Excerpt from The Profound and Pretty Princess' Ultimate Guide to Cultivation, Captivation, Cuteness, and Carving Your Way to the Top, English Edition (the worst-selling guide in the history of Putijama)

On Barrier and Shield Magics

There are a number of different uses for barrier and shield magics, some permanent and many temporary. For this entry, I won't try to make a great distinction between barriers and shields because that can be saved for drunken brawls between pedants. Going forward, I'll just use barriers and mean specifically those magically created and powered.

Barriers can be specialized to prevent certain things from 'getting through' in one way or another. That can be for stopping attacks or for many other reasons, like preventing your pets from interrupting your fun. There are also faux-barriers that still let people through an area with side effects, such as a slowing spell cast on an area instead of a person or monster.

The three main things barriers attempt to block are physical, magical, and mental effects. Physical can be used to stop people or objects from moving through an area all the way up to stopping attacks. Magic-focused barriers usually only stop things specifically made from mana, like a [Fireball], but some have at least a minor effect on things accelerated by mana. The last is far more specialty-focused, preventing or at least lessening the impact of mental effects and attacks.

Most barriers only focus on protecting against either physical or magical attacks but some combine the two or even add in protection against mental effects.

Barriers also have two main different 'failure modes', either completely shattering or merely allowing some of what they blocked to get through. A physical barrier on a door either lets someone through or it doesn't. But a magical barrier may significantly lower the impact of a spell, even if the spell is powerful enough to get through it.

Permanent Barrier Magic

While there are rumors of city-covering magical barriers in times far past, none exist today. Most permanent barriers are far smaller, often protecting a single room rather than even a building.

The mana cost to maintain a permanent barrier scales based on total area covered. While some barriers are flat, protecting a single surface, most are either a full sphere or a half sphere. As you can imagine, just going a small bit further in any one direction can increase the cost to maintain a barrier significantly as the entire amount of space protected increases. A 20% increase in the radius leads to a 73% increase in volume and thus mana.

Permanent barriers are often powered down when not in use. This is especially true for military-related barriers. Permanent simply means the state of the enchantment.

Fighting arenas, government buildings, and some rooms in the homes of nobles or just the wealthy are the most common permanent barriers most people see.

The word permanent is also a bit of a misnomer in that while the barrier is permanent, its location may not be. This is especially true for things like military command tents that are relocated to the battlefields, which are designed to prevent anything unauthorized from entering, whether that is people, attacks, other spells, or even dust!

Whether an enchantment on someone's armor is considered permanent or not is another hotly debated topic!

Temporary Barriers

While permanent barriers are almost always from enchantments, temporary barriers are almost always from skills. The vast majority are designed to last for a very short period of time and block one specific thing.

They can be self-cast or cast on other creatures and objects, though another creature can resist should they be put into a barrier. The typical temporary barrier shatters when it is overwhelmed but still manages to block some of the attack that pushed it over the limit.

It is highly encouraged for anyone using temporary barriers to test the limits so you know ahead of time if a barrier is likely to block an attack.

Her hammer descended at my face, leaving me little choice. I pumped mana into the new enchantment on my shield while casting [Hasty Retreat] to move back a few steps.

The repelling action from the shield unbalanced Ileana slightly while I used a feature of my spell few people had seen. Instead of going straight back, I angled slightly to my right, giving me a better angle to get behind her block.

My leap forward let me touch the disc on her side with my weapon. Her elimination elicited a chorus of boos, especially from her but also the crowd. Ileana's repairs to people's armor had made her a fan favorite of the entire delving group

Next, Inara entered, her smile a mix of mischief and malevolence.

While we had wanted to do a team versus team battle, the portable fighting pit wasn't nearly big enough to accommodate both Ileana and my team at the same time. At least if we wanted to fight instead of be awkwardly squished together.

So instead, all eight of us entered into a strange last-man-standing bracket. I was put at the bottom and then the other seven people drew lots to see when they'd enter. It wasn't fair but I also didn't mind given there were no prizes.

Romie fell first, the repelling enchantment on my shield effective against their arrows. Romie also phoned it in. They knew an archer in a small fighting pit was essentially an impossible ask. In larger arenas with obstacles, archers could actually compete, especially at Tier 2 and Tier 3 when many could significantly curve their arrows, but flat ground and so little room meant at most two shots before someone was on them.

