Adrian held his breath and carefully pried open the mansion's front door. It was stuck due to old age and thin layers of wood peeled away at the slightest touch, leaving dusty marks on his fingertips. It also creaked way too loudly. He only felt comfortable opening it halfway. Any more didn't seem worth the potential risk. Followed by the other two, he crouched down and took a peek inside.

Besides the pitter-patter of a leaky pipe in the corner, it was completely silent. A wide double staircase, covered in the greenery hanging in from outside, wrapped around the walls on either end of the room. Faint streaks of light pierced through the broken windows, shining down on countless pieces of old furniture that had been ripped apart and littered around. Severe mould growth had coated them all in an unsightly green hue, and infested the air with a putrid stench.

Doors on both the left and right led elsewhere, but a bit further down the spacious corridor in front of them, Adrian could make out the ugly shape of one of their targets in the shadows. A creature's large, deformed purple foot slammed onto the ground. It created an agonising scraping noise as it got dragged back across the ceramic flooring.

Covering his ears, Adrian noticed something strange about his hands. They were…shaking? Clasping and squeezing them together didn't help like he somehow hoped it would so he shoved them into his pockets instead. What the hell are you scared for? he thought to himself, You signed up for this yourself.

Beside him, Alex stood up and started rolling his sleeves. "Looks like it's decently strong. I can sense the other one in the room to the right, so I'll go after that one. You two get this one.”

"You're going alone?" Isabelle asked.

"I work better that way.”

"A-are you sure?"

He looked at the both of them both and then groaned, “Alright, fine. What are your elemental affinities?”

People can be born with an affinity to one of eight different elements that work like any other genetic quality. It's a coin flip between one of the affinities held by the child's parents.

Isabelle told him that her affinity was electricity; Adrian told him that his was fire. Alex’s affinity? Water.

"And there you go,” he said.

“Where what go?” Adrian asked

He lifted his finger and leaned forwards, pointing it right between Adrian's eyes. “Me and you obviously don’t mix. In more ways than one. I don’t wanna waste my time trying to coordinate attacks so we don’t mess each other up.” He walked off and started sliding through the doorway, looking down at them both before he was fully indoors. “If you finish first, don’t come over and interrupt me.”

On the bright side, he didn't seem as lifeless as he did before. Failing because he decided to take a nap was an option Adrian felt he could safely rule out. Still, he couldn't miss the dissatisfaction written all over Isabelle's face.

"What he said has some truth to it," he told her with a smile, "At least our affinities aren't total opposites, right? I’m glad he’s out of our hair, personally."

"A-am I doing something wrong?" She didn't look directly at him, but he could tell from the way she was fidgeting with her hands that she was upset with herself. "Growing up, I didn't really get to make friends with anyone besides my older sister, and even now she's… I never thought talking to other people would be this difficult."

Adrian took a second then moved around so he could look at her properly. “Well, not everyone's gonna react the way you want 'em to, I guess. But, at least you already made one friend today, right?" He took hold of her hand and helped her up. Her face slightly started to light up again, but her smile turned to a look of concern the longer she held on.

"...You're shaking." Without a word, Adrian pulled his hand away, embarrassed that he was still showing even a speck of weakness. Isabelle blinked and looked off to the side, then went back to her usually bubbly, but awkward self. "D-don't worry! Fighting's like, the only thing I'm good at thanks to all the training I did when I was a kid so, um, follow my lead!" She began awkwardly marching towards the door, but then stopped and doubled back. "Oh, but I'm sure you'll be ok! 'Hunter' is literally in your name after all!"

"You sound like my dad," he chuckled. The thought that he might not be able to live up to his dad had haunted him before so finding his way through the maze of doubt, and back to his determination was a skill he'd managed to develop over the years. Like how animals evolved in response to new environments. It took a bit longer this time, but just like always, he managed to find his way the exit. Mentally resetting himself with a deep breath, he followed Isabelle inside.

Being careful to not knock over any of the junk, he tiptoed in between shards of glass and other debris. He found that counting his steps was helping his ‘hand-shaking’ problem too, even if just a little bit. One, then two, then three, then four. Slowly, but surely, they were beginning to calm. Five, then six, then seven, then Isabelle’s arm flew out in front of him and they both quickly scurried backwards.

He held his breath and hid with her, the best he could, behind a dusty old cabinet. Deep grumblings from down the hall started to echo through his eardrums. The rogue was on the move. From the darkness emerged a large four-legged creature with slow, heavy footsteps, contorting its long, slender neck like a snake and scanning its surroundings. Thick purple blood trickled down from all four of the eyes littered across its face. Its head was huge, with a permanently gaping jaw that revealed an empty void where Adrian was sure he'd see a row of sharp teeth. Alas, the void was just that.

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"...We should aim for Its head, " Isabelle whispered, "Or Its chest too. Its core should be in one of those two locations."

Adrian silently marvelled at her shift in demeanour. She kept herself completely still, not averting her gaze from the rogue for even a fraction of a second. The girl who was awkwardly bumbling around a few minutes ago had disappeared right in front of him. He couldn’t even pinpoint the exact moment it had happened, but decided to trust her, giving a quiet, affirmative sound. It was then that the sound of a powerful water blast boomed through the atmosphere, followed by an animalistic screech from the other room.

The rogue’s reaction was near instant, twisting its neck to the source of the noise. Isabelle didn't waste any time either.

