A root slammed into the ground where Taylor had been moments ago, he was using intermediate wind magic to buff his movements but he was still barely keeping up with Gaia.

“Six months we’ve been doing this and you still cant hurt me,” the not so old man chuckled, “come on, I know you can do better”

Taylor was using multiple magics simultaneously, most of which were intermediate. Intermediate being just something. He called them because they were a little difficult to pull off but once you’re used to them they aren’t horrible. One he called simply visual enhancement. It allowed the caster to increase the light directed to his eyes so he could see faster. In simpler terms it made him go from sixty fps to six hundred fps.

“You’ve had forever to perfect your magic you cheater” he grunted, “I haven’t even been at it a whole year yet.”

Concentrating he focused an immensely compact ball of mana into the palm of his hands and converted it into flames, well in a sense. It was basically plasma or a laser. A beam of super concentrated particles came from his hand as he slashed across the trunk of the great tree.

“Oh ho!” Gaia exclaimed as he winced a bit, “that one actually stings quite a bit.”

Gaia had seemed to age in reverse from all the extra nutrients from his new friends hunts. He now resembled a man him his late fifties rather than in his eighties.

Taylor groaned, “that was supposed to be a lightsaber, why didn’t it cut you?” He glanced at the line of darkened wood upset.

Gaia grinned, “because there isn’t a single thing in this world that I know of that is sturdier than I am. Well except maybe the core of the world but that doesn’t really count.”

Another two roots whipped at Taylor and he dodged them with relative ease. “You’re gonna have to do better than that old man!” He exclaimed. Then he was hit in the back by a third root he hadn’t seen and was sent tumbling into the lake.

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Gaia walked to the waters edge, “two hundred and twelve to me it seems,” he said nonchalantly, “how many do you have again?”

Standing up Taylor squeezed the water out of his now shoulder length hair as he responded, “you know exactly how many times I’ve won and lost, no need to rub it in.”

“But what fun is there in that?” Gaia asked as he summoned a gust of warm air to help dry his friend off.

Thanking the old tree Taylor headed to the base of the trunk where he had his family, or as close as he could get. Using his magic to manipulate some clay he had made sculptures of his wife and children. His wife was only a bit shorter than him at five foot six inches and had the same length he currently had for hair. He couldn’t change the colors as he didn’t have the ability to just yet but she had brown hair and eyes just like him. Her body was of average build, maybe a hundred and fourth pounds.

In the statue he had her in her favorite t shirt that simply had a slice of pizza on it and wearing jeans. His oldest daughter Alice also had shoulder length hair but more dirty blonde and had blue eyes, must’ve been recessive genes somewhere. She had a big grin on her face and was wearing a t shirt with a rainbow on it and some pants that were supposed to be white.

His youngest daughter Alana still had short hair not even reaching her shoulders yet, dirty blonde like her sister and was wearing a plain shirt and a skirt with a diaper as she had yet to be potty trained last he remembered. He had her holding her sisters hand.

Dropping to his knees he began to silently cry. “I miss you all so much. I’m trying so hard. Gaia even told me that I made two years worth of progress in six months but that still means another twenty five years to even begin trying to get you all here.”

Tears were freely rolling down his face now, “I’ve been trying to learn special magic but the amount of mana needed is crazy, I can only manage it a handful of times a day before I run out. And I’ve checked I now have well over five thousand mana, which from what Gaia claims is insane for a mortal but doesn’t even touch what he holds.”

He covered his face with his hands and tried to rub the tears out of his eyes, “I’m just scared I’ll end up failing and I’ll never see you again.”

A hand fell on his shoulder, “they’re beautiful,” Gaia said in a calming voice, “I can’t wait to meet them someday.”

“I’d bet they’d love you,” Taylor said sniffling a bit as he stood up, “crying won’t do me any good I guess.”

Looking Gaia in the face he became quite serious, “is there a way for me to create an isolated space where I can. Abuse destruction without destroying the actual surroundings?” He asked.

“Why would you need something like that?” Gaia asked bewildered, “you can barely scratch me let along destroy me.”

“I think I know a spell that can destroy you, but it’s far too dangerous to actually test,” he explained, “I’m no scientist but I heard the basic theory of how they work, and I think I can recreate it with magic. It just destroys anything within a few tens or even hundreds of miles around.”

Gaia was shocked, “what in the world could be that destructive?”

Taylor grinned devilishly, “a nuke.”