The day, Emily leads her friends towards the training hall after breakfast. They find Dante and Enzo waiting outside the hall’s closed door, Emily having ihem to watch as well in her final loop of the day before.

  “Hey,” Dante calls as they approach. “Why did you want us here?”

  Emily grins, deg to keep her assio for a little while loo surprise the two mages.

  “You’ll see. Just watch my spar and I’ll expin properly afterwards.”

  Both of them shrug, greeting Emily’s other friends as she pushes the door open. Ihe room, Agnes is alone in the tre of the wide-open training space, swinging her sword to warm up.

  “I was w why others were waiting outside. Decided t an audieoday, did we?” Agnes calls over, not turning her head or halting her practice swings.

  “Of course! I needed someone else to see me crush you,” Emily taunts back, walking over and dropping her robes to the floor as she turns her head back to her friends. “Stay at the side of the hall and watch.”

  Without waiting for them to aowledge her and, Emily turns her focus back to Agnes, stopping a few metres away and watg the woman closely while also doing some warm-ups out of habit. The two of them have a silent agreement to warm up before a spar, but to start at any point after they’re both in the room. Emily’s gaze never leaves Agnes as she gets her joints moving, watg her every muscle twit anticipation of an attack.

  Looks like I’m initiating today.

  Without any warning, Emily subtly points her right arm at Agnes. A loud bang sounds, followed by a harsh hissing, as a bde shoots towards the one-eyed mage. Agnes smoothly raises her sword and deflects the attack, before stomping down, activating a spell to weigh Emily down and slow her movement, before springing forward to close the distance.

  With a small burst of maa, the reel attached to the Cw’s bde instantly halts, and Emily pulls her arm to the side, sending the bde in a wide arc around her as she bends backwards. Agnes’ bde sails over her, and Emily pnts her hands on the ground behind her head as both her legs rocket up towards Agnes.

  Agnes rotates to avoid one of Emily’s legs while driving her elbow down into the other. The two limbs smash against each other, flesh against flesh in a dull thud of impact. Reag quickly, Agnes moves to grab Emily’s now stationary leg, but the bde fis arc, ing around Emily’s arms and approag Agnes’ feet.

  She leaps back to avoid the sweeping wire, breaking their close e and allowing Emily t off her arms, bato her feet.

  “Those things are so annoying. Are you sure you won’t make me a pair?” Agnes asks with a grin, slowly cirg Emily and staring at her exposed arms.

  The Cws have undergone an upgrade since Emily used them in The Gde. The back of the bracers each holds a small reel of steel thread and a metal crystal underh the protective ptes. Each bde’s housing has been reworked to allow them to detach at will and, to plete the Cws’ transformation inted on, there’s a small sliding rail depositing caps filled with gunpowder in the back of the housing to allow repeated shots.

  “Sorry, the sed geion isn’t for sale!” Emily answers with a smug grin, croug down and digging the balls of her feet into the floor. “Also, you may want to switch spells. This isn’t the right choiymore.”

  As the words leave her mouth, wind s around Emily’s legs, and a blue magic circle forms behind her, filling her body with lightly crag lightning. Though the two sed circle speed enhas don’t work perfectly together, the enhahey give together, added to her strengthened agility, make Emily a deadly on.

  She dashes forward, leaving a bzing trail of lightning behind her as she appears befnes in an instant. Agnes’ eye opens wide in surprise as she barely gets her sword between her abs and Emily’s knee in time. The air around them quivers from the impact as Agnes slides backwards several metres, grittieeth.

  Emily stands calmly, a mad grin on her face as Agnes rubs her stomach with a frown.

  “You got faster again. How?”

  Emily simply stands in silence, waiting for her to realise. As if on cue, Agnes narrows her eye for a few seds before letting out a chuckle of disbelief.

  “You’re unbelievable! I thought I was being harsh when I gave you three years. It’s barely been one!”

  Agnes spins her sword around and drives it into the ground before her, standing with both hands resting on the hilt.

  “I stand no ow with sed circle spells, do I?”

  Emily shakes her head. “Nope. I’ve already formed a e with most of my useful ones in the Spellweave too.”

