LESS THAN A SECOND EARLIER

Rynn reacted to the twins' combined attack in a flash. In the time it took for them to use one technique, he cut through an incoming fireball with a jet of pressurized water, repositioned himself, and countered a sword strike with an earthen fist.

He had them. He was too fast, and even their best attacks had barely scratched him. Now, all he had to do was slash with wind at Kiro and —

He was stuck! Was this some type of special technique? He channeled more mana into his limbs, but even with a full-powered shroud of earth and fire, he couldn't move a muscle.

"We win."

Seira stepped out from behind him, and it was only then that he saw the blade inches away from his throat.

Aer waved a hand, releasing her hold on him.

"That was really good, guys! Kiro and Seira, you two are really starting to master the flow of battle. Every move you did, every strike, even every time you let yourself be hurt was deliberate. Especially in situations where your opponent is faster and stronger than you, it's the mark of an experienced mystic to not focus on dodging every attack, but rather on winning the fight."

The twins clasped wrists, but Rynn's mind was still racing. No! How could they have beaten him by so much? Even when he had been sure that he was winning, Seira had somehow managed to close the distance. That couldn't be possible! There had to be a reason why!

He glared at Aer, realization dawning on him. "You rigged the match. Even though you made it seem as if I would be worth two of myself, I still only had the same amount of mana."

The Saint gave him a pitying look, removing his augmentations. "Look at your core, Rynn. It wouldn't have mattered."

His core was… only halfway empty? Then how had they beaten him?

He flared his aura, marching towards the woman. "No. There has to be something wrong. Your imbuement wasn't as strong as you claimed, or you gave them some type of elixir that boosted their strength. They couldn't have defeated me on their own!"

Kiro put a hand on his shoulder. "Well, you're partially right about the elixir. It wasn't her that gave us the potion, though. I concocted it myself — it was the red cloud at the beginning of the match."

He dropped to his knees. "You're lying! You two haven't done anything but the bare minimum since we've arrived! How could you have bested me?"

Seira sat next to him, and for once, there wasn't annoyance in her voice as she spoke to him. "No, Rynn. You're just so above us that you don't realize how much we have to work to get to your level. Did you know that every day before you woke up, and after you finished cultivating, Kiro and I were still training? He even had to concoct special pills just so that we wouldn't tear a muscle during practice."

Rynn's aura flared, and he lashed out with a whip of flame. "So you lied to me! You've been doing extensive training exercises without me, and she knew about it! All you want is for me to fail! I… I won't stand for it!"

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Seira caught the haphazardly thrown technique, extinguishing it without a second thought. A flash of killing intent emanated from her, but it quickly dimmed as Seira mulled over his words.

"You know... maybe we were excluding you a bit. I'm sorry. I was just scared that you'd trash our secret training, like everything else. I was also just jealous that you didn't need to do what we do to advance so fast. And trust me, we were trying our hardest, even when we all trained together."

"I — you're lying. How could such little progression possibly be the result of you trying your hardest?"

Kiro offered him a hand up. "Rynn, I don't know how the clan managed to get your latent talent so wrong that they deemed you a sun — the difference between us is like heaven and earth. Things that you do with ease might take me weeks to master."

What? No. That couldn't be possible. He was lazy, just like Seira, just like Aer, and just like the rest of the cultivation world! He slapped the hand away, storming off into the cave. "You don't know anything."

***

Stronger. He had to be stronger! Rynn bit down on another pill, forcing the released mana to conform to his will. A raging torrent of elemental power crashed into his core, and a spike of pain shot through his spirit. Still, he continued, sending wave after wave of suffering into his core. This was the only way to get stronger. The others simply weren't willing to sacrifice as much as he was!

He gathered for a final push, determined to break through to the late Infusion stage. A turbulent cascade twice the density of his previous attempts slammed into the crystalline walls of his core, and he felt something crack.

Agony the likes of which he had experienced before flooded his body, and it was all that he could do to remain conscious. He could feel the mana leaking out of his core, not obeying the safe lines of his channels but instead ravaging his body from the inside out. Still, he gritted his teeth, preparing for another cycle. The pain was simply a sign of his progress! He would recover from this, leagues above anything those insolent twins could achieve!

The slow streams of mana escaping from his core gradually quickened to mind-shattering spurts, and hot, metallic blood welled up in his mouth. Every movement he made, every breath he took further intensified the pain. He could feel himself gradually losing the fight for consciousness, his mind exiting reality as his mana exited his core. Had he gone too far? Was this his end? Maybe the Saint was right…

***

Rynn woke to a stream of air mana flowing to his dantian. What? Where was he? His core — what had happened? He cracked open an eye, and Aer greeted him with a gentle smile

"I'm glad you're awake, Rynn. I brought you dinner." Aer motioned to his bedside table, where a bowl of bread and skewered meat rested.

He flared his aura. "Leave me be, Saint."

The woman removed her hand from his core, sighing.

"Okay, you're mostly recovered, so you should be fine alone. Before I leave, though, please, at least let me say my pitch."

He grumbled. It wasn't as if he could do anything to stop her, and she had just healed him.

"I'm sorry too. I might have been a bit harsh there earlier — I just needed to prove to you that my training works. And I didn't want you to get hurt like this, you know? But, I'll admit, I can see that you can handle a lot more stress than the average cultivator. Normally, I wouldn't have been able to heal a core whose aspect was only adjacent to mine in days, much less a few hours. As such, I think that I can offer a compromise. Together, we can talk about where you want to go with your training, and how to get there as fast as possible without getting injured. Is that okay?"

He opened his mana sense, looking at his damaged core. "I… I need to think."

The Saint stood up. "Of course."