Six, just shy of seven, Sarah felt the number ominous.

"More, you need to spread yourself more. Control is paramount. Do more with less." Adara observed her with sharp eyes.

Sarah snorted, if she could she would, sweat dribbled down her neck as she focused on one hand.

She found finding a pathern boosted her performance drasticlly, the fireball on her palm slowly floated upwards to join the other five rotating in the air infront of her.

The added movement she added to her spells somehow lessened her strain while ensuring the spells didn't needlessly fizzle out, she had no clue as to why.

Breathing heavily she grit and bared her teeth, as the throb of her migraine pulsed, it was horrid, she wanted to quit, complain or sleep, any-thing was better.

Slowing her breaths she tried another, slowly she drew flame from her source, with practice she was able to pin-point the process.

First she willed an image to form, or rather a set of orders her mind told the energy to form, then it quickly surged through her channels obeying and finally forming.

After that anything she willed became harder, unnatural even, whether that be simulatously forming too many spell's or changing the 'shape' or image of the spell.

'Okay. I can do this.' Sarah let out a slow breathe, calming herself.

Sensing all six spells spinning, Sarah called forth one more, the engery surged, juggling six was terrible, up till now seven impossible.

Finally she saw it form, a tiny spark at first, which grew to an ember, slowly adding more she felt the drain grow, miniscule though it may be.

'Finally!' Sarah smiled excited at her attempt.

'AY!' Sarah closed her eyes at the blazing inferno.

"W...ha~?" Sarah felt odd and breezy, far too vulnuerable for her comfort, slowly she looked down at herself.

"It exploded." Adara used her most charming voice to fill the air.

"Oh!" Sarah shut her mouth as the last of her incinerated clothing fell off.

Covering breasts, Sarah flushed and swallowed as she tightened her legs.

Striding forward, Adara observed the after-effects of her failure.

"It seems you've reached a limit on control training for now." Adara's dragonic eyes scanned her.

"Never mind that. Please conjure up some clothes for me! Or fix it please!" Sarah squirmed, wanting to seek cover.

"But the view." Adara smirked at her discomfort.

Sarah gaped for a second, then growled at the provocation, she was still angry at her!

Only to realize how stupid it was for growling, she still needed to learn things from Adara, hopefully she'd never see her again afterwards.

"Hm-Hm. I jest, don't relax just yet, we have no time to waste." Adara's tone lost all playfullness.

With a flick of her hand, Sarah's clothes un-disintergrated, forming from soot and ash to fully reform to hug her figure.

'Ugh. I'll have to figure out how to make sure I don't end up naked everytime I fight or I'll end up as an exhibition show.' Sarah grimanced, she didn't want to be known as an slut, much less a whore or something equally disgraceful.

*****

The energy barrier was a complex form of magic, the sustained image was based on force, which was an advanced form of air energy, similar to how ligthning was an advanced form of fire.

According to Adara, advanced energy barriers held other forms of energy to maximize efficency, or add other benifits.

Either a shock barrier or a flame barrier for instance would be the easiest next step for her, since it was her main element and thus much easier to mix with another element.

Sarah's energy barrier flickered, upon sustain assault, Adara slowly flicked bullet sized bolts of flame.

According to Adara each was the equivalent of a single of her own fully powered fire-balls.

In theory the barrier prevented anything from entering, unless she allowed it, that included energy attacks as well as physical, only mental attacks could get through, which in itself was a cause for worry.

"At your level of power it is vital to figure out which attacks must be blocked, dodged, intercepted or otherwise dealt with. If not, your barrier will drain your reserves too quickly." Adara lectured.

Only now did Sarah fully comprehend how foolish it had been to attack the lich alone, it was only due to Isemi's help she lasted quite so long.

For it to casually brush off so many attacks meant it's reserves had been nothing short of monstrous.

"Is there a way to get past these barriers?" Sarah frowned, she recalled Isemi said something along those lines.

"Of course." Adara's smile widened.

Stretching her palm foward a shock formed, Adara's spell swelled as forks of red lightning spread.

The spell continued to swell and stretch until its tiny branches coiled with one another.

Much like a weaving, the branches formed a perfect straight line of vibrating power.

"An egg shell will not withstand a hammer." Adara quoted.

*****

"Now to test you." Adara nodded to herself.

"I'll be fighting?" Sarah's eyes lit up, more essence sounded wonderful.

One look at her had Adara smiling, she shook her head, seeming able to read minds.

"Unfortunately the only way you were alloted essence was at the inital challenge, resources go to those whom fully earn it." Adara clarified.

"...oh." Sarah sighed, apparently she really had lost her chance to get stronger.

"We will start with... simple golems." Adara tapped her chin.

Slowly the ground trembled, it groaned till cracks formed, emerging arms of solid stone were visible and pulled themselves out till crude man shaped figures could be seen.

The golems favored something like rough terecota warriors, but the fine details were lacking.

Three golems slowly begun lumbering their way to her slowly, it was almost an insult at their speed.

"This should be good, sometimes you'll get opponents which don't burn easily." Adara explained.

'If it doesn't burn, she might want me to destory it some other way. Lightning would probably work, but maybe I should try different elements?' Sarah thought.

"What would you recommend?" Sarah asked.

"Hm? Nothing, you won't have me to solve your problems all the time. This hardly warrents advice." Adara explained.

'Hmpf. How helpful.' Sarah stopped herself from snorting.

