On the bottom of the ocean, hundreds of miles away from shore, five warriors were about to duel. For understandable reasons, the snail did not want them fighting inside its shell, so Natalie, Michael and Tommy had no choice but to swim. With Annie’s support and improvised weapons, they circled Finn with serious intent.

‘You’re sitting ducks,’ the boy smirked and sent a wave their way, ruining their footing.

After regaining balance, all three warriors bent their knees and a circle of ice appeared beneath their feet. They thanked Annie in their minds and pushed off it all at once.

Using the gloves’ effect, Michael reached Finn first only to get knocked out with a single strike to the side of the throat. The other two swung their blades soon after, but they too were dispatched with the exact same blow.

Soon after, Michael’s gloves activated and he suddenly woke up. With a smirk, Finn hit him again on the side of the throat, and the boy went back to sleep. For the next five minutes, Michael woke up, got hit and fell unconscious, again and again while Annie attacked from afar.

She sent a storm of ice, rock, and sharp, steel blades at Finn, yet he repelled them all with minimal effort. The boy manipulated the water around him to spin and block most of the projectiles, and all those that passed his barrier, he just let them strike him, shrugging off the attacks.

‘I’m not a level five mob anymore, you can’t hurt me.’

Annie heard his words in her mind, the last straw which sent her over the edge. The first straw was Finn becoming a hero before her. The second was him shrugging off her attacks. Now, he could even use magic that she, herself, did not yet grasp.

‘Finn, you will tell me how you did that!’

‘Of course, after you beat me. Can you?’

The water around Annie suddenly boiled, and tendrils of mana extended towards Finn. The boy saw them clearly, evaded them a bit, and then let himself get captured. A cocoon of energy formed all around him, emitting electricity and trying to stifle his mana.

The pressure kept increasing on his spiritual body, distorting his senses and messing with his mind. Then, right as he was losing touch with reality and his mana was becoming a complete mess, countless thunder bolts struck his physical body, burning it to bits.

‘Really?’ Annie heard his voice. ‘This… is getting… old.’

Right when Michael woke up once more, Finn clenched his fist. In an instant, his spiritual and physical bodies restored themselves, and the cocoon broke apart. He then appeared in front of Michael and punched him back to sleep.

Annie’s eyes almost left their sockets. The cocoon was her recreation of Nunac’s final attack. She opened her mouth and gurgled something, and although he could not hear her, Finn could predict her question.

‘There are two problems with these arrays:

* They don’t work on someone stronger than you.

* After a while, you just get used to breaking them.’

Finn shrugged and Annie’s jaw dropped. Moments later, the three warriors regained consciousness all at once and stared at each other, unsure of what happened.

‘To answer your questions,’ Finn lifted his arm. ‘You all lost.’ He then summoned an air bubble the size of a stadion, encompassing all of them and even a portion of the snail.

“H-how!?” Annie all but shouted. “I only taught you fire magic and healing, you don’t know anything else!”

“Then how did I breathe underwater all this time? It’s obvious I’m copying you.”

Annie’s left arm unconsciously reached for her head as she ran multiple calculations inside her mind. Picking up the basics of an element was doable; a mage with an understanding of internal mana could figure it out in time. But to get to this level in this short a period, there was only one conclusion Annie could reach:

“You’re learning magic… faster than me.” She muttered these words and fell on her bum; her face turned pale, her expression: defeated.

Finn paused for a moment, but then decided to press on: “So, you’re on dry land now and I used a quarter of my power to create this bubble, 35% if we’re considering maintenance.

I’m weakened, and you can now move freely. Want to try again?”

30 minutes later, it was all abundantly clear: They couldn’t beat him. No matter what strategy, ability or technique they tried, none of the four, on their own or together, could lay a finger on Finn.

The only injuries he received were from Annie’s projectiles, but then, after seeing the girl summon a shield for defense, he copied the magic and summoned a makeshift one of his own. Five minutes later, the shield was perfect, perhaps even better than Annie’s.

“This magic is so basic, I don’t know what took me so long to figure it out.”

“That’s… not possible,” Annie heaved on all fours from exhaustion.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You really beat Bloodeye,” muttered Tommy.

“I wish we were fighting him.” Michael fell on his back.

Natalie did the same, her rapier broken by her side. There were no injuries on her body, but her pride was completely crushed. After a long time, during which everyone stayed silent, she slowly lifted her head and asked “Finn, can you teach us how to become heroes?”

‘Bingo,’ the boy’s lips curled towards his ears. “Are you sure? It might take years, and you can’t stop halfway.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Natalie stood up.

“We must get stronger.” Tommy followed.

“We’ll do what it takes,” said Michael.

“Will you teach me how to speak with my mind?” asked Annie.

