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The shield spell is best against Zoltraak, but it works pretty well against everything else we see it block, from blood magic attacks to light arrows to rock bullets to lightning zappies to black hole rock shots. It won't last forever against Cython's attacks, but it doesn't need to, because Fern would defeat Cython with Zoltraak before that could happen.Frierenverse mages' shields are specifically optimized against Zoltraak, so they would be unlikely to work nearly as well against Hysh magic that they have never encountered before.
Qual comments that the shield spell is attuned to Zoltraak, and during the first test in the first class mage exams Richter explains that making the shield spell defend against all kinds of attacks would make it too slow to cast, which is why modern mages have diversified their arsenal (Fern gets around this issue just by being really fast at spamming Zoltraak to overwhelm their defences).
There's also Cython's breath weapon to consider.
Honestly, you made my argument for me: Cython fights like modern mages, which is a build that Fern's decisively defeats.