As Suria crept into the deepest shadows, she chastised herself for endless shortcomings. A stealth spell would have been useful right then, and if she actually engaged in combat with other people, a stunning spell might have been better than one designed to cause harm. Though she might be lucky just to get through this alive.
There were still footsteps audible in the corridors and she started to feel foolish for initiating a confrontation. She told herself that if they went in another direction, she would let them pass and just record what she observed. Most likely they had no intention of-
Then she saw the masked figures in the corridor walking toward her.
If Suria didn't act right away, she was afraid she would freeze up, so she launched a stream of flame from hiding. It caught one of the masked figures directly in the chest, and though a bubble of mana appeared around them, it drove them to the ground. The other two didn't flinch, they just began casting wildly - if she hadn't pre-planned to use her shielding spell, she wouldn't have cast it in time.
Mana bolts pounded against her shield and Suria was shocked that her defenses held up against the spells. She tried not to let it throw her too much and cast a swath of flame through the corridor, but this time they were ready and shielded as well.
She still had a third plan prepared: casting a shield at foot level. One of the attackers stumbled over it and went down, and for a moment Suria almost believed she could win. That was when everything started to go wrong.
The last mage charged at her and she unleashed her flame spell again - in her panicked state it wasn't very focused and simply rolled off the mana shield. She tried to cast another shield in front of his feet, but everything was happening so fast and he was already past where she was aiming and she couldn't aim quickly enough and-
Her shield shattered and the mage flung out a hand: force drove her into the air and pinned her against the wall. The impact shocked Suria so much that she dropped the talismans she was holding. There were more in her satchel, but her arms were pinned to her sides and she couldn't fight back against the magic.
Muttering to himself, the lead mage turned back to check on the other two, who were picking themselves up. Suria sagged in the magical bonds, realizing how badly she had lost. Everything had been fine during the early stages while she had the advantage of surprise and a clear plan, but in the heat of the fight everything had fallen apart. She'd been foolish to think that magical competence also meant combat competence.
All three were up now and turning toward her, which sent Suria's heart into her throat. They were looking at her so strangely...
"Wait, is that Suria?" The attackers paused and then one of them abruptly pulled down their mask to reveal one of the Akrashic loopers. "What are you doing here?"
"I live here," Suria objected, struggling with the magic bonds. "What are you doing here?"
The three glanced at one another awkwardly, then dropped their combat stances amid a great deal of grumbling. One woman tugged off her mask and stomped on it while another looper dispelled the bonds around Suria, letting her back to the floor.
"We're still trying to figure out a way into the Perception vault," he explained. "If we'd known you were here, you could have just let us in."
"Instead of wasting so much time on those counter-spells," another muttered.
"But this can still work," the first looper continued evenly. "I assume you decided to take Jeilin's favor after all? What exactly does he want?"
"He's trying to figure out who's after the vault or the throne's office," Suria explained as she reluctantly stashed her talismans back in her satchel. "Is that just you, every time?"
"No, there's somebody else. Jeilin got started on this idea during a cycle where we never even tried. Look, what about this: let us just look at the vault now and we won't touch anything. We'll stay away this cycle and let you get your data, since everybody benefits if we know about non-loopers getting in the way. And in return, maybe you can let us in some other loop."
"Is that a formal favor?" Suria asked suspiciously.
"No, no, just a suggestion." The looper raised his hands. "Not trying to trick you, honest. But can we see the vault?"
"I actually don't know where it is," Suria admitted. "But I won't stop you."
As it turned out, her room was directly beside the staircase that led to the vault. Suria padded after the three Akrashic loopers, hoping to at least salvage some information from her defeat. Instead of ascending to the second floor and its classrooms, they headed down - Suria had checked the stairs once and found it ended in a maintenance door she couldn't get open.
The Akrashic loopers clearly knew about this, because after experimenting with several spells the door slid open silently. It led to a simple, unadorned corridor with a larger door that seemed to be made of pure metal. This one opened with only a little more difficulty and Suria wondered if it could really be that easy to break into a major department's vault.
Then on the other side she realized that it definitely wasn't.
Somehow the door opened into a peaceful meadow. Suria knew that it had to be an illusion, but as they walked inside she couldn't shake the feeling that they were actually outside. Her senses completely betrayed her and she clung to the fact that there was no dark moon overhead and the time of day didn't match in order to remind herself that it was an illusion.
