Kieran's fingers closed around a thick shard of wood, causing the crusted blood on his hand to crack and tear slightly.

The short stake he held was far from ideal, but considering the state of his ruined hatchet, he wouldn't dare complain. Even the berserker's enormous axe got obliterated into nothing more than scattered debris by his absurd attack.

Beggars can't be choosers.

The ever-increasing heat created a growing concern that he may need to make one last pitiful attempt to break through the barrier. At the very latest, before the uncomfortable sweltering shifted to downright dangerous temperatures. Considering the steady rate at which the Orc mage endlessly torched the magical barrier, he worried this would have to be sooner rather than later.

Before things got to that point, though, he still had one more mystery card he hadn't played for fear of the consequences.

The part of his mind that he normally repressed and would tell to “shut up and stop being crazy” whispered to him more convincingly than ever in his life. Despite his logical brain insisting that this door was just a tall magical monument of ages past, deep down in his bones, he ached to open it and see what lay beyond.

If death was his only escape from this place, better it be granted by an old magical puzzle door with a theoretical chance of survival. As opposed to some smug little alien asshole that delighted in torturing people with fire.

Something about the unending pain and irritation a severe burn would leave upon its victims always made Kieran cringe inside. So overall, burning to death sounded unbearably awful, and he was opting the hell out.

Looking back at the orc, he frowned at what was surely a smile plastered across its wrinkly little green face. Those sharp, alien features gave an impression of a smug sneer, further intensifying Kieran's hatred.

"Fuck this" he said, wiping the drying sweat from his brow. "If I get the chance, I'm killing this twat" he promised.

"Painfully…"

Kieran turned back to the tall door that with any luck wouldn't kill him like a measly gnat.

Only when he approached and examined the sigils up close did he notice that two of the glyphs were considerably brighter than the others. Saturated with pale grey and dark orange light that told Kieran’s video game obsessed brain enough.

"Wind…and fire?" He mumbled to himself thoughtfully.

Kieran glanced at the formerly windy shards across the floor and then the quivering heat distortion of the surrounding air. Everything started to make a clearer degree of sense to him.

If he could only find a method to add ice and lightning mana, then maybe that would be enough to move onto the next step of the obscure puzzle.

"Whatever that might be…" he gulped with anticipation and boldly reached out with both hands. Another long moment passed where he held his breath for the worst-case scenario.

The weight of trepidation left his shoulders as soon as his palms touched the cool stone. Fresh waves of elemental mana reassured him that the bizarre door was no longer trying to kill him. Other than the constant low hum of energy, Kieran couldn't discern any recent changes in the glyphs upon the door.

Before he could consider what to do next, however, an intense wave of heat brushed against the back of his neck. The temperature was rising quickly, as though someone was blasting him with a powerful air heater. Yet as currents began to shift and swirl all around him, a new cooling sensation grew inside his chest, giving him just enough relief to continue.

As the boiling air grew more turbulent, great blasts of searing hot air were followed up by a cool breeze that brought him suddenly back to a neutral temperature. Each new brush of hot then cold wind stirred Kieran into a deep stupor.

Only when he reviewed the elemental glyphs that shone before him did he guess what was happening. The fire and wind energy mixing and interweaving with one another was somehow creating a strange combination of mana beyond the sum of their parts.

“Wow, this is weird. But still, it feels so nice” he said, genuinely shocked at how suddenly the scorching heat ceased burning against his skin. Instead, it now felt more like a cool summer breeze, wafting his hair this way and that.

Kieran didn’t move a muscle, he just basked in the amazing feeling of warm relief and pleasant wind dancing across him.

With his eyes closed, he could almost see himself back home in the green British countryside, bathing in the sun’s pleasant glow. The refreshing caress of shifting summer winds in his face.

For a long minute, he forgot the struggles of blood and pain, the brushes with death, and even the terrifying alien creatures that still sought to murder him. All he saw in his mind were the endless emerald fields of the warmer months, stalks bending to and fro with nature's tranquil motions.

