The Dragon Roar clan had no shortage of techniques for its members. Skills, methods, paths—plenty of them.
Yet Alex hadn't rushed to learn everything, and that wasn't because of laziness. There was a clear reason behind his restraint.
As a paragon warrior, there were paths. Real choices.
One path focused on subtlety. Spies and infiltrators. Warriors who trained their movements until every step was silent, every breath controlled, learning how to melt into shadows and disappear when needed.
Another path leaned the opposite way. Long-distance combat. Fighters who mastered ranged weapons, distance control, timing, and positioning. They didn't rush in. They ended fights before enemies ever got close.
And those were just two options.
There were many paths a warrior could choose to walk. Mages faced the same problem. Different focuses. Different training demands. Different sacrifices.
Try to learn everything, and you'd end up learning nothing. That was the harsh truth.
Worse, many techniques clashed with each other. Training one often made training another harder, sometimes impossible. What one technique demanded, another outright rejected.
It was like body conditioning. One method required eating certain foods to build a specific kind of muscle. Another method demanded avoiding those same foods entirely to shape the body in a different way. You couldn't follow both and expect results.
Still, not all techniques conflicted.
Some supported each other. Some required a foundation—one technique learned first, another built on top of it. Stack them wrong, and progress collapsed. Stack them right, and growth accelerated.
And then there were techniques that didn't clash at all.
Rare ones. Compatible ones. The kind that could sit beside others without tearing the foundation apart.
Because of all this, Alex had been taking things slow when it came to learning new techniques. Very slow. Careful on purpose.
Stan had explained it to him before. In detail. Choose wrong, and you waste months. Choose greed, and you cripple your own growth.
That was why Alex hesitated now.
Because the trio had just suggested a technique.
"Reflector Effector," Gwen said, standing right in front of him.
Tamsin and Merrick moved aside, taking positions opposite each other as if they were about to spar. Their feet planted. Their stances steady. Gwen stayed with Alex, clearly planning to explain while they demonstrated.
"This technique is different," Gwen said.
"Unlike most skills that use qi or mana, this one runs on peace energy."
Alex's focus sharpened.
"And just like the name implies," Gwen continued, "it Reflects energy."
She lifted her hand and signaled them to start.
Alex activated his spiritual eye immediately, keeping it low and controlled. A faint warmth spread behind his eyes as his vision sharpened. Qi paths. Flow patterns. He watched everything.
Tamsin moved first.
She fired several qi blasts in quick succession. Tight. Condensed. Yellow energy ripping through the air toward Merrick.
Merrick didn't dodge.
Didn't block.
Didn't raise his hands.
He just stood there.
The qi slammed into his body one after another. Each impact made a sharp collision sound, dull and heavy. But instead of exploding outward, the energy sank into him. Absorbed. Pulled inward.
No backlash. No visible damage.
The qi faded into Merrick's body like it had been swallowed whole.
Then he moved.
Merrick swung his arm out in a smooth motion.
A burst of qi shot back toward Tamsin—almost the same amount. Same density. Same pressure.
Alex's eyes widened slightly.
'He didn't block it,' Alex thought.
'He took it… and sent it back.'
Tamsin took the returning blasts head-on as they flowed back into his body. The energy didn't explode or resist. It sank in, calm and controlled, like it had always belonged there.
Then Merrick moved again.
He pulled out a device from his side—a qi cannon—and fired without warning.
The blast roared across the space.
Tamsin didn't flinch.
Didn't dodge.
Didn't step back.
He stood his ground and let the blast slam into him.
The impact thudded against his body, but instead of tearing through, the energy was pulled inward. Reflected.
Tamsin reached down and pulled out his own qi cannon.
Another blast came flying toward him.
This time, Tamsin stretched out his hand and caught it.
Alex's breath hitched.
The qi slammed into Tamsin's palm. Through the spiritual eye, Alex saw it clearly—the energy didn't stop. It flowed. It passed through Tamsin's open palm, ran along his arm, and surged straight into the qi cannon on his other arm.
A clean transfer.
The Reflected qi fired back out of Tamsin's cannon, racing toward Merrick.
They didn't stop there.
Both of them put their qi cannons away and lunged forward at the same time.
Their feet cracked against the floor as they closed the distance.
Tamsin threw a fast series of punches at Merrick's ribs and stomach. Sharp. Direct. Each hit landed with force.
Every time a blow connected, the kinetic energy shifted.
Merrick clenched his fists, and the energy flowed into his palms instead of damaging his body. Reflected. Stored. Controlled.
They were about to go further.
"That's enough already," Gwen said sharply.
"Save it for a stage seven warrior."
