Archangels of War

As soon as the beam was fired, I was given less than a second to react. The plate had already been cleaned of fries by the gun, so I simply flipped it to face the blast. Small beads of salt slipped off and bounced on the floor. I also activated a reinforcement spell that worked from the center out, the center being the strongest point, and the outer surface being the weaker points. The blast was extremely concentrated, but surprisingly strong, and it hit the plate with enough force to push me back an inch or so. I could see that the center was starting to burn, as even from the back a small red dot was starting to grow larger and larger. I assumed that the gun would stop firing once it ran out of magical energy, however it would be impossible for me to know when that would be, as the sparks generated by the magic beam clashing against the magically reinforced plate. 

This probably won't hold out for much longer. In that case... I put the palm of my had behind the plate, so that once the beam broke through, I could instantly cancel out the spell. However, that wouldn't be necessary, as the magic beam was suddenly put out, like flipping a light switch. Surprised, I moved the plate out of the way and saw that the beam had stopped, even though the gun still had magical energy left. Nearly a third of the gun was still lighting up. Minerva and everyone else still look shocked and flabbergasted, taking a moment to register the fact that the beam had finally stopped. 

Pretty much everyone in the cafeteria had turned to watch the light show that had just transpired. It was dead silent as everyone seemed to try and understand what the hell had just happened. Thankfully, no alarms had gone off, and most people had lost interest pretty quickly, however the ones who were closer continued to look on. 

"The fuck...." I muttered under my breath. 

"Oh, my gosh are you o-okay!" Minerva exclaimed, immediately setting the gun the down. I nodded my head. 

"Yep, all good over here. Though that blast came as a little bit of a shock." 

Nova seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Good." She then turned to Minerva with a strict expression. "What do you have to say for yourself." 

Minerva bowed in front of me. "I'm so very sorry! It's my fault, I created a faulty machine, and you almost got hurt testing it." 

Immediately I shook my head, my own embarrassment starting to rise at the sincere apology. "No worries really, you don't need to bow or anything. Not in front of me at least." I said that last part in a pretty low voice. 

From behind me, I could hear Masayoshi make a comment. "Impressive. Unlike last time, you had even less time to react. Yet you were still able to execute a fairly strong reinforcement spell." 

"Impressive that you were even able to see all that. Considering how fast everything happened." Despite the fact that on the surface we were praising each other, there was an analyzing and slightly wary tone behind both of our voices. Not that anyone else but us seemed to notice. 

"So... what exactly happened." Leo asked the pretty obvious question that was in the back of everyone's mind. 

Minverva shook her head. "I-I don't know. It should have kept firing until it ran out of fuel completely." 

"Well thank god it didn't." Nova remarked. 

"Do you think that it malfunctioned, or something?" Aqua proposed. 

Minerva shook her head. "I doubt it. If It were to have malfunctioned, it probably would've exploded or something." She said it in a casual tone. 

"Mind if I take a look?" I had a theory about what had happened and needed to confirm it. 

"O-Of course not!" Minerva handed the invention to me." It was extremely light, and slightly warm. I held it in my hands for a few seconds, before turning it to take a look at what I truly cared about. I looked at the tip of the beam where the dot where magic was fired lay. Upon close examination, I could see the telltale sign that someone had made use of a cancelation spell. No shot anybody here could have done this, right? 

I slowly looked over from person to person. Minerva seemed to have been too in shock to do anything, Nova thought that it was luck, and Masayoshi was standing off to the side the entire time. That left me with only one conclusion. A third party was responsible. Someone competent enough to activate a cancelation spell in a split second, all without being seen or having their presence discovered. 

Just then, I felt the eyes of someone boring into the back of my head. I looked around as quickly as I could, however I could only see a sea of students getting up and leaving. The bell had rung. I handed the invention back to Minerva, who apologized one more time. As I turned to walk back to class, I thought to myself, 

There are definitely some impressive students at this school.