Much like his home country's inconsistent weather, this reprieve did not last long. The bright shine of the sun faded behind grey clouds, and the gentle wind picked up into a strong gale that pulled in thick darkness from the distant horizon. The wind switched directions, becoming sharp and bitingly cold as it beat against him. Steam drifted out with each long breath he released.

Deeply fond of a good rainstorm and the comfort it brought, Kieran anticipated a wonderful deluge to bathe him from the dark clouds. Instead of the cold relief of rain, however, meandering layers of shiny white snow drifted solemnly toward the ground.

A rickety sound vibrated through Kieran’s face and pulled him back from his reverie.

Huh? Awoken by the chattering of his own teeth, he couldn’t comprehend the icy numbness that filled his limbs. He fought off his body's natural instinct to shiver more violently as he looked about. The burning air still kicked up motes of dust where it singed them into nothing but a mere puff of smoke. But bizarrely, the heat didn't reach his trembling limbs. Something definitely looked different, though, and as he watched his small isolated world change drastically once more, he became deeply baffled.

Inside the black smoke, tiny pearls of ice sprung to life instantly, only to be pulled along in the chaotic wind with everything else.

A veritable hurricane of volcanic and glacial pockets of air stormed around him. Particles of twinkling ice and sparks of flame violently burst in and out of existence in the upper air currents as the strange storm raged on.

It looks so beautiful…but what the hell’s happening?

Light in his peripheral vision drew his gaze back to the ancient door. Kieran only then noticed that a thick layer of clear, crystalline ice froze his hands firmly to the stone.

“D-did I do that?” he gasped.

“Shitting hell!”

He took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, resisting the natural desire to tear his numb hands free of their icy bindings.

If fire drives the winds faster to bring the cold, how does the cold ever relate to creating lightning? He tried to stretch his creativity and weak understanding held for the fundamentals of thermodynamics to make sense of it all. But with his meagre level of scattered knowledge, he just couldn't grasp whatever catalyst was making any of this possible.

Could it be something beyond our understanding of physics?

The nature of the system, of magic, and portals, none of it seemed to fit within the scope of Einsteinian Physics as Kieran knew them. So he considered another possibility, found only in science fiction and fantasy.

The mana? he guessed.

Nothing else made sense in his head. The bizarre power of mana had to be the only thing capable of facilitating so many abnormal and downright magical events.

With what he knew to be quite a risky assumption, Kieran decided that he should just follow his gut and pump considerably more mana into the situation until something else happened.

“Here goes nothing then” he said. Internally praying he wasn’t making things worse.

“Allow me to…break the ice” he quipped in an exaggerated Austrian accent.

The arctic energy streaming into his palms reacted with his initial dribble of mana. It made its way back through the channels and sent invigorating yet stiff mana flowing through his limbs and towards his heart. However, the powerful chill could not penetrate to the core of his chest where the unified elements held dominion over.

Focusing vaguely on where the quietly humming black orb resided, Kieran tried to prompt it mentally into action, confident its mysterious powers could stir up some extra control over the elements as it had before.

Unfortunately, the orb didn’t respond at all to his weak intent. So he instead tried to focus on pumping out more mana in a gamble that quantity would be better than quality in this situation.

Before he could even coax any more of the elemental mana into his limbs, the precarious balance of energies threatened to come apart. The deep cold inside him slowed the unified mana stream to the point where the agile wind and rolling fire energy both slowed to a weak crawl, churning like molasses.

All power escaped his grasp in that moment, leaving nought but the endless chill of frost crawling further up his arms. He watched helplessly as miniature icicles instantaneously formed across his skin. Like a glacial tide that flowed over his biceps and up his shoulders, the twinkling shards rushed right up to his neck without slowing.

A deep gasp emptied his lungs as his entire body seized uncontrollably.

The clenching in his lungs reminded him of plunging into one of those so-called ‘recovery’ ice baths. Something he vowed never to do again after his previous embarrassing public reaction to the unbearable chill. A bath of barely freezing cold water would be but mere child's play, however, when compared to this beyond arctic absolute zero.

