The training chamber beneath Elandor's western coliseum thrummed with unstable energy. Carved into the bedrock and reinforced with ancient runes, the arena was built for high-tier combatants to vent their strength without leveling the city. Today, its walls bore witness to the roar of storms and the crackle of lightning, the pulse of Flame, and—finally—the silent force Kael had nearly forgotten.
Kinetic Essence.
Kael stood in the center of the chamber, chest heaving. The aftermath of his last technique left a shallow crater under his boots. Wind spiraled around him, and lightning coiled in his veins, but it was the aching pressure in his joints that gnawed at his focus.
I've been ignoring it, he thought. All this time chasing fire and storm… and I left one of my cores asleep.
He stepped forward, then grounded his stance. With a deep inhale, Kael drew motion inward—not just wind, not just voltage, but raw kinetic force. The tension of movement stalled, the invisible press of potential gathered in his core.
"Breakforce," he whispered.
His right arm blurred. The fist drove forward like a battering ram, smashing into the training column. With a dull boom, the entire stone pillar cracked down the middle—shattered by the rupture of compressed force. Dust clouded the air. The ground beneath split with a jagged mark, scorched not by fire but by pressure.
Kael exhaled slowly, lowering his stance.
Behind him, a quiet gasp echoed.
Leiya stood at the edge of the chamber, lips parted, dark hair fluttering from residual force. "That wasn't Flame," she said softly. "Was it?"
"No," Kael replied, flexing his wrist. "Kinetic. I've had it since the beginning. I just… never let it breathe." He glanced toward her. "I thought I didn't need it. But now? Every piece of me counts."
Leiya stepped closer, something sharp and unsure in her gaze. "You're getting stronger every day, Kael. It's like you're sprinting ahead. And I…"
He turned fully. "You're not falling behind."
She looked down, voice faint. "I don't want to be the girl who watches your back. I want to fight beside you."
Kael's stare softened. "Then fight beside me. Train with me."
The words hung in the charged air.
And Leiya smiled—bright, determined, and just a bit dangerous.
Within minutes, the chamber ignited again.
Kael launched into another technique. This time, he raised his hands and focused the invisible strain between them.
"Compression Drive," he muttered.
A dense pulse shot forward—soundless, unseen, but devastating. The target dummy forty paces ahead flew backward and slammed into the wall with a solid crack, pinned there for a breath before collapsing.
Leiya flinched, but her hand lifted. Ice flared around her fingers, followed by radiant light that pulsed outward in a gleam.
"My turn."
She blurred forward, her frame wrapped in shimmer. With a sweeping arc, she slashed her blade across the next training target.
"Moonveil Laceration!"
Thin lines of ice and light carved into the stone, glowing even after the cut. The surface didn't break—but the light-scarred marks hissed with freezing energy. Kael felt it: that Essence couldn't circulate through those lines. They were wounds that bled control.
Kael blinked. "That's new."
Leiya gave a proud nod. "If you're going to start crushing Essence channels, I need to shut them down too."
He grinned. "Keep going."
She stepped back, raising her hand again. This time, icy lilies bloomed around her in a luminous ring. Then—
"Dawnpiercer Bloom!"
The lilies shattered, firing spears of radiant frost into the far wall. A volley of frozen light rained down, pinning targets and freezing chunks of the chamber. One shattered stone target midair. Another left a smear of white crystals across the floor.
The power was real. Sharp. Beautiful. And deadly.
Kael stepped forward again, this time planting his foot with slow precision.
He lowered his center of gravity, then clenched both fists and thrust them down.
"Gravity Bind!"
The floor beneath shimmered, then dragged. The kinetic field he created crushed the air downward, pressing a phantom weight across a wide circle. Dust flattened. Stones cracked. Even Leiya staggered back.
"Damn…" she whispered, regaining her footing. "That's going to ruin someone's day."
Kael nodded. "Helps with crowd control. Or pinning something down for this—"
He rocketed forward in a spiral of wind and storm. Lightning crawled along his spine.
"Storm Vault Execution!"
The chamber exploded with wind and force as Kael vaulted like a railgun—his body tearing through three reinforced pillars before crashing to a halt at the far end. A smoking trench trailed behind him, wind howling in his wake.
Kael landed, panting. "Still rough… but it's coming together."
When he looked back, Leiya stood again—her blade now glowing, her stance ready.
"I'm not done either," she said. "I've got more in me."
And then she disappeared in a burst of refracted light—blazing forward in a streak of ice shimmer.
"Gleamstride Avalanche!"
She blitzed past Kael, her luminous trail freezing everything behind her. The strike slammed into another dummy, locking it in ice before it exploded in a bloom of delayed frost.
Kael smiled, watching the glow in her eyes.
She's not chasing me, he realized. She's sprinting her own path, right beside mine.
And something about that made his core pulse brighter.
Training didn't stop. Not that day. Not that night.
Because two rising warriors had made a silent promise—through wind, light, and fury—that they would stand together at the world's breaking point.