Book 3: Chapter 51 (1/2)

Tafel was hunched over, her palms pressed against her bent knees as she panted for breath. She wasn’t sweating, but she was ejecting thick steam onto the ground from her mouth with every exhalation. Her staff was planted in the ground beside her, and past the staff to her right, Vur was in the same exact pose as Tafel. A vein bulged on Tafel’s forehead as she whipped her head to the side. “You’re not even tired! Why are you doing that!?”

Vur blinked and scratched his nose. “Didn’t you say it was okay for me to copy you?”

Tafel’s expression darkened as she straightened her back. “It’s not okay to copy me when I’m exhausted,” she said and rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. “It feels like you’re making fun of me.”

“Oh,” Vur said and straightened his back. “You were tired?”

Tafel’s eyes trembled as her fists clenched. “You’re definitely making fun of me right now. When did you become like this? Who taught you how to bully people? Was it Stella? I bet it was Stella.” She nodded and placed her hands on her hips.

“Vur! I’m being falsely accused by a phoenix who gets exhausted after using only four thousand spells!” Stella’s head popped out of Vur’s chest, her eyes as wide as a guilty puppy’s as she looked up at him. Then she twisted around to face Tafel and stuck her tongue out. “I didn’t teach Vur anything. You know he’s brutally honest.”

A low groan rumbled out of Tafel’s throat as she clutched her staff. “Back to practice,” she muttered before giving Vur a dirty look which Stella hid from by retreating back into his chest. Vur looked as if he had been asleep for a week. There was nothing off about him to indicate the fact that he had shot out over a million lightning bolts over the last six hours. At least, she was pretty sure it was a million. “Hey, Vur.”

“Hmm?”

“There should be a focus when you’re training,” Tafel said. “You know how sometimes quality is better than quantity? Instead of focusing on creating more lightning bolts, why don’t you focus on making one lightning bolt as strong as possible?”

Vur tilted his head. “But I do both? I make as many lightning bolts as strong as I can.”

Tafel furrowed her brow. “And you’re not exhausted?” she asked. Was the difference between their mana pools that great? Just because he had four elementals and maybe a fairy supplying him with mana of their own? That … was a pretty valid reason. “Wait, alright. Fine. More importantly, why are you so obsessed with lightning? You don’t even have a lightning elemental.”

“But I do?” Vur asked, raising an eyebrow. He reached into his chest and pulled out a pink egg-shaped object despite Stella’s protests. “See?”

Tafel’s eyes bulged as she bit her lower lip. “That’s not an—”

“And Alice told me I could shoot down a star if I train my lightning enough,” Vur said as he stuck the so-called lightning elemental back into his chest. “Right, Alice?”

Tafel turned around. Mr. Skelly and Alice were approaching them from the garden’s entrance. “Hey,” Alice said, raising one hand in greeting. That hand went to scratch her neck that suddenly became itchy under Tafel’s murderous glare. “Did I say something like that? I’m pretty sure you misheard.”

“No, I’m sure you said I could shoot down a star with lightning if I believe,” Vur said and nodded. He turned towards the yellow rune on his shoulder. “Right?”

“That’s right,” Sheryl said. “I heard everything loud and clear.”

Alice coughed and shrank back under Tafel’s further narrowing eyes. “You know it’ll happen one day if he sticks to it,” she said. “Anyways! I found out the location of a dungeon, courtesy of Apollonia. It has a lot of books and information on demons, including a detailed guide on becoming a demon lord.”