Bookbound Bunny

B2 - Chapter 67 - Magical Gauntlet

The tests had been going on for a while now, and as far as Lily could tell, nobody had failed yet. It was hard to tell how everyone was doing unless you were trying to keep track of the time in your head, and none of the staff who remained to keep things orderly had announced any results yet.

Everyone in her circle had already gone, so Lily was feeling slightly anxious about being the last to go up. There were other students, but now she would be the last in the friend group.

Hana and Arthur both seemed very pleased with their results, if Lily was correctly reading their expressions, as they weren't allowed to discuss it, and Lotte looked ecstatic. Thomas was the only one who looked a tiny bit unsettled, which drove Lily to realize she'd made a mistake on her end.

I was supposed to help make a spell scroll for Thomas!

With everything going on, especially with regard to all the crazy happenings in her alchemy class, it had completely slipped her mind. Lily felt somewhat guilty, as even though she wanted to help him, it was ultimately his own performance. If anything, giving it to him so close to the mock test might've hampered his results if he hadn't had time to learn.

I'll ask Arakil about it after this, and hopefully draw something up. I don't even need to worry about ink now, thanks to Sylwel.

Lily was very curious about the test but refused to even ask Lotte or the others for a hint. Earlier, when one student even tried to whisper something to a friend, he was immediately called out by the examiner and docked a five-minute penalty on his result.

But, eventually, Lily's name was pulled out of the hat, and it was her turn to brave the gauntlet. Her friends wished her good luck, and as soon as the door opened, she bolted inside, with it closing behind her.

It wasn't the first room like she thought, but the passageway was short, and Lily felt tense as she entered the unknown. To her relief, the first room seemed to be easing the students into things, as she only saw three widely spaced skeletons and another door at the end.

Good thing skeletons are easy, I honestly think gremlins are more dangerous.

The first thing Lily did was summon her Nebula Veil, the starry cloak surrounding her and giving her a much-needed safety net. She then proceeded to activate her magesight to double-check that the room had no hidden enemies lurking, as the last thing she wanted was for a sneaky slime to drop down on her.

While the skeletons were animating and beginning to walk toward her, Lily scanned the room, and she spotted a floating purple eyeball staring right at her. Lily immediately yelped in surprise, jumping away from it a few feet.

Despite Lily's freak-out and defensive stance, the eyeball showed no hint of emotion as it continued to stare, merely observing her. Lily had nearly tried to blast it with magic, but then the gears turned quickly, and she realized this was likely how they were being monitored by the professors.

I wonder if I'd fail if I accidentally destroyed it.

Lily shuddered at the thought and deactivated her magesight, causing the creepy ethereal eye to disappear once more from existence. There was nothing else in the room that she saw, so she proceeded with her plan.

Lily pulled out three talismans; two were wind, and the remaining was fire. She slapped the two wind talismans onto her legs, activating them at the same time as they magically adhered to her. A windy vortex was summoned and clung to her legs, causing her to dash forward with a sudden and unexpected burst of speed.

With these, I can almost be a normal Lagia.

Lily smiled at the thought, happy that magic allowed her to experience something that would have been impossible due to her body.

With the wind lightening and speeding up her steps, she raced to the door, which made the skeletons gather to chase after her. When they were close enough together, she activated the final talisman, sending out a fireball in a straight line before suddenly detonating mid-air.

The resulting explosion was enough to engulf and destroy all three skeletons, and Lily wasted no time dashing through the door, which was no longer locked.

Thanks to the glyph's preset distance, I can control the point of the explosion. I've been wanting to cast a fireball ever since I saw Rose do it... I wonder if she'd be proud.

The second room was long, with the exit at the far end and open, so one could immediately leave if they reached it. However, it had a massive gap in the center of the room that fell to a watery moat below, with a ladder to get out near the entrance.

Lily flashed her magesight but saw nothing hidden, meaning the bridge was the only way across unless you made your own path. However, the bridge was guarded by seemingly immovable Brassbound, stationed at intervals and armed with thick shields.

Can I build my own bridge? No, I don't have enough power in my earth glyphs to do that, and they are designed to make small rock walls. If I had chalk, I could draw a new glyph to do that, but it would take time and probably be against the rules...

Lily had a few possible ideas, but they would all need a new glyph. Using the existing water to create an ice bridge was a very cheap option, but it wasn't in her preparations. She wished she could have demonstrated the flexibility of her knowledge, but was limited to the deck of talismans she brought with her.

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Lily thought of just trying to bash her way through the Brassbound, but the fact that they had shields would make it difficult. She also couldn't help but feel that was the wrong way to solve this puzzle. If her cloak had more strength behind it, she could've tried shoving them off the bridge, but she instinctively knew it wasn't up for that task.

Okay, it'll use up almost all of my air talismans, but I think I can glide across!

Once Lily made up her mind, she quickly got into action. She pulled out a mass of talismans and placed them in an arrangement that would send out a strong gust of wind toward the exit. Tightly clutching two more papers in her hand, Lily situated herself in front of them and billowed out her cloak as much as possible before sending a trickle of Mana to activate all of them at once.

A single wind glyph wasn't much, but together they were more than enough to fling Lily across the gap. It was a last-minute plan, and she nearly hit the ceiling due to a rushed but quick reaction, which meant she could cushion herself with her Nebula Veil as she forcibly produced more cloak with her readily available Mana.