The tundral knives that pierced his flesh promised to drag Kieran into an icy void of nothingness before he even understood what had happened to him. A scream of agony froze in his mouth as thick layers of transparent ice sealed his mouth shut and held his tongue in a silent plea.

Ice continued to crawl its way over his face, trying to encase his entire body in the solid crystal. But even as his body gave way to the chilly abyss of such dense frost, one spot remained clear of all cold. He could feel that last bastion of warmth inside him resisting, refusing to allow the rebellious mana to lay claim to his heart, to his core.

His black orb and surrounding sea of mana fought off the encroaching cold’s power. Then with a sudden familiar thump that rang out from his centre, a miniscule storm of mana blossomed within his chest. With another echoing beat from within, the mana fought back against the cold, pushing it back effortlessly. Thankfully, the sharp stiffness in Kieran's bones lessened dramatically, and he mentally relaxed a little.

That was far too close…

Undulating energy coursed through his veins quicker than he could process. Where the altered mana passed, it eliminated the deep numbness from his extremities in seconds. With a resounding series of cracks, the crystalline ice across his torso and neck shattered into dust that fell to the ground like shattered glass.

The rapidly circulating currents of mixed air pulled in the smaller frost particles that floated aimlessly. Once there, they multiplied like fractals into a turbulent snowstorm that whipped against his warming flesh.

Despite the rough arctic wind rushing by, heat gradually suffused his limbs once more, allowing Kieran to sigh in relief as he gratefully regained control of his body. He writhed suddenly from side to side like a wet dog, shaking free any lingering icicles that clung to his skin.

A steady stream of fresh air entered his mouth, and he gazed curiously at the continuous storm of whirling ice and flashing flames above. In the aftermath of his frosty entombment, Kieran observed a pervasive tingle of cold remnants inside his limbs as he held his breath in worry.

Strangely, he found that the icy mana no longer sought to turn him into a human popsicle as it moved through his mana channels in turgid streams. He marvelled in comprehension as he felt cold mana intertwine with the warmth of fire burning through him. The unlikely mixture was corralled into twisting multi-coloured threads of mana by the subtle movement of the wind he'd also begun to recognise more easily.

It occurred to him then that each dangerous exposure to these elemental energies seared itself deeper into his flesh, granting him a closer familiarity with their wildly differing natures.

The only one of these unique elements left for him to truly experience was the lightning element, and after nearly being turned into a human popsicle he became increasingly nervous about letting himself channel any voltage of electricity through his flesh.

Seeing the bright pale blue glyph shine with brilliance, much like the alien characters for fire and wind. He knew all that remained was for him to somehow summon lightning mana to complete the puzzle and open the door.

Nathan's never gonna believe this shit, I'm actually about to become budget Thor or die trying.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

He snorted an empty laugh through his nose at the thought.

Here's to hoping it won't fry my brain like actual lightning…

Kieran couldn't just rely on the black bead to save his life every time some new mana tried to annihilate him from within. The mysterious pulse it gave off was so far beyond his scope of guesswork that he didn't want to keep risking everything on such a reckless hope.

"Little orb guy?" He said softly, almost like he was talking to a friendly dog that might just as quickly bite off his balls as it would defend him.

"please have my back when this shit inevitably goes south, I'll feed you some tasty mana once were done, I promise buddy"

As if talking to some peculiar magical bead that tried to kill him at least once today wasn't bad enough, he realised he'd genuinely meant his strange promise to it.

"God" he dragged out in exasperation "it's been a bloody long day…maybe even two now, I think"

The unchanging sky of dark stone and earth left him truly ignorant to the passage of time.

"Ugh anyway, let's give it a shot” he said as he formed an idea. “lucky elemental contestant number four, come on down." he chimed in a weak attempt to ease his nervous tension, then turned his inner sense toward the elemental power writhing in him for what he hoped was the last risky dice roll.

Much like his previous attempts to summon the unique manifestation of each mana type, Kieran began with his steady mana breathing, inhaling and exhaling without any mental effort at all. He even imagined he could hold a light conversation whilst still maintaining a steady intake of mana now.