  “Fine. I’ll show you why they call me The Iron Valkyrie then.”

  Emily happily waits as the extra weight from Agnes’ spell vanishes from her shoulders. A rge, silver magic circle spreads from Agnes. Everyoches in fasation as shimmering liquid metal armour spreads across her skin. The armour curls around her head, ing it and hardening into a winged helmet with one eye pletely covered.

  As the spell nears pletion, the back of the circle pulses brighter, and the armour on Agnes’ back bubbles before sprouting a wide pair of metalligs, with hundreds of delicate, sharp feathers.

  Emily sees Agnes’ still exposed mouth stretg into a manic grin, simir to her own, and quickly starts casting more spells. Both Cws are ed in glowing e magic circles, and she lets maa pour into them as well.

  Both mages finish their preparations at the same time and spring forward to meet each other. Emily still moves faster than Agnes by a rge margin, but as she extends her arm for a fast strike, a metallig sweeps down to meet her. The harsh grinding of metal oal rings out as Emily’s bde gnces off the yered feathers, leaving a deep burning gash.

  Agnes’ sword rises from below while the other wing cuts across from the other side. Emily’s forced to diseo avoid the dual strikes, leaping backwards while aimiher Cw at a gap between the wings and firing the bde.

  The wings of Agnes’ armour react faster than the mage’s body, curling together to close the gap and block the shot. Unbothered, Emily yanks the bde back befnes attempt to cut the wire, a trick she’s pulled before. As the bde flies back past Emily, she drops the other bde from its housing and starts spinning them both around her, f a mesmerising whirlwind of metal, fire, and lightning.

  Her arms move so quickly that the flying bdes turn into a blur. Utilising the immense momentum, Emily starts shing out with the bdes, f Agnes on the defensive and carving ks in her armour.

  They fall into a stalemate for a few seds, Emily sending out dozens of sshes a sed, each with the force to cleave a man in two, and Agnes skilfully defleg them with her wings to take minimal damage. Agnes breaks the stalemate first when she mao drive one of Emily’s bdes into the floor before she pull it back.

  The moment the gap is exposed, Agnes charges forward raising her sword for an attad trusting her wings to defend her. Her sword swings down, sshing through the wire of the still-free bde before sharply ging angles and sailing towards Emily’s body.

  Emily simply grins, and steps forward to meet the sword before suddenly dropping from Agnes’ vision. Agnes has no time to react as Emily rapidly pivots on one foot, spinning around and driving her heel into the Valkyrie’s . The metal spikes stig out of her boot crumple the fps of metal guarding Agnes’ face, and she’s sent tumbling backwards to the floor, her spell falling apart.

  Emily cels all of her spells and pulls back the bde stu the floor, slowly rising to stand, rexed as Agnes groans and tries to push herself off the flnes’ arms give way beh her, and she hits the floor with a grunt before rolling onto her bad spitting out a mouthful of blood.

  Emily walks over, reag into her ste poud pulling out a healing potion. She arrives beside Agnes and sits down, passing the colpsed womaion that she gdly gulps down.

  “Urgh,” she groans as she sits up, rubbing her . “Damn, that was fast. I didn’t even see you moving at the end.”

  “Haha, thanks. Your Iron Valkyrie spell is really cool. Are those wings ag indepely, or are you trolling them?”

  “It's all me. I’d usually use them as extra ons or to increase my mobility, but my mind’s the only part of me that keep up with you noarently, so they gated to defence.”

  “I see. Well, I did promise to help you with your speed issue once I reached third circle, didn’t I?” Emily reminds her with aed grin.

  “Yes, you did,” Agnes responds with a matg expression. “First, though, go deal with your spectators.”

  Emily nods and stands up, turning towards her stunned friends.

  “Oh, and Emily?” Agnes calls after her, making her pause ieps. “You should find a way to reinforce or protect that wire. It’s too obvious a oint.”

  With a smug grin, Emily flicks her wrist. A shimmering silver wire shoots from the empty Cw towards the discarded bde on the floor. The wire extends quickly, travelling unnaturally smoothly for a thin wire with to it. It curls around a hole at the end of the bde before retrag quickly, pulling the bde bato p its housing.

