Steam rose from the frosted ground as Lance’s ice melted just as quickly as it appeared. Both of them still had sight of one another, the fog too sparse to block vision. Officer Trant, on the edge of the arena, quickly reacted to the situation at hand, pressing down a button on his bracelet. A light blue shimmer flowed across the hall as multiple see-through walls surrounded Rain and Lance.

  Looking around, Rain quickly understood its meaning:

  ‘A force shield…This means we can really go all out then.’

  Now, liberated from paying attention to his surroundings, Rain could do as he wished. However, he was still unsure about how much firepower to use. Surely, even someone as talented and resilient as Lance would get badly wounded if he were to be directly hit with his fire. So while their surroundings were clear, that didn’t mean they could use everything they had.

  Thoughts ran wildly in Rain’s mind. Their goal here wasn’t to beat the opponent, but to learn whatever abilities may exist and the ability to improvise on its weaknesses.

  Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on Lance’s mana, its frosty aspect, followed by uneasiness now clearer than ever.

  ‘The main part of his Reflection is the wraith. If it can actively bind me down, then it's lost.’

  Indeed, while Lance’s ice had an amazing visual effect, its combat properties were, at least as far as Rain saw throughout their time training together, inadequate. Dropping the nearby temperature to a bit below negative could hardly be considered powerful, on top of the fact that Rain could simply use his fire to heat himself.

  Before he could have more time to think, a wraith had already risen from the ground, shooting towards him with unprecedented speed. With little time to react, he simply extended a hand toward it, engulfing it in fire, hoping that it could stop it. However, as if it saw this coming, the wraith dashed to the side, Rain’s hand missing the mark completely. It dove back down toward his legs and began to try to pull his body to the ground. The wraith’s touch sent shivers down his spine as the semi-corporeal being’s icy touch stunned him. It wasn’t pain, but he could feel his mind being afflicted. Slow on the reaction, Rain was brought to one knee before igniting his other hand and tried to pry the wraith’s ghostly hand off his leg. The flame made short work of him, as he only needed a couple of seconds before the wraith let go of him, and with a pained moan, retreated to Lance’s side, as he also showed a stagger in his walk.

  Using his mana to heat his now ice-cold leg, he went on the attack. Observing the situation, he saw that upon hitting the wraith, Lance himself struggled with the attack, his mind and body perhaps connected to his ghostly companion.

  His theory was: If afflicted enough damage, maybe the wraith would dissipate, as Lance would struggle with control of his mana. Smothering the ring of fire, Rain focused on pinpoint attacks against the wraith. A fiery ring formed on his hand, and a small, rough ball of fire took shape. After only a second, he shot his hand forward, launching the ball of flame toward his intended target.

  During these two weeks, he had learned quite a lot about his skills, namely, his current ceiling. Creating small fireballs was an easy task, but controlling their trajectory and speed proved to be somewhat more difficult. More speed required him to fuel it with more mana, but too much mana, and his sorcery could backfire. For more control, he needed to fully concentrate on its trajectory.

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  This was very much possible, but Rain felt it wasn’t very realistic. In a combat situation, he could never take enough time to deliberately and accurately aim his mana. So he felt that learning to be somewhat accurate, whilst also being quick, was more effective.

  The fireball shot through the air with decent speed; its imperfect build also gave it the illusion of being bigger than it was. Still recovering from the prior attack, Lance couldn’t react fast enough to command his wraith to dodge, and so the fiery blast, for the first time, found its target. Hitting the wraith square in its hovering chest, the fireball seemed to slow down while travelling through its ghostly body, before exiting from the back and lightly splashing against the force shield in the rear.

  A slight groan left Lance’s body; it appears Rain’s theory was at least somewhat correct. The reeling wraith gave no short notice as it immediately rushed toward Rain once more. Expecting an attack, Rain quickly drew a line in the air, as a short wall of fire formed itself from the ground up, reaching to around the height of his chest. His hopes of stopping the wraith were short-lived, as it flew straight through his fire and, with both of its icy arms, took hold of Rain’s head, throwing him off balance onto the floor. The cold steel floor now meets the icy breath of this wraith. Rain’s vision was completely obscured; flashes of his flame appeared, but a grey filter clouded his eyes.

  The painful cold now surging through his temple, with the wraith dragging him around the floor. Igniting his hands once again, he reached towards his head, and as if ripping his own face, he clawed at the clinging wraith. This time, Lance was fueling it with more mana, and so it took longer to remove it from him. With the fire getting too much to handle, Lance withdrew his wraith while huffing, the flames clearly being a heavy load.

  The duo looked at each other with pained expressions. Their fight had gone longer than anticipated, and so, both were exhausted. Knowing this, Rain had an idea.

  ‘He is going to go all-out on me. I need to stop that wraith from touching me.’

  On command, Lance took a deep breath, as two more wraiths rose from the ground up, blood dripping down his nose, he gave Rain a small smirk. In lightning speed, he shot them forward, quickly encompassing Rain, grabbing hold of his arms and legs.

  The cold ran through his body like a current. Unable to move his arms, he slumped down to one knee.

  ‘Fuck, I knew he would go all-out, but since when can he summon more?!’

  It appears that Lance was still hiding some gains from his training. However, he wasn’t the only one.

  With the cold invading his body, Rain pictured his first vision in his mind: the gigantic forest guardian, his attempts at slaying it, and ultimately, its charred body turning to ashes before him. He had defeated it by erupting his mana from within, and now, he would attempt it for the first time. He let the cold take over his body and gathered his entire mana onto a single point in his chest; his mind was slowly breaking from the onslaught of attacks, but a fire burned deep inside him. Forgetting all about control, he simply fueled it with as much mana as he could before opening his eyes and shooting the flames around him.

  It sounded as if a cannon had fired in a small room. Fire engulfed him and his surroundings, and a force of energy caused the wraiths to be flung off and eventually burned to nothingness. The blue force shield, taking the brunt of the hit, held fast, and Lance, on the opposite side, collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

  Rain fell to the ground, and after the eruption of flame dissipated, he looked over Lance’s figure and smiled, as he too dropped unconscious.

  Surprised by the event, Officer Trant quickly summoned the medics and had the duo taken away for treatment. Standing in the arena, watching the other students continue their training, he noticed a small crack at the bottom corner of the force field, the side Rain was on.

  His smile widened as his assumptions about the possible heavy hitter of the year seemingly came true.

  “Interesting.”

  Heading off to the other trainings, Rain lay on the comfortable hospital bed, slowly waking up hours after the event.