Christie was grateful about being left behind. She wasn’t in the whole soldier business for the fun of it – she doubted most people were, or at least strongly hoped so – but to control her agates. And it had done her a great service. Now she could almost use her agates for one hour without any consequences or pain. So yes, just being in the rearguard and issuing orders to her fellow lapiloquist were enough.

  When Sandra marked the beginning of the pitched battle with a swing of her hand, all of the students selected for the vanguard lurched forward at great speeds. Unlike the lapiloquist that were exhausted before the battle started, they were still fresh. And unlike her ladylove, most students had several Third Stratum agates, so it was only a fraction of their full commitment to use a Speed Control Anchor series. Though it had to be noted that those platforms were slower than Agatha’s.

  Either way, they flew low as they were still weary of the Invert Summon Range series. After all, an enemy didn’t need to hold the series forever to forcefully recall their agates, but just a pulse. A lone Third Stratum agate from the enemy would be enough to topple a whole squadron of flying units, and they were well aware of that.

  The problem with this type of battle was that Christie was completely blind. She could already hear some shots coming from the horizon, but the battlefield was too big and the only way for her to sense anything was through the soil. Which was problematic as no one had decided to step foot on it just yet.

  “I did not expect battles to be this boring…” A fellow lapiloquist sighed. He wasn’t part of the Military Engineering elective, but Christie shared Advanced Lapiloquia with him.

  “Perhaps it is not the most exciting position, I could get used to this,” Christina – the noble girl, for the umpteenth time – joined the conversation. “A calm, low-stakes position that just watches over the-“

  The green-eyed girl didn’t have time to finish the sentence as she suddenly collapsed on the ground.

  Christie’s mind instantly kicked into overdrive.

  Did the ground collapse under her?

  No, I did not feel any act of lapiloquia.

  What was it then?

  I did not see anything.

  Her thoughts were concise but fast-paced. That didn’t stop her from forming a cocoon of agate around her just in case. Having grown slightly more proficient in willing summoning, Christie summoned her more translucent agates on her eye height, allowing her to have line of sight on her surroundings whilst being totally protected.

  The rest of her teammates reacted more slowly and dramatically. They panicked. She didn’t blame them. But with preternatural calmness, the redhead looked at their teacher and she found Sandra smiling. Whatever had happened, it was something from the exam, so they shouldn’t be too panicky. Perhaps Christie only had that thought because it wouldn’t be the first time a foreign element interfered with her exam. But unless she was dealing with a silent behemoth faster than lithorists’ reflexes, she doubted that was ever the case.

  There is a clue in that smile, she was wholly aware of it yet was incapable of deciphering why in the few blinks of thoughts she had at her disposal. Christina was distracted, in conversation rather than in alert. With that hypothesis, Christie directed her eyes at the most distracted and solitary student. The one who would be a perfect target for an attack.

  There! She spotted an agate the size of a head appearing from thin air and impacting one of her teammates. The boy clutched his leg as the gemstone carried quite a lot of potency even if it wasn’t nowhere near supersonic levels. An attack soft enough that Sandra hadn’t bothered to protect him with her agate yet powerful enough to clearly mark him out of the exam.

  Christie didn’t even need to think about her next course of action.

  “INVERT SUMMON RANGE NOW!” Her voice was megalithic as she had used the Sound command on her agates as she was still encapsulated on her agatiferous cocoon.

  It proved an excellent idea for her teammates to react and have several of them send a pulse of the series all around them, but a bad idea for her ears as she was assaulted by three-hundred and sixty degrees from her own Sound command. That made her head and ears hurt a lot, but she still managed to keep herself upright. Agatha’s Amplify Speed series is far more visceral. That’s how she convinced herself from not puking from her self-inflicted sensory overload.

  After a handful of seconds no more attacks came, meaning someone had gotten the agate. Thank the earth that Agatha still does not have enough commands to give Protect Summon to her every series. Christie didn’t even bother to think how her ladylove had managed to make her big sapphire invisible, there were far more pressing matters at stake.

  “Someone communicate with Cristobal!” She spoke over her agates, now at a far lower volume. “Tell him to get Agatha. Now!”

  Infuriatingly enough, if there was one person who could defeat her ladylove, it was Cristobal Echevarria.

