Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 231: Arc 4, Act II, - 76: Magic Mastery

’Me first huh? Alright then.’ They stood once more in the sand. Arabella motioned off the Royal Guard to find elsewhere to linger for the time being.

’Foot forward sideways for the finishing. Concentrate on moving forward without moving your feet an inch.’ Jotou positioned her shoulder forward, her feet pointed forward proper.

"Shoulder-Charge!" "Fizz, BZzz..." Electricity formed and arced around her shoulder, going down her entire form in an instant to wrap around her. She leaned forward as if to thrust herself.

"Tuff." The lightning fizzled and she was about to meet sand face first, "Hah!" Jotou fell forward and braced for impact with her hands; promptly flipping frontwards till she landed on her feet again. "For hell’s sake..."

"Cool front flip Jotou! Nine out of ten!" illusions made up the numbers in yellow lights above the elf.

"Wasn’t what I was trying to do..."

"Move aside loser," Daiyu stepped ahead of her. The same attire she wore as when she went on the hunt in the rainforest; her hair down with a tiara still adorned.

With a roll of her eyes Jotou went to the benches set aside, taking a seat next to Hotaru, "You did well enough."

"You’re just saying that," Jotou spoke up to her ears.

"You’ll improve, I know it. Your acrobatics has."

"I’m quite flexible~"

"I know~"

Fumeko’s head rested in both her hands as she watched Daiyu with her eyes glazed over... Flirting right beside her? Come on!

"Get a room." Someone said it! Jotou and Hotaru both turned to behind them where a cat-like tail swished. Her ears pricked to their voices although she sat a bit away, "You’re doing your spell by the book," Niah faced the blonde.

"Is there some other way to do it?" Jotou raised a brow.

Niah had her head in her folded arms, her eyes barely open. "Did you forget when I said every caster’s different? Do what you think is best, it’s not like you’re succeeding this way anyway," she yawned, a little meow escaping.

"A bit harsh," Hotaru’s ears bristled.

"Fine. I’ll show you," Jotou turned back to watch Daiyu.

"Please do, this afternoon Sun and the cool breeze have me in a daze and I hate sleeping outside," she yawned again.

Daiyu cracked her knuckles and her neck, doing stretches of her legs and arms. She glanced down to the sand. There had to be solid earth beneath it after all...

She took a deep breath and raised her leg high, "Stone Surge!" she kicked into the sand. "BBRRR!!!" The ground rumbled and Daiyu smirked before a spike of brown rock erupted... not in the direction she was hoping...

"BAH!" the stone surged beneath her own foot that she slammed, knocking her into the air by a smidgen and back onto her ass before her head slammed into the sand... "Ah..." she groaned continuously.

"Princess!!!" Feyan rushed over.

Jotou leaned forward in concern at first.

"FUCK!!!"

Then the blonde smirked and instead giggled to herself.

The stone that surged up looked like falling domino tiles that spiked at the tips and rose till three or four metres high, displacing the sand. "BRrrr..." After which they settled back down, descending back into the earth.

The sand filled the area, leaving only a fallen princess and Feyan nursing said princess. "My turn huh?" Fumeko glanced to her right.

"I can go first? It’s not a competition, we’re just learning what we can do to better plan," Hotaru’s fangs glistened.

"If you’re offering."

"I do need another person to demonstrate with. Why don’t you join me Meko?"

"Ugh, fine."

Daiyu walked back; sadly her wounded pride Feyan could not heal. Fumeko blinked across, not too far from where the rest sat, followed by Hotaru who swished her tail. "What do you need me to do wolfy?"

"Just stand there."

"I’m not injured to be healed; is this some support spell?"

"Nope," Hotaru laid a hand behind Fumeko’s neck, causing the brunette to jolt.

"W-what’re you doing wolfy?" she blushed.

"Siphon." Water did not form, instead it shifted from beneath Fumeko’s skin.

"Hey, hey, it feels weird, Eugh, ew," Fumeko squirmed her shoulders, feeling like her energy, her mana and even her blood was somehow being drained.

"Do not prolong the usage Ms Hotaru!" Feyan exclaimed. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"I know," Hotaru released her hand and widened her eyes; her skin was radiant and she could feel a surge of energy coursing through her veins.

Fumeko panted, a little groggy as she swayed from side to side. She glared up, before taking a handful of sand and throwing it against her ears.

"HEY!"

"THAT’S WHAT YOU GET!" she picked up more sand and blinked behind Hotaru, purposefully throwing it into her tail, "That must be hard to get rid of!" she blinked away.

"What is- peh," Hotaru cleared the sand from her hair, her ears twitching back and forth whilst her tail wagged furiously. "What is your metabolism!? Yeesh!"

"You were trying to make me faint!?"

"Rejuvenate," she splashed onto Fumeko’s face. "There, you’re fine. I was just trying to weaken you, nothing too extreme. You have a lot more energy than I thought..." Hotaru fiddled with her red strands to get the sand out.

"Hmph. I’ll take that as a compliment wolfy."

