House of Amarin

"It is okay, Boss! Don't sulk!" Keily said, trying to cheer Lia up, who was watching the others dissect the other two salamanders following Ceiline's instructions.

"I'm not sulking…." She pouted, proving the opposite of her statement.

"It was my fault!" Ceiline sighed, looking at her, "I totally forgot to mention that their blood is highly reactive! I am not used to working in groups, and I thought you all knew it…."

"At least we are strong enough to not get hurt by their flames!" Raufon laughed, pocketing their new raw materials before letting the rest of the corpses burn away.

"The last one got away." Aurora signed, sighing, looking towards the lava river.

"They can regrow their tails." Ceiline murmured, watching the bubbling, glowing stream, "But now that its wound was burnt by the river, it won't be able to do it."

"Well, that move did save its life! Clever!" Koa chuckled, wiping her forehead as they started noticing the heat in the underground cavern, sweating buckets.

"Should we follow it?" Lia asked, scaring the others, walking to the edge of the lava flow.

"And how do you think we should do that?" Raufon asked, letting out a long sigh, "You may be able to do it as a fire mage, but what about us? I know that my armor wouldn't hold long enough, and sorry, I'm not about to become a roasted dinner for some lizard!"

"He is right." Sion agreed, "I feel cooked just standing here!"

"Same." Koa groaned, summoning a bucket full of water and pouring it onto herself.

"Mmm…" Lia thought, crouching down and reaching out, yet she pulled them back before her fingers would touch the orange river. "Ugh! What if it burns? Eh…” She grimaced, clearly afraid to actually touch it. Her fear then turned into another pout, suddenly remembering how Master Zorgan was playing around with lava as if washing his hands in warm water. "I can do it!" She shouted, raising her hands a second time, then grabbed forward.

The fastest to react was Aurora. Before anyone could blink their eyes, she was behind Lia, grabbing onto her under her armpits, pulling her back with a jolt.

"Eh?!" Lia yelped, surprised at what was happening. "Aurora?" She realized who was holding her and then heard the others exclaim.

"That was close!" Koa gulped, watching Lia's hands.

"What?" Their young leader frowned then she noticed. Looking at her hands, they were covered with blue flames, silently burning, releasing freezing air, cooling her friends down as if someone had just turned the air conditioner on. "Ah. I did this?"

"Well, it wasn't us, Boss!" Keily answered matter of factly.

"Self-preservation is one of the most basic instincts in every animal," Ceiline murmured, watching Lia's hands coated in blue flames. "It must have been instinct that brought it out!"

"Whatever it was," Sion added, twitching his mouth, "We just avoided freezing over the floating island's energy source!"

"Damn…" Raufon gulped, clicking his tongue.

They didn't have much time to marvel at Lia's fire as the cavern suddenly shook around them.

"It wasn't me! Was it?" Lia asked, jumping to her feet, and her answer was quickly showing itself.

The thick lava burst towards the ceiling as a giant, black salamander emerged from it. It was bigger than the previous wormmole, and when it was out of the lava, it looked at the group with glowing golden eyes. Its pupils shrank when it noticed Lia and her hands and waited no longer, attacking them first.

"Scatter!" Ceiline shouted, noticing the minute changes as the Goldencrown Salamander breathed fire at them like a dragon of legends.

The only one who didn't run was Lia. She stood in place, raising her hands, and the blue flames burst forward, forming a protective shield before her. The salamander's bright, yellow fire was snuffed out the moment it touched it, and then it was getting frozen in mid-air as the ice traveled forward with loud cracks. It was going straight up the fire, heading towards the salamander's mouth. Noticing the strangeness, it stopped attacking, stomping on the ground, kicking itself up and backward, watching as its breath was frozen solid, hitting the ground and splintering into millions of tiny pieces.

"Woah… Boss! How did you do that?!" Keily exclaimed as everyone was watching with their mouths open. This was the first time any of them saw what Lia's, combined elements of fire and ice could do.

“I… don’t know…” She answered, flabbergasted but had no time to really think, and maybe that was for the best. She had a feeling that if she started consciously thinking about it, she would lose her sudden advantage.

The Goldencrown let out a roar that turned into a hiss, and a moment later, dozens of different gold and black salamanders were climbing out of the lava river, all at different sizes. Some were only as big as a dog, some the size of horses, but none as big as their small house-sized parent.

