Vol 7 Chapter 18

When he gritted his teeth and swung his hand roughly, the Dust Winds shrieked and shrank under the pressure of his will. Though his physical and magical power had increased exponentially after absorbing the dragon's blood, it seemed there was nothing he could do about the throbbing pain in his head when performing excessive image modification.

Kapros stared at the wind before him while trying to ignore the pain. These things would disappear if pressed too hard, but if given even a slight breathing room, they had a strong tendency to try returning to their original form, so the image modification had to be done delicately.

When he applied force one more time strongly toward them as they struggled until the very end, he felt the raging winds finally stabilize firmly into a wall-like shape.

"Whew, huff."

To think he would be out of breath already from just this much. Grinding his teeth, he moved on to the next step. While maintaining the wall of Dust Wind pushed up horizontally before him, now he just needed to overlay tubes of flame.

"Screw Ball!"

Whoosh!

Instantly created Screw Balls lined up at intervals along the wall of wind, scattering sparks. They looked like racehorses at the starting line. When the wind raging madly within the wall-fixed range met the Screw Balls rotating at speeds too fast to see, their surfaces could be seen splashing as if trying to devour each other.

Where should he set the target? Kapros gazed indifferently beyond the endless horizon.

That end over there should do.

"Go."

As if they had been waiting, with an eruption of fierce air's howling, the collapsed wall of wind and Screw Balls tangled together, tearing at each other as they stretched forward madly. The flames riding the wind while dragging long tails like meteors looked exactly as they had before.

Boom!!

Then finally, one of the Screw Balls that had been flying for a while suddenly adhered to the top of the wind and began spreading. Then another one, and another. And at last, all the flames melted together with the wind.

Kapros quietly watched the complete wave of fire that had come back to life from his memories after months. The wave of fire, violently undulating and spreading wider like a fan, finally exploded in a brilliant burst of flames when it had flown so far it was difficult to see with the naked eye.

Crash!

After his front hair, which had been shaking as if about to be pulled out by the wind raging enough to deafen his ears, finally settled down, all that remained was the field burning black while belatedly spewing smoke and the heavily weighted air.

As he felt his whole body's skin tingling while catching his breath, he sensed Superior approaching from behind. Looking to the side, he saw Superior smiling while not taking his eyes off the blackened earth that Kapros's magic had swept across.

"Amazing."

Superior spoke softly while still looking ahead.

"Really... amazing. To think you've been hiding something like this all along."

His laughter echoed loudly across the dusty field, or rather what should now more properly be called a wasteland. After laughing for a while with an inscrutable attitude, Superior finally seemed finished and turned to look at Kapros with a refreshed expression. At that moment, his expression suddenly sank.

"But still not enough."

"What?"

When Kapros questioned this unexpected statement, Superior continued while his red eyes, tinged golden in the light, sparkled.

"It's remarkable talent. But this clearly shows me your weakness."

"Weakness?"

"Yes."

Superior's shadow on the black earth stretched long in front of Kapros, creating an overwhelming presence.

"Why did you have such an unwilling expression while using that magic just now? That's exactly your weakness and what you lack."

Kapros was momentarily speechless. To think he had noticed that hint!

"It was nothing. Just that I'm not familiar with it because I haven't used it since the first time, when its power was lower than expected... That's all."

The words escaped his mouth sounding unintentionally like an excuse.

But Superior was right. Kapros didn't particularly like that magic that was like a wave of fire. Of course, when he first used that magic in the fight with Kalap Titan, he had been quite moved at succeeding in such difficult magic modification and fusion. But despite the magic's enormous range, Kalap Titan had survived the hit and attacked him, and if not for Kion-hyung and Palton-hyung who had been passing by, he probably would have died. In the end, all he had managed to burn was the ground. The effect had been utterly insignificant compared to the concentration, magical power, and time that went into creating that magic.

As a result, that magic had become something awkwardly positioned for him - too risky and costly to use against multiple weak enemies, yet not powerful enough against a few strong enemies.

After nearly dying to Kalap Titan, his conclusion after thinking about that magic during his spare time in Zagreb was that it was a failure not worth using twice. Because of this, he had stopped actively attempting image modification and fusion of attack magic like before.

Had those uncomfortable feelings shown strongly enough for Superior to notice right away?

"Listen, you don't need to hide what I called a weakness at all. Because that's exactly what I want to teach."

Superior spoke as if he had heard Kapros's thoughts.

"The magic isn't the problem. You are. Just need to fix a little bit, just a little. This once-in-a-generation genius will specially! teach you."

"The magic isn't the problem?"

Kapros questioned back while deliberately ignoring the once-in-a-generation genius part.

"Right. Your weakness is that you have no foundation."

"...Foundation?"

Foundation... He had trained harder than anyone else, staying cooped up while working from 1st to 4th circle through the books given by the Wizard Tower. He could confidently say he hadn't missed anything the books had taught. To say someone like him had no foundation?

Superior laughed loudly at his disbelieving expression.