However, the slight miscalculation meant Lily was losing velocity; she activated the two remaining talismans behind her while holding onto them tightly. Since she was already airborne, this propelled her over the remaining distance to cross the gap without falling into the water below.

The split-second Lily noticed she would make it, she wrapped herself entirely in her cloak to avoid a dangerous tumble. The starry veil was a protective cushion, and she bounced and slid across the floor until she came to a stop by bumping into the wall.

"Gods... that was maybe a bit too reckless," Lily said to herself, almost not believing that she had actually done that.

Lily recollected herself and went into the third room, hoping it would be an easier one. After going through a short tunnel, she ended up in a large arena, with a massive Brassbound standing in the center. In its hands, it held two massive tower shields, which looked large enough to serve as impromptu weapons.

Lily noticed the exit was closed, but above it was something resembling an hourglass. Her mind raced over whether this was a test of overwhelming attack power or of survival.

I could probably survive long enough, but I think I'd lose a lot of time that way. Lotte no doubt destroyed it; I probably can with enough starbursts.

Lily checked her legs and saw that the two talismans were still active, meaning she didn't need to replace them yet—a small blessing, as she only had a single pair remaining. She could stretch out the effect by applying one talisman to her body, but they were far more effective if applied to the legs.

As usual, Lily quickly activated her magesight, and this time she actually saw something. The two shields were glowing slightly, meaning they were probably magically reinforced, causing Lily to click her tongue in frustration.

How many stars would I need to break through those shields? No... I need to hit it in the back.

Lily reached into one of her pockets and pulled out her earth talismans, hoping that she could use them to restrict the movement enough for her to get a clean shot at the back.

Then I just need to not roll a zero! Maybe I should have tried to learn Lunar Radiance before this test.

After sighing, Lily stepped into the arena, causing the Brassbound to suddenly activate and the timer above the exit to start counting down. Lily activated an earth glyph, the page burning in her hand, as a small earth wall formed ahead of her.

Lily repeated this process, hoping to box or restrain the Brassbound, but her plan was short-lived as it bashed one of its shields against the rock, reducing it to rubble.

Okay... That's fine... I guess I need to use the backup plan then.

Lily pulled out more talismans and began activating them, but as quickly as she made the rock walls, the Brassbound would crush them. Throughout all of this, Lily was trying to use her speed boost to circle around the enemy to reach its weak point, but it seemed resolute to keep her within its line of sight.

When the Brassbound made a step toward her, Lily responded by casting a starburst, which sent out three stars. The enemy instantly halted and raised its shields, blocking the stars but scattering the stardust over the shields and itself.

Lily needed it to stay in the rubble it was creating; otherwise, her plan wouldn't work. With it now cautiously hiding behind its shields, she pulled out her water glyphs.

I hope this works!

Lily activated them, sending out a torrent of water aimed at the rubble littering the ground. Rather quickly, thanks to the Brassbounds' heavy footsteps and the fact that the rock walls became extremely brittle once broken, a thick slurry of mud began forming beneath it.

Slowly but surely, she noticed the steps of the Brassbound getting slower thanks to the muck, and this was when she sprinted with all her might, circling around it. Her starburst was already at her fingertips, and she threw her full might behind it, hoping to increase her odds of a good result.

Four stars went flying out towards the Brassbound. The first struck its back directly, causing significant damage as its armored outer shell seemed to cave in from the magical explosion. The consequent stars all hit as well, each one slightly to the left of the original as the enemy tried its best to turn its vital point away.

However, it was too late, and by the third star-filled explosion, the Brassbound crumbled into a pile of sparkly bits of metal. As soon as the monster started disintegrating into black fragments, the exit door swung open with the remaining timer disappearing completely.

Lily was relieved, almost collapsing under the release of the pressure she had put upon herself. If she had brought ice glyphs, she could have made this a much simpler task by creating water and freezing it, or perhaps something to generate a sand trap with the rubble.

Heck, maybe I could have slowed down the Brassbound by just ice magic itself. Who knows what effect that would have had on its joints?

Not wanting to waste the time she had saved by defeating the guardian, she made her way to the exit, then to the next room, and, to her relief, it looked pretty simple.

The room had traps that would activate at intervals, releasing a volley of magical projectiles or even gouts of flame. It might have been an intimidating sight, but Lily felt like this might be the easiest room of the bunch.

If it's all magical, then my Nebula Veil should make this a cakewalk!

Lily confirmed it with her magesight, and when she saw that even the arrows were some type of arcane construct, she could help but giggle to herself.

As Lily began her walk to the exit, she started feeding more Mana into the cloak, causing the stars closest to her to shine brightly, and the dark purplish mist began to billow out as more and more cloak began to form.

The magical bolts harmlessly bounced off her cloak, and while Lily instinctively concentrated more of the cloak to block the flamethrower trap, it was ultimately unnecessary as she continued her brisk jog to the exit.

Lily would have gone faster, but she was hesitant that something might surprise her. When she reached the exit, she discovered her worries were unfounded. Opening the door, she cautiously walked on, but when she found herself in a long, winding passageway, a sudden thought crossed her mind.

Wait, was that the end of the test!?