CHAPTER 22: VICTORIA'S BREAKTHROUGH
{The child mage's tournament has been announced to begin in a week's time. There are many young talents who we will be paying close attention to in the following days...}
Gideon watched the news on his couch in the house given to him by the crimson dragon guild which was a medium sized villa.
'Hmm, Victoria is definitely going to participate, I should go and talk to her again tonight.' Gideon thought as he stroked the large head of Lisk that was on his lap, who had grown bigger again and some of its scales had begun to turn green.
"Well, guess we're going to train you combat wise today." Gideon said as he looked at Lisk who enjoyed his strokes quietly with closed eyes.
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"*HUFF HUFF*" Victoria's small body was drenched in her own sweat as she dragged the 10 thick slabs of marble with a chain over her shoulder. Her eyes had circles under them due to lack of sleep.
"You have 3 more laps to go. If you stop now then you will start all over again." The cold voice of her mother entered her ears causing her to grit her teeth to the point that they almost bled. Even though her magic strengthened her body, it wasn't enough for her to drag ten heavy slabs around a 50 meter circle 100 times. Moreover, her mother made her restart each time she stopping, so she had been at it throughout the night. Apparently this was her punishment for sneaking into the base at the time.
However, she had no regrets, especially when she saw how strong her brother had become. That scene from before filled her with determination making her to drag the slabs with more effort.
*Plop*
Victoria collapsed on the ground and passed out instantly, she had way overworked herself. But her mother who was on the sidelines didn't think to praise her.
'As it should be.' That was her only thought.
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Gideon sat down on a large rock as he watched Lisk battle the three beasts at the initial levels of the intermediate level. There was a silver mantis that was 1.3 meters in height, a huge red toad and a black wolf.
However, despite being outnumbered, Lisk was still suppressing the beasts. There were numerous scratches and burnes on Lisk's scales, but they were all flesh wounds.
The three beasts however were in a much worse state. The left leg of the silver mantis was turning grey as a result of the Basilisk poison which had the ability to turn things into stone.
The toad's right eye was a bloody mess as a result of being whipped by Lisk's tail while some of its bones were broken for the same reason.
The wolf had it the worst as its front left leg was broken, it was poisoned as well and it had the worst poison resistance among the three so around 25% of its body had already turned to stone. Lastly, part of its side got shredded by the sharp end of Lisk's scales. And inevitably, it fell first.
The wolf nearly fell as its stamina had been nearly depleted, so Lisk quickly seized the opportunity and despite its size, it slithered to the wolf's side in an instant.
Lisk's mouth opened wide and clamped unto it's broken leg and threw it towards the mantis with shocking strength. The wolf crashed into the mantis and both of them crashed through three tree.
Lisk then charged towards the toad which began to panic as it spat out flames towards Lisk. However, an earth wall appeared and blocked the flames. But the toad saw this as an opportunity to flee as the muscles in its hind legs contracted, ready to jump. But to its, shock, the ground beneath it suddenly softened causing it to sink inside, and immediately the ground hardened again.
*CRUNCH*
Lisk's mouth clamped around its head and a sickening crunch was heard as the toad's head was crushed.
Lisk then turned towards the wolf and the mantis, both of whom couldn't flee as too much of their bodies had turned to stone.
Lisk looked at them coldly before crushing the wolf's head with its tail and the mantis had its own bitten off.
"Good job." Gideon praised earnestly as he went over to stroke Lisk's head who enjoyed it greatly.
"Alright, that should be enough for today, we should probably wait for your wounds to heal before we train more again.
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*BOOM*
A large explosion shook the training field as Victoria was sent flying by her own magic.
"Ugh, I was so close!" Victoria shouted in frustration as the spell she was making failed again. As for what she was trying to do, she attempting to make a vortex of perfectly balanced water and fire so that it would be able to deal far more damage than when the two elements were alone. But alas, it was way harder than she thought.
"No, I won't give up." She muttered as she got up with some difficulty. She shook her head to clear her mind before she mobilized her magic once again.
Fire and water formed a few meters in front of her and began to rotate while creating a strong pulling effect. Victoria then concentrated and slowly began to move the two vortexes together. Slowly the two began to merge with each other while Victoria out in all her effort to prevent them from exploding. But just when she was about to succeed.
*BOOM*
Another explosion erupted and Victoria was once again sent flying.
"Argh, this is so annoying, I wish I could just make it with the elements already merged." She shouted in anger.
"Wait a minute." She thought about what she just said and suddenly had a bold idea.
'Fire and water naturally oppose each other as they were created differently and have opposing characteristics, so what if instead of forcing them when they've already been made, I should mix the different types of astral energy before creating the final product.' The more Victoria thought about it, the more feasible she found it.
Feeling excited, she immediately put it into action. She concentrated once more and started to feel the two types of astral energy. But instead of creating the vortexes right away, she forced the two types of energies to fuse fuse with each other.
*PAH*
A sound akin to a spark was heard. It failed, but Victoria didn't feel frustrated, in fact, she got even more excited. That was because even though it failed, she sensed something from the two energies. Even though it was brief, she felt a small amount of resonance from the two elements. Moreover, there wasn't a red and blue spark, instead, it was purple.
Without hesitation, she had tried again,and once again, she failed. But she felt that although meager, she sensed that the resonance had become stronger, and the spark had become more purple.
And so she tried again.
And again
And again
And again
...
"YES!!!" Victoria's excited squeal travelled far as she jumped in joy. There was a single elemental vortex floated silently in front of her. However, it was purple.
If one were to look closely, they would see that sometimes, the edges of the vortex would take the form of a flame, and other times it would look like flowing water. She had succeeded, she had ink succeeded to do something that no one in the history of humanity had done after the catastrophe. She had fused two elements together.
Unknowingly to her, during the whole process, a few strands of her hair had turned purple.
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Author here. I had so much fun writing this chapter. idk why but I love writing Victoria's scenes and this one was really fun, I hope y'all get the same satisfaction from reading this chapter.