Nova Lux is big.

Even not taking into account the adjoining Officer's Academy the sprawling grounds of the Ars Magi school seem excessive. There are gardens, dormitories, grand halls, lecture rooms, faculty buildings, and other military facilities. Lots of very wet space to go through to get to the medical wing.

The gale seems to act in direct opposition to the three Ars Magi making their way across the campus, wind tearing against their magical armor and rain crashing around them with deafening force. Through the thick, dark fog they can dim lights through Nova Lux's windows and a large flame rising into the darkness in defiance of the torrential downpour around them.

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[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/O80zTQz.jpeg[/img]
[b]𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚊 𝙻𝚞𝚡
𝙼𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚐[/b]
[b]𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟾𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅[/b]
[b]𝟷𝟷:𝟶𝟶 𝙿𝙼[/b]
[i]Dana Noel, Penny Grenoble, Nicole Cognoscenti[/i]
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[center][b][color=red]|[/color][/b] Music: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pait6MArKHk][b]Paradox Alter[/b][/url] [b][color=red]|[/color][/b][/center]

The fire is where they're going. A second explosion rumbles through the campus as a plume of light makes their destination even clearer. The fire burning in the distance is an angry red, a stark contrast to the pale blue Nox diffusers sucking up the toxic clouds rolling over the school grounds.

Within another minute Radiant Storm is approaching the garden plaza in front of Nova Lux's medical center, the concrete and cobblestones lit by the ominous blaze of the three-story marble building in front of it. The windows of its top level have been shattered, the heavy doors replaced by a gaping hole.

"Team 3, Team—reporting—" The comms become a crackling mess of static, disjointed voices fighting to rise to the top. "—back—"

The light of the fire cutting across the building illuminates something in the center of the plaza, just off the cobblestone path and pressed against the shattered base of a splintered oak tree. 

It's Amanda Wagner, the blonde girl's thin frame slumped against the bark. Her pale hair is stained crimson, as is the side of her face and the usually pristine white clothes that make up her transformed armor. The next member of her squad, Priya Khatri, lies about twenty feet away and closer to the fractured entrance of the building. The girl's golden blade is embedded next to her in the cobblestone and one of her legs is torn open. 

She's moving, though. Her slender fingers are still curled around the hilt of her gladius, her arm dragging her injured lower half backward. One of her hands is pressed to her ear, listening to the bursts of information that occasionally cut through the static. She must have heard enough to know reinforcements are on the way because her head lifts unsteadily in the direction of the approaching Ars Magi.

"---closer." Her voice breaks over the radio, and she raises it when they're close enough to hear her choked call: "Dont!" 

From above, on the second floor, behind a shattered window and half-obscured by a crimson curtain, a girl adjusts the long rifle perched against her shoulder. The crosshairs of her gladius trace a line from the injured girl in the courtyard below to the team of Ars Magi moving toward her position. Each is lit up in the darkness as a bright blue silhouette in the high tech reticle over her silver eye. 

To nearly any observer–even an Ars Magi–the silhouette in the window would be invisible through the dark and the downpour. But Radiant Storm happens to have a keen pair of golden eyes keyed to magical light. Dana can see the faint glimmer in the window and faintest, palest blue dot that tracks the approaching cadets. 

The girl in the window holds her finger loosely over the trigger of her weapon…

She's waiting patiently.