Despite becoming more dependent on his innate skill for almost all mana-based activities and manipulations, he considered it to be a good thing that his ‘breath of the soul’ was becoming more ingrained into him than ever before. By its very nature he guessed such a skill should be incredibly versatile, and Kieran was intent on making full use of it whenever the opportunity arose.

Remembering the peculiar name the system gave his skill, he turned over the idea of its true purpose in his meandering thoughts.

Pneuma? Strange word for the system to use for a breathing skill when it still labelled it as ‘breath of the soul’ and not just ‘breath of mana’

Kieran expected that in time and with some potential guidance from others he might learn more about the origin and true capabilities of his skill. For now, though, he simply breathed in and out with the consistency of furnace bellows that steadily stoked his own inner flame.

Inside the calm observation of his mind’s eyes a dancing cloud of multi-coloured mana twistest hypnotically around his black orb.

Each shifting wave of the ephemeral flame flickered vibrantly, shining a different representative colour of the three elements he had gained some semblance of control and familiarity with.

The fire itself radiated each energy in turn, moving through the same pattern of fire, wind, and ice in sequence. All he was missing now was the lightning. Scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas, Kieran couldn't think of any logical way to create the final element.

Where do you naturally get lightning?

Despite his lack of know-how regarding the physics of lightning, he knew he needed to use heat and friction to create some kind of negative charge in the air. Once said charge is built enough, it could discharge said energy as lightning.

That was when he realised the chaotically blazing and chilly air that scraped against his skin might be just what he needed.

Hands pressed firmly to the door, Kieran inhaled repeated lungfuls of the mixed mana, letting his core do the filtering all on its own. He focused on the contact with the hard stone against his palms, willing the organised stream of power through his fingertips.

The door thrummed noisily, granting Kieran a pleasant sensation of immediate feedback that he was probably on the right track.

Harsh winds whipped against him, abrasively grating the top layers of his skin free with every passing gale. The smell of burning hair filled his every breath, but he did his best to ignore it.

Fortunately, where the heat threatened to sear his skin beyond his growing pain tolerance, sweeping specks of cooling frost then settled across the raw patches to soothe him instantly.

Doubts in his mind questioned the reality of the abnormal experience when the wind carried more snowflake-like specks of solid ice to him until the heat returned to melt them away.

Losing himself in the undulations of painful burns then refreshing cold, it wasn't long until a perfect balance of hot destruction and cold renewal formed, bridged together by the lightest of gales.

Kieran likened the experience to a rough stone on the shoreline being eroded by the choppy waves. Instead of being reduced to sand, however, he felt more like a perfectly smooth pebble that might gleam under the sunlight.

Cyclic repetitions of this painful yet oddly satisfying phenomenon saturated his body and mind with more mana than he knew what to do with.

With a sudden thought, he decided to put all that excess power to good use. His arms shuddered as they channelled a veritable river of power back into the ravenous door with all the focus his mind could muster.

The whipping wind quickly blossomed into a raging storm of ice and fire. Colliding energy bathed the entire platform in beautiful flashes of deep orange and bright blue light.

If there had been any hair left on Kieran's arms right now it would all be standing on edge from the tantalising static electricity and building vibrations.

Dazzling white sparks began to erupt amongst the puffs of flame. They painted the world in waves of wild mana as deafening cracks filled the twisting air.

Kieran stared in wonder as the blinding flashes increased in frequency and intensity. This was it, he could feel it in his bones.

Just a little more…

Those small, erratic discharges were only the beginning, it turned out. The random and isolated sparks started to form in little clusters of two or three at a time, then just as quickly doubled into even greater patches of fizzing blips.

A coppery taste filled Kieran's mouth as the world grew thick and heavy with pressure, almost forcing him to his knees. Unfiltered mana endlessly poured in through his every breath, at a rate far beyond his initial intention.

In the outside world far above the deep tunnels of the ancient dungeon, a great blanket of black storm clouds relentlessly blocked out the sun's light and warmth. Bombarding the land with waves of hard snow and strangely hot, steaming rain. Any who bore witness to this terrifying force of nature felt a deep fear in the bones and fled in horror and despair at the disaster above.

