A short distance away, Kaedros stood beside Nyra, watching.
"Interesting, isn’t it?" Nyra said softly, her green eyes like twin emeralds as she studied Rauk. "His power is... dangerous. That spell doesn’t cut things, it erases what it touches. It doesn’t work on glyph-protected materials yet, but it will, soon."
She turned to Kaedros. "You’re lucky to have him. And the girl too. You sure know how to surround yourself with potential."
Kaedros gave a low grunt.
It wasn’t luck. He hadn’t sought them out for their strength. Rauk was just an annoying tagalong, and Taria? She had been a convenient meat shield at the time.
Self-interest. That was all.
But he said none of that. Instead, he shrugged, expression unreadable.
"They’re lucky to have me."
Nyra snorted. "So arrogant. Good. You’ll need that arrogance before long."
Kaedros didn’t answer. Something in the air had shifted. A feeling. He didn’t know what "the candidates" truly meant—but he knew whatever it was, it would be painful.
And he wasn’t afraid.
He had lived in the shadows of others for too long.
It was time to step out.
"Now cast your formation," Nyra said, her voice smooth.
Kaedros raised a brow. "So you knew."
"That you’ve been able to visualize it for days now? Of course," she said, folding her arms. "I know you don’t want to materialize itz though you can. Easily."
"I was waiting for the right moment."
She grunted, her green eyes hardening. "A normal human wouldn’t have been able to do it."
Kaedros narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by ordinary human?"
It was Nyra’s turn to narrow her eyes. "We are the only ones here, Kael. You don’t have to pretend with me after you know I can see through your illusion. Kael, we both know you are not human. You are a Dragon." Nyra’s fangs flashed in a smile.
Kaedros took a step back. He shouldn’t be surprised. He wasn’t, but it was another thing for it to be said out loud . "And? Is there a problem with that?"
"Of course not. Isn’t that why it’s impressive? I assume you have some kind of way to speed things up."
Kaedros took in a steady breath.
Kaedros materialized the formation. It unfolded under his feet, connecting lines inside a bright blue circle that hummed with power. He stared at it, stunned. Kaedros hadn’t seen magic before.
It surprised him that the materialized formation wasn’t just light but was solid because he could step on it. He was stepping on it.
"Good, good. Now activate the spell!" Nyra encouraged, but she shouldn’t have bothered.
Excitement bubbled up deep inside him. He hadn’t felt in a while, to be happy to cast a spell. But now that his hesitation had gone, he lifted his hand and pumped mana into the formation.
He realized too late he had put too much arcane. The temperature rose and bright red flame that burned the air popped in front of his hand, twisting and writhing to leap free from his control.
Kaedros clenched his teeth and held on as the fire grew to the size of two men’s heads. No! he shouted inside. He would not let this thing out of his control.
"Steady now," Nyra murmured. Her green eyes were on the destructive fire, a simple formation already visualized in her mind in case things went out of control.
Kaedros didn’t hear her. What he knew in that moment was that he must control this thing or he would forever regret it. He must be the master of his spell and not the other way around.
He thought of a way, and surprisingly, what came to mind was his own Flow, Sol Invicta. He settled into his Flow while standing, and something astonishing happened.
The fire didn’t calm, but Kaedros himself felt calmness spread through him as he used the Flow.
"Yes, you’ve gotten it." Nyra grinned in satisfaction. What’s worse than not being able to cast a spell formation is not being able to control a spell. Nothing worse than that.
Kaedros lowered the mana he was putting into the spell, and the twisting fireball went down until a small orange-sized ball hovered in front of his raised hand.
He smiled at the fire. It hadn’t lowered in intensity, just size. It amazed him that he could feel the heat even with all his resistance to fire, but he guessed that’s just how hot the fire was burning.
"Let me cast my spell then." He pumped mana into it, and it grew quickly into a ball that sent the air shimmering. Then he released it, and it blasted forward with a shockwave that rocked Kaedros back.
The fireball slammed into the metal floor hungrily, blasting melted metal up in a shower of red flare. The heat spread through the room, and everyone stopped to look at the liquid metal running down the floor.
"Well... I wasn’t expecting that," Nyra said, looking at the hole in the floor where the metal had melted. The surrounding areas were hot red with heat.
When she was picking the Flow, she hadn’t known it was this powerful.
"Me too," Kaedros was breathing hard. That simple spell had taken a lot out of him, but this most destructive power was worth it. It was at the level of the high spell he was casting before coming to the castle.
He checked his core and was glad to find it still full, he’d only used a forth. It would have been bad if he drained his core to cast that fireball. He started doing the Flow while standing, taking in mana.
"You want to destroy my room?" Thalso demanded as he got close enough to see the damage, even though he had felt it across the training hall.
Kaedros grinned sheepishly and bowed to the armored man. "Just practicing!"
"I don’t know, but you burned a hole through that," Rauk said, a mixture of excitement and tiredness. He looked tired. Chef hadn’t been giving him a chance to rest at all since he cast his first formation.
"Burning a hole and letting liquid metal run on the floor is something," Taria said, grinning. She was holding her spear by the shaft, the tip resting on her shoulder.
Kaedros looked at the already cooling metal. "Not intentional."
"Of course. This is a training room after all. Besides..." Thalso raised his hand and the floor rippled where the hole was, and the next minute there was smooth floor again. "It’s easily fixed."
"Thank you." Kaedros bowed again.
Chef snorted. "And what are you doing, you lazy thing? Get back to training!"
Rauk shrugged at Kaedros, lifted his sword, and followed Chef back to training.
"Congratulations on your first spell," Thalso said shortly and turned, gesturing for Taria to follow him, and she did with a final smile at Kaedros.
"That was intense," Nyra said.
Kaedros had to agree. That spell was powerful, and if he didn’t know better, he would have thought it was a high-level spell. But to think it was a low-level?
"I didn’t know it would react like that," Kaedros said.
"I don’t either. The Flow is bringing out the full potential." Nyra said.
Nyra grinned at him. "Well then, let’s begin."