Yes, it was truly over. The fireballs exploded in the cramped space between the remaining shields and the people, causing them serious barothermal injuries. I approached Irgen, who lay in the dust. The smell of burnt chicken coming from her was simply overwhelming.

  “Do you surrender?”

  I conjured another fireball to speed up her decision-making process.

  “Yes! We lost!”

  I looked at the stands, which were roaring with excitement.

  “Forty seconds!” The rector’s voice echoed through the arena, silencing everyone. “Forty seconds and only first-circle spells! This is a complete rout!”

  The rector descended into the arena, watching as the healers carried away eight mages.

  “Are there still people here who think Aney is unworthy to represent our academy at the Imperial Tournament?”

  “Nooooooo!” The stands roared.

  Today, they had witnessed something incredible—a third-circle mage had taken down eight sixth-circle mages in a single round using basic beginner-level spells.

  “Thank you for not injuring them too badly.”

  “It’s nothing. Rector, I have some doubts. How should I put this… but they seem too weak for sixth-circle mages.”

  “Aney, that’s not the case. You simply acted very quickly and decisively. Normally, magic requires more time to prepare, which is why, in large battles, mages stand behind warriors who take the first blow. And these kids have almost no combat experience. The fact that one of them managed to cast two high-level spells in forty seconds is already a miracle—especially under the pressure you put on them!”

  I scratched my head. Pressure? If they were in a dungeon…

  “Still,” Raman continued, “comparing a High-Rank Battle Ancestor to these kids isn’t exactly fair. But someone had to teach them a lesson.”

  He patted my shoulder and left the arena. That cunning old fox—he had just used me to discipline his arrogant team?! Infuriating!

  “Rector!” I called after him. “Where in the academy can I train the magic I’m studying?”

  He gestured around.

  “And what’s wrong with this arena?”

  Damn it. He knew exactly that I was asking for a place without prying eyes. Or maybe his plan was for me to find opponents here and train with them, giving them experience in the process?

  But he was right. I needed to train against opponents, even if they were weaker than me. But how to motivate the students to spar with me? After today’s display, I doubted anyone would volunteer…

  “That was incredible!”

  Sui ran up to me and hugged me around the neck. But realizing the thousand eyes watching, she quickly let go.

  “Thank you, Sui. I told you… Eh, come on, help me in the library instead. I need to study fourth-circle magic.”

  The next few days passed quietly and peacefully. Every morning, I posted an open invitation to fight in the arena, but no one ever accepted. So, I went to the library and stayed there until evening, then returned home, where I trained Mia for an hour or two. Trouble, of course, came from where I least expected.

  “Master!” Mia met me at the door just as I arrived home in the evening. “Today, a bishop from the Church of the White Twins came looking for you. He wanted to meet you. He left you a letter.”

  “You’re mistaken, Mia. He actually didn’t want to meet me. With his level, he could easily determine whether I was home or not. This is a trap.”

  I took the letter from her hands and, without opening it, reduced it to dust with my aura.

  “A trap? It’s good that you realized it, Master! Now you won’t go there!”

  “Won’t go? Why not? On the contrary, I will definitely go.”

  “But it’s a trap!”

  “So what? Let the church be sure of that. They still don’t know that they are the ones who have already fallen into a trap.”

  Mia frowned.

  “They fell into a trap? Master, I don’t understand.”

  “It’s nothing. Don’t trouble your head with useless worries. Let’s go eat.”

  Yes, I had been expecting a letter like this from the clergy, and I would go to them—but on my own terms, at a time of my choosing. Now, I just needed to play my hand correctly, using the artifact I found in Aman’s vault—the previous bishop of the church in Matan. I urgently needed puppets, at least a dozen, but Tot was still silent.

  The next morning, as always, I was in the academy library, trying to understand the differences between the higher magic circles and the first three. If we considered only the visual structure of magical sigils, it was simple—first, second, and third-circle sigils were two-dimensional, while fourth, fifth, and sixth-circle sigils were three-dimensional.

  My problem was that I could modify a flat sigil for engraving onto bones. But a three-dimensional sigil, which had height, width, and depth—engraving that flat was impossible. This frustrated me greatly, so I was searching for ways to simplify those sigils. Or rather, right now, I was just trying to understand where that third dimension even came from.

  “Ahhhgrrrr!” I rubbed my temples.

  “Master Aney, may I trouble you?”

  You’ve got to be kidding me. Irgen approached me. Was she looking for trouble again? I covered my papers with a book.

  “What do you want?”

  “Master Aney, please accept this!”

  The long-eared blonde bowed and extended some kind of badge to me.

  “What is this?”

  “It’s the captain’s badge for our academy’s team!”

  “Not interested.”

  “Master Aney, please reconsider and accept it!”

  What the hell was wrong with her?

  “I thought about it. Still not interested. Put it away.”

  Irgen remained bowed, holding out the badge.

