"What brought you out?" Mark instantly appeared beside the two, "it's not safe here for now."
"What happened?" Rana asked, "Is he crazy to attack us?"
Mark showed his struggle before saying, "it all happened an hour ago. Suddenly these meteorites came down, crashing over here and many other places of the academy."
"And?" Rana calmly asked while the sounds of explosions raged wildly all over the place.
"The dean sent just now… he claims this is a raid from the enemy," Mark said while his eyes told something else.
"Oh… he asked to come and help, right?" Rana got what he didn't say and he simply nodded.
"Aren't the shields active?" Jim couldn't help but ask.
When he meddled with the shields before the entire academy went berserk and now the academy seemed defenseless.
"He said it was due to the sudden disturbance at the shields," Mark said, "he claims this was the side effect of meddling with shields."
"What about other places?" Rana asked.
"I've got reports that some random mansions got hit."
"The core mansions?"
"Couple got destroyed."
"He is playing it smart then," Rana evilly smiled, "can you handle it here?"
"We can just keep everyone inside. I doubt he will keep hitting here for a long time."
"I'll stay behind," Rana firmly said, "Igory will do just fine alone."
Mark wanted to ask about the special room but the next wave of rocks came to lighten up the entire sky. Jim watched them stopping for a moment at a large distance above the academy sky before some crashed in and others withered away.
"Go, go now and leave this place to us," Mark said before promising, "I won't let anyone touch this mansion or get near it."
Jim glanced at the long thick tongues of fire inside the mansion and could only sigh.
Just as he returned inside under the warning shouts of Rana to not cause any harm to himself, the old man suddenly stopped him as he said:
'It's a good chance to support your power.'
Jim paused and suddenly got what he meant. "Yeah, I miss Jenny's fire the most," he laughed before simply extending his hands and touching the fire on one wall.
In the next moment the fire all around got violent for a few moments. 'Hahaha, as I thought… this isn't a simple fire at all but filled with special energy to keep it burning for a long time.'
"Is it good for me?" Jim asked while noticing the fire getting more berserk, not like what he thought.
'Take it all,' the old man laughed, 'don't leave a wisp behind. Your magic energy would grow further thanks to that. Just keep your hands fixed there and let all the fire enter your body.'
Jim was about to say he wasn't the one preventing the fire from getting inside his body but the fire started to show a new change.
Like an iron attracted to a magnet, the fire started to move fast towards him.
Then his body was lit entirely on fire in no time.
"Jim!" Mark and Rana noticed alongside many masters what happened, yet before any would react, Jim shouted:
"Stay back… I got this!"
He knew they were worried over him, so he stopped them before wasting any time or effort here.
As he spoke up, the masters returned to their duties while Rana and Mark kept checking on his state.
His body had long vanished and only a large piece of wild fire replaced it. Jim wasn't feeling any pain or discomfort, in fact he had a wonderful feeling at this moment.
It was like he was bathed with light not fire, a blessing light that kept strengthening his body and replenishing his soul.
"Sigh, it didn't last long," he regretfully said when he absorbed the entire fire clean, leaving the mansion stained only with black marks.
'If you want you can stay back and start absorbing any fallen fire,' the old man said before laughing, 'or you can move outside and start collecting those deflected fiery rocks from all over the place.'
"Yeah, that would be better," Jim's eyes flashed with bright golden light before he suddenly wore off his special boots and took out his wings. "I shouldn't waste much time then."
Like a rocket he moved and his speed soared with the help of his game gears. The masters all around watched his after image while he moved towards the nearest cluster of fire and threw himself at it.
"What are you doing?!!" Rana shouted in deep shock while appearing next to him.
"I'm removing these fires," he simply said, "excuse me, I have more places to visit."
The next moment he vanished as he threw himself towards the next burning rock, then another. He kept moving like this while Rana muttered from far behind:
"Sigh, you are far crazier than I thought," she couldn't help but turn her gaze towards the mansion, "was that madness contagious or what?"
Jim didn't care about anything. As a beggar finding himself inside the vault of the city lord, he didn't hesitate to reach every single burning rock and smash directly into it.
Each rock was shattered by his speed, and the fire around got wild for a brief moment before it started to be obedient and wrap him in layers.
Finally after a long hour of doing these crazy jumps, the entire place looked dim except for him. He stood there watching the dark sky while his fire kept illuminating the far faces of the stupefied masters.
They never thought he would gather all the fire they worked so hard to deflect this easily and stay alive.
"He… is something," Mark couldn't help but sigh, "and I was worried about him defending his mansion… we have a monster inside our campus ladies and gentlemen."
He laughed and others laughed at his remarks. They were all happy and proud by what Jim was doing, but Jim wasn't.