Ileana was next, then Inara. Slobodan, Ileana's dual shortsword-wielding teammate was fifth, Pavel sixth, and then came Ileana's other teammate, Marek, with his bizarre weapon of a weighted ball on a long chain attached to a hand sickle called a kusarigama. Lastly, with much gloating, Roksana the mage/enchanter.

There was a complicated points system but I essentially had to beat five of the other seven people to have a chance at victory and once I was eliminated, it was all over for me. The others could get a second attempt for some strange reason.

When I grumbled to Tiesa, she laughed. "I told them to put you at the bottom. Trying to drive that humility into you. It's why I didn't let you recharge much on mana too. You need to get creative and have your back against the wall more."

Shaking my head and preparing for an opening salvo from Inara, I had to admit it was great training.

As predicted, Inara started by casting [Restricting Vines] to attempt to tickle my backside. She knew both that it would annoy me and prevent me from using my [Hasty Retreat] to get away from her initial onslaught.

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After casting and smirking, Inara dashed forward feigning a strike at my knee only to then pull back and swing with her right elbow at my left shoulder. It was unusual and meant as a surprise, but I had seen her use the tactic before in training with Pavel.

I interposed my shield and she immediately leapt back, starting to circle me. Her jeering catcalls almost got to me, though only from how funny they were. Being called 'a cute little sailor boy' when I had two heads of height on her just hit my funny bone.

Unlike her next strike.

I gave a small false opening, trying to bait her out. She responded with two quick plant-based smacks to my butt as her [Restricting Vines] finally faded before she dashed into action once again.

Inara used a spinning strike combination, one I'd seen her use to great effect against rift monsters, but I used my morningstar to block, not even needing my shield. I took a quick step back, regaining the advantage of my reach and swung at her left shoulder, trying to get her to back up a bit further.

She acquiesced but instead of giving her time, I went on the offensive myself, moving forward with a light shield bash to knock her off balance and create an opening. When Inara was on the attack, on the front foot, she was extremely hard to beat or even ruffle.

But when on the defensive, her short stature and choice of daggers made her far easier to overwhelm with force. Her reliance on dodging instead of defending gave me a chance to take her down if I could continually make physical contact.

But she was good. I had to create an opening rather than wait for her to give me one.

Once again, I used an overhead swing to take advantage of my reach. Pumping some of the last of my mana into the heaviness enchantment on my trusty weapon, Inara tried to kick out at my right leg to unsettle my balance, spinning out of the way of my attack and lashing out with her daggers.

Both crashed against my shield and I pushed away and up, shoving her backwards more than she expected as her daggers lifted to head height.

I extended my weapon straight forward, angling up from my hip and slipped it just under her guard, striking at the target in the middle of her chest. She easily parried the strike but a fraction too late after I grazed the target, much to her groaning annoyance.

Given the rules of our mini-tournament, where the 'defender' only had to win one point to defeat the 'challenger' while the challenger had to take two points, my teammate immediately turned and left, grumbling something about my lineage and worthiness to 'lay with sheep'.

I called for a quick water break as Slobodan, Ileana's teammate that used two shortswords, approached. "Not bad, taking down three. Though Ileana went easy on you."

"No she didn't," I replied with a smile.

"No, no she didn't," he laughed back. "At least not on purpose. You've improved quite a bit but still nowhere near enough to beat me, at least not without dirty tricks. Want to save us the trouble and bow out?"

I rolled my eyes as I cracked my neck, heading back into the arena. I hoped to sneakily use a rechargeable mana stone but Tiesa had confiscated my spatial storage sack. My hand didn't find it in my piled gear by the side of the pit entrance and she grinned when I looked at her.

With Slobodan as the challenger, it was my second straight opponent wielding dual blades, though he was very different from Inara. His focus was more on power and blocking with his swords than her agility, creating small openings and getting out before an enemy could retaliate.

Plus, I couldn't use the oil enchantment from the Tier 2 shield I had borrowed to help me out this time around. His face said he was thinking the same thing too: time for a bit of revenge.

At the reverberating noise signaling us to start, Slobodan surprised me with a dash forward similar to Inara. His two heavy strikes against my shield seemed more to be about power than anything else.

And my shoulder, still sore from the dislocation the prior day, felt it.

Someone's been feeding him intelligence.

I knew the video of that fight hadn't been distributed and we'd kept the minor injury under wraps, so it was strange.

Then I thought back to Rahila, Vesna's troublemaker teammate, speaking with Slobodan ahead of the match and it clicked into place.

I set myself a reminder to throw her a dirty look when I was otherwise unoccupied.

