With a calm yet arrogant voice, Hayashi Ren raised his right hand in a loose grip, as if seizing the rushing blaze out of thin air.
The wave of fire actually stopped.
No, it did more than stop.
In less than a second, the roaring flames vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye, sucked into Ren's palm like a whale drawing in the sea.
Second circle magic: Flame Absorption.
"This is impossible…"
Before Pyro could react, Ren flicked his fingers again and again.
Basketball-sized fireballs lanced from the air like a chain of artillery shells.
Third circle magic: Chain Fireball.
For a true mage, not knowing Fireball is unforgivable, and Ren's mastery was enough to plunge a tier three mutant like Pyro into despair.
A dozen fireballs arrived in an instant, blinking into existence right before Pyro's face.
"Watch out!"
In a lightning flash, Lucas Bishop sprang forward, hands layered like a shield.
The first fireball struck him squarely and did no harm. He absorbed it.
His gift was to drink in energy, and fire counted.
He had not expected Ren to anticipate this. The second fireball compressed violently a heartbeat before impact. The erupting flame within hit with more than ten times the intensity of the first.
At his current level, there was no way to absorb that much at once.
"Shit!"
Bishop screamed, turning into a man-shaped torch as he was hurled backward.
Third circle magic: Pyroblast.
In that instant, Ren showed a terrifying fineness of control. Heat and shock sent Bishop flying far, yet not a hint of the blast touched those behind him.
Not even the smallest ripple.
Pyro was only just processing any of it.
The third fireball was already at arm's length.
"John, do not freeze up!"
Kevin the Shifter cried out, mind power flaring as he tried to invade Ren's thoughts. He slammed into an unbreakable wall. A piercing crack split his skull, stars bursting across his vision.
At the same time, the third fireball stretched, shaping into a long whip that coiled around him and flicked him away.
Fire shaping magic: Flame Lash.
Still third circle.
Another body went flying.
Pyro finally snapped to and shouted for his crew to scatter.
Ren gave them no chance.
The fourth fireball swelled with the wind, becoming a flame giant more than three meters tall. Its fist crashed down like thunder, swatting a hardened bruiser into the air.
Third circle: Elemental Fireman.
Meanwhile, the fifth fireball quietly elongated into a fiery hammer that smashed a newly raised light shield to glittering dust.
Its caster followed Bishop and the others into the dirt.
Fire shaping magic: Fire Hammer.
On the other side, Petra stared in horror as the sixth fireball flattened into a spinning wheel, then split apart, one two three four… seven blades of living flame in all.
Third circle: Flame Blades.
"What level of mutant is this man?"
In a daze, Petra reflexively triggered her power. BOOM! Stone surged from the ground, rearing like a pillar to lift her skyward.
RIP-RIP-RIP-RIP-RIP!
The seven blades struck. Though wrought of fire, they bit like knives, carving the pillar to rubble in a blink.
Terror had no time to settle. From the collapsing stone below came a sinister hiss.
Then a gaudy serpent born of pure flame lunged from the cracks and wrapped her tight.
Furnace heat blasted her. Petra felt her body melting.
Fourth circle: Magma Serpent.
While Petra fell, Pyro found only Calvin the Mimic left at his side.
It was all too fast.
He had not even managed a word before Ren's seventh fireball bloomed in his vision.
"Hmph."
Calvin was rattled but not undone. Mimicry sounded plain, yet he could copy powers within a certain range.
He could not count on the headmaster and Cyclops far away in the office.
But right now, Ms. Ororo Storm stood on the field.
"Mimic, activate."
A gale surged into him. Facing the incoming fireball, he thought instinctively of water.
He would never command the weather like Storm, but with a crack of thunder he still drew a driving squall down over himself.
He had no time to celebrate.
The fireball turned blue and did not go out.
Not only did it not go out, it did not even sputter under the rain.
"This is not ordinary fire…"
Realizing it helped nothing.
The blue blaze split in two. One half blasted Calvin from his feet.
The other spread like a gas burner and flared into a wall that stopped Storm herself as she raced in.
"Ren, a lesson is enough. John and the others did not mean true harm."
Storm hovered in midair, winds and lightning curling about her. She stared at the blue flames with naked fear.
Fourth circle: Cursed Bluefire.
Ren did not listen. He pressed his right hand down through air. The remaining seven or eight fireballs accelerated and smashed toward Pyro.
Against that barrage, his speed meant nothing.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! The detonations shook the campus. Before Pyro could react, the ground erupted all around him. Dirt and heat geysered over his head, leaving him blackened and dazed.
His face went bloodless as fire folded over him.
The blaze swelled higher and higher. In seconds it covered half the field. Then with a rolling WHOOOOSH…
A gale ripped through.
Wind fed fire, fire whipped wind, and the sea of flame spun into a tight, funneling twister.
Fourth circle: Flame Tempest.
At the heart of the storm, Pyro's terror peaked. The whole nightmare had struck without warning.
He watched the vortex destroy his body, only for it to vanish at the last instant and re-form into a serpent even larger than the magma snake, this one with nine heads coiling round and round him.
Fifth circle: Ninefold Fire Serpent.
Nine massive, blazing heads hung over him.
Their eyes gleamed with something like intelligence.
And in those eyes, undisguised contempt.
Just as Ren had said ten seconds earlier:
"You know nothing about fire."
Yes.
Told at length, it sounded long, but from Pyro's sudden outburst to Ren's ruthless answer was nothing more than a sweep of autumn wind through fallen leaves. Ten seconds, start to finish.
Ren had never truly hit to kill.
With exquisite control, he left Pyro and the others largely unhurt.
Even so, the sight burned itself into every soul present and would never fade.
All eyes fixed on Ren with a single understanding:
So this is how strong he is.
So strong it crushes hope