Brandon’s mind races and he thinks back to his earlier years. He was barely touching twenty at this point, with his birthday being four days away.

  His grandfather hangs in the back, studying his grandson’s movements, as Brandon already seems tired. Panting as he grips his own wrist with his left hand, Brandon stands before several highly damaged trees. But according to his grandfather, none of these were enough.

  His grandfather shouts for him to attack the tree again. To make contact without anger in mind. Brandon’s birthday is four days away. Fed up, he asks his grandfather why he has to train so hard. He asks him why he couldn’t leave out of town with his friends.

  His grandfather doesn’t bother to answer the second half of his grandson’s question. He simply focuses on the first half.

  Brandon’s grandfather explains to him that Explosion magic, is one of the hardest forms of magic to learn, as it is simply a contradiction. The magic art itself, is a destructive force of nature and will. However, the more raw emotion someone puts into the art, the weaker the user’s attacks are. He proves it by telling him to look closer amongst each tree. Brandon does just that.

  Scanning the setting with his eyes, Brandon does see something. Each tree held less and less of a serious impact. Each tree showed a ladder of Brandon’s frustration, as the closer he had gotten to the last tree he attacked, the less damaged the trees appeared. Brandon’s grandfather did always note that Brandon caught on fast.

  Brandon’s grandfather can see the realization come to his grandson’s face – he gives him a moment to pull himself together. Shortly after, he shouts for his grandson to go forward again. Brandon comes back to the present day, just as he charges for the closest tree to him.

  Shifting himself sideways into a strong dash, Brandon leaves the thick cloud of smoke without a scratch on him. He positions himself as he waits for his opponent to come forward-knowing he hasn’t killed him yet. He knew that the red lightning witch, was too skilled to have fallen from a mere sneak attack.

  Amneal suddenly stumbles out of the dark smoke. He plays the sudden scene back in his head, as he sees Brandon launch himself into his direction, and quickly swinging the longer blade in his left hand at him. It wasn’t even a power swing, but the mere force that effortlessly swung through the air, sprung an explosion. Brandon hadn’t even made any form of contact with him, which only meant that his opponent’s mana alone, caused an on-demand explosion.

  A ranged ‘Impact Magic’ user. Amneal had never heard such a thing. But he was clearly dealing with one, as Brandon didn’t even show a small trickle of doubt. He was nothing like the guy he had faced before. Nothing like the guy that he was chasing through the city. Nothing like the guy he had the advantage over. There was no one running. There were no buildings for them to hold back around. There were no excuses in Brandon’s eyes. Amneal saw this.

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  Brandon tore through the air again with explosive power, using his mana once again to catapult him into the range of Amneal. Amneal leaps backwards, using his mana to spring him as far back as possible. He quickly preps his bow and takes fire at Brandon.

  Multiple strings of red lightning come out, acting as arrows as they crash into Brandon. Though what doesn’t bounce off Brandon’s mana shield that storms around his body, gets deflected by swipes from Brandon’s swords. Brandon shoots up from the ground and makes his way to Amneal in the air, soon after. Amneal’s eyebrows shoot up upon seeing this, knowing that he is helpless in the air to defend himself.

  Amneal uses his great bow to block a hard slam from Brandon’s two swords. Brandon’s continuous stream of mana gives him another boost, jolting him above Amneal and quickly allow him to come back down, slamming his swords into Amneal’s bow once again. Only this time, Amneal isn’t able to withstand it.

  Amneal plummets out the sky, descending quickly back first as he thinks about the immeasurable disadvantage he now feels. He knows Brandon is going to come in for a finishing blow as soon as he lands.

  Before landing on his back, Amneal is given a moment to think about Niavi. He takes this moment. A healthy version of her pops into his mind, and he tells himself that if he keeps this up, he won’t be able to see this side of her again. He crashes into the ground soon after, back first.

  With only slightly above average speed, Brandon uses his explosive mana to charge himself into the landing area that Amneal had cushioned. The delivering blow had to be dealt.

  Coming in as he fought through the sky’s air, Amneal spotted Brandon. He closes his eyes and concentrates on his own body’s mana, erupting a red lightning field just as Brandon gets close. The lightning field becomes the barrier that Amneal needs, bouncing Brandon back and forcing him to land on his feet elsewhere. Amneal rises, only to see that the electricity from the field he landed on, had just barely phased Brandon.

  Streaks of red lightning trickles around Brandon’s aura shield, though they disperse with his aura, once he shuts it off. Amneal shows he is bothered by this.

  Questioning Brandon with a slight grunt, he asks Brandon if he was just holding back their last encounter – adding that he could have killed Brandon for that simple mistake. Brandon assures him that he wasn’t holding back, he was just still adjusting to the new line of magic he was using at the time. Brandon points the tip of his long blade in Amneal’s direction and informs him that he hadn’t expected to run into someone like him at the time, and that he wasn’t going to make that mistake again. Amneal is bothered by the wave of confidence that Brandon shows.

  He still had one more move to rely on. One more attack that he could send Brandon’s way. Being only less than half as strong as he normally could be, he knew he would need an outsource of energy.

  Amneal concentrates his mana flow within his body, converting it into more of a rod than an outgoing source. A red radiation of aura calmly takes over the outlining of his body.

  Clouds quickly shape above the entire area. Within these clouds, trickles of red lightning and loud thunder accompanies. Amneal leaves his head down at his feet as he attempts to hide his shame.

  Talking to himself out loud, he tells himself that he cannot believe that he has to use “this move.” That it’s been a long time since, though he didn’t have enough mana, to simply rely on himself. Knowing something big was coming, Brandon braces himself.