  ***

  Cristobal had already gotten a confirmed ‘kill’. There weren’t enough students to fill the battlefield and both teams apparently had wordlessly agreed to spread over the whole width of the field to engage, which meant that someone was unfortunate enough to get matched against him.

  Then he heard a cry over the Listen Range agate he had left over at headquarters.

  “Someone communicate with Cristobal!” Christina Valasela’s voice was perfectly recognizable and understandable. “Tell him to get Agatha. Now!”

  He looked around in case there was an ambush waiting for him – also summoning Control Watch agates just in case – and took the Listen Range command from one of his teammates that he had stored in his chest pocket once he determined it was safe around.

  “Heard it loud and clear,” he talked at his peer’s agate, clutching it near his mouth. “But what has happened? Over.”

  It was important to indicate that the sentence was over as agates would pick up every sound and they also had no way to get direct confirmation that their message had been received unless they did that.

  Cristobal heard rustling around the agate he had left at headquarters, meaning that no one was close to pick it up. That spoke in great length about how loud the redhead must’ve shouted.

  “According to Valasela, Malachite has sent an agate to attack us. Two got shot down before we could recall it. Over.”

  Shit, he kept that to himself.

  They decided to use surnames to direct at people because there were several people in both teams that shared a name, yet no repeated surnames, so that made communications easier. Yet another clue of the severity of the situation if Valasela had called him by his name.

  But sent, huh? Not there?

  “Is Malachite with you? Over.” He was ready to fly back to headquarters at any second now, only taking this communication as a breather.

  “Uh…” Cristobal heard mumbling over his Listen Range agate, but nothing coherent. “Valasela says no. That Malachite must be still at the enemy headquarters. Over.”

  She must have used Range and Watch to try snipe as many defenders as possible, he theorized.

  “On my way. Over and out.” The blond noble stored his teammate’s Listen Range agate back in his pocket and took a deep breath. “Fractures.”

  I do not have any more Listen Range agates, we could not spare many without limiting my fighting capabilities. I have no way of communicating with the other vanguards. He bit his lip. I either lose time regrouping with them and risk having Malachite take out every lapiloquist at a distance and leave the headquarters unprotected, or I risk myself and go alone against the whole enemy headquarters.

  Cristobal smiled savagely. He didn’t even need to think about the answer as he was already flying at high speeds.

  Now he didn’t even bother to fly low. If there were Invert Summon Range agates around, then so be it, but flying high would give him a lot of reaction time. Beyond his platform, he had a single Watch Target Anchor agate that was locked onto him so it flew at the same speed as he did to use it as an extra set of eyes. Target Anchor was quite a potent synergy not that many people knew about, allowing an agate to always keep the same distance, regardless of the target’s speed.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The blonde applied the same logic for a Target Anchor Range agate. That last command was useless at the moment, but having the agate summoned and with Range already assigned would allow him to shoot it to the ground and use remote lapiloquia. Unlike most students, he was perfectly capable of managing both disciplines at the same time.

  It took a less than a minute for him to spot the enemy headquarters and he pondered all his possible choices before opting for the brute force solution.

  He shot five agates with Protect Summon Speed directly at the targets. There were two more, but he didn’t have anymore Third Stratum agates at his disposal. Though he shot a sixth agate a bit further away from them, this one being now Control Amplify Range, as he couldn’t give it Protect Summon due to lack of slots.

  Most students predictably reacted by using Invert Summon Range, which made them lose valuable time as the agates continued flying toward them. Though victory wasn’t quite at his fingertips as lone Speed commands to propel agates were highly reactive.

  Three students managed to react in time – Malachite and Belkadi included – but the rest were taken by surprise after their one tactic failed and they had to get rescued by René Dago’s agates. The three that defended themselves shot down his agates with such brutality that they managed to crack them, even with the Protect command active. Or in Malachite’s case, outright shatter an agate.

  “Ukh!” Cristobal grunted as he felt a part of his very being shatter. His head was already hurting because of it.

  Two down, five to go. He quickly pushed away his increasing nausea and gathered his thoughts. His Control Amplify Range agate was now solidly burrowed on the ground, so he first prospected the ground.

  It was pure hardened bedrock.

