CHAPTER 93: FIGHT!

And so their training continued.

Mostly separately, but sometimes they pitted them together to fight each other so they could adjust to each other’s fighting styles but most importantly, so they could fight enemies they weren’t used to.

It quickly became apparent that they were all powerful in their way. In raw offensive arcane, Kaedros, and then Rauk, were the most powerful.

When fighting, Rauk would cut Kaedros’s fireball in two. The first time he did it had been a mistake. As Kaedros fired his twisting fireball, all Rauk could do was stare at it at first before he snapped out of it and slashed with his magic-shrouded sword in panic but it turned out to be a good idea.

The sword beam had arched through the air, and Rauk thought the fireball would come at him. But as his spatial energy touched it and it cut it neatly in two, the two halves going separate ways.

They had all gasped, and then tried it again.

Kaedros changed tactics the next time they fought because he didn’t use fireballs. Instead, he used spreading beam of heat light that jetted from his hand in waves and turned the floor red with heat.

It would have been devastating for Rauk, but Chef had prepared him for something like this. It was a bit of a complex spell because he had to make his magical energy into something like smoke.

So when the scorching heat light was coming at him, he materialized his formation atop his head and opened his mouth. Grey smoke bellowed out of his mouth like an open chimney, surrounding him thickly.

The fire collided with his smoke and a shockwave sent his hair and clothes flapping back. He could feel the heat and his body dried up in response. He shuddered to think what would have happened if he hadn’t used Lord’s Breath, one of the low-level spells in his Dominium Terrae Flow.

It was a defensive spell, and it worked by converting his arcane into residue spatial, smoke-like. The smoke then surrounded him and wore down any attack that came at him.

It worked best for arcane attacks, and spread ones at that. If it was Kaedros’s fireball, it would have slowed it enough that he could have dodged it.

But that wasn’t all. Although the Lord’s Breath couldn’t be used offensively, it could be used to confuse enemies by concealing Rauk.

When Kaedros sent a small fireball next, Rauk made full use of his Flow flexibility and gestures. His formation changed and the grey smoke gathered together just as the fireball slammed into it.

His smoke lessened, but it was able to stop the fireball.

Kaedros looked annoyed and materialized a formation that glowed on his right finger like a yellow rippling light that brought immerse pressure with it.

Rauk clenched his teeth and prepared another dose of Lord’s Breath, but Nyra stopped Kaedros from going on with the spell, for whatever reason.

Rauk felt himself sigh in relief. He didn’t know what spell Kael wanted to cast, but it had felt strong. You could measure the power of a spell by the materialized formation.

They had ended the fighting then, and later, when Rauk asked about the spell he was about to cast, Kaedros had shrugged and said it was one of his new spells.

What fascinated Rauk most was how Kaedros was able to cast a formation so small. Kaedros said it was because Nyra had been teaching him how to do so. After all, he might want to cast subtly on some occasions.

Nyra had said it was a "dignified" way if you were in public and didn’t want to draw attention to yourself. But you must be careful, a power mage or those whose rank is above you might be able to detect it.

When Rauk asked Chef about it, the small woman had snorted and drank from her bottles. "Those are the ways of spies and assassins! Why wouldn’t you want to show off your formations?!"

Rauk had bowed and continued with his training, but when he got back to their room that day, he asked Kaedros to teach him.

Kaedros and Taria were put together to fight, and the first thing he noticed was that in raw physical strength, she was the one leading.

Unless he revealed his true form.

He smiled. That was good. He wanted his tool to be strong, after all. They circled each other, eyes taking in weak points.

"I should warn you, I’m fast," Taria said with a grin, eyes sparkling.

"Good." That was the core skill of warriors, after all. Kaedros raised his hand and a formation appeared under his feet. A bright golden light followed above his hand, shimmering and making his image flicker as it pulse with heat.

Taria could feel the heat from her place, and it warmed her blood, but immediately she covered herself and her weapon in the essence of faint yellow, and the heat lessened.

