."
You are just about done with this idiot, and in more ways than one.
That said...
Since you're already on the subject of gods and priestesses, you tell Jun that there are ways to remove built up negative energy and other forms of supernatural contamination from one's person. The ones you personally use all rely on magic, be it arcane or divine in nature, but from what Lu-sensei has told you, there are ki-based equivalents - he just isn't qualified to teach them, due to his shortcomings on the spiritual side of the School of Five Elements.
Indeed, your descriptions do prompt recognition from Jun, who admits that the master of the school he belongs to takes a day each month to, and you quote, "Do this weird ritual where he hauls an old-fashioned bucket and ladle all around the building, humming weirdly and scattering water about."
Lu Tze appears to recognize the procedure, and you both agree that Jun should talk to his master about more personalized cleansing rituals.
"I'll do that, then," he agrees, before hesitating for a moment. "Um... so, uh... what do I need to do to stop meeting so many dangerous supernatural women?"
With some weariness, which you do your best not to let on that you're feeling, you explain to Jun about the issue of supernatural power calling to its own, and how as a practicing ki adept, he's much more likely to have encounters with supernatural entities than the average person on the street.
When he wonders aloud if that's why there are so many stories about martial artists running into certain rivals and enemies over and over again, you have to admit that it would fit with what you've been told.
"...so I'd need to stop using ki," he says slowly, and with a frown of genuine concern, "and maybe stop practicing martial arts entirely. Is that what you're saying?"
"Actually, I don't think that would help you much now," you reply.
"I'm in too deep, huh?"
"While there is some truth to that," Lu-sensei interjects, "your real problem isn't that you keep meeting 'dangerous supernatural women', but rather that you manage to keep offending them."
"It's just flirting!" Jun says defensively.
"And some women don't like being flirted with, especially not by a man who they can tell is already spoken for!"
Jun pauses at that, looking baffled. "They can tell that?"
Lu-sensei takes a deep breath, and then launches into an explanation that can be summed up as, "Yes, they can."
In a longer form, it doesn't require supernatural senses to tell that a given person is already in a relationship; there are all kinds of perfectly mundane tells that can be picked up by someone who's paying attention, ranging from obvious clues like a lingering scent of perfume or cologne or an engagement or wedding ring that the owner neglected to remove, to shifts in body language and tone of voice when someone is trying to lie about their status. When the supernatural is factored in, things get more obvious. Heightened senses of smell and hearing, aura-readers, involuntary seers, proactive use of Divination Magic, godly intuition - all of these and more can make it very apparent when one person has promised themselves to another, and when they are breaking that vow.
And the supernatural, as you know, has a Thing about oaths and obligations, especially when they're being violated. While you're hardly an expert on magical romances gone wrong, you have plenty of other stories you can call upon to illustrate the point that "lies to magical people" are a Bad Idea.
Really, this whole incident has been proof of that...
After giving Jun a final warning-
"Stop cheating on your girlfriend before it gets you turned into an animal, killed, or worse."
-you leave him to figure the rest out for himself, rejoin your friends-
"I kind of want to have a word with this idiot," Cordelia mutters, eyeing the older boy in an unfriendly, disapproving manner as Jun makes his way back to his companions. The look is echoed by Amy and Briar, and rather more professionally executed by Lily.
"Please don't," you sigh.
-and watch the last few matches in the Under Eighteens Division.
One of your seniors in the Five Elements Style places third in the event, down a single point from the first-place finisher, and half a point from the runner-up. You applaud and then move on to see some of the other events, but given that this is your second day at the exhibition, you've already visited most of the displays and presentations that you really wanted to see. Combined with the lingering irritation you're feeling over Jun's thoughtless behavior and everything it led to, as well as your mild but extant disappointment about bowing out of the competition, everything comes across as a little too dull to hold your interest.
You end up waiting at the bus stop for the three o'clock shuttle back to the School, accompanied only by Briar, and when you return, one of the first things you attend to is returning that copy of Foot of the Volcano that you checked out from the library.
"You finished another book already?" the lady at the desk says with surprise.
"I have been working on speed-reading recently," you say.
"Apparently..."
Roots of the Volcano is still checked out in your name, even though it's in Amy's possession. You should probably do something about that when she comes back...
Anyway, you look through the stacks again and check out another book that catches your eye when summarized via magic, but upon actually reading through the first chapter, it proves underwhelming, a mix of poor presentation and things you already know.
Dinner passes quietly, although one of the teachers asks you to visit the main office following the meal. When you show up, you're informed that they've finalized the schedule for your presentations on magic, with the first being tomorrow morning at ten, the second being the same time on Thursday, and the last being Friday afternoon at one.
You review that, and nod, seeing no particular problems with the time.
One thought that does occur to you is that, if you really do want to take a selection of the School to Bali Ha'i to see and use the Ring of Trials, you should probably arrange that now.
While giving your relatively small group of guests (technically) two days to prepare for a short trip to a mysterious tropical island is a bit short notice, the fact that the actual travel will be more like taking a hike into town from their perspective than a plane trip or anything so involved makes it a lot more manageable. Plus, the fact of the matter is that the longer you put it off, the more likely it is that SOMETHING will happen to delay, shorten, or derail the entire notion, whether by forcing you to be elsewhere or use up a lot of magic, or requiring the masters to bow out.
Anyway, Thursday afternoon seems-
Wait, what about Midsummer?
-er.
Oh, yes. You HAD been planning to take advantage of the nearest Hyrulean holy day to help empower the Ring, hadn't you - and that was this Friday.
...
If the rules of the free spar had been different, you might try to blame this memory lapse on getting hit in the head. Since that didn't happen, you can only chalk it up to the lingering frustration of dealing with troublesome teenagers, and the fact that you're still getting used to the schedule of Hyrulean religious festivals.
"'Thursday afternoon seems...?'" the guy at the desk asks leadingly.
"Actually, better make it Friday morning," you state instead. "Everything between breakfast and lunch, just to be safe."
He nods and types something on the keyboard in front of him. "And how large an event will this be?"
"Not too big, maybe two dozen people or so - some of the masters and instructors, maybe a few students. Depends on who accepts the invitations."
You're inclined to invite Li Fang, the young lady who let you borrow magically assimilate the information contained within her textbooks - she's been rather friendly AND helpful, and this seems a nice way of repaying her.
Maybe you should invite Mei as well? Not the witch, the librarian - partly as thanks for her doing her job in an efficient, friendly manner, and partly as an unspoken apology for your unlicensed copy-making of some of the books she's supposed to be keeping an eye on...
Is there anybody else you particularly feel deserves a place in the audience, or are you content to let the senior members of the School sort it out for themselves?
You can speak with Lu-sensei back at the dorm about the possibility of having Grandmaster Wen to attend the Trials in disguise. The Heart of Wen works on a daily cycle, so he can accompany you into your Private Sanctum tonight or tomorrow and call the Grandmaster there to see what he thinks of the matter.
You aren't sure if a summoned or called entity can take part in the Trials, but that's something you could ask Navi about when you see if she wants to attend. And if she doesn't know, the Goddesses are just a quick Communion Spell away.
You'll have to travel to Bali Ha'i tomorrow or Thursday to speak with Kahine, mostly for form's sake. You doubt she'll have much issue with your intended guests or their purpose, but it's always better not to presume with nature spirits, and doubly so for volcano spirits, you feel.
That leaves the resident members of the School that you're thinking of asking along. You can track down Li Fang in a moment, but since you're at the front desk anyway...
"Do you happen to have a phone line to the library?" you ask.
"We do."
"May I make use of it for a few minutes?"
"Certainly."
The call goes through, and while Mei isn't the one who answers the phone, she is available to speak with you. She's a bit bemused to hear that you're inviting her to spectate and perhaps participate in a mini-tournament, but she's definitely interested in the former. The latter-
"They get HOW big?"
-perhaps not so much?
With that attended to, you hang up the phone, thank the teacher at the desk-
"Seriously, though," he says, "they don't ACTUALLY get that big, right?"
The Spell to Locate a Creature served you well this afternoon, and it continues to do so now. If anything, the fact that you're looking for a specific person that you've met face-to-face rather than bending them a bit to trace a magical signature makes it work BETTER; the former function is, after all, part of the terms of the spell, whereas the latter probably wouldn't have been possible without your nature as a sorcerer, your considerable talent in Divination Magic, and your, ah, extensive familiarity with witchcraft.
The School's grounds are big enough that Li Fang could be somewhere out of range, but as you're turning a slow circle during the invocation of the magic, the pull you feel towards one of the dorms says otherwise, and a few minutes later, you're speaking with the lady herself while two of her roommates lounge around and look on with shameless curiosity.
"...just to be clear," Li Fang says. "You aren't asking me on a date, right?"
Now, why would she ask th-
!
-ah, you see. She is actually looking more at her companions than you as she says that.
Clearly, she suspects they either have or will get the wrong idea, or will at least ACT like it, if preventative measures aren't taken.
"No, nothing like that," you agree, seeing no issue with doing the helpful young woman a favor. "It's just that you were friendly and helpful in class, and I figured I could pay you back for loaning me the use of your books."
"That's it?" one of the other girls wonders. "That's all she had to do?"
You shrug.
"They don't ACTUALLY get that big, right?"
Your only response to that question is to smirk, turn away, and head for the door.
"...they don't, right?" the guy calls after you, sounding rather more concerned than before.
...
Just as you're leaving the office, your keen ears catch a final, muttered remark: "Damn it, now I'm going to be thinking about that all night..."
Shrugging, you simply state, "I like to do nice things for my friends. Besides, good behavior should be rewarded, right?"
The girls stare at you.
"I mean, there's 'nice things' and then there's 'come fly with me to a magical island paradise'," one of them observes.
"Literally magical and literally flying, at that," the other one chimes in.
"We aren't going to fly there," you note in passing.
"...right, you sort of popped out of thin air..."
You just nod at that, as you don't see the need to get into how you won't be traveling to Bali Ha'i via teleportation, or a discussion of the differences between teleportation and traveling via portals.
"But the bit about the magical island still stands!"
In any event, once you have her roommates settled - or maybe just confused enough that they aren't going to tease her about having a date - Li Fang is happy to accept your invitation. You chat a little longer and then see yourself out of the dorm.
When you catch up with Lu-sensei a little later, he laughs approvingly at the idea of sneaking Grandmaster Wen into the gathering and then springing the revelation of his presence on his distant disciples. That said, your teacher does agree that talking to the man himself ahead of time to see whether HE wants to go would be wise.
"I am fairly certain the Grandmaster will be up to attending the Trials," the old man goes on. "Whether or not he'll want to take part is another matter, and I have no idea at all if he'd be ABLE to."
