The deluge of energy exploded from the short cultivator. Thorne frowned as it reached him. He had prepared for it to be a calamity—something that could genuinely threaten his life, like from the yellow spectrum cultivator. Instead, this suicide explosion, while still painful and dangerous, was not too bad.

‘It’s probably because amber isn’t too destructive, while orange and yellow are.’ He thought while lying against the sandstone road. The ground was not particularly uncomfortable, but as the energy pushed him, jagged pieces of rocks cut into his flesh.

Sesning that the energy density was lowering, Thoren peeked his head up and looked around for the crimson cultivator. It would be best if he could finish it now while the man was prone.

Alas, Thorne was not usually granted luck. The man was in a similar position as Thorne and was actively staring at him. His red eyes were hollow, and his skin was pale. ‘Looks like he didn’t have such an easy time.’ Thorne thought with a satisfied smirk.

The energy was not so little that they could resume the duel. Thus, Thorne and the crimson cultivator stared at each other while lying down. It was an awkward exchange, but Thorne didn’t back down and bore into the man’s pale red eyes.

After a few minutes of staring, the energy reduced to a point where they could stand. Thorne prepared to attack immediately and did a half-hearted perfunctory check of his energy reserves. His breath caught upon, seeing the lowly state of his energy.

‘Damnit, I forgot.’ Throe cursed, facepalming. While waiting, he had had ample time to focus on revitalization. ‘Instead, I was distracted by a petty staring contest. I’m a damn idiot. At least the passive regeneration gave me enough or one leap.’

As Thorne planned, he didn’t notice the flying figure of the crimson cultivator! He had been used to the man’s lack of movement and was caught off guard by the leaping attack. He held no weapon but his fist and came for Thorne with crazed eyes.

Jumping backward, Thorne dodged the initial attack, but the man’s speed was faster than his. The enemy darted forward gracefully before lifting his hand and slapping Thorne in the face!

Stumbling backward, Thorne—his vision blackened for just a moment—started to swing his swords around wildly! ‘There was energy in that attack.’ He realized as he felt his body weaken, ‘I need amber. I need it!’

The man kept up his relentless assault. Slaps, punches, kicks; he did anything to keep Thorne on the back foot. All the while, Thorne was dodging and somehow surviving. ‘It won’t last,’ Thorne thought after dodging a high kick, ‘My body is somehow weakening; it’s like his slap poisoned me. I need to use amber energy to combat it, but I can’t do that when I’m under attack and can’t concentrate.’ Thorne growled in frustration as he dodged a punch and then, in futility, swung out his saber in a horizontal cut—which was missed by a wide margin.

His arms began to droop, and Thorne needed to sheath his blades before many minutes passed. Punch, kick, slap, punch, slap, elbow, knee, punch, kick. It was neverending, and Thorne had no idea how to combat it.

‘I need to gain some time,’ Thorne thought through heaving breaths, ‘If I can get twenty seconds, then I’ll be able to at least try and heal the wound.” Even a slight amelioration would greatly benefit Thorne in his current condition.

Resolving himself, Thorne decided on a plan. It will be risky, but I can’t let myself be widdled away like this.’

Thorne held his hand upward, ensuring his enemy saw it clearly. Then, he began to form the red nova torrent. It wasn’t the simple ball as it had been before. Instead, he used the new application of the ability he had learned during the fight with the yellow spectrum commander. He swirled and shaped the energy into a shifting drill-like shape.

The surge of attacks noticeably lessened. For every three punches thrown just fifteen seconds ago, now there was only one. ‘He’s becoming cautious. Good.’

Thorne let the ability fester and grow until it was outwardly volatile. It flashed and struck out at anything and everything. Lunging forward for a kick, the crimson cultivator staggered backward as the ball struck him with a strand of red energy. The man staggered backward—more out of shock than pain, but Thorne took full advantage of the respite. He launched the Red Nova Torrent and instantly closed his eyes.

He did not care if the cultivator was hurt or even killed. He just needed time. Eyes closed, Thorne looked inside himself and tried to sense where the man had infected him. Internally, Thorne’s amber energy roamed around, searching for the ability that had been used on him. He sent all the energy into his bloodstream.

‘There it is.’ Thorne grinned as he found the problem. Inside his bloodstream was a sliver of crimson energy. It was like a parasite—a small injection of energy-sapping crimson hidden in his blood.

Peeking his eyes open for but a moment, Thorne let out

a relieved sigh as he saw that the enemy was still down. Only now was he getting up. Increasing his pace, Thoren sent waves of amber energy to his bloodstream, and after a few seconds of battling, the amber energy destroyed the parasitical crimson sliver.