She had never seen heat like that before, but this one she had seen was something strong, something that burned so hot and fast. It would be difficult to get close to Kael like this. Difficult, but not impossible.

Kaedros was studying her, and he knew the moment she was ready because she planted her feet on the floor. He was right, because she darted forward the next moment.

She didn’t run straight at him, though. She circled around him at first, and the moment she got to his blind spot, she jumped him.

His reaction was instant. He turned and spread his hand, the lines in his formation changing. The big golden light split into a dozen orange-sized ones, blasting at her.

It was easy for her as she weaved between them and proved how fast she was, dodging three together without slowing down or stopping.

Kaedros smiled. His distraction was working as he wanted, so he leaned forward, hands spread behind him, and dropped his golden heat ball formation, immediately materializing another spell.

It was a simple spell that allowed compressed fire to appear on his hands and gave him instant boosting that shot him forward. Kaedros brought his hand back as he got close and punched her with force.

Taria grunted as the punch caught her solidly on the crossed hands she made at the last minute. She was forced backward, but Kaedros wasn’t done, and he drove her back with continuous punches that shook her bones, even with the essence that covered her hands.

He gave her no breathing space, so she did the only thing she could think of and trapped his right hand between her crossed hands as he punched.

His eyes widened in surprise, and Taria answered with a smile.

His surprise wore off quickly, though, and Kaedros opened the hand that was trapped. The only thing that saved Taria was that she jumped at the last minute, and the fire that bellowed out of his hand met empty air.

Still in the air, without releasing his hand, Taria kicked down, slamming her foot on Kaedros’s shoulder and getting a satisfying grunt out of him.

The kick lifted her higher into the air and she let go of his hand to prepare for a technique.

"First Stance—Thrust." It wasn’t the full power of the technique because she was in the air, but still, it punched a hole through the floor as Kaedros hurriedly moved away.

Taria fell on the end shaft of her spear, light as a feather.

"That’s something," Kaedros eyed the weapon that had just punched a hole through the floor he was a moment ago. The force of her technique had ruffled his hair, and he wondered how powerful it would be if she used it properly.

Taria lightly stepped down, her hand on her spear. "I know, right? Thalso has been giving me no breaks."

Taria increased the essence covering her and gathered it on the tip of her spear until it glowed yellow. The essence glowed and spat, barely contained inside the metal of the spear, but she held it there with sheer will.

She had just recently learned this move, where she would shoot out compressed essence at the tip of her weapon when she thrust. But the thing was, she had to thrust her spear fast or the technique would backfire.

Taria gathered essence on her feet and shot forward like a released arrow, spear drawn back, eyes on Kaedros.

He watched her close the distance between them and cast a formation on his right finger like a ring.

"Second Stanc, Essence Thrust!’

A blinding yellow light of tightly packed essence in the shape of a spearhead blasted at Kaedros. He watched impassively as the essence thrust got close enough that he could feel the force driving it. Then he slashed up with his hand and yellow light flashed.

An explosion of yellow heat lit up the air.

"Did I get him?" Taria shielded her eyes from the glare of the explosion. She could see nothing moving inside there, but she knew Kael wouldn’t go down with something like that.

Kaedros shot out of the dying explosion, hands trailing yellow light as he was propelled forward at a blinding speed that got him in Taria’s face before she could blink.

A punch covered in yellow light lashed out and she flinched as it grazed her chin.

Too fast! Her mind warned her. Kael had used light to boost his speed forward and she almost didn’t see him coming. She had to create distance!

But Kaedros wasn’t giving her that as he locked on her. They fought. Yellow light and yellow essence collided as punch met spear shaft.

Taria couldn’t use her weapon effectively because Kael was right there in front of her, and she needed distance. She gathered her essence in her left hand and punched out.

The punch was directed at Kaedros, but he dodged just in time, good, because the punch carried the weight of a gust but he didn’t lose the opportunity it created.

He burned fire around his drawn-back fist, creating a small explosion that gave force to his punch. It caught her in the stomach, straight through her essence, and lifted her off her feet.

Taria spun through the air and slammed back down on the floor, head cracking painfully on metal.