Definitely something to check on, then.
When you ask Lu-sensei if he's used the Heart of Wen today, he notes that he has not. It's not quite seven in the evening, so you've got plenty of time to go set up a Private Sanctum, call the Grandmaster, and if necessary, contact Navi and/or Commune with the Goddesses to get a straight answer. And after that, you could spend the remainder of the night before curfew setting up your Demiplane - it'll last more than long enough if you conjure it now.
The only reason you can think of that you might not want to do this right now is that there are still plenty of people out on the grounds, attending evening classes, playing around, training by themselves, or just taking it easy, and a dome of visually and mystically impenetrable grey fog suddenly springing up might draw attention and ruin the surprise of Wen's presence - which would be a great shame and an offense against the principles of the School of Five Elements.
But then again, all you'd need to do to avoid that is to speak to Navi and/or the Goddesses first - being careful to phrase your questions so as to avoid revealing Wen's identity to any listeners - start working on your Demiplane next, and then have your teacher call up the Grandmaster after everyone else had wandered off in boredom or gone to bed.
So, yeah, sounds like a plan. You'll just get on that...
About twenty minutes later, you've found a spot down the road from the School proper and a bit back into the rocks and bushes of the hillside, which is just about perfect for your needs. It's reasonably level, there's room enough for thirty or forty people to stand not TOO close together - which is more than you'll need - and there's enough cover to hide most of your Private Sanctum once you get it up.
As a bonus, and in spite of your concerns, nobody followed you out. You were definitely seen, but maybe Lu-sensei's presence made them think it was an evening lesson?
Well, whatever the case, you take advantage of the quiet and raise your Private Sanctum, and then make contact with Navi to extend the offer of attending the Trials and meeting the masters of the School of Five Elements.
"I appreciate the offer, but I'm afraid I will have to pass," the Great Fairy's voice replies through the glowing sphere that serves as her avatar in these meetings. "There was something of an incident a few days ago, and I need to keep an eye on certain people to make sure they don't try to sneak out of their punishments, or add to someone else's."
Briar, who tagged along with you out of partner's responsibility and familiar dedication, groans. "Who broke what?"
"Gemma lost control of an Armos near Robin's workshop," Navi sighs in the same tone. "There was some structural damage before your brother managed to deactivate the thing."
"'Deactivate' in the temporary sense, or the permanent?" Briar wonders.
"He used his hammer."
"Permanent it is." Briar sighs the sigh of exasperated sisters everywhere. "Well, here's hoping none of the little idiots got inspired to turn their Death Machines loose."
"Oh, the thought HAS occurred to a few of them," Navi replies wryly. "Which is one more reason why I don't want to let them out of my sight for too long right now."
That's unfortunate, but it's an entirely fair concern.
As for the matter of whether or not you could send Grandmaster Wen into the Ring of Trials, Navi honestly has no idea. Using Heart Containers as a mechanism for summoning creatures is fairly uncommon, due to the rarity of the blessed gifts, the relatively low number of people who acquire one (let alone more than one), and the fact that most Hyruleans prefer to use them for increased vitality over the other options.
Which makes sense, when you think about it. Most of the summoning-style Heart Containers you've had the option to take would have involved calling up monsters, which would discourage a LOT of Hyruleans from making such a choice, and using the elemental variants to their fullest effect requires some degree of magical ability, which isn't guaranteed even in the comparatively magic-rich kingdom.
That isn't to say that an ordinary fisherman couldn't get SOME use out of a Heart of Water, for instance, just that he wouldn't be able to do as much with it as a Water Mage would.
Taking that into account, the increased life-force granted by the standard Heart Container is apt to be a lot more useful to most Hyruleans, whether it's for surviving encounters with random monsters, withstanding accidental injury, or just having more energy to put towards their daily labors - which usually DO involve physical labor of some kind, and thus benefit from the second-order endurance boost.
After thanking Navi for her time and ending your spell, you join Briar and Lu-sensei in making a quick sweep of the area outside the Private Sanctum, just to be sure no one's coming, and then hop back inside while your teacher invokes the Heart of Wen.
"I would be delighted to attend and participate, if that's at all possible," the ancient master agrees. "New opponents are always well, and I so rarely get the chance to properly assess the progress of any of the branch schools. This would also be the first time for this particular one."
...the way Wen said that implies that he has been able to keep an eye on the ORIGINAL School of the Five Elements, and also that he DOES get occasional chances to look in on the other schools, however infrequently.
Also, regarding the Communion Spell you're about to cast, are there any other questions you'd like to ask the Goddesses at this time?
"Mostly the former, some of the latter, and a dash of unexpected consequences thrown in," the ancient martial artist declares.
You and Lu-sensei trade glances, and then look back to Wen.
"I think we're going to need more than that, sir."
The Grandmaster explains that, as both the founder and the first transcendent master of the School of Five Elements, he is effectively the patron of the entire School, whether in the sense of the martial art, the places that teach it, or the original training compound.
This does not make him a god. The fact that he is remembered, honored, and not-infrequently quoted by the descendants and inheritors of his disciples, who have continued to practice and refine the art that he originally devised in keeping with his philosophy, is a source of some power, but it is not the same thing as being outright worshipped by the populations of towns, cities, or nations; likewise, the various Schools are not truly shrines or temples.
"A martial artist's temple is his body, and vice-versa, and it falls to him and him alone to build and maintain it," Wen states. "I am told by some of my more religiously-minded fellows that cultivation of one's spiritual strength in accordance with the principles of our art does serve to attune a student TO the philosophy of the Five Elements Style - and thus, to myself - in a manner similar to a priest following the teachings of their deity, yet those same wise men state that the individual, inward focus of our training, combined with the intertwining of body, mind, and spirit, tends to isolate and ground a ki adept's energies. Consequently, we lack the equivalent of full priests and holy grounds to help guide and relay students' imperfect energies to me, and my own back to them." He pauses, and shrugs. "There is also the fact that I remain fundamentally human in many ways, despite my lofty state of being, and thus lack various capabilities the true divines have access to."
You spend a moment just taking all of that onboard.
Gained Knowledge (Martial Arts) E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"I'm with you so far, Grandmaster," you state. "So where does the bit about 'mostly spiritual awareness, some summoning, and unexpected consequences' fit in?"
"Well, even if I can't tap into the energies of my distant successors, they're still THERE, still attuned to me and my teachings, and still concentrated within the various Schools. At times, when the level of energy is elevated - whether due to an individual's intense effort or a simple gathering of many adepts - I catch glimpses of this or that training hall, tournament, or battle to the death. The effect is most common and most pronounced at the oldest branches, with my original school having the strongest and clearest connection of all, thanks to all the time I spent there in life and the fact that it was where I both developed so much of the Five Elements Style and ultimately ascended."
...
So, basically, he's saying that the Plane of Punching has TV?
When Lu-sensei facepalms a moment later, you realize that you voiced that thought aloud.
"What is 'teevee'?" Grandmaster Wen wonders.
Whoops?
You get on with setting up for the Spell of Communion, filling the Incense Burner with some of your remaining Black Turtle Incense - which is getting rather low - and conjuring the holy water you'll need. Once everything is prepared and you have your questions worked out, you begin the ritual, Briar, Lu-sensei, and Grandmaster Wen stepping back to watch quietly.
Once you formally have the Goddesses' attention, you ask your first question: "Can Grandmaster Wen participate in the Ring of Trials while present through the Heart of Wen?"
"Yes."
Okay, that's good to know, and something to look forward to.
There is a related question you feel merits asking as well: "Can Grandmaster Wen receive your gifts through the Ring of Trials?"
"Only if he wins."
There is a certain teasing note to that reply, not entirely limited to Farore's portion of the three-part harmony.
"That sounds a like a challenge," the old master observes from behind you.
You spare him a glance over your shoulder before quickly turning back to your "meeting." "Would it be safe to use the Spell of Greater Scrying to examine the energies of participants in the Trials?"
"Yes."
You had a feeling that would be the case; the viewing globe projected by the Ring is an effect very similar to the proper Spells of Scrying, right down to Twinrova's demonstrated ability to notice it monitoring them and backtrack the connection to react to people saying things about them...
"Would a ritual to temporarily supercharge my Ki Sight be safe for analyzing combatants?"
"Yes."
Do you have any additional questions?
"Is there anyone at this School of Five Elements you wouldn't want to take your Trials?"
...I didn't notice anybody particularly stand-out. Did either of you?
I wasn't really looking.
I took a quick glance, but on the whole?
You can feel Lu-sensei and Grandmaster Wen's attention focusing after you've asked that question-
"No."
-but apparently everybody at the School passes muster in the eyes of the Goddesses.
...or maybe...?
"Is there anyone at this School of Five Elements you would want to ENSURE takes your Trials?" you ask, seeking clarification in the opposite direction.
"No."
Yeah, so, maybe the Goddesses just weren't paying that much attention? You suppose you can't blame them; deities tend to look to their faithful first and the general population second, and the residents of the School only first heard any of the Goddesses' names in bits of your storytelling over the last couple of days, which would bump them down the priority list a bit.
Maybe the people you've DIRECTLY interacted with, as opposed to those who just heard you speaking at a distance, got some more attention, but even so, that's only a fraction of the entire School, and a fair number of your interactions with them have been...
Boring?
You hesitate to say "boring," but maybe "too mundane to catch a deity's interest?"
Like I said, boring.
You need to learn to appreciate the educational environment more, Sister.
Excuse you, Nature is the ORIGINAL educational environment!
Shaking your head to dismiss that train of thought before it derails your spell, you ask your next question. "Are there any of your servants you'd like me to introduce to the School?"
You've already introduced the masters to the priestly trio, but maybe-
"No."
-and then again, maybe not.
With your questions about the Trials themselves answered, you move on to another topic that recent events brought to mind, and which is fairly pertinent: "Do regular Heart Containers increase the user's affinity for the Life Element?"
After all, who can give you a clearer answer on the subject than the ladies who create the divine relics to begin with?
And the answer is, "Minimally."
...okay, that has some implications you will ponder over in a minute, but first-
"Do I need to acquire more regular Heart Containers for that affinity to emerge?"
"Yes - or one Elemental Heart."
-ah. That fits into some of what you were thinking about that "minimal" affinity, but again, full consideration will need to wait just a bit longer.
"Is it possible to use ten Elemental Hearts to bring my aura into harmony?"
"Not alone."
Okay, you're pretty sure that's a caution that just HAVING the Hearts won't do the job for you, and you still need to do at least some of the deep meditation and self-realization Wen talked about back at your birthday party.
