There was more discussion to be had. Dan and the others would explain their time in the labyrinth, though most of that had already been divulged by Xiaomei and Hyun Soon. There were plans to make and decisions to commit to.

All of that could wait.

Standoffish, rarely kind and inarguably complicated. Angry, prideful and headstrong to the point of fighting the whole world just to do what she wants. Dan smiled. If anyone was going to wrestle a dragon to heel, it would have to be her. Still, Dan had felt it while on the roof earlier but the heat coming from the dome atop the Barracks was bordering on volcanic.

“Will you be able to enter?” Shade asked, genuinely curious. Shade himself was more heat resistant than most and would be able to go into the room, though it wouldn’t be comfortable. However he wouldn’t be able to help, not like Dan would. The only hope was that Dan could reach her and help her, something Dan was confident he could do.

“I think her mana is being blocked and that blockage is spilling out instead of cycling inside.” If Dan was right, an injection of his own mana could be enough to help Fa Lian grasp control of her energy. If he was wrong, he might just make her more powerful while weakening himself.

He couldn’t worry about that. He couldn’t let himself worry about anything. Dan focused instead on the flow within himself. Up and down. Whether it would work out wouldn’t work was irrelevant. Front to back. From side to side. Dan leaned on his old method of cycling to control the ebb of mana within. In… and out.

Dan’s most used and most intrinsic technique had always been his awareness. Since he had first met the powerhouses that were the Guan elders and opened that part of his mind, Dan had felt overwhelmed by those around him. A kindly old man might be a true monster, capable of changing the terrain beneath them with a thought, underneath a sleepy smile. A brutish man with muscles like melons could be a timid candle flame by comparison.

A teenage girl could have a dragon inside of her, tearing her skin apart and burning her up.

Dan’s mana could not breach the walls of Fa Lian’s cell as they were made of the labyrinth stone which had given him problems since he entered. Even if it could, the loose particles would be incinerated by the superheated mana that was flowing from Fa Lian. He continued to cycle his energy around himself again and again.

Up and down. Front to back. Side to side. In and out.

With each revolution of power, Dan felt stronger and stronger. The mana which he expelled clung to him, caught in the breath of his energy. He pushed and pulled, feeling the weight of his mana, the density, begin to have a physical effect. His limbs began to feel stiff. He applied more mana and sculpted it around himself as he did. More and more of it filled the area around Dan and he concentrated until it covered him like a blanket.

Like a shell.

As though a switch were flicked, Dan felt an understanding cover him just as well as the shell did. This is what the others were doing, this was the technique of creating a shell. There was a level of control possible within the mana dancing upon Dan’s skin that was simply impossible when it was floating around himself. The difference was immediately noticeable.

“Are you ready?” Shade asked the question from behind Dan who nodded without looking. He had a semblance of control when it came to the shell around himself but if he spoke, the slow breathing that was holding all of it together would crack. Dan simply waited for Shade to open the door.

Only Shade and Dan himself were on the roof at this point. The heat that would be expelled could be enough to seriously harm the others. It would probably be enough to seriously harm Dan, but that was his choice to make and no one had a better solution. As Dan stood before the door, Shade prepared himself from his position to the rear. The majaal took a steeling breath and prepared themselves to run. With an instant more to collect himself, Shade was prepared.

A flash of dark movement in Dan’s vision. With his mana so close to himself and any ambient energy being incinerated, Dan’s normal perception of Shade’s speed was skewed. He moved like the shadow of a bird high in the sky, a flicker of lightless form and then gone again. Speed was necessary and Shade was as dependable as they come.

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Dan braced himself and still stumbled, falling to his back and rolling onto his feet once more. This was the first test and Dan had expected it, remembering the fierce fiery winds he had pushed through in the labyrinth. He had formed a similar shell then but the application had been much more haphazard.

Multiple layers of air and mana mingled to insulate Dan from the worst of the blaze. Dangerous licks of crimson mana started to snake from the room and whip towards him, the flames themselves moving like aggressive vipers. They collided with his armour of mana and were batted away as Dan pressed forward.

Due to the nearly impenetrable, indestructible nature of the stone used to make the cell, the grey walls had barely been singed by Fa Lian. The only colour left in the grey room was Fa Lian herself. Even as Dan put his hands on the wall to pull himself deeper into the room, his composure shook slightly. The ash grey walls combined with her pink, black and red ravaged skin, leaving Fa Lian looking like the last coal still burning in the middle of a firepit.

Alone no longer. Dan entered the room and with another burst of energy and speed, Shade closed the door. This was also part of the plan. Dan did not have long before Shade would try to enter and help him leave. He was desperately hoping that he wouldn’t need the assistance. That would mean he failed and he would never be given another chance.

Each step closer was a step further into the inferno. A tornado of pyroclastic winds threatened to slam Dan around the room while scorching his lungs and limbs.