Electricity surged across her entire body as she shot up onto her feet. Adrian's jaw dropped, watching her gracefully leap above the rogue, her leg high above her head at the apex of her jump. The next thing he knew, she had swung it downwards, with a beautiful, picturesque axe kick. The rogue shook the room upon its collapse and sporadically jittered around, temporarily paralyzed by the sparks. Isabelle dashed backwards and slid across the floor to break her momentum.

"One good hit!" She exclaimed.

Adrian slumped his shoulders, feeling stupid for being as shocked as he was. Of course an Ambers family member was going to be amazing. As for himself, he was starting to realise that only having one person to compare his strength with his whole life came with some cons. He'd fought in countless sparring matches against his dad as part of his training but, of course, not once did he ever come close to winning, even though he was holding back. His own strength in relation to others that weren't him was still relatively unknown. Was he gonna be able to keep up?

...I've gotta try anyway.

He shuffled his feet apart, getting into the perfect fighting stance. If there was ever a time to put his years of training and studying to the test, that time was now.

All the different applications of spirit energy are known as the spirit arts; the most basic of which being the three main principles. They each require the user to meticulously control the speed at which spirit energy flows within their bodies in order to perform.

Adrian spread his fingers and pointed his hand towards the rogue, speeding up the flow of spirit energy leading to his palm. The amount of flammable objects around would have been a detriment if it weren't for the room's size. He had just enough space to fight as he pleased. With pinpoint accuracy, he shot a fire ball the size of his hand directly between the rogue's eyes - the art of emission.

Easy, but a rush of excitement came over him, nonetheless. The spirit frantically shook away the flames from its face. Bits of fleshy substance were flung around the room landing on the ground with nasty, cringe inducing squelching sounds. Both his and Isabelle's elemental effects didn't last for long. It completed its recovery and stood perfectly still, adjusting two of its eyes to look at Isabelle, while the other two remained laser-focused on him. He could feel his entire body heating up with the pressure.

It’s waiting for us to move. That was the first thing that popped into Adrian’s mind, but using his sixth sense told him a different story. One where a sudden spike in the rogue’s spirit energy and a powerful lunge, like a charging bull, would force him and Isabelle to take an immediate defensive position. In that short time window he copied Isabelle's actions and widened his stance, with his arms stretched out in front of him. Slowing down the flow of spirit energy across his whole body below its default pace, like she did, caused a protective aura created from his flames to completely cover over him - the art of amplification.

The rogue headbutted both of them, and for a second, the impact blinded him. He was sent hurtling backwards through the rubble, scraping his skin across the floor, and bouncing off the wall behind them. Even if amplification shielded them from a majority of the damage they'd have taken otherwise, he was still struck with a searing pain across his back and arms. He wanted so badly to scream, but he forced his mouth shut, in order to focus on reorienting himself within reality. Isabelle was already up, extending a helping hand towards him. Still gritting his teeth, he grabbed on, heaving himself upwards onto shaky legs.

"Look at its head!" she said, clutching her shoulder.

They had left a cloud of dust in their wake, but the silhouette of the rogue stumbling around in a daze was clear. A peculiar purple glow emanated from cracks which had begun to form where its head had collided with their spirit enhanced block. A distinct purple glow like that could only be the result of a core. Determination flashed across Adrian's face, knowing now that a win was more than within the realm of possibility. "Then all we gotta do is wait...” For what he was sure would be the last time, he stretched and readied himself up again.

Before it looked like the rogue had even recovered, it was already gearing for another charge. Blessed with the knowledge of the previous attack's timing, Adrian and Isabelle lowered their bodies and reeled back their fists, amplifying them and causing lights of orange and yellow to fill the space. They stood their ground, even as the rogue closed in, giving it all to one last desperate lunge. Keeping his fist burning, Adrian launched his punch forwards in sync with Isabelle's, cracking the surface of the rogue’s head. A blood-curdling howl reverberated through the whole room as it staggered back, and tripped over itself, falling to the floor.

Panting and Wiping the sweat from his face, Adrian stood, wide-eyed in astonishment at his own strength. This is what he was capable of. The idea that he could match and possibly surpass someone from the Ambers family ran rampant across his mind and cast a wide smile across his face. "I'm fucking crazy," he said aloud. And he froze right after, embarrassed that Isabelle had heard his egotistical self-affirmation. She was still, too, just as wide-eyed as him, but after a few awkward seconds of staring at him, broke into laughter. "O-of course you are! I told you didn't I? There was no need to be worried!"

He smiled and glanced down at his hands. There were still some young flames emanating off of them. A chuckle left his mouth and slowly turned into a genuine, teary-eyed laughter. All that time spent worrying about himself; it was all for nothing, and he still wasn't done. Knowing that he could still go much further was exhilarating beyond belief.

“Are you, um, you ok?” Isabelle asked.

“Never better,” he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, ”But This thing's body should have started dissolving by now, right?”

He marched over and peered within the rogue's head. Its core, a spherical mass of swirling spirit energy, lay within a bed of flesh, branded with a flickering flame and stray sparks of electricity.

Amplifying his hand again, he eagerly stepped closer to finish it off properly, but had his attention stolen by the sounds of another water blast from the other room. Following it were sounds that were almost comparable to a car crash from the other room. Adrian looked Isabelle in her eyes, and she shot him a determined look right back. "I'll finish this off, don't worry! You should go check on Alex," she said, "I'll catch up!"

He nodded his head and turned around, making a mad dash to the other room, itching to test himself some more.