Standing behind Alan, Old Gayle also noticed the change.
His pupils contracted slightly in shock as he stared at Alan in disbelief.
"This brat… I told him to practice mana Overpressure, and now he's over there fiddling with Elent Fusion on his own?" he muttered.
Whoosh!
In the mont Old Gayle was distracted,
The flaming longsword in Alan's right hand had already devoured the tempestuous wind concentrated in his left.
In the blink of an eye, the two originally modest longswords had rged into a colossal fla greatsword—
so large it towered above Alan himself.
And yet, Alan held it aloft effortlessly, as if it weighed nothing.
After all, the Fire Elent, at its core, was a form of energy,
not true matter.
No mass—no burden.
The fla greatsword radiated blinding brilliance and searing heat,
its brightness and intensity multiple tis greater than when the two smaller swords had existed separately—
and this was without even infusing any Light Elent!
The sword was powered purely by the raw heat and energy of Fire.
Old Gayle stood there, utterly stunned.
The small silver flask in his hand slipped from his fingers and shattered against the ground with a sharp clang.
His mind swirled with confusion.
Among mages, it was common knowledge that elents of differing natures could not fuse.
Even similar elents, when forced together with great effort,
barely boosted power by a factor of 1.5.
That was why most mages specialized in mastering a single elent—
concentrating their limited energy and ti to perfect it.
By focusing, even a humble Fireball spell could eventually wield the destructive force of a teor strike.
But what Alan displayed now,
this fusion of Wind and Fire—
the power increase wasn't just 1.5 tis.
It wasn't even close.
It was at least fifteen tis stronger.
Old Gayle had personally witnessed Alan seamlessly overlapping the Wind and Fire longswords,
rging them into an enormous, massive fla blade.
Even from a distance,
Old Gayle could feel the intense heatwaves battering his skin—
all emanating from the greatsword in Alan's hand.
And the next mont—
Alan and the greatsword vanished,
leaving behind only a scattering of dust.
"Huh?!"
Old Gayle's heart jumped.
He frantically scanned the surroundings, searching for Alan's figure.
Though the fla sword itself carried no real mass,
elental energy still had a certain density and weight.
Old Gayle didn't believe Alan could move freely while carrying that massive concentration of Fire Elent.
But the truth proved otherwise—
Suddenly, a silhouette erged midair—
Alan, hovering above, holding the giant fla sword single-handedly.
He stood suspended in the sky,
one arm casually leveling the blade downward,
the tip aid straight at the crystal giant's head.
Like a sovereign gazing coldly down upon all living beings,
he said flatly,
"I will strike only once."
Old Gayle's heart instantly leapt into his throat.
Because he noticed that around the edges of the fla greatsword,
thin, faintly blue threads had appeared—
a manifestation of mana shaping compressed into razor-thin edges.
With these edges,
the fla sword was no longer just a mass of fire.
It had been honed into a true weapon—
a deadly blade of astonishing sharpness and power.
Its lethality had been elevated dramatically compared to before.
"Go!"
Alan roared from midair,
then struck the sword's hilt fiercely with his fist.
Instantly, the massive fla greatsword, propelled by the impact,
shot toward the crystal giant like a blazing teor.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion rocked the training ground.
The crystal giant's head was completely obliterated,
mana cores of every color and type reduced to fragnts finer than dust,
raining down in a dazzling storm of shimring particles—
like a breathtaking rain of jeweled stardust.
But to Old Gayle's surprise—
After blowing apart the crystal giant's head,
Alan did not pursue further.
Instead, he calmly waved his hand,
dispersing the fla greatsword back into its base elental form.
Then, weaving a net of mana threads,
he gently lowered himself back to the ground.
Old Gayle hurried forward and asked,
"Why didn't you keep attacking?"
Alan scratched his head and said lightly,
"Because I realized that the crystal giant's defense wasn't actually that impressive.
I shattered its head without even using mana Overpressure."
"What?!"
Old Gayle froze.
Only then did he truly grasp what had happened.
Alan had fused Wind and Fire while focusing purely on raw force—
he hadn't even bothered constructing mana Overpressure.
Which ant—
The giant that Alan had just destroyed
was the original, unweakened, maximum-defense crystal giant!
Alan had crushed it
with nothing but overwhelming brute strength,
completely bypassing the intricate psychological chanics of Overpressure.
Alan's real power...
was even more terrifying than Old Gayle had imagined.
While still processing this revelation,
Old Gayle heard Alan chuckle.
"But after swinging that sword,"
Alan added casually,
"I think I sort of grasped how to activate mana Overpressure too."
"It's hard to describe in words...
Want to give you a demonstration?"
Seeing the sharp glint beginning to ignite in Alan's eyes,
Old Gayle imdiately shook his head in terror.
"No, no—
I believe you!"
He nodded fervently,
then ruffled Alan's hair affectionately.
This young man—
who had traveled all the way to the Imperial Capital to seek dical treatnt for his sister—
had not initially chosen Sirius Academy.
Instead, he had enrolled in Lioncrest.
And those arrogant fools at Lioncrest...
had simply let a genius like this slip through their fingers.
Old Gayle couldn't help but imagine:
If only he had captured Alan's feat on a mana-projection crystal—
the mont Alan shattered the crystal giant's head—
and played it back for the senior leadership of Lioncrest Academy...
They would surely regret it so much,
they might just vomit blood on the spot.
Fortunately—
Alan had chosen Sirius in the end.
If he had beco their enemy instead...
Old Gayle didn't even dare to imagine how disastrous that would be.
"Alright.
Today's training ends here."
"You can go get so rest.
Tomorrow morning—
co back here again."
With that, Old Gayle grabbed his battered flask and staggered off toward the deeper parts of the training grounds.
Alan, however, did not leave.
He turned slowly, his gaze locking onto the crystal giant that still lood motionless in the distance.
Though Old Gayle had issued it a standby command before leaving,
the crystal giant's core remained active—
it was still operational.
aning—
It was still programd to bully the weak and fear the strong.
Alan exhaled slowly,
summoning his presence—his pressure.
He took a single step forward.
The mont he closed to within three ters of the giant—
CRACK.
Hairline fractures suddenly spread across the crystal giant's shimring body.
CRACK—CRACK—
The cracks deepened and multiplied, until—
The entire enormous form shattered into fine powder,
collapsing silently to the ground.
Alan hadn't even raised a hand.
The crystal giant—
rely sensing the overwhelming mana Overpressure radiating from Alan's body—
had chosen to self-destruct.
Because, to it,
that was the best possible way...
to survive.
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