Chapter 105: No limits

"More. Don't treat it as just a simple training now! Do your absolute best!"

Shouting the orders while leisurely swinging her legs in the air, Nadia continued to sip on her beer while observing Fen's attempt to produce even stronger fires.

"Didn't I tell you? I can't make them any bigger!"

With his talent, mentality and even muscles strained to their limit, Fen's forehead was richly covered in perspiration as his outstretched hands produced more and more fires. Due to the nature of the material that the opposing wall of the room was made off, as soon as his flames washed against this strange object, they would disappear instantly only to be replaced with another wave coming off from Fen's hands.

"This is another thing that differs for Draconis and Phoenixian arcanists. While dragon followers have the set limit of what they will be ever capable off, with enough effort, our kind can improve infinitely."

Putting the cup of beer to the side of a wooden frame that she was sitting on, Naida jumped down the small distance that separated her from the ground and stood beside the young man.

"Stop for a moment."

Curious of what this senior of his had on mind, Fen instantly ceased to produce his flames. With the sudden change washing over him, the young man could feel his head turning light. Only after a few moments did the young arcanist regain his stability, both mental and physical, before finally focusing on the figure of the girl.

"I will start with the flames that I could produce without any real training. Obviously, unlocking my full inborn potential took a bit of effort, but given how increasing our flames capability is way harder and different from just learning how to produce them in the first place, let's take it as the baseline."

Explaining the entire concept behind what she was going to show, Nadia didn't even bother to take any special position. With something snapping about her, a singularity appeared in front of her head, instantly pouring out a river of flames in the same direction where Fen's attacks continued to flow through the entirety of today's training.

Yet, as insanely impressive this way of releasing flames was, the result was at most, average. Not even close to being half the size of what Fen could produce already, not to speak about how strangely thin those flames were, not even capable of completely blocking one's line of sight. 

"Okay, that should suffice. Now, I will show you what I can do now."

This time, Nadia didn't use the same, fancy way of producing her flames. Rather than that, she assumed a similar position to what she told Fen to pose as during the training, grabbing her right wrist with her left hand and leaning forward a tiny bit.

"Go!"

Shouting to herself as if her own voice was some kind of release she set for herself, Nadia's hand erupted in flames. In one instant, Fen could notice several differences between what she produced before and what she was capable of creating right now.

Starting off with just the size of the flames… it wasn't all that much different. While the area of the fire splashing against the wall was relatively bigger than before, it was still below the halfway mark of what Fen could produce, proving that the improvement was only slight. But it wasn't the size difference that caught Fen off-guard.

"Woah…"

There was no denying it. Unless he were to strain his entire self to the limits in a life-and-death situation… No, not even in such a drastic scenario Fen couldn't be sure that he could produce such condensed flames directly upon their release. After all, there was a huge difference between condensing the fire that already existed in the real plane, and doing it within one's body!

Instead of being see-through, Nadia's new form of flames turned to thick that occasionally its overall reddish colour was already turning cherry-violet, as if the more intense her flames were, the further away they would stray from the natural red colour that the fire had in nature!

Yet, as if Nadia was keen on completely shattering Fen's self-confidence, the tone of the fire wasn't the most astounding thing about it. It was the facture that this fire assumed, as if turning from something intangible, just a heat hanged directly in the air, suddenly shifted to something that was actually gaseous!

"Ah!"

A sudden moan escaped the girl's mouth, as her flames ceased to come out of her hand just as her entire body collapsed. Falling down on her knee, the girl started to pant heavily, as if even taking a simple breath was a huge burden on her.

"I understand. But to think that you could progress so much… I don't want to judge or even assume anything, but would you mind telling me how long did it take you to reach that level of intensity?"

In the end, all the phenomena that Nadia just showcased were directly connected to the flames' intensity. While it wasn't something that Fen could prove or argue for, the gut feeling of his, something that he missed ever since the last meeting with Draconis himself, told him.

"Eee… Well, there is no point in hiding it. To progress from the first example to what I did just now… It took me over twelve years."

Shaking her head as if she didn't want to allow the young man to look at her red from embarrassment face, Nadia failed to notice how there wasn't even a single hint of ridicule on the young man's face.

'No matter the result, she worked hard on her talent for over ten years, while I am expecting some instant results barely months after this power awoke in me? I know that my circumstances are different, but I should definitely get off my high horse…'

Instead of ridicule, Fen's eyes were filled with self-mocking. Even if Nadia was just an extraordinary case of someone who compensated for the lack of growth potential with hard work, her efforts were still worth huge respect, instantly elevating her already high standing in Fen's eyes.

"Okay then, I'm too tired to observe the fluctuations of your aura right now. Let's take a short break, and once we will rest a bit, I will teach you how to practice your intent."