Moving on from the matter of Heart Containers to another avenue of self-improvement, you ask, "Is there a way to safely strengthen the residual Triforce energy I can access in the near future?"
I like the drive for more Power, but-
"No."
Hm. Now, does that mean there's no way to do it all, no SAFE way to do it, no QUICK way to do it, or no way that's both safe AND quick?
Well, regardless, since there's nothing for it in the short term, you decide to move on.
"Is there an application of Power that would be very useful to have, very soon, that I haven't developed yet?"
Eh?
"...unknown?"
...
...maybe you've confused the Goddesses enough for one day.
"Thank you for your time."
"You're welcome."
Can we say that, without the locals getting in a huff?
What are they going to do? Complain that mortals shouldn't be polite to deities, and deities shouldn't encourage it?
If the local mythologies are any indication, some of them would say, "Mortals should be obediently awed by deities, and deities should do whatever they want," but...
Yeah, screw those guys.
Alright, going back to the matter of Heart Containers, Elemental Hearts, and Life Affinity for a moment, you think the issue has to do with how the two different versions of the relic manifest their power.
A standard Heart Container pours most of its energy into reinforcing the user's physical vitality. While that is certainly a manifestation of the Life Element, it's a relatively narrow one; you know, for example, that just having a Heart Container doesn't make the target heal faster (not after the initial surge of recovery, anyway), get sick less often, or be able to make better use of Healing Magic, all of which are aspects of the Life Element. The Heart Container's energy just isn't devoted to improving those qualities, which would explain why its impact on your overall Life Affinity is so limited that you can't even register it right now. Stacking up more Heart Containers would eventually intensify your life-force to the point where your affinity would HAVE to improve, but it's definitely not an efficient means of reaching that particular goal, more a side-benefit of making yourself more difficult to put down.
An Elemental Heart of Life, on the other hand, would be directing its power into enhancing the user's affinity directly, which is very much like coming at things from the other end, a spiritual application of the energy to the Heart Container's physical. Healing Magic would get stronger almost immediately, and interacting with beings that revere or embody the Life Element would become easier. Getting any physical boons would take somewhat longer - at this point, your only elemental affinity strong enough to potentially provide such a boost is Earth Affinity, and you think your age or your Wind Affinity may be working against you there - either that, or the physical impact is subtle enough that you haven't noticed it.
Given your personal desire to balance out your elemental affinities, the quickest method would be to grab an Elemental Heart of Life at some point, but you could eventually get the same benefit with a sufficient number of Heart Containers - the only question is, how many of them, and accordingly, how long it would take to gather them all.
As for that odd response to your inquiry about developing new Power techniques... maybe you made the question too imprecise, maybe the Goddesses just don't have enough information about mortals using the Golden Power so directly to be sure what's possible, what's practical, and what's neither, or maybe they just can't give you a straight answer because there are still too many factors on and about Earth that they can't accurately predict, and thus can't be sure who or what you'll run into?
Well, regardless of that, you have your answers, as well as your list of personal guests for the Ring of Trials. All that's left is the travel arrangements, which you'll be getting started on shortly.
Do you have any questions for Grandmaster Wen before you start playing around with planar magic?
You've spoken with Grandmaster Wen about the matter of harmonizing one's personal elemental affinities before, but not specifically about getting his assistance in the techniques involved. You do so now, asking what sort of payment he would like for his help.
"Hm," he replies. "From our previous conversation on the topic and what I just overheard, I would venture that you're planning to acquire a few divine relics of an elemental nature and attach them to your soul. Is that correct?"
"It is."
"And how many of these do you have, out of the ten you would need to represent the elements you said you were trying to balance?"
"Currently, just four," you admit.
Wen nods. "Ask me again when you've got your full set and are ready to begin the actual work."
Alright. Though on a potentially related note...
"Yes?"
Wen is already aware of your sorcerous abilities and the divine favor you enjoy, but you don't think you ever brought up the particulars of the Dinnite traditions, specifically the bit about how they require and enable a mortal follower to use most applications of divine magic without the Goddess of Power's direct participation. Between your personal understanding of that phenomenon, your access to a fairly high level of divine magic, and your grasp of ki, you might be able to consecrate the School of Five Elements to Grandmaster Wen, increasing the flow of spiritual power to him - but only if he's interested in such a thing, of course.
...
"...tempting," Wen muses, his gaze looking elsewhere for a moment. "The prospect of being able to harness that extra energy to punch a few so-called 'superior beings' in their smug faces and make sure they can't cheat their way out of the bruises alone is... well."
Lu-sensei gives you a look that asks, 'What have you started this time, o my meddling student?'
Your reply is an innocent expression over raised hands, declaring, 'O my patient and kindly master, I swear I had no idea this would happen!'
"...but I notice the uncertainties in your offer," the Grandmaster continues, his attention coming back to the here and now. Have you done such a thing before, even on a small scale?"
You have not.
"Are you aware of anyone who has?"
That is also a no.
"So you cannot speak to the potential consequences of such a system to those involved, whether from the donation, conversion, and transportation of their energies, or from the eyes of jealous Powers," Wen concludes.
It is not really a question this time, but you admit, once again, that the answer is no.
"Then I feel I must decline the offer, at least for the time being."
Finally, you inquire if the Grandmaster has any advice for you on furthering your training.
"None that I have not already shared with you or your teacher in prior discussion," he replies.
And that is that.
With all the questions and answers out of the way, you get out the planar keys earmarked for your demiplane-creating needs and spend a moment considering them.
When Navi created the demiplanes you used previously, she put them on the Ethereal Plane. Her reasoning, as you understood it, was that the Ethereal is slightly less-traveled than the Astral - which is the main thoroughfare for the planes as a whole, utilized by people and things from all corners of Creation - and also because of how its misty environment makes it harder for most creatures to spot anything from a distance - such as a new demiplane appearing where none previously existed.
If you'd personally created the now-vanished demiplanes that you used during and after the Silbern Raid, you might be a little concerned about someone or something on the Ethereal Plane noticing you casting the spell again and moving to investigate. As it is, the only reason you can think of that you might prefer the Astral Plane is that the green entity dwells there and might be happy to see you pass through.
...
Then again, maybe that's an argument in favor of NOT putting the demiplane on the Astral after all? The entity's attention HAS proven a bit unsettling to the unprotected minds of prior travelers, and that was when you were using the swift medium of teleportation, rather than your planned stopover.
Having made your choice, you put the other key back in your pocket and get started with the Lesser Ritual to Create a Demiplane.
It's one of the longest spells in your repertoire, although not THE longest - that dubious honor goes to the Rite of Hallowing, which takes a literal full day's effort - and an interruption at any point could potentially ruin the attempt and force you to start over.
Avoiding such outcomes is one of numerous reasons why arcane magic-users keep familiars and take apprentices, and while you're short on the latter - having left Amy out of this little excursion due to the hour, the fact that the magic you're calling on is well beyond her means, and no small amount of self-assured faith that you don't really NEED the extra help - Briar is plenty capable of keeping an eye on things outside of your Private Sanctum.
Lu-sensei and the Grandmaster also hang around for a bit, quietly observing as you invoke the matrix describing the pocket realm you mean to conjure. There isn't really a great deal for them to see, however, and at some point past the half hour mark, they wander off, talking quietly about something you don't catch, due to your attention being elsewhere.
Given the limits of the Lesser Spell to Create a Demiplane, there aren't any particularly important choices for you to make. You go ahead and set the physical dimensions of the new-made realm at their maximum, both to ensure that there will be plenty of space for your temporary guests when they pass through, and just to see how large you can make the place. As far as duration goes, you could cut things down from days to tens of hours while still keeping the demiplane useful for your purposes, but you aren't sure there's much point in it. The only real advantage would be that the pocket realm would dissipate after one week instead of the better part of three, making it that much less likely to be noticed.
And there is also the matter of basic appearance - and you do mean BASIC. Your current skills won't allow you to recreate the vegetation-covered plots of land that Navi provided, instead limiting you to what sort of material you want the ground to be made of, as well as the "walls" and "ceiling" - assuming you include either of the latter - and of course the ambient lighting.
...that's pretty much it.
While it's not impossible for a passing entity to notice the formation of a demiplane, it is fairly unlikely. The Astral and Ethereal Planes are functionally infinite spaces, and the demiplane most mortals magic-users are capable of creating are... not, to put it mildly.
The old saying, "trying to find a needle in a haystack" doesn't BEGIN to cover the difficulties involved in finding one particular demiplane, and even comparing it to "one grain of sand on a beach" doesn't really do the matter justice. "A single star in the night sky" is perhaps closer, but even then, someone would likely have to be floating around in orbit and looking for a very dim star to really start to get an idea of the truth of things. Or maybe it's more of an asteroid...
The point is that, even with all the traffic on the Astral Plane, it's very, VERY unlikely that anyone or anything is going to be in a position to notice when a new demiplane pops up, especially one that isn't going to be sticking around permanently.
With that in mind, you go ahead and set the coordinates for the Astral Plane.
There's no real savings in mana to be had by shorting the duration of the spell to the modest extent you were considering, and if you need to get rid of it in a hurry, you can always throw a Disjunction at it. So you just don't bother.
While you're laying out the dimensions of the Demiplane and considering what form to give it, a thought occurs about how you might pretty it up a bit. To support that idea, you keep the basic design of the pocket plane simple, going with a floor of packed earth under a cloudy daytime sky; this way, it's bright enough for people to see where they're going, but not so bright as to dazzle anyone, and you also have a ready-made excuse for the presence of light in the absence of an obvious light source.
...
Two hours pass almost entirely without incident. At one point in the second hour, you sense Briar's presence suddenly move off in a particular direction at considerable speed, a move that when combined with her feelings of surprise and determination suggests she's spotted someone coming to investigate your Private Sanctum.
She succeeds in keeping them out, though, and you get the sense that it's pretty easily done besides, with no need for so much as a raised voice, much less violence.
As the last elements of your spell slot into place with a metaphysical sensation that can be equated to a "click," you are left holding the charge for the follow-up Plane Shift that the ritual allows for yourself and a handful of companions.
Briar re-enters your Private Sanctum at this time, and she is accompanied by Lu-sensei and three students of the School of Five Elements. Grandmaster Wen is nowhere to be seen.
"Sir?" you ask.
"I was on my way back to check on your progress and give you an escort back to the dorms," he replies easily, before gesturing at the unfamiliar trio. "I found Briar spinning a tale for these three - something about the two of you getting sucked into another reality by her wicked fairy godmother?"
You look at Briar.
She grins back.
Anyway, you know that as soon as you say anything about taking a short trip to the demiplane, you're going to have three kids asking to come along.