  “Did the rector put you up to this?”

  “Not at all. This is entirely my and my team’s decision!”

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  “Hooooo, unexpected. But I still don’t care. I don’t have time for your team of incompetents.”

  “Master Aney, please, just give me a few more minutes to explain.”

  Damn it!

  “Fine,” I pointed to a chair behind her and put my papers away. “You have five minutes.”

  Irgen pulled a heavy chair closer and sat down across from me.

  “Master Aney, first of all, I want to apologize for my past behavior. It won’t happen again!”

  It better not! If it does, not even the head of the Healers’ Guild will be able to put you back together.

  “Master Aney, after seeing your strength, my entire team and I request that you become our captain! This isn’t just our selfish wish—we firmly believe that with you as captain, our academy can achieve a much higher ranking in the tournament. Maybe we could even reach the Northern Empire Tournament quarterfinals! So please, be our captain!”

  Hmm. Becoming the captain of this kindergarten didn’t interest me at all—it would just add more hassle. But… I had an idea.

  “Alright, I might agree to this, but under one condition.”

  “I accept!”

  “Wait, I haven’t even said what the condition is yet…”

  She straightened like a string, waiting for my words.

  “Every morning, every day, for two hours, I will train you. Because I have no interest in being in a team of weaklings. As you understand, I can easily compete in the solo bracket. So, from today onward, I am your captain—but only for the time you spend training. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Captain! Understood, Captain! The whole team will be waiting for you at the arena tomorrow morning!”

  “Alright,” I took the badge. “See you tomorrow.”

  Irgen bowed and ran off. Hehe, now I have targets to train my new spells on! I turned back to my books.

  Having achieved nothing today, I decided to finish early and pay a visit to Tot. I found him in his personal workshop, where he was just finishing engraving one of the seventh-class marionettes.

  “One minute!”

  Tot traced the final lines with his chisel and inserted a seventh-class core into the marionette. The puppet’s eyes flickered rapidly before finally igniting with a dark violet flame. That fire spread through the thin grooves etched across its entire body in a strange pattern. The puppet rose from the table where Tot had worked on it, picked up a spear lying nearby, and stood in line with the other marionettes.

  “Wow, that looks impressive.”

  I wasn’t just saying that. The marionette resembled a tall but lean person wearing a mask over its face. Its steel body was covered in thin grooves glowing with the dark violet flame of the seventh class.

  “Will they have clothes?” I was curious.

  “Yeah, we’re already preparing fourth-class magical armor.”

  I didn’t bother asking why they were dressing them in such garbage, especially for money. That wasn’t my concern. What mattered to me was their combat potential.

  “So when do we test them?”

  “Even now,” Tot gathered five sixth-class and five seventh-class marionettes in the storage. “But we need to find a quiet place.”

  “Not a problem,” I said as we stepped outside. “I know one.”

  I grabbed Tot by the waist and leaped into the air. The place I had in mind was truly deserted because it was far away—the valley of jagged cliffs where Kruk had trained me in aura strikes.

  Tot got sick the moment we landed. He shot me an annoyed look for such a surprise. I jumped onto the nearest rock and drew my spear.

  “Attack!” I told Tot, slicing the air in front of me with the tip.

  Tot released all ten marionettes and ten small round tokens, filling them with his aura. The marionettes all turned to him at once.

  “Attack him!” Tot pointed at me.

  The marionettes turned their heads in sync. Ten pairs of violet eyes stared me down before they charged.

  Ten figures turned into silver shadows, and ten spear tips were instantly at my throat.

  “Damn it!”

  They were actually using my techniques! And there were ten of them! I shot into the air and landed atop a peak adjacent to the one I had been on just a second ago. But in an instant, the rock exploded from the spear strikes, forcing me to defend myself at the very edge of my abilities.

  The space around me filled with the roar of torn air and the clash of metal against metal. Fast, strong, powerful strikes… Perfect killing machines!

  “Enough, Tot!”

  “Return to me!” He recalled the marionettes.

  “This far exceeded my wildest expectations! Tot, you’re a genius!”

  I approached the marionettes. Overall, they were intact—only a few had deep scratches that were already sealing themselves with fresh metal.

  “They can regenerate?” I was surprised.

  “Yes, but unfortunately, this ability is quite limited. I did what I could.”

  Tot handed me the ten tokens.

  “Here. To give a command, just fill the token with your aura. I’ll deliver two dozen of these to you every week.”

  “Thanks, Tot!”

  What amazing toys!

  “In about a month, there will be a presentation and an auction for selling the first hundred units of our sixth-class product. Will you come?”

  “Of course! Just tell me when and where.”

  “I’ll let you know closer to the date. The auction house of Matan.”

  Tot was clearly both happy and excited, which made him much less talkative than usual.

  “Tot,” I asked, “can these marionettes be used with eighth- or ninth-class cores?”

