His hands quickly found the moist figure laying on the ground. She was scalding to the touch and was completely unresponsive.

He pulled her slowly into his arms, probing with whatever senses he could manage. A pulse of his Qi washed over her and the tension held in his body rapidly fell as a heartbeat pounded within her.

A tender touch on his back quickly fell from his attention as he took in every other stimulus possible.

The smell of burnt sphagnum and a metallic chemical smell common during lightning magic filled his nostrils.

Her skin was smooth like normal, and her clothes were positively scorching, but seemingly undamaged under the massive explosion.

His eyes slowly adjusted to the darker light of the overcast skies, and he was able to see her condition with his most reliable sense.

Not an inch of her skin was burnt despite the surge of power and a smile hung on her lips.

Her pupils were small as a grain of sand as her head lolled from side to side. The yellow irises spun in circles.

The ringing in his ears fell away after several more moments of inspecting every inch of her that didn’t require stripping the salamander.

“Mah, mah, mah, mah. Agh. I’m gonna be fuckin deaf for the rest of my life!” The cry ended abruptly. “Oh, never mind. I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t hear this silky voice ever again.”

Egosum turned his gaze from the caecilian and her gravely tone back towards Cinera.

Her eyes finally began to refocus after more time passed than he was happy with.

“Hey, can you hear me?” She sat her down on a raised platform waiting for a response.

She twisted her flexible body around and around with a smile still laced to her lips.

“Cinera! Come on! Say something!”

His calls finally bore fruit.

“Awesome.” It was more of a whisper than a response to his request.

He flinched back.

“Awesome? What do you mean? I feel like we almost died there.”

She finally stopped squirming and took a few deep breaths.

“Hold on a sec.” A few more moments passed with her readjusting. “Sorry, I probably should have said it could have exploded. My bad.”

The tone reminded him more of the dumb noodle behind him or her drunk figure from the lEven party more than the magic scholar that he had just seen vaporize air.

“What wrong with you right now? Did that strike fry your brain?”

He reached over to hold her head in place and looked into her eyes. They spun around in circles. His fingers reached up and forced them close.

“Keep tem shut for now. You’ll get dizzy.” She swatted at his hand but listened to his request.

They passed the time in silence while waiting for her to come back fully from her stupor.

Halfway through the day, she spoke up.

“Ugh, that was…a lot. Wow. Intense.”

“Certainly. Very intense. Would you like to explain anything?”

She looked toward the ground with a hint of shame.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I really wasn’t completely sure what was going to happen. The explosion was on a whole nother level from what I would normally expect from a lightning strike. Hey, I think if i try it again, it will work.”

Egosum was almost taken aback by her eagerness to explode so soon.

“Hold on. How about I make a bunker with enough space for you to practice so you don’t just blind us all of the time? Will that work?”

She contemplated it for a moment before agreeing.

“We will need to put a ton of vents in it so I don’t really explode into a real splatter of red, but it could work.”

They spent the rest of the day working together to create the safest room for magic testing with their current abilities and knowledge.

Night fell as they finished, and they all made it back to the singular hut.

“I think I’ll dig me a hole if you guys don’t mind. I’m not so sure how…safe this will be.” The caecilian got to moving earth right away.

The other amphibians shared a glance and shrug before heading into the hut together.

-

Egosum hopped into the swamp with Cinera following after him on her cloud of ash.

The last few days had been filled with a series of explosions and rebuilds of various buildings and the very bunker that was meant to prevent the destruction.

Cinera had finally gotten her flying spell down after many failed attempts.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The speed was less impressive than he would have hoped but it was better than carrying her or having to make a platform to keep her above the caustically aligned wetlands mana that pervaded the area.

The duo waded deep into the wooden area on high alert. The possibility of an ambush was constant, and the enemies were as numerous here as they were in the place they first dropped into.

After the many days of inaction and refining his building skills, he was ready for awesome actual combat.

“Up ahead. In that large tree.” Cinera slowed to a crawl in the air and pointed forward.

Egosum turned and caught sight of their first target fo the day.

A large fishlike beast hanging from the thick branches of a massive cyprus on its wide tail. Its eyes were a dull brown and it had alternating stripes of yellow and green.

The camouflage would have worked well if not for the massive bent of the branch under its considerable weight.

He flicked his Qi vision on and took in the sights.

All around them, schools of large fish swirled around in the water, carefree of the combat that would soon to be taking place.

He looked towards the tree and sneered.

The only visible beast was much larger than the other fish higher up and their main target.

“There are another twenty higher up. Smaller…. Hey, do you find it weird that so many fish aren’t in the water?”

Cinera shrugged before moving ahead at a crawl.