"We have to kill it quick! As long as it falls, the rest will scatter!" Ceiline shouted as they were being surrounded.

"Time to go all out!" Koadriana shouted, casting her spell at once, and Aurora was already rushing at the Goldencrown Salamander.

The many smaller lizards were combining their fires, trying to burn them to ashes in a conjoined attack. Before a curtain of golden and orange flames could reach them, tall waves rolled forward from nowhere, clashing against them, releasing a loud, sizzling noise, and turning into thick vapor as they canceled out each other.

"Good job!" Sion flew past Koa's spell, which looked like the ocean itself was here to help them. With tiny wings on his back, he could jump high enough to hover above Koa's waves and bombard the many salamanders, firing at them with his pistols.

"Make way!" Raufon laughed, blasting through the sizzling water curtain, ramming into one, grabbing it by the tail. He was lifting the frightened creature high with a loud shout, and he was starting to use it as a club, slamming its crying figure against the others.

It was clear that the salamanders never fought anything so weird and violent as the Misfits. When Ceiline's potted plants appeared, thrown out from her holding bag, six peashooters began blasting the confused salamanders. Their 'bullets' were hard and filled with their maker's mana, exploding upon impact and rooting them into place, literally.

"Bwahahaha!" Raufon laughed, hitting them at the same spot where Ceiline taught him, further stunning them, giving Sion enough time to aim his shots, penetrating their eyes and guiding his light into their brains, killing them instantly.

As they dealt with the swarm of lizards, the other half of the Misfits faced the leader of all salamanders, the Goldencrown. It was stomping at one place as if it was performing some kind of weird dance, but in reality, it was trying to step on Aurora, who was flashing around it, slashing against its legs. Whenever her sabers met with its black, scaly skin, they threw golden sparks everywhere, failing to penetrate and only leaving glowing marks behind.

"Tough bastard!" She thought, dodging its feet and watching as Keily bravely rushed up on its tail, standing on its back, trying to burn it with his flames, without any luck.

"Watch out!" Lia shouted as the leader of the salamanders aimed to crush him with its tail.

"I'm fine, Boss!" Keily replied, dodging, nimbly jumping away, and the Goldencrown moaned, walloping himself with such force its body almost collapsed. "This one is not that smart!" Keily laughed, and it was clear he was picking up more than techniques while being with the Misfits.

Lia giggled, hearing and watching him while focusing on her spells. The blue fires were still burning noiselessly, and she was afraid to cancel them. Even as her bracelet buzzed multiple times and she saw from the corner of her eye that her mana was depleting really fast. A few more minutes, and she would start to feel dizzy.

"Luckily, I have this~" She grinned, picking out a vial filled with mana potion, but as soon as she uncorked it and flung its content into her mouth, a block of frozen, blue icicle landed on her tongue. "Mmmh?!" She flinched, gulping it by reflex. Although it replenished her mana, it was like biting into a block of ice and eating it in one go, hurting her head.

"Whoa?!" Keily shouted, jumping off the back of the salamander, and Aurora also dodged in a panic.

From nowhere, a sea of blue flames erupted forth, freezing the earth and covering it in a layer of ice before hitting the black salamander with full force. Even though it acted like fire, flickering and encircling the salamander, it was freezing it, turning the whole beast into an ice sculpture instead of burning it. When Lia managed to rein in her flames, Aurora and Keily were trying to free themselves as their feet were stuck in a prison of ice, immobilizing them the moment they touched the ground.

"Awawawa… I can't control it!" Lia gasped for air, her hands still on fire.

"Boss, we are stuck!" Keily shouted back, a bit panicked, not wanting to lose his legs that were now encased in ice.

"Wait, I'll figure out some-" Lia said, but then the ice cracked, starting from the salamander's figure, quickly spreading, freeing the two alongside itself.

Its black scales were shining, and its golden marks, along its body, were spewing flames everywhere, combating Lia's uncontrolled spell. Breaking free, it was visibly shaken and weakened, breathing heavily, already considering escaping instead of staying and doing battle. The experience of being flash-frozen was terrifying, even for a magical beast.

"No, you won't, not this time." Aurora thought, making her move as soon as her legs came free.

Before the salamander could devise a plan to escape, Aurora was already back up on its back. Ignoring the flames rising from its golden marks, she aimed directly at those, dragging her sabers alongside them. The fire's intensity was extreme, melting her specially crafted weapons, and her protective field of mana also failed soon after. Yet it was not the time to let go as it was clearly working. She saw golden blood flow out and heard the beast scream under her.

