The sudden imposingness of Alcaeus was too daunting for Ginger to simply ignore, and instead choose to start raving on about the foul play.

It threw him off. For several moments, it was as though the biting, pulsing pain in his chest had vanished, but what felt like the ricochet of a small knife from the end of his chest to several of his ribs made him groan midway through his surprise.

'What's going on? Why is he suddenly so…' Ginger began to wonder when he abruptly stopped.

Fortunately, the same active faculties in his mind that had allowed him to get out of the earlier pinch with the great Blighted, allowed him to figure out what was going on.

Alcaeus cackled as he gripped Ginger by the discolored collar of his Light Gear and dragged him up.

From up close, the plump dragonling felt the pressure Alcaeus exuded all the more. It was intense.

"Come on now, where were you going? You know that was also my prey, right?" Alcaeus said to him.

RAAAR!

From in front of them, the last of the smaller Blighted charged in their direction.

Ginger's eyes, squinted because of the pain he felt, shot open.

This Blight seemed more agile than the other one, or more driven.

Either notion didn't install any bit of ease in Ginger at all, and neither did the fact that the larger Blighted was finally making the right turn back to them.

This was the worst situation possible!

He and Alcaeus would soon be caught in a pincer attack!

Ginger attempted to push away Alcaeus, but the young Doukas boy's tight grip was impossible to dismiss even with all his raw might.

"What are you doing?!" Ginger hissed. "We need to get out of the way!"

It was a decent concern indeed.

…But Alcaeus didn't seem shaken.

"Oh, I'll be fine. But you? You don't look so good."

Ginger seethed in fury.

Seriously? This wasn't the time!

Right then, a glow stormed from right before the two boys. Ginger felt himself get shoved back. Alcaeus pushed him out of the way and jumped back to avoid the stream of fire the smaller Blighted spilled towards them.

When compared to the one that the greater Blighted could spew, this jet was rather tame. Even a wounded Ginger felt that he would have been fine if he took it point blank – with his Light Gear to protect him.

As soon as he was loose, Ginger grunted as he rushed behind the Blighted. He managed thanks to the fact that the creature decided to target Alcaeus first with its breath.

The Doukas boy nimbly dodged the fiery stream no matter how fast it surged after him. He even managed to kick off the wall and saddle the Blighted which turned furious and attempted to crush him against the wall. Unfortunately for the beast, Alcaeus had already jumped off by the time its back banged against the hard, dark blue stone, digging deep into it.

The Young Doukas boy was grinning, clearly enjoying himself; enjoying his new self.

He wouldn't have been able to move like this just a few minutes ago, and Ginger had figured out why.

It was simple really.

Alcaeus had killed his first Blighted.

As Professor Lyall had explained several days ago, for a dragon's Kardia to be refined, they needed to kill unruly Cinder-Born; Blighted and Condemned. Doing this would sap some of the Kardia from these beasts, and that same Kardia would stimulate their own unrefined kind.

Of course, the Professor hadn't elaborated on the immediate benefits and changes, and while some among the First Years were bound to already know, the majority were quite oblivious about what would happen when one's Kardia began refinement.

The current Alcaeus was a model for the result.

The Doukas boy didn't waste the moment when the smaller Blighted struggled to pull itself from the dent in the wall that it had dug itself into.

Ginger saw his classmate channel Mana Essence into his sword, making it attain a faint glow. From his feet, Alien-type Kardia then lividly exploded out in a great volume, propelling him forward.

It was quite surprising that Alcaeus managed to balance himself after the burst of speed. When he touched the ground afterward, he leaped up, and jabbed with his saber, intent on piercing the eye of the enemy.

Surprisingly, said enemy managed to dodge by moving its head out of the way, and Alcaeus' saber sank into the wall instead. The Doukas boy muttered angrily.

At that moment, a loud roar announced the approach of the larger Blighted.

Ginger gritted his teeth.

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The eyes of that great beast were on him. Again.

'Come on! This isn't fair!' he thought.

He held his dagger tight, but it felt hopeless. Because his right hand had been burnt, which somehow also propounded an odd stinging sensation at the palm which slowly began to swell, Ginger couldn't quite use it to grip his weapon anymore. He had to rely on his left.

Thanks to the endless perils of the Wild, Ginger's left hand had seen some real action on several desperate occasions, but he couldn't count on using it to wield his dagger as well as his right could. Certainly not against the monstrosity charging at him, readying another fire breath.

The plump dragonling rushed towards Alcaeus and the other Blighted.

The latter immediately whipped its tail violently at Ginger as soon as it saw him.

Ginger was alarmed, but he didn't panic.

Because of whatever felt broken in his chest, he didn't think he could manage a decent dodge, thus, on impulse, and in the spirit of using everything he had learned, he channeled his Kardia and made it pool within his right fist despite the immense pain he felt at doing so.

His bones and flesh seemed to glow as the Kardia slithered through and compounded.

The effect of Pooling-type Kardia on the flesh couldn't be underestimated.

Ginger threw his fist with a grunt and it met the hard, large body of the Blighted's tail!

There was a rough, blunt impact, and Ginger felt as though his wrist had been crushed along with everything that followed past it. The pain was immense, but it was rewarded by the flailing of the Blighted's tail in the opposite direction!

Ginger would have laughed triumphantly if not for the fact that danger was still lurking in blatant sight.

A great flood of coal-smelling fire exploded his way.

The great Blighted's attack had come!

