Wind and dust pushed into my eyes, forcing me to shield myself as each impact created new waves of debris scattered around. The sounds came simultaneously and rapid, violent succession as they made contact with the barrier.
Then the thought flashed in through my mind: Wait a minute... did I just hear at least six arrows sounds hitting the barrier? All six arrows made contact? That could only mean one thing.
"Well now, will you look at that, all six definitely made contact," Ghost said aloud, confirming what I had just noticed. He then turned and looked down, noticing my confused face as I rubbed my eyes and pulled dust from my hair while holding Morad. He probably noticed it too. "Astraga, seems like you missed it—keep your your eyes open next time, hahaha." He sounded smugly amused.
Keep my eyes open? If only he knew, if only they knew I was supposed to be carried up to avoid the dust getting to me. Tch. I turned and gave Father a pissed-off look, but Father was still focused on Astraya.
Ghost then added, as he too stared at the scene, "Interesting ... so that's why she kept repeating the same spell. Well, she did it," he said, genuinely intrigued.
Father appeared to have also noted the outcome and replied, "Would that be enough, though to impress him?"
Ghost replied simply, "Who could tell? He can be so grumpy all the time for no reason," he said, smirking and gesturing in confusion, as though the mystery person's personality was a true enigma. Was that the only conclusion? Could it only be Astraya's master, right? But that was a conclusion I'd rather wait and see than mindlessly jump to.
Ghost added, lowering his voice, "We can only hope and wait..."
But one thing I could mindlessly want to know that was a mystery to me was how all those arrows made contact. What the hell was going on? What did she actually do? I couldn't see anything. The stupid wind was really affecting me. Being four was wonderful sometimes, but being the shortest meant you faced more of this impact than these giants of adults. Tsk.
Ghost looked at me, eyes gleaming beneath his tone soft, the corner of his mouth curving up. "Your sister's quite something."
"Yes, sir," was all I could say at first, but I hadn't known if Astraya was okay.
I turned my head to see Astraya as the dust settled in the environment. There she was, still standing strong but staggering, her breathing still heavy. All eyes could clearly see her back and rib cage expanding and compressing she was definitely spent, likely exhausted and low on mana. The good news was she hadn't been blown out, but the question remained: How? Why?
But even as I asked myself these questions over and over again, no one was more perplexed than Rose. She probably could still load up more arrows, as she showed not even an ounce of fatigue or stress, yet she looked genuinely shocked and confused at what she was seeing, staring at her own hands as though wondering what had just happened.
Rose muttered, quiet but audible, "Impossible... how a few minutes ago one of my arrows could break through, and now all six...?" she couldn't finish her sentence.
Ghost chuckled. "Looks like Rose got carried away and missed the whole idea behind your daughter's Gale Shroud. That's still one of the reasons she is considered the weakest here. Poor girl, she's going to get an earful from him."
Wait... what? Did my ears deceive me, or did I hear Ghost right? Rose was the weakest here amongst the cloaks?
"Ghost, sir," I said, unable to hide my shock.
He replied, "No, that makes me sound old. Just call me Ghost."
"Yes, Sir Ghost, you said Rose is the weakest here…" I stared at him. I desperately wanted him to say he was joking.
"Well, technically, no. She's obviously stronger than your sister, Astraya, and then," he coughed into his hand, "we have you." He patted my head. "Hahaha, don't feel bad, it's just the truth. But amongst her peers here," he gestured to the cloaked figures, "Rose is definitely the weakest, and she knows it."
Murmurs from the other cloaked men around us sounded impressed as well.
"Wow, she blocked it." "Impressive. Yeah, she might actually be legit."
All they talked about was genuine impression, but I still didn't know what the heck happened. What did my sister do exactly?
I finally spoke aloud, accepting that I wasn't able to figure it out myself. Most likely, Ghost would know. "Umm, Ghost?" I tugged at his attire, as my point of view was greatly below him. "What did my sister do to absorb those arrows' impact that made everyone so amazed? I knew the Gale Shroud was useless against even one arrow, even after she kept increasing the orbs a few moments ago."
"Well, it's quite simple to understand, but the intricate nature of it is very difficult to perform," Ghost said as he squatted down to my level, a smirk playing on his lips. He glanced toward my sister. "Now, from what I had seen her do, the Gale Shroud was at first a two-layer spell with the layers of air rotating in opposite directions, and with an additional bonus, it could expand but not really retract."
Wow, he already knew that just from his first time seeing it. Well, I could also understand all that on my first encounter with it. Not all that impressive, if you think about it.
"But," he then paused, as though he wanted to highlight something important, and continued, "that wasn't the impressive part."
"Most people would have changed spells already in panic mode," he said, stating his point and hinting at the flaw of that conventional way of thinking.
Well, that wasn't a smart way to react, was it? I thought to myself. Most people, like me, would have kept trying new spells to see one that would be a better counter; if one arrow blew away my defenses, there was nothing wrong with scrapping it and moving to a more fresh tactic. But I could tell Ghost was hinting at her resilience to keep going.
He continued, "She kept sticking to her Gale Shroud, as she kept adding another layer of air, which increased the level of complexity. The thing is that making two layers of air rotate simultaneously at opposite directions is nice, but making three was impressive she most likely was testing what rotation combination could break down those arrows' impact on contact. That's probably why she was angry earlier, as she had most likely set a combination of rotations in her spell, hoping to test it against all seven arrows, but only one fired. She was still wrong in the end anyways."
Ohh, so could that have been her plan all along? But sticking to the Gale Shroud was a risky gamble. So she decided to stick to a move set she was familiar with. Interesting, I thought.
Ghost continued, "Hence why I tagged her a genius, as her mental focus was what was actually impressive to watch, not the actual spell itself."
"But young Fula," Ghost leaned in slightly, his voice dropping in respect, "she successfully made four layers of air rotate in directly opposite directions, independent of each other, simultaneously! That is definitely something truly prodigy-level. That kind of mental focus at such a young age is terrifying."
"Wow, four rotating layers," I said, now at least understanding that part. "Could I also do that as well?" I wondered to myself, knowing specialists had a better affinity to control their specific element. I thought, trying to picture the intricate, dizzying rotation in my head. It was truly difficult.
"Yeah, I knew now making an intricate spell like a four-layer spell was complex, but that still didn't explain why it worked," I asked Ghost. "Before, she wasn't able to handle a single arrow, and now she could handle six, you know?"
"Hahah, you're right, Astraga. Alright, let's do this. In order to understand why this last Gale Shroud worked and the others failed," he patted my head, "I will explain them step by step."