The intensity of each training session was diminishing with each passing days.

There was a point where nothing could be done to improve anymore, and at that point, only refining the already-acquired abilities became an option.

It was at that time, three days after the three fought.

"Amelia, could you let me use your elements? Please?"

Orion was done with his workout for the day. He had decided that today would be the best time to work on the elemental crossbows he kept dreaming about like a child.

So he approached Amelia, who was sitting on a rock.

"It's been a while since you've asked me this. Was the last time three weeks ago?"

"Something like that? I've been containing myself so far, so I really want to see if we can create them."

"If memory serves, before we left Auro, I'd only been able to create two elemental arrows, one made with my water element and the other made with my wind element. It's going to be the first time we're making a real weapon."

Orion remembered the time before they began their journey. So much happened in three months that it made him smile.

"You're right. I also remember you getting angry at me for being too powerful. I'm pretty sure it's going to happen again."

He grinned at her, expecting the usual banter to start, but this time, she remained silent.

"What's happening? Are you worried?"

He stopped joking immediately.

"How could I not be worried? With the potential those two arrows had, my elements became more deadly in your hands. We don't even know how they will behave in crossbow form."

Orion realized that she was right. Maybe he jumped a few steps ahead and avoided thinking of everything possibly going wrong. His curiosity was strong concerning that matter.

But this would not stop him from finding out.

"If my elements managed to be stable in your hands, I don't think they would act differently in mine. Am I wrong?"

She looked at him with a worried look, but smiled and shrugged.

"You're right, maybe I'm freaking out over nothing."

"Just to be certain, I'll be extra careful using them. If we see any irregularities, we're stopping the experiment. Are you fine with that?"

Amelia nodded.

Karteira was training her plate displacement further away. She realized something was going to happen that was different from usual, so she stopped everything and approached them.

"What's happening? Are you two done for the day?"

They both turned to her, one grinning and one looking defeated.

"Well, how do I say this? We're going to destroy common sense."

Karteira looked at Amelia as if she were dumb.

"Don't look at me like that! I'm not joking, by the way. He's really going to break common sense. Just watch!"

She regained her neutral expression and stared at Orion.

"What are you going to do this time? Is it as stupid as single-handedly fighting a third of the corrupt beasts?"

Orion turned his face to the side and scratched his cheek.

"Maybe?"

"Pff-"

Karteira started laughing loudly.

"As expected of you, I'm not surprised anymore. Do you mind if I watch too?"

"No, I don't mind. Just... don't stay in front of me."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Karteira walked toward a tall rock at least two meters high and jumped on top of it, then sat down.

"Alright, what do we start with? You still can't use water and wind, so there's only earth and lightning, right? Your fire element is still too weak to work with so far."

"I wouldn't say it's 'too weak'. On the contrary, it's so powerful that I can't use it. At least right now."

"Let's leave fire out of today's experiment. I won't use the 'Overdrive' either, that would lead to a massive catastrophe."

"Yes, I don't want to see this place being torn apart by one arrow either... How would you explain that?"

A dry laugh escaped Orion's mouth. Just thinking about the earful he would receive from the twins and Tiohr-nam was enough to calm his eagerness to even try.

After a small silence, Amelia closed her eyes, and a ball of earth with multiple components appeared in her hand.

An aggregate of dirt, rocks, sand, and metal had been formed. The stone and the sand were rotating around a perfect sphere of dirt and metal.

"Here's the first one. Be careful."

Amelia gave the earth element to Orion, who carefully received it with both hands. She walked toward the rock Karteira was sitting on and began to watch silently.

Orion focused his senses on the foreign element in his hands. It seemed like it was scared, or maybe just wondering why it was in someone else's hands instead of its usual master.

The next few minutes were used to familiarize himself with the element.

It was terribly complex, as all the components were linked together but couldn't be thoughtlessly merged. He acknowledged once again how strong Amelia was after having improved so much.

How would he create a crossbow from all of this? This was the hardest part. Sand and dirt were brittle, so they couldn't be used to form parts under pressure, but he couldn't use stone on flexible parts like the string.

'This might be the hardest element to work with.'

Five minutes passed with Orion still focusing on the earth element.

Then, ten minutes passed.

A total of twenty minutes went by, with Orion sweating more and more as his focus sharpened.

'I can see it. This is the shape it wants to have.'

"Maia!"

"Eh?"

Out of nowhere, Orion shouted a name, and it surprised both Amelia and Karteira.

The sphere began to morph into a crossbow. It appeared to be incredibly unique— something that would be impossible without magic.

