Thirty seconds doesn't seem like a long time, and in truth, it's not.

But in combat, buying someone thirty seconds is quite the task.

Though we had managed to score several strong injuries, the ember-roc was still burning with more power than I could hold ten times over. My own internal reserves, which I'd been refilling by draining from the flames all across the battlefield, as well as from the roc's attacks, were mostly full, but not enough. My left arm was as useless as Yushin's, and while I'd be fine in time, especially with a healer, I wasn't feeling great.

I leapt away from the roc before it crashed into the ground again, then turned and prepared to launch back into the fight, when Jackson called out.

"There shall be no evil that befalls you, nor shall any plague come into your dwelling!"

Golden light began to gather around his hands and sword, and for a moment, I thought I saw light flaring up around him in the shape of angelic wings.

"For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep watch over you in all your ways."

He slashed out, and the wave of light that struck the ember roc was a burningly bright silver and gold color that sank deep into the flesh of the ember roc. The roc unleashed a wave of flame, as Jackson took to the air, chanting out his next verse.

"They shall bear you up in their hands should you so much as cut your foot against stone."

I couldn't sense or recognize divine prayer or miracles in the same way that I could with the ether, but the scent of Effervesce's realm was strong in the air, and my own singular blessing was trembling in my spirit. When Jackson said his final lines, the world around him seemed to come to a crawl, and they boomed with an otherworldly quality I had only heard from him a few times before, when he'd seemingly been possessed by an angel.

"You shall tread upon the wolf and demon: the lion and the dragon shall be trampled beneath your feet!"

He cut his sword down, and suddenly he wasn't holding a sword of gold, but a vast, shimmering edge of light and divine power large enough to sever the massive monster in half struck down. I stepped back, beside myself, and the roc let out an explosion of bloodline power.

Flames met divine light, and the light was not the lesser. It would have cut the bird clean in half, had it not twisted out of the way at the last second. Even as it was, the bird still lost a wing, severed cleanly off at the joint, and Jackson began to fall from the sky. I leapt into the air to catch him.

"Why didn't you do that earlier? When you and Yushin were charging attacks?!"

"Couldn't," Jackson said, his voice slurred. "Doesn' work again… against things that haven't… hurt people I care 'bout. Salem… gone. Not work. You and Yushin got… arms. Works."

"Erudite, pull him out."

I hadn't noticed when I'd leapt, but he was in a bad state, his veins glowing gold, and his eyes shining with fading silver. As if he'd been waiting for the command, Jackson vanished, freeing my one good arm.

I landed and turned to the ember-roc, which was still weeping blood from its lost wing, and not in much condition to fight. I crouched, prepared for it to make one last stand.

Sure enough, a red and brown aura began to burst to life around the bird's body, and it skittered at me and Yushin. I took everything I could from my bloodline and met it mid-charge, slamming my good palm into its left leg, trying to use leverage to send it to the ground.

It struck and rolled, slashing out, and I barely dodged out of the way, before I threw a powerful kick at its other leg. It lashed out with a kick of its own, and when our bones connected, flames exploded from both of us. I was thrown back, the leg I'd struck with aching too deeply to be good, but the bird was charging Yushin. I drew the last of my power up, and put everything I had into a single, mighty leap, fist above my head.

My fist struck the beak of the bird and rocked it back, but I was falling. I could pull out my wand and cast slow fall, but that would reveal another spell, and I wasn't willing to do that.

I glanced at Yushin, who was building up shadow and venom in her hands. The magic was forming a great loop, clearly a fourth circle spell that was further empowered by her venom. It was almost done.

I yanked my wand from my belt even as I struck the ground and heard my legs shatter, and cast aquatic torrent right at the bird's eyes.

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The last thing I saw before being swallowed by blue light was the compressed thin water arcing away, then I was next to the Erudite. A slightly sullen looking Salem was standing nearby, while Jackson was enveloped in a cocoon of white light and floating runes. The Erudite nodded to me and waved his staff, and I felt magic spring into existence around me as well, spinning white circles focusing on my burnt arm and broken leg.

I looked down the hill where I'd been transported just in time to see a beam of shadow and venom drill into the eye of the roc, lance through the brain, and out the other side. I winced in sympathy. The thing might have been a giant fire and magma bird that fed on human lives, but that was brutal.

The Erudite seemed as unaffected by the sight as he did everything else, merely nodding to Yushin, who vanished and appeared next to me. The Erudite vanished then, appearing before Gerhard. The pair exchanged a few words I couldn't hear, before Jackson, Yushin, Salem, the Erudite, and myself were swallowed by blue. A short moment later, we appeared on the soft grass before the fountain.

