While Fay successfully joining the Hunter’s Guild was a cause for celebration, Lucas was back to pushing himself and training the very next morning. He’d given his body and magic time to rest, as Fay and her family had requested. But with his time ticking down until he was leaving, Lucas knew he couldn’t just sit back and be idle.

  So, he trained hard. He pushed himself hard for an entire week. He still let Fay pull him away at times to just have a bit of fun or go on another date, but most of his time and efforts were spent training and learning all he could in the time he had left.

  Normally, a month of effort wouldn’t be enough to see especially significant results, but with potions helping to repair his body each night, Lucas was able to make leaps and bounds while pushing his body beyond what was normally safe to do. Was Fay very happy with him when he was almost collapsing from exhaustion? Maybe not, but the results were worth the pain and exhaustion.

  While Lucas had been decently in shape before arriving in Helstrum, after almost a month of working hard and training, he looked like an actual athlete. Looking in the mirror each morning, he could see actual muscles on his body. He wasn’t buff by any means, more of a runner’s build, but those muscles were proof of his hard work and effort.

  And it had been a busy week as well, splitting his time between training with Fay and Magnus, practicing new uses for his Darkness magic, and working hard to learn all he could with Wren.

  Knowing that his time was coming to a close, both Wren and Magnus seemed just as intent as Lucas was to teach him everything they could. The nightly sparring sessions with Magnus had swiftly evolved into actual fights, though they stuck to blunted weapons and non-lethal attacks. Lucas was getting each night, learning to block, to dodge, and to attack with more efficiency and power. More importantly, he was learning when each option was best.

  Wren, on the other hand, worked to refine Lucas’ technique as much as she could and teach him a bit of new tricks for how to use his Illusion magic. His favorite thing that he’d learned over the week was how to finally create, maintain, and manipulate a stable and steady targeted illusion.

  He’d been working towards it ever since Wren had taught him how to anchor a general illusion. From there, she had him build off the concept and make it much more complex. Rather than creating a general illusion that everyone could see, a targeted illusion was only visible to the person that it targeted. And to create a targeted illusion, Lucas had to anchor it to the very mana of the person he was targeting.

  It had taken him four days just to learn how to spot and target the mana of another person, even with Wren’s help. But once he could find the mana of others, the task became to anchor an illusion to them. While that would make it so that only the single target would see the illusions, it made said illusions far more realistic and difficult to differentiate from reality.

  The most difficult part of a targeted illusion was that it wasn’t something he could just make and forget about. He had to feed the illusion a steady flow of mana to keep it going and stay focused to manipulate and change the illusions in real time around the target. It was more intensive than any normal illusions, but the cost wasn’t severe enough that Lucas had to worry about it too much.

  Very quickly, Lucas worked to integrate his new knowledge into his fights and sparring matches. It forced him to split his focus more and learn to concentrate even in the middle of combat. It also made him a massive pain for anyone to fight against.

  As he watched the curved blade of a scimitar slice downwards to his left, Lucas decided that Sasha was the one who he was having the most fun teaching that lesson.

  “Gods damn it!”

  Lucas laughed as Sasha cursed, her blunted sword cutting through empty air as she sliced through what she thought was the real Lucas. With a twitch of effort, he shaped the illusion anchored to the girl to make his laughter echo from all around her.

  “Your illusions are cheating and this is bullshit,” Sasha complained as she slowly spun around.

  To Fay and Magnus who were watching, the Stella’s backyard seemed empty other than Lucas and Sasha standing in the center. In Sasha’s eyes, she was surrounded by six versions of Lucas with each mirroring the other perfectly.

  “I’d say the same thing about your Space magic,” Lucas shot back teasingly. “Not my fault that you can’t figure out how to deal with this, yet.”

  Targeted illusions, while they sounded strong, did have a notable weakness. Someone who knew what they were doing and had good control of their mana could sever the anchor and shatter the illusion. Wren had explained that and even demonstrated it herself so that Lucas could know what it felt like when one of his illusions was broken.

  With fine enough control, a person could completely freeze the flow of mana within their bodies for a short second. That gap was just long enough for the anchor latched onto the person to slip away and the illusion to shatter without a proper anchor. Lucas quickly found out that Magnus knew how to do just that when he tried to pull the same trick he was using on Sasha on the older man.

  Sasha and Fay, though, didn’t know the trick yet and Lucas had a fun time using his new skills until the two were able to learn. With Magnus teaching them both, it wouldn’t be long until both girls figured it out. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t help Sasha at that moment.

  As Sasha went in to swing at another illusion, further off to Lucas’ left, he pushed a bit of mana into the air. Sasha’s shadow twitched for a moment before it lunged up, wrapping around the girl’s left leg and sending her tumbling to the ground when her leg didn’t move with the rest of her body.