  I should have guessed as much, the noble mentally groaned but still pushed his will on the ground to at least eliminate one target. Between the reinforced bedrock and the fact that he was doing all of this remotely, all his energies were instantly sapped, but he managed to create a spike of rock that impacted against one of the students he hadn’t shot as that one was bound to have his guard less up. Perhaps not outright lethal, but it would have probably punctured the student’s lung if Cristobal hadn’t relaxed his will midway through.

  The fact that René Dago personally stomped on the ground to remove the gnarly spike assured Cristobal that he at least had gotten another student out of the equation.

  For he doubted he could do much more.

  “Will go down. Got three. Over and out.” Cristobal muttered to the Listen agate to inform his team before the inevitable happened.

  He was completely spent, physically speaking, and he wasn’t faring much better in the mental sense as the nausea from having one of his agates brutally executed was now catching up to him.

  Agatecraft was a fast-paced discipline. Both lithorica and lapiloquia. It had been less than thirty seconds since he shot his first agates, and from there he went from perfect condition to nearly dead. Or at least wishing he was.

  The moment the platform underneath his feet disappeared, he realized that death might be sooner than he expected.

  His body tried to react viscerally at not having any support once he was in free fall, but Cristobal didn’t allow that to happen. He was still conscious, so he would still fight. He turned his eyes around like crazy – as his Watch agate had also been recalled – until he found the cause of the forceful recall of his agates.

  It was a very big agate.

  One that hadn’t been there until now.

  And it was flying toward him at great speeds.

  Invert Summon Range! Cristobal commanded all of his agates in a panic.

  Just like those on the ground that had failed to defend against his agates, now he too failed to defend against the brutal agate. Instinctively, he knew it had Protect Summon and Amplify Speed. After seeing death approaching, Cristobal only felt complete serenity.

  They could have warned me about the invisible Fifth Stratum agate, so he used the scant fractions of a second he had to sulk before his teacher’s agate shot down Malachite’s.

  ***

  Christie’s mood soured the moment her teammate relayed Cristobal’s last message. And they knew it was his last message as his Listen Range agate was recalled barely a few seconds later.

  “How are the rest of the teammates holding up?” She asked at the teammate managing the communications, Flores. She couldn’t quite recall his name at the moment due to the whole acoustics concussion ordeal and was ashamed to ask.

  He was very lucky that he had been far away from the previous bursts of Invert Summon Range series, or they would’ve lost all their manner of communication.

  Though they had already expected that, so that was why they put a human communication’s relay far away from the group. And even then, some agates did get unfortunately recalled.

  “Half of are team our team is down, but so is most of theirs,” Flores responded.

  That got Christie thinking. “Maybe we could try to get all of them in one go.”

  “And how would we tha-“ Christina tried talking but a massive clap interrupted her.

  “Shh!” Sandra shushed her. “You are supposed to be dead. Let the living make decisions.”

  “Er…” Mouthed the teammate Christie was previously speaking with. “And how would we do that?”

  “I fear there is no we here,” the redhead admitted. “We need to get some people out yet others need to defend.”

  “That… does not sound like a great decision.”

  “What is a bad decision is that I stay here after already having reinforced our headquarters soil. I am useless here, so I am going to give myself a bit of a use. Flores, you and the rest defend. I will try to steal Agatha’s attention.”

  She didn’t allow her teammate to protest as she took to the skies in the only way it was possible to her.

  With a slide.

  Unlike that one time with the behemoth, it wasn’t currently deluging, so she had to move in an even more moronic way. Thanks to her increased mastery of her inner sea, she was able to create a platform vaguely resembling a sled, which slowly but surely gained momentum with the ever-so-slightly inclined slide of agate. She wasn’t going as fast as the previous final exam, and nowhere near the speed of her peers, but it was way faster than walking or flying with her pitifully slow Control command.

  Christie was aware of the existence of a command called Friction that could’ve helped with her speed, but if she were to use it, she would run into the same problem as always. Not enough command slots. Reducing the friction of her sled wouldn’t do anything as she still needed Control to keep the whole sled in the air. And using a Friction sled on the ground without a slide wouldn’t be even that useful as this wasn’t an ice lake, but a bumpy, arid field. Perhaps friction wouldn’t kill the speed, but bumps would certainly destroy the slide’s momentum.