Satisfied that the problem was resolved, Thorne opened his eyes and looked toward his opponent. He was ragged, though Thorne supposed that he was as well. The crimson cultivator’s white uniform was torn in many places, and scratches from rock and flying debris were spattered all over his lanky frame.

The man’s usual smug smile was nowhere to be seen, and he stared at Thorne with a worried gaze. Thoren frowned as he saw this; it did instill in him some confidence that he had beaten down his opponent, but unfortunately, when fighting these opponents, he didn’t want them to lack self-belief.

‘If he thinks that he'll lose for certain, he will try the suicide explosion. Damnit, I need to be cautious, or...’ Thorne raised his eyebrows as he contemplated another possibility.

Stepping forward, Thorne and his counterpart were cautious as they circled each other. ‘He’s probably in the same boat as me regarding energy.’ Thorne thought, ‘I’ll try to remedy this.’

Step after step, no move was made. Thorne occasionally threw a few energy-less jabs with one of his swords to keep the man on his toes, but that was not his primary goal. As they circled, most of Thorne’s focus was on regenerating his energy. ‘Thank that bastard Khal that he put me in the wilderness.’ Thorne chuckled inwardly, ‘From what I've been told, the rest of the students need to sit down and meditate to regenerate energy.’

It was not quick by any metric, but soon Thorne had enough energy to grant him assurances in the duel. ‘Now let’s see if this plan works.’

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Thorne jabbed forward with his saber—causing the crimson cultivator to take two steps back awkwardly. Instead of pressing the advantage, Thorne circulated energy to his leg and turned around—jumping backward.

Beffudled, the man watched Thorne with wide eyes—not running after him. Thorne grinned as he saw the man stay in place, ‘Far away from me, just like I want.’

Landing fifteen feet away, Thoren held his sabers upward in an x-pattern; then he released the Cross Blade Strike! The red x fl through the air in a jagged line. Scrambling to dodge, the crimson cultivator leaped away at inhuman speeds!

Thorne was not finished, however. He kept launching the Cross Blade Strike! One more, then another, then another! The crimson cultivator was scurrying like a rat to dodge the attacks. As Thorne became more comfortable with the attacks, he learned that he did not even need to strike out with his blades. He simply held the blades in an x, then released the energy in the same pattern. It was like shooting a gun while the bullets were as big as a human body! After the fifth strike, Thorne heard a satisfying ding in the back of his mind, ‘Level up, baby!’

While the locations of the strikes must have appeared random to spectators, in reality, Thorne was careful in his planning while launching the continuous strike. He chipped away at the man; a cut here, a cut there. In less than a minute, he was losing blood at a rapid pace.

Unfortunately for Thorne, the crimson cultivator regained his fallen blood and healed the cuts!

Seeing the futility of his plan of attacks, Thorne decided to switch tactics. He kept launching the blades, but instead of trying to whittle the man down at a distance, Thorne attempted to draw him closer. By launching the strikes a little bit to the man's left or right, he prompted him to dodge forward instead of backward.

‘Come on.’ Thorne grimaced—feeling his energy reserves lessen by the second, ‘Just take the bait.’

By now, the crimson cultivator was only a body's length away from Thorne, and if desired, he could leap out and punch or kick at Thorne. ‘Come on.’ Thorne thought with gritted teeth.

Still holding his blades in the x-pattern, Thorne struck out again. It flew near the man—only a little bit to his right. Just as Thorne wished, the crimson man saw the opportunity to catch Thorne out, and he took it!

He rushed forward—head down and arms outstretched—intending to grab for Thorne!

Grinning, Thorne quickly sheathed one of his blades and drew the other back in a straight horizontal arc!

He prepared the most straightforward attack, the most disregarded and most understated attack—the plain, energy-coated strike!

Thorne ducked under the man’s outstretched arms and cut out with a vengeance! His red-coated blade connected with the man's waist, and like cutting through butter with a hot knife, his bottom half disconnected!

Thorne spotted the man’s face. His eyes were separate and crazed. Veins popped on his head as blood exploded from his torso! ‘He's about to do it!’ Thorne realized. He checked his energy reserves and smiled softly. ‘Oh luck, please be on my side.’ Thorne prayed as he sensed the initial sequence of self-implosion begin.

Thorne glanced upward toward the sky and prepared his most used ability. ‘I’ve never used it like this, but you’ve never failed me yet; Phantom Leap!”

Below him, as all hell descended onto the battlefield, Thorne exploded upward into the sky! He froze fifteen feet above the ground before relaunching himself again! Fifty feet up, Thorne was unbothered by the vast explosion of energy. He had noticed earlier that while the energy was dense, it never seemed to travel upward and instead spread out through the ground.

This self-implosion was the most volatile yet. Thorne could sense the intent of the energy—it was hungry and animal-like. It seemed to desire to kill and eat everything in its path. Though almost immediately after self-destruction, Thorne saw the energy density lessen.

