Chapter 263: What fun is a war?
"Jae!" Elise’s voice broke across the noise, soft but desperate. Her palms glowed, her body already leaning forward to run — until Sun’s arm shot out like a bar of iron.
"Stay," the crown prince snapped, his voice clipped, scorn laced through every syllable. "He doesn’t need you yet."
Elise froze, biting her lip hard. Her timid eyes never left Jae, torn between duty and the impulse to move.
The captain pressed harder, fists slamming into the dirt. Every strike sent shockwaves through the ground, rattling shields and knocking weaker cadets to their knees. His blows left craters where they landed, and still he kept coming, relentless as the earth itself.
Jae danced between them, Ember Step flashing in bursts, fire streaking behind him. But his thigh slowed him — each dodge came later, each shift tighter. He couldn’t keep giving ground forever.
Another fist came crashing down. Jae barely twisted aside, the edge of stone grazing his ribs and ripping cloth. He answered with a slash, flames carving across the man’s shoulder, but the captain only grunted, stone sealing over the burn almost instantly.
"Not bad," the captain growled, eyes narrowing. "But you’ll break all the same."
Jae spat blood into the dirt and smirked through it, though sweat dripped down his temple. "You talk too much."
The captain slammed both fists together. The ground buckled, stone plates rising to form a jagged cage around them, cutting Jae off from the cadets. The walls surged higher, trapping the two in a pit of rock and fire.
Elise gasped, stumbling forward despite Sun’s grip on her arm. "No—"
Byun’s grin thinned, shadows crawling restless at his back. "He’s sealing the stage."
Tirel flicked her fire between her fingers, her smirk masking the unease in her eyes. "Looks like farmboy’s got himself a private duel."
Inside the cage, heat shimmered. Jae rolled his injured leg once, hissing, then steadied his stance. The Dragonfire Blade burned brighter in his hand, flames coiling up his arm like veins of molten iron.
The captain cracked his neck, gauntlets grinding together as stone thickened further, jagged and cruel. His eyes glowed faintly with earthen mana. "Let’s end this."
The two surged forward at once — flame and stone colliding with a thunderous roar, the clash shaking the cage itself. Fire exploded outward, shadows dancing on the rock walls, while the sound of cracking stone rang above the screams and steel of the wider battlefield.
The cadets outside could only watch, breath held, as their strongest fighter met the enemy captain blow for blow inside that prison of earth.
And with every clash, the line trembled.
The captain grinned, teeth jagged in the firelight. "You’re strong. But stone doesn’t burn, boy. It crushes."
Jae’s smirk returned, thin but sharp. "Let’s test that."
The next punch came heavy, aimed at his skull. Jae didn’t dodge. He stepped into it.
The blow connected, but instead of breaking him, flames roared across his skin. Molten heat surged through his body, his flesh hardening to iron, fire licking across his arms and chest. The captain’s gauntlet sizzled as though pressed against a forge.
With a snarl, Jae twisted, trapping the man’s arm against his molten torso. His free fist shot forward, gravity pulling it heavier, faster, until it landed like a falling star.
The impact cracked the captain’s chest plate. The man stumbled back, coughing blood, his stone gauntlets crumbling from the shockwave.
Byun let out a low laugh, though his eyes never left Jae. "Remind me never to shake hands with him."
Tirel tilted her head, firelight glinting in her red eyes. "Mm. You’d survive it. Maybe."
The captain roared again, summoning a final surge of stone. The ground beneath Jae convulsed, jagged spikes ripping upward. For a moment it seemed the earth itself would swallow him whole.
Flames exploded outward. Jae burst through the rising stone, embers trailing from his steps, blade in hand. He drove it across the captain’s chest in a searing arc. Fire met flesh and stone alike, tearing through both.
The captain collapsed, body smoldering, his gauntlets shattering into dust.
Silence held for a heartbeat. Then the cadets erupted — not in cheers, but in stunned breaths, relief mingling with awe.
Jae stood over the fallen man, shoulders rising and falling, blood running from his thigh but his stance unshaken. He let the Dragonfire Blade gutter out, its light fading, leaving only the glow of nearby fires.
He ran a hand through his hair, smirking faintly despite the blood smeared across his cheek. "Stone burns fine."
Elise rushed forward at last, kneeling beside him, her hands glowing as she pressed against his thigh. "You’re reckless," she whispered, voice trembling but steady with healing focus. "Don’t pretend you’re not hurt."
Jae glanced down at her, smirk softening. "And yet you still follow me into battles you shouldn’t."
Her cheeks flushed, but she didn’t look away.
Byun strolled over, hands in his pockets, shadows still curling lazily around him. "Well, that was terrifying. Also impressive. Mostly terrifying. But hey — one less enemy captain to worry about."
Sun remained silent, arms crossed, eyes burning as he watched Jae surrounded by their peers. His jaw tightened, but he said nothing.
The battlefield stank of iron and smoke, the air trembling under the weight of hundreds of voices shouting and dying at once. Mud churned under boots, slick with blood. Arrows hissed overhead, vanishing into the thick haze.
And then, as though the storm bent around him, Lord Veynar walked into view.
The rival general’s armor gleamed with a black sheen, cracked by glowing red runes that pulsed like veins. His spear, half again as long as a man, thrummed with power as he dragged its edge lazily through the dirt. His grin stretched unnaturally wide, lips curled back to bare too many teeth.
"Farmboy," he sang, his voice high with delight. "I hoped you hadn’t died already. What fun is a war if the only opponent worth killing hides in the crowd?"
Jae stood at the front of his squad, Dragonfire Blade alive in his hand. Flames coiled up the blade’s shape, heat licking the air around him.