  “If you don’t drop this illusion, I’m going to kick your ass every time I see you, Lucas!” Sasha growled as she pushed herself off the ground.

  “That would sound way scarier if you weren’t currently eating dirt,” Lucas joked.

  Lucas knew these types of extremely obvious illusions wouldn’t work on people who were more skilled like Magnus, but it was fun to get the chance to mess with Sasha a few times.

  Pumping more mana into the connection he’d already established, Lucas watched as Sasha’s own shadow bound her further. Her arms were pinned to her side as the solid shadows wrapped around her frame, retraining her legs and arms. Once she was unable to move much, Lucas let the illusion drop.

  “I think that’s my win, this time,” He commented as he walked over and held his sword to the brunette’s throat.

  At first, Sasha looked annoyed, but after a moment she grinned back at him.

  “Are you sure about that?” She asked as she looked down.

  Following her gaze, Lucas was met with the sight of Sasha’s scimitar hovering an inch or two from his body. The metal of the blade was stretched out, jutting from the handle of her blade feet away. The way that space warped and stretched the blade was difficult to look at for long, and after a few seconds Lucas had to look away.

  “And you said my illusions are bullshit,” Lucas snorted. “Tie?”

  “Sure, tie,” Sasha agreed.

  Lucas let out a slow breath and wiped some sweat from his brow as he released his control and allowed Sasha’s shadow to return to normal. Over the course of the week, Lucas experimented more and more with his Darkness affinity. When it came to shadows, he found that he could feel and sense patches of darkness within a decent range easily enough but interacting with that darkness was the hard part. He could reach out and take control of a shadow at range, but the drain was massively increased compared to using his own shadow.

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  Using his own shadow as a bridge to channel his mana, though, made things far easier. Any patch of darkness his own shadow touched could be subsumed and controlled with ease. It took more mana the more darkness he tried to control at once, but it was nothing compared to how much it took to wrestle control from a distance.

  “Probably best we ended it now, anyway,” Lucas said as he reached out and helped Sasha up to her feet.

  “Why’s that? Had another annoying illusion up your sleeve?” Sasha snarked.

  “No. But I don’t think you’d enjoy fighting me at night,” Lucas shot back.

  Looking towards the horizon, Sasha could see that the sun was already starting to set. As the light dipped below the horizon, the shadows stretched across the back yard. While Lucas’ Darkness magic was useful, it was notably harder and more taxing to use during the day or in bright sunlight. In a darker area or when night rolled around, Lucas’ Darkness magic became far easier to use and much more dangerous in his hands.

  “Not bad, but you got cocky at the end, Lucas,” Magnus said as he walked over to the teens.

  “I know, I know,” He replied. “I was goofing off more than I should have the entire time. I’ll be more serious next time.”

  The bald smith nodded. “Good. Some fun while sparring isn’t a bad thing, but try to keep it serious most of the time,”

  “So,” Magnus said as he stood across from Lucas. “Got enough energy for another round, or are you too tired tonight?”

  “Give me some time to get a drink, and I’m all good,” Lucas replied with a slowly growing grin.

  Maybe, potentially, he might have begun to enjoy the thrill of a fight. The feeling of his heart racing and his blood rushing through his veins. It was a rush, and one that he’d grown to look forward to. Unfortunately, it was another reason why he was almost hesitant to leave.

  “Good to hear. Only a few more days till you leave, and I want to make sure to hammer in every last lesson I can before you go,” Magnus replied.

  Lucas strode over to Fay’s side, smiling as his girlfriend handed him a glass of cool, refreshing water.

  “Nice job, even if you didn’t win” She smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Her smile grew even wider when Magnus audibly grumbled and muttered under his breath.

  “Almost forgot that was happening soon,” Sasha commented as she sat against the side of the house. Both her hands were occupied dealing with familiars. Her own familiar, Spike, laid on her left getting his stomach scratched while Dusk curled up against her right side while Sasha scratched behind the fox’s ears.

  Lucas was endlessly amused by how quickly his familiar had given up her grudge against the brunette after just a bit of food. Dusk was loyal, but food was quite a weakness of hers that Sasha had quickly exploited.

  “Five more days, right?” Sasha asked.

  “Yeah. Five more days,” Lucas replied, glancing up at the darkening sky and holding back a sigh. He was still conflicted about what to do and whether he’d even stay back home with his family or not. He was pretty sure that he’d only find the answer after getting back home and seeing his parents.

  “Crazy to think you’ve been learning for a month and you’ve gotten so good,” The brunette complimented.

  “I’m not really that good. In a fair fight, you kick my ass every time. So does Fay,” He replied sheepishly.

  “Lucas, there is no such thing as a fair fight here,” Magnus spoke up. “She’s right, you’ve learned an incredible amount in only a month’s time, and that includes magic. You’re not going to hold back your magic in a real fight, so don’t feel like using it means you aren’t as good.”