The form in which the earth element embraced was as follows:

The base of the crossbow, comprising the stock, the trigger, and the foregrip was made of smoothed stone.

The upper part, comprising the sight, the groove, and the barrel, was made of compacted dirt.

The front of the crossbow, comprised of the riser and the limbs supporting the string, was made of pure metal.

And the string, surprisingly, was made of sand.

Seeing the shape of that crossbow, Amelia gasped.

Her element really transformed in the hands of Orion. Only then did she truly realize that he was right. She had the ability to share her elements or receive someone else's.

"Orion, is that string made of sand? Isn't that dangerous?"

Karteira asked him from her seat. He turned around, still looking at Maia and his new crossbow.

"It wanted to be like this, so I obliged. It might have a trick up its sleeve if it wanted sand to be used like this."

He played with the string to check on its strength and quickly noticed that it could be locked without breaking.

"I see. So, where's the arrow?"

Orion closed his eyes again, and a metallic arrow appeared in the groove. It had a simple head, unlike his most-used arrows.

"This should be enough. We don't want to go overboard today."

"Coming from you, that sounds doubtful."

Amelia laughed at his comment. A crooked smile formed on his lips.

"Shut it. Even I can contain my strength. Last time was an accident, and you know it."

He turned around and locked his sight on a rock further away.

"Oh, he's focused. Let's see what it does."

*Click*

Orion pressed the trigger.

The arrow fired successfully, but the sand string dispersed after firing it. He knew this would happen, so he listened to the small voice of the crossbow.

'Magic.'

With this one word, Orion understood. He transferred his own magic power to Maia, and the string repaired itself with a new sand string.

Meanwhile, the arrow flew straight at the rock and pierced it. It managed to stick itself a few centimeters inside the rock, and then something unexpected happened. The rock began to crack, slowly, really slowly.

And at some point, the cracks gathered. The rock exploded into a pile of smaller rocks.

"What in the world happened?!"

Karteira watched carefully the result. When the arrow struck the rock, she began to think.

'Well, that's just a simple arrow in the end.'

The disappointment was starting to grow, as nothing was happening.

But the truth was different, this arrow, looking as basic as it could, was empowered by a different power.

"I'll explain what happened, since I seem to have understood it."

Orion approached them and gave Maia back to Amelia, who changed to its sphere form instantly and vanished inside of her.

"The shape of the crossbow is maintained by me transferring magic to it. It feeds on magic energy to maintain its shape. It is particularly strong for a crossbow because the power at which it fired that arrow was incomparable to my own crossbows."

"But what about the arrow itself? How could it burst that rock to pieces without piercing it?"

Amelia asked him the question Karteira wanted an answer to.

"It's simple. Pressure."

"Pressure? Like the strength of gravity?"

"Gravity?"

Karteira wasn't the studious type, so she never really bothered reading books. She was not familiar with how the world worked compared to Amelia, who often listened to Orion's explanation of everything.

"You don't know? Don't worry, then, I'll explain so that you understand."

Karteira jumped down from her rock and listened to Orion's explanation.

"This was in a book written by a man called N. Gravity is a force emitted by our planet."

"I don't know the details of it because I didn't understand all of it, but there is a molten core inside our planet that creates so much energy that it attracts everything toward it."

"Why aren't we crushed on the ground if it attracts everything?"

Karteira asked, and just like Amelia, she began to listen seriously.

"This is where it began to bother me, too. It's a strange strength, enough to crush anything the closer you get to it's center, but lessens greatly when you are placed further from it."

"That's why we can walk on our planet without getting crushed. We are at a perfect distance to fight this force."

She frowned, as if Orion had told her lies.

"This is a weird power. Don't you think it could be a bad joke?"

But he shook his head with conviction.

"I don't think it is. I've read many books written by this 'N', and everything seemed accurate. This strength coming from the core is called 'gravity' and the further you move toward the core, the more you feel the force called 'pressure'."

Orion placed his hand on his chin as he kept developing.

"This arrow worked a bit differently, but close enough for it to be called 'pressure'. Once it clashes with something, it applies a pulling force on all sides and attracts the pierced object toward its tip."

"So that's what happened! Now I get it. This was easier to understand than I thought."

Karteira, a battle addict, managed to understand a scientific discovery. Who was that man, N, who was more knowledgeable than any human on this continent?

"I know, right? Orion always explains things well."

Amelia showed pride where it should have been Orion who expressed it.

"Well, we still have another element to try."