Beneath the Knight Association's general compound, deep within one of the lower-tier training halls, the sound of explosions echoed through the reinforced corridors.
Nathaniel stood in the center of the scorched chamber, his arms bare and marked with light burns that crawled up to his shoulders. Sweat slicked his skin, but his eyes burned brighter than the heat around him.
He drew in a breath, Uratsu flaring to life in his palms — cyan flames coiling and twisting like serpents before erupting forward in a sharp volley. Each blast cut through the air, detonating against mobile targets that darted across the chamber at A-rank speeds, far beyond what his recorded limits allowed.
The sensors lining the walls scrambled to keep up with his movements. He blurred forward, sliding under the collapsing wreckage of a shattered drone just as another — a heavy, flame-resistant Nemesis unit — burst through the blaze.
Its armor still smoking, the droid charged straight for him. Nathaniel met it head-on, pivoted, then rolled over its back in a fluid motion — instinct guiding him more than technique. Cyan sparks trailed behind him as he landed, palms already igniting again.
The training hall's temperature spiked. The air rippled from the raw pressure of his energy output.
For a moment, his expression sharpened into something else — calm, focused, almost predatory. Then it was gone, replaced by his usual determined frown as he steadied his breath.
Somewhere in the control booth, the monitors registered a silent anomaly:
Uratsu fluctuation detected — output exceeding 148% of baseline limit.
"Hellcharge: Maxkindling — Palm Crucible!"
The air split open with a roar.The Nemesis droid's power core glowed white-hot as Nathaniel's cyan fire drilled straight into it. For a single suspended heartbeat, the world seemed to hold its breath—then the entire droid detonated, scattering molten debris across the chamber.
Nathaniel stood amid the smoke, chest rising and falling, steam hissing from his forearms as faint trails of Uratsu danced off his skin. The heat shimmered around him like a living aura.
He exhaled sharply, letting the power bleed off—then looked up toward the observation deck.
Something prickled at the edge of his instincts.Someone was watching.
He pushed off the ground, flames bursting from his feet like thrusters. The sudden acceleration carried him forty feet up in an instant; then, mid-ascent, he cut the fire and let gravity finish the rest, landing on the upper platform with practiced silence.
Waiting for him stood a woman whose presence alone made the air feel heavier.
Dark blue hair flowed past her shoulders, held in place by ornate oriental pins. A subtle gradient of scales traced along her skin—from the edges of her eyes down her neck—catching the light with an almost iridescent sheen. Her eyes, slit-pupiled and luminous, studied him with quiet intensity.
Despite the regal aura, she was dressed for combat: the Knight Association's standard gear layered beneath a navy-blue haori, cinched by a black-and-white scale-patterned obi.
He knew her immediately.
Kagami Ryuzen.Leader of Squad Three. Dragon-type Neo-human.Augment: Dragon-Born
Nathaniel could feel it—the pressure of her Uratsu, refined, dense, almost predatory. It rolled off her like the weight of a storm cloud, and instinctively, every nerve in his body screamed caution.
She looked past the smoking wreckage of the training hall, her expression cool but laced with faint amusement.
"Decent damage you've got here, Alderman," she said, voice smooth with a razor-thin layer of sarcasm.
Nathaniel blinked, wiping a streak of soot from his cheek with the back of his arm."Yeah," he said, catching his breath, "working on keeping the place intact this time."
Kagami's gaze drifted over the scorch marks webbing the floor, then up to the flickering ceiling lights. "Intact," she echoed, unimpressed. "That explains the melted floor panels."
He rubbed the back of his neck, the faint glow of Uratsu still tracing along his veins. "To be fair, the droid started it."
Her amber slit pupils shifted back to him, unblinking. The smallest curl of a smirk touched her lips."The droid started it. Interesting defense, Alderman. Tell me, do you always pick fights with machinery, or were you training for something bigger?"
Nathaniel hesitated. "...Define bigger."
That earned a quiet chuckle from her—low, almost like a growl under her breath. "Relax. You're not in trouble. Yet."
Her tone carried weight though, something measured—like she was assessing him for weaknesses rather than just teasing. The faint ripple of Uratsu around her made the air hum, pressing against his own like a coiled storm testing a boundary.
