As his blood boiled under Arel's intense flames, as his skin burnt, as his bones cracked, as his flesh was seared by his opponent's fury and rage, Adonis didn't scream nor did he lose himself. In fact, he only seemed to get more and more confident.
[Layer: 500x]
After having been healed by Elder Jo, Adonis had felt different. He couldn't quite explain what it was that he was feeling but he knew he was feeling something.
And right now, under such pressure, the feeling only seemed to intensify, plunging him into a trance he couldn't have ever fathomed or hoped to be possible.
He was one boy and yet, he moved with the speed of five hundred, he had two fists and yet, they held the power of a thousand.
Soon, Arel was overwhelmed, unable to comprehend what was going on.
Adonis brought his two hands together with as much power and force as he could muster, generating a gust of wind that extinguished Arel's blood flames.
Arel didn't have the time to react when he arrived in front of him, his palm calmly zipping across the air to land upon his sternum and instantly shatter it.
He tried to move and take a step back but Adonis was faster. His two kneecaps shattered and he was forced to his knees, his figure drenched in blood as he looked up to Adonis' fierce gaze in pure and absolute bewilderment.
"You allowed the weakness of your mind to take root in your body." Calmly uttered Adonis.
He looked away, staring at Rylo.
"I think this'll be enough. I don't suppose Arel is gonna be able to fight for any longer."
"…"
"Rylo?"
"Ah, yes, apologies. The spar has ended."
Adonis turned around then calmly walked back to his tent, his heart just as steady and calm as the sea of people parted to give him way.
Rylo looked at Adonis' tiny body make its way and as he saw and felt the conviction within each and every single one of his steps, his smile returned.
'Oh lord, I can't wait for you to reach my stage.'
***
Unsurprisingly, as soon as Adonis reached his tent, he found Elder Jo waiting for him, ready to heal him up. It seemed the old man had either suddenly felt bad for indirectly being the cause of this or was sent by Saleh, either way, Adonis gladly accepted the treatment.
Hours later, he lay on his bed, staring at his ceiling with a foolish smile plastered onto his face.
'That was fun.'
Soon, he focused once more and his thoughts returned to his goals.
'But again, why was he so weak…he was a peak tier five and even broke into tier six, by all means, he should've destroyed me so what did I do that stopped him from manifesting his full power…?'
'Hm, I'm going to guess that this is the effect of one of my Gifts that I'm not aware of.'
'So, it for sure can't be [Layer]. It can't be [Snatch] and it surely isn't [Order], so that leaves me with [Prime].'
'Could it be that prime is more than application of perfection…wait..can my Gifts affect one another?!'
Adonis' eyes widened.
'Wait, let's backtrack. Previously, I categorised my Gifts into passive and active but what if all Gifts have one passive application and one active application?'
'That would mean that currently, I'm only aware of fifty percent of my abilities.'
'Now the question is, how do I train my abilities without anyone noticing and even more importantly, how do I get information on how to cultivate? Hm…'
Adonis closed his eyes, his body relaxing as his thoughts endlessly drifted along the waves of his desires and soon, he fell asleep.
Standing in one of the corners of Adonis' tent, Rylo bore an awkward smile. He'd been waiting there for quite a while as he waited for Adonis to wake out of his thoughts.
'Whatever, we'll have time to talk tomorrow.'
And with this, he vanished, leaving Adonis alone in his tent, his snores echoing through the tight space.
***
Adonis' eyes snapped open, woken out of his sleep by a myriad of screams as he immediately stood up and rushed to the corner of his tent, grabbing his spear before he headed out.
What greeted Adonis was a battle between the White Dragon Nomads and a group of warriors that all wore clothes of black and emerald.
'Bandits?'
"I'm glad you're okay."
Hearing this, Adonis looked to his left, finding a calm Rylo.
"What's going on?" He asked, his voice tainted with a hint of nervousness.
"I lured a bunch of bandits here and now we're running training exercises on them." He answered.
For a moment, Adonis thought heard wrong.
"W-what? Isn't that dangerous?"
"No, I mean, yes, technically but we're used to it. In fact, you should take this opportunity to observe the ongoing battles and broaden your horizons."
Adonis didn't have any more questions as he began to watch the unfolding battle, specifically, he focused on a particularly violent youth.
'Arel.'
He seemed like a completely different beast. Each step he took was boosted by an eruption of flames that allowed him to move at speeds way beyond the normal limits of mortality.
He flashed across the battlefield like a mad dog, reaping any lives he could as the more he killed, the more powerful his Blood flames became.
"Can I ask a question?"
"Go ahead."
"What are those flames he's wielding? They don't seem to abide by the same rules as other flames I've seen. It's like they're a mix of fire and blood, at once, creating this weird state."
Rylo smiled hearing Adonis' question.
"Pretty good analysis. Well, those flames are what you call a mutated variant element."
"Anyone with enough talent to walk onto the Elemental path has an elemental affinity. You have Primary Elements and then you have mutated variants."
"An example of this would be Wind, which is a Primary element compared to the Storm element which is a mutated variant."