Since time immemorial, exhaustion has been the common foe of all existences. From the mightest of stars to the lowliest of insects, and exhaustion of fuel meant an exhaustion of life.

In the time before magic, humans survived by utilizing persistence hunting, where they would chase their prey until the prey could no longer continue to flee. Because the prey was the first to reach exhaustion, it was the one who died. The humans, who could continue through fire and fury, survived.

In the present time, where magic governed the world, the regeneration magic affinity existed on a tier of its own. No matter what happened to a magician, they could not die without their body being destroyed, and regeneration magic was the perfect counter to that. Unless they were instantly killed, it only took a few seconds for a regeneration magician to fully recover. In battles of attrition, regeneration magicians almost always won.

Likewise, when faced with a sea of flames, a regeneration magician had nothing to fear but their own unwillingness. Any magic that dealt with living tissue needed an already-existing area of living tissue to branch their spell off from. Whether it was growing a new limb or excreting blood from skin, the magically created tissue originated from the body and automatically tried to integrate itself into the body.

In situations where the created tissue could not integrate - for example, when Andric doused his body with blood - it released feedback through the mana that led to the magician’s brain. A superior magician would be able to neutralize the backlash, but beginner magicians - like Andric - were unable to.

Even when Andric covered his skin with bones, though there were no nerves between his skin and his bone armor, he would feel pain if he removed them. When his magically created blood fell from his body and burned up, Andric felt a huge wave of compounded pain from the hundreds of thousands of drops of blood that failed to integrate.

Andric’s affinities simply didn’t allow him to efficiently create blood on the outside of his body and not feel pain from it. Creating blood that could be destroyed without causing painful feedback technically belonged to an elemental affinity. If he tried, he wouldn’t have been able to create enough blood to stop the flames.

The only benefit of temporary tissue created with healing or regeneration magic was that it automatically integrated with the body and required much less mana to keep existing. For the amount of mana that could keep an elemental gallon of blood existing for ten seconds, healing blood could exist for several minutes - at least, when it properly integrated.

Without any other options, Andric willfully repeated to douse himself with blood while running through the rubble-filled streets of Gallus Town. After a minute of running, he stripped off his blood-soaked shirt and tied it around his head, then continued running.

His shirt, made from the most flammable material of all his clothes, has the most holes burnt through it. With it on his head, he thoroughly soaked it in blood and allowed the blood to drip on his shoulders and down his torso. Needless to say, all of Andric’s body was dyed red.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

In the streets he had run through countless times, Andric passed familiar burning buildings and briefly remembered scenes from when he and various members of his family visited the establishment. In a few places, water magicians were successfully holding off the advancing flames, and they protected groups of people behind them.

Andric slowed down and carefully observed the groups of survivors, looking for Lieve and Hedy, but he didn’t see any sign of them. Both of them were water magicians, which meant they had a good chance of surviving the flames, especially when they were together. Nonetheless, Andric couldn’t help but worry about them.

Whether or not it was Wolter or Lieve and Hedy who were in the most danger was unknown to Andric. While Lieve and Hedy had water magic, Wolter did not, but he was around more people. With the monster’s habit of eating one or two people and flying away, Wolter had a higher chance of not being eaten.

Andric hoped for the best and continued running. He couldn’t feel any headache coming from a lack of mana, but he had used a large amount of mana when at Boele’s forge and didn’t know how much he had left. As long as Lieve and Hedy weren’t dead, and his mana wasn’t exhausted, he could save them.

A few minutes later, after constantly running to find ways around rubble, Andric arrived on the street where he and his family lived. The street had - like almost every street in Gallus Town - been visited by the flaming monster, and all the houses in Andric’s sight were ablaze.

In his heart, Andric had hoped that Lieve and Hedy would have been able to control the flames would have spread to their house, but he immediately saw that no such thing had happened.

As he approached closer to his home of the last eight years, Andric slowed his speed and prepared himself for what he might see. His legs brushed past low flames, but he ignored them as he walked closer to his house.

The house was drenched in a roaring fire, but a stream of water flowed out from under the closed doorway, indicating that someone inside was using water magic.

Andric shouted, thankful for the sign of Lieve and Hedy fighting against the fire in their home, “Mom, Hedy, -”

Before he finished, a massive creature fell from the sky and toppled the building, collapsing Andric’s home and spreading flames all around.

There was no reaction from Andric. Like a piece inside him broke, he simply stared at the fiery monster with an open mouth.

Slowly, his expression changed, and his mouth closed. His eyebrows fell inward, and he thought about his next action for a split second. The monster looked directly at him, and Andric’s only options were to fight or hope the monster ignored him. If the monster turned away and ignored Andric, he would have a chance to go inside his home and attempt to save someone. But, if it did not, and he tried to save his mana for a healing spell, he would be dead.

Andric’s reaction came a second faster than the monster, and he flexed his mind, activating all of his mana. He forgot all about the healing capabilities of his magic and, in that instance, only knew how to destroy.

The monster’s head and half of its neck instantly vaporized, then floated away as dust. Its flaming body quickly lost energy and slumped in the rubble of Andric’s home, and the end of its beak fell to the ground.

At the same time, Andric suffered from total mana exhaustion, and he collapsed on the pavement.