"Don't wander from the center," one of the Akrashic loopers warned her. "It looks peaceful, but there are traps."
"Those vines killed me three different times," one of the others muttered, even though there weren't any visible vines as far as Suria could tell.
After conferring for a while, the loopers cast their spells much more tentatively into the meadow. The outline of a circular door shimmered in the air briefly, as if it could only be illuminated by their spells. At first it looked like solid stone, but additional spells revealed glittering glyphs of great complexity. For several minutes the Akrashic loopers tried to record them, but soon enough one of the men pulled back.
"I'm done," he told the others. "I think there's no point even trying this before we have ranked seals."
"Come on, Herriot," another said, "you're giving up now?"
"We're not going to get this open with any unlocking spell, no matter how many augments we add."
Having seen the complexity of the glyphs, Suria thought they were definitely right. The outer doors were mostly for safety to keep students from hurting themselves... this room was the real barrier to prevent enemies from stealing the department's resources. On one hand even trying to enter seemed impossible, but on the other hand she understood just how valuable the reward would be if they succeeded.
The man who had given up first - Herriot, apparently - shifted back to stand with Suria in the center. He was also the one who had pushed through her spells and pinned her to the wall. That should have made her afraid of him, yet Suria felt a sense of kinship since they were part of the same loop.
"I didn't have much chance against you earlier," she said quietly. "I should have been able to stop you before you got close, but I panicked."
"You looked like you were barely holding it together," he said with a shrug. "That's not actually a close range glyph. I just figured it would make you fumble spells."
"You could figure that out in the middle of a fight? It all seemed to happen in an instant for me."
"That's just lack of experience, and normal fear. Honestly, it's probably more rational to be afraid, but after charging to your death a few times, you stop worrying about it. Sheer confidence can carry you pretty far. Hell, your ambush got embarrassingly close to taking us down, considering how much experience we have on you."
"Oh... I was hoping you had a spell to change your awareness or something." Suria had been reading up on such spells to prepare for Combat Perception, but didn't have a firm grasp of them yet.
"Those exist, but they're not something a student mage can cast."
They fell into silence and Suria stewed on her limitations. The other loopers continued trying spells before they gave up and retreated to the center of the room. After conferring with one another for a while, they agreed to spend the rest of the loop just researching what they learned, leaving Suria to monitor anyone else who tried to enter.
"If you ever figure out anything about the vault," the other man said on their way out, "let us know. We'd owe you a favor, and if you can actually help us get in, we'll share the prize."
"I doubt I can do much," Suria told them. She knew she should project confidence, but didn't have it in her at the moment. "You saw how I froze up."
"You'll get better with experience," Herriot told her.
"But how? Were you all sparring with each other, or did you get combat experience in later classes, or...?" She trailed off, hoping she didn't sound too needy. Fortunately, the Akrashic loopers didn't seem to be scorning her, and after they glanced at each other, Herriot answered.
"Here's a tip for you: have you seen the tunnels under campus?"
"Is there an opening in the dormitory block?"
"Yeah, but they're all over the place. They're actually supply tunnels, so most buildings use them. There's an infestation of monsters down there - not very dangerous, but you could try to clear them. We actually used that to train, but eventually it got too easy, plus there's no point clearing the infestation when it just comes back next loop. Some staff clear it out a ways into the term."
"But be careful," the woman of the group said with a sour look. "There's something bigger down there, something nasty. If you don't take it out immediately, its claws will tear you open."
"Seriously?" Herriot looked back at his ally in annoyance. "Don't make her paranoid."
"Are you saying there aren't huge clawed things down there?"
Herriot sighed and rolled his eyes, leaving Suria to wonder what exactly was passing between them. She supposed that death wasn't such a big deal when you were used to restarting for each loop; she didn't want to become as casual about it as these three, but she did hope to gain a little of their courage. Maybe exploring the tunnels could give her the experience that she needed to match her academic knowledge.
Soon enough Suria had to split with the other loopers, so she went back to her room and stared at her monitoring pentagon, waiting for the chime as they exited. The Akrashic faction hadn't been very friendly before, but now that she'd met three of them, they didn't seem so bad. Of course, she didn't actually know what they wanted, unless they were just seeking any source of power.
