Karl laughed. “I gained access to the Earth Shield. But she can use that and [Boulder Toss].”
“How does that mesh with her other abilities?” Tank asked, not quite following how the ability was relevant to her.
Rae summoned a large stone in the air, then hurled it into the distance. When it was a hundred metres away, she appeared underneath it.
“Portable shade for her movement abilities. Plus, she had a spear ability before that she used at short range to apply [Lacerate]. Now she can throw big things at people. It might not be sharp, but I bet it will make them bleed.” Karl guessed.
[And now I can use Crushing Blows. That’s all the bonuses for me.] Rae added as she came back to her dome.
[Smashing Posts.] Thor muttered reverently, staring out of his space at the dome.
[I will make some for you after our shift.] Karl agreed.
“How much do you think that her damage has increased?” Tank asked curiously.
He had seen her up close in combat, and had a good idea what she could do two days ago, so he would be one of the best to judge how much her improvement was from the advancement.
“Do we have high a Commander Rank barrier mage nearby?” Karl asked.
One of the teachers stepped forward and created a solid wall of magic in front of the students.
“Rae, if you would kindly stab that one time.” Karl requested.
Rae moved so fast that half the students couldn’t even follow her camouflaged form, and the barrier shattered as her stone covered leg shot forward. There wasn’t even any resistance, the barrier just shattered at the first hit.
The teacher just stared at the spot where his barrier used to be. It hadn’t even held long enough to slow down Rae’s advance. That was the barrier they relied upon to defend against the attacks of the Hill Giants, and while it was supported by others, it hadn’t fallen often during the time they had been here.
The teacher shook his head, clearing his thoughts.
“That’s not low Royal Rank damage. I am guessing that Karl has a number of passive buffs active on his beasts, but I would say it is a little over twice the minimum standard for Royal Rank.” He explained.
Karl nodded. “Yeah, there are a number of abilities that are always active on them, but I can still increase their speed and damage a bit more.”
Tank blinked slowly as he did the mental math. “Does all of that apply to the Golems as well?”
“Yes, but they were already advanced, so they might not have gotten as big of a jump as Rae did. Now that she’s caught up to the rank of her Golems, we will need to wait for the skill to advance them to the Monarch Rank before they are that far ahead of her again.” Karl explained.
A few of the students shuddered at the thought. Royal Rank was a dream for most of them. Monarch Rank Golems were the sort of thing that they made horror movies about.
Well, they actually didn’t usually make horror movies about things that scary. Most movies used threats that were more relatable, but the idea was the same.
All of the others were resting in their spaces as Karl worked to rebuild the energy focus that Rae’s advancement had depleted. It was taking longer than expected, as the energy kept leaking out as the spaces tried to balance with Rae’s which wouldn’t reduce.
It was already at a much higher energy level than theirs, so the energy just kept pouring from the transfer to the space itself, the same as had happened at the start before Karl had created the energy focus points in the first place.
“Well, if there is an attack, I daresay that this flank is now ready to repulse it. But I think we’re all eagerly awaiting the results of Commander Karl’s imminent advancement. His whole team is showing signs of advancing already, way ahead of schedule.
Tell me, is there some secret to it? A hidden skill, a gift that you were given?” The barrier mage Professor asked.
Karl shrugged, while Tessa waved her hand dismissively. “Nothing tangible. The oracles said that we had the World Dragon’s luck when we stuck together, so we signed a contract to spend a year working as a team. Ever since then, things have been both progressing well and becoming increasingly dangerous for us.”
The teacher nodded in understanding. “The Oracles have a way of messing with us all. But if they said that it would help you, then it must have. But I could swear that you’ve got an untested High Priestess in the group.”
That last comment was directed straight at Tessa, who smiled but didn’t confirm or deny anything.
The students were a bit more eager to see what would happen next. The Hill Giants did have more Royal Rank Giants to send at them, but most of the time, they avoided the most dangerous spots along the line, and attacked the weak spots in the human defence.
Now that there was a Royal Rank defender here, would they actually get even more days off between attacks?
That felt like too much to ask for, but there were no signs of an attack today, so perhaps they were going to get a reprieve long enough for them all to recover from the lack of sleep they suffered while the walls were being torn down.
The Mage Class teacher turned to Karl. “Can you show me the Earth Barrier that you said you gained from Rae? I would like to see how strong it is.”
Karl brought up a wall of stone, placing it in front of the line so that the mages could attack it at will. It wasn’t quite as strong as he could make it, closer to eighty percent power, which wouldn’t strain his capabilities, but when the mages began to cast, their spells were only creating chips in the stone, hacking away at it dozens of times before the barrier actually broke.
“That is truly impressive. How much energy were you adding to that to keep it active?” The teacher asked.
“None. I just created it and left it there. I can put energy in it if you’d like, but I thought that we shouldn’t burn too much in case all this showing off attracts trouble.” Karl explained.
“Well, if you can create barriers like that without actively feeding them, I don’t think your group has much to fear at this point. Can you create them as an armour layer around someone?”
Karl cast the spell on Tank, who flexed and struggled for a moment, before Raging and blowing the stone apart.
“I will take that as a yes, but also no. It’s certainly not an Earth Armour spell, it’s just a static barrier.” The mage laughed.
Karl had an idea, though. He created a shield out of the stone, and handed it to Tessa, then adjusted the back slots to fit her arm over her armour.
“If I’m right, a magical stone barrier doesn’t have to weigh anything.” Karl explained.
Tessa nodded. “I can feel it on my arm, but it can’t weigh more than a quarter kilo. If I was using this as a shield in combat, it would really reduce arm fatigue, and it’s renewable, so I wouldn’t have to extend a barrier over it to protect my gear.”
Or Karl could cast it over her shield when he had a moment, so she would have a shield in her hand no matter what.
Bob was thinking the same, as he was a defensive warrior, and having a layer that durable over his shield would save him a ton of mana on [Guard], which was not nearly as mana efficient as higher Rank skills like that.
From what everyone could tell, the Earth Shield was a Tier 2 ability, with the added benefit of being an innately Royal Rank skill, with the mana efficiency and durability to match.
It was far superior to a Common Tier 1 ability used at Royal Rank, as most Elites would do unless they happened to learn an upgraded version.
“We will have to add it to the tactics for the team. Perhaps you could even make a new helmet for Thor, so he wouldn’t have to risk his Lightning to headbutt people.” Bob suggested.
That sounded great to Thor. Everyone loved a good hat. Bob had a very good hat, it even had nice long horns on it. He had to be an expert, in Thor’s mind.