Still, Dan’s worry had been reaching Fa Lian with the shell intact. Now that he had, albeit barely, he was certain that he had made the right choice. Dan flicked his right wrist, snapping a heavy collection of dense healing energy into his palm with ease. This fine control over his mana was the only thing allowing him to even be in the room. The top layer of Dan’s shell was acting similar to Hyun Soon’s technique, creating a physical barrier against the heat and wind. Underneath that layer, he was free to mould the mana as he willed it and right now, he wanted to heal.

Dan was almost glad that the heat had closed his eyes. This close to Fa Lian, he could smell the damage the flames were doing to her. A part of him hated the dragon within, a creature Dan knew nothing about other than the description he had read floating in the air around the magic item. An ancient being, dragons are capricious and unpredictable. Ryong Aang had turned itself fully and intrinsically into a weapon and had existed that way for centuries.

It was impossible to say what had caused the change now after so long. Something about the chaotic flight from the Guan vault and the battle against the vicious Steel Fever? Some trigger that occurred in the labyrinth halls? Perhaps something about Fa Lian herself. Questions with answers that Dan would not reach until he pushed through the final stretch of space between him and the burning girl.

A heavy, solid “arm” of flame reached out from Fa Lian. A condensed whip of blazing energy punched out and Dan was forced to dodge. The controlled mass of healing mana in his hand fled to the rest of his shell, shoring up the spots that Dan’s concentration could no longer fill. A different tactic was needed before the healing could begin.

Dan planted his feet and swirled his mana, crafting it and sculpting it. The invisible layer of energy began to take a more physical form as Dan forced it into shape around himself. Hyun Soon’s technique as a base. It needs to be thinner though. Even as the mana around him hardened into shape, Dan was manipulating it with all he could, grasping as every technique he had tasted so far. Instead of the plated armour, ribbons of energy snaked around Dan and held him tight.

Mana armour covered Dan’s every surface, almost invisible. To others it would look like a shimmer in the light, similar to the heat haze. Dan’s shell continued to evolve, becoming more unique, more powerful and more structured by the moment. The fist of flame punched out from Fa Lian again, the dragon within lashing out to keep Dan’s assistance away. Instead of being pushed back, Dan deflected the blow, mana against mana.

His armour held up. Where his mana ignited and charred, it fell away and was unconsciously replaced dozens of times over. His mana moved along with his own instincts, it became looser where it could and tighter where it needed to. As the struggle against Ryong Aang’s rogue mana continued, it was not just Dan himself that was learning.

His mana was adapting all on its own. Something that would not have been possible if Dan had been as locked into his techniques as others. Dan thanked his teachers in his head, the mentors that he had met along the way who had cultivated his individuality instead of turning him away. All the while, his mind and magic both frantically scrambled in response to the scorching stimuli battering at them.

The flames reared back one final time and Dan caught sight of Fa Lian properly for the first time since he had entered the room. The wreath of fire which was smashing towards Dan was connected to her, a dragon’s whipping tail that tossed her burned and broken body around as it flailed. Anger, despair and desperation mixed together all at once within Dan’s very soul. Dan dredged through every buried experience he’d had since truly coming into his power, sliding each aspect of the enemies he had faced and the allies he’d made together into one heavy blow.

He pulled his fist back and gathered each and every form of mana his energy had ever tried to be. He lowered his stance once more, planting his feet. Dan poured every segment of energy he could into his gauntleted fist, clenching it and gathering power. He brought his right fist down to his hip, his other hand hovering around it to push the errant mana back into place as he formed his attack.

Dan’s own attack. His own technique.

Specifically designed to destroy mana, as he had felt his own being demolished time and again. A hardy, diamond-class sturdiness to his own mana forged through both the fires currently assaulting him and the trials he had faced before. Those trials which had all been overcome, thrown to the wayside as Dan continued to smash through each and every barrier others placed before him.

Bands of thick rope began to cover the gauntlet. Xiaomei’s assistance. With each added layer of power Dan congealed upon his fist, the defences around the rest of his body and face were lessened. His eyes began to dry, his lips cracked. Still he poured every morsel of experience he had into his attack. If he could hit the mana before him and overpower it, Dan was sure, the dragon within would be weakened. He had felt the same happen to himself enough times to be confident.

The final piece fell into place as Fa Lian’s pained expression jumped through Dan’s mind. With a shiver of input, Dan felt the soul stone within himself focus his mana for him, giving it the complicated signature of Fa Lian’s ancient and corrosive energy.

All good techniques have names, a base truth of the world according to Park Man-Shik, but Dan was not creative enough for that right now. He did not shout a complicated moniker for the coagulation of power on his fist, nor could he describe what effect this technique would have. Instead all he could do was meet the dragon’s tail as it slashed through the air.

He met it with all the might he could muster.

And everything went dark.