Aaron gritted his teeth as the clash of steel was replaced by something far more dangerous, raw magic. Every strike of Adeline’s lightning blade split the air with a crack, the ground trembling as sparks scattered around them like shooting stars.
He raised walls of fire, each one towering and roaring, but Adeline’s blade cut through them with ease, the lightning sizzling and splitting flames apart as if they were nothing.
Her movements were fast, sharper than he anticipated. She lunged, forcing him to twist away, only for another bolt to arc from her blade and scorch the earth where he had been standing. Aaron’s sword flared with fire as he swung, sending a wave of searing heat her way. Adeline countered with a sharp slash, lightning colliding with flames, exploding in the space between them.
The arena echoed with thunder and fire, each impact rattling the stones under their feet. For the first time, Aaron realised he couldn’t simply overpower her—every move he made was met by something quicker, deadlier. Her lightning was relentless, unpredictable, darting and snapping like a storm unleashed.
Aaron shifted to defense, his brows furrowed, his fire wrapping around him like a shield. He had trained in countless battles, but fighting his sister—someone who wielded an extinct and divine power—was different. Every strike forced him back, every burst of lightning ate away at his flame.
Physically, he was stronger than her, but in terms of powers, he was not.
Adeline pressed forward, eyes sharp, her blade humming with energy. "Still think I need your protection?" she challenged, her voice crackling like the storm in her hands.
Aaron didn’t answer. He had to win.
The clash of lightning and fire filled the training yard, crackling and roaring with every strike. Aaron and Adeline moved with such intensity that it was hard to tell whether this was still a duel or something far more serious. Sparks scattered across the stone, walls of flame rose and collapsed, and bolts of lightning left scorched cracks along the ground.
Adeline’s blade of light snapped and hissed as it cut through Aaron’s fire, striking dangerously close to him. She was relentless, pushing him back step by step, her determination sharper than any weapon.
Aaron matched her, switching between defence and offence, his fire flaring around him, his blade glowing red-hot as it absorbed his magic. Every time he struck, she countered. Every time he tried to press the advantage, she forced him back with another storm of lightning.
Layla stood a few steps away, her arms crossed, brows furrowed as she watched. What had started as a duel between siblings had shifted into something else. The atmosphere was heavy and tense.
Both Aaron and Adeline were fighting with everything they had—like they were proving something vital, something they couldn’t put into words.
Aaron’s thoughts were clouded as he fought. Every blow of Adeline’s lightning blade dragged memories to the surface. He’d spent years on the battlefield. He knew what death looked like, smelled like. He had seen comrades fall right beside him, and he had seen people throw their lives away chasing the impossible.
His grip tightened on his sword, fire flaring as his memory dragged him away from the present—back to the borders, to a night that still haunted him.
"I—I can’t leave him behind!" A voice had cried out.
"I understand that you are hurt, but-" The captain tried to reason with one of his soldiers. What the boy was talking about was basically a suicide mission! He could not let that happen to a young man like him.
Aaron remembered it vividly. A young man, barely old enough to be in armour, had stood at the edge of the monster-infested forest. His older brother, a veteran soldier, had gone missing during a skirmish.
Everyone knew what that meant—no one returned alive once the monsters dragged them into the den. But the boy refused to listen. Tears streamed down his dirt-streaked face, his body trembling with fear, but his voice had been steady with desperation.
"He is all I have," the boy choked, clutching his blade with both hands. "If there’s even a chance, I have to try."
They were orphans, his brother was all that he had. He raised him, educated him, and trained him. When he was sick, his brother joined the army to pay for the healers to heal. He asked many times, why didn’t he quit?! He was strong now, he was not ill anymore, he could take care of his older brother, so why?
"It’s... Camaraderie... A sense of belonging..." His brother answered. A sense of belonging- it was something he never experienced back in their town.
He did not understand it, but he did not question it. At the end of the day, he joined his brother and reached the border to fight, to understand what he meant by a sense of belonging.
And now? Where was it? Where was the camaraderie he spoke of?! No one was willing to go after him! They already assumed he was dead!
"No one has ever come back alive... He would want you to live." A fellow soldier tried to reason with him, but he did not care.
"You know what he would have wanted..." His eyes were bloodshot as he glared at everyone around him, "He would’ve wanted to be alive! He would’ve wanted his ’comrades’ to come for him... So-called comrades..."
Before anyone could stop him, the young man rushed forward, dashing into the darkness. The cries of his comrades echoed after him, but he didn’t look back. Aaron remembered the feeling that clenched his chest then—the helplessness of watching someone throw themselves into certain death.
And then... The scream.
A bloodcurdling sound that had silenced everyone. The boy never returned. The monsters had taken him too, swallowed him whole into that cursed forest.
Aaron had never forgotten that moment. The hopelessness. The grief that followed. The reminder that bravery and recklessness were separated by the thinnest of lines.
Now, staring at Adeline as she struck at him again, her eyes blazing with stubborn fire, he felt that same fear grip his chest. She reminded him of that boy—charging forward into a fight she didn’t fully understand, not caring about the danger, not caring if it killed her.