The charred rock troll whipped its arm forward.
A powerful force slammed into the side of Jareth's face and sent him crashing to the ground.
Jareth's vision went woozy. Darkness and light danced in his sight. His ear rang. He lost his coordination for a second, his thinking scattered.
A peppery heat flared in his nostrils with every breath.
He couldn't feel his cheek, and yet it burned as if pressed against a hot grate, his head throbbing with pain.
Tightly squeezing his eyes shut for a second, he snapped them open. The dizzying dance of darkness and light slowed, but the ground still felt like a swaying boat on a rough sea.
Shaking his head to regain his senses, he slowly sat up with the aid of his hand but froze when it touched a rough, hard object. He turned and caught the blurry sight of a charred thing beside him.
His pupils dilated as he remembered where he was.
Adrenaline surged through his veins.
Jareth scrambled away from the rock troll with everything he had.
He staggered to his feet to escape but heard a loud voice, "It's dead!"
He froze and turned back to the rock troll, but saw it unmoving.
Twirling around, he spotted Liana and Nadia walking towards him.
'Yeah! I wouldn't be alive if it weren't dead.'
Jareth felt his body relax.
His body weakened and a terrific pain from his skull and face drowned him.
He collapsed to the ground, rested his back against the tree behind him, and massaged his face. But a stinging sensation made him hiss.
Lowering his palm, he saw blood on it.
Nadia rushed towards him.
When she reached him, she bent and placed her hands above his face. A white glow emanated from them.
The pain in Jareth's face gradually subsided. She continued for about a minute, until Jareth could barely feel any discomfort on his face, before she withdrew her hand.
"That's the best I can do," Nadia said to him.
"Thank you. It's really nice knowing a healer," Jareth replied with a small smile.
"Let's go help Alven and Spooky," Nadia said.
Jareth quickly pulled himself to his feet.
"Don't worry." Liana's voice made them pause. "They are making their way here. They're done."
Jareth nodded and flexed his arm.
"Hey! Next time, you duck, or arch back; don't move left or right! Well, it's your first time, so as your teacher, I'll give you a passing mark despite freezing up in a dangerous situation and wasting time," Liana said with an aloof expression.
Jareth paused before nodding after realizing that he had made an unnecessary movement out of fear.
"You don't need to be proud," Nadia said to Liana before turning to Jareth. "Even without his staff, he controlled his spell as well as you. The fire spear's movements weren't stiff like a newbie Awakened arcanist's; they moved as if a trained arcanist were controlling them with pinpoint precision."
She turned to Liana. "You should know how difficult it is because you even struggled to prevent your fire spears from exploding in your face while trying to control them. His control might be more fluid than yours."
Jareth just listened, inwardly surprised, as what he did felt as natural as breathing to him.
Liana stared at Jareth in surprise.
Then she turned to Nadia and said after a huff, "He might have been an arcanist for a long time. I remember telling you his physique wasn't anything like a newbie that has only absorbed one core. Maybe he has been an arcanist for a while."
"What's your core number?" she asked Jareth.
"Twenty."
"Huh?! What about your rank?"
"Awakened."
"Really?" she questioned in disbelief. "Then how old are you?"
"Seventeen."
He had discovered it from his comm band.
"How can you be seventeen and have never absorbed a single core? What were you doing for two years? Or does loss of memory include the cores?" Liana ranted.
"Stop interrogating the boy, sore loser," Nadia mocked with a smirk. "Besides, his damage was greater than yours, especially from that long spear. I reckon that the short spear he used had the same fire power as your long spear. If not for him, you would still be battling the rock troll, as they have innate resistance to fire. Now I believe what you said about there being many hidden geniuses."
"I was talking about me!" Liana snapped at Nadia and gritted her teeth in frustration. Then she turned to Jareth. "And why do you have two spear spells? Why don't you make a snake with fire?!"
Her face was becoming red.
Although confused by her statement and request, Jareth still raised his hand and made a small snake, sculpting it with his imagination.
A fire snake sleeked out of his palm, slithering in one position in the air like it was anchored to a place. It was very life-like, except the head.
Raising his head, he saw Liana and Nadia staring at the fire snake with a dumbfounded expression, which unsettled Jareth.
"You can make anything with fire?" Nadia mumbled.
Jareth instantly deduced the crux of the issue.
"You can't?" he asked Liana.
"Hell! This is cheating!" Liana snapped instead. "How can he make anything with fire? I thought low-rank spells were fixed?"
"You're ignoring his control. Now I'm sure it's better than yours," Nadia added.
"Thank you for rubbing it in my face," Liana huffed.
"I guess it's a special spell of mine," Jareth replied with a calm smile.
He dismissed the fire.
"What's your body percentage?" Nadia questioned.
"Sixty percent mana; forty percent oblivium."
This was what he settled to tell others when they asked.
"That's a lie. You can just not answer. The 'untalented' Liana already has a sixty percent mana body," Nadia answered.
"Body percentage is a representation of talent?" Jareth asked.
Nadia nodded. "It's the widely accepted representation of talent. The higher the mana content percentage in the body, the greater the talent."
Liana huffed again. "I'll still beat him. Although his spell is special, I've seen someone like him."
He chuckled, walked to a tree, and sat down while waiting for the other two.
His thoughts began to wander.
'From Liana's words, shaping flame into anything exists, but it's only a rare spell. However, how can I do it? Don't tell me it's because of my high oblivium content? Is oblivium used in mine? I thought it was mana. Is it because I have an oblivium source?'
Jareth mused silently when he suddenly thought of something.
'This body… was supposed to be a vessel for the Supreme One. The "Supreme One" can't be untalented. Did I steal his power, too? Or… am I the Supreme One?'