First Flare

It started as a sphere about the same size as any of my Fireballs and Pyrrha immediately dodged, but nothing came her way. Instead, it swelled, growing swiftly until it was as wide across as I was tall—and it kept growing, rising like the sun above my head. The lighting in the room changed in moments, shadows spiraling away from the massive new source of light as the temperature skyrocketed until even I began to sweat.

To my Clairvoyance, such a thing meant a rush of colors and shapes through swaths of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, but even through all that, I saw Pyrrha, face shocked and alarmed. She drew her rifle and shot me steadily, guiding the bullets towards me, but I ignored them now, dismissing the pain. Levant congealed in front of me, pleasant smile on her invisible face even as she rose to my defense. Suddenly, the bullets started missing me or hitting more defended areas, Crocea Mors working to shore up such defenses. A second passed, two, and then her rifle shifted into a spear again. She looked ready to throw it for a moment and Vulturnus joined my side, ready to aid my defense, but in the end she just glanced above me and mouthed something before charging right at me.

She probably thought I wouldn’t risk using such a technique in close proximity.

I laughed at the very thought and brought it down on us both.

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The flames swept across the arena floor and surged up the walls, kept in the ring only by my will. They clung unnaturally to every surface, refusing to fade despite the lack of fuel, as I kept them burning on the lingering power of the spell and my Elementals. Maintaining such an enormous quantity of flames would have taken a massive amount of MP if I kept them going with Suryasta alone, but I didn’t bother—instead, I kept the flames alive with Suryasta and set Levant to the task of fanning them higher, keeping the stadium floor a raging inferno.

Flare, I named it for old times’ sake, like Magic Missile—a way of remembering the games I’d loved before. The flames roared around and over me as I walked through them, feeling their scorching heat but in a distant way—like touching a wall with fire on the side instead of actually burning. With my Elementalist title equipped and Elemental Mastery and Suryasta protecting me, I stood within the flames and was unburned.