"That's god mother, Sensei," you reply, making sure to emphasize the separation of the two words. "Or... 'mother god', maybe."
As your teacher has met Navi, and has many years' experience of dealing with parents and children besides, understanding comes swiftly.
The three students just look puzzled, but that is fine.
Turning to Briar, you add, "If she curses you, I will laugh."
"Fair enough," Briar replies.
"Alright!" you declare, clapping your hands and looking around at the group. "Who wants to take a trip to ANOTHER DIMENSION?"
"I do! I do!"
"Me! Pick me!"
"...is it safe?"
The other two kids - well, you call them that, but you're pretty sure they're all a couple of years older than you. Anyway, the enthusiastic pair stop and look at their more cautious friend with surprise and disappointment.
"I'm just saying..."
"It's safe," you reply. "I basically just made a box in another corner of reality, and we'd be going inside. There's nothing else in there right now that could pose a threat - well, not unless any of you have a crippling fear of dirt?"
Questioning glances are exchanged, and three heads shake as one.
"Now, if Jing was here-" one of them says.
"I don't know," the second replies, shaking his head again. "Jing's not really SCARED of dirt, he just hates to get it on him."
Lu-sensei, meanwhile, looks from you to Briar - who nods - and then back again.
You do your best to project certainty and assurances, while organizing your unexpected passengers into a circle, hands joined.
The old man sighs and steps forward to join the formation.
"Everybody ready?" you ask, looking around.
"Ready," Briar replies.
"Ready!"
"Let's go!"
"I suppose..."
"Right, then. In three, two, one-"
!
-and like that, you're on your Demiplane.
It's rather drab, just an earthy surface under a cloudy sky, which would be more depressing if it wasn't exactly what you'd expected to see. The ground, incidentally, is laid out like an equilateral triangle - a very rough one, given the way the spell is designed to apportion out ten-foot cubes of space and matter. You might be able to produce more precise shapes in the future, but that's a long way and a lot of practice off.
Anyway, your guests appear to have made the trip intact-
"Buh," one of them states.
"Nrg," the second agrees.
"Green?" the last wonders.
-well, physically, at least. Not that you were particularly worried on THAT account.
After taking a minute to make sure your passengers are still sane and explain about eldritch entities that are unconstrained by the laws of physics and the fabric of space-time as most humans know them, you turn back to your Demiplane.
...
"It's... kind of dull," one of the kids says, in that tone people use when they're trying not to give offense about something, but the truth of the matter is so blatantly obvious that there's no way around it.
"I mean, it's daytime here," his companion notes. "And it was getting dark where we were, so-"
Although you are curious as to what exactly led the trio to your Private Sanctum, given the late hour and how well the geography of your chosen location worked to hide it, it's not really a pressing matter.
You put it aside and begin gathering the energy to perform a Ritual to Create a Permanent Image.
As you work-
"Does all magic involve so much chanting and glowing?" one of the kids wonders.
"Not necessarily," Briar hedges.
-you consider the parameters of the spell and the dimensions of your Demiplane. Permanent Image covers a rather smaller area than even the Lesser Spell to Create a Demiplane, so much so that you'll need to cast the former spell three times to get complete coverage of your tiny territory.
Energy-wise, it's no great issue. The trick is mentally picturing the end result you want, figuring out how best to divide it up between multiple castings, and then actually doing it without leaving any obvious seams, gaps, or other telltales.
Several minutes later-
"Is he done yet?"
"No."
...
"Is he done yet?"
"Still no."
-an Image of part of an ancient, ruin-strewn grove shimmers into view.
"Whoa!"
Weathered, tumbledown walls covered with crawling ivy, cracked masonry, and artwork so faded that little but colored smudges can be seen - though a certain cluster of triangles is repeated often enough to be semi-obvious - manifest before and about your party, accompanied by lumps of stone that might be fallen fragments of the structure or just natural boulders, with fragmented and uneven flagstones between them. A carpet of green grass spreads out within the limits of the magic, quickly giving rise to assorted individual flowers and bushes, and then to trees. "Fitting" these into the space of your Demiplane requires some visual trickery, as the "ceiling" of the place is only ten feet high and thus prevents you from simply planting a few fake fifty-foot arboreal titans and calling it a day; instead, you have to rely on nonmagical tricks of perspective and light to make it SEEM like you've just conjured part of a centuries-old woodland into being.
You opted to restrict your first casting mostly to the background elements, and as such have filled in a roughly crescent-shaped swathe along the wide "front" end of the demiplane.
"Look at how BIG those trees are!"
"Everything looks so old..."
"I wanna climb that one!" the enthusiastic one continues, making for one of the trees that happens to have enough low-hanging branches and high-climbing roots to look almost tailor-made made for an ascent.
You could stop the guy before he makes contact with the tree, but instead, you simply watch as he runs forward, hops up to stand atop one of the large, sprawling roots-
"What the-!?"
-and then, when that root proves incapable of supporting weight, the boy falls back down to the ground, stumbling at the unexpected development and staggering forward, one hand stretching out to catch himself-
"Whoa-!?"
-only for the tree-trunk to turn out to be just as immaterial as its roots. Forward he falls, upper body disappearing into the tree-
"Oh, wow!"
"What's going on-!?"
-much to the surprise of his two friends.
For a moment, those of you "outside" of the tree are left staring at most of a pair of legs, which lie there unmoving on the faux-forest floor. Then the legs start kicking-
"Holy-!"
"Gaaah!"
-before they and the rest of the body they're still attached to scramble out of and away from the tree, passing through that one exposed root again along the way.
There is a long pause, during which the guy sitting on the ground - and with some dirt stains, you note - pats himself down as if making sure he's still in one piece.
"...what just happened?" he finally asks.
"You tried to climb an illusion," you reply. "That generally doesn't work."
He stares at you for a moment, then turns back to the tree, reaches out with one hand, and tries to knock on wood.
Seeing his hand pass through the bark again, all the boy can muster is a bemused, "Huh."
"You could have warned us," one of his friends complains.
"Why illusions, though?" the guy who was reluctant to come to the Demiplane in the first place asks then. "Why not just make some real trees? Or can you not actually do that?"
"I could conjure the wood," you reply frankly. "I might even be able to make it appear in the form of a tree, though it would be uprooted and not nearly as big as that image. Conjuring an actual living tree from nothing, though? That's something I don't actually have a spell for."
You might still be able to do it, if you poured enough magic into a ritual, but then again, you might not. A tree IS a living thing, after all, and the creation of life in any form tends to be something mortal magic-users can't do casually, when they're capable of it at all.
Ganondorf's ability to spawn monsters out of curses notwithstanding, anyway.
Putting that aside, you get on with your second ritual-
"It looks so real..."
"It even SMELLS real..."
"Get out of here."
"No, I'm serious, just lean in and take a whiff."
"...huh, it does smell real."
-while the members of your audience wander around, taking in the results of the first. Several minutes on-
"Wha-!?"
"Guys, where'd you go-oooh, wow! Guys, you have to SEE this!"
-you fill the central space of the demiplane with the remnants of a Hyrulean temple. Ivy once again covers the walls, where they haven't been broken down by the passage of ages, windows that should be filled by glass - whether clear or stained - loom empty but for some dirty shards, and a great hole looms large in the roof. Passing through the cracked and dusty archway of the front door - one panel of which hangs awkwardly from ancient hinges, while the other lies on the ground, half-rotted away - a visitor would find a pile of rubble to one side, the broken pieces of the roof laying below their original location. Despite this ruination, the light streaming down through the gap in the ceiling illuminates the one pristine element of the entire temple, an altar of pure white marble bearing the iconography of the Goddesses and the Triforce.
You take a moment to step inside your illusory temple, checking the general layout and the fine details to see how well it all turned out.
All in all? You'd say it's not too shabby.
Then you get on with the third and final ritual illusion, to finish the job.
"This way was much more entertaining," you reply with a grin. "And maybe it will help you learn a lesson."
"Like what?" the boy in front of you demands. "'Don't climb imaginary trees'? 'If a boy falls in a fake forest, he DOES make a sound'? 'Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them'?"
"All thoughts worth considering," you approve.
In short order, you've finished filling in the last part of the demiplane with more ruins, trees, and other features.
"Just more forest? Nothing new?"
"Yeah, pretty bland."
"I mean, it kind of... balances out the trees in front, you know?"
Everyone's a critic.
Anyway, taking advantage of your ability to automatically dismiss people from a Demiplane of your own creation, you once again have the entire group form a circle and join hands, and then give all them including yourself the boot-
!
-returning to the misty embrace of a Private Sanctum.
"Nrrrgh..."
"Ugh..."
"Does that... ever get less confusing?"
"For some people," you reply absently. "For everyone else, there's Abjuration Magic."
Your attention is a bit elsewhere at the moment, making sure that this really is Taiwan, and YOUR Private Sanctum. This is, after all, the first test of the "ejection" function of a Demiplane of your making, and that ability IS a little non-specific about where it sends creatures subjected to it...
But, nothing went wrong, this is definitely the place you left over a quarter-hour ago, and all of you should definitely be getting back to your dorms for the night.
As you dismiss the lingering dome of concealing sorcery, you recall an earlier thought and ask the trio what led them to you in the first place.
"Well, we were just taking a last walk around before we went back to our dorm for the night, and we noticed that what LOOKED like the top of the rock out here was a completely different color from the rest of the outcropping."
"And it looked round," one of his friends adds.
"Yeah, that too. None of us could remember seeing something like that around here, and we decided it was close enough that we could take a look and be back in time to avoid getting into trouble." He frowns and checks his watch.
"Not so sure about that now?" you guess.
"Yeah, kind of."
"Not to worry," Lu-sensei says. "I'm sure I can keep you out of trouble."
"Provided you agree not to spoil the surprise about the illusions."
Your abrupt addendum has Lu-sensei raising an eyebrow, Briar smirking, and two of the three boys looking at you in confusion-
"You're planning to try and pull one over on the teachers, aren't you?" their friend says shrewdly.
-which quickly shifts to amazement and eagerness.
"We won't say a word to anybody!"
In fair English, the second one says, "Cross our hearts and hope to get stuck with Instructor Bo for every class from now until the end of summer!"
At first, you were going to interrupt and say that this isn't how the saying goes, but as the guy kept talking, you kind of had to hear how it ended.
"...how bad is Instructor Bo?" you ask, suspecting that the answer will be-
"Oh, he's awful!" the first boy exclaims.
"Total drill sergeant," the second agrees.
-well, something like that.
"He only yells at people who slack off," their friend disagrees.
"Traitor!"
"It's not our fault we're lazy!"
"Wait, who are you calling lazy?"
