The Last Apprentice of Magic

CHAPTER 7 — THE IMPOSSIBLE COMBINATION

The creature lunged before Fred had time to warn the others.

He threw himself to the side, barely rolling out of the way as a massive claw smashed into the ground where he had been standing. The impact sent a powerful shockwave through the clearing, throwing loose soil and broken branches into the air.

Kael was hurled backward by the force of the attack, while Elara was knocked into a nearby tree.

Nia screamed as she stumbled away from the creature.

Simon reacted on instinct. He raised both hands, and the earth beneath him surged upward, forming a rough stone wall between the group and the monster.

BOOM!

The creature tore through the barrier as though it were made of sand.

Simon stumbled backward, staring at the shattered remains of his spell.

"That won't hold it!"

"It doesn't have to!" Fred shouted.

The monster's head turned toward him.

Inside its split chest, the second core pulsed with dark energy.

The Codex remained fixed in Fred's vision.

[Estimated survival probability: 3%.]

Fred stared at the number.

Three percent.

Under ordinary circumstances, such a probability would have been enough to convince anyone that the situation was hopeless.

Fred didn't see it that way.

He didn't regard the number as a prediction of death.

He regarded it as a problem that still had a solution.

Three percent means there is still a way.

The creature charged again.

Fred's eyes moved rapidly across the battlefield, taking in everything he could.

Kael's lightning.

Elara's wind.

Simon's earth.

They were three completely different magical attributes, each with its own casting method, strengths, and weaknesses.

Fred's mind raced.

Lightning needed a conductor.

Wind could control direction and movement.

Earth could provide structure and containment.

His gaze shifted toward the monster's second core.

Then toward the ground.

Then back to Kael.

A strange thought entered his mind.

What if magic isn't meant to be used separately?

---

"Kael!"

The lightning mage looked toward him.

"Left side!"

Kael didn't ask for an explanation. He immediately sprinted toward the creature, lightning exploding around his body as he accelerated.

The monster swung one of its claws.

Kael ducked beneath the attack and drove forward.

"Elara!"

Elara understood what Fred wanted almost immediately.

She thrust both hands forward.

A powerful gust of wind erupted from her palms and slammed into the creature from the opposite side.

The monster staggered.

Fred watched the interaction carefully.

Something about the lightning had changed.

When Elara's wind surrounded Kael's attack, the electrical current didn't dissipate as Fred expected. Instead, it spread through the moving air, increasing its effective range while altering the shape of the attack.

Fred's eyes widened.

"Again!"

Kael struck once more.

Elara followed.

This time, Fred watched the two spells interact even more closely.

The lightning raced along the current created by the wind, following its path instead of dispersing randomly.

Fred's breathing quickened.

It wasn't simple addition.

The spells were interacting with one another.

They were changing each other.

Fred turned toward Simon.

"Earth!"

Simon looked at him in confusion.

"What?"

"Raise the ground beneath it!"

"I can't lift enough!"

"You don't need enough. You need the right shape."

Fred pointed toward the monster.

"Three meters behind it. Build a curved stone ridge."

Simon hesitated.

The creature released another furious roar, and the sound shook the surrounding trees.

"NOW!"

Simon slammed both hands against the ground.

The earth cracked beneath the monster.

A wave of stone erupted upward, curving into a ridge that forced the creature's footing out of alignment.

The monster stumbled.

Kael's lightning struck the stone.

Elara's wind wrapped around the electrical current.

For a brief moment, the three elements formed a single magical circuit.

Fred froze.

He could see it.

Not merely with his eyes.

The Codex was showing him the structure.

The familiar analysis window appeared before him, but this time, something different happened.

[Multiple magical attributes detected.]

[Interaction pattern discovered.]

Fred's heart began hammering against his ribs.

Another message appeared.

[Potential spell combination identified.]

Fred barely whispered the words.

"Spell Combination."

Kael heard him despite the chaos.

"What?"

Fred looked between the three of them.

Kael's lightning.

Elara's wind.

Simon's earth.

"You want us to combine three spells?"

Fred shook his head.

"Not three spells."

Elara stared at him.

"Then what?"

Fred turned toward the creature.

"One spell."

---

The creature broke free before they could attempt another combination.

The stone ridge shattered beneath its strength, and a massive wave of dark mana exploded outward.

Kael was knocked off his feet.

Elara cried out as the force dragged her across the ground.

Simon collapsed several meters away.

Fred was thrown backward and slammed into a tree.

Pain shot through his ribs as he struggled to remain conscious.

For a moment, he couldn't breathe.

Then the Codex displayed his remaining mana.

[Mana: 7/31.]

Fred stared at the number.

Seven.

He almost laughed.

He had seven mana remaining, and they were facing a monster with two magical cores.

Yet the solution didn't require his mana.

It required theirs.

Fred pushed himself upright.

"Listen carefully."

Kael slowly rose to his feet.

"Make it quick."

Fred pointed toward the creature.

"Kael, you'll provide the power."

He turned toward Elara.

"You'll control the direction."

Finally, he looked at Simon.

"You'll provide the structure."

Simon frowned.

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

Fred kept his eyes fixed on the creature.

"Build something none of us can cast alone."

The monster roared again.

Kael tightened his grip around his weapon.