"Aurora!" Lia looked on, rushing in, seeing that her sister was being burnt by yellow flames on the salamander's back.

She didn't think much, casting flames from her hands that engulfed the beast and simply froze its flames solid. Using her blue flames so extensively, even with the help of a mana potion, it still drained her reserves in a brief moment. Her legs faltered as she slipped, falling off the magical beast, caught by Keily, and crashing them both to the ground.

The now wailing, injured salamander was trying to shake off Aurora from its back, who now used her mana to enlarge its wounds, letting the beast's blood catch on fire and burn itself from the inside. In desperation, it was trashing vehemently, and its big leg was crashing straight down at the two youngsters below it.

"Gotcha!" Arrived Raufon, in its bestial form, hairy and bulky, hands stretched high up, catching the Goldencrown's leg, stopping it from crushing them.

"Aurora!" Came Koa's shout, lassoing her body with a spell, pulling her off, covering her burnt body, and regenerating her smoking skin.

"Thanks." She signed with her fingers, looking calm and collected, not even wincing at the pain that was ravaging her senses until now.

"Stop its movement!" Shouted Ceiline, summoning green vines from the ground, and strapping them around the legs of it, while Sion took Aurora's previous position, blasting into the flaming, open wounds with all of his strength.

"Everyone, together!" Lia yelled, downing another frozen mana potion and joining in, attacking the salamander alongside Keily.

The Goldencrown had no chance of standing up to their combined effort, and amidst its painful death scream, its body was encased in ice once more before blowing apart, shattering into hundreds of sharp, big, and small pieces. The moment it died, all their bracelets pinged simultaneously, signaling that their accepted 'mission' was completed, appointing the promised CP and adding it directly to Lia's balance.

"That was… quick!" Sion landed, gasping for air, getting a vial out replenishing his mana, and looking at Aurora, who was already dressing up into her third batch of clothes, healed up perfectly.

"The system is one of the wonders of our Realm." Ceiline nodded, recollecting her remaining plotted plants, sighing a little as only a handful survived. Sadly, many were burnt away in the battle against the other salamanders as they were incapable of moving out of harm's way, sitting in place and spitting at them until their last moments. Those who remained were innocently blowing bubbles, making happy noises towards their approaching master.

"It really does know everything… huh?" Keily asked after emptying two mana potions, watching Lia's screen.

"Where are the rest?" Aurora asked after she was dressed once again, looking towards the lava river, noticing the multiple dead, still burning salamander corpses.

"The moment this one yelped out in pain, they tried to make a run for it," Raufon explained, watching the head of the beast, still frozen behind unmelting blue ice. Touching it, he exclaimed as it was cold, colder than anything, feeling like he was placing his hand onto a hot iron. "Damn, this is so cold it burns!"

"Boss's fire is formidable!" Keily nodded, rubbing his legs that had some marks from when it was frozen. "I'm starting to feel the pain…." He smiled, making Lia blush and lower her head. "Adrenaline... eh?" He joked, remembering some lessons from Dayen's classes.

"Let me see!" Arrived Sion, touching Keily's shins that looked severely burnt. A gentle, white light spread from his palm, slowly healing it. "This should ease the pain, but I am not good at it yet!"

"It is much better already! Thanks!"

"S-sorry…" Lia added, murmuring.

"No worries, Boss! It was a battle! Those things tend to be dangerous!"

"An ally who cannot control her powers is more dangerous than any enemy." Aurora wrote, saying it before Lia could add anything, making her lower her head even more, on the verge of crying.

"Hey…" Koa wanted to exclaim, furrowing her brows at Aurora, but she continued, walking beside Lia and rubbing her head.

"But this is why we are at the Academy. Here, you can learn how to control it! It was not your fault!" Aurora smiled at her, hugging Lia's body. "That was some especially strong magic! If you told me you are at the 4th Tier, I would have believed it!"

"Ehehe…" Lia smiled, feeling much better, pressing her head into Aurora's palm.

"I have only one question!" Raufon interrupted with a weird voice.

"Hm?" everyone looked at him and then toward where he was pointing.

"How are we supposed to get out of here?" He moaned as the hole they came down collapsed some time ago, making them to be stuck underground.

"Well…" Sion twitched his mouth, scanning the cavern. "That is an excellent question…."