  Note to self, remind Agatha that the Friction command exists ONCE I no longer have to confront her in exams. Beyond not being this the moment, Christie knew better than to give her ladylove more tools to fight against her. But her deeply analytical mind and her interiorized knowledge of physics couldn’t help but toy around the idea of a supersonic, frictionless projectile. Probably wouldn’t make much difference, air is drag not friction, but I would love to see it either way.

  Unfortunately for the nouveau riche, her theories mid-exam had to be cut short as she spotted someone.

  Two students were still fighting, apparently none being able to finish the other. Acting like the cavalry of yore, Christie decided to reinforce her teammate. The opponent in question was Veronica Alfargar, so she knew it wouldn’t be an easy target, but she had greater things to worry about.

  Namely, being unable to turn to the side.

  She had gained so much speed and she had only so much control over the slide that was getting constantly summoned and recalled that if she were to shape a curve with the Grow ‘command’, she would most likely slide out.

  Not wanting to potentially break her neck, Christie preemptively substituted the Control command by Summon. In the fraction of a fraction of a blink, she was completely encased in a lithic coffin of ten meters in radius.

  A handful of seconds later, she collided with the ground.

  The impact was brutal, but because she left no air gap, the tons upon tons of agate dissipated all the impact, making her completely unharmed. The redhead then recalled her agate and summoned a far smaller ball on her hand bearing the Control command that she used to descend to the ground fast but safely. That was the thing about encasing herself with agates, perhaps her recalling range was miniscule compared to the rest of students, but that still left her hanging in the air, ten meters high. If she didn’t then cancel her gravity with enough Control commands, then… well, gravity would take effect.

  Between the massive ball that had appeared and the megalithic – in quite literally every sense of the word – impact, the fighting classmates spotted her. The color in Veronica’s face visually drained after seeing the agate coffin, but she still didn’t lower her guard and continued fighting her opponent.

  Unfortunately for the noble girl, by then, Christie had touched the ground and she made a sinkhole just underneath her. Veronica reacted quickly and was able to summon a platform underneath herself, but that fraction of a second needed to focus on commands that weren’t related to the battle were enough for Christie’s teammate to capitalize and subsequently seize victory as René Dago’s agate had to intercede and save the raven-haired girl.

  Another one down, Christie dryly thought to herself, and her teammate seemed to do the same but aloud as he communicated back with the headquarters. Apparently, none of the students had used Invert Summon Range in that confrontation.

  “Ask how many people remain in action,” she said after approaching him.

  “Uh, they say inconclusive,” the noble boy – Carlos Trastar, Christie recalled – said after a moment. “Too many recalled Listen agates, so we do not have good estimates.”

  “Confirmed kills?” Better an estimate than nothing.

  “With Alfargar now? Uhm…” Trastar pressed his ear against the agate, apparently it wasn’t high-quality one as the Sound command didn’t make that much sound. “Seven.”

  The class is twenty-six people now, thirteen by team, so only six standing enemies at worst. Christie’s grade was originally compromised by thirty students, but the first year took a toll and then another one left at the start of the third.

  “Agatha and Shayla are two of them, right?”

  “Uhm… should be?” He nodded. “Yes, Malachite and Belkadi are still up. Librar too.”

  Mateo doesn’t worry me much, and Shayla is manageable. The only problem is the mock and deadly sapphire.

  “Hmm…” Christie had already a moronic plan before storming out of the headquarters, but it now became even more so. “We are going to storm the enemy’s headquarters. Get at least one reinforcement.”

  “We cannot go against those three with another three even if they are alone at the headquarters!” Trastar protested.

  “They are alone?” The redhead squinted.

  “Only six enemies up. And three already were down on the headquarters thanks to Echevarria. It makes no sense that they have left more than half their team there, so at most there should be another person more.”

  “A bit too much ‘should’ for my liking, but makes sense,” she nodded. “But, in any case, that only makes my plan even better.”

  “It still sounds like suicide to me,” the noble boy growled.

  “Do not worry, you only need to go against two matched opponents. Three if you are unlucky. Ask for more reinforcement if one more is not enough.”

  “And what about you?” Carlos asked after muttering to the communications agate. “What will you do?”

  “I have the hardest mission,” she chuckled wryly. “I will distract Agatha of Malachite.”

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