"Let's say that your training is still superior to mine, Nyka. Yet I should have at least opened another eye, developed a new type of flames, or at least discovered a unique bloodline ability. Lith and I had started our training with Faluel at the same time.
"Yet while he keeps growing stronger and stronger, I'm still a wimp!" Tista hurled a river of Origin Flames created by igniting the world energy with one spark of life force from each of her beast sides and another from the human side.
Yet the blue flames remained blue and she started to cough out of exertion. Tista had trained hard to replicate Lith's Void Flames and she had even learned how to activate individually each of her life forces, hoping to trigger a new bloodline ability.
The only thing she had obtained was to triple the toll that the Origin Flames took on her body and nothing else.
"While he relaxed in the Desert, I practiced every day against Phoenixes. They taught me all about their bloodline abilities in the hope that I shared at least a few with them, but it turned out that I have nothing in common with Phoenixes aside from the physical appearance!"
Tista slammed her fist against the floor in frustration as she stood up, opening huge cracks that the arrays of the training center started to repair. As her fury grew, her Dragon and Phoenix life forces started to spin around each other faster and faster.
Their respective Origin Flames reinforced each other until they burst out as one. Yet instead of traveling through her throat, the mystical fire spread throughout her body, setting every one of her scales alight.
Tista looked at her hands in surprise as the boundary between matter and energy disappeared. She was still alive and she could still think, but she could also see through her own hands.
She pushed them against the rock floor, discovering that they phased through, leaving only a charred mark behind.
"Neat!" Nyka performed a series of quick jabs that hit the Red Demon's head and chest with so much strength that the air pressure they produced was enough to split the flames open.
The Vampire suffered no damage and neither did Tista whose flaming body quickly rearranged itself back into its original shape before reverting into flesh and blood.
"Neat my ass." Tista said amid pants. "Your hits didn't hurt, but filling the empty spots cost me one breath of Origin Flames each."
"Buzzkill." Nyka shrugged. "We just got you a bloodline ability and the proof that your efforts weren't for naught yet you still find something to complain about.
"I think that your development is slow because even though you and your brother learned the same techniques, Lith was the only one who put them into practice over and over, even when his life was on the line.
"Your weakness isn't due to a lack of talent or potential but comes from having had a peaceful life. I, instead, have been so lonely that fighting and magic were my only distractions when Mom disappeared in her lab for her experiments.
"Once I moved to Lightkeep, things didn't change until Uncle Vladion drilled into me all the basic techniques of Awakened Vampires and taught me how to use our bloodline abilities to their full potential.
"If not for Auntie Scar attaching the secret of the Eternal Dusk array inside the Eyes of Menadion as a parting gift for me, I wouldn't have had a single moment of free time." The Vampire referred to Scarlett's personal array that drained the surrounding light element, keeping Nyka from falling into a comatose state during the day.
"Uncle Vladion was so pissed when Mom refused to teach Eternal Dusk to him or to use it outside of my training." Nyka sighed with longing. "I wonder where Uncle Vladion is. He's been gone since the night Orpal killed Manohar.
"We are all worried sick, but Auntie Lysa and Radusk are scared to death."
"Well, at least you had an expert teaching everything about your species without having to clutch at straws for months!" Tista replied.
"Waah. Poor you." Quylla said with mock sadness. "How terrible it must be, being either the super-hot member of a unique race with unknown potential or a sexy Vampire, both related to some of the most powerful beings on Mogar."
She took a brief pause to let her sarcasm sink while her rage grew.
"Are you kidding me? How dare you complain so much? You didn't go through one bit of the nightmare that my life is, yet not only are both of you Awakened, but you can also wipe the floor with my ass any time!" Her eyes burned with violet light.
Quylla's core kept developing, but she had no reason to be happy. The stronger it became the fewer her chances to survive the Awakening process would become.
To prove her point, she jumped on the ring and activated a full elemental fusion. After her visit to the Fringe, Quylla had become the first human true mage in history. That and Orion's Featherwalker armor boosted her stamina, strength, and speed.
Alas, her base physical prowess was so weak compared to the two Awakened that no matter how precise her combinations of fists and kicks were, Tista and Nyka had no problem dodging the onslaught.
To them, Quylla moved in slow motion.
Her mana core was stronger than the other two women's, but there was only so much fusion magic that her body could take, limiting her output. Quylla increased the elemental flow in her body with each failed assault, becoming faster by the second.
Soon she became as powerful as Tista and thanks to the hardness of the Adamant armor, she could overlook the opponent's attacks and hit like a hammer. The first time her punch connected, Quylla felt as much satisfaction as pain.
She had sent Tista flying, but she had also produced a snap as her muscles ripped and the bones from the right arm to the left foot cracked. Even with darkness fusion numbing the pain, Quylla was forced to stop.
Warm tears streaked down her eyes because even though light fusion was already mending her wounds, it was powerless against the feeling of frustration that ate at Quylla from the inside.
"Are you still going to whine about how unlucky you are?" She yelled in fury. "I didn't get my abilities from birth nor did I have a kind little brother who took me by the hand. I worked hard for them, risking my life in the Fringe and in those damn mines.
"And for what? My body can't handle half of the fusion magic I'm capable of. I can't cast a tier four true spell without the risk of the mana flow activating my core and making me burst like a damn firework. I'm useless." Her voice cracked and she started to sob.
"You just have to be patient." Tista said, using Invigoration to fix Quylla's wounds and restore her stamina. "Your body is that of a fake mage and according to Nalrond, it takes the members of his species years to get accustomed to the mana flow.
"It's the reason why magical beasts are stuck with two elements unless they Awaken."
