Cater describes Leona as “a spelldrive legend,” and Leona is recognized by a campus visitor for being a spelldrive athlete from TV rather than for being a prince. Jack says that seeing Leona playing spelldrive on TV was the catalyst that led to him enrolling at NRC.
Leona is the spelldrive club captain and playmaker, and has a conversation with Floyd where he says,
“My team’s a meritocracy. If someone doesn’t contribute during games, I’ll pull ’em off the starting roster on the spot. The school’s support for spelldrive can sometimes be reflected in students’ grades, too. Each individual victory carries more weight for our club than for others.”
Epel tells Ace about a time when the spelldrive club once ran a hundred laps around the school to build stamina, “And Leona spent most of that time lounging under a tree…But the upside is that Leona pays close attention to all the club members. And his calls during games are always on point!”
We see an example of spelldrive club practice in a vignette where watching exhausted spelldrive club members convinces Ace that the club is “too brutal” for him, and another practice where five members of the spelldrive club go after Leona for thirty minutes without being able to get the disc from him. Leona refers to the exercise as “barely a warmup.”
Early in the school year Leona has Ruggie round up first-year students at random to join the spelldrive club on Vargas’ orders, saying that he doesn’t expect them to last but if Vargas “wants numbers, we’ll give him numbers.”
When Cater asks how Leona trains new members Leona talks about taking a student who had poor stamina and throwing him “real long passes that had him flying sideline to sideline, back and forth.”
Cater says that the team must have a lot of people quit and Leona explains, “That’s by design. If they get broken down that easy, they got no place in my club…You only make the lineup on my team by crawlin’ your way through a world of hurt.”
When Cater says “You really care about them, don’t you,” however, Leona denies it, claiming that he doesn’t need “useless whelps” costing him a victory.
Epel goes to Leona for advice on how to increase his control with the disc and Leona tells him not to worry about it, instead.
After a conversation about magically levitating cargo Leona explains that Epel is one of the best first-year fliers they have, but focusing on other areas will make his main skill suffer, and he should just keep going to classes: “you’ll eventually get better.”
Leona talks about eating “nice cuts of meat” on spelldrive club game days and Ruggie says, “Even when the crowd is goin’ wild during a game, Leona’s voice cuts through loud and clear. That’s a lion’s roar for ya.”
Leona has a voice line of, “I don’t mind bein’ booed. Feels good; means they’re scared of us. I welcome their hatred,” and says that he always takes up spelldrive challenges from other dorms.
Leona says, “I love usin’ ingenuity to take down an opponent in Spelldrive. Don’t get me wrong, though. I’d still rather skip the exercise.”
When Cater asks what it is that Leona would like to do in the next year Leona agrees with Cater’s own idea about winning a spelldrive tournament. Cater says, “It’s supposed to be what YOU want… But at least I got an answer.”
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 