“Sandy has adapted well to her new power of the past few days,” said Ankor “May I test her?” he asked Arthur.

“What do you mean by test her and how?” asked Arthur back. “She has been doing that already.”

He stood in Ankor’s main dungeon room. He had rarely left. Over the past few days, Sandy had run around the dungeon and with Ankor’s push tested her powers against the ice, lightning, and darkness themed floors. Because she had been growing so fast she had not been able to get much practice in her form and did not always have a good sense of her strength or size. At times she had knocked over items in the dungeon’s tunnels during her practice accidentally due to it.

“I was thinking that she and Alona could fight. They have been playing in their free time and she would be her best opponent.”

“I don’t control her. Not really so ask her,” said Arthur. “Sandy, do you want to do some sparring with Alona?” he asked Sandy.

Sandy was sitting in the corner and looked up to Arthur and then to Alona the nine-tailed fox wrapped around the pillar.

“Sure. I will fight her. I have grown bored of fighting the same three floors and their boss monsters. Where would you like us to fight?” she asked Ankor.

“I have a private training Arena for my level bosses. We can watch you fight in there.”

Ankor opened a new tunnel door large enough for all of them to go down. Alona took the lead and showed Sandy the path to the arena’s ground floor. There wasn’t a place for seating because Ankor had no need, so Arthur watched them from the side in the arena.

“The two of you will play best of three matches. I will warn you Sandy that Alona has played this game many times before. Do not underestimate her. Her fur coat at its level is stronger than your scales.”

“I understand,” said Sandy.

The two fighters were on opposite sides of the arena. Arthur created a reinforced [Mana Shield] around himself and waited.

“And start.”

Sandy immediately coated herself in her ice scale defense while Alona created an obstacle. Using her wind abilities, she kicked up the sand of the arena around herself causing her to be obscured behind the cloud. Sandy approached. The sand cloud stayed the same. Alona had no interest in leaving.

Sandy shot several lightning bolts. They created flashes for a moment and some of the sand turned to glass, but they were picked up and spun around Alona all the same. Sandy kept getting closer. When she was about 25 feet away from the sand cloud Alona attacked.

A fireball shot out from inside the cloud and flew straight for Sandy. Sandy rolled and dodged the first fireball just as a second one left the sand cloud. Sandy blocked the second by piercing it with an icicle. She ran for the cloud, extending her frost aura in the process. The spinning cloud slowed, and pieces fell off as the sand cloud turned to ice quicker and quick.

Realizing that Sandy was trying to encase her in her own defense, Alona dispersed the cloud with a wave of heat Sandy’s way before the sand followed. The mass of sand pelted Sandy’s scales and defenses. She was forced to close her eyes to avoid irritation.

Alona charged at Sandy during these moments. Her body became a blur of beige as she sped forward with the aid of her wind abilities. She jumped into the air before Sandy opened her eyes. When she did so she did not see Alona hovering above her. Alona sent wind and fire-infused claw attacks from above. Sandy held her defenses together for a few seconds but was blinded to the sneak attack. Her defenses cracked and the attacks stopped when her scales were cracked. Alona landed to the side of Sandy. Smug with her victory. Sandy wanted to attack but Ankor spoke up.

“First point to Alona. Reset to your positions and you will go again in one minute.”

The two dungeon guardians listened to the instructions and waited for the second match to start. As Sandy waited her cracked and broken scales healed quickly within the arena environment. She was fully restored when Ankor called for the second match.

“Go!”

Sandy went on the offensive immediately and send out a flurry of icicles right at the beginning before Alona good get her sand cloud in place. Alona’s tails moved together, and flames burst from each of them causing the ice to fall apart. A wreath of flame covered her body mimicking what Sandy was doing with her ice.

Sandy ran at Alona as she sent lighting and ice at Alona. She responded by sweeping up sand with her tails causing the lighting attacks to miss while the rest bounced off her fire. Sandy focused more on the lightning attacks which broke apart the sand being thrown. Pieces of crystalized sand littered the area around them.

