The Runic Alchemist

Damian felt the power surge through him, the effects settling in from the Abyssal Strength potion. Two emergency spells hovered around him, ready to unleash at a moment's notice.

The blade in his hand reignited, its black aura pulsing with a stable intensity. With a slight raise of his weapon, Damian intercepted the lightning-blue sword wielded by Sam. A piece of his leg armor activated again, this time channeling his own mana to fracture the ground a short distance away, the rift accompanied by faint tremors. Alex was forced to halt and leap clear of the disruption.

Sam gritted his teeth and pressed forward, muscles empowered by lightning. Yet, no matter how much force he exerted, matching Damian was no simple feat. Even at his base, Damian's stats rivaled those of a Second Ranker. With the potion boosting his strength by 20%, no Second Ranker, not even a transcendent seed, could match him. Perhaps a pugilist like Xavier might come close.

Damian released one hand from his sword's hilt, still holding his ground against Sam. With a smirk at Sam's expression of disbelief, he drove a punishing punch into his opponent's steel plate armor.

"Bitch, please. I taught you how to hold a sword," Damian mocked.

With gritted teeth plastered on his face, Sam was thrown back by the force of his punch, interrupting Lucian and Einar's charge, though they just stepped out of the way and let Sam go crashing behind them. With a brief reprieve, Damian activated one of his emergency spells. A wormhole shimmered into existence at his side, its endpoint positioned beside Evrin, Kamisen, and Maelor, who were chanting in the rear.

Suddenly, a black hole appeared beside the three of them. A few seconds later, Damian took a deep breath and unleashed a powerful stream of fire into the wormhole. Flameburst wasn't just ordinary fire—it contained his pure mana from the core, infused with traces of his aura, making it exceptionally difficult to counter. Normal water did nothing against it, and the heat was unbearable.

It was dangerous to use—one had to exercise a lot of caution while doing it as a human. Damian had only used it a few times himself. Still, it looked super cool—perfect for putting on a show.

The Spellborne students he had thwarted before lay on the ground around them, gasping in unison as they watched Damian spew fire like a dragon, a creature they'd only ever heard of in stories.

Damian had chosen the perfect distance for the wormhole to open, giving Evrin, Kamisen, and Maelor just enough time to retreat, but not enough to finish their chants—wasting their mana and preventing their spells from launching.

If Lucian had attempted to protect the mages by freezing his flames or the wormhole, he might have been in trouble with Sam, Alex, and Einar nearby. But, of course, they all fought individually and didn't care much for one another.

Once their spells were disrupted, Damian canceled the wormhole and redirected his fire toward the advancing trio. Alex cursed and dodged, leaping clear once more. Einar, seizing the opportunity of multiple opponents and Damian's inability to direct the fire upward-in risk of losing the sight of others, leapt high. That one was crafty.

And of course, the flames directed at Lucian were stopped by her, as she activated her skill and sent a wall of ice towards him. The wall broke under his fire, but it had done the job—the heir of Goldilocks was meters away from him, her dark blue aura flaring on her beautifully crafted sword.

Damian parried her strike with his black-aura-clad blade. But then another scarlet blade landed and he blocked that too with his long sword. The clash produced unsettling, grating sounds of his straining blade, but he held firm. Unlike Sam, Lucian wasn't shocked by his strength.

With a cold smile, she freed one hand from her sword and whispered, "Soul Freezing Cold." Her dark eyes glinted with sadistic amusement as ominous blue fire ignited in her palm. Einar also started channeling more and more aura in her blade.

'That does not look good!'

It must be her freezing skill again, or some attack related to it. Damian used his aura and mana expel trick with full force, added with his strength to push both of them back a few meters, and activated the two glowing runic spells etched on his chest armor pieces. Twin shields of thick air enveloped him from the front just as her icy wave erupted, freezing the shields solid on impact. Even Einar gave her a way to release it in full and not get in the way.

'Goddamit! This chick is out to kill me!'

He couldn't fathom why she was so vindictive with him. He was such a nice, supporting friend. Damian mused.

Activating Voidstep to vanish from her proximity. He reappeared on a tree branch ten meters away.

"You guys are so mean!" Damian complained. Enjoy new stories from empire

Just as the words left his lips, the entire Spellborne Legion began chanting in unison, their runic circles forming in every color, all aimed at the tree branch he stood on.

"Oh... So this is what we're doing? Nice, lemme join." Another group had reached them, among them was Grace, who spoke with a smile on her face. She didn't even question what they were doing and immediately joined in the chanting.

The collective chanting of the crowd was loud and unsettling.

However, one by one, they realized something was wrong. They were completing the spell perfectly, but none of it launched— as if their own spells were no longer under their control.

"What the hell did you do?" Grace shouted, glaring at Damian.

With a mocking smirk, he wagged his finger. "Tch.. Tch.. Bad kids get punished, you know? When your soul isn't pure, mana refuses to obey you."

He turned his gaze toward Grace. "Have you been good lately, Grace?"

The crowd's eyes locked onto her, and her face flushed with embarrassment. Fortunately for her, the projection screen only displayed visuals, not audio. Even the audience couldn't comprehend the weird exchange going on.

The biggest mistake anyone could make was using spells against him.

The upgraded version of Lord's Respect granted him total dominion over runic cirles of those weaker than him. He had just shown the public how he could cancel them, though that was not all he could do.