The Emberlight guildhall buzzed with morning energy. Paperwork shuffled, Essence crystals clinked as they were weighed and stored, and mission boards refreshed with fresh listings. Kael stood at the edge of it all, shoulder-length hair slightly tousled, a cloth-wrapped lunch dangling from one hand, eyes fixed on the mission board.
Flicker-ranked postings were often filled with escort jobs, supply runs, or clearing out lesser monsters in stabilized regions. But today, something different caught his eye.
MISSION TYPE: Live Capture
TARGET: Emberback Alpha (Lesser Variant)
LOCATION: Eastern Ridgewoods, 7.2 km from Elandor
REQUIREMENTS: Team of 3+, minimum Flicker 2nd Flame. One combat-ready certified spellcaster.
PAY: 6,000 marks + bonus for live containment.
"Taking it?" came a familiar voice.
Kael turned to see Lira, her eyes bright beneath the fringe of silver hair. Flicker 3rd Flame like him, though her affinity was Ice and her temperament even colder. She nodded toward the mission post.
"I could be your spellcaster. I've been itching to use my suppression glyphs on something worth the ink."
Kael grinned. "Let's grab one more and make it official."
⸻
Hours Later — Eastern Ridgewoods
The air shimmered with Essence residue. Trees here had been partially drained by the Emberback's feeding. The beast's trail was obvious — charred patches of earth, claw marks carved into bark, and occasional pulses of residual heat in the air.
Kael crouched low, hand brushing the ground. "Two heat spots. The one to the left is stale. Right one's fresher. It's circling."
"Trying to flank?" asked their third teammate, Joren — a shield-bearing Earth affinity user with a talent for defensive warding.
"No," Kael replied. "Testing."
He unwrapped the leather bindings around his hands. The Emberback Alpha was a lesser variant — still dangerous, still capable of channeling fire Essence through its claws and hide — but not unpredictable. It was a scout's creature. Quick. Angry. Cautious.
He breathed in. Imagery flared to life in his mind — a storm wound tight inside a coil, thunder barely contained in a bottle.
A faint spark arced along his knuckles.
"Let it test us," he whispered. "I'll break the pattern."
With a flick of motion, Kael vanished from his position, dashing through the undergrowth. Lightning crackled faintly along his spine as he burst forward, not in a straight line but zigzagging unpredictably.
The Emberback reacted—red-black scales flaring as it pounced from the brush with a hiss, claws extending in a fiery arc. Kael twisted low, his left hand dragging against the earth as momentum carried him into a spin. Sparks erupted beneath his boots as he kicked off a tree and hurled himself upward.
A flash of light bloomed in his hand.
"Storm Fang—"
He twisted his wrist.
"Strike!"
The condensed bolt of lightning, barely larger than a dagger, speared the Emberback in the flank. It shrieked in surprise — not pain — and twisted in the air mid-fall.
That was enough.
Joren crashed in from the side, shield raised, absorbing the recoil of the beast's desperate swipe. "NOW!"
Lira's incantation ended. A shimmering lattice of ice-infused glyphs exploded upward from beneath the Emberback, wrapping around its limbs like invisible chains. The creature roared again, the temperature of the clearing surging — but the glyphs held.
Kael landed hard, knees bending with the impact. His breathing was steady, measured.
He hadn't used kinetic coating once.
⸻
Back in Elandor
As he walked through the winding stone halls of Emberlight, the thought pressed gently on him: Progress wasn't just about firepower anymore. His technique was shifting — refining. The bursts of movement, the lightning control, the spell imagery. All of it pointed toward something else.
Something War Mages were known for.
The path ahead wasn't just brighter — it was louder. Like the rumble before a thunderclap.
And Kael was beginning to enjoy the sound.