Once they left, Suria crawled back into bed. She felt exhausted enough that her eyes were heavy immediately, but she slept restlessly and then found herself wide awake too early. When she pulled the shade from her window, she saw that it was barely dawn on campus.
It was still many hours before the krashorb competition and at the moment Suria just wanted to stay inside, maybe even not attend at all. But she'd just received painful evidence that she needed to be proactive, so she knew that would be a mistake. No, she needed to test herself so she didn't freeze up again.
So she checked all her talismans and then walked across campus to find the mysterious entrance she'd seen before. Even though it was ungodly early, the light and the fresh air helped her set aside her worries. Whatever this infestation was, the Akrashic loopers seemed to think that she could handle it... except for the mysterious clawed monster. She wasn't sure if that was real or if they were just trying to make her afraid, but she'd have to conquer that too.
When she reached the dormitories, Suria thought she'd be lost at first, only to find her way to the yawning hole sooner than she'd expected. Apparently she really was getting a feel for Darkmoon University, even if she couldn't draw a perfect map of it. The hole still looked ominous, but knowing that it was just an entrance to supply tunnels made it easier to force herself inside.
The light faded just a few steps inside, forcing Suria to illuminate the bare stone walls with a thin tongue of flame. She wondered if she should have developed a pure light spell instead of using fire; on one hand, maintaining a fire wasted time and concentration, but on the other, maybe she would want to have her fire talisman in hand if she was attacked. Since a light spell would surely be taught in one of her classes, Suria filed that concern away for later.
At first the tunnels seemed blank and plain, then Suria found the first supply room. Unlike the rectangular buildings overhead, the room was rounded, more like a cave. It was filled with various barrels and sacks... and there was a monster chewing through one of them.
Suria let out a soft involuntary noise at the sight of the giant insect. It was about the size of her head, with six crooked legs and large jaws that were chewing through the canvas of the bag. Her noise didn't seem to draw its attention at all; it just kept eating. Despite that, the sight was still grotesque and she realized that she had flinched instead of acting.
Well, this was the sort of instinct she was here to train out of herself. Suria took a deep breath and then cast a concentrated stream of fire.
The insect let out a wail and Suria flinched from the crackling noises as it crumpled up on itself, but it was definitely dead. She forced herself to take a step closer and examine the body, despite her misgivings. This was the first time she'd killed such a large creature and it definitely felt different from just swatting a bug. Her spell had also burned some of the supplies, which was clumsy of her, but since it hadn't started a fire she wouldn't worry about it.
Would the sound have drawn other monsters to the location? The idea of a swarm of those things assaulting her made Suria deeply uncomfortable, so she held her fire talisman at arm's length as she thoroughly searched the room and then headed back into the corridor.
Without warning, another one of the giant bugs skittered out of a nearby doorway, alarmingly close to her. Suria panicked, but at least her panic took the form of a fire spell this time. She managed to regain control and her second attempt struck the bug full-on, frying it to a crisp.
She took a deep breath and was glad she was more under control than the last time. This wouldn't stop her, she just needed to expose herself to enough danger that she got used to it. The bugs weren't overly dangerous, so she should be fine unless she ran into a lot of them, or the mysterious clawed beast.
Just as Suria began to feel a little more confident, she heard something shuffle in the corridor beyond her. Something large. As she edged closer, she heard a scraping sound, like metal against stone. Even though approaching seemed insane, she forced herself to continue.
Then the scraping sound stopped, which just made everything worse. Suria took a deep breath and gripped her shield and fire talismans: her hand was trembling a little, but at least her flame spell was steady. If she caught sight of a real monster, maybe she could take it by surprise.
There were ominous flickering shadows ahead, suggesting another source of fire. Was something actually burning down here? Suria crept closer, her nerves winding tighter, ready to cast at any moment.
When she rounded a corner, she saw an enormous creature and almost screamed. It was as tall as the tunnel and had to be ten times her weight, with shaggy brown fur. She should have attacked that instant, but fear or some other instinct held her back. The way the creature was sitting against the side of the tunnel gave her a clear look at claws the length of her forearm, easily capable of tearing her open.
With great effort Suria reined in her instinct to attack or flee, because she noticed something else: the monster was wearing a little hat atop its great head. The brown eyes had immediately focused on her, but it wasn't shifting to attack, in fact it wasn't moving at all.
"Well, hello there," the creature said, raising a cup in one claw. "Would you care for some tea?"