After she ran back inside the house, Leo stood up, brushing off a bit of dust from his hands. He turned his attention back to the orange ruin stones in the box. This time, he didn't just grab one blindly. He crouched down slowly, eyes narrowing with focus, then picked one with care—testing its texture with his thumb, weighing it slightly in his palm.
'Alright... steady,' he told himself silently, holding his breath as he applied just the right amount of pressure, cracking the surface gently.
The faintest fracture appeared, a glowing line running down the middle. Without hesitation, Leo stepped forward and hurled the stone toward the scorched wooden mannequin standing at the edge of the training hall.
Thud!
The stone struck the mannequin dead centre. For a brief, tense second—nothing happened.
Then—
BOOM!
A surge of fire exploded from the impact point, bright and hot, engulfing the mannequin in a burst of flames that danced like wild snakes in the air.