Focusing on the task at hand, I moved my shield to the left, blocking Slobodan's snaking attempt to slice my left shoulder. I was able to easily deflect and gave a false opening to my entire right side before swinging the shield back into place and using my repelling enchantment.

He pirouetted to try to strike twice, aiming at the target on my right thigh. He didn't get close as I responded by slamming my shield into him, hurting my shoulder but throwing him off balance.

We reset for the next set of exchanges, both smiling, half from enjoyment and the other half from gritting our teeth at the exertion.

I gave him another false opening and he moved with lightning speed to attack. I put the last of my mana into [Hasty Retreat] before leaping forward, aiming for the barely guarded target on his left side.

But he'd baited me out this time, which I thought was a real possibility. The issue was that four fights in quick succession and no mana left me with few options other than to be the aggressor.

My wide swing at his left side was deflected down to smash into his hip. As I went for speed over power, it did little to the man and his armor absorbed most of the blow.

With my right arm extended, he managed a quick kick at my right ankle that just barely opened enough room and his sword seemed to turn liquid as he snaked it around my guard to lightly poke the target on my right thigh.

Down a point, we headed into the short rest period for the sudden death aspect of the fight.

I threw Rahila a dirty look and she had the audacity to blow me a kiss. When I looked back to Slobodan, he did the same. I rolled my eyes at the both of them.

Ileana had managed one point on me so it wasn't the first time I was in a make-or-break situation but I still had some nervous energy at fighting in front of a bigger crowd.

Most of the people who had delved with us had stuck around for one last celebration before we all went our separate ways. Even a few of the teams from the first few days came out from Pitola to join us at the rest area.

It was a lot of people watching and cheering, many clearly rooting against me as a bit of a group joke.

Slobodan started with a much more defensive strategy, laying out small strikes against my shield. I couldn't figure out if it was to wear the arm out or just grind me down mentally as each hit slightly rattled my injured shoulder.

We traded light blows but nothing much happened for that first 30 seconds before the crowd, specifically led by Rahila, started to boo us thoroughly.

Suddenly, Slobodan attacked hard to my left side with three consecutive blows, clearly overreaching. I responded with my own feint, moving my shield far to that side and exposing the target on my right thigh.

Unfortunately, in my fatigue I left far more of my leg exposed than I meant to. Slobodan's strike was far slower than I anticipated, which made it awkward but possible to bat away.

I decided to leverage the opening and swung down heavily for his head. I had only regenerated a single lousy point of mana but I still pumped that into the heaviness enchantment.

From his expression, he was clearly not expecting a regular strike. Confusion and fear warred on his face as to whether to block or allow a direct hit to the head.

At the last second, Slobodan ducked down and crossed both swords above his head.

Got you.

The morningstar was already out of my grip as I brought my hand down to my hip as fast as possible to draw my mace and strike.

His head tilted slightly at my odd action, even as the morningstar glanced off the top of his noggin.

He reacted late to my swing at his side, gritting his teeth as he tried to deflect a blow with all my remaining strength behind it.

And he succeeded.

My mace crashed down into his hip again, this time eliciting a loud yelp of pain.

But my right leg was far too exposed and he quickly ended the fight, both of us panting.

Slobodan smiled. "Damn, almost got me. If you'd had that spatial storage sack…"

"Yeah, the fact I needed to go to my hip instead of summoning to my hand cost me. I've been practicing the move and only realized right as I let go I had to actually grab the mace. Would have had you," I said with a smile and a small huff, gladly accepting an ale and a peck on the cheek from Ileana.

Overall, I was happy with my showing, having eliminated three people, and almost a fourth, who had trained their entire lives to fight and delve.

The rest of the fights were fun to watch, not just our little bracket. Watching Marek from Ileana's team with his odd kusarigama was fascinating. The way the weighted ball could be used to keep someone at bay and attack was captivating and the small, sickle-like weapon it was attached to was a good close-range attacking and defensive option.

After Marek beat Slobodan, Pavel barely avoided the weighted ball hitting his target, luckily located on his upper back, to take Marek down.

The final fight lasted less than 30 seconds total, Pavel taking down the enchanter/mage Roksana with brutal efficiency. She did manage to get a spell off each time but neither seemed to have much impact on Pavel. At least until he cursed her name shortly after exiting, running off to the bathrooms.

She cackled and didn't seem to mind her loss, gloating that she was clearly the best on her team.

We settled down for the night and I decided to spend one last night with Ileana until we fell asleep in each other's arms.

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