Chapter CI - Dummy Class (part 2)

I tried it again, and this time pouring more magic energy. The spark slowly gets bigger and bigger, and finally my hand is cladded in flames, though a very small one.

What the hell…? This much magic energy should be able to destroy an entire wall. And yet, the flames burning in my hand are merely a centimetre high.

This is wrong. Where did I go wrong?

"Try imagining more flames."

The teacher said to me from behind. He saw the small flame on my hand, and he understood what was going on.

"Right now, you are augmenting solely based on increasing your magic energy. You are not turning that energy into flames. You are wasting your energy."

"I... I see…"

"So, try to imagine that you are making an even larger flame."

An even larger flame...

How does it… work?

How does a fire burn? By consuming the fuel, right? And right here, the fuel is magic energy. So, to make the fire burn bigger, I just need to add more fuel...

No, that's not how it's supposed to go.

I already have the fuel. It's right there, inside my hands. 

All I need to do… is adding this fuel to the flames...

I let my magic energy circulate a little more to the surface of my hand, and all of the sudden my fist exploded as the flames grew bigger.

VWOOOM!!!!

Immediately, I shut it down.

I turned my surprised gaze to the teacher, and the two of us are wearing the same panicked expression that's simply priceless.

I turned my gaze back to my hand and tried with much less magic energy.

FUMM!!!!!

And just like that, my fist is cladded in a normal level of flames from a normal level of energy.

This is balanced… No, it felt so much more powerful than just energy enchanting my fist.

So, this is augmentation… How interesting. It's powerful, and I can see why Jonus uses it.

"Congratulations. Now, try punching."

The teacher said as he pointed at the dummy. I turned my gaze to the dummy. It's hard to focus on two different things, but I need to master this if I want to get stronger.

I took a stance. My right foot is placed backwards while my left foot stays front-side. 

I started to pull my right hand and my eyes were dead set on the dummy. And with haste, I struck the chest of the dummy with my fist.

BLAARR!!!!!!!

A rather loud explosion occurred as I punched the dummy in front of me. After the explosive punch, the dummy looked quite charred. 

But overall, not a dent.

"You did it. Perfectly."

"Was... Was that it?"

That was a let down. Though, the explosion and the flaming effect could prove useful, but in the end it's just a bigger explosion force. It was a lot of work for such a small upgrade.

"Yes, but maybe you could put in more energy? Augmenting is much more powerful than enchanting. And just now, you only gave in a small amount, so of course the effect was not that big."

"Ohhh..."

Right... Stupid me.

That wasn't even my normal punch. That was like… not even one percent of my normal punch.

All right. Let's do this seriously.

I took another stance. This time I inserted the normal amount of magic energy to my hand. 

Air began to freeze around me as my hand started glowing blue.

Then, I began combusting my hand and conjured the flames. A heavy pressure can be felt all the way from my hand, as the heat made the cold in the air go away.

The teacher's hair suddenly stood as his senses were screaming for danger. He immediately leaped back and guarded his whole body with his hands.

VWOOOMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

The red flames are now burning heavily on my hand, and it's ready to strike. It does seem like it is forming the shape of a phoenix's head, but that's just my imagination. 

A grin formed on my face. With a punch, I struck the poor chest of the dummy.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A deafening and blinding sight of a powerful punch can be felt throughout the whole gymnasium as tremors shook the ground. It was so loud, that the sound even went outside the gymnasium.

Everyone who is currently at the other buildings around the gymnasium heard the explosion very clearly, and wondered what that was about. 

The headmaster turned his gaze to the window and quickly noticed what happened. He simply lifted a grin.

At the gymnasium, my punch struck the chest of the dummy perfectly. No, it went beyond.

The punch eradicated the dummy completely, leaving only the foot and the nail that connects it to the ground.

The punch went beyond the dummy and destroyed the ground, even the wall of the gymnasium that was nearly ten meters away from the punch behind the dummy. A giant hole was made with the diameter of around five meters on the wall, creating a path outside that was decorated with lava almost at every spot the flame touched.

Luckily, there's nothing behind the gymnasium. Otherwise, the damage would go even worse.

I moved from my stance and stared at the destruction, then I turned to the teacher, who was facing the destruction blankly with utter shock.

I turned my gaze back to the wall and noticed that I had fucked up.

"... Oops."