Tamsin and Merrick froze, both breathing hard. The tension lingered, thick in the air, but they stepped back without arguing.
Gwen turned to Alex.
"You saw that," she said.
Alex nodded slowly.
He had seen everything—the qi, the flow, the Reflection. Not just energy, but impact. Force. Motion. All of it sent back instead of wasted.
"After running into a stage seven warrior," Gwen continued, "there's no way for us to close that gap head-on."
She crossed her arms.
"So Uncle Theron taught us this. A warrior technique practiced by those who once cultivated peace energy in the past."
Alex was more than interested in the technique.
If anything, his attention was fully locked in now.
Peace energy was supposed to be extinct. Forgotten. An energy so old that even most cultivators outside the higher circles had never heard of it. Only the divine beings, and maybe a handful of ancient records, still knew it existed.
The Dragon Roar clan knew only because of the Pendragon Book of Knowledge.
And Alex had brought that knowledge with him.
That alone was why he was valued inside the clan. Valued enough to be placed among the new generation of Pendragons, not as a tagalong, but as someone who mattered.
The irony wasn't lost on him.
Alex had introduced peace energy to the clan, yet he hadn't known what it was himself. He hadn't even known it existed inside him until Elder Rooney discovered it.
Now it was shaping his path.
"I do have a question," Alex said, breaking the moment.
Gwen turned to him.
"I noticed they weren't trying to absorb the energy back into their qi core," Alex continued.
"Why?"
Gwen nodded, like she'd expected that question.
"Reflection Effect can help with absorption," she said calmly.
"But taking in condensed qi all at once is dangerous."
She lifted a hand and made a tightening motion.
"The energy is too violent for the qi core. Not even an artificial qi core can handle that kind of load in one go."
Alex listened closely.
"So when you Reflect energy," Gwen went on, "you don't force it inside. You guide it."
She counted on her fingers.
"You throw it away.
You use it to activate another technique.
Or you send it back to the person who launched it in the first place."
Her explanation was clean. No fluff. Straight to the point.
Alex didn't hesitate.
'There's nothing to think about,' he thought.
'If I learn this, I can take their attacks… and return them.'
For the first time since hearing about the tournament, Alex felt something close to confidence.
Not safety.
Not comfort.
A path forward.
With that, his decision was already made.
The Paragon Battle Royal was coming fast. Too fast. And Alex had been thrown into it without a vote, without a warning, and without a choice. If this was happening whether he liked it or not, then he needed to be ready.
The Wyndhams promised to train him later. Proper training. Structured training.
But Alex wasn't foolish.
He knew results mattered more than promises. And right now, learning this technique here would give him more than waiting ever could.
"Fine," Alex said, straightening his back.
"Let's get on with it."
Gwen smiled.
Not a friendly smile.
A sharp one. The kind that warned you pain was coming.
"I was counting on you to say that," Gwen replied.
"Because this won't be easy. Not even close."
---
Alex hit the ground hard, his body shaking as exhaustion finally caught up to him.
He lay there, chest rising and falling fast, muscles screaming.
Gwen stood over him.
"Get up!" she shouted.
"I can't— I can't stand anymore," Alex gasped.
"Give me a break."
Time had lost meaning.
Minutes? Hours? He didn't know.
All Alex knew was that he had taken beating after beating. Not just from Gwen, but from Merrick and Tamsin too. Attacks came from different angles, different rhythms, no mercy in between.
"I thought I was supposed to learn how to Reflect energy," Alex said weakly.
"But this… this is too much."
And it was true.
Trying to learn Reflection Effect had crushed his expectations fast. What Tamsin and Merrick made look smooth and controlled was brutal in practice.
To Reflect energy, Alex first had to take it.
That meant dealing with the force behind every strike. Missing even a fraction of the incoming energy meant the rest slammed straight into his body. No forgiveness. No pause.
And worse—
Stage difference mattered.
Alex could barely handle energy from Stage Three or Four warriors. But he wasn't facing that. He was facing Stage Five fighters. Dragon Roar monsters. Anomalies raised on real combat.
He stood no chance right now.
"If you keep going like this," Gwen said coldly,
"and you face the monsters that will attend that tournament— you will die."
Alex didn't answer.
He rolled onto his back, lying flat on the ground, shirt gone, skin slick with sweat. His eyes fixed on the ceiling as he dragged air into his lungs, each breath heavy and rough.
Gwen stepped closer, her shadow falling over him.
She opened her mouth to speak—
Then froze.
Her expression changed in an instant.
A sharp light flashed before her eyes.
[Alert!!!
Intruder detected in the base.
All members are to prepare for battle.]