The clone smiled beneath his mask.
"So..."
"You really are terrifying."
Shoko answered by raising one hand.
CRACK!
A forest of jagged ice spikes erupted across the hallway.
The clone leapt backward.
His right forearm rippled.
Skin peeled back from his elbow as his bones shifted to elongate outwardly.
Click.
Click.
In seconds a long rifle barrel had extended from his arm.
Blue mana gathered around the weapon.
The glow steadily intensified.
Shoko narrowed her eyes.
"...A rifle?"
The clone grinned.
"I've been meaning to test something."
The mana surrounding the barrel condensed.
Instead of a normal projectile...
A compressed sphere of blue mana formed at the muzzle.
BANG!
The glowing round shot into one of the ice walls.
There wasn't an explosion.
Instead...
The mana seeped inside.
The section of ice instantly turned a darker shade of blue.
The temperature around it plummeted.
For a brief moment...
The frozen wall became even harder.
Even sharper.
Tiny cracks of frost raced across its surface.
BOOM!
The entire section violently shattered into glittering fragments.
Ice sprayed across the hallway.
Shoko blinked.
"...What?"
She immediately formed another wall.
CRACK!
A second shot.
BANG!
Again...
The mana entered the ice instead of bouncing off it.
It spread like ink through water.
The ice became denser.
Sharper.
Almost...
Alive.
BOOM!
The wall burst apart from within.
Shards rained across the corridor.
The clone tilted his head.
"...Interesting."
It isn't just destroying the ice.
I can feel my mana... interacting with it.
He fired another rifle shot.
Another frozen pillar exploded moments later.
Shoko frowned.
Those aren't normal bullets.
They're affecting my ice somehow.
She thrust both hands forward.
A wave of frozen spears erupted from every direction.
The clone fired again.
Again.
Again.
Blue mana spread through several spikes.
Each one hardened for the briefest instant...
Before destabilizing.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Entire clusters shattered apart.
The clone's own eyes widened behind his mask.
Every time I inject mana...
I can feel the ice.
His grip tightened.
Not physically...
It's more like...
It's responding.
The rifle hummed.
More mana flowed into another shot.
This time...
Instead of firing immediately...
He waited.
The blue mana embedded inside the frozen wall.
He concentrated.
Move.
For a split second...
The mana obeyed.
The blue glow reversed direction.
It raced back through the frozen structure.
The ice itself shifted.
Long crystalline spikes bent away from him...
Then whipped back toward Shoko.
CRACK!
Shoko's eyes widened.
She immediately erected a thick wall of ice between herself and the returning spikes.
The redirected attack slammed into the barrier, exploding into countless frozen fragments.
"...You redirected my own ice?"
Even the clone looked surprised.
"...I did."
That wasn't luck...
I actually felt where the mana was inside it.
Before he could think further—
DING!
A translucent blue notification appeared before his eyes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
New Class Trait Discovered
Blue Mage(Uncommon)
Blue Mages learn and cast spells from monsters and enemies.
Rather than unlocking abilities through levels, they acquire new magic by observing, understanding, or being struck by supernatural techniques.
With enough mastery, a Blue Mage can reproduce everything from healing spells and defensive magic to devastating battlefield attacks.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sub Quest (Rare)
Ice Magic
Objective 1:
Send your mana through the surrounding ice without breaking it, allowing yourself to better understand its structure.
Progress:
0 / 12 Successful Attempts
Reward:
Ice Magic (Apprentice)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The clone blinked.
...Blue Mage?
A grin slowly spread beneath his mask.
Now that's interesting.
He looked back at Shoko.
Then at the frozen battlefield surrounding them.
"So..."
He rested the rifle against his shoulder.
"I suppose we can both learn something from this fight."
Blue mana gathered at the muzzle once more.
This time...
Not to destroy.
But to understand.