From the elder’s house, or more precisely, from his basement, a humanoid wooden training dummy emerged and stepped in front of his Orb.

The elder explained, "It’s a prototype of the Wooden Training Dummy you players test yourselves against. Of course, this one is much better, because most players require far too much babysitting."

NukEncore stared at the new opponent she had to defeat to prove herself.

Then she turned and looked at Martin. "This is my stage. Don’t interfere. Just enjoy the view."

Her tone came out as sexy as ever, likely because she knew exactly how well it worked on him. Without waiting for an answer, she walked past the fence and entered the new arena. Thick roots formed a circular space in the elder’s garden, leaving enough room for the challenge.

Martin smiled.

He switched his weapon to a sword, gripped it tightly, and fixed his gaze on NukEncore’s back. Only Chaos and Rangar seemed to notice that he had already supported her. NukEncore was so focused that she did not notice Martin’s Warden Buff settling over her and raising both her base damage and her skill damage.

The battle began the moment the dummy moved.

It burst forward with a fighter’s step, fast and direct. NukEncore’s eyes narrowed, but she still twisted aside and hurled a fireball at its chest. The dummy raised one arm and knocked the spell away with a clean, shield-like motion, sending the flames bursting to the side and scorching the roots as it closed the distance in the same breath.

A short punch came for her ribs. NukEncore skipped back, but the dummy chained the motion into a low kick and then a palm strike, each attack simple and perfectly timed. She avoided the first two, but the third came too close, and a red barrier flashed into existence around her.

Fire Mana Shield took the blow with a heavy thump. The impact shoved her backward across the dirt, her boots carving shallow lines before she steadied herself. Thin red crystal lines along her boots and legwraps glowed for a moment as mana surged through them.

She answered at once. Her staff flicked, and three fireballs flew in quick succession. The first shot straight ahead, the second curved left, and the third came half a beat later to catch the dodge. The dummy slipped past the first with clean footwork, knocked the second aside with a guarded motion, and pushed through the third by using a brief defensive skill that reduced the impact just enough.

It came out of the flames with barely a stagger. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Then it closed in again and mixed styles even faster than before. A jab flowed into a feint, the feint turned into a low sweep, and a short burst of force followed from one palm. None of it was flashy, but none of it was wasted. It moved like every first lesson in the world had been sharpened into a weapon.

NukEncore retreated around the circular arena while her staff painted arcs of fire through the air. The split hem of her dark robe snapped around her legs as she moved, and the smooth red crystal seams across it caught the firelight in brief molten flashes. She answered with burst after burst, and flames bloomed as heat rolled through the garden. Twice she nearly caught it cleanly, and twice it found the narrowest path through the pressure.

Soon the arena itself began to tighten around her. Roots rose behind her, the fence cut off her angle, and the dummy stepped in with relentless discipline until, for the first time, she had no room left to dodge.

Its fist drove toward her throat.

Fire Mana Shield flashed again, forming so close to her body that the red light painted her face and ran across the dark cloth of her robe. The punch crashed into it. The shield cracked, but it held. NukEncore hissed through her teeth and drove her free hand forward, sending a point-blank fireball into the dummy’s chest.

The blast forced it back three steps.

She rushed after it at once. Her robe flared behind her, the split hem giving her stride full freedom, and the red crystal channels running over her gloves lit up as mana poured through them. She hammered two more fireballs at the dummy’s shoulders. It blocked one and twisted past the second, but this time the pressure made it give ground.

She did not slow down.

Her staff cut a sharper path now, and the fire changed with it. Instead of spreading wide, the next spell tightened as it formed. The bloom folded inward, thickening the core until the fireball leaving her staff looked smaller than the last one, yet far heavier.

The dummy blocked it, but its wooden arm trembled.

It came forward again through the smoke. A basic charge skill launched it across the distance, and a brutal follow-up strike came right after.

NukEncore met it head-on. She shifted left, let the strike brush past her shoulder, and drove the butt of her staff down with both hands. The sharpened end punched into the dirt beside the dummy’s lead foot, bit through the edge of its wooden base, and pinned it against the root-packed ground.

The dummy jerked, and its rhythm broke for the first time.

NukEncore left the staff where it was and stepped in instead of back. The red crystal channels across her gloves brightened as both of her hands rose before her chest. Fire gathered over one palm, then the other, until two fireballs spun to life, bright and unstable.

She pulled them closer together.

The heat between them screamed. The first bloom folded inward instead of widening, and the second drove its force back into the center instead of scattering it around the core. Even the Crystal Ember instability stayed trapped inside the merging spell, compressed until the light became painfully dense.

The red seams along her robe and the glowing lines on her boots burned brighter as mana coursed through her set. The fireball in her hands shrank again and again, but the pressure inside it only grew more violent.

The dummy tore one foot free, but it was already too late.

NukEncore was right in front of it, her eyes fierce and certain.

"You wanted proof? Then keep your eyes on me."

She drove both hands forward.

Final Fireball struck the dummy’s head at point-blank range. For one frozen instant, the arena turned white-red. Then the compressed bloom detonated.

The impact caved in the dummy’s head, blasted through its upper body, and sent a dense column of fire roaring through the wooden frame. The rooted ground shook. Heat rolled across the fence. Splinters and burning fragments scattered through the arena before dropping in blackened pieces.

When the light faded, the dummy remained standing for half a second. Then its body split from the head downward and collapsed in two smoldering halves.

Silence settled over the garden.

NukEncore stood in the smoke with both hands still extended. Her breathing was heavier now, but her posture remained proud. Her staff was still buried beside the ruined foot.

She walked over, wrapped her fingers around it, and pulled it free.

"Oh, well," the elder said. "That was quite a spectacle."