Nathaniel swallowed hard, straightening unconsciously. "So, uh… Squad Three business?"
"Something like that." She folded her arms, eyes narrowing slightly. "You've been progressing faster than your record suggests. Either you've been hiding talent…" Her gaze flicked briefly to his still-smoking palms. "…or something inside you's starting to wake up."
For a split second, her pupils narrowed further—draconic instinct flashing through her expression. "And I don't miss those kinds of changes."
Nathaniel felt his pulse skip. Her presence wasn't hostile, not exactly—but it wasn't comforting either. It felt like standing in front of a dragon who hadn't yet decided whether you were interesting… or edible.
Kagami's gaze lingered on Nathaniel longer than he was comfortable with. She wasn't just looking — she was measuring.
Her eyes trailed over his arms, noting the lack of burns. For someone who had just detonated a Nemesis-class droid at close range, his skin looked unnervingly untouched. Supposed flame resistance, maybe. But that wasn't what caught her attention most.
It was his build — compact, efficient muscle, balanced perfectly between explosive power and endurance. And that stance… low center of gravity, relaxed shoulders, weight distribution favoring counters rather than initiative strikes. Not Knight Association standard training. Not even close.
Her mind began piecing the data together.His recorded physical stats, even without Uratsu enhancement, were already the highest in their generation. That alone should've made him a prime candidate for promotion. And yet… his file didn't show a single major mutation-type augment, nothing that would explain his structural resilience or his regenerative tolerance to flame.
Strange.
Nathaniel noticed her silence and shifted uneasily. "...You're staring, ma'am."
Kagami blinked, expression unreadable, her slit pupils dilating slightly. "Just evaluating."
"Evaluating what, exactly?" he asked, a hint of nervous humor bleeding into his tone.
She tilted her head, the faint gleam of scales catching the fluorescent light along her jawline. "Whether you're the kind of man who survives by luck…" Her eyes glowed faintly gold as Uratsu pulsed behind them, scanning deeper. "…or the kind who shouldn't be alive at all."
The air thickened. Even the hum of the facility seemed to fall quiet for a moment.
Nathaniel forced a crooked grin. "That's… not ominous at all."
Kagami's lips quirked. "Good. Then I'm saying it right."
Kagami folded her arms, eyes narrowing as she studied him through the fading haze of smoke."Something's not adding up, Alderman."
Nathaniel glanced at her, towel slung around his neck, his breathing still heavy from the last burst. "You say that like I'm supposed to care."
"Maybe you should." She stepped closer, boots crunching against the scorched flooring. "Your augment was classified B-Rank during evaluation. Kinetic Muscle — impressive enough for a support fighter, sure, but it doesn't explain what you just did."
He stayed silent, wiping sweat from his jaw.
Kagami's gaze didn't waver. "You tore through a Nemesis drone during your first trial. Not just disabled it — dismantled it. And that was before you were issued Illumine Guild gear. The same gear that let you dent Erementaru Hayate's prototype suit. That's not standard progress."
Nathaniel's grip on the towel tightened slightly. "I train hard."
"No one trains that hard in a month." Her tone sharpened. "And now you're throwing flames. Since when does Kinetic Muscle generate combustion?"
He met her eyes. "Since I learned how to burn without breaking."
That made her pause — just long enough for the hum of the training room lights to fill the air. She could feel the Uratsu pulsing under his skin, wild and untethered. It wasn't the flow of a B-Rank augment. It was deeper — something volatile trying to keep itself contained.
Kagami exhaled softly. "You know, the Guild's fingerprints are all over your record. Access authorizations, equipment clearance, training modules. For someone who's supposed to be new blood, you have a lot of doors already open for you."
Nathaniel's expression didn't change, but the air around him did — heavier, hotter. "You done auditing my life, or do you want my blood sample too?"
Her pupils slit slightly, dragon instincts kicking in. "Maybe I already have it."
A faint smile ghosted over his face, humorless and cold. "Then I guess you'll see what's wrong with it soon enough."
Kagami's stare didn't falter. "You really expect me to believe this is natural progression? That a B-rank augment user suddenly starts outputting A-tier combustion signatures overnight?"