  “I’ve added the option for a magical wire to give extra length, precision, and reparability mid-fight. But, it requires a little more scious trol and adds a trackable magical signature to the bde, so I don’t use it by default.”

  She turns away as Agnes nods thoughtfully, approag her friends.

  “Well done on reag third circle,” Enzo says enviously as she gets closer.

  “grats!” Dante joins in with a cheery grin.

  “Thanks,” Emily says before turnitention away from the two boys towards her other friends. “So, do you see what Ivor meant now?”

  Tom, Hester, and Juliana all nod, g her point.

  “Fair py. That was terrifying. How did you move so fast?” Hester asks with a thoughtful gaze, bringing a smile to Emily’s face.

  She got over the shod went straight t to uand how I did it. The differeween these siblings just keeps being more obvious.

  Gng towards Tom, who’s still staring at her in disbelief, Emily sighs internally.

  “I’m already faster than most mages should be thanks to my slightly odd cultivation,” Emily partially lies, unwilling to reveal the existenaa yet, even to her friends. “And then I enhanced myself with two spells: wind rush, which just affects my leg speed; and lightning body, which affects my whole body’s speed and reflexes.”

  “Whoa!” Tom lets out an excmation. “How many spells you cast at once?”

  “Quite a few,” Emily admits bashfully, not having even sidered her multicasting increase since her ret assion, the use of multiple cores feeling so natural.

  “So,” Emily says with a cp, f the versation ba track. “Was that enough to vince you an expedition with just the seven of us is safe?”

  “Wait, an expedition?” Enzo cuts in, fused.

  “Yes. I want to pn an expedition to go into the depths of The Waters, leaving in a month.”

  “I’m in!” Dante says immediately, drawing a chuckle from Emily.

  “I thought you might be,” Emily says, looking towards the others pointedly.

  “I’m in,” signs Ivor without a doubt.

  “Same. I wouldn’t miss a ake history,” Enzo adds with a smirk.

  “Make history?” Tom asks curiously.

  “Yeah. No one’s ever made it much further into The Crystal Waters than we did on our st expedition. If Emily pns on going deeper, we’ll probably be going further than ever before,” Enzo answers with uncharacteristithusiasm.

  “How e? Haven’t any fourth circle mages gone further?” Hester asks.

  “As far as I’m aware, only once. Apparently, he end of the st war with Morzea, there was a third circle dungeon discovered deep in The Gde and a few of our fourth circle mages went to fight for it. Other than that, they seem to avoid The Gde.”

  Emily frowns at Enzo’s answer.

  How odd. Are they scared of The Gde or something?

  “Cool! If it’s a ce to be included in an important historical event, I’m in!” Tom says cheerfully.

  “I ’t let this idiot get himself killed, so I guess I’m ing,” Hester says with a sigh. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure we’ll be fier your dispy, Emily. But, knowing him, he’ll walk into the open jaws of a beast if I don’t watch him.”

  “Hey!”

  Everyone chuckles at her ent, and Emily turns to Juliana, the st member of the group yet to answer.

  “I already asked to e with you. I’m not ging my mind. Besides, that was terrifying! How could you two attack each other so fiercely with real ons? It’s no wonder you always end up with cuts and bruises,” Juliana pins with a frown, making Emily smile.

  “Haha. We never aim for vitals, so unless we get really unlucky, we’ll ake more damage than a healing potion and a few days' rest fix. Now, I still have some stuff to talk to Agnes about, and need some more sparring to get used to my rength, so how about we meet up at lunch again and gister the expedition together afterwards?”

  Everyone nods at her suggestion before wishing her lud moving to leave the hall.

  “Oh! Enzo, Dante,” Emily calls after them before they leave. “I’m trying to keep my assion on the down low for now. I would appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to anyone for a while.”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay.”

  Emily nods and waves them goodbye as the training hall door slides shut. She turns bad approaches Agnes.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting. Now, let’s talk about this tattoo,” she says with aed grin.