Lord of Charm

Lena and Gale left the mansion and headed towards the forest Lena chose for Gale to train at.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to a forest right out of the city, its name is Alwin Forest. The strongest Beasts there are in the third stage. The higher ones were killed or chased away by the kingdom when our city was established."

They shared a hot wind horse on their way there. Hot wind horses were popular mounts; they were third-stage horses with a strong affinity to wind and fire as a sub-affinity, which boosted their speed to the level of a fifth-stage wind mage's sprint. Three hours later, they left the horse to wait for them outside and went into the woods.

"According to the book I read about the forest, this area should be the habitat territory of a wolf pack. Wait, you didn't know what we were going into?"

He added the last words when he noticed the surprise on Lena's face.

"I had no idea, I just figured we could enter and beat whatever we saw first. Don't worry, nothing should be able to defeat me in this forest."

"You're jinxing it."

According to the book, the average of the pack was the second stage. The Alpha was at the peak of the third stage, and there were some other third-stage wolves. The weaker members of the pack were in the first stage, and only the cubs were unranked, comparable to Novice Magicians.

"I can sense a few beings 200 meters away from here. Only two of them are in the first stage, so I will take care of the rest of them. Let's go."

Lena started moving toward the wolves she sensed, and soon the sight of 5 wolves was revealed in front of them. Three of them were eating while the other two stood guard and only watched the others eating with hungry looks.

"The ones excluded from the group are the weaker ones that you can take care of. I'll keep the other busy."

Lena instructed Gale to attack and performed her fire snakes magic, summoning 6 fire snakes that started crawling toward the eating wolves. Gale didn't need to be told twice; he simply locked his sight on the two wolves, ignoring completely the stronger ones as if they weren't there. He shot a fireball from his hiding spot at the right wolf, hitting its torso.

The wolves had earth and water affinities, which made them quite sturdy, yet a first-stage wolf couldn't possibly survive a direct hit from an advanced magician unharmed without using its own magic. Taken by surprise, the wolf was hit by the fireball; The fire burnt its flesh and opened a gap in its side, causing blood to start spilling out. It collapsed with a weak whimper as its life started to fade.

"I did it!"

Gale cheered excitedly. The other wolves immediately noticed him the moment the fireball was shot, and all of them were about to pounce on him when 6 fire snakes jumped from the bushes and ambushed the three stronger wolves. However, Lena left the weaker wolf free to keep its attack, and it did exactly that.

The wolf ran swiftly to Gale and pounced on him. Gale, surprised by its speed, could only shift his weight to the side making a narrow escape from the wolf's maw. It was enough to escape death, but not enough to prevent a gash of blood to appear on his arm, staining it in crimson. Gale swore in his head and immediately tried to shoot another fireball.

Unfortunately, the wolf was much more experienced in fighting than Gale and it disengaged Gale by jumping backward, saving itself from a similar fate as its friend.

Gale used this chance to position himself better and gain his footing back. He could now shoot a fireball every second if he didn't move, and once every two seconds if he did.

He stood without moving and cast fireball after fireball, leaving the trees around scorched as the wolf jumped from side to side to evade the incoming fireballs or used water to negate the ones it couldn't dodge in time. Luckily, fireballs were compressed fire and worked more like a bullet, so except for the direct hits, the fire dissipated when the spell's mana was depleted and didn't burn the whole forest down.

The wolf slowly got closer to Gale, and Gale slowly was pushed back, which made his rate of firing drop. The wolf took the chance to pounce at him, sure of its victory. Suddenly, Gale's weight shifted forward and instead of retreating he jumped toward the wolf, and a fireball was shot from his other palm right into the wolf's open maw.

He couldn't use fireballs with two hands rapidly, but he had no problem preparing a single one with his left hand and waiting for the opportunity to shoot it. Fear was reflected in the wolf's eyes as it saw the fireball enters its mouth, and it knew it met its end. The wolf's momentum didn't stop, and it crushed into Gale's embrace. Gale caught it and threw it aside after stumbling a few steps backward.

"Took you long enough."

He turned around to see Lena sitting on a dead wolf's body. The other two were lying on the ground next to her, all of them had their whole bodies intact, making them look just fine if you didn't look at their burnt heads.

They kept walking around the wolves' habitat. Lena preferred not to kill them needlessly, so unless she had to, she tried to just repel the stronger ones while letting Gale improve his skills. He quickly learned their attacking pattern and adjusted himself accordingly.

Now whenever he fought a single wolf, he would dodge its maw by a few centimeters, place his palm under it and shoot at the exact moment the wolf can't dodge, ending its life. When faced with a few of them, it was a bit tricky, but he would still win at the cost of a few wounds.

"Am I ready to fight second-stage wolves now?"

He asked Lena with anticipation. His wounds didn't cause him any problems since Lena could easily treat such superficial wounds with her light magic as long as none of his organs or bones were damaged.

"No, the difference is much bigger than you think. You'll be ready only after expanding your spells variety further and preferably gaining a second element."

She hurriedly discouraged him from biting off more than he could chew. Gale nodded in understanding and moved on. He realized in his battles that using only fireballs was quite limiting his fire's potential.

"Your training will be over once you can defeat four first-stage wolves by yourself."

Lena decided to set a clear goal for him as there was no point in staying there if he can't improve his magic further. She sensed a group of 10 wolves and without bothering to check their stages, they went in their direction to confront them. They didn't ambush the wolves anymore as it would ruin the purpose of their exercise.

A loud howl resounded as soon as they got noticed by the wolves; it was the Alpha of the entire pack.

"Crap! Run, Gale, run! The alpha was promoted to the fourth stage, it can hold me back while the other wolves attack you!"

Gale heard Lena's panicked shout next to him.