The morning air was cool and clean. Dew still clung to the grass along the edge of the fighting arena. Stone tiles still held the night’s chill after the sun had already started rising.
"Before we begin," Ali said, voice steady, "how is your magic layering? Any progress since last ti?"
Logan stopped a few steps away. "No. I didn’t get ti. I focused on other training."
Ali gave a single nod. "Alright. No problem."
He drew a short line on the stone with the toe of his boot. "We start fresh. Today you will rotate your affinities in pairs. Fire with water first. As you had already been practicing that. Then after that, lightning with fire, followed by water with air, fire with air, and so on. He already knew about all of Logan’s affinities after talking with Noah and Emily.
"Understood," Logan said.
"Good. But rember," Ali added. "Do not force a layering. It should be natural, rhythmic. Exactly like when you use a single affinity."
Logan took a breath and let it out. His shoulders loosened. "I’m ready."
"Then prepare your ice bullets filled with fire raging inside them." Ali stepped sideways while instructing Logan.
"Ok," Logan replied and got into action.
Logan raised his right hand. Mana flared around his hand as fire raged to life while ice coiled around it, shaping the flas into precise forms—several of them at once.
His eyes narrowed slightly. For so reason, it felt effortless, completely under his control, as if he had always known how to do it.
And then—
With a flick of his fingers, all of them shot forward, whistling sharply through the air.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
All the bullets buried themselves deep into the ground.
And then....
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several explosions one after another.
Dust was kicked up and debris flew in every direction.
"What?!" Ali was shocked. His eyes widened beyond limit.
"Didn’t you say you haven’t had the chance to practice magic layering? Then what in the world is this?" From Ali’s voice, it was clear just how shocked he was.
Logan said nothing, only staring at his own hand in disbelief.
"I... I don’t know how it..." He couldn’t finish the sentence.
Seeing his state, Ali understood that Logan himself was bewildered. "Try again. Give it another shot. Let’s make sure it wasn’t just a fluke."
Logan nodded.
He raised his hand again. Soon the ice bullets took shape once more, fire raging inside them. With a flick of his fingers, they shot forward again. And then...
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Followed by several explosions. Dust and debris once again covered the entire area.
Ali’s mouth was agape. So was Logan’s.
Yesterday he had only used normal attack spells. He had felt the strikes, the devastating power behind them. But at that ti, too much else was on his mind.
But now....
Seeing his own control over magic, even he was stunned.
That ease in feeling the mana, the swiftness while manipulating it, and the power, devastating sensation it offered.....
It felt otherworldly. Even after being a Martial Emperor in his past life, it was for the first ti that Logan savored the taste of such power.
"Aiden." Ali finally broke from his shock, his voice steady but heavy with expectation. "This ti, try fire and lightning together. Mix them—form a fire–lightning combo ball. Then pour all your power into it and throw it."
Logan blinked once, snapping out of his daze. He gave a short nod, then slowly raised his hand again. Closing his eyes briefly, he replayed Ali’s instructions in his mind, mapping each step carefully.
"Lightning and fire... a combo ball."
His focus deepened. Sparks of lightning began crackling across his palm, warping the air around it as though space itself was bending. At the sa ti, a tiny ember of fire ignited—small at first, but burning fiercely as it swelled.
The ember grew into a sphere, its flas raging with unstable fury. Lightning arced across its surface, coiling tighter and tighter, rging with the fire.
Then, before Ali’s eyes, the color shifted.
It was no longer just crimson fire or blue lightning. The orb blazed with a violet-gold radiance—a fusion of raging fla and crackling thunder, fire’s crimson bleeding into lightning’s blue, birthing a violent, otherworldly light.
The sphere pulsed in Logan’s hand like a newborn star, its power raw and terrifying, threatening to burst free at any mont.
And then..... A flick....
The ball roared forward like a storm, kicking up dust and sand. It slamd into the ground with a thunderous boom. At first, nothing happened. Then ca a tremor—the entire arena began to shake. A mont later, a deafening explosion erupted, blasting debris and dust everywhere. Even those small particles’ speed alone was fast and deadly enough to wound anyone in their path.
The shockwave rolled outward in waves, rattling the stone ground and leaving cracks spiderwebbing across it. Smoke and dust swallowed half the arena, rising in choking plus that blotted out the morning sun.
When the echoes of the explosion finally died, a hushed silence fell. The once-flat training field now bore a crater nearly three ters deep, its edges scorched black and laced with jagged burns of lightning. The earth itself seed branded by the attack.
Ali’s boots were pressed against the broken stones as he stood firm, his eyes fixed on the destruction. For a man who had lived through countless battles, his composure almost never wavered—yet at this mont, his expression was frozen in disbelief.
Logan lowered his hand slowly, his chest heaving. His eyes flickered between the crater and his own fingers. "That... ca from ?" Even in his past life, he had never unleashed such pure destruction so easily.
Ali finally drew in a long breath, his voice grave. "Aiden... forget about magic layering for now. Let’s have a duel first. And don’t you dare hold back even an ounce of your true power"
At the beginning, Ali was simply looking for a hunter—soone strong, soone with guts. But now.....
His authority felt challenged. As if soone at his level had finally arrived. And he wanted nothing more but to taste it. Feel the thrill.
Logan was taken aback, not sure how to react to that.
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