Thorne smiled as he sensed that, but just as he did, he looked down at the ground… fifty feet below him. His eyes widened as he began to fall, ‘I didn’t think this far ahead, huh.’

Thorne hovered for a moment before crashing down to the ground. His mind raced as he looked at the sandstone road so far below. The energy-induced mist was clear, and Thorne saw both armies looking up at him—shocked and amazed by his predicament.

Leg’s flailing as he fell, Thorne checked his energy reserves to see if he would have enough to do something—anything. ‘Almost empty, damnit.’

He had used most of his neeergy during the continuous bombardment of the crimson cultivator, and using three-fathom leaps was also not easy to pull off. ‘THIS BETTER WORK!'

The fall was quick—Thorne’s stomach was raised high, and adrenaline surged through his body. Thorne was unphased by this; back in the wilderness, falls from this distance were normal—‘Though during those falls, I had the energy to protect myself.’

Just as Thoren was about to splat against the ground, he closed his eyes and reinforced himself with the little amber energy he had remaining.

Thorne’s eyes peeked open, ‘Why isn’t there pain, and why am I wet.’

He looked around—swiveling his head until Thorne spotted the culprit behind his rescue. Lyra stood beside him with her focusing orbs in hand. She had cast a bubble of plushy water right below Thorne, and while he had bruted the impact of the fall on the water, it was nothing compared to the stiff sandstone alternative.

Thorne hopped out of the water and landed on his feet—squeezing his eyes close to quench the water in them. “Thank you, Lyra.” He muttered through rasping gasps—giving his teammate a grateful nod.

She wasn’t looking at him and ignored his greeting. Instead of facing Thorne, Lyra looked outward at the enemy army, specifically at the city lord.

The man stood tall and glared at Lyra—outrage clear on his face. “You interfered with the duel!” He shouted.

“No, the duel was over. I only gave my colleague a smooth landing after he had already won the duel, city lord.” She said in a calm rebuttal, though as she said the man’s honorific, a mocking smirk crossed over her for a second. Then, in a brief instant, her face returned to the calm, neutral expression that was typical of Lyra.

The city lord snorted, but by his silence, he seemed to accept the point. Turning to his side, the city lord began to discuss something among his commanders. They soke far to quietly for Thorne or Lyr to hear.

“Lyra, what is the silver spectrum anyway?” Thorne asked. He couldn’t fight a grade two without even knowing what the spectrum could do, after all.

Lyra gazed at him with raised brows but did not comment on his lack of knowledge. “It is a quite rare spectrum. Silver represents intuition and reflection. It is one of the most unique and dangerous spectrums.”

Throne pursed his lips, “So that’s why he said he wouldn’t be harmed by Prock’s attack. Could he just reflect the attack back?”

Lyra nodded, “Yes, though as he is only grade two, the city lord likely has only a few reflection abilities. Instead, he will bully you with his overwhelming physical state and intuition.”

Thorne gulped as he looked out toward the man as he remembered the last opponent that had bullied him. ‘It's not like the snake now. I am stronger and more practiced. I did even know what the system was back then.’ He thought, wiping back the swat that creeped up on the back of his neck.

“How do I beat him then?” Thorne asked—a twinge of desperation leaking into his voice.

Laura sighed and then shrugged—looking Thorne right in the eyes; “I don’t know. You must perform something extraordinary.”

Thorne grimaced but didn’t argue the point. ‘She’s wrong; I need to do something extra extraordinary.’

“Well, thanks Lyra.” Thorne said before sitting down on the uncomfortable road and beginning to regenerate his energy. If nothing else worked, full energy reserves would surely help.

As he closed his eyes and controlled the energy reggaeton in the back of his mind, Thorne occupied the rest of his mental facilities with theorizing, theorizing on how he could surmount this seemingly impossible task.

‘What if…’

Thorne shot upward into a standing position. “Lyra is it energy expensive to reflect attacks?”

Lyra looked back at him almost sympathetically, “Yes, especially when he’s only in grade two. Though for attacks at your level, such as the ones you used against the crimson cultivator, it is likely simple for him to reflect them.”

Thoren nodded rapidly, “Yes, yes, but if I use a large attack, larger than you’ve seen from me yet, will it be difficult for him to reflect.”

“Yes...it will be.” Lyra said, pursing her lips, “But be careful, Thorne, a large attack in your eyes is inconsequential in front of him.”

“Sure, Lyra, thank you,” Thorne mumbled—plopping himself down to the ground and continuing his energy regeneration. As he sat, a plan began to form in his mind—a perilous plan, a very destructive plan.

“The Pro’Teric legacy.” Throne whispered—testing how the word felt. “I hope that the description was a bit exaggerated.”