‘Missus, do not worry. I will…’

“Shut up!” Finn interrupted the snail. “Yes, if you become a hero, you can talk with your mind too.”

“Then I want to learn.”

Then and there, it was decided. They would all train to become heroes, and only then, would they go back.

After cleaning their new home and settling in, Annie started practicing the warrior’s breath. The others’ days were spent meditating, observing Finn as he moved their own mana inside their bodies.

Unlike Annie, he did not need to touch their backs in order to assist them, a fact which spurred the girl on to train even harder. Out of the four, she was progressing the fastest. It wasn’t too difficult for a mage to master the warrior’s breath, it seemed, even if she risked ruining her potential in the process.

Surprisingly, it was Michael who grew the slowest by far. Like a crystal mage, having used the magical gloves for so long led to specific mana pathways having formed inside his body. These pathways sent commands from his brain to his weapons and back faster. However, they also interfered with his spiritual body’s natural flow and even with his use of the warrior’s breath.

‘He was this strong despite the restrictions. If I fix his body, he might surpass all of us.’

Time passed and progress was slow. However, eventually, after three months of training, Annie successfully activated the warrior’s breath. It then took her a week to turn back into a mage, during which she cried and wailed and cursed out Finn; even so, it was a raging success.

For Tommy to turn into a mage, it took five months of regular meditation and subjecting himself to mana altering arrays. It took seven months for Natalie to do the same, and Michael needed a year.

Despite having a hero’s full support and experience, without the life-threatening pressures Finn went through and his understanding of the world from past and present lives, the process dragged on for far longer than expected. Eventually, a year and a half passed, yet it still took Annie a day to switch between a mage and a warrior.

‘They’re too specialized in their respective combat arts,’ Finn realized. ‘It’s like teaching a cat how to swim or a dog how to climb trees. It’s not impossible, but it’s so freaking hard!’

Finn had to supervise and assist with his friends’ training, gather food while they slept, and fend off the occasional mutant stupid enough to attack their fortress.

Fortunately, this was Baal Berith Lex’s territory. Babel for short, the giant snail knew everything there was to know about this part of the ocean. It claimed to be the undisputed leader of its territory, yet Finn had to fend off mutants around once a week.

On rare occasions, a giant one would show up, followed by an army of critters which attacked all at once. After a year and a half of this, Finn had gotten used to it, although…

‘God, this is tiring.’

‘Did you call, Mark?’

While fighting a building sized sea lion and its army of mutant cod, Finn suddenly heard Loki’s voice. The boy took control of the currents to confuse the fish, then summoned several hundreds of ice spikes to skewer them all. As for their boss, he swung his arm blade, which now looked a bit like a katana, releasing a wave of energy which split the water and the entire, giant sea lion in half.

Blood spread all around Finn, so he summoned a pocket of air to keep himself clean. Then, after restoring his arm to normal and summoning a chair for himself, he finally addressed his unexpected guest.

‘What do you want, Loki?’

‘Is that any way to receive your God? And didn’t I tell you to stop using that abominable technique?’

‘Which one?’

‘The sword, you prick! Anyway, there’s a lull in the war, so I wanted to check up on you. I see you’re making heroes out of your friends, good job. Keep at it.’

‘What do you want?’ Finn insisted. ‘First you want me to stay put, preferably in a basement, then you save my life, and now you’re happy I’m building up my friends. I don’t get it.’

‘God works in mysterious…’

‘Cut the crap.’

Finn felt a foreign energy try to squeeze his neck, but with a slight shrug and twist, he broke it apart.

‘Your power over this planet is weaker than I thought.’

‘You cheating piece of…’ The connection was momentarily interrupted only for God to return a full minute later. ‘Listen up, you ungrateful brat. I come bearing news, important news, terrible news!’

‘Out with it.’

‘Tsk, the empire’s under siege from all sides except the ocean. The demons ordered the other species to wipe it off the map. Your kind is holding on, for now, but eventually they’ll lose. And even if they win, the demons will attack themselves and finish everyone off.’

‘You’re telling me this because?...’

‘If you return now, you five will fight bravely and die quickly. Becoming heroes is not enough. You should train until you can at least beat the boss of the echidnas.’

‘Why?’

‘What do you mean why?’

‘Why should I trust a word coming out of your mouth? What’s your end goal, what’s your angle?’

‘You don’t trust me? After everything I’ve done for you?’

‘No.’

‘Tsk, fine. If you want to be an asshole about it, I don’t like the demons and they hate my guts. I saved your ass cause I didn’t want you to join them. And I’m helping you now because your friends are exactly what I need to teach their boss some Goddamn respect!’

‘What about me?’ Finn raised an eyebrow. ‘How do I fit into all this?’

‘Oh,’ Finn felt God’s spiritual clone turn away from him. ‘You… You can just die in the process. A worthy sacrifice, don’t you think?’