The third boy sighs and adds, "But he does tend to assign punishments more often and more severely than most of the other teachers, he's definitely not one of the more... approachable instructors, even at the best of times, and he CAN get pretty loud, even if that's mostly just to make sure people who are running laps hear him. So... yeah, I guess I can see where the drill instructor thing comes from."
That aside, the three boys are perfectly willing to agree not to say a word about their experiences on your Demiplane, although they do ask you to let them know how the teachers react to the fake trees and everything.
After that, you, Lu-sensei, and Briar escort the trio back to their dorm, before returning to the guest quarters for the remainder of the night. A couple of adults catch sight of your group, but simply nod at your teacher and go about their business, clearly content to leave whatever disciplinary action is going on in his hands.
Finding Amy sitting up reading Roots of the Volcano again, you make another attempt at the dull book you checked out most recently. The next chapter proves little better than the first, and between that and the fact that you have a lecture to give at ten, you decide to call it a night earlier than usual - somewhere shy of eleven. You also decide that it's probably for the best if you forego dreamwalking, so as to ensure you have a full tank of magical gas for demonstrative purposes.
When you awaken the next morning, you're fully rested - and also a little sore thanks to the hits you took yesterday, and which are now well into the "bruise" category. The last wisps of that Greater Spell of False Life finally gave out at some point overnight as well, which might be contributing to the sting a bit, but it's nothing you can't deal with; some light exercise to fight the stiffness, a bit of ki channeled around and through the injuries to ease the pain and swelling, and you're good to go.
You bow out of telling stories at breakfast today, explaining to a few disappointed would-be listeners that you're saving your words for your morning lecture.
Besides, there's plenty of people telling stories about things they saw and people they fought during the exhibition.
...hm, there's a thought. Should you bring up that whole mess with the curses during the lecture?
You make no promises, as you might not run into these guys again before you leave.
"No problem," the leader says confidently. "We'll just find you!"
...
Now, should you take that as a threat, or a promise?
"Wait, what?"
"It could also be a challenge," Briar says.
"Oh, really? A challenge?" the second boy says. "Wow, that's gutsy."
"I didn't expect it of you," the third one says, nodding to their friend. "Especially not after what we've seen and heard about what this guy" - he nods your way - "can do."
The leader also looks at you, obviously unsettled by what's been said here, and then turns and walks away. "Never mind, let's just go, we've got to get back before lights out!"
...
"So," Briar asks.
"So?"
"So, are you going to track them down for another scare, or are you just going to let them worry about it? Or will you actually turn up with pictures of surprised teachers falling through trees?"
Probably the second one, you admit. For one thing, you can't guarantee that any of the masters will try to walk through, climb, or otherwise interact with any of your illusions, or that you'll be looking at them when they do, so you might legitimately end up with nothing to share. For another thing, depending on how much happens over the next couple of days, you might forget about these guys, or just not have the time or energy to track them down.
"Fair, fair..."
You should, of course, respect the privacy of the witches and their unfortunate but kind of deserving target, but yesterday's whole little incident IS an example of a relatively ordinary martial artist running into a magical problem, and it's quite fresh in your memory besides. Plus, the whole bit about ritual aura cleansings - or lack thereof - and how they can play into personal health and safety where magic is involved is a rather pertinent one for your audience.
With that in mind, you figure that if you leave the names out and avoid specifying that it happened at this week's exhibition, you can probably get away with using the accidental rage curse as an example in your lecture.
Said class is set for three hours after breakfast, and you spend the first of those sitting in another class - or trying to. The knowledge that you'll be speaking about magic later this morning has spread through most of the School, and while most people don't start asking you questions about it, there are quite a few expectant looks sent your way. Between that, the brief inquiries you do receive and subsequently turn away, your own nervousness about the whole business, and the ongoing "what should I talk about?" rumbling around in your head, you have some trouble following the lesson.
After eight o'clock, rather than waste time in another classroom, you find a quiet spot and spend some time meditating to get your thoughts and feelings in order.
Finally, as the clock passes nine, you head down to the classroom that was assigned to you, in order to get a feel for the place and make any preparations that are needed, before your audience starts showing up.
The class in question is one of the lecture rooms on the ground floor of the main study hall - Room 1-3, specifically. There's no furniture in need of sorting out, thanks to how the desks for the audience are all arranged in steadily elevated rows, and some quick checks with Briar's help suggest that you probably don't need to enhance your voice to be heard clearly, at least not unless your listeners get rowdy.
While there are outlets for audio/video equipment, you don't have any to use - and really, you could achieve much the same effect with a Spell of Illusion. Start with a Major Image, modify it to be... well, modifiable, an Image whose features and form you can add to or remove from as needed, rather than a relatively fixed image of a single thing which is the norm.
What preparations, if any, do you want to make for your presentation?
The first order of business is Presentation. You want to be seen, heard, and clearly understood, but you also want to be able to see, hear, and clearly understand your audience.
The Spell of Heroism for a general skill boost - mostly by settling your nerves - an Extended Spell to Tap Inner Beauty for better interpersonal skills, and the Spell to Perceive Cues for better awareness of your surroundings are all a good start on that, while the Spell of Ventriloquism, modified by some of the elements of Mark Spell Metamagic so that your voice can seem to be projecting from several different points around the room in synch, will ensure you're heard without having to strain your voice or offend the ears of those sitting nearest to you.
You would like to cast a mental-focused version of your Spell of General Augmentation, but making that last long enough to be useful would require you to cast it as a fifth-circle spell, meaning you'd have to wait quite some time for its aura to disperse before you could use a spell of that level in this classroom again without making a lot of arcane "noise."
Considering that you want to use a modified Spell of Major Image AND have the time and space in your aura to ritually cast the standard mental buffs, with a little extension to ensure they last until the end of your lecture, you don't really see the point in using a three-in-one ritual.
A quick surge of ki triggers Brain Enhancement... and that's about it for ki techniques. You don't really have many such skills that would be applicable in this situation, and you don't feel like trying to make up a new one on the spot, as its impact would be negligible at best. Not to mention how, in front of a room full of instructors and masters of ki, you'd have very good odds of somebody figuring out what you were doing - Mind Blank or no - and just how badly you'd be doing it.
That doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would help you maintain your image of authority as the lecturer, and as a kid not yet ten speaking to a room full of adults, you're going to need every scrap of dignity and respect you can get.
That modified Spell to Create a Major Image you want to cast for audio/video purposes will have to be the last magic you invoke, since it requires a significant degree of focus to maintain. That leaves the Spell of Shadow Conjuration, and the question of what, exactly, to conjure with it.
Thinking on it, if you want helpers for your presentation, you'd be better served just using straightforward Summoning Magic. You'd have a little more room to extend the spell to a useful duration that way, while also getting something a bit more potent, intelligent, and useful than you'd otherwise be stuck with.
And as for creating props, there really aren't any low-end Conjuration Spells that would be useful to emulate via Shadow Conjuration. Maybe if you tried to emulate a higher-end version of Prestidigitation, focused on its ability to create cheap, obviously fake-looking items...? Then again, just casting the Minor Spell of Creation might be a better idea. At least with that, you know it'll work and what you'll get out of it.
The second iteration of the Spell to Summon a Monster, advanced to the fourth circle in order to extend its duration, would give you either one approximately human-equivalent entity, or one or more weaker entities, for the better part of three hours.
All things considered, a single creature able to understand your commands and manipulate objects sounds a lot more useful for your purposes than a potential trio who lack one or both of those capabilities, so that's what you decide to go with.
*Poof!*
"OCTO!" the Octorok declares, flexing its nest of arms as it announces its presence to the world.
"Are you okay with being out of water for a couple of hours?" you ask.
"Rok, octo, octorok."
Gained Language (Octorok) F (Plus) (Plus)
The answer to your question is a "yes, but," with the qualifier being that the Octorok would prefer not to be "beached" for that long if it could be helped.
You WERE already going to get some water for yourself...
When used to conjure simple objects, the Spell of Prestidigitation usually only creates one thing at a time. If you were to borrow those elements of the higher tiers of the Spell to Summon a Monster which allow them to summon multiple entities in one casting, and compare those to the Mark Spell Metamagic...
After a few minutes of ritual chanting, you wave your hand at the top of the table and declare, "Presto!"
Several pieces of common magical paraphernalia shimmer into existence: a wand; a ritual knife; a holy symbol; and a vial of something that may or may not be blood. They look better-crafted than the Spell of Prestidigitation would normally allow, and if the quality is still not what would be required for the items to bear enchantments, they could still be used as mundane tools, even in magical pursuits - at least, they could if they weren't really just masses of shadow-stuff. Still, that's good enough for your purposes.
Do you want to Shadow Conjure some additional visual aids?
One full pitcher of water sounds like more than enough to keep your throat wetted for an hour, and you don't mind letting the Octorok use up the rest for its own comfort.
...as long as said comfort doesn't involve splashing water all over the floor, at least.
"Octo-to," the monster assures you.
Well, you'll see.
Also, you should probably get a second glass...
Considering that you're going to have a Spell of Illusion up to provide visual accompaniment to your lecture, you think that these few (semi-)physical examples of common magical tools will suffice. If you want to show the audience what the contents of an arcane workshop or shrine to Ye Powers of Darknesse look like, you can just change the overhead image accordingly; the wand, knife, and other pieces before you are enough for closer, personal inspection and handling.
On that note, you go ahead and begin reviewing the formula for the Spell to Create a Major Image, trying to determine how you can make it more versatile.
The Image series can create the appearance of just about anything the caster can imagine, at least within the limits of its area of effect, but once the form has been determined - and/or the sound, smell, temperature, and other factors, depending on which iteration of the spell is being used - that application of the magic can't be made to look like something else.
That is to say, if you created a Major Image of a fully-armed and armored Hylian soldier, you could make him stand at attention, march, climb, swim, draw one or more weapons, fight, seem to get injured, run away screaming (as long as he wasn't screaming intelligible words, anyway), and various other things. You could not, however, turn him invisible or transform him into a Goron.
...well, not unless you originally defined the Image as "a shapeshifter in the FORM of a Hylian soldier," or as "a spellcaster with access to Illusion and/or Transformation Magic," but each case would have its own issues, subject to the limits of the spell's formula and your own knowledge and skills.
Anyway, after some time, some discussion with Briar-
"What the-?"
"Octo," the Octorok says, waving one tentacle at the young man staring at it from the hallway.
Slowly, uncertainly, the guy waves back.
-and telling more than one passing student or teacher not to worry about the kid-sized cephalopod in the room, you cast your modified Illusion Spell over the classroom.
Maybe because of your earlier train of thought, the Image which appears is that of a typical member of the Hylian Royal Guard-
"Octo?" the eight-armed entity asks warily, immediately on guard at the sight.
