Viktor didn't sleep that night, instead focusing on the new experience of using magic. Having a shred of affinity where his soulheart would be had done wonders for him. He could feel the mana flowing into him, coalescing in the area to fill up his mana pool. It was the kind of feeling that faded into obscurity after a few hours, but in the beginning, the novelty of it filled him with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

He rushed to the first floor of the magical knowledge and selected a primer from Morkanen, a wizened old man that had taken it upon himself to write many such introductory books for various forms of magic. He devoured the 240 page book in a few hours and put its lessons into practice immediately.

One hand out in a relaxed position, he grabbed the mana inside of him. He felt it as it swirled around and guided it out into the world, filtering it through his newly acquired fire affinity. The air around him heated up ever so slightly as fire mana trickled out, sparks materializing in the world surrounding his palm. He practiced guiding it slightly, moving it up and down in a positive sign. After an hour of practice, he could get the basic positive sign made fairly quickly and hold it for a bit. With that down, he acted on the second step: filling it with mana.

He was practicing the Tier 0 Flame Burst spell, a simple close-range explosion of fire magic. It only took about 30 units of mana, but Viktor had never done it before. His first numerous attempts at casting the spell failed miserably, the formation in the air sputtering out as he trickled mana slowly into it. He felt determined though, practicing again and again as he held the formation in the air, first for one second, then two, then three, until after five seconds he finally managed to fill the formation and a gout of flame burst into the air.

Viktor let out a whoop of success, his elation quickly turning into horror as one of the nearby bookshelves caught fire. He rushed forward to smother it, but one of the gophers appeared unbidden with a pinch of white powder. It seemed to look at Viktor disapprovingly with its one eye, tossing the powder in the direction of the fire. The cloud of white particulate spread out, gathering around the flames and snuffing them out in moments. The wood of the shelves and the books themselves seemed relatively undamaged, and Viktor sighed in relief as the gopher disappeared again.

As the moment passed, Viktor sunk into a chair, running a hand through damp hair. Damn, I haven't sweat from focus since junior year finals, he chuckled to himself. Shaking his head, he stood and found a more open area. I'll have to check out the area Hooch found and start making use of that instead.

The next morning, after a quick hour of sleep, Viktor dragged himself out of bed and down to the dining area where he felt he could find Hooch.

"Hey, Hooch, you want to show me that big area you'd found?" He interrupted the big man's careful peeling of a banana. Hooch looked over at him with a smile.

"Sure! You mean the breakarena?" He clarified, and Viktor closed his eyes with mock exasperation. This might be harder than he'd thought.

"Yeah, man, the breakarena."

Hooch led him up the stairs to the martial book floors, then immediately back down. Rather than the first floor, though, they found themselves walking deeper and deeper down until the stairway emptied out into a large circular area with a dusty floor about the size of a football field. Along the walls were rows and rows of weapons bearing the translucent quality of illusions. Close to the stairway they now exited was a podium with what appeared to be a bestiary on it. Hooch clapped his hand with excitement and pointed to the book.

"Viktor! Pick something for me to break!" He said, Viktor walking up to the book as prompted and flipping through the pages. Each one depicted a different monster, from Ahools to Zombies. He settled finally on something that looked like a man with ashen skin set on fire, a lesser ifrit. He pointed to it, "This one, Hooch?"

"Oooh, yeah! Watch me break fire guy!" Hooch said with glee, trotting over to the racks of weapons and selecting a pair of scimitars. His face was set with an aloof grin, and Viktor watched with concern as the creature from the bestiary materialized at the far end of the room when Hooch selected his weapons.

As soon as the creature formed, though, Hooch's entire demeanor changed. His face was set with determination and he sunk lower to the ground, like a big cat about to pounce. Viktor felt the air practically charge as Hooch suddenly took off towards the ifrit, who reacted immediately. It surged forward with a burst of flame, two small balls of lava blasting towards Hooch.

Hooch dropped to the ground, sliding in the dust beneath the magic before using one arm to push off of the ground and right himself in his charge. Another blast of flame had Hooch dodging to the side, one sword slashing out to catch the lesser elemental in the side. The flames on its body increased in height for a moment as it cried in pain and reformed its body, but Hooch dodged its counterattack with a burst of speed that Viktor would have bet his worldly possessions was impossible for a man his size.

The ifrit retreated hastily now, flames propelling it away from the other combatant. Hooch turned now, sinking back into his combat stance, and watched the ifrit through predatory eyes. It increased the distance more and launched two surges of lava at Viktor's fellow librarian. Hooch ran forward again, this time not dodging hardly at all, instead running in between the flames and slashing upwards at the ifrit, who barely dodged out of the way of the first strike--only to get caught by the second. The ghostly scimitar carved another chunk from the elemental, who hissed and reformed. It flexed its body, and a blast of heat surged outward, pushing Hooch back.

The big man was thrown ten feet away, rolling over the sand before coming up on his feet in one smooth motion and rocketing back forward.

The ifrit pulled out what had to be its secret move, then, sinking down and causing the ground around it to bubble as lava spread out in a circle from its body. There was no way for Hooch to get close without stepping into the flames. Viktor watched, concerned for his colleague's spirit if not his body, as Hooch didn't pause.

The man's huge body moved forward at a breakneck pace before suddenly launching into the air. His legs trailed behind him, his twin swords poised in front like a drill. The ifrit straightened up in surprise as Hooch pierced its chest with both swords, its form shattering into a million small cubes of light as the lava faded and Hooch finished the dive with a roll. He dropped the swords, which vanished and reappeared back on the wall, clapping his hands and running over to Viktor with the huge grin back on his face.

"Viktor! Viktor! Did you see it break? Wasn't it pretty?" He asked. Viktor stared, dumbfounded, at the gentle giant he'd dismissed so easily just a few days prior.

Perhaps there was more to Hooch than initially met the eye...