When Aaron finally stopped showing off, David couldn't resist. He pulled a large horse from his beast bag and said proudly, "Check out my new skills."
He activated a fusion technique, his hair turned brown, his body grew slightly bigger, and he started jumping and running around with boosted agility.
Auriel and Fiona's eyes lit up. The skill was practical and full of possibilities. If David got more beasts, he could potentially fuse with different monsters to gain all kinds of abilities.
Aaron, watching in shock, muttered under his breath, "That's not even scientific. How can a human fuse with a beast like that?"
Fiona heard him and immediately snapped, "At least David acts normal. You, Aaron, are just a complete monster."
Auriel nodded in agreement but for some reason, a faint smile crept across her face that was hidden under her veil.
Five minutes later, David's fusion wore off, leaving him back in his original form clothes torn, hair disheveled, but grin still intact.
"Okay, okay, how was that?" he said, clearly enjoying the spotlight. "So here's the deal: I can fuse with any beast I've tamed. Once fused, I get its abilities for five minutes. After that, I need half an hour to recover before trying again."
Auriel raised an eyebrow, intrigued. Fiona leaned forward, curious.
"But there's a limit," David continued, his voice lowering slightly. "I can't fuse with the same monster more than once it strains them too much. And if I'm injured while fused... the beast takes the hit too. If it's fatal, fusion breaks, and we both end up seriously injured."
Aaron's eyes narrowed as he listened. He wasn't just surprised he was analyzing it. Fusion combat added another layer to the team's power map, but it came with risks. Big ones.
"Impressive," Auriel finally murmured, arms crossed. "You just turned beast bonding into a battle strategy."
Fiona smirked. "Guess we've got two show-offs now."
Fiona stepped forward, her calm voice carrying quiet confidence. "I'll go next," she said, rolling back her sleeves as sparks of magic began to swirl at her fingertips.
She lifted her hand and cast a Fireball spell, but instead of the usual single sphere, three glowing orbs appeared. Each one burned with intense blue flames, so hot they distorted the air around them in rippling waves. The light alone was enough to make the others squint.
With a smooth flick of her wrist, she sent the fireballs flying toward a tree more than a hundred meters away. There was no explosion, no thunderous impact, just a flash of shimmering blue light. The tree didn't resist or shake. It simply ignited, as if soaked in gasoline. The fire spread fast, unnaturally fast, until the entire trunk was engulfed and reduced to charcoal within a minute.
A deep silence fell over the group.
Aaron's eyes widened. The display wasn't just flashy, it was lethal. Quietly, he muttered under his breath, "That's not even scientific… how can magic burn like that without detonating?"
Though his voice was low, Fiona heard him clearly. She smirked and replied with a teasing edge, "At least I'm normal. You're the real monster here."
Auriel chuckled softly and nodded in agreement, her gaze lingering on the scorched tree. Oddly, her heart felt lighter, as if something had shifted, though she couldn't explain what.
Aaron, meanwhile, stood quietly, thoughts racing. He had already felt the strain of his own powers, but seeing Fiona's precision and destructive control forced him to reconsider everything. This world's professionals were on another level, gifted, unpredictable, and dangerous. If he underestimated anyone, even for a moment, it could cost him his life.
Aaron blinked, still processing Fiona's last attack, when curiosity got the better of him.
"Hey Fiona," he asked, tilting his head, "don't you need a wand to cast magic?"
Fiona gave a playful smile, her eyes gleaming. "Not anymore," she replied. "I've learned to cast spells without it. Though the wand still helps a bit, it boosts my intelligence attribute slightly. And as you just saw, my attack range has grown. I can now target anything within 200 meters."
Before Aaron could respond, she stepped forward and lifted her finger toward the horizon. "Now let me show you the power of Fire Rain."
A shimmering circle of runes flared beneath her feet. The air grew heavy, and heat shimmered around her like a mirage. Then it came, dozens of small, blazing projectiles burst from the sky, trailing blue fire as they descended.
Each flame hissed through the air like falling stars, raining down on a cluster of trees in the distance. The impact wasn't explosive, but devastating. Leaves vaporized. Branches twisted, groaned, and crumbled. Within seconds, the trees were reduced to ash, and the ground beneath them glowed faintly with residual heat.
Aaron watched in stunned silence. That wasn't just a spell, it was artillery.
Fiona turned back calmly, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. "Precision. Area control. Sustained burn. Fire Rain isn't about blowing things up, it's about overwhelming them."
After witnessing Fiona's dazzling display, Aaron turned to Auriel with a curious smile.
"And you, Auriel?" he asked. "What can you show us?"
Auriel stepped forward, her every movement poised and deliberate. The air around her seemed to shift, calmer, colder, more refined.
She met Aaron's gaze with icy composure. "Watch closely," she said, her voice like a sharpened icicle, quiet, yet cutting.
Raising her hand, she cast Ice Arrow. A single, sleek shard of frost surged from her fingertips, glittering as it flew. It was twenty centimeters long and carved through the air with surgical precision. The arrow struck a distant tree, its bark cracking on impact. Then, in an eerie silence, frost crept outward, spreading like veins through wood and leaf. Within seconds, the entire tree froze solid, glazed in pale white, crystalline and lifeless.
Aaron's eye twitched. That kind of control... it felt unnatural.
Before he could speak, Auriel lifted her hand again. A thin circle of ice flared at her feet, and she whispered, "Ice Rain."
The temperature plummeted.
A wave of chilling magic surged outward in a fifteen-meter radius, blanketing the earth. Frozen mist swirled, the air turned sharp and dry, and the ground beneath shimmered with frost. Jagged shards fell from above, gentle as snow but deadly in their purpose. Grass hardened. Pebbles iced over. Even the heat from Fiona's earlier flames felt like a distant memory inside Auriel's frostbound zone.
The others watched, wide-eyed.