Shinichi was still catching his breath when Mynd's voice shifted from encouraging to serious in a way that made him pay attention.
"You've made incredible progress over these twelve years, but training alone will only take you so far," she said, her form shimmering in his mind.
"Real growth comes from facing actual danger, from testing yourself against something that can truly harm you."
He wiped sweat from his forehead and let the last traces of light fade from his fingertips. "What are you suggesting?"
The Thornwood Forest is located three miles north of the estate. Your mother warned you about it years ago—do you remember?"
He did remember. Stelle had been reading him a bedtime story about a hero venturing into dark forests when she suddenly stopped and held him tighter.
"Promise me you'll never go to the Thornwood," she'd said, her voice unusually tense. "Monsters nest there, creatures that have killed even experienced adventurers." He'd been five years old then, and the fear in her voice had kept him away ever since.
"You want me to fight monsters," he said flatly.
"I want you to test everything you've learned in a real situation. You've never used any of this against something that tries to kill you, and that's a gap in your training that needs to be filled." Mynd's voice softened.
"I wouldn't send you there if I didn't believe you were ready."
She was right. All his power meant nothing if he froze up the first time real danger came at him, and Mynd had never steered him wrong before.
"Alright," he said. "I'll go."
...
...
The journey took an hour on foot, moving carefully to avoid being seen by estate guards. The forest's edge appeared as the sun climbed toward midday—a wall of twisted trees with nearly black bark and branches that grew at unnatural angles. The undergrowth looked unwelcoming, and even the birdsong sounded wrong somehow.
Shinichi stepped past the tree line, and the temperature dropped immediately. The air felt heavier here, pressing against his skin like the forest itself was trying to push him back out. Sunlight barely penetrated the canopy, leaving everything in perpetual twilight.
"Stay alert," Mynd warned. "Extend your light-sense."
He sent out his awareness in an invisible pulse, letting the technique perceive his surroundings by reading how light bounced off surfaces. For the first few minutes, he sensed nothing but trees and undergrowth.
Then something screamed with a high-pitched, desperate sound that came from inside the forest. Without thinking, Shinichi ran toward it, his feet finding purchase on the uneven ground. The scream came again, closer now, mixed with the roar of something large and angry.
He burst into a small clearing and froze. A massive creature that looked like a bear crossed with a scorpion dominated the space, easily twelve feet tall when it reared up.
Black fur covered most of its body, but a segmented tail rose from its back, ending in a stinger that dripped venom. Its eyes glowed red in the forest gloom, and its jaws were filled with teeth designed for ripping flesh.
A Thornbeast—one of the most dangerous predators in this region. The family library's books classified Thornbeasts as B-rank threats, requiring teams of experienced adventurers to safely take them down.
And this one was trying to kill a girl who looked about his age. She had the pointed ears of an elf, with blonde hair that fell past her shoulders and forest-green eyes that blazed with defiance despite obvious fear.
Her clothes were torn in several places, and blood ran down her left arm from a deep gash. She held a short sword in her right hand, but the blade shook from exhaustion and looked almost comically small compared to the monster bearing down on her.
The Thornbeast's tail whipped forward with terrifying speed. The elf tried to dodge, but her injured leg gave out, and she fell hard onto the forest floor. The stinger drove downward toward her exposed back.
Shinichi moved without conscious thought. Light burst from his hands, forming Lightbringer in less than a second. He closed the distance in three running steps, and his blade met the descending stinger in a clash that sent sparks flying. The force drove him back several inches even as it deflected the venomous strike.
The Thornbeast roared and turned its attention to this new threat. Up close, the creature was even more terrifying. Its breath stank of old blood, and those red eyes held an intelligence that suggested it understood exactly what it was doing when it killed.
"Get back," Shinichi told the elf without taking his eyes off the monster. "I'll handle this."
The Thornbeast lunged forward with surprising speed, its massive paws tipped with claws like daggers. Shinichi bent the light around himself and vanished, the invisibility technique activating instantly. The creature's attack hit empty air where he'd been standing.
The Thornbeast looked around with those glowing red eyes. Shinichi reappeared behind it and slashed at its back leg with Lightbringer.
The blade cut through fur and muscle like paper, drawing a line of bright blood. The monster howled and spun faster than something its size should have been able to move, the scorpion tail whipping in a wide arc.
Shinichi raised his free hand and created a barrier of solidified light. The stinger crashed into it with enough force to crack stone, but the light held firm. Before the Thornbeast could recover, he dismissed the barrier and generated a concentrated laser beam from his fingertip, pointing it directly at the creature's face.
The beam punched through the monster's left eye with surgical precision. The Thornbeast's roar turned into a shriek of pure agony as it thrashed wildly, destroying the undergrowth around it in blind fury. Shinichi created wings of light from his back and launched himself into the air, hovering fifteen feet above the clearing.
From this vantage point, he could see the entire battlefield. The elf had dragged herself to the edge of the clearing and was staring up at him with complete shock. The Thornbeast was still thrashing below, but even in its pain-driven rage, it was trying to locate him.
"Time to end this."
Shinichi gathered light from every available source around him—the filtered sunlight from the canopy, the ambient photons, and even the bioluminescence from certain plants growing on nearby trees. The light condensed in his hands, growing brighter and hotter until it resembled a miniature sun. The temperature in the clearing rose noticeably, and steam began rising from the damp forest floor.
He released the condensed light all at once in a beam that made his earlier laser look like a candle flame. The attack struck the Thornbeast dead center in its chest and burned straight through.
The smell of charred flesh filled the clearing as the creature's roar cut off mid-sound. For a moment it swayed on its feet, a massive hole clean through its torso. Then it toppled backward and crashed to the ground, dead.
Shinichi descended slowly, dismissing his wings as his feet touched the ground. The battle had lasted less than three minutes from start to finish. He allowed Lightbringer to dissolve back into pure magic, and the blade vanished in a shower of fading light particles.
The elf was staring at him with wide eyes and her mouth slightly open in disbelief. Now that the immediate danger had passed, Shinichi could see her injuries more clearly.
The cut on her arm was deep but not life-threatening, and she had several smaller scrapes across her legs and face. Her left ankle was swollen, probably sprained from her fall.
"You're..." she started, then stopped, seeming to struggle with what to say. "That was Light magic."
"It was," Shinichi confirmed, walking over to where she sat. He knelt beside her to examine her injuries more closely. "Hold still. I can help with these wounds."
He placed his hands near her injured arm and let healing light flow from his palms. This was actually one of the traditional uses for Light magic, though most mages in this world could only manage minor cuts.
Shinichi channeled the light with precision, using his understanding of cellular biology to accelerate the body's natural healing process. The gash on her arm began to close, the torn flesh knitting back together until only a faint line remained.
"How did you do that?" The elf's voice was barely audible.
"Light magic is supposed to be weak. It can't kill Thornbeasts or make swords, or..." She gestured helplessly at the monster's cooling corpse. "Any of what you just did."
Shinichi gave her a slight smile as he moved to heal the smaller cuts on her legs. "Light magic is only weak if you don't understand what you're working with. What's your name?"
"Yuffie," she said, still sounding dazed. "Yuffie Floria. I'm from the elven settlement on the other side of the forest."
She watched as the last of her injuries disappeared under his healing light. "Who are you?"
"Shinichi Sunvolt." He stood and offered her his hand. "And I think we're going to be friends, Yuffie Floria."
She took his hand and let him help her to stand, testing her newly healed ankle with careful movements. She looked at him with an expression that mixed curiosity, gratitude, and something that might have been the beginning of respect.
"Friends," she repeated, as if testing how the word felt. Then she smiled. "I think I'd like that."