Nathaniel's jaw flexed. "You sound jealous."
Her eyes narrowed. "I sound curious. There's a difference."
He turned toward her fully now, the faint cyan shimmer of Uratsu still licking at his forearms. "Curious, huh? Funny—coming from a noble playing watchdog in the lower-tier training zones."
The word noble hit the air like a slap.
Kagami's posture shifted, shoulders tightening just slightly, but she didn't respond. Nathaniel stepped closer, voice dropping low and sharp.
"What's a dragon-blood doing sniffing around a so-called lowly B-rank? Shouldn't you be up there, polishing your scales with the rest of the Association's elite?"
Her lips parted—half in surprise, half in warning—but Nathaniel didn't stop. The irritation boiling under his skin pushed the words out faster than thought.
"Or maybe it's bothering you that a so-called nobody is climbing faster than your record allows. That someone without a clan name is about to surpass your rank in half the time."
The heat from his body began to rise again, faint tendrils of flame flickering around his fingers as his pulse spiked. The training room's sensors clicked in the background, warning of another ignition spike.
Kagami's voice finally cut through the static. Calm. Controlled. But sharp enough to pierce steel."Watch your tone, Alderman."
He grinned, though his eyes didn't match the expression. "What's the worst that happens? You breathe fire on me?"
"Try me," she said.
For a moment, the air itself seemed to vibrate — the low growl of her Uratsu clashing with the unstable rhythm of his own. Sparks danced between them, invisible but tangible. A dragon's fury meeting a sleeping wraith's defiance.
Then Nathaniel exhaled, forcing his heat back down, flames receding until only smoke lingered in the air."Didn't think so," he muttered.
He suddenly felt a devastating impact strike his gut as he looked into royal blue burning slitted eyes filled with Anger and bruised ego as he was sent rocketing trough the fortified steel barriers of the field as a massive royal blue fireball threatened to engulf him both with its temperature and its concussive force
The heat still clung to him like smoke. His arms ached, his ribs screamed, but he didn't bow.Nathaniel wiped the blood from his lip and stood up straight, shoulders squared against the cracked wall.
"...Tch."He spat to the side, the sound echoing through the silent training hall.
"She hits hard," he muttered under his breath, rolling his shoulders until they popped. "But I've been hit harder by life."
The air still shimmered with traces of her dragonfire, royal blue fading into the sterile light. The alarms were silent now, but the smell of ozone and scorched metal lingered.
Nathaniel looked toward the exit where Kagami had disappeared — her words still hanging in the air like smoke.
Do not test me again, Alderman.
He smirked, a sharp, unbroken grin that had no right being on a man who'd just been folded through a steel wall.
"Yeah?" he muttered, voice low and dry. "Try saying that when I'm the one landing the hit."
His Uratsu flared—hard."You're gonna regret that, lizard," Nathaniel growled, the words half a snarl, half a promise.
Cyan light surged through his veins, tracing up his arms like wildfire beneath his skin. His silver eyes burned bright, turning into twin beacons of living plasma. The air around him distorted from the sheer pressure.
KINETIC MUSCLE: 25% RELEASE — FEEDBACK.
The chamber detonated with sound as Nathaniel moved. One moment he was grounded, the next he was a human missile, a blur of cyan combustion and raw kinetic recoil. The floor shattered beneath his launch point, rippling outward like a crater.
Uratsu poured from his body, igniting into a roaring jetstream that screamed from his back and forearms, propelling him forward at speeds that broke the air around him—a tenth the speed of a fighter jet, easily.
Kagami barely had time to brace before his heel came down.The axe kick landed with the force of a meteor strike—three hundred kilograms of muscle, Uratsu reinforcement, and flame-boosted velocity condensed into a single, devastating impact.
The ground cratered.The observation deck collapsed, swallowing Kagami's form in a shower of pulverized steel and shattered fortification as she was driven twenty feet down into the reinforced subfloor.
For a heartbeat, the entire facility fell silent—then the dust caught fire from the residual Uratsu hanging in the air.
Nathaniel landed lightly amid the settling debris, flames licking up his shins before fading.He exhaled slowly, eyes still glowing, expression unreadable.
