The sorcerers raised shields in unison.
Golden barriers bloomed one after another—like Endgame, holding the line against Thanos's warship bombardment.
Each golden shield stood like an island amid the deluge. They looked fragile, but Kamar-Taj's sorcerers were well-trained and coordinated to a fault. The attack—costing Bella nearly thirty percent of her psionic reserves—was absorbed completely.
"Ah, finally getting serious. Youth is wonderful…" The Ancient One beamed with satisfaction, producing a folding fan and waving it with theatrical flair.
Then she surveyed the crowd, smile widening. "Well? What are you waiting for? For the honor of Kamar-Taj—are you really going to just stand there and watch?"
Every remaining disciple charged in.
In Bella's eyes, it was no longer just first-through-sixth-graders. Even the preschoolers had joined—people who hadn't even learned their first spell, rushing in with wooden sticks, hoping to sneak in a lucky hit.
It escalated from playful sparring to serious fighting to going all-out.
Facing the combined assault of sorcerers and apprentices alike, Bella poured every ounce of psionic energy into the fight. Ice spikes, blizzards, frost arrows, ice lances rained in every direction like a hailstorm. Suggestion spells fired nonstop—but Kamar-Taj's defensive magic was formidable, and any sorcerer who fell under a suggestion spell was quickly snapped out of it by a nearby ally.
Over a hundred against one. Bella was scrambling—the moment she severed a whip on her left, a sword thrust came from the right. Her windows for offense shrank to almost nothing; most of her effort went into pure defense.
Frost Nova detonated again and again. Frost Armor never dropped for a second. But she couldn't withstand the endless, relentless onslaught.
"Fine, fine, FINE! I give up! I surrender, okay?!" Battered and disheveled, Bella rode a wave of water to push herself clear. She had to admit it—she genuinely could not beat these grade-schoolers.
The victorious grade-schoolers weren't exactly celebrating either. This fight had taken over a hundred of them.
Sure, most were apprentices padding the numbers, but a good dozen real sorcerers—the kind who usually walked around Kamar-Taj like they owned the place—had stepped in too. Was this really a victory worth bragging about?
The senior sorcerers in particular had enough combat experience to see that Bella had been holding back. If she'd gone for the throat—taken out the biggest threats first—the remaining apprentices would've been wiped in two rounds. They'd only won because this was a sparring match.
"Mm, very good. It seems everyone has made progress. Truly heartwarming." The Ancient One stood on the far side, hands clasped behind her back, completely untouched by the chaos. She stood like a pine tree rooted in stone, a still pool of dark water—there, and yet somehow not there.
"Was that a normal sparring match? Who sends over a hundred people into a sparring match?!" Bella dropped from her water column, landing in front of the Ancient One with an indignant glare.
The Ancient One chuckled. "Now that's more like it. Young people should act their age. The whole calm-and-composed, measured-and-deliberate thing—that's a privilege reserved for old folks like me."
She reached over and patted the Divine Dragon's little head. It had been supporting Bella's spellcasting the entire time—outputting magical energy while being careful not to hurt anyone—and was now so exhausted its tongue was hanging out.
"Look at your little friend here. Plays when it's time to play, laughs when it's time to laugh. Isn't that nice?"
The Divine Dragon wanted to spit at the Ancient One and make a face—but ultimately didn't dare.
The Ancient One turned to her ashen-faced sorcerers. "The same goes for all of you. Kamar-Taj doesn't forbid rigorous discipline, but you shouldn't annihilate your humanity in the process. Your humanity is the only weapon you have against temptation."
The Ancient One had used Bella as a tool to teach Kamar-Taj's sorcerers a lesson—and simultaneously used those very sorcerers as tools to knock Bella's pride down a peg. Two birds, one stone.
And what had she spent? A bit of time. For someone like her, time was the least important thing in the world.
Bella was utterly spent—stamina, mental energy, psionic reserves all nearly drained. She didn't bother saying goodbye to the hundred-plus sorcerers, retreating to her room alone. It wasn't until evening that she'd recovered enough to function.
She grabbed the teapot, chugged what felt like an entire kettle, and headed for the Ancient One's meditation chamber.
Walking through Kamar-Taj, the looks she received were complicated. Contempt? Definitely not—she'd taken on over a hundred people solo. You'd have to be an idiot to look down on that. But warmth? Also not happening. She'd dragged every sorcerer's dignity through the mud. Hard to feel friendly after that.
Bella ignored the stares. Love her, hate her—she didn't care. The Ancient One's real instruction started today.
She'd already accepted the Ancient One as her master. She'd fought the fight. Now teach me something real.
Getting her to shed her disdain for Kamar-Taj was the appetizer. A proper, systematic lecture on theory—that was tonight's main course.
Same meditation chamber as yesterday. Bella and the Ancient One sat facing each other, a meter (about 3 feet) apart.
"Bella, you're very talented, and very intelligent." The Ancient One's opening wasn't surprising—she seemed skilled at engaging young people, and her method was to lead with praise.
"Your path and Kamar-Taj's converge on the same destination. Kamar-Taj's path starts easy and gradually slows. Yours is the exact opposite. Through your own effort, you've already come very far. Given time—reaching the terminus of the mind, using psyche to shape reality, my will becomes the will of heaven—with your talent, you're entirely capable of achieving it."
The Ancient One sighed softly. "You remind me of myself at your age. Clever. Sharp. And at the same time, fiercely ambitious. Full of…"
Her word choice grew increasingly careful, until she settled on something deliberately gentle: "…full of hunger for knowledge. Every step deeper into the psyche freezes your heart a little more. Your ice magic may seem like a specialty—but in truth, it's a direct reflection of your inner world."
The Ancient One dissected Bella's current state with surgical precision. Bella showed no sign of panic—no cold sweat, no flinching. She'd come too far for that. She knew exactly what her problems were.
For ordinary people, the self was the hardest thing to understand. But for someone with psionic gifts—they knew exactly what kind of person they were.
Did this world matter to Bella? At the deepest, most fundamental level—no. And that was why her heart ran cold. But it wasn't as dire as the Ancient One made it sound.
She smiled. "Master, you're overstating it. The human heart is complicated. Yes, my core is cold—but I fill it with positive emotions, warming it from the inside."
The Ancient One regarded her with rare gravity. "Remember what you said today. If the day ever comes when you feel lost or confused, think back on those words. They may help."
You're not exactly a picture of inner peace yourself, Bella thought. Let's not throw stones in glass houses. We're both just wanderers on the same lonely road.
Bella was a woman of strong convictions. She kept the thought to herself and didn't argue back.