In between kicking up, sand Alona sent a wind attack sending Sandy into the air. She was only a few feet in the air, but Alona took advantage of her surprise. She sent fire towards Sandy’s chest and bared her claws. Sandy had not unfurled her wings yet. They still rested tucked on her back. Sandy rolled in the air and created ice to block the flames. She hit the ground and rolled while being careful of where Alona was located.

Alona pounced on Sandy as she got back on her. As she swiped her claws at Sandy, Sandy activated a new ability. Her form blurred and turned to shadows for a brief moment before appearing to Alona’s side. Sandy attacked with her own set of claw attacks sending Alona on the defensive. Alona brought her tails up and around her front and linked them together in a weave pattern. She spun on Sandy and brought up sand to cover her retreat.

Sandy kept her frost aura close as she chased after Alona. The flying sand dropped, and the ground froze around her. The ground turned mostly solid causing the sand’s power to wane. Alona expanded her heat in an attempt to counteract, but Sandy worked to overpower it. It was much harder for the sand on the ground to be broken up and dethawed. Sandy sent claw attacks with darkness magic at the sand before spewing lighting from her mouth.

The sand touched by the darkness magic dissolved to dust and lost many of their properties to fight the lighting magic. Sandy’s lighting magic shot out and followed the path made by her other attack. It slowed slightly as more sand flew to it. The lightning bolt hit Alona causing some of her fur to burn slightly. The two stopped fighting. This time it was Sandy who seemed to grin.

“Congratulations to Sandy this time. The score is one-one. The next point wins. Rest for another minute and we will go again,” said Ankor.

Again, they returned to their sides and were healed before they started again.

Sandy fought aggressively and stuck to what worked last time. She activated her ice abilities and stopped the sand from rising into the air. Ice and lighting shot from her mouth and claws. Alona used her flames to counter most of the attacks and kept on the defensive as Sandy got closer. Alona sent a few wind attacks to test Sandy, but she avoided them. After being sent into the air last time Sandy stayed close to the ground and didn’t budge when the strong gusts of wind hit her. When Sandy was closer she tried her darkness attacks, but Alona evaded them when possible or otherwise countered them with fire. The darkness magic and fire would collide between them sending waves of energy.

Alona began ramping up the wind attacks when Sandy got near. The wind whipped around the two of them and icicle attacks when off course when they neared Alona. Even the lighting attacks became unpredictable in their movements against the forces of the air.

Suddenly Alona shifted the wind around her causing the forces to bear down on Sandy. As she tried to fight against it the temperature of the air rose. With every beat of the wind the heat rose and hit her body. Sandy tried to fight against it and countered it with her ice. It cooled her for a few moments at a time but the overbearing weight of the winds around her proved too much. As Sandy fought the winds Alona strolled forward unencumbered by the winds and hit Sandy. Ankor called the match and Alona stopped her magic.

“What do you think Arthur?” asked Ankor.

“I think Sandy has grown a lot since catching crabs on the beach two weeks ago. She has met her match against Alona. Your guardian is powerful.”

“But why is that? Do you have any thoughts on the matter, Sandy?” asked Ankor.

“Her magic is too strong for me. The attacks are too powerful for me to breakthrough,” said Sandy.

You are getting at one of the things to improve. Some you will improve naturally like strength, speed, and so on, but magic is something you will need to practice more at to make the most out of the natural magic talent you have. During that last fight, Alona used a move called [Burning Winds] it is a fusion attack between both of her elemental affinities. You must learn to use both magic at the same time and let them work together to your benefit. That is why you lost the last round. I cannot give you much suggestion and guidance about the magic training for all three elements, but Arthur can and should do so.”

“I have heard of fusion magic before from others but have never practiced it at all. Where should the two of us start?” asked Arthur.

“The process of fusion magic requires you to have a good enough understanding of the two elements you want to fuse into an attack that you know what to do with them. That is to say that for Alona she knew how to manipulate wind and raise the temperature of things. After practicing her spells that she knew that [Burning Winds] was the right spell for her so she brought her thoughts of a spell to life and fused the spells together.”

“Thank you for the guidance,” said Sandy. “I will practice my magic in the future with this in mind.”

“Good. Then I’ll let the two of you rest and regenerate your mana naturally after the fight before we resume training later,” said Ankor. “And Arthur. We have the stuff to discuss. Follow me.”