Chapter 220: Josinia’s Test

A group stepped out from behind a collapsed archway.

Six of them. All Delphinian.

Their wings were not white or silver. They were red and black, the feathers dense and marked with old blood. Their armour was mismatched. Their eyes locked onto Kalon and Josinia with immediate hostility.

One of them, broader than the rest, rolled his shoulders and let his red-black wings flare wide.

"Wingless," he said. "And a foreign skin. You are far from the queen’s pretty shelves."

Josinia stepped half a pace closer to Kalon, charge already gathering quietly in her hands.

The red-and-black-winged group spread out across the cracked stone and started moving towards them.

The broad one with the red-black wings did not wait for a speech.

"Take them."

Two of the six moved first, low to the ground, blades out. Josinia stepped forward before Kalon had to say anything. Charge jumped across her fingers in thin restless threads.

She thrust her palm forward.

Travelling Spark left her hand in a crooked white line and struck the lead man in the chest. The bolt jumped from him to the woman at his shoulder before either of them finished their first step. Both bodies locked up mid-charge and hit the cracked stone hard, wings twitching.

The remaining four spread wider at once.

"She’s a caster," one of them snapped.

"Then don’t give her range."

Two came at her from opposite sides. Josinia stomped and raised a short earth ridge under the left one’s lead foot. It was enough to break his step.

She turned into the right-hand attacker and fired another spark at closer range. The bolt took him in the thigh and dropped him to one knee, but the left one recovered fast and swung for her ribs.

Kalon moved.

He did not take the fight from her. He stepped in just far enough to deflect the blade, then backed off again.

"Keep moving," he said. "Don’t plant your feet after every cast."

Josinia exhaled hard and did as she was told. She slipped sideways, forced a water burst into the face of the kneeling man, then followed it with Travelling Spark while he was blind. The bolt punched through his guard and put him down flat.

Three left.

The broad leader had not entered yet. He watched with his wings half-open, reading her. The other two tried to rush her together.

Josinia’s first spark missed the jump and only clipped one of them. The second man reached her and slammed a shoulder into her chest hard enough to send her stumbling back across the stone.

"Josinia."

"I’m fine."

She caught herself, teeth clenched, and drove an earth spike up under the man who had hit her. It caught him in the hip and ruined his balance. Before he could rise, Travelling Spark left her hand at short range and point-blanked him into the ground.

The last of the six tried to flee toward the camp line.

Josinia tracked him, pulled more mana into her palm, and released. The bolt chased him across the cracked island, struck between the shoulders, and jumped once into a metal post beside him with a sharp crack. He went down and did not get up.

Josinia stood there breathing hard, hands still faintly sparking, pink eyes wide with adrenaline. Her mana was running low.

"I can do this," she said, half to herself.

Kalon scanned the camp. "Stay ready. There is more. You’re doing good."

He was right.

From the denser structures near the centre of the shelf, more figures began to move. Red and black wings opened across the broken rooftops. Shouts carried.

A heavier presence pushed through the camp path a moment later, and the lesser fighters cleared space without being told.

The man who arrived was taller than the rest, armoured in dark plated gear marked by old fights. His wings were almost fully black, with only thin red lines through the feathers. The pressure around him was higher than the six Josinia had just dropped. Low gold at least. Maybe higher.

He looked at the bodies, then at Josinia, then at Kalon.

"You brought a half-trained girl onto my island and let her make a mess," he said. "You must be stupid."

Josinia lifted her hands again, lightning already gathering.

"I’m not half-trained..." she said.

Kalon glanced at her.

"This guy is different."

"I can still—"

The black-winged man moved.

He crossed the distance faster than the others had, wings driving him into a rapid forward burst.

Josinia released Travelling Spark on reflex. The bolt hit his outer armour and jumped, but the charge scattered instead of dropping him.

He took the hit, pushed through it, and backhanded her hard enough to throw her across the stone.

Josinia hit the ground, rolled, and tried to rise. Blood showed at the corner of her mouth. Her hands sparked weakly as she forced herself up onto one knee.

"Kalon—"

"I know. You did well."

She’s not strong enough for him. Not yet.

The black-winged man turned toward her again, already lining up the finish.

Kalon stepped through first.

Deep Sea Pressure dropped across the shelf and dragged the man’s next movement half a beat late.

That was all Kalon needed. Solar Throne formed around him in a hard white-gold ring, nine suns locking into place with a sound like the air tearing.

The hostile fighters still watching from the camp line froze.

Kalon did not use one sun.

He pulled three together into a single solar spear and drove it straight through the black-winged man’s centre mass. Fire and light detonated on impact in a violent concentrated burst. Concentrated enough that it would only effect the man’s body, and not his surroundings.

The armoured figure was blasted back across the shelf, wings burning, body carved open by the mixed force before he even hit the far stone. What remained of him was nothing but golden ash.

The camp went silent.

Kalon stood in the fading heat with the rest of the suns still orbiting him, eyes hard, waiting to see if anyone else wanted the same ending. No one moved.

Then the system opened against his sight.

「Rank Up」

Low Platinum → Mid Platinum

The breakthrough hit through his body in a deep wave. His mana density rose. His frame became harder. The gap between what he had been that morning and what he was now opened all at once.

Behind him, Josinia pushed herself fully upright, staring at the burned remains of the man who had almost finished her.

"Kalon..."

He dismissed the remaining suns and looked back at her.

"You did well," he said with a faint smile. "When we fight together, we’re unstoppable."

Josinia wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand and smiled with joy.

She loved receiving praise from her human lover.