"Not bad," the Erudite said, stretching and popping his neck. "You all pass the class."

There was a beat of silence before Salem spoke up.

"S' that all ya' got ta' say ta' us?"

"Eh?" the Erudite asked, blinking. "I mean. I guess it doesn't have to be. What do you want to know?"

"Why did you handicap us?" Yushin asked. "Salem had prepared a dozen talismans, and both Jackson and I held half that many. Emrys' access to magic was cut off."

"Come on, you're smarter than that. Ember-rocs are the property of the Dreki family, and that meant the fight was always going to be supervised by one of them. So I limited your scope in order to improve each of you."

He pointed at me.

"Emrys, now you've got the advantage of being able to pull out spellglyphs as tricks, as well as use the full breadth and depth of magic against Gerhard, and he'll be none the wiser. The rest of your benefits were more incidental, but still useful."

He nodded to Jackson and continued to speak.

"That was power channeled through your faith, not a one use loan or the summoning of a spirit into your body. As such, your body's tolerance threshold for channeling divine power should grow quite a bit by overextending yourself like that. Yushin, your bloodline's dark god roots allow it to increase your vi–"

"I would prefer not to speak of that, but I accept what you say," Yushin said quickly. I frowned at that. Hadn't Yushin said her bloodline was demonic, not that of a dark god? I supposed to an extent, that was just splitting hairs, but they felt like rather important hairs to me.

"And Salem. You, admittedly, have the lowest firepower of your group. You shine in a support and social manipulation setting. This showed you where the limits of your mental attacks are at the moment, as well as of your magical defenses. Any other questions?"

"How could we have done better?" Jackson asked.

"Oh, let's see. The biggest one is on Yushin's part. She struck when she saw an opportunity, despite Salem's magic being used to disable and provide more opportunities. Her affinity is not toxins and shadows, it is assassination. She should have continued to hide and build up power, allowed Salem's spell to provide an opportunity, then struck with a single, precise, deadly strike."

He tapped his chin, as if replaying the fight in his mind.

"Salem, you need to work on your defenses. I know you had more in your locker, but couldn't use them. That doesn't mean it's not worth casting extra layers – a shield spell in addition to the energy barrier would have let you continue to fight."

He turned to me next, and I felt a sense of dread.

"Seeing as you were fighting with an arm behind your back, so to speak, you did alright. Taking your younger brother out first was a fine idea, but you could have taken the reins of the bird and tried to manipulate it. It would have realized you weren't a real rider in a short while, but that would have bought time."

Jackson looked eager for his turn, as opposed to the dread I had felt.

"Jackson, you should have summoned your sword earlier and added it into your attacks when Emrys exposed the roc's neck. Your great prayer might not have been ready, but the timer on the sword of light blessing seemed more than long enough."

"Manifested in the form that can release a ranged attack, it lasts three minutes and thirty-three seconds," Jackson confirmed. "I was worried I'd run out, but you're right, it would have helped."

"Do we get ta' keep the loot?" Salem asked, which caused the Erudite to huff a small laugh.

"I'll use process body on it, though your venomous attacks have rendered much of it unusable. Still, there are uses for some of it. The non-damaged feathers in particular – the ones that still hold onto a large portion of the creature's magic will make for good core components, and the rest can be used in flame resistance potions, as well as the talons. If you'd like, I can handle selling the carcass, minus any tail feathers you all want."

I bit my lip contemplatively. I could replace the hydra horn in my staff, but should I? Yes, the feathers were stronger, but the toxic nature of the hydra had a decent amount of synergy with my curse magic. I didn't have any fire spells, and few earth spells. Earth was the secondary effect of the ember-roc's magic anyways – they weren't called magma-rocs.

"I'll take it," Jackson agreed, but nobody else spoke up. The Erudite nodded and vanished, reappearing a moment later with a large tail feather, which he handed to Jackson.

"Here," he said. "The silver from the sale should take a few days, but it will show up."

"Any way I could take it on loan?" I asked, chuckling nervously.

"Sure," the Erudite said, surprising me. "I'll loan you six hundred silver."

He waved his hand, conjuring a scroll from nothing, and handed it to me. I glanced it over, but everything seemed to be on the level – it was a basic loaning contract, where I agreed to pay any excess if my quarter share was valued at less than six hundred silver, and the Erudite would pay the rest if it was worth more. He wasn't charging for his service of selling the corpse, as it was considered to be part of the class.

I suspected that he was being so helpful in order to rub things in the face of the Dreki family, but that was good for me. While three extra spellglyphs wasn't likely going to make the difference between winning and losing, it was still three spells I wouldn't otherwise have.

I reached out, and signed the contract. After all, I had just over forty-eight hours until I faced Gerhard.

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