Unbeknownst to Kieran, the awe and amazement he felt in his own personal elemental storm were the exact opposite of the various victims' experiences above.

As he continued to pour out the freely accessible mana, space twisted slightly into what looked like an optical illusion, and time slowed to a taciturn moment of utter stillness.

Both the expansive heavens above and the deep earth below synchronised for a moment of forced unity. The nearby region of the sky shattered like glass when a mountainous pillar of lightning tore through the atmosphere from far beyond.

The burning white of the sun illuminated the land for hundreds of miles around, and a thunderous roar shook the entire region.

This enormous pillar of blinding light crashed into a great mountain peak in the wilderness and cut right through it into the subterranean space below. The dark storm clouds moved as one and condensed to a singular point of broken sky where they disappeared so rapidly that it was as though nothing had even happened.

Below the dense mile of earth, Kieran's world exploded into the purest white he'd ever seen. He was forced to close his eyes from the pain of blinding needles that pierced right through his clenched lids.

Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of his new trip down agony lane. Every fibre of his muscles suddenly seized beyond control and he would have curled into a foetal position if not for the tremendous force holding his body rigidly in place.

Raw power ripped at his flesh, destroying any attempt to even think about resisting the rush of energy. To Kieran, all of this happened in a split-second before his consciousness blurred and he slipped down into the darkness inside his mind.

"Wake up, child" a soft voice sounded clearly through the buzzing void.

"Wake up!"

Kieran awoke with a feeble yelp. The cold stone against his bare back caused him to flinch and sit up suddenly. Aching pain wracked his whole body at the violent jerking motion.

"Did I leave the TV on?" He murmured to himself as his mental and visual fog cleared.

He blinked rapidly at the shifting colours beaming against his face.

"Oh, for fuck’s sake! ugh" he groaned as he rolled up to his knees, only stopping when a spell of dizziness threatened to tip him over.

What was I doing?

The tranquil peace of the world around him did not help his confusion. All he remembered was being amidst a storm of power, then a boom and blinding flash that painfully dug into his core.

As if the thought alone summoned it, a surge of energy in his chest drew his attention and concern.

When he closed his eyes to shut out the light, he noticed that he felt…different inside. Those fluctuating waves of elemental mana no longer filled him with mixed sensations of hot or cold, in fact, he couldn’t sense the elemental mana at all. Exploring deeper inside himself he was astounded at the changes.

Where those hypnotic waves of mana once wrapped his black orb in a synergistic wave of unique powers, a singular purple flame now burned with vibrant intensity. The steady flame wreathed the entirety of his orb with a violet hue that brought back painful memories and filled him with anxiety. The trepidation lasted but a brief moment as Kieran observed the flames themselves a little closer and noticed they weren’t actually burning him or causing any damage.

Fizzing lines of purple flame twisted around the perfectly smooth surface of his orb, and in their wake the smooth obsidian appeared to be engraved with thin lines of matching purple. There was no clear pattern or path to these new miniscule furrows, but Kieran didn’t sense anything ominous about their existence. The orb itself felt more like a part of him than it had previously, the flames even reacted to his thoughts slightly, burning taller and brighter in the places his scrutiny fell upon.

What the hell did I do?

Relieved that he hadn’t killed himself, or completely crippled his ability to use mana, Kieran breathed out his building stress and focused on his next step. Opening his eyes he became confronted with an unexpected sight, the sigil-ridden door now stood slightly ajar.

“Oh shit, open sesame”

Pure white light bled through the crack in the door and prevented Kieran from seeing anything past the boundaries of each towering stone slab. His eyes jumped to the glowing sigils instead.

On the left door hung the fire and wind glyphs, and on the right one shone the ice and now lightning glyph. All four symbols glowed with violet light, which Kieran had mixed feelings for.. The sight ignited questions in his mind, and he knew he wouldn't get answers if he continued to sit there perplexed..

