Of course it wouldn't. Monsters rarely did. Sure, one could hope that they might. But it wasn't like hoping was going to stop an attack. Hope couldn't blunt a blade. It couldn't even really keep someone alive, when you got right down to it. It just... was.

(A lot of the details of life were, when you got right down to it.)

Squall nodded to himself as he felt the Protect slip into place properly, half in thanks and half as a note to himself that it was there. The last of the smaller Lumens standing between him and the larger one fell mere moments later, and as might have been expected, he wasted absolutely no time in attacking it. He didn't have anything to fear from Rinoa's magic.