"Tell me when."

Fred watched the creature carefully.

The two cores inside its chest were pulsing in alternating patterns.

One supplied power.

The other stabilized the creature's body.

Fred's eyes narrowed.

Then he understood.

"Now."

Kael unleashed everything he had.

Lightning exploded across the clearing, illuminating the trees with a violent flash.

At the same moment, Elara released every ounce of wind she could control.

The air twisted around Kael's lightning, compressing the electrical current into a rapidly spiraling stream.

Simon slammed both palms against the earth.

Stone pillars erupted from the ground around the creature.

They weren't aimed at it.

They surrounded it.

Fred watched the three elements converge.

Lightning.

Wind.

Earth.

Under normal circumstances, those forces should have interfered with one another.

Instead, they synchronized.

The lightning traveled through the stone.

The wind accelerated the electrical current.

The earth contained and redirected the combined energy.

A massive sphere of rotating elemental energy began forming around the creature.

The monster thrashed violently inside the formation.

Its second core began flickering.

Fred's eyes widened.

"Keep going!"

Kael gritted his teeth as his arms began to shake.

"I can't!"

"Yes, you can!"

"I'm almost empty!"

"So is everyone else!"

Elara's face twisted with strain.

"We're going to die!"

Fred looked at the three of them.

For a brief moment, none of them moved.

Then Kael laughed.

It wasn't the confident laugh he usually gave before a fight.

It was the strained, almost disbelieving laugh of someone who had decided that surrender was no longer an option.

"Fine."

He poured more mana into the attack.

Lightning intensified.

Elara followed, forcing more wind into the formation.

Simon roared as he pushed additional mana into the earth, causing the stone pillars to grow thicker and stronger.

The sphere began to compress.

Inside it, the creature's magical structure started collapsing.

Fred focused on the two cores.

He watched their pulses.

One.

Two.

One.

Two.

Then the rhythm changed.

The two cores fell out of synchronization.

Fred's eyes widened.

"There!"

He pointed toward the monster.

"Kael! Strike the upper core!"

Kael released the lightning.

The electrical current shot directly toward the creature's upper core.

"Elara! Redirect it!"

Elara twisted both hands.

The wind changed direction, bending the lightning toward its target.

"Simon! Close the ground!"

Simon slammed his palms downward.

Stone erupted around the creature, snapping shut like a massive cage.

The three elements collided.

For one impossible second, the entire forest seemed to hold its breath.

Then—

BOOOOOOM!

A pillar of white-blue energy erupted into the sky.

The creature screamed.

Its two cores shattered simultaneously.

Dark energy burst from its body, but instead of spreading through the forest, it rapidly dissolved into fragments that evaporated before they could touch the ground.

The monster disappeared.

The pressure that had filled the forest vanished with it.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Fred remained standing, although barely.

His knees shook beneath him, and his mana reserves had fallen to almost nothing.

But the creature was gone.

Kael's weapon slipped from his hand and landed in the dirt.

Elara stared at the space where the monster had been standing.

Simon simply lowered himself onto the ground, too exhausted to remain standing.

Eventually, Kael looked toward Fred.

"What..."

He glanced around at the ruined clearing.

"...did we just do?"

Fred looked down at his trembling hands.

"I don't know."

The Codex appeared before him.

[New magical principle discovered.]

[Spell Combination.]

[Different magical attributes can produce a new magical effect under compatible conditions.]

Fred stared at the message.

A slow realization settled over him.

For most of his life, he had been told that his weakness was his greatest limitation.

His thirty-one mana had defined him in the eyes of others.

It had determined what people believed he could accomplish before he ever had the opportunity to prove otherwise.

But perhaps he had misunderstood what his ability was meant to do.

Maybe he wasn't supposed to become the strongest mage.

Maybe he was supposed to understand how strength worked.

And if he could make other people's powers work together in ways they never could alone...

Then perhaps his thirty-one mana didn't matter nearly as much as everyone believed.

---

Far away, inside the academy's central command room, a magical recording played across a massive crystal screen.

The battle replayed in perfect detail.

The lightning entering the wind.

The earth completing the circuit.

Three seemingly incompatible magical attributes combining into something entirely new.

Professor Vale stood motionless in front of the screen.

He watched the recording from beginning to end.

Then the image returned to the beginning.

He watched it again.

The final explosion filled the crystal display with white-blue light.

When the recording ended a second time, Vale remained silent.

The door behind him opened.

The Headmaster entered the room.

He didn't speak immediately.

Instead, he watched the final moments of the recording as the three elements merged into a single attack.

His eyes narrowed.

"Who designed that combination?"

Vale didn't answer at once.

The Headmaster turned toward him.

"Professor?"

Vale slowly faced him.

"The low-magic student."

The Headmaster's expression changed.

It wasn't surprise.

It was recognition.

For a moment, he stared at the frozen image of the sixteen-year-old standing among the ruins of the forest.

Then he spoke quietly.

"Fred."

Vale nodded.

The Headmaster continued staring at the image.

"Bring him to me."

Outside the command room, another magical screen flickered.

For less than a second, an unfamiliar symbol appeared across its surface.

It was the same symbol Fred had seen on the metallic disc.

Then the screen returned to normal.

The symbol was gone.