Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 11 – A Proper Defeat

Convinced by Nanao that holding back against Stacey and Fay will only further hurt them, Chela goes all out against the pair, demonstrating her superiority in both magic and sword arts by modifying her lightning to travel across Fay’s body and hit Stace directly, causing her to dismount.

If this is anime Harry Potter, than Joseph Albright is its Draco Malfoy, as beneath a veneer of confidence, Oliver can’t sense the same raw pride as Mr. Andrews…only a sense of duty. Oliver gets in close and grapples with Joseph, prolonging the fight.

As expected, once Stacey is off her furry mount and has to fight Chela sword-to-sword, the duel doesn’t last long. When the defeated Stacey weeps and asks why she can’t win, Fay tells her the two of them simply aren’t strong enough against a member of the main family.

Chela asks if Stacey and Fay always hated her, but Fay says she did nothing wrong other than being “too perfect.” We learn that while Chela and Stace are technically half-sisters, Chela was never allowed to call her such. Stacey developed a complex about becoming strong enough to replace Chela should the need to arise.

Nanao draws near to Stacey and asks her to dispense with the notion that she’s some kind of replacement tool. “We’re born ourselves and no one else,” Nanao says with wise certainty. She takes Stace’s hand, cheering her up.

Perhaps inspired by the McFarlane/Cornwallis backstory, a similarly defeated Joseph proceeds to tell his own tale. A servant his age named Emma used to play chess with him endlessly. At first he won every time, but she studied and studied until she finally beat him one day. Even though he lost, Joseph remembers being happy, because Emma was so happy.

Why Joseph thought he could tell his stern father that he lost to anyone at anything, I have no idea (you’d think he’d, ya know, know who his dad was at his age) but the result is tragic: Joseph is brutally beaten and tortured, while Emma and her family are eliminated. That was when he learned that Albrights such as himself weren’t allowed to lose.

As such, he does not recognize his loss to Oliver, but instead uses magic to open a giant stingbee hive located within the Labyrinth layer’s ceiling, The bees swarm at his command, but Guy uses his plant magic to create a shelter for everyone, including Stacey and Fay.

When Oliver wavers over whether to simply surrender, Nanao says she’d prefer if Joseph tasted “proper defeat”, as she pities anyone who believes they’re unable to lose, while Pete, Katie, and Guy all assure him he doesn’t have to coddle them. Chela also agrees to reveal a power of hers she’d been concealing.

That power stems from the fact she’s a half-elf, something only the members of her family knew, but now she’s telling her new school family. Since elves are able to handle much more powerful spellcraft, she serves as the anchor for a double incantation that burns away all of the bees.

Left exposed again, Joseph must face off against a Nanao utterly dedicated to delivering unto him his first defeat since poor doomed Emma. She does so, and he deems it an “excellent loss.” Nanao helping all these blue bloods shed their hereditary hang-ups with all due haste!

In the frankly refreshingly pleasant tradition of this series, we get two more instances of former adversaries gaining respect and even admiration for our heroes. Stacey commits to reconnecting with her half-sister, even promising to make her a new flower crown, while Joseph promises Oliver  he’ll get stronger so they can fight again, and maybe next tim he’ll win for himself rather than the Albrights.

All would be well that ends well, but the episode chooses to take a sharp left turn into a not-well-at-all end. Giant magical beasts emerge from the forest, armed with long tendrils that capture Joseph, Fay, and Pete. Everyone else makes it to the surface, where they learn the source of the beasts from Alvin and Carlos: Ophelie Salvadori has been consumed by “the spell.” Oliver now remembers her warning him to stay out of the Labyrinth. He didn’t, and now Joseph, Fay, and Pete are in big trouble.

However, I’m confident that some combination of Oliver, Nanao, Chela, Katie, Guy, Stacey, Marco, Joseph, and the upperclassmen will ultimately prevail and return the captured students from Ophelie’s clutches. This also sounds less a case of Ophelie being straight-up evil, but merely corrupted, which means she may be able to be reasoned with and redeemed. We shall see.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 10 – Triple Clash

The Sword Roses enjoy their first night of “camping” together by the fire in Katie’s workshop, unaware that three classmates are coming for them, each for their own reasons. Early the next morning Oliver is training Nanao in spellcraft with regular wands when the lesson is interrupted by a scream from Guy: Katie’s troll friend has arrived.

There’s nothing to fear; Marco is a good fellow, and any friends of Katie are friends to him. He even has a name: Marco. He also says Katie is always talking about Oliver, which embarrasses her. Vera, who is no longer their enemy, brought Marco to the workshop, accompanied by her severed demon hand, whom she’s given semi-consciousness. After she takes their leave, the Roses continue exploring with Marco backing them up.

This is when they’re confronted by Stacy Cornwallis and her attendant/knight, Fay Willock. She challenges Chela and another Rose to a tag-team duel. Chela and Nanao accept, but the battle expands when Joseph Albright shows up and agrees to join Stace’s team if he can fight the “samurai girl”. He calls Oliver a “nobody” and says he can be the Roses’ third fighter.

Albright leads everyone to a suitable battle ground in the second layer of the Labyrinth, which feels like outside takes the form of a magical forest. Nanao is excited to fight beside Chela for the first time, and Chela doesn’t disappoint, as Stacy doesn’t pose a huge threat.

While Fay is his initial opponent, Oliver hits him with a flash spell and fights Albright instead, leaving Fay to Nanao. The bottom line is that it pisses Oliver off that Albright insists on calling him a nobody; he’ll make him remember his name, even if it’s fake.

As he three fights progress we learn tidbits about Stace and Fay’s long history: she saved him from her father putting him out of his misery and took him in as a manservant. Because of this, he tells her she doesn’t need to hold back when it comes to ordering him around.

Stacy wants to beat Chela no matter what, so she conjures an artificial full moon, which is enough for Fay to transform into a werewolf. While this turns the tide of the battle, I have to say it feels an awful lot like cheating, especially the Team Sword Roses are keeping their troll on the sidelines.

Albright proves highly adept at anticipating and countering Oliver’s mostly-textbook tactics, but has no idea about the depth of Oliver’s talent and resourcefulness. He’s just a tank of a combat wizard, saved from instant defeat only because Oliver can’t show the true extent of his powers or reveal his Spellblade, lest he blow his cover.

Chela acknowledges Stacy as someone doing whatever it takes to win, but urges her to allow Fay to transform back. If he’s a student at Kimberly, it’s because he’s half-blood (full werewolves cannot attend), which means transforming puts him in a constant state of extreme pain.

This troubles Stacy, but Nanao tells Chela to curb her kindness in this instance. Both Fay and Stacy already knew what it would cost to be in the position they’re in, and were resolved to endure the pain. As such, it would be tremendously rude if they didn’t give their absolute all in this fight.

Chela admits Nanao is right, and withdraws her demand that Fay change back. She then assures Stacy and Fay that he won’t be in pain for long. I’m looking forward to seeing her take the kid gloves off!