Elias sat on the floor, coughing as the last bits of smoke faded from his dorm. His gauntlet, or what remained of it, was still intact—but barely. Sparks flickered along the cracks in the mana capacitor, and the metal plating had been scorched black.
Lira, arms crossed, looked unimpressed. "Well, that was spectacularly stupid."
Elias groaned, rubbing his sore back. "Okay, not my best idea."
Lira knelt beside him, inspecting the gauntlet with a raised eyebrow. "I'll admit, I expected this to explode a lot worse. I'm almost disappointed."
Elias ignored her, rolling his wrist and feeling the faint hum of stored energy still lingering in the device. It worked. Kind of.
"The capacitor's unstable," he muttered, examining the damage. "It absorbs too much energy at once and doesn't have anywhere to channel the excess. I need a regulator to—"
Lira snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Hey. Maybe fix it before it turns you into a pile of ash?"
Elias sighed. "Yeah, yeah."
The next hour was spent carefully dismantling and reinforcing the device. Elias pried open the mana capacitor, adjusting the conduits to spread the absorbed energy more evenly.
Lira watched, occasionally passing him tools. "So, let me get this straight—you're trying to cheat magic by engineering something that pretends to be magic?"
Elias grinned. "Not pretending. Improving."
Lira scoffed. "Right. And when you inevitably upset a bunch of traditional mages, what then?"
Elias shrugged. "Then I prove them wrong."
Lira sighed. "I hate that I'm starting to believe you."
By the time Elias finished, the gauntlet was functional again—this time with a mana regulator to control the energy flow.
Now, they needed a place to test it.
"Let's go somewhere less flammable," Lira said, dragging him out before he could protest.
The Academy had designated training grounds for students, most of whom practiced spellcasting. While dueling required official permission, the training fields were open to anyone looking to test their abilities.
Perfect.
They found a quiet clearing, away from the crowds. Lira stood a few paces away, arms crossed. "Alright. Try it again. But please aim away from me this time."
Elias raised the gauntlet, feeling the steady pulse of energy within. He focused, activating the absorption function.
The air shimmered as the gauntlet drew mana from the surroundings, glowing with controlled energy.
Lira tilted her head. "Well. It's not exploding. That's an improvement."
Elias smirked. "Let's see if I can direct it properly."
He raised his arm and triggered the release mechanism—this time with precision in mind.
A small, concentrated pulse of mana shot from the gauntlet, slamming into a nearby practice dummy. The impact was sharp, clean, and controlled—no explosion, no wild recoil.
Lira blinked. "Okay. That was actually kind of impressive."
Elias grinned, flexing his fingers. "Told you. I just needed to fine-tune it."
Lira smirked. "Great. Now you just need to survive the actual fights."
Elias exhaled, feeling the power in his hands.
His invention worked.
Now, he just had to master it before the Academy crushed him.