Mereoleona's laughter crackled through the smoke like fire catching dry timber. She cracked her neck, flames coiling around her shoulders like a mantle of a battle-hungry queen.
"But you're still hesitating," she said, her eyes sharp as molten steel. "You reflect my power well—but you don't claim the battlefield. You react. I dominate."
Dave exhaled slowly, mana vibrating around him like a low, steady hum. "Then show me how to dominate it."
A grin split her face. "Gladly."
She slammed her foot into the ground.
BOOM.
Flames erupted outward in every direction—not as an attack, but as a declaration. The mana in the entire area shifted, as if the world itself bent around her will. The air grew hotter, denser, alive with flame-aligned particles responding to her presence.
Mana Zone: Volcanic Sovereignty.
The very atmosphere roared.
Dave narrowed his eyes.
This was different from her previous spells. This wasn't just power—it was territorial mana domination. She wasn't casting spells anymore.
She was rewriting the environment.
"Feel it?" she asked, voice echoing through the blaze. "This is Mana Zone used not for attack—but supremacy."
He could feel it. The mana in the area no longer responded freely to him. Every construct he formed came slower, as if the very air resisted him.
"You've been using your mana like a blade," she said, walking forward, each step leaving trails of embered footprints. "Precise. Refined. But a blade—no matter how sharp—cannot cut the world if the world itself refuses."
Dave stepped forward too, golden-blue mana surging, but it was like moving upstream in a burning river.
Mereoleona's flames flared higher.
"Show me, Dave." Her voice thundered, fire spiraling to the sky. "Can you impose your world on mine?"
Dave closed his eyes.
—And then opened them, and his mana surged. Not outward like a wave, but inward first—condensing, focusing, then bursting outward in perfect resonance.
Mana Domain – Resonant Field Burn Override.
The air vibrated.
For a heartbeat—fire and light collided with no winner.
Then slowly… a section of the blazing mana shifted. The flames bent, just slightly, to the rhythm of Dave's pulse.
Mereoleona's eyes lit up like twin infernos.
"There it is," she said, voice low with fierce satisfaction. "That's Mana Zone Dominion. Not resisting me—challenging me."
Flames howled.
Light roared back.
Their mana fields clashed like two storms crashing over the same sky. The earth beneath them cracked, neither side yielding, both forces trying to overwrite the world with their existence.
And for the first time—
Mereoleona grinned not like a teacher pleased with progress…
…but like a warrior who had finally found someone worthy to fight beside or against on an actual battlefield.
She took her stance again, fire spiraling like a living dragon behind her.
"Enough training…" she said.
Dave nodded, mana flaring bright.
"…from here on—it's war."
The world split between flame and light.
The forest around the Crimson Lion outpost had ceased to exist in spirit—burnt mana fields twisted the terrain. Trees bent away as if refusing to stand between two gods.
Mereoleona moved first.
No spell name. No chant.
Just raw dominance.
She vanished in a blur of flame, her fist bursting through the air, wrapped in wild mana that screamed like a comet tearing the sky.
Dave raised his hand.
CLANG—
A mana construct—thin as a thread but harder than steel—materialized midair, intercepting her punch. The impact made the world jolt, sparks of flame and gold raining down like molten embers.
Mereoleona's eyes narrowed—pleased.
"You formed that inside my Mana Zone? Good…" Her grin stretched into something feral. "But it won't save you here."
FWOOM—
Her flames surged, expanding mid-swing, transforming her gauntlet into the maw of a burning lion. Mana howled through the air like a beast about to devour all.
Dave stepped forward.
Not to evade. To invade.
Mana Override Pulse—Step Conduction.
Light burst beneath his feet, and for a moment, his presence cut through her mana like a blade through cloth. He slipped inside her strike, palm rising in a clean arc—
BOOOOM—!!!
The collision detonated point-blank, shockwaves tearing trenches in the earth.
Mereoleona laughed, low and vicious.
"You're not dodging anymore." Flames spiraled around her arms, forming lion's claws of living fire. "You're biting back."
Dave's aura flared, golden-blue channels of mana weaving around him like living circuitry, pulsing with each heartbeat.
"I'm not here to survive your world," he said calmly. "I'm here to carve mine into it."
Mana Zone—Clash of Territories.
The air screamed.
Her flames stretched outward, covering the battlefield like a dome, seizing every particle of mana to bend to her will.
His light surged in a spiral, expanding like a rising sun, splitting through the flames and forcing the mana to respond to him instead.
TERRAIN RESPONSE: MANA ZONE COLLISION—ENVIRONMENT DISTORTED
The ground scorched and cracked. The air shimmered with mana density. Even the Crimson Lion mages watching from afar felt their grimoires tremble as two zones overlapped—then fought.
Mereoleona's blood thundered with exhilaration.
"You're pushing my territory back," she roared, delighted. "GOOD! TAKE IT—IF YOU CAN HOLD IT!!"
Dave stepped forward again.
Each step burned a path of light through her flames. The ground beneath his foot cracked the fire-lined zone, light forcing space to shift.
Mereoleona exhaled sharply.
"Now, thats good"
Dave's mana surged higher—the light spiraled like a vortex, expanding without hesitation.
Dave didn't just expand—he compressed and expanded in pulses, each surge of mana forcing her flames to recoil for the briefest flicker, like tides smashing against a volcanic shore.
The atmosphere distorted.
No spells. No chants.
Just raw mana command.
Mereoleona's pupils contracted, her grin wild. "You're no longer matching me—you're challenging me."
FWOOOSH—!!
Her flames twisted, gathering above her like a spiraling inferno. She tightened her Mana Zone, not to crush—but to sharpen, making every ember within her reach into a potential strike.
Dave answered not with a spell—but with movement.
His feet glided forward, each motion shifting the mana pressure like a rewrite command on the world itself. The light around him didn't just flare—it synced, beating in rhythm with his heartbeat, each thrum cutting into her zone like a resonating blade.
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