Shi arrived back at the shop where there were 4 screaming men writhing on the floor, and one dead man lying there. "So," Shi declared loudly, "where were we." He walked up to the first man he had attacked and said "Oh yeah, I stabbed your femoral artery, so that leg needs to be amputated." Shi had grabbed a bone saw out of his dad's shop and put it to work at the man's hip, sawing through his leg.
About midway through he caught something else and the man started screaming even louder. "Sorry, I must have caught your balls there." Shi said, sawing even harder towards the man's crotch. After the leg was cut off, Shi pulled it apart from the man's body so everyone could see the inside of his hip and what was left of his genitals.
He then sat down in front of the man and started willing his mana to become fuel where the rest of his c*ck and balls were. After he had about 5 times as much fuel that one would normally use to start a non-magic fire. Shi willed a chunk of mana to become pure energy.
This was easy since it wasn't too far from what mana usually was and a white hot flame appeared on the man's injured manhood, burning away what was left. The man screamed louder than should be physically possible and then suddenly stopped. Shi checked his pulse and realized that the man's heart had given out from the amount of pain inflicted on him.
"Damn," Shi said aloud, "I can't have you guys taking the easy way out. I'm gonna have to regulate myself a bit to keep you alive for longer." The other 3 men's faces paled at that, making them look like ghosts. Shi moved to the next guy, stomping on both sides of the man's collarbone.
The man let out a scream but Shi stomped down on his mouth to muffle him. "sssshhhhhhhhh, none of that now, I need your throat in it's best condition for what I'm about to do to you" Shi whispered softly into the man's ear. The man's eyes darted around wildly, looking for help but there was none, there was only Shi.
Shi calmed down with the fuel on this one, only putting a tiny bit in the man's throat and setting it alight with his mana. The fire was only a dull blue, but it still burned out the man's throat, making every breath feel like a tiger's claws slashing his throat. Not even Shi's foot could muffle the man's screams after this, so Shi moved on to the next man and let the previous one enjoy his pain for a bit.
Shi walked over to the next man and forcefully grabbed both bones that were protruding out of his arm and yanked them fully out. The man howled in pain and rage as his arm flopped down like a banana peel making a slight squelch sound. "Mubona Mubona Mubona," Shi said, "why in the f*ck would you do something so god d*mn stupid?"
Mubona was beyond words as he merely quivered in front of Shi curling into an even tighter ball as if it would protect him. Shi checked outside to see if anyone was around and after seeing that the coast was clear, hung Mubona on a pole outside and slashed open his abdomen.
He laughed when he saw Mubona trying to shove his guts back into his body, he hadn't made the injury too great to where Mubona would die soon, instead Mubona would die in a couple days no matter what people tried. Even if they got him down and sealed him up, he would die from his bowels infecting his body. "Nobody recovers from a gut wound," Shi said softly as he walked back inside.
The two men had stopped screaming, and Shi was getting bored so he just burned them alive to give them the death they deserved. After all that was over, Shi cleaned his tools, cleaned himself, and headed home. For the next month, Shi practiced fire magic, learning to dominate the fire and make it do what he wanted it to do.
He found that fire would fight him every step of the way, but not as hard as earth did at the beginning, and fire was more malleable even than water. Shi also learned that if he got the fire to start consuming something, it was easy for him to control the path it took along what it was burning. He got to the point where he could make the fire into a dragon that itself could both breath fire, and do damage to things, but not as much as either water or earth.
Fire was faster than both in every aspect, with Shi being able to breathe fire instantly, even though it didn't go very far. His fire took about 3 seconds to form as well. When Oshieru saw Shi's progress he was ecstatic, "I've never seen someone master fire magic so quickly! Your wisdom is beyond most adults I know, and is far beyond others your age."
Oshieru congratulated, "You have officially surpassed me in magic, so after you master the winds I will hand you over to Shiryoku and your magical journey will truly begin." "Of course, master Oshieru." Shi said with his head bowed slightly. He then left Oshieru's house and used all of his mana to raise a 50 foot (15.24 meter) mountain under himself so it brought him up with it.
Suddenly, Shi's chest felt as if it was on fire, he immediately turned his focus inward and saw that his mana core's red layer was shattering. The pain was indescribable but Shi suffered through it in silence, waiting until the bright red layer fell away from his core, leaving a dark orange core in its place. Shi immediately felt stronger, his focus was sharper, and he felt like he had 10 times the amount of mana than he did before.
"So this is what it's like to break through a core stage." Shi muttered in amazement at how much better he felt. He had never felt so alive, every fiber of his body was stronger. Shi punched the mountain under him and saw a small bit of rock crack off under the force of his punch. Shi settled down after this, focusing on the task at hand. It was time to finish mastering the elements.