  “Those illusions are still bullshit,” Sasha chimed in. “But he’s right. Sticking to just weapons for training is fine, but you need to use everything in a serious fight.”

  Lucas nodded and sighed, a small smile gracing his lips at the supportive words. He and Sasha had gotten off to a rough start at first, but they’d become good friends since, and Lucas was glad for it.

  “Alright, enough yapping. If you’re good enough to talk, you’re good enough for one more match before it gets any later,” Magnus interrupted.

  “You just don’t want to fight me at night again,” Lucas teased.

  Fay and Sasha laughed while Magnus rolled his eyes. “You still can’t beat me yet, kid. Not even at night.”

  “I’ve still got a few more days to change that, though,” The raven-haired teen shot back.

  “Try a few more years, kid,” Magnus laughed.

  Lucas kissed Fay on the cheek and handed her back the empty glass of water. Walking over, he stood a couple dozen feet away from Magnus, xiphos in hand and a shadowy dagger manifesting in his left.

  “How about tonight,” He replied with a challenging grin as he dropped into a ready stance.

  “Don’t get cocky. You know what happened las-“

  Before Magnus could finish, the two were interrupted as a massive cloud of dust and debris erupted to the west, far beyond the walls of Helstrum. Everyone’s heads snapped in the direction as the cloud of debris erupted from deep in the forests surrounding the town and blotted out the setting sun. The crack of an explosion, loud enough to be heard from miles away, followed a moment later as a wave of pressure caused trees to sway and creak.

  The town erupted with noise as people reacted to the explosion. When Lucas looked over to Magnus, the smith was looking towards the explosion with narrowed eyes.

  “What the hell was that!” Sasha shouted, jumping to her feet along with both familiars.

  Dusk bound her way to Lucas’ side, standing tense beside him with her hackles raised. Dove, Fay’s familiar, swooped down from her perch on the roof and landed on the girl’s shoulder a moment later.

  “I don’t know. But I have an idea,” Magnus replied.

  And then things got worse. Before the dust of the explosion could even settle, it was blown away as a massive tornado erupted from the forest, rising high enough into the air that it could be seen for many miles. The sky quickly darkened as clouds gathered and Lucas felt his jaw drop as the winds picked up and whipped at the trees.

  “Everyone, get inside. Now!” Magnus ordered, his words sharp and serious as he saw the huge wall of wind erupt.

  When Lucas turned towards the man, he was stunned and terrified to see a look of genuine worry and even fear on Magnus’ face.

  “Dad? What’s going on? What is that?” Fay asked, her own worry obvious as she rushed over towards her father and gripped Lucas’ hand.

  “Somebody went and woke up Pomolo. And now, it’s lashing out,” Magnus replied.

  Fay’s face went ashy white, but Lucas was left more confused. “Who the hell is Pomolo and how the hell can they make something like that!?” He asked as he gestured to the massive cyclone.

  “Pomolo isn’t a who, it’s an Elemental. An ancient wind Elemental. It’s been peacefully resting deep in Direwolf territory for years. Every hunter is told to avoid the area where it chose to rest, but someone went and picked a fight with it. And now it’s angry.”

  Lucas felt the blood drain from his face as he looked off in the distance. Magnus and Fay had told him plenty of stories about how dangerous Elementals could be. And there was always the warning about how dangerous they got the older they became. And an ancient, an Elemental that had lived for hundreds of years? They were things to be feared.

  “What do we do?” He asked.

  “Get inside,” Magnus repeated. “Pomolo is a long way away from town, but if it gets much closer, we’ll have to evacuate and get transported somewhere safe. But if we’re lucky, it’ll drift away from town rather than closer.”

  “Shouldn’t we evacuate now?” Lucas asked nervously.

  “Long as nobody does anything stupid, we should be fine,” Magnus slowly replied. “An Elemental as old as Pomolo tends to avoid fights and people. It just likes to rest and keep to itself. It should stay away from town.”

  “But-“

  “Lucas, go inside,” Magnus said firmly as he looked at the teen. “If things get bad, we’ll all get somewhere safe. But right now, at this moment, being inside is the safest place to be.”

  Fay gently tugged at Lucas’ arm, and he allowed Fay to start pulling him towards the house.

  “Sasha, you should get home. Your parents will be worried about you,” Magnus added.

  Sasha hesitated, looking over at Fay for a few seconds. But after taking another look at the towering column of wind, she nodded. “Ok.”

  She rushed over and gave Fay a quick hug that the blonde returned just as fast. Then Sasha was running off, space warping around her and quickly making her vanish from view.

  As Fay tugged Lucas inside and Lissa swept both teens into a worried hug, Lucas couldn’t help but glance back at the storm gathering in the west. The sheer amount of magic it would take to create an explosion like he’d seen was worrying, but the power to create a tornado like that was utterly terrifying.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~