Desperately, Ginger dove behind the smaller Blighted's body, and just before the chamber turned yellowish red, Alcaeus joined him in an equally desperate leap.

As was apparently a common gesture between these Blighted, the smaller of two knelt and turned immobile at its elder's approach despite the incoming, impartial fire.

Different from before, however, the greater Blighted took more initiative.

Normally, it was difficult for Cinder-Born to move freely while casting their fire breath, with few exceptions, such as when they were in flight. Unfortunately, the species of Cinder-Born employed for this exercise did not have wings, and even if they did, it wouldn't have boosted their maneuverability.

Despite this, the large Blighted powered through. It moved as fast as it could, its feet and claws digging into the ground.

Ginger and Alcaeus didn't miss this.

Oddly enough, they both thought of the same thing.

Rather than fearing that the great Blighted would simultaneously scorch and squash them if it reached this spot, they both shook at the idea that the beast would crush their cover without care.

For Ginger, who had seen the benefits of killing just one Blighted from Alcaeus, that would leave him with only one hard target and no advantage against it.

The plump dragonling gritted his teeth, but Alcaeus laughed. His voice was especially unbearable with the backdrop of the roar of the fire.

"I wanted to give you the honor of killing the biggest one, you know!" he yelled with a grin. "I was going to take care of the smaller ones for your sake, and let you get the time to shine. Since you're so special, killing that FAT thing should be simple, right?"

Ginger fumed at the mockery.

How petty.

It seemed Fillys and Alcaeus shared this unreasonable grudge against Ginger and Caron for being 'special'. Ever since the Second Burning, their constant jabs and jeers at that fact, which seemed to make Ginger and Caron stand out in ways they didn't want, bothered them. So much so that Alcaeus was willing to bring it up right now.

"This isn't the time!" Ginger said right before he rose, his dagger in his left hand, and leaped to try and stab the smaller Blighted's eye.

"FAT chance!" Alcaeus cried and he shoved Ginger hard, sending him knocking into the wall.

Ginger felt the force shuttle through his bones. Alcaeus had become rather strong. Did his violet cast – which was fourth among the five best casts – contribute to the quality of his sudden growth?

The Doukas boy cackled and sneered as he gazed at Ginger. The pounding of the great Blighted's approach grew dangerously close.

Ginger didn't know if Alcaeus realized that for them to beat that creature, he would need to become stronger too.

Why was he committing to such pettiness?

…But a moment later, Ginger recalled.

'Right. This is just a school exercise...'

That's right.

None of them were in any real danger.

Professor Lyall was watching.

Professor Aarons was watching.

And come to think of it, even though pairings in this context suggested cooperation, it didn't really mean he and Alcaeus needed to help each other.

Reiss and Vassilis sure wouldn't have been passing their weapons in gleeful teamwork and it seemed Professor Lyall was satisfied with their performance.

'Since that's the case…' Ginger thought.

He rushed up to Alcaeus, and the Doukas boy, wholly expecting his rage and anticipating crushing it, lunged at him as well. Instead of using his weapon, Alcaeus pushed his shoulder into Ginger to pin him back to the wall.

When he made contact with the plump dragonling's chest and heard him grunt in pain, he assumed that he had succeeded.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Something much harder and sharper than it actually was slammed right below Alcaeus' left armpit and caused chilling agony to rush through his body.

Alcaeus screamed.

Ginger had landed a right hook, powered by his pooled Kardia right into him!

Without wasting the instance where the insufferable Doukas boy was stalled because of the pain, he kicked him in the shin, making him kneel and hunch over, used his back as a foothold, and leaped up to stab his dagger into the submissive Blighted's eye!

Like before, when Ginger didn't reinforce the dagger with Mana Essence, it didn't sink too deep. It was even worse because he was using his left hand.

RAAAAR!

RAAAAAAAAAR!

Both his stabbed enemy and the great Blighted roared. The latter had finally arrived, and as he guessed, it raised its powerful front right limb, and slammed viciously at its convulsing kin, which still refused to move!

Ginger gritted his teeth.

He heard Alcaeus scramble away from the incoming danger, but he remained.

'Just one second. Just one second!' he screamed in his mind and took a deep breath.

He needed just one second for Mana Essence to rush to him at his call and infuse into his dagger, giving the Qin Steel that made it a light glow.

Then, deep within the assaulted Blighted's head, the Mana Essence extended from the tip of the dagger and shot forth with precision as an extension of the blade!

At the same time, the great Blighted's attack landed.

Ginger didn't quite see what came next.

He felt himself fly away and get pelted by shattered rocks, a cloud of heavy dust engulfing him right until he slammed hard into the ground.

At first, he didn't feel the pain of the harsh fall, but it quickly shuttled through him in the next moment. There wasn't only that either. He felt that he had incurred some damage from the ridiculous attack of the larger, green menace just now.

The power behind that crushing swipe was incredible. Ginger was tempted to attempt standing up and looking at the aftermath.

However, something stopped him.

There was a rapid influx of what he felt was Kardia more potent than his own into his body!

It gushed bountifully and his body shamelessly guzzled it all.

This was it!

He had done it!

This was his reward for killing the smaller Blighted a moment before its larger variant could!

He had done…it.

…

Ginger's eyes shot open.

Suddenly, a sensation he hadn't felt in a while bubbled within him.

His scant little Kardia, most of it stored in his stok, abruptly surged in volume, causing his stok to become bloated and overflow!