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‘I just feel like... eight times is still too much. I mean, that one guy I fought... uh... the guy with the yellow crystals.’

‘Sulfur.’

‘Yeah. He was obviously older than me as a servant, but... he probably wasn’t THAT much older, right? I mean, considering how you said he was weaker than Karkash, who probably wasn’t that old, either.’

‘Yeah. What’s your point?’

‘Well, that guy could add velocity to his sulfur pretty well. And even now, I can barely do that with my iron. So, I mean... logic would dictate that I’m still not as strong as that guy was, right?’

‘Mm. That’s a reasonable assumption to make, but alas still incorrect. Adding velocity to your element is a skill that also requires practice. It’s something you have to actually understand “how” to do. Even if you’d achieved emergence a dozen times already, you wouldn’t be able to add velocity to your element until you learned the particulars of it.’

‘Oh...’

‘In terms of raw power, though, I think you’ve already surpassed that sulfur guy. He only had the edge on you because his soul synch was higher. You’ll get the velocity thing down soon enough.’

‘Hmm.’ Hector gave a sideways nod. It was true that he’d been thinking that he could still do more with the velocity than he’d so far managed. ‘Then... are there any other “skills” like that?’

‘Temperature manipulation. That’s a pretty high-level skill for materialization users, though. Weirdly enough, it’s easier for transfiguration users to do, perhaps because they don’t have to also be mindful of spatial coordination like you do.’

‘Spatial coordination?’

‘Depth perception. Where you want to create your element. That sort of thing. Transfiguration users also just have tighter control over their elements, even being able to manipulate how intensely they react to other elements. So I suppose it’s not too surprising.’

‘Hmm.’

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Rheinhal was not as Asad remembered it. Even from the air, he could see the difference. Barricades had gone up all over the city, forming concentric circles around Rhein’s Keep. Vehicles were a rare sight as well. No doubt, the Rainlords had evacuated most, if not all, civilians by now.

Encouragingly, Asad did not see much in terms of property damage. He spotted a couple small craters near the castle, but nothing else. Yet the siege was still young, of course.