This, and a few short paragraphs, marks the end of the new Conflict chapter. Here’s the new version of Neon’s training with Morpho:

Neon and Morpho are training in the dojo. Morpho pulls a Beretta on Neon, and instructs him to dodge the bullet. The GM starts the round with Morpho, an NPC, drawing the weapon on Neon. Morpho ends his turn, waiting for Neon to be ready.

Neon knows cast spell (ruse), so he rolls a cast spell contest and gets 9 on his d20. Neon adds his MP bonus, skill points, and casting difficulty for a contest result of 17. Satisfied with this result, Neon combines his next casting action and keeps the result of 17. He also takes his casting damage on the second action, taking half, of d8 + (spell level) – (MP protection), or 4 + 2 – 2 = 4 metaphysical damage. The contest result exceeds the minimum of 10, so Neon gains +8 to his parry contests, the spell’s effect.

For his last action, Neon raises a hand toward Morpho, dramatically says “no,” and takes half on defend (parry). With the +8 bonus from ruse’s effect, his parry contest is 20. Morpho responds to the defend action by firing with fight (missile), and gets a 16 result. Neon takes no damage from Morpho’s attack, and his player describes his successful defense.

Neon’s ruse lasts until the beginning of his next turn unless he maintains it. Since Morpho is a tricky one, Neon will use a defend (concentration) contest at the start of his next turn to keep the ruse in place. If the ruse were somehow contested, with cast spell (dispel) for example, Neon would use the original 17 result for the spell as his contest.