"Don't worry, he's not real."
"...rokto, ock."
-as might be found patrolling the Castletown. You take a minute to put the false soldier through his paces, marching him up the steps towards the elevated rear of the room and then back down to the front, double-time-
*Thump-thump-thump*
-getting the appropriate sound of booted feet slamming against flooring, a certain amount of clanking metal as his armor shifts about him - though not as much as many people unfamiliar with such equipment might expect - and even the sound of heavier breathing. You do not, however, feel the impact of a couple hundred pounds of flesh and steel radiating through the floor with each stride.
Once you're sure that the basic function of the Major Image is preserved, you turn the trooper standing at attention before you into a slimy Zol-
"To-to-to!" the Octorok chortles, a few of its arms folding over its body as if hugging itself, while it points at the Hylian-turned-blob monster with one tentacle.
-which you then attempt to divide into a pair of Gels, as if it had been attacked.
This doesn't work, for some reason, with half of the substance of the Zol sort of disappearing into thin air, leaving you with just a single Gel - but you're able to turn that back into a Gel, and then into other forms, including a TV monitor-
"Octo?"
-hanging on the front wall, displaying an arcane workshop that combines elements of your basement, Ambrose and Balthazar's respective sanctums, and some older memories.
Alright, so, you're still limited to creating one Image at a time - a factor you think you could get around by applying a variant on Marking Spell Metamagic - but that Image can be switched between different forms as you like. You do note that subsequent forms are not as convincing as the initial one, partly because the shifts make it so obvious that the Image is a fake, but also because it periodically shimmers or turns translucent. Probably a consequence of the formula being improvised, rather than something refined and set down as a proper spell.
Still, it will suffice.
By the time you're done, people have started to arrive and take seats. You welcome them in, repeat your entreaty not to worry about your eight-armed assistant, and wait for the clock to strike ten...
"Good morning," you greet your audience, which by now fills most of the seats. Not a one of the faces looking back at you can be under twenty-
"Good morning, Professor Harris," Lu-sensei greets you.
-although some may be younger in spirit.
Or just touched in the head.
You point at your eyes, then at your teacher, and then dismiss him. "As I was saying, welcome to my lecture on magic. To begin with, I thought I'd give you an overview of how I and the tradition I follow classify various forms and styles of magic, starting with the divide between the arcane and the divine..."
You proceed to do that, throwing in a bit about where ki powers seem to fit into that paradigm - which is to say, that they overlap with both categories, and should probably be considered part of a third branch of supernatural power.
"But as my tradition doesn't have much experience with ki adepts, I am speaking almost entirely from personal experience on the matter," you add. "So consider that speculation, for the time being."
That gets some nods.
The next section is a breakdown of the ten major schools of magic, and this is where you start fielding real questions. The masters of the School of Five Elements are by no means ignorant of arcane nomenclature, and your separation of Conjuration from Summoning and Augmentation from Transformation runs contrary to some popular systems you're aware of that normally combine those particular pairs.
Your explanation for WHY you do this seems to go over well enough-
"I think we can all agree that there's a big difference between a spell to give someone the strength of a bull, and a spell meant to give someone the FORM of a bull," you state. "Likewise, there's a difference between creating something outright, and merely changing the location of something that already exists."
Several heads, and more eyes, turn towards the Octorok at this point.
"...rok?"
-with some pertinent examples helping.
You don't go into too much depth about the secondary schools, mostly noting that "they exist" and giving a few examples, but Elementalism gets some actual in-depth discussion, as you compare and contrast the philosophy of the School of Five Elements with that of the School of the Five Great Elements, and then put both of them against more Western theories.
You don't mind giving your audience an overview of your personal elemental theory, and if this lecture were of a more purely academic bent - or even if it was just scheduled to run longer than one hour - you'd be fine with getting into the details of the Hyrulean theory, and how it compares and contrasts with the approach that you devised from it.
Though the exact details of WHY your private take on things developed would remain just that - private.
However, these lectures aren't meant to be scholarly debates, but a means of advising a group of martial artists what to look out for when they encounter unfamiliar and potentially unfriendly magic. The ins and outs of a magic system from another world, particularly one that has no contact with Earth except where you have been involved at no more than one remove, are not something that would be particularly helpful to them, and given the time limit you're speaking against, the explanation could be considered actively detrimental.
So you stick with your Ten Elements theory, explaining how it measures up to the Four and Five Elements theories native to Earth. The lowest of your three elemental wheels is, at least on the surface, a perfect match for the Western theory, but when you break down the concepts associated with each element, some differences turn up - such as the fact that you treat Light as an element in its own right, rather than a mere adjunct or expression of Fire.
Once you're done with that, you move on to the different methods of magic use, quickly assessing the strengths, weaknesses, and distinctive characteristics of wizards, sorcerers, priests, shamans, and the various other types of spellcaster and miracle worker you're familiar with.
"What about psychics?" one of the teachers asks.
"They're another odd case that my tradition has trouble classifying," you admit. "Mental abilities of that nature are better-known and -studied than ki powers, but historically, there's a lot of association and overlap with divine favor or certain forms of magic. Clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition all fall under the School of Divination, for example, and there are spells that recreate those specific effects to varying degrees."
After covering the different kinds of magic-user, you start getting into tactics for dealing with them. It's at this point that you really start making use of the Octorok's presence, having him hand you each of the Shadow Conjured implements in turn as you describe them.
"Rok," the creature says, passing you the wand.
"Thank you assistant"
"Octo rok," comes the reply, in company with a nod.
As you raise the wand for the class to see, it occurs to you that some of them might see through the shape fo the Illusion to the reality of the Shadow-stuff underneath.
While you're not about to give away any spoilers regarding the nature of the decor on your demiplane, you suppose that you would be a poorer educator if you took advantage of your students' ignorance to play a little prank on them.
And so, as the wand goes up, you take a moment to add, "I'll be passing these items around for closer inspection. On the off-chance that anyone happens to perceive them as masses of cool, solidified shadow-"
There are quite a few confused looks at that.
"-don't worry about it. They're temporary conjurations rather than the genuine article, an example of one of the intermediate applications of the School of Illusion."
From there, you describe the differences between various kinds of wands.
The simplest wands are mere pieces of workshop equipment, old-fashioned approximations to the modern glass rod, used for stirring certain concoctions and ensuring that components disperse more evenly throughout whatever medium is being used. That said, the analogy is a little off, for where a scientist uses a glass rod to reduce the potential for contamination and reactions, a potioneer would use wands of particular materials to ENCOURAGE certain reactions. A necromancer's brew is more likely to be stirred with a bit of bone, for example, possibly from the type of creature he means to affect, while an abjurer might use iron or lead to strengthen a potion meant to ward off some.
You don't say too much about those, except that some of them will be sturdy enough to be used to swat or perhaps stab an unwary opponent, and others will pose a hazard when broken, creating shards or splinters.
The next type of wand is, of course, the focus item popularly associated with magic-users in the modern awareness. While you've never needed one, partly due to your raw power and partly due to the methods of Hyrulean sorcery, you are aware that there are spellcasters whose innate abilities and training are such that they require a wand - or a ring, medallion, rod, or staff, if not something even more unusual - as a focus in order to cast their spells effectively. There are also wands that can be used to increase the accuracy of various spells, boost power, and provide other relatively modest benefits.
These, you have a little more to talk about, largely to the tune of, "Take them or break them at the earliest opportunity, it will make your life easier."
That gets more of those nods of recognition and agreement from members of the audience who've run into such things before.
And then, of course, there is the kind of wand which is basically the handgun of the magical world. These, you have the most to say about, and they're at least as well-known to the masters and teachers as the previous kind. Your specifying that a typical wand can't hold spells beyond the fourth circle is a point that seems to surprise most of the room, though.
"Why that level?" someone asks.
"Efficiency, mainly," you explain. "It IS possible to make wands for spells of the fifth-circle and up, but the material cost and time required increase sharply, which runs contrary to the idea of a wand as a disposable delivery system. Plus, there are techniques that a spellcaster can use to enhance the effectiveness of various spells, but only if he's casting them himself, from his own power; those skills can be vital in making sure high-level magic works to its fullest effect - or even at ALL, especially against powerful enemies who are going to be using similar tricks to defend themselves - but when you cast a spell using this sort of wand, your own abilities don't carry over. It's all dependent on the wand."
Discussing the ritual knife and the holy symbol doesn't take up as much time-
"What the-!?"
-and as it happens, a few members of the audience do manage to see (or feel) through the outward appearance of your Shadow Conjured items as they're passed through the room for inspection.
You pause for a drink, and pour out a glass for Assistant as well while you're at it.
"Octo," it declares, raising the glass to you.
If you were taller, it might be difficult to do this, but between your current height, the Octorok's size, and the reach of its tentacle, you don't have an issue in lowering your glass enough to tap it against his.
"Cheers," you declare, before taking a drink.
For its part, the crimson cephalopod glugs down about half the glass, before dipping the tips of its tentacles into the remaining water one after the other and running them across the length of the limbs, and also dabbing about its mantle.
"...do you need more?" you ask.
The Octorok shakes its head. "Rok, ock."
"If you're sure." Setting your glass down, you turn your attention back to your audience. "But speaking of drinks," you say, as the Octorok hands you the last of your conjured items, "another thing you'll find in possession of a lot of magic-users are vials, flasks, and small bottles like this..."
As with wands, there are a few different broad categories of liquid, semi-liquid, and "not actually liquid but stored in much the same manner" substances that spellcasters typically keep in vessels of this sort. The most common of these are spell components and reagents for item-crafting, which range from entirely mundane to quite mystically potent, and are just as varied in the level of danger they might pose.
Nonmagical acid isn't something to be handled carelessly, any more than a still-living sample of green slime. And even when a given substance is harmless by itself, mixing it with other materials - especially in a violent fashion - can cause hazardous reactions.
The next group are assorted artificial compounds, some brought about through conventional chemistry, others by way of actual alchemy. You make a distinction between these and the first batch partly because they're the product of artifice rather than nature - most of the time, at least; many of them ARE refined versions of processes some ancient arcanist saw happening and tried to reproduce - but mainly for the fact that their properties arise from the reaction of two or more substances, rather than being an inherent quality of just one thing.
And then there are the actual magic potions, which are simply magical effects housed in a medium that allows anyone to use them, with no need for any sort of special training or insight.
You note that the range of spells which can be imbued into liquids or semi-liquid form is even more limited than those which can be fixed into a wand, and for generally similar reasons, with the addendum that potions have to either be imbibed by or applied to the entirety of a target, so magics that affect relatively large areas are simple not possible to contain in such small doses.
