The evening air thrummed with silent tension.
We stood in a loose line across the training grounds, the bruises of sunset painting the cracked stone in molten gold and shadow.
Gohan faced us, utterly still, a pillar against the dying light. No weapon drawn. No visible tension in his stance. But every instinct in my body screamed danger.
"Begin," he said.
No shout. No flourish. Just a single word that snapped the world into motion. We launched forward as one, or tried to.
Toho charged low and steady, a wall of brute force. Terra moved just behind him, swift and precise, aiming to flank. Lucian blurred left, energy crackling around him, too fast, too eager. I hung back half a step, watching, calculating.
Gohan didn't flinch. In a breath, he was moving, a ghost between blades.
Toho's hammer strike whistled through empty air. Terra lunged, but Gohan pivoted neatly, catching her blade on the edge of his palm and twisting it aside with insulting ease.
Lucian came in from the side, launching a glittering barrage of Essence darts.
Gohan turned, robe snapping, and swept a single hand through the air. A ripple of force detonated outward, Lucian's projectiles scattering harmlessly like sparks from a dead fire.
We weren't even close.
I gritted my teeth, adjusting. Lucian was too fast, Toho too straightforward, and Terra too hesitant.
Gohan flowed between us, not attacking yet, testing. Every missed blow, every clumsy rotation of positioning, every split-second hesitation was marked.
We weren't fighting together. We were four separate storms, crashing and tearing without rhythm.
And Gohan was the eye of it all, calm and efficient.
I shifted my weight and lunged forward, cutting low, a sharp line straight for Gohan's exposed side. Timing was everything. I saw the opening, felt the current of the battle tilt, and then Lucian blurred into my path. A surge of raw heat slammed into the air, almost blinding.
"Out of the way, you Kuro!" he shouted, voice crackling with wild energy.
Without warning, he unleashed it, a massive, spiraling torrent of crimson fire roaring from his palms.
"Infernal Vortex," Lucian yelled from the bottom of his throat.
A vortex of crimson waves devoured the space between him and Gohan, painting the battlefield in molten reds and searing whites.
I threw myself sideways, barely avoiding getting scorched.
The ground split and blackened under the force of Lucian's spell. The sheer heat warped the air itself, the shockwave rattling my bones.
Gohan didn't even blink.
He slid through the fire like it was smoke. His Essence coalesced into a shimmering barrier that split the torrent cleanly down the middle. Before Lucian could even recover, Gohan was already inside his guard.
"Gale Blast!" He screamed. Dragging out the word "Blast" multiple syllables.
One palm strike, precise, merciless, slammed into Lucian's chest. A turbine of wind-like power knocked Lucian to the other side of the field. The air in his lungs escaped as he forced himself to breathe. He dropped to one knee and slapped his chest while coughing up blood.
The wind from Gohan's attack took over the battlefield. The once hot air dissipated.
Lucian stood up and wiped the blood from his lips using the sleeve of his shirt. His eyes became more determined. You could see it past the strands of his blonde hair hanging over his eyes.
I locked my jaw, forcing myself to refocus, suppressing the surge of irritation. This wasn't just about strength. It had never been. This was about control. Trust. Teamwork. And Lucian, for all his raw firepower, was tearing that to pieces.
Lucian manifested three arrows around him, purely made of fire.
"Fire Essence: Barrage!"
All three arrows blitzed towards Gohan; however, it was just a game to him. He side-stepped quickly while coating the palms of his hands with Pure Essence.
Pure Essence isn't an elemental essence; it's just used to enhance physical properties like strength.
Gohan grabbed one of the arrows, made purely of fire, using his hand coated with Pure Essence. He smirked as he crushed it. The remaining two arrows continued launching straight, heading towards me. They weren't redirecting.
Gohan turned to face Lucian once again, preparing to blitz forward.
But before he could, I used the palm of my hand, coated with Pure Essence as well, and leaped towards the arrows, flipping over them while grabbing one midair and launching it back at Gohan as I landed.
Gohan blitzed forward towards Lucian, but then he sensed the incoming arrow. He used his right foot to pivot and brake, trying to dodge; however, it was too late.
The arrow struck Gohan, blasting him towards Lucian. Before Gohan could even land, Lucian caught his arm and spun him, launching him into the wall.
"Impressive!" Gohan exclaimed as the dust around him settled.
He stood up and began walking out of the dust; his bulky silhouette was visible. "But that was feeble."
He walked out of the smoke with a smirk, but without any sign of injury.
Gohan stood there, brushing dust from his sleeves as if he hadn't just been hurled into a stone wall. The cracked ground under his feet radiated the quiet warning: You're not ready.