There better be some dank shit inside…

Kieran stood up, wobbling briefly on the spot. His body felt incredibly strange, as though he'd slept for such a long time that his body was still catching up with his mind. Any lingering shakiness in his arms and legs faded with each renewing lungful of air. With the new and slightly different taste of mana also came the awareness of his surroundings and physical state.

Flexing his hands open and closed, he let himself mentally reset for a few moments, enjoying the absence of random pains or wild mana messing with his body. Alongside this returning awareness was a new feeling he couldn’t quite place.

Where his manabody had once been more of a vague illusion floating in the back of his mind, and only visible with great mental focus. Peculiarly, it had now transformed into something far more substantial and possibly even physical.

The formerly faint carbon copy of his mana channels had now layered itself neatly inside his physical body. So perfectly was it interwoven with his flesh, that he could feel it's thrumming existence with his every movement.

Curious, he took a deeper inhale of mana. The sudden rush of power completely overshadowed the lack of elemental mana in the air within him.

Previously, the mana would come to him easily, sure, but other than at his core, this energy always felt disconnected from his physical self in a particular way, one that apparently no longer applied to him.

There would be no more internal struggle to keep the mana under control. He knew this immediately as he took another breath. Raw tingling power filed into him with calm obedience he’d not felt yet. With a curious thought he tried to push some mana into his hands, the almost immediate halo of violet fluorescence confirmed his instinctive theory.

“Whatever that weird elemental mana did, I think it solidified my manabody? or maybe just merged my physical body with it." The vague mana structure inside himself felt wholly different now.

"Either way, this feels fucking awesome!” he said to himself, flexing his vibrant hands tighter in amazement.

He felt a surge of strength and energy as both violet mana and scarlet blood rushed through his veins on his forearms, surpassing even Nathan's most intense preworkout supplements that had long since been banned by the FDA.

It took far more willpower than he was proud of to not drop to the floor and start cranking out pushups on the spot if only to see how many his body was capable of now.

Despite the lack of disturbance in the local atmosphere, a niggling in the back of Kieran’s mind told him he was forgetting…something. But he pushed the thought aside, as he was sure he was forgetting a whole barrel of ‘something’ in his momentary elation.

Only when he heard a distant rush of air growing louder, accompanied by a tingling sensation of danger on the back of his neck, did he remember he wasn’t actually alone in this hall.

Twisting to the side as he turned to face behind him, Kieran barely avoided a football-sized cluster of flames that seared across the side of his cheek. The fire didn’t burn him somehow, at least, he felt no pain from the grazing contact.

The whizzing fireball sailed into the magic door behind and quickly fizzled out into a puff of smoke.

"Crap" he blurted.

Guess the barrier is gone now too?

Another ball of fire confirmed the thought, the orange light raging toward him without stopping. He ducked low, dodging the flying cluster of flame with an agility his reactions would not normally have allowed for.

His smile turned to an expression of pure annoyance, the orc mage was still there, and despite its languid posture seemed keen to continue launching magic balls of fire his way.

"This actual prick doesn't know when to quit" he groaned. "So be it!"

Kieran scanned around himself quickly, not finding a single thing he could use as a weapon. Rather than waste more time searching through the ash and dust, he pushed off in a dash toward the final orc.

A simmering rage fueled each powerful step toward his enemy. Cool air brushed against his bare thighs and chilly scalp, distracting him as he took off running.

After a quick glance down, followed by an apprehensive brush across his silky smooth head, Kieran muttered out a string of curses.

“And I'm fucking bald now too? This shit is grand, as if wearing seared daisy dukes wasn't cringe enough?"

Not knowing quite when any of this had happened to his beautiful dark hair, he quelled his outrage and directed all the blame at the persistent green fire mage ahead of him.

He picked up speed again, and only a handful of bounding strides later, he was looking out across the steep grey steps. With an angry echoing yell that surprised even him, Kieran leapt right off the edge of the platform.

The look of fear in the orc's eyes as he miraculously flew several metres into and through the air only encouraged his desire for revenge against the flaming green prick.

But first... He thought.

Superhero landing time!