The warning, "Do not drink an unknown potion," gets repeated a few times, just to be sure, and you follow it up with the old cautionary tale about drinking a second potion while the first one is still doing its thing.
There's more than one reason why Hyrulean potions work as fast as they do...
After the last of your items is handed off to the audience, you make use of your illusionary overhead display to show off a few more examples of common mystical paraphernalia, such as scrolls, rods, and staves, as well as some pieces of magical jewelry.
"As a rule, if a magic-user is wearing anything like that, you should try to take it away from them," you state. "Some of them, like amulets, headpieces, or loose chains, you can manage in the middle of a fight, but others, like rings or bracelets, might be better left until after you've subdued your opponent. Breaking things is an option, but generally not a great one: magical items are much tougher than their mundane counterparts, and grow more so as their power increases; and if you break something, you generally can't use it yourself or get as much for selling it."
Some of the younger martial artists in the room are visibly startled by the mercenary tone of that last line, but Lu-sensei and many of his fellow elders - and, it must be said, a few of the younger crowd as well - just nod in agreement with your words, some of them with wistful looks of recollection and regret.
"I see that some of us have experience in that area," you note, looking around. "Anyone care to share an example? Lu-sensei, perhaps?"
"Hm?" your teacher-turned-temporary-sort-of-student blinks. "Well, there was that time with the armored demon..."
This is a story you haven't heard before. It involves a considerably younger Lu Tze, only a few months since his arrival in California, having a run-in with a humanoid warrior-demon of uncertain lineage that favored a suit of plate armor. Between the excellent physical construction of the equipment, the enchantments imbued into it, and the demon's supernatural hardiness, your master had a difficult time dealing with his opponent, especially since he wasn't as familiar with old-fashioned European armor then as he later made a point of becoming.
Long story short, Lu overcame the demon's defenses by using the modern martial art of Car Fu, smashing a rental car into the warrior and his armor at a good forty miles an hour.
"It wasn't enough to actually kill him," Lu-sensei reflects, "but it crushed his armor and made it a lot harder for him to cover the resulting gaps, so I was able to start doing some actual damage the old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, the armor was a complete loss, on top of the added fees the rental place charged."
Considering that even a comparatively simple suit of steel plate with nothing more than the basic defensive enhancement would be worth two or three thousand dollars, depending on whether you were buying or selling, and that a high-end piece could go for over thirty times as much? Yeah, that was definitely a loss for your master.
...
"...you don't happen to still have that armor, do you, Sensei?" you wonder.
"Oh, no, it's long gone."
Yeah, you figured. Twenty-plus years would be a long time for him to keep a broken item like that around.
"Do you think you could have fixed it?" your teacher asks.
"It would depend on how powerful the enchantments were. Once a magic item has been successfully created, it tends to WANT to be whole and functional, which is part of the reason they get harder to damage. It also makes it possible to fix them from pretty serious damage, provided you have all the parts and a caster with sufficient skill and power to, basically, 'remind' the thing of what form and functions it's supposed to have..." Looking around, you continue, "Does anybody else have a good story of that sort? Or, heck, even a broken magic item?"
Several other tales are offered up-
"Honestly, that mask was just disturbing. I really don't regret breaking it, much less the face behind it - they both had it coming."
"All that time spent permanently infusing ki into a fighting staff, and just one battle with a sorcerer of fire to ruin it."
"It was a very nice robe. Unfortunately, it didn't hold up to the sword I was using..."
-but you are not particularly surprised to hear that nobody happens to have a damaged or ruined magic item on their person. That's just not the sort of thing most folks would carry around without a good reason.
As it happens, the School does have a collection of artifacts - some of historical value, others clearly taken as loot, and no few that fall into both categories - which are either known or at least rumored to be of a magical nature. You might want to look into that later.
For the time being, however, you have a lecture to continue. And since you've already touched on the subject of the financial value of looting, you figure you should cover the issue of mystical debts and arcane deals. These are NOT the sort of threat that can typically be dealt with just by punching harder, better, faster, stronger, and hence, they're exactly the kind of thing that a bunch of martial artists should be warned about ahead of time, before they or their students get into trouble.
While it may have been brought on by the mention of magic items, the talk of mystical debts-
"Is this karma?"
It's not karma.
"It sounds like karma."
It does, but it isn't. This sort of debt and the consequences it carries lean more towards the material side of things; it doesn't affect the fate of your soul in and of itself, although the reasons for which you incur and then fail to clear a debt could have some impact in that regard. There's also the possibility that you made one of THOSE kinds of deals, or died owing a lot to someone or something with the means to nick a soul from the afterlife.
"...I mean, it STILL kind of sounds like karma..."
-also extends to the exchange of services and the use of some spells, one of which you happen to have had running this entire time.
"You're saying that you owe the OCTOPUS?" someone asks in bafflement.
"Octorok," the monster corrects firmly, folding some of its arms and putting a couple more on its... sides, sort of like a humanoid standing with their hands on their hips as a sign of annoyance.
It's a bit of an odd look for a creature that doesn't HAVE hips, but it gets the message across.
"Octorok, not octopus," you clarify for those in the room not under language spells. "And yes, I do, although given that my assistant doesn't have the ability to use Summoning Magic, that debt is more likely to be paid forward to some other spellcaster."
"Do they charge interest for that sort of thing?"
"Yes, but don't ask me to calculate it."
Once you've covered this topic, you move on to the next-to-last portion of your lecture, which is combat.
"Most magic-users you're likely to run into can be treated like ordinary people who happen to have a weapon," you state. "Especially if you can close with them before they're able to 'draw' the weapon in question, or even before they realize you're there. Failing that, typical spellcasters only have so much in the way of resources - spells known; personal reserves of power; items - and most of them aren't trained in close combat, much less in casting spells while someone is trying to put a fist in their face. Close the distance, keep the pressure on, and they'll go down like anyone else. The trouble starts when you run into one of the experienced or unusual sorts..."
Gaining access to the third circle of magic is generally considered to be the point where a magic-user starts to come into their own. Some of this is due to the sort of spells that become available at that tier, many of which allow the caster to rapidly neutralize the threat posed by any single ordinary adult human (or something equivalent), to take on several times their number of such foes with reasonable odds of success, or to provide significant support to their allies.
Pointing to the Octorok again, you note that you called the creature up with the second-circle iteration of the Spell to Summon Monsters. The third-circle variant could have called up two or three of its kind, or a single monster strong enough to take the average adult out of a fight with one hit.
Aside from the raw punch of their strongest spells, third-circle magic-users generally have enough gas in the tank to manage upwards of half a dozen significant spells in a day, not counting cantrips or rituals, plus sufficient experience to be able to handle themselves in a fight long enough to get at least one of those spells off, even when taken by surprise and with no back-up.
It's not that EVERY magic-user is a combat veteran, but even those who spend their lives dedicated strictly to research are working with very powerful forces that could easily destroy them if they make a mistake. It takes a certain degree of resolve or a simple disregard for one's life to reach a level of genuine power in a field where such dangers are never far away, and that kind of mindset makes even the most bookish, frail, and typically non-violent spellcaster dangerous even if he hasn't cast a single spell.
You don't have time to cover combat with all the different sorts of magic-user in detail. Do you have any preferences for the sort of opponents you wish to focus on preparing the School of Five Elements to face?
You're leaning a bit towards providing tactical advice for dealing with necromancers and warlocks, or maybe just sticking to the generally applicable strategies, but after a moment's thought, you decide it would be more productive to ask the class if there are any particular kinds of magic-user they feel the need to prepare themselves or their students for.
Some look thoughtful at the question, while others trade speaking glances with their peers.
"There was a rumor going around about witches, yesterday," one of the masters ventures.
Is he-?
"Something about a curse?"
He is.
"I was actually planning to bring that up," you admit, trying not to sigh. "Before I do, though, were there any others that come to mind?"
"Warlocks," a different master says.
"Necromancers," another adds with a shudder.
"Sorcerers," Master Nielson says firmly. It's the first word he's offered in the entire lecture, and it gets more than a few of his fellows looking at him.
He doesn't pay them any mind, instead keeping his attention on you to see what you'll say.
"Okay, so, we'll start with necromancers, since they're the least widely-varied group and the easiest to lay out common strategies for..."
You run through the typical magical repertoire of your average Death Mage - negative energy, disease, curses, reanimation, and energy draining - and then cover less widely recognized applications like utilizing spirits of the Dead as spies and informants, healing by way of life-force transfer, and self-enhancement tricks like the Spell of False Life you used yesterday. Due to the fact that almost nobody likes them, many necromancers pursue a degree of martial training, learning from their masters or spectral advisors how to fight with a broader range of weapons and sometimes even how to make use of armor - though the latter is more common among those who come to the dark art from a religious angle.
"Do they actually fight with scythes?"
"I've never run into or heard of a living necromancer who does," you reply, "but there are a number of undead, as well as other entities associated with Death, that do use scythes, and those can be quite deadly, regardless of how awkward they seem."
The Imp Poes you saw Moblin and Isshin fight during their respective Trials certainly come to mind.
The two major concerns when fighting a necromancer are to not allow them to wear you down - something at which Death Magic unfortunately excels - and to deny them access to fresh corpses. Without ready access to magical defenses like the Spell to Ward Against Death or a priest's ability to turn the undead, the masters would need to rely primarily on mobility, so as to avoid getting hit by a life-draining blast or pinned by a horde of shambling corpses. Ki techniques for enhancing one's physical and spiritual fortitude would be useful backups against the former, but... less so, in the latter instance.
The fact that ki powers are rooted in life-force is at once beneficial and detrimental to fighting against necromancers. Martial artists have stronger vitality than usual just because of all the effort they put into building and maintaining their physical fitness, which is a great asset against Necromancy's debilitative powers. By the same token, however, life-force is a precious resource to the masters of undeath and their servants, who hunger for it as fuel for spells or a more direct form of sustenance, and can sense it accordingly.
A ki-user's aura, if not held in check, would blaze like a bonfire among the lesser torches of those around them, alerting a necromancer or his minions to their presence. Ki Concealment, then, would be a vital skill in any such confrontation, and Ki Control not far behind it, to prevent any wight or wisp thirsty for life-energy from snacking upon the power invested in various techniques... which reminds you of Akkiko's warning about using ki against Hollows.
Japan is not all that far from Taiwan, in the global scheme of things, and going through the spoils of the Silbern Raid revealed that at least some necromancers have looked into controlling Hollows in the past...
