Chapter 127-Display of power (2)

Chapter 127: 127-Display of power (2)

Lumi lifted one hand and felt the air around her. Immediately, the entire training ground seemed to respond as air gathered around her.

It spiralled faster and faster until an enormous column of wind formed, twisting into a violent vortex that dwarfed anything Maisa or the other vampires present in the training grounds had ever seen Lumi create.

Maisa’s eyes widened. "Lumi..." Her voice cracked. She knew true fear. As a novice, she could handle that water vampire she fought with ease, but the kind of pressure Lumi was reigning down on her was making her a little fearful.

The vortex surged toward her. She raised her hands and desperately tried to summon an element anything that could shield her: earth, fire, air, and water.

"Come on..." she pleaded with the elements. Of all the times for their to be faults in the magic, that wasn’t the right one. "Come on, work."

Her concentration scattered beneath the sheer pressure. The wind surrounded her before she could establish a proper defence, trapping her inside its rotating currents. Every attempt to stabilize herself was disrupted as the storm shifted around her.

Lumi controlled it effortlessly. She moved one hand, and the vortex tightened.

Maisa struggled to remain focused, desperately searching for an opening. The pressure was overwhelming, making it difficult to think clearly enough to counterattack.

’Is this the new player the benefactor warned about?’ Maisa’s head was a mess inside the storm.

The wind kept tightening around her and twirling her around in circles. She was growing dizzy.

Then Lumi slowly extended one hand towards her. Maisa, though the craziness was over, was over when the air inside the vortex changed.

Maisa’s breath caught. She suddenly felt the atmosphere around her lungs being manipulated, leaving her struggling against Lumi’s control.

Panic flashed through her eyes as the air in her lungs was seized. She tried to summon fire, but nothing happened. Earth, water, and air abandoned her, too.

Her concentration refused to settle, and without a clear mind, she couldn’t summon anything, let alone control it.

Tears streamed down the corner of her eyes. She bit down at her lower lip until it bled. Blood trickled down her lip and floated away in the wind, same as her tears.

Lumi continued approaching through the swirling wind, completely unaffected by the chaos surrounding her.

She stopped directly in front of Maisa. For several seconds, she simply stared at her coldly. The iciness in her eyes froze Maisa’s already trembling body.

Then she leaned closer, Maisa caught a strange scent of herbs coming off of Lumi. She’d been around Lumi for a long time and never once caught the stench of herbs on her. She figured it belonged to the person controlling her.

Lumi’s expression held a mocking calm that didn’t belong on Lumi’s face. "I expected a lot more from the next queen of the vampire nation."

Maisa stared back at her. ’Next queen of the vampire nation!’ The words chilled her more deeply than the wind ever could.

Because the vampire standing before her wasn’t the Lumi she knew, and whoever or whatever they were that had awakened inside her seemed completely certain of something that made no sense.

The next queen of the vampire nation. Her and not Varitreya? Her mind raced despite the chaos surrounding her.

What did that mean? Was this some prophecy? Had Lumi heard something she wasn’t supposed to know? Or had the strange force controlling her simply spoken words that weren’t truly hers?

Maisa didn’t have time to find the answer. The pressure surrounding her intensified, and her vision began to blur at the edges.

Then, just as she was on the brink of losing consciousness, a new presence entered the vortex.

A cloaked figure appeared within the raging currents as though the violent winds meant nothing to them.

"Leave. Her. Alone!"

Lumi tilted her head to the side and smirked, "Make. Me."

Maisa barely managed to focus on their silhouette before a tremendous wave of heat swept through the training grounds.

Fire erupted from the stranger’s hands. It was not an ordinary flame. It was enormous and wild.

The inferno surged upward with such force that the flames Addessa had once unleashed seemed insignificant beside it. The fire and Lumi’s air collided harshly.

BOOM!

The impact shook the entire training ground. Wind spiralled around the flames, feeding their movement while simultaneously trying to tear them apart. Fire roared through the vortex, twisting into blazing arcs as Lumi manipulated the surrounding air with astonishing precision.

Maisa’s weakened body finally gave out. She dropped from the vortex and landed heavily on the ground.

"Maisa!"

Before anyone could reach her, two powerful presences arrived at the training grounds.

Varitreya and Kayden had been drawn there by the thunderous sounds of the battle. Varitreya’s attention immediately found Maisa, and she didn’t hesitate one bit.

The princess crossed the distance in an instant, scooped Maisa into her arms, and carried her away from the centre of the clash. She moved toward the stands where Addessa and Zolani were already watching in stunned silence.

Varitreya carefully lowered Maisa into a safer position while keeping her attention fixed on the battlefield.

Even the princess looked shaken because what they were witnessing was extraordinary. The manipulation of fire and air occurring before them was beyond anything most of them had ever seen.

Such displays of elemental mastery had not been witnessed at Veris Academy in generations. Not since the era of the queen being a student.

For centuries, the ruling bloodlines had produced powerful elemental users, but even among them, such complete command had become increasingly rare. Most vampires who possessed elemental abilities required years of discipline before they could manipulate their elements with any real precision.

Yet Lumi was controlling the air as though she had been born knowing exactly how to wield it. Every movement of her hand altered the battlefield. Every turn of her body redirected the wind, and every attack from the cloaked figure was met with a perfectly timed response.

The air twisted violently, and the fire surged with equal animosity. The two forces collided again and again, filling the night with tremendous bursts of elemental power.

Everyone in the stands could only stare. Zolani was the first to break the silence. "Is that even Lumi?" her eyes remained fixed on the battlefield. "Our Lumi?"

Addessa’s expression had lost its usual arrogance. "I never thought she had become so powerful."

Kayden stared at the battle in disbelief. "She has..." he couldn’t even finish the sentence.

Zolani swallowed. "She’s been hiding her real strength this whole time, hasn’t she?"

No one answered her because none of them knew the truth, but they were all thinking the same thing.

Lumi Ashbourne had always been talented, but this wasn’t simply talent. This was mastery on a whole new level.

Maisa was still trembling. Only she knew that the person fighting wasn’t Lumi but without proof. She didn’t dare say a word. Additionally, whatever had been in Lumi terrified the life out of her.

Somewhere beneath the storm of fire and air, a much more disturbing question was beginning to take shape.

Why had Lumi’s true power awakened now? And what did she suddenly have against Maisa?

Just then, the cloaked figure ran off and disappeared into the distance, and Lumi landed on her feet, her eyes clearing.

"Is it over?" Addessa asked.

"I believe it," Varitreya answered. As she finished talking, Lumi fell forward, losing consciousness. Luckily, Kayden reacted in time and caught her before she hit the ground.

Maisa shuddered. It seemed that whatever possessed Lumi was gone. ’What was that?’ Her insides were total chaos.

In the distance, Taratoya smiled. Her eyes locked firmly on Maisa, and her barrier bracelet was on. "You’ll need to grow a backbone if you mean to take the throne one day, Maisa Everheart," she whispered.