  “Unfortunately, no. They’re too weak for that level of energy. An eighth-class core would last about five minutes, but a ninth-class one would melt instantly. Besides, such classes are forbidden in the kingdom.”

  “Alright, forget it. Heading back?”

  I grabbed him and soared into the sky.

  Five minutes with an eighth-class core, huh? With that, a marionette would be roughly on par with me in strength. And in five minutes, I could get up to all sorts of trouble.

  Late that evening, after finishing training with Mia, I asked her if she wanted to participate in the royal tournament, which was set to start in a few weeks.

  “Mmm. And why would I do that?”

  “You can compare your strength to other people in the kingdom. I think you’ll easily make the top ten.”

  “And you, sir? Will you participate?”

  “They probably won’t let me. I earned a bad reputation there once. And I’m too strong for them now—it wouldn’t be interesting.”

  “Then it’s not interesting for me either.”

  “You’re wrong to think that.”

  “Oh? Is sir trying to bribe me?”

  “Sir just desires!”

  I threw the cat-girl over my shoulder and headed for the bath.

  “Alright! Alright! Enough!” Mia surrendered after half an hour. “I agree, I’ll participate!”

  “Oh no, too late. Let’s go to the bedroom and continue this discussion!”

  “Oh, sir, you certainly know how to persuade a woman when she’s wrong.”

  The next morning, in a good mood, I stepped onto the arena, where my ten team members were already waiting. They looked… terrified, I would say. The only one who seemed relatively confident was Irgen.

  “Good morning!” she waved at me.

  I approached them.

  “Good morning, everyone. I won’t talk much, just this: if you want to become stronger and gain real combat experience, you’re welcome. If not, now is the time to leave so neither my time nor yours is wasted.”

  I fell silent, looking at each of them in turn. No one left. I smiled.

  “Good! Well then, let’s start with introductions. You’ll briefly tell me about yourselves and the magic you wield. As you already know, my name is Aney, I’m from the Principality of Atun. I am a High-Rank Battle Ancestor and a third-circle mage. I wield all nine elements.”

  A murmur spread among them, as expected. Normally, mages mastered only one or two elements and sometimes a personal magic type, like Sui, for example.

  They introduced themselves one by one, describing their abilities. Overall, not bad. Among them were offensive and defensive mages, as well as light magic and control magic support. Then I took the floor again.

  “Alright. Now I know your strengths. Let me tell you about the weaknesses I saw in my fight with you. Weakness number one—you are slow. Not just in activating your spells but in decision-making. In a real fight, split seconds decide whether you live or die. Weakness number two—you are physically weak. Yes, I know everyone says mages don’t need physical strength or endurance. But tell me, which target is easier for you to hit: a stationary one or one that moves? And weakness number three—I don’t know how you fought before, but when you’re pressured, you completely lack coordination. That’s a fact. So, our training will consist of three parts daily. Part one—physical conditioning. Part two—developing reactions to any changes on the battlefield. And part three,” I grinned predatorily, “real combat with me.”

  I took out ten bottles, each containing three fifth-class recovery pills. It was good to be generous when you had looted almost all of the alchemist guild’s supplies.

  “There are three recovery pills in each bottle for each of you. I’ll distribute these before training every day. So if you get hit more than three times per session, that’s on you. And every month, the number of pills will decrease—consider it extra motivation. Understood? Any questions?”

  One of them raised a hand.

  “I’m listening, Mara.”

  “Could you hit us… less painfully than last time?”

  Everyone laughed—good, the fear was gone.

  “That depends on you. Don’t get hit, and it won’t hurt. Alright!” I raised my voice. “Fifteen minutes of running around the perimeter of the arena, then I’ll show you shuttle runs, which you’ll do for another fifteen minutes. Go!”

  They ran, and I stayed behind to watch them. How weak they were. I wondered how many seconds they would last against a pack of first-level monsters. Fifteen minutes passed, and I stopped them—red-faced and sweaty. I gave them a ten-minute rest, then used my aura to carve two parallel lines into the stone floor, ten meters apart.

  “Listen up. This exercise goes like this: you start from one line and run to the opposite one. Touch it with your hand, then sprint back to the starting point and touch the line again… Who understands what this exercise is for?”

  Everyone remained silent.

  “Acceleration training. Remember how, in our fight, I started moving after the battle began and threw off your plan? You need to be able to do the same. So, let’s start with the basics. Go!”

  By the end of this exercise, they could barely stand. Oh no, I wasn’t going to go easy on them.

  “Boys and girls, we’re moving on to the next part of our training. Tell me, what do you think is the most important thing in battle?”

  They were silent. I patiently waited for their answers.

  “Strength?”

  “Speed?”

  “Weapons?”

  “….”

  The answers came one after another, growing more ridiculous as they went.

  “The most important thing,” I interrupted them, “is to see your opponent.”

  Everyone fell silent.

  “That simple?” Irgen asked.

  “Simple?” I smiled.