There are a couple thousand miles of open ocean between Japan and Taiwan. Normally, that ought to be plenty to ensure that any creatures which were native to one country and weren't adapted to long-distance swimming or flight - and which couldn't make use of modern transportation - wouldn't be a concern, but Hollows are invisible, intangible, intelligent entities capable of traveling between planes, which makes them very concerning indeed.
Throw in the ki-related warnings you were given by an expert in spiritual matters with great personal reasons to have looked into the subject of cannibalistic ghosts, and they're the sort of threat that the masters definitely need to know about, which means you should make sure they've been informed.
As such, while you mostly limit yourself to listing off the common undead creatures that necromancers can generally be counted on to have access to, and general tactics for dealing with them-
"Skeletons are some of the most fragile, but the fact that they don't have flesh to cut makes edged weapons less effective. Fists and feet will work just fine, but for students who haven't worked out how to break bones without damaging their own, blunt weapons are definitely better."
"What about zombies?"
"Well, for starters, forget the movies; an ACTUAL zombie doesn't eat anything..."
-you do make passing reference to some special types of undead, including Hollows.
It turns out that some of the masters DO already know about the creatures, although a quick inquiry reveals that this is mainly due to distant sightings on past trips to Japan - MAINLY. One of the senior instructors admits to having fought a weaker Hollow, and only getting out in one piece because a priest stepped in and warded the thing off long enough for the two of them to make it back to his shrine. The guy didn't know any offensive Ki Projection techniques that he considered worth using at the time, so he can't personally confirm your secondhand warning about using such abilities against Hollows, but he does echo it, the priest that saved his neck having said much the same thing at the time.
Once that's out of the way, you finish up with necromancers and move on to witches, mainly because both groups are commonly associated with curses, and you have that "rumor" to deal with.
Naming no names and keeping the descriptive elements to a minimum, you explain how you noticed one of the participants in the exhibition's free spar was under a curse, and what that led to: warning the officials; breaking the curse; tracking down the culprits; and finding out (and being exasperated by) the why.
"They cursed him by ACCIDENT?"
"No, the ACT of cursing the guy was very deliberate," you say firmly. "The accidental part was in how the terms got twisted."
After finishing the tale, you give a more in-depth account of what witchcraft entails, and how curses - ranging from mere nuisance-level jinxes to genuine and life-threatening curses - might be a significant part of a witch's skillset, but are nonetheless far from the be-all end-all of it. They can help and heal as much as they can harm; the trick is in how you deal with them.
Keeping your word, minding your manners, not making problems for others, only coming to a witch for aid when you've got no other means of resolving the problem in question - these are the sorts of behavior that can make even the most wicked witch... eh, not SAFE to deal with, exactly, and certainly not pleasant if the witch in question wasn't like that to begin with, but an asset rather than a threat.
When you boil it all down, witches are professional deal-makers and service-providers, and like any professional, they take pride in their work. Appealing to that pride and upholding your own end of any bargain will encourage a witch to do the same, proving her skills not just to you but to all her other customers, be they past, current, or future, corporeal or spiritual; likewise, trampling a witch's dignity or trying to weasel out of a deal invites retribution, as the witch must defend her reputation and the leverage it gives her with the rest of her clientele.
Yesterday's whole incident is definitely going to be a bit of egg on the faces of that particular coven, once word of it gets around back in their hometown - and you're pretty sure that it WILL get around. Hopefully it's for the right reasons, like the girls apologizing to the resident god of that shrine for unknowingly taking advantage of the deity's displeasure with the foolishly flirtatious ex-boyfriend, and said fool trying to mend his ways and making people curious about what led to the change.
A witch's need to save face means that social disgrace, or the threat thereof, is a valid means of "fighting" one, provided she's the sort that makes her living through deals with the community, or who just enjoys interacting with people. More reclusive or self-sufficient witches would be harder to affect that way, as would those whose professional interests lie largely or wholly with the supernatural side.
On the flip side, if you handle the presentation correctly, bringing rumors to a witch's attention can be a potential means of paying for her services, or at least improving her opinion of you. Information is valuable, after all, and a warning that can head off trouble - or give a mischievous or malevolent witch a means of starting it - would at least be worth its weight in silver.
"Not gold?" you're asked.
"It would have to be a REALLY valuable rumor..."
When it comes to the more direct sort of confrontation, fighting a witch has some similarities to fighting a necromancer, mainly in that they've got a lot of debilitating spells a martial artist wouldn't want to get hit by, some negative energy attacks the fighter ESPECIALLY wouldn't want to get hit by, and access to minions. However, witchcraft as a whole isn't nearly as focused on dealing with life-energy and souls as the School of Necromancy, meaning that the range of afflictions an angry witch can visit on a person is rather broader, while her power over the forces of death and unlife are proportionately less developed. Another difference is in the field of martial skill, with your average witch tending towards the stereotype of a bookish intellectual - physical frailly or weak, or simply not trained for good old-fashioned violence.
You can't write them off entirely, as many a witch knows her way around a knife and other simple tools more than well enough to be dangerous if pressed, and the experienced ones again tend to pick up some things, but it's definitely not their first, second, or even third preferred option for dealing with an issue.
Those would be "getting somebody else to deal with the problem," "throwing spells at the problem until it stops being one," and "talking," incidentally. Not necessarily in that order, though: Koume and Kotake certainly favored doing things that way; the Madisons have thus far demonstrated a preference for talking first and then either getting help or dealing with the matter on their own, as the situation allows; and of course, there's yesterday's trio, who went straight to the curses.
Anyhow, most witches have access to a greater variety of battlefield magic than your average necromancer, being able to attack with fire, lightning, ice, and other elements to varying extents rather than having to drown everything in negative energy. They're also known to make good use of charms and compulsions - or bad use, depending on the individual and where you're standing relative to her - which is something that has some of your audience shifting uncomfortably, and others donning expressions of wry remembrance or acknowledgement.
Really, the elements of Enchantment Magic found in witchcraft just highlight the fact that who and what a witch knows, and what sort of relationships she has, account for a big part of her threat potential. Necromancers are typically reclusive or isolated within their communities, when they aren't outcast entirely, but a witch can be just as feared by the people around her, a cherished pillar of the community, or a weird mix of the two. Knowing what you're getting into, and whether or not an angry torch-and-pitchfork-wielding mob is likely to chase YOU out of town, is definitely a point that needs to be considered in advance of confronting any witch.
Aside from that, the only other strategic offering you can make is to knock out, make off with, or put down the witch's familiar.
Those eyes that can see Briar in her current form turn her way.
"Wrong kind of familiar," the two of you say in unison.
Explaining how witches are empowered through their familiars, and what said entities really are under the outward guise of fur or feathers that most of them wear - the ones that don't take the form of totems, ceremonial masks, or suspiciously animated spellbooks, to name a few alternative forms - takes a few minutes, but it's worth it to reinforce the point that they are the primary channel and point of contact between a witch and her major patron. Take away the familiar, and the witch's ability to wield her magic is impaired, at least for a time.
"A witch can always call for a new familiar spirit, even if she has to break the link to her current one herself," you note. "Very few of them will do that casually, however, partly because the familiar is a trusted companion as well as a source of power, partly because patrons tend to frown on supplicants who don't treat their agents with due respect, and partly because a new familiar is never as powerful as the previous one - at least not without considerable investment of time and resources to build up its knowledge to equal its predecessor's."
"This sounds a lot like taking a hostage," someone observes in an uncomfortable tone.
"You're not wrong," you admit to the fellow talking about hostages. "Sometimes it's the lesser evil, but as it is written-"
"'Still evil'," about half of the class replies, with most of those who don't speak making noises or nods of agreement.
Thank you, Wen.
Assuming that this was one of the things he actually said, anyway.
Having reached the limits of what you can say about witches in general, at least in the time you have, you move on to another, very different form of patron-backed magic-user, this being the warlock.
Warlocks are the inverse of witches in many respects. For one thing, instead of drawing power through many deals, they make only a very small number of bargains, and often just the one; moreover, where a typical witch strives to remain on respectful terms with her patron, if not friendly ones, it is not unusual for a warlock to fear and hate his patron. This loathing may come from the high price a warlock must pay for his power, which is almost never monetary, or it may be rooted in unsatisfied envy of the patron's great power, and the comparative pittance they doled out to the warlock - and the greed for more. More often than not, though, a warlock dreads his arcane backer simply because he carries a piece of the entity around in a space carved out of his own soul, giving him a constant, fundamental awareness of just how Other his patron truly is - and also how much like them he has become.
Where a witch's studies of the arcane contribute directly to the growth of her magic - both in strength and versatility - a warlock's power is largely divorced from his knowledge. He might learn how to use his abilities more effectively, and he can surely learn the strengths and weaknesses of his foes and allies, but all the study in the world will not increase the strength of his powers or give him access to new ones - only time, experience, and further deals can do that. In addition, while a witch trades in information at least as often as she does services or coin, most warlocks hoard their knowledge, keeping as much as possible to themselves and revealing their secrets only when pressed - for knowledge is power in another form, and the concept of sharing power is a difficult one for most warlocks to wrap their heads around.
Then there is the social angle. Where most witches hold at least a few connections to mundane society, as well as a web of mystical contacts, warlocks tend to be much more isolated. Their powers are derived from inhuman sources, which mark their possessors in ways that even ordinary mortals can sense, and as such, most warlocks are at best disliked by the majority around them. It is not at all uncommon for them to be shunned or outcast, and many are driven to live a nomadic existence. Even among the supernatural, warlocks tend to be loners and outsiders: their willingness to strike dark bargains and mutilate their own souls for the sake of power puts off most others who are not similarly desperate or driven; and most warlocks find they either have too little in common to tolerate one another for long, or conversely, that they share entirely too MUCH.
More than one warlock has come to a bad end because he trusted a fellow contractor of his patron, only for that friend or spiritual sibling to sell him out to save their own skin or further a deal.
As a consequence of their largely independent nature, most warlocks are decent fighters, for when you have no one else you can truly trust to have your back, the ability to defend oneself even by mundane means becomes a necessity. Their supernatural abilities also tend to synergize well with direct combat, with almost all warlocks being capable of unleashing blasts of raw eldritch power that ravage whatever they touch, and some individuals going further to blend their martial skills and magical talents, drawing strange weapons out of their souls. It's difficult to give general combat tips beyond that point, however; warlocks are simply too different.
You do note that some warlocks are granted the ability to take familiars, and that said familiars are often the only creatures their masters trust, due to their lonely existences, so the whole "hostage taking" thing is still an option. That said, such a familiar is more an expression of the warlock's unique power than any kind of conduit between him and his patron, so their loss won't impair the warlock's abilities the way it would a witch's.
"That all sounds... rather bleak," the comment comes from the audience.