The shockwave tore across the training arena, glass trembling in its frame. Kagami barely managed to cross her arms in time before the strike landed. The kinetic burst slammed into her guard, hurling her backward across the sparring ring. She hit the reinforced wall, metal denting under the force, heat venting off her body as she slid down into a crouch.
For a breath, silence.
Even Nathaniel looked surprised — he hadn't meant to hit that hard. His Uratsu still hissed under his skin, begging for another release.
Kagami looked down at the faint welt forming along her abdomen where the kick had landed. Her fingers trembled once — not from pain, but from something far sharper.
Then, nothing.
The heat in the room changed. It wasn't an aura flaring — it was the atmosphere shifting, tightening, thickening, as if the air itself recoiled from her presence.
She stood slowly, eyes shadowed beneath her bangs. The sound of her bones tightening, skin hardening, was faint but sharp — like a blade sliding into its sheath.
Scales surfaced along her collarbone and shoulders, catching the dim light with a dark luster. Her frame expanded subtly — muscle fiber stretching, height rising until she stood six-foot-three, silhouette heavier, balanced. Small horns broke through her hairline, curling back slightly as a ridged tail unfurled behind her, tapping once against the floor.
No roar. No warning. Just quiet, coiled wrath.
Nathaniel felt his throat dry. She wasn't radiating power — she was power.
Her gaze lifted to him, eyes glowing gold and slitted, burning through the haze of Uratsu still clinging to the air.
Nathaniel clenched his jaw.He didn't say anything either.
Cyan light pulsed through his veins once more — the room's floor split under the pressure of both forces colliding before either of them even moved.
Then, everything exploded into motion.
The air cracked — heat and pressure colliding like a storm front.
Kagami straightened, every muscle under her skin shifting like liquid steel as faint scales shimmered into visibility. Her pupils narrowed, breath deepening. The change wasn't dramatic — no monstrous outburst — just refinement, power condensed. Her frame stretched to a solid six foot three, shoulders broadening, horns pushing through her hairline as a spined tail unfolded behind her.
Nathaniel adjusted his stance, the floor groaning slightly beneath him. His veins burned cyan, his breathing slow, deliberate. At full Uratsu circulation, his body was a fortress — every fiber charged, dense, and violently alive.
For a moment, neither moved. Then Kagami vanished.
The aftershock of her step hit a second later — a sonic ripple through the haze. Nathaniel caught the blur with his peripheral, shifting his footing just in time as her tail cut through the air. It slammed into his shin with a dull, heavy thud that sent vibrations crawling up his leg.
He didn't even flinch.
Her follow-up knee strike came immediately, slamming toward his ribs. He caught it mid-motion, grip locking around her thigh. The impact echoed — not metal on metal, but raw force meeting reinforced flesh. She twisted free, dragging her tail around in a sweeping arc that connected with his chest, pushing him half a step back.
For someone a third his mass, she moved like a loaded weapon — fast, ruthless, precise.
Nathaniel's breath hitched once — a grin breaking through the heat. "That all you got?"
Kagami's only answer was to vanish again.
She reappeared behind him — claws flashing. Her fist connected with his jaw, scales scraping skin that didn't give. The shock burst through the air in a short, violent crack as their Uratsu flared, cyan against blue.
Nathaniel turned with the hit, caught her arm, and pivoted — his weight transferring into a brutal throw. The floor caved under the force, and Kagami hit the ground hard, skidding before twisting to her feet, tail coiling for balance.
Her hands pressed to the floor for a moment, steam rising where her palms touched. She looked up, eyes burning royal blue — no longer calm, but wounded pride wrapped in fire.
Nathaniel exhaled, his tone low and taunting. "Not bad… for eighty-seven kilograms."
Her expression didn't crack, though the air around her shimmered hotter.
"You talk too much," she said, voice quieter, rougher — her draconic cadence bleeding through.
He raised a hand, Uratsu coiling around his arm in cyan ribbons. "Then make me shut up."
The training hall's alarms began to scream, red lights flashing along the walls as the sensors struggled to read their energy output.
Neither of them stopped.
They moved at once — flame and fury colliding midair, shockwaves cracking the reinforced walls as the fight truly began.