“Not really. Something needs to fill the niche and there are probably a lot more in the water than above. Anyway, I’ll take the first shot.”

They were only a few hops away when it turned its large, moist eyes over to them.

Without a second of hesitation, it hit the muddy ground and began to move towards them.

Cinera charged a magic circle up and waited for a clear sight before sending it towards the target.

The lightning bolt raced forwards in a zigzag pattern before slamming into the beast before it could even react.

The charred remains that Egosum expected were nowhere to be seen as the smoke cleared.

The fish lumbered forward with a jerky gate. Its pectoral fins pulled its mass forward while its fat jiggled to and fro.

“Well, that is unexpected. I guess I’m up next.

He threw his Qi into the mix and sent a volley of spike shooting up from the ground to impale the blubery creature.

His new stores of Qi from entering the permeation realm was doing wonders for controlling matter far outside his normal reach and his attempts at building had only increased it.

The spikes slammed into its underside, denting the fat that surrounded its rotund body.

Despite the attack, it kept advancing without a care in the world.

“Me next.”

She sent out a cloud of ash to engulf the beast.

It circled around before covering the fish completely.

It swatted at the ash to no avail.

“Close your eyes and cover your ears.”

“Huh?” Egosum turned to the salamander when a blinding light hit the side of his face and a familiar bang deafened him.

“AH!” He held the blinded eye close and turned to the fish once more.

“It…is still alive.”

He almost couldn’t believe it.

“That fat is pretty thick. I guess it's saving its life.”

“Well, I’m up again.”

The creature stumbled forward, obviously feeling the effects deep within its massive figure, but just conscious enough to point its aggression towards the attackers.

“I'll end it with this one.”

Cinera scoffed at the finality in his tone.

His arms began to shake under the strain. The toad's physical body struggled to keep up with the monumental quantity of Qi being channeled through them.

The entire swamp answered his call.

The muck around them rose above the beast, casting a shadow over the battlefield.

“Ooh. I still don’t get how you can control so much mater.”

The hanging mass froze midair before transforming into a massive wedge.

“This will be its end.”

He threw the object down and hardened the ground at its feet.

The guillotine slammed down onto the beast, bisecting it completely in half.

Despite the grievous wound, it still tried pulling itself forward in a show of tenacity.

“Damn this thing is tough.” She sent out a final lightning bolt to the monster, ending its suffering as it seized under the attack's energy.

“It would have bled out. I won this one.” Egosum approached it, diving into its flesh in search of the core he felt hidden inside of its heart.

“You don’t know that. It might of just dropped its tail.”

They bickered back and forth on the owner of the kill when the sound of a few dozen wet slaps hit the ground behind them.

They shared a glance before looking at the new enemies.

A whole school of fish dropped from the tree in the distance and were completely incensed by their leader's death.

“Wanna see who can kill the most?”

He answered with a nod before sending the entire horde deeper underground and crushing them all at once.

Cinera’s shoulders dropped before glaring at the toad.

“That has to be cheating.”

“No rules in combat.”

With the competition decided, they headed back toward their camp for the night.

Their journey was uneventful with Egosum projecting the full brunt of his power in an aura around him.

One of the many new skills he tempered in the recent down time since progressing.

“Welcome back friends! I could hear the fight all the way from here! It must have been challenging. I am glad I missed it!”

The chipper caecilian scrambled around the little playhouse he had made for her.

It reminded him of a massive ant hill, filled with tunnels that only the amphibious worm could traverse.

“Not too bad. Just some fat fish things in a tree.”

Cinera headed over to her quarters with a dismissive flick of her head.

“So, you lost. That’s unfortunate. Does that make it three to one?”

“Yep.” Egosum hopped passed her and onto the top of his abode.

The sun in the distance peaked through the thick clouds that constantly hung in the air.

“Night everyone.” Natan shouted out before scuttling into her maze.

He enjoyed the sunset’s show with a cloud of insects following it into the distance, chasing the final light of the day.

The constant tension from being on guard fell from him as he shambled into the lower level.

He popped the fish's core into his mouth, sunk into the muck, and let his Qi domain take him deeper inside.

-

“Egosum! Welcome back. Are you ready for today's training?”

He rolled his shoulders and stretched his legs out.

“Of course, Pangu. I got a core and I feel pretty good. So, what’s on the menu for today?”

The soil pulsed in anticipation.

“We will be working on supreme body hardening.”

All he could do was sigh as the meaning of his words sunk in.

“So, I will need to drop a bunch of heavy stuff on me until I get a hang of it… again?”

The dirt giggled in his mind.

“You should be glad you are such a fast learner.”