Focusing her thoughts to her the conversion technique, Sarah poured energy into an earth bolt.

The energy responded lazily, it crawled instead of a natural flow, the spell took longer to form that a fireball by far.

The result was a weighty jagged spike of earth forming above her hand, without thinking Sarah began tossing it foward, the spike plumetted unto the ground not five yards away.

Sarah gaped.

"Earth's heavier than all the other elements. Even people with earth spirits initially have diffculties throwing spells around." Adara clarified.

'Ugh. I could have used that tibid of information earlier. No wonder Eian never threw around spikes of earth.' Sarah brooded.

"If those golems were a real threat you would likely be dead." Adara stated.

"Ugh! I know. I was just trying something new!" Sarah glared at the lousy golems approaching.

Quickly she summoned a bolt of lightning, aiming it foward the bolt collided with a golem taking off the head.

Contrary to her expectations the golem ignored the damage a carried on regardless.

'More lightning! HERE!' Sarah quickly followed through.

Bolt after bolt collided unto the golems which slowly wittled them away piece by piece until they were reduced to rubble.

"Still wasting too much power. Attacking like your reserves are limitless." Adara frowned.

Huffing Sarah ignored the remark, she didn't have much else apart from lightning and fire, what little she had wouldn't help.

"This time they will move faster." Adara clarified.

'Alright how do I approach this?' Sarah focused.

The newly formed golems approached at a jogging pace, Sarah instantly thought of something.

Aiming she shot at one leg each, in short moments all three were crawling towards her.

Moving backwards Sarah thought for a second, now that the golems were incapacitated she had more time.

"I don't think you said I had to kill them right?" Sarah questioned.

Adara looked at her with eyes of burning amber.

"No I did not." Adara smiled.

******

"I will take your silence as agreement, either way I've taught you Control. You'vve also learnt some Restraint. So for now you need to familiarize yourself with all six elements. Try them all out." Adara advised.

"You said death energy would hurt me." Sarah reminded Adara.

Adara sighed, rubbed her face then continued.

"Yes. It will, and what better place to practice than a place where one's injuries matter not?" Adara's question was of course rethorical, accompanied by shaking her head.

"...oh....right." Sarah mumbled.

"Truly speaking the best way to aviod hazards of death energy is to create an enchanted item which casts the spell for you. I realize this will not always be possible, but it is usually best to be prepared and to have something ready." Adara lectured.

Adara had her full attention, Sarah inhaled and focused.

'Enchanted items.' Sarah held her breath.

"For now however let's assume you really need to use death energy in particular. You don't have an enchanted item. Using the energy itself will harm you almost immediately. Life energy will take longer to heal this type of damage and if you kill yourself you'll end up a mindless undead." Adara cautioned.

Sarah was debating on whether or not she ever wanted to use death energy at all.

It seemed to have so many side effects, and fire usually killed things well enough.

"Death energy is like a malignant tumor. You must clense yourself of it's influence each time. It is very easy to forget and let it fester, more than one youth has procrastinated this proving to be a simple buffon and become an idiotic ghoul." Adara stared at Sarah with a frown.

"What...Why would I even want to use death energy if it's so dangerous? It seems to have far more cons than pros." Sarah voiced her concerns.

"A reasonable concern. Mostly it is used for killing opponents with absurd amounts of regenerative abilities. Death and Life energies clash, causing neither to fuction at full capacity. I don't think you should use it overly, but better to have it and not need it." Adara looked at her.

"...What would happen if I mixed fire and death energies?" Sarah was curious.

"Oh? Intending on mass murder now?" Adara seemed bemused, taking Sarah completely by surprise.

"What!? No! I..." Sarah stuttered and tried to come up with an excuse.

'Wait why do I need to excuse myself?' Sarah frowned, she was merely accademically curious.

"Hmm. I jest, the result you speak of is known by different names. Hell-fire is the most commonly used. Its effects are exceedingly difficult to heal and will both eat away and poison the target. Anything that dies from it usually gets back up...after some time." Adara said all of it with a straight face adding the final part as an afterthought.

'Note to self. Don't kill with hell-fire. Check.' Sarah thought to herself.

"Now a quick overview to the problem each element will have for you. Water will be the most costly for you, it will also be notoriously difficult to keep it in a useful shape. Air will be easier to control, however it has much lower combat potential than any other. Earth as you've learnt is slow to create and difficult to apply. Life is perhaps the most useful to you as it has almost no problems. We've already looked over death." Adara advised.

Sarah quickly took note of all that.

"Now let's get you to form a basic spell of each. While you can't use mixed spells quite yet, it is essentially first step." Adara finished.

*****

Time. It literally flew by for Sarah. She couldn't fanthom how much Adara tried to cram into her.

A mixture of control, demonology and elemental mastery, as well as applications on combat scenarios and a few other nuggets of information.

"It is time." Adara left her sigh un-expressed.

"So. You said I'll meet everyone before I leave?" Sarah breathed out a sigh of relief.

"...yes." Adara sat and rubbed the left side of her own face.

'Well. I guess I can't just stay and learn everything. I wonder how everyone is. Eian and Alex too I guess.' Sarah tossed her thoughts back to her family.

"Survive." Adara's voice rung out as an omen.

Sarah had nothing else to say, she was still annoyed at her, but there was little point in causing a scene as this was very likely the last time she'd see her.

"...goodbye." Adara whispered her final word.

The world washed away in white.