Kiro collapsed against the cold stone of the cave wall, drenched in sweat and his chest heaving. His arm muscles spasmed, and he quickly downed a spirit healing elixir, examining the cut Rynn had inflicted upon him.

The sea of storms raged in the distance, and he blinked away tears at the thought of Aer. He still desperately clung to the hope that she was still alive, but his logical mind slapped him with the truth.

If she was alive, she would have come for you by now.

Another spasm came, and he doubled over, finally understanding what Seira had meant by being “burned” by fire mana — it was leaking out into his bleeding flesh, scalding his nerves with its untamed power. Even the spirit healing elixir had hardly helped, and as he reached into his bag of holding, he he just barely managed to swallow the pained scream threatening to tear itself from his lips.

Thankfully, he had brought his alchemy equipment with him. With it, he could concoct any number of different healing elixirs to bring him back to fighting shape. Still… even at full strength, he was no match for Rynn. And Seira was still back there, holding him off on her own.

His throat caught. Here he was, unable to do anything, while she was risking her life out there for him —

He shook himself. Unless she did something drastic, Rynn wouldn’t kill her. He hugged that fact to his chest, lest he go back and get himself killed trying to help her. With just a little more time, maybe they could both get out of this alive.

Still, it was hard to straight when he could feel the pulsing of Seira’s mana as she fought their former friend, waxing and waning with her increasingly wild techniques. She was running low now — that use of Storm had cost her more than he had thought. And if she thought that she had lost…

No, she wouldn’t be stupid enough to die. He slapped himself, focusing back on his alchemy. He wouldn’t be able to do much of anything without getting rid of his wounds.

Substituting some herbs for their more mana-rich counterparts, he swiftly made a batch of the quickest acting healing elixir he knew. It was ridiculously expensive compared to normal salves, but it would run its course within minutes compared to the hours it took for more conventional solutions, and now was no time to be stingy.

Seira’s mana had gone placid at this point, and he clenched his jaw as he felt for any signs of movement. Had she won? No, he would have felt it if she had. But she wasn’t dead, which was all he cared about. Perhaps she had surrendered, or escaped long enough to hide... That would have been ideal. Still, that meant that Rynn was coming for him.

His breathing accelerated again, and he downed the elixirs, hurriedly channeling the mana-rich fluid to his cut. A cry escaped his lips as his channels forcefully closed, but thankfully it was drowned out in the wind.

Good, he was healing. Now he just needed a way to either evade Rynn or defeat him entirely.

Shadesbane, frostfrond, pearlfruit... no, none of those would do much. And while the Starlight’s Drop was good for cultivation, he didn’t have enough time to make a breakthrough. Iridescent lotus, dayspore, moon’s gasp…

The last one caught his attention. A powerful numbing agent, it was also used in some poisons. Perhaps he could make a paralytic potent enough to incapacitate Rynn, and then run away in hopes that the Saint wouldn’t be able to find them in the fog. He downed a vial of Starlight’s Drop, letting the elixir rejuvenate his core as he searched for the ingredients for the paralytic.

Seira’s mana flared again, and doubt flooded his mind. What if Rynn really was trying to kill her? And even if he wasn’t, this plan had a million different flaws. If Rynn had really broken through to Soul Formation, he could just kill himself and report back to the Saint with his soul. And what if the Saint could sense him from inside the cave? What if —

His fingers brushed against Aer’s jade slip, and he gasped. There was something else he could do.

Alchemy wasn’t covered very heavily in the Sect of Endless Storms’s cultivation manual, but Alaric of Din had still dedicated a section to the alchemical specialties of the sect. None of them had proven to be feasible for a fire-aspected mystic under normal circumstances, but now...

The Silver Storm elixir is a concoction specialized to draw on and enhance wind mana, both within and around the cultivator. Derived from a number of basic enhancement elixirs, this elixir is a special weapon used by the sect in times where a decisive victory is required.

It didn’t necessarily require the user to use wind, and hadn’t Aer done something similar to Rynn during their duel?

The effects include enhanced speed, strength, and concentration, as well as a better connection with your surroundings. However, while these enhancements are great, nearly doubling a mystic’s total power output, they come with a drawback. The Silver Storm is much like a shroud in that it will use more mana than is necessarily efficient. Especially for weaker mystics or those that do not have the wind aspect, this can leave them drained for days afterwards. Still, in times where the sect does not have access to a higher power, the Silver Storm is often used to win any battles among disciples of the Second Circle.

The process for creating this elixir goes as follows:

Grind four heads of stormlotus to paste, adding into preheated vial with three standard spoonfuls of stabilizer.

Add seven sprigs of dried sparkleaf, stirring slowly.

Turn heat down to slightly below simmering…

He couldn’t deal with the Saint, but he could at least even the playing field between himself and Rynn

He searched into his bag, praying to the heavens that he had stormlotus. Everything else was standard, but stormlotus was a rare ingredient that he had rarely seen on Paradise. Aer might have had it, though…

Yes! He let out a sigh of relief, starting on the elixir. In the distance, he could hear the storms raging through the mountain range, and he couldn’t help but pray to the heavens that Rynn was delayed by them. He hadn’t been able to cover his tracks properly.

The last ingredient went in, and he removed the bottle from the burner. His catalyst wasn’t as potent as the recipe called for, but he was positively surrounded by wind mana. This had to work. It had to. This was the only way he even had a chance of defeating Rynn.

The bottle glowed a brilliant silver, reminding him of the Starlight’s drop, and a last, desperate thought wormed itself into his brain. Sending another prayer to the heavens, he put the vial back on the burner. This was a risk, but he was already gambling with his life, so why not go further?

With a wince, he threw in a pinch of golden clay powder.

If he had guessed wrong about the type of reaction going on, this concoction would violently explode, and he wouldn’t even get a chance to face Rynn before dying.

But, as the reaction stabilized, nothing came, and he stared in awe at his creation. The previous shimmering silver had now smoothed out to the point where it almost looked like liquid metal, but in his mana sense it was a different story.

It was still composed near entirely of flowing wind, but now it had gained specks of gold, where the clay had reacted with the existing mana in order to neutralize. Gingerly reaching towards it, he channeled the slightest bit of fire mana into the concoction, imbuing it with as much will and hope as he could muster.

His pain, his fear, the pure desperation running through his veins, everything he had, he threw into the elixir, willing it, begging it to aid him in this last, final task.

I need to be strong enough to defeat Rynn. I don’t care what happens afterwards.

As if responding to his call, the solution changed. A brilliant flash of light washed over him, and when he blinked the spots out of his eyes, the flecks of gold had disappeared, being replaced by ribbons of brilliant orange. Fire.

He held the newly made elixir in trembling hands, determination spreading through his mind.

He could do this.