Slaughter was underway.
Facing the onrushing herd of Minotaurs, Tiona and Tione didn't hesitate for a heartbeat—they went straight for the kill. Neither carried a weapon; they used only their hands and feet.
For Amazon sisters, that was more than enough.
Golden flames geysered from the rings on their fingers, further boosting their speed. Their bodies became twin streaks of gold, colliding with the mass of bull-headed monsters.
Thud!
On impact, the front rank was devoured in an instant by the golden blaze.
Tiona and Tione needed no verbal coordination. They had always shared a mysterious rhythm; even without a word they executed perfect teamwork—splitting to pincer, trading targets on the fly, combining strikes, borrowing each other's momentum.
In a blur of simple, brutally direct techniques, they cleared nearly two hundred Minotaurs in under three minutes.
"So good!"
Tiona couldn't help raising her voice.
A warm, unfamiliar current coursed through her body, pushing every physical metric higher. Movements she once struggled with came easily; her stamina drain plummeted; even her punches and kicks landed with power several tiers above her norm.
Against thick-skinned brutes like Minotaurs, barehanded attacks used to hurt—especially when facing a tide of them. Now her hands and feet felt no pain, fatigue barely nipped at her, and she still felt hungry for more fighting.
"Same effort—or even harder than usual—but I'm burning less stamina, and my strikes hit so much harder."
Tiona summed it up with a single, ecstatic, "So good," but Tione put it into words:
"This is Sun's activation. It maximizes bodily strength, reduces stamina consumption, lets the user maintain a longer combat window, and even slowly restores spent energy mid-fight."
Tsunayoshi's explanation followed.
"Next I'll raise the Minotaurs' defense. High enough that you can't one-shot them with your current state. Then try swapping to Storm for offense.
"You're not ready to run both flames at once yet, so we'll take them one at a time. No rush—steady."
His voice smoothed out the sisters' excitement. They steadied their breathing, stopped channeling Sun, and kindled Storm instead.
The whole-body reinforcement vanished—but a fiercer, wilder force began to churn inside them.
The ground trembled again, though this time the numbers sounded much smaller.
The sisters adjusted their stances and stepped toward the quake—
Whump!
The paving cracked and sank. In perfect sync, both planted their first step straight into a hole and face-planted into the dirt.
"???"
"Pff—"
The sight dragged a laugh out of Tsunayoshi.
"Storm is a violent power—like a gale that wants to grind everything to nothing. It's the most destructive flame, so it's harder to handle. You can't sheet it over your whole body the way you did with Sun—not until you're proficient.
"First, gather the flame in your hands and get used to the feel of striking. Then shift it to your feet for kicks. Once you can swap smoothly in battle, start testing Storm for acceleration. By then, you won't punch potholes with every step."
Pushing herself up, Tiona shot him a wounded look.
"Tsunayoshi, warn us next time!"
"I don't think most new flame users would trigger this," he said. "Your Storm is unusually pure right from the start—that's why you're getting these… issues. Normally, even awakened Storm wouldn't crater the ground with a step. First-ignition high-purity flames—that's the quirk here.
"And both of you have the habit of coating your whole body—same as you just did with Sun. That combination causes this result."
He glanced at Tione and chuckled.
"Tione, you just learned this during the descent—and still got caught?"
"Reflex… habit," Tione admitted, taking his hand to stand. She hadn't meant to do it; her body simply wrapped itself in power, exactly like with Sun. As for the lesson from the fall? What stuck was being caught in his arms; the mistake itself had evaporated from memory.
"Habits are hard to break," he said. From their reactions, this truly was muscle memory. He'd need to re-pattern that later—for them and for anyone else who learned Dying Will Flames. Before practical drills, he should rewire those instincts.
"Tione, Tiona—use this fight to start that rewiring. If you intend to rely on this power, you'll need new habits. After today's session, I'll help tune the details and set up special training to make Storm usage second nature."
He released Tione's hand and stepped back, yielding the stage to the sisters.
"Feels weird," Tiona grumbled, but she adjusted her stance anyway.
"Get used to it, idiot," Tione shot back, rolling her eyes. "Combat is the best place to build habits. Or are you saying we can't even handle Minotaurs?"
"As if!"
Battle-hunger flared in Tiona's eyes as a new wave of Minotaurs lumbered into view.
"Wanna make it a contest?"
"Hmph. Contest it is. You think I'll lose to my little sister?"
Rekindling their fighting spirit, the sisters surged forward, Storm coiled tight in their fists and feet, and charged the next herd.
(End of Chapter)
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