The moment Eryndor reached for the surrounding essence—
his core responded violently.
Wind essence flooded toward him from every direction, denser and purer than anything he had ever absorbed before. It did not drift lazily through the air like the scattered currents outside the tree.
It surged.
Alive.
Ancient.
The pressure entering his channels nearly made him choke.
Eryndor's eyes widened.
He could draw in more essence than before.
Far more.
Even his core rotation accelerated instinctively as though the environment itself was feeding it.
But his brief hope vanished almost immediately.
Because the feral beasts changed too.
The essence composing their bodies sharpened visibly. Their translucent hides became denser while the elemental flow within their limbs stabilized further. Their claws carved deeper marks into the glowing earth beneath them.
The garden was strengthening everything inside it.
Not just him.
Eryndor inhaled slowly.
His fear remained.
But something else settled beside it now.
Resolve.
Until entering the Gale Expanse, he had never imagined fighting true feral beasts. Someone at his level was meant to struggle against Tier 0 elemental constructs near the outer layer of the elemental world.
Not this.
Not creatures with physical forms reinforced by essence itself.
But the Expanse had changed him.
It had forced him to listen.
To adapt.
To survive.
And now—
survival was all that mattered.
Wind curled around his body as he drew essence inward with everything he had.
The three feral beasts lunged simultaneously.
The battle exploded.
The first beast reached him almost instantly, claws tearing downward with terrifying speed. Eryndor twisted aside at the last moment, disrupting the wind beneath its forelimb just enough to alter the strike's angle.
The claw still raked across his ribs.
Pain burned through him.
Before he could recover, the second beast crashed into him from the side. Its shoulder slammed into his chest with enough force to send him skidding across glowing roots.
His vision shook violently.
Too fast.
They were too fast.
The third beast descended from above.
Eryndor forced wind beneath himself and rolled desperately as claws tore through the ground where his head had been moments earlier.
The impact shattered glowing roots apart.
He retaliated instinctively.
Wind burst outward from his palm in a compressed spiral aimed directly at the beast's face.
The attack landed—
and barely staggered it.
The feral beast snarled and rushed him again.
Eryndor gritted his teeth.
He could control wind better now.
He could feel essence more clearly.
But skill alone could not erase the difference between them.
The beasts fought with terrifying physicality.
Every strike carried weight reinforced by elemental essence. Their bodies did not simply move through the wind—
they tore through it.
Eryndor narrowly ducked beneath another swipe before redirecting surrounding currents toward the creature's hind legs. The disruption broke its balance long enough for him to drive a compressed burst of wind into its exposed flank.
Essence scattered briefly.
The beast recoiled.
Then immediately attacked again.
No hesitation.
No fear.
Only instinct.
The second beast lunged low while the third attacked from above, forcing Eryndor backward between massive glowing roots. He twisted desperately, allowing one attack to graze past while redirecting another with unstable wind pressure.
Even then, claws tore across his shoulder.
Blood sprayed onto luminous grass.
His breathing grew ragged.
Essence flooded through his channels continuously, but his body struggled to keep pace with the strain. His core spun faster and faster, greedily absorbing the garden's pure energy while simultaneously nearing instability from overuse.
Still he fought.
He remembered the flowing currents of the Expanse.
The rhythm of storms.
The subtle movement before attacks formed.
He stopped reacting blindly.
He listened.
The first beast shifted weight—
Eryndor moved before it lunged.
Wind wrapped around his legs and propelled him sideways just as claws shattered the root behind him. He redirected momentum mid-step and slammed compressed air into the beast's exposed jaw.
The impact cracked essence reinforcement and hurled it backward.
The second beast attacked instantly.
Eryndor raised both arms and compressed wind between them. The collision exploded painfully through his bones as claws struck the barrier, forcing him backward across the ground.
His arms screamed from the impact.
The barrier shattered.
A tail whipped across his side and launched him violently through the glowing garden.
He crashed through luminous flowers before slamming into a massive root formation hard enough to crack bark.
Pain exploded across his spine.
For several seconds—
he could not breathe.
The beasts advanced slowly now.
Not rushed.
Confident.
Predators sensing weakness.
Eryndor tried to stand.
His legs nearly gave out beneath him.
Blood dripped from his brow onto the glowing roots below while exhaustion dragged at every muscle in his body.
Still—
he forced himself upright.
His breathing trembled.
He thought of Lowreach.
Of the quiet home left behind by his parents.
Of Kael laughing during training.
Of Elder Marrec watching silently from afar.
Of the path he chose when he stepped beyond the village gates.
He had come this far.
He could not die here.
Not yet.
With shaking hands, he reached for the surrounding essence once more.
Nothing happened.
His core trembled violently.
Pain shot through his channels.
He tried again—
and nearly collapsed.
His core had reached its limit.
Overstrained.
Exhausted.
For the first time since awakening—
the wind refused him.
The three feral beasts lowered themselves.
Preparing to finish it.
Then—
the garden shook.
A massive pressure wave crashed through the ancient roots.
The three beasts froze instinctively.
Something entered the garden.
Something stronger.
A blur descended from above.
The weakest of the storm wolves.
It crashed into the garden like a falling disaster.
One swipe.
One.
The nearest feral beast exploded apart instantly, its physical structure torn open as essence scattered violently through the air.
The second died before it could even react.
The third attempted to flee—
The wolf's jaws closed around it with brutal force and crushed it instantly before hurling the corpse aside.
Silence followed.
The wolf lifted its massive head slowly.
Then released a howl that shook the entire inner garden.
Above—
the storm answered.
Outside, the battlefield had become a sea of destruction.
The instructor's Partial Domain distorted the sky itself.
Air ignited unnaturally around him while flame spiraled across the storm in burning arcs. Within the incomplete domain, he could force instantaneous ignition upon anything his flames touched.
But the cost was devastating.
His channels burned.
Blood vessels ruptured beneath his skin.
His core strained violently under the forced expansion.
Yet he pushed further.
Because he understood now.
This was why stronger elemental warriors opened battles with Domains.
Domains granted control.
Advantage.
Authority.
Without one, prolonged battle became attrition.
And the evolving beast was winning that attrition.
It devoured surrounding essence endlessly while the instructor's reserves slowly depleted.
The evolving storm wolf looked terrible now.
Half its body was scorched black from repeated flame strikes. Essence channels ruptured visibly across its chest and wings.
But the instructor was no better.
His breathing had become uneven.
Blood stained his robes.
Fatigue slowed his reactions by fractions of seconds that increasingly mattered.
Still—
he ignited his blood once more.
Flame erupted beneath his skin.
His heartbeat accelerated violently as burning essence flooded through his body, granting explosive speed and strength at terrible cost.
He vanished.
Then appeared behind the evolving wolf.
His flame-covered hand slammed into its spine.
The sky detonated.
The beast was hurled downward like a meteor, crashing through layers of storm clouds.
But it did not fall alone.
Even while descending, the wolf condensed an enormous wind field beneath itself and violently reversed the pressure.
The instructor was dragged downward with it.
Both crashed toward the earth.
The evolving beast recovered first.
Wind condensed instantly into two razor-sharp bullets compressed to lethal density.
The instructor tried to move—
Pain exploded through his body.
The backlash had finally arrived.
His Partial Domain shattered.
Flames collapsed.
His channels screamed as forced strain rebounded through his core.
His body froze.
The wind bullets screamed toward him.
Slowly—
he closed his eyes.
Then—
light erupted.
The academy emblem burst into blinding crimson radiance before him.
A figure appeared.
And a familiar amused voice echoed through the chaos.
"…Everyone at the academy got to see you in this state?"