I adjusted my stance. Toho surged up beside me. Terra circled to the right, fast but cautious, flickering between cover—pillars of broken stone and shadow.
Lucian, meanwhile, shook off the last of his coughing, gathering another wild surge of Essence around his fists.
Gohan watched us all.
Then he moved — and everything broke again.
He blitzed toward Terra first, singling her out.
She darted back, blade snapping up, but her footwork faltered for half a heartbeat. A tiny hesitation. She second-guessed whether to counterattack or retreat. And that was all Gohan needed.
He closed the distance in a blur, Essence crackling along his limbs.
With one swift, brutal motion, he parried her sword aside, stepped into her guard, and drove an elbow gently but firmly into her stomach.
Terra gasped, air abandoning her lungs. Gohan caught her before she crumpled, pivoted, and flung her toward the edge of the training grounds with a precision toss that left no real damage... just humiliation.
She hit the ground and rolled, coughing, then pushed herself into a sitting position.
Her eyes locked with mine across the battlefield, wide with shame. She knew. We all knew. Hesitation cost her the loss.
"One down. Three left." Gohan said darkly.
I thought to myself: 'This is the power of a Supreme Sorcerer?'
Then I corrected myself, 'No. No, this isn't even a glimpse of his power. He's been treating us like toddlers. He's handling us with basic martial arts and Essence techniques."
The battlefield froze for a second as Terra sat up.
Toho stepped forward, setting his feet wide. His face was carved from stone, unflinching.
He drew in a deep breath, and the air around him trembled, the ground under his boots spiderwebbing with fractures.
"Earth Essence: Bastion Strike!" he roared.
The earth itself answered. A shockwave exploded outward from his footfall, cracks racing toward Gohan, jagged and brutal, seeking to trap him in place, lock him down.
For a moment, it worked.
Gohan had to move, shifting his weight, adjusting his stance, reading the tremors, flowing over them.
An opening.
I moved to capitalize, but so did Lucian.
Without warning, Lucian sprinted across the field, cutting directly across Toho's line of attack, a reckless comet of burning energy.
"Fire Essence: Meteor Fang!" he shouted, voice high with adrenaline.
He launched himself forward, fist engulfed in a whirling, chaotic blaze, aiming not to support Toho's move, but to steal the finish himself. I saw it coming a split second before impact, but Toho didn't.
Lucian's shoulder clipped Toho hard mid-charge, sending him staggering to the side, momentum shattered. The Earth Essence around Toho collapsed in a blast of broken stone.
Gohan barely had to do anything.
He slipped between the chaos with surgical grace — one hand flashing out, brushing Toho's shoulder with an Essence-boosted strike.
It wasn't even a heavy blow, but combined with his off-balance stumble, it sent Toho flying. He smashed back-first into a crumbled pillar with a grunt of pain, slumping down hard.
Out. Just like that.
"Two down." Gohan mocked.
I cursed under my breath, heart hammering. Lucian didn't even notice the damage he'd done — too focused on himself, a manic grin twisting his features as he kept barreling toward Gohan.
It was down to me and Lucian now.
Lucian flared with heat, Essence crackling around him in a ragged halo. He was grinning, high on the chaos, not even glancing at me for coordination.
I adjusted my stance, weight light on the balls of my feet. Every fiber of me screamed for discipline, patience, and teamwork.
Lucian answered first. Of course he did.
He shot forward, an explosive wave of fire propelling him like a comet: no signal, no plan, just raw power.
"Fire Essence: Blazing Lance!" he roared, a spiraling bolt forming along his forearm, ready to skewer forward.
I clenched my jaw before moving.
'Enough of this.' I said to myself.
One heartbeat before Lucian could launch his attack, I slipped in, fast and low, Essence coating my limbs with razor clarity.
Lucian barely registered my presence before I struck.
I slid into his blind spot, pivoted, and slammed the back of my hand, coated in compressed Pure Essence, straight into his gut.
The breath burst from Lucian's lungs in a ragged wheeze. His feet left the ground. His spell fizzled in his hands.
I twisted, caught him by the collar, and with effortless leverage, hurled him sideways across the battlefield.
Lucian crashed and skidded hard, tumbling end over end until he slammed into the outer wall of the training grounds, slumped and stunned, fire guttering uselessly around him.
He tried to rise, fury in his eyes, but before he could do anything, Gohan's voice erupted:
"Out!"
"T-That's not fair! You damn idiot!" Lucian cursed.
I turned back to face Gohan, exhaling once. The air between us thickened. I couldn't help but smirk. Multiple things ran across my mind, but the one I noticed was:
'This is about to get fun.'