Hotaru leaned closer, "That’s for the headband." With a smirk to show her fangs, the redhead sauntered back to her seat, "My spell seems to work just fine!"

"Nice job; try not to hurt her will ya?" Jotou shook her head though she smiled.

"I wouldn’t do anything that threatens her life; a rejuvenate after will for the most part counter whatever siphoning I did," she sat.

Fumeko furrowed her brows, looking to the blonde. Upon her near-golden locks sat the yellow headband she had gifted... For that? "Just a little playful revenge huh...?" her eyes narrowed.

"What about the modification?" Feyan glanced over.

"I’m still practicing on that," Hotaru raised her hand. "Siphon’s Claw," water began forming around her fingers and spiralled upwards like sharp nails, but Hotaru winced before the water simply dissipated. "It’s a bit difficult..."

"Meko, your turn!" Asobi cheered.

"Which one?" Fumeko yelled back over.

"Here," Daiyu grabbed a bottle of water in her hand.

Fumeko sighed, walking a little closer. "Come on detective, you can do it," Jotou beamed.

The brunette couldn’t stop the corner of her lips from rising... Yeah, of course she can! She reached her hand out, "Warp." She eyed the bottle, within the grasp of a hand. Purplish-black shadows formed from the tips of her fingers into her palm.

The shadow swiped in the blink of an eye towards Daiyu’s palm and within a second, in her previously empty hand, there was now a water bottle.

Fumeko’s beam broadened, holding the bottle up in the air, "I had no doubts at all~" she smugly put.

Daiyu checked her hand, the feeling of the shadowy magic making her wriggle her fingers. "Nice job Fumes, you made my hand feel weird."

"She did it! She did it! Now the other spell!" Asobi hopped onto her feet.

"I-I’m still working on that one..." the smugness faded within a second.

"To hell with it detective, just go for it."

"Yeah, yeah," Fumeko walked over to one of the polls that held the tarp up over the sand. "Spider Walk," she casted before sprinting towards and up the-! "Bak!" she fell backwards, but then blinked up and blinked back to the sand.

"Gah... someone else go," Fumeko blinked back to the rest.

"You realize the spell can be used by all your limbs, not just your legs, correct?" Niah stared, her tail swaying behind.

"Shut it."

"You all brought me out of my library for this advice didn’t you!?"

"She’s kinda right you know. I didn’t see any shadow or even magic when you casted the spell," Hotaru replied.

"Hey, I did something today!"

"Oh detective; how are you ever gonna learn to teleport at this rate," Jotou hummed.

"I thought we benched that idea," Hotaru side-eyed.

"We did. I’m talking about the future, not now."

"Big talk for someone who can’t dash forward a few metres," Fumeko crossed her arms.

"Alright, I’ll show you," Jotou got up. "Unless Arabella has something to show?"

Arabella looked over and shook her head.

"Her affinity is manipulation, earth-based. The entire idea behind it is to simply manipulate the element that exists; it’s not as complicated as most affinities.

Although, her drawback of only being able to shift dusts, sands and other crumbs of earth only adds to the complication I suppose," Niah raised her brows.

Arabella glared over to the cat-girl.

"I’m surprised you still haven’t fallen asleep Niah," Daiyu turned.

"All these displays are the only thing keeping me awake right now. So go on Thundering Blade; and do it your way. It’s what makes spellcasting so special."

Asobi halted Jotou and handed her wand. "My wand makes spells better, right? Maybe you could use it to get the hang of it," she beamed.

Jotou stared at the magician, standing a little close for comfort, "That’s nice..." she smiled in return. "But I can’t rely on it. Though the fact you’d even offer..."

Some sort of compassion brewed, mixing with the spite of wanting to prove Asobi wrong and do it by herself. The blonde shook her head, "I can do it."

"Hm," Asobi gave an assertive nod, "You can do it!"

Once again Jotou stood, taking a deeper breath than before. ’How would I do it? Well, I’m moving at a speed I can’t understand for a few metres.

While in it, if I move the position of my feet then I lose the spell. The entire idea is barging forward into something and creating a shield over yourself; what if I don’t really need to barge into anything, just slide forward?

Slide. Hm... It’s more about stability than force; resistance turned into a counter, rather than something needing to be pushed forward.’ Jotou twisted her left shoulder forward.

She tucked her head under and widened her legs, now standing onto the balls of her feet like a cat; her heels not touching the sand. Her entire body leaned sideways, left foot parallel in front of the other.

She curved the front facing shoulder down and up, "Shoulder-Charge!" she exclaimed as the lightning began arcing across her entire form in an instant.

And in the same instance. "Fizz, BZZZ! Fizz..." Jotou did not even notice that she had slid through the sand, leaving a trail of clumped sand crystals where her feet were.

A few metres ahead where she had started, the shield of lightning she could still see for a second before it dissipated. Her heels landed onto the ground as she stood upright and looked at herself.

Bits of electricity fizzled down her fingers and hair, the spell completely faded—a success. The blonde turned with a chuckle and a smile, "I did it!!!"